Have you been listening in? I’ve had quite a few emails from surprised individuals flicking through Google Reader only to be shocked to hear my voice coming from the rss feed. That’s the beauty of ipadio. Over the past few days I’ve been traveling so it’s been quite difficult to get the time to sit in front of the laptop — thus I’ve been doing a few ‘phlogs’ instead.

You can check out the latest phlog (I was talking about iPhone app discovery system, Chomp) here.

Download the iPhone app and get phlogging yourself — it’s free!

Posted via email from MIR Live

Posted via email from MIR Live

Posted via email from MIR Live

“You what?” I asked. I have started simply turning and looking expectantly at Rafe in these kind of situations. Whilst I’m a geek, I’m not that geeky. Rafe knows the stuff back to front.

“It’s Symbian’s testbed,” Rafe explained, “For getting the operating system to work on other platforms.”

Not just reference platforms, you understand. Literally any other platform. The chaps demonstrated a Beagle Board hooked up to a speaker, microphone and a display actually running Symbian. I kid ye not. We got some footage of that and the video will be up shortly.

So… Symbian is open. What does that mean?

Well it theoretically means you can now install Symbian on your refridgerator. Or any other device you’d care to mention. But of course, the fact the operating system has been fully tried and tested and is actually running on millions of devices — reliably — is going to be a big plus for manufacturers considering what to use for their next mobile device deployments. Open, of course, means that you can change and influence the development of the platform. If you like, you can begin contributing code — or if you’re very serious, even become a package owner and play an integral role in the on-going development.

I’m going to be publishing a lot more on the subject over the next few weeks. It’s an area that’s fascinated me for a long time. I’m particularly interested as to what the Foundation and it’s partners are going to do to keep Symbian relevant. Only today I was demonstrating the Ovi Store on the Nokia N86 and STILL having to answer the ‘do you want to connect to the internet’ and ‘which access point?’ questions. Dumb questions. Really dumb. There’s also significant issues over the platform’s user interface. Is that a Nokia thing or a Symbian thing? Or do they both hold joint responsibility? I’ll be digging deeper soon — and, courtesy of the fact we’ve got more or less unrestricted access to Symbian (more info) over the coming weeks, instead of screaming here on Mobile Industry Review about what I think are the platform’s utter, utter failure points, I’ll be taking that frustration out on directly on key Symbian staffers.

In a positive and constructive way, you understand. If you’ve any particular questions that you’d like answered, be my guest — post them below or email and I’ll add them into the mix. I’m hoping to bring you a series of videos focusing on what I feel are Symbian’s problems — along with their answers on what they’re doing about them (or why my perspective is warped, irrelevant or wrong). We shall see!

In the meantime I’ve got videos galore for you.

First off, I’d like to draw your attention to this announcement video we shot of Lee Williams, the top man at Symbian, discussing the announcement. If you’re wondering what the hell is going on, definitely sit down and watch this. It’s just a few minutes long.

Download M4V Video | Subscribe to Podcast | Embed video

Second, here’s Program Manager Chris Davidson giving us a little bit more background about the open source journey:

Download M4V Video | Subscribe to Podcast | Embed video

Now — did you wonder what all those Symbian Countdown messages were about on Twitter and Facebook last week? Chris explains:

Download M4V Video | Subscribe to Podcast | Embed video

There’s a lot more coming shortly….

This is all possible because of the brilliant support of the Symbian Foundation. Getting to the event, taking all the camera and production equipment, hotels, flights — the costs mount-up, especially when over 50,000 mobile industry people converge in one city.

As a result, the Mobile World Congress coverage you read on MIR, MDTV and AAS will be brought to you courtesy of the support of Symbian. I’d like to point out that this arrangement renders Symbian absolutely no editorial control whatsoever. In fact I’ve been pushing them quite remorselessly to give us unprecedented access to their people. To my delight, they have risen to the challenge — and you’ll see the fruits of that online shortly. For my own peace of mind, I’ve asked that Symbian fact check some of the more in-depth content I’m planning. Whilst Rafe knows the operating system inside out, I don’t want to keep bothering him with silly questions. I’ve also agreed to allow Symbian to re-publish some of the video content we produce on their own site.

So what kind of content can you expect to see before, during and after the event?

Well, both Rafe and I will be on the ground in Barcelona from Saturday to Saturday. That’s right, no messing around, no flying in Monday morning, watching a keynote and flying out that evening. Oh no. We’ll be right there to witness it all.

Expect the following: –

- Hands-on handset/phone/gadget videos galore
- Interviews with movers and shakers — we’ve got some fabulous senior Nokia executives lined up already
- Coverage of the various press events — in particular MobileFocus and ShowStoppers
- Rafe Blandford’s official Mobile World Congress walk-about
- Mobile developer profiles (do contact us if you’re going to be on the ground and would like to be on-camera)
- Live perspective and updates direct from the show floor

Here are some of the things I’m excited we’ll be able to bring you:

- Microsoft. I still believe they have the might to cause some serious waves in the industry. Come on Balmer, make us all proud. No egg-timers *please*.
- Sony Ericsson. The giant was on the ropes, I’m hoping it’s back for more.
- Samsung. Just how relevant is Bada? We shall see and we’ll take a look at their handsets too.
- Lee Williams. We’ve got Lee Williams — the CEO of Symbian — doing a walk-about tour. Rafe and I are hoping to take him to the Microsoft stand and see if he will spontaneously combust (or, more likely, tell us exactly what he thinks of the other mobile operating systems out there).
- Nokia. They’re not officially at the event. They’ve saved millions by booking the function rooms and suites across the road from the Congress. Smart. We’ll be on top of all their announcements — with bells on.
- WipJam. The delightful Caroline Lewko is hosting another excellent developer event — we will be there bringing you the best we can find.
- Bloggerama. Just what do the other bloggers make of MWC? We’ll be capturing their MWC heartache, the joy, the tears — all for your viewing pleasure. I’m going to try and see if we can find Mattahus from VentureBeat to swearsmile at the camera again.
- The rest: We’ll be taking a tour of the event to try and bring you the most interesting technology, hardware, software and services we can find.

If you’ve any suggestions for things you’d like Rafe and I to take a look at — or if you’re going and you’d like a bit of coverage, get in contact, we’ll absolutely do our best.

If you’re a PR and you’d like me to do an on-screen interview, I’ll do my utmost but I’m getting crunched on time already. At the moment we’re prioritising smaller mobile developers.

If you’d like to do a Mobile World Congress diary — that is, send me 200 words each day on what you saw, what you liked, what surprised you, then I’m game. Drop me a mail to discuss as soon as you can.

Make sure you’ve got our feeds locked and loaded:
- www.mobileindustryreview.com
- www.mobiledeveloper.tv
- www.allaboutsymbian.com (read Rafe’s announcement)

Once again, thank you to everyone at the Symbian Foundation for making MWC possible for us here at MIR, MDTV and AAS. Fantastic!

A week. Wow!

“We’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,” said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia. “When we announced free walk & drive navigation we knew it would be a game-changer. The number of people now using their Nokia for navigation, and as a result looking for more location-aware software, is growing faster than even we predicted.

This is terrific news for Nokia — but also for third-party developers considering getting stuck into the Apps-For-Maps opportunities on the Ovi Maps platform. Speaking of which, here’s Rafe discussing that very subject just after the launch event last week:

Download M4V Video | Subscribe to Podcast | Embed video

Here in the States quite a few people I’ve been meeting have commented (without prompting) that they’ll ‘be getting a Nokia for the car’ because of the free navigation. And that’s from a country that isn’t that aware of the Nokia brand.

I haven’t yet downloaded Ovi Maps for my N86 yet, I understand support will be made available for that shortly.

Meanwhile here’s the current list of compatible Nokia devices: Nokia 97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia E52, Nokia E55, Nokia E72, Nokia 5230, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6730 classic and Nokia X6.

For the latest device list and to download, the link you need is: http://www.nokia.com/maps.

“Google to unveil Chrome tablet?” FUD! http://is.gd/7xXlS

The tweet links to a v3 blog (formerly vnunet) discussing the possibility of a Google Chrome tablet…

Here’s a mock-up image:

Bring on the tablet wars…

Mark is Director of Social Media Communications for the company. He and his colleague Ray are amongst the finest in the industry. They run a disciplined well-oiled machine that was, for quite a while, entirely misunderstood by Nokia’s High Command. I swear some of Nokia’s senior executives thought social media was all about hanging around on Facebook wasting time.

In recent times though, the might that is Nokia has definitely bought the Social Media T-Shirt and recognised that the influence from Mark’s team is, in some quarters, significantly more important than banging out a press release.

I’m absolutely delighted to see Mark’s response to Steve Jobs last week. If you recall, Jobs explained to a fawning audience that since Apple makes quite a lot of Notebooks that are ‘mobil’ (“mobile”), and since Apple makes quite a bit of revenue, well then… that makes Apple the largest ‘mobil’ company on the planet.

Mark was having none of it:

The difference between the two companies [Nokia and Apple] is even larger if you use the more common measure: the number of devices sold. By that comparison, Nokia has been the largest mobile devices company in the world for a dozen consecutive years.

I think it’s about time we saw more of this type of action from Nokia. Sitting hiding behind the parapets isn’t good enough. The company is hugely powerful, hugely capable but generally afraid at getting stuck into the online debate. That’s where it matters though, particularly in the context of influencing the geeks, the opinion-formers and (crucially) the developers considering adopting the Nokia/Symbian/Maemo platform.

You only have to look at the trackbacks on Mark’s post to see the effect his post has had across the marketplace with hundreds of publications picking it up.

Kudos to Mark for getting the post up and out. More please!

I’m demonstrating some mobile applications this week. Some of the applications that I’m showing off rely on a decent internet connection. They’re not asking for terabytes of capacity, just a good sustained 10k/sec throughput now and again.

Unfortunately I’m in America: The land of rubbish GSM mobile data speeds. AT&T’s network runs like a tired old hamster is powering the backend and T-Mobile is — in New York City at least — nothing short of *slow*.

To put it in real terms that many British readers will understand, using AT&T and T-Mobile data is like using 1/10th of an overloaded o2 data connection. And that’s saying something.

Push email just about works.

For everything else, like Google Maps, I found myself feeling like a total numpty standing on 5th Avenue in the centre of the Almighty United States of America.

You’d think they’d know how to build decent data networks here, wouldn’t you?

Turns out they do.

Enter Verizon (and Sprint).

I came up with a cunning plan whilst in England. A plan so cunning that — if you’ve got a moment, and with due deference to BlackAdder — it’s got a PhD from Cambridge. I brought my Novatel Wireless MiFi unit with me and I bought a SIM from T-Mobile yesterday. I then fired up my iPhone’s WiFi connection and tried out some apps: Rubbish. Whilst the Novatel unit performed perfectly, the dismal T-Mobile data connection was holding it back. Think ‘Edge’ network. As in ‘edge of almost being GPRS’.

Connections do work. You just need to wait tens of seconds for anything useful to happen.

So I took a trip to the Verizon and Sprint stores. CDMA networks. I know, I know. I felt dirty even walking into the stores. Despite CDMA being an apparently superior technology, I — like millions of Europeans — thoroughly appreciate being able to lord it over ‘dumb’ Americans trying to use their CDMA phones in a GSM-only continent.

Who’d buy a CDMA phone? You can’t roam!

But it turns out, you can get super, super fast reliable data.

I walked into the Verizon store next to the Empire State Building and headed straight for their Novatel MiFi 2200 unit. In tests I’d done with my iPhone’s AT&T roaming connection and through my own MiFi unit running a T-Mobile USA sim, the average network response I’d got when using one of the mobile apps was thus:

T-Mobile: 15 seconds
AT&T: 12-20 seconds

I asked permission from one of the sales people and connected my iPhone to the Novatel unit in the shop. I fired up the app. 1.5-2 seconds.

Shocking.

“I’ll take one,” I said, handing over my credit card.

Of course I wanted it pay as you go. Turns out Verizon’s keen to do business. Two years ago I’d have been laughed out the shop.

The Verizon MiFi unit set me back $269 including the $50 mail-in rebate. $15/day gets you 75mb/day usage. I opted for $30 for 250mb across a week. Or you can get 500mb for $50.

Back at the hotel I setup the unit in 180 seconds and boom my iPhones and my Android devices are connecting at blazing fast speeds.

I don’t even know what kind of network speed we’re talking. It just works, and brilliantly.

To all the frustrated American iPhone AT&T customers out there, I hope there will soon be a CDMA iPhone to ease your pain.

That said you can experience the super-fast Verizon network via the Motorola Droid Android device right now. If I was living in America for any length of time, I think I’d do that. Or run my iPhone through the Verizon MiFi.

I kid ye not, it’s fast than my hotel broadband connection.

More information on the Verizon data plans here.

Sprint also have a MiFi unit (similar price) and I’m sure they provide a very good data service in New York. I’ve only tried them in San Francisco and I wasn’t disappointed.

It’s been doing the rounds since it came out on Thursday last week and — well, frankly it makes for depressing reading.

But I don’t think it’s going to get better any time soon. There are indications from Nokia that they’ve got the message. We’ll get a very good idea of this when we see the next set of Nokia handsets. I’m sure they’ll have a few announcements soon.

In the meantime, super work, Prodigal Fool — I really enjoyed your letter.

Thank you for your patience whilst I’ve been flying.

I packed my massive flight case late on Friday evening after a day of filming at the Symbian headquarters in London (more on that soon). I got to Heathrow and then had to empty some of the contents of the flight case. Here’s a picture of it:

It was brilliant to put all the camera gear and tech inside. Everything was packed away nicely. Unfortunately I had to stand there like a plumb emptying stuff and then weighing the case until I got it down to under 32kg in total.

I ended up having to squeeze my laptop and the two terabyte drives into my other suitcase. The whole point behind having a flippin’ massive sexy flight case is so that you don’t have to do this.

However a helpful chappy at the check-in desk explained that ‘the baggage guys won’t lift anything over 32kg off the belt’. I shall keep that in mind for the other five flights I’ve got this month.

Thank you to everyone who’s been demanding to know where the newsletter is. I actually wrote it on the Nokia Booklet 3G on the flight over. I just need to transcribe it into the newsletter system and send. Given the timezone difference I’m thinking of holding that ’til Friday so that you don’t end up getting two newsletters this week.

If you’re in New York and would like to meet, I’m here until Thursday and I’m at the ‘W New York – The Court’ at 130 East 39th Street. Come and have a drink?

Over to Andy for his perspective:

- – - – -

Everyone’s talking about books, newspapers and apps for the iPad, but not many people are talking about film. At MOFILM we’ve built an entire business around the idea that user-generated video content is and will continue to be big on mobile, and we think the iPad’s just going to accelerate that, and in the process, create a new advertising model.

Firstly, the iPad is unique in the mobile world in combining two things: a big, beautiful, touchable screen and the ability to choose, stream and download video content. Yes, it’s nice watching video on the iPhone and iTouch, but video on the iPad is going to be in a different league. And with a nice long battery life, video is going to be one of the major apps.

But filmmakers and advertisers are going to have to rethink the kind of video they push out. iPad users aren’t going to have time for content that bores them. We’ve already seen it happen with You Tube on the iPhone/iTouch: people are hungry for videos that they get a quick hit from, that make them laugh or make them think, the sort of videos they want to pass on to their friends.

This means traditional TV/cinema ads are going to have to change. I can’t imagine that people watching 4 On Demand, for example, will want to sit and watch ‘brand experience’ TV ads endlessly repeated. In fact this kind of content is just going to annoy them.

So what can advertisers do? They have to find original, well made, engaging content, and lots of it, to fill the many available ad spaces without repetition. This is where independent filmmakers come in. MOFILM specialises in attracting ‘user generated content’, but what we really do is put ambitious, creative filmmakers in touch with the brands that need them for their advertising.

The deal is that the filmmakers pour their talent into making a film (they’re well compensated) and the advertisers get several completely original ads. And hopefully, iPad users get video that is a joy, not an annoyance.

- – - – -

Ah well here’s hoping Andy. Here’s hoping. Thanks for taking the time. I think you’re absolutely right and I hope that now there will (I imagine) be a common, easily accessible platform, we’ll see a ton more of this kind of entertainment-cum-advertising. I also hope we’ll get a lot more off the wall and exciting messaging, rather than the usual ‘it’s a perfume ad’ or ‘it’s a car ad’ bland creative.

By the way, in case you need a quick memory jogger on MOFILM, here’s a quick overview:

MOFILM believes that in the age of accessible, digital filmmaking, an independent filmmaker with just a camera and an idea can produce high-quality, commercial ideas. We want these ideas to be seen. Our competitions provide the platform for filmmakers to make ads for some the world’s leading brands, winning money and prestige in the process.

MOFILM filmmakers are valued by brands. Our competitions give our partners a chance to tap a huge reservoir of international filmmaking talent, as well as developing a wealth of content to be distributed online and via mobile devices. Our partners discover a whole new advertising model.

And if getting stuck into the world of independent advertising floats your boat, head over to www.mofilm.com to view the current competition briefs.

I think I got to age 17 having spent a long time professionally worrying about things before I realised — perhaps in quite a male manner — that worrying about things is a ridiculous waste of time. Stop worrying about everything, I told myself, and start doing.

So I’m calm, generally.

That is, until you put a video of somebody demonstrating a touchscreen mobile phone that doesn’t actually work properly.

I simply CANNOT stand to see it.

I’ll give you an example.

Many a time I have been at a launch party or event when a manufacturer has had cause to show off a video of their touchscreen device(s) working. Usually the videos are pre-packaged — which winds me up even more.

The videos generally feature a spokesperson showing off the product and marvelling at how good the touchscreen is — what they’re usually doing is telling us (not directly) that they’ve managed to make something that’s as good as — or close to the iPhone.

(Which is another pet hate: Can’t we please have some innovation beyond Apple?)

As the spokesperson is demonstrating, there will come a time when they swipe their finger(s) over the screen and… nothing will happen.

Because the touchscreen is a piece of shit.

The spokesperson things they’ve flicked the screen on. So does the rest of the audience. But the screen hasn’t moved. The spokesperson will notice this a few seconds later and quickly flick his/her finger again. Deliberately. And the screen will move.

And everyone in the sodding room thinks, ‘Er, so, yeah, not quiet up to Apple standard yet.’

This isn’t flucking rocket science, it really isn’t.

I’m going to make an effort to actually call people out on this. I’m going to actually highlight every sodding device that doesn’t WORK properly.

I don’t give a toss about the underlying technology or excuses like that. Either it works like the iPhone or it’s broken.

There’s no arguing here. The flick-and-it-works iPhone model is fantastic. I don’t care who made it or programmed it though. Either the flick works… or it doesn’t.

I understand that if the spokesperson doesn’t TOUCH the screen properly, yes, the device can’t be expected to perform. But 99.999% of the time, it’s the technology being shit.

Would you like a case in point?

Good, I was hoping you’d say yes.

Here, then, is Michael Arrington bumping into another titan of the tech world also called Michael: Michael Dell.

Yup. Even Michael Dell’s technology is inferior to the iPhone. How depressing.

Have a watch:

Near the beginning you’ll see Dell swiping through the new Android handset he’s showing off… and you’ll see him flick-and-… yeah, it doesn’t work.

There is no middle ground. Either it’s a touchscreen (and it works). It can’t be an almost-touchscreen.

Rubbish.

Absolutely rubbish.

Won’t somebody please make touchscreens that work for all phones. Fix the hardware, the software, whatever the hell it is that continues to make fools out of spokespeople everywhere.

The key points?

- 1.7 billion irrelevant press release emails estimated to be received in total each year by UK and US Journalists alone

- 78% of press release emails are received by Recipients to whom they are irrelevant

- 55% of Recipients have taken action to block a sender of news

An Inconvenient PR Truth from RealWire on Vimeo.

There’s only one absolutely ridiculous agency that I’ve actually sent straight to my trash bin automatically. Everything else, I glance over.

Then I star it — because, to be honest, as long as it’s half interesting, I may well use it.

Then I usually go and get really busy earning money elsewhere.

Then I panic because I thought I had some things lined up I was going to write about (those starred items).

Then I write my own stuff because it was quicker and because those starred items are now on my third page of Google Mail (the equivalent of the graveyard) because I’ve had even more half interesting press releases come in. That I star.

And I think about…

Then I go and make proper money advising investment banks, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and building my own businesses.

The one hugely misplaced assumption that most PR make about me is that I’m here to provide a service level to them — like the chap at the mainstream media publication is. Obviously he’s paid to bang out five pieces a day. About whatever.

I reckon about 15% of the stuff I publish originates from a press release sent to me by someone I don’t ‘know’ or have some kind of relationship with. I’d then go so far as to suggest perhaps 25% comes from PR that I know and trust.

The balance — around 60%, I make up myself.

I’d love a lot more assistance from PR. For example, I thought of sending out an announcement to the various PR lists asking them to send me some feedback on the iPad. The concept is sound — they would go back to their clients and ask them to pen 250 words on the iPad. They’d then send that to me. I’d integrate into a wickedly interesting piece. Everybody wins. I haven’t had to do a ton of chasing to 20 odd executives directly, they look good in front of their clients, their clients are happy because they’re published — and I’m delighted because I can deliver good stuff to the audience.

I didn’t bother doing this because the sad reality is that, despite spelling out what it is you’d like to read (at my best guess), I’ll either be sent nonsense, or nothing at all. Or I’ll get it next week. Not because of the PR being slow, but because the client doesn’t bother responding. Worst is when I’m sent something almost irrelevant. For example, a comment on the iPad by someone who manufacturers paper towels. Not quite in the zone for Mobile Industry Review.

It’s such a frustration watching more public relations professionals do their jobs.

Do you remember we used to do a newsletter years ago? In that newsletter, I liked to put in little bits of news. Every week I’d email perhaps 300 PRs asking ‘have you got any news’.

I used to expect being sent wholly irrelevant stuff as a result but goodness me. The amount of PRs who simply wrote back ‘no, nothing, sorry’ used to shock me. It was generally because they’d hit their press release quota for their client contracts and were sitting pretty. Or they’d finished doing the ‘hours’ for that particular client I was emailing about so they didn’t need to do any thinking.

They’re very good at being proactive. Try asking a PR if they’ve got any news. 95% usually respond ‘no’. The smart 5% will generate something. They’ll rustle up something within 10 minutes: A new hire, a bit of product feedback, an anecdote for one of their clients.

I used to keep a list of PRs who wrote back ‘no’. Most of them worked for agencies who routinely bill 7,500+ month to their clients. So whenever anyone needed a PR company recommendation, I’d know precisely who suggest avoiding. If you need a recommendation, let me know.

Now, though, the newsletter is just me. Speaking of which, I had a break last week. This week the topic is — predictably — about the iPad.

• The Name – It sucks. Who cares? I’m over it.
• Closed – Oh no! Whatever will I do? As much as some arbitrary app rejections might suck here and there, the App Store has set the standard for all other app stores. All my favorite apps that I can’t live without will be on the iPad. And the fact that the App Store is closed; the fact that Apple makes the hardware and the software, is the very reason why people love the Apple experience. Developers can cry all they want about its policies, but the App Store made buying a mobile app mainstream. Millions of customers that wouldn’t have existed otherwise  are now accustomed to paying for mobile content. You’re welcome, snotty developers.
• It’s $500 – OK, I already have a MacBook Pro, an iPhone 3GS, do I need an iPad? No, I desperately need an iPad. I just do. Tech is my life, it’s how I make my living.
• Just a Big iPhone - Yes! Exactly! That’s like saying that if you have a fifty pound pile of cash–a great thing, who would want a 100 pound pile of cash? Me who. That’s who.
• Huge Bezel – OK, I’ll admit, at first sight of the big bezel–especially after seeing those sexy barely-there-bezeled mock-ups–I was taken aback. But then I thought it through. Where else would you grip it? Would you hold it like a cocktail waitress holds her tray?
• AT&T – This is the only part that kills me. But for my needs, I’ll go WiFi only, and save on the $130 bucks and extra monthly subscription to yet another service. I’ll use it to surf the web at home, and use my iPhone when I’m out in the wild–who wants to lug around a tablet anyway? So by default this doesn’t matter to me at all (I know a total cop-out and AT&T’s SHIT 3G network should be a dealbreaker if you require 3G connectivity).

So yes, sign me up! I have already pledged my soul to the His holiness in the church of Jobs. Call me a sheep, a weak-willed fanboy, but when you are fiddling with your stylus, trying to get your sodding handset to work with that fragmented application, I’ll be joyfully multi-touching my way through the Internet, an ebook or one of the most compelling 140,000 apps ever made for a mobile platform.

Here it is:

Apple are simply superb at this stuff. The production of these kind of videos (let alone the actual product) is out of this world.

(Nice one Noah)

Watch this and tell me you won’t be getting one?

I did the usual rubbish Windows restarts, reconnects and so on. No dice.

This could well be because my device is pre-release, but I doubt it — the error appears to be with the Samsung PC Studio.

Ah dear.

The three links that Jay.B posted were all to Vodafone 360 articles on Mobile Industry Review (the links have since been removed by the Vodafone moderators which shows a very, very low tolerance for dissent).

It’s fascinating to watch just how Vodafone as a company deals with 360 and the consumer reaction to it.

Here’s Jay.B’s original post:

And this is how it looks after the moderator’s been through it:

Heh.

The posts Jay.B were linking to are:

- Vodafone 360: An Absolute Failure
- This week’s newsletter: More about Vodafone 360

I particularly like how Jay linked to the final link:

and finally quite a good read that really describes what I would like to experience and what I am experiencing when using H1

- Vdoafone’s Lukewarm 60-degree Offering

Jay finishes by asking:

I find the content of the above articles quite alarming and would like to know what is Vodafone opinion about what is stated in these articles?

Ah you’ll never know Jay. Vodafone’s position is not to get into a (potentially uncomfortable) conversation.

It’s a real shame. It’s highly ironic that whilst Vodafone 360 is a service that’s fundamentally based on communication, there appears to be next to nothing coming from Vodafone about 360’s issues or any indication about what’s on the road map. Perhaps I’ve missed it.

When you’re producing a service that can be upgraded remotely it is acceptable for there to be bugs, problems, issues. I didn’t for one second think that the photo issue (the limitation of only being able to post to Facebook) would hang around for more than 30-days or more before some bright spark at Vodafone fixed it with an update. But it appears this hasn’t happened.

Twitter integration was promised — it’s not quite materialised either.

Back to Jay.B again — here’s what he’s thinking:

The really scary thing is that not much have changed since then. No firmwares released addressing the issues. No known dates when the firmwares are going to be released. It’s 3 months since I have this phone and the only thing I can hear is that someone somewhere works really hard to get things sorted out. In my opinion nothing changed or things are changing for worse in certain aspects.

There have been one or two firmware updates that I’ve noted but not sufficient or frequent enough to placate Jay.B or the rest of us.

Jay goes further:

The bottom line is that the product (goods and services in the shape of H1/M1 phone and 360.com website) do not work as advertised. In fact I feel that I have grounds to ask for my money back. It would definitely be the case with any other product (TV, car, even MS Windows OS). The only reason it is not happening is because the smartphones and cloud computing are quite new concepts and they are not really clearly defined.

It gets worse as Jay.B explains:

But it is enough to use common sense and decency to admit that there is a problem and that most people who bought H1 phone wouldn’t buy it, if they only knew that most of the advertised features/services are not going to work.

It’s painful reading:

And I really wanted to have something else/better than iPhone and H1 was sold to me as a phone that can outdo the iPhone (and hardware wise it is better than iPhone). I had all the reasons to believe it. Then I had all the reasons to believe that things are going to get fixed.

This isn’t difficult to manage. It’s all about communication. Something you’d expect the 360 team — or the executives screwing it up — to understand.

If the next update is going to fix a lot of the problems, brilliant. But don’t sit there in silence. Post an update! Tell people what’s happening! Even if it’s coming in March, so be it, people can stop getting frustrated.

One of the newbies reading the post visited a little bit late and found the links posted to Mobile Industry Review removed:

I Want to read the articles but I can’t see the links a nymore… Is it only happening with me?! Any reason for the disappearing?

It’s laughable, it really is.

Vodafone does allow links to external sites — just not ones that aren’t entirely supportive.

Simply fascinating.

I write this post as yet another addition to my look-at-the-stupidity-of-the-mobile-operator pile. I can’t quite believe they are still screwing it up.

It could all be managed much, much better.

Meantime the more I watch 360, the more I see the customer complaints going unanswered and the negative commentary removed, it’s very clear that to see this is a department in total and utter chaos.

Poor Lee, the Vodafone eForum chap who’s taking all the flack from the Vodafone consumers, is doing his best with what he’s got to work with.

Here’s one forum contributor, Paul, who’s not been having a good day:

Am on my 2nd Samsung H1 in less than 2 months… on my first handset VF pushed the firmware update to my mobile there and then but apparently the 3 VF folks I have spoken to since don’t know how to do this for my new handset

I too got stuck unzipping but as soon as I opened PC studion as administrator (using Vista) it worked!

Paul’s referring to the firmware update process. You can’t quite do it over-the-air it seems. Instead you have to arse about with the Samsung PC Studio and unzipping of stuff. Still at least it’s a solution.

Paul continues:

What i find laughable about this whole saga is the lack of official response/update from senior folks at VF at the number of faults present in both the handset and 360 in general – Lee is doing a grand job fighting the flames but when will it get to a stage where top brass at VF admit they have F#*$ed up and should remove this handset and service until it is fixed once and for all.

PLEASE CAN WE HAVE AN UPDATE FROM SOMEONE SENIOR AT VODAFONE!!!

Lee is doing his best to placate the hordes:

I know how frustrated you are, believe me, I’ve had the same issues as everyone else and I know we are working as hard as possible to get these issues sorted.

Jay.B points out that this isn’t really helping:

You are working so hard for so long and not much is really happening. I am reading this forum on regular basis and nearly everyone here has some kind of problem with this phone

He finishes with a suggestion that appears to front-of-mind for many a Vodafone 360 user:

I suggest that if problems are not sorted out by January you get us all an iPhone as a replacement phone till problems with this phone are sorted out.

Barry concurs:

I have waded thru 7 pages of how to update, I have switched on and off twice while connecting to PC Studio, I have taken the back off, removed the sim and repeated the above, I have stood on one foot in a bucket of water while repeating the above and still it will not get past attempting to unzip the the downloaded update. I can’t get emails, I can’t sync with Outlook. The phone in its present state is not fit for purpose but will Vodafone admit this and give me an Apple I-pod?

I don’t think Barry will get very far, alas.

I doubt I’ll have anything specific to tell you about Vodafone 360, beyond the litany of problems, in the coming weeks.

One highlight is the upcoming Vodafone 360 developer conference at Mobile World Congress. I would take the camera in there to interview developers but I understand Mobile Industry Review — and yours truly in particular — are most certainly not welcome on account of our rather direct Vodafone 360 coverage. So we won’t be doing that alas. There might be an opportunity to capture some hilarious footage of me being turned away at the door, perhaps. That would certainly be interesting.

So if you’re a 360 developer and you’d like some coverage, do contact me directly (ewan@mobileindustryreview.com) and we’ll sort out a profile.

Meanwhile I’m going to try and upgrade my Samsung H1…

MAD TV filmed this i-Pad spoof a good few years ago:

(Thanks K & V!)

Straight from the horse’s mouth, here’s the Apple press release on today’s iPad:

- – - –

Apple® today introduced iPad, a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more. iPad’s responsive high-resolution Multi-Touch(TM) display lets users physically interact with applications and content. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds– thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, and will run almost all of the over 140,000 apps in the App Store. iPad will be available in late March starting at the breakthrough price of just $499.

“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

iPad features 12 next-generation Multi-Touch applications. Every app works in both portrait and landscape, automatically animating between views as the user rotates iPad in any direction. The precise Multi-Touch interface makes surfing the web on iPad an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. Reading and sending email is fun and easy on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard. Import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. Watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD or flip through pages of an e-book you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.

iPad runs almost all of the over 140,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. The iTunes® Store gives you access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 11 million songs, over 50,000 TV episodes and over 8,000 films including over 2,000 in stunning high definition video. Apple also announced the new iBooks app for iPad, which includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile device. The iBookstore will feature books from major and independent publishers.

Apple also introduced a new version of iWork® for iPad, the first desktop-class productivity suite designed specifically for Multi-Touch. With Pages®, Keynote® and Numbers® you can create beautifully formatted documents, stunning presentations with animations and transitions, and spreadsheets with charts, functions and formulas. The three apps will be available separately through the App Store for $9.99 each.

iPad syncs with iTunes just like the iPhone and iPod touch, using the standard Apple 30-pin to USB cable, so you can sync all of your contacts, photos, music, movies, TV shows, applications and more from your Mac or PC. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.

iPad’s brilliant 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display features IPS technology to deliver crisp, clear images and consistent color with an ultra-wide 178 degree viewing angle. The highly precise, capacitive Multi-Touch display is amazingly accurate and responsive whether scrolling web pages or playing games. The intelligent soft keyboard pioneered on iPhone takes advantage of iPad’s larger display to offer an almost full-size soft keyboard. iPad also connects to the new iPad Keyboard Dock with a full-size traditional keyboard.
iPad is powered by A4, Apple’s next-generation system-on-a-chip. Designed by Apple, the new A4 chip provides exceptional processor and graphics performance along with long battery life of up to 10 hours.* Apple’s advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology deliver up to 1,000 charge cycles without a significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five year lifespan.**
iPad comes in two versions–one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. iPad includes the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi, and the 3G versions support speeds up to 7.2 Mbps on HSDPA networks. Apple and AT&T announced breakthrough 3G pre-paid data plans for iPad with easy, on-device activation and management.

Continuing Apple’s dedication to designing and creating environmentally responsible products, each iPad enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy-efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. iPad contains no brominated flame retardants and is completely PVC-free.

Apple today released a new Software Development Kit (SDK) for iPad, so developers can create amazing new applications designed to take advantage of iPad’s capabilities. The SDK includes a simulator that lets developers test and debug their iPad apps on a Mac, and also lets developers create Universal Applications that run on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Pricing & Availability
iPad will be available in late March worldwide for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model, $699 (US) for the 64GB model. The Wi-Fi + 3G models of iPad will be available in April in the US and selected countries for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. International pricing and worldwide availability will be announced at a later date. iBookstore will be available in the US at launch.

*Apple tested wireless battery life by browsing web pages and receiving email over an AirPort® network, never letting the system go to sleep during the test, and keeping the display at half brightness. This is a typical scenario of use on the go, resulting in a battery performance number that is very relevant to mobile users.

**A properly maintained iPad battery is designed to retain 80 percent or more of its original capacity during a lifespan of up to 1,000 recharge cycles. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

I’ve been banging on about the Amplicom handset since the newsletter on Christmas Eve (to be published online shortly) and I’m delighted to say that I’ve been sent a device. So obviously, I’ve done an unboxing.

The unboxing video was one of the most unusual I’ve ever done. There are literally four pieces in the box: The phone, the battery, the plug, the charging-stand. Job done. Oh, there’s a manual too. If you watch the first unboxing video, you’ll see my total surprise when the phone turns on. It took about 2-3 seconds.

Seconds.

I had to look twice. I was shocked, wondering how it started up so fast! I’m so used to devices taking minute-upon-minute to go through their boot sequence.

There’s precious little to say about the actual device because it just ‘is’. It’s a phone…. and that’s it. It won’t tell the time in Tokyo, it won’t fart at you nor will it tell you how many inches of snow Val d’Isere has. But it’s LOUD, it’s BIG, it’s LIGHT and it’s got a flipping big display with BIG numbers on it. Precisely what the target audience wants and needs.

This is, of course, a phone for granny. Or grandpa. Or anyone in your family who’s a bit elderly or who simply can’t be bothered arsing around with the current crop of super-snazzy mobile devices. One of my relatives is a fairly young 60 years old — still filled with energy — but has real trouble with arthritis in her fingers, making operating a standard small mobile keypad a real annoyance. They will love the Amplicom.

I was surprised by how light the phone is — and by how *bright* the keypad numbers are when lit up. Everything about the device is specifically designed for people who are infirm, have poor eyesight but who still have the need of a mobile device.

Here’s a reminder on the specs:

Hearing Aid Compatibility with integrated Induction Coil (Rating: M3/T3)
SOS button with up to 5 numbers for auto dialling
Extra loud ringer up to 100dB
Extra loud speaker volume up to 23 dB
Red LED to indicate out of range and other functions
Vibration Alarm
Backlit display with large numbers and letters
3 Short dial numbers – M1, M2, M3
250 name and number phone book
Automatic keypad lock
SMS Text send and receive
Handsfree function
4.3 cm Display white back light
Dual Band GSM (900 / 1800 MHz)
Mains charger with Mini-USB connector
Talk Time up to 120 Minutes
Standby Time up to 170 Hours
Battery Li-Ion 750 mAh
SAR value < 0,526 W/Kg
Weight including battery < 100g

The device retails on the Amplicom website for £68.70 +VAT.

Here’s the unboxing video:

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And here’s the video where I make a call and send a text with the device:

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Step changes in technology always provide opportunities for significant shifts in market share driven by reduced loyalty and YouGov’s new Smartphone Mobile Internet Experience study highlights the opportunities for non-traditional handset brands in the smartphone gold rush. How smartphone handset brands are regarded by their users is the foundation of YouGov’s new report.

The newer but more focused handset brands are shown to be the best regarded by UK smartphone users with Apple and BlackBerry leading the remainder of major handset brands.

The majority of users do not expect to get their next handset from their current brand / manufacturer. The winners in this are Apple, BlackBerry, Nokia, and HTC. At the other end of the scale only just over a third of Sony Ericsson’s and LG’s users expect to get the same brand handset next time around, just over a quarter of Motorola’s current users can be considered loyal but the brand most users expect to switch from is Samsung (only 21% expect to replace their Samsung with a Samsung). In contrast nearly four fifths (79%) of Apple users believe they will get a handset from Apple the next time they upgrade or purchase a new handset.

“Whichever metrics you look at, Apple and BlackBerry lead the smartphone pack in terms of satisfaction, recommendation and loyalty”, commented Marek Vaygelt, Head of Technology & Telecoms Consulting at YouGov. He continued, “The traditional handset brands are suffering in this transition to smartphones and even Nokia, normally a brand with high loyalty, has lost ground.”

Furthermore, the survey shows that mobile Internet users value ease of use, menu navigation and function speed as the three most important attributes of a mobile Internet handset, all areas where Apple in particular demonstrates market leadership.

Here’s the associated graphic:

Samsung is not doing well at all, is it? I wonder if that’s because the majority of Samsung users in the UK are perhaps using rather limited feature phones? (A rather broad assumption, I know).

I think Motorola’s 28% is representative of the amount of people using older-generation Motorolas. I wonder how Droid or Milestone users would react to the survey.

So, how about you? Are you sticking with your current brand or swapping?

Me: I’m pretty concerned about hopping from a BlackBerry Bold 9000 to a Bold 9700 simply because they’ve made it smaller. And I really, really like the wide QWERTY keyboard on the original Bold… What’s a guy to do?

Congratulations are thoroughly well deserved for the Firemint team, makers of Flight Control. It’s still on my iPhone and now and again, I see if I can beat my score. I think the most I’ve ever managed was 243 but I know that many people have got scores well in advance of it.

The game is one of those apps that ’sells’ the iPhone. The amount of times I’ve brought it out to show an interested normob! They usually end up transfixed for a good five minutes or so before deciding they want an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

Here’s what the Firemint team had to say:

Less than a year ago, on 5 March 2009, we launched Flight Control on the App Store. Three months later, we had sold 1 million copies. Today we’re proud to announce that after 324 days, on 23 January 2010, Flight Control sold the 2 millionth download – that’s over 6,000 sales per day on average! We had particularly big days on 28 and 29 March 2009 when Flight Control suddenly exploded up the charts, with over 30,000 copies sold each day. Even 9 months after release, Christmas Day 2009 was also a great day with over 20,000 copies sold – many probably going to happy new owners of an iPhone or iPod touch!

Here in the UK we’ve bought almost 20% of the 2 million copies, with the United States accounting for a whopping 46% of sales — here’s a breakdown:

What do the sales per week look like for an iTunes App Store best seller? Here we go:

Fascinating!

There’s a little more information from Firemint on their related post here: http://firemint.com/?p=707