Sketch Messaging: The Xda Serra (HTC Touch Pro/MDA Vario IV) is growing on me

I didn't immediately warm to the Xda Serra, but today I finally found something it could do that my N95 couldn't: Sketch Messaging!

No longer will my friends suffer random photos in their inboxes, instead they will suffer little sketches by the world's worst artist:
Whilst Microsoft's Notes application allows you to draw pictures with the stylus, it only sends any text and drawings as an attachment in the obscure .pwi format. However with the MiTo Team Paint application you can use the stylus to knock up a little picture, save it as a bitmap, then just insert it in a multimedia message and send it off to anyone with a camera phone!

nb. In case you wondered...it's meant to be a cat.

Which mobile phone should I buy?

With my T-mobile contract finally finishing yesterday, I am now looking for a new phone. However, despite having my N95 for 18 months, there is no obvious replacement.

Although there are Nokia phones with slight improvements, such as the N96 (or even the N95 8Gb), the improvements are not sufficient to persuade me to sign up for another 18 month contract. It is therefore necessary to look further afield, and at the moment I am thinking about O2's Xda Serra (a branded HTC Touch Pro):

Although it includes my main two requirements (i.e., touchscreen and qwerty keyboard), will I later regret not waiting for the N97? I have no way of knowing whether the N97 will be worth it, or whether it will even be in my price range. And at which point do you stop waiting? There is always a better phone just over the horizon!

Any comments or phone suggestions are welcome...although iPhone suggestions will fall on deaf ears.

De-branding my N95 for the BBC iPlayer

I have had my N95 for over a year, but until yesterday I had left it as a crumby T-mobile N95 with the appropriately out-dated branded firmware. I had tried to change it once, but the required software refused to recognise my phone. It was annoying but I put up with it, until yesterday's announcement on All About Symbian that the BBC iPlayer was available for the S60.

I have been waiting for an S60 version of the iPlayer since it was made available for the over-hyped iPhone back in March. Unfortunately the iPlayer application (which can be downloaded here) takes the form of a Nokia Web Runtime (a Nokia Widget) rather than an S60 application, the difference being that the Nokia Web Runtime framework comes with the Nokia update software that wasn't yet built into the T-mobile firmware. Whilst I have put up with missing out on lots of exciting developments because of the T-mobile firmware, the BBC iPlayer is not just any old new software, its a new way to access the greatest television on Earth! (I may have mentioned previously that I am possibly the BBC's biggest fan). This time when I tried to de-brand my phone it all went smoothly.

If you have yet to de-brand, and want access to the iPlayer on your N95, then there is a detailed post on how to de-brand over at Simply Symbian.

As for the S60 iPlayer, my only criticism is the "Sorry, television programmes can only be watched over a wifi connection". My 3G connection is often faster than my wifi connection, I pay for an 'unlimited' data plan and it's about time there was a program that could make use of it.

Firmware offered for T-mobile phone yesterday: 14.0.001
Firmware offered for de-branded phone yesterday: 30.0.015

My first e-book: An Unsocial Socialist

It isn't the first time I have tried to read an ebook, but it is the first time I have read one all the way through. My previous attempt was as an undergraduate at Loughborough University (approx. 2002), and despite the nifty little ebook reader, the book was not particularly to my liking. In comparison Shaw's 'An Unsocial Socialist' fits nicely with my general approach to society at large, and my opinions of Tories in particular (i.e., selfish, idiots, or both); it had me hooked to the end. Whilst I have yet to see an ebook reader that hopes to challenge more than the fringes of the codex market, the prevalence of freely available pdf books (e.g., 20 Free eBooks about Social Marketing) is beginning to persuade me that there is a place for these devices. Whilst I have found myself coveting the reasonably priced Sony Reader (tempting me every time I walk into my local Waterstones), I don't particular want to carry around an additional electronic device. I therefore decided to try reading a book on my N95 using Mobi Reader.

The advantage of reading a book on a mobile phone is that most people carry their mobile with them always. The disadvantage is, in the same way as a dedicated ebook reader, you are more concerned about damaging or losing the device. One of my favourite times to read is walking down the street, however I found myself acutely aware of the fact that my phone was much more likely to be the target of an opportunistic thief than a 10p novel from a charity shop. Nonetheless, despite fears for my phone, I found the N95/Mobi Reader combo to provide a useful reading device, and if those who create the free pdf versions would also make a free Mobi Reader version of their books I would never look at a Sony Reader again.

Nb. If you do want to create your own ebook for the Mobi Reader then All About Symbian had a useful post the other week.

Update: Using the Mobipocket Reader desktop version makes converting PDFs to the mobile reader AMAZINGLY easy. I can't believe I haven't been doing this for years.

Is the phone the future of programming?

Way back in April I wrote that the answer to Bill Thompson's "Who will write tomorrow's code?" may be found amongst the Eee PC generation of users. However, after having my programming interest piqued once again by last week's Python workshop, I discovered I had regularly been carrying another device around that could have Python easily installed: my N95.

Whereas the Eee PC takes programming out of the bedroom into the community, programming on the mobile phone takes portability and sharing to a whole new level. Even more importantly, mobile phone programming would instantly grab the attention of the younger generation. Mobile phones are filled with their music, their videos, and their friends. Enabling users to create applications that use the data they already have (and more that they can download) can't help but be popular.

Python is easy to install directly onto the mobile phone (nb. you need to install the PythonScriptShell as well as PythonForS60), and by installing simple text software (such as Light Notepad) you can program directly on the mobile (albeit rather clunkily) rather than having to send it across from a PC.

Whilst Python for the S60 has now been available for a couple of years, you get the distinct impression that it is only really popular amongst those people who would be programming anyway. Surely its time that it went mainstream and introduced more people to programming. The solution to the perceived programmer shortage would seem to be in people's pockets.

iPhone Crazy...Again!

It would seem as though the blogosphere is getting itself into a frenzy all over again as Apple announced its much anticipated 3G iPhone. Of the 180 items in my RSS aggregator this morning, I would guess about 50% were about the iPhone. However, whilst the US-centric blogosphere spanks its collective monkey about the 3G iPhone, I will take the opportunity to put it in perspective.

Despite all the rhetoric, the original iPhone was for the fashionistas, whilst the more seriously technologically minded looked to the N95. Now the iPhone has caught up technologically with the inclusion of 3G and GPS, its glossy bits seem to give it a bit of an edge over the current competitors. However the competitors have not been standing still, and the forthcoming N96 looks likely be an extremely impressive beast (with the launch hopefully coinciding with the contract on my N95 coming to an end).

The problem with the iPhone is that it is difficult to distinguish between the reality and the hype. Will this "help usher in the mobile media revolution in a major way"? Only in as much as it is one of a group of major players whose competition is pushing a mobile media revolution, on its own it is not making half as much impact as noise.

Local Election Day! A tale of two cities

Democracy has always struck me as a rather stupid idea; I no more want the general public making decisions about the most appropriate economic strategy, or the merits of joining the Euro, than I would want them performing open-heart surgery. Nonetheless, democracy is what we have, and luckily the more objectionable views of the puppet-majority manage to get watered-down by the representational aspect of our democratic system (God help us if technology ever gives us direct democracy). However, in spite of my dislike of democracy, I love the election coverage. The day after general elections are always a write-off, whilst even the local elections are liable to get me watching until 3 or 4 in the morning. Whilst the BBC provides great coverage, the web provides us with the opportunity for enhanced electoral coverage at the local level.

Coverage of the local elections tends to report the overall results of the council, rather than the results of individual wards; the simplicity of video streaming means that the web can provide that coverage. Being able to view the local council results would hopefully encourage people to think about local policies and engage with the councillors on issues that matter; too often local issues are over shadowed by national issues and protest votes. I was pleased to note yesterday that Birmingham council will be streaming the results live, although as always Wolverhampton is the poor relation: "Results will be posted on this website on 2 May". Not even a live posting as the results come in! As on-the-cheap streaming could be accomplished through qik and an N95, or results published as they happen via something as simple as Twitter, you really have to despair at Wolverhampton's lack of effort.

Just remember, voting for the BNP is not a "protest vote", it is vote for fear, ignorance and fascism, not the sort of things that make Britain Great.

Guitar Hero III - On your mobile!

Whilst I have had my N95 about nine months, I have not as yet bought a single game for it...this will change, however, with the arrival of Guitar Hero III.

Of course it won't be the same as playing with the guitar, and will quickly become annoying in public places, but nonetheless I will have to have it!

Joiku and the Eee PC (RM Minibook)

I don't usually get my S60 news from GigaOm, but they have highlighted a potentially useful application that can turn the N95 (or other phone with the S60 operating system) into a wireless hotspot: Joiku. It is VERY important to take into consideration the data package that your phone comes with before adding it, and unfortunately it doesn't come with any security, so once your phone's a hotspot, anyone can connect to it!

As the Eee PC doesn't come with bluetooth, there may be occassions when you want to access the web and don't have the required wire, and therefore Joiku seems a useful solution. You will, however, need to change the wireless connection settings so the mode is 'ad-hoc' rather than 'auto' for the connection to be enabled, and even then I found trouble getting the computer to connect. It automatically loads the joikuspot.com homepage first, and I found this took AGES!

Whether the problems I encountered are due to something I am doing wrong, or a problem at Joiku's end I don't know, but if it gets sorted it will definately find a permanent place on my phone.

Combining the Eee PC with the N95

How could you improve on the Eee PC? Give it mobile web (broadband quality - through which I could stream the BBC's Flash programmes):

Whilst it is important to check your mobile operator's pricing policy (I needed to up-grade from T-mobile's web 'n' walk, to web 'n' walk plus), the steps are fairly easy...once you find the right pages to follow on the web:

1. Enable accessing the full-desktop mode on your Eee PC.
2. Add your N95 network

Whilst it is suggested that you need to be "fairly comfortable at the linux shell prompt" when it comes to adding the N95, everything you need to do is fairly intuitive.

How on earth did we manage before people posted everything online?

nb. obviously if I suddenly find I have a bill for hundreds of pounds I will change the post accordingly. It is worth noting that whilst I upgraded my plan online, I had to phone T-mobile to get the upgrade today rather than on my next billing date.

T-Mobile Favouritsm

I awoke this morning to be greeted with the cheery message that I had got 5 free song downloads from the T-mobile Mobile Jukebox. Unfortunately my girlfriend, who has the same phone and T-mobile contract, was not greeted with the same message. For some reason I got the distinct feeling that she felt that I was to blame for such favouritism. Thank you T-mobile.

It's the first time that I have used the T-mobile Jukebox, but I can understand why people do. It's so quick and simple you find yourself tempted to buy songs that you already have on CD just so you don't have to go through all the hassle of uploading them to your computer before putting them on your phone. Unfortunately it failed to fill in all the song details correctly on my N95, so they are currently listed as artist and album unknown.

The big limitation I found was that my N95 didn't seem to want to let me set any of the songs as a ringtone, which was a bit of a shame as I had always wanted Amy Winehouse's Rehab as my ringtone. That the songs are only valid to be played 2 billion times on the phone seems less of a problem.

Have T-mobile persuaded me that I should be downloading all my music to my phone? Personally I will be waiting for Nokia's "comes with music" package rather than paying for individual songs.

Stupid Nokia Music Store

I have never previously had the urge to investigate the latest online music store, and I doubt whether the urge will arise again, it is therefore annoying to note that the experience was one of absolute failure.

The Nokia Music Store is now live in the UK, however it is quite picky about who it will talk to. I went to the url to find myself greeted with the message:

Nokia Music Store does not currently support your device. Further information about Nokia Music Store and compatible devices can be found at the Nseries web site.
You can access the Nokia Music Store from a PC using Internet Explorer

I wouldn't have minded except I was sitting at a PC using Internet Explorer! Unfortunately I am guessing that it means IE7 and I am only using IE6, Microsoft not letting me update due to the university continuing to run Windows 2000 on my work machine. At this point I turned to my trusty N95, only to find that it to was greeted with the same message. According to All About Symbian it only likes the N95 8GB or the N81, I didn't realise my phone had dated so quickly!

Having to wait always takes the shine off of things.

I want Download! Windows Live NOT Download!Sonic Jump!

I have just noticed that my the Download! folder on my N95 has been rearranged this morning. Was this due to Nokia finally providing the Windows Live Services they promised almost 2 months ago? Of course not, the wait continues.

The only new item in this morning's reshuffle seems to be the inclusion of a Sonic Jump demo, and whilst that seems quite an enjoyable little game (much more so than the stupid Snakes game), it is not the reason I have been constantly checking my Download! folder for the last two months.

How long does it take roll out one little piece of software in this interconnected age? Whilst I find it annoying that the United Arab Emirates seem to have access to the software before the UK, I am sure it is much more annoying for the Finns who also seem to be waiting! Such a slow rollout doesn't encourage people to wait for the official version.

BBC: The Best of British

If you had to create a list of the best things about Britain only a fool would ignore the BBC, and despite being in existence for over 75 years, in various forms, it continues to be at the forefront of the latest technologies. Last night its news site (probably the best news in the world) announced that the BBC site would be accessible at The Cloud wi-fi hotspots throughout the UK for free, but even more interestingly it provided some further details of the future of BBC TV on the internet.

Key points:
- A streaming Flash version of the iPlayer
- Downloading to portable devices (such as N95 and PSP)
- Not commited to offering download version of iPlayer to Linux and Mac

Whilst the streaming version will be a more inclusive version for the whinging Linux and Mac users, I am sure there will still be complaints that they can't have a download version, but as the BBC says "It comes down to cost per user". Of course I personally welcome the proposed addition of the N95 version (especially as I have numerous trouble connecting to my Sky Sports package), and hope that the Flash version will be compatible with the Wii, but I also realise the need for the BBC to be cost effective.

The biggest probably I have at the moment with the BBC is finding time to watch and listen to all their programmes. The iPlayer is slowly filling with programmes I will probably never have time to watch, my N95 is filling with podcasts faster than I can listen to them, and I am constantly battling with the wi-fi radio to utilise the 7-day catch-up before we reach day eight! The change in the media landscape is best expressed through a comparison of launch of the Channel 4 twenty-five years ago, and the launch of Dave on Freeview yesterday. Where one was launched with a blaze of publicity that everyone was talking about, Dave was launched with little more than a whimper. As yet I haven't even bothered to re-tune my digi-box.

QR Codes, podcasting and the N95

One of the problems with N95 is that it can do so much it takes ages to try all the different bits out. The last couple of days I have been utilising a couple of the features on the N95 that I hadn't quite got around to. I started with the podcasts, and that led me on to the QR Codes.

I have always found podcasts to be one of those things that have great potential, but I have never managed to quite get to work for me. Previously this has been due to my need to download the relevant files to my computer before transfering them to my MP3 player, which I never managed to successfully fit into my schedule. The N95 however, allows me to subscribe and download directly to the phone...podcasting is alive and well once again (although seemingly too late for Yahoo's Podcasts site).

A topic that occured on a couple of the podcasts I subscribed to this week (one of which was Digital Planet) was QR Codes. Whilst they have been around for a number of years, and are supposedly big in Japan, they have hit the news now as they are being incorporated in an advertising campaign for the 28 days later DVD in London. Basically the 2D barcodes allows for the inclusion of over 4,000 alphanumeric characters, which can be read through a mobile phone with a camera and the required software. Some phones, such as the N95, come with the software installed, whereas others need to have it downloaded.

Personally I think that the 28 weeks later advert gets it wrong by including a URL in normal text on the bottom. QR Codes are engaging when you don't know what they say. If I saw a QR code on its own I would scan it; seeing it with the URL for a film I don't care about, I don't bother because I know I am not interested. Obviously, if QR codes take off in the UK, we will become immune to most of them, and will need the extra information to persuade us that they are worth looking at. At this stage however, I believe a bigger buzz would have been created without it...but there again some of the other views of the people behind the campaign are quite questionable.

Personally I like the potential of the QR codes, and I am currently trying to get a T-shirt printed with my own personalised QR code message on it.

Christmas search term analysis

Hitwise have just published a list of the top hot christmas gadgets based on search term analysis, which provides "great insight into people's habits and desires". However when the iPhone fails to make the top 10 mobile phones you have to question the methodology.

Hitwise analysed:

the top 2,000 search terms that sent traffic to a Hitwise Custom Category consisting of the top 100 online retail websites in the UK during the four weeks ending 22nd September 2007.

Rather than listing the gadgets that people are after, it may be that the list shows those gadgets that: people are after AND online retail websites dominate the search results.

Hitwise's excuse that: "The new iPod Touch and the UK release of the iPhone were announced too late to have a significant impact on the retail search data", doesn't seem to hold much water, as we can see from Google Trends that searches for the iPhone in the UK are up with the N95, whilst the Nokia 5300 doesn't even register.

There is a lot of interesting data held in the logs of web servers, but it is important that we don't get carried away with how much we read into them.

Waiting for promises to become reality: Where is my Windows Live Services?

I am probably the most impatient person I know; rather than waiting for things, I want instant gratification...supposedly one of the traits of criminals...anyway, as I am constantly trying to keep up to date with the latest technological news I often have a long wait for the news to become reality. How many months was I waiting for the BBC iPlayer? For a Popfly invite? I hate it. But the worst occasions are when they say the service will be available 'today' and its not.

My current annoyance is at Nokia and Microsoft. Where is my promised Windows Live Services?? This is what I have been waiting for ever since I got my N95 (although last week I would have claimed to be waiting for mobile video...and the week before internet access), and despite being promised it will be available in the UK through the Nokia Download! application, its not appearing on my phone!

Personally I wish there was less talk about what will be available in the future, and more talk about what is available now...and actually make it available now!

Watching Sky Sports on my Nokia N95

Whilst I probably didn't need to be able to watch television on my mobile phone, I can. As such I was tempted to sign up to Sky's news and sports package for £5 per month. There is no obligation to sign up for any particular length of time, so I thought I would give it a month's trial...and I must admit to being tempted to keep it for even longer. After signing up on Friday, I was given my first opportunity to try it out properly on Saturday as England played France in the world cup warm up.

I don't have Sky television and can't imagine the circumstances under which I would subscribe as I don't have time the time or inclination to get my money's worth. Nonetheless there are occasions when there are games that I would like to watch: the cricket internationals, the odd premiership fixture, and the occasional game from the championship...and last night's rugby match. As it coincided with the need for someone to cook the dinner I magnanimously offered, and set about cooking whilst watching the rugby on my N95, placing the phone in a half-pint glass for want of a better mobile cradle.

The picture quality is ok, although I found it to be occasionally interrupted through the loss of signal or the need to have a moment of buffering...but this was only once or twice in the whole of the rugby match. The big issue with watching television on an N95, and a big issue with the N95 generally, is the battery life. Unfortunately I found that it wasn't quite long enough to allow me to watch the whole of a rugby match, and it needed to be plugged in for the last ten minutes or so. This is obviously likely to cause annoyance if you don't have a plug for the last few minutes of an exciting game that you have watched 90% of, it also raises doubts about its suitability for watching a 5 day cricket match.

Despite the battery problems I will probably keep the Sky Sports television package. Using it when I am out and about to get news and sports updates, and when I am at home to watch the odd game whilst doing something else at the same time...taking advantage of the phone's ability to output the screen and sound through a traditional television. What it lacks in picture quality is made up for in accessibility and portability and price, but rather than thinking of it as television it is probably best think of it as radio with pictures. For those occasions you would want to watch a match properly (for example, when the great Norwich City are playing) then make sure you are in front of a traditional satellite tv, but when its a game that you would happily listen to on the radio, you will probably enjoy the event on the N95 a little bit more.