A couple of months ago I got myself a pocket projector to attach to my mobile phone and laptop. Partly, I wanted to know what happens to the mobile user interface when you blow it up to a metre across. Partly, it seemed like a fun thing to have, just to have it. I discovered … Continue reading Adventures with a pocket projector
In his latest cartoon my friend Noel, aka DJ Bogtrotter, reminds me of an oddity revealed in this month's Orange Digital Media Index. [Disclosure 1: I work for Orange though the-postings-on-this-site-are-my-own-and-dont-necessarily-represent-the-positions-strategies-or-opinions-of-my-employer. Disclosure 2: My employer's premises are protected by the power of feng shui. Really. Disclosure 3: That last link was to a PDF, sorry.] Anyway, … Continue reading I was born under a long-named star…
I'm on the bus, checking my RSS feeds with Bloglines Mobile. I see a couple of links I might want for later. The obvious thing would be to bookmark them on Delicious. But that's not an option using the mobile versions of many sites in Opera Mini. So I reach for the nearest scrap of … Continue reading Mobile bookmarking the old-fashioned way
The words we use to talk about people quickly come to constrain the ways we relate to them, so it's with mounting alarm that I see the spread of the word "normob" - a contraction of "normal mobile user". It started here, and has spawned this and this, and has even been taken up here. … Continue reading Normob: is this the ugliest word not yet to enter the English language?
In a single Noisy Decent Graphics post, Ben Terrett effortlessly segues between my two preoccupations of the moment - agonised middle-class parenting, and the superiority of mobile web over fixed. How could I resist? "City kids are not like country kids", he notes, "... the space available to play is smaller... so they learn to play smaller." … Continue reading Play Small: why mobile challenges designers to make a better web
What a stroke of genius to commission Scott McCloud to tell the story of Google's new web browser, Chrome, in comic form. McCloud's own books have communicated his enthusiasm for the past, present and future of comics themselves. Now his fluid, conversational style perfectly captures the diverse passions of project team members - passions that … Continue reading Brushed chrome – the story of Google’s browser in comic book form
Carlo Longino on Mobhappy and Tarek Abu-Esber at Mobile Messaging 2.0 both asked this week "When Will The Mobile Web Be Mass Market?" - a question prompted by the declaration from Nielsen Mobile that we've now reached critical mass. According to Nielsen, 12.9% of the UK population used the mobile internet in Q1 2008. Now … Continue reading The mobile web: today, asparagus; tomorrow, the world
... that the internet was ever tethered to wall sockets and floor boxes. Now obviously the participants in a Mobile Internet Portal Strategies conference are a self-selecting bunch of enthusiasts, but last week there was a distinct sense of confidence that our moment has arrived. People who've spent the best part of a decade expounding … Continue reading In the future, people will think it strange…
So I'm on the train home after a day in London and my phone beeps. It's a video message of Fabian riding his bike without stabilisers. "I don't know who I'm most proud of," I tell Caroline later, "him for riding a bike or you for sending a video message." "Don't patronise me," says Caroline.
Maybe it's just me, but as we enter the latest phase of convergence with more and more big web properties moving onto mobile, I've noticed a trend for work in progress to be developed and presented mainly on PC screens. In my (possibly mythical) golden age, presentations and design reviews were stacked full of phones … Continue reading Paper – Scissors – Phone
Pascal adeptly demonstrates the archetypal use case for mobile video - I reckon I managed to catch steps three, four, five and six :)
I had the privilege to take part in last week's Telco 2.0TM Industry Brainstorm in London - an excellent and thought-provoking two days, and the programme for the next event looks just as enticing. It's all now being written up on the obligatory Telco 2.0TM Blog. I hope I wasn't one of the participants who … Continue reading Telco Too Point Oh
... just because I can, and because it's five years to the day since my first mobile clog [t9 sic] post. Equipment used: 1 Nokia 30something, running series 40, Opera Mini, 1 ladybird print beach tent (does not provide protection against rain), sand in shoes. Update 12/9/2006: We've been back for two weeks now and … Continue reading Blogging on the beach
Overheard conversation with the cloth-eared computer of a national cinema chain. Or why context of use is all-important for mobile applications :)
Flickr etiquette is a tricky thing. For starters I have to pigeonhole the tangled web of people-with-whom-I-share-photos into "family", "friends" and that wonderful catch-all "contacts" (maybe we should all be using a Cold War-style dead letter box in Regent's Park?) But that's nothing to the almost daily dilemma of how to share each photo I … Continue reading The private life of a digital camera
Matt Edgar writes here 