So, how to get my voicemails transcribed and have MP3s emailed to me?

Enter Tropo!

Tropo makes it simple to build phone, SMS and Instant messaging applications. You use the web technologies you already know and Tropo’s powerful cloud API to bring real-time communications to your apps.

Basically, you write PHP to run on Tropo’s servers, which then can interact with Voice and Text.

Following Tropo’s great tutorials, I was able to knock up this voicemail system in a few minutes.

This accepts a voice call, plays a message, records the call and uploads it to an FTP site. Then it emails me the transcription.

The Result

The transcription is terrible. It doesn’t even get the gist of the message. Interestingly, the transcription quality is fantastic if the caller speaks with an American accent. This is an acknowledged problem with the Tropo platform – you can pass the voice file to a paid-for transcription service if you want.

The email won’t let you customise the subject line, nor can you attach the voice file. As you can see, there is some scope for customising the message body – so a link to the file can be placed there. Filesize is about 0.5MB for a 60 second voicemail – so nice and quick to download even over GPRS.

What’s Next?

The nice thing about this system is that it’s pretty customisable. I can set up personalised greetings based on the caller’s number, I can route messages in various ways, and generally muck around with it.

I think I’ll play about with Tropo for now. It’s free, easy to use, and just about does the job. I’m hearing good things about Twilio so may give them a trial next.

If you’d like to leave me a voicemail, call me on +441865521052.

As per the meme, here are my 20 points on Gov Camp UK.

Sign up early.

I dawdled and so was only able to get a ticket for Saturday. I feel like I missed out on a lot of interesting conversations.

BarCamps should be recorded for posterity.

It’s a point I’ve made before. Cameras and disk space are so cheap, we should record what we say and do at BarCamps by default. Now, that may inhibit some of the conversations and reduce the “Chatham House” aspect – but individuals can decide whether or not they’re happy for their sessions to be recorded.

Take business cards.

Take lots of business cards. So many serendipitous meetings that it’s hard to remember who’s who. Make sure that your business card carries your Twitter name.

Don’t take a laptop (or, at the very least, use it rarely).

As I sat down in one session, a woman said to me “Gosh! You can tell it’s a techie event; every one is using their laptops and no one is talking to each other.” She was absolutely right. The day is mostly about communication and – while Twitter is great for that – nothing beats turning to the person sitting next to you and having a natter.

Present.

I think it’s an immutable law of BarCamp that everyone has to present. Even if it’s just standing up and saying who you are.

Guaging interest is hard.

I ran two sessions, one only filled up about a fifth of the cavernous space I booked – which was pretty embarrassing. The other was so full it had people sitting on the floor. Don’t be afraid of moving rooms – but make sure you let everyone know where you are going.

WordPress is really popular.

I was surprised by how many attendees were WordPress aficionados. It’s good to see that Government isn’t entirely tied up in proprietary crap.

QR codes generate a lot of interest.

The session I ran on QR was well attended and produced lots of positive feedback. Some people are just starting out with QR and there were loads of great ideas on how they could be used.

The police have an odd sense of humour.

One was wearing a shirt which read “Keep Calm and Carry Baton Rounds” the other, in his introduction, said “I work for the police, previously I was at Rentokill. It’s basically the same job!” While I appreciate near the knuckle humour and value free expression, I found the two incidents made me really uncomfortable. Had I turned up wearing a “Burn down the Government” t-shirt, I doubt I would have received a positive welcome. Still, I’d rather people felt free to express themselves at a BarCamp than not.

HMRC will happily let you take the piss out of them.

They’re very good sports and lovely people in real life.

Government needs more freedom to innovate.

That was a moan that I heard from several people. They wanted to do amazing things with the knowledge they’d gleaned – but getting sign off in a risk adverse, budget conscious department is tricky.

Building should mean building.

The second day was meant to be about getting people to build, create, or make stuff. In my WordPress session, I asked for volunteers to upgrade their blog to WordPress Mobile Pack live on stage. Amazingly, three did! Now, none of them where major Government sites(!) but it showed people were willing to take a risk and build things.

Perhaps the grid needs curating?

There were too many sessions in the first timeslot, and empty rooms later in the afternoon. There’s no way of judging how popular a slot will be, so many sessions were in an room that didn’t suit the attendees.

There’s no such thing as a silly question.

As a presenter, it’s really important not to dismiss a question. If someone hasn’t understood something basic, it’s more likely to be the presenter at fault than the person asking the question.

Government needs to celebrate their successes more loudly.

I saw some amazing websites, prototypes, and service – none of which I’d heard about. I think it’s entirely appropriate for people to make some noise about things they’ve done well.

Gender Balance.

For a technology conference – there were more than 3 women! A lot more! It’s a common moan in IT that the industry has trouble attracting women. Perhaps they all work in local government?

Not Many Female Presenters.

Perhaps it was the sessions I went to, or perhaps they all presented on day one – but there didn’t seem to be many women presenting. I wonder if this is something which needs to be addressed?

Big Business Isn’t Much different

Everyone goes on about how inefficient Government is and how they’re usless at getting anything done. All the complaints I heard from Government people were the same as those that I’ve heard while working at big businesses. And start-ups. Every organisation has inefficiencies.

Take Photos

I was too busy chatting to snap anything. Luckily there’s a rather good set on flickr.

Overall

A great day, thought provoking, useful. I hope I convinced some people about why mobile is important and how awesome QR codes are.

Most of the app’s communication with the Path servers is over SSL. This means that no-one can see the data you’re sending and receiving. If there are snoops on your network, they will only be able to see the encrypted data flowing back and forth. In general, this is a good thing.

Apart from images. If your friends are posting images, they are sent over http. No security. Anyone monitoring your network connection will be able to see all the images you’re viewing.

Now, that’s bad enough – but it turns out that all the images you send are visible to the the world even if you’ve set your post to private.

The images are sent over SSL, but as soon as you return to your “Path”, a thumbnail is shown of what you’ve just posted!

Here’s a picture of the logs, so you can see what’s happening.

So, every image you post or see – including the avatars of your friends – are visible to all. A rather serious security and privacy problem.

Oh, does anyone know what the unencrypted call to “sendgrid.net” is all about?

Over to Ben Smith:

… a frequent complaint is that we don’t want thinner phones. We’d rather manufacturers used space savings to provide larger batteries. You know… ones that last more than a day like they used to.
Wireless Worker

Damn straight! Do I care if my phone is a bit thicker if it means I can go all day without a charge? No. No I do not.

My Samsung Galaxy S barely gets half a day of “real” use. I tend to browse the web for an hour while commuting, listen to music over BlueTooth, make a few calls and texts, FourSquare, and take a few photos. Come lunchtime the phone is whimpering in the corner just begging to be plugged into a USB socket. So, I either have to keep my phone sucking at the teat of my laptop, or severely curtail my usage. Unacceptable.

So, I bought myself an extended battery for the SGS. Specifically, the CostMad Samsung Galaxy S i9000 3500mAh Extreme Extended High Capacity Quality Spare Replacement Backup Battery with Battery Back Rear Cover Case Quite a mouthful, but here’s how the wee beastie looks:

Total cost? £9. Less than a tenner from some random factory in the Far East.

Now, the first thing that you’ll notice is that the battery is so massive that it requires a new backplate. It bulks up the phone, but does have some advantages.

It feels heftier. The weight isn’t very different from the original, but it feels more solid. The slippery and flimsy backplate is replaced by a rubberised and solid case which fits snuggly.

I let the battery charge while the phone was off. Once done, I proceeded to use it as normal. At the end of the day, this was the result.

Whoa! 8 hours of, if anything, heavier than usual use and I’m still have over half of my battery power available.

So, I went home, browsed the web, watched some YouTube, played some games, and generally tried to force the battery into submission.

By this time my regular battery would have been dead and buried, but this one just kept going!

Get One Now!

I could never buy a phone with a non-removable battery unless I was sure that it was of sufficient capacity to keep me going throughout the day. Sure, you can buy portable chargers, solar chargers, even hand cranked chargers – but that’s just a stop-gap as far as I am concerned.

I could keep my phone plugged in – but that rather defeats the purpose of a “mobile” phone.

As I head off to Mobile World Congress, a battery like this is a must.

Some Notes On Testing

• I’m running a beta build of ICS. That may not be particularly well optimised.
• I keep my screen brightness on lowest rather than auto.
• I’m usually in WiFi coverage.
• I have push notifications for Gmail and Exchange set on.

It ought to be possible using a mixture of UAProf, accept headers, and media queries. But it’s not. The data are inconsistent and unreliable.

Out of this frustration, a number of databases have been developed to track the capabilities of as many devices as possible. For the longest time, the most popular and accurate was WURFL – the Wireless Universal Resource FiLe.

Developed over the years by a community of volunteers, and lead by Luca Passani, it was an excellent tool. Mostly accurate, highly useful, and generally well regarded.

As is common in the Open Source world, some people were dissatisfied with WURFL – both with the data and the lack of a commercial version – so they forked the project. This is perfectly normal practice. You take the Open Source information, and you do what you want with it – making it fit your needs better.
(The specifics of who wanted what and why are probably best left to historians.)

As I understand it, DeviceAtlas was originally based – partly – on WURFL. So too is newcomer OpenDDR.

Enter The Lawyers

In 2011, WURFL became ScientiaMobile – a company designed to profit from WURFL. Not unreasonable in my opinion. What they did, essentially, is fork WURFL and re-licence.

WURFL then became unsuitable for anyone wanting to contribute to or use future versions of it in a manner consistent with the original licence.

All of this is perfectly fine – it’s what happens next which I find problematic.

ScientiaMobile claimed that OpenDDR was illegally using their copyrighted data:

On the 3th of January 2012 GitHub received a letter from ScientiaMobile requesting to remove from GitHub the repository OpenDDR-Resources. The letter claims that the repository contains material infringing Scientiamobile copyrighted work.

From: Open letter about the takedown by Scientiamobile on one of our GitHub repositories

As the letter goes on to say that the original licence for WURFL specifically stated:

This project is open-source and is intended for developers working with the WAP environment. All the information listed here has been collected by many different people from many different countries. You are allowed to use WURFL in any of your applications, free or commercial. The only thing required is to make public any modification to this file, following the original spirit and idea of the creators of this project.

(My emphasis added).

So, what have OpenDDR done wrong according to ScientiaMobile? Nothing that I can see. They state:

we allege that the two files entitled “oddrVocabulary.xml” and “DeviceDataSource.xml” available in that directory infringe upon my client’s copyright in WURFL.xml

From the letter from Scientiamobile lawyer

Databases and Copyright

I’m not a lawyer (sorry mother!) so I find it a bit hard to understand exactly what’s going on here.

There is currently a case before the European Court of Justice concerning whether a database of football fixtures can be covered by copyright.

The case has not yet concluded. But the opinion of the Advocate General is available.

As I understand it – and I may be wrong – there are three aspects to database copyright.

1. Facts cannot be copyrighted.
2. The structure of a database cannot be copyrighted unless it is sufficiently creative.
3. “Sui generis” (a Latin phrase meaning “The lawyers are getting more expensive now!”) It means that the work as a whole could be considered under copyright.

Undeniably, the contents of the WURFL database are facts. They are not subjective interpretations, nor are they creative works.

The structure of the database is an interesting one – there are only so many ways you can place this data into a file. One might be able to argue that the naming of the database tables and fields are creative and could be copyright. Although, as OpenDDR have done, one could change these in a derived version of the database.

Next, is the whole work subject to copyright? If a collection of football fixtures cannot be subject to copyright – how can a collection of device characteristics be?

Finally – even if the new version which ScientiaMobile have created is a copyrighted work, there can be no doubt that the original database was under a very permissive licence.

Taking Without Giving

The original WURFL was licensed as GPL. This means that if you took the code, modified it, and then distributed it – you had to publish those changed.

In the case of web services, the GPL doesn’t consider offering a service through your website as distributing. Hence why WURFL decided to re-licence under the Affero GPL.

As Luca said at the time:

In a nutshell, AGPL is a strong copyleft, just like GPL, but with one big difference: using your WURFL application on a web server constitutes distributions and triggers the GPL copyleft provisions.

Now, is it wrong for companies like DeviceAtlas to take WURFL, improve it, and not contribute those changes back?

It may be a bit unfriendly, but there’s nothing illegal about it. The original licence allowed for it. Even if it hadn’t, it doesn’t look like a database of facts can come under copyright.

Here’s the kicker; OpenDDR were publishing all their changes to the WURFL database on GitHub!

So, as far as I can tell, OpenDDR are being accused of:

• Taking a database covered under GPL.
• Changing the data.
• Publishing the changes.

What exactly is the problem with that? Nothing!

Conclusion

The original WURFL was created by a community of volunteers who, we can assume, contributed data with the understanding that it was to be licensed openly.

Other companies took the WURFL data – which was not copyrighted – and began to sell access to it. They also improved the quality of the data without contributing back.

This angered Luca, so he decided to close future access to companies unless they paid ScientiaMobile. I don’t think that’s the best thing to do, but it was his decision to make.

What he cannot do, in my opinion, is retroactively change the licence and then go after anyone who uses an older version of the database. Even if he could, the database itself is not subject to copyright.

I’ll leave the last word to Luca:

@edent Also, and very importantly, since WURFL is FOSS, you can always tweak the code to scratch your itch

03/01/2012 17:10 via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@luca_passani

Luca Passani

Conflict of Interest

I’m not a fan of Luca Passani – and he’s not a fan of me. We’ve both been at the opposite ends of technical disputes in the past. I like to think that I have always behaved professionally and courteously, but I do not feel that Luca has reciprocated that respect. This may affect my judgement in this blog post.

This is my attempt to review it fairly after a week of usage. Some people have accused me of being unfair in my review of the Nokia Lumia. I think I was harsh – but all of the problems I experienced were real. This review of the Pro+ is unvarnished – I paid for this out of my own pocket and am beholden to no one.

tl;dr

Almost the perfect form factor. Let down by buggy software and a laggy processor. Excellent keyboard, average screen, but constant reboots means I’ll be sending this phone back to see if it’s a fault across all the devices, or just mine.

Specs

Because this is an unusual and somewhat rare device in the UK, I’ll let you have the tech specs first.

On paper, it is underpowered compared to the latest multi-core phones. I’m coming from a Samsung Galaxy S which, nominally, has a similar processor and the same RAM. So it has been interesting to see how fast it “feels”. Honestly? It’s slower than the original Nexus from a few years ago.

First Impressions

It looks like an elongated BlackBerry. The keyboard is of the same design, the back has the same tactile feel, even the charger is on the side – just like a ‘Berry.

It comes with the requisite USB cable and plug, as well as a pair of headphones, and a minuscule instruction leaflet. So, I stuck it on charge for a few hours (as suggested) and then let rip…

A few times I touched the screen an waited for a keyboard to popup. It took me a few moments to realise my mistake. Once you get used to it, the keyboard is close to perfect. I installed SwiftKeyX to make the typing suggestions slightly better.

The UI feels slightly “toy like”. Motoblur really is dreadful and shouldn’t be foisted on customers. Replacing the homescreen with something like ADW Launcher makes the interface so much better.

Graphics and scrolling is very laggy. It’s only 480*640, so it’s not pushing a lot of pixels. When scrolling through web pages I found that music playing in the background would stutter and freeze.

You won’t be playing many 3D games – even if the processor wasn’t so crushingly slow, the screen is a bit too cramped for anything immersive.

For web browsing and – crucially – writing emails, this device is a champion. When it doesn’t crash.

Random Reboots

The big problem with the Pro+ is that it randomly reboots. I don’t mean certain software crashes, I mean that the device spontaneously hangs, and the whole phone reboots.

I’ve pulled off the panic logs, but I don’t know what’s causing it. I’ve reset the phone several times but it still occurs. This appears to be an isolated problem with this unit – so I’ll be returning it to see if another one exhibits the same problems.

MotoBlur

*sigh* Moto Blur. Seriously. Handset manufacturers should stick to making hardware. Trying to tie me in to your ecosystem by way of yet another username and password? No thanks. I learned my lesson when Nokia Ovi closed. And when Vodafone 360 swallowed my data. And whatever ridiculous service Sagem had. I’m not signing up to anything else. My loyalty to your hardware has to be earned – I won’t be kept to ransom. Especially when your service rarely works.

Keyboard

The keyboard on the Pro Plus is as good as any I’ve used on the BlackBerry. Fast, precise, and easy to enter symbols and numbers.
The only drawback is that it isn’t the BlackBerry keyboard – so the symbols are all in the “wrong” place. Take a look.

(Note, on the UK model that I have, the $ symbol is replaced with £.

I can understand why Motorola have made some changes, but it really does confuse this BlackBerry addict as to where the “correct” keys are. Why on Earth are ALT and shift swapped? I also question the need for a physical “voice recognition” button.

On a BB, holding down a key automatically capitalises it – on the Android, it gives you all the available accents. One of those little things which takes a bit of getting used to.

As an added bonus, there’s a wiggly red line spell check – so you know exactly how bad your typing is.

Apps like the browser also have keybaord shortcuts. Pressing menu+A adds the current page to your bookmarks – for example. Though useful, they’re subtly different from the Blackberry shortcuts, which may confuse some refugees.

The best feature is being able to page-down through a website by pressing the space bar!

Software Updates

I’m not a fan of how Android software updates happen. I think Motorola’s recent blog post explains some of the mystery behind the delays. What is annoying about the software on this device is that Motorola won’t say when or if it’s getting an upgrade. Their software update pages ignore it like the black-sheep of the Moto Family. Even the Motorola community forums don’t list it. This rather gives the impression that it is a stillborn device.

Because it’s not wildly popular, there’s no support from third party Android ROMs like Cyanogen mod. So far, there’s just a solitary thread on XDA Forums.

Other Stuff

The camera is reasonably quick to start, and the flash is very bright. Sadly, there’s no way to switch off shutter sound. The camera is missing some of the fancier features of other phones like face detection – but it’s basically fine.

There’s a multi-colour notification LED which is very useful.

A front-facing camera is also built-in. Curiously, it’s not available for use. Wonder why?

Final Verdict

I’ve used this device exclusively for a week. It has crashed enough that I am going to send it back – I hope this is just a problem with my unit though.

Ultimately, it’s almost enough of a BlackBerry to convert die hard RIM-fans – but it’s not quite powerful enough as an Android to turn heads.

The keyboard is a joy to use. I would quite happily suffer through the poor performance for the joy of typing on this thing.

The Motoblur customisations are shockingly poor. I’d rather have vanilla Android than this barely thought-out, cartoony interface.

If you need an Android with a keyboard, this is the phone to get. It’s fast enough for day to day use – and you’ll be able to play a few games on it. The screen is a bit of a let down, and general performance is a little sluggish.

For those BlackBerry refugees looking for their first taste of freedom, this is an excellent start.

The Perfect Phone?

Assuming it doesn’t keep crashing, how does it score on my perfect phone scale?
Pretty damn high. It should be faster, the screen should be AMOLED, there should be a lanyard strap, and the front-facing camera should work. The form factor is great and the screen isn’t too cramped – although there’s ample space to put in something larger or higher resolution.

Maybe I’ll wait for the Motorola Pro++?

Geekyness

For those using Linux, lsub shows

22b8:2e00 Motorola PCS

So shove that in your udev rules and you’ll be able to start developing apps.

Root

Luckily it is trivial to root the Motorola Pro Plus – so mucking about with it is fairly easy. I do wonder if it will ever see the latest version of Android.

Remove Camera Click

The camera click is annoyingly loud and cannot be switched off. To permanently disable it, get root on the device, then use

adb shell
su
root@umts_elway:cd /system/media/audio/ui
root@umts_elway:/system/media/audio/ui# mount -o remount,rw -t ext3 /dev/block/system /system
root@umts_elway:/system/media/audio/ui# rm camera_click.ogg

It’s rather hidden – you have to go in to search (not camera) then click the eye icon.

However, it is one of the fastest and most accurate scanners I’ve ever used. It knocks Android favourite ZXing into a cocked hat simply by by speed alone – it’s also very fault tolerant and was able to scan in low light and at strange angles.

There’s only one problem I have with it – the user interface really isn’t very good. Part of this is the design constraints of the Metro interface, but that’s no real excuse.

Let’s compare WP7 and Android.

Scanning

WP7

The scanner is quick and efficient – but doesn’t let you see the whole destination URL.

Because it can barely fit in a whole bit.ly link, this could lead to some confusion when scanning: are you going to example.com/video or example.com/games for example.

There’s also the (remote) possibility of a security problem; www.hsbc.com.evilsite.xxx will only show as www.hsbc.com

Android

The layout of Android is quite different. I prefer the vertical arrangement of WP7 but Android provides better and more useful information.

(The screenshot doesn’t show the camera view in the background.)
As well as the full URL, we’re given

• The destination URL for any shortened URL.
• Sharing buttons.
• A bunch of extraneous techy stuff (meta data about the code).

History

It’s often useful to go back and see what you have scanned. Both WP7 and Android have a history feature.

WP7

Again, WP7 looks gorgeous – especially with the photo thumbnail of what you scanned.

But, again, there’s no way to see the full URL. And, again, the only thing you can do it click on it – no sharing options available.

Android

Android is more Spartan – but more useful.

Although there’s no thumbnail, we can see the full URL and any redirection. Clicking on a URL allows us to share it.

Conclusion

Windows Phone 7 has a faster and prettier scanner – Android has a scanner which has more useful features and presents less of a security risk.

I think I’ve found it…

My Photoshop skills are legendary!

Here are the things that I want – no one platform covers them all, so I’ve nicked the best bits from each.

Blackberry

Here’s what BlackBerry provides that is missing on other phones.

Physical Keyboard

This is the big one. I’ve tried all of the touchscreen keyboards out there – nothing comes close to the physical click of keys.

I’m aware of a few Androids which have a keyboard – but they tend to be older models or underpowered and aimed at the teenage text market.
The Dell WP7 phone has a keyboard, but appears to have been abandoned by Dell.

Start up speed.

You never really switch a BB off, it just sleeps. That gives it a phenomenal start-up speed. When you shut it down, it also tells you when it’s planning to wake up – either due to an alarm, calendar, or because you set an “auto on” timer.

WP7 does have a very fast boot time – much speedier than that of Android. But there’s no auto-on / auto-off feature.

Deep Twitter Integration

I can’t believe no other phone has this. If I receive an email which contains a hashtag or @name, I can click on it and my Twitter client opens up. Same in calendar, documents, and (ISTR) web pages. Even if the text isn’t linked it was clickable.

Spell Cheque & Auto Text

Spell checking is available on WP7 – but not to the same degree as BlackBerry. The auto-text feature on BB is brilliant, I can type a short code and text is automatically filled.

• dt – prints the current time & date, perfect for note taking
• sig – prints my standard contact details
• ht – (one I created) prints the hashtag of the event I’m following

Android

Android is my main device. It’s not without its deficiencies – but here are the bits I wish others would copy.

Time of Day Email

Perhaps the best feature of the Samsung Galaxy S – and not something I’ve seen elsewhere. I can set a peak and off-peak schedule for my work email.

At 1800 during the week I stop getting work email – and it all comes through at 0800 the next morning. During the weekend, I get no work email. This is one of the major features which keeps me on Android.

FLAC and OGG

I’ve ripped all my CDs to FLAC. I hate the fact that I have to transcode all my music in order to listen to it on a portable device. All the high end Android phones I’ve tried play FLAC natively.

Open

I like the fact that I’m not tied down by the operating system. If I want to replace the lock screen, the email client, the web browser, I can. And I do.

If the device manufacturer abandons my phone, there’s a huge hacker community who can keep it running.

WP7

I’ve not had the greatest success with a Windows Phone – but there are some elements that I love.

Interface

The Metro Interface is amazing. It’s fast and fluid and generally really well laid out.

Camera

I found the camera to be very responsive – both at focussing and snapping. The integrated QR scanner was also a cut above the rest.

iOS

Media hype / Coolness

It’s a little depressing that all the media and developer attention is focussed on a minority platform like iPhone. Just for once, I’d like a cool game like Whale Trail to come out first on something other than iOS.

Misc

• Lanyard hook. Ever since smashing my BlackBerry, I’ve worn a lanyard strap.
• Front facing camera. I’m the only one I know who likes video calling.
• Trackpad. Even the best touch screen can’t get the fine grained accuracy of a touch pad.
• Removable storage. I like being able to choose how much I carry with me.
• Mass storage. I’m not always at a computer where I can install “media transfer” software. I just want to be able to plug in a USB lead and copy what I need.
• Call recording. Must admit – never had a phone that can easily do this. Always wanted it though!
• Removable battery. When the going gets tough, I don’t want to have to be chained to a wall-wart. The ability to buy higher capacity batteries is also handy.

What Hath Thou Wrought?

Essentially, I’ve created Homer’s Car – a monstrosity no one other than me could love.

So, tell me what would be in your perfect phone?

It was the best of phones – it was the worst of phones…

I want to start this review by saying three things:

• I got this phone for free – thanks Nokia!
• I’m an extremely demanding mobile user. I recognise that I am an edge-case; what I find annoying, you may not.
• I’ve tried to stick to actual bugs, not just “it does things differently.”

Sergeant Elop’s Lonely Phone Club

Imagine, of you will, you have just purchased a brand new copy of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on vinyl.

It is beautifully designed, an astonishing work of art. You play side one and it is sublime – perhaps the perfect start to any album.

The you flip the disc to side two – and it’s Justin Bieber. A screeching, horrible, tune free noise that damages your calm and makes you want to smash your stereo.

That’s the Lumia 800 from Nokia. It’s Finland’s first Windows Phone 7. It’s beautiful and infuriating in equal measure.

The Good

There is much to praise the Lumia – and WP7 – for. So much potential – and nearly all of it squandered. But, we’ll get to that… Let’s start with what I love.

Beauty Is Skin Deep

The phone is gorgeous. Like a futuristic pop-tart. Sleek, shiny, and midnight black.
It pulls off the incredible feat of being discreet and eye catching.
A pure monoblock. As enigmatic and attractive as the monolith from 2001.

There’s just one problem. We’re in 2011.

A Brand New Operating System

Windows Phone 7 is different from all other phone operating systems before it. Sure, it has icons, widgets, lists, long presses, swipes, and … you know what? It isn’t different. It isn’t a new paradigm. What it is, is gorgeous.

It’s a sparse and elegant experience. Fast and user friendly.

The “Metro UI” is really easy to use, gentle on the eye, and a clever way to organise a phone.

Speed Demon

This is one of the fastest phones I’ve used. It’s startup speed rivals that of BlackBerry. In day to day usage, I never found that it stuttered or slowed down – even while having several apps open at once.

Our Friends Connected

You can add in all your disparate social networks into your phone book. So, when you look up a contact, you can easily see their last status message, their Facebook photos etc.

Just like Vodafone 360 did years ago…

But, unlike 360, it works really well. It seemed to match up all my Twitter, Facebook, and address book friends without hassle.

Getting The Basics Right

Call quality was excellent. Good speaker phone. Fine reception. Basically, it works as a phone.

The camera is quick to focus and produces outstanding images.

Ok… ok… If you want to use it as a basic smartphone, the Lumia will do you fine.
It browses the web, plays music, links all your social networks together, and looks beautiful while doing so.

It is basically fine – until you scratch beneath the surface.

The Bad

I thought that the Nokia N8 was the worst phone ever made by Nokia. The Lumia may come a close second.

I’ve been posting a running commentary on Twitter of all the niggles I have with the Lumia.

Here are the highlights – and slightly more in depth explanations – of every bug and annoyance I found. I have suffered, so that you may not.

Let’s start off with a gentle one…

Aww! #WP7 has a skeuomorph for its save icon. http://t.co/4CFKklEz

29/11/2011 20:38 via TwitpicReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

That was the warm up. What would you say to a phone that you can’t switch off?

I have since discovered that this only happens when the phone is plugged in. Maybe I’m unusual but, before going to bed, I switch off my phone and let it charge overnight. I’ve had several WP7 fans say that I should switch my phone on to flight mode (go in to settings, scroll through) or switch my phone on to silent if I don’t want to be disturbed during the night.

There’s just two problems with that. Firstly – why doesn’t the phone tell me that I can’t switch it off? Secondly – it’s impossible to switch the phone on to silent.

Silence Is Golden

This may fall under the “just how I am used to it” school of errors, but bear me out.
On every phone I’ve owned I’ve had three sound profiles that I can toggle through.

• Ring and vibrate – what the phone is normally set to.
• Vibrate – when I want to be notified, but having a loud ring isn’t appropriate.
• Silent – I don’t want to be notified (I’m in a meeting).

With the Lumia, I can toggle between Ring+Vibrate and Vibrate. There’s no way to get the phone to go silent without diving through a maze of menus.

In fairness, this is a problem which has affected recent Android phones – but there are multiple (free) widgets which solve it.

Screen Issues

The screen on the Lumia is a mixed bag. When it’s displaying white text on a pure black background, it’s perfect. When there’s a white background, the screen seems – to me – to have lots of artefacts on it.

The Lumia’s screen is at its worst when dealing with greys, and solid blogs of colours. It suffers from lots of vertical banding which is really quite unpleasant.

I’ve scanned in the screen looking at a fairly normal grey image. While the scanner has overemphasised the problem (and my greasy finger prints!) you should be able to get an idea of how the problem manifests.

Browser Bugbears

Internet Explorer is a reasonable browser – but very buggy.

The URL bar keeps disappearing. I’ve had this a couple of times. The URL bar just vanishes when you’re using the web. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to bring it back.

Only two browsers have the URL bar at the bottom. #WP7 and Lynx.Right now, it's tough to say which is more functional...

03/12/2011 22:49 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

One more annoyance with the Lumia's browser. Scroll down a page, click a link, then click back - it dumps you at the top of the page. #WP7

04/12/2011 09:02 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Unbelievable! IE on #WP7 doesn't reflow text when you zoom in on a web page. The Lumia is quickly losing its lustre.

02/12/2011 06:46 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

The scrolling for the web browser sometimes stops responding.

Meeting You, Meeting Me

It’s really hard to accept meeting invites on the Lumia. On my Exchange email, it works perfectly. For some Gmail invites, I have to click a link and go to Google Calendar on the web. The Lumia doesn’t recognise .ics files – so there’s no way the email client can talk to the calendar.

But, worse is to come. I asked someone at Microsoft to send me a meeting invite to my Gmail account. While the invite worked fine on the web, the Lumia gave me literally no way to answer the meeting invite – as this video demonstrates.

Crapware

This is Nokia’s flagship phone – so you think they would have taken more care with it, wouldn’t you? As well as a buggy OS, they’ve filled it with… let’s just say “non-premium” apps.

I do like the fact that I can uninstall the bloatware on the Lumia. Goodbye Ministry of Sound (what?) and Sky "News".

01/12/2011 08:57 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

I think one problem with #WP7 is that it's caught between fun and serious. A BA app & Ministry of Sound. Xbox & Office. Feels conflicted.

01/12/2011 09:00 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Some apps, like this one from BA, need updating as soon as you switch on the phone. Sadly, you can’t click a button to update – you have to go into the app store.

The greatest opprobrium is reserved for TripAdvisor. I know that deals like this take a lot of time and money to organise – but they really could have done better than this pathetic effort.

One of the default apps on Nokia's flagship Lumia is... an iPhone app. Well done TripAdvisor. http://t.co/7tQPWEOf

06/12/2011 16:53 via TwitpicReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Still, at least they let you easily install the bloat.

Things Go Better When We’re Together

Microsoft may – or may not – be buying Nokia. One thing is for sure, they’re working closely together. What’s weird is why they’ve decided to duplicate some of the services on the phone.

The Lumia has both the Zune music store *and* the Nokia music store. Different prices in both. Different sign-in requirements for both. #WP7

02/12/2011 15:06 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Very impressed with the Lumia's music streaming over 3G. No idea if it's Nokia music or Zune, but it's free & high quality.

02/12/2011 18:17 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Just discover that the Lumia has Microsoft maps AND Nokia maps. Now that's what I call synergy!

06/12/2011 17:05 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Finally, Nokia seems to have its own app store. Once again, we see just how little Nokia care for UX.

Nokia Lumia: untested, buggy, & even its own app store looks amateur. Still, Facebook is hardly a major brand, is it? http://t.co/LeXonzxj

05/12/2011 16:53 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Paperback Writer

The keyboard is a very strange beast. It’s mostly fine, but has some oddities.

Lumia's keyboard is infuriating. Sometimes white on dark, sometimes the inverse. Jumps up to accommodate buttons which ruins touch typing.

30/11/2011 13:55 via WindowsLiveReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Latest Lumia niggle - the keyboard doesn't display a "next" button when filling in text fields. And "Lumia" isn't in its dictionary! #WP7

01/12/2011 07:51 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

The #WP7 keyboard tries to autocorrect the word "Google" into "Bootleg". That's a new one, spreading FUD via dictionary!

06/12/2011 07:41 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Weirdly, the word “Lumia” isn’t in the Lumia’s dictionary. So there’s a little red squiggle ever time you write it. Or other common words.

That said – the in-line spell check is very nice. I miss it on my Android – I think I first saw it on the BlackBerry many years ago.

My Baby’s Got Me Wrapped Up In Chains

We’re living in a post-PC age. Unless you’re Microsoft. You have to connect to a Windows PC to update software, copy across music and videos, change the BlueTooth name of the device, or even subscribe to podcasts.

What’s worse, is you have to install the Zune software if you want to get music or photos off the device. You can’t send via Bluetooth, you can’t just shove in a USB cable and drag them off. You have to install the 100MB behemoth that is Zune, restart your PC several times, fire up the software, wait for it to detect your phone, then let it sync before you can get your photos out.

Of course, you could email your photos off the phone – but the UI for that is terrible. There’s no way to select multiple images, so you have to attach each one individually.

Guess how easy it is to email multiple photos on #WP7?Android: Gallery, select photos, send.Lumia: Email, add, photo, select one. Repeat.

01/12/2011 10:58 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

It seems that any time you want to do something to your phone, you have to connect it to a PC running Windows.

Yay! There's an update for my Nokia Lumia!Boo! I have to connect to a computer to install it.#WP7

02/12/2011 22:36 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Unbelievable - the Lumia won't let me download an MP3 from the web. It'll play it, sure, but it's not saved anywhere. #WP7

03/12/2011 22:06 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

Let’s Talk About Text, Baby

Do you ever use read receipts for SMS? Perfect for seeing when someone has received your message. In every other phone on the planet, the read receipt is integrated in to the SMS app – so you can see at a glance which messages have been received.

With WP7, you get a long list of phone numbers which have received a message. It doesn’t even do the simple task of showing you the name of your contact.

No Thanks

I hope that what I’ve shown you is a litany of bugs, errors, gotchas, and foul ups. I don’t think any of the points I’ve raised are unfair. I like to think that I judge other phones just as harshly – see my treatment of BlackBerry and of iPhone and of Android.

For regular users, the Lumia is an astonishing phone, & #WP7 is a joy to use. For power-users, it will enrapture & disgust in equal measure.

03/12/2011 11:34 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

I know this is a brand new OS – but you don’t get credit for trying.

I want to make it clear that, like the iPhone, the Lumia is an excellent device; as long as you stay within its parameters. I'm an edge case

02/12/2011 07:45 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

I’m not giving up on Windows Phone 7. It is still a work in progress. There is a great deal of potential here – and I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

For the record, Lumia is a gorgeous device, the #WP7 interface is *mostly* amazing. It feels like the original iPhone; radical and limited.

01/12/2011 10:59 via ©Terence Eden SomeRightsReservedReplyRetweetFavorite

@edent

Terence Eden

For now though, avoid the Lumia. Wait until Microsoft fixes the bugs and until Nokia decides release a phone that they are happy with. Because, honestly, I don’t think anyone at Nokia can believe this is the best that they can do.

It’s a really great series, and I encourage you to listen to it.

At one point in episode 4, Stephen sings the Nokia ringtone.

So, here it is for your edification, and delight.

Feel free to set it as your iPhone’s ringtone :-)

All together now, “Derr-nerr-nerr-nerr Derr-nerr-nerr-nerr Derr-nerr-nerr-nerr Nerr!”

I’m not a massive fan of short URL services like bit.ly – but for shrinking the text you want to fit in a QR code, they are invaluable.

I want to take a look at a particularly interesting example from Nat West Bank.

The Poster

Despite having the QR too close to the ground (more of that in a later blog post) this seems like quite a good campaign.

The QR code is large and clear, it’s not too dense, and the copy shows the app is available on Android, iOS, and BlackBerry. A single scan on any device should redirect the user to the correct destination.

The Scan

This is where things start to fall apart.

The URL

I know some of the guys behind ScanBuy. It’s a good service, but I don’t think it’s suited to this usage.

http://SCN.BY/9T7N6HN0RDQPUO

1. No “https”. Users are being trained not to trust banking URLs unless they go via SSL. I wonder if people will notice on QR codes?
2. It’s not a Nat West domain. How does a user know that this goes to the real app and not some mobile-malware?
3. Nonsensical path. At the very least, ScanBuy should let this be customised to scn.by/NatWestApp or similar. That way, people looking through their history will know what the URL is meant to go to. (See scanning while underground).

That said, the code does successfully redirect users to the correct app store to download the app.

What I Would Do

I would use a url like

https://natwest.com/GetApp

It’s the same length as the previous, is human readable, and is secure. If Nat West can’t run the redirection and analytics service themselves, it could easily redirect to ScanBuy to do the heavy lifting.

The Good

One thing to say, if a non-compatible device scans the code, they get taken to Nat West’s mobile friendly site.

I understand the need that network operators have to protect themselves from bad headline and give people some control over what they see online. What I dislike is the way it has been implemented.

On trying to access Untappd on my mobile, I got the following error:

Which, when zoomed in, gives me this:

Let’s count the ways this is unhelpful…

1. Non-mobile friendly site! Loses extra points as you’d expect a mobile company to get this right.
2. Formatting is screwy. Take a look at the source of the page.
3. Why don’t Vodafone say who my “mobile service provider” is? They know if it’s them or an MVNO.
4. How do I contact Vodafone from this page? Where’s the click to call link?
5. Why can’t I switch off content control from here? A link through to Vodafone live or some other service so I can change my preferences.
6. Drinking beer while under 18 is not illegal. Given that the Vodafone Content Control is designed to prevent under-18s from seeing “unsuitable”content, why is it blocking an alcohol site?
   

   It is not illegal for a person under 18 to drink alcohol at home or at a friend’s house. Parents can choose to give young people some of their own alcohol when at home.

If pages have to be blocked – at least redirect to a useful page like this:

(I may be biased, I helped to create My Web and My Account).

I have finally heard back from Switchfire, the SMS gateway who sent the message.

According to them, the originator of the message was PeekabooTV.com. Take a look round that site – it hasn’t been updated since 2007, and the Contact page leads to a 404.

A quick wander into the DNS registration produces this rather stale information:

GPRS Solutions LTD
   David Berney
   11 Gower Street
   London
   WC1E 6HB
   phone: +44.8707414151

So, using the utterly brilliant WhoRunsIt I can get their latest information from Companies House.

GPRS SOLUTIONS LIMITED
MASONS YARD, 34 HIGH STREET
WIMBLEDON VILLAGE
LONDON
SW19 5BY
Company No. 05966632

Why! It’s exactly the same as our friends at EKASure! And identical to Peek A Boo TV Ltd. And, indeed, identical to a whole web of companies run by Md Shamimul Haque.

All roads seem to lead back to EKASure. I’ve contacted them for an explanation – but so far none has been forthcoming.

All very curious. With so many different companies, each supplying domains, redirects and services to each other – all registered out of EKASure… it’s almost like they’re trying to hide something.

Last night, I received this unsolicited message.

Now, I can try to unsubscribe using STOP ALL – and I have forwarded the text to VSPAM. But that’s not enough for me. I want to stop them sending any more spam SMS to anyone.

Let’s do a little stalking investigating and find out what we can.

Who Supplies Their SMS Gateway?

The people who provide the SMS gateway services ought to do a better job of policing who uses them.

PhonePayPlus allows us to look up any SMS short code and see to whom it belongs.

We can quickly see that the people responsible for sending the message are

Switchfire Ltd

2nd Floor
66 Wilton Road
London
SW1V 1DE

Tel: 020 7798 2800
support@switchfire.com

I rang them and got them to block my number from their system.
I also asked them where they got my number from – they are going to try and find out.

They wouldn’t tell me who they are sending the campaign on behalf of, so I set about trying to find out…

Where Do They Live?

The domain name “hoho.me.uk” redirects to the not-exactly-confidence-inspiring “blablabla.me.uk”.

A quick WHOIS gives us

    Domain name:
        hoho.me.uk

    Registrant:
        EKASure

    Registrant's address:
        Masons Yard 34 High St
        London
        UK
        SW19 5BY
        United Kingdom

    Registrar:
        eNom, Inc. [Tag = ENOM]
        URL: http://www.enom.com

    Relevant dates:
        Registered on: 07-Oct-2011

    Name servers:
        dns1.registrar-servers.com

The results are identical for blablabla.me.uk

A little dig around Companies House gets their phone number.
So, the registrant is EKASure of 34 High St, Wimbledon, telephone +44 208 946 6739.
Main URL http://www.ekas.co.uk/.

Who Provides Their Web Presence?

Again, from the WHOIS, and a little gentle pinging, we can see who the domains were registered and hosted with.

I’ve sent some abuse reports.

Other Complaints

PhonePayPlus are the regulators for these services, they have a handy complaints form.

Who Is Behind This?

Although I can’t find out who has authorised the sending of these spam messages, it would appear that the person who has registered all these dodgy sites is one “Stephen Clive Hedley Jennings”.

Various official filings have him either as “Stephen Jennings” or “Clive Jennings”.

Jennings – who is the owner of HotSexChat.info among many others – is the director of several companies.

A phone call to the Ekas offices confirmed that – although they are accountants – they do register domains for some of their clients.

I’ve dropped Mr Jennings a mail, linking to this blog post, to try and find out more information.

Preamble

• Many people download BitTorrent files.
• There are no BitTorrent search engines which are mobile friendly.
• Users have to try to navigate non-mobile-optimised websites.
• This is slow, inefficient, and may cost the user money in bandwidth charges.
• People who run Bit Torrent sites are often sued.

The Problem

BitTorrent search engines have a nasty habit of being sued (not something I want to happen to me!)

Lawsuits arrive based, usually, on one of the following factors:

• The site is hosting material which infringes a complainant’s copyright.
• The site operates a tracker which tells users how to access copyrighted material without permission.
• The site distributes .torrent files which tell users how to access trackers.
• The site operates a search engine for Bit Torrent files.

The Challenge

Is it possible to create a mobile friendly torrent search engine which neither hosts, distributes, nor searches for .torrent files?

This is how the usual client / server relationship works

     +------------+           +------------+          +------------+
     |Browser     |           |Site        |          |Server      |
     +-----+------+           +------+-----+          +------------+
           |                         |                      +
           | Request for HTML page   |                      |
           +------------------------>|                      |
           |                         |Search Request        |
           |                         +--------------------->|
           |                         |                      |
           |                         |                      |
           |                         |  Search Response     |
           | Generated page sent     |<--------------------+|
           |<-----------------------+|                      |

The browser asks the torrent site, the torrent site asks a search engine, the search engine responds to the site, and the site returns a page to the user’s browser.

This opens the site owner up to all sorts of risks. She knows what her users are searching for and she knows what response the torrent provider is sending.

Is there a way around this? Well, using jQuery Mobile, I believe there is.

     +------------+           +------------+          +------------+
     |Browser     |           |Site        |          |Server      |
     +-----+------+           +------+-----+          +-----+------+
           |                         |                      |
           | Request for HTML page   |                      |
           +------------------------>|                      |
           |                         |                      |
           |                         |                      |
           | Generated page sent     |                      |
           |<------------------------+                      |
           |                                                |
           |                                                |
           | Search request direct to search engine         |
           +----------------------------------------------->|
           |                                                |
           |                                                |
           |      Response sent directly to phone browser   |
           |<-----------------------------------------------+

Here’s what happens:

1. The user’s mobile browser requests the search page.
2. The site delivers the search page to the browser.
3. User types “Ubuntu” into the search box and hits “search”.
4. The text “Ubuntu” is not sent to the site!
5. jQuery Mobile “intercepts” the request.
6. The browser sends the search query directly to the search server.
7. The browser downloads the search results directly. (JSONP)
8. The JavaScript on the browser renders the results on the screen.
9. The user downloads the torrent directly from the source.

So, in this way, all the service does is send some HTML and JavaScript to the user’s phone.

The majority of the logic is stored on the jQuery CDN.

It is the user’s phone which then communicates with the search engine. The user’s phone which receives the results. And the user’s phone which renders them.

In this case, the server doesn’t see any content – legal or otherwise – nor does it see any search requests.

Technical

The code itself is fairly simple.

There are no reliable Bit Torrent search APIs which respond via JSONP. However, Yahoo Pipes provides several “recipes” which query APIs and return correctly formatted data.

Here’s the skeleton code:

To reiterate, all of this runs on the mobile phone. There is nothing happening on my server.

Now, I’m not sure that this is a cast iron legal defence – hence I am not making the site public – but it moves the action squarely on to the user.

In this case, the phone contacts Yahoo, Yahoo then contacts a Torrent search engine, the phone does all the sending, receiving, rendering, and downloading. The server doesn’t even see the search request.

What Does It Look Like?

The initial page.

Searching

The results.

The user is then free to download the torrent. Of course, the only torrent client I know for mobile phones is SymTorrent – and that only runs on older Symbian phones. So this project is of no practical purpose.

During my talk, I mentioned the following statistic:

In Africa, there is better access to mobile phones than there is access to clean drinking water.

However, on Twitter, that’s got mangled into:

There are more people with access to mobile Internet in South Africa than have access to clean water.

Understandably, there’s been a bit of questioning of that statistic!

So, I had researched the stat before trotting it out and I am confident it is accurate – but here’s what I’ve found out specifically in South Africa.

“Statistics SA said [...] that 93% of South African households in 2010 had access to safe water in 2010.”

That doesn’t account for how far away the safe water was – and a whole host of other factors like inside plumbing etc.

“The South African mobile market broke through the 100% penetration barrier during Q3 08 to finish the quarter on 101.8%. The total market reached 44.51m customers.”

100% penetration could mean only 50% of the population each with two phones (one for personal use, one for work etc), there’s a lot of fudge factor in those numbers.
But the growth rate in South Africa is stunning – estimated at 120% penetration in 2011.

What this means is that the vast majority of South Africans have access to both safe water and a mobile phone. It may not be their own tap, they may have to travel a few miles to send an SMS – but the access is there.

For the whole of Africa, access to clean water is estimated to be 46% – whereas mobile phone penetration is estimated to be 50%.

I wasn’t able to specifically find any statistics about GPRS / mobile internet use which I could quote with any confidence.

So, I hope that clears that up a bit!

Update!

Some thoughts from Twitter

@edent access to mobile internet requires three separate things: nearby GPRS coverage, a phone and SIM, and the funds to pay for access.

06/09/2011 16:33 via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@Arfness

Andrew Fraser

@edent Without any of those three things, we cannot argue that there is access. I think the comparison is flawed for that reason.

06/09/2011 16:34 via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@Arfness

Andrew Fraser

I think I’m turning into a Luddite. I see all these shiny tablets and… I just don’t want one!

Don’t get me wrong, I drove myself crazy trying to get an HP TouchPad because a) Massive discount and b) under a hundred quid.

You see, everyone I know with a tablet has one of two accessories.

1. A bluetooth keyboard. Because it’s really hard to do any sustained typing on a touch-screen.
2. A dock. Because it’s really hard to do any sustained typing on a touch-screen.

You see, I like to use my computer. Tablets are perfect for a consumer who wants to see pretty lights and occasionally prod at a large target with their fat, sweaty thumb. But that’s not me. I want to type, to blog, to code, to comment, to design. I want a laptop. And, indeed, that’s what I have.

If I want to do something passive, I’ll watch TV. Or my laptop screen. Or my phone. If I want to read, I’ll use an e-ink screen. My Kindle is lighter and has better readability than any tablet.

Why do I need another expensive device? Especially one I can’t create on?

Oh, and don’t tell me about the camera on these devices – does this look anything other than ridiculous?

So, Samsung have released the Galaxy Tab 10.1 – see Samsung’s YouTube Channel to see it in action – and once again I have gadget lust. It’s big, shiny, runs Android (and will run even better when Cyanogen is ported to it).

But once more, I shall have to turn it down. It’s lovely, I’m sure, but just not for me.

To help me justify my descision to forgoe this beautiful fondleslab, here are the top three worst things about the Galaxy Tab.

1. Non-standard charger. It uses some awful “media port” rather than micro-USB. (Note: it’s not even PDMI
2. No USB OTG – so I can’t use a keyboard, mouse, or external drive with it. Well, I can, but I have to shell out for a dongle that I’ll invariably lose.
3. No external storage – so if I want to take a bunch of movies and music with me on a trip, I’m limited to internal storage.

You can gaze at Samsung’s FaceBook page but it won’t improve things.

Am I crazy? Is there any reason to own a tab if I’ve already got a (great) Samsung Android phone and an (awesome) ThinkPad running Ubuntu?

What on Earth do you people do with a tablet that I’m missing out on?

Last year I blogged about how easy it would be to pay for parking via QR code. Now it looks like Islington Council have partnered with Verrus to make this a reality.

But is it any good? Well…. nearly. Let’s take a look.

The Initial Impression

The QR code is fairly clear and I was able to scan it without issue underneath street lighting. Sadly, there is no call to action. What does scanning the code do?

(My camera has somehow mangled the photo. Sorry!)

Code Density

They’ve used the highest level of error correction (“Q”) which is a good idea. In an external environment codes can get damaged or dirty. The higher the EC, the more chance the code will be readable.

However, they’ve shot themselves in the foot by using an absurdly long URL for analytics purposes.

http://m.paybyphone.co.uk/?
   utm_source=islington&
   utm_medium=qrcode&
   utm_campaign=mweb

Surely this could be made more efficient?

http://m.paybyphone.co.uk/?s=islngtn&m=qr&c=2

Or even better

http://m.paybyphone.co.uk/123456&s=qr

Because, you see, the code only goes to the main payment site – leaving the user to type in the parking bay’s ID number.

Code Destination

After scanning the code, this is what the first time user sees.

Annoyingly they’ve hardcoded the zoom – so users with impaired vision (or fat fingers) won’t be able to use the site.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=320,
   target-densitydpi=160,
   maximum-scale=1.0" />

The site is a little bland – and the “sign up” button is hidden out of the way – but it’s the functionality which concerns me the most.

Registering

If you’ve never used the system before, you need to register on this screen.

While it’s good that they’ll take payment from international users, it’s plain dumb to require someone to type in a credit card number.

What if there’s a gang of vicious hoodies waiting to snatch credit cards from unsuspecting users?
How fiddly is it to type out a 16 digit number when you’re in a hurry to park?
Who is going to remember yet another password or PIN?

(Incidentally, take a look at the above screenshot. Is their branding “paybyphone” or “PayByPhone”?)

Solutions?

Here’s how I would set the scheme up…

1. URL in the QR code reflects the location it is in. E.G. http://m.paybyphone.co.uk/123456
2. User scans code, selects the amount of parking they want to pay for. Clicks “Pay”.
3. A mobile payment solution charges the amount to the user’s bill, or deducts it from their credit.
4. User walks away happy. No need to register or remember a Personal PIN Number for identifying herself.

Scan, select, click. No typing, no memorising, no hassle. Surely that’s better than fiddling around with credit cards?

Overall

A little disappointing. A great first step, but it could be made so much easier with mobile payments.

Disclaimer:

I currently work for InMobi who have a product called SmartPay. There are several other cross-network payment solutions like Boku or Beem.

This blog is personal and does not represent my employers in any way.

First thing’s first, this is a great idea for a QR Scanner. It saves all your scans – so you can retrieve them by category, it checks to see if links are safe to click on, it allows you to share scans with friends, and it also has a gameification element.

But I really don’t like it. It’s slow to start up, has a UI which is only really suitable for iPhone users, and has some basic usability flaws.

On With The Review!

The first thing you have to do is set up an account? Why? I just want to scan me some QR codes!

I now understand that there are a bunch of social features – but that’s not explained here. Just “give us all your personal details for some unspecified purpose.” Hardly encouraging.

The email field doesn’t tell the Android system that it’s for email – so there’s no @ key present on the keyboard. Annoying oversight.

It gets worse. There’s a password field which doesn’t tell the user the password parameters! How long does my password have to be? Do I have to use mixed case, numbers, symbols? What?

So, of course, after submitting, it tells you that you did not pass the stringent password requirements.

As a side note – if you were sending an email to people who had registered on your mobile app, would you make the email mobile friendly?

QR Pal didn’t. I don’t understand why. They know this email is probably going to an Android phone, why didn’t they make sure the email looked perfect on the device?

So, on to the app itself…

This, may I remind you, is an Android app. Yet their UI has been lifted wholesale from their iPhone app.

The UI will be totally unfamiliar to anyone who is used to Android apps and the way they work. Pressing the Android’s menu button does nothing.

Even the settings page is iPhone-styled.

Scanning codes is as quick as any other scanner – and seems to work as well.

Now, I say “quick”, but you have to wait a good 5-10 seconds after clicking the app’s icon before you can scan. Why? Because you have to see their splash-screen.

Now, there are a few nice features – checking to see if a URL is likely to be harmful is one.

Of course, it means that you are sending all your scans back to the QR Pal mothership. I wonder what they do with them all?

Once a code is scanned, it’s saved in your wallet. Scans are grouped by category.

Sadly, they don’t check for duplicates.

Conclusion

The thing is, QR Pal is chock-full of good ideas.

Integrating with Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook is a smart move.

Checking links for safety is a bit of a gimmick, but a good differentiator.

Their live map of scans is cute – although the app never asks for my location.

They have a “points” system – but it’s never really explained why, how, or what it’s for.

You see – every idea they have is good, but none of them seem fully realised. Making the whole UI look like an iPhone app makes Android users feel like they’re an afterthought. I doubt it will play well on BlackBerry and WP7 when they launch.

But the absolute killer, for me, is the start-up time. When I want to scan a code, I want to scan it right there, right then. I may be on a busy street, about to get off a train, or taking someone’s business card. I do not want to watch QR Pal’s splash screen.

My preferred scanner ZXing for Android starts instantly. It doesn’t do all of the fancy stuff of QR Pal – but it doesn’t need to. It’s quick, simple, and all the features work.

QR Pal is a great idea for an app. But they need to fix the UI, start-up speed, and finish the features they’ve started. Once it’s done that, it will be an excellent app.

But today comes the news that Ribbit is shutting down. Or is it?

The email specifically says:

“this notice only refers to Ribbit Developers and does NOT impact Ribbit Mobile or Ribbit for Salesforce users”

Indeed, there are still a few signs of life. Their helpdesk status was updated at the start of the month

At the end of last month, the signature of the emails changed to say “Powered by BT Ribbit” – perhaps suggesting a relaunch?

Something is definitely up. But I don’t know what. The service keeps working – but the helpdesk hasn’t returned any of my calls. There are changes going on in the background – but still no word on when or if it will be relaunched.

Does anyone know for sure what’s happening?

I was wondering what the rates are going to be for roaming. I could get a local SIM – but as I’m only there for a few days, it seems a bit pointless – no one will have the number & I’ll lose any credit at the end of the trip.

So, how do the various roaming SIMs stack up against my Vodafone SIM?

TruPhone’s list of prices is very simple

GiffGaff’s list of prices now include data roaming. Again, a simple tariff.

MaxRoam’s prices are slightly more complicated

Vodafone’s price plans for roaming are very competitive.

Conclusion

Stone the crows! It looks like my domestic Vodafone SIM might just be the cheapest way to roam in Africa!

MaxRoam has some really innovative features – but the costs are insanely high.

TruSIM is good in UK, USA, and Australia, but not so good elsewhere. While the rates are marginally cheaper in Kenya and Nigeria, the data costs really are prohibitive.

The new MVNO GiffGaff has some great prices – and the cheapest SMS price.

But, overall, it has to be Vodafone. Not least because of the pricing model for data. A fiver for 25MB is much more generous than the other providers – and using email or GTalk will be much cheaper than SMS. While the costs are marginally higher in Kenya and Nigeria – I’ll be spending the majority of my time in South Africa. Crucially, I get to keep my number – so I’m not out of contact.

Have I missed something? Are there any better roaming deals?

Wouldn’t it make sense to use a QR code as well? That way people could quickly scan, and be taken straight to the discussion, rather than have to fire up Twitter and do a manual search.

As it happens, it’s slightly tricky to make a QR code which searches for a Twitter hashtag.

There are two things to note:

1. Twitter’s search URLs are annoyingly different from every other search URL on the planet.
2. You will need to take care of URL Encoding for special characters.

Building The Search Query

A typical Twitter search URL is

https://mobile.twitter.com/#!/search/

With the query at the end, so a search for “Transformers” would be

https://mobile.twitter.com/#!/search/Transformers

Encoding Correctly

Hash symbols (#) need to be URL Encoded. In this case, the hash becomes “%23″

https://mobile.twitter.com/#!/search/%23Transformers

However, there is a “gotcha”. Because of the… special… way Twitter constructs its search URLs, we have to URL Encode the percentage sign! So, the “%” becomes “%25″.

So, our final URL becomes

https://mobile.twitter.com/#!/search/%2523Transformers

Finally, if you want to use something like Google Charts to create your QR codes, you’ll need the URL Encode all of the : / # ! and other special characters.

https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=200x200&cht=qr&chl=
   https%3A%2F%2Fmobile.twitter.com%2F%23%21%2Fsearch%2F%2523Transformers

The Final Result

We end up with a QR code which can be scanned to take the user directly to the hashtag they are searching for,

Rather than using an external service like Embed.ly to retrieve thumbnails, all the data is embedded within Twitter Entities.

So, if you request a status using “include_entities=true“, you will be able to grab the image and display the thumbnail using the following code.

So, a tweet like this:

#Photos on Twitter: taking flight http://t.co/qbJx26r

02/06/2011 18:53 via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@twitter

Twitter

Notes

This is very rough and ready proof of concept code. Beware of the following:

• This will only take the first image from the tweet.
• Only images are supported – I’m not sure how their proposed video sharing will work.
• There’s no error checking.
• In the above code, the https URL is used – if you want a non-SSL link, you’ll need to remove the “_https”

Enjoy!

The first thing to note is that WP7 still looks gorgeous – the front tiles (aka widgets) are smart and add a real feeling of fluidity to the phone.

Juicy

The second thing is rather more depressing. Windows is still playing catch-up. It’s a standard joke that neither the iPhone nor WP7 had copy-n-paste on release – what’s not a joke is the number of “new” features that Microsoft announced are things which have been around for years.

• Groups of contacts. I don’t know about you, but I was able to group contacts on my ancient 6310i.
• Multi-Tasking. You know, like all those Symbian phones had years ago.
• Facebook events now appear in your calendar. Again, just like on BlackBerry, Android, etc.
• Music pauses when you receive an SMS – the phone reads the message to you and you can use voice recognition to compose a message. Nice that it’s all integrated, but hardly revolutionary.

Cognitive Dissonance

Compare and contrast the following two statements made by Microsoft.

The way in which people browse the web on a phone is different to how they browse the web on a desktop PC.

…and…

Windows Phone 7 uses Internet Explorer 9. The exactly the same rendering engine as desktop IE9. So pages look the same on both Desktop and Mobile.

While it’s admirable that there’s just one set of quirks for developers to code for – and potentially the same exploits on both – I can’t help but think this is misguided. Do users really want all pages to render the same, or would they rather have a mobile specific rendering?

Here’s a sample image provided by Microsoft.

Forget your troubles, come on, get ‘appy

And so, finally, on to apps.

Where WP7 really excels in in 3D. The sample BA app had a 3D seat checker which, while gimmicky, was incredibly smooth.

With a claimed 18,000 apps, WP7 has overtaken BlackBerry and is catching up on the other platforms. There are just two flies in the ointment.

Private Apps

If you’re a big business and want to put “employee only” apps on to your employee’s phones, you can! Well, you upload the app to the marketplace, set it as private, then distribute a secret URL to your employees. Anyone with that URL can download the app – so if an email accidentally gets forwarded…

It’s a rather unsatisfactory kludge. Why not allow developers to deploy direct to handsets? (I know, I know… it breaks the MS control.)

Developer Tools

So, you’re competing with Apple iPhone. Presumably you want to attract iPhone developers to your platform, right? So, why aren’t WP7 development tools available on the Mac?

Windows 7 runs perfectly on a Mac. Buy a licence. We’ve no interest in making our tools available on other operating systems.

That is, almost verbatim, the answer I received. I can understand not making the tools available on Linux. But iOS developers can only use a Mac. Why should they have to fork out for and install an entire OS just to run WP7 development?

Microsoft Office is available on Mac – so someone in Redmond has an eye on that market.

It just seems silly that you’d ignore all the iOS developers.

Overall

WP7 is a great platform. It’s finally catching up with features that other phone users take for granted. The hardware and software work well – especially when tied in to Microsoft services like Xbox and Sharepoint.

I’m just left with a feeling of “so what?” As a platform, there’s nothing I can do on there that can’t be done on other devices. Yes, the 3D XNA / Silverlight thing is nice – but any better than OpenGL?

As a consumer phone, it’s perfectly acceptable.
For Xbox gamers, this is the only phone to consider.

As a business device, it ticks many of the right boxes.
If you’re heavily invested in the Microsoft way of working (Sharepoint, Office 365, Outlook), you’d be hard pressed to find a better phone.

But for everyone else, there’s no “wow” factor. Nothing that makes me think “I have to get this phone because it does something nothing else does.”

Perhaps I’m being slightly cynical. The hardware and software is great – it’s nice to see them catching up with all the other phones. WP7 is a welcome addition to the ecosystem, even if it isn’t driving forward innovation.

Enter WorldCard Mobile – the app for Android which claims to be able to recognise the text on business cards and add them directly to your address book. At only US$5.99 it’s a good deal cheaper than some of its competitors – but does it work?

Walk Through

Snapping a card is simplicity itself. The camera focuses, then churns away, You get the chance to rotate the image if, like me, you took the photo from askew.

Processing is relatively quick if the card is simple. Some complex designs fail completely – especially if the text colour isn’t sufficiently differentiated from the background.

One nice feature is the ability to add a contact picture. You can either snap a photo there and then – or use the image of the card. Most useful when the card has a photo on it.

Finally, you can edit the entry if the scanner has got any of the details incorrect.

Bugs

OCR is an inexact science. WorldCard fails in the same areas that any other bit of software does. Is that a phone or fax number? Is that an I or l? So it’s worth double checking any entry.

One annoying bug is the software’s assumption that all phone numbers are formatted in the American style – that is my number of +447717512963 is formatted as +44 (7717) 512 – 963.
It’s not a show-stopping bug – but it’s annoying for neat-freaks like me.

It also missed out my Twitter handle – @edent – admittedly, there’s not always a field for that in an address book – but it could go into “notes”.

Conclusion

WoldCard’s website proclaims:

No manual entries. No typos. No more confusion in your contacts

It’s nearly right. There is still some manual entry to do.

It’s far better than Google Goggles which – while fine for scanning books – is hopeless at business cards.
It’s cheaper than paying someone to enter the details for you.

In short, until everyone puts their contact details on a .tel site – or uses a VCARD in a QR code – this is an essential piece of software.

WorldCard Mobile is available from the Android Market.

In early March 2010, my beloved BlackBerry Bold took a tumble out of a cab and died. I’ve been an Android man ever since. Magic, Hero, Nexus, Galaxy – all great phones, but none could hold a candle to the ‘berry.

Or so I thought.

A Torch In The Night

A good friend of mine – who updates his phones as frequently as I do – offered me his discarded BlackBerry Torch. How could I refuse a chance to get back to a real phone?

The main thing that was bothering me about Android was the lack of a physical keyboard and the general instability of the platform and radio software.

The Torch is a phenomenal BlackBerry. The action on the slider is exquisite. The keyboard is a joy to pound away on. The email and calendaring are rock solid with a powerful and practical UI. The browser has improved immeasurably. The range of apps is much broader than a year ago – and includes the all important trifecta of Foursquare, Dropbox, and Expensify.

And I hate it.

Everything That’s Wrong With The BlackBerry

There are some minor niggles – that’s fine – you get them with every phone. But the Torch has some fundamental flaws which, in my opinion make it unsuitable for day-to-day use. They are as follows.

The Price

The handset itself isn’t particularly pricey compared to other smartphones – but the cost of extra services is extortionate.
For the first day, I couldn’t work out why I wasn’t able to get any email – then I realised, you have to buy a special BlackBerry data plan in order to get email and Twitter. What the…?

I just don’t get it. Ok, it’s only an extra fiver a month but… for what? My Android and Symbian devices don’t need a magic data plan. The Sainted iPhone has many precious qualities – but it doesn’t care what price plan it is on. Data is data is data! Why is BlackBerry any different?

Then, I realised that I couldn’t get my work email through. This hadn’t been a problem on Android – I just clicked on “Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync” on the device and my Calendar and Email were all set. Want that on a BlackBerry? That’ll be an extra £28 per month.

WHAT THE JUDDERING FUCK?

I understand that BlackBerrys use some weird VooDoo to connect to the Interwebs and have mail sent to them faster than a speeding bullet. But is it necessary to spend an extra £336 a year on them? No.

The Restarts

It seems every time I uninstall an app, or add an email account my phone wants me to reboot. The BlackBerry is famed for having a “suspend” function – when you switch it off, it just goes to sleep and can be woken instantly. Something Android would do well to copy.
But for cold restarts, it takes a bloody age.
What makes it worse, is that official advice after provisioning the service is to pull the battery out, wait a minute and put it back in again. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to pull a battery out of a handset on a crowded train.
I’m not the biggest fan of Apple – but they’ve got some things right. If your platform needs constant reboots – you’ve failed. If your hardware regularly had to be disassembled – you’ve failed.

Data Connectivity

Network coverage is always variable – that’s a given. But BlackBerry adds another complication into the mix. Sometimes I can have perfect data reception and still not get any email! Why? Because the phone has lost connection to the BlackBerry mothership.

I don’t know if this is the fault of my network provider, the BlackBerry servers, or the handset. I don’t much care. It doesn’t work.

Again, I don’t have this problem with any of my other phones.

This is coupled with the radio’s obsession with 2G. I can be in an area of perfect 3G coverage and the radio will still lock on to 2G. Restarting the radio usually wakes it up and it can find 3G – but I’m reliant on speed; I can’t spend my life in the radio settings menu.

OS6.0 and Speed

I’ve been using BlackBerrys since the black and white days. I’m now running the very latest 6.0.0.448.

Despite the marketing hype, there’s no practical difference between OS6 and OS5. The kinetic scrolling is adequate – but slow. The browser renders better – but is slow. App world has more functionality – but is slow. The range of apps is great – but they take ages to start up. The camera has more mega-pixels and a bunch of great focus modes – but it’s slow to start, slow to focus, and slow to take pictures.

Slow slow slow slow slow slow slow! Both BlackBerry maps and Google Maps wheeze through the motions like they’re about to collapse at any moment. That’s assuming the (slow) GPS has locked onto anything even vaguely resembling a signal.

I get that this isn’t a multi-gigahetrz device. But it crawls along like an old Nokia.

I think the comparison is apt. BBOS is, now, as out-dated as Symbian and just not fit for the modern age. While I hope RIM don’t got down the WP7 route – they need to move their next generation of handsets to their QNX platform. The BlackBerry OS is highly practical – unless you want to work with any sort of speed.

Minor Niggles

Those are the big ticket items. The ones which ensure that on Monday I’ll be on the search for a new phone. Here are the minor annoyances.

Screen

The screen isn’t AMOLED. After spending a few months with an AMOLED screen, there really is no going back. Blacks and blacker, colours are more vivid, they’re easier to read in sunlight, and they dim down to a level that’s easy to read in the dark.

Key Proximity

The “answer” and “BlackBerry” keys are on the same plastic button.

It’s one of those design flaws which really grates after a while. A simple dividing line would make unsighted use of the buttons so much easier

On-Screen Keyboard

The letters on the OSK don’t change chase when you hit the shift key. That’s really annoying. Added to the fact that the OSK just isn’t as precise as other keyboards really lets the phone down.

Contact Synchronisation

I’m not sure if this is the fault of Almighty Google – or RIM, but when I sync my contacts, their photos don’t come across.
I’ve got a dreadful memory, so I’ve spend ages making sure each of my contacts has an image associated with them. Compare and contrast…

Pre-Installed Crap

Bloatware has always been a problem on mobiles. The annoying pre-installed software which you can’t delete. BlackBerry is better than most, in that it will allow you to delete some of the crap – but not all.

Most annoying is the podcast app – mostly because it doesn’t work in the UK. Why pre-install something that won’t work? More to the point, why is a simple podcast downloader region locked?

A special mention to Vodafone UK for continually pushing out service books for the (discontinuted) Vodafone 360 service, and the non-working Poynt service – even in the face of hostile customer feedback.

The Good

There are a few great points about the BlackBerry that make me sorry to see it go.

• The battery is stonkingly good. I got through a whole day of surfing, emailing (on 2G) and the battery was still at 45%. On Android I’m lucky if I get to lunchtime with half my battery intact.
• The keyboard. I had a play with the HTC Desire Z – it has a fine keyboard – but it’s nothing compared to the ergonomics of the Torch. In addition, the shortcut keys make using the phone a pleasure. Hitting M on the homescreen to go to messages, hitting T in the browser to go the top of the page, etc. Great for power users.
• Auto on-and-off. Useful if, like me, you don’t want your phone waking you up in the night – but do want your emails waiting for you as the alarm goes off. This is tempered by the fact that you can’t suspend email delivery. On my Galaxy, I set a peak schedule so I don’t get work emails interrupting me at the weekend.
• Multiple sound profiles. Again, beats the pants of Android. I can quickly select different ringtone profiles, set custom alerts for different people – even have an emergency call over-ride my silent settings.
• Tabbed Browsing. My Galaxy seems to top out at 4 browser windows, the BlackBerry doesn’t seem to have a limit that I’ve hit.
• BlackBerry Protect. This is an excellent free service which lets you track your device if it has beeen stolen, back up your data, send it messages, and wipe it if needed. Yes, there are apps available on Android, but nothing as comprehensively good as this. The only problem being that it doesn’t work on BES.
  

  BlackBerry Protect

• Finally, a niche example. Hitting ALT+RBVS in the browser brings up the source code of the page. Invaluable for web-nerds like me and not something I’ve ever seen built in to any other phone.

Now What

Paying an extra £28 per month for a device which is no quicker at receiving email than my Android? No thanks.
When RIM rejoins the real world and realises that it doesn’t own the push email market any more – and can’t charge like it’s the only game in town – I’ll be back.

For now, it’s off to find a phone with a great physical keyboard and good battery life.

The Windows Phone 7 Dell Venue Pro?

The Android Motorola Pro?

I don’t know yet – but at the moment, the BlackBerry platform has lost its way – and I’m not making any more compromises when it comes to my phone.

Dabr’s strength for developers is two-fold

1. Dead easy to install. Unzip the files, fill in your API key(s), upload, done.
2. It’s under an incredibly permissive Open Source MIT License. Essentially anyone can do anything with the code and they don’t need to ask permission, nor contribute anything back to the code base.

It’s a really popular tool. Although it’s hard to count how many users are on the main Dabr server – not to mention all the clones – it’s obvious that many people find it an indispensable way to access Twitter.

According to the New York Times, Rafinha Bastos is the most influential person on Twitter. Guess what client he uses?


So, with a kick-arse product and no silly “Intellectual Property” restrictions, we have let a thousand flowers bloom. There are clients deployed all over the world. Including on my secure server – SSL Dabr. And here’s one more…

Welcome UberSocial!

The most recent flower is UberSocial. As well as having the most popular BlackBerry Twitter client, and an iPhone client – they’ve now beta-launched a mobile web client – based on Dabr!

I’m really excited to see Dabr spreading far and wide. The intention – for me – has never been to make pots of money from it. The adverts on SSL Dabr just about cover the hosting costs.

What I like seeing is my code being used far and wide – and helping people. I know it’s corny, but seeing my code being used by Twitter users in Egypt during the uprising was overwhelming. In a tiny, almost insignificant way, I helped.

I don’t think my coding is good enough to get something into a really important project – like the Linux Kernel, or the International Space Station – but seeing millions of users is personally edifying.

So, long live Open Source and long live Dabr!

So, O2 has apparently angered the Internet Gods by switching on its Adult Content Filter. This means anyone who wants to look at adult material on the web will have to pay a fee to prove they are over 18.
Of course, their filter is broken – so it’s caught sites like Google Translate and B3ta and banned access to them.
And, naturally, there’s no easy way to unlock this bar without walking into an O2 store and shouting loudly and proudly “I LIKE MASTURBATING AND WOULD LIKE MY PHONE UNLOCKED SO I CAN LOOK AT PORNOGRAPHY AND MASTURBATE. And then translate it into Russian via Google Translate.”

I’ve written before about censoring the web. I also used to work for a Mobile Network Operator looking after, in amongst everything else, adult media. You can watch my video from SMC London discussing how (some) MNOs approach adult material. I think it’s fair to say I know a little bit about this subject.

In my attempt to educate the world, let me explain some things about mobile Internet filters.

There are only five things you need to know…

Government Isn’t Involved

There is no government regulation, nor law telling mobile phone operators they have to block adult content. The government has said “Regulate yourselves, or we’ll impose regulation upon you.”

This is a fairly common trick. You may have heard it expressed as “Nice business you’ve got there. It would be a shame if anything … happened to it…”

But, as we will see, it’s not just the threat of red tape that keeps people up at night.

Fear Is A Great Driver

What every MNO live in fear of, is the Daily Mail headline which runs…

PERVERTS! Now Sick Mobile Phone Bosses Peddle Porn To YOUR CHILDREN (and you have to pay for it!)

That’s it. Game over. Share price plummets, you lose your job, your name’s in the papers and you lose your kids in a custody battle. Fear drives people to be ultra-conservative even when they realise what they are doing is irrational.

This Isn’t Porn

I know what you’re thinking. That’s a porno-shot of Linda Lusardi. Obviously, that’s unsuitable for children.

You could not be more wrong. Ever since 17th November, 1970 – when The Sun published a nude photo of Stephanie Rahn – shots like this have been counted as “family friendly”.

Essentially, Rupert Murdoch doesn’t run a porn empire – therefore, anything which appears in The Sun is family friendly. And if you try to classify it under “Adult” they’ll sue the arse off you. Allegedly.

Simply put: porn isn’t porn when it appears in The Sun. That’s why most UK MNOs don’t block page three – indeed, it’s why they’re quite willing to sell soft-core pornography to anyone, regardless of age.

The hypocrisy of the tabloid media is quite something to behold.

This Is Banned

Campaign’s like Brook’s Sex Positive often fall foul of automated content checking. Because they have words like “vagina”, “orgasm”, and “contraception” – it’s easy for computers to get confused and think that they are porn.

One of our delegates tried to access our Sex:Positive site on his @o2 phone and it was blocked to U18s! What's with that, O2?#o2fail

03/03/2011 11:48 via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@BrookCharity

Brook

So, kids can see topless women but they can’t learn how to put on a condom. Helpful.

It Doesn’t Work

There are two things which regularly fail with censoring.

1. False Negative. You can’t catch every dirty image on the Internet.
2. False Positives. It’s easy to misclassify “safe” sites as “bad” sites.

Conclusion

Wanking is legal in this country. There’s no good reason why anyone should have to go on record as saying that want to look at wobbly bits.

Because it’s easy for a kid to find a site that isn’t blocked – or to “borrow” mum or dad’s credit card – it’s of no serious concern to the intrepid kid. It does suck if they want to find out how not to get AIDS though.

So, we’re stuck with a situation that’s expensive for MNOs, embarrassing and annoying for consenting adults, and trivial for a child to bypass.

Everyone knows that mobile web censorship doesn’t work. But it has to be done otherwise the media will get upset. If the press get upset – then you get upset. So it’s all for your own good.

Like many people, I no longer wear a watch. I’ve got a phone which tells me the time and data – why do I need something cluttering my wrist?

The Evolution of the Watch

I wasn’t always this way, I used to love high-tech watches. Throughout my teenaged years I had one of those calculator watches – enabling me to add up my pocket money and write “5318008″ for instant humour.

In 1999, I graduated to the seriously awesome Timex 78401.

This was an immensely cool bit of kit. It could store hundreds of phone numbers and memos on its internal memory. Rather than wear your fingers out pressing buttons on the phone, you typed your data into a computer. The computer would make the CRT pulse in such a way that the data could be retreived by the watch’s optical sensor. Futuristic!

Finally, a few years ago, I picked up an MP4 watch from eBay. Stuffed with a 2GB USB disk inside (large, for those days) the watch could play mp3 audio and mp4 video! Well, video had to be converted to something lo-res and low-bit rate – but it played video! On my wrist! It would also pick up FM radio, act as a voice recorder and – just about – tell the time.

The Mobile Phone Watch

Long considered the holy-grail of the phone world. Can you cram a GSM phone into a watch? The answer is a resounding yes… but…

The watch itself retails from anywhere between US$70 and US$200. My parents picked it up in Hong Kong for £50 – which is factory gate price. Thanks ma and pa!

The first thing you should know about this phone, is that is is shit. I don’t mean “it is the shit”. I mean it truly is one of the worst devices I have ever used. The touchscreen in unresponsive and inaccurate – even if it wasn’t, the UI is a clusterfuck of every design mistake you’ve ever heard of. It’s hard to use, has poor battery life, is far too fiddly for day-to-day use and has a non-standard USB plug.

But, it’s only fifty quid – and you do get to impress girls at parties* by saying “I’ve got a mobile phone in my watch!”

In short, it’s cheap Chinese tat. I love it :-)

*I don’t go to many parties. Is that how things normally work?

Camera, Video, Sound

The camera seems to be 640*480 – although it will interpolate up to 1280*1024.

Sample Image - click for full size

Audio is limited to 8KHz mono – good enough for voice, as this demo should prove.

Web Browser

After diving through 3 different menus, I finally got the Vodafone GPRS settings into it. It came pre-set with the APNs of a number of Chinese and Hong Kong providers.

So, what’s the web browsing experience like? Well, experience is a bit of a strong word. Imagine using the original Netscape Navigator, while peering through a tiny window, on sub-dial-up speeds, waiting for the inevitable crash.

The results from the W3C Mobile Test Harness show it supports virtually nothing.

For fans of browser statistics, the highly detailed User Agent String is

MAUI WAP Browser

Take a look at how unbearably bad the web browser is.

The Specs

This is a surprisingly feature packed phone. Although you’ll be hard pressed to find all the features easily; who would think of looking for the BlueTooth settings within the “Organiser” menu?

A run down of the major features includes

• GSM Compatibility: 850MHZ, 900MHZ, 1800MHZ, 1900MHZ. So it should work everywhere that there is 2G coverage
• Language: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Arabic and Chinese. What’s most impressive is the handwriting recognition. It’s marginally faster than multi-tapping on the tiny keypad.
• Screen: 1.4 inch, QICF touch screen, 176*144 pixels. Touch-screen is a bit optimistic. Use your fingernail to point vaguely at the screen hoping to elicit a response doesn’t have quite the same ring. It does come with an integrated stylus.
• Vibration: Support
• Memory: MicroSD Card Support.（Up to 16GB in size). Didn’t come with one, but happily accepted a 1GB card I had. Just as well; the internal memory is limited to 400KB. That’s not a typo – less than half a megabyte of storage.
• Connection Methods: Mass Storage, Webcam, COM Port. Works on Linux, claims to work on Windows and Mac. Mass storage works well – if slow. Can also be set to be used as a webcam. I assume the COM port is if you need to connect to the Internet.
• Accelerometer. Well… sort of. There’s a compass function built in – but it’s hit and miss.
• GPRS Support: Browse WAP Website. Ha! Brilliant! Possibly the worst browser I’ve ever encountered.
• SMS/MMS/Email. SMS send and receive worked perfectly. No support for delivery receipts.
• E-Book Reader: TXT. Yes! Throw away your Kindle and read .txt files on this minuscule screen.
• Bluetooth Support: Bluetooth (V2.0). Pretty impressive, actually. Paired with my Jabra Clipper and worked as both a music player and headset/mic. Claims to support Handsfree, Headset, SPP, DUN, OPP, FTP, A2DP, AVRCP. It played music through my bluetooth headphones – although the decoder is shockingly bad.
• Net weight: 65g. Chunky – but not too heavy.

Conclusion

I asked my parents to buy me a knock-off phone for under £50. This doesn’t disappoint. I think it’s kinda nifty looking – if you dig that retro vibe.

As a phone, you expect it to make and receive phone calls. You can either hold it up to your ear – like a spy in a bad movie – use the supplied headphones, or BlueTooth. Call quality was adequate. As a basic phone, the best I can say about it is “it works”.

The S16 will frustrate you and horrify you in equal measure. But, there’s no denying – taking a phone call from your wrist is cool!

Assuming it doesn’t give you cancer of the wrist. Which would be bad.

With that said – here are my top five predictions for what we’ll see at Mobile World Congress 2011!

1 – Nokia To Announce Android Handset

All the engineers at Nokia are busy pouring their hearts and minds into MeeGo. What better way to kick back and relax than by posting Android onto some of Nokia’s amazing hardware. A company can’t focus on too many software platforms, that’s for sure.

2 – Airnegy To Revolutionise Charging

Imagine charging your phone using nothing but WiFi….
The Airnegy may look like a scam – and like it violates the laws of physics – but that’s no reason to give up!

3 – Apple Produces Game Changing Accessory

Apple are the “Wild Child” of the mobile industry. They do what they like, when they like! That’s why I’m quietly confident that Apple will release a small, perfectly formed cube, with blinking lights on it.

You’ll queue all night to buy one.

4 – Nintendo DS Phone

With WP7 breathing new life into the Xbox and Sony Ericsson’s PlayStation phone revitalising the industry – there’s only one major console left out of the mobile revolution. A Sega Dreamcast phone? That would be swell! But far more likely that Nintendo will release a 2G – not UMTS – phone. Low cost, low power, ability to play MarioKart…. what’s not to like?

5 – LTE Rebrand

With all the confusion over 4G – it makes sense for the ITU to rebrand LTE into something customers can easily understand and identify. My highly placed sources tell me the likely name is “Amplified Radio-Sonic Engine for Worldwide Internet Phone Experience”. I’ve no idea if the acronym will catch on.

Got any other sure fire predictions? Stick ‘em in the comments.