I have reached a settlement with Sky.

tl;dr

Sky News stole my copyrighted work and distributed it without credit or payment.

I asked them to pay £1,500.

They refused.

Full Story

During the recent O2 brouhaha I recorded a video showing how the issue could affect people. I deliberately gave it the standard YouTube licence rather than the Creative Commons licence.

Later that evening, I was alerted to the fact that Sky News had broadcast my video without first seeking permission.

Just did Sky News spot about the @O2 controversy. From sound of what came down my earpiece they also used @edent's vid https://t.co/tBr2SoAp

25/01/2012 17:41 via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite

@gcluley

Graham Cluley

I grumbled a bit on Twitter and was contacted by a representative of Sky News. He was very quick in ascertaining that my video was used without my permission and arranged to prevent it being shown again.

I was not happy about this state of affairs. BSkyB and News International have been very vocal about digital piracy and copyright infringement. They have relentlessly pursued a copyright maximalist agenda which – I believe – is damaging to the creative industries. Not to mention rampantly hypocritical.

Sky News accept user generated videos, with this stern warning:

Copyright protects the interests of the people and companies who create these products. If the content or product or marks in your video are owned by someone else, you are infringing copyright and run the risk being prosecuted.

It is important that you understand that you cannot take other people’s creations and use them as you see fit.

Uploading somebody else’s video is no different to taking something from a shop without paying. Copyright infringement damages the music, film and television businesses and the future development of music, film and TV programmes.

From Sky News’ Frequently Asked Questions about user videos. Emphasis added.

Sky News have a history of ignoring copyright and infringing the moral rights of authors.

Unfortunately, the Digital Economy Act doesn’t allow me to sue Sky News for distributing my content for free without my permission. An individual can lose their Internet access for sharing a movie, however there don’t seem to be any sanctions against a large company for sharing my copyrighted work without permission.

I don’t have the resources to fight a legal battle against Sky. So I decided to settle for cold, hard cash.

Originally, Sky made the following offer:

For a short youtube video like that we would normally pay around £50 & would be more than willing to pay an extra £25 for the fact you weren’t asked in the inconvenience it has caused you.

The NUJ publish a freelance rate card. The rate for freelance video should be around £300 per minute.

I farted in Sky’s general direction. I wanted £300 for the broadcast of the video, plus £1,200. I calculated that as £400 for them failing to ask permission, another £400 for them infringing my copyright, and then £400 for them violating my moral rights.

Even if they didn’t agree with the above reasoning, it is usual to charge four times time standard licence rate when a copyright owner is asked to assign all rights away. Effectively, Sky News had unilaterally assigned all my rights to them – so I felt justified asking for this sum.

Overall, I thought £1,500 was reasonable – especially when you consider that the Daily Mail paid £2,000 for using photographs without permission.

Sky came back with an offer of £300.

I pointed out that s107 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 had provisions for fines of up to £50,000, or a six month prison sentence. In comparison £1,500 seems modest.

Sky replied:

As I indicated, we do not yet agree on a sensible figure for this use.

Bearing in mind you are now invoking the Copyright Designs and Patents Act I have placed this matter in the hands of our lawyers.

This does not represent an unwillingness to come to an agreement between us but, unfortunately, it is likely to slow the progress slightly.

Now I’m waiting to hear back from their lawyers. I wonder what their hourly rate is?

I’ll update this post when I know more…

A Settlement

I have accepted an offer of £300. A few minutes ago, I received this email from Sky:

After consulting with our Sky lawyers our position is that we believe a £300 settlement is a fair and appropriate sum.
Our position is:

• The £300 is in respect of what you describes as “infringement of copyright” rather than any “union rate”;
• Contrary to what you claim, we did not act as if you had assigned us all rights. Specifically, we did not claim ownership nor seek to profit from it by licensing to others;
• Criminal liability will not attach in relation to an inadvertent use of footage;
• English law does not recognise violation of moral rights;
• There is no authority that an infringement in these circumstances attracts four times the usual licence fee. To the contrary, the usual measure is what the reasonable cost of licensing would have been.
• Our offer is generous for the reasons above and we will not increase it.

May I also stress that when you are relating this issue to third parties on whatever platform I would consider it unfair if you did not relay the fact that we immediately acknowledged your copyright and sought to bring redress. I stress, once again, that we take copyright and its infringement very seriously at Sky News.

I’m not a copyright lawyer, so am in no position to argue against their formidable legal might. I have invoiced them for £300. I must point out that – once I contacted them – Sky were very quick to take down the infringing content and have been unfailingly polite in their dealings with me.

I will be donating £100 to both The Open Rights Group and MySociety. And drinking the rest.

Thank you for all your comments, tweets, and messages of support.

Footnote

I’m currently on holiday – so comment moderation and updates may be delayed.

Dave! Dave! I’ve got a brilliant idea!

What is it, Fred?

Let’s make a QR code… right… but make it really hard to scan!

Brilliant idea, Fred! How?

We can stick it on a Taxi, so that you have to wait until it stops at a traffic light before you can scan it!

Ok, Fred, but I’m still concerned that the code will be too easy to scan.

Aha! That’s why we invert the colours!

Fred, you’re a genius. Let’s go and club some baby seals to death.

I… just…. WHAT?

Did no one test this campaign? It’s completely unreadable on the half dozen QR scanners I tried. Perhaps there is a mythical phone which can render it, but I doubt it. The campaign (for an event in October 2011) had a total of fifteen clicks.

Of those clicks, only 10 were from the QR code. Ten!

I took the liberty of inverting the code back to the correct colour layout. Unsurprisingly for such a hopeless code, IPEXPO’s website isn’t mobile friendly.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to bang my head against a brick wall.

If you need a professional QR code consultation – please contact me. PLEASE!

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?

We are searching for the UK’s Most Innovative Mobile Companies. Our aim is to celebrate UK innovation and showcase the best examples of UK mobile innovation.

We’ll be presenting at the competition oin January – if we make the final six, we’ll be off to Mobile World Congress.

Look out world! Here comes QRpedia!

Today, I present to you three very different QR codes and their statistics. These are all taken from the Metro newspaper on Tuesday January 10th.

Wowcher

First up is “Wowcher”, a big quarter page advert on page 28.

Wowcher’s statistics show a consistently good performance with QR codes. Between 30 – 80 scans per day, and 87 yesterday.

Sparks

Next is a QR code for “Sparks Marathon” tucked away on page 50.

Sad to say, Sparks’ statistics are very poor. Just 16 scans. This is the first time this particular QR code has run. I wonder if its location (next to the TV listings, rather than by a news story) has something to do with its poor performance?

BlueSquare

Finally, on the bottom of page 63 is a QR code for BlueSquare’s iPhone app.

The BlueSquare statistics show a regular scan rate of 10 – 20 per day. Although yesterday they got 28.

Notes

It’s hard to assess just how successful these codes are. The numbers are low, no doubt about that. As I mentioned in my interview for Econsultancy, a company needs to perform proper A|B testing to see how many calls, email, or website visits they would have got without a QR code.

• These were the only three QR codes in the Metro using bit.ly – so they are the only ones I can get statistics for.
• I have assumed that each code is unique to the paper it is printed in. That is, the same advert in the Guardian should have a different code.
• There are no handset statistics provided with bit.ly – unlike goo.gl.
• The statistics have been taken from the day after the adverts were published. The Metro tends to hang around on trains long after the morning rush.
• I have no connection with any of the companies shown here.

If you would like a bespoke QR consultation, contact me.

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.

Looks like someone was listening! I spotted this poster at a tube station.

Nestled in the corner is a QR code pointing at the mobile bus countdown service!

This is a close-to-perfect use of QR.

• Points to a mobile site.
• Easy to scan code.
• Good call to action.

As I suggested in my original post, TfL could customise the code, or print a separate one for each bus stop. This is, however, an excellent start.

What’s particularly useful is that TfL are using the goo.gl URL shortener – meaning we can see their statistics!

Statistics

There’s a dearth of good quality QR statistics which are publicly available. What is available is often put through the lens of a marketing team. So it’s particularly refreshing to get the data straight from the source.

One simply needs to append any goo.gl URL with a “+” in order to see the statistics.

Let’s dive in!

Since their launch in November, the QR codes have been scanned 4,500 times. I don’t know how many of these posters are up, but that seems like a pretty impressive number.

The graph from the last month shows the codes are being scanned around 70 times per day.

We can get a rough idea of what sort of phones Londoners use – or, at least, what those who use the buses use.

iPhone takes a significant chunk – although not the majority – with 45%. Android coming next at 28%. BlackBerry still has a strong showing among Londoners with 22%.

I’m unsure whether “Windows” is WP7 or the older “Windows Mobile”. Either way, Nokia’s market share has collapsed.

The next interesting thing to look at is which countries the users are from.

As expected, the majority are using UK SIMS.

This doesn’t count visitors who are using a local SIM on their stay – but it’s still interesting to see where tose whoa re prepared to pay roaming data charges are coming from. Who knew so many Lithuanians loved our bus system…?

As far as I can tell, the Google statistics don’t actively prevent duplications – so one enthusiastic Lithuanian could have scanned the code 15 times.

The data aren’t entirely rigorous – but do show some interesting trends for QR use in London.

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.

Looks like the displays don’t understand the underscore character. I wonder if anyone tested this before it went live?

You can watch the full video

Last year, I noticed this QR code as I passed through San Francisco Airport.

The code goes to a TSA site (albeit non-mobile), which is odd, as the TSA do have a capable mobile site.

What I find most curious is that the TSA are using the Goo.gl URL shortener.

This is a bad idea for two reasons.

1. How does a user know where the code is going to take them? The URL “goo.gl/Qrlx1″ could lead literally anywhere. A security minded organisation should always use their own domain name when creating a QR code.
2. Google short URLs allow anyone to see your QR code’s usage statistics.

So, let’s see how the TSA checkpoint QR code does.

Interesting to note that there are a few people prepared to pay roaming data charges to view the site. I’ve no idea if this exact QR code is at other airports, but it’s gathering around 80 scans per day.

You can read more about the TSA’s use of QR codes at their press centre.

Terence Eden specialises in helping organisations craft amazing QR campaigns. Contact Terence for a consultation

Wander around the London Underground and you’re likely to see safety posters from the British Transport Police (BTP). This is the first one that I’ve seen with a QR code on it.

It’s a fairly good poster. A good call to action, a URL in case your phone can’t read QR codes, and the code itself is well sized and has a high level of error correction.

Scanning the code, however, leads to a rather disappointing user experience.

A non-mobile mobile site

Here’s what the user sees when they land on the BTP’s “mobile” site.

The site is incredibly poorly formatted. It is evidently not designed for mobile, nor has it been tested on a wide range of phones.

No viewport has been set, meaning most phones will show the site zoomed out.

The images are all fixed at 480px wide, so any phones with a smaller screen may have difficultly rendering the page.

The Videos

The videos themselves are well produced, but almost totally unsuitable for mobile. The videos are around 30 seconds long – yet weigh in at around 3.6MB!

Even on 3G, that’s a a long wait for the file to download. On 2G? Forget it.

The files aren’t streamed – they have to be downloaded. Finally, the resolution is fixed at 640*360, and so the videos are not adapted to each device’s screen resolution.

Click To Call

If you are the police, you probably want people to be able to phone you. So the BTP place their phone numbers on their site.

There’s only one problem – you can’t click on the number to call them! So, you’re left in the annoying situation where you either have to remember the phone number, or borrow another phone to call them.

Making telephone numbers “click-to-call” is really easy. Literally, all you need to do is write
<a href="tel:0800405040">Call us on 0800 40 50 40</a>

Hey presto! Users can click on your phone number and place a call from their mobile phone.

The Stats

As I discussed in an earlier post, using a URL shortner means that anyone can see your QR statistics!

So let’s take a look at how the BTP have done.

At the moment, they’re averaging 12 scans a day for this poster (I don’t know if other posters have the same code – I suspect so). Naturally, iPhone is at the top of the scans, with BlackBerry following close behind.

Is this a good result? I don’t know. If there was just a URL on there, how many visits would it get?

Making It Better

This is such a brilliant idea for a QR poster campaign. With only a little work, it can be made really useful for Londoners.

• Create a responsive mobile site.
• Use click-to-call for all phone numbers.
• Optimise the videos for mobile download and viewing.
• Consider streaming the videos – perhaps using a service like YouTube.

If you would like a bespoke QR consultation, contact me.

Android is moving away from USB Mass Storage. You will no longer be able to plug in a USB cable and have your Android show up as a USB disk. There are some good technical reasons for this, but it is a pain if you want to copy some files to your phone. The new system – MTP – isn’t automagically detected in Ubuntu. This is something which is likely to be fixed in later versions of Ubuntu – but for now you’ll have to hack around it.

The crazy cats at omgUbuntu have a tutorial which I have adapted for the Samasung Galaxy S (running ICS from teamhacksung).

First, install the MTP tools.

sudo apt-get install mtp-tools mtpfs

Connect the phone to the computer using USB.

To check that MTP is installed and working, run the command

mtp-detect

You should see a spool of text as MTP detects the phone.

To create the rules which allow Ubuntu to detect the phone, create a new rule file like so:

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

Add in this line of text

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", ATTR{idProduct}=="6860", MODE="0666"

If you’re using a different device, run this command to get the correct idVendor and idProduct:

mtp-detect | grep idVendor
mtp-detect | grep idProduct

We’ll need to restart udev so it can pick up the new rule.

sudo service udev restart

Then create a directory in your filesystem which you can use to access your phone.

sudo mkdir /media/GalaxyS
sudo chmod a+rwx /media/GalaxyS

Now we need to add ourselves to fuse.

sudo adduser YOURUSERNAME fuse
sudo nano /etc/fuse.conf

The last line probably reads

#user_allow_other

Remove the “#” so you’re left with:

user_allow_other

Save the file.

We’re going to create two commands “android-connect” and “android-disconnect”. When run, these will allow you to connect to your phone, then safely disconnect.

echo "alias android-connect=\"mtpfs -o allow_other /media/GalaxyS\"" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "alias android-disconnect=\"fusermount -u /media/GalaxyS\"" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Restart the computer. Make sure the phone is connected via USB. Open a terminal and run

android-connect

Open your file manager and go to “/media/GalaxyS”

Once you’re done, disconnect the device by running

android-disconnect

I’m watching all of Woody Allen’s films in chronological order.

Set in Paris, a struggling writer on the brink of a loveless marriage seeks solace in the city’s many nocturnal delights. Featuring a suicidal young woman, a cameo by Toulouse-Lautrec, and some delightful shots of Paris and its surrounding countryside.

Is this Woody Allen’s “Midnight In Paris”? No, it’s his 1965 film “What’s New Pussycat“.

It is a film of its time – a bawdy sex comedy set in the swinging sixties – so it seems rather unfair to judge it too harshly. Nevertheless it is a noisy and confusing mess. There are snatches of comedic genius in among the confusing plot strands.

Peter O’Toole may be the most devastatingly handsome leading man ever to light up the screen. And of course, only Woody Allen would have the chutzpah to write himself into a role which involves undressing a bevy of strippers.

Sadly, even the sight of Ursula Andress in her underwear fails to lift the film which, by the end, descends into slapstick.

It’s not a particularly great start to my Woody Allen Challenge experience. At times the “groovy” costumes elicit greater laughter than the writing.

The film was only written by Woody Allen – he didn’t direct it.

You feel the same way too, don’t you?

What? You don’t? But… but….

What else could explain the advertising industry’s love of putting QR codes as close to the floor as possible?

Be Careful What You Wish For

Of course, if going too low is bad…

Using Florian Diesch’s tutorial at Ask Ubuntu, I’ve come up with this simple guide to get your keyboard working.

1. Open a terminal. Sorry, this is all going to be command prompt based!
2. Install the program evtest

   sudo apt-get install evtest

3. You will need to find which input “event” corresponds to your keyboard. Run the following command

   sudo evtest /dev/input/event5

   When you press the scroll key on your keyboard, you should see an output like

   Event: time 1325072953.278713, type 4 (Misc), code 4 (ScanCode), value c022e
   Event: time 1325072953.278729, type 1 (Key), code 109 (PageDown), value 1
   Event: time 1325072953.278752, -------------- Report Sync ------------
   

   If you don’t, cancel (using CTRL+C) and try another event number. Start at event0 and work your way up.

4. Let’s see what the keys are currently mapped to. Type the command

   sudo evtest /dev/input/event5

   (or whatever “event” number you need). You should see an output like

   scan code: 0xC022D   key code: zoomin
   scan code: 0xC022E   key code: zoomout

5. We need to create a file which contains the new keymapping. To do this, type

   sudo nano /lib/udev/keymaps/microsoft-4000

6. Insert the following two lines into the file

   0xC022D pageup
   0xC022E pagedown

   If you would rather scroll line-by-line, you can use

   0xC022D up
   0xC022E down

   Save the file by pressing CTRL+X.

7. Now, let’s implement the remapped keys. Type

   sudo /lib/udev/keymap input/event5 /lib/udev/keymaps/microsoft-4000

8. Your scroll buttons should now be working! If not… errr… try again?
9. Assuming it is working, we need to make this permanent so that we don’t have to type in a command every time we reboot. To open the keymapping file, type

   sudo nano /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keymap.rules

10. Scroll through the file until you see

    #
    # The following are external USB keyboards
    #
    
    LABEL="keyboard_usbcheck"
    

    Past in the following line

    ENV{ID_VENDOR_ID}=="045e", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="00db", RUN+="keymap $name microsoft-4000"

    The line needs to be above

    GOTO="keyboard_end"

    Save the file (CTRL+X).

11. Reboot.

Hey presto! Your keys will now obey your commands.

I’m watching all of Woody Allen’s films in chronological order.

I’ll confess, I tried watching What’s Up Tiger Lilly a few years ago. I didn’t get more than 40 minutes into it before switching it off in a mixture of boredom and disgust.

I’m not sure who first came up with the idea of revoicing a movie – making snarky comments about the action on screen – but this is one of the most influential and successful.

How it became so successful is entirely a mystery to me. For a comedy film, it is almost utterly devoid of jokes.

One thing I do when I’m watching comedies which I don’t find funny is to count the number of jokes I think there are supposed to be. If there are jokes that I don’t find funny – that’s ok, we all have a different sense of humour. But this is a comedy film which goes minutes without a single identifiable joke.

The main problem is that the original film has large stretches without dialogue. Rather than edit this down, the audience is left watching “action” on screen which is simply dull.

What few jokes there are range from pretty decent to annoying and repetitive – but it’s not enough to sustain the film.

You can buy “What’s Up With Tiger Lily?” from Amazon, but I really wouldn’t bother.

As I watched Woody Allen’s latest film – Midnight in Paris – I realised that there are so many films of his that I haven’t seen.

So, I have a brand new resolution for 2012.

• Watch every single film Woody Allen has made.
• In chronological order.
• Posting reviews on this blog.

Woody has made over 40 films – so I’ll be aiming to watch one per week over the next year.

I’ll be watching all the films he has directed and – where possible – those he has written.

Let’s go!

Further evidence of this can be found on Microsoft’s latest XBox poster which contains a rather prominent QR code.

Here it is in more detail.

When scanned, it goes to a Google URL shortner!

If Microsoft’s own marketing department doesn’t have faith in the MS Tag – or their own QR creator – why should anyone else?

As a mobile Internet consultant, companies often ask me which QR generator to use. There are many worth considering, but I always tell clients to avoid bit.ly.

The security of Libya Internet organisations are probably not an immediate concern (you did know that’s what .ly stands for, right?). What is worrying is how bit.ly exposes your QR campaigns to your competitors.

How Does The Bit.ly QR Generator Work?

You can use Bit.ly to shorten URLs. Add a “.qr” at the end to get a QR code. Simple, easy, and insecure.
http://bit.ly/uRmAhs.qr

Exposing Your Statistics

Here’s a handy trick. Take any Bit.ly URL and add the + symbol to the end.
https://bitly.com/nTTo9j+

Congratulations! You can see all the clicks, referrers, and other statistics.

There is, as far as I am aware, no way to prevent this. If you have used Bit.ly to generate a QR code – everyone can see how well your campaign has done.

Revealing Your Future Campaigns

Bit.ly’s open access means anyone can see all the short URLs and QR codes you have ever created. Here is a list of all the QR codes created by Southeastern Trains. Here are all the FT’s “How To Spend It” short URLs. It’s amazing what you can find by rummaging about…

Imagine that you’re preparing for a print-run for a future campaign. With several weeks lead time, you’d better get those Bit.ly links created before you send things off to the printers.

So, now any of your competitors can see what QR codes you are creating, what promotions you will be running, and how well they do in the future.

You can make your profile private by changing your settings – but it is public by default.

It’s Not Under Your Control

Once you’ve created a Bit.ly link, it is unchangeable. If you’ve made a mistake with the link – tough. If you’ve printed thousands of posters with the Bit.ly code which points to the wrong place, you’re out of luck. Bit.ly codes cannot be changed.

While Bit.ly has proved stable so far – what happens if the service breaks? You’re reliant on a 3rd party – without an SLA – for your campaign.

Incomplete Statistics

Which phones are using the QR code? Bit.ly won’t tell you – and there’s no way to get the information. So, there’s no way to tell which phone platforms you need to target.
You do get some country by country breakdown, but that’s it.

Conclusion

I would advise all companies to use their existing web infrastructure to create short URLs. If your web team can’t create simple rewrites – fire them. Seriously, it’s incredibly easy, it means you control the codes, to where they redirect, service levels, and get all the statistics you need.

Time to delete your Bit.ly links? Sorry, you can’t do that either.

Feel the need for some bespoke QR consultancy? Contact me for details.

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

Southeastern

Dotted all around Southeastern’s train carriages are posters like these.

A fairly small QR code, with a reasonable call to action. Not the best use of QR codes – but fairly inoffensive.

But what happens when we scan it?

An error page. To make matters worse, it’s not even a mobile friendly error page.

I don’t know how long the site has been broken – but the code is still receiving around 10 scans per day.

We’ve known since the late 20th Century that webmasters shouldn’t break their sites when they redesign them. There is simply no excuse for this. You don’t simply 404 old pages when you shuffle around your website – especially if you have publicly printed the URL all over the place.

Here’s a typical product display stand with QR code placed on it.

There’s no “call to action”. Nothing to say what the code is, how I use it, or why I should scan it. Does it lead to a video demo? To a voucher? What?

But, that’s not the worst of it. Notice how small it is? There’s lots of space which could be used – instead it’s barely 20mm across. That in itself wouldn’t be too bad – except all these displays are about half-a-metre behind glass!

Even with my multi-megapixel cameraphone pushed right up against the window, I wasn’t able to get a scan on these codes. I wonder if any phone on the market would be able to read them.

Luckily, I found one which was close enough to the glass for me to scan.

They’ve used a fairly short URL, so the code isn’t too dense. I’m pleased to say it swiftly redirects to a mobile friendly site.

It’s unfortunate that the first item I have scanned has an “out of stock” error. The rest of the mobile site is rather good.

Fixing The Mistakes

This campaign fails 3 of my 10 Commandments of QR Codes. Specifically

I. Your QR code shall be large enough and clear enough to scan easily.
VII. Your QR code shall have a sufficient call to action.
VIII. Your QR code shall be tested.

Don’t Make The Same Mistakes

If you’re considering a QR campaign contact me and arrange for a consultation.
I work with companies large and small to help prevent you from making these sorts of mistakes.

I tried to collapse the probabilities by uttering a most unusual secular prayer for a man…

Don’t be pretty…. don’t be pretty… don’t be…

“Mr Eden?”

Maybe that’s the nurse. She’s barely out of her twenties. Yes. Obviously the nurse. They don’t make doctors that pretty, surely.

“Come this way. I’m Dr Lena.”

Arse. She was very pretty.

“What seems to be the problem?”

Despite acres of research with doctors Google and Wikipedia, I’m still not entirely sure what it is I am suffering from. So I take a deep breath and out pour the words that no man ever wants to hear himself say:

“I’ve had an ache in my right testicle for about a week. Last night… I think I found a lump.”

DAH-DAH DAAAAAAH!!!!!

An actual diegetic fanfare… I am momentarily confused. Am I living in a film? That would make so much sense…

Dr Lena blushes beautifully and flips her iPhone on to silent. “Sorry about that,” she says.

In a sense, it’s an excellent way to break the tension of what is about to happen. With very little fanfare she says, “Ok, hop on to the bed, pull your trousers down, and let’s examine you.”

My stupid animal brain is now faced with a quandary. When a young lady (did I mention how crushingly gorgeous she was?) asks you to pull down your trousers so she can have a rummage, it seems… well… rude not to be…

But, luckily, the more mature part of my brain kicks in. Relax, stand down, think of Margaret Thatcher stealing your milk. Deep breaths. Calm.

But, of course, the insecure part of my psyche is going “Oh gods! Your penis is minuscule! If you don’t at least get a semi, she’ll laugh you right out of the surgery!”

But, of course, she’s seen it all before. Some, no doubt, in a far worse state. Whatever level of flaccidity nothing bad is going to happen.

But simply as a matter of professional pride…?

Keep it together… keep it together… Relax.

Dr Lena locks the door. She walks over to me as I lie prostrate on her bed the bed.

She leans over.

“Oh!” she giggles nervously.

I swear – I am not making any of this up. Honestly.

“Would you like me to fetch my colleague?”

I smile confidently, “Am I too much for you to handle by yourself?”

She licks her lips and calls for a buxom nurse to assist.

Ok! Ok! That last bit I made up. My mind wanders very quickly when I’m under stress!

“Would you like me to fetch my colleague?”

I look confused.

“You’re allowed a chaperone if you want,” Dr Lena explains helpfully. I decline.

“So, show me where exactly this lump is.”

I look down. My penis has decided to misbehave.

In terms of penile span, I appear to have achieved my objective of exactly average length without any hint that I find this ridiculously good looking, intelligent, well spoken, highly educated, dream of a woman in any way attractive.

Except the damned thing is now laying squarely over the offending testicle.

With one hand I gently move my pizzle out of the way. With the other hand I indicate where on the testicle the lump is. Dr Lena takes over.

As she proceeds with her examination, I’m struck by an awful thought. My right hand is laying limply by my side. My left hand, however, is still tenderly gripping my cock. While the wholesome doctor is groping my balls, I’m casually hanging on to my willy like a dirty old man. If I remove my hand now, I’m only going to draw attention to it. If I leave it there, am I going to look like a lonely old man who gets his jollies by self-pleasuring while female doctors fumble around on his goolies?

I feign to scratch my ear. I have a really itchy ear. Yes. Nothing suspicious about that.

“Hmmmm,” the good doctor says. Not the sort of sound you want to hear. “Is that it there?”

She squeezes and there is pain. The pain is tempered by the realisation that I have no interest in dominatrices. Pain, it turns out, ain’t my bag.

“Yes! That’s it!”

“Well, the good news is –”

My heart sings! My penis remains silent.

“– The good news is that it isn’t attached to the testicle. It’s on the epididimus, that’s the tube which runs from the testicle..”

She doesn’t say to where it runs – but we both know it’s not down to the shops for a packet of crisps.

“It’s probably epididymitis.”

All of a sudden I relax. My research indicated that epididymitis was the best prognosis. I’m no longer hanging over the prospect of bollock cancer! Galloping knob-rot is off the cards! My balls shall remain incision free! A weight lifts from my shoulders.

As it does, I realise that I’m still half naked. Only now, I’m half naked and smiling. This somehow makes me feel even more naked than I did before. I literally feel like I am only wearing a smile.

Dr Lena is a kind and noble doctor – and graciously turns her back while I perform the rather ungainly exercise of sliding off a bed, with my trousers round my ankles, while pulling my pants up.

Epididymitis is usually caused by a bacterial infection. It’s just one-of-those-things. Usually.

“The other cause,” says Dr Lena, “is sexually transmitted diseases.”
She looks me straight in the eye. I melt a little.
“Is that something you would like to discuss?” She asks.

In a way, I’m happy that she thinks I’m the sort of bloke who sleeps around, has his way with all the girls, and gets an exotic array of STDs. She’s seen the goods and thinks the ladies about town can’t resist me.

I break the news to her that I am happily married and that neither of us really has time for an affair.

She gives me a sample jar to piss in – just in case.

The cure for epididymitis is nothing more than a strong course of antibiotics. Dr Lena writes out a prescription with penmanship that would make a poet blush, then sends me on my way.

And I am cured. The antibiotics do the trick, my STD test comes back negative. I am a free man!

Your Balls

If you are in possession of a set of testicles, do me a favour and check them for lumps and bumps. If you find anything unusual, pop to your GP straight away. It won’t be too embarrassing, nor too frightening, nor too stressful.

Women, if you want to make yourselves useful, find a gentleman friend and offer to examine his balls. He will almost certainly be very grateful and – if you’re lucky – will reciprocate by checking your breasts.

Everyone’s a winner!

Six Months Later

It’s back. It came back a few weeks ago. Another course of drugs – which worked for a while – and another test for chlamydia and gonorrhea – which showed I still wasn’t sleeping around.

But it’s still there. A dull and nagging ache. A tiny, but annoying lump that twinges every now and again.

So, today I am spending at a urologist. Where I will be prodded, poked, made to give specimens, ultra-sounded, analysed, and exposed.

I’ve looked up the urologist on the Internet. He’s not as pretty as my Dr Lena. Which is probably for the best.

I’d only vaguely heard of Howl’s Moving Castle before I saw the Southwark Playhouse’s latest show – although, to judge from the audience, it attracts fanatically devoted readers.

Entering Southwark’s vault is a treat in itself. Cavernous, bare bricked arches, flaming torches on the wall, and a plain white cardboard set.

A white set. Very Peter Hall, I thought. But from the second the show started the set came alive. Highly intricate projection work, surround sound, video, music, narration, all spun together to create what I can only describe as “live action cinema.”

It reminded me of the Las Vegas show EFx. Magic, mystery, and multi-media. Magical spells shot from the tips of magicians’ wands – in EFx practical effects were used (fireworks, to you and I), in Howl the high-definition projectors cast a dazzling array of spells on to the set and even the performers.

The story was brisk and engaging – although some of the aforementioned devotees thought it should have been longer. The acting and directing first rate. Not knowing the story, I’ve no idea how much writer Mike Sizemore nicked from the original author – although I doubt she made jokes about super-luminal neutrinos – but it’s hilarious and heartfelt.

My only criticisms? Working with special effects can be tough. Used too often (like the fire-demon jumping from place to place) they loose their impact – yet used only once (the surround sound dragon) feels like a wasted opportunity.

In places the music drowned out the performers – possibly due to the acoustics of the room. The actors funnel so much energy into their characters that it would be a shame to mic them up. Perhaps a slight fiddle with the volume knob?

It runs until 7th of January. Well worth seeing.

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.

These notes show (which are mostly for my benefit) show you how to install it and configure your multimedia keyboard so the play/pause key controls the music on Spotify.

Download Spotify for Linux. It’s available in 32bit or 64bit.

Double click on the .deb that has been downloaded and it should install. Nice and easy!

To get the multimedia keys working, we need to follow the instructions in this tutorial and the codes described at lnxscene.

Install xbindkeys.

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys

Create the default configuration file for xbindkeys.

xbindkeys --defaults > /home/edent/.xbindkeysrc

Edit the configuration file for xbindkeys.

nano ~/.xbindkeysrc

Add these lines:

"dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.PlayPause"
XF86AudioPlay
"dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Stop"
XF86AudioStop

Run xbindkeys to see if it all works

xbindkeys

Now, when Spotify is running, pressing th eplay/pause key will make your music start or stop.

You will need to set xbindkeys to run automagically on startup.

On Ubuntu, System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications.

Done!

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?

These posters were designed by participants at the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City. They are in the public domain. You are welcome to print them out and post them in your own location.

See all the posters.

I love this use of QRpedia – but I have two minor suggestions.
QR codes work best with some whitespace around them, so:

1. Move the QR code away from the margin – so it won’t get covered by tape etc.
2. The call to action – “Learn More At Wikipedia” – should be slightly further away from the main body of the code.

Other than that – very impressive.

OccupyLSX

I took a walk through the OccupyLSX encampment at St Pauls. I have to say, the QR codes on display weren’t as impressive as the above posters.

More Resources

There are a range of Occupy QR codes out there. Some work really well, some don’t. Take a look at:
Occupy Syracuse QR.
Occupy Austin QR.
Occupy Las Vegas QR.
Occupy Davis QR.
And finally, Occupy Legoland.

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.