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 didn’t know anything about the tax issues while I was working there – other than the fact I had some colleagues working in Luxembourg – otherwise (I like to think) I may have raised the matter internally. Not that the accountants would have listened to me…

Since leaving Vodafone, I haven’t felt able to criticise it too harshly. Partly because many of my friends still work there, partly because I still do business with Vodafone, but – mostly – because I felt like a hypocrite.

As is normal in large, publicly traded companies, employees were awarded shares. Every year part of my remuneration was in the form of shares or share options. When I was made redundant from Vodafone, many of those shares vested.

However, for rather boring tax reasons, I wasn’t able to sell all of them to help fund my new business. So I hung on to them. Until this week.

Two days ago, I sold every last share I had in Vodafone.

I don’t know if you’ve ever sold shares before – but it’s incredibly stressful. The easy way to do it is to set a sell price. So you say “If the shares hit X, sell”. Then you sit back, relax, and wait for your target to be hit.

That’s not what I did. I did it the scary way.

You say how many shares you want to sell, hit a big scary button, then you get given an offer for your shares. You then have 15 seconds to accept the offer!

That 15 seconds passes really fucking quickly. Is that enough? What if I get more next time? What if I get less? It’s like a giant slot machine of doom. You hit “spin” again. In that 15 seconds you’ve lost £37.50. You hit spin again. You’re now up £50 – all in the blink of an eye. So you spin again – it must be on an upward streak, right? Wrong! Down a tenner – all in the space of a minute.

It’s enough to drive you insane. But that’s not the worst part.

Eventually, you hit sell. It’s an elating feeling. All those years of hard work. All that patience. All the times you silently said to yourself “one day… one day”. Now suddenly realised as cold, hard cash. No more waiting. No more worrying. No more little nest egg.

The next day I did the stupidest thing imaginable. I checked the Vodafone share price.

Fool! It was up. Only a single point. But it was up. Had I waited a day, would I be richer? If I’d had the courage to wait just five more minutes? Would I be happier?

What if they went up the next day? And the day after that? Far from being a canny investor, was I just a schmuck? Every time I saw the share price would I silently curse myself for being an idiot? Oh no!

The next day, the Vodafone share price was down nearly 4%! I’d done it! I’d beaten the stock market! I was one of the masters of the universe! I was a share trading genius. Time to pack up my job and become a trader.

Or not. That single minute of panic was enough for me. I don’t think the highs of the occasional win would offset the inevitable, terrifying losses. It wasn’t pleasant gambling with my own money; I can’t imagine how I’d feel if I lost someone else’s hard earned cash.

So, on the one hand, it’s good to know I’m not an utter psychopath. On the other hand, I’ll never become one of the 1%.

I am indebted to Interactive Investor for making my share dealing as cheap and hassle-free as possible.

What am I going to do with my money? Go on a massive blow-out bender? Piss it up the wall? Stash it in the Cayman Islands?

Nah! I’m going solar powered! And that, dear friends, is a tale for tomorrow’s blog…

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.

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.

As I discussed last year in “The Future of Android – And How To Stop It” there is a fundamental tension between users, manufacturers, Mobile Networks, and Google when it comes to the Android Operating System.

First up, a common misconception…

Some Android Phones Are Too Slow For Updates

Bull. Shit.
The HTC Magic – the second Android phone to be released – has been updated to 2.2 (Froyo). By any measure, the Magic is slower compared to the mighty X10 – but that shouldn’t matter. My dog-eared old laptop can still receive updates for Linux. Apple’s ancient iPhones still, I believe, get some bug fixes.

So, for how long should a phone be supported?

The Lifetime of a Phone

The Magic was released in mid-2009 – and it is still being actively supported 18 months later. This is important. Most smartphones (in the UK) are sold on 18 – 24 month contracts. That means the customer expects them to be supported while they are still under contract.

Given that the Magic was probably sold by Vodafone for ~6 months (including at 3rd party retailers), the consumer will expect this device to be supported at least until the beginning of 2012.

The Xperia X10 was sold in the UK from March 2010. Sony Ericsson haven’t even given it a year’s worth of support. Barely 10 months after release and it has been abandoned.

Even if you bought it on a 12 month contract, the day it was released, Sony Ericsson have decided you’re not important any more.

The question now is, see that shiny SE Arc – do you want to buy it knowing that within a year there will be no more enhancements, no more bug fixes, no more love for you?

Old Phones Don’t Die

It’s rare that a phone just goes into a drawer when a customer gets an upgrade.
Let’s take a look a the typical life of a mobile phone.

• 6 months sitting in a warehouse waiting until the customer can afford it
• 24 months being used on a contact
• 3 months used out of contract until a good upgrade has been found
• 3 months sat in a drawer
• 12 months given to a kid / niece / nephew who doesn’t mind an old bit of kit
• Sent to the developing world where the cycle starts again.

At the very least, that’s 3 – 4 years use for the average phone.

Now, you may change your phone ever 12 months whether you need to or not. Recognise that you are the exception. Most people are not rich enough to get a new phone whenever they feel like it. Most people can’t ring Nokia’s press department and ask for a review model.

Phones need to be supported for their lifetime – even if it is just fixing bugs.

The Community Will Fill The Gap

I am in awe of VillainRom, Cyanogen, XDA Developers and all the other Android hackers. The amount of (often unpaid) work they put in to developing custom ROMs for Android handsets is incredible. They’ve got the latest version of Android – with all the bells and whistles – for nearly every Android handset out there.

Surely X10 owners can just use these guys for updates?

Well, yes, with two caveats.

1. Technical Know-How. It’s hard for the layman to find these sites, let alone risk their warranty by invoking the command line magic needed to perform the update.
2. Fragility of the Eco-System. Who tests these mods? What happens when something goes wrong? What happens when VillainRom decides he has better things to do with his time?

The community should not be treated as an unpaid help desk when a corporation decides to divest itself of all responsibility.

Android Updates Are Fundamentally Broken

If you’ve ever used Linux – you’ll be familiar with this sort of screen.

Windows and Mac also behave in a similar fashion.
Rather than updating the entire OS – only parts of it are updated. If there is a bug in, say, the way timezones are calculate – only the timezone program needs to be updated.

If FireFox needs updating on your computer – that’s all you need to update. No need to reload your entire software suite.
In some ways, Android is like this. The email, maps, and market all act as standalone apps and can be individually updated.

I think Android should go further.

A Proposal

We’re now in a crazy situation where a critical flaw in Android SMS capabilities will be fixed – but may never reach customers’ phone because manufacturers and networks have decided to no longer support a particular device.
This time it’s an SMS problem – what happens when it’s a serious security issue?

I suggest the following way to mitigate it.

• Google should develop, test, and release updates to core Android components – including security fixes. These should be updated directly to the Manufacturer.
• Manufacturers should do the same for their customisations (UI etc). Then release to the customer.
• Mobile Networks should be responsible for testing and releasing any radio firmware.
• If a manufacturer won’t release an update, Google should do it directly.

Google needs a way to send critical updates to customers without waiting for 3rd parties to muck around. Microsoft don’t wait for Dell to test a patch, and Dell don’t wait for PC World to monkey around with it before it hits you – the customer.

I’m aware this approach is not perfect, and I’d be very pleased to hear any suggestions on how to make it better.

…There’s Always A But

Imagine you just bought a lovely new SE Arc. A software update comes along which bricks your phone.

Who do you ring / sue?

• CarPhone Warehouse who sold you the device?
• Vodafone – to whom you pay £40 per month?
• Sony Ericsson – the manufacturers?
• Google – the developers?

Who do you think cares most about you? Who do you think can fix your fault? Who approved the update and did QA in the first place?

It all gets very messy, very quickly.

I think Android will thrive in 2011 – but it will be despite Sony Ericsson.

Mistakes happen – even to companies who can afford the very best consultants.  The way in which a company responds to its mistakes can help mitigate their customers’ negative reactions.

There are two important factors in redeeming your reputation after a serious error.

• The first is the speed at which it is corrected.
• The second is the human reaction to the problem.

Internet Speed

This piece is entitled “at the speed of fright”.  Customers see a terrifying mistake and want it corrected instantly.  Many customers don’t understand that the CSR they’re talking to probably isn’t in the same building as the decision makers. In most small businesses, a mistake can be corrected instantly.  In a large business with thousands of employees, it may take days just to find the person who has responsibility – let alone the person who actually understands how to correct the mistake.

Your customers and CSRs need a “Big Red Button” option.  You need a way to escalate serious problems so that they are dealt with in hours – not days.

Take a look at the Vodafone website – or indeed the site of any other major company – can you spot the link which says “Click here to report a serious security flaw”?  I doubt it.  At best, you’ll see a form which allows you to type a message of no more than 500 character which may, or may not, be answered within 48 hours.

On the Internet, that’s just not good enough.  A single tweet can spread through the community like wildfire.  Forums and blogs will fill with rumours, speculation, and bile before you know it.

The only way to stem the tide of negative sentiment is through a swift and decisive response.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

Take a look through the thread on the Vodafone forums complaining about the security issues.  There’s one question being asked again and again which is never answered.  That question: “When are you going to apologise?”

There may well be legal consequences to admitting liability.   But the consequences of failing to apologise will be devastating.  Customers can accept that you made a mistake.  But refusing to acknowledge your mistake exacerbates the problem.  It sends the message that you do not care about your customers.

There is psychological evidence that shows the very act of apologising is beneficial in helping to heal wounded relations.  Take some time to see the world through your customers’ eyes – let them know you understand why they are upset and show contrition for what is, after all, your failing.

The best part about apologising? Customers prefer apologies to monetary compensation!

A rather nasty flaw with Vodafone’s “My Account” service was recently pointed out by Denny de la Haye. Vodafone will quite happily tell you the email address of any customer who has set up the “My Account” facility.

denny

(Denny)

Ugh. @VodafoneUK's website exposes my email address to anyone who knows (or randomly enters) my phone number on the 'forgot password' page.

On 22-9-2010 13:14:38 from Dabr

Vodafone offer a “My Account” facility – http://vodafone.co.uk/myaccount – you can use it to check your bills, manage your price place, etc. All very handy.

As with many services, a user needs a username and password.

Again, as usual, it will allow you to recover your password.

This is where the problem begins. To recover your password, you need to enter your mobile phone number.

This leads to this nasty privacy-busting screen. (I’ve obfuscated my email address).

All you need is someone’s phone number. Now, there are several ways you could get a person’s email address if you already know their phone number – ringing them up and asking them, for one – but Vodafone really needs to be more cautious with their customers’ data.

There is nothing to stop a determined spammer from entering thousands of numbers and getting a long list of email addresses. Nothing to stop a fraudster from sending you an email to an address you only use with Vodafone. Nothing to stop you finding out that your boss’s email is IlikeBigButts@example.com.

I’m sure that Vodafone will be closing this hole shortly – but it goes to show that even using unique email addresses is no protection from spammers when your private data is treated so poorly.

Update

A commenter on The Register notes that this trick also works with usernames. Now, you may not know a target’s name – but trying a few common usernames reveals many email addresses. So now a potential spammer has your email address and your username. More than enough to make a convincing phishing attempt.

Update 23/09/2010

At some point this morning, around 1130, the website was finally taken down. Users are seeing this holding page.

I’ve got a rather neat femtocell – the Vodafone SureSignal. It extends the 3G signal into my house by way of my broadband.

To stop anyone leaching my broadband, you need to register “approved” phone numbers with the SureSignal.

So – given that the Kindle has a Vodafone SIM card – how do we find the Kindle’s phone number and register it with the SureSignal?

There are three ways you can find your Kindle’s phone number. None of them are “easy”.

1. Ask Amazon
2. Open your Kindle, remove the SIM card, place the SIM in a phone, dial the USSD code *#100#
3. IMSI->MSISDN translation

Confused? Read on.

Asking Amazon

This got me nowhere. I send them an email and they asked to phone me back. The tech support there are very friendly and helpful – but they simply didn’t know how to find out the phone number.

Opening The Kindle

If you have nerves of steel – and I don’t – check out this disassembly guide. You risk damaging your expensive new toy and voiding your warranty.

Hack it :-)

Click For Bigger

To get this diagnostic information do the following.

• Turn the Kindle on and unlock it.
• Press Menu
• Press Settings
• Hold down the Alt key
• While holding down Alt, type Y Q Q
• Ta da!

Make a note of the IMSI, IMEI and SIM number (ICCID).

The Tricky Part

Find someone at Vodafone who is willing to do an IMSI->MSISDN translation. (IMSI is the internal number, MSISDN is your 07 phone number).

You could try your luck calling 191, or emailing customer services. They may (genuinely) have no idea what you are talking about. See if you can get escalated to someone technical who will be able to look up the number for you.
It is likely that they’ll ask for the IMEI (device serial number) or ICCID (SIM card serial number) to verify that the device is yours.

I’m indebted to my Anonymous Mole who kindly performed this for me. No, I won’t reveal her name. Or his. Or its. One of the joys of hacking is social engineering your way to someone who can help you.

Adding It To The SureSignal

The first time I tried to add it to the SureSignal – I got this error.

So, I dropped an email to Vodafone asking them to manually add the phone number to my account.

Sadly, this was the reply I got.

After a bit of prompting, explaining that the SIM was in a Kindle, I got back this.

So, no adding Kindles – or any other MVNO SIM to a SureSignal :-(

Hang on! Isn’t this UTTERLY pointless?

Why, yes. Yes it is.
The 3G version of the Kindle comes with WiFi. The WiFi connection allows you to download converted Kindle documents for free. The 3G connection will charge you for the data transfer.

All things considered; it’s better to just use WiFi where you can.

Samsung Galaxy S

The Galaxy S is Samsung’s latest Android handset.  There are so many Android phones out there that you need a really great advertising campaign (or a really great product) to stand out from the competition.

Let’s take a look at the Samsung campaign.

Small Isn’t Beautiful

Advert for GalaxyS on Guardian Mobile site

The advert is disproportionately small compared to the rest of the site.  The Android phone I’m viewing on has a screen width of 480 pixels – the advert looks tiny and pathetic.

At first I thought it was the Guardian mangling the advert – but a look at the URL shows that 4th Screen have decided to serve up a 168*28 image.

Tiny Banner Ad

Worse than that, they’ve blindly resized the image rather than rework it.  Take a look zoomed in – the text is illegible.

Tiny Banner Ad

The Micro-Site

The site behind the advert isn’t too bad.  But there’s nothing exciting about it.  Just a series of static pages.  You can visit it at http://galaxys.co.uk/

What Do You Want Your Customers To Do?

With every mobile advertising campaign, you need to think about what it is you want to accomplish.  This campaign is, presumably, designed to encourage people to buy the Samsung Galaxy S phone.  So, it would make sense if people could buy the phone from the site. No?

Try to buy the phone from this page

There are three glaring mistakes on this page.  Can you spot them?

1. No mention of price. Is this pre-pay or contract? Is this a premium product or a cheap and cheerful device?
2. No click-to-call.  Those phone numbers should be clickable and should take the customer straight through to the dedicated Galaxy S representatives.
3. Those images of the phone company logos are clickable – yet there’s nothing to suggest they are.

Still, clicking on those logos will let me buy the phone through a mobile-friendly shop. Right?

Mobile Companies Who Don’t Do Mobile

eTailing is hard.  Getting a web based shop up, running and profitable is tricky.  Getting a mobile version of that site can be even harder.  But if there were ever a company to do it well, you would expect them to be a mobile company.  Sadly, that’s not the case.

Vodafone's non-mobile website

Virgin's non-mobile site

So, our hapless user can’t use her phone to make a call to buy the handset, she can’t use the web browser to buy the handset.  Is she supposed to wander down to her local store to buy one? Way to make use of the mobile medium…

How To Fix It

All is not lost.  There are several easy steps which can be taken to fix this disaster.

• Serve up adverts which are correctly sized for the screen requesting them.
• Don’t resize adverts – create a unique advert for each screen size you’re targeting.
• Make you micro-site interesting. Add mobile YouTube videos.  Add wallpapers, ringtones, or competitions.  Give people a reason to visit the site and share it with their friends.
• Click To Call.  I don’t know how often I have to say this, but if your potential customers can’t place an order from your site – you will never convert them into a paying customer.
• Let the user know which parts of your site are clickable.
• Never redirect a user to a non-mobile website.  The user may have to pay the data charges and will get a site which they can’t use.
• Mobile e-tailing.  Three huge names in mobile – yet I can’t order this phone from my mobile. That’s just embarrassing. Either make a mobile friendly site, or give customers directions to their nearest store.

My second app presents a series of buttons which call the USSD commands – so you don’t have to remember if it’s the HLR or VLR which is queried by *#103#.

Useful, I know….

You can download the app by scanning in this QR code.

Android App - Vodafone UK USSD Commands

The majority of these codes only work on phones with a Vodafone UK SIM who are on the Vodafone UK network. I’ve no idea what the codes do on other networks.

A detailed explanation of the commands is available on Betavine.

Sadly, Android provides no native way to capture or interprate USSD responses. Please star the feature request if you’re interested in seeing this in future versions of Android.

One last thing – this app was neither designed nor approved by Vodafone UK. It has nothing to do with them!

For the next 6 years, 2 months, and 22 days, Tom Baker was The Doctor.

But, as these things are wont to do, it came to an end.  Forgive the spoilers, but The Doctor lay broken and bleeding after The Master threw him off the Pharos Project.  Death was certain.

And then…

Regeneration

On the 1st of September, 2003, a young and eager Terence Eden walked into Vodafone to start on the Graduate Training Scheme.

6 years and 7 months later, it’s time for a change.

Vodafone took me all over the world.  Well… Mostly Düsseldorf!  But meetings from San Francisco to Milan gave me plenty of jet-set glamour. Not to mention duty-free and airmiles.

They took me on a fascinating journey from technology to product management via security, handset testing and many other jobs in between.  I went from being the lowest rung on the ladder, to managing an international portal deployed in a dozen markets.

But, as even the Time Lords know, 6 years is a long time. It is time for me to regenerate.

So, for the last time, I end this blog post with the words…

I currently work for Vodafone.  The opinions expressed are mine and mine alone and do not represent those of Vodafone Group.

112 is the European wide emergency services number. Wherever you are in the EU, dialling 112 will get you through to the local emergency services. In fact, most GSM networks outside of the EU will also route your call correctly.

This is an important day. Dialling 112 could save your life. Sadly, the UK isn’t doing anything to promote it.

So, what better way to celebrate than by designing a JIL widget to allow you to quickly dial 112 in an emergency? (That’s a rhetorical question…)

JIL Widget

I’ve written before about the JIL SDK and my professional involvement with it.

The JIL SDK allows us access to the telephony subsystem.  This allows us to directly place a call – usually via the native dialer application.  It’s a very simple call, all you do is pass it a string.  It will take 0-9+#*.  So, you can use it to call USSD commands.  Annoyingly, you can’t get information back from the commands – a problem also present in Android.

So, the code is simply

<script type="text/javascript">
    Widget.Telephony.initiateVoiceCall("112");
</script>

That’s it.

Logo

The EU has a logo that they want people to use for 112 promotion.

Their licensing terms are very enlightened (for a government organisation)

Any organisation, institution, company or individual willing to inform citizens of the European emergency number can use the materials informing about the 112 and general logo of the 112 which are available on our website.
Regardless of the size or the branch of economic/social/cultural activity, all the entities concerned with safety and emergency issues are welcomed to use these materials and ideas for their campaigns.

Download

Download and install the widget.

On the Vodafone H1, you may need to dial

*#35767#

to remove the H1’s security check.

If you’re interest in developing for this platform, there’s a €1,000,000 bounty up for grabs.  There’s also a Dev Camp at Mobile World Congress this year.

I work for Vodafone – this is my personal blog, I don’t to speak for them.  All opinions, claims and mistakes are my own.

I’ve tested this to work on the Vodafone 360 H1 – but it should work with any JIL handset.

Because it isn’t certified, you may need to dial

*#35767#

to remove the H1′s security check.

The code is very simple.  The JIL SDK allows you to call specific phone application – in this case, all I’ve done is invoked the browser.

<body>
   <script type="text/javascript">
      Widget.openURL("http://m.dabr.co.uk/");
   </script>
   <div>
      Launching Dabr!
   </div>
</body>

One thing to note, if you’re deploying the widgets from your website, ensure you have set the MIME type to “application/widget” – as per the W3C standards – otherwise many devices won’t recognise it as a valid widget.

If you’re interest in developing for this platform, there’s a €1,000,000 bounty up for grabs.  There’s also a Dev Camp at Mobile World Congress this year.

I work for Vodafone – this is my personal blog, I don’t to speak for them.  All opinions, claims and mistakes are my own.

This is a tricky blog post for me to write. I am involved in some aspects of Vodafone 360 (mostly My Web) but I certainly do not speak for my employers. I’m currently on holiday – and have been for the entire week – so I haven’t had any contact with work colleagues before writing this.

This post has been written in a hurry without adequate time to check spelling, facts, brand guidelines or if any of it makes sense. I beg your forgiveness pre-emptively.

I’ll try to stick to pointing out some provable inaccuracies and commenting on the industry in general.

Those of you with elephantine memories will remember Vizzavi — the 1.8 billion dollar balls-up joint venture between two commodity suppliers. On the one hand we had Big Red (“Vodafone”) fresh from buying up everyone it could under the direct reign of Sir Chris Gent. On the other hand we had Vivdendi, the mighty conglomerate, that, when it wasn’t arsing around with water companies, it was sodding about with music labels. The two of them got together and knocked out this massively ambitious WAP Portal and website that had a strategic promise hard to ignore. Free email integrated into your handset, online storage, synchronised address books and so on. Of course only the best handsets at the time could handle colour and the reality of WAP was beginning to dawn (the oft heard phrase from consumers: “How shit is this?”).

Sadly it wasn’t to be. Both companies got cold feet and dumped the service promptly before quickly erasing the memory.

I wasn’t working at Vodafone at the time – but as I understand it, Vizzavi was not dumped. It was absorbed by Vodafone and the service become known as Vodafone live. It’s a service that is still running today, has millions of customers and drives very healthy revenue streams.

Someone once said “Whenever someone says ‘Average User’ they mean ‘me’”. One of the problems I found when working on Vodafone live is that the average executive doesn’t use it. Live is great for its target audience – younger people who want to download games, watch mobile TV, chat, flirt, buy wallpapers and ringtones – but off less relevance for middle-aged suits.

But in the end, the people who sell minutes won over.

That’s the trouble with mobile operators. They still sell minutes. And sod about with transmission pylons and frequency layers. The folk in control are wedded to the idea of being a network. And this is right and proper. I want my handset to work whenever I need it to. Anywhere. That does take a lot of effort from very smart people.

When it came to vision, Vodafone blew it. They did the proper operator thing and waited-to-see.

Meanwhile we all bought bollox handsets year on year via ever-extending contracts. Some of us realised that PAYG offered a better deal but many simply wanted the handset with a slightly better camera. And 200 more minutes of talk time.

The market settled. All this talk of integrated mobile services disappeared from the radar and everything got back to normal.

Which is funny, because the phones that Voda (and many other operators around the world) sold included GPS, video-calling, RDS, mobile TV, tethering, accelerometers, touch-screens, photo uploading and printing, visual voicemail, email… the list goes on.

No doubt that Ewan has brusk words to say on all these features – that’s ok he’s not the target audience. Ewan’s a great chap with a huge amount of knowledge of the industry but – like me – he’s not normal.

The fact that you’re even reading this blog means that you’re probably outside the mass-market. And that’s ok. What you have to remember is that not everyone is like you. You are not the target market.

The iPhone delivered an experience. What’s more, it didn’t need a manual. It just worked.

I love this mythical idea that Apple “just works”. Type iPhone and Genius Bar into Twitter search and see how many people have broken iPhones or don’t know how to work certain features.

Find, if you can, someone who has never used or seen an iPhone. Sit over them and watch them try to use it. I love some of Apple’s design choices – but they’re not all intuitive. Who knows that Safari means “Internet”?

Every new handset brought a completely different user-interface and despite a 30 minute dedicated training session from each of her three sons, she couldn’t get to grips with it.
(SNIP)
Delivering a competitor to the iPhone experience is now a business critical objective. It’s not just the iPhone of course. But it’s a huge curse for the mobile operator. On one hand, they can use the device to win customers from their competing networks. On the other hand, the device itself simply sidesteps anything they offer and uses their network. No longer does the operator control the user experience. Thank god. No longer does the user get sent immediately to the ‘operator deck’ when they open their web browser. No. The iPhone simply sits on the data and telephony layer and ignores everything else. Perfect for the end-consumer, terrifying for the mobile operator.

Which, again, is funny. Vodafone sells the iPhone in 11 countries – UK and Ireland are coming in 2010. It is one phone out of many. Actually – and I’ll get shot for saying so – it is a fairly insignificant phone. It’s a device that only very wealthy people can afford. Don’t get me wrong – wealthy people help drive profit; but there are more people who can’t afford the iPhone than can. A lot more.

I want you to notice two contradictory ideas in the quote above.

1. It’s hard to move from phone to phone because they all have different interfaces.
2. Operators should stay away from monkeying with the phone’s interface.

Funnily enough, normal customers don’t agree with the latter point. You’ll notice that most operators customise the more atrocious firmware that they have been given and make a usable experience for the customer. They also try to make it consistent between manufacturers – so icon X always means address book and icon Y always means Browser. Of course, this leads to Operator lock in, rather than manufacturer lock in – but that’s a different story.

Far be it from me to suggest that Ewan’s synthetic rage is caused by Cognitive Dissonance :-).

Now, I’ll be quite careful about what I say in response to the next piece because I am involved in the service and don’t want to be out of step with anyone.

You only have to look at the total gang-fluck that is Vodafone 360 to see just how badly that’s going for them.

It’s a total mismatch in expectations — for everyone — from the normob to the geek.

The first thing I’d say is that neither Ewan nor I are in any position to say what Normobs want. We just can’t. It would be like Lewis Hamilton designing a family hatchback. Whatever our personal feelings, we almost always have to subjugate them and let professional usability and design experts guide our thinking.

Not one person in seniority seems to have said, ‘Er, look, I think it really should do contacts properly.’

That’s because everyone in seniority at Vodafone is either:

- concerned with network architecture
- concerned with getting more customers signed up
- concerned about how they’re doing in India

I’d point you to Vodafone’s annual report which shows just how much money is being made from data – it’s almost as much as SMS. To say that the people at the top don’t care about selling data, retaining customers, or creating value-added services is, at best, disingenuous. Every operator is – rightly or wrongly – fighting against being just a bit-pipe. Some ideas will work, some won’t.

Most Operators have – mistakenly, in my opinion – outsourced the management of the network infrastructure. I wish all Operators in the UK cared about network architecture they way Ewan thinks they do.

And this, I think, is the problem with Vodafone. They employ bucketloads of talented individuals, none of which, it seems, can make the seniority grade. Or if they do make it to seniority, they find themselves with power and influence over a very small section of the company’s product set.

I’ll start applying for the CEO’s job on Monday ;-)

Or they find out that they work in ‘Global’. Which is nice, but nobody at country level takes them seriously. Or, they work at country level, which means they can only influence their immediate country — and, since 360 is a ‘global’ offering (i.e. multi-country), there’s not much they can do except write a memo and ‘press’ for changes on the weekly conference call.

Now we get to the crux of the problem. How do you design a service – any service – which is acceptable for several dozen different countries and cultures, works well for ~300 million customers, and doesn’t contradict or break anything which already exists in those markets?

Apple – bless ‘em – started from an installed iPhone base of zero. Now, every time they make a change to their service offering they have to get it working across 3 devices and millions of customers. And, boy, do those customers howl when anything goes wrong.

It’s the same problem that any large company faces – you can’t please all the people all the time.

I might, for example, want to order a canvas print from a photo using Photobox.com. Or I might want to send my photo up to Facebook for my friends to laugh at. Perhaps I’d like to Twit-Pic it. Or maybe I’d like them to be copied directly into my Google Picasa?

Well tough.

I can’t.

Because somebody, somewhere, at Vodafone, decided that was out of their remit.

The service does allow posting of pictures to FaceBook. I wasn’t in the meeting that decide why only FaceBook for launch, but I imagine it was because FaceBook has the most users.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love an API for my own personal project and I’d love to post to twitpic – but the reality is; that’s not where the Normobs are.

Did nobody in the specification meeting think to say ‘it’d be good if we synched contacts with, you know, all the major providers out there.’ The APIs are public!

No. None of the executives cared.

As you know, I come from a technical background and – somehow – find myself in marketing. I don’t think that marketing executives don’t care – I think that they don’t understand. I don’t mean to besmirch any of my colleagues, but they think customer first – developer later. We can argue as to whether that’s a good or bad thing, but it’s what happens in any large company when you have to think of the majority – not what’s cool among the geeks.

You cannot put disinterested executives in charge of this kind of service, because it demonstrates to absolutely anyone who cares to look, that the company is in dire straits.

Ah! Finally something we can agree on! No, not that Voda’s in dire straight, but that you can’t put executives in charge of things. A truly new and innovative project has to be created, managed and executed by a dedicated team who are passionate about it. That’s why start-ups do so well when they succeed. However, in any large publicly traded company, you’re working for the shareholder. Shareholders who want you to take risks – but not too many risks. Shareholders who want long-term profit – as long as they still get short term gains. Shareholders who want you to blow the competition out of the water – but not to be too early to market.

I am a Voda shareholder – and I’m confused about what I want.

The reality is that large companies rarely make innovative products.  They usually buy in the expertise because the majority of employees are making sure the existing stuff works correctly.  I think that what Voda does is fairly innovate for a company of its size but it is never going to risk it all on a dice throw.

I wonder if 360 will die a Vizzavi-style death by Q3 next year? If there are no changes, no action — if it’s just steady as she goes from Vodafone, it’s a virtual guarantee.

As I’ve already said, Vizzavi (as Vodafone live!) is still doing phenomenally well. It’s metamorphosing into Vodafone My Web and continues to grow and evolve. I wish all “deaths” were as rewarding.

I work on 360 – I’m incredibly proud of some parts of it. But, like Ewan, I’m not the average customer. We don’t get to decide our successes – we leave that to the woman with the Moto RAZR – AKA Ms Average.

Bootnote

As I said, written in a hurry.  I may edit this document for facts, spelling, political maschinations and on capricious whims.  This is a personal comment which, I hope, explains my private feelings.

Sometimes Brian, I find myself stuck in front of the laptop at like 10pm on a Sunday night. The kids are in bed, the wife isn’t far behind and there I am answering customer care questions over Twitter with some guy in Geneva! This isn’t my day job. I’m a developer. My question to you is sir; when does Batman sleep?

I find myself in a somewhat similar position.
My twitter account, like this blog, is strictly personal. These are my views, not those of my employers. Yet sometimes, I give what could be seen as professional advice.

I’m interested in phones – so when someone asks me for a phone recommendation, I’m usually happy to help. But should I recommend Vodafone devices? Should I recommend them a Vodafone device when I know there may be a better device on T-O2ang3?

On the one hand, my whuffie will increase if I offer an honest assessment – on the other hand, the share price may go up and I may get a commission if I recommend my company’s products.

What should I do?

When I see a story about a potentially corrupt deal in Africa – I’d usually be compelled to comment on it. But if the story involves my employers, I’m reluctant to.

The second story is no less interesting or important – but can I risk being seen as an employee giving an official critique on the company? Can I risk the potential drop in share price?  Can I risk my personal comments infringing on my professional life?

What should I do?

I’m not Batman – I’m barely even Alfred. I work to live – I don’t live to work.

I think it’s accepted that I can use my private persona to improve my public persona. I can answer professional questions in a personal capacity.  But if I do it too much, I risk being seen as nothing but a company stooge – without any of the protection of an “official” professional.

Recently, the role was reversed. My employers recently asked me to use my personal network to the benefit of my private network. At the launch of Vodafone 360 they wanted me to live twitter, twitpic, Qik and YouTube from my personal account.

This presented a problem for me. When I breach the sanctity of my personal account with professional content, do I devalue myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m Shakespeare being paid to fill Romeo and Juliet with references to Durex, but I like to think I have some integrity.

What Do You Think?

So, I asked the people who follow me.

edent

(Terence Eden)

I've been asked to twitter for a Vodafone launch event. Should I do it from @edent or should I keep this non-professional?

On 9-9-2009 10:26:26 from UberTwitter

Reassuringly, the answers they gave were all in a similar vein.

AndrewGrill

(Andrew Grill)

@edent Why not set up an "event" twitter handle for the event - keep all separate

On 9-9-2009 10:27:13 from TweetDeck in reply to Terence Eden

rachelclarke

(Rachel Clarke)

@edent do it from another account - with the occasional cross-tweet from this one

On 9-9-2009 10:28:01 from web in reply to Terence Eden

technokitten

(Helen Keegan)

@edent depends how interested you think we'll be in reading the tweets. @andrewgrill's idea of sep acct is good.

On 9-9-2009 10:29:13 from dabr in reply to Terence Eden

denny

(Denny)

@edent I quite like convergence, but would doing it from @edent compromise your ability to speak for yourself in future?

On 9-9-2009 10:31:22 from dabr in reply to Terence Eden

sammachin

(Sam Machin)

@edent Surely thats what @vodafoneuk is for? Accounts for specific events don't make much sense as you don't build followers.

On 9-9-2009 10:33:28 from web in reply to Terence Eden

ilicco

(Ilicco Elia)

@edent definitely @vodafoneuk although a few of the purtinent titbits from edent is good too

On 9-9-2009 10:42:13 from TweetDeck in reply to Terence Eden

DominicTravers

(dominictravers)

@edent I concur with the keep it seperate to your personal account, I for one value your opinions as entirely your own.

On 9-9-2009 10:46:31 from dabr in reply to Terence Eden

millarm

(Matt Millar)

@edent do it from the vodafone official account ( @vodafoneuk ), and retweet that from your account @vodafoneuk

On 9-9-2009 13:14:23 from Tweetie in reply to Terence Eden

So, that’s what I did. I tweeted and twitpic’d from @Vodafone_Group.

I didn’t have time to set up a separate Qik account, so I used my own.

When I saw something that I thought my followers would find genuinely interesting, I retweeted my “professional” account.

But I feel uneasy about this. I don’t want to be seen as “just” a Vodafone employee. I was originally @Vodaclone on twitter, but I changed my name to fully disassociate myself from my (current) employer.

I want to be interesting enough to be friends with.  I don’t want people to be friendly with me only because of what I do 9-5.  I also don’t want to alienate those who are interested in me by appearing to be partisan.

Reversing the Roles

What prompted me to write this post was a tweet I made this morning.

edent

(Terence Eden)

@bash @kate_day any chance you could have a quiet word with someone about CC & flickr? http://bit.ly/Rnrex

On 15-10-2009 08:44:02 from UberTwitter in reply to Basheera Khan

Both Bash and Kate work for the Telegraph. Neither of them tweet in a personal capacity.

I can’t help feeling that I abused their personal space to ask them a professional question. Both were very polite in answering me. But, if they’re anything like me, they’ll soon find it tiresome to have every Tom, Dick and Harry asking them the same banal questions again and again.

I’m a firm believer in life/work balance. How do I square this with my desire to help my friends and help my employers? Is it even possible to demarcate between the personal and the professional?

When does Bruce Wayne get a night off?

I rarely comment on Vodafone specific topics, but as I’ve already reviewed Dabr and UberTwitter – it would be a shame to leave out Vodafone Update.

The usual disclaimer applies – I work for Vodafone Group, but I do not speak for them. Vodafone Update was developed by Vodafone Germany – I don’t think I know anyone involved with it though.

http://www.vodafone.de/update

First, a word of warning. Because this application was developed by Vodafone Germany, the interface is in German. I didn’t listen too hard to Mrs Everington at school – so my 2 years of German back in 1994-1996 isn’t really up to the task. I’m sure some of the problems I encounter wouldn’t be an issue if I spoke the language.

Let’s Go

Let's Go!

I’ll only be covering Twitter and TwitPic in this review – Facebook just didn’t work for me. This review was carried out on a BlackBerry 9000 – but the application also works on the Fisher-Price iPhone, Yahoo’s Android and S60.

Adding Twitter

The developers have done the sensible thing of using OAuth for authenticating you to Twitter. Unfortunately, Twitter doesn’t have a mobile OAuth page – yet. So the first time I went in I got an error page.

Error Page

Oddly, the page is in English. Perhaps this means that they will be internationalising the client for other markets?

On my second attempt I was able to log in using my twitter credentials.

OAuth

Twitter really needs to make OAuth more friendly to mobile browsers if they want to reduce the proliferation of the security anti-pattern of telling users to give away their username and password.

Twitter Features

Update shows the standard Twitter timeline and allows you to update, send twitpics, reply retweet and do most of the usual Twitter activities – it does have a number of shortcomings.

Standart Timeline

Tweeting

Sending a tweet is simplicity itself. As well as a character counter, the entire screen lets you know if your breach 140 characters. You can also send a twitpic directly from a tweet – as evidenced by the camera icon in the bottom left corner.

Danger! Over 140 Characters

Annoyingly, this message pops up after every tweet you send.

How annoying

My schoolboy German is enough to know it probably says “tweet sent successfully”. Does this really need to be shown every time? There’s no way to turn it off that I can tell.

Reading Tweets

Update supports all the standard features – clickable hashtags, @ replies, DMs, retweeting and clickable URLs.

A single tweet

It even allows you to see a user’s basic information.

Basic Information

Shortcomings

It is sorely lacking in terms of advanced features. Clients like UberTwitter and Swift let you see twitpics and other images in line. Dabr even lets you see previews of YouTube videos.

No Image Previews

There are no shortcut keys. In UberTwitter, I can hit T for the Top of timeline, R to Reply to a tweet, G to Go to a user. Update has none of these advanced features.

Twitpic doesn’t use OAuth – this means if you want to upload photos from the camera or gallery, you need to type in your Twitter username and password. A retrograde step given the earlier efforts to implement OAuth correctly.

However, this is only version 1.0.5…

Only a start

I’m sure future versions will improve. I’ll also try the Android client to see what features it has.

Stay tuned for the next review which will talk about how I tried – and failed – to get Facebook working.

Vodafone Update is available from http://www.vodafone.de/update – or search your device’s app store.

There has been a lot of talk recently about alternate VoiceMail Providers – especially those who transcribe or otherwise deliver your message.  I thought I’d give an overview of the four (!) VoiceMail services I use.

All screenshots taken on a BlackBerry 9000 to show you what the on phone experience is like.

Transcription Services

These are service which turn your caller’s voice message into a text.  Quick to read and subtle to check.

SpinVox

SpinVox is getting a bit of bad press at the moment. Regardless of the controversy, the service works. You set them as your voicemail provider and you receive a text (and optional email) with the transcription of your message.

A typical SpinVox message

The message appears to come from the caller’s number – so it’s easy to reply by text or voice.

They include links for you to listen to the message and – crucially – allow you to dictate a reply. So, you call the number, leave a message, they get sent a text.

SpinVox Vox Links

SpinVox is currently free in the UK for the first 30 days, although you may be charged for the cost of the diverted call. Thereafter it’s £5 per month.

Vodafone Respond Plus

While debate rages about how many call centres SpinVox uses, there’s no doubt that Vodafone UK’s Respond Plus is staffed entirely by humans. When you call, you get a pleasant UK based call centre worker saying “This is Terence Eden’s personal answer service” (you have a limited number of greeting options). You tell the answerer your message and they transcribe it and send via SMS.

Respond Plus - Various Messages

There are a few problems with the service – mostly they hark back to the days when it was used for pagers.

• It doesn’t show you the original caller’s number.
• ALL CAPS.

But a pretty good service, nevertheless.

Costs are 25p per minute for the divert, at 33p per text. Plus VAT.

Alternate Delivery

Different ways to get the audio of your message – commonly called Visual Voicemail.

HulloMail

HulloMail have a simple proposition. They deliver your voicemail as an MP3 attached to an email. If you’ve got a supported phone, they provide a “Visual Voicemail” style application.

HulloMail email

HullMail email - message details

Attached to the email is an MP3 of your message. Perfect for archiving.

An MP3 attachment from HulloMail

HulloMail is currently free in the UK, although you may be charged for the cost of the diverted call.  The application is also free.

Vodafone.net

I’m biased, but I think that Vodafone Mail is one of the earliest Visual Voicemail style services. It gives you a mobile website which allows you to read your emails and listen to your voicemails.

Vodafone Mail - new messages

A simple interface for emails, voicemails and – bizarrely – faxes.

Vodafone Mail - Message Details

Fairly straightforward and fast.  You can listen to the messages in whichever order suits you best.

Vodafone Mail - Message Details

The web interface also allows you to download the message in MP3 format.

The interface is very dated – and they’re not accepting new connections. Although a new service is coming to replace it – so I’m told.  There is no extra voicemail charge for using the service.

Conclusion

None of the services are perfect. I’d like the usability of SpinVox, the accuracy of Respond Plus, the MP3 delivery of HulloMail and the mobile web interface of Vodafone.net.

In my day to day life, I flip between SpinVox and Respond Plus – transcription rules the roost. However it is done.

A quick review of MobileCampBrighton.

Brighton is such a delightful city that it’s hard to begrudge it stealing one’s Saturday morning lie-in. As I wandered the laines looking for The Skiff, I was worried about how successful this BarCamp event would be. It was the same weekend as the popular Convention on Modern Liberty and it was being held outside London. Added to my worries was the fact that I had convinced Vodafone to sponsor the event – if it didn’t go well, it would be a personal and professional disappointment.

I needn’t have been so worried.

This was the site that greeted me at the door.

The Skiff began to fill up rapidly. One usually expect about a 30% drop off in participants – especially at a free event – but I think there were more attendees than were anticipated!

Usually BarCamps have several sessions running at once. The advantages being that more people can present and group sizes are manageable. However, this often leads to a bit of confusion as sessions finish at different times and a bit of heartache as one has to decide between two equally compelling talks.

Due to the relatively small number of participants, we managed to do all the presentations sequentially in the one room. This would not have been possible – or desirable – at a larger unconference, but here it worked beautifully.

The Sessions

(Photo courtesy of Pixelm Image is BY-NC-SA.)

So, a brief run down of the talks I found memorable.

Ribot gave a talk on the “Emotion, Behaviour and Human Context” focusing on the power of sketches. As designers & developers, we often go for the big bang approach. Often it’s more productive to paper prototype – it’s faster and you’ll be less emotionally attached to a “bad” idea.

Some sketches.

Marten van Wezel gave us his experience of building successful communities. I’d never quite realised the strategies one needs to employ to keep a service pleasant for its users.

A good looking fellow called Terence Eden, basically rehashed his blog post about mobile contextual advertising and its inasivness. A good points to come out of the discussion was the need for VRM (Vendor Relationship Management). Something I’ll be looking into closely.

Priya Prakash spoke about her research in to emerging market. This was an absolutley fascinating discussion about how different people use new technology. A choice quote was “if you want to see how people use technology, go to nail salons and cafes”.

That most melifulous of speaker, Terence Eden snaked his way onto the board again to say “Fuck the iPhone (and not in a good way)”. Regular readers will know of my distaste for Jobs’ Toy, but this was a discussion about how the focus on cool new phones and gadgets basically ignored a large swathe of the population. While it’s personally very exciting to develop for the cutting edge, we must not forget that the majority of people are on 18 month contracts and won’t be able to get to our products for some time.

Tom Morris gave us his thoughts on making mobile applications and services more relavent by making them easier to develop. It’s a good idea, but I still think the barrier to entry for programming (IDE, text commands, language paradigms) make it too hard for regular users to even think about programming.

Raul – a linguist – shared his experiences with how languages change to fit the digital landscape.

There were several other talks and I’ll link to the Qik streams / videos when I find them.

The final event of the day was a “fastest text” competition. Marten van Wezel won Army of Two and Nik won Spore. Both prizes were generously donated by Jessica Gwyther, the Games Content Development Manager at Vodafone Group.

I really got a lot out of this camp – it’s great to meet new people who aren’t afraid to challenge your ideas.

You can view the back channel chatter on twitter (or Google’s search for mobileCampBrighton if twitter is down…)

From a professional point of view, I felt that sponsorship was worthwhile. I got to demo our new products in front of a very intense audience and they gave great feedback. Hopefully I’ve left a good impression in participants minds about Vodafone and Betavine – if nothing else, they’ll remember that Vodafone provides a decent lunch!

So, no post from me can end without criticism. This is no different, although it’s aimed at organisers for all the BarCamps I’ve been to.

1. Time keeping is paramount. After the first session we were already running 45 minutes behind schedule. With some quick thinking from DanW and a bit of discipline from the participants we were able to finish on time without curtailing the programme of events. Every BarCamp should have a big clock on the wall or each presenting space to let presenters know how long they’ve got.
2. Organisers shouldn’t feel afraid to call for order. It’s really tempting to let intra-audience discussions flow freely. Indeed, I’m as guilty as anyone of talking vociferously when I should be listening. But organisers have two main jobs – keep everything running on time and stop presenters from being intimidated. I noticed that a few times the audience took over from a presenter and – except that’s where it’s the presenter’s intention – it’s a little ugly.

Overall – a highly successful MobileCamp. I can’t wait for the next one!

Recently, this topic has been reignited with an interview with Jayanthi Rangarajan in Mobile Marketing Magazine - so I thought I would share my thoughts and opinions.

I was partly involved with the launch of transcoding in the UK – this blog is not an official Vodafone comment. This is just me giving my opinion.

One thing that consistently crops up is the myth that users are given no control over their transcoding experience. This is, simply put, not true.

The first time that a (Vodafone UK) user attempts to visit a regular web page, they are presented with the following screen.
They can choose whether or not to adapt pages. When they are on an adapted page, they can choose to see the unmodified page.

They can – at any time – change their preferences.

I think that’s fairly standard across most operators.

So, onto the meat of the issue…

It’s my opinion that transcoding is needed – in some cases. There are far too many sites out there which don’t work adequately with mobile browsers and don’t provide a mobile version. Webmasters need to create standards compliant code. Until every mobile browser passes the Acid2 test and every webmaster’s pages validate we need transcoding proxies.

It’s my opinion that browsing a full-fat website on a tiny screen while using a GPRS connection is painful. As much as I’d like everyone to go out and buy an N95 and move to an area with HSDPA coverage, that’s not going to happen. We need a way to make web browsing pleasant for those who don’t want to upgrade their phone or move house.

It’s my opinion that when a user requests a page, they should get that page. If I visit the Wall Street Journal – that’s the page I want. I didn’t request the mobile version. But this still leaves the issue of webmasters informing their readers what versions are available and letting them make that choice.

It’s my opinion that the original user agent should be sent. But this still leaves us with the tricky problem of what to do when a site turns round and says “You must use Internet Explorer 5.0 or better to view this site“.

It’s my opinion that proxies shouldn’t transcode mobile content. But what should they do if they see a .com site serving a page with a mime type of HTML and with a doctype of HTML4? How is it to know that the content is already mobile friendly in that case?

It’s my opinion that most customers like transcoding. It costs money to run a transcoding service. It costs a company money every time someone rings or writes in to complain. If the cost of dealing with complaints exceeds the profit from what they’re complaining about, that service won’t be around much longer. I can’t reveal how many customers transcode – but as the service is still being provided, it’s fairly obvious that people are using it and not complaining in great volume. Other operators are launching transcoding because the majority of customers find it useful and it enhances their revenue.

It’s my opinion that the way transcoding was rolled out in Vodafone UK (and other markets) was fairly insensitive to the needs of the industry. But with the lack of best practice guidelines and any widely attended industry bodies it’s hard to have the foresight to make all the right choices. It’s great that the W3C has come up with a best practice guide.

It’s my opinion that some (not all) mobile content producers are worried that their market share will decline because people can now visit their favourite web sites rather than being restricted to specially crafted mobile sites. That’s a problem faced by networks as well – why subscribe to an operator’s news service when you can visit the BBC News?

It’s my opinion that operators and transcoders need to work more closely with the community. There’s been too much stomping around by the operators when they should have been consulting and informing. It’s great that sites like betavine.net provide a forum where we can discuss our issues. I only wish it had been proactive rather than reactive.

Finally, it’s my opinion that we’re all civilised adults. There’s no need for spiteful name calling, threatening remarks or otherwise abusive behaviour. Not only is it nasty and upsetting for some of those on the receiving end – it’s also unprofessional and hurts your cause. People aren’t robots – they act emotionally. When they’re on the receiving end of sustained vitriolic attacks, they’re not very likely to turn round and say “You know, I’m deeply offended by what you implied about my parentage, but I’m going to make the changes you’re demanding anyway”.

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need transcoding because all sites would use CSS and XHTML to their best advantage. We wouldn’t need WURFL or DeviceAtlas because devices would broadcast their specifications and gracefully deal with content they couldn’t handle. We wouldn’t need to fuss around with whitelists and blacklists because mobile friendly sites would unequivocally show that they were mobile friendly. We’d all be consulted every time an operator wanted to make a change to their network that impacted us.

The only way we get to live in a perfect world is if we build it ourselves.

Remember, these are my personal thoughts. I welcome all polite discussion.