O2 APN settings for Pay As You Go Internet and MMS

After much searching and discussion with O2 Customer Care, I finally found these APN settings for supporting both MMS and Internet with an O2 pay as you go SIM, in a HTC Desire S. Original detail posted here


On your HTC Desire S (possibly other Android Phones) go to > Settings > wireless and network > mobile networks > Access Point Names


then hit the menu button and add a new APN. Don't forget to save once you have added the detail ;-) 


Name: O2 PrePay Web/MMS
APN: payandgo.o2.co.uk
Proxy: leave empty
Port:  leave empty 
Username: payandgo
Password: password
Server:  leave empty 
MMSC:  http://mmsc.mms.o2.co.uk:8002 
MMS Proxy: 82.132.254.1
MMS port: 8080
MCC: 234
MNC: 10
Auth Type:
APN protocol: IPv4


Don't forget to hit the menu button and save!!


Once you have done this you can then MMS pictures to twitter. Well you can if you are an O2 customer! ;-)


Have fun.


Cheers


m

This Years Poppies Are Popping A Month Later Than Last Year

Last year I noted that the Poppies popped on the 22nd of April. Today, the 22nd of May, this years first poppy emerged.

Must be something to do with the wettest drought I have ever lived through! The month of rain and ongoing cooler temperatures have stalled this years poppies.

This past week though we have had warmer temperatures an even some sun! Cue the poppies making a comeback. :-)

Very nice!

Cheers

M

What's The Best Smart Phone Ever?

So what's the best smart phone ever? According to Siri, the iPhones reasonably average voice commanded assistant, it's the Nokia Lumia 900! Steve Jobs would be turning in his grave!

Announce A Hose Pipe Ban To Get The Wettest April On Record!

 In the south of the UK a hose pipe ban was announced in early April. Since then I think it has rained almost every single day! Yesterday we had over an inch of rain in W5. It is almost certainly going to be the wettest April on record, however in all seriousness, although it clearly helps, it doesn't make the complete difference after the driest 18 months we have just had! Despite all of this rain, in fact due to all this rain, the garden is going ballistic again this Spring. The tulips have come and have now mostly gone, although a few are still showing off their colours!

 My favourites, the peonies are springing back (pun intended - yes I know how bad it is ;-) ) into action:

 

The flower beds have been taken over by Euphorbia. when the sun shines on these, not that we have had any of that recently, they really do provide a magical green:

   

A few bleeding hearts are sprinkled throughout the beds. You can probably see why they are named this:

   

 The bluebells are back. these always remind me of an impressionist painting:

   

 The Iris pond - read large pot filled with water, is exploding again:

   

 The forget me nots are providing some welcome low lying colour throughout the garden beds:

   

 The pulmonaria are doing similar to the bluebells:

   

The trees are flowering:

   

Then there is this. No idea what it is but an intriguing flower all the same:

 

If you have any ideas please let me know!


There is a load more happening throughout the garden. Weather permitting I will get out in amongst it over the weekend and clear up some of the mess, and see what other intriguing growth is going on! As I mentioned earlier, largely, gardening has taken a back seat while the garage is replaced. Although I really do have to get out and clean things up a little this weekend!

Cheers


M

Commercial TV Needs To Understand The Concept Of Social

I cannot help but think that commercial TV stations are being bypassed by OTT applications, in the exact same way that mobile carriers are being bypassed by OTT application developers. We always hear about mobile carriers simply becoming bit pipes to deliver content by application developers. The same paradigm is true of TV networks.

With the common availability of PVR's that will record entire series of programs for you, who can actually spare the time to watch live TV any more? Sporting events aside, Why watch live TV programming with advertisements when you can invest two thirds of the time to watch the same content that has been recorded by fast forwarding through the advertisements. You don't even have to wait that long. Take a classic example of any 'talent' show broadcast on Saturday evening. Wait 30 minutes after its scheduled start and then watch and not be bother by needless advertising! this is exactly why ITV are having kittens about The Voice clashing with the scheduled start time of Britain's Got Talent. People still watch BGT, but they do so thirty minutes later, and fast forward through all the advertising. ITV have now moved the start time of BGT, to avoid a clash with the Voice on BBC, but are still complaining of a three minute over-run of the Voice!

The delayed watching of television programs of course will kill off the viability of commercial TV. The whole paradigm of commercial TV requires people to watch advertisements. Why would I invest the money in TV advertising, if increasingly no-one actually watches them? Without eyeballs on TV advertising, commercial TV has to suffer

This is precisely why the social aspect of sharing the television watching experience is important for commercial television. Why? As sharing the TV experience usually (not always) involves sharing the experience of watching live TV. A classic example is the zeebox application that allows you to create a chat room with your friends and watch a television show, while having a dual screen discussion. Guess what, before you know it, as you are watching live TV, you may very well end up discussing the advertisements as well. There really can be nothing better than this for someone advertising a product. Generating a buzz, preferably positive, as a side effect of dual screen television watching.

A nice feature, that should be built into the dual screen experience is then being able to share links to the content, yes even the advertisements, to share in real time on your social networks. People love sharing innovative and funny, or even disastrously poor advertisements with their friends. Why haven't the incumbent TV  stations done this? Why are their a proliferation of applications like zeebox springing onto the market that allow this? To be fair I cannot easily share a link to a TV ad from zeebox either, however i bet it appears in an app before it appears in anything a TV station offers! ;-)

The more social TV catches on, the more people will feel left out if they are not watching and discussing with their friends at the same time. This will draw more people back into watching live television and hey guess what - watching more advertising! The thing is though, for me, apart from the odd hash tag thrown up on the screen, so far the TV networks have failed somewhat to really engage in the social experience of TV. TiVo is a classic example of the lack of social by incumbent TV players. TiVo could very easily be zeebox. It isn't though. A massive play by Virgin into the TV market, I am sure costing a massive investment, but not a social aspect in the product to be seen.

As I mentioned early I cannot help but feel that the OTT application developers are treating existing TV infrastructure in the same way they are treating the mobile networks! All this being said there is still so much that existing TV networks (and yes even mobile carriers) can do to embrace the world of social, as opposed to fear it. More on that later though! ;-)

Cheers

m

Local Foxes Putting Their Mark On Our Garage Foundations

 

 Despite copious amounts of squalling rain and wind yesterday the builders finished off the foundations for our new garage. Due to the wet the concrete hadn't really set too well, as one of our local urban foxes discovered last night. The picture above shows the footprints of the fox traversing the wet concrete. I guess he didn't carve his or her name into the corner! ;-) The picture below shows the complete foundations now laid. Next step the plumbing followed by the concrete slab. It's tipping it down again this morning so let's see how much progress is made. It has been very quick progress so far!

   

Cheers

m

Advertising In Virgin Media TiVo EPG - Why I Don't Like It

Over the weekend while I was trawling the Virgin Media TiVo EPG (Electronic Program Guide) I saw the above Advertisement for the HTC One smartphones, in the recommendations bar. Although it does have a yellow 'A' in the top corner I would not say that this is clearly marked as advertising content. The appearance of this advertisement coincided with the advertising campaign on TV for the HTC One smartphones as well.

At the time I tweeted about it, suggesting that the advertising in the recommendations bar was ugly. @VirginMedia tweeted me back asking what I would like to see instead. If I want to see advertising, for physical goods, in the recommendation bar of the TiVo EPG then at least I want it to be socially aware and offer me recommendations as opposed to unintelligent product placement. Read on. 

The reason I don't like the advertising in the Virgin Media TiVo EPG is that it is not a recommendation. It is a paid product placement that is not recommended to me based on a specific reason. Sure, to be fair, most of the recommendations in the recommendation bar in the TiVo EPG could be paid product placements but at least they are for television shows and not physical goods such as mobile phones. At least they have relevance to a television EPG. As an example when Virgin Media have a new show on a particular channel I think they are entitled to promote it via content management. This, at least, relates to television programming as opposed to promoting physical goods. As long as this content managed content is not too frequent, from my perspective, this is OK.

Virgin Media play a lot in their TiVo advertising, on TV as well as the starter pack you receive when you get TiVo, that they will recommend content to you based on the preferences that you tell them about. TV today demands a service like this as it is so hard to find content that you like in the overwhelming choice of channels. To tailor the TiVo  recommendations towards things you will like, you can seed the system by telling TiVo what you like and dislike. This is done by selecting the 'good' thumbs up button, or using the thumbs down button to tell TiVo what you really dislike. There are even different levels of good - from one to three thumbs up. Based on these settings, recommendations should be made to me in the recommendation bar of the EPG. Not only this, but recommendations are automatically recorded for me to watch later.

The advertising, over the weekend, that appeared on the recommendation bar, appeared to have no relevance to my preferences as it simply tied in to the promotion that was happening on TV at the same time. Again it also had nothing to do with TV. I don't want advertising for physical goods clogging up the TV service that I use, especially when I pay to use the TV service! If my monthly fees for Virgin Media TV were subsidised by this advertising then it might be different! I think I would submit to advertising if my monthly bill was dropped accordingly. ;-)

Also if the advertising was based on my social network preferences, again it might be different. I.e. if these advertisements were served as recommendations based on what my friends and contacts were talking about on the social networks that I use, then they would have far more relevance to me. As I have previously mentioned though, I think that TiVo does suffer from a lack of social integration. I think services like zeebox will be far better placed to make use of social preferences, with respect to advertising, but that is another story!  

So that is what I would like to see @VirginMedia. A tighter integration with TiVo into the social networks that I use, and if you have to have advertising in my EPG, either a discount on my monthly bill, or make the ads relevant to me based on my social networks. Thanks! ;-)

If I wanted unintelligent product placement I'd watch a Bond film!

More later.

Cheers

m

Ealing Council's New Garden Waste Recycling Scheme

Ealing Council changed how it collects garden waste recycling at the beginning of April. As I highlighted in December Ealing Council is now charging an addition £40 a year for residents to use garden waste recycling collection. I have already discussed why I see this as a barrier to entry for residents to use recycling services, thus promoting fly tipping, so I won't dwell on that! 

The changes in how gardening waste is recycled has also occurred when Ealing Council changed garbage collection contractors. Let's just say this change has had a few teething problems. In fact so many that for the first week at least, it seemed that garbage and recycling collection seemed to be optional! There were stories of people having garbage on the streets for 2 weeks outside their houses. Pretty rank really. Anyway I am sure there is more than enough written about this debarcle already, so lets concentrate on the new recycling bins! Needless to say if your garbage or recycling collection has been missed (and lets face it is seems that most people's have been!) then you can report the issue on the Ealing Council website. Hopefully that might trigger some action for you?

The above image shows the new garden recycling bins that were provided to residents in early April. There are also recycling sacks that can be used, up to two per household, that so far have not been delivered to residents. At least not the folks who live on my street. Residents who ordered recycling sacks have been asked to continue using their existing sacks, that can be seen below.

 

The old Ealing Council Garden Waste Recycling Sacks

So the bin above, that probably holds the same amount of recycling as three of the old sacks, is only collected fortnightly. This is a real issue in Spring and Summer when flourishing gardens create quite a deal of waste! The picture below shows my new recycling bin almost full after 3 hours of gardening on Saturday. This was the result of mowing half the lawn, and pruning back a few plants! If I were to trim the hedges as well and mow the back lawn, which I may have to do next weekend, then this bin will be overflowing.

 

Anyway it is still early days. Hopefully a fortnightly collection of garden waste won't result in additional fly-tipping. I know during the Spring and Summer I will have to be making additional visits to the Greenford Reuse and Recycling Centre, but this is not an option for everyone. I have made several visits here recently due to:

• my recycling simply not being collected during the Ealing Council garbage contractor change over. I simply got sick of waiting for it to be picked up so I did it myself. Can I charge Ealing Council mileage for this? ;-)
• Not being made aware that garden waste would not be collected in the first week when the new garden waste recycling scheme came into being. Unfortunately there was no notification given to residents as to when the recycling would be collected. Turns out the first week of the new scheme was not a collection week, so again I had to take a complete load of garden waste to the recycling centre.

All in all the Ealing Council change over of garbage contractors has been a complete schamozzle. I am sure with time that things will settle down. I wonder if the LHR Terminal 5 delivery team is now working at Ealing Council ;-).

I also hope that a fortnightly collection of garden waste will not result in additional fly tipping. All I know is that I will have to make additional trips to the recycling centre to manage my recycling. I am essentially paying more for a service that delivers less than half of what it did previously. It is not going to stop me keeping my garden, it will just add to the overhead that I need to do so.

Cheers

M 

An Addition: The Greenford Reuse and Recycling Centre is excellent. It is clearly highlighted where you should place your different types of recycling or waste. there are two tips I would offer before visiting:

• Have your recycling separated before going e.g. garden waste, wood, cardboard, glasss, waste etc... It makes it far easier when you get there.
• Get there early! It opens at 8am. If you get there late there are a queue of cars and it can take a while. Given this is eating into your valuable gardening time if you get there early, before the crowd, you minimise the impact!

Gardening Will Take A Back Seat While The Building Occurs.

So on Tuesday the rebuilding of our garage started. Before this occurred their was a load of plants to remove and some to tear down. The yellow forsythia shrub that you see above, that provides a burst of spring time colour, had to be removed :-(. Shame but simply too big to move! I think I will replant once done as it really does arrive on the scene with a burst of much wanted colour! We also had to remove a clematis that had taken over the far wall of the garage. That completely filled our recycling bins, not that this matters as Ealing Council seem to no longer collect them, so there have been many trips to the recycling centre over the past week.

Also moved were a holly tree, that I hope never to have to move again. That was a brutal experience due to the sharp nature of holly leaves! I was covered in scratches for days! Also transplanted some ivy that should be fine, although I think the holly hocks that I moved might not survive! Shame, but not sure they take to replanting? Lets find out!

Now the building has started, other than routine maintenance, it will be hard to get motivated to start any big projects. One large one on the go is probably enough, and every day I come home there is something else taking up some space in the garden! I did manage to save all my hedge cuttings, although I have had to move them to a safer spot after they were surrounded by uplifted paving stones! They looked rather precariously balanced and I didn't want a years work crushed!

After day 1, something seems to be missing! The builders really wasted no time in removing the garage.



After day 2, the concrete slab has been removed and the new garage layout has been marked. You can see in the background that the garden is being used as a storage unit at the moment! I will try to mow around all the additional garden 'sculpture' this weekend, but that will probably be the limit of activity! Actually I desperately need to weed the front lawn (fun, fun, fun!!) so will also do that! Should really do the edges as well where I can.



Actually I should also try and take some photos of the new spring growth. After the daffodils have come and gone, and the tulips are almost on their last legs, all of the usual suspects are emerging from their winter hibernation. The garden is going ballistic, but until the garage has been finished, it'll be a little harder to enjoy it!

Cheers

m

T-Mobile - Giving Britain's Businesses What They Love

The above is an advertisement for T-Mobile unlimited business plans. As you can see it has the sub-caption of 'Giving Britain's Business What They Love'. I guess this is a reference to the unlimited call minutes, texts and data allowances.

Unfortunately the sub-caption sits right underneath an upside down calculator with the word BOOBS displayed. OK this is a juvenile prank that brings back memories of my first digital calculator, but finding it odd that it has found its way into a mobile phone business plan advertisement.

Is it just me who finds this odd?

Cheers

m

Danish Easter Smørrebrød (lunch) 2012

OK, not quite mobile or gardening related, but I guess I took the photos on a mobile ;-). Have been meaning to capture the Danish Easter, and Christmas, dining traditions for a while though, so a quick blog about the Danish Easter Smørrebrød (lunch - although it translates as butter and bread) we had this Easter.

Smørrebrød is essentially open sandwiches on Rye Bread (Rugbrød) with all types of seafood - typically pickled herring (sild), followed by further open sandwiches, sometimes on white crusty bread, with all types of Charcuterie and Danish cheese. The goal seems to be to consume as much as is humanly possible, whilst drinking as much akvavit as is humanly possible. Akvavit (apparently meaning the water of life - although I would be tempted to say this is rot! ;-) ), or snaps is a spirit that ranges from 40% to 50% alcohol content. When you eat the sild (herring) it has to swim, so after swallowing your herring, bang goes the akvavit! The amount of herring consumed is directly proportional to your ability to stand and walk straight after the meal ;-)



The following is the bottle for the 2008 Christmas akvavit.



It's not all about the akvavit of course! There is the open sandwiches as well of course! Firstly the herring (sild). The curried herring (karry sild)



The dill herring



The smoked salmon (laks)



The smoked eel and scrambled eggs



Then after the seafood dishes comes the meat dishes. Yeah at this stage I am no longer that hungry. But hey it's Easter so one has to keep consuming! Firstly the Danish meatballs (Frikadeller) with pickle,



This followed by various salamis. OK by this time the camera was not really in use. To be honest by this stage of the meal all I needed to do was to lie back on the couch and have a sleep!

So this happens pretty much well every Easter and every Christmas day for us. It's hard work but someone has to do it! Be thankful that it's us instead of you ;-)

cheers

M

HTC One Phones and HTC Desires

Through work I have had access to HTC Android handsets since they became available. This started with the T-Mobile G1, built by HTC, through the HTC Desire, Desire HD and Desire S. All of them individually are cracking phones for their time.

However on getting the HTC Desire S it was a massive let down. It was a real 'Meh' experience. Although the build quality is great and at the time it was running the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, there really seemed to be nothing particularly novel about it. This, for me, was largely due to the HTC Sense overlay that was forced on HTC Desire users. Through the phones hardware updates (again this is my personal view) there was simply nothing that appealing to me. To be honest I rarely use my HTC Desire S now.

It all seemed very much to me like to Nokia N95 to N97 downward spiral. I loved my Nokia N95 when it first came out. The first phone with on-board GPS (that was incredibly unresponsive and generally rubbish!) and, at the time, great mobile internet browser. It was really ground breaking. Then came the Nokia N96. O.K. that was a disappointment. Probably the first Nokia flagship device that I had no interest in :-(. Then the Nokia N97. Ho hum. By now Android devices were available and Nokia seemed like a distant memory.

The Nokia N95 from 2007

To me this is what the HTC Desire series of devices has been. The gradual decline of a great handset into an also ran. Samsung have kicked their way through the door with there Samsung Galaxy S series of devices. To be fair though both manufactures have far too many devices for a consumer to make a decision they will be happy with for more than a few months!

It doesn't surprise me that HTC had a pretty rough Q4 in 2011. Lets see if their HTC One device range can help their flagging sales. I am sure it can. HTC do not seem to be an oil tanker sized company, in the same way Nokia were, that are simply unable to turn their strategy around. To be fair in the past year Nokia seemed to have ditched the oil tanker for the lifeboats - lets see how the WP7 solution works for them. Nice looking phones so far but a consumer/commercial success?

The HTC One Series of phones is definitly causing some interest and nice reviews. Engadget give a reasonably glowing review of the HTC One X and HTC One S. Definitly worth getting my hands on to see if HTC are making phones again that are as good as their brand names - Sensation, Desire, Incredible, Amaze, Hero, Inspire, etc...

Cheers

M

zeebox - I Love It When Product Ideas I Want Work Their Way Into Products I Use

When I had look at zeebox a couple of weeks ago the only real issue that I had with it was that I could not use the service as a TV Guide. In the previous version of zeebox you could see, on a per channel basis, what was coming on next, but you could not scroll the entire EPG across to see what was going to be showing at 9pm across all channels. As I said a small gripe, but still it was a feature that I really wanted to have, as if I want to see what's coming on TV next I want to be able to see across all channels as opposed to searching on each channel individually!

Happy to see that in the new version of zeebox, released about a week ago, you can do exactly that! The photo above, of the iPhone app, shows the day and time slider across the top of the EPG. This allows you to scroll to any time within the next 7 days to see what will be on. Excellent! I love it when a feature I want to have, in an app that I use regularly, shows up! Perfect! Makes a great app even better.

Recently I have also heard zeebox mentioned on the intro to shows on the Watch channel. They mentioned it was a great way to socialise TV - true. There are even TV ads popping up



Seems that things are really moving forward for zeebox! Well done to them.

Cheers

m

iCow - A Brilliant Example Of How SMS Is Still Relevant In Emerging Markets

iCow is an agricultural application available via mobile phone to small scale farmers in Kenya. Interaction with the application is via SMS and it allows farmers access to services such as:

• a gestation calendar for their cows,
• access to details about a farmers nearest vet and
• access to best dairy practices

amongst other things. As the iCow website says it's "The worlds first mobile phone cow calendar!"

I love innovative uses for SMS. In emerging markets, where smart phones simply don't have market share, this is a great example of an app that provides a service needed by a market segment that would probably have been overlooked by the smart phone developer market! Performing a search in the App Store for 'Cow Calendar' and 'Cow Gestation' doesn't return any relevant app results! In fact 'Cow Gestation' doesn't return any results! So in fact There ISN'T an App for that! At least not on iOS ;-)

More detail about iCow can be seen in this YouTube video.

This innovative idea shows off that SMS still has legs as an application delivery mechanism in markets where smart phone penetration isn't all that! Again it highlights, that to reach all market segments in mobile SMS (and/or voice ;-) ), is required as a content delivery and access mechanism.

Cheers

M

SMS Is Not Dead! Well It Might Be - The Developers Fight Back

IS DYING!

Due to a complete lack of innovation with SMS, since it was created, mobile carriers are now being bypassed when it comes to consumer messaging solutions. As I have highlighted, with much repetition, there are group messaging solutions appearing left right and centre, that are allowing Consumers to take control of how they communicate, and more importantly how that communication hits their hip pockets! Yes that's right, if there is a cost friendly alternative to SMS consumers are flocking to it.

Have a look at the success of the WhatsApp Messenger App on iOS globally. I knew it was a popular application but in almost every App Store market globally it is in the Top 5 of paid downloads. Wow! That's right WOW!



This is more than a ground swell. Looks like WhatsApp Messenger has become the default standard messaging app to bypass the carrier SMS network?

That being said I still firmly believe the carrier, should they choose to innovate, can have a place in consumer messaging. There are several relativly simple things that a carrier can do to open up there messaging networks to allow them to stay in the game.

1. Firstly stop complaining about the OTT market, and start embracing it. A classic example of this is Telefonica Digital's Wayra. A great initiative that instead of expecting OTT players to pay for mobile network access, Telefonica Digital hopes to encourage their growth and prosperity.
2. Secondly open up their SMS networks to developers. Why are companies like Twilio, who provide access to voice and SMS services for developers, exploding? Because they provide trivially simple access to their services with complete transparency of costs. It couldn't be simpler. Mobile carriers are being bypassed again by developers, and why not, when the alternatives are so easy. Mobile carriers must provide simple, and cost transparent access to their networks. Here's a thought - offer access to developers for network services at the same costs that Consumers have access! Provide SIM only deals with bundles of voice minutes and text messages for flat monthly rates to developers who can then access them from mobile app frameworks. Guess what, you have just undercut the Twilio market and vastly expanded your consumer base as you have just completely opened your networks by enabling developers to use them. Stop whining about falling voice and SMS revenue by allowing people to engage with it differently. It's called innovation. Have a think about it.

Cheers

m

SMS Is Not Dead! A couple of interesting SMS Snippets

According to Andrew Bud, from MBlox, SMS is far from dead (and I agree ;-) ). In this interview at MWC 2012 he says -

"You hear a lot at MWC that SMS is dying, but it is very far from the truth – except maybe for consumer-to-consumer. But for B2C, SMS is alive and well; our SMS business even grew by 19% year-on-year between 2011 and 2012. Even in Europe, which is supposed to be a low-growth market hit by the financial crisis, it increased by 29%."

So all good news there then. If you provide the enablers, there is still room for growth in a SMS market that everyone claims to be slowly dying!

On a second SMS note, I am always a sucker for a great SMS idea. If it's not the Danes allowing people to pay for postage stamps via SMS it just might be local reviews via SMS! TxtRoo, created from a hack at MWC 2012, is going to try to do just that. Provide a SMS based reviews service for feature phones. The underlying SMS enabler used is Twilio.

TxtRoo  highlight the world has 6 billion mobiles, most of which (5 out of 6) are still feature phones. I.e. phones that make and receive calls and make and receive texts! TxtRoo is going to try and chase the 5 out of 6 phones that are still feature phones, that most people in the app world are currently ignoring!

TxtRoo will allow businesses to register, and will then provide them a Mobile number that Customers can text to find reviews about the business. By texting the same number a Customer can also leave a review. It is up to the business to promote their TxtRoo number and they might do this via a store window promotion. A very simple way to engage with a feature phone market that is now largely neglected. Let's see if they can make a go of it!

Cheers

m

zeebox - TV as it should be!

I am a huge fan of zeebox. A social TV app that allows groups of people to engage about the show they are watching, with other people who are also sharing the experience - should they choose to. It's the core piece that is completly missing from the Virgin Tivo Experience. In this blog entry I said:

• What I would like is an integration with the EPG such that you can share program details with friends and also an integration with twitter hash tags for specific shows. 

Well this is exactly what zeebox provides. But it goes much further:

• The EPG layout is great giving you a clear overview of what is available currently on TV. It lacks a little with respect to what's coming up next - sure you can see on a per channel basis, but most of the time I want to see across the entire guide what is coming on next. It's a small gripe
• The iPad App can actually be used as as your remote on Virgin Tivo and various other TV's - Very cool although as yet I have not set up.
• You can immediatly  see from the EPG what people (zeebox community members) are watching, so you can actually identify TV shows that the crowd think are interesting. Sure the show might not be to your taste but it promotes discoverability in my view. It shows me whats popular and where there might be some banter to follow.
• When you click through to a particular channel it shows you a twitter feed with tweets about the show you are watching. This is one of my favourite dual screen TV watching use cases. Seeing what the masses think about a show and joining in the banter. Watching X-Factor or Strictly with your twitter feed going mental with feedback about the current show, in real time, is huge amounts of fun!
• when you want to join in the fun, you can. There is a simple integration with twitter and facebook to allow you to cross post.
• There is also a load of other information made available about the show you are watching on the channel detail page. Things such as cast information, Zeetags which are simply tags to other content on the internet that provide further detail about what is currently being discussed on the show, details about app downloads related to the current program you are watching etc...

In the past few years I have become a huge fan of the social aspect of TV that has evolved on the internet. Dual screening with my iPad in front of the TV adds a real fun factor to programming that in most cases, unintentionally, has evolved. Zeebox is a great example of creating a dual screen social TV experience which I lamented was missing from Tivo in my review. It's filling a gap that both Virgin and Sky have really missed thus far. Zeebox an acquisition target for both Sky and Virgin? It should be! zeebox really is TV as it should be.

Keep up the great work zeebox.

cheers

m 

Scrum It! The Augmented Reality Scrum Application - Testing

So last year we revealed the Scrum It! App for smart phones. It's the Augmented Reality app for all good Scrum practitioners! If you use Scrum It! you are so Scrummily Agile, you may even well cross over, unknowingly, into the realms of Kanban!

Well in ongoing Scrum It! announcements the photo above shows off the latest test results for the new updates to Scrum It! You can see in the picture above how seamlessly Scrum It! portrays post it notes on any surface you want to. In this surface the window appears to be covered in Post-It notes. Rest assured, it's all an illusion!

Can you even remember how you practised Scrum prior to the release of Scrum It?

Cheers

m

HTC Desire S Review - Featuring The Toddler Lock Application

So here goes. These are the features of the HTC Desire S (featuring the Toddler Lock Application) that I really like:

• It makes cool pinging noises when I touch the screen and wave it about
• when I touch the screen it makes nice colours
• It's chewy, although Dad is really keen for me not to do this. That being said it's not quite as chewy as the iPhone 3GS (see below), so it receives a lower chewable score of 3.5, when compared to 4 for the iPhone 3GS

Apparently you can make something called telephone calls and send text messages from it, but Dad always sets Toddler Lock running before I get to play with it, so I have no idea about those features! As the above video shows Toddler Lock turns the phone into a handy play toy for me that I cannot cause too much trouble with! That being said if I dribble on the phone, which tends to happen regularly, Dad is forever taking it off me to wipe said dribble away! 

Cheers

Peter

A Halt On The Early Spring?

Although we are not quite experiencing deep winter temperatures in London, it does seem as though the early Spring growth has slowed down. London was so warm through December that I am sure the garden thought it had gotten away with missing winter ;-)! The photos shown in this blog entry are all from January 8th, which just seems to early to be seeing the garden waking up and growing. Of course the bulbs might be making an appearance but all in all it seemed to early.

It seems though with the colder temperatures, that we have had these past 2 weeks, that the early growth has had the breaks put on! I was out in the garden, this morning clearing out some of last years perennials, and apart from the bulbs didn't see much of note.



Looking forward to winter being officially over though. Although not particularly cold I am still well over it!

Cheers

m

Misguided Hollyhocks Now Suffering

December 2011, in London, was one of the warmest on record. Temperatures during the day were regularly in the low teens and I don't think there was a single winter frost. This Spring like weather has fooled many plants in the garden that it is a great time to have a growth spurt! Unfortunately for the hollyhocks in our garden, that have sprung up and were growing like crazy, a recent spate of heavy frosts in early January has dealt rather harshly with their early Spring enthusiasm! As can be seen above almost all of the hollyhocks in our garden are now wilting under the now normal winter conditions.

I wonder if this will impact all of the hollyhocks this year and we will miss out on our summer flowering. Time will tell.

Cheers

M

Twilio Launches SMS in the UK

A week ago I mentioned that a mobile network should partner with Twilio. Well today they launched their SMS API's in the UK. Voice was launched last October, and today SMS. From today you can send and receive SMS to UK Twilio phone numbers at $0.04 per message, or £0.026 at current exchange rates. If you are sending in bulk that is going to add up. Still if mobile networks are unable to provide group messaging numbers, then perhaps they should partner with Twilio so they can! ;-)

Broken record time again - SMS is not dead! It is time for Mobile Networks to think creatively about how they may develop a service that they have controlled for so long, since they accidently discovered it on December 3 1992! Since then the only product innovation carriers have really provided is selling bundles of SMS! Come on. Think a little harder to allow your Customers to engage with your service again ;-). Either that or provide creative API's to allow developers to do so for you! It can only be a win win situation!

Cheers

m

Does Voice Search Work?

According to a search on Google of 'Does voice search work', Bing voice search does not work! Well Google would say that right? ;-)

A Mobile Network Should Partner With Twilio In Europe

With Twilio gradually moving into Europe with it's SMS and Voice API's (also available in the UK with SMS launching soon) I wonder who their SMS aggregator is? A forward thinking mobile network could get in on some of the developer fueled SMS innovation by partnering with Twilio. As I have regularly pointed out the mobile networks are having one of their last bastions of hope continually eroded by application developers. Application developers who use Twilio API's as well.  I have often cried out that SMS is not dead, however it will be an ever decreasing revenue source to mobile networks if they don't do something to invigorate it! Hey how about group messaging ;-)

I will be interested to see the SMS pricing offered by Twilio in Europe to see if it is competitive. Keep an eye out here.

I will also be intrigued to see who might acquire Twilio. SMS and voice are the only common features across all mobiles. As far as some of the larger scale Internet companies who might want to engage users in the mobile space, Twilio might be a competitive advantage.

Cheers

m