If you thought SMS Text News readers were amongst the best, brightest, sexiest and most notable of the world’s mobile community, then you’d be dead rght. Well done.

Nice to see you here, by the way.

Pull up a chair.

I’m always surprised to meet, talk and interact with SMS Text News readers. It’s phenomenally exciting. Do you remember Whatleydude? You will. If you’ve been reading around the blog comments now and again you’ll have seen his comments. A lot of the time I talk with people and I don’t really know who they are or what they do as a day job or occupation. So I hadn’t actually engaged with Whatleydude (James) as to his background or profession, we’d just been knocking about some mails. I thought it would be good to get him to answer the standard SMS Text News interview questions and see where it went.

Well. Oooh it’s an interesting one. Have a read.

Without further ado, James….

1. What was your first mobile handset?
I honestly don’t know.
It was a horrific piece of machinery that I got given for Christmas in 1997!
All I remember about is that it had an extendable aerial (which I broke off pretty sharpish – whoops), no caller ID and a ‘design your own ringtone function!’

It was on Vodafone and it was PAYG. Shocking…

The same applies to the phone after that one – no idea what make -

But I can however tell you that my first memorable handset was the Nokia 3210 – ahh… the wonders of Snake!
And T9!

w00t!

But yeah – started off on Vodafone – dilly dallied with Orange and Three – but always came back to VF. Also – I’ve pretty much the same mobile number now for 12 years! That’s gotta be a record surely?!

2. What is your current mobile strategy? (i.e. Handsets, devices, networks)
My current mobile strategy?
Eh?
You what?

*emails Ewan*

Ah… I see!

I’ve got an N73 currently – I play around with a lot of handsets – on my desk right now for instance I have an N95, a Nokia 6680, N80 and another N73.
I really need a Java handset though – maybe if I steal someone’s K800i… Hmm.
Sorry!

Getting distracted!

Why do I have all these phones on my desk?

Well – I guess I’ll come to that later on in this Questionnaire!

My next handset will probably be the N95.. and I’m giving serious thought to moving Operator too.
Although VF have got ’til March (apparently – ahem) to sort out their data etc…

(I’m a Nokia fiend – always have been – although I once tried those NEC phones that launched with H3G – lets not talk about that though eh?)

3. What price plan are you using right now?
I’m on something stupid like 3000 mins pcm + STC
(I discovered yesterday that I’m on an 18mth contract – I am not amused)

*runs off to check*

Anytime 3000 3G STC 50 VC + 40Pds 3G Extras Pack for 34Pds – whatever that means… I know I know – I should pay attention – but I really don’t.

4. What’s your background?
I’m a fellow Essex boy like yourself chap – Canvey Island born and (in)bred.
What? Webbed feet are handy?!
Hahah – moved to London in my 20s to have a crack at working in the city.
I worked for LWT, GMTV, The Storm Trooper’s Gazette (sorry – The Daily Mail)

And then an amazing thing happened…

Bear with me – life story time!

I was tinkering along at The Mail enjoying life etc and – via a mobile forum http://www.talk3g.com – I discovered the BBC had a mobile service which was supposed to be better than WAP. So I thought I’d give it a go on my (then) N70.

I couldn’t get it to work.

So I emailed the BBC and told them it was rubbish and they were too (in as many words).

I got an email back from a guy called Kevin Cunnington at Refresh Mobile telling me that he could fix it and that the N70 was capable of the BBC (Mobizines!) Service and that I should try this.. and try that and and… etc etc.. but no matter what – I couldnt get the bloody thing to work!

Anywhoo – the long and short of it is – I ended up getting it working one weekend after lots of fiddling and playing with various settings – so I Kevin emailed back to let him know that a) I had got it working and b) How much I enjoyed the service.

So yeah – he emails me back and offers me a ‘mystery prize’ from their website (I’d give you the link but they’ve since taken it down), this website had all sorts of things on it – generally boys toys and various other firebox kinda stuff y’know?

At the very bottom of this website it said something along the lines of:

“Or – spend a day in the office and meet the team! If we like you – we may even give you a job – Refresh Mobile is always looking for fresh ideas from innovative people…”

So. You can see where this is going can’t you?

I went along – met the CEO, Scott Beaumont – had a really long (and kinda geeky) conversation about the mobile industry and the Mobizines product and where it was and where it was going and yeah – all was well.
Unfortunately I was doing accounts at the time (YES – ACCOUNTS – AARGH) and Refresh Mobile wasn’t looking for any accountants…
Hmph.

Three months later I decide to start looking for a new job – figured I’d drop Refresh a bell, see how they were getting on – Scott & Kevin were both pleased to hear from me and invited me in for another chat.

That was the evening of Wednesday 8th June 2006.

By Friday lunchtime I’d quit my job at the Mail and signed the contract with Refresh.

I am now currently ‘Mobizines Manager’ at Refresh Mobile – working on various projects such as WAP, CRM, Quality Testing, Product Marketing and general Product Management…

However – now here’s the big ‘revelation’ – my name is James Whatley – I have an online tag – it’s Whatleydude.

Go on – Google ‘Mobizines’ & ‘Whatleydude’ – have a look what you get…

Yup – that’ll be me – ‘posing’ as a user evangelising the service!

So yeah – time to come clean – I work for Refresh Mobile and I work on the Mobizines Service.

Thing is – I REALLY believe in this service and I think everyone should have it – so in my defence – I was bigging up the service before they hired me! So the use of the word ‘posing’ is kinda wrong really. I AM a user of the service – I’ve just been kinda neglecting to mention that I work for Mobizines..

*whistles innocently*

So yeah – I guess they hired one of their biggest fans – I’m a paid user!

…I hope no one hates me! I know I’ve been a surreptitious about my evangelising – but now it’s all out in the open I can be honest about who I am, what I do and who I work for.

Sorry – didn’t mean to go off on one – but I’ve been needing to get that off my chest for a while.

I spoke with my CEO about it this morning and he gave me the ok – I mean Whatleydude is my tag – so I need to reclaim it as it were y’know?
I’ve been blogging since March (www.myspace.com/whatleydude is my main one – but I have others) last year (when I buggered off to Thailand for two weeks and checked myself into a detox spa – http://www.spasamui.com – everyone should go!) …and I’ve had an online presence for around 10yrs now (as that tag).

I also run a gaming forum http://s8.invisionfree.com/ThePGF – gaming being my initial interest that brought me online in the first place… that has now developed to Mobile!

I think I now look at more mobile sites than I do gaming…!

*spots next question*

Ah ha!

5. What sites do you regularly read to keep up to date with mobile?
OBVIOUSLY smstextnews – but also

http://biskero.org
http://talk3g.co.uk
http://ringnokia.com
http://darlamack.blogs.com/darlamack (sometimes)
http://technokitten.blogspot.com
http://www.flash-lite.de

But I also read/use (not entirely mobile)

The Register – we all know this one
Talk3g.co.uk – that mobile forum
IGN.com – for films and sometimes gaming
spoNg – gaming news
http://www.rogerandjames.blogspot.com – comedy blog by me and my mate Roger
http://www.alondonsingtonwrites.blogspot.com – the dating scene in London (written by a buddy of mine – again makes me laugh)

Oh and obviously my own forum (which has a phone section!) The PGF – http://s8.invisionfree.com/ThePGF – where the main chat at the moment is all things Wii related.

I love my Wii – ahem.

I *think* that’s it – although I’m sure I’ve missed some…

6. What was your mobile bill last month? What do you think is a fair amount to pay for your mobile service each month?
I HONESTLY don’t want to say – it was a bit hideous – the good thing is I get my data charges back on expenses BUT – you do the math.

It’s three figures…

I’m kicking off at Vodafone at the moment because MMS is no longer part of my bundle – which, quite frankly is ridiculous… But yeah – I’m giving them two months.

7. Pick 3 people that you admire and rate in the mobile industry and give us 2-3 lines about each.
Personally – I guess Scott Beaumont for a start, (no corporate sucking up here – seriously) Mobizines was born out of a management buy-out at T-Mobile which he personally headed up.

And to give me a job based purely on my passion for the product and the mobile industry is something that I will for ever be in his debt for!

Secondly – I’m a big fan of most (if not all) mobile bloggers – there’s no real one that stands out for me but that whole ‘community’ (of which I hope to eventually be a part of) is growing. And people are sitting up and taking notice. The example being: Bloggers being invited to the big Mobile Industry events around the world. Nokia/Motorola/SE etc want YOU to use their product and enjoy it and then they want you to blog about it.

Over the past 6mths I’ve read a lot of articles regarding ‘How to get bloggers to blog about your product’ or in most cases ‘How NOT to get bloggers to blog about your product’ – its a tough one.

I guess that’s why I’ve come clean about who I am and what I do etc as I know eventually I would’ve been found out/discovered – which doesn’t do ANYONE any favours!

Thirdly?
I haven’t got one – I’m hoping to go to 3GSM next month – so maybe someone will impress me there!
)

8. Do you have any pets?
Nope. It’s a bit annoying really – I love dogs and I used to have one – but I’ve recently discovered I have a potentially fatal allergy to all kinds of animal fur.

I spend my time with my Wii.

Brilliant.

I s’pose I could get a tortoise..

OOO!
just remembered!
I’ve got a Nintendog called Bruno!
lol

9. What one issue or technological advancement would you like to see with the mobile industry? What are you looking forward to?
I must admit – I am intrigued about the iPhone. I’m itching to see if it will have the massive impact a lot of people think it will.. Now the dust has settled things are becoming clearer about the product.

The UI looks pretty special – but other than that – *shrug* – d’ya know what I mean?
I am a big fan of convergence – I recently filled in a Nokia survey in regards to the N73 and in doing so I gave away the fact that I only carry my phone. No Blackberry, no MP3 player/iPod, no PDA/Organiser, no Diary etc etc..

More convergence – that’s what I want.

Oh – and that thing they did in Japan? With the move to standardise every phone charger?!
WHY ISNT THAT WORLDWIDE?!

NOKIA! Please STOP changing EVERYTHING. Memory cards & Chargers being my key example…

Grr..

10. What’s your ringtone?
The Killers – When you were young
My phone only rings briefly as I pick it up sharpish – so that opening guitar is fine by me.

Message wise I had the ‘woo dini’ of a Jawa up until about two days ago – right now I’m experimenting with the ‘3D Tones’ – we’ll see eh?
Incidentally – I upgraded my N73 from standard to Internet Edition thanks to Stefan’s instructions over at Ring Nokia..
Good work fella.

11. What’s the last movie you saw at the cinema?
Casino Royale.

If you’ve seen it – ’nuff said.
If you’ve not – hit ctrl T and book your ticket now!

12. What services do you most use on your handset?
Obviously Mobizines first – I must admit that I HAVE to as part of my job but I actually READ it if you know what I mean?
Ok – so I might not read Shoewawa – but Pocket-lint for instance – I read everyday.

What else?

Agile Messenger – can’t be without this one.
Yahoo Go! – Great App.
MP3 player – I go spare if ever I forget my earphones.
Opera Mini – (although I use Safari sometimes)

My active standby is: Mobizines/Contacts/Calendar/Agile/Bluetooth/MP3 player.

13. What’s the hottest mobile service to catch your eye recently?
Yahoo GO 2.0 on Java – it’s about time they caught up with the Java users. Reporo & Widsets are doing well also – its good to have a bit of competition! Sky Mobile is also a very good idea – and that’s the kind of convergence I’m talking about. Setting your Sky+ to record from your mobile? Brilliant stuff.

14. When did you last send a picture / video message — and who was it to?
*check sent items*

I sent an MMS of me pulling various stupid faces to a friend of mine who I knew was feeling down. It made her laugh. Job done.

Before that – I sent a pic of my new cowboy boots (I love them) to a friend of mine… No really.

15. What new mobile companies have caught your attention this year?
Pass. I keep an eye on Widsets and Reporo (who’ve done well with their CPW deal). But that’s about it – I need to improve this area of my knowledge base…

16. What is the best thing and the worst thing about the mobile industry?
Worst – Data charges & unclear tariffs.
T-Mobile Web n Walk/X-Series on Three – THATS the way forward.
There’s your answer.

Saying that – something that me seethe recently – my mate’s Dad, been with T-Mobile for yonks – on an old one2one contract(!) his last bill was for something like £160-odd quid and he’d used 270mins and sent 10 sms’.

Ok – so he’s 65yrs old and isn’t that savvy.
BUT – T-Mobile should’ve seen this and recommended a new contract to him.

THAT really annoyed me.

Thank you James! Thanks for taking the time!

Stefan is a huge Nokia fan.

On the scale of 1-10 where 10 is ‘MASSIVE fan’, Stefan ranks, I reckon, around 11 or 12. For at least 5 years, he’s been obsessing over their handsets, the company, their employees, the strategy — so much so that he’s decided to funnel his interest on to an online blog by the name of Ring Nokia. If you haven’t caught his stuff, you can at ringnokia.com — and if you rank on 5 or above on the above scale, you should definitely add his feed to your reader.

He’s a friendly chap. I’ve been talking to him across last week in particular about Nokia World. If you’d like to get an opinion on anything Nokiaish, stop by Ring Nokia.

I asked Stefan if he’d be up for doing a Q&A interview — I reckoned it would be interesting to find out more about the man behind the machine. So here we go. I began with the usual questions…

1. What was your first mobile? (and network?)
Nokia, but I can’t seem to recall the model number. My first network was T-Mobile and still is. I’ve had T-Mobile for about 4 years now and they simply haven’t let me down. You can’t beat unlimited GPRS for $6 a month.

2. What’s your current mobile configuration? (devices, networks)
I don’t leave the house without my Nokia E61 (T-Mobile) and IBM ThinkPad X40 (WiFi or T-Mobile via BlueTooth via E61)

3. What price plan are you using right now?
1000 minutes a month + unlimited internet costs me $70

4. What’s your background? Where were you born?
I am Romanian, born in the city of Ploesti. I came to America when I was 5 years old thanks to the United States being kind to my father; he was apart of an anticommunist movement. When we got to America we arrived in Florida. The climate was nothing like that of our home land so we moved after less than a year to a place that had a similar temperate zone. New York. The bulk of my childhood was spent in this state. We moved to Texas about a year and a half ago riding on the real estate boom that was occurring in the north east. Life is easier here, and cheaper, but I dearly miss the pace that New York sets on your life.

5. What motivated you to start ringnokia.com?
I’m a news junkie. I love trends, and always follow them. What I was tracking a year ago isn’t the same as what I’m reading now. From the open source movement, to search engines, graphics hardware, processing power, web 2.0, I’ve done it all and now my main focus is on the mobile telecommunications sector. Obviously with a huge preference to Nokia hardware.

I’m at that stage of my life where I need to deicide on a career, and I know I want to do something I’m passionate about. When Microsoft rolled out Channel 9 I became hooked. The sheer concept that this large company let some guy walk around walk around with a camcorder and interview everyone was brilliant. I can’t even begin to tell you how many emails I’ve exchanged with Microsoft employees. I would like to recreate that connection between passionate users and Nokia, and I’m hoping they like me enough to give me a call one of these days.

As a passionate user I want to know what goes into designing a phone, the operating system it runs, the mobile applications being built for it, what research is happening, how and why the techniques of the marketing department are the way they are now. Once I fall in love with your company you have to watch out since I scour the net to dig up everything and everything I can about it, even if that means contacting employees.

6. You get a phone call from Nokia and the nice lady at the end of the line Says, “Choose three Nokia handsets and we’ll send them to you tomorrow.” Which three current (or announced) would you select?
I’m going to have to cheat on this one a little; I want 2 handsets, and the Nokia 770 tablet. I would definitely, without even thinking about it, have the Nokia N95 and an 8800 Sirocco Edition in black. The internet tablet just because that would be just about the handiest thing to own while on campus. The N95 because a 5 MP camera + GPS would be freaking amazing in one little device that I think finally deserves the title of Mobile Computer. The 8800 since style is important to me sometimes, and nothing on the market screams sex like the Nokia 8800 Black Sirocco Edition does.

7. What’s your ringtone?
I keep my phone on vibrate for most of my day, and I’ve never been a huge ring tone fan. However I must admit, after getting my Nokia E61 I’ve been slicing my favorite parts of certain songs and using them as a ring tone. The Exorcist soundtrack, the Terminator soundtrack, Spice Girls, Rod Stewart, Abba, Enigma, I’ve definitely grown attached to audacity (audio editing application).

8. What’s the last thing you saw at the cinema?
I saw SAW III with my friends, and one of them actually left since he couldn’t take the gore. I enjoyed it very much. I don’t go to the cinema often however as I depend on my Netflix account for a constant stream of entertainment.

9. Complete the following sentences:

Samsung is very skilled in making televisions.

Sony Ericsson phones are the number one competitor to Nokia.

Siemens phones are always difficult to find in the states.

Motorola handsets really need to be abolished off the face of the earth if they run that proprietary in-house operating system.

10. What mobile blogs do you regularly read?
mobile crunch, mobile burn, mobile review, bright hand, Engadget mobile, the boy genius report, slashphone, sms text news of course, all the S60 blogs, WOM World, Howard Chui, and Darla Mack, and I think that’s all I can remember off the top of my head.

11. What’s the best mobile application or service that you’ve tried recently?

This is difficult to say, it would have to be a tie between opera mini 3.0 and the google gmail application. I loathe the fact that the Gmail application however won’t let me send attachments, nor will opera mini 3.0. If I want to send an attachment via Gmail I have to use the built in browser on my Nokia E61.

12. Name three people you rate in the mobile industry and say why?

Tero Ojanperä is the CTO of Nokia and is a bit of an icon to me, he knows what Nokia is going to be releasing in 5 years and I’ve always been one interested in research. At his position in the corporate hierarchy he must track many projects that relate to devices that we won’t even comprehend for another year or two. I admire that.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is next up on the plate, CEO of Nokia; he is the man in charge of the direction Nokia heads in. He can make or break the company, and he shares the same vision as me of a world where everyone uses the internet via a mobile phone.

Ed Colligan is the CEO of Palm, which makes some of the best smart phones on the market today. Their operating system may be showing its age, and they might not have the latest wireless features built in to their Treo line, but they really are the gold standard of what a mobile smart phone should be. I only wish their devices were a little bit sexier, thinner, and less crash prone if you’re the type of person like me who wants to get under the hood of my device.

13. I like your Trekkie picture on your blog. Best series of Star Trek?
The Original, hands down, Deep Space 9 had sexier actors, but in the end you want content.

14. What about the paper planets?
It’s the 60’s, they had to do with what they had.

15. Right but now they’ve got the technology to do it better?
In the end it’s about the story telling mate, props can be used to enhance it a bit sure, but even the Iliad from a few millenia ago is still riveting.

16. Ok, would you thus rather have a Nokia 1110 than a Nokia N95?
No, I need more than the basics.

17. Favourite Star Trek character?
Data, I love him.

18. Ah me, too, he’s wicked — and favourite Star Trek babe?
It’s got to be Marini Sirtis.

19. Nice! Back to mobile: What mobile related company or companies do you think we should be watching?
I think we really should watch ALP and see what they do with their recent purchase of PalmSource. I also think we should be watching Microsoft who is set to release a Mobile OS code named Photon that is supposed to be the most revolutionary thing ever … or so I hear. RIM is starting to slack, they’ve enjoyed the number one spot too much with their BlackBerry line and has stopped innovating. Nokia launched their first QWERTY BlackBerry form factor device this year, and I highly look forward to future updates to the E series line.

20. List the most used features on your handset?
My browser bar none, I’m always buried in a Wikipedia page or doing a quick googling of a question. Next up would be email. Then text messaging, and lastly phone. Phone calls have become something I only do when I need a direct answer from someone immediately or it’s an emergency. An email or text message gets the job done.

21. What really annoys you about the mobile industry? What really excites you about the mobile industry?
Carriers that subsidize phones and lock you into 2 year contracts. Outrageous fees for a la carte services such as MMS and mobile internet. Locking devices so that they only run a specific carrier. What excites me however is coming to the realization that what I have in my pocket is essentially as powerful as the computer at my desk less than 10 years ago. While computers will get faster, so will phones, and it really will come to a point where the pc is just that thing that lets you manipulate data in a richer way then on your mobile due to screen size constraints. The advancements in epaper really have me excited as to the possibilities of how we will consume data in the future. I can not tell you as a college student how much I want a device that lets me access all the knowledge of the world, including those ever expensive textbooks. I played with the Sony epaper device earlier this year and I was left very impressed.

(more…)

I first met Rafe, All About Symbian founder, at Swedish Beers in October and it was super to catch up with him today at Nokia World 2006 — especially as I can now remember who he is as I completely forgot that we’d met

Right, let’s get to the first question:

1. What was your first mobile & network?
It was a Phillips pay as you go and I can’t remember any more — I can’t even remember what network it was on! I didn’t get a phone until quite late on — probably about 2000/1999 or thereabouts.

2. What’s your current mobile device strategy?
I always have lots of different mobiles for testing or to see what they are like. Although recently both the Nokia E61 and the Sony Ericsson M600 are working their way into my current affections on a regular basis. That said the E50’s a great can’t-be-arsed-to-carry-a-brick-smartphone-device.

3. And what network?
Orange and o2. But I am likely to change to one of the networks with unlimited data shortly?

4. What do you think of Three’s X-Series announcements — would you join them if they did a proper unlimited data plan?
I think what Three has done is not particularly unique in the technical detail but they have made a compelling consumer offering by bundling in a number of services. I’d be interested in getting an X-Series device once I have Three reception at home!

5. What’s your background?
I’m the head of All About Symbian which is the leading source for information on Symbian S60/UIQ phones. I started the site as a part time thing — it really began to take off as mobile devices became more sophisticated — it’s growing with that trend.

6. What’s your ringtone?
I’ve got no idea. I mean it’s whatever is on the device at the time really — I don’t get into the customisation thing, most of the time i have my devices on silent. I have themes and stuff, but I don’t really see the appeal of having my phone go off to the Bond theme tune. It’s in my jacket pocket. It vibrates. I answer it.

7. What’s the last thing you saw at the cinema?
Casino Royale. I’ve certainly got no problem with having a blonde Bond.

8. What’s the best Symbian mobile application you have ever seen?
I don’t think it’s possible to choose one ‘best application’ — the best thing is being able to add any application to your device — the ‘killer ap’ is being able to install third party applications to your phone.

9. What applications have you seen recently that caught your eye?
[Scrolls through his handset, 'Can't talk about that one..... or that one... or that one...] Hmm, he says. Any one of the GPS navigation applications. I think they’re impressive. We’ve seen sales of standalone GPS units skyrocket — why buy one of them when you can get just the same facility on your phone.

On a smaller scale: Oval Racer shows what can be done with games. Applications like Gmail and Widsets show what can be done with Java.

10. Most used feature of your handset?
Making phone calls. No, actually thinking about it, I probably use it more for browsing now.

11. Are you not getting nailed for your data costs?
Yeah. When I was in the hotel last night, I elected not to use my data because of the charges. In the conference today I’ve been using the wifi network — incidentally, I actually think having WiFi in the phone only makes sense for some customer segments. I generally only ever use WiFi when abroad (and at home).

12. How can you tolerate not using something like T-Mobile for unlimited data when you’re in the uK?
Simple: It’s a combination of the inertia factor of switching and getting a signal in certain places.

13. So if T-Mobile PR phoned up tomorrow and offered to swap you to their best unlimited data plan, you’d say….
I’m always open to trying new things and product pitches — it’s part of what I do.

14. What’s the best site built for mobile that you’ve used recently?
With these third edition Symbian handsets, you’re not really limited to just mobile sites nowadays — but just as on the PC, I use Google a lot.

15. Pick three random blogs from your feedreader?
Well SMS Text News, OBVIOUSLY

But I suppose that the others are alright too. For example, just naming a couple: MobHappy, the S60.com blogs and quite a few friends and family blogs.

16. How have you found the Nokia World 2006 conference?
It’s always a good opportunity to meet people face to face to hear about the latest trends and strategy — plus Amsterdam is a nice city to hold it in. I’ve had a super time.

Thanks very much, Rafe!