Did you see me on the BBC Breakfast News at the weekend, suited-and-booted?

There was some discussion in the MacLeod household over the appropriate clothing to wear. Open shirt? Jacket-n-shirt? Nope. Mothers and mother-in-laws were almost consulted before I took the pinstripe decision. You can’t go wrong with a pinstripe.

And, as my wife pointed out, ‘It’s the BBC.’

Suit and tie.

I was invited on to discuss mobile roaming. The news broke last week that the EU is going further with it’s roaming cap demands. Just looking at data roaming, here’s what’s being proposed (via WSJ):

Currently, data roaming is subject to a maximum safeguard cap of €50 ($73), but starting next July it would be capped at 90 European cents ($1.31) per megabyte, according to the draft. The cost ceiling for data used would decrease to 70 cents a megabyte in 2013 and 50 cents a megabyte 2014, and would remain at that level until June 30, 2016, when the regulation expires.

Ouch. And then for voice calls:

The EU last week said retail price caps for voice calls are set to decline to 32 cents a minute for outgoing calls or 11 cents a minute for incoming calls as of July 1, 2012. By July 2013, the caps would fall again to 28 cents and 10 cents, respectively. The retail price for an SMS text message would be capped at 10 cents from July 1, 2012.

Again, ouch.

So with that in mind, I was there to discuss the topic of mobile roaming for the Saturday audience.

There wasn’t the time to get stuck into the subject matter — and I’m reasonably content that most of the people watching didn’t wish to do so. I pointed out that it was utterly important that all viewers give their mobile operator a call — or have a look on the website to check the price of data roaming and see what plans they could add or change if they’re going abroad this summer.

I managed to get in the rather shocking ’40%’ statistic. Have you come across this one? It’s from mobile roaming experts, MACH, who point out that mobile operators in Europe report that collectively (that is, across all their subscribers combined) 40% of customers switch their mobile phones off when abroad. That is, they actively DO NOT roam — because (one presumes) of ‘billshock’. That is a testament to how poorly priced roaming has been — and still is.

I think it’s fair to say that most consumers understand what per-minute call costs ‘mean’. 36p a minute, for example, is easy to calculate. If you do a quick, ‘hello, I’ve arrived’ and then hang-up, you’ll be charged 36p. Job done.

But if you send a photo? And you’ve been told (helpfully, I might add, by text from your operator when you arrive) that you’ll be charged £1.28 per megabyte, what does that mean? How much to send the photo of the beautiful beach vista before you up to Facebook?

This is the key problem with data roaming. Nobody knows what it will cost.

Even if you pay attention to the ‘small/medium/large’ file sizes, the fact that the photo might be 600k doesn’t mean you’ll be charged 600k .You have to load up the email client, for example — and do an email check (automatically). And then you have to allow for the overhead of transmitting back and forth. Or if you’re loading the Facebook client, you have next to no idea what it’s doing, data wise. You might end up using 5mb to upload a 600k photo.

But it’s all roundly good news. Broadly speaking, data roaming prices are coming down. There are some super offers available.

Alas I didn’t get the chance to congratulate Vodafone Ireland (or, in BBC parlance, ‘a leading mobile operator’) on offering FREE mobile data roaming across 27 European countries this summertime (July & August). That is truly genius. I’m going to be writing about that shortly.

It was nevertheless super to be able to discuss mobile roaming with a wider audience.

As for the photo above? Well thank you to @mobilemandan for snapping it. Come on Dan, wasn’t there a slimmer version you could have captured at a different camera angle?

Anyway, it’s an improvement over this action-shot that @stuartdredge helpfully captured. My head looks shrunk on one side. I still very much appreciate the timeliness Stuart. Twitter actually records you publishing the photo at 09:24am — so based on the timestamp on the screen, that took just 60 seconds for you to get that one out. Very fast!

Update: A top hat tip for @stephenwing for recommending me (and @bensmithuk) to the BBC

Kudos to Dave on Twitter for bringing this to my attention.

The BBC is looking for the best of the blogosphere – submit your suggestions on Twitter

The BBC World Service is looking for the most interesting blogs from around the world and is asking for suggestions. People can Tweet their suggestions to @bbc_blogworld or with #blogworld on Twitter or they can email super.power@bbc.co.uk.

Blogworld is a part of the BBC’s Superpower season which highlights the power of the internet.

The Blogworld blog will be regularly updated with the best recommendations. In addition the BBC World Service and World News teams will be airing short TV and Radio slots in multiple languages talking to some of the featured bloggers.

Of course, the only link you really need to get through life is Mobile Industry Review…

A blog post has appeared on the BBC informing of a new iPlayer mobile website in beta trials, plus support for new phones.

Posted by Richard Titus, the new Future Media Controller, Audio & Music and Mobile goes on to highlight some interesting new developments.

We’re probably all well aware the iPhone was the first to be bestowed with access to the iPlayer, then the Nokia 96 back in October and now N85 too.

What some might not be aware is that the new iPlayer portal is now available for the Samsung Omnia and Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. The Sony Ericsson C905 is also being geared up for access to the site by the end of next week, with compatibility for more devices in the next few weeks.

Just aim your phone, the ones listed above, at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer and their system should figure out what device is trying to access the site.

Those who already use it will be familiar with the layout and will spot a few new tabs. As they’ve extended the portal with some new features and navigation methods.

They’ve also broadened their support for the first Windows Mobile devices with the likes of the Samsung Omnia and Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, first hitting the mark with good WIFI and 3G.

More can be seen on the blog post here.

Let’s hope other channels follow suit with their on-demand offerings too.

This year’s BBC Children in Need, needs your old mobile phones.

By donating your unwanted handsets, MP3 players or PDAs the well known recycling company Regenersis will donate up to £80 per item to this much deserved charity appeal.

The company has almost raised over £1,000,000 for Children in Need through such campaigns over the past three years.

For a working 5 megapixel camera phone, £80 will be passed along although if not in working condition £20 will be donated instead.

On a 3 megapixel camera handset, £20 will be donated to the charity and £5 if not in working order.

Whereas just £4 will be donated for any working phone with a basic camera or even no camera at all.

All of which is a nice thought and we’re sure many people have plenty of phones just lying around at home gathering dust, where they could be used to raise money.

Anything that can’t be used will be safely recycled and won’t end up somewhere in a landfill, so it’s all good for the environment too.

Please visit http://www.regenersisplc.com/pudsey for more information, or pop into your local ’3′ store with them all in hand.

]]> http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/11/pudsey_needs_your_mobiles.html/feed 0 http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/10/bbc_iplayer_on_the_n95.html http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/10/bbc_iplayer_on_the_n95.html#comments Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:35:58 +0000 Ewan http://www.smstextnews.com/?p=9887 Howdy folks, Whatley here…

Haven’t written anything for a while, but this is something I just had to share.

I just got back from filming the latest edition of the Mobile Industry Review Show (live from the T-Mobile event) and I was about to go to bed when I found this video in my Google Reader from one James Burland, he of (the quite frankly awesome) Nokia Creative fame.

The man has got the iPlayer up and running on his N95!

Awesome!
So I did a little digging… and then I found this piece over on Symbian-Freak about how to install etc… and, as well as finding the actual file there, I also found out a few other facts.

1. If your Nseries has Web Runtime (WRT) enabled, you can haz iPlayer.
2. N95ers out there – hit *#0000# – if your firmware is v21 or above, you have WRT enabled.
3. N95, N96 and N85 all confirmed as compatible
4. Current installation only works over a wifi connection

I’ve poked a few friends of mine at the Beeb to see if we can talk to some of the techies there, fingers crossed we’ll be able to bring you a follow up piece over the next few days outlining some of the finer details.

So what are you waiting for? Download it now and let us know what you think!

Whatley out…

As Rob commented earlier, the BBC’s Olympics text service looked promising.

I was looking forward to frequent text messages across the business day about plucky British chappies and ladies risking all for blighty and spectacularly failing. We’re very good at screwing up and coming last here in the UK. Or nailing the competition to the wall. It seems to be very binary.

Instead though, I’ve been getting television promotion alerts.

Hardly useful.

“Watch Nicole Cooke try and win something at 10am,” the message said. Something like that.

Ok.

So I wasn’t able to do that.

Where’s the update? Did she win? Did she fail with the pluckiness of a good old Britisher? What happened?

Almost helpful.

The BBC have been promoting a show called “Britain from Above” in which which they take telemetry from various trackable sources and generate fancy maps of our activities and, presumably, add a thick layer of social commentary.

In the promo video linked below they show a few examples of air, land and sea movements but it’s the content at almost exactly 1 minute into the video that interests me; A traffic map of every telephone exchange in Britain tracked, as they say in the video, second by second.

This is obviously based on information from BT, so are there any mobile networks that do fancy network utilisation displays like this? Hopefully there will be more telecom eye candy in the full show.

You can check out the promo video here or, if you’re in the UK, see the whole show on Sunday 10th August at 9pm on BBC One.

It’s been four years since myself and five friends screamed ourselves at a TV as the men’s coxless 4 won gold by a gnat’s knacker.

Four years since I nearly got fired for watching the badminton semi final instead of working. Four years since GB I watched in rapture as team GB kicked butt several times in the velodrome.

If you haven’t already guessed, I’m getting very excited about the Olympics. Infact, if we had one more medal hopeful I’d probably have peed my pants by now. It’s true.

So, trying to remove that mental picture. I’m in love with the new BBC SMS application for the Olympics. If you text ALERTS to 81008 the BBC send you (you guessed it) alerts for all events that we have even a snowball’s chance in hell of medalling.

What I’m most impressed about, however, is that dear old Auntie has finally learned from the frequent scandals and isn’t charging an arm and a leg for this service. Instead it’s a one off 15p and then all alerts are free.

What can I say, the cheapskate in me is in love too.

For BBC junkies, that means a chance to switch off the goggle box and watch TV on the iPhone instead. Insterestingly, this is the first time the Beeb has customised the iPlayer for a mobile device. Apparently, the Beeb said it started off the iPlayer’s mobile odyssey with the iPhone because it’s the “device most optimised for high quality video currently available”, according to the BBC blog.

I can see what they mean about optimised, but the same blog also says: “You’ll need to be online via a wi-fi broadband connection (the iPhone’s EDGE connectivity is too slow for streaming video).” That doesn’t sound too promising – why bring out a media playing app for a mobile phone that you can’t use on the go? It’s great to hear that the Beeb is taking mobile seriously but it’s a shame the first attempt can’t be used over mobile networks.