Here’s the video:

Here’s the video:

Originally posted here:
Ewan MacLeod: “MIR TV goes to Rome – Part Two: http://s3nt.com/d5c2” (via FriendFeed)

Originally posted here:
Ewan MacLeod: “MIR TV goes to Rome – Part Two: http://s3nt.com/d5c2” (via FriendFeed)

I did a little yesterday — and I’ve been doing a test with bit.ly as well — to measure the ‘return on investment’ of Twitter.

The click-through stat (along with re-tweet) is probably one of the most effective measures of the responsiveness of your followers.

As of yesterday, 597 people followed @ew4n (my personal account) and 634 followed MIReview (the site’s account).

Based on the stats I looked at yesterday over a 24 hour period, MIReview has a higher click-through percentage.

Almost exactly 40% (40.37%!) of followers clicked on MIReview’s Tweeted links.

Whereas only 33% clicked a link sent out via my ew4n personal account.

Immediately I can justify that MIReview has been, historically, an account that you follow if you would like site updates. So logically, more folk are going to click through on this account than via my personal one (which features more friends and other interested parties who might not be particularly turned on by mobile, for example).

Interesting, interesting.

On reflection there’s not that much difference. 7% difference.

But then this was just an arbitrary trial yesterday. I wonder what the results would be measured across hundreds of tweets?

In today’s Part One, we talk about the technology we’ve brought, we visit some landmarks and spot-the-handset, we try making a video call to James back in London and we discuss the merits of cameras on handsets.

Here’s the video:

Part Two is coming soon!

One company has bought our entire output exclusively, on-going. We are, in effect, becoming a private research company.

Our new client is unwilling to subsidise our existing audience of readers (300-400k last month) so the content that we’ll be creating — reports, video interviews and day-to-day industry news and analysis — will become proprietary from 27th of March. After this date, the public version of MIR will no longer be updated.

The nature of our agreement allows for corporate subscriptions to our content at £12,000 per annum, plus applicable taxes. I’m able to offer the first 10 subscriptions at half price until the end of the month.

Our subscribers will receive:

* Daily news, updates and opinion — similar to the existing MIR daily output.
* Provision of monthly reports on key issues and trends.
* Exclusive video interviews with influential movers and shakers from around the industry (similar to the ones we’ve been providing).
* Exclusive video research with end-users of mobile technologies — and the ability for client/subscribers to direct research
* Business development and corporate strategy — our network reaches far and wide.
* Expert news and analysis (think Mr Operator features on steroids), written by some of the best and most informed in the industry.
* We’ll retain the lively MIR editorial style in a weekly summary of what’s going on.

Our content is going to be delivered directly to subscriber intranets and via email newsletters.

If you’d like to discuss a subscription, drop me an email: ewan@mobileindustryreview.com.

I’ll post more on this subject soon!

They’ve been doing a lot of work helping operators such as Telefonica and manufacturers such as Motorola establish Virtual Developer Labs to help mobile developers gain access to pre-release hardware via DeviceAnywhere — and often at heavily subsidised rates.

We talked to DeviceAnywhere about that, then watch as I surprise the chap by demanding to make a phone call from one of the devices there in the data centre rack on the stand.

Are their handsets actually real? Watch the vid as we actually we prove it…

Here’s the video:

Coracle Group…

That name rings a bell? They’re the high-integrity communications specialists!

Yes. It’s run, in part, by Richard L. Purcell. He’s the Executive Director that’s been mailing me demanding we edit some posts on MIR Company News.

If you’re not familiar with MIR Company News, it’s where we stick the press releases that we are probably never going to cover. A while ago I felt we should do something with the tons of releases we’re sent every week.

Anything remotely mobile related, we’ve been sticking up on to MIR Company News. I’ve been meaning to then integrate an RSS feed on to the main MIR site. Whilst it’d be a feed of straight press releases, sometimes the releases can be quite useful.

Michelle has diligently been cutting and pasting the releases into the Wordpress window for MIR Company News. Our policy is to cut and paste everything. Although the site already has quite a bit of traffic, I don’t want anyone to misunderstand. It definitely isn’t news. It’s just a resource we’ve been creating, mostly for our own benefit. I have, for example, used it a few times for some searches.

We cut and paste the whole lot. Even the PR note at the bottom with the contact details of the PR company or the company’s marketing team contacts.

Mr Purcell took exception to this practice. I’m not sure why.

He emailed during the height of Mobile World Congress, thus:

Hi Ewan,

We were pleased to see the Feb. 24 posting of “Bluegrass Cellular Deploys Hosted CSC Gateway from Interop Technologies.”

http://www.mircompanynews.com/2009/02/24/bluegrass-cellular-deploys-hosted-csc-gateway-from-interop-technologies/

We do have a request to make. In the distribution email for the release, there was information below the traditional closing notation of “# # #,” that was meant for the journalists receiving the email. That information has gotten posted along with the press release.

He continues:

As soon as time permits, please kindly remove the following information from the bottom of the posted release:

This is the bit he had a problem with us posting:

We make every effort to send news and information that is within your area of interest. To ensure that you receive future news from us, please add news_for_media@coraclegroup.com to your “safe senders” list. If it is best to redirect releases to another journalist in your organization or you prefer to have your address removed from our distribution list, please let us know by responding to this email. You will receive a confirmation message. Thank you.

I recognise that if you’re a client — in this case, Bluegrass Cellular, it doesn’t look that good to see a PR boilerplate on the bottom, not if

For example, this story here is listed as ‘press coverage’ achieved by Coracle Media: TCM NET: Interop Technologies to Offer AdaptiveMobile Parental and Enterprise Controls .

It’s a press release. How do I know? Well, here’s the actual release posted on AdaptiveMobile’s site. It’s the same copy. One has TCM Net branding on it, the other is the AdaptiveMobile release.

They’re exactly the same. But obviously the boilerplate press release stuff isn’t included on the TCMNet ‘article’.

The trouble is, you couldn’t easily use MIR Company News posts as ‘press coverage’ articles because we do a cut and paste of everything.

Surely Coracle should be pleased that, at my own personal expense, we even published the post?

Anyway.

Two days later, whilst we’re still in the midst of handling Mobile World Congress, Richard was back on the mail with a follow-up:

Hi, Ewan.

I’m sure you must have your hands full right now.

We would appreciate you removing posted information that was not part of the press release sent to you earlier in the week.

Thank you.

Richard

I starred it. I’ll sort that soon, I thought.

The 9th of March arrived. I confess I still hadn’t got round to dealing with the request.

Richard was back with a simple one line statement:

Hello Ewan.

Please remove the non-news portion of the press release content appearing on your site.

24 hours later, Richard was back. I should, I suppose, have stopped everything and sorted it all out. But no. We’ve doubly-wound him up, unfortunately:

Ewan, in spite of our best efforts at removing you from our mailing list – considering the lack of response to previous requests, you have not only received our latest press release, but your site has once again posted information that was meant for journalist recipients only.

“SkyCross Unveils iMAT Antenna Products for Access Points and Routers”

http://www.mircompanynews.com/2009/03/10/skycross-unveils-imat-antenna-products-for-access-points-and-routers/

The press release uses the traditional closing marks of # # #.

If you are unable to make an adjustment in your processes, please let me know what email address delivers press releases to you. I have already removed ewan@smstextnews.com from our lists.

Thank you.

Richard

Goodness me Richard!

Is it really that much of a faux pas?

What a bore.

I emailed Richard and explained that he should remove anything from your mailing list that includes mobileindustryreview.com or smstextnews.com. That way we’ll avoid winding him up. And he’ll avoid cluttering up our inboxes.

I have to take a step back now and again and wonder what the point is of Michelle posting rubbish about Skycross or Bluegrass or whoever. I actually did think I was doing folk a small favour.

I’ve removed all the Coracle Media stuff from MIR Company News. And I’ve set any further mails from them to go straight into the glorious Google Trash.

Goodness me. What a trauma.

This evening I’m going along to MoMo Paris on a scouting mission. I’m hunting for the best and most innovative Parisien mobile developers.

Toward the end of the month I’m planning on hosting another MIR Developer’s networking event (like the successful one we did in London during January). So I’m looking for companies to interview when we bring over the MIR TV crew.

Have you got any suggestions for anyone I should be talking to? If so, hook me up? I’m @ew4n on Twitter or ewan@mobileindustryreview.com. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

It’s fine to nominate yourself.

Simply drop Michelle an email and she’ll send you out the questions to answer — and we’ll get your entry up and live as soon as we can.

Michelle is on: michelle@mobileindustryreview.com.

Tell her I sent you…

Regular reader, Mike Stead, reckons Mobile Industry Review should ‘get out a bit more‘.

I took exception to this statement on the basis that we’ve reported from six different countries in the last 3 months. But what Mike meant was we should get OUT more. Out into the fresh (read: cold, rainy) air. In the countryside.

Here’s his full statement:

We love Mobile Industry Review. The team are great guys, and their videos are the gems of an otherwise staid and boring industry. However we do think that they should get out more. Way out. In the countryside. Back to nature. Mobiles are at their best when out and about, and come into their own when a PC is not an option. So instead of jetting off somewhere exotic, incurring a massive CO2 footprint, let’s see the lads down home in the West Country somewhere, under canvas, kicking back but using their mobiles to have fun in the outdoors.

And he’s setup a Facebook group. Dear Gods…

You can take a look and decide whether or not to join here.

I made the commitment that we will go camping if 500+ people join Mike’s group. We’ll film the whole experience and make a MIR TV show from it.

I think that, right now, this 500+ number is a safe bet. Maybe 10 or so people will join, right?

I reckon James Whatley will be up for it. He’s generally up for doing ’stuff’ like this and he’s also been to that festival. What’s it called? The mud-infested one that’s much, much better when you can switch it off (i.e. watch on TV)? Glastonbury, that’s it.

I reckon Ben Smith might exhibit some good old fashioned plucky ‘come on Tim’ positiveness and will probably, at a push — and provided there’s electricity — be up for it.

Meanwhile Dan Lane and I share an affinity for warmth and comfort. My own perspective is that we (the Royal ‘We’) came out of the cave. We discovered fire. We evolved beyond our original programming. We got warm. We got comfort. I like to celebrate that, in a quiet way, each night.

I also happen to believe that I — and everyone else reading this text — is particularly lucky to have the ability to sleep more or less soundly in a warm environment every night. Millions do not. There’s a teeny bit of me that reacts negatively to going camping as a recreational thing to do when lots of people don’t even have a home to get back to. But then, looking at my 5 or 6 mobile contracts … they are highly, highly unnecessary in the context of daily life.

That said, the prospect of spending a sleepless night in some godawful field in the middle of the West Country of England with ‘wildlife’ crawling over me is not, on any level, appealing. I know some people enjoy that sort of thing though. Each to their own.

Mike’s had one chap, Justin Davies, join his Facebook campaign today. I joined as well, so I could write some outrageous things on the group’s discussion board.

So if you’d like to see us getting cold, soaked-through and generally really, really annoyed trying to ‘enjoy’ a night or so ‘camping’ in the West of England — and making a MIR TV show out of it — vote with your feet and join Mike’s group.

We are always responsive to our audience.

And Mike, if no one joins, we’ll stick to the Four Seasons or the Ritz Carlton…

“Errrrr,” say I. I’m thinking about the possible catalogue of problems that could occur.

“It’s the Vertu Shop. We’re in Prague. Let’s go in and see if they’ll let us do some filming?” prompts Ben.

“Errrrrrrr,” I repeat, still processing the potential issues. The biggest issue in my mind is that we’re unannounced.

“Listen, why don’t I just pop in and ask them?” says Ben.

I look at Dan. We both do a virtual shoulder-shrug, but with eyebrows instead.

We’re standing on what appears to be Prague’s version of Bond Street. There are security guards standing outside every shop — like the Dior one, or the Cartier one. Each of them is eyeing us. We’re carrying an HD camera, tripod and we all have at least two handsets on-the-go at once. Definitely worth the time of these suspicious security guards.

Ben waltzes into the Vertu store whilst Dan and I stand outside with the equipment.

Ten seconds later, Ben reappears.

“It’s fine. They’re open until 6.30pm and they said we can film all we like.”

Come on! We’ve never been invited to any Vertu events or shops or anything like that before in London. Indeed in the Nokia store on Regent Street, they positively growl at you if you so much as head toward the Vertu stand without your 60,000 pounds on display.

So standby. I’ve had a look at the ‘digital rushes’ of the Vertu store and the footage looks good. We’ll bring the experience to you shortly.

We all went in skeptics. Find out just what Dan Lane and Ben Smith thought of the experience… soon.

By the way, the Vertu shop in Prague was buzzing. We interrupted filming a few times because of customers wanting to buy. One guy came into the store whilst we were pointing the camera at one of the shockingly expensive devices. I nodded to the chaps and we headed to the front of the store and stood in the corner respectfully — I thought this was the best thing to do — whilst this American chap took a browse around the devices aided by the expert Vertu salesman. In 2 minutes he’d made up his mind.

“Cash discount?” he asked.

The Vertu salesman nodded sagely and explained ‘3%’.

“Done,” said the chap, “Where’s the nearest bank?”

The Vertu salesman pointed it out.

I’d like to point out that I have never, ever popped into an HSBC in Prague and asked to withdraw 60,000 EURO (minus 3% cash discount) to buy a new phone. Not yet, anyway.

Recession?

What recession!

Standby for the videos.

We’re packing away our Euros and getting out our Czech Crowns (“Korunas?”) and going to find out how the mobile industry is getting on across the city.

We’ll most definitely be popping into the mobile shops there and taking a look around. We’ll be casting an eye across the population to see how many are texting, taking photos and talking on their devices (and, indeed, what type of device they are using).

We’re bringing the big HD camera — and, POSSIBLY the tripod — although I’m giving a lot of thought to traveling light and leaving it at the office. We’re also bringing our two Sanyo Xacti HD genius cameras.

It looks like we’ll have a few interviews lined up by the time we arrive. If you can recommend a mobile company or person that you think we should meet with, drop me a note or get me on Twitter.

By the way: The MIR Show Rome (filmed in January) is on the editing floor at the moment and will shortly be heading on to the site after our Mobile World Congress footage.

Bring on Prague. Can’t wait!

The first question we asked? What was your first ever mobile handset.

The last question we asked? What was the first album you ever bought.

Oh yes. Niklas proved to be a fun, engaging chap. Ben did the interview whilst Dan took supplementary footage and I pointed the camera.

Grab a coffee — it’s a short video, just 9:58 minutes long — and enjoy:

Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us, Niklas!

You can read more about Niklas on his Nokia profile here.

Go and get a coffee and sit back and watch this one. Dan and James introduce the Microvision Mobile Projector. It’s just stunning and you will want one…

Here’s the video:

Annnd then we let Dan loose.

With a hammer.

And his HUGE boots.

First, you’ll see him stepping and jumping on the Sonim XP3 packaging. Rumour has it, the material might even stop a bullet, although we didn’t get that verified. That in itself is worth a purchase.

Then Dan couldn’t keep his hands off that hammer. WHACK. WHACK. WHACK.

And then Dan spotted James walking along the corridor towards us. And promptly threw the phone at him. Then down the stairs. Then stamped on it and threw it down the stairs.

And then engaged the bystanders (a bit of a crowd had formed) and asked them to stamp on it. And… You know what, get a coffee, sit down and watch this…

Playing with the Sonim XP3 (1 of 2) from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

And the second vid? Right here:

Playing with the Sonim XP3 (2 of 2) from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Palm Pre reactions from the MIR Show team from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Palm Pre hands-on overview (2 of 2) from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Meantime… enjoy:

Palm Pre hands-on overview (1 of 2) from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Here’s the video:

Palm Pre – Our thoughts before seeing the Palm from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Here’s the video:

The Microvision Mobile Projector from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Here’s the video:

Quick Chat with Jeb Brilliant from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

He’s setup a new venture called Mobile Facts and although he was unwilling to tell me too much, the hints and examples that he gave lead me to deduce that it could be a rather smart service offering. I’d expect nothing less of Matthaus. Keep an eye on www.mobile-facts.com.

I filmed a quick interview with Matthaus and asked him all about the conference, about Android, about the industry and so on.

At one point he does use some strong language. Very strong. The F word. But he was using it as a direct quote from a venture capitalist so we’ve left that in the final edit.

Here’s the video:

Opinion from Matthaus from Mobile Facts [Strong Language] from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

This was particularly relevant to me since I’ve spent most of the week running out of Blackberry battery power at about 2pm much to my *intense* annoyance.

Have a look at this development coming to mobile handsets. Here’s the video:

Techtium Demonstrate Their Mobile Power Products from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

The chaps behind it are from Techtium. I can’t wait to get something like this. The flexibility of having TWO power supplies is fantastic. You can rely on your main battery — supplementing when/if you need to with any AAA you can find at any corner shop. Genius when you’re roaming.