A few years ago I bought a top-of-the-range Canon XH A1 video camera. It’s a piece of genius. It’s a highly popular ‘semi professional’ camera and a rather magnificent step-up from the donkey cameras you see at family barbecues. You’ll often find many news channels using something in this category to get out to the middle of nowhere, quickly, and capture footage.

The great thing with the Canon is that I just point it and press record.

I make no excuses. I can’t stand arsing around with white balances and special buttons. No. I am usually in a hurry and my interview subjects are too. So with the camera’s ‘automatic’ green mode, I almost always come away with excellent quality video. And since I can plug in proper XLR audio kit, the audio quality of the videos I’m able to produce is excellent.

There’s quite a bit of kit needed to support the Canon. I can get most of it stuffed into a large carry-on-size camera bag.

Filming abroad was therefore reasonably straight forward: Stuff everything into the camera bag along with a change of clothes and boom, I’m done. I could carry the camera as hand luggage. Rarely did anyone at airport security need to check the bag after an X-ray scan.

Until that arse tried to bomb a plane using his shoes.

That made it very difficult to take ‘equipment’ on to the plane as hand luggage. Every airport seemed to have a different policy to the point whereby I ran the risk of being able to carry my camera OUT of the country but have to check it into the hold on the way back. My camera bag is sturdy but the contents wouldn’t survive the experience very well.

So I needed a flight case.

I bought a brilliant, brilliant Peli case. It’s utter genius. It’s a huge big plastic container with two layers. It fits all the camera equipment beautifully — with space left over for all my editing gizmos — MacBook Pros, chargers, batteries, leads, leads and more leads. Even the tripod fits into the peli case.

But since the case routinely runs to 32kg weight — which is not tolerated on a standard class ticket, I started having to upgrade my trips abroad. In some cases, many press trips are business class, most of which allow luggage up to 32kg.

That was my solution and it worked for a while. Many regular readers will know that up until my little boy was born, I often used to spend one or two weeks a month on the West Coast. I was back and forward with my camera and my flight case like a yoyo.

Genius.

Until, that is, I had arrived into Los Angeles international airport with a few other bloggers to visit Qualcomm’s Uplinq 2010 event.

At baggage I had to stand about with no small amount of embarrassment as every other blogger eventually retrieved their suitcases from the carousel. With the huge Peli flight case, I never knew if it would arrive on the normal carousel or if I’d have to head over to ‘Outsize Baggage’ to get it. Or, as was regularly the case with British Airways flying out of LHR Terminal 3, whether anyone had bothered to put the case on the plane in the first place.

I waited about 45 minutes and eventually the Peli arrived.

I had to apologise profusely to Qualcomm’s PR team and to the bloggers all waiting, staring at me as the sweat continued to pour down my brow.

I had to keep on explaining that I needed all this equipment to produce proper video. You know. It was necessary. I felt I really had to explain why a £200 special stuffed into the bottom of my suitcase wouldn’t work so well.

As all visitors to the US will know, once you’ve got your bag, you only have the Customs hurdle to navigate before you get access out to the airport concourse. Typically this is a formality. Hand your white form to the Customs man and go about your business.

My recollection is cloudy but this is, to the best of my knowledge, how things proceeded.

“What’s in the case?” the US Customs man asked, gesturing to the flight case.

“Camera equipment,” I replied.

“Got a carnet?” he asked, clearly expecting a positive response.

“Er… no,” I replied. What the hell is a Carnet?

“All the folk with camera equipment usually have a carnet,” said the chap with some finality.

I stared, expectantly at him.

“How much is the camera worth?” he asked.

“Probably about $2,500,” I said, “It was about $4,000 new.”

“If it’s over $2,000, you need a carnet,” said the guy, a decision clearly made in his mind.

That was it.

I’d blown it.

He signalled as such by calling over his partner.

“Now see here,” his partner asked, after a bit of conferring, “You don’t have a carnet?”

“No.”

By this point, my blogger friends were already hopping into their transport. Lots of normal people were walking by handing over their normal white forms to another US Customs chap who’d come to deputise whilst their colleagues circled.

“How do we know you won’t sell that camera here?” the first guy asked.

“Well, …” and I thought… screw it, “Well, you don’t know that. I suppose I could sell the camera.”

“You can’t bring goods into the United States and just sell them,” explained Customs Guy #2.

“Right, but it’s my camera. I’m going to use it to do some filming, hence all the surrounding equipment you can see here.”

I’d opened the case by now.

The chaps were not impressed.

“The BBC guys all have carnets,” said Customs Guy #2.

I wanted to respond with some kind of ridiculously offensive remark. But I didn’t. I just looked expectantly at him.

“And you don’t have a carnet?” the first guy asked. Again.

“No, I don’t know what one of those is. This is my camera, I want to use it to film some people at the Qualcomm event tomorrow.”

I was fully prepared to explain all about the event, to show them Mobile Industry Review’s video output and so on. Customs Guy #2 headed off to speak to his supervisor.

“So,” I said, stepping outside my standard Britishness, “If I’d told you the camera was worth $1,900, would you have let me pass?”

He nodded.

I smiled to myself, “But the $2,500 was a guess. I’ve no idea what it’s worth. I just made it up, best guess.”

He almost shrugged his shoulders. I could feel him itching to ask about the sodding ‘carnet’.

Customs Guy #2 returned with an even more serious look on his face. This was clearly a pretty challenging exception to the day’s normal events.

“We can’t let you take that through,” he said, pointing.

I was ready for this. I’d been preparing the logic.

“So the issue is that this equipment,” I touched the camera, “Is worth more than $2,000, based on my generic random valuation?”

They both nodded.

“And you’re worried that I might sell this equipment here in America, without, obviously, the proper import/export requirements?”

They both nodded again.

“Right then gentlemen,” I said, lifting up the first section of the internal Peli case (it’s split into two levels).

I reached in and grabbed my first laptop.

“This is a MacBook Pro laptop and it is worth at least $3,000.”

I looked at both gents. I got initial blank looks.

“This is a MacBook Air that was $2,500 new — which, incidentally, I bought in Las Vegas.”

I continued.

“This wireless microphones set is $1,500 — and including the other microphones and cabling, that all comes to well over $2,000.”

“In fact I reckon I’m carrying about $15k’s worth of goods, easy.”

I was still getting blank looks although Customs Guy #2 was beginning to get the message.

I carried on.

“All of these goods I own and use for my own computing and audio visual requirements. What’s to stop me selling this MacBook Pro for $3k in San Diego?”

If they’re going to try and impound the camera, they can explain their sodding logic, I thought.

“Er,” said Customs Guy #1, “You can’t do that.”

“Right, well I’m not going to.”

“We don’t know that,” he replied.

“You really need a carnet,” said Customs Guy #2.

“Can I get one now?” I asked.

“No.”

“Right then, what do you suggest I do, gents?” I asked.

They talked.

They talked a lot.

I think they spoke to a supervisor again. I can’t quite recall.

Then they let me through.

Not before they made a note of my name on the system.

“Don’t bring a camera into the United States again without a carnet,” said the first guy.

I have since looked into the business of getting a carnet and it’s a complete arse. This is how the UK Government defines a carnet:

The ATA carnet is an international Customs document that can be used in different countries around the world to cover temporary use of goods without payment of Customs charges.

Obviously the BBC guys do use carnets. When they’re transporting $100k of filming equipment it makes a lot of sense. I can see why they’re needed. I see why they had to ask the questions.

Still.

You don’t argue with the United States Government. I’m a big fan of most things US and I can most certainly understand their policies. Ergo, I do not take my Canon to the States.

Enter ATS Rentals

I still need a decent camera when I’m in the States though.

One option would be to FedEx my equipment ahead of time. I’ve done this before. It’s fine. It’s doable. It’s quite expensive and you do run the risk of unexpected customs complications. I have a lovely Sony VAIO laptop that is STILL somewhere in Customs in Indonesia after I tried sending my laptop equipment ahead of me when I went to Bali a few years ago. FedEx obviously washed their hands and trying to communicate with the Indonesian Customs — who couldn’t understand why someone would send himself a laptop — was a total nightmare.

Recently though I happened upon the idea of renting a camera when I’m in the States.

I made a few enquiries late last year only to discover that the companies I’d spoken to were wanting upwards of $1,000 a day hire fees. Just ridiculous. Surely it doesn’t cost that much?

Well, no.

I searched. And I searched. And eventually I found a company by the name of ATS Rentals. They hire all sorts of Audio Visual equipment — projectors, video cameras, PA systems, lenses and that kind of thing.

My Canon XH A1 model was just $296 (£183) to rent for 3 business days. Very reasonable. $19 delivery, there-and-back. Done.

I thought I’d try them out.

Their online ordering system was brilliant to the point when it asked for my country. I could only select ‘United States’ during the credit card section… I tried using their Live Chat customer support. I was expecting no answer.

I got an answer right-away. I placed the order by email instead. It was a piece of cake.

Instead of the XH A1, I upgraded and went for a Sony EX1 HD. That was $100 more but it didn’t use HD tapes. Instead it used MemoryStick — far easier to transfer the footage. I ordered some wireless microphones too.

I asked them to deliver the equipment to my hotel. It actually ended up arriving the day before.

Needless to say, I walked straight through US Customs like everyone else as normal.

I arrived at my hotel and asked if they had a package for me. I knew they did. Somebody called ‘Lopez’ had signed for it. They sent it up to my room for me. In the package was a return label for UPS and some sellotape to seal the box back up. The team at ATS thought of everything.

Never again will I cart about 32kg of camera equipment across the Atlantic.

I’m pleased to say the ATS Rentals service was impeccable. I will be using them again — next week, provided the Ash Cloud doesn’t prevent me from going to San Diego for Qualcomm’s Uplinq 2011 event.

And I trust I will breeze through US Customs.

Meanwhile if you find yourself looking for camera or audio visual rental services, I strongly recommend checking out ATS Rentals. I’m delighted with their services.

One thing I’d really like — and I haven’t yet worked out how I might work this one out yet:

The ability to rent both the camera equipment and 2x 28″ Apple flat panel monitors along with a Mac Pro Apple tower.

Now that would be brilliant.

Even better, I’d like it all setup and ready for me when I arrive into the hotel! Now, I think perhaps I’m dreaming.

My name is Ewan and I’m founder and Editor.  You can find out more about me here.

After Mobile Industry Review turned subscription-only back at the end of March, I’ve been looking around for other projects to commence.  Mobile Developer TV started off as a concept in the back of my mind about 6 months ago.

Here’s the Background

I’m founder and editor of Mobile Industry Review (”MIR”), one of the world’s most influential commentators on the mobile industry.  The site published daily news and opinion for almost 3 years, reaching a core audience of 250,000 industry executives and fanatics.  MIR’s feed is integrated directly into the intranets of many mobile operators, handset manufacturers and mobile service companies.  Super reach, super influence.  Witness, for example, our ground-breaking video of the never-before-seen Nokia Test Labs in Farnborough (Over 175,000 people viewed it within days of publishing). Or take a look at the recent post I published about iPhone centric developer mindset in Silicon Valley, picked up by MocoNews, VentureBeat and the Washington Post.

I thoroughly enjoyed producing the site with a team of brilliant contributors.  In March 2009, I turned MIR subscription-only, providing the site’s on-going feed to one company.  The nature of the company’s requirement developed to the point that I was able to engage a small team of writers to deliver the on-going service.  I still retain all MIR rights and content — including the domain names and the site’s extensive reach — so I’ve been looking for another project to put these resources to good use.

Why Mobile Developer TV?

I really, really enjoy producing online video features. There’s something about ‘TV’ that you just can’t match with the written word.  It’s about seeing the person (or people), visualising their excitement and seeing just how passionate they are about their products and services. I did a lot of experimenting with the Mobile Industry Review Show — the MIR Show — and after a good few hundred hours of stress and learning, I think I’ve more or less perfected the art of brilliant online video production: Top quality HD cameras, excellent HD video hosting, super-expensive microphones — in fact, the best equipment you can buy, a bit of creativity in the editing studio (Final Cut is excellent, but iMovie, although frowned upon from the professional sector, is extremely quick).

Marry this passion for online television with my fascination with the mobile industry — and more specifically, with mobile development — and it didn’t take me long to hatch the concept.  And here it is!

The Aim

I’m going to meet the best and the brightest in mobile development — and I’m going to put them on camera.  I’m aiming to publish one TV show per week to start with.  Each show will centre on one or two people in the mobile development space.  iPhone App developers, certainly.  But I’m interested in the whole spectrum — from Blackberry’s App World, to Nokia’s Ovi, to Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace and beyond.

If you’ve ever seen any of the interviews I’ve produced in the past, you’ll know I like to keep myself out of the picture. It’s not about me, it’s about the interviewee.  In some cases I’m aiming to do a straight interview — me to the right of the camera pointing the microphone and asking questions.  In other cases, I’ll do a walk-about or a show-and-tell with the developer.

I’m interested in talking to and profiling:

• Mobile application developers
  (Platform agnostic: iPhone/Blackberry/Nokia/J2ME/Samsung/Microsoft/Android)
• Companies whose primary business is NOT in the mobile space — but who have developed or are developing mobile applications.
  (For instance: A travel company launching an iPhone app, dotcoms launching their own apps — eg. Lastminute’s FoneFood app)
• Companies who supply services to/work with mobile developers
  (Example: Providers of mobile advertising, debug/testing)

Video will comprise most of the content here on Mobile Developer TV — however in my research over the past months, it’s clear that, whilst there are a lot of developers in Silicon Valley and London (my two primary locations), there’s a considerable geographic spread of developers.  Only today I was talking to developers from Ohio, Johannesburg, New Zealand, Ukraine, Paris and Scotland.  I’d like to be able to fly into meet each — that might be a bit of a challenge in the short term though.  So to supplement, I’ll aim to publish text interviews and profiles regularly.

One developer I spoke to suggested recording his own interview on video, answering my questions to camera with his own facilities — and sending it over to me to publish.  I think it’s a super suggestion and I think we’ll do that.

Can I profile you?  Contact Me!

I’m based in London and San Francisco so I’ll be producing the majority of in-person videos from those locations.  If you’d like to feature, drop me a note.  I’m ewan@mobiledeveloper.tv — this is the best way of contacting me.  But you can also phone/text me.  My mobile numbers are:

+44 7769 658104 (UK)

+1 415 200 9515 (US)

… (I’m happy to hear from PRs too.)

Don’t Be British

Please don’t be British — that is, sit at the back and hope I’ll come across you.  I really will do my best to find mobile developers and companies to profile — I’ve already got a big list from working with MIR — but I am most certainly no genius.  So I need your help in order to profile you — I need to know you exist. So please do drop me a note if you’re keen to be profiled.  At the very least I’ll aim to send you out a list of questions to answer by email that I can turn into a profile piece here on the site. (Who are you, what are you creating/have you created, what platform, why, what challenges have you had, and so on).  Ideally I’ll arrange to meet physically to interview you on-camera and perhaps produce an application walk-through.

Got News?

If you’ve got a particular topic of announcement that you think mobile developers and those working in related fields should know about, knock me over an email right-away.

Design

I’m doing a Robert Scoble at the moment — that is publishing with a default WordPress Theme.  I’ll update it as we progress.  The content is way more important than the theme and that’s where my focus is at the moment.

Editorial Policy

As for editorial policy, I’m aiming for a macro view of mobile development.  I don’t plan on publishing code level discussions, or discussing the finer points of the Symbian operating system.  Instead, I’ll be looking at the commercial aspects of the mobile applications development sector along with the trends I’m witnessing.  The overriding focus is, of course, on profiling developers.  I’m particularly interested in talking with one-man-bands:  The chaps (and ladies) who’re single-handedly driving the massive change sweeping the industry.  That said, I’m also keen to talk to the business people — the product managers, the executive teams — about the challenges and successes in the field of mobile applications development.

This is a work in progress so I’d welcome your feedback, either below or by email.

I’ll be syndicating the output through the public feed on Mobile Industry Review so if you’re already a MIR RSS subscriber, you’ll start to get updates shortly.  You can also catch blog updates via the new Mobile Developer TV Twitter account @mobdevtv.

Standby!

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Here’s the video:

Here’s the video:

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!

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:

Here’s the video:

We were delighted to be able to sit down with Jason and find out more about Skydeck — and particularly when they’re coming to Europe.

Once again, take a coffee, sit back and watch this one, particularly if you’ve got an interest in the mobile social networking.

Here’s the vid:

Take ten minutes, get yourself a coffee and sit and watch Peter’s walk-through demonstration. To begin with, expect to think ‘oh, that’s neat’. Toward the end, I hope you’ll start to think ‘ahhhh, now this is rather smart’.

And remember, everything you’re seeing is being done via a GPRS connection. We tried filming this whole thing three times outside at the Mobile World Congress and each time Peter’s 5800 Nokia kept on dropping wifi signal. So we reverted back to GRPS.

And it still works phenomenally well.

Here’s the video:

Here’s the video:

His answer was one of the most interesting we’ve ever had on Mobile Industry Review…

This is just a small vid — 1 minute 23 seconds. Have a watch — here it is:

We popped by the Acision stand at Mobile World Congress to find out what was going on and I asked Hannah if she’d mind doing a quick chat on camera. It wasn’t planned — but ever the professional, she consented and then competently batted my questions into touch. Nice one Hannah. Watch as I fire question after question at her and she handles them all brilliantly. What is Acision, how do you pronounce it, what phone, what network, do you text, do take pictures with your handset? Do you send them via MMS?

We’ll also be bringing you a longer video featuring the CTO of Acision — probably next week depending on editorial schedules.

Here’s the vid of Hannah:

If you’re into mobile video or mobile video transcoding, I think you’ll find them an interesting company to take a look at. And top marks to whoever came up with the name, Rubberduck Media Lab. It’s one that you won’t forget in a hurry!

Here’s the video:

If you’re a content provider selling, say, a video or a music track via mobile at a cost of £3 — that’s not usually the final cost paid by the user. Data isn’t typically included. So you might end up having to pay £3 to the content provider — and then something stupid like £10 or more — to download the actual content.

Ridiculous and hugely, hugely problematic when you’re trying to encourage the market and prevent user bill shock. Well, mBlox have worked out a model whereby you, as a content provider, can pay for the data downloads of your customers (at, one imagines, a decently advantageous rate) so that the price you advertise your content for is the price the user pays. Rather smart.

Anyway. Over to Andrew to explain.

Find our more about Sender Pays here.

In today’s show we bring you Mobile Industry Review reader Kip Hakes — a huge user of content gateway service, ShoZu — and his other half, Lorraine, who has never used the service, until today. Will she end the video a ShoZu convert?

If you’d like to tell us your ShoZu thoughts and experiences on camera, drop me a note to ewan@mobileindustryreview.com.  We usually film in London on Fridays.

This week, we’ve turned Google.

And courtesy of T-Mobile UK’s branding of their launch event, we’ve — generally — gone pink, too. Yes indeed, last week we were at T-Mobile’s Winter launch, checking out what’s coming for the all-important Christmas period.

The Nokia N96, the LG Renoir, the E71, one of the top Samsungs, as well as T-Mobile’s own USB Mobile Broadband WiFi Hub (that got Dan Lane very hot under the collar. Despite already having a WiFi router at home with USB broadband stick support, I think he wants one!)

Of course, the T-Mobile Google handset, the G1, manufactured by HTC, is the biggie. For that reason we’ve dedicated most of the show to that. Indeed, we bring you the entire walk-through by T-Mobile’s Richard W. Richard was the event’s assigned G1 expert and he showed us a lot of the device features — we’ve brought you that unedited and direct — almost 10 minutes of it.

What does Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian think of the G1? We bring you his view during the episode. (In fact we’ve got a supplemental show coming this week featuring Mr Blandford in more detail on the G1.)

T-Mobile UK’s Winter launch was also a good opportunity to do some normob (relatively) walk-abouts as we haven’t had the opportunity to do many of those recently. Dan Lane takes the camera — as is right and proper — and follows James Whatley on a tour around the room.

* James takes us on a quick introduction to the event ( 00:58 )

* Rafe Blandford on the G1 ( 02:08 )

* Normob Tour ( 04:00 )

* Ben Smith & Dan Lane walk around each stand at the event ( 08:12 )

* We talk to Will McInnes on his views representing T-Mobile and the new G1 ( 09:52 )

* Richard Warmsley of T-Mobile gives us the ‘official’ T-Mobile G1 walk-through (unedited) ( 12:47 )

* The MIR Show team give their view of the G1 ( 29:13 )

* An finally, we have Ben’s facts ( 33:01 )

A bumper show this week — 35:02 minutes.

We’ll be dedicating a heck of a lot of this Monday’s Show to the T-Mobile UK Winter Preview — with a big focus on the G1 Android handset due to hit UK Stores in November.

This week we’re in London, we’re in Beijing (twice) and we’re in San Francisco checking out Swype. Plus we’ve an interview with Jote Bassi of Anam, we talk about Nokia’s N85 and N79 handsets — and we’ve some cameos from other mobile geniuses (notably Phoneboy and Stefan Constantinescu).

Topics discussed:
1 ) This week: More from Beijing & CTIA Fall 2008 ( 00:44 )
2 ) Ben at The Summer Palace, Beijing ( 00:46 )
- Testing the Overboard Waterproof Cases ( 01:36 )
- Sim4Travel Roaming SIM ( 03:29 )
- ScanSafe Anywhere+ ( 04:04 )
- Lonely Planet iPhone Application ( 05:00 )
3 ) Nokia’s new handsets, The N85 and the N79 ( 07:10 )
4 ) Jote Bassi, VP Sales and Marketing of ANAM ( 12:52 )
5 ) We’ll be at the Future of Mobile Conference in London ( 18:04 )
6 ) Get your tickets right now! www.future-of-mobile.com ( 18:21 )
7 ) Ben at The Great Wall, near Beijing ( 18:29 )
- MacBook Air ( 19:00 )
- Jabra BT8030 Headset ( 19:10 )
- Jabra BT2050 Headset ( 20:31 )
- Flip Ultra, 2GB ( 21:35 )
- Creative Vado ( 22:38 )
- Spot Messenger ( 22:50 )
- Portable USB Li-ion Battery ( 24:21 )
8 ) Cliff Kushler, Founder and CTO of Swype: the next T9 for text entry on any screen ( 25:50 )

Our technical contributor, Dan Lane, anchors the show from his office in London while everyone else was out gallivanting across the globe.

Watch out for:
- Ben Smith live from sticky Beijing
- CTIA interviews with an array of companies including Sonicboom, Trutap, GeoSpot, DeviceAnywhere and Nokia

Topics discussed:
1) Ben’s in Beijing (00:46)
2) CTIA (05:40)
a) ShowStoppers Event Tuesday Evening, CTIA (06:09)
b) DeviceAnywhere: iPhone 3G now available (06:22) : Leila Modarres, Director of Marketing, DeviceAnywhere (06:33)
c) Cascada Mobile (07:46) : Alan Lysne, CEO of Cascada Mobile (07:50)
d) GeoSpot (12:32) : Joe Chen, Founding CEO of GeoSpot.com (12:36)
e) Quick chat with Carl from Trutap (17:02)
f) Bena Roberts, President of Vicinity Mobile and Owner of GoMoNews.com (17:57)
g) David Danon, CEO of Sonicboom.com (20:27)
h) Jeb of TopMobile20.com checks in! (23:09)
i) Mark, top chap at Nokia North America (23:46)

Across this week we’ll be publishing extended interviews with each of the CEOs and Marketing Executives we interviewed. Standby for that!

CTIA September 2008 Coverage Preview from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Episode Twenty-Five hits your screens this morning from Charlotte Mews, just off Charlotte Street — centre of Her Majesty’s Media Empire. There’s a heck of a lot of advertising and media companies based in the area. And a very nice Pizza Express that I have frequented for years.

Originally we were aiming to record the episode from the Mobyko party — but due to a clash of schedules (they’ve changed their party to this week, we’re alas, not all in the country next week), we had to find another location.

Instead of roughing it out in the city of London, we selected an office. Dan’s new office, actually. (They’ve taken some space courtesy of mobile marketing geniuses, Sponge Group — one of their co-founders features in the opening credits actually). We were thus mercifully free of wind noise, chavvy girls trying to get on TV and general street hubbub. As a result, we haven’t any normob-walkabouts this time.

But we’ve got something better: Dan Lane and James Whatley arsing about trying to get a Poloroid PoGo mobile photo printer to work. ( 08:53 )

They both steadfastly refused to read the graphical instructions (James wavered now and again) and for a good 50 minutes or so, pressed buttons, slammed fists, criticised Nokia’s Bluetooth implementation — and so on — as the Poloroid refused to work. ( 10:28 )

That is, until we actually gave it a full 15 minute charge. Then it worked perfectly. ( 13:59 )

We filmed the whole shebang and it is a magical RTFM tour de force. (Read the flocking manual).

Special Guest this week is Ed Hodges. Ed kindly stood in for Ben, despite — monentarily — forgetting Ben’s surname. (“It’s Smith!” screamed Dan at a slightly peturbed Ed, “It’s the most generic surname, how can you forget Smith?”)

We’ve also got a cameo from Phoneboy (AKA Dameon — see if you can spot him), we try out the Cellranger Cell Booster ( 03:05 ), James explains how the N78 requires him to carry just one phone nowadays ( 19:44 ) , Ed explains his upcoming special-assignment for MIR ( 04:42 ), Dan compliments Phoload.com ( 18:33 ), there are some competitions, we have some brief Sony Ericsson news ( 06:20 )and we check out some Nokia mobile speakers ( 06:53 ).

Plus: A lot of people simply don’t believe me when I tell them that Dan Lane has got a RFID chip embedded in his arm. This week we prove it. He uses his wrist and and RFID sensor to unlock his computer in a live demonstration. ( 16:49 )

Watch out for James Whatley riding passenger on a motorcycle too. ( 22:17 )

We’ve got all the feeds properly in iTunes now. Do a search for Mobile Industry Review and you should find them there. Or if you like, lift the feeds or actual files from the links below:

Feeds
Here are the RSS Feeds:
3GP video: here.
Large video: here.
Huge video: here.
Audio only: here.

File downloads
If you’d just like to download the file, use these links:

3GP video: here.
Large video: here.
Huge video: here.
Audio only: here.

And we’ll be there, with bells on. Unfortunately there’s no filming allowed — so we can’t produce a MIR Show from the event — but we’re allowed cameras. So expect some news next week plus a segment in the following week’s MIR Show about it.

Matthew has pointed the camera at himself and filmed the following lines:

- “You’re watching Mobile Industry Review, not SMS Text News”
- “And now for something totally different”
- “Fascinating!”

We’re going to integrate Matthew into the upcoming Mobile Industry Review shows.

I’d like to feature other readers so if you have a camera nearby, record some sentences as Matthew has done — and we’ll put you into the show. Feel free to put a little promo in for your site or company.

The full joy will be comin’atcha on Monday — but until then, here’s a one minute preview.  A trailer, if you like!

Sony Ericsson Party – Preview from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

The MIR Show team — Dan Lane, Ben Smith and James Whatley — will be there in force to produce next week’s show.

As far as content goes, I’m thinking normob-walk-about. I think we might be able to get an interview with their Marketing Director. We shall find out.

I’m wondering if there will be any Sony Ericsson handsets that we can put into a competition. You never know. Or maybe some pens!

If you’ve any requests, questions or ideas for what we should film/do at the Sony Ericsson party (aside from trying to keep James Whatley from shoving his N95 8Gb in peoples’ faces), let us know?