Steve Perlman, CEO of the company, was invited on to the Uplinq stage by HTC’s Peter Chou to showcase what they’re doing with the all new HTC Flyer tablet.

Essentially you’ll be able to experience phenomenal full-motion, fully-size, full-experience gaming on your HTC Flyer. The game will actually be run on a server in a remote data centre and piped through to your tablet over WiFi. The results are apparently virtually indistinguishable from playing the game on your own high-spec PC.

Steve didn’t actually demonstrate it all working on stage. I think this was a good idea. He pointed out that the WiFi is absolutely saturated here in San Diego so instead they showed off a video produced earlier.

See what you think. I reckon it looks rather smart. Here’s the video:

3 from B-Reel & B-Reel Films on Vimeo.

She got home from work one day to find the whole family house turned upside down. They’d been burgled. The burglars had been rather smart too. They managed to find and expertly extract all the valuables — from watches to televisions to PlayStations.

The Police came and did the usual. They looked around. They didn’t take any fingerprints. There’s no point. They could tell it was a professional job. They just consoled my friend’s mother and gave her a crime reference number for the insurance.

Thankfully, the family was insured.

That, unfortunately, is when the second wind — the second nightmare — arrived. The sodding insurance company made it as difficult as possible.

Not many people know this — but if you’re trying to claim a item on your insurance, you typically have to supply proof of purchase. Or if you don’t have that readily available, a model and serial number will do.

I tell you now, I don’t know the serial numbers of anything I own.

I could *probably* tell you the details of my Apple Macs, simply because I got an electronic receipt from the Apple Store so I could search the information via Gmail.

My friend’s mother was outraged — the insurance company was incredibility difficult, refusing to reimburse the full amount because she had no proof of purchase, and no serial number records. Indeed, as the family began adding up the value of everything that had been stolen, they realised they were dramatically underinsured. By something like 30-40 thousand pounds.

When you count your flatscreen TVs, PlayStations, laptops, computers, iPads and array of iPhones, that figure can easily come to well over 10k before you’ve got to jewels, watches and so on.

Eventually the family managed to reach an understanding with the insurance company. But the family lost out, big time.

It was a lesson to my friend. The family now keeps the receipts and serial numbers of all important purchases — just in case.

I remember remarking that it’s a shame there’s no online system to help you do this.

That got my friend thinking.

He and his brother started doing research. They hunted far and wide — and they couldn’t find anything that their mother could use to track valuables, serial numbers, replacement costs and so on.

There were some systems out there — and some desktop software applications — that could be co-opted for the purpose. But Richard and Tom wanted an online solution that did the job.

They specified out the system. They began the build. Then they came to me with the concept.

I liked it a lot. So I invested in the concept — took it under our EventScope brand and it’s just gone live.

If you’d like to have a look, I encourage you to visit www.myhomecontents.co.uk (it does what it says on the tin).

You can keep updated with the team via Twitter (@myhomecontents). And we’d all very much welcome a ‘like’ from you on Facebook:

The service costs £5 per year — and if you use the code ‘fivek’, you’ll get an extra year free.

There’s a mobile angle. At least, there will be. The chaps are working away on that idea right now — the ability to be able to scan the barcode of each product and store it easily along with a photo and other details, straight from your Smartphone.

The first and most important part of the system was establishing the web version.

What do you think of the concept?

Here’s the obligatory Youtube tutorial video:

Reader Kirk dropped me a note today about Put.io, a new online storage service that, as the site explains, fetches media files and lets you stream them immediately. You can use it to stream video, listen to your music and share your library with friends.

It’s an interesting take on the online storage conundrum that has been plaguing me for some time. I see a lot of similarities between Put.io and ZumoDrive, however Put.io offers some features I haven’t seen before, namely the ability to fetch files from many places (e.g. bittorrent, FTP, direct downloads, RapidShare and http authenticated links). They’ll also watch RSS feeds for you and download new content automatically, and since they’re rocking super-fast gigabit ports on their servers, they reckon they’ll be able to download stuff a lot faster than your home connection could. Once they’ve got the data, of course, then they can serve it to you in super-quick time.

What’s it cost? Well 10GB storage and bandwidth will set you back $4.90 a month — that’s the ‘beginner’ plan. The premium plan costs $19.90 and comes with 100GB storage and bandwidth. I also see that they are limiting sign-ups on each of the plans:

If you’re doing a lot of downloading, sharing and streaming, I reckon Put.io may well be highly useful. Do take a look!

I’ve got five lines on the account, all at crazy price plan levels. I don’t know which-is-which, apart from my main number. And Vodafone UK’s online account management is so dire that I decided I’d go into a shop and sort it out.

I liked the idea of perusing my account screen with the helpful Vodafone sales chaps. I didn’t like the idea of phoning up customer service because I couldn’t easily visualise the accounts. I figured it would take 3 times as long to go through the changes I needed to make via voice. I didn’t want to wind up the customer services agent and I reckoned, if I picked a Vodafone shop in London when they were reasonably empty, I could spend 10 minutes sorting things out in person.

That’s the beauty of Vodafone. It’s all connected. Setting aside the fact you can’t really *do* much with your online account management (i.e. change price plans — I always get errors), I liked the fact I could walk into any Vodafone shop, the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, and be able to discuss my account within seconds. It’s all so smart. All so connected.

Phone up and they can help you. Walk into any store and they can call up your account there and then and woosh, you can walk out with a new handset if you like. All you need to do is confirm your primary phone number, name/address or show some ID and bish, bash, bosh, you’re done.

It may not sound *that* amazing, but remember o2 stores can’t help you unless you can remember your account number. You literally have to stand in the shop phoning o2 customer service to retrieve your account number, THEN the chaps can help you.

And 3… don’t get me started on 3. They’re better now, but they used to be completely 100% unable to service existing customers. It was a dire experience if you were already a customer. You’d walk in, hoping to upgrade, then be told to phone customer service and do the deal via phone because their systems weren’t setup. Thankfully they’ve rectified that.

But something strange has happened to Vodafone recently, if today’s experience is accurate across the whole store network.

I walked into the Oxford Street (near Soho) branch this evening. They weren’t too busy and I was approached by a helpful chap within seconds.

“I’d like to make some changes to my price plans,” I said, “And possibly upgrade one of the lines — I’ve got five on my account.”

The chap did a ‘let me stop you there look’ before telling me, “Sorry sir, I’m afraid you have to call up for that.”

I looked at him.

In fact my look said: “YOU WHAT?”

“Yes,” he continued, “If we do it in-store, you’ll have to add an extra 6 months to your contract if you change price plans?”

I looked at him again.

You what?

“Er, well, can you tell me if any of my accounts are free of contract yet?” I asked, crestfallen.

“Sure!” he snapped with efficient politeness.

We headed to the back of the shop. I gave him my details. Within seconds he was telling me that one of my 12-month lines was out of contract.

“You can get a G2 for £90 on an 18-month contract,” he said.

Riight, I said, considering the 600 a month I’m spending. That’s a whopping 7,200 pounds a year. If you assume a G2 costs an arbitrary £400, I could buy 18 of them a year for what I’m blowing with Vodafone.

He came up with another option, “Or, if you’d like a 24-month contract on that line, the G2 would be just £5?”

Right.

I saw the manager — or a ’suit’ was standing nearby so I thought I’d try out the entrepreneurialism.

“So I’m spending at least 600 a month with you,” I prompted.

My sales guy looked at my recent bills.

“Er, yeah,” he said.

I glanced in the direction of the manager, standing next to him not paying any attention.

“So, you can’t change my price plans here…”

- “No sir,” he interrupted again, “You have to phone 191 [Customer Services]. Unless you’re upgrading, we can’t help [smile].”

“And despite the fact I’m paying 600 a month, you can’t just give me a G2, you need to charge me five pounds?”

“As I said,” he replied patiently, “You do need to talk to customer services.”

Right.

So it’s cookie-cutter time.

I’m exactly the same as someone paying Vodafone £15 per month. In fact given the amount of attention my brother gets on a month-to-month £25 contract (he’s getting how-are-you-doing-sir calls each month urging him to upgrade to a contract with special terms), I think he’s getting a better service level.

What’s the point of a branch network if you can’t service me and my £7,200 expenditure.

And at what point do I sit back and think seven grand is just a stupid, stupid amount to be paying.

That amount is a reflection of my relationship with Vodafone. I was hugely delighted. I didn’t mind the expenditure. It is certainly a business expense for the company — indeed, the Bold, the Dell Mini laptop, those weren’t entirely necessary for me personally but they were super-necessary for the business, to make sure I could deliver decent reviews and competent reporting.

But now, well, I think I could get by on £20-30 per month. Give me 600 minutes, unlimited texts and ‘unlimited’ data and you know what, that’ll work.

And it just takes one experience to really change your perspective.

What the hell am I doing paying them that amount of cash?

Well, obviously, I was going into their shop to reduce that down — to remove and reduce the unnecessary 65, 80, 90 and 45 (or whatever) price plans that I’ve got running. Throw in some unnecessary (but previously useful) Blackberry service plans on a few of the lines. It all adds up. Plus VAT. Add in a bit of international roaming and before you know it, you’re at 600 quid.

Deary me.

It used to be blowing this kind of money on an operator, you’d be sent phones, devices, whatever in order to keep your head in the sand so that you didn’t actually do anything. Indeed if Vodafone had called me last week and offered me a G2 for free, along with something else, and something else… you know, ‘goodies’, I’d have reacted emotionally: Yes please and er, don’t worry about those price plan changes. That’d have been worth the cash to me. I understand the commercial realities that the operator has to face. But I also recognise that I’ve been giving them a heckuvalot of business and… well… it’s the age old customer issue isn’t it? I now think I’m paying a lot, lot more than I need to be and can’t see a reason to continue.

Tomorrow, Vodafone Customer Services and I have a date. A rather boring and extensive date where we go through each account in sequence and reduce them down to their (roughly) 15 quid/month minimums. And I need to cancel that 12-month one that’s already expired.

Like many of the UK’s contracted mobile customers, I’ll take note of the contract expiry dates on each line and start clock-watching.

Vodafone’s online billing service that allows you to login and check your bill is ok. OK. But it suffers from being thoroughly old. Forget Web 2.0 or even Web 1.0 — this is Web 0.0. Or 0.5. Clunky, quite slow and thoroughly uninformative at the best of times, these systems really are due a nice upgrade at some point.

The systems are causing frustration. Lots of frustration. Witness, here, an email from a rather influential purchaser of telecoms equipment in Europe. I’ve changed his name to Graham rather than give a clue to his identity. His company’s telecoms budget — which he controls — is in the millions. Add in their activities across Europe and it’s getting to Deutsche Post levels (See our story about Deutsche Post outsourcing their telecoms to Telefonica for 350m Euro).

Have a read of his email:

- – - – -

Ewan,

Guess what? Gets a nice email from Vodafone telling me that my bill is available online – just like normal. I go online and just like normal absolutely nothing works, no online statement (how do I know what I am going to be charged?), no info on price plans, no detailed call breakdowns, zilch, nothing. What century are we in? This is rubbish.

I chose to stop getting printed statements because it’s not very green and also there is a lot of confidential information in an itemised bill. Vodafone save money by not sending out bills but quid pro quo they also need to make their IT systems work reliably.

I am converting thousands of mobile handsets, Blackberrys and 3G cards from T-Mobile to Vodafone at work because T-Mobile can’t run a piss up in a brewery and the signal quality sucks. Am I making a mistake? Is there actually a mobile company that knows how to run a business and understands the basics of keeping IT systems available?

Graham

- – - – -

Not good, not good at all.

Alas what the consumer experiences is also what the executives experience. And this is one example of a really annoyed executive whom, I have no doubt, is going to be rather direct with his Vodafone account director when he or she arrives on site.

Still, at least the Voda system performs better than the T-Mobile Bollocks, as I affectionately like to call it. Here’s one indication as to why from a few months back.

But a couple of months ago I signed up to a website to do with “students”, homework help, offers, competitions all that rather exciting rubbish really. And you know for some part it has been of some good use; then I got an update about a “Mobile Social Network”.

Originally, I though “ahh, I could review this, and see how incredibly wonderful it may or may not be!” then I clicked through, browsed at the website and spoke aloud to myself…

“Samantha, what are you doing? This whole idea is completely pointless, and certainly not “free” to you!”

It then suddenly hit me, like a brick that purely mobile social networks (Socials) are completely pointless, and useless.

The way I see it, with Facebook, Myspace and to some extent even the dreaded Bebo out there (plus many others), small little Mobile Networks such as “QEEP” which I was so close to reviewing, have not got a hope in hell to be of any use.

I’ll explain further; I was one of the first people out of my collection of friends to “migrate” to Facebook from Myspace; now encouraging my friends to move from their beloved Myspace accounts to something which in comparison offered no personalisation or customisation and looked rather bland was something of a headache. It was an even tougher job getting the Bebo users to realise what a pile of crap Bebo truly has become and convert them to Facebook also. Over a year down the line, if I want to see a certain friends’ latest photo’s I’ll still have to sign into Myspace of Bebo and have a browse.

Now as far as Mobile Socials go, I can’t see the point in it. A mobile phone for “most” people is merely a day-to-day tool; and I have to say there are still relatively few people I know who use their mobiles for any web-browsing need or desire. It’s simply not on the agenda.

Therefore it only appears apparent that for some young people Mobile Socials have absolutely no place in their lives.

Now for me, even though I do go on Facebook on my mobile (I think its part addiction), I go online because I know I have a few hundred friends, and that since the last time I looked at something it would have updated or changed. Similarly, I know that there is quite a large possibility I’ll have a status comment to respond to, or any other kind of notification.

But before any of that can even happen, you have to persuade your friends to migrate to this particular site or service. And that is by no means an easy task or feat; and then I realise, what is the point in having a Social just purely for the mobile?

As Facebook Mobile demonstrates, a platform you can enjoy on your Laptop, PC, Mac, PDA, and Mobile is quite possibly the best. Anyone can have access to it, and it’s relevant to you no matter what you’re doing. If I’m on Facebook at home, why would I update my under-populated profile on my Mobile Social?

There’s a time and place for Mobile Socialising, and I don’t know about anyone else, but for me it’s during times when I’m away from my computer, and when I have a bit of spare time on my hands. The hassle that I sense with even partially migrating to a new platform is pointless. There is nothing I can benefit out of a service which only serves a purpose at those very rare moments; I would much rather update my Facebook, or reply to a comment on my main form of internet socialising.

So does the purely mobile social network have any stability? Personally, I don’t think so; and just as the stories that have appeared on MIR over the past week about Twitter (and using it at home, work or play) just go to prove this. Any form of social network I believe, has to be usable and accessible no matter where you are, and what you’re doing. More than anything though, if you decide to migrate to a new platform you have to be able to ensure that your friends are going to want to follow you there; otherwise, what is the point?

I want to know what you think though. Am I completely wrong? Do you use a completely mobile, mobile social?  Feel free to send any e-mails into Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com

Also, before I forget; I hope everyone has a very good Christmas too!

- – - —

I am the web designer for www.readytosms.com.au. We have launched our website recently, and thought you may be interested in writing an article and/or review of it on your news site.

Ready to SMS is an online SMS-sending application aimed primarily at business and organisations, from small privately-owned businesses to large corporations. We offer competitive rates and a very reliable service based on high quality infrastructure, with a range of features such as Excel spreadsheet upload and integrated error-checking.

Ready to SMS is the latest offering from Informatel (www.informatel.com). Informatel was founded in Australia in 1987, and since then we have been consistently delivering innovative interactive communication services to businesses in Australia and around the world. As an inaugural Premium Rate service provider, we have helped to bring to our clients new and effective ways of communicating with their customers across many communication mediums; SMS, MMS, telephony, mobile, e-mail and the web.

Thank you for your time,

David Bleja

- – - – -

Every success to you and the Ready To SMS team, David.

Currently, the house is offering four instant online games along with a chat service. Using this service, one can play the games in realtime with virtually anyone in the world. The games currently offered include Checkers, Hexagon and Reversi and can be launched within 30 seconds. One may even continue an interrupted game from where it was left off. The players also have a customizable user profile, including pictures, name of handset and type and even the network.

This was originally a part of Spb Online and already has thousands of players registered on the network. The realtime chat enables the users to interact with fellow players on the network.

The online games software ins compatible with Windows Mobile 5 and later professional and standard devices. It’s available for purchase for $14.95 at http://spbsoftwarehouse.com and there’s a free 15-day trial available for those interested.

Broken record time.

1145pm and I have just remembered about my T-Mobile account. The other one. The poor black sheep account. The one that’s ALWAYS broken and that won’t ever go on direct debit. Because there’s always a few pence balance. Or T-Mobile’s SHITE system won’t take my credit card or bank details. Or it’s OFFLINE.

Once again, it’s screwed up.

How shit do you have to be? How SHITE does your system have to be — so that, when I randomly try and access my account online to PAY YOU — it’s routinely OFFLINE?

Sorry, but My T-Mobile is offline at the moment – our techies are working really hard on making some important improvements.

Our Customer Service team will not have access to our account and billing systems at this time.

We hope you don’t mind coming back in the morning – normal service will be resumed at 8:00am.

What SERIOUS company can afford that level of downtime?

It’s down until 8am. EIGHT am?

What the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhell are they doing?

It must be held together with string. Absolutely 100% ridiculous.

So now I have to sit and remember when the hell to pay them again.

Maybe I’ll make a calendar entry, just to really annoy myself.

According to new research by ICM Research and the London School of Economics (LSE) has suggested that nearly half of the UK mobile phone owners are checking it daily. 45 per cent (albeit the study doesn’t say of how many) check it daily and 24 per cent are checking sites such as Facebook on the mobile.

I’ve been known to access the web from the mobile but generally only in an emergency and always I always end up cursing the cost of doing so. In fact, the only person I know that does check it daily has a BlackBerry with an unlimited data package.

A quick straw poll of friends suggest that they simply wouldn’t. One cursed (you don’t want to hear his comments verbatim) the little, easy to press button on his Sony Ericsson that connected him to the web all too accidentally.

So is it true? Possibly, most of my friends didn’t know of Orange’s new plan which gives you unlimited web if you’re on a £35 or over package.

Still, either my friends and I are behind the times or there’s some survey bias – I’m hoping for the latter.