Mobile Industry Review » train

The 45 year old iPhone lady watching Prison Break on the train

Ewan — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:53:36 +0000

I’m standing on the Vomit Comet from London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria. This train leaves at 2315 and is usually one of the first to attract the drunken dregs of Essex. And the odd sane and sober individual hiding from cold, hard reality with a pair of headphones and an ability to avoid projectile vomit with a skill honed over years of experience. I’m standing. Which means there is no sodding space to sit and that I have a birdseye view of proceedings. So whilst an arse in the middle of the carriage is relating a tale about a box of margarine and a recent sexual experience at 200% volume, my attention was drawn by a lady sat by the door. I was able to look over her shoulder and see Prison Break (latest series) playing away on her iPhone 3G in her lap. She’s overweight – “plump” – she is literally wearing a pink Anorak, she has bleached blonde long hair and she’s weathered to at least, by my reckoning, 45+ years. This, ladies and gentlemen, is your new power handset user. Think you’re all smart with your N95s and N78s? Think again. I’ve just seen her use a TV listing application, the web (Facebook and some Googling), some music and the Prison Break TV episode. Oh, and the text message function. Unbelievable. Fascinating. Truly fascinating. This isn’t a digital obsessed teenager. This is someone who went to school *without* computers in the classrooms. Not even a BBC Micro jobby. And here she is, consuming data and using her iPhone 3G to an extent that, truly, I didn’t expect to see. Her battery is, by the way, totally screwed. I can see the little icon nearing empty. Brilliant! More!

It’s great to see practical real life experiences of folk using mobile technology beyond calling and texting.

Posted by email from MIR Live (posterous)

Google’s Mobile Maps: for when you’ve had one too many

Julia — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:23:58 +0000

Google has announced an update to the latest version of its Mobile Maps software (2.2) with some handy new features. Now as well as the usual street directions from Google, the Mobile Map app can also provide information on public transport too, so you can find what bus or train will get you to where you need to go.

At the moment, the information is only for some 40 cities in North America but I really hope we’re going to see it coming to the London transport network some time in the very near future. And here’s why: the updated Google Mobile Maps has a feature which can tell you when the last bus or train of the day goes.

So, imagine you’re at an unfamiliar pub somewhere and you really fancy staying for just one more but you don’t know if you’ll miss the last bus home if you do. All you’ve got to do is open up Google Maps and voila: you’ll know in a couple of clicks if you can squeeze in a cheeky half and make the last bus or not.

The version with US transit info is available here.

Vodafone cuts dropped calls for Virgin Trains

Julia — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:48:57 +0000

Virgin Trains has set its sights on tackling dropped calls for passengers and has teamed up with Vodafone to give travelers better in-carriage coverage . Vodafone said it will be putting in “repeater technology” in the trains to boost both 2G and 3G coverage.

The repeaters will be installed on all 52 of Virgin’s Pendolino trains on the London to Glasgow route by November of this year, and Vodafone says it will improve the rate of dropped calls by 60 percent.

Having attempted to use a data card several times on the Eurostar and found a frightening drop out rate, here’s hoping the repeaters find themselves passing through the Channel Tunnel sometime soon.