Posts Tagged ‘updated!’

I’m going to make a conferencing app for the Ovi Store. Want to help? (Updated)

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Please sit down and make yourself comfortable. And please keep a close eye on your heartbeat — get the crash team on speed dial.

I don’t want to surprise the hell out of you.

Because the headline is true.

I am seriously considering making an application and putting it into the Ovi store.

I know I’ve been telling the world just how bollocks Nokia has been in some aspects, in the past. But I think it’s time to put that behind us.

I think it’s time to pat Nokia on the back and say, ‘This Ovi thing… you know, the store… that ain’t half bad… let’s give it a go, eh?’

It’s time to put my money where my mouth is.

Nokia has a future. Symbian (I can’t actually write the text ‘Symbian’ without wincing, I have that bad an opinion of it) has a future. The Ovi Store has a lot of potential.

People still like Nokia devices. They are still nifty handsets. Well built, capable…

Time to make it happen.

Here’s what I want to do. I’m sick and tired of waiting for someone to develop and release a decent conferencing application for my N95 8GB.

Howler Tech / ROK Talk did it. I’m not entirely clear on where that’s gone or what precisely happened to it. All I know is that I don’t have it on my N95 and that quite simply isn’t good enough.

I want to do conference calls. Anyone working with large companies needs to do conference calls. And I can’t tell you how FLIPPING annoying it is when someone sends me their ‘conference details’.

It’s like being back at infant school. It’s like living in the 19-sodding-hundreds.

‘Here is my 0870 bollocks number’

‘Here is the PIN code you need to type in’

What am I? The brain of sodding Britain? No. I don’t want to be given your bollocks PIN number.

I don’t want to call some idiot-per-minute number.

Furthermore I’m sick and tired of the shite service offered by conference providers. To be clear, they can do the telephone bits fine. But the ’service’ around it is 100% screwed. It’s because the conference provider doesn’t give a flipping flying flip about HOW you use the service. There’s no decent online click-here-to-start. There’s no decent mobile-activated conference system. I want to click, click, click in my address book and hit GO.

And I don’t want to pay 0870 ‘national rate’ rubbish call rates for the privilege either.

I have had enough of turning up to a group conference call at 2.30pm and spending the next 15 minutes dicking about waiting for Bob, or Bill, or Jim, or Linda to actually join.

10 minutes after that — so at 2:55pm, we actually get started. One guy’s had to pull over because he was driving and thought we’d be calling him. Another can only stay for two minutes because he’s ‘got a 3 o’clock’.

It’s rubbish. It’s not good enough. I want a system that just calls everyone at the appointed time. Better still I want it to send out reminders 5 hours from the time of the conference call. AND crucially, I want the ability to be able to do a live, off-the-cuff phone call immediately.

It’s time the market was served by something a lot better.

And I’d like your help to make it.

Who’s up for it? Are you a Symbian developer? If so, we need your help.

Are you interested in owning a bit of history and helping put our money where our mouth is? I need a few grand from a few people, I reckon.

Or, frankly, I’ll just pay for it myself.

Who do I need to speak to at Ovi to get the app on their store? Does anyone know?

As ever, I’m ewan@mobileindustryreview.com. Let’s talk.

Update:

Kerry Ritz, CEO of Palringo, responded right away with this gem:

you can submit apps to ovi store directly. there is a 3 step process to having applocations accepted/screened by nokia

Ah. Interesting stuff. Nice one Kerry. OK so that part of the process looks pretty straight forward…

Where to get the best iPhone 3.0 OS news coverage *updated*

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

What sites are you using to find out about the latest iPhone 3.0 OS news? That’s the question I posed earlier on Twitter and got some super suggestions.

@Vojtech over in Prague had this suggestion:

RT @arstechnica: Live Ars Technica coverage of Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 event - http://ping.fm/Ia7Sc

And

Ars Technica, Engadget, Friendfeed, Techmeme and of course twitter

@MartinSFP is knocking around Manchester with things to do — but will be relying on Twitter and Engadget via his iPhone.

@JimWild is going to be relying on Gizmodo

@thirddesign reckons that:

@macworld will have it totally covered.

I think he’s right.

@mac005 will be using Twitterfall. That is a rather good idea. Just stick in a few iPhone terms and woosh, you’ll see it all realtime. He also suggested checking out VentureBeat’s coverage.

@BudgieUK has this suggestion:

@Ew4n I always follow @iPTIB on Twitter for breaking iPhone stuff… I trust his perspective (and a great blog too)

The event starts at 5pm London time. But it’s not for everyone. Regular MIR reader, Terence Eden, isn’t having any of it:

@edent: I’m not. I’m quite happy to wait. Perhaps even until the dead-tree lot pick it up. It’s not news that needs to be reacted to instantly.

You’re probably right Terence…

That said, here are the major Live Blogging URLs for your clicking convenience (and in no particular order):

- Engadget Live Feed
- Gizmodo Liveblog
- Ars Technica (using Cover It Live — nice)
- RedEyeChicago (iPhone Therefore I Blog - iPTIB)
- VentureBeat’s Liveblog
- PocketGamer’s Liveblog

Updated with:

- gdgt’s liveblog coverage

MobileWorldCongressWatch: Sony Ericsson launches W995 + new 12.1 camera phone - UPDATED

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

At the very first of many press conferences at Mobile World Congress ‘09, Sony Ericsson launched their newest of the new handsets - the W995.

SE W995 is heralded in as a slider formatted phone, with an 8.1megapixel camera as 8MP is just so last year.

The Walkman phone comes with a 2.6-inch screen, stereo speakers and all the gloriousness of most of their walkman-esque type phones with almost no surprises.

We say almost no surprises, as they’ve also launched PlayNow Movies. A service which trumps the likes of Nokia’s Comes With Music, as it allows movies to be purchased and downloaded via the ‘puter. Hurrah!

The Sony Ericsson W955 is apparently optimised for video playback making it less of a Walkman and more of a Runmen.

Accompanying the phone and for the very first time, is their Media Go. This appears to be client and phone based software for the ease of playing, transferring and organising media on the phone. We’re not saying this is an iTunes clone, but it is coming off sounding a lot like one of those very items.

It even appears, at this stage, to have an encoder on board for converting the right video in whatever format for the handset. There’s even talk of automatically and correctly formatting this media, with almost no user interaction. Hurrah!

Just to add that little bit extra level of service and quality, they’ve bundled in the HPM-77 premium headphones. According to Sony Ericsson these make you “feel like you’re sitting in a recording studio listening to your favourite band live”. The proof however will be in the listening rather than taking anyone else’s word for that.

The W955 is capable of picture capture in an A3 format, from its 8.1megapixel camera without any compromising in quality or so we’ve been informed.

With the likes of WiFI, Quad band EDGE, 3G and aGPS with a bundled in 8GB Memory Stick it’s coming off looking like that best Walkman handset they’ve delivered. Although seeing as they do deliver one every few weeks it appears these days, it’s not really saying much.

Sony Ericsson also briefly utter rumblings at the event of the 3.5-inch screen codenamed ‘ Idou ‘, which is a 12.1 megapixel wonderment scheduled for released around the second half of this year. Marvellous!

**UPDATED ** NokiaWorldWatch: SIM free iPhone spotted in airport ** UPDATED **

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

SIM free iPhone seen just as we’re about to board the plane back to Blightly.

Although not really in the remit of NokiaWorldWatch, we thought we’d bring you this shot seeing as it’s still almost part of the press event.

Also not actually having seen an unlocked Apple handset before it piqued our interest, just as it would many others so we thought we’d share it with you guys.

Posted via email from MIR Live

** UPDATED ** NokiaWorldWatch: Snippets from the day/miscellaneous discoverings II **UPDATED**

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

In a second attempt to try and bring you some minor rounds up of things we’ve discovered over the day, here goes.

Items that still really fall under the ‘no major category’ heading where we can’t really write 1000+ words on the subject matter, but it’s still worth passing along.

The Ovi mail for series 40 handsets offers a free email address to all those handsets running that OS. This is also their first attempt at being an ISP of sorts, by offering email and hosting it.

What wasn’t clear from beforehand is that even if you no longer use a Nokia phone anymore it will still exist and can be used.

This has already been tried and tested for a while in the likes of the Philippines and Malaysia. Ideal suited for those 75% of the world that do not have access to email, this now brings it to them.

We’re assuming the emerging market phones we wrote about from them the other week will also be a target for this service.

We’ve just been told the E63 USA version has gone into production early.

It’ll hit the manufacturing process later on this year, nearly a month early.

This equates bring the in store date 5 weeks earlier than expected.

Expect to see this now in February rather than the March.

We’ll bring you more later ….

Updated MobileMeg — your source for UK mobile data info

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

Pete’s updated MobileMeg. It’s looking good. I am a particular fan of his rather comprehensive table that breaks down the data rates at all UK MNOs.

Useful!

Here’s the note from Pete:

Hi all,

Just a quick update, to let you know about the new release of MobileMeg.

As you’ll probably remember, the aim is to publish mobile data tariffs
(including overseas roaming costs) in one place to educate consumers
and help them make informed choices before signing up.

The new site features includes …
- a face-lift on the design;
- user editable table of tariffs;
- user editable table of related web links;
- version control on changes;
- mobile industry news feed;
- sort and search facilities;
- revised forums;
- an accompanying blog;

Please join us at http://www.mobilemeg.org/.

Thanks,
Pete

Nice work, Pete!

Job Board updated!

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

We’ve had some new postings on the Job Board, make sure you check them out!

Looking to hire or looking to be hired? Send it over!


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