James Whatley used to write a mobile related diatribe each Wednesday for us — but we put a stop to that when we started getting busy with the podcasts and video work.
But Whatley comes out of retirement tomorrow with 1,700 words on the Nokia N96.
And you’ll want to read this one, particularly if you’re thinking about buying one.
We’re queuing it up for the frontpage tomorrow.
Dan Lane, Ben Smith and James Whatley are back! This week we took the video podcast to Covent Garden — Central London’s haven for tourists.
It’s a very special video this week — we tried out the SIMable ’sim unlocking solution’ for handsets on a Nokia N95… and it worked. Then we tried it on an Apple iPhone 3G…. and it worked. An EXCLUSIVE! All on camera for your viewing pleasure. £16 of pure joy, that SIMable. I’ve just ordered one myself.
We were joined by a special guest in the form of Josh Russell — entrepreneur, founder, WiMax specialist and new Tuttle Brighton social media cafe host.
We pull take a look at Duracell’s new mobile phone (and iPhone/iPod) Pocket Charger — thanks Duracell, it’s good to see them bringing their might to this market.
James takes a walk about Covent Garden and checks out the phones in use by the tourists and young things. There are plenty of annoyed CDMA-sporting tourists without their cell phones — and even one Canadian couple (we really felt for them).
And — we had so much feedback from the previous two videos about the bloopers (you really liked them) so we’ve kept them in this week. You must, must, must watch — I kid ye not, James Whatley was ’spotted’ by some Italian girl who thought he was a famous singer. She proceeded to demand an autograph and photo. No shrinking violet, our very own Superstar Whatley was happy to oblige. Must-see TV.
Here, then, is the high quality video:
Mobile Industry Review Video 17 from Ewan MacLeod on Vimeo.
Featured SMS Text News people:
- Dan Lane
- Ben Smith
- James Whatley
(and me, Ewan, briefly — for my Sony Ericsson News)
Topics discussed:
1. Duracell’s New Mobile Phone (and iPhone/iPod) Pocket Charger ( 01:13 )
2. SIMable ’sim unlocking solution’ for handsets ( 02:07 )
-Nokia N95 ( 02:40 )
-Apple iPhone 3G ( 06:14 )
3. Sony Ericsson News ( 10:54 )
4. Ewan Macleod discusses the site name change ( 11:16 )
5. Special Guest: Josh Russell ( 12:21 )
6. Femtocell feature coming soon ( 15:40 )
7. James Whatley phone spotting with the Covent Garden Normobs ( 16:48 )
8. James Whatley mistaken for a famous singer? ( 22:30 )
Reading this on a phone? Good news. You can probably view the 3gp version of the video by clicking here. It works on most modern handsets.
If, like the other tens of thousands of listeners to the SMS Text News podcast, you’ve listened to this week’s already, you’ll have heard a bewildered, shocked, … nay, utterly perplexed James Whatley sit in total silence during the recording, whilst I and the rest of the podcast team described how we wanted him to jump out of a plane soon — with a mobile in his hand. And record the experience for your viewing pleasure.
(James is a regular contributor to SMS Text News – both with his Whatley on Wednesday features and in the podcast.)
To underline the surprise — I explained to James ‘live’ during the recording that we’d arranged for his employer, Spinvox, to give him the morning off to do an SMS Text News skydive.
If you’d like to hear total shock — tune in to the podcast’s ‘Whatley Goes Wild‘ section. It’s listening gold.
James’ effervescent, infectious energy and enthusiasm is are some of the attributes that make him a joy to be around — it took him 3 seconds worth of pause before he was readily agreeing. For that, we salute you, James!
Actually, we’re keen on Whatley Goes Wild. So is James. Over the next weeks we aim to put the plans into action.
CAN we actually get James to jump out of a plane whilst QIKing the experience? Well. He appears up for it. We shall see.
Meantime, do check out the podcast here.
Now that the iPhone’s out and there’s no more arsing about with guesswork, we’ll be bringing you a lot of opinions about the release. It’s all too tempting to view the iPhone as the second coming (well, it is 2.0) but the reality is that Nokia alone have, what, 700m handsets out there. iPhone is way, way behind.
So, the first iPhone opinion from contributor James Whatley. To put this in context, he’s a huge, huge, HUGE Nokia user and fan. Can he be persuaded?
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I’ve actually been working my ass off all day and haven’t really been paying that much attention – I’m sick of all the tweets TBH. I got the vibe that others were too.
I did take a look though. I wasn’t “amazed”. And I think, as our mate Jon said ‘the difficult 2nd album‘ as it were.
There was scope to do better…
*shrug*
And as for new pricing? As I said above – I’ve not seen it, not bothered, not paying attention.
What is ‘Apple’s Mobile Me’? Not bothered. Really. Not. Fussed.
Not upgrading. I told you that I’m content creator. I told you that my phone does everything for me. That iPhone? Nah. Nothin.
THEY HAVENT EVEN UPGRADED THE CAMERA.
*sigh*
NEXT.
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Thanks for that James!
Been a bit busy of late folk, hence the absence of my regular Whatley on Wednesday slot.
Trying to get down for the weekly podcast mind…
But yes. Reading the site with interest as I often do, I really enjoyed Tuesday’s ‘Walking with Normobs‘ piece.
So much so that I stirred from my blogging slumber and decided to join the debate…
First off, I totally agree with where you’re coming from. I do. Terry. I do.
But you need to look ahead.
The Normobs of the future will be at the early adopter stage we’re at now.
Underestimate them at your peril.
Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited along to a Nokia End User group test thing wotsit.
On the N81 8GB.
Yes – the same device that I reviewed way back when and the same device that my esteemed colleague Ben Smith lavished hatred upon recently also.
This is no strange thing. I often find myself in these kinds of focus groups.
Why?
Well I’m one of those people. One of those people that when asked:
“Would it be ok to contact you in the future?”
I say “Yes”
If I’m not busy, and if I have the time, then I’ll gladly offer assistance. From big companies like Vodafone and Nokia after some customer insight or for a friend’s friend whose N95 keeps breaking because her firmware is ’stuck on v10′.
I like to help.
Anyway – off I went to this group gathering – just off Carnaby Street, and lo, as is the norm with these things, I entered a room full of folk from all different walks of life/areas of London.
In fact – one guy had such thick urban ‘accent’ that the gentleman running the session actually found it difficult to understand at times. Love it.
I digress.
The point is, Terry, these kids – I was, it seemed, the oldest chap in the room, (quite refreshingly so too). These kids knew their stuff. We had a mechanic, a trainee IT bod, a couple of students and an accountant… and me, obviously.
As I said – these kids knew their stuff.
They knew about firmware updates, they knew about downloading games (N-GAGE or otherwise), they knew about all sorts of stuff.
I was genuinely impressed.
They referenced other devices in their analogies. They reminisced over handsets of yesteryear when articulating their complaints.
They. Knew. Their. Stuff.
You and me, Terry? We’re the old men of tomorrow.
Our kids? What handsets will they be concerned about getting us?
We’re early adopters now. Our kids will be too. Their kids. And so on.
The normal mobile users of tomorrow will be using the products you and I use today.
You make valid points about Skype as a service. Skype is a different way of making a phone call, branded. Tell your Dad to make a phone call by pushing the Skype button, and he will. Tell him to make a call over Skype? He’ll look at you like you’re from Mars.
Similarly with other naming conventions/terminologies: Podcasts vs Radio Shows. Blogs vs Diaries.
And so on…
Of course we’re not expecting our folks to go out and start making VoIP calls tomorrow.
But that’s not the point.
I’m pretty damn sure that the big guns aren’t really concerned about the Daily Mail reading, Marmalade eating Normobs taking up their services. Of course, it’d be lovely if they did! But I doubt very much they EVER will. The Daily Mail will die out as new generations come forward with new ideas and thoughts. Challenging the way we think and the way we view the world.
I read recently on a blog in Clay Shirky’s Book “Here Comes Everybody” about a little girl who, on a recent trip to see some family members had, on arrival, taken one look at the television, screamed and then run behind it suddenly looking for something…
The reason?
She was looking for the mouse.
The girl in question had never seen a screen without one before.
These small changes in behaviour and expectancies of ‘the norm’ take generations to change. Sometimes things go faster, but often things move a lot slower.
There is a particularly fond day dream of mine, where all of us geeks are sitting round at dinner late into our 70s and there we are still moaning about the lack of X and how Y never really did turn up etc etc…
And our kids?
Well they’ll be doing their equivalent of blogging and moaning about the lack of parent-friendly services/devices on the Market I’m sure.
Cheers.
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And as an afterthought, going back to that focus group for a second, maybe those kids in the room weren’t that savvy after all.
Maybe it was just that bloody device that made them get online and learn something.
Heh.
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