No Time 2 Waste

Front Stream Projection

Prescient

It's not for everyone.

Spit Balling (Just Another Hypothesis)

Years ago, at work, we'd just won a new global client. 

I don't recall why, but I was being vocal and a bit too candid. The client, a female, overheard me and without any aggression said 'opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one'.

Maybe that's why they made me get up front to get the energy going in the conference room. Dancing is one of my favourite things so not the hardest corporate task I've been burdened with.

So yeah, this is just an opinion.

When Mar-A-Lago was raided by the FBI and you know, accusations of evidence being planted, and evidence being carted out, yadda yadda yadda.... well, It struck me as resonant of a line from the past.

            How do you introduce evidence legally?

It's just a theory. 

Surely the Feds aren't that stupid?

Why My UK Mobile Bill Is So Low?

I'm very happy with my new mobile phone provider smarty.co.uk

It's a piece of cake to sign up, transferring my number went like clockwork and now I'm only being charged for the data I use.

If you're into excellent customer service, an easy bananas UX on the website and fairness and honesty I can recommend these guys.

It's not just about the money. 

It's about being treated with respect instead of billing me if I don't use all my data or immediately cranking up the bill if I go over the limit. That's just pick pocket mentality and there's too much of it in business.

If you use this link to sign up, you get a free month, and so do I.

Phonebloks - Mobile Technology Designed To Last

Disposable electronics aren't a very good way to respect the planet. They poison the environment and the just in time distribution logistics are a huge burden on the Earth's resources, even though the products are small.

They also fund a lot of conflict in places like the Congo (DRC) but you wont hear about that as the media are too busy telling people that Israel is the important country where the Master Race now reside. 

More important than the six million who died in those mineral conflicts anyway.

Oh and don't forget the 100 000 rapes a month when you stroke your next new, touch screen electronics purchase.

Phonebloks is a simple idea and I hope people can get behind it. I've long been uninterested in the latest mobile though I do look at tablets from time to time and ask myself. 

Do I really need it?

Usually the answer is no. But maybe you're into Alicia Keys being a phone when she's not touring apartheid Israel as a black entertainer.

Rare Earth Coltan - The Smart Phone Material 5 Million Died In The Congo For

Ten minutes ago I didn't know why the DRC war happened or what Coltan was. Now I know.

The war beginning in 1998 that pitted the armies of Congo, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola against those of Uganda and Rwanda induced the largest humanitarian disaster since World War II, with an estimated four million Congolese lives lost. Congo's first national elections since 1965 have taken place, but true peace and democracy remain elusive goals.

Uganda - More Mobiles Than Light Bulbs

Last week, Mark Kaigwa gave one of the most interesting presentations at the Media Evolution conference in Sweden. Naturally, I missed the session entirely because I was attending another one at the same time, but I’m very happy to say I caught up with him to hear him out.

Kaigwa is a Nairobi, Kenya-based digital marketing expert, consultant, startup founder and advisor, writer, short film maker and online media entrepreneur.

The man runs a few popular sites, including African tech and innovation blogAfrinnovator and online artist community AfricanDigitalArt.

He’s also a super nice guy.

We talked about mobile usage and penetration – there’s expected to be 735 million mobile phones in Africa alone by the end of this year – and a number of interesting technology services coming from and stats about Africa.

Via Robin Wauters/Next Web

iPhone Upgrade

Well, it didn't take long for China to crack out a new 'improved' iPhone with extra vibrating feature. I did see a girl using one in McDonalds this morning but now I'm sceptical if it was the real thing. This ties directly into Chris Anderson's Keynote speech on the topics of free and abundance at Nokia World just recently, and which is a must see video presentation over here.

Tip of the hat and thanks to Alvin for alerting me to this.

Kiss my sweet ass

Rob Campbell over in Singapore is warming up for some trouble making. I know this because he asked me on Facebook what I thought of the Nokia N95 and I told him straight. I was hoping to do an in depth review of this model, because its a complex bit of kit and even the iPhone is not yet performing perfectly in the smart phone category, as I've noticed from a few people's twitters, including my friend Steve Portigal who is quite the champion of user operability.

Anyway now that Rob has forced my hand (Charles shakes fist in an inappropriate and very suggestive manner) I'd better just crack on with it and describe my N95 experience thus far.

But before that I want to compare it with the smart phone called the i-mobile 902 I owned in Thailand, 2006 which did 70% of the functions the N95 had, but with a much more sophisticated digital camera and which I blogged about over here, along with examples of the photography. That phone cost me about 280 Euros which if you remember that 1 Dollar converted to 76 Euro cents when it was launched and now will get you 56 Euro cents gives you an indication of what we planners call a 'trend'. I digress I believe an N95 can cost up to 700 Euros, which a year later is at least twice as much as the i-mobile I bought in Thailand - Economics lesson over ;)

So the bottom line is that the N95 is a bit of a slug, either the processing power isn't sufficient or the services that sit on it are too cumbersome. It's not fast enough in layman's language and furthermore my experience with the example I'm packing is that it's prone to shutting down or occasionally needs a reset by removing the battery. But what worries me most is that Scoble twittered today some problems he is experiencing. That's not good because I think Nokia gave him the phone to test-run and he's an A list blogger.

But let me tell you why I think Nokia brands really shine compared to Sony Ericsson. My first experience of Nokia apart from the double chocolate chip user interface was the experience of dropping one to the floor. You know what I'm saying?

No?

Allow me to share a little. Here is my friend Lauren's phone.

Photography Charlie Gower

You question the veracity of the shot?

Photography Charlie Gower

Lauren, we got a deal for that shot. Not a brand book deal. A human to human deal. You get my drift.

Then there is my backup phone.


This is the phone I use when my battery has run out on my swish N95. It looks a bit beaten up doesn't it?

Here's a closer look.


It's a bit blurred as indeed I was when I took the shot (a cheeky red or two) but you can see the screw exposed on that corner still held in place by the molding. My God they build those Nokia phones sturdier than a Rob Campbell mercurial point of view dancing from one Fred Astaire light footed soliloquy to another Falstaffian bluff or other.

Yes the N95 is a flawed, and possibly a precocious genius, but time will tell who is going to own the Smart Phone segment and I can say that I've had a look at the N96 which is quite impressive although I can't say anything about it quite yet. Good on Rob for being a sport and buying a competitive phone to really put it through its paces and I'm looking forward to his write up on the N95 although I don't expect anything vastly different from what I've been saying. Perhaps a little more vitriolic though :)

Nokia N95

I'm road testing the Nokia N95 which means I get to take a load of pictures and videos so here's a sample of the what I've been up to. (Update: Few format probs to sort out here)

First I went to Oulu in Finland 200 Kilometres south of the Artic Circle.


But it wasn't snowing so it looked like this really

and this

The we paid a visit to the Nokia Future Labs where they get to play with lots of cool shit like M does in the Bond films.

And I was so loving this dog that I forgot what the connection with mobile phones was, but it must have been good right?

And a phone that can sort the shopping out for the fridge can't be all that bad a replacement for shopping lists can it?

But with so many toys around the joint there's a serious charging job to do.



And of course you need some kick ass remotes as well.


Not to mention some heavy duty mobile command telescopic spying devices


The engineers enjoy a certain genre of postcard. I couldn't figure out the name though.



And of course testing those phones means they have as many chargers as we get lumbered with


But it's OK for them because after all that 'where's my charger' action the Finns take their saunas quite seriously (it's a religion I overheard), and they are all over the work place, like here on the third floor


and here on the fourth floor in case you need to relax on the way up the stairs ;)

But they are into the coolest stuff


Which is ace by me because those software scientists and Nokia guys are developing the killer app to end all killer apps for people like me who are learning to speak Chinese but will probably never be able to read it well. A phone that can translate Chinese text on the go. Awesome!

There was loads of other stuff too that I can't talk about, because if I did I'd have to kill you or send over one of my Ninja guys to take care of things if you spilled the beans. You know how it is. More on that review later because I've got a whole lot more to say on the N95 and it aint gonna win me brownie points.