DISQUS

Interesting development, but I still can't fathom that step where the user has to text and THEN get a printable voucher - it seems in the face of money saving all thoughts of environmental impact are thrown out the window. You'd think that someone would come up with a paperless voucher system. Oh, wait, AfterWorkDeals already has!

I agree that the netbooks are going to proliferate with the portable crowd. I have an EeePC myself, and it's remarkable how bringing it out at a cafe attracts others - strangers whip out their own netbooks just to show that they're a fellow user.

Despite being a committed cloud computing user I do have a couple of reservations that prevent me going 100% cloud/netbook:

- Sometimes my mobile internet connection goes down and there's nothing I can do about it - I'm offline for up to an hour, and it drives me nuts.

- The credit crunch has reminded us that seemingly sound companies can disappear overnight. Well, cloud computing services are not immune - there's no guarantee that your data will be accessible tomorrow, so make sure you've got a back up plan because bankruptcy and technical disasters can strike at any time.

- I have read about google accounts being shut down without warning, and there's not customer service to call when you want to find out why or to get your data back.

- For the time being, netbooks are great for portable computing, but I still want a powerful desktop for the resource-demanding applications.

Hi Samantha, thanks for this great post - it really got my mind off this miserable Friday afternoon.

My favourite phone ever is without a doubt the Nokia 8110 - the original banana phone, and the very first phone I had. It's styling is still unmatched to this day, the only flaw being the short aerial sticking out of the top. If memory serves, it was the very first slide phone and the mechanism of sliding the cover open/closed to answer/end a call felt much more natural than pressing a button to do the same. It was also the phone they used in the Matrix, with the added feature of the trigger slide which everyone raved about at the time. So, how can I be so sure that it's still my favourite phone? Well, I've got one sitting on the desk in front of me and I still use it occasionally for nostalgia's sake. If it weren't for the unreliable battery (it's 8 years old!) it would be my everyday phone.

I have been with O2 for a little over a year now and I have found that at every step they have been an excellent service provider in the truest sense - they have exceeded my expectations in every area. Reading about your positive experience it fits exactly with the kind of customer-friendly service I've come to expect.

Now, cue all the people who have had bad experiences with O2...

That hinge is a work of engineering genius, they must be using some really advanced materials to be able to support something so huge.

I would simplify the endless range of phone tariffs that require you to predict what you'll be doing over the next month/12 months/18 months and then guess which tariff will suit your needs best. How? Very simply actually, the networks would offer a service where for an extra £2 a month their billing computer would analyse your phone usage at the end of the month and figure out which tariff plus extras would have been best for you and then apply the relevant charges so for an extra £2/month you knew you were never overpaying to use your mobile.

I think it's a good idea, but my only question is who actually reads the messages. If there are thousands or even millions of texts then this idea probably collapses under its own weight because there's just too much to handle, and the messages end up unread on a database somewere, and suddenly the whole thing is pointless.

The idea seems like a no-brainer to me, I hope it gets rolled out. However, it seems such a good idea that I really want to know what the objections were for the 10% that didn't like it. It could be that they were just being really fussy, or maybe there was a flaw in the system/usability.

"Air-Typing"...the new Air Guitar! Who's got the highest WPM score? Rock on!

On a serious note, whilst most of the phone shop staff I have encountered have been friendly I have given up on expecting them to know the answers to any questions. Instead, I try to get clued up online before going into the shop. My biggest gripe is that they often carry on conversations amongst themselves (or answer calls/texts from mates) while they're supposed to be helping you as a customer.

Doesn't sound like they're doing a very good job of targetting ads to the users. I wonder how intrusive it gets when they spam you for the 10th time in a week.

I'm not an expert either, but I have had some minor dealings with VAT before. The general rule of thumb is that if you are handing over money to a company in the UK, you've got to pay VAT. There are only a few obscure exceptions that I know of and they don't apply here. It's Gordon Brown's lot that are to blame, Orange don't really have much say in the matter. A couple of suggestions:

a) you could try paying minus the vat and see what happens. The worst they can do is insist you pay the VAT so in the end you won't end up any worse off.

b) is there a cheaper tariff you can down-grade to before canceling the contract?

c) why not keep the contract running until the end of the contract? You're better off paying £20 a month than £200 in one go (inflation is your friend here).

d) Why don't you sell the contract on to a friend or family? Split the £200 50-50 and you both end up better off. Don't forget to cancel the contract when the 10 months are up.

I wonder if RATM are planning to release their own DVD of the gig? That could explain why they don't want other high quality recordings in the public domain.

I do miss getting tweets on my phone, despite their almost-usefulness. I'd pay, but 5p/message is too high. The thing is how much cheaper can it go?

Rubbish! I've been walking around my garden texting all afternoon, and I was perfectly safe. Getting hit by a car, now that's dangerous.

Seems to be happening a lot lately. They were talking about it on Have I Got News For You and Lauen Laverne said she stopped in the McD's carpark for 90 minutes for a spot of breast feeding. Then someone pointed out that she hadn't mentioned a baby being involved and lots of hilarity ensued.

BTW, excellent work Ben.

Does Powerset require users to search semantically, or does it do a better job of indexing the web using semantic voodoo?

If it's the former then I don't see this catching on until people regularly commiunicate with computers through speech. When using a search, human users have got used to stripping down a query to its essential keywords. This works well with search, and it's quicker to type. SMS messaging and txt spk has shown that people are able to stip down phrases to the bare essentials, and they like doing it. A semantic query is just too long and cumbersome, and I don't see how it will help anyone except the few remaining over-65's that haven't figured out how to use Google.

Could it be that the English language lends itself better to texting? Perhaps French and German don't work so well in txt spk. How do we compare to other English speaking nations like the US and Australia?

This sounds very un-HSBC to me, they're quite well known for penny pinching and it's no secret that the iPhone is an expensive piece of kit to own and operate. If this works out then it will be with a pretty impressive subsidy from Apple, plus they'll probably have to somehow disable the fun parts of the phone. Does this mean that Apple are having a hard time shifting units, or are they coming up with a fun-free corporate version of the iPhone?

They could charge a low-cost subscription fee for power users, with an ad-based model for people who want to follow up to, say, 50 friends for free.

A number of Facebook employees were able to sell some of their options recently (at $3-4bn valuation). There was a suggestion that some of these employees would take the money to set something up on their own. But Ling has been there less than a year, so I would be surprised if his options vested so early.

Don, I agree that mobile TV is not going to catch on with the audience numbers that many in the industry are hoping for. Two observations lead me to this conclusion - firstly, TV demands the viewer's full attention for extended periods of time, even more so on a small screen with weak audio output. I believe it will be hard for viewers to spare that much eyeball time when mobile, which is usally the time when people are driving, or spending time with friends, family or colleagues and therefore not able to concentrate on their mobile TV.

My second observation is that affordable, pocket sized TVs have been available for at least 20 years and they never really took off.

Could this be the key to commercialising Twitter: free accounts with a limited number of followers/following, and then premium accounts with higher limits?

How do they make money?

I agree. The basic IM function of having a text conversation with people should be interoperable, and it's technically feasible straight away. I don't see why this would put an end to innovation.

The user revolt mentioned in the article tends to be a flash in the pan. If the service is good enough to attract a regular user base, and then you add a premium service or advertising there will be lots of grumbling but in the end it subsides because the quality of the service justifies it.

When Twitter starts displauing ads on the site or appended to Tweets listen out for the howls of pain from users followed by the inevitable grudging acceptance and the minimal negative effect on its reputation.