Disqus - Latest Comments for juliancooling

Re: Video Diary: Whatley & the Sony Ericsson Satio in Soho

juliancooling — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:35:47 -0000

Do I want to buy this phone to replace my P800? I think I am getting ready to jump and for some reason Whatley's standoffish review made it seem appealing.

Update: Don't bother answering - nothing currently out there justifies upgrading my P800. It's an icon and they are difficult to come by.

Re: Niall Murphy of The Cloud: Viewers’ Questions [Part 2 of 2]

juliancooling — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:16:09 -0000

My first exprience of a "cloud" like service provision was in Adelaide (Oz) with the incredibly inovative and successful ISP turned telco Internode (the same company that caused all of the international ruckous over the Great Australian Firewall) aka Agile Communications.

They planned a complete Wifi system "CityLan" in the CBD and made it free to all customers of their ISP or partner ISPs in 2006. They also sold it as an ISP service to all of the city's residents. The idea being that nobody would want to buy personal Wifi transceivers if they had a commerically powered one right outside their window beaming in. Anyone who was an Internode customer (or ISP partner customer) could login. It extended your existing ISP contract with mobility.

However, I notice that CityLan is now free and partnered by the city council. If their business model which made me pay up (I refuse to give telco's a penny if I can) didn't work then I don't think The Cloud in London is not going to be an easy thing to sell. Adelaide is a nice compact place with straight streets and good sight lines, better weather than Paris and not much in the way of rain - work actually does happen streetside in cafes.

Obviously it might work (wifi isn't going to dissapear) but if I were in the public wfi provisioning game I would want my remuneration in up-front salary rather than deferred bonuses or share options.

Re: The launch of the Land Rover S1 by Sonim

juliancooling — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:33:40 -0000

I can see a use for this at some of the utilities I have been with. First line emergency call out (both water and gas) often is in dreadful conditions at night and, often enough, in trenches. 3 or 4 hours of continuous call time would make a big difference to these guys.

The API would also mean companies doing works management systems (e.g. Maximo) can put "in the field" interfaces onto a device like this and it won't matter if it gets dropped in a flooded trench where they are bashing things with large steel pipes trying to stop the leaks. I'm over selling it, but a lot of this work does happen in bad conditions and lots of water is fairly typical.

I do wonder about the man-down function. You drop your phone and it rings emergency services: I can see that getting very tiring very fast.

Re: Thoughts on O2’s iPhone 3GS offering

juliancooling — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:15:58 -0000

My problem is that all of these company's are forcing their users onto 18 month and 24 month contracts for a phone with a very, very public upgrade cycle of 1 year.

I am fine with them offering longer term contracts for those who want them but all great contracts are all about setting and meeting expectations. People who are forking out for the iPhone may well want an "auto-upgrade" package with a 1 year hardware upgrade built in.

From O2's persepctive that's great: do the maths and price a package with a bell or a whistle (even both) and put it on the market. It's the only package half the people I know with an iPhone would want. Heck, they may even sign up for a 3 year contract if the hardware was sent out by post on release day direct from the factory.

Re: Video Diary: James and Ben on Vodafone’s Summer Roaming

juliancooling — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:46:29 -0000

Is that a 1970's mobile phone leaning against the wall behind Ben's right shoulder?

Having seen Ben stuck in a space without decent 3G or 2G coverage - I can imagine him reverting to his Scout's creed and packed an analogue mobile in his backpack "just in case".

Re: Nokia’s N97 & The 5800: The trouble with 16:9

juliancooling — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:30:12 -0000

Mr Facts on Demand.

Actually this might make a good point of comparison in a phone face-off: Nokia great lens and pixel count but impossible angles. iPhone bad a everything optical and now proven by Smithian science.

Re: I just Re-Tweeted Sky News. When’s the story go up? ;-)

juliancooling — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:15:30 -0000

Umm - given that it was 4.6 (much softer than 5.1 and less likely to leave anyone other than the parrots homeless) I think I will give news by gossip a miss for the big stories.

Re: Preview of interview with Simon Ainslie, Head of Nokia UK

juliancooling — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:51:34 -0000

Hmm we seem to have re-discovered the free as in "expression" vs free as in "beer". CWM is sold(?) as free as in beer but you rlife belongs to the contract holder.

I think people are much happier with free as in expression where you pays your cash and is free to do what you wants.

In an age where businesses talk about owning a customer relationship, I don't think that is what anybody has in mind.

Re: More and more annoyed at the book industry

juliancooling — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:45:40 -0000

Has anyone thought of subscribing to the Times Literary Suplement or the London Review of Books. Both are a push service delivered to you regularly and have the added advantage that you can flip down the top edge when your wife speaks to you over the breakfast table (they come with a special foldy bit).

It also acts as a ultra-geek shield on the train - you can be texting behind it and nobody ever suspects that you might be geeking behind such a non-geeky masthead. A ebook reader won't work nearly as well.

Re: If there was one thing you could change, what would it be?

juliancooling — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:08:04 -0000

This one is easy. It should be legal to break a contract for poor customer service. That is, the regulator should force an standard clause into all fixed term contracts saying that if the contract terms are not actively supported by the service provider the customer can walk with no penalty.

They can use the same wording as the banking regulator has insisted on.

Re: Nokia ‘Comes with Music’ set to change the marketplace?

juliancooling — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:25:29 -0000

I am missing something here. Who is paying the per-performance fee. A radio station pays for every broadcast song but it has a revenue streams that correspond to its fees.

Is Nokia charging a premium upfront to cover the first year's fees? What about year 2. I still run a P800 bought on its release - admittedly that is a long time for a phone, but will also be a long time for Nokia between revenue refreshes if too many people start doing this kind of thing - and as phones get better people will refresh less (especially if it means losing fabulous on-off deals that are tied to the handset).

Re: Tonight we’re at Sony Ericsson’s summer party

juliancooling — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:58:52 -0000

They went out of fashion?

I am still using my P800 as my only phone!

In all honesty, I keep thinking I will replace it but it is a piece of design genius - just a bit dated (and it really doesn't do network data).

Re: We’re off to the Tower of London for this week’s podcast

juliancooling — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:26:19 -0000

You may get some fantastic bridge lifts in - there are two ocean liners (one going and one coming) at the HMS Belfast at 2:20 and 4:45 (plus some tugs and barges).

http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/TowerBridge/Engli...

Re: The iPhone arrives tomorrow: I don’t like it already.

juliancooling — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:11:07 -0000

I suspect that you are in between markets right now. Any phone that suited your usage 6 months ago will quickly be way too limited in the information rich life at university (with ubiquitous WiFi). Sundenly in six months' time a small window onto the internet will be a godsend and money will become more available (and plans will be more affordable).

Where you are, right now, I believe you when you say that the iPhone is a very heavy waste of space. In a year's time it may be great. Right now something light and disposable to ring and test friends is what you want.

I am really enjoying your rants - a 16 year old who is content with the world quite frankly has their eyes shut. I am not content with the world either but I can use my money and skills to address it - to the point that I have been missing some big things out there. Thank you.

Re: The only thing that can touch iPhone fever?

juliancooling — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:21:17 -0000

I think you have put your finger on it exactly - but got it wrong.I was working as a low level systems programmer on a competing search engine in the mid 90s (yes, there was a time when the search market was dynamic). Then Google had the very best IP from Stanford Uni as its starting point -they knew more about search before they started than any of the established players did (or us at the time - we knew this because they published widely in the Comp Sci research journals in the early years). Email too, is a well established published protocol: mxing web and mail is a naural fix.

Operating systems and mobile are not similar to their re-applications of their brilliantly concieved existing technology stack into a new protocol (like mail). They are fundamentally different: both in terms of market and techology.

Apple is not a model here. Apple kept their market static (sonsumer electronics running a 30 years in development in-house consumer OS) and simply adjusted their technology to include a new wireless stack for GSM along side bluetooth, WiFi(a,b,g), ethernet etc.

The only thing Apple and Google have in common is they both appeal to 20/30 somethings with pots of cash who like Zen influenced interfaces.

Re: SOS: Samsung helping the victims of bullying and crime.

juliancooling — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:48:32 -0000

Actually, being rung up is probably not a bad psychological solution. Firstly, one click and you are talking to someone you want to talk to (no dialing rubish) and it shows to everyone around you that there are people out there who are connected to you who care.

If you are dealling with really bad people nothing will help. In stressful moments when you want reassurance or someone to advise you out of a sticky situation suddenly getting a phone call might be very handy.

Re: T-Mo planning iPhone app store equivalent?

juliancooling — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:01:40 -0000

I don't see how this wil work. It will set up an expectation amongst users that every application will work across the range of devices - which is the Apple "everything works with a click" advertising position.

How will they deliver this? Developers will target a single platform (or worse, device) never the whole range (because they can't: you can't even do it with Symbian accross the Series 60/UIQ divide!). The PR will be great and then the PR will be dreadful.

Everyone is going to get frustrated and then grumpy. I can smell another failed venture even from here.

Re: Ooh - isn’t the iPhone a bit like Microsoft

juliancooling — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:08:34 -0000

There are different types of OS, device and user. The Mac has traditionally been a consumer system, Linux/Unix a server system and Windows a cross-breed consumer/business-desktop system. To break an OS you need to attack the OS directly, convince the user to do something for you or break an application.

Phone systems including their native network protocols like bluetooth are locked down each and every way by design - including the questions they ask the user. Most OSs are fairly tight too.

More generally, Linux/Unix server systems tend run very few applications, no users and they are typically well written: therefore it is hard to break system. Macs run with well written out-of-the-box applications for consumers only and they have a consistent, well constructed user interface that normally informs the user appropriately before they do something silly.

Windows has 25 years of programming and user interface flip-flopping behind it with an unclear target audience. Additionally it has never had a proper tidy up. The user and programming interface is not consistent which leads to poor application writing as well as inconsistent/poorly targetted messages to users and to users breaking their own systems.

No thief has ever chosen not to attack a target because they could see no point in 'trying something so simple'. I think you need to find a new media guru.

Re: Oops, did I let slip Nokia will be working on a Zune Phone

juliancooling — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:30:48 -0000

This maybe the second biggest dud since Moterola put iTunes onto an existing mobile phone design. Sounded like a great idea but was a Frankenstien's monster in practice.

Apple created something totally new and it worked. It looked nothing like an iPod or a phone-as-we-know-it. I do not think that Nokia will be releasing a Zune with a mobile phone chip in it.

Re: Mobile phones and eight year olds.

juliancooling — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:53:58 -0000

I am with Mike on the radio risks - essentially it is an expert argument for those who have read the science.

Where I think the discussion is woeful and I would really appreciate a new perspective is the subjective dangers which are in all senses more real than the radio frequency debates.

The real problems are social not physics but theft, mis-use of time, contacting people away from parents supervision (children love to secretly conspire and not always about wise things), running up big bills senslessly or taking stupid photos that everybody will live to regret when they come to their senses.

These are the big questions I want asked by someone who is close to the problem and you have raised many of them. HOW should mobiles be used for the biggest benefit. That is what this site specialises in asking and the under 15s are a big group. Would google maps help the large number of kids who get lost not that far from home or in shops? Would it help their parents feel comfortable. Would it be good if PARENTS could create a walled garden for their under 10s (both web and voice)?

Re: ‘Wait!! There’s a new iPhone?’ Britain’s youth doesn’t care!

juliancooling — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:39:07 -0000

Congratulations on being Ewan's first successful plancement from his jobs wanted page. Thought I might drop past and grin.

Re: Mobile phones and eight year olds.

juliancooling — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:14:59 -0000

I remember getting my first wrist watch in primary school (why do you need a watch in primary school, there is hardly any self directed time and personally determined scheduling?). However, I was pleased to have it and it did make me marginally more reliable in getting home by 6pm after playing in the bush nearby.

How many 8 year olds actually need a phone? Probably close to none. Does it pose a risk to them? I doubt that phones are any more personally risky than fancy shoes. What dangerous activity can someone get up to on a mobile - even with their peers egging them on to do risky things? Uncontrolled private access to the internet on a mobile phone by peer groups of children and teenagers is a different story.

On the question of novels. Most early novels were extremely racey. In fact the parallels between the growth of the internet through porn and the growth of the novel is widely commented on. Moll Flanders (published in 1720 somthing) goes through men at a startlling rate in eye popping detail although she does repent on the second to last page. As an early novel its detailed review of immorality is typical. As you might expect the normal charges apply in that the story is weak and characterisation is non existant (remind you of anything on the net these days?). I doubt if any 8 year olds have read it and been corrupted by it - ever.

Re: ‘Wait!! There’s a new iPhone?’ Britain’s youth doesn’t care!

juliancooling — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:17:17 -0000

This might accidently qualify you for as the first taker for Ewan's jobs wanted page!

Re: Jonathan Jensen - Protect yourself from voice phishing

juliancooling — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:11:07 -0000

The method used by my Oz bank was to make me nominate two personal and very specific questions and answers when opened the account. Being asked a question like "In which month did we get my dog in 2003" pretty much guarentees that the person is from the bank or they have hacked the bank's systems fairly well already.

You don't even really have to remember whether the question is exactly the one you asked (the calls always come at the wierdest times) since they pretty much validate themselves.

Re: o2, Carphone and the Flexible Workflow PhD researcher

juliancooling — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:42:08 -0000

I agree entirely. However, do they think that they have a problem that even needs to be solved?

Reading all the chats and websites etc, it is constantly pointed out that the iPhone is a small seller in a big market. While all of this is going on, O2 is still competently running a really, really big engineering and customer service operation. It is fun to think that powmobs, because they are high value customers (min £50pm), should figure largely in the thoughts of their operations planners. However, if they really took high value, _diverse usage_ groups that seriously, a rich mobile experience would have been supported years' ago. They haven't and they are showing every sign that they still won't be. Roger's plans show they have no intention of really supporting a rich diverse mobile experience for the mass market regardless of their add-on value as customers.

I get really anoyed that Nokia et al provide such a poor experience to use their amazingly powerful tools (and here am I, a DNS refusnik still largely using IP numbers rather than hostnames on largish networks). We say Apple will show 'em how. However, it is becoming bleeding obvious that not all of the participants are that aware of the revolution...

The problem is not with Nokia. As Ewan has pointed out a million times, the problem is The Industry. It is so, so focused on mainframe style controlled solution provisioning. And here we are all from the PC/Workstation world. The iPhone may be the first time that normobs are getting the shock of their lives realising that The Industry is still in the 1960s world of centralised provisioning and closed door paternal decision making.

I look at American sit-coms from the 60s (I Dream of Jeanie etc) and see nostalgia. 02 and The Industry sees it as a idealistic representation of life.