Disqus - Latest Comments for ocifant

Re: Nokia & Dopplr, sitting in a tree…

ocifant — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:16:43 -0000

While this all sounds very exciting and futuristic, I just can't get any enthusiasm up for this. Why?

Have you ever tried to use a mobile, any mobile, with GPS switched on for any length of time? Creating the software and expounding the possibilities is all very well, but until there's an energy supply (battery) that allows use of the software and technology, possibilities is all we're left with.

(not to mention people's innate distrust of a system that has the potential to broadcast their real-time location information - which has been discussed elsewhere on the web)

Re: Something new, really soon.

ocifant — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:16:22 -0000

I just hope it's not all a big wind-up, and the site disappears on April Fool's Day!!

I can't wait, the excitement's in tents...

Re: Something new, really soon.

ocifant — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:32:58 -0000

Yay! Go guys (and lady) :-)

Re: Mobile Industry Review goes subscription-only from 30th March

ocifant — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:42:47 -0000

Ok, I've had another thought about this whole thing and maybe can put another angle on it. I'm not in the Mobile industry, but found MIR an entertaining and educational read. So probably not the prime target audience, but from what Ewan has said in these comments, maybe I can rephrase my understanding of what's gone on and Ewan et al can agree or otherwise:

Ewan had a very expensive blogging hobby. He paid for a few friends to enjoy it with him, and to extend the hobby somewhat. Lots of other people were entertained and educated by watching Ewan and Friends while they enjoyed their hobby. No-one wanted to pay for Ewan to enjoy his hobby.
Ewan now has a job, essentially doing what he used to do in his hobby, but his friends can no longer join in as his employers only have the one job vacancy, and don't want him to have any work-related hobbies (I'm sure my contract of Employment has a similar clause in it somewhere!)

So we all lose out.

Ewan, if I'm right, then I apologise for my previous critical comments. I hope you enjoy the benefits of your new job.

Re: Mobile Industry Review goes subscription-only from 30th March

ocifant — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:12:52 -0000

Ewan, Accepting your comments about overheads, but given some of the exclusives and the forthright viewpoints expounded on MIR in the past, you can't deny that this deal has a bit of an appearance of industry 'hush-money' about it to those of us on the outside.

They pay, so you can't tell us what you think...

It's a sad, commercial worlds we live in sometimes.

Re: Mobile Industry Review goes subscription-only from 30th March

ocifant — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:52:25 -0000

Great news for you guys. Crap news for the rest of us. Cheers, it's been fun...

Re: Gmail let’s you put your current location on your email footer

ocifant — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:57:58 -0000

Grocer's apostrophe alert!
:-)

Re: The T-Mobile G1: The Whatley Response

ocifant — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:37:27 -0000

"Geeks/Developers will love it, but your average Normob will not."

Funny you say that. My technically challenged daughter has the G1 and loves it! Mind you, she probably only uses it for calls, texts, games and music... :-)

Re: The T-Mobile G1: The Whatley Response

ocifant — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:19:03 -0000

Thanks James, I've been dithering over getting a G1. I use Gmail - a lot. But all my working, current contacts info is held in Outlook, simply because it's 'nicer'. Not all of my saved contacts have email addresses. Or phone numbers. But I need the contact details with me. My contacts details in Gmail simply aren't used, unless I'm answering an email, in which case I've got the Reply-to address, and don't need a Contact entry.

Getting Outlook Contacts into Gmail is something I've yet to cleanly achieve. So it looks like the G1 may not be for me after all...

Re: T-Mobile’s Harrow store… without any G1s to demo!

ocifant — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:48:13 -0000

hey Grant, get yourself across to High Barnet - the T-Mob shop in the Spires had a couple of demo units in. Unfortunately they couldn't offer me an upgrade as it appears their budget has run out until some time next month, but they *did* have a demo unit...

Re: Two Weeks and Nothing?

ocifant — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:51:27 -0000

Far be it for me to scare-monger, but when I was asking about an upgrade in a T-Mobile shop recently, I was told to wait till the new year. When I asked why, expecting an enticing snippet, I was told it was because T-Mob have exceeded their budget for upgrades this year.

That's the second time I've heard that story, so there must be some truth in it, but what a crazy industry if I can walk in and open up a new account and get a free phone, but can't arrange an advantageous upgrade to my existing contract! - In fact when I took out my current contract I took a new phone and number because they wouldn't upgrade my previous account. They then contacted me, advising me to return the new phone and cancel the contract and they'd send out an equivalent upgrade to me!

Total madness, and they deserve all they get, IMO.

Re: Getting friendly with Google Friend Connect

ocifant — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:49:46 -0000

Quick, get some friends! You look like Billy No-Mates :-)

Re: “Mobile-Crushes” – They end now!

ocifant — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:47:35 -0000

I think I know how you're feeling Sam. I'm also looking around at the moment, but there isn't a phone there that 'grabs' me big time. they've all got something missing - often unquantifiable.

I don't want to lose facilities I currently have, and don't want to have to change the way e.g. I organise my photos on the PC, just to fit with the latest and greatest idea which will be out of date again next week when some bright spark has a different (not always better) idea of how I should work with my phone.

I guess what I'm after is some stability for a while which incidently would allow for economies of scale to kick in on the price as retooling wouldn't be such a necessity.

Is change (Bigger! Better! faster! more!) always a good thing?

Re: MIR Show - Week 44 - Kerry Ritz of Palringo interviewed

ocifant — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:44:48 -0000

The interview said they'd have a Symbian client (among others) with all the innovations in the coming weeks.

So does James have privileged access, or an older version? :-)

Re: MIR Show - Week 44 - Kerry Ritz of Palringo interviewed

ocifant — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:24:58 -0000

"So good, that during the interview, James Whatley got out his handset and started downloading it."

Since when has James used a WinMob phone? Is this defection something we should know more about?

Re: MIR Show - Week 44 - All About Symbian, Smaato and Scalado

ocifant — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:14:22 -0000

Excellent, thanks Ben - I'll await that write-up with bated breath! :-)

Re: MIR Show - Week 44 - All About Symbian, Smaato and Scalado

ocifant — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:06:46 -0000

Stone me!! I want. I want now...

That panorama feature is seriously good. I currently pfaff around with autostitch on the PC to get panoramics. They can take *ages* to render and never look quite right for me.

And the gallery is just awesome.

Heads should be knocked together at Symbian/Nokia. Can you email this video to any high up contacts you guys may have there?

Re: MIR Show - Week 44 - T-Mobile UK G1 Android launch

ocifant — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:57:09 -0000

Some questions for your review:
Camera performance (wot, no video??)
Camera integration with GPS, Picasa etc - how easy is it to get photos off the camera and onto PC, and are they Geo-tagged automatically?
Google Earth?
Multiple IM clients/accounts.
Integration with Google Docs.
Email integration other than Gmail (Yahoo, Hotmail, Pop3 etc)

Looking forward to your findings James!

Re: The T-Mobile G1 setup walkthrough

ocifant — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:19:47 -0000

Cheers Mac - that looks more than OK for general web use, I'd say. But then I'm no expert :-)

Re: The T-Mobile G1 setup walkthrough

ocifant — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:39:48 -0000

Looks good so far. I'll be interested in seeing results from the camera (can it do video?), and general interaction with the web - blogging etc.

Re: The Nokia N96: Face the Task

ocifant — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:35:11 -0000

Thanks for the clarity and honesty WD. Currently considering an upgrade from n95-1. Looks like N95 8gb or a wait for the N85 then for me?

Re: Mobile Industry Review Show - Week 41

ocifant — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:09:49 -0000

Yay! I won stuff!! Many thanks guys - I'm on holiday deep in 'no-signal' territory at the moment - an experience I may just have to write about - so I'll obviously have some catching up to do when I get back.

A>

Re: Mobile Industry Review Show - Week 39

ocifant — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:37:37 -0000

Thanks Ben :-)

Also,a few years ago, it was home to a large 'cardboard city' of homeless and was largely a no-go area at night.

Not many people know that ;-)

Re: Mobile Industry Review Show - Week 39

ocifant — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:58:35 -0000

Hey! I just type it like I hear Ben say it :-)

Re: Mobile Industry Review Show - Week 39

ocifant — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:19:51 -0000

No Ben's FACTs this week? I feel cheated! Send me crap...