I awoke this morning to be greeted with the cheery message that I had got 5 free song downloads from the T-mobile Mobile Jukebox. Unfortunately my girlfriend, who has the same phone and T-mobile contract, was not greeted with the same message. For some reason I got the distinct feeling that she felt that I was to blame for such favouritism. Thank you T-mobile.
It’s the first time that I have used the T-mobile Jukebox, but I can understand why people do. It’s so quick and simple you find yourself tempted to buy songs that you already have on CD just so you don’t have to go through all the hassle of uploading them to your computer before putting them on your phone. Unfortunately it failed to fill in all the song details correctly on my N95, so they are currently listed as artist and album unknown.
The big limitation I found was that my N95 didn’t seem to want to let me set any of the songs as a ringtone, which was a bit of a shame as I had always wanted Amy Winehouse’s Rehab as my ringtone. That the songs are only valid to be played 2 billion times on the phone seems less of a problem.
Have T-mobile persuaded me that I should be downloading all my music to my phone? Personally I will be waiting for Nokia’s “comes with music” package rather than paying for individual songs.
I have never previously had the urge to investigate the latest online music store, and I doubt whether the urge will arise again, it is therefore annoying to note that the experience was one of absolute failure.
The Nokia Music Store is now live in the UK, however it is quite picky about who it will talk to. I went to the url to find myself greeted with the message:
Nokia Music Store does not currently support your device. Further information about Nokia Music Store and compatible devices can be found at the Nseries web site.
You can access the Nokia Music Store from a PC using Internet Explorer
I wouldn’t have minded except I was sitting at a PC using Internet Explorer! Unfortunately I am guessing that it means IE7 and I am only using IE6, Microsoft not letting me update due to the university continuing to run Windows 2000 on my work machine. At this point I turned to my trusty N95, only to find that it to was greeted with the same message. According to All About Symbian it only likes the N95 8GB or the N81, I didn’t realise my phone had dated so quickly!
Having to wait always takes the shine off of things.
I have just noticed that my the Download! folder on my N95 has been rearranged this morning. Was this due to Nokia finally providing the Windows Live Services they promised almost 2 months ago? Of course not, the wait continues.
The only new item in this morning’s reshuffle seems to be the inclusion of a Sonic Jump demo, and whilst that seems quite an enjoyable little game (much more so than the stupid Snakes game), it is not the reason I have been constantly checking my Download! folder for the last two months.
How long does it take roll out one little piece of software in this interconnected age? Whilst I find it annoying that the United Arab Emirates seem to have access to the software before the UK, I am sure it is much more annoying for the Finns who also seem to be waiting! Such a slow rollout doesn’t encourage people to wait for the official version.
If you had to create a list of the best things about Britain only a fool would ignore the BBC, and despite being in existence for over 75 years, in various forms, it continues to be at the forefront of the latest technologies. Last night its news site (probably the best news in the world) announced that the BBC site would be accessible at The Cloud wi-fi hotspots throughout the UK for free, but even more interestingly it provided some further details of the future of BBC TV on the internet.
Key points:
- A streaming Flash version of the iPlayer
- Downloading to portable devices (such as N95 and PSP)
- Not commited to offering download version of iPlayer to Linux and Mac
Whilst the streaming version will be a more inclusive version for the whinging Linux and Mac users, I am sure there will still be complaints that they can’t have a download version, but as the BBC says “It comes down to cost per user”. Of course I personally welcome the proposed addition of the N95 version (especially as I have numerous trouble connecting to my Sky Sports package), and hope that the Flash version will be compatible with the Wii, but I also realise the need for the BBC to be cost effective.
The biggest probably I have at the moment with the BBC is finding time to watch and listen to all their programmes. The iPlayer is slowly filling with programmes I will probably never have time to watch, my N95 is filling with podcasts faster than I can listen to them, and I am constantly battling with the wi-fi radio to utilise the 7-day catch-up before we reach day eight! The change in the media landscape is best expressed through a comparison of launch of the Channel 4 twenty-five years ago, and the launch of Dave on Freeview yesterday. Where one was launched with a blaze of publicity that everyone was talking about, Dave was launched with little more than a whimper. As yet I haven’t even bothered to re-tune my digi-box.
One of the problems with N95 is that it can do so much it takes ages to try all the different bits out. The last couple of days I have been utilising a couple of the features on the N95 that I hadn’t quite got around to. I started with the podcasts, and that led me on to the QR Codes.
I have always found podcasts to be one of those things that have great potential, but I have never managed to quite get to work for me. Previously this has been due to my need to download the relevant files to my computer before transfering them to my MP3 player, which I never managed to successfully fit into my schedule. The N95 however, allows me to subscribe and download directly to the phone…podcasting is alive and well once again (although seemingly too late for Yahoo’s Podcasts site).
A topic that occured on a couple of the podcasts I subscribed to this week (one of which was Digital Planet) was QR Codes. Whilst they have been around for a number of years, and are supposedly big in Japan, they have hit the news now as they are being incorporated in an advertising campaign for the 28 days later DVD in London. Basically the 2D barcodes allows for the inclusion of over 4,000 alphanumeric characters, which can be read through a mobile phone with a camera and the required software. Some phones, such as the N95, come with the software installed, whereas others need to have it downloaded.
Personally I think that the 28 weeks later advert gets it wrong by including a URL in normal text on the bottom. QR Codes are engaging when you don’t know what they say. If I saw a QR code on its own I would scan it; seeing it with the URL for a film I don’t care about, I don’t bother because I know I am not interested. Obviously, if QR codes take off in the UK, we will become immune to most of them, and will need the extra information to persuade us that they are worth looking at. At this stage however, I believe a bigger buzz would have been created without it…but there again some of the other views of the people behind the campaign are quite questionable.
Personally I like the potential of the QR codes, and I am currently trying to get a T-shirt printed with my own personalised QR code message on it.
Hitwise have just published a list of the top hot christmas gadgets based on search term analysis, which provides “great insight into people’s habits and desires”. However when the iPhone fails to make the top 10 mobile phones you have to question the methodology.
Hitwise analysed:
the top 2,000 search terms that sent traffic to a Hitwise Custom Category consisting of the top 100 online retail websites in the UK during the four weeks ending 22nd September 2007.
Rather than listing the gadgets that people are after, it may be that the list shows those gadgets that: people are after AND online retail websites dominate the search results.
Hitwise’s excuse that: “The new iPod Touch and the UK release of the iPhone were announced too late to have a significant impact on the retail search data”, doesn’t seem to hold much water, as we can see from Google Trends that searches for the iPhone in the UK are up with the N95, whilst the Nokia 5300 doesn’t even register.
There is a lot of interesting data held in the logs of web servers, but it is important that we don’t get carried away with how much we read into them.
I am probably the most impatient person I know; rather than waiting for things, I want instant gratification…supposedly one of the traits of criminals…anyway, as I am constantly trying to keep up to date with the latest technological news I often have a long wait for the news to become reality. How many months was I waiting for the BBC iPlayer? For a Popfly invite? I hate it. But the worst occasions are when they say the service will be available ‘today’ and its not.
My current annoyance is at Nokia and Microsoft. Where is my promised Windows Live Services?? This is what I have been waiting for ever since I got my N95 (although last week I would have claimed to be waiting for mobile video…and the week before internet access), and despite being promised it will be available in the UK through the Nokia Download! application, its not appearing on my phone!
Personally I wish there was less talk about what will be available in the future, and more talk about what is available now…and actually make it available now!
Whilst I probably didn’t need to be able to watch television on my mobile phone, I can. As such I was tempted to sign up to Sky’s news and sports package for £5 per month. There is no obligation to sign up for any particular length of time, so I thought I would give it a month’s trial…and I must admit to being tempted to keep it for even longer. After signing up on Friday, I was given my first opportunity to try it out properly on Saturday as England played France in the world cup warm up.
I don’t have Sky television and can’t imagine the circumstances under which I would subscribe as I don’t have time the time or inclination to get my money’s worth. Nonetheless there are occasions when there are games that I would like to watch: the cricket internationals, the odd premiership fixture, and the occasional game from the championship…and last night’s rugby match. As it coincided with the need for someone to cook the dinner I magnanimously offered, and set about cooking whilst watching the rugby on my N95, placing the phone in a half-pint glass for want of a better mobile cradle.
The picture quality is ok, although I found it to be occasionally interrupted through the loss of signal or the need to have a moment of buffering…but this was only once or twice in the whole of the rugby match. The big issue with watching television on an N95, and a big issue with the N95 generally, is the battery life. Unfortunately I found that it wasn’t quite long enough to allow me to watch the whole of a rugby match, and it needed to be plugged in for the last ten minutes or so. This is obviously likely to cause annoyance if you don’t have a plug for the last few minutes of an exciting game that you have watched 90% of, it also raises doubts about its suitability for watching a 5 day cricket match.
Despite the battery problems I will probably keep the Sky Sports television package. Using it when I am out and about to get news and sports updates, and when I am at home to watch the odd game whilst doing something else at the same time…taking advantage of the phone’s ability to output the screen and sound through a traditional television. What it lacks in picture quality is made up for in accessibility and portability and price, but rather than thinking of it as television it is probably best think of it as radio with pictures. For those occasions you would want to watch a match properly (for example, when the great Norwich City are playing) then make sure you are in front of a traditional satellite tv, but when its a game that you would happily listen to on the radio, you will probably enjoy the event on the N95 a little bit more.
