Windows Phone 7 Series launches, and it looks pretty good
Gizmodo has a great round up here >> click.
Rory Cellan-Jones’ take is here.
Th way that you browse for contacts is VERY nice, and the fact that you can see their latest posts / social stuff when you click on them. I really hope the next iPhone OS has this feature.
The typography and design is also really nice – clear, bold shapes and colours.
The video show below shows the UI:
Forget 2mb broadband, how about 4G mobile?
Mobile is going bonkers right now. The Palm Pre getting some good reviews, and the big one, the iPhone 3G 2009 coming in the next few weeks (we hope).
The Digital Britain report and a whole load of media reporting is focused on providing 2mb wired broadband for everyone in the country, and the BBC had a big piece on excatly this last week.
Now, as most of you know, I am disgusted at the way the UK is so behind in terms of infrastructure, but I am just starting to think about something …. If the UK becomes so focused on wired broadband with a massive weight placed upon companies like Virgin and BT, we may be missing a trick.
What is really happening in terms of web trends?
Mobile is happening, and it is not going away. So, rather than getting broadband fixed, what about getting the networks sorted out. Perhaps 3, Orange, Vodafone and O2 et al should be getting some heat, and help in progressing a really fast 4G service?
The future is phones, smartphones, tablets, touchpads, netbooks – all portable devices which want to feed off fast networks. People want access from wherever they are, and not have to wait an age for email and web access.
So, forget broadband, and that paltry 2mb, lets get 4G and 5G up and running. What do you think?
Peek Email Device
If you are a tech-numpty, then this device could well be for you (if you just want emails and live in the US).
Called a Peek, it is a Blackberry-like device, but just focuses on email. No phone, no text, just email. $99 for the unit and $20 a month for the access to email and even no contract.
I wonder if this will take off? I think it is too simplistic for a lot of people, but you never know – the no contract bit could tempt a whole lot of people.
[Via Richard Wanderman].
Amphibian
I’ve blogged about a couple of things before, when I’ve actually said wow and it has made me think, “man, I need that!”.
Well today is another one of those days, and funnily enough, it is not npower who is doing this to me 
It is ‘Silicon Valley’s First Phone Company”, Ribbit, which has just been bought by our very own BT. Techcrunch have a good post here on the acquisition which has cost BT a cool $105 Million, but I honestly think it is money well spent.
So what is Ribbit?
Our platform enables developers to bring together the richness of voice calling and Web 2.0 experiences. With Ribbit, voice can become a rich feature that can be added to any application, on any device. Free from a traditional handset or the latest mobile phone, voice can now be delivered and received on multiple devices in multiple locations, across any network. It can be integrated, monetized and personalized using the Ribbit platform.
The best way to understand how powerful Ribbit is, is to check out the first application which is called amphibian.
amphibian looks amazing! I’m pretty staggered with how useful and intelligent it is. You know that feeling when you think, whoa! How an earth do they do that? It feeds my fascination with all things web!
With amphibian you can finally:
Manage your mobile voicemail like email on your computer and on your mobile phone.
Turn your voicemail into text to make voice messages sharable, searchable, and most importantly actionable.
Take and make mobile calls from any browser or web page – such as iGoogle, Facebook, and many more.
Experience Caller ID 2.0 – dip into the social web and know not just who is calling but what the caller has been doing.
I urge you to check out the amphibian page here and watch the demo movie – it shows how your mobile phone becomes completely integrated with the amphibian web app. What really impressed me is the fact that when someone calls (get this), it show up their caller details but will also show their latest flickr photos, blog posts, movies etc. Now THAT is impressive.
I’ve registered my interest and am now really looking forward to getting going with this. One of the coolest webapps I ever seen – I hope it launches soon, and well done BT!
The power of media – on display at the Hancock Premiere
Having seen Mr Will Smith at Hancock premiere last night in London, what really struck me was the instant media broadcasting and capturing which was going on. There were two distinct camps here:
The fans:
And the pros:
There a number of things which really stood out for me:
- The massive amount of digital cameras being used by the public to both take pics and video the stars
- The massive amount of phones being used to record the event, both video and pics
- The pro photographers taking shots and instantly sending them from their laptops via 3G to their editors or news agencies / showbiz agencies.
In fact, all this technology is available to anyone right now, and not for huge money. Even I, with my trusty iPhone, took a picture of Will Smith and emailed it to my flickr account, so that it instantly posted it on my blog. User generated content at its finest. The first major event where people recorded live footage using cameras happened during the horrific day when London came under attack from terrorists. Live footage was shot from camera phones. It is not a fact, that if a major news event happens, it is very, very likely that a member of the public will capture it in some form of digital format and not a professional. This was unheard of 10 years ago, and even 5 years, it was still very rare.
With the take up of 3G services, offering fast data transfer and better mobile video, the world is ready to be broadcast at a moment’s notice, and this can be from just about every corner of our planet. Pretty incredible.
