So, here are my mobile predictions for 2013. Although I work for Telefonica, this blog is personal and my day job doesn't involve any of the products or services listed here. I've deliberately left of the boring predictions. Yes, Android will get bigger. No, iPhone won't release a budget model, etc. BlackBerry 10 I want this to succeed. But I don't see it. I had a play with a demo device a…
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I've been using FourSquare and TwitPic to look back through 2012. It's been a pretty amazing year for me. I've been to India, spoken at a dozen conferences, photographed the moon, and got a lovely new job. But none of that - not one single experience - compares to May 30, 2012. That was the day the madness ended. One of the perils of being human is that we look for patterns. Our brains are…
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I'm sat here, in my dressing gown. My fingers are greasy from eating crisps all morning. My back aches because I spent all night playing a stupid video game. The gin hangover isn't helping either. My week off work has been a wash out. I didn't write any code, I didn't cook anything other than pizza, and I'm beginning to smell of used dish water. I log on to Facebook - and this is what I see,…
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A few years ago, I went to a recording of Mark Thomas' "Manifesto" radio show. Members of the audience can suggest humorous changes to the law and society that they would like to see enacted, and the rest of the audience votes on whether they're good enough - or funny enough - to be in a proposed election manifesto. My manifesto suggestion was very simple - every time you visit an MP, it should…
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Last week, I wrote about using my telescope for the first time and seeing the craters on the moon. I had to wait a few more days for the skies to clear - but that just built my anticipation. Last night, I noticed a new star up in the sky. After consulting the astrological almanacs, I discovered that it was the planet Jupiter! To the naked eye, it looked very much like this: I whacked on the…
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If you've ever released an app - or, indeed, any creative work - you know that one of the worst things you can do is read its reviews. Oh, yes, sure - it's important to listen to your customers, it's vital to act on their feedback, and you should always take their suggestions seriously. But when it comes to reviews... well... perhaps it's best to ignore them. Start reading them and you'll find …
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A few years ago, my work sent me on a training course. It involved the usual things, trust exercises, team bonding, and personality profiles. I filled in a few forms, answered some questions, and the very professional looking lady marked up my paper and said, "I see that you're a Scorpio. That means you're focused externally, and you deal with things rationally and logically. You do have a…
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Give As You Earn is a wonderful system; I can donate to charity directly from my monthly pay cheque. I don't have set up any Direct Debits, or standing orders, I get a tidy tax break, and the charity gets a chunk of change. For every tenner I donate, it costs me £6 - and the Government chips in the rest. I used PayrollGiving.co.uk to set up my donations - but your workplace may have specific …
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I've written before about CDI's AppsForGood initiative. They work with schools and help students develop apps. Currently, they are working with 100 schools across the UK to deliver courses to more than 5,000 students. If you work in the mobile industry, you should volunteer to be one of their experts. Spend just 30 minutes having a Skype chat with a group of excited teenagers, share your…
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I've always been a bit obsessed with space. I think all true geeks are. It was probably Star Wars that set off my star lust. For the last few years, I've been pondering getting a telescope. Like many of my plans, it sat in the back of my head waiting for me to get off my lazy arse and do something about it. I halfheartedly researched telescopes online, glanced at them occaisionally in the shops, …
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Uber are a private taxi firm trying to get a hold of the lucrative London market. Their main selling point is an incredibly easy to use app, a fleet of luxury cars, and a hassle free experience. I agree with Paul Carr when he describes Uber's crushing desire to "disrupt" as a fanatical form of hyper-libertarianism which could have decidedly nasty consequences. However, I thought I'd try it out …
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Man! Instagram sucks! Let's all move to Flickr! The Internet - December 2012 The same flickr which capriciously deletes the photos of paying customers? The same flickr which has catastrophic accidents? The same flickr who bans paying customers for commenting on political issues? The same flickr which one day decided that paintings and drawings weren't suitable for its site? Yeah. I'm not ok…
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