When a phone's web browser visits your site, how can you tell what capabilities that phone has? How can you work out its screensize, whether it can play mp3s, or know if it supports a particular bit of JavaScript? It ought to be possible using a mixture of UAProf, accept headers, and media queries. But it's not. The data are inconsistent and unreliable. Out of this frustration, a number of…
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In my quest to find the perfect phone, I was recommended to try the Motorola Pro Plus by Seb Schmoller. This is my attempt to review it fairly after a week of usage. Some people have accused me of being unfair in my review of the Nokia Lumia. I think I was harsh - but all of the problems I experienced were real. This review of the Pro+ is unvarnished - I paid for this out of my own pocket and …
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I think that WP7 is one of the first phone operating systems which natively has a QR scanner built in. It's rather hidden - you have to go in to search (not camera) then click the eye icon. However, it is one of the fastest and most accurate scanners I've ever used. It knocks Android favourite ZXing into a cocked hat simply by by speed alone - it's also very fault tolerant and was able to scan …
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After the disaster that was my experience with the Nokia Lumia and the rather underwhelming time I had with the BlackBerry Torch, I've been thinking a lot about what my perfect phone would be. I think I've found it... My Photoshop skills are legendary! Here are the things that I want - no one platform covers them all, so I've nicked the best bits from each. Blackberry Here's what…
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It was the best of phones - it was the worst of phones... I want to start this review by saying three things: I got this phone for free - thanks Nokia! I'm an extremely demanding mobile user. I recognise that I am an edge-case; what I find annoying, you may not. I've tried to stick to actual bugs, not just "it does things differently." Sergeant Elop's Lonely Phone Club Imagine, …
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Stephen Fry has recently recorded a BBC podcast about the history of the mobile phone. It's a really great series, and I encourage you to listen to it. At one point in episode 4, Stephen sings the Nokia ringtone. So, here it is for your edification, and delight. 🔊 Stephen Fry sings the Nokia Ringtone🎤 edent 💾 Download this audio file. Feel free to set it as your iPhone's ringtone :…
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When you create a QR code which contains a URL, it is vital that the code is not only as small as possible, but also as user friendly as possible. I'm not a massive fan of short URL services like bit.ly - but for shrinking the text you want to fit in a QR code, they are invaluable. I want to take a look at a particularly interesting example from Nat West Bank. The Poster Despite having the QR …
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Back when I worked for them, I was (partly) responsible for some of Vodafone UK's "Content Control" systems. I didn't like the system then, and I don't like them now. I understand the need that network operators have to protect themselves from bad headlines and give people some control over what they see online. What I dislike is the way it has been implemented. On trying to access Untappd on …
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I've been investigating some rather nasty SMS spam. I have finally heard back from Switchfire, the SMS gateway who sent the message. According to them, the originator of the message was PeekabooTV.com. Take a look round that site - it hasn't been updated since 2007, and the Contact page leads to a 404. A quick wander into the DNS registration produces this rather stale information: GPRS…
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As I've mentioned before, I hate SMS Spam. Last night, I received this unsolicited message. Now, I can try to unsubscribe using STOP ALL - and I have forwarded the text to VSPAM. But that's not enough for me. I want to stop them sending any more spam SMS to anyone. Let's do a little stalking investigating and find out what we can. Who Supplies Their SMS Gateway? The people who provide the…
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This is a project I developed for OTA11 - but didn't feel confident showing it off. Not least because I was one of the competition judges! Preamble Many people download BitTorrent files. There are no BitTorrent search engines which are mobile friendly. Users have to try to navigate non-mobile-optimised websites. This is slow, inefficient, and may cost the user money in…
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I've accidentally caused a little Twitter storm over my remarks at Update Conference yesterday. During my talk, I mentioned the following statistic: In Africa, there is better access to mobile phones than there is access to clean drinking water. However, on Twitter, that's got mangled into: There are more people with access to mobile Internet in South Africa than have access to clean water. …
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