In which the BPI threaten to sue me. Last night I was fortunate enough to find myself addressing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Digital Economy Act. Eric Joyce MP managed to bring together a diverse group of people from all sides of the debate for a (mostly) civil discussion on the Act, its limitations, and potential problems. MPs and Musicians in Perfect Harmony This was exactly …
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This blog is proud to be XHTML 1.0 Strict Compliant. Just like it is polite to use correct spelling and grammar for human readers, I believe that correct markup is "polite" for rendering engines. I've recently started using DynamicWP's Simple White Theme. The theme is excellent, but generated around 60 validation errors. Luckily these were caused by a scant half dozen errors in the source co…
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I've just come back from a chat with Paul Foster of Microsoft. We were discussing Windows Phone 7 - its promises and its problems. I remain convinced that Windows Phone 7 (WP7) will be a hit. There are so many delightful touches in the operating system that I won't be surprised if it is ripped off before it is fully launched. I was given an excellent overview of the software and proposed…
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Sauntering down Oxford Street, Mauricio Reyes spotted Nokia's secret Android plans. Nokia phones "running" Android Is this just a hapless Photoshop mistake - or a sign of things to come?!?!?!?! (more…) …
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It turns out that my washing machine is incompatible with my BlueTooth headset. What was once my favourite little gizmo - resplendent with blinking lights - is now little more than scrap metal. Arse. Dead BT3030 The Jabra BT3030 was, without a doubt, the best BlueTooth headset I ever had. There were regular firmware updates for it. Sound and call quality were excellent. It could pair with…
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For those who don't follow the hive-mind on Twitter, there has been a run in with Scientology trying to stifle free speech. Or, as I think, not. Here are the brief facts of the case. A local councillor (John Dixon) has a Twitter account "CllrJohnDixon" Last year, he tweeted: "I didn't know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid…
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I attended the Mobile Monday meeting "200,000 Apps - Where's Mine" last night. One thing that became clear is that apps don't do a very good job of promoting themselves. One crippling problems with most app stores is that there's no (easy) way to share an app with a friend. Here's some basic code for an Android app which will post the URL of your app to Twitter. Stick it in a button or menu…
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I'm not the biggest fan of Microsoft. Both my original Xboxes now run Linux, I've converted my laptop and computers to Ubuntu, and I generally laugh in the face of Microsoft's increasingly desperate attempts to stay relevant. So it was with great mirth that I went along to a BizSpark event a few weeks ago. Microsoft were going to be showing off their latest "innovation" - Windows Phone 7. I…
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USSD - it's a funny acronym. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data. You type a code into your phone's dialler. - the phone queries the network and displays some information for you. There are five types of USSD Command Activate - turn on the functionality: *USSD# Deactivate - turn off the functionality: #USSD# Register - set a particular condition: **USSD# Erase - delete any settings set by …
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Another quick Android tutorial. I couldn't find an easy or correct method of launching a browser when you click on a homescreen widget. Well, here it is... public class clickWidget extends AppWidgetProvider { @Override public void onUpdate( Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds ) { RemoteViews remoteViews = new RemoteViews( context.getPackageName(),…
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In this Mobile Badvertising series, I regularly pick on the Guardian. I don't have anything against them - they're my favourite mobile news resource. It's such a shame that the advertising they have on the site is atrocious. Samsung Galaxy S The Galaxy S is Samsung's latest Android handset. There are so many Android phones out there that you need a really great advertising campaign (or a re…
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This is a really geeky app! You know USSD? They're the codes you can type in to your phone to send messages back and forth to the networks. You've probably seen something like *#147# to display the last caller. My second app presents a series of buttons which call the USSD commands - so you don't have to remember if it's the HLR or VLR which is queried by *#103#. Useful, I know.... You can …
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