Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Monday 20 November 2006, 2:10 PM
Blair wants to hear from YOU
Much hilarity at Tony Blair's e-petitions initiative, which has so far succeeded in getting people to ask that the PM: stand on his head and juggle ice-cream, change the national anthem to "Land of Hope and Glory" or "Rule Britannia", keep Sunday special, "abolish this e-petition site as it's a waste of taxpayers money and distracts from debating real issues" and, er, "prevent mobile phones on the London Underground" (eh?).
In all fairness there is some rational stuff in there too, particularly: "create a new exception to copyright law that gives individuals the right to create a private copy of copyrighted materials for their own personal use, including back-ups, archiving and shifting format" (damn right!), "make councils charge a fair council tax" and "nationalise British railways". A shout-out, too, to Andrew Ellsom, who's petitioning the Dear Leader to have broadband installed on the Isle of Grain (it's in Kent apparently).
It would be nice if Blair listened. But, then again, it would also be nice if I had a time machine that would help me get the winning numbers in advance for last week's Euromillions lottery (although buying a ticket might have helped too).
Monday 20 November 2006, 1:05 PM
So close yet so far...
I've been on a quest for a new handset for a while now (my current phone is the Qtek S100 - a fine beast but I want more current functionality) and got quite excited when I saw this baby, the HTC P4350, announced today. It's like the TyTN but slimmer, which is a big plus. However, it has no 3G/HSDPA, which is a big minus.
I haven't actually ever owned a 3G-capable phone - I never saw the point - but now that HSDPA is starting to roll out I reckon I'll skip those first stages and go straight to the souped-up version. For example, the HTC P3600, also coming shortly, looks a lot like the phone I already have but it has all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a 2006/7 handset (Wi-Fi, HSDPA etc). No keyboard though, but I think if I had to wait for the utterly perfect handset I'd be here for a very long time yet...
Friday 17 November 2006, 4:46 PM
Hey BlackBerry-toter!
We're sure you're not like this at all...
[Warning: this links to the The Onion and involves swearing and stuff]
Friday 17 November 2006, 4:18 PM
New boss for AOL UK
Well, this makes sense. AOL UK's new boss is the former VP of "audience", Andy Jonesco. Seeing as the company no longer rents out the theatre, playing to the audience is exactly the MD's job description...
Friday 17 November 2006, 12:41 AM
Now you can carry ads around with you!
Vodafone is teaming up with Yahoo(!) to offer lower phone bills for those willing to put up with ads on their handsets. Google's Eric Schmidt reckons phones could even be free in the future for willing marketing-sponges.
Interesting one, this. I cannot overemphasise how many startup companies have recently appeared, drooling at the opportunity of cashing in on the predicted boom in mobile advertising. Mind you, if this boom really does happen, it will happen with the inclusion of GPS in handsets - that's how advertisers will really be able to make use of the mobility aspect to show you, say, special offers from the store round the corner.
Is this a good thing? It could be handy at times, annoying at others. Personally I don't think we're subjected to too few adverts in our daily lives at the moment, but on the other hand hey, we're talking about lower phone bills. Perhaps the middle way is to say yes to having ads on your phone, then just ignore them. Unless they introduce a bill-reduction-per-click model... nah, wouldn't happen. Right?
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