Category: Blogging

Hey – I’ve been busy!

To paraphrase an old friend during a power outage:

Window Reflections“I’m holding a phone! I work with phones. That counts as work”

Anywhoo – if that’s the case then that’s me over there

———————————>

Being busy.
:p

Ok ok ok – so I’ve been neglecting my blog a little bit of late. I’ve had some good reasons mind. Most of which will hopefully become clear by the time you finish reading.

Er… that is if you finish reading at the end of this post. Not if you finish reading NOW for instance.
That’d be rubbish.

So let’s crack on shall we?!

Right – the ‘to-blog’ list from my last-but-one post read a little something like this:

So let’s address each one shall we:

First up:
My business trip to San Francisco
I’m going to duck out at this point at say that it deserves a post all to itself. So I’m going to cheat a bit and defer that to another post. Not the best of starts.

Next:
Social Networks through SpinVox
Again – saving this for a separate post – it’s a bit of a SpinVox love in to be honest – and I can’t wait to share it!
(the news and coverage falls into this too)

What else:
Mobile Geeks of London III –
The plan was to get this out and done by the end of November – but what with it being two days until December you and I both know that that just is not going to happen. However, the ONE PERSON who I was waiting for DID get back to me – and we’re making plans to get it up and running early 2008. So watch this space.

Finally:
The couple of other blogging projects that I’ve been working on – this is the thing that’s been taking up my time – hence the VOX neglect – but hey – I’m back now huh?

First up – Remember how I told you that you could Blog through SpinVox?

Well – NOOOOOOW – Yours truly is now officially ‘Editor-in-Chief’ over at the new SpinVox Blog.
Wheeeeee! Which is just cool.
(remind me to change my email sig – hehe)

It’s only been going for a little while now and, although I’m still finding my feet a little bit, I’ve got some great support from the team around me and hopefully it’ll go from strength to strength. Got some great ideas for the next three months or so…. so do me a favour and add the SpinVox Blog Feed to your RSS reader today!
(and if you don’t like the content – at least you know who to complain to!) 😉

Ok – so now – onto my other blogging project – and this kind of ties into my last post too – in that you’ve probably been waiting for ‘part 2’ of the review. Well – sorry to break it to you – but part 2 isn’t coming…

What happened was my mate Ewan Macleod, Editor over at SMS Text News, saw my “Future of Mobile – Part 1” post (which I did, live, from my N95 – thank you VOX – haven’t done that for a while), and dropped me a sneaky text asking if he could have a full write-up.

“Sure thing” I said. So he wrote a leading piece and then I followed it up with the full write up.
🙂

All of which seemed to go down pretty well. Ewan’s a top guy and I’ve done some things with him in the past so it was nice to actually sit down and properly contribute to his, quite frankly, fantastic site.

Anywhoo – this lead onto another conversation which in turn resulted with the following question –

“How about doing it regularly? Not reporting per se, but more of a weekly opinion piece… ”

So with SpinVox’ blessing (thanks guys!) “Whatley Wednesday” was born.

Subjects covered so far: Flashmobbing and the Nokia N81 8GB.
Again – quite a new project – but regular Whatleydude content, week in week out?! You can’t complain!
😉

So where does that leave my personal blog?
My SpinVox-y chatter has found a home and now it seems my Mobile chatter has found a home too.

Well as I’ve already said – I’ve still got stuff I want to write up – but if you remember – I originally started this site so I could blog the Glastonbury Festival LIVE from my mobile.
And even though that had geeky overtones – it was still more of a personal thing.

So… I’m gonna try and take this blog back to its roots!

After all – the address is on my Moo Card so I best make sure the content is up to date!

Until next time….

Future of Mobile – Part 1

Liveblogging from The Future of Mobile – at the BFI IMAX!

Tony Fish of Open Gardens kicked off proceedings (see pic), very impressive presentation too..
Am sending most of my notes to my Jaiku and i’ll write them up into a larger blog post in a day or so..

Luca Passani of Admob taking the stage now to talk about WURFL, (but not before he unleashes at Vodafone and Novarra re: The Mobile Web).

As i said – Follow my Jaiku for live updates or come back later for an overall writeup…

It’s been a long time coming…

This is me, (in case you weren’t aware) trying to get to grips with, (read: NOT DROP), my N95 while hanging out the back of a yellow cab crusing the streets of San Francisco.

But the look on my face pretty much typifies the look that’s been on my face since the last time I blogged.

I have been at it non-stop.
Hence the lack of blog-love lately I guess…

So this is a quick refresher/breather – I keep looking at this post and realising that there is still quite a lot I need to cover off…

But I’m not going to do it here…Sorry. Still too much to do.

EDIT: Err… Reading this back through – looks like I have! Ha!

So first – a ‘to-do/blog’ list of things I need to get done…

Without a doubt I need to give up some more love to the guys at Mippin.

My dear friends over in Fulham have just released the latest iteration of their great product which now includes Twitter, Flickr and Facebook integration. Awesomeness…
Full lowdown and (completely unbiased) review coming soon. Promise.

Nex, I was going to blog about the FOWAs. But to be honest there were only a couple of things that came out of that that are worth mentioning – so I’ll do it here:

1) I got to meet Jyri, industry hero and founder of Jaiku.

Which was just cool.

2) I got to meet Vero – aka thatcanadiangirl.

She’s a great blogger, a great girl and best of all… a great geek!

And finally… The best thing about the FOWAs?

The themes of openess and web 2.0ness that I’ve been discussing with my close friends, peers and colleagues (ie that podcast I did for instance), well those themes (some of which I’m actually writing a paper on at the moment – more on that when I finally get off my backside and finish it) were all very apparent at this event.
Seems like the rest of the world.industry is finally waking up! Rock..

Ok – so that’s the FOWAs done. Tick that box…

Oh – and as an FYI – The FOWAs were put together by the uber smart guys over at Carsonified.
Who do a whole host of similar events…

One of which is coming up in a couple of weeks and is called: The Future of Mobile… or The FOM.
I first heard about this event when I was still working with Mippin and was particularly interested because my then CEO, Scott Beaumont (no link – sorry – where’s your blog gone Scott?) was scheduled to be one of the speakers..

I’m not entirely sure that is still the case at this time (and am currently awaiting confirmation) but either way it should still be a great event (it’s being held at The IMAX for crying out loud!) with some great speakers and a fantastic after-party too.. Hehehe…
Someone who definitely will be speaking is my main man Dan Appelquist (whom I mentioned in my last post).
He’ll be talking about: Life Beyond WAP: Advance Browsing, Mobile Ajax, and the Future of the Mobile Web.

So yeah – I’ve got my ticket… Have you?

Now moving on from the Future of Mobile to the very future-looking Mobile Geeks of London who held their second group meet up recently. This poor boy had to miss the event but the guys made sure that I wasn’t missed..
As you can see below…

Bless ’em… Champers?! For me?! Ooo… Suit you sir!

Anyways – I must take a moment to extend much Whatley-Love to a few people who made sure that even without the host with most – MGoL will still meet & geek!

First up: Peter Romiszewski – or ‘Romek’ for short, big geek and a great Jaiku buddy to boot.

Next: Richard Hyndman – ex-colleague from Refresh Mobile and master of all things Mippin
(who doesn’t actually have a blog so I’ve linked you to his Jaiku – hope you don’t mind Rich!)

And Finally: Ed Cave – Txt2Lock Guru, nice bloke and attendee of the original ‘Geeks’.

Cheers guys. Much love and many a beer to be provided at MGoL III…
Something that is currently on my radar and my even sneak in before the end of 2007!
You heard it here first! Shh!

Now – that’s covered off everything that I wanted to write about in my last but one post…
But I still have to SO MUCH to blog:

  • My business trip to San Francisco, (well – everything that happened after the first 24hrs anyway)
  • Social Networks through SpinVox
  • And all of the news and coverage that followed that… Because it’s NOW LIVE folks! Go! Get it!
  • A couple of other blogging projects that I want to talk about
  • Mobile Geeks of London III (I’m waiting on ONE PERSON to come back to me before we move ahead)

And a whole host of other things too I’m sure…

…so keep checking back folks – more to come… very soon.

Until then.

WD signing off.

So much to blog…

..and yet so little time!

I’ve got SO MUCH to write about… stuff like:

  • Going to the FOWAs and all the awesomeness that came with that.
  • Meeting one of my all time industry heroes, Jyri Engestrom of Jaiku, (so stoked!).
  • Then there’s the launch of Mippin (which was the last thing I worked on before I left Refresh Mobile)… Gotta hand it to ’em – they’ve done a great job.
  • But before that I need to mention my first ever proper podcast interview thingy!
    Download it HERE care of Ricky Cadden of Symbian-Guru.
  • Of course I need to spend some time talking about the next Mobile Geeks of London event:
    Mobile Geeks of London II – which is gonna ROCK!

…even though I can’t make it – BECAUSE:

I’m of to San Francisco on Tuesday! Wooo!

Off to not only go to CTIA but to also launch some SUPER exciting stuff with my new employer SpinVox.
Anyone who’s been following my Tweets, Jaikus and Facebook updates will probably have a jolly good idea as to what I’m working on – but all will be revealed next week!

So… all of that and probably a whole lot more.. coming VERY soon!

Promise!

R.I.P. N95

This morning, my phone died.

It ran away… then came back… but I think… I think, in its absence it must’ve caught some horrific disease or something…

The screen has broken…

The phone is no more!
It has ceased to be!
It has expired and gone to meet his maker!
It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If I hadn’t nailed it to my hand it’d be pushing up the daisies!
It’s metabolic processes are now history!

It’s off the twig! It’s kicked the bucket, its shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!!

THIS IS AN EX-PHONE!

8 Random Things About Me – Blogtag!

My dear friend Helen – aka Technokitten – has just taken my Blogtag cherry… I say ‘just’…

Helen actually gave me a shout back in July, but I’ve been so sodding busy I just haven’t round to doing it…

However! As I’m off on my hols this week and I’m desperately trying to do anything BUT pack – I thought I might actually give this a go…

But first – here are the rules:

  • We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
  • Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
  • People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So – without further a do – here we go!

  1. I am a Hugger. A Free Hugger in fact. I own two ‘Free Hugs’ T-shirts, a ‘Free Hugs’ hat and I even have a few ‘Free Hugs’ badges that I give out on occasion. I bought my first shirt on a whim earlier this year and now wear it quite regularly – in fact – I even set up the facebook group – ‘Huggers Unite‘ – where I organise the odd ‘Free Hugs’ event around the streets of London… Why not join the group and come to the next one? I believe a hug can make you feel so much better. The first event we ever did in Covent Garden was only supposed to go on for an hour – but we were there the whole afternoon – one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.
  2. I’m a geek. No really. Not in the mobile sense like you’re all thinking right now. But in the “I-own-comic-books-and-I-collect-the-figures-and-sometimes-I-don’t-even-take-them-out-of-their-boxes” kind of way. There. I said it. Ahem.
  3. I once fasted for seven days. That’s right. SEVEN DAYS. Not a single morsel passed my lips for a week. Detoxing in Thailand at the Spa they have on Koh Samui. Changed my entire life. Everyone should do this at least once… It sorted my head out, put my career on track and as and an added bonus – I lost about two stone in weight!
  4. I used to be an accountant. Say. No. More.
  5. I studied at Drama School, (see above).
  6. I’m a gamer. I love Nintendo through and through and have owned pretty much every system they’ve produced at some point or another in their patchy history… I bought a Wii on day of release and people are STILL struggling to get their hands on them… This fact I like a lot. :o)
  7. I can dance like a Cossack. Like.. properly. Strange old family tradition. We can all do it. Are we Russian at all? No. But if you’re REALLY special and if I like you an AWFUL lot – then I may consider wheeling it out for you at your next party… for example – the wedding I went to at the weekend… my thighs are killing me now… aargh! Yeah – so don’t ever let me get involved in a dance off – (it’s been known to happen before).
  8. I’m a married man. Got hitched in June 2005 and it was all over by March 2006. The best part of it all? I wouldn’t change a single thing. Without it, I would not be person I am today… and anyone who knows me knows that I am one happy fella!

So who do I tag?

Well – I think eight random things about the following people would make a good read:

  1. My good friend (and new blogger) Will,
  2. Fellow Nintendo fan Neil,
  3. My Jaiku/Vox Nokian buddy Carol,
  4. New friend Melissa,
  5. Taptu demon Vero,
  6. Founder of Refresh Mobile – Scott Beaumont – link as soon as I have it (I know you’ve got a blog somewhere Scott), EDIT – Thanks Scott
  7. Good buddy and ex colleague of mine – Prash
  8. Aaaaaaaaand… last and by every means least – Mobile9 King: Abul. ;o)

By the way – the photo on this post? It’s a pic of eight random things that are closest to my desk!
A prize for the person that can name all eight…

EDIT – Scott came back with his link – it can be found here: http://scottbeau.blogspot.com and also – as for the picture prize competition – name as many as you can…

Prize goes to the person that gets the most right…

Statues of London

Hey all,

Was wandering over Waterloo Bridge on Saturday afternoon and I caught sight of the Anthony Gormley statues that formed a part of his exhibition at The Hayward Gallery –

Unfortunately the whole thing’s over now… but I had to blog about it – there were just SO many of them..!

I took a couple of pics below…
This one – you can just make him out – lonely old chap that he is…

And this one…

Two in here – one on Waterloo Bridge itself and there in the background – there’s another one on the National.

I’m SO glad I caught these – I think they’re being taken down today – which to be honest is a real shame…
Having been there and experienced the almost comforting feeling of these figures looking down on me – I just got the feeling that this is one of those pieces of art that ideally would remain forever…

Much like when there was a similar work in Liverpool a while back and everyone wanted those to stay too..
Beautiful.

You can see more on this video interview that I found over on the BBC… worth a look – if only to get an idea of the scale of this project..

Just… Just watch it – you’ll see what I mean…

EDIT – thanks to regular reader – Nechbi – for a link to a great panoramic picture of some more statues…

Nice one dude.