Category: Refresh

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Ladies and Gentlemen..
It’s official.

Tomorrow – Aug 24th marks my last day at Refresh Mobile.

Over the past 13mths I’ve worn many hats and gone through many job titles… so here goes –

Ahem – SO – I am leaving the role(s) of:

Mobizines Manager, Customer Champion, Chief of Blogger Relations, Content Merchandiser, Blogger, Product Manager, Quality Control Manager and Service Evangelist… (breathe) …at Refresh Mobile.

Phew… and where am I off to?
Well…

I’m off to go and be the new Digital Marketing Product Manager over at the voice-to-text specialists, SpinVox.
Working alongside another new(ish) recruit – James Scroggs – to help them expand the SpinVox brand and products across the world and throughout the entire universe!
😉
In the meantime – I wish the guys at Refresh every success with Mippin…

…which, by the way, IS fantastic. I’m gonna be taking it along to the SMS Text News Unlimited Drinks event tonight – so if you’re coming too – grab me and I’ll give you a cheeky preview…

And I owe a massive amount of thanks to them also, for plucking me from obscurity many moons ago (more details here) and helping me grow in all sorts of ways…

(ask Scott Beaumont what I was like when we first met!)

It really has been an incredible journey* (which is by no means over for them – Mippin is gonna ROCK!) but at this point our paths are headed in different directions…

Good luck guys – The first round is on me at the next Mobile Geeks of London!

🙂

____________________________________
*Some key points in the Refresh Mobile journey so far – in no particular order:
(and I’ve probably missed a few too – so expect this list to grow)

– Nokia Developer of the Year 2006

– The Mobizines Blog

– Launching Eyemags

– Shortlisted for the Meffy Awards

– Nokia Download!

– Getting Mobizines live in the US – Hungary – South Africa and Germany!

– Mippin – Make It Mobile

Network Throttling

Ok – so a few of us N95 users at Refresh Mobile have noticed a thing called ‘Network Throttling’.

Basically, when browsing the mobile internet your operator chooses what kind of kb per image you can download.. This is usually a low number.. So that when you first get to a webpage, more often than not, the pictures on said site are usually grainy and horrible..

Now, this wouldn’t normally matter on a small-screened phone – but on the N95, it is VERY noticable indeed!

Ok.. The example I’m going to use is when I was chatting away on Jaiku earlier on today and my friend Chibbigirl uploaded a link to her m.flickr account.. (i’d tell you what it was – but you’re about to see it anyway!).

So, said link appears in my (fantastic) Jaiku client, I click it to go through and see the pic..
And what do I see?

A grainy rubbishly loaded version. Grr!

However, a simple ‘reload page’ fixes this issue..
Which is fine..

Until you realise you have to double load EVERY PAGE YOU GO TO!
Aaargh!

See below for before & after shots…

Do you see what I mean?!
Shocking…

And following up on Adonis’ comment:

Dude! I’ve got auto-reload on already and I still get this problem!
Rubbish!

Transparent Wallpapers

This is something that I think is pretty damn cool.

A colleague of mine has figured out how to make certain graphics transparent.
So that when you upload them to your phone, they seem to be just sitting on your desktop…

Make sense?

No?

Ok – Well allow me to share some screens from my N95…
First you need a blank canvas

—————————————>

Et voila!

Then you need a picture, your favourite will do.

Once you’ve got that, send it in an email to your friendly neighbourhood Graphics Designer…

Wait five minutes…

He then sends you back the graphic that you then save to your phone’s memory card…
Scroll to said graphic ‘use as wallpaper’ – go to your mainscreen…

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand… Ta Da!

Job done!

Not only can he do it with photos that you have –
But he can do it with any drawings that you may do too!
Take this picture of a ‘BattleFish’ for instance that a friend of mine drew recently…

See how the aforementioned expert takes said pic and not only makes it a perfect wallpaper for my N95 but also adds a funky little reflection too…

Cool huh? Now this can be done with most pics – my current favourite?
My very own South Park Whatleydude!

The only problem is – I can’t live without my active standby…

…which kinda ruins it a bit!

Ah well…

Anyone want to know this is done?
Anyone think they know how it’s done?
Answers on the back of a postcard…
I’ll be waiting!

Geek-a-thon!

Two things of note today folks.

First, I’ve finally joined the elite in my office and sorted myself out TWO (count ’em) monitors…

I know it’s nothing new, but I’ve been the only one with a single monitor for ages now…
So Yay me!

Next up – a quick picture of the desk next to mine..

‘Hmmm… Which one shall i use today?’

Hehe…

Those of you tuning in for the N93i vs N95 shots I promised from the wedding at the weekend; It won’t be long. I took a ton of photos with both handsets so it’s just gonna take a while to put it together..
I’m working on it though. For now though.. I hope you enjoyed my Geek-a-thon pics…

🙂

Morning has broken

And it is raining!
Not heavy rain mind, the annoying ‘thin’ rain that goes right through ya… Definitely Welly weather today! Weeeee… Breakin’ out the waterproofs too.. See below.. My ‘jack in a pack’.

Hmmm… and now time for Breakfast!

Fried egg sandwiches, coffee, a bit of fruit.. Then I think I might go for another wander..
Oh.. And one more thing..

A HUGE shout out to my colleagues over at Refresh Mobile who are avidly following my Glastonblog – bless em – they texted me this morning to tell me they’d ‘mobilized’ my blog!

So if you wanna keep up to date with Whatleydude’s Escapades on the Go.. Point your phone’s browser to http://wap.eyemags.com/1620 – new download available at 4am every day!

(now the pressure’s on – i best keep the content up to date – eek!)

Can you believe it?

This time last year I was on my plane setting off for Thailand.
I just had a quick squizz back at my blogs from last year..

Here’s today’s entry: (2006 style)

“The time has come – tonight ladies and gents I will be disembarking to Thailand!
I can’t wait!
Woooo..

At 21:35 this evening my flight will be departing Heathrow Airport and heading for Bangkok International!
Yay me!
I have shaved my head in preparation of my finding my inner Buddha and fingers crossed I’ll come back a changed man!

And well…
Those of you who knew me before I left for Thailand know how much this journey meant to me. You know how much good the trip did me.
You know how much has changed over the past 12mths.

It truly is astonishing.

Those of you who didn’t know me before I left for Thailand?

March 2nd 2006 –
I came home from work (at my mind-numbing and soul-destroying accounts job at the Daily Mail) to my clearly very distraught Wife….
She told me that night that we weren’t working.
That our marriage wasn’t working..
And that worst of all.. she wasn’t in love with me anymore.

It killed me…it tore me to shreds. I hit rock bottom harder than I’d ever known.
And oh my God it hurt.

But…
Looking back – it was without a doubt the best thing that ever happened to me.

Two months later I’d booked myself into a detox spa in Koh Samui, Thailand for ten days of mind, body and soul cleansing…

I’m going to spend the next ten days or so re-reading my diaries from Thailand and re-gurgitating the choice parts on here again.
So much has changed.
So much…

More soon.

PS – I know that some of you never knew about my marriage.
I never mentioned it on here.
Ever. Not even in my private diaries.
So I don’t really know why I am now..
I just feel I can.
I’ve always felt I could. But I just chose not to.

Apologies to those who I kept it from.
When I arrived in Thailand I didn’t want people to judge me. I was afraid of what people might say… I blamed myself.
“A 26yr old divorcee!” I thought.. “I don’t want them to know that.. know how I’d failed at something like that at such a young age…”

Silly huh?
Sounds silly now. But that was the place I was in when I first arrived there almost exactly a year ago now..

The good news is I’m not in that place anymore.
I haven’t been there for a very long time.

I’m gonna hit the sack now.
As I said. More to come over the next ten days or so…
I’ve missed blogging.
Haven’t had too much to write about (blatant lie) and well y’know…
I’m looking forward to re-reading my memories.

See you there.

J.

Harassed & Stressed

*Yawn*

Morning all – I am shattered.
Didn’t get much sleep last night and this morning I managed to oversleep.
Brilliant.
Then I get to the tube station only to discover that the travelcard on my Oyster has run out.
Brilliant.
Not only that but I also don’t get paid until tomorrow.
Excellent.
So I queue up to try and get it topped-up, half an hour later, my debit card fails.
Why? See previous point.
Fantastic.

What am I to do?

Well – at this point I had a good mind to turn around, go home, back to bed and sod the rest of the day off.
But no – I persevered – I managed to get through the barriers (just). Sneaky I know but I called my friend Alex to have a good moan and she insisted that I had no choice but to get myself to work (cheers Bongo, if you’re reading this).
So fifteen more mins later (when the tube finally turned up) I climb aboard a sardine tin-esque tube carriage…

..and off to work I went.

[EDIT: Just noticed the gormless looking dude over my right shoulder, on the bottom-left of the pic – brilliant – hahaha]

Note – my tube is NEVER that busy in the mornings.
What an absolute pain in the arse. GRRR!

Anywhoo – I’m at work now.
Ranting coming to an end.
Dunno what I’m gonna do about getting home yet – should be interesting.
Maybe I’ll work really late and sleep under my desk – that’s not a bad idea….

Oh – and on top of that – I’m moving house this weekend apparently.
Must start packing soon!

Look! We’ve got an N95!

Cross posted with “Mobizines – Update All“

Well, we’ve got three actually…

…and Guess what?!
Mobizines looks GREAT on it!

I managed to let the techies upstairs let one out of their sight for a whole week a little while back and I can safely say you are looking at the phone of 2007.

Do not misunderstand me when I say this – I’m not talking about ‘the phone’ that everyone will be chatting/blogging about (they’re already doing that).
What I’m saying is – by the middle of the Summer; EVERYONE YOU KNOW WILL HAVE ONE.

Y’know how right now everyone’s either got an N73 or a Sony K800i?
(that’s the case in this office anyway)
Well forget about your iphones buddy – the N95 is the way forward.

What can I tell you about it?
Hmmm… Well – a few mobile bloggers have their own N95 RIGHT NOW – so there’s probably not much I can tell you that hasn’t been covered already…
My own opinion?
It’s cool.

It slides both ways, which is cool.
It has a ‘proper’ headphone jack, which is cool.
It has a massive screen, which is cool.
It’s got an AMAZING camera, which is also cool.
Nokia Pop-port? No.
Mini USB Port? Yes.

That last point – I’m sure it will a good thing in the long run (no – scrap that – I’m certain, I’ve already half-inched my colleague’s blackberry cable) but Nokia just keeps changing things! AARGH!

That doesn’t really count though – the phone is amazing and really needs to be seen to be believed.
Vodafone have promised me my own one in 2wks. These things often get delayed so we’ll see – but if you manage to see one out on the market, get one!

Then once you’ve got one – Get Mobizines!

Yawn

Hello folks,

New readers and old.
The blogging has begun (somewhat in earnest) again.
Today is Monday.
The time is 13:26.

I’ve had a weekend busy doing nothing.
*yawn/stretch*

Back to work today and I’m looking around thinking:
“I really want to be in bed…”

But never mind – gotta work, gotta pay those bills.. not forgetting the fact that I love my job of course.. Heeh – makes getting up in the mornings oh so much easier.

Made this thing the other day – check it out – anyone who’s followed this blog from the beginning will remember that it started out as a ‘detox diary’ – well, I’ve taken some of the best bits of that blog and compressed them down into my own mini-blog for consumption on your mobile phone!

ANYONE interested in trying this out for me (anyone folks – this should work on whatever phone you have in whatever country) should direct their handset’s WAP browser to:

http://wap.eyemags.com/199

The thing’s called ’10 Days in Thailand’ – I’ve put it on mine and it doesn’t look too bad.
All feedback welcome folks!

In the meantime – take it easy.
Blogging to improve on the whole very soon.

It’s good to be back.

Laterz.