Tag: Mobile

All things Mobile here

The Mobile Geeks of London

Hello all,

Following on from an earlier post – allow me to tell you a story…

It started as a simple question ‘Hey, we both live in London, do you fancy a drink sometime?’
That question was asked from one avid Jaiku fan to another.
(Yours truly and a guy named Romek)

From there – it snowballed…
We found a channel on Jaiku specifically for UK Jaiku users – called JaikUK

Then – upon finding that channel – I decided that’d be a great idea if we had a Facebook Group too.
And so Mobile Geeks of London was born…

It was, at first, made as a ‘base of operations’ if you will for me and a few fellow ‘mobilists’ who I knew lived in and around our great city to come together and chat…
And then, word got out that two of the members were meeting for a beer.

“Sod it!” I thought “Why not make it a full-blown facebook event?!”

And so I did.
Next thing I knew – SMS Text News picked up on it and ran it as a story – and overnight the group went from around 10 members to 110!

The Date: Thursday 26th July
The Event: The first ever Mobile Geeks of London meet up
The Place: A Pub in London
The Attendees: Mobile Geeks!

It. Was Great.

The whole evening had this kind of unofficial theme of ‘Show & Tell’

Some folk were there showing off new software – some other folk were throwing new mobile ideas around and some folk were just showing off their various handsets… an iPhone even made it along!
Hehehe…

However, I must admit, I think that was probably the main lure for peeps coming along in the first place!

Everyone wanted to touch it!
Hehehe – Here’s some photos from the evening folks – enjoy!

Geeks – Phones – Beer – Heaven

James Body. He of Truphone fame.
With my iPhone and his E61i.
Which one do you prefer?

My new friend Peter (aka Romek).
He was the guy that originally asked me out for a Mobile Geek drink!
It’s all his fault I swear it!

iPhone-tastic!

All in all the night was a resounding success and I’ve received lots of messages of praise for organising it all.

I couldn’t have done it without my good friend Technokitten who was on hand to offer assistance when the whole thing started getting a bit out of hand!

So – if you’re a Mobile Geek and you live in London – why not join the group and maybe we’ll see you at the next meet!
🙂

iPhone, uPhone… wePhone!

OK, at last I’ve got my hands on an iPhone… I’ve only had a quick play but so far… It’s.. er.. ok!

Nothing uber-amazing.. It’s fun to play with and stuff.
The features are cool etc.. But practically? We’ll see..

As I said – I’ve only had a quick play so I may yet be turned from my N95 (yeah, right)…

Check out the very messy/scrappy video of me having a look at this very blog, care of the iPhone’s Safari browser…

Bit if a Pants iPhone 1.0 Video from James Whatley on Vimeo.

Leave any questions/opinions in the comments below…
See ya!

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!)

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.

I know… I’m rubbish..

It’s been OVER A MONTH since my last blog…
It is now 23:03 and I’ve just got home and I am shattered.
SO tired…

I’ve been meaning to update this for ages now – and I promise.. I will.

Good boys keep diaries.
Bad boys don’t get time.

That’s all you need to know for the time being I guess…

I’m doing two plays, a film, I’ve started doing charity stuff again and I’m trying to hold down a decent social life whilst also taking in the wonders of the new world that is known as ‘dating’ – it’s all very odd.
Jen and I are no more – not that there ever was an official ‘Jen and I’ but yeah – that happened a fair while back now..
So that’s that sorted – we’re still very much in contact though – she’s a top bird and we always said we’d remain firm friends – so I’m glad we’ve been able to..
Cheers you.

Anyway – enough about her.. Hehehe (sorry)

What have I been up to?!

WELL…
LOADS to be fair.

There’s nowhere near enough time to cram it all into one sesh – I’m shattered – NEED BED.

Quickly – I’ve rediscovered my love for clubbing/dancing.
I’ve got into the habit of not wearing underwear. At all times.
I have blonde in my hair.
I have some wicked plans for November.
I’ve discovered my uncle plays the bassoon in some weird band in Essex.
All very weird.
Also – one of those sentences is not true..
Answers via comments/messages to the usual address… ;o)

But yes.
Loving my job.
Loving my life at the mo.
Working hard and playing hard.
Catching up with me a bit now…
“HENCE THE NEED FOR SLEEP JAMES!”
..note to self – stop leaving notes for self.

Ahem – anywhoo – I’m signing off now.
I hope to come back with a (proper) update very soon..

In the meantime however..
Here’s me:

Photobucket

To quote:

“It’s dark… and we’re wearing sunglasses”

(what film?)

On that note: My Sunglasses… Too small do you think?

Yup – its been ages I know

My life in as little words and as many pics as poss.. ya ready?!

Here we go!

Last time we spoke I had spent the weekend in Canvey mildly drunk.
Here I am. Mildly drunk.

I went back to work after all that time off..
..and I went in thinking it was gonna be sunny..

But.. it wasnt:

It was rainin’..
Ah well..

That week it was Jobber’s birthday – we went to the pub:
Jobber and his mate Wing (more on him later), outside the pub…

He’s a good bloke our Jobs… that’s him on the right.
Gonna miss him from the Mail.. admittedly probably JUST him.

Moving on..

The weekend after that: England got knocked out of the World Cup.
It might’ve been the weekend before –
I really cant remember –
My days are swirling together through a mist of champagne and white wine..
Wergh.
Either way – Boooo.. England went out.
We don’t talk about who won it or whatever because nobody cares.
In all seriousness this World Cup will go down as the Cup of Cheats as SO many teams employed under-hand techniques on their road to the finals..

Not.
Good.

Anywhoo..

I watched our last game with my mate Jim.
..and here we are:


Yes.
We are drunk.

..and don’t ask about the sombreros.
I have no idea.

The following day I went to my see friends Roger and Aidan..
They live in this proper nice penthouse apartment overlooking Clapham Common..
The lifts are a bit old and scary mind..
Here I am, in a lift, a bit scared:

So yeah – that was cool.. the corridors are bit ‘Overlook Hotel’ too..
I keep expecting to see a kid on a tricycle screaming “Redrum.. Redrum..” at me… ahem.

But yeah – had a g-r-r-reat time. Roger did some fantastic food.
They’d been down to the farmer’s market in Balham that morning and got some lush veg..
Yum.
..and we spent the rest of the day yelling obscenities to passers by..
Yay.
(that was actually the most puerile fun I’ve had in ages – hehe)

Ooo oo oo!
I forgot!

The Friday before that..
My friend Vicky took me out to the ‘Che’ Exhibition at the V&A Museum.
The V&A:

It was SO cool… They had a big celebration of all things Cuban and there was food and dancing and Mojitos… oh how we love Mojitos…
I don’t know much about Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara..
Here he is:

Or in fact I should now say.. I didnt know much about him.
The exhibition was wicked – REALLY interesting man..
The guy’s a legend and it’s amazing how his image has grown in the way it has considering this pic was a complete fluke..
Amazing stuff.
So yeah – Vicky took me out to dinner afterwards to a place called The Priory in Olympia.
It was lush and we had SUCH a nice evening just chattin’ y’know?
Was cool.
Tors – if you’re readin’ this – I owe ya!
:o)

Anywhoo – where was I?
That’s right Sunday at Roger and Aidan’s.
That was cool – called a few people a few names and then went on my merry way home..
Bahahahahahahaahahah!
___

Monday – back to work.
Eugh..

But – It was the final leg of my three year stint at the Mail.
The week kind of happened without incident…
Well – aside from The Wing (remember him?) wearing this disgusting shirt…

Talk about Ocular Rapage.
(and yes – that’s Jobber again.. WORKING! Shock Horror!)
Heheheh…

THIS is how you look good at work:

Urinals and all.. lol

Anyway… My last week at work..!

It was cool..
Unsurprisingly I got hammered on my last day.. about two bottles of red wine at lunch.
Probably the best part of a bottle of champagne in the afternoon and then..
God knows how much white wine at the pub afterwards..

But yeah – these are my girls:

Christina, Laura and Louisa… lovely they all are too.
See ya girls – nice workin’ with ya.. Bless ’em.

Apparently they were at my leaving drinks..
But I REALLY dont remember…
Apparently I may’ve embarrassed a few people – I’m sure I’ll hear about it all eventually.. lol

Whoops..
Ah well…

But!

What I do remember (and this would be pretty damn hard to forget) is what my lot bought me for a leaving present..
Check it out!

A nice shiny shiny Nintendo DS Lite.. “Ooooooooooo…”

Yeah man! Awesome –
I am proper impressed..


Anywhoo… my mate Laws came over that night.
Came to my party and everything – it was cool.
She’s a good girl she is – helped me get home!
(dont remember that either – apparently I made us get on the wrong tube but I dont believe her – you hear that Laws?! You tell fibs woman!)
lol

So yeah – the following day my mate Martin threw me a champagne breakfast picnic on Twickenham Green.. it was brill.
Me, Laws, Roger, Aidan, Martin and his girlfriend Lyddy all went…
Here we all are:

Laws & Martin, Martin & Lydia,
Lydia & Adian, Aidan & Roger,
Roger & Me, Me & ….a big church!

But yeah.. the picnic was wicked – Martin made all the food himself and we got hammered… again! I think I didnt really have a hangover per se.. I just carried on drinking from the previous night.. lol
Anywhoo – so we’re all sittin there and Martin says:

“Dudes! Check it out! Pac-Man!”

We had a bit of a chuckle about that.. but THEN.. Martin says:

“Weergh! Those poor ghosts! No wonder those f**kers run! Look at him from the front!”

I laughed so hard… Hahaha.. One of the funniest dudes I know, is Martin.
Love him to bits..

So yeah – after our AMAZING picnic:

Laws and I headed back to Canvey to catch with friends and family.
It was all good.

Had a wicked night on the Isle of Canvey then headed back to Sunny Twickenham..
(not much of a story there I know – but I was out of it and I really dont remember much)

Back in Twix – I thought i’d get an early night..
Right up until I decided to move my room around…
You ever get that?!
No?

Just me then..

Ach well..
At least I have a proper cool desk now:

Yes true believers – that is where yours truly sits when he is recounting his stories to you…

Nice huh?
I think so.. makes life online a lot more enjoyable..

Moving on…

Started at my new job Monday.
All good.

I now work for a company called Refresh Mobile – www.refreshmobile.com

They make things called Mobizines – www.mobizines.com

Its absolutely wicked.
I love it.

The hours are longer – but to be honest – I only noticed that on the first day when I didnt really know what I was doing.. since then – its been cool.
Non-stop. In fact im doin more hours than I should be…
I love it…

Today is Thursday.
Well – its now Friday because its gone midnight – started this blog ages ago.

I’m shattered….

Laters

PS – Ooo! Check this out!
Its Me and Martin!
Aidan did it for us..

How cool is THAT?!

I love it..
In fact – you can tell I love it because i’ve got a printed copy of it above my desk…

My friend Naomi (we call her Roger – she’s Aidan’s girlfriend) says we look like some kind of twisted parallel universe version of Miami Vice..

Hahahahahaahahah..!

Resigned to the fact… cont!

Right folks,

Apologies for the ‘half-blog’ the other day – it was just too sunny to stay in and type this stuff up! As it stands – its 815am here and the Sun is up but I dont think its warm enough to warrant going outside just yet.. watch this space! Hehehe…

Where was I?

*opens new window – checks previous blog*

Ahhh…

Right then – I emailed Kevin back telling him how stoked I was that they were still interested etc.. and I left it at that.

That afternoon I get an email from their CEO asking me to pop over sometime next week… so we arranged a time and a date and last Wednesday I rocked over to Refresh Mobile in Fulham and went and saw them..

Now – bear in mind that my vocation at the moment is Accountant. So I bowl in there thinking I’m being interviewed for an Accounts-based position..

But no – turns out they want me to not do any accounts stuff at all!

They want me to work with them on improving their software and to help in making it a better experience for the user!

The two people that interviewed me didnt seem interested in my CV at all.. in fact one of the quotes from the interview was-

“James, if we’d have got your CV from some head hunting job agency.. you wouldn’t have made it through the door – its only because you’ve met Kevin and Scott that you’re here – they speak highly of you..”

Eventually Scott comes down and we have a bit of a chat, discuss the Mobizines in more detail.. he gives me a pop quiz on the software.. which, to be honest – I dont really know how well I did on!

But at the end of the interview said:

“Right then, I should make you an offer then really.. ”

YEAH!

“I’ll email you in the morning..”

COOL!

I give Scott my personal email address (so far all correspondence has been using my my work email – which is a bit …unethical i guess.. and probably against company policy too I’d imagine – know The Mail) and then I toddle off home.. after a near two hour interview!

Thursday arrives..

All day long i’m constantly checking my email.. lunchtime passes.. still nothing.. panic.. setting.. in.. it gets to 1630 and I decide to email Kevin – “MATE! No news! Should I be concerned?! ..or just more patient?!”

No reply!

AAAAAAAARGH!

Following morning I get an email from Scott to my work address.. turns out he mislaid my personal email address.. (THANK YOU LORD!) ..I send it over and within minutes I have a job offer and contract in my inbox ready for my perusal.. I browse over it.. decide that this is probably the best thing thats happened to my carreer in YEARS and email Scott back…

“I accept!”

I printed the contract off, signed it, sent it back… and by 11am I’d resigned from the Daily Mail!

Wooooooooooooooooooo!

Do you have ANY IDEA how nice that feels?!

To RESIGN?!

Well.. thing is.. its nicer for me I guess – I was made redundant from my last two positions and I’d kinda forgotten what it feels like to LEAVE a job instead of my job leaving me.. y’know?!

I’m so excited – this job’s gonna be great..

But now.. we have a problem. (Yup. Its never simple is it?!)

Right – so – I’l try and make this as simple as possible.

The Mail pays on the 15th of every month – two weeks in advance and two weeks in arrears. So you get paid for the two weeks you’ve just worked and then the two weeks you’re about to work… With me so far?

Cool – anyway – because of my trip to Thailand I’ve used up all my holiday at the mail and it turns out I owe them seven days.. so.. they’re gonna deduct that amount from my salary.. not NEXT month’s… no no.. THIS month’s. Arse. So in four days I get three week’s money. That’s June.

Then – on July 7th I finish at the Mail.

July 10th I start at Refresh.

July 15th I get paid ONE WEEK’S (!!) money from the Mail.

Now with Refresh things are different – they do it normally – there you get paid at the end of the month for the month you’ve just worked y’dig? So moving on:

On July 30th I get paid THREE WEEK’S money from Refresh..

Then I dont get paid again until the end of August. That pay cheque will be first full pay cheque since May 15th.

Ouch.

Fingers crossed I can survive til then.. I might be eating out of bins and stuff but I guess I’ll survive!

AARGH!

So yeah – thats my news!

Good and (slightly) bad.

Goodbye and So Long to The Daily Mail!

Goodbye and So Long to my Carreer as an Accountant!

Hello Refresh Mobile!

( oh and goodbye to my social life over the summer )

___________________________________________

Ok – thats that sorted – now to bring us bang up to date.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Hung out with mates most of the day watching various World Cup matches..

GO ON THE ENGLAND!

Ahem…

…had a kickabout.. my mate Rich broke his leg! But he’s alright.. Trooper that he is! Gonna go see him later.. see how he’s getting on..

So yeah.. there we go.

I’m gonna go have a bath now I think…

Chat soon!

J.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention – there’s a fairly large chance that I might be going to see Bon Jovi in Milton Keynes today… Bizarre eh!? Hahaahah..I’ll let you know.

Resigned to the fact…

Good morning everybody!

Its 10am and we’re T-Minus Four Hours until England kick-off their opening game of the World Cup against Paraguay.. Rock.

Lookin good – I haven’t spent any time examining the team sheet or panicking over Stevie Gerrard’s Hip/Back problems.. the guy’s younger then me for crying out loud – he’s probably still growing! Give the lad a chance..

Enough World Cup chat the time being.. Lets have an update shall we?!

ALRIGHTY THEN!

So – last time I posted I had just been to an interview at an Agency and I was off to www.refreshmobile.com for an interview the following day…

Well – Refresh Mobile make these things called Mobizines – www.mobizines.com – its a pretty damn cool piece of software for your Mowbli and its dead easy to use and dead cheap and and and.. you get the idea – just click the link and go see what I’m talking about..

I digress..

Three months ago I downloaded the aforementioned program for my Nokia and I couldnt get the bugger to work.. One of the Mobizines they do is BBC Headlines – and that’s the one I wanted – more info HERE – so I mailed them (‘them’ being the useful people at Refresh – NOT the BBC) and told them..

They were really cool and eventually between us we got it working. In the meantime a certain amount rapport built up between me and the guy I was dealing with – and when the phone was all sorted and stuff Kevin at Refresh asked me if I’d like a cheque for £20.. because I’d uncovered a problem with the software etc that no one had found and at the time they had this reward scheme in place that gave ‘prizes’ for any user that did such a thing..

“Hmm” said I. “£20?” ..

“Yes” said Kevin “Or something from this list.. “

Kevin sent me this link which had a list of boys toys and gadgets on it.. which were all pretty cool – my favourite of which was a ‘Fog Gun’. A FOG GUN! BRILLIANT! You hold the trigger down and it makes fog! Hours of fun…. “Tonight Matthew…” (holds trigger down) “…I’m going to be Batman!” Brilliant.. sorry.. got carried away..

So yeah – I nearly opted for the Fog Gun. Kinda glad I didn’t now really!

At the bottom (might’ve been the top – cant remember) of the list was a small line saying “Or come to the office and meet the team! ..and..if we like you.. you might even get a job interview! Refresh Mobile are always looking for new and exciting members of staff… etc etc”

So I emailed Kevin back – “Er.. I think I’d like the job interview and the tour please!”

“Ok mate – sure – send us your CV and we’ll arrange something..”

It was all a bit crazy and I’ll tell you for why!

1) I had NO IDEA what I job I was going to be interviewed for.

2) I had no idea what on Earth they were gonna think of me.. think about this for a second.. I turned down HARD CASH just so I could come down and meet the team and then maybe get an interview.. I thought ‘They must think I’m weird..”

Anyway – went along, met Kevin.. lovely chap.. he gave me the tour of their offices etc.. I met various members of staff….and then he introduced me to this guy called Scott. He’s the CEO of the company and dead nice.. anyway – we had a good talk and we pretty much just geeked each other out for about 45mins or so chattin’ about mobile phones and stuff and it was really, really interesting.. He showed me how the Mobizines worked etc and I told him what I thought and so on.. it was cool.

So then it turned to what I do for a living (at the time I was a Management Accountant for The Daily Mail – Yeah – I know..) and I told him and he was like ..”Ok… ….we’re not looking for any of those at the moment but if anything comes up we’ll be in touch”.

And it pretty much ended there..

So – fast forward to last week – remember my blog and how much I REALLY hated my job? Yeah – I emailed Kevin at Refresh just saying “Hi! How are ya?!” etc etc.. “just a friendly reminder email I suppose reminding him that I was still there etc and still interested….”

I got an email back from Kevin the following day saying:

“Hi James, we’re still interested – more soon..”

…and that’s where I’m leaving it folks..

For now anyway – the day is too beautiful for me to be stuck indoors typing!

Rest of the story to come soon.. PROMISE!

Heheehe..