That’s how Mobile Developer TV is looking at the moment. I’m pretty pleased with the clean lines.

At least now we’ve got rid of the standard Wordpress theme. We based it on Kubrick — but hand-coded it to work exactly as we wanted from a text perspective.

Next up? Video. Production and integration.

I’ve got about 8 hours of Mobile Developer TV footage so far — all of it from Silicon Valley. I’ll have the first cut ready for uploading tomorrow I think.

Stay tuned!

I didn’t bother signing up for Wakoopa when I heard about it a while ago. I thought it was a cool concept — track the desktop applications you’re using (along with ‘web applications’) and then publish the data to let you track what your friends are using.

Now and again I’ve found myself on some obscure blog post from 2005 only to discover a genius application for uploading screenshots or something like that.

Indeed I think that’s how I came across ImageWell (uploads screenshots via FTP) and Mailplane (run Gmail / Apps as a proper application) and more.

I didn’t sign-up initially because, well… so much of my desktop usage is browser based. Looking at the applications I have open at the moment, it doesn’t really make for shocking or surprising reading:

* Safari
* Firefox
* Microsoft Word
* Skype
* Mailplane
* Spotify
* ImageWell
* MarsEdit
* Terminal
* Adium
* TweetDeck

Hardly earth shattering, eh? But then… you never know. So I signed up this afternoon and I’ve added two chaps already, Geetarchurchy and Ricky Chotai. Aside from the basic ‘what’s he using that for’ thoughts, it’s really quite interesting. I can see how this will/would really help with discovery of new applications.

Which brings me to the subject of this post. I’d really like to see something like this for mobile handsets. I’m sure the Wakoopa creators are considering something like this. Of course it wouldn’t work very well on an iPhone in real time (no background apps on an iPhone… yet) but it would work reasonably well on Android and Symbian.

Nokia’s already doing this with the upcoming Ovi Store (just WHEN is it actually, actually launching?). Peer-to-peer recommendations. I should, theoretically, be able to see what my Ovi friends are buying/using/consuming via the Ovi Store. I’m looking forward to seeing how people react to that feature, I think it’ll be a winner.

I certainly find the iPhone application discovery process a little bit haphazard at the moment — indeed, it’s positively lonely when you’re sat looking at the App Store on your iPhone. I tend to hear more about applications when I’m not actively browsing, when I’m out-and-about or when I’m working. That’s fine, but it’s not necessarily when I’m most receptive to looking at new things.

I can imagine opening up the App Store on my Nokia with the intent of finding out what my friends have checked out recently.

I’m hoping that once all the kinks are worked out, the Ovi Store will reinvigorate the desire to install new apps… We shall see.

People I know from London keep asking me, “Are you in San Francisco?” and, people from San Francisco keep asking if I’m in London.

The where-are-you question is very, very relevant in the context of business so I’ve been trying to solve that with the use of a Where Am I function on my personal site, Ewan.net.

I was previously using BlogLoc for this function… but it was getting a little bit annoying having to manually update every time I remembered.

So instead I’ve decided to try out Google’s Latitude facility. Latitude allows you to see the locations of your friends on a Google Map (either on your phone or online) and it works pretty well.

Recently the Google Latitude team announced that they’ve added a public ‘badge’ facility that you can place anywhere on the web to show off your current location. This definitely isn’t for everyone, especially if you’re a little bit suspicious or concerned about your privacy. But I like the concept myself and I thought it was worth a try. Google have been particularly direct with their warnings — which I heeded — so I haven’t displayed by actual street level GPS location. Instead I’ve displayed my general ‘city level’ location.

Here’s what it looks like on the blog:

Nifty.

If you’d like to do the same, get your Google Latitude Public Location Badge here.

Would you like to see thousands of people singing ‘Hey Jude’ together in London’s Trafalgar Square?

Yes? Good. Because that’s what T-Mobile UK have cooked up for your delectation. It’s the next in the series after the rather amazing T-Mobile ‘Dance’ at London’s Liverpool Street Station that saw hundreds of apparent commuters all of a sudden break into a series of co-ordinated dance moves. Brilliant advertisement, compelling viewing. If you haven’t seen it, take a few minutes and check it out here:

And here’s the Hey Jude one in Trafalgar Square:

The good looking girl who appears now and again, singing in tune, is popstar Pink.

I think.

I’ve been wondering all about this particular video after I kept seeing it playing on all the electronic screens around the London Underground/Tube. Know I know.

I’m pretty impressed at T-Mobile UK’s advertising geniuses. The first video, The Dance, definitely underpins the company’s ‘Life’s For Sharing’ message — and, whilst the ‘Hey June’ one does too (load of folk, all singing-along mostly out of tune), I think The Dance is going to remain their most compelling ad for some time.

You read that right.

Fluck me sideways.

From June 1, pay as you go and pay monthly consumer customers can talk, text and send picture messages from over 35 countries across Europe this summer for the same price as at home.

From May 15, calls from the UK to friends and family overseas from as little as 5 pence per minute.

Businesses also benefit from cost savings on roaming.

What a challenge to the industry. I’m really pleased to see this rather sweeping, surprising and exciting move from Vodafone:

So much so, I’m going to post the whole release:

Vodafone UK is abolishing roaming charges this summer and bringing in great value prices for international calls, making it easier for customers to phone home while abroad and make calls abroad from the UK. There are cost savings for business customers too.

From 1 June to the end of August, Vodafone Pay as you Go and Pay Monthly customers will be able to call, text and send picture messages to friends and family back home from over 35 countries knowing that it will cost exactly the same as if they were in the UK. For example, a customer on a plan with 600 minutes and unlimited texts who opts in to Vodafone Passport would use these minutes and texts when they are on holiday with no extra charges.

Existing Vodafone Passport customers automatically benefit from the three month promotion. From May 15, customers who don’t currently use Vodafone Passport can sign up for free by texting the word ‘Passport’ to 97888 if they pay monthly or to 2345 if they use Pay as you go , or they can visit vodafone.co.uk/roaming.

In addition, from May 15, Vodafone Pay as you go customers on the Simply tariff, will find that calls they make from the UK to friends and family overseas will be even better value. International calls will cost from as little as 5p per minute to both landlines and mobiles. Customers can opt in to the new Vodafone International call plan by calling 36888 or texting the word ‘international’ to 2345 from their handset, visiting vodafone.co.uk/international or speaking to an adviser in one of Vodafone’s 400 stores.

“These are two great value offers for our customers this summer. With our Vodafone Passport promotion you can sit on the beach with your phone switched on knowing you can take and make a call just as you would if you were in your back garden,” says Ian Shepherd consumer director for Vodafone UK. “Vodafone International is good news for the millions of UK pay as you go customers as they can now make calls to family and friends around the world from just 5p.”

Reducing the cost of roaming for businesses

Vodafone UK business customers on Anytime or Your Plan price plans will also benefit from the same three month Vodafone Passport promotion from June 1. Customers on these plans and already on Vodafone Passport will automatically qualify for the promotion. Non Vodafone Passport customers can opt in by calling their account manager or visiting www.vodafone.co.uk/businessroaming for further information.

And the countries included?

Countries included in the Vodafone Passport summer promotion: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Channel Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroes, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Vatican City, New Zealand, Australia.

More thoughts and analysis later!

Well then. What a total waste of time that was. If you recall, I recently wrote that it was high time I visited a Vodafone shop.

I’ve got five lines on the account, all at crazy price plan levels. I don’t know which-is-which, apart from my main number. And Vodafone UK’s online account management is so dire that I decided I’d go into a shop and sort it out.

I liked the idea of perusing my account screen with the helpful Vodafone sales chaps. I didn’t like the idea of phoning up customer service because I couldn’t easily visualise the accounts. I figured it would take 3 times as long to go through the changes I needed to make via voice. I didn’t want to wind up the customer services agent and I reckoned, if I picked a Vodafone shop in London when they were reasonably empty, I could spend 10 minutes sorting things out in person.

That’s the beauty of Vodafone. It’s all connected. Setting aside the fact you can’t really *do* much with your online account management (i.e. change price plans — I always get errors), I liked the fact I could walk into any Vodafone shop, the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, and be able to discuss my account within seconds. It’s all so smart. All so connected.

Phone up and they can help you. Walk into any store and they can call up your account there and then and woosh, you can walk out with a new handset if you like. All you need to do is confirm your primary phone number, name/address or show some ID and bish, bash, bosh, you’re done.

It may not sound *that* amazing, but remember o2 stores can’t help you unless you can remember your account number. You literally have to stand in the shop phoning o2 customer service to retrieve your account number, THEN the chaps can help you.

And 3… don’t get me started on 3. They’re better now, but they used to be completely 100% unable to service existing customers. It was a dire experience if you were already a customer. You’d walk in, hoping to upgrade, then be told to phone customer service and do the deal via phone because their systems weren’t setup. Thankfully they’ve rectified that.

But something strange has happened to Vodafone recently, if today’s experience is accurate across the whole store network.

I walked into the Oxford Street (near Soho) branch this evening. They weren’t too busy and I was approached by a helpful chap within seconds.

“I’d like to make some changes to my price plans,” I said, “And possibly upgrade one of the lines — I’ve got five on my account.”

The chap did a ‘let me stop you there look’ before telling me, “Sorry sir, I’m afraid you have to call up for that.”

I looked at him.

In fact my look said: “YOU WHAT?”

“Yes,” he continued, “If we do it in-store, you’ll have to add an extra 6 months to your contract if you change price plans?”

I looked at him again.

You what?

“Er, well, can you tell me if any of my accounts are free of contract yet?” I asked, crestfallen.

“Sure!” he snapped with efficient politeness.

We headed to the back of the shop. I gave him my details. Within seconds he was telling me that one of my 12-month lines was out of contract.

“You can get a G2 for £90 on an 18-month contract,” he said.

Riight, I said, considering the 600 a month I’m spending. That’s a whopping 7,200 pounds a year. If you assume a G2 costs an arbitrary £400, I could buy 18 of them a year for what I’m blowing with Vodafone.

He came up with another option, “Or, if you’d like a 24-month contract on that line, the G2 would be just £5?”

Right.

I saw the manager — or a ’suit’ was standing nearby so I thought I’d try out the entrepreneurialism.

“So I’m spending at least 600 a month with you,” I prompted.

My sales guy looked at my recent bills.

“Er, yeah,” he said.

I glanced in the direction of the manager, standing next to him not paying any attention.

“So, you can’t change my price plans here…”

- “No sir,” he interrupted again, “You have to phone 191 [Customer Services]. Unless you’re upgrading, we can’t help [smile].”

“And despite the fact I’m paying 600 a month, you can’t just give me a G2, you need to charge me five pounds?”

“As I said,” he replied patiently, “You do need to talk to customer services.”

Right.

So it’s cookie-cutter time.

I’m exactly the same as someone paying Vodafone £15 per month. In fact given the amount of attention my brother gets on a month-to-month £25 contract (he’s getting how-are-you-doing-sir calls each month urging him to upgrade to a contract with special terms), I think he’s getting a better service level.

What’s the point of a branch network if you can’t service me and my £7,200 expenditure.

And at what point do I sit back and think seven grand is just a stupid, stupid amount to be paying.

That amount is a reflection of my relationship with Vodafone. I was hugely delighted. I didn’t mind the expenditure. It is certainly a business expense for the company — indeed, the Bold, the Dell Mini laptop, those weren’t entirely necessary for me personally but they were super-necessary for the business, to make sure I could deliver decent reviews and competent reporting.

But now, well, I think I could get by on £20-30 per month. Give me 600 minutes, unlimited texts and ‘unlimited’ data and you know what, that’ll work.

And it just takes one experience to really change your perspective.

What the hell am I doing paying them that amount of cash?

Well, obviously, I was going into their shop to reduce that down — to remove and reduce the unnecessary 65, 80, 90 and 45 (or whatever) price plans that I’ve got running. Throw in some unnecessary (but previously useful) Blackberry service plans on a few of the lines. It all adds up. Plus VAT. Add in a bit of international roaming and before you know it, you’re at 600 quid.

Deary me.

It used to be blowing this kind of money on an operator, you’d be sent phones, devices, whatever in order to keep your head in the sand so that you didn’t actually do anything. Indeed if Vodafone had called me last week and offered me a G2 for free, along with something else, and something else… you know, ‘goodies’, I’d have reacted emotionally: Yes please and er, don’t worry about those price plan changes. That’d have been worth the cash to me. I understand the commercial realities that the operator has to face. But I also recognise that I’ve been giving them a heckuvalot of business and… well… it’s the age old customer issue isn’t it? I now think I’m paying a lot, lot more than I need to be and can’t see a reason to continue.

Tomorrow, Vodafone Customer Services and I have a date. A rather boring and extensive date where we go through each account in sequence and reduce them down to their (roughly) 15 quid/month minimums. And I need to cancel that 12-month one that’s already expired.

Like many of the UK’s contracted mobile customers, I’ll take note of the contract expiry dates on each line and start clock-watching.

I think Vodafone should do an unboxing video for every single one of their handsets. Relying on an array of independents to do it for you on Youtube is not good enough.

If I’m a Vodafone customer (and I am), I want to know what the Vodafone branded version of my handset comes with and I’d like to see how the device works on film. One step better than reading a list of specifications and clicking on a few pictures.

Vodafone have gone to town with the HTC Magic and produced this video, distributed by Unruly Media.

Have a look:

It’s that time again.

I am off to visit a Vodafone store to find out what’s going on with my five lines. I’m going to change around some of the price plans and decommission the lines I don’t need.

I’ve also finally recognised that I don’t actually use 3,000 mobile minutes per month, nor do I need unlimited landline minutes. That, plus 500 texts per month. This harks back to a time when Vodafone insisted on charging 12.5 pence (inc VAT) per text and a whopping 35p (plus VAT) per minute to talk to someone on another mobile network here in the UK.

Crazy.

Things are better. We’ve moved on. Whilst a lot of the old price plan penalties still exist, the pay monthly plans are a lot, lot more modern — for instance, £25 gets you 600 minutes to anyone and unlimited texts.

I’ve been mentally sticking my head in the sand every time the Vodafone bill hits my back account. Last month it was 600+ pounds. That’s just silly.

Now I’ve got a few days spare before the meetings begin in earnest, I’m going to sort this out.

It’s possible to do this on the phone, but I can’t easily visualise the lines, the price plans and so on — and I don’t want to waste the time of their expert customer services people.

I would use their online account management facilities but, as everyone on the planet knows, Vodafone UK’s online service is more or less bollocks. It looks to me as though it’s held together with a string of Oracle databases and some sellotape.

I’m able to browse the phone numbers of the lines on my account. I’m also able to see it’s related price plan. But if I try to change anything, I get an error message.

This error message has been particularly effective at preventing me from doing anything to my account for a good few months.

So it’s off to a store. I’ll let you know how I get on.

I might even pick up a new G2.

If you were reading my Twitter feed earlier this afternoon, you’d have caught my update from outside the Verizon Wireless Store in Palo Alto.

Here’s a pic:

I was Palo Alto for a few meetings, one with a mobile titan (ID not public alas). The chap was running 30 minutes late (“Don’t worry, I’ll hit up* the Apple store”, I told him). I’d arrived in by the rather efficient ‘CalTrain’ early anyway so I strolled up University Avenue toward the Apple store.

I was having a look in the shop windows during the stroll and realised I was passing the Verizon Wireless store.

“Screw it,” I thought, “I’ve got some time, let’s go and have a look at Mr CDMA’s offerings.”

I arrived into the store and was immediately greeted by a lady with a clipboard. This is the way things work in America. At least, it’s been my experience with Sprint as well as Verizon.

(Conversations paraphrased from memory)

“How may I help you today?” the nice spritely shiny lady asked, clipboard and pen poised.

“Er I’m British,” I said. Best to get that off my chest.

She did a slow knowing nod.

British = Useless to Verizon. They either want to spend a good 20 minutes selling you a two-year credit agreement (and a handset) or get you out of the shop as quickly as possible with a prepay deal.

But if you’re foreign it’s a no-go. They don’t want your business. You need a US social security number to get started with them. This is fair enough — there are 303 million folk in the country, enough to be getting on with.

Even if you offer to prepay a 2-year contract in advance (e.g. $200 for a Storm on $80 a month is $2120. Offer them $3,000 up front and they’ll decline. Their system, I’m told, doesn’t ‘work that way’).

Anyway. I explained I was British and the lady put down her pen and let me pass.

Normally she’d have been ticking various boxes relating to what I was looking for. Then she’ll hand the resulting form to a sales chappy who, suitably briefed, will help me out.

I took a stroll about the place. I admired a few handsets. I glanced once or twice at the Storm, their handset du jour. Well, actually, their handset du year.

I had a look at the LG Versa.

“Can I help you, sir?”

I turned and found a helpful looking sales chap on my elbow.

“Er,” I said with continued embarrassment, “I’m sorry, I’m British, so… er…”

“Oh,” the chap said, eyes widening.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding, “It’s prepay or nothing, I know.”

I hung my head slightly as the chap nodded with me in sympathy.

With a tough of benevolence, he said I should ask him if I needed any help.

I thanked him.

“Alas, I’m a pariah,” I mumbled to myself, gazing over at the Samsung Omnia on the shelf. Windows Mobile, I know, but it thought it’d be worth a look. I went back to the Storm.

$199 on a 2-year contract.

I started selling it to myself.

“You have a duty to, you know, play about with these things,” I reasoned, calculating whether I really wanted to spunk something like $2,000 on ‘playing about’.

I only found out later that you could get a Blackberry Storm for $449 up-front on a month-to-month agreement. That, provided Verizon would have done a deal with an alien like me, would have bee interesting. I’d still have had quite a problem swallowing $449 unless I was aiming to use it as a primary device.

My key issue is that I’ve never actually used a Verizon handset for more than a day or so — and they’ve been rubbish prepay handsets. I’ve never really tried out the Verizon data network, for example. So I was warm.

But luckily for my bank balance, nobody tried to sell me a month-to-month Storm.

In fact, they’re not selling the Storm in Palo Alto. Although it’s on display, it’s not for sale. The sales team will do their best to avoid selling you one.

Is that a sweeping statement? Yes. Of course Verizon are selling Storms — by the bucketload by all accounts. Just not to me. And definitely not to the customer who came in after me.

I was pondering the possibility of a Windows Mobile handset when I heard a chap come into the shop. I glanced round as he approached me and the salesman who’d (sensibly?) given up on me.

“Hi,” he said, “I’m after a G-3 phone, the Blackberry Storm?”

“Right,” said the salesperson, “Well…”

“This is it here, is it?” the buyer said. He’d walked straight to it and was ready for the sale. He’d clearly seen it on television or been recommended it. The fact he got the ‘G-3′ (“3G”) bit wrong indicated an element of normob (“normal mobile user”) in his makeup. He knew what he wanted. He knew 3G, however you said it, was the way ahead. He was fondling the device and wanted to buy one.

“Er, you don’t want the Blackberry Storm,” said the salesman to the surprise of the buyer, “It’s buggy,” he continued.

“Buggy? Ah yeah..” said the buyer. He’d heard of that too and asked, “When will they bring out a software upgrade?”.

“Errrrr,” said the salesman, “Is it a touchscreen phone you’re looking for?” he said, beckoning the buyer to the other side of the store.

I missed a bit of their conversation — but I could make out the fact the salesman was trying to sell him some type of LG touchscreen.

The buyer did some quick evaluation before walking back to the Storm.

“Nah, tell me about the Storm?”

“It’s buggy, you don’t want that,” the salesman said.

“Right, but it works?” said the buyer. He clearly *just* wanted one. He was giving all the I-don’t-mind hints.

At that point I left the store.

I couldn’t handle it.

I was having a lot of trouble keeping my mouth shut and not slapping the salesman with a handy wet fish a few times.

As I left, the buyer was fondling the Storm clearly in I WILL BUY THIS PHONE mode. I think the salesman had relented at this point as I just caught, “Well, the touchscreen clicks when you press on it, the iPhone doesn’t have that,” as I walked out the door.

Well I never.

Palo Alto, spiritual home to Silicon Valley (and actual home to, amongst others, HP’s worldwide headquarters). By all means discourage the good normob people of Shitsville, Middle America, to avoid getting the Storm (they’ll only return it when they can’t figure out the keyboard). But in Palo Alto? When the chap strides in demanding a Storm? Give him one. Be pleased he’s aiming to swap from T-Mobile (he was) to Verizon instead of T-Mobile or, worse… the iPhone collective that is AT&T.

An interesting experience.

In the interests of fairness I am going to see if I can swim the myriad Verizon Wireless PR channels and get a hold of a Blackberry Storm to use for a month or so. I’ll keep you updated.

Meanwhile I encourage you to pop into your nearest Verizon store and ask for a Storm and report back your experiences. My experience today must surely have been an exception.

* “Hit up” — a fancy wanna-be-cool American way of saying “visit/talk to/connect with”.

I came across this rather nifty proof-of-concept video from the Google Latitude team.

Latitude, if you’re not familiar with it, is an add-on to Google Maps that (amongst other features) overlays an avatar of your friends on Google Maps. So if you’re out-and-about you can see their location. Or if you’re on your desktop you can see a large Google Map of your friends.

Typically innovative, Google decided to take things to the next level. Wouldn’t it be neat that, if you had sufficient friends each with a T-Mobile G1 (for example), you could position them on the map to spell out a message.

Granted, you’d need to have quite a bit of spare time. But it’s doable, right?

Right.

The Google Latitude team stuck their money where their mouth is and had a bit of fun, thus:

That there is a screenshot of a Google Maps screen spelling out ‘Hi Mom’ across central San Francisco. Each little square you see is an avatar representing a physical Google team member with a phone standing in the corresponding physical location in San Francisco.

The enterprising chaps also made a video documenting the process of setting this up:

There is, I suspect, limited value in spelling out messages using your friends on Google Maps / Latitude. But it’s a super proof-of-concept for the technology.

And a reminder to get on Latitude.

Latitude, of course, isn’t yet available for the iPhone so that’s most of San Francisco ruled out. But for everyone back in Europe sporting your common-or-garden N-Series Nokia device, perhaps it’s time you and your friends spent this Saturday spelling out ‘Hello Your Majesty’ across a map of London.

(You’ll need about 10-12 friends per character.)