Testers Required!

Good day to you avid reader!

Just a quick blog post to mention that our next big release is coming very soon and we are currently on the lookout for peeps to come help us with some end user testing before we go public...

See below:

"Refresh Mobile are looking for open and honest, London-based mobile phone users to test their new version of Mobizines and are willing to pay £10 (in either Virgin or Amazon vouchers) to anyone who is willing to help.

Anyone who wants to volunteer needs to be free to spend 45-60mins at the Refresh Mobile offices based in Fulham Broadway, London any time between Mon-Fri, 9am - 6:30pm before June 12th 2007.

If you are available and are interested in shaping the future of the latest release of this exciting product - then please email james@refreshmobile.com for more details.

Please Note - There are only a small amount of places available on this occasion and guests will be invited on a 'first come, first serve' basis."

We've posted this up on a few sites already and a reasonably good response - however we are still looking for a few more volunteers...

Hope to hear from you soon!

Use Mobizines over WLAN For FREE !

Many of you may know that we ran a recent beta test for the N95. Over 80 of you volunteered to be part of this beta and we're very grateful to each and every one of you.

We've listened to you feedback and the most common enhancements that was requested, was the ability to use WLAN where is was available.

We been prototyping how this could work and now have a test version that automatically detects if the handset is hooked up to a WLAN router. If you are hooked up, this APN is automatically selected. Needless to say, it is super quick and overall a really great experience.

We're considering beta testing this variant, if you think we should beta this variant, please let me know at devices@mobizines.com

Kevin

Yet another great phone to get Mobizines working on

A piece of historical greatness from one of my favourite blogs: Paleo-Future. It's a 1910 description of what a wireless phone would be like.

The text is great and I'll try not to spoil it by giving it all away, but it's worth noting that the inventive spirits of the Washington Post had already figured out what to do with unsightly aerials: it's the umbrella - what you look like when it doesn't rain I dunno, although the article does helpfully suggest that indoors you can attach your wireless telephone to your bedstead.

Presumably there's a USB-Remington interface for printing out text messages, although the built-in MP3 player would require the transportation of unwieldy memory sticks in the form of rolls of wax.

Future here we come

Sony's not dead yet!
Sure they might have the odd problem but Sony's R&D is still rocking. We haven't seen anything with quite as much of a "I want one of those now and I don't care how much it costs me in time, money or personal self-esteem" factor as the 16.7m colour OLED displays Sony demo'd yesterday...

That's more colours than my MacBook Pro, thank you Apple.

Still, it's kind of funny it taken a world of designers a year to notice that they only have 6 bit colour.


Anyway, you want to see what this awesome new thing looks like?

Well it turns out there's this really cool new thing called YouTube, which is like television, only better because the pictures are smaller and there's less chance of seeing Kate Thornton or an Ocean Finance ad unless you really want to. And someone (EDIT: The awesome nihonblog PinkTentacle) has posted a clip from Japanese TV up there.
It's right here.
Right now.



There are higher resolution OLEDs, but Sony's is the first that looks like it's consumer quality. Not sure about the support wiring round the edges, but when that's smaller this will change the way we approach gadgets altogether.

At the moment mobile phone screens are limited by some fairly straightforward human factors like the width of the hand and the desire not to look completely nebbish while making a call.

Ever seen someone making a call on an old-school Blackberry? My point exactly...

Add in a display that rolls up and you can have both a phone that fits neatly in an inside pocket and massive screen real estate when you need it.

So hurry up with the future, Sony-researcher-san. I'm already a couple of decades overdue on my hovercar and personal jet pack and I need my fix!

Story from Digital World Tokyo, video from PinkTentacle, image pinched from icanhascheeseburger.com.

And Lolcats rule.

The Devil Wears...

Prada, apparently.

Well - it makes you think...

Done thinking? Cool...

Now - as you know the other day we finally got our hands on a brand new LG Prada phone...
We're all busying away on our next big release and we haven't really got time to develop a whole brand new variant of the Mobizines client to work on this handset...

So imagine our surprise to find that our touchscreen client, very nearly, works on the Prada!
Admittedly it does need a small bit of tweaking here and there...
But our resident touchscreen guru Andre, (Big up the Dre!), is on the case.

The official line is: We do NOT support this device*.
*But we're working on it!

In the meantime however - have a look at this video that we hastily knocked up...



Yes it's the wrong way round and yes it's a bit blurry but it's the best we could do under such short notice!

I guess eventually we'll probably do some kind of beta testing... if you want to be involved - drop us an email (with LG PRADA in the subject header) at bloggers@mobizines.com - we'll make sure your name gets passed onto the relevant folk...

We've got a new toy

And it isn't an N95...

...can you guess what it could be?

Hehe...

I know we promised a techie-orientated post (and there is one coming soon) but our dev team have been having a good play with the contents of that box today...

Maybe we'll knock up another video for you...
More on this... Soon.

Feedback Forum

We've had some mail!

Woo...

Well - ok - not actual mail. But one of our readers has commented on this lovely blog of ours and we thought we'd re-post it and give it a (well deserved) response.
Cool.

Well - here's the comment we received:

"Hey. I dont usually comment on websites.
But this ones thrown me... I found out about this blog way back at the first day.
I was super hoping to see more about wap design, the process you might go through, Some thoughtful insight on the mobile world, etc etc...
But all ive seen is a plug for your mobizines site - Which obviously its about mobizines so why not.
But I was super hoping I would see more informative posts.
Hopefully you take this comment to heart because you people seem to know what your talkin' about.
If you do take this to heart... mabye you can explain how its feasible for you to offer up mobizines free? I'm wondering how you would benefit mainly in this question.

Heres hoping you run with my comment. (and not to the trash bin)

Signed: Anonymous"

First off - Thank you for your feedback Mr Anonymous (whoever you are!).
When we got the email here at Mobizines with your comments in we immediately forwarded it to our techie/development team and challenged them to come up with some more 'informative' (shall we say) posts about Mobizines etc and how they all work.

Basically - Your comments have been taken on board and we are doing something about it!
Originally we didn't want the blog to become overly-techie and/or just a 'plug for the Mobizines site' - but if more process/design stuff is what you want - then we shall try and fulfil that need, (as well as sticking in the odd random post as per usual).
So...

WATCH THIS SPACE!

In answer to one of your questions mind -
(about Mobizines being free) -
Have a look at the last paragraph of our very first post.
Hopefully that might go some way in explaining how we do it - let us know if not!

Also...
Here's hoping this 'Feedback Forum' section becomes a regular thing...
If you have something to contribute to the Mobizines team or if you have any feedback about the service and/or the blog - You can reach us by either:

a) Leaving a comment on this here blog of ours or
b) Mailing us at bloggers@mobizines.com

We're generally quite a nice bunch of folk and most things get addressed pretty sharpish..
Hope to hear from you soon!