martinmurphy.com – Martin Murphy

Continuing in the online video theme, The Register has a story about video ads:
Future looks bright for video ads
The article talks about ad-funded online video, and video ads in web pages. Both of these are relevant to me at work.

Saw this on mocoNews.net this morning: Symbian Slingplayer In Private Beta
Looks interesting, even with the number of operators making video available on mobile, this allows an individual get the video content that they have available, in their home or office, delivered to their phone.
So, while they’re on a train, or waiting in an airport, etc. they can get the news, the latest soap, or the view from the security cameras at home/office. This is obviously subject to bandwidth availability and cost. (uploading from home and downloading to phone).

Nokia are saying that the N95 is better than the iPhone, at least in the European market. Just read an article on
SiliconRepublic.com: Nokia aim to “rip through the iPhone hype”

While I personally would prefer the features in the N95, the screen, interface, and form factor of the iPhone are much better. If Apple could put in a 3G radio and allow you use the iPhone as a modem…

The whole reliability and updatability issues will have to wait until the phones have been in the market for a while. (I’d be concerned that the large iPhone screen would get scratched.)

Edit to add: “…European carriers are hell-bent on reviving flagging ARPU (average revenue per user) levels by replacing lost revenues with new streams from high-speed data services…” Network coverage issues are still going to be an issue – when you force everyone to use online data they get annoyed when they can’t access it. (e.g. I work in a metal-clad building and can’t get phone coverage inside)

This is an interesting introduction to Flash Lite – including getting data from the network – in the current issue of Dr. Dobbs Journal. Well it’s probably only interesting if, like me, the only thing you already know about Flash Lite, is that some people can make nice looking demos with it
Dr. Dobbs | Flash Lite: Graphics for Mobile Devices | June 8, 2007

Interesting news about RTÉ programmes on 3’s mobile network. ireland.com – Breaking News – Tue, May 22, 2007 – RTÉ entertainment goes mobile
50 cent a day doesn’t sound to bad for the amount of data. Let’s hope other data rates come down also.
(I wonder if you need a “televison reception aparatus” licence for your phone also

Although, I don’t know how well a fashion program would work on such a small screen.

Very funny video: YouTube – Microsoft oPhone

[link via Furrygoat]

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | ‘Smart dust’ to explore planets
I just noticed this on BBC News. I’ve obviously heard of smart dust but I hadn’t thought of it in the context of interplanetary exploration. Interesting stuff!

Just found out about the Nokia Software Updater, it’s available for upgrading several phone models. I haven’t tried it yet, I’ll hopefully get it installed and my 6680 upgraded over the weekend. (Although my connection problems seem to have gone away since I selected the network manually)

Update: It appears that my phone already has the latest version (dated August 2005!)