Jun 17
Personal David
audio, chat, david, gilson, microphone, mobile, phones, podcast, show
Exciting news – I was a guest on this week’s Phones Show Chat podcast!
David recording with the Phones Show Chat team
Quite a while ago, I posted about some of my favourite podcasts, and Steve Litchfield’s Phones Show was one of my video choices. Since then, along with Tim Salmon, Steve launched a companion audio-only weekly podcast where they discuss mobile phones and applications.
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Jun 2
Personal David
cfs, degree, health, Maths, me, mobile, msc, phd, Physics, pvfs, teaching, technology, thesis, writing
The mobile influence
I haven’t written a proper blog post for quite sometime. Since my 50th article (on sites other than this one) has just been published, it seemed a good time to write a post about my writing.
When this blog was a year old I said that I hoped to start writing for other sites, and that is exactly what I did. A result is that posts have been less frequent on here. Although, I whole heartedly think it’s been worth neglecting this place for what I’ve achieved.
Two things have always driven me, even back through my academic days when I was studying for a PhD in quantum physics (no really – I was!). I am a technology enthusiast, and I enjoy explaining complicated subjects. At one time this was driving me towards teaching. Even though I never went for full-teacher training, I have taught physics and maths up to and including degree level. It’s off-topic, but I have immense admiration for teachers, and th e essential yet thankless work they do. I think teaching is the most noble profession there is, and most people don’t realise the toll that teaching takes on a person.
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Apr 26
Reviews David
camera, clamp, desktop, holder, mobile, phone, tripod
For bloggers, like me, who look at a lot of gadgets, sooner or later the need to post a video arises. Making video with mobile phones is becoming more of a viable option as camera phones continually improve. However, mobile phones don’t have a standard tripod mount. There used to be the Nokia DT-22 tripod for phones, although that was discontinued some time ago. Thankfully, a new mobile phone tripod holder has hit the market and I’ve been sent one for review from MobileFun.co.uk (Thanks!).
Desktop tripod with Nokia N97
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Feb 22
Reviews David
e55, martin fields, mobile, nokia, phone, protector, screen
Martin Fields Screen Protectors
For the last four weeks, I’ve been trying out a screen protector for my phone, sent from MobileFun.co.uk. I’ve been particularly keen to try these out after reading their blog post on all the various screen protectors they sell.
After 18 months of constantly wiping finger prints from my E51′s screen, it was badly scratched. It really is amazing how much damage even paper kitchen towel can do to a plastic screen. So, when I bought my E55 in September 2009, I didn’t remove the plastic slip that covered the screen as part of the original packaging, in a cheapskate way to protect its screen. The packaging cover did a good job of keeping scratches off. Although, after many months of constantly going in and out of my pocket, the cover’s corners began to curl up and pick up fluff. this forced me to peel them back and cut them off so that the peeling didn’t spread. Although the more I did this the more screen was exposed to the elements.
So yes, this pathetic state of affairs meant only one thing, it was time for a real screen protector. MobileFun.co.uk kindly sent me a set of their Martin Fields screen protectors. The first thing that struck me when unpacking them was that not only was there a cover for the main screen, but also for the camera on the back of the phone – very thorough. The packing was a simple moulded plastic affair, with both sets of protects on a backing sheet. The screen protector is cut to shape, and they even thought to cut a hole out for the light sensor so that the phone could still take accurate readings of the ambient light level.
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Jan 31
Mobile News David
allaboutsymbian, app, application, mobile, nokia, s60, series60, symbian, Twitter
Twitter on Symbian
A while ago I set about doing a survey of all the Twitter applications I knew of for Series60 phones. As I explored them I built up a list of features, 44 in all, across eight, in which I included m.twitter.com, giving me a total of 352 feature checks to perform.
Since I’m still inducting myself into the world of journalism, I took this as an opportunity to introduce myself to some developers. Doing that was a really positive experience, you get to have an exchange of views, and in some cases, contribute to the direction of their plans, albeit in small ways.
Strange as it might sound, the downside was that I got to know about up-coming features. It worked out that three of the eight were close to releasing new versions. So not wanting my article to be outdated within a week, I decided to hold it back while they got their testing done. This was fine, but it was something of a mental weight to bear, knowing that the article was just hanging there waiting to be completed. Fate took a hand when the editor of AllAboutSymbian.com (that’s who I was writing this for) e-mailed me one night last week to ask if the article could be published the following day. Since by then, two out of three apps were already updated, and the developers of the third had said not to wait for them, I replied that I could have it ready go.
The comments posted on the article (see my publications page), were as I expected. A steady stream of you didn’t review X or Y application. To clearly show the features of each application, I’d constructed a table, which formed the core of the article. After publication I spotted it had some errors. Frustrating, but it was still over 98% accurate 
So, there’ll be two publications coming out of this project, as I’ll be posting an updated version of the feature table. I’ve already corrected my errors, and have compiled a list of even more Series60 Twitter applications, bringing the total up from eight to seventeen!
Now, forty-four checks per application, and nine more applications to check, so that means I have to do … 
Edit/Update
I did the follow up article for All About Symbian, where I covered seventeen Twitter applications and services for S60 phones. Read it here.
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