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Darren Waters

An iPhone for all reasons?

  • Darren Waters
  • 6 Mar 08, 18:39 GMT

The iPhone - love it or hate it, I think you have to admit that the device is having an impact on the mobile market.

In the global phone market its footprint may be small, but in the smartphone sector, and specifically as a web-browsing device, the gadget is overturning expectations.

Until now the device could not be taken seriously as an enterprise phone - but today Apple has announced support for Microsoft's Exchange. What that means is that push and synced e-mail, contacts and calendar, as well as support for Virtual Private Networks, will be available on the iPhone.

What this really means is that Blackberry now has a serious competitor in the business market.

Of course, it's the price that will ultimately be the deciding factor.
Will the people in your company who do the buying and hiring of IT equipment want to buy phones from Apple?

Apple also unveiled the software development kit for its iPhone today, and had a few surprises.

The first was a version of Will Wright's highly-anticipated game Spore running on the device and then the announcement that Sega were producing games for the platform.

When I was out at the Game Developers' Conference last month many many developers told me they were itching to start producing games for the iPhone.

It looks like the iPhone could give mobile gaming a much needed boost and provide Nokia's N-Gage some real competition.

Darren Waters

Looking at the Phorm

  • Darren Waters
  • 6 Mar 08, 15:00 GMT

Behavioural advertising through monitoring a user's web habits is an ethical and legal minefield. More and more systems are being developed that can assess our interests and passions from our web surfing habits and then target us with bespoke advertising.

Eye on computer screens, SPLAnd unless there's a radical shift in governmental policy around the world, this certainly seems to be the future of advertising online.

But the debate about what can be done with personal data, how it is used or stored, who does the storing and using, and what control we, as consumers, have is an important one.

In one sense it looks a straightforward proposition - no-one wants to see irrelevant adverts plastered on websites when online.

But take the model offline and it feels different: imagine a marketing man who trailed you through the streets as you shopped at different stores, or watched you as you played in the park with your children, and then came into your home and took notes on the TV programmes you watched, books you read etc.

And then imagine that he pushes adverts through your door, creates advertising hoardings and TV and radio campaigns targeting you directly....

Is that an uncomfortable thought?

Perhaps he says he doesn't know who you really are, that it's just your habits that he knows; perhaps he promises not to tell any of the advertisers about you, and that he will destroy his notes in a few weeks. He says he won't look at your bank statement, or ask your friends for more information.

He also says you can tell him to go away at any stage and he will immediately; but unless you do, he will follow you and note down your habits as a matter of course.

Do you feel more comfortable?

For some people the idea, offline or online, is just not acceptable.

Simon Davies, of , told me: "Behavioural advertising is a rather spooky concept for many people."

He has looked at Phorm's privacy measures and has been impressed. I should also make clear he did this not as director of PI but as part of his role with start-up 80/20 Thinking.

But that model of behaviour tracking is being touted by US firm . It has signed up UK ISPs, BT, Virgin and Talk Talk to trial the technology.

BT told me that each users privacy is 100% secure. And that the service is a "benefit to users" because they get more relevant advertising.

Certainly the deal with Phorm has caused some controversy. The Guardian has an excellent piece .

We're a bit late to this story - so apologies. But we've got an , who was asked by Phorm to look at the firm's personal information protection measures.

He has come away impressed with the steps Phorm has taken. But he does feel strongly that Phorm should be opt in and not opt out.

So what do you think? A threat to our privacy? Or good use of technology for improving services?

UPDATE: If you want to put your queries/concerns direct to Phorm.....

The company's CEO, Kent Ertugrul will be available to answer your questions in a live web chat via the Webwise site at www.webwise.com/chat on 6 March 2008 from 20.30 GMT.

UPDATE TWO: Chris Vallance of Radio 4's has interviewed Kent Ertugrul. You can listen below.

Darren Waters

Internet Explorer 8 beta is go

  • Darren Waters
  • 6 Mar 08, 13:32 GMT

I've not tried the beta of IE8 myself but I'm interested if anyone else has....

reports that the response to it was mixed, appropriately enough at Mix 08 where it was launched.

It's very early , so probably not for ordinary users.

Two new interesting features that have been highlighted include webslicing, the ability to grab dynamic content from a page and then keep up to date with that content without having to launch the browser. Sounds a bit like Safari's web clippings...

And a new safety filter to protect users from phishing sites and malware.

The browser also has Facebook integration built-in.

Of course lets people do all of the above through extensions and toolbars, while a browser like Flock has integration with a whole host of social networking sites.

Perhaps more telling, Microsoft is making IE8 compliant with more web standards, which should make developers a lot happier and make the browsing experience for the majority of users a bit more enjoyable.

Rory Cellan-Jones

The mobile internet kids

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 6 Mar 08, 11:20 GMT

I spent a day this week at a school in Tynemouth, on the coast outside Newcastle, helping pupils at Marden High School make a film about mobile phones for the 蜜芽传媒's project. There鈥檒l be more about this on the website on School Report day on March 13th, but one thing struck me immediately. Children are at the cutting edge of the mobile internet revolution and both teachers and the phone industry can learn from them.

We were using a group of 12 and 13 year olds to investigate how children used 鈥 and abused - mobile phones and they were knowledgeable, articulate and very demanding of the technology. They had conducted their own poll of the school鈥檚 students 鈥 more than half of the 920 11-16 year olds had responded and only 3 did not have their own mobile phones.

Their survey also asked whether the students had video, music or photos on their phones, and four out of five said they had all three. When I asked a group of them what they wanted from a phone they had plenty of demands: 鈥淢ultimedia, the internet, Bluetooth, MP3s.鈥 What about simple phone calls? 鈥淏oring!!鈥 they chorused.

Many showed me pretty advanced handsets. So they are carrying with them sophisticated mini-computers and their usual route to the internet could soon be via their phones rather than their PCs. While adults are dipping their toes into the mobile internet rather gingerly, children are taking the plunge. Bearing in mind that texting took off when it was discovered by young phone users, the mobile firms would do well to examine carefully which are proving popular with teenagers.

There are implications too for teachers. Marden High School 鈥 like many 鈥 has a policy which effectively bans mobile phones, although the Head Teacher admitted to me that it was not strictly enforced. 鈥淚f we searched the 920 students,鈥 he told me with a smile, 鈥漺e would probably find more than a thousand phones.鈥

While the teachers here are worried about aspects of mobile phone use such as bullying texts and explicit videos, they are aware that a ban is becoming untenable. And they are even beginning to explore how mobile phones could be used in lessons 鈥 one class was using phones to film simple animations.

The children of the mobile internet generation are getting used to being connected 鈥 to their music, their videos, their social networking sites 鈥 wherever they go. And that means we are all going to have to think hard about how we rewrite the rules.

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