Published at 24 February, 2008
in Vlogging.
I got a friend invite on Twitter tonight from @foodies - I am not sure why, it might be the faux cuisine thing. The thing that made me accept the invite was not that I knew anyone that @foodies knows, but that the last tweet back was on Jeff Hibbard’s trip to a Korean BBQ restaurant.
Jeff runs a video blog (vlog) from his Nokia N95 phone. If you would like to see highlights of his visit to the Korean place, click through to the video.
I get the N95 now - I never did before. While the transition shots are a little shakey, the overall quality of this video has to be seen to be believed.
As an e61 user for a year and a half now, I could never understand how anyone could get used to not having a full QWERTY keyboard. But now I’m starting to see the possibility of having an extremely small video camera at hand 24/7.
Thanks Jeff, for opening my eyes 
Published at 6 August, 2007
in Review.
TeleRead has a review today of the Nokia N800:
The review is unashamedly written from an eBook platform perspective: as an avid eBook reader the format worked for me. Read it.
Published at 3 August, 2007
in Browsers.
I use the Opera Mini browser as a portable RSS reader and web browser. I love it, and apparently, the Wall Street Journal does too.
The WSJ article has a lot to say, including the following:
Since it was launched in January 2006, more than 15 million cellphone users around the world have downloaded the Opera Mini browser, which is available for free and usable on most cellphones. Early versions of the Opera Mini, developed by Opera Software ASA in Norway, display Web pages in a single column, which works well on cellphones with small screens. The latest version shows Web sites in full-page views that are even more similar to the look on a PC.
I agree. Opera Mini Beta 4 has to be seen to be believed - especially on the larger screen of the Nokia e61. Try it
My guess is that people (like me) who use portable RSS readers have a lower than average commenting activity level.
I don’t have any data to support this hypothesis - it is based on a best guess and a lot of user centered process design. Basically, systems are more likely to be used when they are easily usable. I know that this sounds like an empty truism, but compare the user experience here:
- desktop RSS reader: goes to the comment-worthy post, leaves comment.
- portable RSS reader: goes to the comment-worthy post, enters Name/Email/Website details, leaves comment.
The difference is that the desktop reader usually has their Name/Email/Website details remembered by the web client. This may not seem like a big deal, but when you’re dealing with a device with a limited QWERTY or 13-key phone text entry mechanism, every character saved is a blessing.
It is hard to imagine a world where name and email are not required for comments - until portable RSS clients have matured a bit more it is probably just something that everyone will have to live with.
My friend Matt guest-blogs for Social Computing Magazine (SCM). Today they re-published his story on Social Computing Tools in Government. I’ve read the article before on Matt’s own blog, but wanted to see how it came out on SCM. Because I am suffering from a cold, I was lying in bed reading the day’s RSS feeds on my Nokia e61 smartphone.
SCM provides a partial RSS feed, never a good idea, but complicated by the assumption that the reader will want to sign in read the rest of the article. The pain of this is lessened if you are using a full-sized browser with cookies and password-handling to allow automatic login - but if you’re reading it on a portable device then this really gets in the way.
I’d like to extend the “laws” I laid down in Constraints for small format RSS readers to include the following:
- Please make every feed a full one.
- Don’t make people log in to access content unless you are going to make it easy and make it worth their while.
Both of these come down to the Golden Rule: put yourself in the reader’s shoes, and make it easy for them to read your writing.
Published at 26 July, 2007
in About.
…about mobile blog writing (moblogging) and mobile blog reading. I do both, and I’m still amazed by the number of blog authors that haven’t looked at this from both an authoring and a reader presentation perspective.
Don’t take my word for it - look around you. The number of smartphones and other portable RSS readers are increasing at an astonishing rate. They still make up a small percentage of the overall RSS population, but they are growing fast. If you blog, and you care about your readers, you need to start thinking about it now.
Portable RSS Readers: Commenting activity lower?
My guess is that people (like me) who use portable RSS readers have a lower than average commenting activity level.
I don’t have any data to support this hypothesis - it is based on a best guess and a lot of user centered process design. Basically, systems are more likely to be used when they are easily usable. I know that this sounds like an empty truism, but compare the user experience here:
The difference is that the desktop reader usually has their Name/Email/Website details remembered by the web client. This may not seem like a big deal, but when you’re dealing with a device with a limited QWERTY or 13-key phone text entry mechanism, every character saved is a blessing.
It is hard to imagine a world where name and email are not required for comments - until portable RSS clients have matured a bit more it is probably just something that everyone will have to live with.