Of course I’m the most active twitter user in Geneva, as if that was going to be a surprise to anyone. Before that I was London’s most active twitter user with over 5000 posts in a month back in December.
Once more twitter has shown it’s value. An earthquake occured earlier this morning and people started to twitter about it within half an hour. people like Robert Scoble started linking to the story. It took at least an hour for most of the major networks to start speaking about this news.
There’s a lag of course, as journalists have to do some research, get some reports and distribute them. I did a search on the twitter search engine flaptor and here is a little taste of the content of those tweets.
Here is another source of tweets.
Whilst some people are perfectly happy sitting at a desk chatting to others via webcams I prefer to be out and about streaming daily life. Today was one example of what I like to do. I went up to La Dole for a walk with the n95 and streamed a few landscapes for people following me on twitter to see.
We finally got caught out by some hail and thunder but my phone survived.
I want more people to do this type of thing. Come out and have fun, stream life as it happens. Show us what’s outside your living room or home office.
Computing is mobile and as I sit in the garden to type this post someone else is currently streaming some lions live from his mobile phone. It’s not about you sitting at a desk and typing, now it’s about going out, having a nice day and sharing it with others as they enjoy their day.
The type of thing you want in HD
Mobile data transfer is speeding up 10.1 Megabits per second over I-HSPA.
Nokia Siemens Networks, a provider of mobile broadband solutions, completed tests with Mobilkom Austria recently testing its new I-HSPA solution. The call, conducted with an unspecified mobile device, reached downlink data speeds of up to 10.1 Mbps during the tests.
According to a Le Matin article the Iphone will come to switzerland. It’s the 3g version of course so for those that have been patient this should be a fun time. I see no mention of cheaper dataplans as of yet but it’s an interesting time for those creating mobile video content. It’s also a new version of mobile web browsing.
For those of you who know me as Warzabidul you’re probably used to my incessant tweeting, when not at work.. Two days ago twitterfone came out, a service that allows me to call a number and tweet by voice.
The system is still in very early stages but works great. The idea is that you register on the site and provide your country and phone number, associate your twitter account as well and wait till your number is registered. Once the number is registered you call and speak your message.
Once all of this is done any time you can talk and want to tweet you call the number, talk and the message appears in two places. It appears on twitterfone as text and an audio file and as a tweet and URL on twitter’s website.
It’s great for when you’re driving, with hands free of course (;-)) because it avoids you touch typing messages on your phone when your attention should be on the person in front slowing down to let pedestrians cross.
So far I’ve been pretty happy with the way it works. It recognises words effectively and is quite a good alternative for those who are not touch typists.
A few weeks ago I was in Paris and when someone pulled out the iphone I commented that it’s a bureaucratic tool but wasn’t sure why. The n95 is a flexible fun phone to play with especially when looking at Sportstracker. It’s an application I use every time I walk around. I’m not alone. Over a million people downloaded the application.
Eventually more than 1 million people downloaded the program and used it for sports the developers never dreamed of, such as paragliding, hot-air ballooning, and motorcycle riding.
As a result, Nokia developers are realizing that aiming the application at amateur athletes was too narrow. They are thinking of rebranding the application as a kind of life-tracker. Based on the response to the software on Beta Labs, that may well help drive users to Nokia’s Ovi Web portal [also in beta testing], which is the basis of Nokia’s attempt to carve out a big piece of the evolving, mobile Internet. “It shows people they can do much more [with their handsets] than just make phone calls,” says researcher Kaasinen.
If i start a trip from work or home there’s a good chance I won’t let sportstracker report where I am live because I don’t want people to know certain details of my life. When I’m on holiday however this is a different matter. If I’m walking in St Moritz and I want my twitter or social media friends to see where I am then the sports tracker tells them where I am. With Flixwagon, Qik or Bambuser they can watch video of what I’m seeing as I’m seeing it.
That’s because you bring your friends with you with these new technologies. The digital lifestyle is more inmportant in how we relate to people and whilst in a place like Switzerland it may help to isolate people in high adoption areas of such technologies it has the reverse effect. Look at the Social media scene in London as just one example. It’s just a matter of time before other manufacturers catch up and these toys become mainstream.
If this isn’t a hoax then this is pretty fun. A guy claims to have hacked into the video display at a train station and is streaming live.