Charles on… anything that comes along

• Guardian Unlimited Technology: Mobile TV is not a turn-on, BT trial finds
  

  Mobile phone users are more interested in listening to digital radio through their handsets than watching mobile television services, according to research unveiled yesterday, and are only willing to pay about £5 a month for the privilege of catching up with their favourite shows on a phone’s small screen.

  The first major British trial of real broadcast mobile television was carried out by BT and Virgin Mobile among 1,000 users within London’s M25 motorway. The results showed that while 59% rated mobile television as appealing or very appealing by the end of a six-month test, 65% said the same about digital radio. In terms of actual viewing and listening time, users watched an average of 66 minutes of television a week on their phone but listened to 95 minutes of radio.

  I’m amazed the number interested in TV on their handset is as high as 59%. I bet if they had to pay in relation to the data download it would plummet. By contrast, digital radio is a no-brainer for mobiles. (Ordinary FM is OK, except you can’t do it via a Bluetooth headset; you have to use a long cord). Another example of hopeless optimism meeting hard human reality.

• Richard Branson’s shitting himself, obviously
  

  If you promise not to rip it off, I’ll tell you my latest idea. I’m pretty sure it’s a winner. It’s a cinema, OK, but instead of seats, there are exercise bikes and treadmills and so on. So you can watch a film and lose weight at the same time! Multi-tasking! By combining your exercise and movie-watching, you’ll have more time to do other things. Plus, it will encourage you to stay and exercise longer, because you won’t want to miss the end of the film.

  Actually, you know, it might just work for a certain sector of people. Though it’s not really “date movie” fare, and you’re not going to make much on the popcorn concession… (Seen at Bourgeois Wife)

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Bluetooth and Bluewater: spam that isn't, apparently (5 November 2004; score: 46.76%)
• The guaranteed way to avoid being phished; and the mobile business's best news in a decade (14 April 2005; score: 35.03%)
• Why Apple isn't rushing to license Fairplay, and isn't listening to Eeyore (14 October 2004; score: 33.65%)

Wrote a short piece for G2 - specifically, answering the Question of the Day, which was Is digital radio really any better than analogue?

The answer: yes. And no. But if you want to immerse Jim Naughtie in bubbling mud, there’s really only one choice.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Pausing radio, and the hidden things in our rivers, lakes and streams (27 October 2004; score: 82.42%)
• The future of listening and radio (11 March 2006; score: 57.67%)
• What's the future of photography? (18 November 2005; score: 54.56%)

Following Mike’s slightly stinging comment here, I thought I should get some more tech and science feeds going.

Does Eurekalert have them? Yes it does.

Does Alphagalileo (the British and European science and tech academic resource for journalists et al) have them? Yes it does - split into science, technology, health, society, arts, and humanities. (Humanities? Who let them in here?)

Which is what my point is about - if you don’t have the feeds you won’t get read. If you do, you will. Or might, at least, which is close enough.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• How to decide in less than 5 seconds whether to keep or kill a feed (15 February 2008; score: 32.64%)
• Incomplete web feeds, the bane of aggregated life (18 November 2005; score: 32.63%)
• Being observations on the beta of NetNewsWire (26 March 2006; score: 30.29%)