21 Mar 2011

Royal Wedding Phone! I'm buying 3!

As far as kitsch goes, the Royal Wedding Phone is high on the list.

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Everyone's trying to make a quick buck from the wedding of second to the throne and Kate Middleton. And can you really blame them?

 

The £20 million regal affair will bring in loads of cash as people (mainly Americans) fly in from all around the world (mainly America) to see the college sweethearts get hitched.

 

Getting into the spirit of everything British, the Carphone Warehouse has come out with a special edition Royal Wedding mobile phone.

 

The Alcatel phone features a patriotic Union Jack casing and the royal couples initials and wedding date inscribed on the back. Party favours sorted!

 

At £14.95, the souvenir handset is a bargain - considering I can jack up the prices on eBay in hopes of attracting some nice decent folks in America's heartland on AT&T or T-Mobile to buy them by the bucket loads!

 

If they sell out,  I'm sure there will be some knock-offs kicking around in the Chinatown's of the world, possibly with Price Harry's face instead.

 

The candy bar model features a 1.5 inch colour screen, FM radio, 64 ringtones, a clock with alarm and calculator.

 

But hurry - supplies are limited!

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4 Mar 2011

Keep taking the tablets - Mobile Monday London

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I'm moderating the sold out Mobile Monday London event all about tablets.


Here's what it's about:

You have to have been living under a rock if you haven't noticed the proliferation of announcements about everyone and her husband launching a tablet device of some description. Whether it's the BlackBerry Playbook, the Motorola Xoom, the iPad or one of the new Samsung devices, there's no getting away from it, the new category of tablet devices is taking off.

But what does this mean to the mobile world? It does feel like tablet devices are coming under the remit of the mobile teams - largely based on operating system knowledge and partly because of the whole apps thing that mobile teams are already familiar with. Media owners in particular appear to have embraced tablet devices with the FT being one of the first to launch their iPad app last May with other media owners in print and now TV, not that far behind launching. Hey, even EA games has produced a specific version of Need for Speed Undercover for the BlackBerry Playbook. The big guns are taking this seriously.

In this panel session, supported by BSkyB, we're going to explore the business models around tablet devices, what the opportunities and threats are specific to the device. Will we go beyond content consumption and move into content creation or enterprise apps. Will the new tablets make the mobile web stronger with HTML5 support or shift us deeper into the application ecosystem?

The panel will be led by Leila Makki of TelecomTV fame and she will be joined by David Gibbs, Director of Mobile Applications and Services, BSkyB and Mark Payton, Editorial Director, Haymarket Consumer Media. Further panellists to be confirmed.

Agenda:

Doors open at 6pm for a prompt 6.30pm start.

Panel session 6.30pm until 7.45pm followed by networking and drinks.

Venue: CBI at Centrepoint – nearest tube is Tottenham Court Road. Centrepoint is directly above Tottenham Court Road tube station. Please use the entrance at street level.

Please register and RSVP at http://momolo.org/ if you'd like to come.

3 Mar 2011

Tim Bray @ Androidland

Some may say Androidland is one of the best attractions this year at Mobile World Congress. I check out the Honeycomb and Cupcake smothies and talk with Android Developer Advocate, Tim Bray.

1 Mar 2011

What's so special about the Blackberry Playbook?

I speak with Francisco Jeronimo, Research Manager at IDC about the Blackberry Playbook and where it may fit into an already crowded tablet market.

Mobile Snacking's Space

This is the personal blog of video journalist Leila Makki who mainly posts about technology and candy!

Contributors

Leila Makki