Interested in mobile or internet privacy and security?

July 31, 2010 By 1 Comment

If you have any interest in security and privacy on the internet and mobiles (and security is always increasing in importance as more of our lives become so heavily integrated with the digital world), then it’s worth taking a look at what’s coming out of the Black Hat Conference taking place in America at the moment.

There are some really interesting presentations by people looking to raise discussion and awareness on a range of security issues, including being able to eavesdrop on mobile calls with equipment costing $1500, reading RFID tags from over 200 ft away, or hacking ATM machines to let them spit out cash for you. Plus a lot of debate and discussion about how companies and governments can improve security, or nations investing in cyberwarfare.

VentureBeat appears to have just about the most comprehensive and readable coverage, and it’s something we should all be trying to become more aware about. Not only is it important for your personal information and data, and to be aware of what companies and governments are capable of doing – but as we’re the more digitally-aware percentage of the global population, we need to be able to explain these things in simple and accessible ways to those less aware than ourselves…

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Filed Under: mobile, Privacy, Security, social networks Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Upcoming events and a bit of mobile

April 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

At the moment it’s hard to know which events I’m guaranteed to attend – there’s a lot happening and my diary is subject to massive change at the last minute.

But I’ll definitely be at two upcoming conferences, as I’ve been kindly asked to host roundtables at both of them.

The first is the Specialist Media Conference on May 25th, which takes place in the delightful surroundings of Peterborough, about 5 minutes walk from one of my former employers. And the table I’m on will be all about mobile, hopefully discussing what lays beyond the iPhone, developing a mobile strategy and application development etc. What’s interesting is that the Specialist Media name brings to mind niche targeted magazines, but obviously websites, blogs, radio etc which have a defined belief and purpose are all specialist media outlets.

And then on June 1st, I’ll be on another round table at the M-Publishing event. This is going to be really interested as it’s part of a full schedule of mobile knowledge and insight. And in the midst of it all, each of five roundtables will be given the task of creating a mobile strategy for fictional publishers. And the other tables are being hosted by some very intelligent people: Nick Lane from MobileSQUARED, Belinda Parmer from LadyGeek, and my friends Jonathan MacDonald (JME.net) and Ilicco Elia (Reuters).

So it’s a bit handy I was able to share some news about one of Absolute Radio’s mobile apps (Cos that’s where I work). The Absolute Radio Player for Nokia phones has now been downloaded over 100,000 times by people who are not only lovely Absolute Radio listeners, but also happen to own a 3rd or 5th edition S60 handset. And considering it’s only been out for about 2.5 months, that’s not bad going. And it also goes someway to counteracting some of the oft-quoted figures on mobile which are using a U.S. audience, rather than European or global. Which will make Tomi Ahonen happy.

So hopefully I might see you at an upcoming event, and if not, just go and download the Absolute Radio iAmp for iPhone/Android or Absolute Radio Player for Nokia/BlackBerry.

Filed Under: events, Mobile Applications, speaking Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

comScore stats on mobile Twitter usage

March 7, 2010 By 3 Comments

A belated look at a recent report from comScore which shows Twitter is the fastest growing social network on mobile, with growth of 347% since 2009.

The number of users in January 2010 reached 4.7 million – compared to just over 1 million in January 2009, giving a 4.47 multiple increase. Twitter’s 347% growth compares with Facebooks 112% (But Facebook still rules with 25 million mobile users), and Myspace declining 7%.

But to be 1/5th of Facebooks size and growing 3 times as quickly shows Twitter is looking even more promising on mobile than on the fixed internet.

Filed Under: Mobile Phone Apps, statistics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

3 great new iPhone apps from Absolute Radio

December 17, 2009 By 1 Comment

I’m obviously biased, bearing in mind I’ve been responsible for them, but three great new Absolute Radio apps are now available for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

Absolute Radio Clock Radio Application

They combine a really nice alarm clock with bespoke wake-up messages from either Christian O’Connell, Dave Gorman or Frank Skinner. And once the message has played, you’ll automatically hear your choice of Absolute Radio, Absolute 80s or Absolute Classic Rock.

The most difficult part of the project was probably stopping feature creep with all the other great ideas we were having – the important thing I had to remind myself is that the app has to function as a really good alarm clock first and foremost, otherwise there’s not much point. After all, we’ve already got a fantastic and extremely popular streaming radio application, with the iAmp (Now updated to feature Absolute Radio, Absolute 80s, Absolute Classic Rock and dabbl). And with various studies and reports suggesting that up to 70% of people have done away with an alarm clock in favour of their mobile, we’re hoping the apps will be popular.

So check out:

The OC Clock Radio

Dave’s Clock Radio

Frank’s Clock Radio

One of the really nice touches is the app store icon, with a great moment of creativity from AR Web Editor Anthony, which sets it off really nicely, and means it looks great alongide the iAmp and LiveAmp on your iPhone.

Lovely.

Filed Under: mobile, Mobile Applications Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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