The average iPhone owner for example, spends £80 in Apple’s App Store. When I recently switched to a Google Nexus One, I lost use of all £80 worth of my apps. That money is now wasted, those apps have absolutley no use to me anymore, because I cannot install them on my new phone.

Online stores are become more and more popular with handheld devices. I’m not talking about your ebuyer or bestbuy, I’m talking about your App Store or Market Place. The problem is, they’re all locked-down to some extent.

Fair enough, if I buy another android phone I can install all the apps I’ve bought on my Google Nexus One, as I did when I moved from an iPhone 3G to a 3GS. The same is probably true for Kindle to Kindle 2.

But what happens when Apple stop selling the iPhone, or someone releases a better eBook reader than the Kindle, or if Google end the Android project? All of your purchased applications, books, mp3s become useless.

We need to make things transferable!

This is the exact reason I used to rip my mp3s (before the magnificence that is Spotify), instead of paying for a service like Napster or Yahoo Music. Most of those services were DRM based. There were just too many restrictions on what you can or cannot do with the music you purchase.

So before you splash out on the iPad, Kindle or any other eBook reader – and before you upgrade to an iPhone, Nexus One or other smartphone – remember, the money you spend on books/apps/music for that device, may well be thrown away with the device.

Why should you have to hack your Kindle in order to read eBooks you obtained from somewhere other than Amazon (see: over-priced)? Why should you have to jailbreak your iPhone to use apps that Apple doesn’t want to ‘approve’? If you ask me, you shouldn’t,

Le Web

Paris is an amazing place for a web conference. People from all over the world gathered together in this beautiful city to network and attend some really interesting workshops. There were a lot of top industry people speaking at the event, but none of that compares to the appearance of Her Royal Highness, Queen Rania of Jordan – who’s on Twitter! Queen Rania spoke about changing the world with online media, it was an inspiring speech, which I’m sure is on YouTube somewhere.

hanukkahLDN

So the idea was simple, let’s host a party for the winter holidays and raise some money for charity. We acquire the splendid G Casino in Piccadilly Circus, MoonBingo sponsored the bar, and we gambled, drank and had an amazing night of fun and stories. We raised money through Poker & BlackJack, which went to support JHAfrica.

XmasCrunch

Another fantastic 2pears event. XmasCrunch ended the year with startup pitches, presentations and drinking games. There was the now traditional 3 minute pitch, followed by a very odd one minute pitch. I’m all for short pitches, but I feel the one minute pitch barely gave presenters enough time to say the company name and tagline – stick to the three minutes I say. Speakers and Pitches video content is available on TC.

After all the official business was over, the 2Pears/TC party got under way. We had the TC Air Guitar Competition, Raffle prizes, lots of free booze and the traditional ‘run around with Mike Butcher around on our shoulders’ to congratulate him on another good event/year and say thanks. All the video proof is here. Really, really fun event in a great choice of venue; Gilgamesh (Covent Garden) offers something a bit different. The event ended in the AM, which was followed by a pub crawl around Covent Garden.

Great end to the year. May 2010 bring many more.

We proudly present hanukkahLDN 2009. Join us from 7pm ’till Midnight at G Casino, Piccadilly Circus on Monday 14th December to celebrate the festival of light.

From 7-9 PM we will be hosting a charity Poker Tournament. To enter the tournament you’ll need at least 1,250 chips. The top two finishers with the most chips will win a prize. (There will be re-buys available, through Twitter.)

Concurrently, we will be running Blackjack and Roulette tables using hanukkahLDN chips.

All chips won during the gambling portion will be considered legal tender for partaking in our Auction.

The Charity:

Jewish Hearts for Africa is a New York based charity [501(3)c] that purchases Solar, Water and Clean technologies from cutting-edge Israeli companies and donates them to African villages that do not have any electricity or running water.

Their projects include providing electricity for clinics, which enable the clinics to provide vaccinations and medical care, as they are actually able to refrigerate the medications. JHAfrica also installs solar-powered pumps to drill for clean water located beneath the ground.

hanukkahLDN has decided to raise money to bring electricity to schools and orphanages, so we can truly make this a Festival of Lights for everyone.

We have opened the possibility to sponsor.

At the moment 3D is gaining a lot of attention, and rightly so. This is the next innovation in not only film, but television and games industries. The next “HD”, if you will. In the near future we’ll all be able to watch our favourite TV programs & movies and play our games with full 3D effects. It’s all about enhancing the viewing experience.

Right now there are two different technologies (as always) competing for market-share. You might call it competitive capitalism, I call it an annoyance. This is looking to be another ‘Betamax vs VHS’ or ‘HD-DVD vs BluRay’ all over again.

There are “passive” glasses, which are the kind which are currently in use in cinemas, these work by the screen displaying a slightly different image to each eye – two different ages. The glasses don’t require any kind of power, and are extremely cheap to produce. The downfall with this technology is that the resolution is limited, because of the passive glasses. Meaning you won’t see any HD content with this option. We’ve only just got HD into the mainstream, I don’t think we should be taking a step backwards. Unfortunately I don’t think general consumers will even know. Of course gamers will rant and rave to high heavens about this – not that gamers are pickier, they just know good quality when they see it .

The other type of glasses use shutter technology. These do need power, and basically they refresh the lenses rapidly. For such a high fps, the glasses require a monitor of 120hz or higher. Unfortunately most current monitors are only half that. 50 – 60hz are standard refresh rates for monitors, but if this were to change, we could be playing PC games in full HD and 3D. The problem here is that this is nVidia technology (GeForce 3D Vision), and requires one of their graphics cards – meaning this is an option for PC gamers only. You won’t be able to use shuttter glasses on a TV with a BluRay or games console any time soon. The good thing is that GeForce 3D Vision supports all new game releases, the hardware converts the games to full 3D on-the-fly.

It looks like PC gamers will get the fuller package for the moment, and tv/film views and console gamers will be left with the lower resolution option. In all honesty television has been poor quality for years (until HDTV), and console games have always had lower quality graphics than PC games. But is this something we want to encourage more of?

There is actually 3rd technology, but nobody can get it right at the moment. This is 3D television without the need for glasses. Not only are there resolution problems, but in order for this to work, you have to sit directly in front of the TV. If you move slightly to either side, you lose the 3D effect and end up with blur. Obviously this technology is going nowhere for now, but we can hope for it to mature.

At the moment there are only two 120hz monitors available on the market, one from ViewSonic and the other from Samsung. Unfortunately their both 22inch, and neither of which feature higher resolutions than 1680×1050 (that’s right, no 1080p). Saying that, they are surprisingly cheap, both coming in at around £200.

Nvidia’s GeForce 3D Vision is only about £120. As a gaming peripheral that’s pretty acceptable. I guess it’s just a waiting game now. As soon as I can replace my 27″ TFT with one that supports 120hz, I’m grabbing a GeForce 3D Vision and getting my game on!

Think about it, when you buy a new mobile phone, you’re usually focusing on the hardware – you find something you really like, then you have to battle with yourself and the providers, to try and find a tarrif that fits you. For the most part they’re overly expensive. If there’s ever a reason you don’t buy a new phone, it’s usually because of the contract surrounding it. Wether that be having to move network, or getting locked into another x month term, it’s never pleasant.

Google are big enough to bring VoIP into the mainstream. I know, I know, Skype have been trying to do this to, and I give them props. But they just don’t have the mainstream clout that Google have. I think betweeen the two companies we’re seeing some amazing changes in the mobile space.

Imagine purchasing a handset, simply because you like it. At a reasonable price. Now imagine not having to shift providers, or sign up to 12/18/24 month contacts. You simply login to your Skype or Google account and you’re away. All your contacts, voicemails, text messages in tact. People can even borrow your phone, and use their own accounts!

VoIP is cheap as chips, you could quite easily cut your current mobile phone expenses in half (or more) by switching to VoIP. But what’s holding it back? … mobile network providers.

At the moment, there are too many rules about what kind of applications can and cannot by used over 3G. While there area a minority of networks that allow users to run VoIP software of a 3G connection, the majority are scared shitless. So they should be.

As I can see it, there are two ways for Google to take over the world mobile market. If Google get hold of some mobile spectrum, forming their own network, or if they provide blanket wifi access. Both of which are not new ideas. Google are already thinking about acquiring wireless spectrum, and they’re already providing blanket wireless internet in some places. But neither of which are on a large scale. At least not anywhere near enough to threaten the current mobile network providers at current.

VoIP still has a long way to go in the commercial market, people still pay silly “line rental” (mostly because a PSTN line is required for most broadband connections) when they could be plugging their phone into a router. Most companies use some form of VoIP, because they understand the cost savings – especially with multiple handsets, and/or international calls. I just can’t wait for the day that VoIP rules the commercial sector (especially mobile handsets) as it currently does the business sector.

One thing that’s really bothered me about Skype is the lack of SIP compatibilty. Skype has always been very proprietary and closed-off. For example, with any other SIP provider you can call cross-network for free, as well as the obvious internal SIP-to-SIP calls being free. Skype has always offered free Skype-to-Skype calls, but that’s as far as they went. The other, arguably more important aspect of supporting the SIP protocol is the option of using SIP hardware. I mentioned before, most businesses use VoIP telephones these days, most of which are SIP compatible. If Skype wanted to reach a broader audience they only have to allow regular SIP phones to connect to the Skype service. This is what they’re testing at the moment.

With Skype-to-SIP you can use a regular SIP phone to connect to the Skype network, which not only allows you to use your Skype credit for outgoing calls and keep your Skype number for incoming calls, but also allows you to call Skype users for free. This is fantastic, a good move from Skype. Now the sexy Cisco 7960 sitting on my desk can be used to make calls to my Skype friends for free.

I’m so excited about Google Voice on the mobile, and Skype over SIP. These technologies are really shaping the future of telephone communications. Let’s face it, nobody likes wearing a headset plugged into a computer to make phone calls.

Grooveshark started out as something really interesting. It was a peer-to-peer music sharing platform with a difference – legality. You had a little system-tray widget installed on your computer, which would gradually upload your enitre music library to Grooveshark’s servers. Users could then purchase these tracks from Grooveshark, who would give you a cut (we’re talking pennies here), and pay the royalties, making the whole thing quasi-legal.

However somewhere along the lines the business model switched. They started to focus more on the music player, than the sharing software, or the p2p aspects. They launched a “Grooveshark Lite”, which was simply a player, to browse the hundreds of thousands of tracks being uploaded by their uses in the hopes of making some spare cash. This ‘Lite’ player was optional, a subdomain of the actual Grooveshark site.

Eventually the original site was dropped, and Grooveshark ‘Lite’ became the default website. I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but somewhere along the lines Grooveshark stopped being about p2p and become a music streaming service. A player. Think Spotify but in a web browser. This was interesting, because all the music in the library was uploaded by users in the hopes of sharing it with other people in return for cash.

The music was still being shared with the masses, all be it in a streaming sense. Grooveshark were slightly ahead of their time with this move, which is something other companies have done much better in more recent times. Spotify for example went straight to the labels for their music. Grooveshark ’stole’ the music off their userbase, then were surprised when the labels wan’t nothing to do with them – and still don’t, if their own PR is to be believed. Grooveshark now make money from big ads on the site and VIP signups (to remove the ads), since they no longer take a huge cut from the purchase of songs.

What really struck my nerve, is the fact that Grooveshark had the audacity to send me a harsh e-mail threatening to ban me from the website, after they had received a DMCA cease-and-decist regarding a couple of my tracks. So not only do they steal or my music under false guises, but they leave me responsible for them publishing the music on their new site. Ridiculous!

A few months later I received this followup e-mai;

Hi Calvin,

You may remember a few months ago, we wrote to let you know that some music files you uploaded to Grooveshark had to be removed from the website. In it, we also mentioned that if any other content were uploaded from the same Grooveshark user account, said account would be suspended.

This is just to let you know that we’ve revised our policy for the better–your Grooveshark account is in no jeopardy whatsoever, and all of your information remains unchanged. We have turned off the ability to upload further new music to Grooveshark for the aforementioned account, but otherwise nothing has changed.

Sorry for any confusion or panic, and keep grooving.

Yours,
The Grooveshark Team

What?! Firstly, I have no way of uploading new music to your website, since you closed down the music sharing part of your website – unless it’s hidden aways somewhere that I’m unaware of. Secondly, I have no wish to upload any more of my music to your website. I uploaded my mp3s to Grooveshark, the p2p website where you get paid to upload, and it ended up on Grooveshark, the streaming service (WITH ADS) that earns Grooveshark money, and I get absolutely no benefit from it.

Grooveshark could not sink any lower in my opinion right now. Oh, and by the way, they’ve launched a new design on their website, making their adverts even more prominent. Lovely for them. This new layout, incidentally, is almost identical to the Spotify client.

There is one good thing about the current Grooveshark, and that’s I can still see all the music I uploaded in my library – which I lost during PC troubles a couple of years ago. I have used this list to re-acquire my lost music. Shame I couldn’t re-download it from Grooveshark, but meh.

Okay so call me a Thatcherite prick if you must, be I honestly think there’s no reasonable time to strike.

Striking is like blackmail. “I’m not coming in to work until you give me what I want. I’ll disrupt your business, and everyone else’s, I don’t give a shit. Until you give me what I want.” It’s a ridiculously selfish attitude.

When the Unions for Transport for London workers and Royal Mail workers decide to strike, they’re not only disrupting TFL/RM, they’re putting the whole Capital, if not the whole Country on hold for their own selfish purposes.

If you want more money – get a better job. It’s just that simple. If you don’t have the qualifications, flipping earn them. If for some reason it’s too late for you to re-qualify (which I understand may be the case), then I’m sorry but that’s your business. Don’t make it mine.

When a Union strikes because of reform, that’s even more frustrating. You’re then not only holding back businesses, but you’re holding back our society. If the Royal Mail has some ideas to improve the service, but this means more robots and less workers, then so be it. Yes there may be some job losses, but there may be a whole load more created in the robot manufacturing warehouses.

You have to remember, this is not your business. I don’t have the right to come into your business and tell you how to run it – so why should you have the right to tell them? If you want to be the decision maker, run your own damn  business.

I’d fire the lot of them. Simples. The Royal Mail have hired 30,000 temp workers to maintain the service whilst the strikes take place. If I were in the top position, I’d fire all the workers on strike and hire the temp workers.

In this recession there are too many people out of work, trying desperately to find a job. Then we have these idiots striking and QQing. If you don’t like the job, give someone else a chance.

Striking hurts the economy. The last RMT strike (TFL workers) cost London businesses £100,000,000. We’re in a flipping recession – think about it!

Striking is a lame tool, that’s over-abused today in the UK (and France for that matter), I think we need to clamp down. For anyone who disagrees with this statement, I end this post with two words: Bob Crow

If you’re suspicious about a purchase I’m attemtpting to make, and you block my card: call me! Do not hinder me, then make me pay to call you, to find out why. Also, do not just randomly suspend my card for the simple reason that I’m using it to make purchases online! That’s flipping rediculous.

I just tried to book a train ticket with Virgin Trains, something I do regularly, as I have family up North. My card was declined. When I call to find out why, the guy explains that “when someone steals card details, they tend to use them online and go on shopping sprees”, which would be fine if I’d been spending bucks at HMV or something. When Abdul asked me to confirm that I’d payed £5.99 to Microsoft and £x.xx to 123-reg I really got pissed. How is an Xbox Live subscription flagging on my account, when I make the exact same payment *every month?!* and what kind of spending spree is a domain renewal? Seriously…

I honestly don’t think Barlcays have an anti-fraud algorythym, I think they just block cards at random, I really do. When I asked why the hell these payents were flaggng on the syste, Abdul explained that Internet purchases aren’t safe, because there’s no security like there is when I use my card in a shop. Stop right there, dumbass. If I use my card in a shop, someone only has to observe my pin number – then if they steal my card they can use it as much as they want. Not to mention dodgy corner shops double-swiping cards to make clones. However when I use my card online, I have to enter the 3 digit security pin, my full card details and home address, when I get passed those basic details I’m forwarded to a VISA Security page, where I have to enter random characters from a password. Now tell me that shopping online is less safe than shopping with a card irl. Jeeees.

Get a clue. Really.

I’ve been compiling a few playlists myself, which is more fun than I remember. I haven’t has so much fun creating playlists since the days of Napster and mix-CDs. iTunes playlists always felt like a chore somehow.

This is my primary playlist, that I can shove on any time of day/night, my mainstream (or Popular Music) list. Then if I’m feeling a bit ghetto, there’s my Rap playlist. Old skool and Reggae playlists for those chillout sessions. When I’m working I like to put on some Classical piano music. The great thing about Spotify is that you can create collaborative playlists. I opened an R&B playlist, Cherelle and Ruk have pretty much done all the hard work for me .

cr ~ Pop
cr ~ Classical
cr ~ Rap
cr ~ Old Skool
cr ~ Reggae
cr ~ R&B

The idea behind Helloapp is absolutely brilliant. When you sit down in the conference hall, you ‘check-in’ to your seat, by tweeting @helloapp with a code attached to your seat and giving a few hashtags to describe yourself. Then if people want to approach you, they know where you are. Whenever you meet someone throughout the conference you tweet “@helloapp met @cr” for example, and then if the person tweets helloapp back, you both get 10points. This is where the points system comes in.

Whoever collects the most points throughout the conference wins a prize. You can earn prizes through several different means. If someone Hi5’s you (@helloapp hi5 @cr) that’s a one-way shout-out that’ll earn you 20points. There are tokens hidden around the venue, that once claimed will earn you 5 or so points. Certain vendors also have their own selection of tokens to hand out as they see fit. Microsoft and Sun Microsystems (Sun Start-up Essentials) were handing out a code to anyone who would sign up to their program/newsletter.

The reason this app is so cool, is because the whole purpose is to encourage people to network and make more connections. I’d love to see it being used in more events, not only Carsonified hosted. No to mention everyone loves a bit of competition, and as the gaming industry is demonstrating lately; everyone loves a sense of achievement, however small.

Of course there are a few tweaks that need to be made to this app. The biggest two problems I faced over the last two days were these;

• Finding your own profile page is not exactly self-intuitive. There was a UX lapse here. The only way to view your profile, or that of other people’s is to know the URL (http://hello.carsonified.com/Profile/cr) or to click someone’s thumbnail photo on the seating plan. It’d be  nice to have a ‘Go to user profile’ search, where you can type in the name or twitter handle of someone to view their profile.

• Special codes that were hidden on tokens around the venue not only gave users tokens but they added badges to your profile. There were some rare tokens (for this event they were Star Wars themed, i.e. Millennium Falcon). The system *should* have a mechanism to stop users simply searching “@helloapp claim” and copy & pasting the codes themselves. The idea was that you share (or trade) the codes with other people around the conference. So maybe only allow these codes to be used a certain number of times or something.

I was lucky enough to find a couple of tokens downstairs in the Sun Start-up Essentials Chillout Lounge (with the help of @scoobeesnac). If you search the codes for these, you can see people claiming the code, who I’d never even met – cheeky!

So I managed to get to about 200something points by claiming the codes I found, other people had found, and the ones vendors had handed out, then my score was practically doubled when my friends started Hi5-ing me, bringing me up to 570. It’s at this point people started telling me to check Twitter, because Ryan Carson had called me out. Brilliant, I had won! I got to take home the excellent remote control car – but not before charging it up and rampaging around the venue with it . I also got to quickly pimp my company (SRCLDN.com) on the stage. It would have been a nice prize to do a short 3 minute pitch – maybe something to think about for the future.

Anyway, here’s my HelloApp profile. Check out my pro badges . I’ve been playing around with the system a bit more and by exploiting I managed to get over 1,000 points. A good job nobody figured this out during the event!

I want to end on a quick ‘props’ to Elliot Kember for Tweets From FOWA – this live twitter stream monitoring the #FOWA hashtag made for huge fun during the Gary Vee and Kevin Rose show at the end of the final day.