iPhone update

Day two. Been fiddling with the iPhone. A lot.

GOOD

Almost everything. Just look at it.

BAD

Slow-ass syncing. Like, unbelievably slow.
Indirect music updating (you have to create a playlist... I think).
The other person is slightly muffled on phone calls (but I will get used to it).
Sometimes forgets my home wifi password.
Music video quality - I thought the picture would be better having paid £1.79 for a video?
No built-in RSS reader - any suggestions about how to get around it?
No ringtones! The ones shipped with it are terrible. TERRIBLE!

The only other thing that miffs me is that I was going to switch to Safari on my MacBook to ease bookmark syncing - but it's just so awful I can't do it.

my first iPhone

I really wasn't planning on getting an iPhone today. But it turns out that I'm typing this from one. Whoops.

So far I'm generally amazed at everything. I'm even switching apps on my MacBook to sync more easily. Activation was quick, the controls are mac-simple and the keyboard seems pretty effective (and massivly helped by the awesome autocorrect).

The only thing that lets it down is the voice quality when you're on the phone. The other person sounds muffled compared to my Sony Ericsson W880i and Blackberry. Also, the magnifyer thingy that's used for text editing is a bit crap.

Aside from that, this thing is so advanced it terrifies me.

'Read all about them'

We spotted via Bobbie Johnson's Guardian blog that The Media Standards Trust has launched beta site (and dreadful pun) the 'Journa-List'.

It's a page where you can allegedly find out which journalists are writing on specific topics, find out more about specific writers and see who's the most prolific hack out there. For example, Ben Harrington has written the most today and covers Sainsbury's more than anything else.

It's automated so doesn't work too well (which it expects and warns you about) but is a nice idea.

It's an open source project via Google Code, which I suppose means it was someone's bright idea (actually, it was Ben Campbell's bright idea) and it's just sort of happened as a little job to boost the Trust's online exposure.

While I find the simple design, dreadful 1990s typeface and shameless theft of web 2.0 terminology (beta, newsfeed, tagcloud) endearing, the most fun I had was rummaging through the issues that the developers faced while creating the site - good ones include:

David Leigh (Guardian) confused with David Leigh (Mirror)

(Oops. Not one to get confused.)

There appear to be some problems with the Independent scraper.

(Ouch. And...)

Some countries appear in the tags even though they were filtered out (e.g. Britain, Iraq, Iran, Russia)

(Why filter out Iraq?)

(Also published on LEWIS 360)

Hats off

As I'm Twitter from the conference via Twitterific, I just spotted that both my blog profile image and my Twitter profile image see me wearing a baseball cap.

This is possibly the two times out of three I have worn a baseball cap since leaving my teens, and all occasions were for fancy dress. Seems to work though, and I've been looking for a signature item.

Time to resurrect that look I think. It'll be like Stowe's beret!

I'm not in the habit of apologising for not posting...

But a couple of people have commented on my lack of posts. I agree, I have gone a bit Nick Leonard recently.

I've been on holiday, alright?!

But now I'm back, and am speaking at the PR Week New Media Conference today at the LEWIS Media Centre.

I'll be updating LEWIS 360 throughout the day, and am on at 2.15pm if you're passing.

Every topic in the universe except chickens dot com

Focusing all Wikipedia vandalism on one article is the best idea I've heard all day.

But it's ruined by eight little words: "This page has been semi-protected for editing".

Twittering at the MTV VMAs

I agree with Kristin at Bite on this one - getting the bands and presenters to Twitter through the MTV Music Video Awards was a good idea.

I'm now following Timbaland, and am getting a thrill when he Twitters things like:

Shopping so i can look goods 08:34 PM September 08, 2007 from txt

Go to rEHEARSAL 01:36 PM September 08, 2007 from txt

GETTING MY HAIR CUT FOR THIS COVER SHOOT WITH 50 04:01 PM September 07, 2007 from txt

He's getting his hair cut with 50 Cent, and texting Twitter via his mobile phone.

And I feel like I'm there. While TIMBALAND gets his HAIR DONE. With FIFTY CENT.

BRILLIANT.

BBC iPlayer - the cloud crowd strikes again

It's almost as if the web is fulfilling its potential as an champion of ordinary people.

No sooner does HSBC reverse its decision on charges for graduate accounts (thanks to 5,000 Facebook users), that a 16,000-strong e-petition results in the Government stepping in to demand that the BBC rework its crappy iPlayer so that it works on Macs.

Here's part of the response from Number 10:

"The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible."

As a fan of the Beeb and all it represents, the thing that disappoints me is that it got so far. The bad feeling towards the iPlayer has been loud and persistent.

Surely someone there should've spotted the pending problem and sorted it earlier?

Nice Jobs: Steve sorts out the new iPhone price

Steve Jobs' open letter on the new iPhone pricing is fascinating. Basically, he's spotted that loads of people are going to be pissed off at the price dropping so quickly after launch.

Most companies would just say 'tough'. (Or, as is more likely, say nothing at all.)

Instead, we get:

"Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these."

Steve's open letter makes him sound like he's delving into his own pocket and personally giving each iPhone customer $100 back.

Nice move - very Richard Branson. I would have loved to have been in the meeting where they decided to do that. I wonder how the maths works out?

Quechup - bad taste social networking?

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and the like all harvest your webmail account to send invites without you having to send them individually. It's handy as they ask first.

I checked my email this morning and there were a couple of invites from people I trust to try out Quechup, a new social networking tool.

I was a little suspicious about it's self-important phrasing ("It's no wonder Quechup is fast becoming the social networking site to be on." Yeah right. Says who?). But before I could respond I spotted Boing Boing's stinging post on how Quechup is rotten. Apparently it spams your contacts with invites without even asking. One blogger even got his Gmail account suspended as they thought he was a spammer.

Ouch. Invasion of privacy AND spamming, all in one nicely automated behind-the-scenes operation.

Glad I didn't sign up.

UPDATE: The list of people going after Quechup is making its future look shaky: Mashable, Smart Mobs and Geek News Central are on it (to name three blogs I follow from the 492 posts thrown back from a Google blog search) and Digg is alight with conversation (all negative). Ooops.