Showing posts with label walled gardens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walled gardens. Show all posts

Monday, June 09, 2008

Which side of the fence do you sit?

If you happen to be attending this, come by and say hello. I'm speaking on Thursday, about open gardens versus walled ones. Can you guess which side of that fence I sit?
A little further ahead. I'll be in NYC from this coming Saturday until and including Tuesday 17th.
I'm speaking at WidgetWebExpo. Hope I'll see you there.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Zenzui: Mobile navigation outside the walled gardens

Zenzui is worth taking a look at if you cling to the idea that finding your way around the internet is a bit of a pain on a mobile and see that as some kind of barrier to the inevitable dominance of mobile internet over fixed line.
With their platform the user can customise their own phone with icons which act as hot links to the sites you want. It's book marking built for the mobile experience and essentially makes navigation as easy outside the walled gardens (operators like to throw up) as inside.
Take a look here.

There is of course more to be drawn from this. I've come to the view recently that the right navigation for a mobile internet site should be derived from the user experience of mobile phones - and that means icon driven. Take a look at how you find your way around your mobile. Isn't that how you should find your way around not only the mobile internet, but around the mobile internet sites you access?

Navigational lists are for the fixed-line pc-accessed internet.

Friday, December 01, 2006

3 deal goes live - and they can't keep up with demand

Regulars will know I'm a big fan of the 3 deal to offer fixed-price free-at-point-of-use internet access (and more) on your mobile.
It went live today and I managed to order one this lunchtime. Prices are £5 for the silver version and £10 for the gold one (which includes orb and slingtv).
I don't want slingtv (just at the mo) but I do want orb, so I've gone for the gold.
Only one phone - the nokia - available yet - and no available date for the sony-ericsson.

The reality is this will cost me £25 for six months and £40 a month for the remaining 12.

If the fact that their website keeps crashing when you try to order the X-Series is anything to go by, demand is big.


Here's the smallprint:(i'd make it a link but blogger is having fun a bit of fun at the mo...)

We want you to have an enjoyable and unlimited experience of X-Series on 3. But as you’ll understand we need to manage this, so here are some things you should know.

About X-Series Gold and Silver
To use X-Series services, you need to buy an X-Series mobile, sign up to a Pay Monthly price plan, and buy X-Series Gold or Silver – all from 3. You can only use our X-Series services on X-Series mobiles.

If you also buy a Slingbox, you'll need to take X-Series Gold for a minimum of 12 months. Otherwise, X-Series Gold and Silver are for a minimum period of 6 months when bought on connection to 3. Or if bought after connection there's no minimum period. After this they will stay active on your account until you cancel the one you’ve chosen.

If you don’t use your monthly allowance it doesn’t roll over to the next month.

More on X-Series Gold
Mobile access to Orb or Slingbox does not include using your mobile as a modem.

For Orb and Slingbox you’ll need minimum PC software, PC and router specification and broadband at home.

Slingbox and Orb are for personal use only and you mustn’t breach copyright or get around copyright protection.

To watch home TV on your mobile you need to have a TV service that you can legally view.

Slingbox is sold separately and contains a Freeview receiver so you’ll need a TV licence if you haven’t already got one.

You’re responsible for your compliance with all of these terms.

Our fair use policy
We have fair use limits and hope you’ll use your common sense. These limits should be big enough for you to do all the things you want to do. But we’ll get in touch with you if we think you’re using our services unfairly, and especially if you’re abusing them. If we find people are using X-Series above these limits, we’ll review them. Here’s our take on fair use:

Unlimited data is 1GB per month. Also, your data usage doesn’t include using your mobile as a modem.
Windows Live Messenger won’t count towards your monthly data fair use limit but has its own limit of 10,000 messages per month.
Skype on 3 is 5,000 minutes per month. If you go over this you’ll need to wait until the start of the next bill month for the service to resume, however Skype calls can still be received.
Orb and Slingbox have a total combined limit of 80 hours a month.
Where can I access X-Series?
All X-Series services will work when there’s video coverage on 3’s networks in the UK or overseas and, except for Orb and Sling, will work in our UK standard coverage as well. International roaming voice call charges will apply when making Skype calls from 3's networks overseas.

When you’re online
When using the internet, you can’t use some websites (including adult websites) and some websites aren’t compatible with all mobiles.

Some email accounts might need a premium service upgrade from your supplier.

What else?
For more details on X-Series and our fair use policy see three.co.uk/xseries

X-Series Gold and Silver are provisioned as Add-ons and we may need to suspend or change them as permitted in the Terms for 3 Services.

FasterFuture.blogspot.com

The rate of change is so rapid it's difficult for one person to keep up to speed. Let's pool our thoughts, share our reactions and, who knows, even reach some shared conclusions worth arriving at?