Just Jack

I had intended to demonstrate the strength and ubiquity of technology by writing this post on my phone while riding the Barcelona metro (yes their metro has mobile connectivity). Unfortunately the mobile browser couldn’t handle the blog admin page.

As reported in several places, the Open Mobile Terminal Platform have announced plans for a standardised connector for mobile phone charging and syncing.

With UK consumers changing their handset on average twice a year … there are literally hundreds of millions of chargers and data cables in circulation. On top of that, there a huge number of different peripherals such as headsets for voice calls, car kits, data cables, etc. many with different physical connectors. This fragmentation creates unnecessary cost for the whole value chain, creates clutter and limits the freedom of selection for end user, and restricts competition by creating barriers of market entry.

The OMTP’s paper recommends that the micro USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard is used across mobile devices. USB is the de facto standard for the PC industry and it is a technology understood by consumers. Reaching mobile industry agreement on USB will help streamline the whole value chain and provide end users with a larger choice of the most popular peripherals. The customer will also be able to use their legacy home entertainment and PC equipment, as well as creating a new market opportunity for peripheral vendors.

Good news, lets hope adoption is swift.

Great ad.

Great UK geocoder.

Ben informed me of this at The Register.

The company has now admitted that this change to its billing is significant and therefore enables customers to get out of their existing contracts.

Customers … have one month from the receipt of that message to get in touch with O2 if they want to cancel their contract. O2 has told us that such requests will be honoured, but only if received before the end of September.

Update: I just called 02 and they confirmed that if I ended my contract I would be able to keep the handset free of charge. I’m thinking close the contract and get my hands on some sim only goodness.

Missed this the first time around.

I just received a text message from 02 that reads:

02: from 28 Sept calls starting wth certain numbers e.g 0844&0845 will be charged outside your incl. mins. & cost 20p/min. Details at o2.co.uk/specialnumbers

The inclusion of 0844 and 0845 numbers was one of the reasons I chose 02. Do I have any recourse for compensation?

Update:
The Carphone Warehouse / 02 terms and conditions state:

15 Changes to the Agreement
15.1 We may change this Agreement and the Charges at any time. If we increase our Charges for the elements of the Service you are using or change the terms and conditions of this Agreement to your
significant disadvantage (in our reasonable opinion), we will give you 30 days’ notice in writing before the change takes place. We will notify you as detailed in clause clause 19.7 below or we may
notify you by text (SMS) to your Mobile Phone number and/or by email where you have supplied your email address to us for this purpose.

This does not undo the fact that they are changing a key feature that I chose their service for. This is not the way to keep my custom.

Pretty good view.

I have somehow managed to disable the T9 predictive text feature on my Sony Ericsson K810i. If I understand the user manual correctly I am supposed to hold down the * key to reactivate it, unfortunately this does nothing. Anyone know how to re-enable it?

Ben, the recent convert to the world of Macs, is selling off some old gear:

• Minolta X-300 SLR Camera
• EPSON Perfection 1200S Flatbed A4 SCSI Scanner
• Complete AMD Desktop PC, 1Ghz, 256MB RAM, 80Gb Hardrive
• 256MB DDR 333 CL2.5 PC2700 LAPTOP RAM