Scotland Yard July 14, 2008
Posted by James Webster in : gadgets , add a commentI have many childhoold family memories sitting around the dining table playing board games. Some of the games we played more frequently were classics like Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly but also less well-known games like Rum Rebellion and Scotland Yard.
With Friday’s release of the iPhone 3G with integrated GPS the big question is whether this heralds the moment that location-based services (LBS) take off or whether they will be consigned to be a plaything of the digerati.
One of the aspects of LBS that haven’t been explored in great depth so far are location-based games. So I wonder if a GPS and Google Maps enabled version of Scotland Yard, played in London itself, would actually be enjoyed by anyone, other than perhaps the LARPing community? Traveling on London’s public transport network is frequently an exercise in frustration so running around town trying to track down someone playing the role of Mr. X might not be that much fun. It could be an interesting one-off event in conjunction with something like the London Festival of Architecture however.
Apparently a group of students in Germany, the home of the game’s publishers Ravensburger Spiele, have already had a go at implementing a GPS-enabled Scotland Yard.
Airfoil IS a “poor man’s Sonos”! January 11, 2008
Posted by James Webster in : apple, gadgets , add a commentTwo years ago I suggested that Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil could potentially be turned into “a poor man’s Sonos”. Well it looks like they have made that happen with the release of Airfoil 3. The only missing piece I can see is an iPhone-optimised web interface to Airfoil to take the place of the Sonos Controller.
The new Slim Devices/Logitech Squeezebox Duet looks quite interesting as well, although given its cross-platform nature it may not survive a rumoured acquisition by Microsoft with its current feature set intact.
Given I currently live in a pokey London flat from the middle of which I can see into all four rooms simultaneously I don’t think this is a segment of the gadget market that I need to buy into just yet!
Out with the old, in with the new… June 5, 2007
Posted by James Webster in : gadgets , add a commentA rare bit of gadget news…
I have FINALLY gotten rid of my ancient Nokia 6600 that I purchased four years ago on the last occassion I was living in London. I have just replaced it with a shiny Nokia N95.
I am really impressed so far. In case you have been living under a rock and have completely missed the buzz surrounding this phone the highlights are; GSM and 3G mobile network access, 5 megapixel camera + reasonable quality video, Bluetooth, Series 60 OS (which some people love and some hate… I love it), high-resolution screen AND integrated GPS. Also, it doesn’t have nearly big enough a battery to power all that connected goodness however I have yet to really find that an issue. The only time that I have seriously used the GPS I was in a car driving around Wales and could have used a cigarette-lighter adapter to keep the phone charged up. Check out the reviews by Gizmodo, Engadget or All About Symbian’s 5-part monster.
The only real issue I have with it at the moment is that since I purchased it on plan from T-Mobile, the firmware updates do not appear to be forthcoming as quickly (or indeed, at all?) as they do for the completely unlocked phones… the latest firmware upgrade would fix an issue I am having with connecting to a computer-to-computer WiFi network hosted by my MacBook.
The photo quality is pretty good for a phone and gives compact point-and-shoots a run for their money. Here’s a set of photos I took when Trafalagar Square in London was turned into a village green for a couple of days.
T-Mobile’s Web N Walk plan is great as well… I can finally use my phone to access the Internet wherever I want (subject to 3G network coverage) and not worry about quickly exceeding my download limit; 3Gb of mobile downloads is a pretty generous download allowance for mobile browsing.
The integration with online services such as Flickr and Vox is cool. I have authored a couple of posts on my new Vox blog directly from the phone; take a photo, write some text (admittedly a bit painful) and upload. Done!
It looks like Scoble shares my view that the N95 might be better than the iPhone although, damn, it IS sexy.