Andy’s Blog 2.0
WARNING: THIS POST IS VERY GEEKY. ALL I TALK ABOUT IS HOW COOL MY MOBILE PHONE IS.
Gadgets are brilliant, they define the evolution of man: a monkey may be able to peel a banana with his feet but can he invent and launch a GPS satellite network? Gadgets are so good that even in the early 1980s they needed their own inspector and his niece, Holly.
This love of gadgets has turned me into a bit of a geek; I, like most of the people around me, know my way around a computer in the sense that I can set it up, surf the internet and check emails (most of which is used for porn). However we are seeing the introduction of a concept known as Web 2.0, this isn’t a new, advanced internet but more of a way of using it to post items and share them with the world. This in itself isn’t brand-spanking new as we already have loads of working examples of it including Facebook, Wikipedia and this blog however undertsanding the way these applications talk to each other can end up filling hours of the day.
I’m thinking in particular about how I can use this ‘language’ to make my gadgets more fun. My glorious Nokia N95 is impressing me more an more every day. I stumbled across a posting in this N95 blog about a chap who is going on his travels and wanted to keep a blog, take plenty of pictures, keep in touch with his emails, keep his Facebook up to date and plot a travel map. He claims he is able to do all of this using just his N95.
In theory the N95 has it all to do this (internet browser, camera, GPS locator and a whole bunch of third party applications), I’m a little sceptical as to how successful he’ll be with the N95’s questionable camera and the length of time it takes for the GPS to lock on. He’s also going to rely on uploading everything via Wi-Fi to avoid high foreign data charges; as he’s travelling in Asia he may find a shortage of these. Enough about him, save for the fact that I’m really keen to see how he gets on and have added his blog to the links on the left, along with The Don’s.
So, back to me. I’ve had a good look at a load of N95 applications and have totally sexed up my phone from better screensavers, rotating screen application and a funky shakey control thingy but my favourites are the ones that allow me to interact with this blog better. Now, 99% of the time I will be sat here, at home, when updating the blog but should I ever venture away then the N95 has a few party pieces.
First of all there’s an application called Shozu which is a tool to connect the phone with a number of ‘Web 2.0′ applications such as Blogger, Facebook & the photo website, Flickr. This means that I can draft a full blog post on my phone and select pictures to upload to Facebook on my phone and then store them until I want to upload them, I can either use my phone connection (free in the UK) or wait until I can hop onto a wi-fi connection (desirable if abroad).
Then there’s Flickr, a photo management and sharing tool. Nothing too fancy, just a website I dump a load of pictures on but don’t really draw attention to because I use these pictures elsewhere.
Now, here’s the clever bit: Shozu cleverly links the N95’s GPS locator to the camera meaning the N95 will be able to Geotag the picture with the location where it was taken. I then send it to the good people at Flickr who, in turn, send it on to the clever chaps at Google who have a bit of a play and make a bit of a map. The clever chaps at Google then whiz this map straight to this Blog!
What we have below is my very own, interactive, clickable, movable, zoomable travel photo map!!! I have cheated a little to start with by adding location data retrospectively to some pics from the round the world trip, just click on the little blue balloons to see them.
*** NOTE ***
If you’re still reading this, congratulations – you’re a geek.
Having updated my Blog to Wordpress, you can now access my Blog Map from the links at the top of the page.
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This means that wherever I am in the world I can take a picture and it will appear on this map instantly in the location it was taken. As this post will disappear down the order over the next few weeks I’ve added a link to the top left of this page so it can be accessed any time.
As I said, the GPS takes a while to get going on the N95 and the camera is a bit poo but it’s really cool nonetheless and I hope we see GPS enabled cameras hitting Jessops in the near future. Some advanced SLR cameras already have this in them but I suppose it remains to be seen how popular this becomes (no wild ‘Tomorrow’s World’ predictions here).
Apologies for the geeky-techie kind of post. I’ll resume normal service and do a blog about how drunk we got on Saturday and the pleasure of seeing Phil Thompson’s face when the Barnsley winner went in.
Andy
x
Oh FFS, WTF is the point in fiddling with the N95 for all that?!
The GPS VERY rarely works unless you open the phone and turn it upside down, whilst carrying it above your head. Although it scans and picks up Wi-Fi, it very rarely remains connected to www for long enough to D/L 10k of shite. It all sounds like A LOT of faff to me – and even bothering to type a BLOG on it?? FFS!!!
Now, I disagree about the camera – I think it works fine – I like the 5meg. I also think there is a time and a place for the lifeblog on there. I also like the mobile office apps actually……but now I’m starting to sound a bit like you ;-p
However, what you NEED is the 701 Eee PC – link it to the N95 (for the pics/as extra HD) and (not only will you cream your pants at the kinky tech, but) you can write/UL darn fine blogs from anywhere in the world
PS – managed to scan any barcodes yet??!
Hey Chapstick, what do you mean what is the point? As I said, I’m turning into a geek and it’s the kind of thing a geek would do. The GPS is ok if used regularly and you’re stationary when trying to get a fix (as I have found out in the last 24 hours).
As for typing a blog on it, I agree this would be a pain in the arse but the chap who is relying on this is taking a folding keyboard with him.
I’ve emailed you a barcode!