To understand that question, it helps to know a bit about HD TV and video. Y’see there are a couple of different high-def standards, the main ones of interest here being 720p and 1080p (a measure of their pixel resolution). 1080p is obviously the higher resolution display, and it’s 1080p that you see on HDTVs, not 720p. (Oh, and if you want to know why HD video is so much better than standard, I’ve done you a piccie comparison, to show you.)

That’s what got me thinking. Why has the Samsung Omnia HD gone for 720p? Well, there is something that regularly uses 720p resolution for its video, but it’s not a telly.

It is, in fact, Youtube. Intriguingly, Youtube’s high-definition videos run at 720p (as well as, to be fair, most HD videos on the internet). And that leads me to wonder whether the main purpose of the Samsung Omnia HD is to actually record HD video to be displayed on Youtube. Is it, when you get right down to it, a ‘Youtube phone’, designed to let people easily get HD videos onto their favourite video site? The evidence is compelling, especially since it’s got HSUPA as well as HSDPA (so that uploading vids would be ultra-quick, too).

Or, is the cynical, more prosaic answer true, that they simply haven’t been able to get a proper 1080p camera working in a phone yet?

We’ll get our answer when it’s released, but my money’s on Youtube phone. And if it comes with a dedicated Youtube app, that allows one click uploading, that’ll pretty much prove me right…

More news as it happens! And be sure to subscribe now to get all the latest action from the world of mobile phones!

Following the announcement yesterday of the Apple iPhone 3.0 OS, it’s time to take stock, and see if it really is the all-powerful game changer that Apple fans say it is. Or, as many people are saying on the net, is the iPhone still playing catch-up, and the only people who believe it is the best phone in the world are rabid Apple fans?

Let’s start with what was included in the software update…

The big two additions were copy/paste (which does work across different apps), and MMS (so iPhone users can now send and receive picture messages). Closely following those are two enhancements to the Bluetooth service, allowing peer to peer sharing, and stereo audio, through Bluetooth. There’s the new keyboard, which you can use in landscape view (unlike its predecessor), as well as the new Spotlight app, letting you search through the entire device for whatever app or contact (or whatever) you’re after.

Oh, and of course, it now features push notifications, such as when you receive an email, or app pushes, but that leads onto something that wasn’t included: background processing, or, to put it another way, multitasking.

That leads on very nicely to the question in the title of this discussion. Will the iPhone be all-powerful when it gets the 3.0 OS, or is it, in fact, still playing catch-up with the phones that have been doing the new features it offers for years? With the iPhone being proclaimed as the ultimate phone (well, the only phone that should exist, by particularly fierce Apple fans), I find it hard to see how that claim can stand up when it’s only now getting features that have been standard on mobile phones (especially MMS), since Sony Ericsson released the T610, in 2003. And while users may say that the design is the important thing, surely it’s better to have a feature that you don’t use, than not have it, and need it?

Also, never forget that although you may not use MMS, that doesn’t mean thousands of people don’t…

Setting aside the nonsensical ravings of the particularly deranged fans (you know, the ones who say that having a hardware keyboard ruins the purity of a phone), there is a way forward. There is a point to agree on, and I want to thank Dan, who made a point that made me understand the iPhone a lot better. Five words, that make all the difference…

The iPhone isn’t a smartphone…

Yes, that’s what Dan said, and yes, he does have an iPhone 3g. And he speaks a lot of sense (although I never thought I’d say that about Dan).

If you don’t try to view it as a smartphone, it makes a LOT more sense. View it as a mid-range feature phone that happens to have a touchscreen, more like the LG Viewty, and then it can compete. Then it makes sense. In fact, it’s the only way it makes real sense, because if you put it up against a real smartphone (even after installing the iPhone 3.0 update), like the upcoming Palm Pre, the only thing it would be able to compete on is its looks. Features-wise, any other smartphone in the world can tear it to shreds…

And now it’s your turn. Do you see iPhone 3.0 as the best mobile innovation in recent times? Or do you think the iPhone still can’t compete with the vast range of phones out there? Keep it civil, keep it clean, but let’s get this discussion going…

That’s the bit some privacy experts are shouting about, pointing out that whilst there are opt-in (opt-in being a far more favourable option to opt-out) controls to hide your location, there is a potential problem is someone else sets you up with Latitude without your knowing, like a jealous spouse, or a boss who doesn’t trust his employees.

Say, for example, your work buys you a T-Mobile G1 (unlikely, I know, unless you work for a generous company, but go with it). They get hold of the phone before you, and don’t tell you they’ve enabled it.

They are then, effectively, spying on you without your knowledge. Say you work for a bed shop, but you go and buy your bed from a rival bed shop, because it’s cheaper. They’d be able to see you’re in a rival bed shop on Google Maps, and be difficult with you, because of it. The problem, as groups such as Privacy International see it, is that once activated, Latitude doesn’t tell you it’s beaming out your location. Well, ok, to be fair, it does on some mobile phones, like the Blackberry Storm, but even then it only alerts you if you’ve not used Latitude for a while. That’s the big issue Privacy International wanted to highlight.

To me, that highlights the big problem with the system, the same problem that an article on the Mobile Industry Review elegantly points out. The problem isn’t necessarily Latitude itself, although it can and most likely will help clear up a lot of privacy concerns. The big problem is the people using Google Latitude. The jealous spouses. The controlling, vindictive bosses. Google will very likely iron out any security issues with Latitude, but the problem is, the people using it are going to be the same devious, sneaky, distrustful, nosey little dangleberries they’ve always been. I genuinely commend Google for making Latitude as privacy friendly as it is (although it has a little bit of a way still to go), but as far as I’m concerned, my friends don’t need to know where I am, unless I’m upside down in a ditch with a broken back.

And I do reckon Latitude has some real potential, I’ve gotta be honest. Equip it with a “help, the extreme ironing’s gone wrong, and I’m upside down in a ditch with a broken back” button, so the emergency services can find you and either save you, or at least give you a decent burial along with your Toshiba TG01, or whatever, and it’d be brilliant. And I can think of a situation where seeing your friend’s location would be useful, like if they get lost in your hometown, and have no clue where they are (other than it being ‘a street, somewhere‘), so that you can direct them. Fire up Latitude, and you’ll not have to worry about not finding them.

It’s just that, along with these genuine uses, I can see bunny-boiling stalkers finding it useful, too…

Do you reckon Google Latitude is a good thing? Or do you reckon it will infringe on your privacy? Leave us a comment and have your say!

Basically, they ask, when is a mobile phone not a mobile phone?

What may seem like a bit of nonsense that’s a pure set up for a joke, is a question that could become very, very important for anybody who likes their mobile phones big, powerful, and multifunctional. It’s that ‘multifunction’ part that’s the biggest issue, as the European Commission are set to vote on whether top-end mobile phones, big boys like the X1 Xperia or the upcoming Nokia N97, fall under the heading of ‘mobile phones’ or ‘multifunction devices that do mobile telephony’. It’s a big distinction, too, because if they are reclassified as the latter, their price may well be set to increase.

To understand the reason behind it, we need to look back about 12 years, to the formation of the Information Technology Agreement (better known as the ITA). Back then, the world’s leading trading parties all came to an agreement:

To help boost the global economy, all computer-related equipment would have zero import duties placed on them.

Or, in other words, no extra import tax was added on to things like PCs and mobile phones. There was no extra charge or tax to import those items, and because of that, they flourished.

The problem now, according to parties within the European Commission, is that they never expected things like mobile phones to explode in functionality like they have. Reading between the lines, it seems that they didn’t expect the huge wave of convergence that’s rapidly altering the world of mobile phones.

Put simply, tax officials within the Commission believe that the ITA is being stretched beyond its original purpose, and that mobile phones that let you watch TV or find your way with GPS aren’t actually just mobile phones any more, and therefore are liable for import duties.

There are a couple of issues with that, right off the bat. First of all, you can see how this undoubtedly ties in with the so-called credit crunch, currently going on round the world. We’ve seen various measures undertaken to try and rectify it, to stop the rot, as it were, including things like the drop in VAT to 15% (which may or may not be an utterly nonsensical idea, but it does beg the question of why the government aren’t doing something to sort out base rates and GDP, instead of encouraging people to consume more). We’re in a state of economic crisis, as the newspapers tell us every day, so it surely seems a simple equation that if the EU puts prices up on items, then sales of them to cash-strapped people, even to power users like me who badly want top-end mobile phones, will go down.

That drop in sales is going to lead to one inevitable conclusion: less sales, and less demand, leads to less innovation.

However, what this situation tells us about the European Commission itself is also interesting. It’s interesting to see that while part of the Commission is pushing for import duties to be added to top-end mobile phones, Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding is pushing for more features to be rolled out to more mobile phones, specifically, mobile TV. That ideal is very much at odds with what tax officials are pushing for, to the point where even Martin Selmayr, Reding’s spokesman has openly stated it. It’s eminently clear, from that, that not everyone in the Commission thinks the reclassifying of mobile phones is a good thing.

So, if people within the EU think the idea’s not sound, where, in fact, did it come from? Well, there are rumours but it should be made very apparent that these haven’t been proven, and at the moment, are just baseless rumours. However, there are rumblings that makers of GPS and technologies that mobile phones are starting to pack in aren’t happy about their own businesses being affected by sales of mobile phones. After all, the central principle of convergence is one box that does everything, which doesn’t leave much room for standalone GPS gadgets, for example.

With that in mind, it’s time to answer the question in the title of this post: is the price of top-end mobile phones really about to increase?

Well, fortunately, despite what Commission tax officials want, it’s by no means certain that it’ll actually happen. If you move out from the EU, you’ll find that the idea of adding import duty back on to mobile phones is not a particularly popular one, with both the US and Japan filing formal complaints with the EU and the World Trade Organisation.

Secondly, there is another ray of hope in the form of printers, since they’ve attracted the same change in import duties as is being proposed for mobile phones. However, Hewlett-Packard and Kip didn’t take it lying down, and took the matter to court, where the judicial verdict was that a multifunction device should be judged on its main feature. In the case of a printer, if it’s main function is printing, with copying stapled on, for example, it should be viewed as a printer, and thus be exempt from paying import duty.

Presumably, by the same logic, a multifunction device on which the main function is clearly mobile telephony (as it undoubtedly is on the X1 Xperia or Nokia N97… they may be convergence devices, but they’ll never not be mobile phones), then it should be classed as a mobile phones, and not, say, as a sat-nav.

Using that logic, and thinking rationally, we can answer that question in the title; whilst it is possible that the Commission may vote to make mobile phones more expensive, given the opposition round the world, and the fact that it’s very easy to prove a mobile phone is in fact a mobile phone, then it’s probable it won’t actually happen. At the moment, though, no-one can say for sure…

Want to get an incredible, top-end mobile phone before the EU even vote on this issue? Grab yourself the X1 Xperia today!

That plan hasn’t worked, so I will, with 99% certainty, be buying an X1 Xperia myself. Unless of course Sony Ericsson announce an Xperia mobile phone with an 8 megapixel camera, before I get my X1.

Ah, but… therein lies an interesting question, and it’s one that’s actually important for the future of Sony Ericsson. The X1 Xperia is just about the nicest Windows Mobile phone ever made (though my colleague, Matthew, when he gets his new HTC Touch HD, might dispute that). But the name ‘Xperia’ doesn’t just apply to one mobile phone; it applies to a whole series of mobile phones, specifically, Sony Ericsson’s absolute top-echelon, feature-packed, world-beating smartphones. The ones right at the top of their portfolio.

The X1 Xperia is only the first of many. So, realistically, as that brand grows, what new mobile phones can we expect from the Swedish/Japanese giant?

Windows Mobile

The X1 Xperia, when it was announced, was a bit of a shock. It was Sony Ericsson’s first ever Windows Mobile phone, and no-one was sure how well they’d pull it off. Now the handset’s been released the answer’s apparent: really, really well. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the X1 Xperia is honestly the first mobile phone to ever make Windows Mobile desirable. It’s fast… as in properly fast, none of this lagging screen when you open the keyboard… and it’s truly a magnificent device.

Basically, it’s not a case of if another Windows Mobile Xperia will be released, it’s a case of when it will be. You just know there’ll be another one coming along. Plus, if and when Microsoft get themselves in gear and release Windows Mobile 7, I can’t imagine there not being an Xperia mobile phone based on it. Which, given how nice the X1 Xperia is, is something I’m really seriously looking forward to…

Symbian S60/Foundation

For years, Sony Ericsson smartphones were based on Symbian. Specifically, they were built on Symbian UIQ. Well, with UIQ on the way out (a sad day, indeed, but one has to move on), and with Sony Ericsson being a key member of the Symbian Foundation, we are going to be seeing Symbian-powered mobile phones, that much is almost inevitable. And although no-one actually knows what it’ll be like, I’d say you’d be silly not to bet on something… hmmm, how to put this… something not a million miles away from the Nokia N97.

After that, who knows. The sky is very much the limit, as long as they don’t hobble the capabilities of the Symbian Foundation OS, and actually push the OS to perform at a high level, something they didn’t always do with UIQ. In hindsight, UIQ’s death is at least partially down to manufacturers not supporting that system fully, so any future Symbian mobile phone from Sony Ericsson really does need support.

Google Android

Well, I reported on it yesterday, but it’s big enough news to warrant further discussion. Sony Ericsson have announced they will be developing a Google Android-powered mobile phone, and they’ve said they aim to get it to market next year. I have high hopes for the first Sony Ericsson Android phone, and let’s be honest, with the top-end features and clever stuff that Android’s punting, it’s almost a dead-cert that the first one they make will be an Xperia mobile phone.

Basically, the whole point of the Xperia range of mobile phones, as Sony Ericsson themselves said when it was first announced, is to give you a whole gamut of different experiences on their mobile phones. So, while we may see Android phones in the Cyber-Shot range, or Symbian Foundation mobile phones in the G-series, I’m willing to bet a large number of pounds that the first place we’ll Sony Ericsson mobile phones with those systems built into their guts will be in the Xperia range.

Grab the first of a new breed, grab the ace X1 Xperia today!

However, it’s beginning to look like we might not ever see those modular mobile phones, as news has come through today from Engadget Mobile, reporting that Modu have laid off 25% of their workforce. That doesn’t mean they’re out of the fight, yet, but it does make things distinctly harder for Modu.

The question we have to ask, though, is why Modu have been forced to make this not particularly pleasant or happy decision. Well, the obvious (but not necessarily right) culprit would be the failing economy, but it may in fact be down to their mobile phones being delayed for launch, and a big factor surely has to be the fact that Modu haven’t snagged any operator partners for their mobile phones.

However, I reckon there’s one big problem with their mobile phones that’s been overlooked, and it rocks the whole business model down to its core.

Before I get into it, though, I want to make it very clear that I like the Modu idea. I think it’s very, very clever concept, meaning people can change the functionality of their phone, and basically get a whole new phone, just by buying a new jacket, and not by having to splurge on, well, a whole new phone. It’s probably one of the most original and cool ideas I’ve ever seen introduced to the world of mobile phones. It is, in fact, Modu’s biggest strength.

The problem is, I reckon, it’s also their biggest flaw, and if it did come to market, its biggest selling point could ironically be its Achilles Heel. Modu famously had a pop at Nokia, saying that Nokia’s philosophy of building everything into one handset was flawed, and made their mobile phones stale. A thought occurred to me when they said it: maybe that’s what people want…

The big buzz word in the technology world (not just with mobile phones but with everything) is convergence. Loads of different devices coming together to make one device that does everything. It’s clearly something people are excited about, and want to buy into, or how would you explain the popularity and success of mobile phones like the Sony Ericsson X1, the T-Mobile G1 and the Apple iPhone 3G? A lot of people want a mobile phone that will do everything, in one, compact box.

And there’s the issue, right there. The Modu mobile phone is the absolute opposite of that, in that its main ‘box’ is an utterly basic phone, and to get the extra, super-duper functionality that a single, converged smartphone brings, you have to buy, and carry around with you, lots of extra jackets. You have to buy a jacket with a top-end camera in it, another jacket with a top-end music player, yet another jacket with a QWERTY keyboard, and so on, something you very notably don’t have to do with, say, the Blackberry Storm. Modu argue that people want excitement and a phone that isn’t stale, and can have functionality added with a new jacket. I would argue that people want a mobile phone that already does everything without them having to buy loads of extra bits, which they’ll have to lug about with them, and which they’ll probably lose.

So, is that the reason why Modu haven’t got any operator support? Is it because their business model is flawed, and they’re moving away from what the market for mobile phones is moving towards? To put it simply, would people rather buy the Blackberry Storm, that does everything in one device; or the Modu phone, plus the 20+ separate jackets needed to make it do what the Storm does in one box?

To me, the answer is a very simple one…

Get the mobile phone that does everything in one box; grab yourself the Blackberry Storm today!

It’s safe to say that the new concept ‘01Phone’ falls very firmly into the second category.

A joint brainchild between gadget magazine T3 and design house The Alloy (whose concept phones I gushed about last year), this really is a mobile phone designed to fill the nation with the hollow, reverberating sound of people jaws hitting the floor. It could quite simply be, in other words, the single best mobile phone ever conceived by man.

Ah, but that’s an easy statement to make, so why is it so good?

Well, basically, mobile phones out there in the world do many different things, and give people a whole swathe of benefits. Mobile phones with top-end cameras, to give you perfect photos. Mobile phones with bags of memory and superb music players, so you can bin your old mp3 player. The internet. Sat-nav.

Well, the list goes on, but the idea posed by T3 is that no individual mobile phone has done everything perfectly, or given customers the perfect version of every single one of those benefits, in one phone (although I’d argue the HTC Touch HD comes close). So, they set out, with The Alloy, to rectify that, to make the perfect mobile phone… and the result is the 01Phone you see here.

And, oh dear god, is it stunning!

The looks are perfect, the features are incredible, and the feel of using it is better than any other mobile phones out there. Well, at least, it is if you believe T3, which, I hasten to add, I am inclined to do…

Imagine a combination between the Touch HD mentioned above, and the Sony Ericsson X1, and the iPhone, and the Blackberry Storm, that takes all the best bits of those mobile phones, makes them even better, and then adds in some new benefits that none of those phones have. So, the basics are two 5 megapixel cameras, front and back (yep, video calls will look as good as videos and photos from the main camera), a massive multitouch screen (with a multitouch stylus that look like a pair of sugar tongs and therefore rocks), 32Gb of built-in memory… all of those things are cool, but you could argue that they’ve been seen in other mobile phones before.

In which case, let’s look at the really cool stuff, the stuff that you just don’t see on any other mobile phones…

Mighty Morphin’ Power Keyboard

First up, the keyboard. As you can see, it’s a slide-out QWERTY affair, except it’s context sensitive, so whilst it is a proper keyboard with proper keys, different pictures or symbols are shown on the keyboard, depending on what feature of the mobile phone you’re using. So, camera controls for the camera, internet keys for the web browser, a choice of QWERTY or old school keypad mode for writing texts… Oh, and it changes colour, too, so you always know what mode the keyboard is in. That is bordering on impossibly awesome, and there are some pics, below, of it in action to show you just how frighteningly cool that idea is.

Wireless headphones hidden inside the phone

With 32Gb of memory built in, and what appear to be stereo speakers on the back of the 01Phone, it should be no surprise that it loves its music. So, how about if it includes wireless headphones that you stow away and store inside the phone itself? Which, presumably, will mean they get charged when the mobile phone does.

The word ‘genius’ comes to mind. And yes, there’s a piccie of that, below, as well.

Two mobile phones for the price of one

Ok, here we go. The coolest thing on the 01Phone, and in fact, the coolest thing I’ve seen on any mobile phones ever, is that black stripe on the back… because it’s not just a black stripe on the back; that, right there, is actually a second, miniaturised mobile phone that lives inside the big mobile phone! In effect, that means that you get two mobile phones instead of one; the hyper-turbo-nutter touchscreen phone for all the flashy, fancy, fun stuff, and a second, cut-down, mini-phone, to use as a simple phone on the go, while you keep the hyper-turbo-nutter shell in your pocket, or in your bag. Small, simple and discreet, that’s the ticket.

That. Is. Astonishing (although I will concede it’s very similar to the Modu concept of modular mobile phones).

Not only that, but you’re supposed to be able to wrap the mini-phone round your wrist, implying that it’s also got a bendy screen, which suggests e-paper (just like the Motorola F3), which means the battery on the mini-phone, when detached from the hyper-turbo-nutter shell, should last roughly, ooh, forever.

Here you go, as promised, some pictures of all that cool stuff:

So, the big question is… will the 01Phone ever get made, or is it just some kind of mad pipe-dream? Well, the problem with most concept mobile phones is that they never, ever see the light of day as real, over-the-counter products. Which is rather disappointing, and would be doubly so in this case. But the thing is… word on the street is that The Alloy are actually in the process of building a fully working prototype, taking it beyond the concept stage, and into the world of “oh blimey, this could actually happen now!”

That being the case, it’s entirely possible that one day soon, the world will see the 01Phone in the flesh. And if it does, then trust me, the world of mobile phones will never be the same again…

Don’t want to wait and see IF the 01Phone ever actually gets made? Grab one of the new breed of smartphones, like the HTC Touch HD, today!

Senior citizens. It’s a mobile phone specifically designed for old people.

And that, right there, is a brilliant idea!

Y’see I’ve noticed something. Ok, in some cases, people who are more mature in years really genuinely can’t use some of the mobile phones on the market today. Say, for instance, if bad eyesight makes the touch icons on the Samsung Omnia incredibly hard to use. Supply your own reasons, but it is true that some older people physically have trouble using use some mobile phones.

But I think that’s missing the point, and this is what I’ve noticed. I would argue that a much higher proportion of older people are perfectly able to use something like the Samsung Omnia, but can’t be bothered with the complexity of it. So, I reckon old people not using mobile phones as much is more a case of won’t, than can’t.

And if that’s your viewpoint, then you know what? I’m 100% behind you on it, if you personally think a mobile phone’s too complicated, and you want something simpler, absolutely no-one has the right to say you’re wrong! I reckon old people can get put off by the fact that modern mobile phones are always billed as these vast powerhouses, but the fact is, there are simple mobile phones out there. There are phones that won’t induce panic because you’re not sure how to work them.

The question is, of course, why do a fair number of older people panic, when they see new technology? Maybe it’s fear, and maybe it’s a bit of social programming, since you never really see anyone more mature using high-tech gear, in the media. Unless you watched Malcolm and Connie, in Spooks. Or Arthur Petrelli in Heroes, last night. Anyway, whatever the case, a lot of older people feel they can’t use modern mobile phones, even though they probably very easily could if they wanted to.

Of course, there’s a bigger issue: if you could use complex mobile phones, but choose not to, are you in the wrong? Are you giving in, and being defeatist because you don’t want to get stressed out trying to learn a phone?

No, of course you’re not! You should never, ever feel guilty about what phone you want, whether it’s top end or cheap and simple!

If you don’t want to use modern, so-called complicated mobile phones, then why is that a problem? Why should you have to use a mobile phone like that? Why shouldn’t you be allowed to use something simpler, in peace? And more to the point, why should you have to put up with rubbish mobile phones, just because you want a simple mobile phone?

Oh, and why’s it limited to older people? I know loads of people who’d have a simple phone like the Clarity Life, instead of a big mega-smartphone-monster-thing, any day. Take my auntie (the one I bought the J110 for), for one, who isn’t old, but who does take roughly 4 years to get used to any new phone she has, which is why when I got the J110, she still had an old Ericsson T28.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, many, many more times, but… why should people who want simple mobile phones only have access to rubbish mobile phones? You can get some crackers nowadays, that come in at low prices, even under a tenner in some cases (the Nokia 2610 springs immediately to mind).

So, old people, young people, middle-aged people, people who are old enough to know better, and people who are young enough not to care… join me in saying NO to rubbish mobile phones! Whether you want an expensive one, or a cheap’n, don’t let anyone tell you your choice is wrong. Whether you’re 17 or 100, whether you want a touch-feely smartphone, or a brick that just makes calls, your phone is your choice. And remember, no matter how old you are, if you want a phone that’s ‘designed for senior citizens’, then get one, and don’t take any stick for it.

And if anyone does give you any stick for having a low end mobile phone, tell them I said they’re in the wrong…

Top-end or budget? Features or simplicity? Grab yourself the top-end Samsung Omnia, or the cheap, simple Nokia 2610, today!

However, this is a mobile phones blog, and I’d be a bit remiss (and shouted at) if I did a story that has NOTHING to do with mobile phones.

Lucky for me, then, that Barack Obama’s campaign has embraced technology, including mobile phones, like no other campaign in history! So, this blog post is going to be a bit schizophrenic, as I talk about how mobile phones helped Obama win, then how I feel personally about him winning.

So, technology…

Well, obviously, Obama was going to have a website. Everyone and every organisation has a website in the modern world. Even my old band had a website. But it wasn’t just his website. Obama’s campaign embraced social networking too, with a heavy presence on sites like Facebook and Myspace, not to mention the Obama channel on Youtube. It was clear from the start that his campaign wasn’t just going to be won on the campaign trail, but in the digital world, as well.

Oh, and with mobile phones. Or, more specifically, text messages. You see people all round the world are using their mobile phones more and more, and turning them off less and less (remember that Nokia survey in America?). For a lot of people, their mobile phones are becoming their first source of info, always on, and always bringing them the news. Think of how many text alerts you can get, for things like football scores, world news, financial news, horoscopes, jokes…

…and updates on Barack Obama’s campaign, which really took mobile phones to heart. Want an example? Well, how about the announcement of his running mate, Joe Biden, where 2.9 million text messages were sent out to people signed up to receive them. That’s being hailed as the biggest text marketing event ever!

To go back to the original question in the title, did that text marketing, and the campaign’s embracing of mobile phones allow Obama to win? Well, there’s a compelling story from Bloomberg News, that seems to back up the claim. And it’s all down to something called GOTV, a tactic that all election campaigns ever have used and will use, till the end of time.

Simply, it stand for Get Out The Voters, and it essentially means simply making sure people bother to turn out to cast their vote. In the past, we’ve seen things like arranging transport for voters, and door to door campaigns, to make people get their backsides out to the voting booths. With Obama’s campaign, the way they did it involved lots of text messages.

I can only imagine what they said, but I would bet it was more professional than ‘Gt ur as 2 votn boof’.

Using mobile phones is very probably the cheapest and most effective way to get the message out (get out there and vote!) to the largest number of people, and it’s that text campaign that’s being held up as being responsible for the massive turnout to this year’s elections.

So, to answer the question in the title, in short terms, mobile phones helped Barack Obama to win the presidential race (imagine that: a Sony Ericsson X1 deciding the fate of the free world!). It seems incredibly likely that mobile phones made sure that more people voted. But mobile phones aren’t the sole reason why he won, and neither is Youtube, or the massive use of blogs and social networking.

The biggest factor in why Barack Obama won can be described in two words:

Barack Obama.

The simple fact is this: I believe, and always have believed, he’s the best man for the job. He is smart, yes, and granted, he’s an astute politician, but he genuinely comes across as a likeable, intelligent, and more importantly, level-headed man (as opposed to George Bush, who comes across like an incompetent, war-mongering chimp).

As our very own WinstonSmith has pointed out in his various posts about surveillance, Phorm and passports being needed to buy mobile phones, the current political climate (especially in the UK) is one of hysteria and fear. They would have us believe the end of the world is but 3 seconds away. Cooler heads are needed to rule the world. After all, consider John F. Kennedy, a man I believe to be one of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen.

Would the Cuban Missile Crisis have ended up as it did (i.e. everyone not getting wiped out by a massive, fiery, nuclear holocaust), if he’d been a man who was inclined to panic. No, he was calm, he was rational, he was a true leader.

I may well get flamed to a crisp for comparing him to JFK, but I see the exact same qualities in Barack Obama. Whilst we can’t blame governments for the financial crisis (that would be rich bankers’ faults), we can hold them accountable for removing our civil liberties and curtailing our freedom of speech, in the name of ‘protecting us from terrorists’. Barack Obama doubtless has a tough time ahead of him, but in my judgment, he is the man for the job, and he has the calm, level head needed to not panic and imprison his entire country.

And let’s face it, for a country that had segregation of black people as little as 40 years ago, the sheer fact that they’ve elected a black president is both uplifting and historic. The population have done as they should, ignored both candidates’ skin colours, and voted Obama in on the simple fact that he is the most likely to make a good job of it. That’s what the world should be like, all the time!

So, I’d like to extend my own congratulations to Barack Obama. In the end, you earned this, and I genuinely reckon you’ll make a very good president; and since things that happen in America tend to trickle down and affect the rest of the world, don’t let us down!

And finally, after my baffled anger at Americans voting in George Bush (twice, for heaven’s sake!), I can finally say something I never thought I would: after this election, America, I’m proud of you!

And on a final, final note, Sarah Palin still scares me…

Who’d have thought mobile phones could change the world?! Grab yourself a world-changer today!

Mobile phones have always been a particular target of the tin-foil-hatted brigade, as Technical Markus would call them, the ones who believe mobile phone masts control our thoughts using microwaves. The problem with focusing on downright strange theories like that, however, is that you miss the very real privacy issue we now face.

As reported by The Times Online, the government have announced that they plan to implement a law so that you have to present a passport or other official ID, in order to buy even a pay as you go mobile phone, the reason being that, according to Whitehall, pay as you go mobile phones are what ‘terrorists’ use to plan their attacks on us.

Before we get to the real meat of the subject, let’s first take a step back, and see what happens now in when you want to buy mobile phones, since, as some people have said, you have to provide those details now when you buy a contract phone. Well, yes, that’s true, but as things stand at the moment, you provide those details for one purpose: to prove you are who you say you are, as an anti-fraud measure. It’s pretty standard policy, and it’s also used in the credit check.

What’s being proposed here, though, is far bigger and far more insidious than that. Yes, the passport will be used to confirm who you are. However, after buying the mobile phone, your details will be entered in the massive central database being pushed in the Communications Data Bill, essentially putting you on a register of mobile phone owners.

If there’s a better phrase than that to make innocent people feel like criminals, I’ve yet to see it…

Needless to say, the quoted reason for this is because ‘terrorists’ (a catch-all term, nowadays, that can be applied as a reason for monitoring anything) buy pay as you go mobile phones with cash, don’t give an ID, plan some atrocity, and then throw the phone away, thus getting away free.

And there we hit the central problem with this new proposal. The proposal is simple: by law, everyone has to provide their ID, and go on a register, when they buy a mobile phone, and therefore, no ‘terrorists’ or criminals can lawfully buy a mobile phone in the UK. So, having a phone without showing your ID card and papers will be against the law.

The snag with this plan should be glaringly obvious to just about anyone:

Criminals don’t obey the law. That’s basically the job description.

So, what we’re faced with is a proposal that not only won’t stop ‘terrorists’ and master-villains (which is seemingly what people like Jacqui Smith and Geoff Hoon think Britain is filled with) from obtaining mobile phones, but will make innocent people feel criminalised for wanting to buy one. I can’t help but think such a system has things slightly backwards, there, and I rather strongly suspect people will wonder why only naughty people can easily get mobile phones.

That, of course, leads on to the next snag, and one that can’t have escaped people’s notice: what do people want to do if they want to buy mobile phones, but don’t have a passport? Say your gran wants a mobile phone for emergencies, and just wants a pay as you go phone, rather than spending her entire pension on a contract she will never use? Ah, but she doesn’t have a passport, or driving licence. Sorry, gran, the government says you can’t have a mobile phone, presumably since you’re a potential ‘terrorist’ threat.

Does this idea seem absurd to anyone else?

Now, people may argue that I’m being paranoid, but I’m going to suggest that once we’re all on this register, then we can forget any old-fashioned notions of privacy. Whitehall will have instant access to everyone’s phone number, and tracking technology can pinpoint mobile phones to within a few hundred feet, nowadays. So, they’d also instantly have a record of where we are. Combine that with the possibility of the marketing software Technical Markus wrote about last week, that eavesdrop on you 24/7, being co-opted to listen and record all of your conversations, and it makes for a genuinely frightening picture.

I have no doubt that a fair few people will call me paranoid. But I urge you to consider two things. First, consider how interception and anti-terror laws have been used so far, to convict people of littering, letting their dogs foul on the street. Oh, and to implement the now-infamous freeze on Icelandic banks not to mention the arrest of Walter Wolfgang for heckling at a Labour conference. Notably, you may have spotted, none of those things have anything to do with ‘terrorism’.

One can’t help but assume that these new proposals around mobile phones will similarly not stop at what’s being suggested.

Secondly, consider transport secretary Geoff Hoon’s appearance on Question Time, last week, where he infamously said he’s prepared to go ‘quite a long way, actually’ in undermining people’s civil liberties, to ’stop terrorists killing people’, and that ‘the biggest civil liberty of all is not to be killed by a terrorist’… which in itself is a massively inaccurate piece of spin, since a quick glance at Wiki will show you that, ‘Civil liberties are freedoms that protect the individual from the government. Civil liberties set limits for government so that it cannot abuse its power and interfere with the lives of its citizens,’ something completely opposite to what Geoff Hoon said…

Still, there is hope. Not only has the UK’s top prosecutor now publicly stated that state powers of monitoring and control are going too far, but every opposition party is calling the plans ‘Orwellian’. But that’s not all, some of the most vociferous opposition has come from senior officials within the Home Office. It would seem that not everyone at Whitehall is behind the plans, with officials within the Home Office calling them impractical, disproportionate and potentially unlawful.

It’s fairly easy to predict the reactions of the major mobile phone networks in this instance, as well, since it will potentially lose them a VAST number of customers, more than any ‘credit crunch’ ever could. In fact, mobile phone stalwarts Vodafone, the UK’s oldest mobile network, have already stuck their heads above the parapet and stated:

‘Vodafone does not support mandatory registration for its pre-pay customers and has not made any ‘contingency plans’ to start requiring registration for the purposes of a Government data collection scheme.

PAYG services hold an important role in terms of preventing a digital divide in communications. There is no need for a credit check and if customers do not have a permanent base, or a passport, they are not excluded from using these services.’

(Source: The Register)

It would seem they too have realised that these plans won’t actually do a great deal to prevent genuine security threats, and instead will have the mass effect of denying people who really need mobile phones having any access to them.

Finally, even if the zealous supporters of these plans within Whitehall do believe that the country is full of ‘terrorists’ and that unless they legislate mobile phones, our whole way of life is threatened, I would like to quote two incredibly influential people on the issue of freedom. Neither of them are the famous Benjamin Franklin quote, that runs ‘they who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security’, although it definitely applies here.

As Henry Bolingbroke, better known as King Henry IV, said, ‘Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.’

However, the final word goes to Abraham Lincoln, as it is surely the most poignant reminder of what we could lose:

‘Freedom is the last, best hope of earth.’

Grab your mobile phones now, before the government start penalising people without a passport!