Holiday Gift Guide »
ABOUT
Ben Robinson

Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.

RSS

Posts by Ben Robinson

Christmas time is looming: what mobile tech is in your stocking?

Yes, it’s under 2 months to Christmas, and already the palms of various high street and online retailers are beginning to rub together in nervous anticipation of your heard-earned cash ending up in their tills! But what Mobile tech are you planning on purchasing? Could it be something by Microsoft, by Apple, by Nokia, or perhaps something a little bit less mainstream? I’ve documented (and continue to document) my transition over to Apple over the last few weeks/months, so it’s clear where I am planning to go – but howzabout … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

Multi-platform Calendar sync (inc. Cloud!)

Following on from my numerous investigations, I think I may have a solution that would allow you to Sync a Mac, PC, and iPhone, all with the same calendar – and wait for it – bi-directionally! Now, you might be thinking … um …. but isn’t that what MobileMe does? Well in theory yes, but in reality, sadly no. The calendar sync doesn’t work from Outlook 2003, and as far as I am aware, you can’t poll multiple email account through your .me email address. Whilst I don’t (yet) claim … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

Which is the best mobile email client – device and/or app?

I’ve had the (dis)pleasure of testing many, many email clients, on many, many devices, over the last 5 or so years. Even since those days when the first, immature, clients appeared, right up to the present, I do feel like I’ve yet to see one that works consistently, seamlessly, and, flawlessly i.e. is perfect! Now I include in that statement all the native email clients that I have used on mobile devices that have proprietary operating systems, WinMo, Series60, Linux, RIM O/S, and also Apple’s OSX. Until (very) recently, I … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

Rocketship Apple: the story so far…

In a home network, far, far, away….. This is just a brief post to recap where on the space map we are with Rocketship Apple, and it’s journey to Planet Apple (for a sample of what on earth I am talking about, please click here, here, and here) So, the component list to deploy in the home network (for which the incumbent was largely window-based): Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n wireless router Apple iPhone 3G Apple MacBook Pro Apple TV And where are we with those: Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n wireless … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

Security: are you comfortable sharing your information with ‘the cloud’?

There is a growing trend, which you might have noticed (would be hard not to!), for companies to offer ‘cloud computing’ services – Google have been there for a while, Apple recently relaunched theirs, and Microsoft have now put their play out there too. And that is just the big three, as opposed to the hundreds and thousands of niche services that exist too…. … but for me there is still one uneasy question – is the security of these services good enough? I am not so much talking about … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

IT & Mobile Bods: what is the hardest you have ever worked?

So recently I have been spending inordinate amounts of time working – we are talking a wake-up of 0600hrs, and a finish, the following day (!), at (on average) 0130 hrs. Some of this time I have been spending working on specifically Mobile-related tasks, but all the time in general I have been spending within IT-related tasks. Like with lots of people, who enter in to silly amounts of working hours, I also twinned very little broken sleep with a  poor diet, and a build-up of stress – until the … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

Rocketship Apple: calendar

And lo we continue on the somewhat now maligned journey of Rocketship Apple – the plan to port an entire home network over in to only Apple tech…. Past instalments have seen the installation of Airport Extreme go (mostly) without hitches, and then the deployment of the iPhone Booster rocket go with … er … lots of problems. One of those problems was with the setup (and continuing function) of the email client, and the other, bigger problem, is the usage of the calendar – or not, as the iPhone … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

Rocketship Apple: email

So here’s the follow-up post to explain what went completely pear-shaped with the process of moving to an all-Apple device and network tech deployment at home…. This particular posts refers to one of the services I hold most important – that of email handling, and delivery across multiple devices… so where do I start….? Well, it’s important to first of all say this is the iPhone 3G, Windows XP, and Outlook 2003 in the mix here. Outlook and the iPhone are acting as pop3 email clients. I setup my email … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

Rocketship Apple: iPhone booster blows!

KABOOM! KER-POW! KER…ER…SPLAT? Yep, the iPhone journey was going far too smoothly, and being the ‘realist’ that I am, I was kinda expecting something to go wrong – however, this far wrong, I was not prepared for! What the hell am I talking about? Well, as some of you who follow IntoMobile daily, I’ve been in the process of porting wholesale to Apple technology – a process which until the other day was going well. I should pre-empt any further statements by saying that there is also Microsoft tech in … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

Rocketship Apple: flight continues – iPhone deployed!

Rocketship Apple’s flight thus far has been largely without incident (see here and here if you are wondering what on earth I am on about…) – and now phase 2 has been deployed! The iPhone 3G has landed at my “moon base”, and having been set up, is now performing VERY nicely! There have been thousands (I’m sure) of reviews for the device, so I am not going to spend ages talking about how much I love the device (even though I do), but instead just say that for now … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson

Sony Ericsson “Fanwalk” for MTV EMAs 2008…

On the 29th of October, 100 of Europe’s toughest and craziest music fans will embark on the biggest FanWalk in music history, the Sony Ericsson FanWalk to the MTV Europe Music Awards ’08. Together, they journey the 400 kilometres from London to Liverpool (October 29th to November 6th), to be at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008! For the biggest FanWalk in music history we searched for the toughest and craziest music fans in Europe. The lucky 100 were selected from 3000 die-hard applicants from all over Europe through a … Read more

4 yearss ago

Ben Robinson