My fave tech-word-of-the-day site, NetLingo, has come up with another really applicable term for the Mobile world:

merchantainment

If you think this sounds like a Mickey Mouse term, youre right. In the Internet commerce world, its the meshing of entertainment content with product information. Ralph Laurens Polo.com has employed it extensively, but the term was created at Disney World. In fact, Disney staff are trained to be “Merchantainment Hosts” or “merchantainers.” The goal is to create a positive experience for park visitors so they will be inclined to buy more goodies.

Of course, we’ve seen loads of merchantainment Apps on the iPhone, haven’t we – many branded “applications” or “games”, that actually lean heavily on the brand of the company that supplies the App (usually via a developer)…. this is a trend that I see set to continue – and now we have a name for it!

[Via: NetLingo]

My fave tech-language site, NetLingo, brings us another classic: 

screen-saver face

Ha ha ha! How many of us have been there at some point in our lives? Quite a few I’d bet. Of course, the new fashion on Mobile Devices is to have some kind of ’smart homescreen’ or screensaving feature, whereby you can get  a slideshow of images – so perhaps the term is going to be slideshow face soon!

If you want to check out the excellent site that is NetLingo, click here.

[Via: NetLingo]

The quality online tech phrase site that is NetLingo is ‘in da house’ again – with a phrase that we’re hearing almost daily relating to mobile nowadays:

in the cloud

Whenever you see an illustration in a magazine or newspaper about how the Internet works, there is usually a cloud drawn in the top portion of the picture to represent the technology and data transfer processes. Since these are too complex to illustrate in a simple diagram, they are shown as happening “in the cloud.”

It wasn’t all that long ago mind that Mobile devices couldn’t really access the web properly – they had to use dial-up modems, and had a ‘WAP’ browser (in monochrome!). Now, even mobile service provision can occur ‘in the cloud’ – take Apples ‘Mobile Me’ for example – that’s even got a picture of a cloud on the packaging, just to hammer home the point!

What with the new wave of Mobile Applications these days, the line is increasingly blurring between where functionality lies on the device, and on a server in the cloud – now if we could just get 4G service everywhere, all my Apps could be online

[Via: NetLingo]

What with the advent of the supposed new iPhone, with its supposed rubber case, I thought it might be interesting to consider a selection of back cases (or mouldings) of various devices – with a view to ID-ing the best and worst in terms of medium-term wear. So readers, here are my best(s) and worst(s)

BEST: contender: BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold – the faux-leather effect back case actually betrays what is a very nice idea for masking the effects of scratches etc

BEST: contender: Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95-8GB – a thin covering of rubber-like material meant that the back-case didn’t easily scratch

WORST: contender: Nokia 8800 Scirocco – the removable back case of various Sciroccos that I saw in use scratched just by putting them in and out of the ‘protective leather sheath case’ that came with the device – to be accurate, the paint job on the devices wore away very easily…. why why why?

WORST: contender: iPhone 3G – a very shiny case, that is contoured so that only the middle will sit on a flat surface, means many shallow scratches occur quickly. The bezel on my device also scratched very easily

Conclusion: is it too much to expect your device to remain reasonably scratch-free if you don’t have it in a special case? Well maybe, depends on how whether any engineering thought has gone in to the case design, as regards its wear – certainly it seems to vary between devices.

What do you think readers? Do you try and keep your devices nice? Do you use a special case for your device? Has your device scratched easily? Let us know!

My fave online terminology site, NetLingo,  is back again – with a definition that I’m very familiar with, but a term that I’m not: 

whole-house opportunity

Term used by John Malone (one of the world’s richest people) to describe what the combined efforts of AT&T (NYSE: T)/TCI could offer consumers: “seamless” integration of video, voice, and Internet services.

It’s another way of saying the Operators’ holy grail of getting a subscriber for every service they want – or in other words, “converged service offering”

I’m currently trying to see how I can pare down and simplify the number of service providers I have – the trouble being of course that no single service provider is top dog in all categories. Give it a couple of years, and I think more and more of us will become ‘whole-house’ subscribers, as those services get closer to being utilities….

[Via: NetLingo]

Well it’s not everyday you find an entrepreneur who gives their profits to charity, but that is exactly what Alicia Navarro is doing!

According to TechDigest, the person behind the good.ly service is also shortlisted for a prize at the National Business Awards!

Alicia Navarro’s Skimlinks company allows online publishers and bloggers to create affiliate links automatically, turning big hits into big bucks.

And after tweaking this technology she’s found a way of making money from tweets. Using her good.ly service, which like tinyurl.com, shortens URLs, Navarro’s users link to say, a book they enjoyed and someone else buys it – cablow! Navarro is in the money.

So there you have it! Are you impressed? I am, and if you want to know more you can go to the TechDigest site.

[Via: TechDigest via: London Evening Standard]

My fave tech-lingo site, NetLingo, has come along with another classic phrase:

digital native

as opposed to a digital immigrant

A “digital native” refers to a person who is born after 1984 and uses computers. As opposed to a “digital immigrant” –one who had to learn their way around the Internet– digital natives have always been surrounded by the culture of online technology.

Crumbs! That means I am a digital immigrant – and in fact when I think about it, there were walkmans when I grew up, PCs ran on Command Line Interface, and Mobiles ran on an analogue network – getting older is a terrible thing

[Via: NetLingo]

So what does my fave tech-lingo site have to offer today? Well, howzabout a marginally scary concept of the digital trail you leave whenever you choose to interact in today’s uber-connected world: 

data shadow

Every time you use a credit card, send an e-mail, browse the Web, or use a cell phone, small traces of digital information are left behind. This is referred to as a “data shadow”.

The concern in UK newspapers (perhaps some scaremongering, perhaps not….) is that certain Internet entities are gathering information (such as email, web activity, etc) about us, and it won’t be long before they correlate these axes of information to get a very accurate multi-dimensional picture of us. Even more worryingly, if criminal minds are also piecing information together, they have better means with which to commit illegal acts – be they fraud, ID theft, or other.

[Via: NetLingo]

Following on from my post last week, I am again disconnected, this time aboard a plane! Fortunately in this instance I am in business class (all very nice…!), so the environment is pretty good – but still there’s no connectivity of any kind!

So that is no GSM/3G/WiFi resident on board the plane, and (supposedly) with good reason – after all, we are told that it’s very dangerous for wireless devices to be on, especially during take-off and landing. The reality is that many people leave their GSM/3G mobile devices on, and likewise Bluetooth/WiFi radios enabled too.

The argument for these devices being turned off is moot as far as I am concerned, but that still doesn’t get us any closer to having some form of coverage in-flight. Of course numbers of carriers are trialling systems for both voice and data access – but nothing is widely rolled out as yet.

I’m travelling on business, and it’s an obvious inconvenience not to have coverage – flying is one of the last few bastions of disconnection in an otherwise uber-connected wireless age.

From a personal perspective it would certainly be useful to have the option of data access, as fortunately/unfortunately all of my work comes in via email – it’s scary to say, but really these days in many jobs, constant connectivity to your inbox is needed to do your job …

But what are your views on allowing voice/text/data on-board planes? Do you think it should be enabled, or would the all-to-familiar-beep of a text coming in drive you to ultimate distraction? We want to hear from you!

It doesn’t happen often, but I am largely without InterWeb access!

This week I’ve gone on holiday with the family, to a place where Mobile networks don’t reach, and where WiFi is well, limited, to say the least. Perhaps I should clarify – we are at one of those Forest retreats in the UK, where you can do things like “have quality time” with the family, in the form of various leisure activities – now that is more than cool, and I’m signed up for it – but what I can’t understand is, in a hyper-connected age, why the network coverage is so poor!

I won’t name the place we are visiting, but there is literally no mobile coverage (which presents it’s own issues, come to those in a minute), and the WiFi has been variously described as “shaky” and “broken quite often”!!

Now I was going to write a post on what it’s like not being connected at all on my mobile (which bothers me just a little, because I’d like close relatives to always have a line in to me), but in fact the attitude of the staff here has got my ire somewhat… unfortunately it’s the case for me the job I do requires that I am connected – and that is not me desiring network access, but it’s mandatory for me to do my job.

So what to do when you don’t have any access. Well, for the posts I write, I am currently sat typing stuff up offline, in the hope that the broken WiFi will be remedied, or stable enough, to go online tomorrow. As regards the mobile access (to clarify, there’s no landlines in the cabins here either!), there isn’t any easy solution, apart from getting in the car and travelling to some sort of civilization – suddenly the free WiFi in the nearest Starbucks is looking VERY attractive!

Have you ever been stuck without any kind of network access? What did you do? Did you feel just a little bit naked without your Mobile?! Come on, you can tell us…..