This is my first shot at mobile blogging entirely from the mobile (Nokia 6680) on GPRS. The reason is that I’m camping in North Devon (just a short skip from home, compared to those poor Londoners who arrived at 2300 having spent 6 hours on the motorway), and everyone else is watching the Manchester derby match in the bar. This is wrong in a big way, as it’s a glorious day here on the beach. I may be blogging on the mobile, but my tan is great and I’m topping up my karma.That’s something that some people misunderstand. I enjoy playing with technology, and it’s as relaxing as it can be stressful. This is a bit of play time, with a beer on a beach in the sun. I expect to play some beach cricket once the footy ends. That’ll be equally as fun, despite my appalling bowling.
I know opinion over mobile interaction are sharply divided between those who beleive in the uniform availability of content and functionality across mobile and fixed platforms (that’s me) and those who see mobile as merely an awkward shopfront for ringtones and wallpapers. The basis of their argument is that mobile screens are so small as to make serious use unlikely. The way that I’m persevering typing this blog entry using predictive text designed for SMS probably does nothing to dispell that. I also expect to spend twenty minutes or so linking this entry to the photo I just uploaded to flickr from this same mobile.
But this will change. New text entry systems, better browsers, larger screens, and a more mobile generation will even out the differences between the wired and wireless modes, and blogging from the mobile on the beach will be the norm. Until then, it’ll be an interesting way for geeks (like me) to kill time in the sun waiting for boring football matches to end.