Did you go to the Proms this year? Did you get a text from Decca Records on the way? You might like to read a case study in Marketing Week of how and why it happened... and why there'll be more texts next year.
Decca are part of Universal.
Showing posts with label phones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phones. Show all posts
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Tim pipped
Don't knock Freedom of Information enquiries; they may drive savings.
A Mr "Ben Brown" asked the BBC how much they'd spent on calls to the speaking clock for each of the past five years. Auntie swerved the big question, saying it would take longer than the rules allow to collate the information. But they did carry out a short three-month survey, and found spending of over £500 - technical staff about to go on air often check local clocks to make sure they're in synch. So now, thanks to the FOI prompt, a free internal number has been set up to provide the check.
NB: There's still something a little odd about the figures above. BT's Speaking Clock advertises its charge at 31p. Who were the BBC calling ?
A Mr "Ben Brown" asked the BBC how much they'd spent on calls to the speaking clock for each of the past five years. Auntie swerved the big question, saying it would take longer than the rules allow to collate the information. But they did carry out a short three-month survey, and found spending of over £500 - technical staff about to go on air often check local clocks to make sure they're in synch. So now, thanks to the FOI prompt, a free internal number has been set up to provide the check.
NB: There's still something a little odd about the figures above. BT's Speaking Clock advertises its charge at 31p. Who were the BBC calling ?
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
The way we were
For smartphone users with radio nostalgia - two intrinsically useless products that will encase the monster.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Tool
I find the term "breaking news" one of the most exasperating of our times. It's either news - or it isn't.
Nonetheless, I have sympathy with the hacks who have to tap out those first lines to announce a new story. Apparently, in the BBC, to deliver those words to "all platforms" could take five minutes. Now they have a Breaking News Tool - which reduces the time taken to two minutes. Still looks terrifying to me. Ideally, I'd like to see a spell-check button flashing big time...
Nonetheless, I have sympathy with the hacks who have to tap out those first lines to announce a new story. Apparently, in the BBC, to deliver those words to "all platforms" could take five minutes. Now they have a Breaking News Tool - which reduces the time taken to two minutes. Still looks terrifying to me. Ideally, I'd like to see a spell-check button flashing big time...
Friday, May 25, 2012
Roaming
When mortals get stung for mobile phone roaming charges, they usually learn fast and find ways round the costs - a local phone, a local Sim, pre-paying to roam, texts not calls, Skype-ing through wi-fi, etc, etc.
Here's the top three in an FOI league table of BBC executives roaming charges over the last 23 months.
Alan Yentob £2,870.05
Mark Thompson £2,854.69
Peter Horrocks £2,339.40
Alan and Mark's totals work out at over £120 a month. But Alan's bill was actually higher...
Please also be aware that in respect of the total provided for Alan Yentob, we have excluded the cost of any calls made in relation to his role as a programme maker. This is because such call cost information is held by the BBC for the purposes of ‘journalism, art or literature’ and the BBC is therefore not obliged to include this information and has chosen not to do so on this occasion.
We note that the BBC's Director of Future Media Ralph Rivera returned no roaming charges whatsoever. Either he's cracked it, and should share his tricks with Yentob and the others - or he just doesn't speak to anyone.
Here's the top three in an FOI league table of BBC executives roaming charges over the last 23 months.
Alan Yentob £2,870.05
Mark Thompson £2,854.69
Peter Horrocks £2,339.40
Alan and Mark's totals work out at over £120 a month. But Alan's bill was actually higher...
Please also be aware that in respect of the total provided for Alan Yentob, we have excluded the cost of any calls made in relation to his role as a programme maker. This is because such call cost information is held by the BBC for the purposes of ‘journalism, art or literature’ and the BBC is therefore not obliged to include this information and has chosen not to do so on this occasion.
We note that the BBC's Director of Future Media Ralph Rivera returned no roaming charges whatsoever. Either he's cracked it, and should share his tricks with Yentob and the others - or he just doesn't speak to anyone.
- 0700 Saturday update: An informed insider says many bosses have BlackBerries, which are locked down so they will not work with a local SIM. The contract with O2 is great for the UK, but punitive overseas. And, in a nervous nelly approach to the new, Skype is banned from most BBC computers - though widely used on radio output.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Taking the tablets
The problems of early adoption: the BBC lost 138 iPads to theft in 2011, according to The Sunday Express. Overall, computers, cameras, phones and other equipment to a value of £325k were reported stolen over the year, compared with a total of £239k in 2010.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Phoning home
I know it's a little late to suggest this, but BBC DG Mark Thompson might think about buying a second mobile phone to use in the States. According to an FOI response, he's top of the league of roaming charges for the Executive Board.
Total Mobile Phone Roaming Charges for BBC Executive Board members
April 2010-February 2012
Helen Boaden £212.20
Tim Davie £99.29
George Entwistle £18.87
Zarin Patel £503.16
Ralph Rivera £0
Mark Thompson £2854.69
Caroline Thomson £188.74
Technocrat Ralph, who only joined halfway through this period, presumably borrows a friend's phone when on the road.
Total Mobile Phone Roaming Charges for BBC Executive Board members
April 2010-February 2012
Helen Boaden £212.20
Tim Davie £99.29
George Entwistle £18.87
Zarin Patel £503.16
Ralph Rivera £0
Mark Thompson £2854.69
Caroline Thomson £188.74
Technocrat Ralph, who only joined halfway through this period, presumably borrows a friend's phone when on the road.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Another arrest
Time to update our balance sheet of resignations, sackings and arrests. Stuart Kuttner, managing editor of The News of The World until July 2009, has been arrested by officers from Operations Weeting and Elveden. Stuart is 71.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Two Andys
Becoming a journalist was a "boyhood dream" for Andy Hayman, who joined Essex police as a teenage uniformed cop in 1978. In 2008, after he left the police, The Times gave him that opportunity. Since then, he's produced 75 columns. This, from two years ago, suggests problems with Andy's recall.
The Times July 2009
The Guardian has said it understands that the police file shows that between 2,000 and 3,000 individuals had their mobile phones hacked into, far more than was ever officially admitted during the investigation and prosecution of Clive Goodman. Yet, my recollection is different. As I recall the list of those targeted, which was put together from records kept by Glen Mulcaire, ran to several hundred names. Of these, there was a small number — perhaps a handful — where there was evidence that the phones had actually been tampered with.
Had there been evidence of tampering in the other cases, that would have been investigated as would the slightest hint that others were involved.
In 2009, Andy's book, The Terrorist Hunters was published (and serialised in The Times). Putative journalist or not, he seemed to need the help of Margaret Gilmore (ex-BBC, now RUSI fellow) as co-author. Both Andy and Margaret are represented by agents Knight Ayton.
Andy's transition from cop to hack looks set for derailment. Take this memorable quote from Tory MP Lorraine Fullbrook, when questioning him yesterday. "Don't you understand the public will see you as a dodgy geezer who was in charge of a phone hacking inquiry [into the News of the World], who resigned from the force among allegations of expenses claims and allegations of improper conduct with two females, who has told this committee today you had no knowledge of editors or sub-editors of The Times, while cosying up to the executive level of News International ?”
The world of blogs and newspapers wants to have it both ways about possible links between Andy Hayman and Andy Coulson. We know Andy Hayman was entertained four times by News of the World executives between 2005 and 2007; Coulson was editor between 2003 and 2007. The Mail tries to establish a case for an NOTW hold over Hayman because of Hayman's friendship with Nikki Redmond of the IPCC. Tim Ireland at Bloggerheads suggests it was a two-way street for the two Andys - scoops delivered which were favourable to the police. The Slog says the friendship goes back to 2000, in Hayman's first spell with the Met, when Coulson was Deputy Editor, NOTW.
Either way, yesterday's performance by Mr Hayman doesn't look likely to drive more trade to his business and management consultancy, Security Insight, run from the family home in Colchester.
The Times July 2009
The Guardian has said it understands that the police file shows that between 2,000 and 3,000 individuals had their mobile phones hacked into, far more than was ever officially admitted during the investigation and prosecution of Clive Goodman. Yet, my recollection is different. As I recall the list of those targeted, which was put together from records kept by Glen Mulcaire, ran to several hundred names. Of these, there was a small number — perhaps a handful — where there was evidence that the phones had actually been tampered with.
Had there been evidence of tampering in the other cases, that would have been investigated as would the slightest hint that others were involved.
In 2009, Andy's book, The Terrorist Hunters was published (and serialised in The Times). Putative journalist or not, he seemed to need the help of Margaret Gilmore (ex-BBC, now RUSI fellow) as co-author. Both Andy and Margaret are represented by agents Knight Ayton.
Andy's transition from cop to hack looks set for derailment. Take this memorable quote from Tory MP Lorraine Fullbrook, when questioning him yesterday. "Don't you understand the public will see you as a dodgy geezer who was in charge of a phone hacking inquiry [into the News of the World], who resigned from the force among allegations of expenses claims and allegations of improper conduct with two females, who has told this committee today you had no knowledge of editors or sub-editors of The Times, while cosying up to the executive level of News International ?”
The world of blogs and newspapers wants to have it both ways about possible links between Andy Hayman and Andy Coulson. We know Andy Hayman was entertained four times by News of the World executives between 2005 and 2007; Coulson was editor between 2003 and 2007. The Mail tries to establish a case for an NOTW hold over Hayman because of Hayman's friendship with Nikki Redmond of the IPCC. Tim Ireland at Bloggerheads suggests it was a two-way street for the two Andys - scoops delivered which were favourable to the police. The Slog says the friendship goes back to 2000, in Hayman's first spell with the Met, when Coulson was Deputy Editor, NOTW.
Either way, yesterday's performance by Mr Hayman doesn't look likely to drive more trade to his business and management consultancy, Security Insight, run from the family home in Colchester.
Friday, March 19, 2010
The connected generation
More research from the Pew Center - this time about the "Millennials - the American teens and twenty-somethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium".
Apparently 75% have a profile on a social networking site, 83% say their mobile phone is at their bedside overnight, and 24% say what makes this generation different is use of technology.
Apparently 75% have a profile on a social networking site, 83% say their mobile phone is at their bedside overnight, and 24% say what makes this generation different is use of technology.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Digital clanking
When you hear all those clanking cowbells as Olympic ski-ers swerve to a halt at the end of their donwhill/slalom/jump etc, it's possible that the posh people in the watching crowd may not actually have real bells. They may be just shaking their iPhones, with a 99cent app called Cowbell2010. More than 12,000 downloards already. From the WSJ.
Monday, January 4, 2010
The show goes on
The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is seen by some as a more reliable indicator of new technology trends than other, more geeky events. Manufacturers show things you might actually be able to buy.
The San Francisco Chronicle says this year's event, opening on Thursday, will see a continuing decline in attendance, but a rise in the number of new exhibitors. The hot products are e-readers, tablets, 3-D displays, internet-connected cars, netbooks than work like smartphones, and smartphones that work like netbooks.
The San Francisco Chronicle says this year's event, opening on Thursday, will see a continuing decline in attendance, but a rise in the number of new exhibitors. The hot products are e-readers, tablets, 3-D displays, internet-connected cars, netbooks than work like smartphones, and smartphones that work like netbooks.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
The creative urge
Engadget says it's got the new Google-phone, which will be called the Nexus One.
An exponential growth in the number of competing devices means the "think of a new name" department in most technology companies is struggling. Nexus has already been bagged by the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive (amongst others). Then again, they did call their train system Metro, which was hardly a first...
And, according to her Twitter posts, creative genius Mariah Carey is scratching around a little for new pet names. The latest dog will be called Dolomite. Presumably after the rock, rather than the Triumph Dolomite.
Any suggestion that I'm scratching around for post topics so early in 2010 is utterly refuted.
An exponential growth in the number of competing devices means the "think of a new name" department in most technology companies is struggling. Nexus has already been bagged by the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive (amongst others). Then again, they did call their train system Metro, which was hardly a first...
And, according to her Twitter posts, creative genius Mariah Carey is scratching around a little for new pet names. The latest dog will be called Dolomite. Presumably after the rock, rather than the Triumph Dolomite.
Any suggestion that I'm scratching around for post topics so early in 2010 is utterly refuted.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Catching up
Where's the BBC's killer iPhone app ? The Guardian's up and running. Trinity Mirror's got one. Scott Mills on Radio 1 (presumably without BBC technical support) is selling his iPhone Flirt Doctor.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Smaller screen
Sky Mobile's sports package for the iPhone has apparently zoomed in at Number 1 in the paid-for apps chart. The Independent asks whether Rupe has sold the live goals too cheaply, at £6 a month, with reports of some users cancelling their premium satellite subscriptions, costing up to £43.50 a month.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Touch me in the morning
Nearly 24 million touch-screen mobiles are in use in the States, compared with 9m a year ago. Comscore also breaks down the winners and losers by brand.
| Top Touchscreen Device Families by Share of Device Users Three Months Ending August 2009 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers, Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens | |
| Device Family | Share (%) of Touchscreen Device Users |
| Total Touchscreen | 100.0% |
| Apple iPhone | 32.9% |
| LG Dare | 8.7% |
| LG Voyager | 7.8% |
| Blackberry Storm | 7.0% |
| Palm Treo | 6.5% |
| Samsung Instinct | 5.0% |
| T-Mobile G1 | 3.6% |
| HTC Touch | 3.3% |
| Samsung Glyde | 2.7% |
| LG Xenon | 2.6% |
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Jack field in motion
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