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All About Android 203: Wow What a Huawei Watch

This week, while in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, I was a guest on All About Android to talk about what is happening in the world of Android.

Thanks to Jason and Ron for having me on the show and to my colleagues who facilitated my participation from the apartment in Barcelona.

Did you find our Huawei Watch meltdown funny? You weren't alone: the good people at TWiT.tv made a TWiT Bit out of it.

You can vote for my app in the Arena (Cat Simulator) until Tuesday March 10th here too.

What's in your bag Matteo Doni?

From tomorrow, I will be attending Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for Skyscanner.

As most tech websites with people attending events, I thought I might as well show off the gadgetry I will be taking with me in the image below.
Tesco's version of camouflage Crocs and a selfie stick.
If you hadn't already got the reference, this is a homage to Matthew Inman (aka The Oatmeal) and his selfie stick shopper guide.

On Tuesday night (Wednesday morning for me) I will also be a guest on All About Android talking about a device I have been reviewing and what's happening at MWC.

Will you be at MWC 2015 and want to meet up to talk mobile tech? Feel free to leave a comment below and we'll see if we can meet up amid the madness.

All About Android 183 - The Appeal of a Diverse Ecosystem

This week I was a guest on All About Android, the TWiT.tv netcast about all things Android. It was great to be back on the show with Gina Trapani, Jason Howell, Ron Richards and Bryan Burnett.
Check out the Youtube video I have embedded below.

In episode 183 we discussed the name of Android 5.0 and called it the day (before?) Lollipop was announced. I also got to speak of my review of the Tesco Hudl 2, and demoed the Skyscanner Hotels app. (Also avalable at http://twit.tv/show/all-about-android/183)
If you like what you have seen of All About Android, you can subscribe to the video and/or audio here: http://twit.tv/show/all-about-android. To vote in the Android App Arena you can go here: http://aaapoll.com/183 (Go Skyscanner Hotels!).

All About Android 165: It's Creepy... Creepy Good

This week I had the honour of being a guest on All About Android, the TWiT.tv show about all things Android. I really enjoyed being on the show with Gina Trapani, Jason Howell, Ron Richards and Bryan Burnett. Discussing some of my favourite subjects on AAA was great! Check out the episode here.
You can also subscribe to All About Android on YouTube, TWiT.tv and on iTunes.


My recommended Android apps for tablets

2012 has definitely been the year of the tablet computer and e-reader. Many of you will have received or bought a tablet computer this year. According to market research, the tablet most people now have is in the 7"  form factor and runs Google's Android operating system. Here is my list of recommended applications for Android tablets, and where to get them from.


The Android application for Google's own social network (which is growing very fast). I like the Google Plus app because it has a very fluid and visual UI, it is a fantastic source of content and also gives you access to Google Plus Hangouts. Hangouts is Google's equivalent of Skype, and allows free voice and video calls over the internet, even for large groups of users. I find that most of the time both the video and sound quality is better than Skype too.
There is also an Android homescreen widget available as part of this app. Very useful if you want to glance at posts without actually going into the app.
Google Plus is free to download from the Google Play Store if it isn't already installed on your device. Sadly it is not available for those of you using an Amazon Kindle Fire or Fire HD tablet.


My favourite Twitter app for tablets. You can also integrate your Facebook account to read and post to/from your News Feed. Nice and fluid, the picture previews are funky and notifications look good. If you have a tablet running Jelly Bean 4.2, you can also add a widget to your lockscreen.


My favourite news reader/magazine app. With Google Currents you have access to hundreds of Currents Publisher Editions. Publishers such as Forbes, The Guardian, TechCrunch, PBS, Saveur, and more have produced hundreds of editions including full length, in-depth articles, videos, fine photography, and slideshows. Editions are free - covering news, business, lifestyle, fashion, sports, science, technology, design, food, entertainment and more.
Great way to keep up with the news through more than one website, there is also the facility to save content for offline reading. Google Currents is also an excellent way to discover new news sources such as blogs and feeds.
Google Currents is not available for the Kindle Fire tablets.


The official BBC News app for UK audiences. A great way to stay up to date with the news. It also has personalisation options so you can choose your favourite news sections and organise them.


My favourite bus tracker app for Edinburgh. As well as bus tracking, you can set alerts, save favourite bus stops and create homscreen bookmarks for your favourite stops.

My Bus Edinburgh is not available for Kindle Fire tablets.

A great app for viewing photos posted to the 500px website. If you are registered, you can also manage your account and view your network pictures.



A fantastic app for looking up info on movies and/or tv shows on your tablet. Especially handy while sofa-tableting while watching TV.


An app for watching shows from the TWiT network. Fantastic for both video and audio podcasts as well as for warching the live twit.tv feed.


A lightweight image, manga and comic viewer. Fantastic on my Nexus 7.

 This is just my most used recommended apps. Feel free to suggest any other additions in the comments. As usual, feel free to ask questions and/or comments below.

Habermas-Chipotle-Glee Count From Public Parts

After having listened to the audio book, I have just finished reading the paper edition of Jeff Jarvis' Public Parts.



Here's Amazon's product description which gives you a good idea what it is all about:



"In Public Parts, Jeff Jarvis travels through history to show the amazing parallels of distrust and fear that met the advent of innovations such as the printing press and the camera. He reveals amazing, almost unnerving, connections between our suspicions and discomforts through history as technology has inexorably changed the world and our sense of us within it. Based on extensive interviews, Jarvis introduces us to the men and women building the Internet today. Some of them have become household names-Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's Ev Williams- many more of them may soon be recognized as the industrialists, philosophers, and designers of our online future. He reveals the promising ways in which the Internet is already allowing us to collaborate, organize and create in dazzling ways-how we manufacture and merchandise, buy and sell, teach and learn. It is a world being built on an ethic of transparency and generosity but as Jarvis shows, it is a world that's already impacting economies, industries, human health, and many other facets of humanity in meaningful and measurable ways. Jarvis makes an urgent case that the future of the internet-needs as much protection as the physical space we share. It is a space of the public, for the public and by the public-and it needs respect and protection from all of us, no matter how we use it."



As a This Week in Google (TWiG) viewer/listener, I often play the Habermas-Chipotle-Glee drinking game in the TWiT.tv chat room when I am able to follow the show live. The Habermas-Chipotle-Glee drinking game is a tongue-in-cheek drinking game based on the sometimes extremely topical and relevant, sometimes tangential mentions of Habermas (German sociologist and philosopher), Chipotle (Chain of North American Fast Food Restaurants) and Glee (US TV Series). You have a drink each time one of the three is mentioned.


As I read through Public Parts, I did my best to count mentions of Habermas, Chipotle and Glee. Below are the results I have found. In the spirit of "openness", "collaboration" and "betaness" delineated in Public Parts, I would like to invite anyone who has read the book and counted the H-C-G mentions to please correct me if the count is wrong (leave a comment below please). Even better, if you are Jeff Jarvis and have a more accurate count please let me know. Here are the count results:
  1. Habermas (27)
  2. Chipotle (3)
  3. Glee (0)
Even though I didn't catch a mention of Glee, rest assured that it was present in the spirit of the book ;-) . Assuming your drink of choice is served in 25ml spirit shots be prepared to consume a standard 0.75l bottle of it. If your tipple of choice is wine (in 250ml servings), be prepared to consume 10 bottles of wine... If my H-C-G count is correct, Jeff Jarvis has achieved close to enological-mathematical perfection for the Habermas-Chipotle-Glee drinking game for Public Parts. He must have been practising while writing the book. That would also expalin the #fuckyouwashington trending topic...

Now that I've finished reading the paper edition of Public Parts, I'll send a copy to my mum. It's the sort of book that will clarify issues in and around social media to her while being in a form-factor she is comfortable with: a hardback paper book.


As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below. I look forward to hearing from you.

Jeff Jarvis' Public Parts Now Available

It's a book we've been teased with many an episode on This Week in Google... Public Parts by Jeff Jarvis is now available to order from amazon.co.uk, to download as a Kindle Edition, and to download as an audiobook from Audible.



I downloaded the Public Parts audiobook (read by Jeff himself) last night and have been listening to it while walking in the autumnal sun today.

So far I have thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook and will have to make sure I read the paper edition with a bottle of something to play the Chipotle-Habermas-Glee Drinking Game. In the audiobook I have already caught a mention of Chipotle...

I'll post my full impressions once I've read the hardback copy which should arrive in the post on Friday.

As well as listening to Public Parts, this evening I will be watching This Week in Google (with Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani and Jeff Jarvis) live on TWiT.tv. I think it's a Jarvisian day. Or is it a Jarvite day? Or even a Jarvisite day?

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below!