Who's news looks best on my iphone?

As I continue to discover the mobile web with my trusty iPhone (still the 2.5G version), it dawns on me that this gadget will be the one missionary that successfully converts the non-believers to the ways of the mobile web.

As the Olympics is around the corner, I thought I'd test out some leading news websites to see which looked best on my iphone, or in this case the web-based iphone emulator, iphonetester.com.

These screenshots speak for themselves:

South China Morning Post

Mainly text links, little multimedia, need to log in.

BBC
Crisp navigation, nice video, fun audio but SMS alerts only in the UK.

CNN
Crisp, good Olympic site (cnnmobile.com/beijing08) with galleries and blogs, videos don't load in quicktime, SMS alerts available internationally, chose your favourite country to keep count of medals, submit citizen postings via email or SMS.

AtNext - Apple Daily

Mainly a download site for ringtones, wallpapers. Hard to navigate and safari can't handle most of the files. This one needs some work.

Tracking Presidential Popularity

A truly smart mashup for tracking the popularity (measured in times mentioned) of Obama and McCain across the blogosphere.

Love the fact he has created dynamic pie charts to illustrate the presidential candidates' popularity rankings. Imagine using the same APIs but for tracking green issues, business leader opinions, human rights...

Vote for Charles Mok!

Charles Mok is putting his grass roots support network to the test and asking the local IT community to vote for him as "President of the United States of America!". He's even been covered in the US press!



OK, I'll be honest with you. That was a joke! In fact, Charles has his sights focused on a slightly less ambitious goal, namely to run for a seat in the Legislative Council representing the IT Functional Constituency.

His first election gathering will be on Thursday 31st July. More details here.

Apart from being truly plugged in to the local internet community, Charles has illustrated his deep belief in technology by launching a Web 2.0 election website.

Web Wednesday expands to Guangzhou!

Back in June 2007, I launched the first Web Wednesday event in Hong Kong, with the encouragement and help of Louise Kristensen (nee Hammond), Online Business Director of Eight Partnership. You can read about it in my first blog posting, "Humble Beginnings".

Facebook was the vehicle of choice for managing the community, under the "Web Wednesday Group", and our membership has leapt from 20 people back in June 2007 to 663 internet movers and groovers as of today!

Top of my new year's resolutions for 2008 was to expand the community; we seem to be well on the way with a regular event in Singapore, now on its 5th social mixer and our first event in mainland China, across the border in Guangzhou. All three events are endorsed by the Asia Digital Marketing Association, who helps us promote our social networking events to it's member database across the region.

If it weren't for the friendly networking environment that Web Wednesday provides, I wouldn't have met Dr. Lonnie Hodge, who has taken on the mantle to host Guangzhou's "Web Wednesday - V1.0". You can sign up and invite friends to join this free networking event on Facebook.

Lonnie is not only CEO of Culture Fish Media but somehow manages to squeeze four careers into his busy life! You can gain a taste of who he is by dropping by his blog, "Onemanbandwidth: An American Professor in China", or coming to the event in person on Wednesday 16th July, 2008 from 6:00p.m. - 9:00 p.m. at Hooley's Pub, Times Square, on the corner of Guangzhou Dadao and Tianhe Bei Lu, Guangzhou.

Lonnie's instructions for those who can't speak Mandarin, "Just tell the taxi driver you want to Xin Shi Dai Guang Chang. It is on the right of the square and (almost) impossible to miss. It has a typical Irish Pub exterior". (See the map below). If you're coming from Hong Kong, you can book your 'through-train' tickets here.

For some odd reason, Lonnie has decide to interview me (here's my linkedin profile) as his first guest, but I'm planning to turn the event on its head and ask him about his life, which has ventured into many fields, some of which I might not be allowed to post in this blog!

Earn 50 cents to be a Chinese net nanny

As a follow on to the recent panel on "Nationalism on the Internet", held at Web Wednesday's Social Mixer V12.0 in May, Thomas Crampton has gained more insight from Oiwan Lam about China's freelance censors, known as the "50 Cent Gang" or “五毛党”, and how they are paid to vet the net on Chinese chatrooms, fora (bbs), blogs as well as Twitter.



If you missed our event, you can listen to the unedited presentations by Thomas and Oiwan below:


powered by ODEO

iPhone Apps made in Hong Kong

Once the initial buzz around the launch of the new 3G iPhone has calmed down, people will be wondering what kind of things they will be able to do with their new gadgets. (NB: It's already being auction on Yahoo! Hong Kong for HKD10,000.)

For this reason, we've invited these five local web companies to demonstrate their iPhone offerings at the iPhoneParty on 17th July: aNobii, Headnix, EditGrid, Zendesk, 9gag and MobiTMS.

3G iPhone - how much will it cost to own?

The world, or at least the iphone-aholics, is abuzz with the launch of Apple's new 3G iPhone. It looks good and can all kinds if fancy things, but how much will it cost to own and, more importantly, operate one?

Our former guest speaker, P.K. Chan and his team at Editgrid, have compiled an online spreadsheet that answers the above question. You can play with the data in the iframe below:

iPhone Party - Hong Kong on 17th July (updated)

Tapping into the grass-roots fan base for all things iPhone, Palava Digital has teamed up with Beansbox, Headnix, MACitizen and Hong Kong University's Mac User Group to welcome Apple's 3G iPhone to Hong Kong.

We will be hosting an iPhone Party will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday 17th July at Grappa's Cellar, Basement, Jardine House, 1 Connaught Place, Central. Grappa's can host more than 500 people so we're expecting quite a crowd!

To guarantee your entrance, I'd suggest you sign up on the official website, iphoneparty.hk, and see who else is coming along on the Facebook event invite. Feel free to invite friends!

You can find your way to the venue with this Google Map:


View Larger Map

More than just indulging Mac addicts, the event has also been set up to bring together budding application developers and digital marketeers to generate new ideas for iPhone applications, created in our home town, Hong Kong. In fact, a contest has been set up whereby the person with the most interesting idea for an iPhone application can win a revolutionary 3G iPhone. Get your thinking cap on and submit your idea here.


On the night, you will be able to:
* Experience iPhone 3G (and get one!) - sadly, no longer thanks to 3HK (see below)
* Get exclusive special product offers - sadly, no longer thanks to 3HK (see below)
* Meet iPhone app developers and Mac fanatics
* Showcase of full Apple product line (iMac, iPod, Macbook Pro, Macbooks, Apple TV ...)
* Enjoy live demos of iPhone apps

After initial reluctance (don't these guys get the benefit of marketing to niche audiences?), 3 Hong Kong (Hutchison Telecom) has decided to officially support the party and attendees can purchase their very own iPhone 3G on the spot! Update (10/07/08): Sorry, I spoke too early there. Due to internal wranglings, 3 HK will no longer be involed in this event.

Ultimate PC & Mac Gallery will be showcasing the full Apple product line. Update (10/07/08): Again, it looks like 3HK has asked its distributors to cease any promotional activities related to the new iPhone so Ultimate will also not be officially involved in this event.

Editgrid, the provider of online spreadsheets, will be sponsoring the first 100 drinks.

Wi-Fi will be available at Grappa’s and there will also be a wireless router for back-up.

Prize winners - Quamnet Goodies

Last night, at our 14th social mixer, we warmed up the audience with an on-site quiz where you were asked to send your answer to this question via SMS.

And the winners are...

Bronze: Quam Financial Advisory x 6 mths (worth HK$1,920)
Richard Cohen, Talented Open Source Programmer (Linux) who also blogs under the wry pseudonym of Wandering Jew.

Silver: Quam Money Full Page Ad (HK$15,000)
Sherry Wong, General Manager of GoHome.

Gold: Quamnet Email ad x 1 time (worth HK$35,000)
Peter Steyn, Managing Director of Aha! Research

Thanks to Quamnet for the generous prizes and Hyperfactory for the mobile quiz platform.

Quamnet contest - Get your questions here!

Hi Web Wednesday-ites!

We're on for tonight at Q97, Basement, California Tower, Lan Kwai Fong. Kicks off at 6pm but see if you can get there before 7pm to enjoy the free drink and early mixing.

Sofa-style interview with Chris Justice, MD of Quamnet, to talk finance 2.0 and whether a website should be free.

Question for tonight's quiz:

Which section of Quamnet.com costs money?

"ww a" = news
"ww b" = stock quotes
"ww c" = tony's daily

send your replies to 508507 to have a chance to win one of the prizes below:

Prize 1 : Quam Financial Advisory x 6 mths (worth $1,920)
Prize 2 : Quamnet Email ad x 1 time (worth $35,000)
Prize 3 : Quam Money Full Page Ad ($15,000)

See you soon!

Napoleon