People want Facebook on their mobiles

E-mail is the most desired service for mobile phone users, with a third wanting their messages on the move if speed and quality was not an issue using a basic mobile device.

A survey of over 1,000 mobile phone users by online usability and accessibility consultant Webcredible into desired mobile services, found that access to social networking followed closely behind e-mail, with 25% of the vote.

In addition, 20% of those surveyed also highlighted a preference for using their phone to access information about their surroundings, and 13% said that they would use their phone to obtain travel and route planning information.

Trenton Moss, director at Webcredible, said, “The ease of use with regard to accessing e-mail via a Blackberry or PDA device has caused a groundswell in consumers who want the ability to e-mail on the move through a basic mobile device.

“What I find interesting though, is the speed with which social networking is becoming a must have function on a mobile.”

(Computer Weekly, 19 Jan)

Observer’s 40th Anniversary Issue on ’68

Always nice to read about the history of 1968, that famous ‘bourgeois moment’ (as Prof Paul Ginsborg nicely coined it in class in 1987) and what ‘went on’ in Mexico.

Nice also to see them quoting Kate Millet, who I had the pleasure of meeting at some obscure mental health event in East Berlin in 1998. Also remember distinctly a performance by a singer there where who literally screamed into the microphone, and yet it wasn’t a scream, it was a song..hmm.

But as to the Observer’s Special (click for pics), isn’t it kind of time to move on from ’68, I mean a whole ‘Special Issue’?!