The Social Media Safari

Interactive Documentary - Future plans

I have had some wild dreams about Interactive Documentary's made by different digital storytellers  like me over the world. Emerging technology's are popping up while I'm writing this, and I strongly believe that through culture differences people tend to use these tools in a different way.

However, we are not aware of that due to the way we are sucked into our own culture. Only by actually talking to people, living in another culture, experiencing it or seeing this technology being used, you can look sideways and actually see what brilliant use of technology is happening in the world.

You sometimes can't believe what brilliant ideas in other cultures can help your way of communicating or doing business in your own culture. I always think that sharing these ideas can be very useful in letting other people know what is actually going on in the world. And it would allow to basically make a map of the world in which technology's are popping up and what is happening with them.

I want to set up a group of people, a community, digital storytellers, a reporter group if you like, with which we can make a video documentary. (one to start with :D )

I'd like to have brainstorms with you so we can come up with questions we can ask promising people active in our culture, and comparing these people with each other in this video montage. (Don't worry, we will use social media to make this video I know some tricks :) )

I thought that it might be hard to keep standards such as video formats, but don't let you get down by that. I'm far more interested in the content. We will find ways to show the information. And maybe have a worldwide documentary release one day. :)

We also have a language problem. However this barrier can be solved by tools like babelgum or google translate. The words and grammar isn't as important as the message we'd like to share. I do think it would be handy if we all understand English. But even if you don't, you might have translated this message...

I've had a similar project started with Erick Alejandro living in Guetemala which I see as a great friend thanks to Internet. This project hasn't continued due to lack of experience in managing the project. A loss for it had a great potential! I'd like to step up and manage this Global community of storytellers concerning the use of proper social media.

Please feel free to share this message with others, maybe your brother/sister/son/daughter/friend can be one of these young personalities and make this documentary a success. I don't have insights in every culture, and I'm eager to learn how this works.

Please let me know if you'd like to participate in any way. I'm thinking about building a Wordpress site where we can have online discussions concerning this project.

Think about it, it would be the first documentary made by different people who've never even met...

Let's make something beautiful!

What is VEVO?!

Since Vevo "isn't available" in The Netherlands, and you can't easily get information about what it is. I thought I would share some stuff which they have posted on their website. I just used a proxy to get on the website so no 'big magic' however I think this platform is worth sharing :).





So what the hell is it? " On their website

What is VEVO?

VEVO is a new music video network on the web. VEVO videos can be found at VEVO.com and at the VEVO Channel on YouTube as well as in thousands of VEVO/YouTube artist channels. VEVO videos are available via Search at YouTube as well.


example of one of these pages: http://www.youtube.com/user/KevinRudolfVEVO and
http://www.youtube.com/user/vevo


This is what I found on the About page: 


VEVO is the leading innovative online premium music and entertainment service for consumers, advertisers and content owners that blends the very best in musical content with cutting-edge video technology and a thriving user community powered by YouTube. The content is made available on YouTube through a VEVO-branded channel, on VEVO.com, the service's marquee destination site, and through a VEVO-branded embedded player. The service also serves as a syndication platform for additional internet destination sites, expanding the reach of the VEVO brand across the worldwide Web.


VEVO was created in partnership by Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and the Abu Dhabi Media Company. It is operated independently by a dedicated management team with offices in Los Angeles and New York. VEVO features the most extensive catalog of premium music content found anywhere on the web thanks to deals with such leading music companies as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, Hollywood Records, Walt Disney Records, CBS Interactive Music Group, Big Machine Records, Concord Music Group, Lyric Street Records, ABKCO, Caroline Distribution, Fontana Distribution, INgrooves, IODA, RED and The Orchard, among many others.


Here are some questions found on the F.A.Q. page:

Why do some videos give me a "Sorry, this video is not available in your region" error?

Not all videos can be viewed globally. Videos unavailable now should be available in the near future. VEVO is actively pursuing the ability to display all of its videos in all countries.

Can I sign up/register and become a member of VEVO?

VEVO Sign Up is simple and fast. Registering with VEVO will allow you to post comments, favorite videos, artists, and playlists, and create and save your own personalized music video playlists. To register click on the Sign Up link on the upper right hand corner of the page. If you are a member of YouTube, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, or Facebook, you can even use your existing accounts to make sign up even easier.

Where do videos play at VEVO?

Videos play in the VEVO Player. Instead of navigating to a VEVO Player directly, you get there by selecting a specific video or playlist that you want to see. Once you hit Play or Play All at VEVO, you are taken to the VEVO Player where you can enjoy your favorite video.

What is the VEVO Player?

The VEVO Player at VEVO.com is a high-quality, state-of-the-art Video Player that includes exclusive, one-of-a-kind synchronized lyric playback with many of its videos. Enjoy getting to know the VEVO brand and singing along or rapping with your favorite artists!


All this seems pretty cool , the website certainly looks clean.  I wonder when there will be a dutch version. #probablynever


Cheers,

Hyperwords - Brilliant Browser Add on

I heard about this plugin through the twitter channel of Le Web 09. I think It's a brilliant plugin. " Hyperwords is a system for Servers and Browsers (Mozilla Firefox {Version 5.6.5 & 6.0 Beta} & Google Chrome) which lets you select any words on the web for useful options."


Checkout the demo below.

Note! It doesn't work on Safari and Chrome on the Mac yet. It will work on Chrome (developer preview) for Mac some time next week, when Google updates Mac Chrome to make it possible.

Gmail tip - "still need to reply inbox"

So you also get around 150 e-mails a day (or not ;). An inbox never is that clear. I mean I get automatically generated e-mails like Newsletters, personal e-mail, business e-mails etc. You read your e-mail and you think I need to reply this one. However at that moment you might not have time to reply directly. So you either send an e-mail saying: I will reply later, or you don't and you might forget.

I had that problem and have found a way to highlight all my e-mails which I still need to reply. A function which is very useful for me. And you might have fun from it as well..














You might recognize this screen it's the normal gmail interface where you see your Inbox and all the other gadgets which you installed on your Gmail. Go to the green Icon on the right top side of the Gmail interface.

Here you can find a list for all the Gmail extra's which you can install on to your gmail. Please have a look around. Some of them are quite useful! For now look for the "Multiple Inboxes" and enable this option. Save your configurations and go back to your inbox.

Here you see your new inbox. What this option does is it enables multiple inboxes on your home interface. My normal inbox is the bottom one. Here all my new e-mail comes in as normal. Now, when I see an e-mail which I really need to read or need to reply I highlight it by giving it a star. What happens is that this e-mails moves to the top inbox. Now every time I open my e-mail I see my "still need to reply" e-mail. My new e-mails and my drafts.

It works perfectly for me. Since I use this function from Google Labs. I "hardly" miss an e-mail which I need to reply.

It might just work for you to.

cheers.

Zemanta

As I mentioned earlier on Twitter  I've been using Zemanta for a couple of days now. As I accidentally invited everybody I ever have sent an e-mail to my Linked-In profile. I got a message from  Andraž Tori I remember meeting him on Blog 08 last year in Amsterdam. However, I never seem to stayed in touch with him. I just want to share Zemanta with you guys. It's a nice browser plugin which saved me some time for the moment. 

See what Zemanta does in 60 Seconds.

I haven't been using Zemanta on every blogging platform I use. I manage blogs on Wordpress, Tumblr, Squarspace and Blogger and only tested it for Blogger. This does works perfectly though. I really enjoy the label (tag) generator and the way you can just search for relevant pictures and chuck them in your text.


Give it a  try and see how it can work for you.  :)

Add comments on Tumblr 2.

Add comments to your Tumblr blog? Long ago I tipped you guys about Disqus which I still use. It has a lot of great functionalities, which for example allows your audience to comment with their twitter or Facebook account.
Yesterday I got a comment on a post from Lee.
As Lee commented on my post " How to add comments on Tumblr" he mentioned a simply alternative for Disqus. Don't get me wrong, I love Disqus and all the functionalities which Disqus brings. However, if your just looking for a simply commenting system. This does the job perfectly. I enclosed a short tutorial which Lee has posted on his website.

Thanks for the tip!

UPDATE: Check cmmnt.info for the code which doesn't seem to appear in this post.

cmmnt.info - Comments For Your Site

I was looking for a simple commenting system for my tumblr blog.

I came across Disqus which worked really well, but was serious overkill for what I was looking for. Further research led me to believe there was nothing suitable so I decided to make my own clean and simple alternative.

The concept is a hybrid system based on both Blogger and Disqus. It has been made with Tumblr in mind, but will work with any web site. It's free, easy to implement and doesn't require any signup. Check out the sample link below for an example. Instructions follow afterwards. To see it in action in the wild visit my tumblr.

4 Comments. Click to test the cmmnt.info comment system!

Instructions for Tumblr

1. Log into tumblr.com/customize
2. Navigate to Theme and select "Use Custom HTML" if it isn't already enabled.
3. Copy and paste the following code into the HTML, just before the {/block:Posts} tag: 
4. Copy and paste the following code into the HTML, just after the {/block:Posts} tag: 
5. You can apply CSS styles to the paragraph (p.comments) or link (p.comment a.cmmntLink) if you like, although this step is optional.
6. You can also append text to the end of every link by modifying the link_text_extra javascript variable. To make the comment links say "5 Comments. Click here to add your feedback!" use add the following code above the previous line of javascript: 

Instructions for other sites

1. Create a link on any page you want to be able to comment on and give it the class 'cmmntLink'. If this is a blog post, it should be the permalink.
2. Copy and paste the following code into the HTML, just before the tag:
3. You can apply CSS styles to the paragraph (p.comments) or link (p.comment a.cmmntLink) if you like, although this step is optional.
4. You can also append text to the end of every link by modifying the link_text_extra javascript variable. To make the comment links say "5 Comments. Click here to add your feedback!" use add the following code above the previous line of javascript:

The rise of the SME's!

I posted this video about social media experts some time ago. Which made me think about the Social Media Experts (SME's) we have in The Netherlands nowadays. Probably the rise of these characters is all around the globe. However, I notice that every one of them keep coming with the same story. Very interesting entertaining to know how many people use Facebook or Hyves, how many people use twitter, what the succes stories are?

I came across this powerpoint today. A dutch one. " sorry, lo siento ;)"

20091019 Dutch Work Innovation Day

View more documents from Tribewise.

What this ppt basically tells us, are some entertaining stats, and this same story which every social media expert tell us. Nice design and I'm sure a great story when they give the presentation. However when do people really start using social media, and how should they use it? I wonder what a director of a bank or bookwriter thinks when he sees this. " yes, I should do something with social media".

I wonder when we all stop telling this story and move on to the next phase. "How would I start implementing social media in my business? What are the pro's and con's? " 


I also think we should start realizing that social media is a different story for every company. We know some basic rules thanks to the great presentations online. However which rules has my business?
 Where's the start? Then, ready, set , go!

This makes you think, doesn't it? Social media counter

Found this counter made by Gary Hayes on personalizemedia.com.




It is an interesting counter based on the following:
20 hours of video uploaded every minute onto YouTube (source YouTube blog Aug 09)
Facebook 600k new members per day, and photos, videos per month, 700mill & 4 mill respectively (source Inside Facebook Feb 09)

Twitter 18 million new users per year & 4 million tweets sent daily (source TechCrunch Apr 09)
iPolicy UK – SMS messaging has a bright future (Aug 09)

900 000 blogs posts put up every day (source Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008)

YouTube daily, 96 million videos watched, $1mill bandwidth costs (source Comscore Jul 06 !)
UPDATE: YouTube 1Billion watched per day SMH (2009)- counter updated!

Second Life 250k virtual goods made daily, text messages 1250 per second (source Linden Lab release Sep 09)

Money – $5.5 billion on virtual goods (casual & game worlds) even Facebooks gifts make $70 million annually (source Viximo Aug 09)

Flickr has 73 million visitors a month who upload 700 million photos (source Yahoo Mar 09)

Mobile social network subscribers – 92.5 million at the end of 2008, by end of 2013 rising to between 641.6-873.1 million or 132 mill annually (source Informa PDF)

SMS – Over 2.3 trillion messages will be sent across major markets worldwide in 2008 (source Everysingleoneofus sms statistics)

How to import rss to twitter

So in another post I said something about that you can use twitter as an autobot to post news. Please people don't use this the wrong way. Because if you mis-use the import of rss within twitter you'll be seen as an spammer and you won't get a lot of followers. Believe me. Who wants to follow someone (thing) when they update every 4 minutes with the same type of messages?

If you are clear in your communication that the account which has te import function of rss and twitter is a news account, then this is a very usefull tool!

So let's get started!

There are a few tools to import RSS into your twitter account. Here is the way I do it.

1. Go to twitter and make sure your signed in with the account you want to import RSS to.

2. Go to this website and sign up. http://rss2twitter.com/ ( this one is still in Betá however it works fine ( Safari 4 on Mac OSX)

3. Make sure you get the confirmation e-mail and activate.

4. Add a twitter account by clicking on " add account" this will bring you to the twitter website where you need to click " Allow"

5. When your done twitter is connected with rss2twitter.

6. Click on "my feeds" and add a feed. Just follow the steps on the screen.

7. The bottom three optional options can be used as filter within your RSS feed. This way you can always add #marketing or #socialmedia for instance.

UPDATE: I also came across https://twitterfeed.com which basically does the same.

Hope it works for you guys.

Cheers.

Sabbatical blogging

I had my first sabbatical. It has been the 2nd of December since my last blogpost ( what a shame). Last month has been a real crazy rollercoaster ride. I have been busy working with www.marketingfacts.nl where I have been active as a projectmanager, managing a team of Interactive Media students, like myself. 

Also my work at Orange Aria has been a real exciting experience. I have been involved in producing a new concept called Blogstars. We had a redesign which has been a great improvement on the website. check it out on www.blogstars.nl. 

And of course! I have been preparing my 6 months Madrid safari. Mainly finding a home for the next period. I managed to get a room in a student flat based around 40 meters from Plaza Mayor. =D.

So what will I be doing now? 

Some people may know that yesterday I arrived in the wonderful city of Madrid. I am in Spain to study as an Erasmus student. In a few hours I'll be getting a tour on the campuss which is located in Villaviciosa de Odon. Really exciting! 

Next to all the studying, I will continue my work for Orange Aria. I'll be mainly focussing on www.blogstars.nl , on which I also will have an account. There I will gather blogposts, video's and podcasts in a blogstar environment.

I hope to have this ready in the coming weekend. I'll update you guys about that once I have dealed with it. 

My next challenge is to get a montly ticket for the public transport, my spanish is not that good, but I think I'll be able to manage to do this. 

Hasta luego! 

Nokia N97

Today I heard Nokia will come up with a new phone. The Nokia N97. If you have a look at the youtube film which I embedded. You'll notice that the combination of keyboard and touchscreen looks pretty useful. I'm a Nokia fan, and I love the way Nokia keeps coming with these great phones! 

Of course I haven't tested it. But here are some of the specs*. 

-5 megapixel camera

-32 GB internal flash Memory (room for a 16 - 48 GB Micro SD card) 

-Wifi 

- HSDPA 

-3,5 inch (640×360 pixels) screen 16:9

-Touchscreen ( not multi-touch as it seems in de video)  

If you have a look at this you'll notice that it has a lot of memory. I wonder what this will do with the way people use Mobile. 

This phone will work on Symbian, just like the N95 and N96. Since the Iphone has more than 10,000 apps. The symbian platform has been opened as a open-source platform. I wonder what succes that will bring.  

The N97 should be in store in the beginning of 2009 and will cost around 550 euro. 

Just have a look at this video. And get amazed by this phone! 

* I found the specifications on this phone thanks to " http://weblogs2.nrc.nl/hebben/2008/12/02/nokia-n97-touchscreen-smartphone-met-keyboard/"

Internet Desktops...Jooce

From all of the Web desktops online. "Netvibes, symbaloo, Igoogle etc.." I have found another great flash based Internet desktop.  

"Jooce is a Flash-based web operating system and sharing platform. They are targeting the millions of people who use “cybercafes” to conduct their Internet affairs instead of a regular desktop or laptop. The Jooce product is aiming to provide these virtual vagabonds with a web-based desktop to manage their IM, email, storage, media and widgets in a secure and protected way. They also provide virtual nomads with an online desktop that they can share with friends to swap files like pictures, documents, audio and video."

This is Jooce in a nutshell. I've been testing the website for a few days now and noticed that it has great potential. The messenger client is not really great "it keeps switching from online to offline and vice versa in Google Chrome", and there are some other bugs on there which can frustrate you. However, the fresh design and the audio/video features works perfectly! 

You can create an online back-up of your music library and stream this in perfect quality from your browser. I think Mac users can have a bit of problems with the navigation, for the apple dock has been used again! Firing up this website will make the mac users controlling two of the classic Apple dock. Which could be confusing. 

However "I'm a pc ;)" and this will not be a problem for me. What was a problem for me was the name of the site. "Jooce" come on! The names for web 2.0 sites are terrible "most of them" , and they look so much alike. 

Jooce, Joost, Juice blegh! Be orginal! 

I was impressed though by their fast and beautiful website, which I'll be checking out again when more bugs have been fixed.

Maud Mulder & Blogstars

If you watch Dutch celeberies website's, you'll notice that these sites mostly are nothing more than nicely designed Biography,Discography and lyrics. Of course they have a blog where they occasionaly post some updates about some performances, and they would most probably have a guestbook. However, if you really want to know what these stars are up to. You need to be briefed by the television or gossip  magazines. 

The information that you "as a fan" gets is either promotion for their new released album or gossip. 

At Orange Aria we developed a way that Celeberities can upload films, foto's and texts directly on their Blogstar website. I have installed software on Mobile Phones so the Stars just need to produce the content and upload it to the website. This process takes really short because all Mobile generated Content "MGC" produced can be uploaded by pressing 1 button on the phone. 

At the moment there is a pilot going on. Maud Mulder "Idols artist in 2004" has started to use the Blogstars platform. We have never announced the website and in the last four weeks we have achieved to get 9000 pageviews. 

At the moment we are in conversation with a lot of Artist who would love to get the Blogstar platform. This means that in January we hope to have at least five different artist's or groups who are using this platform. The design will have a lot of tweaks in the coming days. What is on there at the moment is a global idea of what it will look like in the end. If you have tips about navigation, colors, buttons please let me know! 

I really want to know what you guys think of this idea, would you follow the Blogstars? 

check out maud.blogstars.nl for the website of Maud. "It's in Dutch though, sorry guys!"

Future Projects

Grotere kaart weergeven

For the ones who didn’t know. I will go back to Spain shortly. I have been accepted as an Erasmus student at Universidad Europea de Madrid. An university about 20 km from the city of Madrid. I will study different subject on Journalisme and video production. Next to that I will learn Spanish and will improve my English. For the subjects are given in English “Spanglish I’m guessing”.

One of the reasons why I went to Madrid last summer, was to investigate if I liked the city and see how the media world works in Spain. I liked this beautiful city and I definitely learned what the differences in media usage is.  I’m writing a big article on how new media is developing and differs between North and the South of Europe. I will continue travelling to countries and write my reports on how this works. I do however want to include as much as countries possible. For this I will ask input from people in Germany, Sweden, Italy, Romania, and Czech republic and so on.

Where is new media going in Europe, what are the differences between North and South, East and West.

This Article which will take a lot of time. I will record a podcast “As told to chris”. Which will include everything I see in Madrid. 

Next to that I’m trying to set up a show which will include conversations between different continents. One of my dreams is that I’ll set up a network just like myself. Media junky’s who like to cross borders with the web. This way I’ve already met Erick Alejandro. I know you other guys are out there as well. As I made my preparations I’ll make an announcement where I’ll ask for people to contribute to this global podcast.

  

Help save Mobuzz TV!

To produce an online video show 5 days a week, in three languages en multiple formats you need money. To be exact Mobuzz TV spends 15.000 euro's a month to produce the shows. Hosting costs/production costs/staff etcetera, it adds pretty quickly. 

Mobuzz TV is an European well known videoblog. The bite-size shows are mainly about Digital Lifestyle, gadgets, the web, 2.0 and other fresh topics to keep the passionate and computer-savvy generation an interactive show. 

Mobuzz is in trouble! Mobuzz TV has started a rescue plan on a web 2.0 way. They use twitter, bloggers, there website and viral marketing to get 120,000 euros before the 9th of November. 

It is a rough time for 2.0 companies, certainly because most of the business-models are not working. Producing all these free shows, and get your income through a few banners and pre-rolls. It just don't seem to work. 

I think the strength of videoblogging is not so much the reach that you have. Of course, you can earn money by putting up ads and tell your sponsors that they reach this big audiance you have. But a business model based on this, I think is crazy. Proffesional (b)(v)-logging is hard, and not yet a booming business. 

It's a tough world and that's why I also want to help this very high-quality show from Madrid. Watch the video where they give more additional information. And help save Mobuzz TV. 

Save Mobuzz from Anil de Mello on Vimeo.

Orange Aria - Grand Opening

Thursday Night

Finally the time had come. The last two days Michel Penterman has officially opened Orange Aria with a kick-off workshop and a party. In the workshop he gave an interesting presentation about New Media Developments, Crossmediafacts and other in-depht Media stories. He had some speakers which are very specialised in their sector which created a fun and diverse presentation on New Media.  

With people from RTL, Sanoma, Ilse Media, Thaesis and 538 in the room the diversity of people was very high and an interesting network opportunity. Michel asked me to do a short presentation during the workshop. 

So I did, I presented myself as a New Media User. Which type of media do I use? Why do I use those? How do I use New Media both in College and my work for Orange Aria. And what is the  "Real" story about the use of Social Networks under my age group? 

I had very good feedback and was grateful for the opportunity which Michel Penterman gave me to give my minutes in the workshop.  

After the workshop the bar opened. We had a drink an a bite to eat. During that the networking session I talked to a lot of interesting people who where very interested about my Digital Lifestyle.

 Why do I have this Blog, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube channel, Skype, MSN, 8 Different Social Networks etc.? And how do I not end up crazy with a wifi connection connected to my brains? 

Wondering what feedback Orange Aria gets =). 

For photos check www.flickr.com/orangearia. The video with interviews will be posted here pretty soon. 

El mundo through our eyes.

Since 12 March this year Erick Alejandro and I started the blog El Mundo Through Our Eyes. "the world through our eyes".. 

I met Erick Alejandro through this blog and for about a year we now have almost daily contact. We started the blog to compare our different cultures and the use of our Digital Lifestyle. 

In the chats I had with Erick I noticed there are so many differences in use of digital media just because of the differences in culture. 

It's a fun concept but it needs some changing. We would like to expand the number of bloggers so we can make a world wide discussion panel of Bloggers just like us. Next to that we are using flickr, Twitter and our youtube channel to bring our stories to life. 

We however think that expanding the blog from two bloggers to a bigger number can create a great international network of interesting people and ofcourse discussions. 

At the moment we have contact with people from :  Honduras, Chile, Colombia, Germany and Spain. 

Feel free to drop me a line if you are interested in joining the group. 

The blog will continue in English. The quality of your english is not really important. It is mainly to have a basic language in which we can communicate and discuss. With google translator it is easy to understand the main lines of the stories we will post. 

For input or other ideas you can always contact me or Erick. 

Looking forward to hearing from you guys.

Twitter on Hyves - tWWWitter

So you are using twitter and hyves. How cool would it be to link those two together?! 

In hyves you have an application called WWW ( Who, What and Where) in fact it is a way to microblog just like you do with Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook etc. 

You get probably bored with typing in your updates in 10 different websites. So I decided to give you a small tutorial link your twitter updates with your Hyves WWW. 

There is a website made by Tijmen Brommet which allows you to link your twitter with your hyves. 

The only thing you'll have to do is just typ in your username. "just where the red arrow points towards to. 

The following which you need to do is give permission to your hyves account to link your tweets to Hyves. You can do this by clicking on "naar hyves gaan om toestemming te geven!" which means "go to my hyves account and give permission!"

You'll end up at the hyves website where you need to login. After that you should just click on "toestemming geven" which means "give permission". 

After that your tweets will turn up on your WWW at hyves. 

Enjoy it! 

Nokia against Apple starringMobile TV

I'm proud to say that I'm one of these guys using Nokia! 

Watching tv on a Mobile phone. The n96 makes it ( as you guys may know) possible. Wednesday I was able to get my hands on one and had a go with it. 

It is so Sexy! And I wonder how many people are with me on this one. 

"The N96 is a better phone than the Iphone"

With the great camera 5.0 mpx camera, improved design, dvb-h receiver, Nokia maps ( geo-tagging) the new Nokia is a dream for me. 

I know the Iphone is just a real nice phone, and I agree on that. Only I think that people need to decide what their plans are with the phones. Will they listen a lot of mp3's ? Will they watch a lot of video? Will they play a lot of highly interactive games. If this is what you do with a phone you should get an Iphone. 

Are you a blogger? Who wants to be in contact with the Internet for 24/7 , directly easy geo-tagged

pictures on your blog/flickr/facebook? Free Mobile TV everywhere you go? Then you should get a N96.

My opinion at the moment is that the Iphone doesn't work as a phone for me. It is sexy, and it works.

Only in The Netherlands your a doomed with a 2 years contract with T-mobile , which has a crap signal

in the places where I come. Next to that I think that the Iphone could be replaced by the also really sexy

Ipod touch.

I wonder what you guys think about this issue. For me the touchscreen is not "yet" a reason to buy a phone.

Certainly not with the Iphone which doesn't really give you all that extra in stead of the Itouch.

I made a video in which I demonstrate Mobile TV on the n96, connected to a beamer.

You can see how easy you can, watch, record and remind programs, next to that you can see it's quality

which for me was really impressive.

let me know what you think guys!