Whether we’ve visited Japan or not (I haven’t, truly hope I do some day!), we’re all aware that a large share of the wildest and most wonderful technologically advanced gadgets are born there. As a result, mobile phones are available with a range of features and plans that could send even the geekiest Westerner’s head spinning!

To help the masses select their next device, “Japan is to start licensing cellphone “sommeliers” to guide consumers through complicated functions as mobile telephones become ever more advanced, an official said Monday.”

According to the information provided, these trained specialists would be independent from operators or manufacturers, serving as genuine advisers rather than glorified sales people, exempt from the usual targets which cause sales people to pressure buyers into picking the highest margin mobile phone and plan.

Whether this philanthropic goal will remain free from bias towards certain operators or manufacturers remain to be seen, but the idea of providing the masses with guidance is a great one.

[Via Emily at Textually.org]

Since the Music Cube quiz went live, we’ve had a ton of people saying they’ve got nearly all the answers. Everyone’s been a really good sport and I have to hang my head in shame at how much better your music knowledge is than mine.

On this Friday afternoon, I asked two of our best office girls, Katie & Suzanne, to put together a few hints for the game. Will they help you get a Perfect Score?

Apparently some people have been having a little difficulty with the Music Cube. So, being complete geniuses and Music Cube marvels, we thought we’d lend a hand (or two).

First hint, the one on the left. Wow, doesn’t that beach look nice? Bliss in fact. You could say it’s comparable to Utopia. (Thesaurus.com, anyone?)

Come on, you seriously don’t have to be from ‘da hood’ to get this one.

Now the one on the right. Most of you aren’t completely lost and have realised that this is indeed India and a Woman.

The woman is standing alone. She is unattached. She’s too Bootylicious for a man.

Hint hint.

Another tricky one keeping you awake at night is “The Knob” in the 00s album category. You’re only putting in minimum effort here, how obvious do we need to make it?

In the same category, our good friend Nohead Girl has been losing weight, isn’t she looking trim? Let’s say one day she’s out for a jog and chooses to catch her breath under the tree’s leafy branches; she would be well and truly sheltered from the sun’s harsh, cancer-causing rays. And if we’re going to be picky the disc looks a bit like a 7″… it’s not meant to. You’re on the right track, just think longer.

Contrary to popular speculation this is not:

• Roast Scotch
• Chicken Whiskey
• Duck Brandy (what kind of duck is that!?)
• Turkey Bourbon
• Pheasant Amaretto
• Partridge Cognac

Or any other combination of Food and Liquor…

We realise Music Cube has probably taken over your life, but if you’ve kept half an eye on the news you’ll know that the lead singer of top 80s artist “sheep/bee/coins” has sadly left the band to pursue his solo career. We are understandably devastated but we’ll plough on…

Fill in the blanks:
Back to our good friend Nohead Girl. (What? We like her!) She is in such a hurry to get home from work to play more Music Cube but unfortunately for her, so is everyone else. Traffic is a nightmare as it’s the [_____] hour. She’s getting angry… her [______] is starting to boil. Take a deep breath, No [______] Girl!

We know you’re not having trouble with this one but we wanted to include it anyway. It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Juice.
Tin.
Timber.
Lake.

Genius.

Hopefully, thanks to our super-useful hints, you can get back to reality now. Hurrah!

This morning, votes have opened for the Mobile Monday Peer Awards for the London area. We’ve been put forward as one of the companies for which you can vote.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/momolondon/surveys?id=1986312

For those who aren’t familiar with the awards, it’s a great opportunity to give Taptu some visibility since colleagues and press will be at Mobile World Congress when the awards are handed out. Got friends who are also part of MoMo? Why not point them to this link and get them to support us? And if you’re at Mobile World Congress, why not pop by our stand since we’ll have a fabulous pink and white bar in Hall 7!

Fingers crossed!

Vero
Chief “Drum up some love for Taptu” Officer

The always-useful Nokia N95 blog publishes a list of 25 of the most useful Nokia N95 apps available at the moment. Definitely worth a look, my ultimate favourite in the list is Qik.com, a live video broadcast service, which I’ve tried in the past few weeks and have found astoundingly speedy, if at the expense of some image quality.

It’s services like Qik that remind me what an exciting time it is to be working in the mobile web world right now!

On Wednesday, I mentioned that we launched our music game, which tests your music knowledge of the past three decades.

To further spread the fun, we’ve created a Facebook version of The Music Cube, which you can install and play directly within your profile.

Go on, it’s Friday afternoon, have a play you skivvies!

To liven up your grey January days, we’ve created a fun music game to stretch your memory of the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s called Music Cube. Forget the leg warmers and bad hair of the 80’s and think of the classic tunes of that era!

Think you can find the answer to ALL the questions?

Get some colour in your life on this grey Monday with this week’s Carnival of the Mobilists, hosted by Xen Mendelsohn of Xellular Identity.

You’ll be greeted by a wide range of topics this week, including a number of interesting posts on the social aspects of mobile such as Paul Ruppert’s Super Mobile Communicators and James Whatley’s Think of the Children. In contrast, Tarek Esber hands out awards for the best phones of 2007 (Can’t agree on best phone of the year, but then I have a personal grudge against it!) and Andrew Grill wonders about 3G-equipped computers while away from home.

See you all next week at MobHappy for the next Carnival!

Our mobile search engine has now been live for a few months, and since then, you’ve given us great useful feedback, as well as enough positive press to make us blush a little.

In December, New Media Age magazine’s Stuart Dredge published a year-end look back at 2007’s most memorable ventures in mobile, from AdMob’s rocketing growth to the advent of services like Blyk, targeting 16-24 year olds.

NMA also published a list of Ten to watch in 2008 and I’m thrilled to say they’ve included Taptu.

We have some awesome features lined up in the coming months, and we hope they’ll blow the socks off NMA – and everyone else!

The full article in NMA is available here (Registered users only).

A few weeks ago, Matt introduced the User Experience team and gave a first bit of insight on what they do every day. This time, I’ve asked Marc to talk about prototyping and the early stages of creating a new site. – Vero

I’m Marc, a UE Designer working with Matt on the front-end of our mobile web site. A large portion of our role consists of realising ideas and creating prototypes before the production process will begin.

We’ve always been keen on prototyping for three reasons:

1. To design the end-to-end experience
2. To use as a believable product within a User Study
3. And to use as a discussion tool with Engineering.

The level of fidelity for a prototype varies greatly according to the purpose. I’ll talk a bit about each of the three prototyping methods we use in Taptu:

Paper Prototyping

At idea creation, the early concepts are so fluid and likely to change. Because of this we tend to stick with ol’ fashioned pen & paper. Paper prototyping can’t be beaten – even in this digital age, it remains the fastest way to flesh out early use-cases.

It also ensures we don’t get caught up in ‘pixel world’ and other visual design issues until the screen flows, interaction and navigation are all in place. Visual design is so subjective that it’s important to stay clear of it at this stage and stay focussed.
Because we’re talking about little more than just a sketch, it’s quick and easy to just rip a section up and redraw the next iteration.

By the time the scribbles are finalised and we’re happy with the feel of the design and its functions, it’s time to take it to the next stage…

Wireframes

This step seems best suited for concepts aimed at the Desktop-platform. Wireframing in the strangely-named OmniGraffle tool is the speediest method we’ve found. I’ve tried Visio and even Illustrator before settling on Omni. An 80-page spec can be put together with ease, covering all use-cases and page-states. The time we’ve saved documenting allows us to put the time back into designing.

Device Prototypes

This is where we start to focus on pixel detail too. Photoshop is used to compliment the wireframes. Rather than building out each and every page, only the key templates need to be created to avoid repetition.
When it comes to the Mobile-platform, our favoured method is knocking-up static cross-linking XHTML and CSS. This allows us to view the mock-up directly on the mobile, see how it feels on the target platform, and take browser limitations into consideration. Recently we’ve been using the iPhone, N95 and SE W880i as our initial testbed handsets. The Sony Ericssons seem to be pretty popular with our target users – surprisingly, 66% of users in our latest study stated they use a Sony Ericsson.

What happens next?

Well, the above process, although linear in appearance, should be thought of as more of a circle of reiterative design. Each prototype is tested monthly and the findings are then fed back into the next version. The amount of change that is required is usually what dictates which part of the process we’ll go back to refine.

For years, I pedantically said that my only New Year’s resolution was to not take any resolutions, since it was the easiest one to keep. This year, I’ve set myself a few goals which I’d like to achieve, such as learning to use my Digital SLR camera beyond its most basic features.

In the spirit of trying new things, here are 8 great ways to show your mobile phone a bit of love in 2008. It may be a ubiquitous necessity in our lives, but it’s also a really fun device that can brighten up your day in all sorts of ways!

1. Free your photos

   If you’re anything like I used to be, you take occasional photos on your mobile, but they rarely see the light of day after the event.

   The odd one might be sent by MMS to a friend, but that’s about it. Make a resolution to post your pics to a blog, moblog or a service like Flickr, which is accessible from your mobile.

   With cameras improving, not only can you take candid shots, but you can have a bit of fun with artistic photography – Entire groups are dedicated to mobile photography!

2. Backup your address book

   Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the worst – your phone’s been stolen, it’s given up the ghost or you’ve dropped it in the toilet. Whatever the scenario, what would you do if you lost all the information contained on your phone?

   Now, avoid getting that horrible sinking feeling from becoming reality by regularly backing up your address book and, if necessary, your SMS inbox, your photos, etc. Usually a quick look at the user manual or search online will tell you the best way to backup your data whatever device you own.

3. Stay organised

   You know that little calendar or organiser on your phone that you’ve barely ever looked at? Set it up to sync correctly with your computer and benefit from having access to your calendar while on the go.

4. Get back in touch

   Look through your address book. Are there some people you know you should be getting in touch with, either for professional or personal reasons? Use the beginning of the new year as an excuse to reconnect. Whether you ring them for a long catch up chat or arrange to meet over coffee by SMS, get back in touch with the important people you may have neglected recently.

5. Do a Spring cleaning

   While looking through your address book, why not clear out the numbers and names who aren’t relevant anymore? That guy you met at the pub one night out on the razz or your sister’s old mobile number from 6 years ago, just get rid of them.

   If you’re paranoid about deleting numbers that could one day come in handy, back up your address book to your computer. You’ll be able to refer to that list if that day comes.

6. Reduce, reuse, recycle

   If you’re a chronic mobile upgrader, you’ll most likely have a spare phone or two sitting in your drawer gathering dust. Consider donating it to a charity that will either give it a new lease of life or recycle it in an environmentally friendly way.

   The NCH Children’s Charity in the UK will gratefully accept mobiles, and so will a number o recycling centres in the US.

7. Try one new feature

   When we shop for a new phone, we often look for the shiniest one with all the bells and whistle. But when it comes down to it, few of us actually use any of the features beyond the basic calling, SMS and camera functionality.

   Take five minutes this week and try something new on your phone. Never sent an MMS? Surprise your kids by showing them you’re cool enough to figure out how to send one. Not familiar with the barcode scanner on your N95? See what happens when you scan that curious QR code advert you’ve been seeing every morning on your way to work.

   The rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t worry too much about breaking something by trying something new! If you’re worried you’ll lose data in the process, see #2.

8. Take time offline

   This might seem to be an odd one to add to a list like this one, but in this age of 24/7 availability and connectedness, it’s healthy to unplug sometimes.

   Take a day a week, if you can, where you leave your mobile turned off and go for a long walk in the countryside. Or go do some crowd watching in Covent Garden if greenery and fresh air isn’t your thing. Just disconnect for a while and you’ll love your mobile more when you get back to it.

   You might be surprised to see that the world doesn’t spin off its axis even if you sever the connection for 24 hours.