Undercrank

If you do something a bit foolhardy like installing iOS 5 Beta 1 on a device that's not yet registered as a development device, you can rapidly end up in a catch 22 situation — you can't activate the device because it's not registered on the iOS Provisioning Portal, and you can't easily view the device UDID that you need to enter on the portal because iTunes won't let you view the details of an unregistered iOS 5 device.

Fortunately, there's a way around it.  If you go to  → About This Mac → More Info → USB, you should see an iPad (or iPhone) device listed under one of the trees.  On my i7 iMac, it's under USB High-Speed Bus → Hub.

From there, copy and paste the Serial Number field from the detail pane and use that as the UDID you need to enter on the Provisioning Portal.

Here's how you go about buying a Motorola XOOM device on launch day from a Verizon Wireless store in the USA; Palo Alto in my case:

1. Ask for a Motorola XOOM device, unsubsidised at $799.00 USD.
2. Note to salesman that it's unsubsidised and requires no contract.
3. Politely decline a two year contract that you're offered anyway.
4. Wait for the Sales Manager to receive a mysterious memo from "head office" that says because the product is so popular, they have to sell it with a two year contract.
5. Tell the Sales Manager he's talking out of his arse.
6. Get told that you have to hand over photo ID in order for a credit check to take place.
7. Remind salesman that you're not entering into a contract.
8. Get told that you'll have to place a $400 USD deposit for er, "security".
9. Remind salesman that this a pre-paid device.
10. Store manager says that it'll take 1-2 hours for a credit check, so suggests getting a coffee and coming back later.
11. Ask salesman if he'll hold the device whilst I'm away.  Cheerfully admits he'll sell it to someone else.
12. Wait for credit check to come back as failed, because they couldn't spell your name.
13. Note that the $799 USD device is now a $1199 device, not including the mandatory data or local taxes.
14. Ask when you'll get your $400 USD deposit back.  "In a few months.  As a check."
15. Leave store two hours after you started.

How to go about buying an iPad:

1. Ask for an iPad.
2. Pay for iPad.
3. Receive iPad.
4. Enjoy iPad.

There's been a few mentions in the press before of the man - indeed, the legend - known as "Phil the Light" who works at the McLaren Technology Centre for the F1 racing team; he's been mentioned in the Daily Mail and the Guardian in articles about Ron Dennis and his obsessive compulsiveness and even interviewed and quoted by The Times after Lewis Hamilton won the world championship.  If you look close enough, he's even mentioned in Wired magazine in passing as well.

However, the man better known to me as "Dad", has outdone himself by appearing an a promotional video for Vodafone giving the outside world a quick tour around the McLaren building:

Typically he's far too self-conscious to even watch this more than once, but even he had to admit, they did a great job here that totally captures him.  

For the first and probably last time I'll ever say this - "Thanks Vodafone!"

Absolute Radio (well, Virgin Radio until not too long ago) have today launched their new station - Absolute Radio 90's. Tapping into the demographic that appears to be well, mid-30-somethings like me, the station output so far seems to keep fairly close to those sort of 90's festival bands from the Britpop era like Oasis, Charlatans and the Manic Street Preachers.

Obviously as the proud new owner of a Sonos S5, I wanted to try and add it as a new station to my setup.  After a little bit of picking apart their Javascript player code, the URL for the live stream of the station seems to be:

http://player.absoluteradio.co.uk/core/audio/wmp/live.asx?service=ab9

The station has only been running for a matter of hours, so there's every chance this may change in the future.  Your mileage may vary.

BlackBerry Messenger poster at Waterloo Station, London.

It's hard to imagine that even just a couple of years ago that RIM would even consider doing advertising that:

1. Directly targets 18-24 year olds, and
2. Doesn't make a single mention of e-mail.

I've been spending time with a lot of users in focus groups and testing sessions over the last few weeks in various locations around the world and the popularity of BlackBerry Messenger is surprising, especially amongst under 25's who've moved on and shaken off their goofy AIM user names from high school.

Those same users no longer see the BlackBerry as something for men in suits to check their e-mail with.  It's the anti-iPhone used by those who want to present themselves as having a higher status or a more business-like approach to life - these are the people who look down their nose at an iPhone and dismiss it as "a toy that makes phone calls".

It's always the way. You spend months drawing and building your own mockups - then just days after we finally launched our Skype for Symbian client to the public, Nokia get round to releasing a set of wireframe stencils for designing S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition applications:

Forum Nokia's Wireframing Stencils are a collection of customisable user interface views and components. The stencils can be used to create quick mockups or formal wireframes. […] This package includes stencils for S60 5th Edition touch devices and S60 3rd Edition non-touch devices, both in Adobe Illustrator CS4 format and Adobe Fireworks CS4 format.

From a cursory glance, the set seems fairly exhaustive and contains more or less everything you'd need for both portrait and landscape layouts, covering regular list views, menus, alerts, grid views, virtual keyboards and even 5th Edition home screen widgets.

Spotted at the end of Tottenham Court Road. (I thought multimultitask was Finnish for something for a minute.)

I'm sure Ari Jaaksi said at the Maemo Summit that the N900 was never meant to be a mass market consumer device - but it's amazing what a Vodafone/Carphone Warehouse joint marketing campaign can do to change that outlook.