This is still my stuff.

Here at POKE we’re not generally ones to blow our own trumpets – not really flexible enough – but this is worth a mention. Having been tech director here for more than three years, I’ve seen a fair few awards come through the studio, and have been involved with a fair few of the projects involved; this, however, is a bit different. Rather than a paid–for industry love–in with associated award ceremony, booze–up and the rest, this is part of a survey conducted amongst POKE’s peers by New Media Age. While we came out 44th of the top 100 overall (not bad in itself considering our turnover and size), we were voted “most respected by other agencies”. That’s a little bit of warm glow right there, now isn’t it? Thanks folks.

I’ve been struggling for a while with pocket technology choices. (Ah yes, and what a struggle it is; how terrible are the tribulations of the knowledge nomad.) My prime concern is to have a decent quality snapshot camera on me at all times without having to carry extra gadgets.

I have an old Sony DSC-T1 which is getting very grubby and short on battery life, and whose casing screws seem to be positioned or designed such that carrying it in my trouser pocket (crucial - jacket pocket is no good. What happens if I take it off, or don’t even wear it in the first place?) makes them work themselves loose, and I’ve already lost 6 or 7, at a replacement cost of £5 each. (Screw, if you will, that.) So that’s getting retired and passed on to someone who will make use of it. Strike one.

I also have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 which I bought from a camera–selling dude in Hong Kong via Internet, under the mistaken apprehension that I’d get it cheap; a naïve notion of which HMCE obviously soon disabused me. This is a lovely device, which with its Leica lens takes beautiful photos in daylight or with a flash, but which isn’t great in low light and which, damn it all, is too bulky to fit comfortably in my pocket. Strike two.

My red Motorola SLVR phone has a camera on it, but as you can see from this photo I took with it of its replacement, said camera is irretrievably shit. Unfortunately, after a lengthy exchange of aggro between my ’phone company and me based largely on my disgust with their customer “service”, I’d spent so long shouting at them to get the damn thing supplied and connected to a tarriff that didn’t brutally rape my bank account on a regular basis, I’d had to commit to an 18-month contract (do NOT get me started), meaning no upgrade was due until now. Many was the time I cursed my idiot woolly liberalism for forcing shit technology on me in the name of an egregiously un-checkable charity campaign devised by, of all people, Bono. Struck out.

But now my 18 months are up, so yesterday I was able to commit to another 18 months (no, really, don’t) in order to get hold of the pocket device pictured above, comprising a phone and a hopefully decent digital snapshot camera, meaning I can make phone calls, send text messages, have an alarm clock, calendar and reminders and take reasonable pictures, all using one little box in my pocket. Bosh.

Only problem, of course, is that the phone company have hobbled the OS by “enhancing” it with their custom shit. Err, “branding”. Plus ça change, eh.