Conversationally we meandered around social behaviour and SMS, why mobile networking events turn into sales pitch-fests, what it's like at network operators, and the interaction design of train toilets. Well. I say "we meandered" - Robert strode off, I dashed after him panting and every 500 yards yelped "look - a badger!", but that works for me.

And then, of course, the inevitable crawl home via Victoria...

Making mobile payments work: "There are several issues that need to be addressed to make mobile payments work in practice. In short, if the user can not rely on the phone to make a payment, there has to be a large incentive to risk having to try the transaction twice: once with phone, once with the physical wallet. Ideally, of course, the wallet is unnecessary but that will take a while."

Interesting comment at MobHappy: "The UK has plenty of mobile World Cup coverage with the two largest tabloid newspapers (The Sun and News of the World) launching free java apps for the phone last weekend - just text SUN or NOTW to 80080 to get them if you’re on a UK mobile. Both are J2ME apps offering world cup content from the sports desks at the newspapers."

I'm not a reader of the Sun or NoTW so hadn't heard of these. I've downloaded the Sun app though.

It's OK but essentially offers the same sort of content I'd expect to see in a WAP site. Err except it's not in a WAP site, it's in an application. I can't really see what this approach has bought them (other than the ability to ensure the Sun logo is permanently plastered at the top of the screen - which presumably has some value) - the user experience is very similar to WAP, every time I click on a link I have to wait whilst content is downloaded, and there's nothing fancy done with layout.

So this one gets a vote for "nice execution, but why bother" from me. Someone, somewhere, has put a lot of time into writing a browser. They've done a reasonable job of it too, but reinventing the wheel like this doesn't seem to be the best use of anyone's time.

Why people with nothing to hide should champion privacy, an article linked from the IdealGovernment weblog which contains a lovely quote fromn Cardinal Richelieu: ""If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.""

Why features don't matter any more: "As computing and digital devices move more and more into the consumer space, features and functionalities will increasingly take the back-seat as motivators for technology adoption: as the iPod abundantly shows, user experience (along with a strong brand, and clever marketing) is much more important for the success of a device then technical specifications."