I USED THE NEW Sunday Business Post app to help me through my weekly newsround but discovered I can't create a quick video clip on my Xperia Arc without actually holding a paper copy. I will perfect my technique.
The Sunday Times and Sunday Business Post report more details on the austerity measures that will come in next month's budget. Several interesting facets about start-ups, entrepreneurs and the small business ecosystem caught my eye so I made them part of the eight-minute video clip that I shot in my sunny garden with my Sony Xperia Arc. The end of the video below the break includes ten seconds of my current DIY task (laying trace heating around my home's main water supply). I'd appreciate any suggestions from readers about the way I'm thinking about correcting the error made years ago when the builders of our home sunk the water supply less than four inches into the ground.
The Sunday Business Post app works like you'd expect. It delivers fast and relevant summaries to stories in one easy viewing window. However, its HTML version isn't friendly to last generation web browsers. That's probably a deliberate strategy because Post Publications wants to perfect a content management process with few twists and turns for its writers. But this will stifle those with older mobile phones--phones running Symbian will suffer.
Once inside the app, you get an opportunity to adjust your settings to allow you to see the Business Post newsflow on your laptop or on other browsers. I set up my identity to allow a LinkedIn log-in and also told the system to recognise a user name and password. Neither the LinkedIn authorisation nor the user name sign-in worked on the Nokia E7 or Nokia N8. I used both the Nokia browser and Opera Mini but could not see the paid content. But the Xperia Arc's browser let me in using its installed browser (not with Opera Mini), so there's hope for Android users who update their browsers.
As I mention in my YouTube clip, I think the HTML 5 version will work a charm on the Lumia 800 because I should be able to pin my content onto a home screen tile and see specific parts of the Business Post flow. That should provide me fresh content throughout the day as it bubbles up as images and text from the home screen position.
I'm looking for a way to pin content written just by Adrian Weckler and that looks possible just by making a bookmark of a search for Weckler's name and letting it refresh inside its own Lumia tile. However, I lost the "search" function along with all the other functions in the site's bottom navigation bar after a few trips with my Android handsets into the site.
I wish the Business Post transcoded its content into a mobile version because on motorway bandwidth my handsets struggle to render the stories quickly. I also wish there was a way to "send to instapaper" because that process works most elegantly when I view long form items via Twitter when on the move. I also wish all the sharing features worked on mobile browsers too. They're present on the laptop or desktop version only.
These are crucial times for attracting paying viewers to the BusinessPost.ie content stream. I believe more than half of the SBP readership is being left out of the loop with just the iOS app available to easily view the premium content. Here's hoping there's a premium mobile version or a working Android option available for those willing customers.
News you can watch at http://youtu.be/MqsVmYdfzbg
