How do I buzz on my mobile?

When Google announced their new Google Buzz, I found it quite interesting to watch the reaction of people as they tried out Google Buzz and thought, meh. Its like Twitter in your email. Its like Facebook without logging in etc. Seemed a little underwhelming but flying low under the radar and hiding under the shadow of this announcement, Google also  launched the Google Maps for Mobile 4.0. This new update (which you all should now go and download) includes Google Buzz built into the maps. Meh, I hear you say. 
Actually, Google Buzz's biggest advantage comes within the form of Google Maps. The feature allows you to "buzz" to the world about anything you want, from your current location and this is really what Google was getting at. 


Why use Buzz on your Mobile?

• If you are in a new city, and would like to know where to get good coffee, send out a buzz and watch complete strangers reply to your buzz with their recommendations.  

• You are heading to a restaurant and someone's buzz appears - they just discovered a great restaurant. You don't know them but you decide to change plans and check out this restaurant. 
• A store decides to give out free ice creams so they post a buzz to advertise this to the technologically astute users like you. 
• Five of your friends are using latitude to see where  you are and when you will meet them somewhere, so you send out a buzz for all to see, that you are running late because the train has been delayed. 

• As you leave the grand final of your favourite sport, you watch the "buzz" around you literally as people in the stadium post buzzes about what they thought of the game.
  
  All except number 5 are examples of buzzes that I have just seen in one city on my phone on Google maps. 

How to turn it on?

Download Google Maps 4.0 from maps.google.com and then go to OPTIONS --> LAYERS and select Buzz so that there is a green tick next to it. Scroll around the map and you should be able to see small speech bubbles appear on your map. 

When you can't buzz. Note that you cannot post a buzz by

1. Faking your location using Google Latitude (the buzz will be based on your "my location" which you can see by pressing 0)
2. Turning off my location. The option to "Add Buzz" will disappear from your OPTIONS menu.

Replies Any replies to other people's buzz will not reveal your location. Your name according to your Google profile will appear in any buzz you send out. 

Remember if you post via your mobile, there does not seem t be an option to make the buzz a "private" one which only your friends can see. Everyone will be able to see your buzz from the mobile so buzz carefully :) 


Pictures You can also post photos from your mobile to the map. They will appear as a speech bubble with an asterix next to it like this one. 

One press of the navi-key will reveal the photo that was posted. Unfortunately, the photo must be already taken and on your phone before you can post it. There are so many possibilities now with Buzz and as a social media watcher, I can really see the potential for this in marketing, advertising and bringing people back to interacting in the real world! Try it out and leave your thoughts below.

Next time you buzz, maybe give a shout out to us @ MyE63 :)

Trial a Nokia E72 for Free!

Many of us E63 users may be looking in the future at a new phone and being E series lovers, I've found the Nokia E72 an amazing upgrade for the E63, but alas my trial of the phone is over. 


As some of you will know, we were part of the Nokia Responsiveness Challenge in December and we won! When I say we, I really do mean you too, because to celebrate the win, we have been given the opportunity to offer two readers like you the opportunity to trial and review (you do need to send it back!) the Nokia E72 and the free voice navigation that comes with the E72. Nokia will send the phone to you, free of cost to anywhere in the world and after a few weeks of playing with the phone, they will arrange collection of the phone. 
If you would like to be in the running, email mye63blog@gmail.com with 

• a review of the Nokia phone that you are currently using. 
• your Name, location and current occupation as well as what you think of this blog.

We'll publish the winning posts as our 100th post! Only two more posts to go!
One thing we do ask of you is if you are a winner, do a video of the Nokia E72 voice navigation in operation around your city and we'll post it up :) How will YOU respond?

Bluesoleil - better the devil you know

I have a bluetooth dongle which I use to connect my computer to my mobile phone. The USB dongle uses a software called Bluesoleil. Since it is quite an old version, I thought I would be smart and download a newer version of the program. As a result, the dongle didn't really work anymore and the new software kept stopping me from transferring anything bigger than 2mb because it was no longer a full version. 


Needless to say, I had to spend another half hour uninstalling the new Bluesoleil and go back to the out-dated but working version of Bluesoleil. So the lesson today is do not try to get up to date with your bluetooth software unless you are willing to buy a newer version. For those with built in bluetooth devices in your computer, carry on, nothing to see here.