time to use the iPhone pub detector

We are using the iPhone pub detector this evening to select a venue.

It doesn't tell you how good the pub is, but it does tell you where the nearest ones are. It seems like a fun thing to have on a phone, but then I also have the Star Wars light sabre module which glows and makes all kinds of laser beam swooshing sounds when you move the phone around.

My low serial number iPhone is one of the original ones with the aluminium back, but on the whole, around London, I don't notice the lack of 3G because of the pervasive wi-fi.

Another £1.59 well spent was the GPS Motion-X software which lets the phone run as a GPS tracker, similar to a Garmin unit. Of course, the built-in Google maps does that as well- eerily telling me exactly where I am when I think I'm lost, but the Motion-X creates a waypoint database, which is sort of handy for photography for recording where & when. It can run in automatic mode or you can save waypoints at will, as well as exporting them as pins onto Google maps.

But now, off to GPS reference 51.512668,-0.13168 the pub.


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blogladi bloglada

After a diagnonal hike across the city we found John waiting outside the Corney and Barrow with cellphone poised and so three of us entered and disappeared underground into the smart subterranean world of arches.

We quickly found the roped off area for the Blogladi Bloglada session and said "Hi" to Andy Bargery who had performed another selection of genius as well as co-ordinating around 80 free sprits who had said "Yes".

Also a chance to say "Hello" to Melanie Seasons, who I had last met at the Camel and Artichoke soon after she had first begun her UK adventure over from the USA.

Time to hit the bar and remake a few acquaintances as well as to say hello to new London Bloggers making a first appearance.

A tipple or two later, Melanie was up on stage to talk entertainingly about her experiences and contrasts between US-based PR blogging and what she had found in the UK.

Let's just say the Brits came out quite well and sort of catching up with the US-scene, although the whole vertical categorisations, PR links and monetisation of blogs seemed to be more prevalent in the States. Brits clearly like chatting in pubs and the blogging is the camouflaged reason.

I liked that Melanie explained that she had set up fakeplasticnoodles.com more as a networking tool than with any thoughts of any great commercial advantage. It had certainly worked and she was well linked and twittered in to the UK scene.

Animated questions - even supplementaries and some practical advice about remembering to leave comments when wandering around the blogosphere.

The session ended with plenty of warm applause.

The evening was a well balanced blend of chatter, networking and an interesting presentation. Altogether well run - thanks to Andy, Melanie and of course the great gang that attended.

My moo cards runneth over.