Chris Barton: Thumbs down for the mobile net

I know I'm not the target "yoof" market, but this mobile internet thing really isn't working for me.

Not that the ability to send email or browse a website on my mobile phone as I sit on the ferry to and from work isn't a wondrous thing.

It is - a marvel in the "computing anywhere anytime" and "information at your fingertips" paradigms.

But here my problem begins - at my fingertips. Or rather my thumb tips. I find entering text via the phone's keypad slow, clumsy and well ... unnatural.

I know teenagers, who can punch out messages in a flash, don't see it this way. But I reckon the numeric keypad interface in its current form is going to be a big barrier to mobile internet uptake.

Couple maladroit thumbs with having to click through convoluted menus to perform various functions and you have a recipe for turn-off. Too hard - can't be bothered.

But of course I was bothered, and battled through the handicaps to get to the rich pickings the mobile internet offers.

What a disappointment - on both Xtra's mobile portal and Vodafone Live.

I know part of the problem is my age. I don't do chat, and don't much care for games. I just don't have the attention span. Neither do I partake of horoscopes, messages of the day or jokes which you will find aplenty.

Taking photos with the Sharp GX10's built-in digital camera was a great party trick - as was sending them to other picture-capable phones or email addresses. But the pictures are of such low resolution, they're of little real use and the novelty soon wears off.

That left me with news and information services. On both Xtra and Vodafone Live there's an array of offerings - but each is accessed by thumbing through a painful hierarchy of menus.

Checking the weather, TV listings, finding a movie or restaurant all worked fine - but the tedious steps made me wonder whether I'd bother to go there again.

I did, however, see potential in Vodafone Live's traffic cam over Spaghetti Junction. Likewise its map service which is great for getting directions when you're lost. At last I was getting some payoff from my mobile meanderings.

But I still had the problem of cost. Unlike the computer-based kind, this internet usage was on a ticking meter. On Vodafone Live I clocked up $5 in the blink of an eye - just cruising a few of the services and sending some email.

On Xtra's service - with its 7c per page charging - it was even worse. I had no idea what it was costing me because, unlike Vodafone, Xtra doesn't give a running total of bytes used. You find out when you get your monthly bill - and at Xtra's outrageous rates it will be a shock.

Worse still is the way both services, especially Vodafone, try to keep you in their controlled domain, so they can squeeze more money out of you for their subscription services.

As somebody used to flat-rate internet charges and finding most of what I need on the net for free, paying through the nose for mobile internet is something I'll never get used to.

The constraints of both services led me to break out to the open net - thanks in no small part to Worddial - a great portal for phone-friendly sites. Besides showing sites formatted to mobile screen size, Worddial also has the brilliant idea of using numbers to dial sites. To get to the portal itself, just type "96733425.com" - the numbers that spell the word on your keypad. Similarly "News" is "6397.com". Simple, but effective and opening up a whole new world.

The portal's stats also give an insight to what sites mobile internet users are doing. The number one destination by far is games (42637.com) followed by free (3733.com) where you can download all sorts of free stuff including ringtones.

And guess what's next? No, news and weather hardly rate at all. Porn - boldly going where it's never gone before - has found another outlet.

* Email Chris Barton