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nokia wp7 / theatretech 110211
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following: http://gizmodo.com/#!5757649/nokia-and-microsoft-are-officially-new-bffs
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Nokia joining with Windows five years ago would surely have been a geeks violent wet dream (provided of course Windows had released WP7 back then #geek #notashamed) but now it feels more like a plucky move from two companies on the slide.

Theatre? We'll get there, I promise.

Nokia's got incredible hardware Microsoft unparalleled software but they both have a neutered internet presence and are playing serious catchup.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12343597 - Bing may be standard on Nokias WP7 carrying kit - thats a serious hindrance, practically its a crap ver. of Google which ubergeeks are already noting is not hugely efficient.

The future is online and as a consequence the battle is over who can get you online best and how well online syncs with your device.

Which brings us to theatre - I'm currently directing a radio play - its got a cast of 18+ - all significant parts that need to be rehearsed and whats more rehearsed a couple of times each in big groups.

Casting and scheduling have been a huge task, and all have been done using GMail and the Google App's suite - we share a online calendar, all documents are shared between me and the producer using docs and obviously everything else is handled by the e-mail app.

Our hardware is total dogshit - 2 x Toshiba Satellite Pros - one on XP one on Ubuntu Linux - but it doesn't matter as long as we can get them online all the processing and system strain is taken up there. We've achieved with these machines what could only have been done with small server or networked NAS in the past - and even then only with some serious IT capabilities.

We could run an office with these apps - and its all free.

The one piece of good kit I have is my HTC Desire/Android2.2 - I'm using it as a 3G Dongle right now. It effortlessly syncs with the Google App's - and means I'm 95% on top of my shit 100% of the time.

Word gets around - I had a minor altercation on FB aggressively advising someone on phones the other day (I'm a bit of a cock like that) but the majority view fell with me that Android and HTC were the way forward - industry's pick up on these things. If a tech adverse industry like theatre is starting to realize that Android/Google/HTC is the way forward you can rest assured that the rest of the word has known for a while.

What all this means is better rehearsals, happier casts, more focus on the art, which ultimately is the whole point.