Monty's Gaming and Wireless Outlook - Issue 176

It's what the world has been waiting for! No, not wireless electricity or iPod headphones that unravel immediately, not even a pint glass that never empties, but a mobile phone battery powered by urine.

No, I'm not taking the p*ss, it's true. Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology have developed a paper battery that uses urine as its power charge source. Excellent news, perhaps they could continue their research, I really can't wait to charge up my laptop with excrement. As for topping up my phone, probably best not to go there.

With pompous projects like this going on, sometimes I think this whole industry is going down the toilet, but maybe not. At this week's Mobile TV and Video Forum in Piccadilly's La Meridien hotel, there was a refreshing lack of pretension and some interesting ideas about this new revolution.

While some speeches followed the usual model of I-kind-of-know-what-I'm-talking-about-but-when-it-gets-tough-I'll-bore-you-into-believing-it presentations, others were much more revealing about the type of content that will soon be available on our phones.

In the games industry, it's called Casual Gaming, so let's call it Casual TV. What do you want to watch when you're in a queue or on the train home? If you're too skint to afford Sky +, do you really want to be tied to the 7.30pm soap on a Monday or do you want to do other things? That's where Casual TV will work and bearing in mind how many decision-makers in this industry commute, that's what you're going to get - stuff they like.

Other issues came up at the conference, such as the constant referral to 'Made-For-Mobile'. I've said this before, but judging the mobile TV entries at MIPCOM last year, I couldn't believe the lack of respect content providers had for their audience. But maybe things have moved on for 2006. It should be 'Made-ONLY-For-Mobile' content that people should be working on.

Casual TV isn't just compendia of existing brands, it's about content that can't be seen anywhere else that also has a beginning, a middle and an end with characterisation and innovation. But what do I know? We're all p*ssing in the wind and my phone battery's gone flat so I'm off to charge it up again.