Russell Beattie Notebook

Ubiquitous online gaming is a revolution

I've just been playing chess on my Nokia 3650. But instead of playing 'against the computer' I was playing a real person, in Italy. I'm sure he didn't realise that I was wiping an Irish mist from my eyes as I made my breafast and it didn't matter. He may have been crusing down the Tiber for all I knew.

GPRS Chess is still a little rough around the edges, as you'd expect from a beta version (0.71B), but its good enough that you can appreciate the amazing opportunity for ubiquitous online gaming. With a PC I'm stuck to playing at a desk. With a GambeBoy I can only play against the microprocessor. With a Symbian/J2ME mobile phone I can play anyone anywhere and that's revolutionary.

And its exactly why the Nokia N-Gage will be a huge success!