Ahead of our HTC brilliance competition going live today, last week I called Ben up for a wide-ranging telephonic interview about his journey to brilliance, alignments with HTC, the company’s present and future devices — particularly around the introduction of Virtual Reality. The news of the day, the HTC One A9, seemed like a good way to kick things off.

The interview has been edited for clarity. 

Papi Mabele: I think the A9 is a good place to start

Ben Matjiu: The A9 is very exciting

Keeping up with the A9, how would you best describe yourself in 9 words?

Uhm.. I have given this some thought, and truth be told I could barely come up with five words. but essentially I am a radio lover, tech lover, trend follower, lover of radio? (laughs) and all round fun guy. I am easy going really.

Fair enough. I am curious though, are you into tech at all?

I do have quite an interest, I mean, I am not a die heart follower of everyday developments but I do stay up tune with the latest trends, device and which does what. So yeah, I do have an interest in tech, its one of my peevs in my spare time. 

You’ve been a product influencer for HTC for a while now, and have been using the A9 smartphone. What’s the stand-out feature of the device for you?

I as fortunate enough to have the M9 before I was summoned with the A9. And I must say I love the entire user experience with HTC devices. Comparing it to iOS – and other leading Android devices – it certainly takess the crown with picture quality and just the easy of using the device, hence the user experience part. The finger print sensing technologies are worth  a mention as well.

Improvements on the A9 compared to previous models that you love?

Definitely the camera. Compared to the M9, the camera has totally changed in design (ui) but produces the highest quality of images. Perfect shots every time.

How did you contribute to the creation of the campaign; ‘journey of brilliance’?

Right, the guys at HTC gathered me pretty much in the final stages of the campaign. This afforded me to add my two cents worth and share my journey of brilliance. With the campaign, we’re inviting South Africans to share their stories of success and, you know, even if it is not a success but a story and milestone and stands out to them – highlighting the positive. This we want to hear, or read about and share with the rest of our HTC community. While I am yet to fully embark on my personal journey to brilliance, I will be sharing it with my friends and followers visually on my social media platforms. Everyday is a journey, I think. 

What app do you use to touch-up your pictures? Or are they perfect ‘raw’?

This would depend on the mood and moment I had just captured. But Google’s Snapseed and Over for overlays never lets me down. 

I am quite a fan of Over myself,  what is your favourite android app at the moment?

I a big on Instagram at the moment – and think I will be for a while. I have also recently caught on on Snapchat as well, I am yet to figure how it exactly works but I love watching my friend’s snaps.

Your worst woe about android handsets?

This one specifically? That’s a good question. Strangely, its the entire feel about the handset, I get the entire fine metal body and aesthetics thereof but it feels rather slippery. And given this is a very good looking phone so I am scared it might fall or get exposed to falls, dents and and.. Overall it feels quite slippery, which I do not like. Sure you could get  a cover or bodyglove for safety, but that too will hide all the precious metal. 

For those wanting to embark on their own journey of brilliance, what would you say/advice to them?

Man, oh man… The journey of brilliance is not about chasing something that other people have set out. It’s about what each person deems to be brilliant within their own world.
The biggest thing to learn or know about embarking on a journey of brilliance is beginning…once you start you’re on your way to doing what ever you like.

Courtesy of HTC South Africa, we’re giving away two (2) HTC One A9 smartphones during the month of March. Click on the image below for details.

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[title type=”h2″ class=””]SUMMARY [/title]

We gave the 5fm app a go, and for most part it works as advertised. Once you’ve completed download/update of the app you’re pretty much set to go – push start to the ‘open app’ button and brace yourselves your ears. The app is straight forward, on opening it at first it pops up a tutorial screen which lets you in on all the features found inside. The first tab you see on the left slide menu is, au naturel, Listen Live followed by the Show Lineup, Loudroom, Events, Polls, Feedback and your user profile. While the right hand side is reserved for making direct calls to the station (call charges apply)

From there, the 5fm app turns into a more traditional radio streaming experience. The listen live tab serves up a curated live feed of the current DJ, song playing and playlists. But there is no personalisation or interaction to be seen here — Loudroom serves up the same exact content to every listener that you would find on the DJ’s blogs on 5fm’s website. It would’ve been great if the app was to allow us to interact with the DJs via an integrated IM service – ain’t nobody got time to be sending R1,50 SMS’s.

On the whole, the 5fm app has succeeded at building a mobile-first service that offers something its competitors and sister stations at management troubled SABC don’t. The human-curated playlists are top notch through features like the ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ buttons allow users and vivid listeners to create a more unique listening experience by having an input on what they’d love to hear more of on-air. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.

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The other major short-coming (other than some stability issues, which we’re willing to forgive seeing that it’s early days for this release) is the app’s design. The station says its guiding principle was to focus on function, and build something light, simple and accessible for those that don’t consider themselves early adopters. But there are plenty of questionable interface decisions. For one, the left-hand slide out menu doesn’t work properly when live streaming on a few Android tablets (we used the Vodacom Tab 3G, pictured above, and Alcatel Pop 7). And, while it (the app) will function when you’re browsing around other apps, the visual indicator of its existence disappears the moment you leave the home screen. Then there’s the possibility of your live stream pausing instead of running in the background on iOS devices.

Despite its problems, 5fm’s app is still a pretty compelling product. If you’re not yet hooked on using your device’s built in radio, or on TuneIn’s robust social features it’s certainly worth giving this new comer updated app a look. It has all the basics down pat and at least partially succeeds in its quest to build unique features around the inherently emotional experience of listening to radio.