Rafe Blandford founded All About Symbian in 2001, creating what became one of the most comprehensive independent sources of mobile technology journalism. Over more than two decades he built a family of publications — All About Symbian, All About Windows Phone, and All About Mobile — that collectively published over 24,000 articles covering the mobile industry from the earliest smartphones through to the modern era.
Rafe is widely recognised as one of the leading experts on Nokia’s smart device activities and strategy. His writing spans device reviews, industry analysis, developer coverage, and in-depth technical features, with close to 5,000 bylined articles across the All About sites. He has attended and reported from major industry events including Mobile World Congress, Nokia World, and Microsoft Build.
Alongside his editorial work, Rafe co-hosted the 361 Podcast with Ewan MacLeod and Ben Smith, a long-running show exploring the intersection of mobile technology, culture, and society.
From 2014, Rafe brought the founder mindset and people-centric approach he had developed at All About into senior technology and product leadership roles. As Chief Technology & Product Officer at Digitas (Publicis Groupe), he led teams building martech platforms and digital products — applying the same curiosity about how people use technology that had driven his editorial work, now at the intersection of product innovation, technology strategy, and customer experience.
In 2026, Rafe led the project to archive and preserve the All About sites as a digital heritage resource, ensuring that two decades of mobile technology history remains accessible.
More at rafeblandford.com.
| All About Windows Phone | ~3,800 articles | News, reviews, features, podcasts |
| All About Symbian | ~6,100 articles | News, reviews, features, podcasts |
| All About Mobile | Cross-platform | News, features |
| 361 Podcast | Co-host | 361podcast.com |
The latest Windows 10 Mobile smartphone is interesting in many ways. It's ostensibly underpowered compared to some in the Android world at a comparable price point, yet the Wileyfox Pro is aimed at a totally different audience, one for whom Android isn't an option. As only the second new Windows 10 Mobile smartphone launched this year, this occupies quite a rarified space - but can it make this space its own?
Rafe's back in time to wish you all a Happy Christmas and to chat about the mobile world from all angles, including the new Wileyfox Pro and why some businesses might opt to chase security and Windows after all, plus we talk Windows 10 on ARM and Surface Mobile.
With Rafe busy elsewhere, I take the time to call up a podcast regular from the USA, Steve Heinrich. We chat through some of the last few weeks stories and even have time for a listener's letter. Hopefully there will be another podcast before Christmas with Rafe himself - watch this space.
Now, don't get too excited, I haven't found a hack to get the Start screen to work in landscape mode (though this was planned at one point by Microsoft) - but I've made some pleasing discoveries with some built-in and third party applications. Which is as expected, really - if Windows 10 Mobile can expand and re-arrange its screen output for a large Continuum display then we should expect some sense of that when our phones are rotated and their (horizontal) screen size suddenly doubles.
We're in an odd period for Windows on phones. Microsoft bought Nokia, made a couple of cracking releases and then stopped selling them, despite demand from enthusiasts. Meanwhile other licensees have come and gone, with the Alcatel IDOL 4 Pro here the currently sold 'flagship'. And I've been living (again) with the IDOL 4 Pro 24/7 for a couple of weeks with my main SIM - so how is it set-up? These articles are always popular, so here's my current Start Screen Set-up, as at December 2017.
The OnePlus 5T is the latest kid on the block in terms of smartphone hardware - with 16MP and 20MP sensors, used in different ways. It's the perfect starting point for a smartphone user who has decided to jump to Android in every other way than imaging. So can the camera get close to the mighty Lumia 950 XL? I find out below...
Rafe Blandford and I chat on-the-go about the week's Windows phone-related news, including two new pieces of hardware that are 'coming up' - possibly. Plus some software and hardware picks and the usual off-topic musings!
Rafe's busy this week, so in this special bonus podcast, I chat to MSCE Siavash Ghahremany about his device history (mainly Nokia and Microsoft), his current use of Windows 10 Mobile and his thoughts on what might happen in 2018 in terms of hardware and strategy.
Now this is really something - a genuinely useful jack of all trades document conversion tool, the sort of thing that gets my tech heart excited. Or maybe that's just me being very geeky! PDF Conversion Tool is a premium UWP app for Windows 10 on all form factors (but which arguably works best on the phone, i.e. W10M) that can convert anything to PDF and PDF to, well, (almost) anything.
Rafe Blandford is back, by popular demand, with his take on recent tech tabloid stories regarding the 'death of Windows 10 Mobile'. Covering some of the last week's stories in passing, we muse on the current state of the OS and on the future of mobile, in a wider ranging than planned discussion(!)