MobileCrunch — Samsung Glyde 2 spy shots leak, headed for Verizon
What’s black, red, wears a Verizon badge, and looks just like the Samsung Glyde? The Samsung Glyde 2, of course!
Presumably in hopes of losing a friend or getting someone fired, HowardForums user StandardsDT waited for his in-the-know buddy to leave the room before going camera crazy.
Here’s what we know so far:
- It has a physical QWERTY keyboard, and the poster believes it has a touchscreen keyboard as well. The physical keyboard looks a good bit more cramped than that of the original Glyde.
- TouchWiz UI
- It has an accelerometer, but “it only works with certain applications like web.”
[Via BGR]
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
MobileCrunch — Virginia Apple Store closes after shooting
Tip #1: If you’re going to be a huge wanker and rob a retail store, don’t rob an Apple store. You know those little fancy handsets they carry around? Thats so they can avoid doing much with cash.
Tip #2: Don’t friggin’ steal stuff or shoot people, unlike this guy at the Arlington, Virginia Apple Store.
One female victim was shot in the shoulder before the suspect fled the scene. Here’s to a speedy recovery, Apple Store lady.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Anders Borg (Abiro) — The happy escape
As most of you know already, The Pirate Bay will be acquired by Global Gaming Factory X for 60 million SEK (~$8M). Not that much, if TPB is seen as a hyped IT company, but seen as a purchase of a popular domain and little else (TPD as we know it will disappear), it’s rather expensive.
The whole value of TPB can be summed up by “Everything’s free”. That’s hard to beat.
Rather it seems like a combined cash-in and escape from potentially more law suits, as that’s now GGFX’s problem, so the question is why GGFX acquired.
It sounds a bit like when Niklas Zennström sold Kazaa to Sharman Network, when things became a little bit too nasty. In that case it was for even less money ($1M, a symbolic figure).
The Local - Swedish IT company to buy Pirate Bay
The Local - Scepticism and outrage follow Pirate Bay sale
bnet - Kazaa BV assets cost Sharman $1m
WAP Review — Electricity Out? Get Status Updates On Your Mobile Phone
I think this is a mobile first. Ameren, an electric power utility serving 1.9 million customers in Illinois and Missouri has launched a mobile website that lets customers check the status of service outages. You can search for affected areas by zip code or county. You can also report if your power is out and get real time updates on the progress of restoring power to your specific home or business. The site also has customer service phone numbers (unfortunately NOT click to call) and electrical safety tips.
Nice idea, assuming the mobile site really is updated with status changes in a timely fashion. If the power is out then your desktop PC and WiFi access point and in some cases land-line phone service is going to be out too. Using the mobile site to report a problem or get a status update should be faster than holding for an overloaded telephone support center. I wish all public utilities including power, cable and land line phone companies provided a mobile site like this for outage reporting and status updates. Source: Mobility.mobi
Filed in: Wap Review Directory – Search/Local
Ratings: Content 
Usability 
Ready.mobi Score: 3 “Fair”
Mobile Link: ameren.mobi
MobileCrunch — LG is delusional: plans to be #2 in 2012, new Black Label coming, iPhone killer coming, too
What in the hell is LG Mobile’s president smoking because this is the most absurd thing I’ve ever read. Becoming the #2 mobile phone maker in three years is one thing considering the fact that Samsung could and would destroy them at any time. But a new Black Label device to compete with the iPhone? Or a luxe brand on par with Nokia’s Vertu? Keep dreaming, Ahn.
via Unwired
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
W3C MWI Team — A tool to "powder" mobileOK content
Version 1.2 of the W3C mobileOK Checker, released on Tuesday, helps Web authors focus on the failures that most affect the mobile-friendliness of their content, and returns the POWDER document Web authors may use as the basis of a mobileOK® conformance claim.
Expandable sections
The reports returned by the mobileOK Checker can be long. That's not a bad thing, failure points need to be clarified. That said, scrolling over a long list of details is a tedious process and does not reveal the big picture. The new version adds unobtrusive (as in "works fine when Javascript is not enabled") Javascript to hide/show details. Details are hidden by default, simply click on a failure message to reveal its details!
Severity levels
A missing width attribute on an img element? That's a failure. Using frames? That's a failure. Obviously, the former case only slightly affects the mobile-friendliness of the page, while some mobile browsers won't even be able to render the page in the latter case. And yet both failures looked alike in the report, leaving the difficult task to evaluate the impact of a failure on the overall mobile-friendliness of the page to the reader.
Each failure now comes with a severity level:
- critical: such failures typically prevent the rendering of at least part of the page on most mobile devices! Critical errors are highlighted using a yellow background.
- severe: while such failures usually do not prevent the rendering of the page, they strongly impact the user experience.
- medium: some mobile constraints are not appropriately taken into account, e.g. the browser needs to retrieve more data than actually needed to render the Web page.
- low: useful improvements are possible.
Web authors who only have limited time available to fix failures may want to focus on the most severe failures first. The "Where to start..." section near the top of the report lists the top 3 failures to address right away.
Sprinkle POWDER on your mobileOK content
So your content is mobileOK? Congratulations! You may now wish to identify your content as mobileOK conformant. The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group recently published the W3C mobileOK Scheme 1.0 note. It provides an overview of the mobileOK scheme and explains in particular how to claim mobileOK conformance.
One way to make such a claim is to use POWDER. When the page is mobileOK, the mobileOK Checker now returns a POWDER document you may use to advertise that the page is mobileOK®. For instance, the mobileOK checker returns the following POWDER document when http://www.w3.org/Mobile/ is checked:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<powder xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2007/05/powder#">
<attribution>
<issuedby src="http://www.w3.org/data#W3C" />
<issued>2009-07-03T08:37:21Z</issued>
<supportedby src="http://validator.w3.org/mobile/" />
</attribution>
<dr>
<iriset>
<includeresources>http://w3.org/Mobile/</includeresources>
</iriset>
<descriptorset>
<typeof src="http://www.w3.org/2008/06/mobileOK#Conformant" />
<displaytext>The page is mobileOK</displaytext>
<displayicon src="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/MWI-Icons/mobileOK.png" />
</descriptorset>
</dr>
</powder>
For more information on POWDER, please refer to the POWDER Primer.
... and more!
A few other features compose this summer release, such as the size of each resource that composes the page, or the repartition of points lost per severity level. The complete change log is detailed in the What's new? page.
Feedback welcome!
MobileCrunch — Hotz does it again, releases jailbreak app for iPhone 3GS
George Hotz, the 20-year old hacker who originally unlocked the iPhone, has released a jailbreaking application for the iPhone 3GS codenamed "purplera1n." It's currently Windows-only (Windows 7 not supported), and requires the latest iTunes installed, and an iPhone 3GS with the 3.0 firmware.
Hotz mentions in a blog post that the jailbreak for Mac is "coming soon." The iPhone Dev Team did release a unlock for 3.0 which did not work on the iPhone 3GS, but Hotz's version does (although it doesn't free you from your current carrier).
Vision Mobile Forum — Android and the threat of fragmentation
[2009 might be the year of Android.. Google claims around 20 devices will be in the market by the end of this year. It would give a long-awaited boost to the proliferation of Android, but not necessarily a boost for developers. Guest blogger Gabor Torok looks at what the appearance of Android variants could mean in terms of fragmentation.]
HTC Dream aka G1 was the first Android device offered by T-Mobile. It took quite a bit of time for the next Android-based mobile phone, HTC Magic, to appear and be available first in Europe by Vodafone, with Asia and North-America (MyTouch 3G or G2 from T-Mobile) to follow in H2 2009. Oddly enough, the third and last device to date will also be manufactured by HTC: it’s called Hero and unlike the previous two it is not Google-branded and can be purchased unlocked. Even if the number of models powered by this platform is relatively low, it’s worth discussing how developers may be affected by the differences between these variants.
There are lots of on-line reviews comparing the two officially available handsets, Dream and Magic - visit HTC’s web site, for example, to see for yourself. The hardware specs of these devices are very similar (though Magic has more memory and no physical keyboard) leaving the software as the main differentiator. The Magic is based on Android v1.5 (codename Cupcake) and includes such features as on-screen keyboard, Home screen widgets, Live folders, video recording, etc. These handy software features are available for owners of older devices, too, such as G1 or the Android Developer Phone 1 (ADP1 in short). Whilst the firmware update must be performed manually in case of ADP1, T-Mobile takes care of upgrading the firmware of existing devices themselves.
What does this mean for developers?
Android developers haven’t had to worry about differences between platform versions and various handsets thus far. It’s simply because T-Mobile G1 had been left alone for a very long period and it was enough to write applications for that single device only. This has changed with the introduction of Magic and will be complicated further with the other upcoming models.
First of all and most importantly, existing applications originally written for the first Android handset will run on new devices without any modifications, i.e. they’re binary forward compatible. At least in theory, since there are signs and reported difficulties indicating that some applications need to be re-built and build environments re-configured for a successful deployment with the new SDK. In any case, Google is trying to keep source compatibility between releases, too, however, one should not expect 100% accuracy in their attempt (see Android 1.5 Version Notes for removed APIs, for example).
Obviously, backward compatibility is a different question: special care must be taken in an application to handle the lack of some hardware/software components in an older handset. Thanks to the fact that Magic is from the same manufacturer as Dream (HTC), one should not be surprised about forward compatibility. Nevertheless, the announced 18 new handsets for this year will surely make it more challenging to write such applications that handle the differences in handsets’ characteristics properly.
Fortunately, the SDK already provides APIs that enable run-time query of device particulars, so API-wise it should not be a issue for applications to distinguish between different models and act accordingly. Without this support it would be nearly impossible to write a single program and design it to run on multiple models - however, even with this support it will put an extra burden on developers’ shoulders they will have to deal with. It would be great, too, if look-and-feel guidelines were available as well, and not just Google engineers’ guidance on how “your program should look and behave similarly to built-in system applications“.
A useful addition to the Android SDK (which contains multiple platforms in one package) is the ability to fine-tune the target platform that one would like to build applications for. Developers can create an Android Virtual Device (or AVD in short), where the most important characteristics of a device can be specified, such as the availability of camera/physical keyboard/etc., screen dimension, choosing the system image emulation runs on, etc. The introduction of AVDs gives developers the freedom of using a single SDK for multi-platform development (read: multiple versions of the same platform, Android).
End-users and the impact to UX
There’s not too much to mention about the user experience on HTC Dream and Magic - the UX is pretty similar across the devices. Hero is different, though: HTC Sense UI provides a different user experience that is a departure not just from the Android UX, but from HTC devices themselves whatever platform they’re powered by (e.g. Windows Mobile, Android). A logical question arises: can older & non-HTC Android devices be updated with this framework? The answer is NO: due to licensing issues, “Google branded” devices (both G1 and Magic) are not allowed to be upgraded. This will surely result in fragmentation not only in software development, but in user experience, too.
Network operators, app stores and firmware updates
Both T-Mobile and Vodafone rely on the same central distribution channel, Android Market (AM). Returning the favour, Google-hosted AM takes carriers’ T&Cs into account when determining which applications can be submitted to each ‘market’. For this reason, some applications doing tethering, VoIP, etc. simply cannot be sold on Android Market - hence their developers need to go and find other markets. In other words, fragmentation exists at the distribution-level.
As already mentioned, HTC Sense UI is not permitted on Google-branded devices. Consequently, network operators selling “with Google” and non-Google-branded handsets alike must be cautious which firmware can go to which phone so as to satisfy all legal restrictions. In Hero’s case, for example, the update process is two-level: UI layers (i.e. Sense) are updated by HTC, whereas the rest by Google. The situation can get more complicated as the update hierarchy grows in depth.
Conclusion
If we can believe in rumours, 2009 is the year when a massive number of Android-powered devices will hit the market. Big numbers and diversity, however, will not make it easy to develop for this platform and maintain software updated on existing devices. Fragmentation has inevitably come to Android.
Looking forward to your comments,
- Gabor
[Gabor works as a mobile software engineer and has been in the industry since 2000. You can read more about his thoughts about mobility at mobile-thoughts.blogspot.com]
Taro Matsumura — 「緑のデザイン」東信さん JARDINS DES FLEURS [ PEOPLE, #art, #eco, #flower, #green, #hitokoto, #nomad ]
今売られている雑誌「PEN」で東信さんの「緑のデザイン」が特集されています、と言う話をちょうど今日、東さんのアトリエを訪ねたときに教えてもらったのでご紹介。ぜひチェックしてみて下さい。
東さんはフラワーアーティストで、グリーンのデザインが本当に素敵で、世界的にもなかなか類を見ないセンスを持っている。文字通り「世界のアズマ」である。海外のファッションブランドでのお仕事や、最近だとテレビのコマーシャルでも彼のワークスが光る。そのお家芸とも言えるアレンジメントがPENの表紙を飾っているのだ。
彼はグリーンのデザインには絶対の自信を持っていて、そのワークスも期待を裏切らない。センスへの信念と力強さを、彼は自身で「勘違いと思い込み」と評するけれど、独特であることの苦労とは裏腹の明るいキャラクターは、とても愛すべき表現者として尊敬している。
そのセンスあふれるグリーンのアレンジメントからは、何とも豊かな気分を作り出せて、目からオーガニックな養分を摂取できる感覚を覚え、なによりエネルギーをもらえるのだ。
<p><iframe src="http://rcm-jp.amazon.co.jp/e/cm?t=tarositenet-22&o=9&p=8&l=as1&asins=B002DMI85M&md=1X69VDGQCMF7Z30FM082&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=FF7700&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr&nou=1" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
Taro Matsumura — Mobile Twitter Hacks 〜ヒトコトで変わる場・学び・ジャーナリズム〜 [ COLUMN, #event, #idea, #iPhone, #keitai, #nomad, #slide, #top, #twitter, #twn2 ]
先週の金曜日、6月26日に五反田で開催された、「KNN presents Twitter Night 2 - Twitterビジネスの可能性とTwitter端末としてのiPhone 3GSの魅力！」で、「Mobile Twitter Hacks 〜ヒトコトで変わる場・学び・ジャーナリズム〜」というタイトルの講演をしてきました。
まとめる時間がなかったことと、ちょっと自分の中で寝かせたかったこと、当日本田直之さんの講演の後のタクシーの中でまとめたスライドは公開しても何が何だか、と言う状態だったので、1枚に作り直しての公開となりました。ということで、トピックを少しまとめていきたいと思います。
R25
枕の話は、このイベントの前日の木曜日に、東京の待ちの中でR25を探した時のストーリーだった。
その週の号には小西康陽さんのロングインタビューが掲載されているというので、読みたかった。僕は普段R25に記事は書くけれど、なかなかピックするチャンスがなかった。行動範囲にラックがないか、目に入るときには空になっていたことが多かったのだ。
本当に分からなかったので、Twitterで西新橋→飯田橋→日比谷→三田のルートでR25をゲットできる場所ってどこだろう、と問いかけてみた。すると、「ウェブで読めますよ！」（そうだったのか！）「ニューヨーカーズカフェにあります！」「日比谷駅の三田線と日比谷線の間の通路にラックがあります」という情報が集まってきた。めでたく、R25をゲットし、三田の帰りの浅草線で読むことが出来た。
この情報が集まってくるまで、タイムラインで約15分。日比谷駅を通過するまでには2時間ほど合ったため、日比谷駅の乗り換えの際にピックする、と言う行動を十分に組み込める段階で、地域情報を得ることが出来たのだ。
5min. Made / UGC Eco System / ReTweet
MacFanの取材でJoiさんにインタビューしたときに、彼も似たようなことを言っていた。
「自分のTwitterのネットワークは（当時）9000人を超えた当たりだが、これがメーリングリストだとどうなるだろう。良いプロジェクト管理ソフトはないか？と聞きたいとき、有用な情報の200通以外は、知らない、という返事が来る。しかも、すぐにくるメールもあれば、1日後、1週間後、1ヶ月後に渡ってばらばらとメールが帰ってくる。Twitterは5分で有用な返事が集まる。5分で来なければ、1時間後も、1日後も返事は来ないのだ」（伊藤穣一氏）
つまり情報収集や情報共有、コミュニケーションの手段としてTwitterをとらえたとき、メールやブログのような反応が返って着うる時間的な広がりに比べて、Twitterは非常に短い時間しか情報が生きていないことになる。
そこでJoiさんは、もし掘り下げたいTwitterでの議論をBlogにポストすることを薦めている。5分しか生息していないがそこにめがけて集まってきた情報をBlogにまとめることによって、tarckbackやコメントを含めたBlogなりのコミュニケーション手段と検索エンジンによって、その議論を展開していくことが出来る。
ある意味、TwittersphereからBlogosphereへと、情報を受け渡していく。もしそのBlog上の議論が活発化すれば、再びTwitterに戻ってくるかもしれない。こうして、UGCのエコシステムを、時間的な特性を生かして構築していくことが出来るようになってきた。Twitter APIを活用する各種サービスによって、あまり意識せずにsphere転換も出来るようになっているのが現状だろう。
ReTweet / Twitterはストリートライブ by 小川浩さん
気になったのは、Joiさんに9000人のフォロワーがいるという部分。僕も含めて、そんなに沢山のフォロワーはいないし、そんなに沢山フォローしてもいない。こういう人は情報収集や共有の手段としてうまく働かないのではないか？ そんな質問に対して、Joiさんは「ReTweet」を活用すればいい、と説明する。
良い発言や良い疑問、質問はReTweetされて広がっていく。その議論を追いかけていくことによって、自分のネットワーク以上の情報を得ていくことが可能になると言う。事実、昨日のSTUDIO VOICE休刊の話題も、ReTweetが繰り返されて広がり、Twitterのタイムライン上で話題になり、関係者への事実確認がタイムラインへ報告されるまでになった。最初につぶやいた人が果たして、9000人のネットワークを持っていたか？
そんな現象を、モディファイの小川浩さんは「Twitterはストリートライブ」と表現する。mixiをカラオケボックスに例えて、曲を選びながら適当に拍手をくれる心地よい空間か、Twitterのように発言が良ければ振り向いてもらえてが可能性も広がるストリートライブか。もちろんカラオケも楽しいし好きだけれど、そろそろストリートライブをやってもいいんじゃないか、と言うわけだ。
ReTweetを言い当てている面白い表現だと思う。別に毎日ストリートライブを展開するほど気合いを入れなくてもいいとは思うけれど、ふとした瞬間に、「ヒトコト」に力を込めることを意識してもいいのではないか、と思う。
7 reply, 7 days
このBlogでもお知らせしたけれど、NOBI-TARO PODCASTと津田さんのイベントを6月17日に開催した。
このイベントには当初35人というキャパだったが、会場の融通も頂いて、50人近くの方にご来場頂いた。このイベントのきっかけは、ちょうど1週間前に、こういうイベントをやったら面白そう！というつぶやきに、7人ほどの方から「面白そう！」という賛同を頂いて、1週間で企画・実施にまでこぎ着けたイベントだった。
7日間でイベントが出来るのはTwitterだから、と言うわけでもないとは思うけれど、やろうと思い立った人のモチベーションに瞬間的に着火してくれる装置として、Twitterは今までになかったメディアなんじゃないか、と思う。それこそ先ほど触れた、5分間のリプライで、自分の考えに賛同してくれる人がいること自体がうれしいし、じゃあやろう、と背中をすぐに押してくれて、行動が起きる。
確かにTwitterはフォローする、されるという緩い関係性の上で日常的なコミュニケーションをスルーしながら取り合う、と言う微妙なメディアなんだけれど、スルーが前提だからこそリプライが集まったときのパワーの感じ方があるのかもしれない、とぼそぼそ考察してみました。
これは、ノマドの話で「アイディアを遊牧させる」と言う話をずっと考えてきているけれど、まさに自分で考えた瞬間にTwitterに話してみて、そのアイディアがかわいがられたり、批判されたり、提案付きで帰ってきたりする様子がTwitterのコミュニケーションには存在しているように思える。
より行動に近いメディアとしてTwitterを見直した瞬間である。
8:160
続いて、Twitterを活用した授業のと中継かというか、散文的な気づきについて触れた。Twitterを学生全員に使ってもらうことのハードルの高さ、コミュニケーションと授業をマージするトライ・アンド・エラーなど、様々な不透明なことが沢山存在しているけれど1つ明確になってきた話がある。それが、8:160という話だ。
僕の授業は約130人ほどが履修していて、毎回Twitterで課題を出してもらう。その課題は、Twiccoを通じて、授業を履修している学生のタイムラインにも流れる。そして授業中には2〜3つの質問をTwitter上で答えてもらって、教室の中でそれぞれが持っている意見をレビューしていく。そんな流れで毎回の授業が進む。
90分間の授業でもし時間をフルに使って学生に発言してもらおうとすると、どう頑張っても8人が限界じゃないかと思う。授業のヘッダーとフッターは今日のテーマとちょっとした前提知識を前置きにして、最後はまとめと次週の予定、課題の発表が必要。どう考えても合計で20分くらいは欲しい。
残りの70分間を学生とのインタラクションに充てて、それぞれにしっかりと意見を述べてもらい、それに対して担当教員や学生間で質問をしたりすると、あっという間に5分〜10分はたってしまう。闇雲にみんなに話を聞けばいいか、と言うわけでもないので、関連する意見や反対意見をピックアップして話をつないでいくと、やっぱり8人出来ればいい方じゃないか、と思う。もっとうまい先生はいらっしゃると思うけれども。
一方、Twitterの授業では、教室という場にまず最初の課題が出されていて、授業の途中の質問を2回すると、合計で約160個の学生の意見が場に出されることになる。もちろん全員が課題を出しているワケじゃないし、ぱっと質問を投げたときに全員が答えられるわけでもない。それでも、約20倍の学生の意見が教室に出され、学生同士が目にすることになるのだ。
沢山の意見が出てくればそれでいいか、と言うわけではないけれど、ネットやメディアみたいに今現在の事象を扱うときには、用意してきたコンテンツと、学生たちの日常生活をリミックスしながら考えていく授業構成が実現できた方が、しっくりくるように感じている。
「Twitterはファシリテーション」 by 津田大介さん
6月17日のイベントの後の飲み会で、津田さんと少し話をしたんだけれど「ライブ中継は修行だ」という貴重な言葉が印象的だった。それと同時に、テキストによる場や議論のファシリテーションになるのではないか、という指摘も、1つの気づきだった。
たぶんTwitterを使った授業に関しても、みんなにつぶやいてもらい、それをライブに編集しながら授業進行するというファシリテーションの世界なんじゃないか、と思い始めた。いやまさしく修行が必要な領域ではあるんだけれども。先ほどの授業の話も同様で、Twitterで集まってくる20倍もの学生の意見をいかにファシリテートできるか、という修行が必要と言うことだ。
これが出来るようになると、議論はリアルな教室の上に置かれたレイヤードのネットコミュニケーションをベースに行われるようになり、そこに流れる情報を参照しながら場を薦めることが出来るようになる（この時点ですでにハードル高い）。そして、教室という場がリアルに媒介しなくても、授業が出来るようにならないか、というアイディアへ行く。
おそらくリアルな場でのファシリテーションがあった上でリアルな場を欠落させるという手はずを踏むことになるので、勝算はややあるんだけれど、Twitterのコミュニケーションって基本的にリアルな場がなくバーチャルなレイヤーでのつぶやきコミュニケーションをしようとするので、ちょっと難しい部分があるのだろうか。
確かにリアルなコミュニケーションがある人がTwitterのタイムラインにいて、つぶやきを見たりリプライをやりとりしているとご無沙汰していてもあまり久しぶりにあった感覚がしなかったりするのだが、初めてお会いする人と初めてお会いした感覚がしない、と言うようになるまでには結構やはり「修行が必要」だろうか。
ソーシャルとは一人でやらないこと
さて、Twitter Night 2で1つメッセージとして伝えたかったのは、ソーシャルメディアを使うときは、なるべく1人でやらないこと。イベントをするにしても、1人で背負わず、みんなでやるように心がけることが大切ではないか、と言う点だ。オープン、クローズは別にして。
もちろんTwitterは自分のつぶやきであって、備忘録的に使ったりすることもあれば、何かの記録として残す使い方だってあるし、相当軽くて便利な記録手段であることは間違いない。しかしそこに何かプラスして、何らかの活動参加してみたり、軽く誰かの役に立ってみたり、逆に誰かに支えられていることを意識する経験というモノもあっていいのではないだろうか。
Twitterは、その誰かの役に立つ経験、誰かに支えられていることを意識する経験が身近に詰まっているメディアじゃないか、ととらえている。ぜひ多くの人に、これらの経験に触れてもらった上で、「一人でやらないこと」を感じてもらえると、なにか変化が起きるなじゃないか、と期待している。
表現、PR、Twitter活用
一応、Twitter Night 2に「ビジネス」という言葉が入っているので、Microsoft Office for Macの「ヒトコト」プロジェクト、パラマウントベッドのSmartSleepLibraryのTwitter活用についても触れた。
前者はTwitterというつぶやきメディア時代の表現として現代の格言・名言を紡ぎ出す活動を、後者は眠りに関するシンクタンクをウェブに設置してその最新情報を共有していくメディアとしてのTwitter活用をしている。いずれもこれからまだまだ展開予定ですので、ぜひぜひお見知りおきを。
kengoさんにお会いできた！
ということで、僕の昨今のTwitter事情をまとめて話したのですが、実は会場には、Going my wayのkengoさんが登壇者としていらしていた。実は、2002〜2003年ごろからBlog上でkengoさんを存じ上げていて、trackbackやコメントなどでのコミュニケーションも交わしていたが、2009年6月末、やっとリアルにお会いすることが出来た。何年越しなんだろう、6〜7年も知っていて、会えない人っていうのも珍しいんですが。
今回主催してくださったKNN神田さんに感謝すると共に、Blogでもmixiでもお会いできなかったkengoさんに合う事が出来たTwitterに感謝。
Wireless Watch Japan — New Mobile Banking Service by DoCoMo
Simon Judge (Mobile Phone Dev) — IBM’s Mobile Research
I came across a press release today stating that IBM will be spending $100 million on mobile research over the next five years.
IBM is concentrating on…
"millions of people who have bypassed using the personal computer as their primary method of accessing the Internet"
Here are the areas that IBM think could benefit from more research…
- Analytics
- Security
- Privacy
- User interface
- Navigation
Related Articles:
Rocco Georgi (PavingWays) — Panda Route widget now available in Ovi store!
Our Panda Route Travel Planner widget has made it to Nokia’s Ovi Store. The basic idea behind the widget is that you have all your important travel data with you while you are on the go. It works pretty easy: before you start your journey, you enter all the details of your upcoming trip that you need to remember (e.g. airline, flight times, hotel address, rental car reservation number etc.). Then the widget shows you the current step of your journey with all the needed information depending on the current time. On your Nokia N97 home screen this information will be shown too. So you have access to this information without interaction with the application and even when not connected to the Internet.
We also integrated a Twitter feed matching the location of your upcoming destination. It is a great source for any kind of information, such as events, news, things to watch out for or people nearby; and you know what is going on there before you arrive.
The widget is free and available for Nokia N97. So, before you start your next trip, try it out and let us know what you think!
PS:
You will find our widget in the Ovi store under “Nokia N97 devices” under “Applications” -> “City Guides/Maps” or by searching for “panda”.
MobHappy (Buckley & Longino) — Carnival of the Mobilists 180 up at M-Trends
Our good friend Rudy de Waele has the latest edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists up at his m-trends.org site. He’s got a roundup of the best blogging about mobile from last week, so be sure and check it out!
MobileCrunch — HTC Hero soars through the FCC
Well, that’s a surprise. Rumors had pointed at Sprint to be the home of the Hero here in the states - but there it sits in the FCC database, packed to its big ol’ chin with AT&T-friendly 850/1900Mhz bands.
[Via EngadgetMobile]
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Enrique Ortiz — Carnival of the Mobilists #180
This week’s Carnival of the Mobilists is hosted by Rudy de Waele at the m-trends blog:
Looking back at the many contributions done by so many mobilists till now, this is still what’s it’s all about! The Carnival stays probably the best online resource to read about different views and opinions by industry experts, pundits, marketers, and mobile (social) media watchers on the evolution of the mobile phone. And what an EVOLUTION we have seen the last couple of years…
…this week with contributions from Ajit Jaokar, Carl Martin, Carlo Longino, Dennis Bournique, C. Enrique Ortiz, James Coops, Jamie Wells, Judy Breck, Marek Pawloski, Mark K. Kramer, Phil Barrett, Ronan Mandel and Tomi T Ahonen.
So head on to m-trends.org and enjoy the Carnival of the Mobilists #180!
Thanks to Rudy for including my entry on this week’s Carnival…
ceo
WAP Review — iPhone iGoogle Now Works in Skyfire, Opera Mini, S60 Webkit
When I covered Google’s resurrected IGoogle for the iPhone, I complained that Google’s overly aggressive browser detection and redirection was blocking users of other advanced mobile browsers like S60 Webkit and Opera Mini from the site.
Today, I noticed that Google seems to have made a subtle change to the way it handles unrecognized and unsupported browsers. It’s now possible to force the advanced mobile version to be delivered to any browser. Visit google.com/m/ig?uipref=6 to try it. You need to use that exact URL, anything else gets redirected to the WAP version.
Now obviously, the iPhone/Android specific site will not work in just any mobile browser. At a minimum your browser needs to support JavaScript. There are probably some dependencies on features found only in the Safari or Android browsers, so some things may not work. But the iPhone/Android site does seem to work perfectly with Skyfire (image, below) and with some minor usability issues in Opera Mini 4.2 (image, above). It works partially with Opera Mini 3.1, Ozone, Bolt, the S60 WebKit browser (image bottom) .
Admittedly I’ve only tried it with six Gadgets; Google’s Gmail, Reader, News, Calendar and Finance and Logika’s TwitterGadget. All work as expected with Opera Mini and Skyfire and all but News work in the S60 Browser. The iPhone – iGoogle pages are formatted for a minimum screen width of 320px so you do need to use landscape on QVGA phones to avoid horizontal scrolling. The sole exception is Opera Mini 3.1 which re-flows everything to screen width. It’s not pretty in 3.1 but is usable.
I tried the iPhone iGoogle with all the other other mobile browsers I could find that support JavaScript with the following results. All except the BlackBerry Browser were tested on a Nokia N95-3 NAM.
| Browser | Results |
| Opera Mini 4.2 | All six gadgets work. Expanding and contracting widgets is a little slow and causes the page to jumps to top requiring repositioning. |
| Opera Mini 3.1 | Gmail, Reader, Calendar, Finance and TwitterGadget all work. News doesn’t open. Pages are heavily reformatted and a bit ugly but usable. |
| Opera Mobile 8.65 | Finance works, Twitter Gadget crashes the browser, Gmail is missing entirely and the other gadgets open but display no content. |
| Skyfire 1.2.2.12214 | Everything works well. |
| S60 Browser | News displays no content but all the others work very well. |
| Ozone 0.01 | Gmail, News, Calendar and Finance are OK. Horizontal scrolling is needed in Reader even in landscape. TwitterGadget is unusable as its login form is missing. Ozone crashed a couple of times opening different widgets but the crashes were not consistently reproducible;le. |
| Bolt 1.04 | Reader, Gmail and News work well. Calendar, Finance and TwitterGadget are missing |
| UCWEB 6.3 S60 and Java, 6.6 Java, | Page loads but the widgets aren’t clickable. |
| BlackBerry OS 4.1 Browser | Widgets open expanded. Scrolling is unusably slow. |
If you try this in other full-web mobile browsers like Pocket IE, recent BlackBerry browsers and the Telca and NetFront browsers found on Samsung and LG touch screen feature phones please leave a comment letting us know how it works.
Kudos to Google for opening up this back door so that users of unsupported browsers can try this advanced mobile site. Is it useful on any of these browsers? Actually I’d say that it is, particularly with Skyfire, Opera Mini, the S60 browser and Bolt. Not everything works in every browser but the overall user experience is still better than with the generic version of mobile iGoogle.
The fact that it works as well as it does suggests that Google’s GWT, the open source JavaScript framework which iGoogle for the iPhone is likely built with, is actually able to detect and optimize mobile content for many more mobile browsers than just Safari and the Android browser. I wonder if anyone outside of Google is using GWT for mobile web development and trying to support browsers beyond the iPhone and Android?
Related Posts:
Ozone Browser For S60 and UIQ 3
MobileCrunch — Verizon succumbs to the pressure, offers BlackBerry Tour to everyone
I think the image is pretty self explanatory.
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WAP Review — New Carnival of the Mobilists at mTrends
Just posted at mTrends , the latest Carnival of the Mobilists is now available for your enlightenment and enjoyment. Host Rudy De Waele has highlighted 16 of the week’s best posts on mobile topics by bloggers from around the world.
Topics include app stores, the impact of mobiles in education and social change, widgets, advertising, mobile statistics, Bluetooth marketing, feature phones vs. smartpones, Intel and Nokia’s new alliance and the launch of two new services promoting networking between mobile entrepreneurs.
There’s a lot more in this Carnival too. take a look, I’m sure you will find something there of interest. And thank you Rudy for including my post on using the Bing API to create a mobile search engine.
Visit the: Carnival of the Mobilists #180
MobileCrunch — iPhone App Prices Fluctuate As Developers Adjust To OS 3.0; Nav Apps Gain Pricing Power
Ever since OS. 3.0, the latest operating system for the iPhone, launched on June 17, prices among the top 100 apps in the iTunes App Store have been fluctuating wildly as developers push out apps taking advantage of all the new features in the OS. Some of the new features we are starting to see in apps include push notifications, turn-by-turn navigation, cut-and-paste, embeddable maps, access to external accessories, search within apps, and subscriptions.
Mobile app distribution service Distimo just put out its June iPhone App store report As you can see from the charts above, the average pricing among the top 100 paid apps was pretty steady until the middle of the month, when developers started to test different price points. The most popular price for an app remained $0.99, but the month of June saw more top apps priced at $1.99, $4.99, and $9.99 (the green bars on the chart above).
MobileCrunch — A few iPhone patents for you: Karaoke, fancy haptic feedback
Oh, patents. Companies file you all the time, often coming to nothing, yet you still mystify us for some reason. A few iPhone-related patents have been floating around the Internet this morning; they’re sure to interest you for dozens of seconds. Take this one, which describes a karaoke application.
But that’s merely a game, and a dumb one at that. These two, however, describe something a little more “important.” There’s fingerprint identification, which would identify your fingers individually for a more accurate user interface experience. That is, only your index finger would be able to press the “contacts” app; if you accidently touch it with your middle finger the app wouldn’t activate. That type of thing.
Then there’s an improved version of haptic feedback. Apple would slap a bunch of actuators across the iPhone’s screen. Then, as you slide your finger around the screen, you’d be able to “feel” the different area of the screen. The top half is more bumpy, while the bottom half smooth as silk.
But again, patents are filed all the time. I wouldn’t lose sleep over any of this.
via 9-to-5 Mac
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MobileCrunch — O2 confirmed as Palm Pre carrier in the UK, again
While it was reported in late May by the Guardian that O2 had all but locked up the Palm Pre, the UK rag is once again claiming that O2 will be the exclusive carrier for the webOS device. Earlier rumors that Palm would announce a carrier next week seem to be holding water according to this report by the Guardian. It seems that you’ll be able to pick up a Pre at your local Carphone Warehouse as well. We’ll just have to wait and see.
via Guardian
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MobileCrunch — Review: ColorSnap for iPhone by Sherwin-Williams
So I’m going through my twitter stream a while back and I see several links from some former colleagues of mine, pointing to a new iPhone app called ColorSnap, by Sherwin-Williams. So what right? There are a million (ok, fifty thousand) iPhone apps out there—what’s so interesting about this one?
Well, two things. One, it was developed by my former employer, Resource Interactive, for whom I have the utmost respect and must also disclaim. Two, it is a tool of sorts, which I seem to be more interested in these days rather than just games or social networking. I wanted to check it out.
How it works.
You use ColorSnap to take a picture of anything (a room, an object, whatever). After the image is selected and zoomed in to the right spot in the application view finder, you move your finger over that image and a small square-shaped magnifier follows your finger around and shows a detail view of the color in that part of the photo. Once you find a color with which you are satisfied, you press the “palette” button and it identifies the primary paint color you have just selected and offers two secondary colors that go with it. For example, if you have a dominant object in a room, like a giant red leather couch, you could use this tool to find some supportive secondary colors for the walls and furniture surrounding it.
In my case, I took a photo of the drab, tan filing cabinet above my desk at the office and ColorSnap suggested both Leisure Blue and Repose Gray as complimentary colors for my cubicle. Leisure Blue at the office? Oh the irony. This is great though! I am going to suggest to my bosses that a Leisure Blue leather love seat and a Repose Gray Teutonic wool rug be added to my cubicle. Hey, I asked Sherwin…I’m just sayin’.
Anyway, you can save that color set into the ColorSnap library and can also use the iPhone’s location services to automatically find the nearest Sherwin Williams store (or also search by old-school zip code, if you want), and then go and get your paint.
Initial impressions.
As a former employee of the place that built this app and in an attempt to remain impartial, I think I test drove ColorSnap harder than I normally do when testing apps and frankly the results were impressive. No crashes. No hang time. It really seemed simple and solid in use. But I still wanted something else impartial to base at least some of my measurements against. So I decided to also measure the app against the DotMobi Web Development Guide’s Mobile Strategy section as well.
Paraphrasing from the guide—successful mobile websites and apps should successfully answer the following questions:
1. “Why should it be mobile?”
2. “How does your audience benefit from a mobile presentation [of content]? What tasks will they accomplish with your mobile content? Does the immediacy of mobile help the user?”
Well, the first thing I ask myself about all iPhone apps these days is this: is it really useful or is it a bandwagon agency/dev shop move to prove competency in order to get into the mobile development game? With this application there is clearly a use that it fits and it’s not just eye candy. With regard to the question of “why should this tool be mobile” the answer is that painting is usually location specific and this tool helps people easily make color decisions, from place to place. Essentially, ColorSnap is a dynamic swatch book that also helps users pick out complimentary paint colors.
As far as benefits, ColorSnap’s mobile form factor is perfectly suited for being able to quickly move from location to location (say, in a house or apartment), choose and save color schemes for that place, compare them and then find the closest place to buy them, as paint. Its main benefit is that it streamlines that whole process without the clutter of unnecessary features. It is simple and clear and at a glance you immediately know how to use it. That gives the app depth and clarity. Just as one would take a portable set of color swatches through a room, ColorSnap is a natural-feeling alternative. Couple this basic use with the iPhone’s screen real estate and top-notch color depth you can see why it is a great choice of platform for this kind of tool. And besides, how many people have had advanced color theory training anyway? (Ok, bad example since half of all iPhone owners are probably flaky designer types). Um, well… who really wants to carry a laptop or a dusty color wheel around with them from room to room to process colors?
Is it lacking anything?
Color can be subjective and the app makes no bones about the fact that light source, individual perception or other factors could affect the results and therefore the color you see on the screen may not be a 100% accurate match to the paint suggested. A color-calibrated, exact-match, pigment analyzer it is not. But for “ballparking” your painting plans, ColorSnap really can help you make some basic color decisions and is a convenient tool for giving you a reasonably accurate palette of complimentary color schemes. In fact, my only gripe with the app at all is that I wish it skipped the short intro sequence when you launch it, but that’s just me. It is probably part of the loading sequence.
The Bottom Line.
ColorSnap is a useful and casual tool to consult when picking out color schemes for any painting project. Ultimately, rely on your own good sense when making your final decision on color (or your significant other’s if you are colortastically challenged), but this tool can help you get close and offer sound color suggestions. It’s fun to use too. Sherwin-Williams and Resource Interactive hit one out of the park with their development of ColorSnap for iPhone!
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Tom Hume — Sprint 41: review and retrospective
"In Sprint 41, I invented the bun... I invented the bun, in Sprint 41..."
What we learned:
- You need to be disciplined to get acceptance tests written before development starts on them;
- You need many strategies for communicating with remote teams: not all of them will work in any given situation;
- Retrospective actions need following up, or the whole exercise is of moot value;
- The current UK heat-wave causes problems and opens up opportunities :)
Another write-up of one of our planning days; Glastonbury having abducted our facilitatrix, I was running the review and retrospective sessions. This is undoubtedly a good thing for me to have more practice doing, but I worry about my ability to remain objective when wearing MD and Scrum Master hats, and having some opinions about the Way Things Ought To Be.
Worryingly (scrum smell ahoy!) there was little in the way of production software to show off at the review. Both teams had been working on one project (predominately), and in both cases a couple of large features were nearly-done, but not done done done - mainly due to dependencies on a third party which we're having trouble sorting out in a speedy manner, though in the case of Tonberry they had everything done for one story bar the automated tests. I'm hopeful that this means at the end of Sprint 42 we'll be inundated with new features to show off - i.e. that over 2 2-week sprints we'll have averaged out a little.
Ali showed off some of the widget work he's been doing recently for a new client (more on that in due course, I hope), and we had a good clutch of gold cards: Doug's produced another mobile application for alcoholics ("wake me up when my train gets home"), Chris had been doing some investigations into persistent storage efficiency using our Cactus database components for J2ME, and Tariq had some work on an Android app.
I've been worried about following up actions agreed at retrospectives - or rather, my not following them up as diligently as I should've been: there's little point in regularly agreeing to do stuff if it never gets done. So I kicked off the retro with a review of actions from the last time, highlighting the ones we've done and not yet gotten around to. I get the sense the strike rate was slightly higher, but I need to concentrate more on this in upcoming sprints.
Then the retrospective proper. I returned to a fairly standard format: each team member calling out 4 memorable moments from the previous sprint and getting them up onto a timeline. This brings out areas of common opinion or feeling from the team - unsurprisingly, many of us were pretty worried when one of the guys was taken into hospital at short notice, but environmental concerns about office temperature in the current heatwave were also a common theme, as was the visit a few of us made to Berlin on Monday. Some bug-fixing on an oldish project provided a boost to a few of us; stories not being finished provided a more sombre end-note to the sprint.
Having reached and discussed a group consensus on the previous 2 weeks, we moved onto actions, with each team member voting for something we should do in the immediate future, something we shouldn't do, and something we just don't understand. We then grouped these, discussed them and came out with a few to follow up on this sprint:
- We're becoming one team; with much of our work over the next couple of months being on a particular large project, we're combining the two development teams into one and sharing stand-ups and planning. A particular hope of mine is that this will encourage a lot more pairing up - 6 people can form many more combination of pairs than 3 - leading to a bit of variety, and a quicker path to getting those new to the project up to speed with i.
- We'd slacked off on a practice everyone had agreed had value, and worked well for us: writing acceptance tests for a story at the start of its development, and involving developers, QA, designers and the Product Owner in this session. Efforts are accordingly being redoubled in this department.
- A hot working environment is unpleasant: Thom was tasked to look into possible coolants.
- The speed of communication with a remote customer was highlighted as an issue by the team. I'm quite proud of the quantity of work we've done in the past, working with teams in London, Denmark, Helsinki or China... and past post-project retrospectives have highlighted the value of shortening decision times, so we've lots of little tricks we can use to ease the pain here. Recently we'd hit some problems which they weren't helping with, so we opted to raise the issue with the customer.
Other things we discussed included ways to improve our test automation (with some interesting suggestions floating for ways to document and improve test coverage of the user-interface elements of MIDlets or other mobile apps), and the need (or otherwise) to re-estimate stories before planning. The latter ended up with quite a long-running and heated debate (of the type we try and avoid having normally in retrospectives). I'm not convinced we got to the end of it but it feels like concerns have at least been aired. I posted round a Mike Cohn blog entry on the topic afterwards, which summed up the way I felt, but much more eloquently than I could put it.
Other observations I'd have: sprint burndowns don't seem to be so handy for us. They don't often get referred to and in some cases haven't been updated too frequently. I'm not sure what to do here: I think our story sizing relative to team capacity might be a bit off, and perhaps a larger team will make a difference.
We're Googly as fuck nowadays - we don't tend to move without creating a spreadsheet or document about it, and seem to have settled on it as our standard means of electronic collaboration.
And finally, we're holding standups outside for this sprint - partly to deal with the heat, and partly to recognise that with a team of 8-10, finding a board we can cluster around and actually refer to is tough with our current office configuration...
W3C MWI BPWG — First extension to the mobileOK Checker library released to check files!
A new extension to the W3C mobileOK open source library is available that can be used to validate pages served via the file URI scheme. The W3C mobileOK open source Java library has been developed in such a way that it is very easy to extend. We strongly encourage people to extend this library so that a better infrastructure is provided to designers for creating mobile-friendly content.
The mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Checker library provides a reference implementation of the tests specified in the W3C mobileOK Scheme 1.0. This scheme requires that pages are served via HTTP protocol, however there might be some cases where validating pages that are stored locally would be useful. Therefore, this new extension has been created and can be used to validate pages served via file URI scheme. The extension is designed and implemented in a way that does not affect the basic reference implementation. It is also important to note that validating pages only with this extension does not guarantee that the page is mobileOK as some tests require HTTP connection. This extension has to be used in-coordination with the W3C mobileOK Checker and does not replace the core mobileOK library.If you want to use this extension with the main library then you need to download and install it.
A technical documentation explains in detail how this extension can be installed and used.
This extension has been developed as part of the UK EPSRC funded RIAM (Reciprocal Interoperability of Accessible and Mobile Webs) project with the help of the Mobile Web Best Practices Checker Task Force.
Carnival of the Mobilists — Carnival of the Mobilists #180
This is Carnival number six for Barcelona based m-trends.org, where once again host Rudy de Waele gives an overview of qualitative, original and diverse opinions about what’s hot in mobile.
Rudy de Waele (m-trends) — Carnival of the Mobilists #180
Barbara Ballard (Little Springs) — over-apping
This has been bugging me for a while, but I wasn't sure until today whether it was me: There are too many mobile apps.
I don't mean in raw numbers, cause those are great. And I'm not complaining about pointless apps, and games or gimmicks no one uses after the first day. I mean by choice between a mobile (or mobile-compliant) site and an app, there are too damned many apps. And, again percentage wise, way too damned many iPhone apps.
We've discussed this in some detail, and while I cannot seem to find a place to link to it, we've said it a lot in presentations and training we offer. There are a series of choices when going mobile, and a key one is whether you can live with a website or have to live with an app. Neither is inherently better than the other, and your choice (even if it's "both") will always have a downside.
Today, within the last hour in fact, I saw a TV ad for a new iPhone app from Nationwide Insurance.
It's not a general insurance company app (unlike the USAA mobile site Barbara brings up a lot) but seems to be entirely focused on post-accident activities. (I don't have their insurance, so cannot be sure, but Googling presents only this app). So... who will download this? This strikes me as the perfect thing to make mobile, but also the perfect thing to make a mobile website. Why?
- Everyone has a car, not just iPhone users.
- Everyone has accidents, not just iPhone users.
- No one plans accidents, so why would they download this, even for free?
- If you have the presence of mind to remember the app you downloaded three years ago, you have the presence of mind to go web browsing instead.
- If you look at the helpful info on the insurance card, it could tell you to go to a website. Even if it told you to go download an app, the extra step at accident time adds a lot of friction.
Now, this doesn't mean a one-size fits all solution. A Barbara has dicussed here and elsewhere, you can offer multiple variations of that website. Hell, like I said above you can offer both an app and a site. But don't fall into any one trap to keep up with the Joneses, or because your new toy is really cool, so damn everyone else's.
In this case, it might well need a multi-faceted approach. Me? I'd be likely to add an option to the IVR when you call them that says we can let you do this through your phone, just press 7 and we'll send an SMS to the current number. Push message, click and launch a site without typing. Or, if you insist, install an app (unless you are on Verizon, et. al.). Sure, sure. Websites can't take photos generally, but I am sure if that's needed we can find a way for MMS to work.
Any way, think about your customers, or hire someone else to take a good, long, scientific and fact-based look at your customers, and decide on the right solution for them.
Little Springs Design is a user experience design consultancy focused exclusively on mobile. For information on contracting our design, strategy, training, and testing services, please contact us today.
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Copyright ©2009 Little Springs Design, Inc.
Anders Borg (Abiro) — Location, full circle
Just a short time after WAP browsers were provided in mobile phones, and even before that via SMS, operators offered “near you” type services that listed (without fancy graphics or maps) e.g. petrol stations in your vicinity. That worked fine, using network-based cell location, except nobody used those services at the time.
A few years ago GPS was all the rage, but it’s still marginally available/used:
- Hardly any phones have GPS. Sure, iPhones and BlackBerrys have, but hardly anyone has iPhones and BlackBerrys (despite the media attention they get).
- The battery drain is still disastrous.
- Sensitivity is also pretty bad, especially on smaller phones, so oftentimes there’s no possibility to determine the location.
- Reaching many users (which mobile services must do to get enough revenue or reach) requires cell or (of increasing interest and viability) Wi-Fi location.
- GPS also has the drawback of not working at all indoors, however sensitive the receiver is.
Hence, what you need to use today for location is primarily cell-based, either by accessing information in the phone (device dependent/limited but free), or go via location brokers and determine the location via the network (device independent but costly).
I wonder though why GPS power consumption can’t be improved? I’m an amateur at best when it comes to radio electronics, but isn’t a GPS receiver just that, a receiver? So what draws all that current?
Anders Borg (Abiro) — New frontiers
I’ve updated my LinkedIn profile, as things are a-changing, partly explaining my blogging absence:
- The biggest change is that I’m co-founder and board member at a new company (yet to be disclosed) that will provide consumer-oriented mobile services, and I will serve as the project leader for the initial service development there, and then switch over to a more or less pure board/adviser role.
- My work as CEO at Mobile Labs Sweden AB continues, and we recently announced a very compact vector font rendering solution (< 1M) for Chinese low-end phones.
- For Netville I part time (obviously) provide assistance with sales and marketing of professional services for the local telecom market.
- Already last year I left as active at mm3 Mobile Channel AB (yet I remain as co-founder).
- On my spare “Abiro time” I’m currently involved in 5 parallel development projects (I’m not kidding, but of course only occasionally) on platforms as diverse as Visual Basic, C#, Android Dalvik, Java ME and PHP/MySQL, and in cases in combination.
I own stock in all the mentioned companies, which is my long term strategy for additional (and hopefully in cases “hockey stick”) revenue. This is yet to be proven a sensible strategy. If it works I’ll probably write a book, or buy a Segway.
There will be more stuff happening down the road, but this is enough for now.
Anders Borg (Abiro) — Distribution of MIDlets via Kalador/Mobilerated
Here are some stats and attempts to conclusions gathered from providing mobile applications via mobilerated.com. I can’t give any exact numbers for confidentiality reasons.
- Big difference in download/click ratio between applications. Conclusion: Downloading is not all. Repetitive use will create the long term ad revenue, so make useful applications that people want to use again and again. This doesn’t mean “glossy” promotion (an area where I fail utterly) is not important, but it’s definitely not enough if the application is a turkey. E.g. Jitter is downloaded relatively little (for whatever reason) but generates the most ad revenue.
- Very little pay despite sizable volumes. Conclusion: Don’t leave your day job on chance.
- Noticed at GetJar, but probably applies to Mobilerated as well: There are many more games than applications, so it’s harder to stand out with games. On the other hand, games are much more downloaded than applications. Conclusion: None really, as I have no games to compare with, so draw your own in this case.
- Indonesia and India lead, with USA and United Kingdom close seconds. Conclusion: Don’t just go for the Western markets, and don’t think Asian markets are less developed in terms of mobile use. That’s a huge mistake. Oddly Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea don’t show up. Not reached by Mobilerated?
- The ad frontend needs to be very polished, clearly pointing out the application is in there, but you need to look at an ad first. When publishing the same ad-enabled applications at GetJar, some user got really angry thinking this was adware, and nothing else. Conclusion: The market needs better in-app solutions. It’s on my (very long) to-do list to make one.
Anders Borg (Abiro) — Android, a curiosity to academics
Is this descriptive of academics’ relation to reality in general? Kind of funny though.
WAP Review — Skyfire Updated
It seems to be raining mobile browser updates. Yesterday Bolt issued a major update and it looks like Skyfire did a bug fix release on Monday. There are quite a few fixes in it. Here are the release notes.
Skyfire 1.0 update – Release Notes (Windows Mobile and Symbian)
Released: June 30, 2009
Since our Skyfire 1.0 launch, we’ve fixed a few bugs and are releasing this new update. We encourage you to upgrade today by going to http://get.skyfire.com with your device.
1.0.0.12114 Symbian
1.0.0.12113 Windows Mobile touch and non-touch
What’s new in this 1.0 update?
- Reduced Memory footprint. We reduced the memory footprint of Skyfire for both Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. This should help folks reporting issues on memory constrained devices.
Fixes in this release
- History is presented in the proper order.
- Cookies in the UK data center are handled more reliably.
- Sharing links via SMS are handled more reliably.
- Reconnect correctly loads the last page in history plus we’ve improved reliability.
- Site specific issues have been resolved for Rooftopcommedy.com and thefind.com.
- Zoom buttons behave properly and disappear after a couple of seconds.
- Default browser setting works more consistently.
- Text entry on Symbian has been improved with one caveat below.
Known issues in this release
- Multi-line text entry on Symbian: Skyfire might exit the text entry mode when the user is choosing a word from the predictive text list. Plus, using the down key might NOT get you out of text entry mode. If this happens, use enter or center OK. Issues 7149 & 7112
- Superbar state on Symbian: sometimes when you enter into the superbar with the cursor, existing the Superbar via the ‘cancel’ option will navigate to the previous page. Issue 7158
- Change connection on Symbian: Choosing the search WLAN option might not change the WLAN connection. Issue 6633.
- Samsung Jack (AT&T): Because of a security policy on this device, it will not allow uninstall of Skyfire if there is not SIM card in the phone. Simply insert a SIM card.
I’ve installed the new version on my N95-3 without problems. Interestingly, the version number is 1.0.0.12214 rather than the 1.0.0.12114 mentioned in the release notes. Typo or a new silent release? In any case, as expected from the nature of the update, there are no obvious changes. Everything I said in my Skyfire 1.0 review still applies. Skyfire is the best way to watch web videos on a S60 or Windows Mobile phones, but the tiny fonts at the default zoom level make it less pleasant for sites that are mainly text.
The reduced memory footprint should allow this version to run on phones like the N73 that didn’t have enough RAM to work with Skyfire 1.0. Elsewhere on the web; @kiyo21 reports that pasting text from the system clipboard into the “Enter URL” field now works on S60. I can confirm that. A commenter at All About Symbian noted that entering text in web forms seems slower in the new version. It IS slow although I don’t know if it’s any worse than before. Skyfire users, what are your experiences with this upgrade?
Related Posts
Skyfire 1.0 Reviewed
Skyfire 0.9 – WVGA Support, Twitter and Facebook Integration
Skyfire Browser Beta 0.85 for S60 – Full Review
MobileCrunch — Rumor: Everyone’s trying to buy T-Mobile UK
When we mentioned yesterday that Vodafone was considering snatching up T-Mobile UK, we figured that’d be the last we heard of it for a while. They’d go quiet for a while, do some negotiation, and then they’d either make a big deal about the purchase or just pretend the whole thing never happened. As it happens, it’s a bit more heated than that.
According to ElectricPig, there’s a bit of a bidding war going on right now, with O2 and Orange throwing up their paddles alongside Vodafone. It’s all a big messy mess at the moment, though; some claim that Orange wants nothing to do with it, while other say they’re already bidding away. The current rumored price getting tossed around is right around £3 billion pounds, which is just under $5 billion USD.
What say you, UKers - got a preference as to who walks away with T-Mobile UK’s customer base in tow?
Photo: jennlynndesign on Flickr
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
MobileCrunch — Rumor: GSM Pre being announced next week?
Oh, Palm Pre. You’ve got style. You’ve got grace. You’ve even got a PlayStation emulator! But what you don’t have, young one, is a SIM card slot that makes you friendly with the vast majority of popular carriers around the world.
That won’t be a problem much longer, or so say the rumor mill. Now, we’ve known a GSM Pre has existed for months now, but Palm has stayed mum on the topic. According to T3, Palm will make an announcement next week regarding everything you need to know about the UK release of the Pre.
If these things are released in the UK before the US, we fully expect the eBay grey market to be jam-packed within the week. Unless, of course, they’re locked down to specific carriers - in which case we fully expect them to be hacked and up on eBay within a week and a day.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Taro Matsumura — Add "S" to my life [ REVIEW, #iPhone, #iTunes, #photo, #SoftBank ]
だいぶタイミングを逸していたのは、ポストしたつもりがポストできていなかった、という残念なお知らせでした。今更ながら、iPhone 3GS乗り換えのフォローアップエントリーを書きたいと思います。ちょっと切り口を変えて、どうしたらiPhone 3GSをキレイに使えるか、という点にフォーカスが当たるかも。
iPhone 3Gは発売からしばらく、東京都内の各ショップで品薄状態がしばらく続いたが、今回は在庫に余裕があり、キャンペーンを組み合わせて購入しやすいようにしているショップも多いようだ。SoftBankユーザーに限らず、友人もiPhoneに機種変更して僕の所に電話をかけてくる人多数。とても楽しい夜の時間を過ごしています。
半分は他のケータイからiPhoneに乗り換えるという人にも当てはまるんだけれども、iPhone同士の機種変更と言っても、ショップがやってくれるのは端末の月々割の手続きやUSIMカードの入れ替え程度。残りの作業はユーザーが家に持ち帰って、iTunesを経由して行う必要がある。まず古いiPhoneのバックアップを取り、新しいiPhoneのユーザー登録とバックアップの復元を行うことになる。
iPhoneではないケータイから移行する場合はこちらに方法が載っている。ショップの電話帳バックアップの機械を使って専用サーバにコピー、自宅で「かんたんコピーアプリ」を使う必要がある。auなどの端末で電話帳をvCard形式で書き出すことが出来るなら、microSDなどを通じてMacやPCにコピーして、成形してからiTunes経由でiPhoneに同期すればよいだろう。
昨日本田直之さんと話をしていたんだけれど、結局Gmailの連絡先との同期は、来たメール全てが言ってしまったりしてきっちり管理できないことから、現状はMobileMeが最適解じゃないか、という結論になった。本田さんは日本用とアメリカ用のiPhoneを持っていて、完全に2つのiPhoneを同期したいというニーズがある。そうすると、カレンダー、アドレスブックともに、MobileMeが一番ちゃんと管理できるのだそうだ。
さて、僕の同期作業に戻る。
ついつい16GBいっぱいにアプリや音楽、Podcastを使っていたため、バックアップに20分、リストアに30分近くかかってしまった。同期する音楽などを減らした方が時間は短縮できるのかもしれない。この同期の作業が終了すると、新しいiPhone 3GSは今まで使っていたiPhone 3Gと全く同じように使うことが出来る。
各種設定はもちろんのこと、アプリ、音楽、メールアカウントなど、全てキレイに同期される。ただ僕の場合、なぜかMobileMeのパスワードだけは、自分で再度設定する必要があったので、Microsoft ExchangeやMobileMeを使ってメールや連絡先などを同期しているユーザーは注意して欲しい。
ちょっと時間はかかったが、これでそっくり中身を移すことが出来た。iPhone 3G側は、工場出荷時に戻す、と言うメニューを選んで、まっさらな状態にした。この作業も表示では「2時間かかる」と書いてあって、まさか、とは思ったけれども放っておいたのでまあ知らないうちに終わっていました。
ここまでキレイに中身が移り変わると、もしもiPhoneをなくした時でも、バックアップ時点の状態への復元が可能だ。ちゃんとバックアップを頻繁に取る必要はあるけれど、ちょっとした安心感が身近にある感覚が有る。もちろん端末をなくすこと事態は避けたいし、なくしたら相当痛いですよね。
もうちょっと、iPhone観察。
ぜんぜん気づかなかったんだけれども、iPhone 3G（下）のDockコネクタの部分の、シルバーの外枠の間のプラスティックが薄い部分、割れてますよね。変な方向に力がかかったからか、いつ頃からか分からないけれど、iPhone 3GSではこうならないように、Dockコネクタの接続は注意しなければ。
あと、Dockコネクタの外側のねじ。相当さびてますよね。あとマイク、スピーカーなどのメッシュも、これはどうすればキレイに使えるのか、掃除できるのか、楊枝でいろいろとトライしてみたくなってきました。ただ、その楊枝の先がメッシュに挟まったり何だりで、面倒なことにならないように気をつけます。
<p><a href="http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/iphone/pdc/">SoftBank: 電話帳簡単コピー</a></p>
MobileCrunch — Sprint will also offer the BlackBerry Tour (9630) on July 12
Not to be outdone by Verizon, Sprint announced today that the BlackBerry Tour would start selling on my birthday, July 12. The final cost of the Tour will be $200, but there’s a $100MIR and a $50 instant rebate. In case you forgot, the Tour is the Curve’s (8900) 3G counterpart.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
MobileCrunch — Toshiba launching the TG01 next week in London
Yay! Toshiba is officially unveiling their Windows Mobile Snapdragon-powered TG01 in London on July 9th. Yeah, I’m about as impressed as you are. The only redeeming quality I find in this device is the 4.1-inch WVGA touch-screen. Who cares about Snapdragon when Tegra is coming in a few months? And let’s not forget about the fact that it’s a Windows Mobile device. Do whatever you want to skin WinMo, Toshiba, but everyone knows that HTC’s TouchFLO 3D is the best in that arena.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
MobileCrunch — Japanese cell phone commercial: Brad Pitt plays disgruntled sumo champion’s butler (video)
Brad Pitt has been shooting TV commercials for Japan’s third biggest cell phone carrier SoftBank for a few years now, and more often than not, he plays a total moron. In this new spot, currently in heavy rotation on Japanese TV, he tries everything to please sumo champion Musashimaru.
Musashimaru (who became Japanese sumo champion in 1999 and is from American Samoa) is in a bad mood, and Pitt tries everything to make him happy. The point of the video is to point out that SoftBank offers particularly slim and light cell phones.
Here is the commercial:
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
MobileCrunch — Microsoft’s Project Pink gets a new agency
Ah, Project Pink, I haven’t heard anything from or about you in quite a long time. But it looks like Redmond made some key changes to its agency roster and McCann picked up the “Pink” account. McCann also handles Windows Mobile.
According to ZDnetter Mary Jo Foley, Pink will be built on top of Windows Mobile 7, which MS plans to release the code for this fall when WinMo 6.5 devices start to flood the market. Foley goes on to say that she’s heard that Motorola will manufacture Pink alongside the Sidekick. Except she fails to realize that Sharp manufactures the Sidekick; Motorola built the Slide that has since been axed from the lineup. So does that mean Danger is in the mix? Maybe. On a side note, it’s pretty funny that the UI for Pink is codenamed “Purple” because Bing’s earliest codename was also Purple or so I’ve heard.
Going back to early May, Foley detailed purported specs for Pink and the biggest indicator that the device could be tied in with the Zune platform is the use of Nvidia’s Tegra platform. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Danger had a big hand in all of this because they haven’t done much with the Hiptop unit other than including Live Search in the latest Sidekick LX. Just don’t go to Verizon.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
MobileCrunch — Review: Don’t get yourself too hot and bothered by Warpack Grunts
I was pretty excited about Warpack Grunts when I first started playing it. The game seemed to have promise. And for $0.99, I had inklings that it may have been the biggest steal to come to the iPhone since the OS 3.0 launch. While it still lived up to its $1 price, I can’t say that it quite met my expectations. Though the graphics, the gameplay and the level of difficulty were all rock solid, a few missing features (and some wonky controls) left a sour taste in my mouth.
Developed by Freeverse and Strange Flavour Limited, Warpack Grunts is a third person army combat game in which you travel around in a pack of 4 special forces units and your job is to blow the enemy to smithereens. The pack moves as one group, and drag your army around by swiping your finger in the direction you want to go. Unlike most iPhone real-time strategy games (which this is not, but RTS games are the best point of comparison for the controls), you cannot select a portion of your units, and you do not tap to move them in a certain direction. Instead, you literally slide your finger in front of where you want them to go, and the screen and units move accordingly. This maneuver has a surprisingly shallow learning curve, and I picked it up within five minutes of gameplay. Your units each have their own machine gun, but share one “special weapon” such as a grenade, bazooka or sniper. You tap in the direction you want to fire the machine gun, or can toggle the special weapon to fire it.
Addictive, intriguing and well-designed were three words I thought I would end up describing the game. And the first two still hold true. The game is split up into a series of short missions (not meant to take more than 5 minutes at the most; some of them are as short as 30 seconds), each of which is challenging and engaging. Overall, I had a hard time beating most missions on the first try, but usually handled it on the second or third. That said, some missions (like the 30 second ones) were uselessly easy and some missions were unnecessarily tedious and frustrating.
You weave and wind your way throughout a nondescript South American jungle, and the landscape is filled with trees rocks that force you to stay on a path. The game makers had to be drunk when they designed some of these paths, because they weaved and wound so much I felt like I was getting dizzy while sitting still in my chair. Given the nature of the controls (you have to keep dragging your finger along the screen to move at all), these labyrinthine environments were obnoxious and unwanted.
But the worst part of this game was the design. I loved the actual crux of the gameplay, and think that it would be easy for Freeverse to do a second take on the game, raise the price to $4 and make me extremely satisfied with purchasing it. Aside from the aforementioned controls, another major gripe I had was the inability to save. After dying four (or maybe five; I can’t count) times in one go, you are basically back to square one. It doesn’t save at the last mission you played, and so you are stuck starting over from the tutorial levels and ripping hair out reading the same stale dialogue over and over again.
OK - I’ve talked a lot about how I liked the gameplay, but what did I like? Mostly, it was the tactile nature of the skirmishes. You use the environment (i.e. hide behind trees) and your special weapons (e.g. grenades) to destroy your enemy before they know what hit ‘em. Though this often means having to play the level twice (and just getting man-handled the first time), it also results in a more strategic shooting game. The enemies move in a predictable manner, so you can plan your route ahead of time and carefully pick them off, one by one.
Despite its many flaws, but I would still recommend buying Warpack Grunts if this the type if game you’re into. I was more frustrated about the game because of how much potential it had than anything else, but at $1, I find it hard to believe you couldn’t justify the purchase. That’s one less trip to the vending machine for a game that has major upside if you can look past its pitfalls. Each mission has its own merits, and I found myself glued to the screen while I was ‘nading tanks or gunning down enemy soldiers.
What we like:
- The Missions. Though there were definitely outliers, most of the missions were quick and dirty. Plenty of action and they didn’t last so long that you lost interest.
- The Grenades. Ok, I know this is specific, but grenades are actually a huge part of the game, and their use is extremely well-done.
- Multiple aspect support. Switching between portrait and landscape is essential to the game, and it was a treat to see a game utilize both.
What we don’t like:
- The controls. We’ve mentioned this already, but OMFG was I annoyed at having to drag my finger around like a flippin’ drunkard trying to navigate around the landscape to actually kill the enemies. Also, I thought that toggling the special weapons was too difficult and poorly designed.
- You can’t save. There are over 30 levels in this game, but if you want to play it campaign-style and go through them, you have to start from the beginning after every 4 deaths. Why a bonafide game manufacturer would put its users through that torture (the first few levels are tutorials) is beyond me.
- Only one good special weapon The grenades were fun, yes. But the rest of the special weapons were lame. The sniper and binoculars were too hard to control, and virtually unusable. And the bazooka shot straight at the ground you tapped on, meaning you could only fire at what you saw on the screen. That meant you had to basically stand in front of enemy tank bearing down at you as you frantically fired your bazooka at it, hoping for the best.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Opera Mini — Server Upgrade to 4.11.458
- enhanced site compatibility
- a fix for pages with internal links
- improved synchronization
- binary files are always offered for download
Since JavaScript site patches are used to improve site compatibility, an enhancement allowing developers to bypass those patches has been included. The setting is available when entering the "
config:" URL, but should always be enabled for normal usage.All users automatically benefit from the upgrade (no manual change is needed, though it is possible to check the server version using the "
debug:" URL).Happy surfing! :cheers:
Taro Matsumura — iPhoneを手放しに褒められない理由 - 足りないのはケータイウェブとのマージ [ COLUMN, #docomo, #iPhone, #keitai, #mail, #SoftBank, #web ]
先ほどのMMSの話題で「何をいまさら」「あたりまえじゃないか」といろいろな方にご指摘を受けて、イヤ確かにその通りなんだけれども、SoftBank 705NKで勘違いして死んだことがあったので、びびっていたんです。
それはそうとして。
そのエントリーのコメント欄でのディスカッションで、ケータイメールが使えるようになったのは良いけれど、ウェブのブラウザは依然としてケータイ対応を果たしていない点で、「手放しに褒められない」というご意見がありました。これもまたご指摘の通り。ケータイメールに対応したがウェブに対応しない。多くのサービスが使えないのは目に見えてますよね。
docomoはBlackBerry Bold発売の時にインタビューをすすめていく中で、「スマートフォンとケータイの融合をすすめたい」というdocomoの話は、まさにHitさんご指摘の点への対処だ。スマートフォンを日本で導入するなら、日本のケータイと遜色ない使い勝手が提供出来るべきだ、という方向性は心強い限りだ。
ASCII.jp: ケータイが語るミクロな魅力 - 第61回 BlackBerry Boldの売り方教えます - 「ケータイとして当たり前の機能であるi-mode、とりわけi-modeメールが使えない点は、やはりメインのケータイとして使うには、割り切れないネックです。ビジネスユースも含めて、3割から4割のお客様に、i-modeメールに対応してほしいという声を頂きます。最終的には、絵文字メールが打てるようにしたい」（三嶋氏）
ただ、今回のMMS対応で、SoftBankはiPhoneを他のケータイ端末と同じようにS!メールに対応させることに成功した。1年間でプッシュされてくるケータイメールに対応したのである。
そこで、ウェザーニューズのウェブから、月額315円の有料会員サービスに、ケータイにアラートメールが届くよう、@softbank.ne.jpのメールアドレスをケータイメールとして追加してみた。そして、「アドレスに確認メールを送りました。クリックして認証を済ませて下さい」というメッセージ。
直後にiPhoneのSMS/MMSの通知が来て、URLが届く。クリックしてみると、Forbiddenのエラーで認証をすることが出来なかった。ケータイじゃないから、アクセスできませんよ、ということである。せっかくプッシュのケータイメールが使えても、ケータイウェブとしてのアクセスが出来なければ、完全にサービスが使えないのである。
iPhoneがケータイブラウザとして認識されるようにするのは、SoftBankがやるのか、CPがやるのか分からないけれど、いずれにしても、ケータイウェブのスマートフォントとのマージが『日本においては』重要な話になる。
CPもキャリアもビジネス的にやりたいか？ やった方が良いか？ 課金システムは現状で持つのか？新たに作るのか？といういろいろな問題で、判断も分かれるかもしれないし、コストをかけるところじゃない、と切り捨てるところもいるだろう。でも、出来ればポジティブな判断を期待したいと思ってます。
<p><a href="http://business.ascii.jp/elem/000/000/214/214979/index-3.html">ASCII.jp: ケータイが語るミクロな魅力 - 第61回 BlackBerry Boldの売り方教えます</a></p>
Taro Matsumura — MMSでパケ死はしない - ちょっと複雑なiPhoneメールにまつわる話 [ COLUMN, #iPhone, #keitai, #mail, #SMS, #SoftBank ]
KNN神田さんのTwitterで、MMSの料金がどうなっているのか、という不安の書き込みがあった。僕もばしばしMMSでケータイメールですよー、と友人への告知を進めていたので、ちょっとどきっとして問い合わせました。
SoftBankサポートセンター（SoftBank端末から 157）に電話をして聞いてみたところ、以下の通り。
・SoftBank向けSMS/MMSはホワイトプランであれば無料。
・SoftBank以外のMMSは有料だが、パケット定額フル適用。
・Eメール(i)は、SoftBank向け、それ以外にかかわらず有料、パケット定額フル適用。
・その他のパケット通信は、有料、パケット定額フル適用。
確かに神田さんご指摘の通り、確かに他者向けMMSは有料なんですが、パケット定額フルの適用を受けるため、青天井にパケット代を請求されることはなさそうです。
ちなみに、iPhoneの写真、ビデオや音声をケータイメールとしておくって、再生できる端末って何なんでしょうか？
Eメール(i)やMobileMeのメールを使ってケータイに写真を送ろうとすると、HTMLメール形式になり、特にdocomo端末ではデコメール扱いとしてデコメールの素材ファイルの容量を超えている、という理由で画像が見られない端末があった。MMSなら添付ファイルとして届くようで、ちゃんと見られるようになったとのこと。
いわゆるケータイメールのアドレスで絵文字や写真が送れるようになって、やっと「ケータイメール1.5」に対応出来たかな、というところ。ASCII.jpの記事も書いたけれど、デコメールも素材がばらばらの吹き出しで届く以外は、どんなデコメールか何となく雰囲気をつかめる程度には分かります。これがすっきり見えたら「ケータイメール2.0」対応という所だろう。
音声はApple Loss LessのM4Aファイルなので結構絶望的にも思えます（iTunes対応を謳うBlackBerry BoldやPalm Preはいけるのでしょうか）。一方ビデオファイルは、H.264 3.6MbpsのMOVファイル。拡張子がどう処理されるか次第ですが、こちらはH.264記録に対応しているSony Ericssonやシャープ端末で読めそうな気がします。
とにかく、ケータイメール対応でケータイのコミュニケーションに半歩足を踏み入れたiPhone。どういう使い方が出来るのか、ウォッチして参りましょう。
<p> <a href="https://twitter.com/knnkanda">KNN神田さんのTwitter</a>で、MMSの料金がどうなっているのか、という不安の書き込みがあった。僕もばしばしMMSでケータイメールですよー、と友人への告知を進めていたので、ちょっとどきっとして問い合わせました。</p>
MobileCrunch — Palm Pre gets a PlayStation emulator
Oh boy. I’ve found a reason to charge my Pre back from the dead. ZodTTD, purveyor of iPhone emulators galore, has struck again by installing psx4all on his Palm Pre. Surprisingly enough, Zod says the Pre’s hardware runs the emulator way better than the iPhone 3GS. But it’s not all peaches and cream.
* There is no sound output (but it’s emulated), as Pulse Audio is required for the Palm Pre, and I have yet to support it. It will come soon.
* I have not figured out hardware rotation or scaling, or whether it is possible. Until then I am using the raw framebuffer device and blitting 320×240 software scaled.
* I figured out how to read the keypad device on the Palm Pre, though there are times it fails to give a keyup event, making keys “stick”. This is annoying and I’m looking for a workaround.
* As things progress I will have fullscreen landscape working as well.
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MobileCrunch — What’s new in the iPhone OS 3.1 Beta?
Well, iPhone OS 3.1 Beta just went live on Apple’s developer center and, as usual, it’s a quest to figure out what has changed. Our lovely developer friends have already started tearing it apart in search of that hidden gem detailing the iPhone 4GFP (The FP stands for “Face punch”), and we’re keeping tabs on what they find.
As far as we can tell, it’s almost entirely developer-oriented stuff.
New stuff:
- Around 15 new OpenGL toys for handling 3D models
- VideoEditorController API, which should let third party apps call up the video editing UI
- Video picker API, goes hand-in-hand with the above
- Plenty of obligatory “It seems faster!” reports
- Some are claiming that MMS is now enabled by default, though still not functioning properly on AT&T. Seems strange to us that this would come via an OS update and not a carrier file update.
Let us know what you uncover, and we’ll add it to the list.
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Wireless Watch Japan — Custom QR Code for Marc Jacobs Japan
WAP Review — Bolt Beta 3 Browser Review
I’ve been using the new release of Bolt (V 1.04, aka Beta 3) for about a day now and I’m quite impressed. This release represents a significant upgrade. The new support for bold and italic fonts, file uploading and copying text from web pages is particularly welcome.
Bolt and italic support may seem like a small thing but it makes for a big improvement in the appearance and readability of many sites. Of all the server assisted Java based browsers Bolt is the only one to properly render bold, italic and bold-italic.
The new feature to upload photos and videos to web based services like YouTube and Flickr comes in the form of support for the html input tag’s “file” type so it works with any site that has a web form for uploading. You can browse the phone’s file system from within Bolt to select and directly upload content. This does require that your phone support the Java JSR 75 file system capability, which most modern phones do although operators, especially in the U.S., often block it on subsidized phones.
The new copy and paste function works well. To use it, first position the cursor near the beginning or end of the text you wish to copy. Then choose “Select Text” from the menu and move the cursor horizontally and/or vertically to highlight what you want to copy and then choose “Copy” from the menu. I found it was a little tricky to select text as Bolt seemed to want to “jump” the cursor to the next column or paragraph. But with a little patience it’s doable. Bolt has implemented its own internal clipboard to store copied text rather than using the phone OS clipboard. This is a good choice as most feature phones don’t natively implement copy and paste and thus don’t have a system clipboard. With Bolt you can copy text from a webpage and then paste it into an webmail message or a web based “Notes” application like or Evernote on any phone. However the lack of direct access to the system clipboard means that on phones that do support copy/paste like BlackBerries, Symbian phones and most Sony Ericssons, there is no obvious way to copy text into an SMS or the phone’s native email or notes applications. I did find a workaround that let me transfer the contents of the Bolt clipboard to the system clipboard on both the Nokia N95 and BlackBerry 7100i. What I had to do is:
- Copy some text with the Bolt menu
- Press the “3” key to open the “Enter URL” field,
- Delete the URL field’s contents with the phone’s “C” or “Del” key
- Choose Menu > Paste to paste the copied text into the URL field
- Select Menu > Edit, which opens the URL file in a system level text field (image – bottom left)
- Copy the text into the system clipboard using the phone’s edit menu. On the N95, you hold the “pencil” key and use the dPad to select, then choose “Copy“. On the BlackBerry it’s Menu > Select Text, scroll to select, then Menu > Copy to copy it to the system clipboard
- Once the text is into the System clipboard it can easily be pasted into an edit field in another app using the OS paste function (”pencil” > “Paste” on the N95 or press the scrollwheel or “Menu” key and then choose “Paste” on BlackBerries. The bottom right image shows the text copied into a BlackBerry Note.
The process is workable if a bit cumbersome. In the next release, I’d like to see Bolt provide a way for users to directly open the clipboard in an editable text field to make copying into the system clipboard a little easier.
This release is particularly exciting for users of older BlackBerries running BlackBerry OS 4.1 and earlier. (All the screenshot images in this post are from the old BlackBerry 7100i.) Bolt Beta 2 did not work at all on these older models. Beta 1 ran but scrolling and cursor movement were unbearably slow. Beta 3 fixes both problems and I found it very usable on my BlackBerry 7100i which runs OS 4.1. Scrolling by page and moving the cursor around the page is much quicker than it was in Beta 1 and is on a par with navigation in Opera Mini 4.2. The dedicated page up and down keys (2 and 8) make reading long blocks of text a breeze.
Speaking of dedicated keys there are now a full set in Bolt:
0: Show Favorites
1: My Pages
2: Page Up
3: Enter URL
4: Page Left
5: Toggle the split-screen view (image – top right)
6: Page Right
7: Find in Page
8: Page down
9: Forward
*: Show History
#: Show Feeds
In addition, on BlackBerries only, “T” ( Alt+ “2″ on SureType models) goes to the top of the page and “B” (or Alt + “8) goes to the bottom.
I believe that server assisted browsers like Bolt, Opera Mini and UCWEB are the best way to use the web on mobile devices today. With most of the hard work done on the server, these browsers are much faster than the direct browsers on any phone, even the iPhone. This is true even on 3G and doubly so on slower connections. Plus all three browsers are written in java and run on almost any phone, bringing rich full-web mobile browsing to the masses and to the developing world. There is a lot of completion in this space right now which is driving all three vendors to constantly improve their products. Bolt’s Beta 3 is now a serious challenger to Opera Mini right now and the new support for Cyrillic fonts clearly targets Eastern Europe, an Opera stronghold. A major new Opera Mini release is expected soon and should raise the bar even higher, hopefully with it’s own copy/paste feature and tabbed browsing. UCWEB already has those features but lags in quality of rendering but UCWEB is not standing still with seemingly a new release every month or two. The elephant in the room is Skyfire with its full Flash support. Skyfire is currently limited to Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 but a BlackBerry version is in development. BlackBerry apps are written in a variant of Java ME so it probably wouldn’t take too much effort for Skyfire to extend support to generic Java devices. I love competition and the innovation it delivers. Bolt Beta 3 is great new browsing option that works on most phones. Give it a try. Visit boltbrowser.com/download.html to register and download. It’s free.
Related Posts
Bolt Browser Review
Bolt Browser News and Referral Codes
New Bolt Browser Beta
MWC09: Bolt Browser – New Version and Open Beta
Bolt Browser Beta 2 – New Features and Performance Enhancements
MobileCrunch — iPhone app review: Flick Fishing
Let’s face it: there are a lot of crappy games available for the iPhone. Even 99 cents — as cheap as that is — is more than I’m willing to pay for most games, since I’m unlikely to get even a dollar’s worth of enjoyment from them. Not so with Freeverse’s Flick Fishing. This 99 cent game offers a lot for that very small price tag. In addition to great graphics, excellent sounds, and decent gameplay, you can purchase expansion content in-game. And there are a variety of clever multiplayer aspects built in, too.
Flick Fishing is, as you’d guess, a fishing game. You can fish for fun in a number of locations, each with different kinds of fish and weather conditions. You can also play tournament games against CPU and human opponents, to see who can catch the most fish, or who can catch the biggest fish, in a specific period of time. The graphics are quite good: water ripples or waves realistically and the sunlight glints off the surface of the water. The sound effects aren’t quite like those you’d hear were you fishing for real, but they’re relatively soothing such that this game can be a good surrogate for actually fishing.
Gameplay is easy. You flick your iPhone to cast your line out. An on-screen reel appears. When you hook a fish, you simply use your finger to wind the reel. At the top of the screen are two status bars: one for line strength, and one for fish strength. The line strength represents your fishing line. As you reel in your catch it will increase the strain on your line. If you reel too fast, the line strength status bar will grow toward the right: when it reaches the end, your line snaps and your fish gets away. The fish strength indicator works the other way: it starts full and decreases toward the left as you wear down the fish. At the first couple of locations, you’re unlikely to pay any attention to line strength, as you’re reeling in smaller freshwater fish. When you go deep sea fishing and hook a marlin, though, you’d better pay attention to that line strength if you want to collect your prize!
Flick Fishing offers a nice compliment of baits. Different fish respond to different bait types. There’s bait fish, luncheon meat, lures, flies, and more. Lures and flies operate just like their real-life counterpart: you need to slowly reel them in after you cast them in order to get the fish to see them. Bait fish, luncheon meat and other baits use the traditional red and white bobber that floats at the surface. When a fish bites, your bobber will submerge, and it’s time to start reeling!
Truth be told: Flick Fishing got a little repetitive. But then again, I’m not a fisherman. Sitting in a boat — or on a dock — for a couple hours waiting for a fish to bite my line isn’t my idea of a good time. At least with Flick Fishing I’m guaranteed to get a bite every time! Plus, there’s no bugs!
I didn’t get the chance to test any of the multiplayer aspects of Flick Fishing, unfortunately. You can do tournament fishing against another human using a single iPhone, simply by taking turns. Bluetooth multiplayer tournaments are supported, too, assuming your friends have purchased Flick Fishing.
Flick Fishing also introduces Fish Net, a shared leaderboard function that allows you to asynchronously compete against others. Create or join a Fish Net, and then simply go fishing. If you catch the biggest fish, all the people in your Fish Net group will be alerted. If someone catches a bigger fish than you, you’ll get alerted. That’s a pretty clever, low-impact way to enjoy multiplayer gaming. No need to coordinate times to play, no need to pass an iPhone back and forth between players. Simply fish as normal, and let the Fish Net work its magic for you!
Finally, for the really die-hard Flick Fisherman, there’s the “Brag” feature. You can email a photo of the largest fish you’ve caught. I’m sure all your friends will be very interested to know about that 20 pound trout you caught at the old pond!
Once you’ve finished playing through the default locations, and have collected all the fish, you can buy access to “Private Beach” right from within the game. This adds a couple new fish, as well as a new game mode called “Fish Jack”, which is like Blackjack, but with fish! Expect to see more and more games (and apps in general) provide expansion content via in-app purchases.
Bottom line: you get a lot of game for 99 cents. You don’t need to be a fisherman to enjoy Flick Fishing.
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MobileCrunch — Video: HTC Sense gets ported to the G1, Flash and all
When it became clear that HTC’s oh-so-pretty Sense UI wasn’t going to make it to the G1 by any official means, we figured it wouldn’t be too long before the goods leaked and an unofficial port was made. Hell, we outright said so.
Less than a week has passed since then, but a pair of Italian hackers has already managed to jam the final Hero ROM onto the G1. Now, the G1’s packing a bit less muscle than the new guy (192 MB of RAM as opposed to 288, for one), so it’s not quite as buttery, and the port has its share of glitches - but progress is progress, right?
This build features a ton of new widgets, Facebook support in the address book, and visual overhauls across the apps. Oh, and Flash in the browser - but who cares about that, right?
Dying to get this on your G1? Here’s the first step.
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MobileCrunch — BlackBerry Tour now more government agency friendly
If you work in a top secret area (read: government agency, weapons lab, or Apple campus), phones packing cameras (or standalone cameras, for that matter) are usually frowned upon. Remember the “Loose Lips Sink Ships” campaign of WWII?
Fortunately for you high-falutin folk, RIM kept you in mind when designing the BlackBerry Tour. You’ll be able to pick one up 100% camera free come July 12th, ready to lurk in your pockets as you slink around your hush-hush headquarters. Plus, going with the camera-less version ought to save you some ducats, right? Nope. Both the version with eyes and without are $199.
Note to employers: If you’re going to set your employees up with Tours, don’t buy the sans-camera version unless it’s actually necessary. We’ve seen too many employers cut their employee’s work phones off at the knees, only to allow them to bring big-boy cameras to work. Yeah, that makes sense.
[Via CrackBerry]
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MobileCrunch — Sprint and Harris team up to make the 2010 Census count
With 2009 halfway over, the US Government is gearing up for what’s sure to be one of the next year’s biggest undertakings: the tedious process of counting every single one of its citizens. That’s right folks, it’s T-minus 9 months to the 2010 Census.
It’s a huge job for sure, and that’s exactly why the Census Bureau has partnered with with Sprint and Harris Communications to get the job done. Sprint’s bringing their nationwide network to the table, and Harris (a wireless equipment and systems producer) is handling the hardware for all the Census takers on the job. That combination means realtime updates from the field, and hopefully greater accuracy than previous attempts. Things have been going swimmingly so far: 140,000 field workers have been up and running with the Sprint-Harris units since April, and so far features like integrated GPS and biometric security have been serving them well.
According to a recent release, Sprint’s really throwing their weight into this whole Census business. Integration with Harris equipment is only a fraction of how involved they’re getting; in addition, Sprint is providing
* Approximately 500 Sprint Global MPLS sites across United States, allowing local Census offices to connect on a single IP-based network
* Roughly 1,500 managed devices including routers, switches, firewalls and Intrusion Detection Service (IDS) for additional security
* More than 150,000 active telemetry wireless devices that will allow workers to collect data remotely, resulting in more accurate reporting and substantially less use of paper
* About 1,500 mobile broadband connection cards, offering high speed connectivity on America’s most dependable 3G network*
* Significant professional services and integration expertise such as on-site security management, dedicated program management, and data center hosting services from Sprint, providing the critical infrastructure “glue” for one of the most complex activities of 2010
Hopefully, all the hard work pays off and we get the most accurate Census ever, but we’ll have to take their word for it: folks like you and me can’t see the raw data until 2082.
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MobileCrunch — Blackberry Tour to launch on Verizon Wireless on July 12th
If you’ve been biting your nails off anticipating the launch of the Blackberry Tour, you probably want to visit a psychiatrist ASAP. But you can also be happy to know that Verizon Wireless just announced that they’ll be releasing the Tour on July 12th. The Tour provides anyone hell-bent on Verizon (like people who actually want their phone to make and receive calls) a good multimedia phone in the $200 price range.
According to the offical press release, the Blackberry Tour has an optional camera (yes, optional: meaning you can actually choose NOT to have it but still pay the same $200), a media player and a beautiful high-resolution display. K Street and Obama rejoice, as now they can watch episodes of How I Met Your Mother between National Security briefings and shooting hoops at the White House. Anyways, if you want to find out the full specs, you can access the Verizon site here.
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Taro Matsumura — docomo L-05A - HSUPA and mzone [ REVIEW, #Mac, #docomo, #lifestyle, #nomad ]
iPhone 3GSと同じ6月26日発売のdocomo L-05Aは非常に期待していたデータ端末だ。L-02Aから、docomoの定額パケット通信もMacに対応し始めて、NOBI-TARO PODCASTの名古屋・大阪Apple Storeツアーの時に、そのポテンシャルにびっくりしたことがある。
今でこそN700などで無線LANサービスに対応している新幹線もあるが、nobiさんとwaki3さん（さんさんになっちゃいますね、さわやか三組）と新幹線で西へ向かったのはN700系じゃない車両。その中で、drikinさんのサンフランシスコからのUstreamを高速移動中にL-02Aで流麗に視聴できた経験はなにか超えちゃった感覚だった。
僕は2つくらい、仕事場としての夢があって、1つは街中のカフェに自分のデスクがある状態。もう1つは山奥で授業をやったり原稿を書いたりインタビューをしたりという通常業務をすること。マシンパワーの問題はあれ、L-05Aを導入すると、おそらくどちらも可能になるのではないか、と思う。
さて、新しいL-05Aは、LG電子から登場したHSUPA端末。つまり下り7.2Mbpsだけでなく、上りも5.7Mbpsというスピードが出る。今までは384kbpsだったので、その理論値上の差は歴然。実体験でも下りも上りも、それこそ5年前のブロードバンド回線を使っているよりも早いんじゃないか、という感覚で利用できる（東京都内）。
デザインは、どう考えてもMacを意識しているとしか思えないような、アルミっぽい塗装を施したシルバーと、コネクタ部分が黒のツートンカラー。docomoのウェブサイトに「人気のMacでも使える」という記述がある点はなんだか、Macユーザーへの熱いラブコールにも見えます。
設定は簡単のはずが、サポートセンターのお世話になることになった。接続先などをしっかりと管理できる「ドコモコネクションマネージャ」がL-05Aを認識してくれないのだ。LGから提供されているL-05A接続ソフトからは利用できるのだが、ちゃんと定額で使っているのか不安になってしまう。
40分の電話越しの立ち会いサポートの結果、ドコモショップで渡されたり、サイトからダウンロードできるコネクションマネージャはまだL-05Aに対応して折らず、パッケージに入っているCD-ROMからインストールすれば使える事が判明。長かったけれど、そのうちサイトのモノも最新になるでしょう。
プロバイダーをmopera Uにしたのだが、ユーザー名とパスワードがなくてもつながる、と言うのが気持ち悪いですね、と聞いてみたら「番号通知でユーザー認証が出来るので、なくても大丈夫です」と。ただmzoneで必要なので、start.mopera.net で設定。
プロバイダをmoperaにしたのは、mzoneを使いたかったからだ。電話番号で認証を取ってくれるのももちろんありがたいが、公衆無線LANサービスを追加して安く使えるようにしたかった。
東京メトロの駅やモスバーガーなどでは、mzone、HOTSPOT、FLET’S SPOTのNTT系の無線LANサービスが相乗りしてアクセスポイントを提供している。今まで僕はHOTSPOTを使っていたのだが、mzoneとFLET’S SPOTは見えているのに、HOTSPOTだけ見えないという場所があまりにも多いことに、不満を持っていた。これでしばらく「docomo」のアクセスポイントを試してみようと思います。
ということで、Macのモバイルでの接続環境を一通り揃えることに成功した。また、ノマディックな生活について、時々触れようと思います。
WAP Review — New Bolt Browser Release – Beta 3
Today Bitstream released a new version of their free, server assisted browser, Bolt. The new release is billed as Beta 3 and carries version number 1.04. Details of the new features are in this press release. Highlights include:
- Copy and paste text
- Enter and edit text directly within online text boxes
- Upload files such as videos to YouTube or pictures to Photobucket
- Order favorites and arrange them into custom folders
- Toggle between viewing websites with or without images displayed
- Rendering bold, italics, superscript and other rich text styles
- Enhanced rendering of complex web pages
- Faster page rendering
- Servers upgraded to WebKit 4
- Support for Cyrillic alphabets for languages such as Russian and Ukrainian
- A new 140 KB Bolt Lite version for low memory devices
Bitstream today also launched a dedicated support forum for Bolt at boltbrowser.com/forums/
Bolt has automatic updating, so existing Bolt users should be prompted to upgrade as soon as they open a page. New users can visit boltbrowser.com/download.html to register for the free beta and receive a download link.
I’m in the process of downloading the new Beta to my N95 and BlackBerry and will post a full review tomorrow.
Tom Hume — Designers, Developers and QA: FP needs you!
- Developers, ideally with some commercial experience of mobile (J2ME, Android or iPhone), and familiarity with or experience working in an agile environment (if you read this blog you'll know we're a quite formal Scrum shop). You'll have a strong appreciation for the role user experience plays in the software development process. You'll obviously be excellent.
- Mid- to senior-level designers; we'd be open to considering someone without commercial mobile experience, but you'll definitely need a strong background in digital media and a genuine enthusiasm for mobile. We're after someone with a mix of visual and interaction skills - we think the line between the two is blurred, and we like it that way. You'll have to be willing to get your hands dirty and learn a little about how your designs are actually implemented. Strong communication skills will be vital.
- QA - and specifically, someone interested in QA as a career path in its own right, rather than seeing it as a stepping stone to a development job. Over the last couple of years we've developed a huge appreciation for thorough, pedantic, devious, downright cruel QA folks who can find obscure bugs with which to taunt our developers, all in the nicest possible way of course. Someone with experience of both manual and automated testing would be a bonus; double points if you've worked in an agile environment before.
Simon Judge (Mobile Phone Dev) — Symbian UI
If you follow my blog you will know I was disappointed with S60 5th Touch. Nokia has always stated that S60 5th was never intended to compete with the iPhone. I can see why because touch bolted onto S60 was never going to be elegant.
Nevertheless, the price point for the 5800 has been very attractive, particularly here in the UK, although the Comes with Music variant has been spectacularly unsuccessful.
I met Scott Weiss the new User Interface Technology Manager for Symbian Foundation at a mobile event earlier this month. He said S60 5th is considered an interim touch solution.
Symbian plans state that the Symbian^4 release will include a Qt extension called Orbit that will replace the existing Avkon UI library of the Symbian…
"A new “Orbit” extension library for Qt, which contains more than 50 widgets tailored for mobile user experience, and which will provide a replacement for the existing “Avkon” widget set; A new “Direct UI” interaction and navigation logic, combined with finger-optimised layouts offering excellent touch and hybrid-device user experience"
Meanwhile, Scott is championing the idea of an additional new non-touch UI and a XML-based alternative to Nokia’s Orbit and DirectUI.
I am curious how deep Nokia will go with Qt. It seems that Nokia will be heavily relying on Qt to simplify development and provide for improved mobile user experience. Will Qt really give developers enough (API) control to allow them to forego the Symbian API for the majority of applications?
If the existing Avkon UI library is removed, this will imply a binary break for existing Symbian applications. Conversely, if the Avkon UI library isn’t removed, the Symbian OS will have multiple UI personalities and become confusing for the end-user. It’s a tough call.
Krzysztof Choma, who I worked with while I was contracting at Symbian, provides a great summary of Orbit and DirectUI vs Avkon on on his blog.
MobileCrunch — David Blaine now douching up your iPhone
I don’t know if you guys are aware, but nothing is better for making people think you’re awesome than doing card tricks. No, seriously. Anyone you know with a ton of friends only has so many friends because of their card trick repertoire.
Actually, there is one thing that’s cooler than doing card tricks: doing card tricks with virtual cards. For maximum cool, it must be done on an iPhone. Just when you started to think such incredible feats were impossible, David Blaine has saved the day with an iPhone app: David Blaine’s Street Magic: See-A-Card by David Blaine [brought to you by David Blaine].
For just $1.99, you can get all the benefits of knowing a card trick without actually learning a card trick. Whoever said you can’t buy friends?
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MobileCrunch — Rumor: Nvidia Tegra phones in Q409? [Updated]
We’ve been excited about Nvidia’s Tegra chipset making its way to mobile handsets for as long as they’ve been showing off their prototypes - which, to be clear, is quite a while. They’ve managed to jam a beast of a computer down into a itty-bitty chip and sink the power requirements down to less than one watt, all while keeping the thing cheap. In other words, straight ridiculous computing power (games, HD video output) on a handset that lasts, as Nvidia puts it, “days and days”.
We’d heard whispers from Nvidia’s crew back at CES that this thing ought to make its mobile debut in Q4, but we had a hard time getting an official statement on the matter. Looks like it has become a sure thing since: in an interview with The Street, Nvidia’s GM of mobile Mike Rayfield fessed up that one of the big five manufacturers should launch a Tegra phone by the end of this year.
We aren’t going to take a stab at which of the big five we’re talking about here, but we can make educated guesses as to which platform it’ll run. Last we heard, Tegra played friendly with Windows CE Embedded, Windows Mobile, and Android. If you see us around, pardon the shade of blue that has conquered our faces; we’re not going to stop holding our breath until we get a Samsung-made, Android-based Tegra phone.
UPDATE: Looks like our own Peter Ha of CrunchGear nailed out this information in an interview with Nvidia last week. Not only that, but he took it one step further, getting pricing/carrier information; expect Tegra phones to launch in Q4 on AT&T/T-Mobile for right around the $199 price point.
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WAP Review — Rediff Mobile – News, Email, IM
Rediff is the most popular Indian based web portal with around five million monthly pageviews and 65 million users of it’s free web based email service, Rediffmail. It’s a comprehensive portal rivaling Yahoo and MSN in scope and features.
Rediff’s mobile version at mobile.rediff.com offers Indian and world news, business, sports and movie news, detailed stock quotes, horoscopes, a “Get Ahead” section featuring personal improvement articles, job search, lowest airfare search and direct links to the mobile versions of Rediffmail and Rediff’s BOL IM service.
There is also a Rediff branded search engine which unfortunately seems to return exclusively transcoded desktop content. This happens even with sites like YouTube and Wap Review which normally use browser detection to deliver their own mobile formatted content. The videos are broken on the transcoded YouTube pages too.
Rediff mobile is a good general news and information site that should be popular with Rediff portal, Rediffmail and BOL users. There are better choices for mobile search, however.
Filed in: Wap Review Directory – Portals/WAP
Ratings: Content Usability
Ready.mobi Score: 4 “Good”
Mobile Link: mobile.rediff.com
Footnotes
Handhelds and mobile browsing
Subscriptions
- Alice Pretchet
- Anders Borg (Abiro)
- Andrea Trasatti
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- Barry Welford (StayGoLinks)
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- iPhone App Prices Fluctuate As Developers Adjust To OS 3.0; Nav Apps Gain Pricing Power
- A few iPhone patents for you: Karaoke, fancy haptic feedback
- O2 confirmed as Palm Pre carrier in the UK, again
- Review: ColorSnap for iPhone by Sherwin-Williams
- Rumor: Everyone’s trying to buy T-Mobile UK
- Rumor: GSM Pre being announced next week?
- Sprint will also offer the BlackBerry Tour (9630) on July 12
- Toshiba launching the TG01 next week in London
- Japanese cell phone commercial: Brad Pitt plays disgruntled sumo champion’s butler (video)
- Microsoft’s Project Pink gets a new agency
- Review: Don’t get yourself too hot and bothered by Warpack Grunts
- Palm Pre gets a PlayStation emulator
- What’s new in the iPhone OS 3.1 Beta?
- iPhone app review: Flick Fishing
- Video: HTC Sense gets ported to the G1, Flash and all
- BlackBerry Tour now more government agency friendly
- Sprint and Harris team up to make the 2010 Census count
- Blackberry Tour to launch on Verizon Wireless on July 12th
- David Blaine now douching up your iPhone
- Rumor: Nvidia Tegra phones in Q409? [Updated]
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- Add "S" to my life [ REVIEW, #iPhone, #iTunes, #photo, #SoftBank ]
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- Tom Hume
- Vision Mobile Forum
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