mobile things
opinion and news on mobile gadgets and development
Jul
31
Phone mast problems are psychosomatic
Posted by grouchal in off-topic
Interesting BBC article that references a recent study that has looked into whether health problems from Mobile Phone masts are real or imagined.
the interesting thing is that a small fraction of those who claimed problems could tell when the mast was switched on or off - but those who believed the mast caused problems and thought it was switched on had a higher number of problems.
BBC NEWS | Health | Phone mast allergy ‘in the mind’
This makes me think of similar issues relating to WiFi in schools - I hope there is a similar study about this!!
Popularity: 74% [?]
Jul
30
UK Driving Theory test on a mobile phone
Posted by grouchal in Development
Luzia Research has just started beta testing a new service we are developing to help students practice for their driving theory test.
The service is called uHavePassed and it allows users to take mock driving theory tests both on-line and on their mobile phones.
The J2ME client for the mobile phone uses a synchronisation platform we have written that allows questions, images for the questions and the results to be synchronised with the website.
In order to provide some alternative ways for students to prepare for the driving theory test we are also including some games within the J2ME client.
So if you know anyone who is going to take their UK driving theory test soon - then please pass them on to us and get them to sign up as a beta user.
Popularity: 65% [?]
Jul
17
iPhone text messaging sucks
Posted by grouchal in iPhone
Adding to my belief that there will be an iPhone with sliding keyboard or keypad at some time in the near future is a study by User Centric that found users like a lot of things - but messaging really doesn’t work well.
It looks like there may be hope for Apple by trying to have the keyboard work more often in landscape mode - rather than just portrait - apparently this only works in the browser.
Lets see…..
Popularity: 66% [?]
Jul
17
Google Reader - Wii support
Posted by grouchal in Gadgets, off-topic
I have recently been given a Wii as a birthday present - which I am really enjoying.
One thing that I like is being able to browse the internet in front of the TV - which makes catching up on stuff much easier.
I found out yesterday that Google Reader has built in support for the Wii / Opera browser - you get a streamlined view of the page and if you press the 1 or 2 buttons on your remote you can get special menus for use in navigating!
This makes using Google Reader via the Wii much easier.
Well done Google - hopefully they will roll out this support to gmail also and all their other apps - that would be fantastic.
I hope that other sites start doing this - I wonder if there is a directory of Wii optimised sites anywhere?
Popularity: 68% [?]
Jul
13
Text me back in 5 minutes - or email me tomorrow
Posted by grouchal in research
I picked up a report at 160Characters thanks to Toni.
The guys at 160Characters have done some research into perceptions of SMS communications - the interesting thing (that we already knew if we’d though about it) is that we expect sms answers within 5 minutes - but emails we expect upto 24 hours.
Now that they have pointed this out- I realise that this is my perception, because I know the phone is with the recipient and I expect them to be able to answer immediately.
Popularity: 34% [?]
Jul
12
Nokia getting ready for the iPhone
Posted by grouchal in Business, iPhone, mobile software
The internet tablets form Nokia N770 and N800 have been hard to understand since they came out.
The idea of an internet tablet was an interesting one in the first place - Nokia chose not to make the tablet a phone like device but rather a pure wifi device. I think I am right that Skype now runs on it - and other IP based communciations software - but this device was never intended to be sold by operators.
There are some screens shots over at Engadget that show how Nokia has had to respond to user feedback about having a better way to use the internet and type in addresses. In my mind there is no question that Apple will have to introduce a keyboard into the iPhone - but if you take the two devices side by side is the N800 really the competition that Apple should be worried about.
If Nokia go from the basis that they do not have iTunes access from their device - and therefore tackling music and video is going to be difficult then they will have to move in a couple of directions. A they could create nTunes - but this may well leave them with problems with Operators own systems - perhaps Apple will show a way ahead here - and Nokia can try to become a media company also. They can search for a partner who has a great content system. They can lobby the European Commission about iTunes and anti-trust and look to get access to iTunes at least in the EU. The most worrying idea might be to ignore music and video on the phones.
If you take the fact that the internet access on the iPhone really requires wifi to work in anything like a reasonable way then the N800 is a competitor for easy browsing of the web away from the computer. How can they make more of this? is it by allowing zooming of web pages and other ideas? I think not! I think that if Nokia can get some partnerships with Yahoo / Flickr and Facebook they could create some interesting apps. Integrate a camera that kicks the iPhone- make it autosync with these websites etc. Look to implement google gears or firefox 3.0 offline capabilities - really open things up.
Eventually they will have to add in phone capabilities - but maybe in a smaller version - I think if Nokia play the game correctly they can compete with Apple - not in the music market - leave that to SonyEricsson - but in all of the rest of the functions - but they have got to start looking for partnerships with some popular websites and to try and flex some muscle with the operators - even to spin off a company to do this.
The iPhone will continue to change the world - but by making life easier for manufacturers and operators - not necessarily a great way for Apple to make money -but at their prices they hardly need volumes!
Popularity: 59% [?]
Jul
11
UK Users prefer text ads than banner ads.
Posted by grouchal in Business, mobile adverts
Came across this quick note on mobile advertising and people preferences:
Seems to make sense to me - I prefer text to pictures - it is easier to read less intrusive and uses up less of my mobile bandwidth (great for cost and page load speed). As Google found this out for web search results a few years ago should we really be surprised by this?
Popularity: 46% [?]
Jul
2
Balanced iPhone review
Posted by grouchal in iPhone, review
The BBC have given what I think is the most balanced review of the iPhone I have found - they do not seem to suffer from the fan-boy or apple-critic syndrome of some other reviewers:
BBC NEWS | Technology | Hands on with the Apple iPhone
Through all the reviews I’ve read the keyboard comes up - which is not surprising - but hardly any criticism of the greasy screen - it normally gets mentioned, but then doesn’t appear on the cons list - which is interesting.
Of all the main criticisms the keyboard looks to be the one that will give them teh biggest problem - and I think they will be unwise to take too long to allow either an external add on or a new model with built in keyboard. The network speed and other things will be solved with new networks etc.
I am just praying that they will allow 3rd party apps soon - there are so many areas where this device could be moved much quicker forwrad by allowing the masses of geeks that no own one to put their own ideas on there.
Popularity: 52% [?]