mobile things
opinion and news on mobile gadgets and development
Oct
10
Skype and 3 partnership
Posted by grouchal in Business, Gadgets, mobile software
News that Skype and the 3 network are working together is very interesting see:
Cheap handset ‘will bring free mobile internet calls to mass market’ | | Guardian Unlimited Business
It is hard to imagine how the device will work - but ‘free’ in this case means that you pay for the phone and an unlimited data tarrif.
I like the idea of a phone that is geared towards this - but why only one phone? What will be special about the phone - I would guess nothing physical - but maybe Skype puts special demands on memory and processing power. I would imagine that this is going to be software that can be used on lots of 3 phones - but on one it will come pre-installed.
Popularity: 78% [?]
Oct
7
McDonald’s to offer free Wi-Fi in restaurants
Posted by grouchal in Business, Technology, research
Wow this might change things on the high street! Especially with Starbucks - but will this prompt more cafes to offer WiFi?
Read more at the Guardian: McDonald’s to offer free Wi-Fi in restaurants | Technology | The Guardian
I wonder if the recent Fon and BT tie up will also allow more places to offer free Wifi?
Interesting Times!
Popularity: 69% [?]
Sep
19
future of mobile SDKs
Posted by grouchal in Business, Development, google, mobile software, review
Joel writes a really interesting essay which is part history lesson and part predictor of the future of AJAX and SDKS.
I’d like to quickly explain my conclusions from the article and then discuss what this might mean for mobile phones.
Starting with the mistakes when Lotus Symphony was being built, removing all the innovation to fit the constraints of the most accessible computing platform of the time. The Lotus approach was compared with the Microsoft approach that meant the software was bloated but innovative. The argument is that the smart guys learnt you either spend 6 months trimming your software to give it better performance or you just waited six months and found out that Moore’s law helped you get better performance.
History lesson over he then looks at the state of AJAX technology and web apps - and compares Google’s fast and lightweight approach with gmail, docs and spreadsheet etc with other new technologies. The vision he creates is that someone will come up with a newSDK which solves not only cross browser compatibility problem, but starts on the real holy grail of web apps and starts to make web apps inter-operable in the same way cut and paste did for the desktop. I like the vision and see how it could work, but I am not sure that perhaps this idea of inter-op may not just be more a technical dream than a consumer ideal - especially with the security concerns etc.
The lessons to be learned and the conclusions he comes to make a lot of sense, I wish he had spent more time analysing the candidates for the NewSDK though.
I guess Joel is talking about two types of competitors for Google - those that are creating platforms (Microsoft, Adobe) and those that are competing on applications (Zoho, Salesforce, Microsoft). Google I think has a good chance of making their work become de facto standards as they tend to embrace open source but also open up their own ideas. I think that Google Gears is a great example of this - and Zoho are now working with them on the project and using the technology in their software.
I understand the compromises between efficient feature low and bloated feature rich applications - and I think that Googe have got gMail spot on I have no idea what I needed Outlook for all those years. The docs package is different though - I have tried both Google Docs and Zoho and I think that the simple interface for Google means that I miss a lot of things from word - however I love Google’s simple approach to collaboration. Zoho is feature rich but is also harder to use as it is harder to work out where the limits are - but if my key need is to quickly put together a nice looking document - I use Word, if my need is to collaborate on a doc then I use Google Docs as it doesn’t confuse other users so much.
So if we say that Google have usability worked out and their approach is working well and keeping users (the Spreadsheet I think is fantastic) I guess we are left with inter-operability. Is inter-operability important to users? and how can security issues be handled?
The platform at the moment is Facebook for interop - you can access a lot of applications and share data using their API and this is clearly going to advance - but the goal that Joel mentions of being able to cut a picture from flickr into gmail is not going to be enable by facebook. This sort of goal is going to need a change is the browsers and who is looking at making platforms and the browser work differently - Micrtosoft, Adobe and Google Gears. Which of these approaches is Open, lightweight and not bloated? Google Gears.
So to learn the lessons that Joel has pointed out and use them in making my prediction for the future of Web apps the newSDK he talks about to me won’t be a single javascript library. I think Prototype and jQuery and Scriptalicious will all continue to develop in the ways and compliment each other. I think that Microsoft will have a big problem using previous techniques to bundle Silverlight into the OS which will take away their normal tactical advantage. Abode will need to make sure that AIR has lightweight access in addition to using full flash functionality and gets installed as part of Flash installs. Google gears will need to have proper infrastructure set-up perhaps even a more open name and path forward “Web Gears”?. One of these three will be the choice of developers and with a complimentary back end Facebook, OpenId or some other system will allow the Web 3.0 apps to be about collaboration and interoperability.
So what does this mean for mobile?
Well lessons learnt from Joel’s history lesson and lessons to be learnt from future predictions mean that I think that Apple’s approach to phone apps is going to become predominant. The browser will be king - but browser choice will have to come into play if innovation is going to move us forward. Mobile has to have off-line more than desktop, mobile apps must have access to device capabilities to truly create innovative apps. I think that the rumoured gPhone will contain something similar to Google Gears and will allow developers to use the back-end infrastructure of Google to enable their apps to interoperate - I hope this can all be made much more open though. I think Apple with adopt Google Gears into Safari and other manufacturers will be able to use it too. As the number of iPhone and facebook applications rise - so too will compatible browsers on other phones - either Opera or manufacturer ones. So the iPhone API will become quite a standard - and if it is widely enough used and complimentary enough the Google Gears one - I hope both of them are already looking for W3C approval.
So my predictions for Web 3.0 and Mobile 3.0 see them converging - Google Gears (or some other candidate) along with facebook (or next years equivalent or openId) will be key to both platforms and the iPhone API (or a cross platform javascript library) will be key to mobile interactions and Prototype (or another dominant javascript library) will become a key API for the Desktop.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Sep
18
Driving Theory Test Service Launches - uHavePassed.com
Posted by grouchal in Business, Development, Gadgets, Technology, mobile software
Luzia Research have today taken their driving theory test service out of beta and into production.
The service allows you to take practice tests for the UK Driving Theory Test using the official question bank from the Driving Standards Agency.
We have had great challenges developing the synchronisation software that sits under this service as we have found limits in the amount of data different phones will allow to be uploaded and also had issues with different hosting companies and their support for Transfer-Encoding:Chunked.
We are there now and would like to invite people to try the software out for free on their phone before purchasing a subscription.
Even though we are out of our beta testing - all feedback is well received as we would like to make the service as friendly and easy to use as possible.
Popularity: 93% [?]
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% [?]
Jun
29
Truphone now offer free calls to 40 countries
Posted by grouchal in Business
An exciting release from Truphone shows how they have extended their service and offereings.
Can’t help but feel this might not be the best day to upgrade your services and doing anything with a mobile product - unless you just want to be the other news!
Wish I had wifi on my phone! 
Popularity: 49% [?]
Jun
26
LG KU580
Posted by grouchal in Business, Gadgets, iPhone
The company who will probably make most money out of the iPhone may well be LG, as they ride on the tails of the iPhone hype with their cheaper and more mature touch phones.
I think they will be quick to match the successful parts of Apple’s iPhone over the next 18 months.
They have just released the LG KU580 and this review makes an interesting read - what will Apple do? My advice is invest in LG not Apple!
Popularity: 82% [?]
Jun
26
Mobilephones as payment cards in London?
Posted by grouchal in Business, Gadgets
An article over at the Mobile Report claims that UK operators are ready to start shipping smartcard compatible phones that can be used in London instead of the Oyster card.
I’ve heard rumours about this for a while, and I really like the idea - especially as it is extended. I don’t live in London but travel in often and have an Oyster in my wallet, the pain is when it runs out of money. Attaching the oyster to the phone, and therefore payments systems and the internet would be fantastic, no more queues! There are also plans to extend the Oyster cards use into micro payments and the Oyster would make the first stage of a transformation of London into a cashless city possible.
Let’s hope this has legs and Oyster or similar also start being deployed outside of London.
Popularity: 70% [?]
Jun
22
mPoria PayPal
Posted by grouchal in Business
Paypal are taking mobile seriously, another way to use paypal whilst mobile is with mPoria, I wonder if Google can get in on this also - I much prefer the low charges (free) when used in conjunction with adwords for items in the £10 range.
It is going to be interesting to see how things go with payments on the mobile - credit cards just don’t make sense here - but does paypal - or google checkout for that matter?
Popularity: 63% [?]