Speak your twitters with Twitogram

Well, it looks like Dave Winer decided to do the MySay - Twitter mashup type idea I alluded to in a couple of my earlier posts here and here.

Speak your twitters from your phone with TwitterGram and subscribe to the twitogram channel to hear other mp3 twit soundbites.

You can also upload mp3 soundbites from your PC.

Come on jaiku let me post jaiku updates by voice (as well as sms) too!

Carnival of the Mobilists 80

An interesting roundup of posts this week after the hectic last week in mobile.

The iPhone arrives

Update Mon 2nd July : Scoble compares N95 and iPhone...


Tommi Ahonen from Communities Dominate Brands blog wrote a long piece a couple of weeks ago on "Before iPhone (BI) and After iPhone (AI) with the conclusion that after today, the mobile industry will go into second gear.

Well, today is the day to see if that statement is going to come true.

Whilst there has been a couple of press reviews (see previous post), Steve Litchfield over at All About Symbian has already done a 1 minute review based on the available video clips - note the fake iPhone in the video!. It's these reviews that carry the most credibility since they are aware of the shortcomings and advantages of smartphones (which the iPhone will inevitably be compared to).

Watch out for announcements regards the iPhone coming to Europe.

Google Phone

Seems I missed the announcement last week whilst away of the Google Phone from LG. It's currently for European markets.



As expected there are some (but not all) Google mobile apps present, one touch google search access / googlemail for mobile / google maps for mobile.

Sidenote: I first saw search access from the idle screen in the Samsung 520 range (Google) and I'm sure the other major handset manufacturers will start bringing online /offline "search" apps, closer to the user from the homescreen/idle screen also this year.

Hype in overdrive

updated 27th June ... to include video review ...

Updated to include an independent video review (wed 27th June):


Trying not to add to the Apple hype before next Friday (but failing) ... here's the guided tour of the apple iphone feature set ... (if you have'nt seen it already). The thing of note to me, was they are showing off the features with an "invisible" hand holding the device steady. I would rather have seen someone trying to make a call or access the applications single-handledly.

I'm a big advocate of integration between mobile phone applications to make things as simple as possible for the user and the Apple GUI does appear to have some neat integrated features between the applications.

However, one comment is that "zooming in" for the the different applications is not always consistent ~(eg. zooming in on photos via the pinch method is not the same as tapping on the screen in web browsing and double tapping in maps applications).

For an expert review of the iPhone soon make sure you stop by All About Symbian. Steve Litchfield already has done a mini comparison of smartphones compared to the iPhone.

Mobile YouTube

Youtube go mobile (finally).

Youtube have been experimenting over the last 6 months with a version of mobile youtube. (Several months ago TinyTube was prevented from transcoding youtube video clips for the mobile...)

You may have been lucky enough to catch the official mobile youtube site by pointing your mobile browser to http://m.youtube.com over the previous months, but it's been up and down. For the last 5 weeks or so there's been a holding page in place with a "coming soon" message.

Well now it looks like it's finally being released (a subset of youtube clips with a maximum of 5-6 minute video clips using RTSP to stream the 3GP video - so no downloads) ... using the same URL m.youtube.com.

Mobile Habbo Hotel - Mini Friday

On yer mobile ? Good.
Mix presence, chat, a little social networking and a great gaming type interface and you get mini-friday.

Sulake, the makers of Habbo Hotel have done great job of bringing the interactive Habbo Hotel to the mobile. Screenshots are from the N95 (they seem to have most 2nd edition and 3rd edition S60 platforms covered) and the interface is the familiar isometric avatar-based view.





















Set up of an account was super-easy and the interface meets two things I look out for in mobile apps like these :

1) simplicity (dpad and select + softkeys only - the zooming function on the softkey works well). There is no "help" option that I could find - and it's not needed, it's that simple to figure out quickly.

2) in-line context.. when you start chatting to someone it doesn't bring up the entire text input screen , blanking out the entire screen, (so you can't relate to what's happening in the room) , just a popup at the bottom to enter text. ie. keeping within context. Nice.

As a bonus it looks great and is fast... (an application like this would be unusable if the interface was like treacle) - wonder if the speed is maintained when there are lots of people in a room /stuff going on and you're on a 2.5G connection rather than 3G or HSDPA ?
The rooms I visited didn't have many English speaking folk in, so I could'nt check out the full IM type experience... maybe it was my dancing skills :)... I also had trouble as you can see getting served at the bar !
One of the better mobile applications I've seen recently and one I am sure to reuse. It's fun and simple offering an interesting mix of small social networking and chat/IM.

See you in there ...(I'm mjs if you bump into me).

Scobelizer blog will review the iPhone

Robert Scoble for one will be getting my eyeballs when he reviews the iPhone later this month. Luckily he can also compare it to the N95 which he has also recently received.

Official launch date in the US for the iPhone is June 29th. Here are the impressive ads.

Different functionalities , different markets and different UIs - but interesting to compare all the same.

Charge of the Light Brigade

Battery life technology is struggling to keep up with the pace of mobile technology in general.

We've got phones with GPS, 5 mp zooming cameras, sensors, graphical chips , NFC and the like as well as advanced mobile screens and mobile software (OS, applications like tv, video, web browsing etc..) requiring more powerful processing. These conspire to suck up the battery in the blink of an eye.

I end up charging my phone once a day and am used to doing it, but talking with other people, it seems most, ** expect ** their phone to last days without a charge and use the camera, write texts and bluetooth files around as well as make and receive calls in the normal manner.

Perhaps this is because we have had the earlier experience with our previous old mobiles (now considered basic) which lasted days without charge and were used for just calling and texting.

If we want people to use advanced features and services on their mobiles the battery life issue needs to be solved.

Whilst this problem is not new and all the handset manufacturers are busy working on solutions (it seems for years), Motorola recently announced a patent for solar recharging perpetually through the lcd screen so constantly topping up the charge.

Other previous solutions included the mobile casing itself having a solar panel on it or an external solar charger that can be attached through the pop-port or usb/mini-usb. By using the LCD screen itself would seem a neater solution ... if it actually works...

Mobilising Social Networks

The Telegraph reports Yahoo may buy Bebo (Facebook, having declined Yahoo's acquisition offer last year).




Whether it's true or not we'll have to wait and see. What's a potential acquisition like this this got to do with mobile though?

Network Operators see Social Networking as a way of extending mobile communications & services to their customers, beyond just access to these 3rd party sites... myFaves by T-Mobile US is a (homegrown) example, whereby a mini-social network (5 of your friends/family/contacts) are free to call.

Initial high-profile partnership deals by Orange/Bebo and Vodafone/MySpace in Europe have also recently taken place as they test the waters of promoting access to mobile versions (with limited functionality) of the web based social networks.

Facebook, flickr, and flirtomatic etc.. have mobile clients or access via the mobile browser already (mobile web). Even business networks sites such as Xing I note have also recently announced mobile access (when's the mobile version of LinkedIn coming I wonder ?)...


The social network sites (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo etc..) know their users will inevitably want mobile access to their own and their friends homepages, as they are a form of communication and identity. So, staying in touch with your peer group and it's changes via the homepage is vital for the digital native today. Being able to access this whilst mobile is the driver.


Yahoo are already in the mobile on-device-client/portal space with Yahoo Go (1.0) and more recently Yahoo Go (2.0) as well as providing mobile browser access via m.yahoo.com for several of the Yahoo services. Flickr (if you perceive Flickr as a social network based around photos) is already integrated into the Yahoo Go 2.0 client.


Adding large, popular social network(s) into their mobile offering might seem attractive to be able to further leverage potential preinstallation of the Yahoo Go client (via handset manufacturers) and more deals with the European and north American Network Operators/Carriers.

Apps, Handsets and Os's

It's been an interesting week for mobile announcements.

First off, Sun announced their open source RIA Java FX platform for mobile. Is it too little too late and will it make a real difference (reference Savaje)? I tend to agree with David Beers that Motorola have a better chance of distributing Linux and Java than Sun.

Ubuntu mobile was released, targetting small internet devices (eg. Nokias N800) and not mobile phones directly (like Trolltech's Greenphone Linux platform).

On the device front, Motorola are getting back into the high-end game to help try and regain some of their lost market share in this segment. Sneak previews of the N81 and N82 also appeared on the web (and then taken down) and Sony Ericsson announced the P1i (successor to the P990i).



Google also announced an update to Google Maps for Mobile for UK residents to include Google Local search results and route directions.

For those on S60 platform(2nd and 3rd edition) check out S60 application blog for Best Profiles for a comprehensive review. It's a nice little app that has got both basic and advanced functions for very specific profiles setting. Now, all we need is a sensor in the phone so that when I turn it over onto it's face in meetings it goes to silent profile automatically... :)

Speaking of sensors, I'm sure we'll see more sensors in phones and the API's to create interesting 3rd party apps - the Nokia 5500 has already got a 3D motion sensor but mobiface reports on Sandisks new mp3 player that skips tracks when you shake it... how long before we see this type of feature in mobile's ?

Web 2.0 - got your mobile channel yet ?

Many Web 2.0 startup companies looking to maximise their footprint and distribution know that a mobile channel for their service is vital.

Whilst we can expect an official mobile youTube very shortly (alas for tinytube) and versions of mySpace, eBay, facebook and flickr are already mobile (albeit with reduced interactive functionality)... twitter is the latest to join the ranks....

Point your mobile browser to m.twitter.com


If you want a twitter mobile client , Twitlet is clean and simple whilst Twibble allows geotagged twitters from your mobile (handy for the N95 with built in GPS). Others can see where you twittered from on twittervision.

A sidenote : it seems to me that more of the mobile version of these sites are going for m.xxxx.com and not the xxxx.mobi domain name...why not both ?

Music and mobile

Carnival of the Mobilists 71 is out, this week hosted by Silicon Valley Himalayan Expedition.

An interesting post Why I Won't Use a Music Phone (Yet).
The points are well made, transferring any large amounts of music to a mobile even initially is a nightmare...doing it on a regular basis is even more hassle. The current batch of available software doesn't help, but read the comments for some better suggestions.

Currently I swap out SD memory cards (each with a playlist of around 40 songs on them). This is not an ideal solution either as (a)I often store video clips and images on the memory card as well... if I want to view these I often have the wrong memory card in and (b) initial set up and transfer from pc is painful and slow.

Once the music is **on** my N95 I'm happy with the audio playback quality now that I can use decent shure 3.5mm earphones. (Finally!)

I've been looking for a solution that stores my music in the cloud and allows me to download playlists/tracks back into the mobile or stream it song by song to see if it is even feasible.



One such service I've recently used is MeTracks (in beta). The website audio player and upload interface is very 37signals ie. simple, practical and fairly intuitive.
I've yet to be able to test the mobile access part though.

Flat rate data for such a service on your mobile would be a must as would be W-LAN or at least 3G/HSDPA transfer - 10 tracks of mp3's is already 40mb - is this going to be possible in real life conditions ? Streaming requiring network coverage which can be patchy in and out of buildings when mobile may also presents problems for streaming playback.

You can find more on meTracks service at SMS Text News. I'll be able to mention another similar streaming service that may also solve the above problem. The work you've already put into building, labelling and organising your digital music collection on your PC is not wasted as you access/transfer it to mobile...(not Orb).

One other point about music on mobiles, is I've noticed many more people on public transport no longer have the white earbuds (indicating the ipod) compared to say, a year ago. I see more and more people using their phones - particularly Sony/Ericsson so the Walkman brand seems to be working...

Microsoft's Silverlight and Mobile

Microsoft released Silverlight yesterday - a cross-platform, cross-browser fast web runtime with all the components and toolsets already available for developers.

The integration of the runtime with other OS's and browsers (eg. Firefox) for me indicates Microsoft acknowledge that they have to support other platforms from the start to gain critical mass and that includes mobile platforms (albeit only windows mobile to start with).

- here's an excerpt from Techcrunch's reporter who was at the launch.

"Mobile
Silverlight was demonstrated today on a Windows mobile device as part of a new service that the NBL have built. The demo showed both Silverlight applications and media streaming running on a mobile phone - so Silverlight even at this stage is about more than just the desktop browser and desktop market. With windows mobile and Symbian now the two dominant mobile platforms, I can’t see any reasons why we won’t see Silverlight on Symbian as well - thus spreading the platform across the vast majority of both desktops and mobiles, something that alternative platforms have not managed to do."

Certainly makes things interesting for Adobe in the Apollo/Flash/Ajax (for Pc desktop /PC Browser) and Flex/FlashLite (for mobile) application development arena. The new S60 Nokia web runtime environment may have some competition too come to think of it ....

Weekly Links roundup

Carnival of the Mobilists 70 is at Mobile Opportunity this week.
The mobile advertising post I thought was particularly interesting.

It was also the S60 Summit in Madrid last week. Links and (some) presentations are here (thanks to Stefan).


There was the follow up public announcement from Nokia regarding Widgets (there was a demo of how quick it is to build and deploy a widget on Feature Pack2 - see previous post) and touch-screen interfaces (the inevitable response to iPhone) for S60.

Also on show were the chipset manufacturers showing very, very quick Symbian OS boot time!

The 6120 Nokia classic phone which supposedly has days of battery life and the Nokia 6110 Navigator were on show as well as S60 edition 3 Feature Pack2 which is much quicker navigating around the user interface.

Generally I like these types of event mainly for the networking and (re)viewing mobile content and services startups. There were some vendors this year that I'd not seen before.

One fun little mobile application was SMS wizard by Zensis which allows emoticons to be sent as part of a text using the standard notation eg. :)..



Further richer functionality is available with pre-selected animations and once the application is installed it's integrated into the "new messaging" options in the messaging client. ie. I don't have to go into the client app once it's installed.

Series40 as well as smartphones from the other handset manufacturers already have emoticon support in the symbols menu for texts (as well as IM).

I have no idea why S60 has not included this basic feature into their text messaging client, it certainly livens up text's a little...maybe it's just me that expects these types of cosmetic features and from an S60 point of view it's way down the wish-list..

MySay and PhoneTagit

See the previous post about mashing mobile voice and twitter.

MySay allows me to post voice-snippets to a public/private web page or blog. A supposed Voice 2.0 service, (like Local Voice Search from mobile - ref: Google and Microsoft/TellMe services).






I'd prefer to post my mobile phone voice snippets to twitter having set up a twitter account, rather than MySay and this seems to be service offering of PhoneTag (currently in beta).








I can't try it though as it does'nt seem to accept non-US numbers at signup... come on developers or Spinvox integrate directly !

More widget news

So Netvibes widget content will be available in Widsets...





I've gone off Widsets a little since their last release, the J2ME client has got more bloated, takes longer to initiate and is much more confusing in synching desktop widgets back down to the mobile. Before it was simpler, faster but had less functionality. There's always a trade off.

However, Widsets do make it super-easy to create new widgets in a matter of minutes with no coding required. The barrier-to-entry of creating personalised widgets is therefore lowered.

One consequence of this is searching for and finding useful widgets from the longtail and not just the head (ebay,email,flickr etc..) as Ring Nokia points out.

Netvibes allows access to a handful of their enormous number of widgets via the mobile browser and m.netvibes.com... (just set up a tab called mobile in your web based Netvibes).

To complement this by allowing the mobile widsets client to get access to the netvibes catalogue ensures they are covering both options.

Widget, widget web and mobile

Nokia announced today their vision of widgets on mobile...well, at tleast the S60 platform.


Whilst various startups such as Widsets, Bluepulse, Plusmo, etc... and other players such as Opera have been building mobile clients/and or browser access for widget development and distribution in this space for a while, it's interesting to see the weight of a major handset manufacturer such as Nokia joining the fray..

The new Web Runtime (only on Feature Pack 2) is not yet integrated with native applications on the phone which would allow proper mashup type services, but understandable from a security perspective. The ecosystem needs to be built up first. .

Whilst I use widgets on the web in personalised homepage like Pageflakes, Netvibes and Google IG (and in this blog), porting the vast number available across directly to mobile may not be enough. Again, integration with native apps however opens up new opportunites - it remains to be seen if this will make the difference.

As one of the commentators on AAS says,the desktop widget engine Konfabulator in all it's shiny-goodness was dropped after the inital wow factor wore off, because the browser proves to be more flexible especially with broadband as the enabler.

All in all, it's an interesting announcement and allows another runtime beyond Java and say Flashlite for developers to get into mobile apps, but we'll have to wait and see if customers will adopt this new form of content-packaging to digest web based content on their mobiles...after all it's a compromise currently between full web browsing and richer client apps.

Roundup

Had a couple of posts in draft for the last week - here's the blurb rounded up ...

Firstly Carnival of the mobilist 68 is live over at Always On blog. One of the most interesting posts I thought was Google launching Local Voice Search in the US - link here here.

Google definately seem to understand that mobile context is different from the web and that they need to use the best features of mobiles to enhance existing services or create new ones purely for mobile ...

Readers of this blog know that I'm keen on ** integrated ** mobile services that make tasks simple and particularly those that take advantage of the best features of the phone (eg. in the case above, voice). Examples of other great integrated data services are Shozu (Symbian version integrates with the Camera functions and GPS) or Blogger on Sony Ericsson K800i (integrates with Camera functions) - both allowing photo upload and mobile blogging.


On a different tack, but still related to Google, I was lucky enough to pre-trial an N95 version of GSync. This Symbian application is created by Psiloc and allows synhcing of any SMS's or MMS's in your phone's inbox into your GMail account. It's a cool little app that works well if you feel the need to keep your messages - it's been useful for me a couple of times when the SMS's have been deleted from my phone Inbox as it got full and I've needed to refer back to them.
Comprehensive review here. Now if only this was actually already a built-in function of the Inbox on your phone and you could point it to different email accounts.

Carnival of the Mobilists 67

One of my favourite sites WAP review is hosting the Carnival this week. Link in title.