David Stennett's Business Tech Blog

Goodbye Gowalla, for now ...

2011-12-09T17:19:00.003+01:00

Well, I have officially stopped using Gowalla. I just didn't like its privacy settings. Even though I set my Privacy settings to "Private" -- which means via the web, users could not see where I was checking in ... they could still see the photos I was posting at check-ins. I didn't like that. Not at all. The Czechs have a word for that called "drzý" (something like "insolent" or "brash", but not really). Over the years, I've helped them grow by checking in everywehre and creating new locations, and now they've been purchased by Facebook. Congrats guys! Now Facebook own the top two worse sites for privacy settings on the internet.

Once you guys can fix that, I'll be back ...

Goodbye iPhone; Hello HTC Desire S: Part II

2011-04-22T13:02:00.004+02:00

Well, it only took me 2 days to fall in love with my Android phone. I likes it ... I likes it alot. Of course, I'm still learning the phone and platform, but I'm impressed. It's way more badass than my iPhone in most things. Usability still needs to be improved a bit, but since I'm a power user, I really don't mind. HTCs implementation of Gingerbread with HTC Sense just rocks. I'll say more later, once I've really had a go at using this phone, but so far, so good.

Goodbye iPhone; Hello HTC Desire S

2011-04-20T15:52:00.004+02:00

Well, the speed of my 3G iPhone was starting to get pretty damn annoying (ever since the "upgrade" to iOS4, it started going downhill), not to mention the fact that the battery charge is now sucking too. And since I couldn't just replace the battery in the iPhone, to stretch out its life a bit more, I decided to scrap it altogether and get a new phone. Enter the HTC Desire S. Goodbye Apple.

As you may have read in previous posts, I have a love, but mainly hate relationship with Apple products. I just never got comfortable with the closed platform, iTune necessary, built for dummies mobile device. Don't get me wrong, it has some nice usability (see below) features, it IS simple to use, and most of the third-party apps that I used on the iPhone were pretty good. But, I always wanted something more, to bring me back closer to my old days on Nokia Symbian powered phone features. So I thought HTC would get me there.

So far, after having the phone for 4 hours, I'm not impressed. It takes WAY too many clicks to perform basic functions. The freaking apps panel is a bloody mess, and I'm not able to create sub-groups or folders to organize everything. I have TWO email clients (one for Gmail, and one for POP3/IMAP accounts), and frankly both suck. Facebook, as much as I hate it, also sucks on Android compared to iOS (can't upload video, and layout looks cheap). Linkedin on Android sucks compared on iPhone too. In fact, almost every app that I had on iPhone that's on Android sucks. The exception so far being Photobucket.

I didn't do enough research on Android before buying, I thought I'd just go see how it stacks up. And, while it has some cool things about it (wigets are cool and suck at the same time), so far it's a cluttered mess.

Anyway, these are only my first hours impressions, so we'll see how it goes in a week or so. So far, I have like 2-3 weather apps/wigets on the phone, and 2-3 twitter icons or apps that I don't need. And I can't seem to be able to delete them. Arrrrrrrrrrgh!

More soon!

Drinking Apple kool-aid ...

2011-01-31T14:01:00.006+01:00

As you can cleary read in some of my previous blog posts, I have a hate/love relationship with Apple products. I HATE that I'm dependant on having a PC with iTunes to activate new Apple devices. I hate that I have to use iTunes to put pictures on my iPod. In short, I hate iTunes. It bricks my devices all the time on my XP box (yeah, I'm still using XP on my work notebook, sue me!). I've bricked my iPhone a few times -- usually going the whole day without a work phone, only to restore it on my home PC (Windows 7). I just want to smash Steve Jobs in the face sometimes.

Not only that, I can't stand how many people drink Apple Kool-Aid. It's annoying to hear them talk about Apple devices, similar to this:

iPhone4 vs HTC Evo

I just purchased a iPad for my wife. I pulled it out of the box. Hooked it up to my notebok (XP!), and bricked it while trying to update the OS. I love that icon that says I should plug it into iTunes, even though it's plugged into iTunes. I guess (I hope!) I will have to restore it on my Vista box when I get home. Love wasting my time! Thanks Steve! (I don't blame Bill -- we all know he builds crap, but Steve should know how to create a work around for this somehow ... it's annoying).

So why do I continue to buy Apple products (at least, sometimes)? They're over-priced, under tech'ed (no camera at all, not least a forward looking camera on the iPad ... I guess nobody uses Skype but me? Hell, can't even iChat on it!), and closed systems. Why do I bother? Simple. Because once you get through all of that crap (and it's crap!), they're sexy devices that work really well, and even idiots can use them. And because idiots can use them, there is actually a selection of apps out there to choose from.

Not only that, Apple does do a good job with integrating their other products (Airport Express controlled by iPhone, AppleTV controlled by iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, etc...). Other companies just churn out things that seemingly are different worlds from each other. In other words, Apple has created a platform that works. Of course, I'm still on a iPhone 3G ... and thanks to OS 4.X, it's as slow as snails f--king! I am refusing to upgrade to iPhone 4. I think it's too expensive when compared to the Samsung Galaxy S or the HTC Desire HD. Those phones do more for less. But I just can't buy one of them either. They seem real cheap (especially the HTC). Plus, they won't integrate with my AppleTV nor is there anything like an AirPort Express that I can control with it (is there?) I am just gonna stretch out the iPhone 3G as long as I can.

On a side note, since I am not an integration freak when it comes to hardware for my wife, she is getting a new Nokia C7-00 for her birthday from me (she doesn't read my blog, so I can tell you now :P). It has a 8mpix camera and does HD video. It has awesome integrated FB (social media) functionality. Wi-Fi, BT, cool navigation, etc... Far superior to the iPhone, and it costs 3-4 times less. Nokia Symbian phones have ALWAYS been bad ass technically (far ahead of iPhones), but Nokia's marketing team had alwasy been more interested in having models holding their phones, than actually showing what the phones could do (sytle over substance didn't work for them for some reason). This approach failed for Nokia, but is working for Apple. I guess Hollywood isn't the only influence on the rest of the world. You can add Apple to that list too, even if they're at least a half-decade behind others in actual functionality.

Email Facepalm

2010-10-25T15:15:00.015+02:00

You would think that in today's age of computers in the workplace, the most basic form of work place communication -- that being E-mail -- would be the most effective form communication with colleagues. After all, this is an age of omnipresent technology, where you can access your work email from your notebook, pc, work mobile phone/blackberry/iphone, VPN from home ... and you can do so when you become available. That is, you can't "miss" it, because you're not in a meeting -- it's just there once that meeting is done.

However, on my current contract, it seems I am sending email to the Gliesa 581 system, as I never get an immediate reply and I almost always have to do a "manual" walk over to the persons at hand to get the information I need. In addition, I've started to email with just itemized points (no long winded sentences like my blog, clusters of chaff .. just to the point). A majority of the time these emails only require a "yes" or "no" answer. I still don't get it.

I have tried the "I will assume this is true if you don't reply" type emails, but they don't work either. I've been in meetings and burned some people, and that's not my intention as a contractor. (VP asks XYZ, I say ABC, Engineer says it's not that way, I retort I emailed them and they agreed because they didn't reply, Engineer gets roasted by VP for not replying) Of course, sometimes, I have to open a can of whoop a$$ (keeping in mind, I'm usually brought in when the locals aren't doing their job, dragging their feet, or unable to complete the tasks at hand). Oorah!!! :P

Anyway, it seems I have to continue sending emails and doing a manual follow-up -- wasting time as I walk around the building looking for people. It seems email is a big waste of time, but needed -- but the real question is, is there anything else on the horizon that will replace it? IM can work, but people never answer those either. Ideas? How about a cruel "Star Rating" system for your colleagues at work? (Don't email David, he has a 3 star rating for replies, so you know you'll have to go find the guy) That would be awesome. ;-)

Foursquare, Gowalla, and social network business models ...

2010-10-07T10:39:00.013+02:00

As you may or may not know, I am a "part-time" user of both Foursquare and Gowalla. I say "part-time" because I normally forget to open the applications up when I go somewhere (unless I am out eating lunch by myself, or waiting for somebody and I find myself bored so I fiddle with my phone). With SMSs pretty cheap here in the Czech Republic (1 kč per SMS ... or, about .05 US cents), it's just much faster to SMS people if I want them to join me. Basically, what I really lack is incentive to use such apps on a normal basis.

Of course, in places like New York, where Foursquare was born and rules the city, you're much more likely to find "deals" ... ie ... electronic notices/coupons related to the places you visit. A somewhat crude form of location based advertising ... not quite as fancy as our Jellingspot data server we used to sell back in the early 2000s (bluetooth location based services platform), which we shelved a few years ago (no "easy to use" app stores existed then). But, it works.

Even this, however, isn't the greatest incentive. If they really want to grow -- they need to learn about viral marketing and/or viral sales teams. Imagine if I set up locations in Gowalla, and then made .1 cent for every check-in? Ok, maybe a bit far fetched, but maybe I could make a deal with my favorite locations -- for every check-in you bring them, you get .1 cent?

There are a ton of mini-viral marketing/sales activites they could do to stimulate exponential growth of their app use. A kind of virtual francising. This would be incentive for me to use and spread the usage of these applications. Heck, even a simple monthly lottery for people who check in would be a nice incentive. Everytime you check-in (at certain locations for example), your name goes into a virtual hat ... end of the month, there will be a drawing where you can win, ABC, XYZ, etc. Think about it. Thousands of users would then be pushing your product. You don't have to cough up a bunch of cash (although somekinda Google Ads like business model could be cooked up ...). Food for thought ...

Illustration from: http://topnews.net.nz/

Handplaning

2010-09-22T20:35:00.005+02:00

Well, I just noticed on my boy Justin's facebook page that he re-posted a totally awesome blog post from his friend Brian over in San Francisco who is really passionate about handplaning. [Check out his awesome GoPro video in the blog post]

What is handplaning? Basically, it's body surfing with a small board on your hand, which gives you more lift and more control in the water. Like a one handed "bodyboard" ... but, there is no board on your body -- just a fin on your hand. It looks totally fun!

Anyway, the guys who made Brian's handplane over at Enjoy Handplanes take old surf boards, cut off the noses, and make some cool ass looking handplanes. How cool is that? Recycling old surf boards to give a part of them a new life in the water. I think that's totally cool, so much so, that I'm gonna have to order one. Not sure how much handplaning I can do in the Vltava, but it's definitely a lot easier to travel with a handplane than a surfboard when I *do* get a chance to hit up some waves. Check them out!

Apple TV: New vs. Old

2010-09-20T16:03:00.007+02:00

Recently Apple launched its new Apple TV for the amazingly low price of 99 USD (75 EUR / 1865 Kč). The previous Apple TV was considerably more, depending on the amount of storage you wanted. But, that's no longer an issue with the lastest Apple TV, because they no longer include ANY storage, so now you don't have to pick. ;-)

I could list the plethora of differences between the "old" (and my opinion) Apple TV and the new one, but the fine people over at Digital Trends have done a pretty good job comparing the New Apple TV vs. Old Apple TV.

What I will say is this -- cloud computing (ie... all of your hard drive storage is on the internets, not on your local computer) overall is pretty cool and I'm definitely not a cloud computing hater. I like it. But, Apple TV's new "stream only" approach is kinda limiting in some ways. What if I want to buy a movie? I can still buy movies on the old Apple TV ... and even via iTunes on my PC. But I cannot do it directly via the new Apple TV. I can only rent. This means I have to go into my office, turn on my computer, fire up iTunes, BUY a movie ... download it in total, and THEN! I can stream it from my PC to my new Apple TV and watch it in my living room on the large LCD TV ... seems like a longer process just to watch a movie (more steps in the revenue cycle, I think, aren't usually wise). Doesn't look like I can lug the new one to my mountain cottage either to watch movies (would need an internet connection to watch movies). I guess the limited internet connection mountain cottage types aren't their target market.

On the other hand, it removes some of the craziness of "syncing" content between systems (I mistakenly deleted a purchased movie off of my iTunes on my PC, and it then "synced" (deleted) on my Apple TV, so I lost the movie I purchased) ... so from this side I think it's cool. The netflicks integration seems pretty cool tool.

All in all, still a pretty cool device with very limited competition ... but, with a 99 dollar price tag, I think Apple TV is really going to cross the market place chasm now ... just wait and see. But I don't think they needed to remove some of the cool stuff they had before ... they could have just improved what they had, instead of cleaning the slate so to speak.

Back on E85

2010-04-23T16:14:00.006+02:00

So, I thought I'd post something new that WASN'T really related to what I do for professionally for work, but what I do for "fun". In this case, it's moving my Subaru back to E85 fuel for the race season. You know, E85 .... 85% moonshine and 15% normal 95 oct. (91 in the US) fuel -- which totals up to 109oct (105oct US). With Winter's long grip on Prague officially over, it's time to go E85 again for the following reasons:

1. It's 40% cheaper than normal 100oct. (96oct US) fuel ... which is about 8.50 USD per gallon now.
2. It produces 70% less emissions than standard petroleum based fuels.
3. With tuning***, I get another 10-15% horsepower and more engine safety.

Now, I don't run E85 in the winter, because I don't drive my Subaru STI much in the winter, and because it's extremly difficult to start the car on E85 when it's cold out. If you don't have an engine blanket, good luck getting it started (unless your car was built as a Flex-Fuel car, then the ECU (car computer) will know what to do).

However, it's warmed up a bit, so now no problemo. To run E85 in my Subaru I had to add a higher capacity fuel pump and larger fuel injectors. E85 requires that you spray 30-40% more fuel than standard gas when using it the way I am (1 to 1, ethanol doesn't have the power as standard gas, so you need more of it to product the same amount of energy). Using the opensource software RomRaider, I am able to tune and make changes to the car's ECU map so that it will run E85. In this case, playing with the fuel scaling and timing. Don't try this at home kiddies ... if you screw up, you'll blow your motor. ;-) Once done, ta-da! Add E85, update ECU map, and you're good to go!

Naturally, I just explained it "for dummies" as details might be just a bit too much for you if you're not familiar with ODBII ports, ECUFlash, MAF scaling, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, something new for you today, if you have any questions about what you need to do to get on E85, let me know, I'll be glad to consult ... now, back to real work I go (oh, wait, still looking for work myself :P) ...

"Lean Manufacturing" in software ...

2009-11-20T13:46:00.012+01:00

The term Lean Manufacturing has been around for a while, but it seems that it has been re-discovered by a few marketing teams in a few of the larger ERP systems (I hate this term ERP, but I'll use it for reference) solution providers, and I'm getting spammed about how to "make my business 'leaner'".
I have no intention to drill deep into Fordism at this point, as it is a really exhaustive topic (and well worth researching if you're unfamiliar with it) and not really suitable for an ad hoc blog post. What I will say (and to really water it down and simplify it) is that in terms of software solutions for logistics/production companies, is that the goal of any information system you implement should aim to reduce the amount of manaual work employees perform or remove the need for any manual work altogether.

The great majority of systems (ERP, SCM, MM, IS, --> insert acroynm here) capture information well (including the system the company I work for implements), but they do a poor job of automating processes or removing the "decision time" process. In other words, you collect a plethora of information about, say, what items are in your warehouse, but very few of these systems are ordering supplies for themselves (ie... when a store's shelf is empty or the supply depot is almost exhausted, very few outfits have automated re-ordering of goods in demand, and still depend upon shop assistants and students to do "inventory" or "by-site" management of goods ordering).

There are a few systems out there (not being fully used by most of their customers), that automat the sourcing process, including the contracting process, ordering process (by Demand), etc ... but for the most part, especially in this part of Europe, product chain management is extremly poor. The local giant Tesco or Hypernova or Albert should NEVER run out of something (unless it's seasonal), but they do all the time. For example, items I buy all of the time seem to run out, and isn't replaced for days, sometimes even weeks -- even when their other stores on the other side of town have a shelf full of the same goods. "Real Time" analysis and movement of items by demand shouldn't be some rare function of an information system and a comapany's procurement organization, it should be the norm.

The point is, if you are a manager of a large company needing an information system to help you capture AND improve your current production/procurement processes, just don't follow the other sheep and invest in "popular" tools (especially those subsidized by a government, cough, cough ...) ... try doing a bit more research first, and if you're completely lost, contact a professional outside of those companies to help you garner your proper requirements (it doesn't have to be me! :P) ... you'll be glad you did.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

2009-11-18T15:59:00.004+01:00

Well, this definately isn't going to help your business at all, but the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is out. If you are wondering why some of your employees may be calling in sick more often lately, or why they're not even bothering to show up to work (cough, cough), this may be the reason why.

I must say, however, that you can learn a lot about business from playing such first-person shooters, especially when playing online against other real people. 1. Team work is essential to winning. 2. Real-time communication is a major advantage, especially as it relates to information about knowing where your enemies are located. 3. Having the right-tools (Heart-beat sensor enabled rifle vs. pistol) definately can make the difference between pawning some noob or getting stabbed.

Just think about it ... I'm off to, hmmm ... work on some business proposal for a customer :P (if you're playing this on the PS3, let me know, I'll be happy to skool you online!)

How NOT to sell software ...

2009-10-04T11:25:00.003+02:00

Recently, I was looking for a good photo/picture editing program and a good video editing program ... since I don't own a Mac (yet) that comes with awesome software out of the box, and Microsoft's free picture and video editing tools are completely worthless (shocker!), I went looking to buy something.

I used to be a big Paint Shop Pro guy, so I of course went to see what they currently offered -- turns out that Corel now owns them and the software is called Corel Paint Shop Pro. Downloaded the trial version, and it was very similar to the older versions I knew well. Ok, found my photo/picture tool. I saw Corel had a video editing application called, Corel VideoStudio 12. Downloaded the trial, it wasn't bad either, and pretty easy to use. Ok, that was easy. On their webpage, I noticed they had some nice package deal for both applications for one-low price. Great! Let me buy it ... go to buy it, and of course, it won't let me buy it for the low-price because, and get this ... I'm not in the USA. I am then given a link to pick UK, EU, or some other countries. I picked the EU ... but of course, no nice package deal. Normal price but in euros instead of dollars -- in in short, the software would cost me almost two-times as much. WTF?!?

Now you'd think if I somebody were coming from say the Czech Republic or another former-Eastern Block country, the price might be ... and I'm going out on the limb here saying this ... at least the same? (cheaper would be crossing the line). In an area where software piracy is higher, wouldn't you want to entice people to use legal software by having a lower price (or at least equal) to fit the local's budget?

I know when I worked at a very popular software firm in the past, the price was publically the SAME for everybody -- in dollars. And when the dollar took a hit and got weak, ooh, well ... it was just that much cheaper for the rest of the world (the US was 50% of the market and Europe the other 50%). We even lowered the price on a case-by-case basis when people wrote to us from countries with much lower GDPs. Maybe that's why that company I worked for is still thriving, despite having fierce rivals backed by much larger corporations.

It's really no wonder why companies like Corel, who used to really be king of the hill, have just become standard.

No SMS vCards on iPhone?

2009-09-07T15:00:00.003+02:00

Unless I haven't figured something out, it seems you cannot send a vCard via SMS from say, a Nokia (in this case my wife) to an iPhone (in this case, me). WTF? I remember being able to do this back in the old skool days with my Siemens C35i phone, but I can't get a .vcf (vCard) file sent to my iPhone via SMS? Please somebody tell me that I am just doing something wrong?

Back from the Dead

2009-08-17T13:54:00.002+02:00

Well, the summer is winding down, so it looks like I'll start to blog a bit more ... less car racing, less beer drinking, less fight tournaments, and more posts about the nerdy stuff that matters!

Nothing new to report, except that my Nokia N95 finally died, so I got an iPhone ... I am such a sell out! It's pretty cool in a lot of ways, and I HATE it in many others ... I'll post some thoughts about it when I get time ... in the meantime, if you're an iPhone user, you have to get Doodle Jump .... can you beat 30055 points? Get some!

Prince2 Certifed

2009-02-16T10:10:00.003+01:00

So, after a long week in the UK, I am now officially (after years of practice) Prince2 Certified. Weeeeee. Was it worth the 4000 Pound I spent for training, hotel, food, and of course Ale and Pies? I don't know, but it is what it is.

As for this blog, I've been so busy, you can see not much is being updated. Once I am "ramped up" on this new project, I will probably start blogging more, but my focus will probably be more Supply-Chain related, than mobile or tech ... not that I'm getting away from tech or mobile, but there are many fine blogs out there already discuss this stuff, while not much exists on the latter. We'll see!

A late Happy New Year to everybody!

Hypernova, meet Supply Chain Managment...

2008-09-15T17:20:00.011+02:00

I couldn't help but post a "non-technical" opinion today. Yesterday, while shopping for groceries, I went to purchase my normal catch of canned tuna from Rio Mare (yeah, premium Tuna, I roll like that). I noticed Hypernova was selling the following:

1-Can Pack: 59.90 CZK
2-Can Pack: 139.90 CZK

?????

That means, if you buy two, 1-can packs, you pay 119.80 CZK ... but if you buy 1, 2-can pack, you pay 139.90 CZK. Hmmm, ok. So I bought two, 1 can packs and saved the 20 CZK.

Now, it doesn't really take a genius to know something is wrong here. The cost of packaging 1 can vs. 2 cans is obviously more (Economies of scale anybody?), not to mention when you rid yourself of a 2-can pack, you free up more shelve space for more goods. Also, customers *generally* lower the cost of purchase by purchasing in bulk (while 2 cans to 1 isn't really bulk, the same "theory" applies). In other words, the one 2-can pack should have been cheaper than 2, 1-can packs.

Apparently, the fine folks at Hypernova haven't taken any Economics 101 classes, and they need to learn a thing or two about Supply Chain Management and Marketing ... I'm available for consulting services should you guys want it (because you DO need it!).

Jablotron Car Alarm (GSM/GPS)

2008-09-09T17:29:00.019+02:00

Well, I just recently picked up a cool car alarm from Czech maker Jablotron that is GSM and GPS* enabled. My car now has its own SIM card! When the alarm goes off, it calls my phone and sends me SMS to tell me what has been disturbed (door, window, trunk, hood, ignition, etc...). I can send short code SMS messages to arm, disarm, check its status, gets its location via GSM-Triangulation, or get its GPS coordinates. It's pretty neat.

Coupled with a third-party website/partner that can do real time security monitoring for your car, they even allow you to track your car via online maps to find your car anytime you want (I can even see it in my phone browser, which is a good thing too). It will create a "travel log" of locations you visited, too, if you enable it (excellent for supply-chain / fleet management gigs ... or for the psychotic husband tracking his wife's every move). And just to be a super annoying neighbor, I can set the alarm off remotely for 5s seconds, for example, just in case I feel like it (I can set my alarm off from Greece when on vacation if I want -- don't ask why).

All in all, if you're looking for a good autoalarm, check (he said check) these guys out. Hopefully, they'll come up with a GSM-camera for the car, too, so I can monitor my car with video at night -- that'd rock the house. Let's go Jablotron, get the little pin-hole cam hooked up too!

* I was too cheap to put the GPS module in ... it won't work while it's in the garage or in undergroud parking, so for me it was considered a waste of money (3000 CZK, 170 USD, 120 EUR difference) -- but, if somebody steals my car, I'll wish I had it so I could find its precise location [unless they get it into the chop shop quickly], instead of getting 200-500m near it using GSM-Triangulation.

Apple "3G" iPhone arrives in Prague ...

2008-09-01T14:14:00.011+02:00

Well, it has been a bit more than a week since the Apple "3G" iPhone hit the market here in Prague. People with who had very little idea of what an iPhone was 1 month ago, are now pounding their greasy fingers on the iPhones screen, thanks to the relatively low cost no thanks to carrier subsidies. Nobody quite knows what to do with it, however. With a touch of humor, my own carrier, Vodafone, has called friends offering the "3G" iPhone (these friends already having the initial version of iPhone) and that it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. My friend's conversation went something like this:

Vodafone: Hello! We now sell the Apple 3G iPhone, it's the greatest phone on the planet, don't you want to sign up for a contract and get it?

Friend: Why would I want the 3G iPhone, you guys don't offer 3G in the CZ.

Vodafone: Hmmm, but it has GPS now too!

Friend: Can you download the maps locally onto your iPhone?

Vodafone: Yes

Friend: Have you ever played with an iPhone?

Vodafone: Yes, we have one here.

Friend: Go play with it again and call me back when you know the answer to th question.

Obviously, not all customers have a clue. Most will just say "ok, let's do it" -- the marketing is silly. Signs for the iPhone are everywhere, but nobody really knows why it's so good (functionality wise) ... it's call comical really. I have been lectured by another colleague that I should get it becaues it has GPS. When I state I've had GPS functionality for more than a year with my stale Nokia N95, they're really not sure what to say after that (besides I can listen to music on it -- which I guess I can, but I can on my N95 too ... but I prefer my iPod Nano).

At any rate -- I noticed that previous iPhone users were mostly happy about the fact that they can configure their iPhones to access the companies Exchange environment -- this feature alone seems to be the only reason most previous iPhone users are bragging about the new iPhone. This definately has been a change agent -- those folks who have iPhones and had to carry Blackberries for corporate email have finally "converged" -- which is something that Apple has been good at doing, and if they can continue, they're going to give Blackberry hell.

Now where is the Nokia N96 so I can say I have HD TV abilities (but of course, my carrier won't support that, just like it doesn't support 3G) on my phone. I need a "notch up" in the cool department. :P

Mobile Slingbox Chill'axing ...

2008-06-02T17:41:00.007+02:00

Well, last week I was in the UK on a biz trip, and I did a sweet impulse buy of a Slingbox SOLO at the airport (Terminal 5, despite all of its glitches and its over-price construction costs, it certainly has enough gadget stores in it for the likes of me!). In case you've forgotten what a Slingbox is, it basically is a stand-alone TV server that "slings" (hence its name, clever eh?) or pushes out your home TV connection out to the internets -- and you pick the signal up with a software TV client (on your notebook desktop pc, or mobile device). It works really really well. I watch my Dad's TV back in the states on it from time-to-time. I picked one up mainly so my girlfriend's sister can watch Czech TV while she's abroad (they don't sell the Slingbox here in the Czech Republic, go figure...).

At any rate, the other obvious reason I picked one up is because Sling viewing on my Nokia N95 is *really* good. I mean, REALLY good. It looks super clear and the audio comes in great (*** only via Wi-Fi-- EDGE just isn't fast enough for Sling viewing). Most modern shopping malls in the CZ have free Wi-Fi, so at lunch I'm usually watching the news on my mobile -- and people freak out when they see TV (full screen) on my phone. Even my colleagues who sport iPhones drool at the fact they can't do that (Apple, make a deal with Slingbox to get their client on your new 3G iPhone -- that would be yet another selling point for me to get an iPhone). Check out which devices are currently supported for mobile Slingbox viewing ... (30-day free trial)

Anyway, enough of the rambling -- I have some Slingbox TV to get viewing ...

3G iPhone Puzzle

2008-05-27T10:38:00.005+02:00

Well, more and more chatter is starting to pick up on the Blogosphere and tech head sites about the pending release of the Apple iPhone II or 3G iPhone. What we do know is that many industry folks with "inside" knowledged, coupled with the statements from carrier CEOs, have pretty much "proven" that a 3G iPhone is soon-to-be on the shelves for purchase.

However, aside from "3G" (ie... a faster connection), what else is a likely "3G" iPhone going to bring? Well, it's really anybody's guess. Naturally, a plethora of folks have demanded, myself included, that integrated GPS be added for once thing, and a more open or friendly Bluetooth environment. Additionally, the ability to code apps and install them (via iTunes AND Bluetooth) is a must (yeah, yeah, I know that the platform is opening, but thus far, it's still a pretty closed one).

I have stated in previous posts what I'd like to see in a "super" iPhone -- basically, the same features that the Nokia N95 has had for more than 1 year. These technical features and abilities, coupled with Apple's great eye for usability, would make it a staple phone in my thirst for phone gadgetry! Let's go Apple! Woot, woot

2008 .... B - U - S - Y - !

2008-05-15T00:30:00.011+02:00

I haven't had much time to write, as I've been extremly busy (this consulting stuff is hardwork!) .... that, and just being totally lazy and indifferent to all of the technologies flying around out there (I'm keeping track, but I feel sorry for bloggers trying to keep their blogs up-to-date about what's going on, shssh). I think, with the little free time I have after work, BJJ training, and reading ... I prefer to play Call of Duty 4 on my PS3 instead of update you folks :p

Whatever the case, keep your eye out on the iPhone II coming out in June -- I may finally pick up an iPhone if it includes:

1. 3G Speeds
2. Integrated GPS
3. Better Camera/Video recorder (doesn't have to match my N95, but it should!)

If Apple can do this, I'm there!

Now who wants some on COD4??? ...

Nokia N95 vs. Apple iPhone II

2007-11-05T21:57:00.000+01:00

Well, it has been a while since I last blooged ... a very busy work schedule, not to mention I broke my leg and recently my hand (thank Brazilian Jiu-jitsu training for that), I haven't gotten to blog much as of late.

Anyway, iPhone talk has started to become standard lexicon here even in Prague, so it's time to revisit the Nokia N95 vs. iPhone discussion again. Having played with a few iPhones now, I can say openly that the iPhone is a LOT more stable and a lot more usable than the Nokia N95. My N95 has a host of stability issues (slow GPS start-up time, crashing on larger webpages, freezing when an application tries to determine which access point it should use, etc....). I have updated my firmware to the newest version, and that was more than 2 months ago when it came out, and no updates since that time. Nokia is very slow with updates. They really should release minor versions on a regular basis (with change/bug-fix log), specifically for their early-adaptors and champions ... pissing us off is not a good idea.

The iPhone is a superior phone when it comes to usability ... what it still lacks to put it far ahead of the N95, however, is:

1. Flash support in its browser
2. Ability to select more than 1 message at a time (organization features kinda suck)
3. GPS (that's a given)
4. 3G (another given)
5. Open Bluetooth (to send/receive pictures, business cards, etc...)
6. Open platfrm (I believe this is gonna change soon)

The Nokia N95 is still a better device to have when you find yourself in unchartered lands (having maps is nice, but if you can't find a street name, it's a moot point to have MAPs) -- not to mention, you cannot save maps locally ... no connection, no maps on the iPhone. The photo and video quality of the N95 is just super. I used my N95 on my last holiday to Greece (leaving the video cam at home), and it worked perfectly. Great DVD quality video, and excellent photos. The iPhone will have a BIG HILL to climb when it comes to knocking off the N95 in this territory.

I'm both happy, and greatly disappointed with my Nokia N95 ... Nokia could pay it a lot more attention and get their Series 60 platform in more order ... I think if the iPhone starts fixing its shortcomings (and Apple has a history of listening), the iPhone is gonna turn into the "to have" phone while Nokia's offerings slowly slide back into the abyss. Hope that's not the case, but we'll see how the Finns react. If they react at the same speed they are fixing bugs in the N95, they're good as gone.

Nokia N95 vs. Apple iPhone

2007-07-03T22:43:00.001+02:00

I don't mean to bash the iPhone -- I haven't seen one nor played with one yet. However, looking at the spec sheet leaves much to be desired, and the marketing for the iPhone (and the idiots in the mass media outlets that keep swearing it's the next greatest thing since sliced bread) is getting pretty damn annoying -- especially for ANYBODY who knows basic things about mobile phones (I suspect, the iPhone will only take off in the U.S. and the U.K. -- whereas the rest of the planet will not buy into the retarded hype ... but I've been wrong before). The iPhone just isn't that great, feature wise -- I like how these guys spoof Apple's famous commericals to compare the Nokia N95 vs. the iPhone.

Now when I go back to the states, I'm going to have to hear all of the parrots ranting about how great the iPhone is -- and I'll be like the guy in the video talking crap about it.

Nokia N95: I pulled the trigger

2007-07-01T22:20:00.000+02:00

Being the penny-pinching miser that I am, I was kinda skeptical about spending so much on a phone that I didn't think was worth it -- but I did ... so far, the phone is impressive, but it's not blowing off my socks. In the coming weeks, I'll give my impressions of using the N95 in more detail -- and some of the apps I've already started to use (fring, truphone, its maps app, etc...). So far, the phone is good, but has some usability issues I think Nokia could improve. More reporting later ... gotta go search for more fun software to install :-)

I hate localization: Google Earth

2007-06-17T16:37:00.000+02:00

There is no need for a long explaination this time ... I just updated my Google Earth application, which was in ENGISH --- now, after the update, it's in CZECH. WTF?!?!?

Curse you Google, curse youuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Google's now forcing me to install its apps in a language I do not want! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

I hate localization: MSN Live Messenger

2007-06-10T13:13:00.000+02:00

I think I'm starting a self-trend here -- this is my second post of "I hate localization," this time my target is not Google but MSN Live Messenger. As you'll read from my first post on the subject, I freak'n HATE when I am forced to read information in a language I did not ask to read. In MSN Live Messenger, I have installed everything in English -- the entire UI is in English, but, when I click "Create your own space" or "Share your contact info" or "Share your journal entries" --- guess what language it's in? Go ahead, take a guess. I will tell you -- it's Czech. I do not want it in Czech (are you listening Microsoft?). I want it in English, since my MSN Messenger is in English, it only makes sense. Thus concludes my rant against MSN Messenger -- another application with a poor localization sense.

E-TEN M700: Almost pulled the trigger

2007-06-09T16:40:00.001+02:00

Well, today I was shopping for a new phone again (my old skool Nokia 7650 is on its death bed). I got my hands on an E-TEN M700, and man it's a beauty of a phone -- buying this one was temping (I was looking to impulse buy the Nokia N95 (too expensive for what you get), Nokia E61i (not bad for the price, but no GPS), or this E-TEN M700 (no 3G and crap ass Microsoft iExplore on Windows Mobile Platform).

Using my excellent discipline to hold off on buying, I decided to go home and do research on the products -- and as I just mentioned, the fact that it does NOT have any 3G support and used MS Exploder was a big draw back. The E-TEN X800 is supposed to be coming out soon, and it should add 3G support -- it'll still have Microsoft Exploder, but I can probably live with it if the price is below the Nokia 95's. Otherwise, I will just use my Nokia 7650 until it stops working. And just in case you didn't read why I HATE MS Exploder on the Windows Mobile Platform, see my previous blog post from May 2007 on the subject.

Check out this video review of the E-TEN M700 -- even these guys state the same fact that MS Exploder is worthless, and lack of 3G is a disappointment, but otherwise, it's a very nice phone.

I hate localization: Google

2007-05-28T21:23:00.000+02:00

I tried sending Google feedback (they say you can here) ... but I couldn't find any place to actually send feedback to them (let me know when you find it) about the one issue I HATE the most on the web now: localization

Everytime I type in "google.com" it automatically takes me to google.cz -- and the page is in Czech. Now, I live in the Czech Republic and I speak Czech quite well ... but, I want google.com and in English, not google.cz in Czech. I have changed my language settings, but to no avail -- I always get freaking google.cz. I hate it to death. Other web sites do it, too, and I hate it to death. I am going to compile a hit list soon ... it's driving me nutz!

At least give us a REAL opportunity to say we want it in English -- or -- let us view the page man, for Christ's sake! You'd think Google, with all of their "brains" (again, check their "feedback" page...) they'd be able to get this right.

[ Technorati Tags: Google Portals Geotracking
Localization search ]

Smart 2 Go Maps: Revisited

2007-05-26T10:09:00.000+02:00

Well, so I tried installing Smart2Go maps on my Wi-Fi enabled Mio P550 .... installation was fine (fine = as reported by a gang and grip of other people, I could not even download the installation cab file via the IE browser on the PDA, since the "download" button does not work on the PDA -- I had to download it via my PC and then transfer it to the PDA via Bluetooth).

I established my Wi-Fi connection on my PDA, and then surfed to Greece to check to see if it worked -- NOPE. Never got anything. I only saw maps seemingly work for Italy and Germany -- I waited like 30 minutes, and maps for Greece and the Czech Republic never came up. Great stuff.

Then silly ol'me thinks that, I'll just use the MapLoader to load up the maps. So, I download the MapLoader that Smart 2 Go offers -- but *naturally*, I could not get the MapLoader to recognize my SD card in my card reader, nor could I get the MapLoader to reconize my PDA as "USB Storage." Complete junk.

I'm not the brightest bulb in the bunch, but I really couldn't get it to work -- it got uninstalled. Not to "smart" Smart2Go ... not to smart. You guys might want to really focus on usability and actually make this stuff work.

[ Technorati Tags: Symbian Windows Mobile Nokia
GPS Navigation Smart2Go ]

Smart 2 Go Maps

2007-05-18T16:44:00.001+02:00

This post is mainly for me, so I can remind myself to test these maps on my WM5 device ... but, in case you've been living in a cave the last year, you can download FREE Global maps for your Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition or Windows Mobile 5 platform device absolutely free from Smart 2 Go:

Free Maps from Smart 2 Go

Since I have not yet purchased a new phone yet (still fighting with choice -- Nokia N95 or some kinda WM5 phone), I will have to download -- but, I believe that all Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices come with this software pre-installed. But, if not, you can download it from this site and use the maps feature for free. Navigation will cost you a few pretty pennies, though.

[ Technorati Tags: Symbian Windows Mobile Nokia
Smart2Go Navigation ]

Window Mobile 5: Where's the Innovation?

2007-05-09T21:32:00.000+02:00

Microsoft likes to make a big deal about how it's an innovative company (we all know that 800lb. gorillas are not innovators, but that's another story) ... well, they seem to fool me with every new release of Pocket PC, because I truly do not see anything innovative on this platform. A few months ago, I purchased a Mio Digiwalker 550 for GPS navigation in my car. This comes fully loaded with Pocket PC 2005 (now called Windows Mobile 5). Looking back at my Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX with Pocket PC 2002 -- I do not see anything innovative aside from a few minor UI tweaks that should have taken a day or two to complete, not 3 years. (unless they have a part-time college student coding the entire Pocket PC platform)

The most clear example of its lack of innovation can be quickly noticed when you fire up IE on this platform. What's the difference between iExplorer on Pocket PC 2002 and 2005? Not much. On 2002, you have a "Fit to Screen" option in the view menu, whereas on Windows Mobile 5 you have the options "One Column," Default (basically destop mode), and Desktop view. Turning "Fit to Screen" off on Pocke 2002 basically makes it go into "Desktop" mode. So, in short, there is *no* noticable "viewing" difference. On the other hand, let's compare it to the Nokia Mini Map Browser on Symbian 3 Series 60 platform. BIG difference. Despite most Symbian phones having a smaller screen than most PDAs (or the same size screen as Microsoft Mobile 'Smart Phone' devices), the usability (and speed) of these Symbian devices is -- to be frank -- years ahead of Microsoft. Try navigating on a PDA with IE and then switch to a Symbian Series 60 3 phone and navigate -- the Symbian phone, despite a smaller processor (generally) and smaller screen, is a much more usable experience.

Microsoft -- I love you guys, but you need to get on the ball dudes. I'm about to drop some serious cash on a new mobile phone, and Microsoft's effort does NOT impress me enough to drop the cash on a Windows Mobile 5 powered device. The only thing that has remotely interested me in Microsoft's offering was its access to Skype, but since fring has support for the Symbian platform, and works like a charm, looks like Nokia is once again going to get my money.

[ Technorati Tags: Symbian Windows Mobile Nokia
Smartphones Browser ]

Skype on Symbian: Part II

2007-05-04T20:21:00.000+02:00

Well, about 2 years ago, I posted how Skype would be a killer app on Symbian, and a hell of a lot of people in the blogosphere agreed (or had been stating this obvious fact already before I even thought about mentioning it) ... Well, you don't really have to wait any longer, sort of. (I am a bit late with this, but better later than never)

Skype still hasn't bothered to put out their own client application yet for the Symbian platform, but a third-party provider has -- it's called fring & it is currently FREE:

Download fring here

Being a total looser and still using my old school Symbian 1 Nokia 7650 (I have broken all of my previous phones ... S-E P900 (cracked screen), Nokia 9210i (broken keyboard), N-Gage (lost it), I have yet to test it to any great extent, but I did manage to get to play with it on my business partner's Nokia N95 (a total bad ass phone btw ... Nokia, why don't you send me one?). The voice quality for both SkypeOut and normal Skype-to-Skype calls was pretty good over EDGE ... can't complain. Check out it out and let me know what you think. The rumor is another company does something similar, but I could not find any other company via Google.

[ Technorati Tags: Symbian Skype VoIP
SIP Data Phones ]

Str8 Slack'n ...

2006-12-04T22:11:00.000+01:00

I know, I know, I haven't posted much the last few months -- it's partly due to slacking, but also because I've been extremly busy with other projects and just having some fun :-) But, I promise starting in 2007 I'll begin blogging again on a regular basis. I've been sucking up a lot of cool blogs lately -- so, I've just been reading, and not writing. I'll post some of those blogs later. In the meantime, I'm off -- If I don't get back before the new year -- hope everybody has an excellent Christman/Holiday season with their family and friends (and be safe!) ... and I'll be back soon enough!

Google, sometimes evil, this time just too cool ...

2006-09-06T14:55:00.000+02:00

A lot of people both ride Google's bandwagon, and knock it for its ocassional censorship, confusing "rankings" system, its bullying practices, etc... I generally don't comment much about Google (except to say its search engine is still the best), but this time I have to give credit to Google for the cool things they do. This time, I am referring to this new Google feature:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch

You can type in a plethora of topics, and it will list news articles/abstracts by date ... all the way back to the 1700s! It seems, unfortuately, you will have to pay for access to much of the older material, but it most certainly helps if you're doing research on the evolution of certain devices/technologies. Way to go Google! I was scanning a bunch of topics, and reading abstracts is pretty surreal .... man, how things have changed!

[ Technorati Tags: Google search news
research history ]

Back from Holidays!

2006-07-19T22:03:00.000+02:00

I've been pretty quiet lately, but that's because I've been on holidays .... was in Greece (Crete) for two weeks, and then doing day-trips around Germany (Dresden), and just relaxing and working on some other things. I'll have more to say soon, so stay tuned!

Best to everybody else on their summer holidays -- and to my fellow Americans ... don't work so hard, take some days off, and enjoy the heat! :P

Macs in Black

2006-06-15T15:31:00.000+02:00

I've never been a big fan of Mac for many reasons -- The first being, I was always tired of hearing "how much better Macs are" from people who did nothing more than check email, surf the net, and do some simple graphics in photoshop (all which you can do, I should remind, on any cheap chinese PC).

After the FreeBSD based MAC O/S 10 Macs hit the market, it was "because you never have to restart the computers and they're more stable than Windows." This coming from people who didn't have a clue what a console (or command, you pick) window was, and didn't really know any Unix stuff at all. In short, they checked email, surfed the net, and did some minor graphic work on family photos. They never needed to leave their PC on 24/7, so why this would be an advantage to them always remained a mystery. Granted, Windows is buggy and unstable, but I didn't see why somebody, especially these people, should be spending 30% more on a computer for what they did.

Lastly, the "main" reason was that Bill Gates was evil and was a "monopolist" -- which I find silly, as Macs are 1. more expensive, 2. proprietary hardware, and 3. Apple is always trying to force you to use all of their stuff (buy an iPod, and you MUST use iTunes to put music on it, for example).

Aside from these "minor" points -- Macs have come down in price, have improved their performance (thanks to Intel chips -- usually found in PCs for the last 10 years), have become less proprietary (you can use external mice, monitors, keyboards), and basically, have become almost tolerable to me to where, when looking for a cheaper, smaller notebook, Macbooks are almost being considered -- that is, until I saw the price difference for the BLACK one. (Note: I just noticed it has a larger 80GB harddrive, hence the price difference -- but $200 more is a lot of money for 20 GBs more ... it's an obvious sales tactic, which is still cheap.)

Now, having reluctantly purchased a black iPod Nano for Xmas (nice), maybe a black MacBook would be a good match? Sure, but for 200 dollars MORE than the white one (as far as I can see, this is the only difference -- 200 dollars!), you've got to be out of your mind. What kind of crap is that? They didn't double-price on the Nanos, so why do it with the MacBooks? Obviously, they should have learned that black is probably a bit more popular than white in terms of the Nanos and Video iPods, so they could have segued into MacBook production with this in mind and kept the prices the same? Nah, that'd be too hard ... so, knowing that their "loyal" users would want a black one, what do they do to repay this loyalty? They charge 200 bucks more for a 10 dollar piece of plastic! Woot, woot! Bill Gates, eat your heart out! (Note: See correction above, but the addition of the 80GB into this same Mac IS still a low-blow ...smart sales team, though)

Knowing all this, I'll have to keep my sites on the cheaper and lighter Averatec 2200 series notebook (4lb 12" Averatec vs. 5.2lbs 13" MacBook). Being 400 dollars cheaper, I think this will be the best bet (sure, I won't be as "cool" as the soccer mom on the airplane with the MacBook, but I'll be able to do anything on the Averatec that she'll EVER use her MacBook for). :-)

Or, maybe I'll just give in to peer pressure :-)

[ Technorati Tags: Macs iPod MacBooks
Apple Averatec ]

Save the Internet: Fighting for Internet Freedom

2006-06-12T16:15:00.000+02:00

The "Internet Freedom" debate is on our steps again, so it's time to drop some emails and phone calls to your local representatives to get them on the whole "Internet Freedom" deal ... if you haven't been keeping up with what has been going on, check out:

Save the Internet:
http://www.savetheinternet.com/

I have sent my emails to my sentors (Cantwell and Murray) ... I suggest you guys in the States do the same!

Awsome Build Tool: ProductiveMe's BuildDesk

2006-05-26T14:41:00.000+02:00

Well, some old colleagues of mine (who formed ProductiveMe) have just launched their baby, their first commercial release of their totally awsome build tool, BuildDesk. If you're currently coding on the Java platform, this is a MUST tool (if you're responsible for building applications that is).

It helps bunches with the actual build process -- package, obfuscate, create installer, all in one nice GUI. Helps a lot with organizing your builds -- and particuarlly for mobile Java developers, it'll help you code your apps for various platforms (J2ME, PersonalJava, J2SE) and phone resolutions. No more going into your little ant scripts and Java code to tweak the app for various resolutions or the need to include differing splash screen sizes ... you can do it all in BuildDesk. Point, click, compile, done. Plus, it does a bunch more for serious programmers (not shappy hobbyist like myself), so seriously check it out.

They're currently offering their product for 99 USD (but the intro price won't last forever) ... but, you don't have to buy it to try it, so I highly recommend you take it for a test spin, first. It currently ONLY works with the industry's most bad-ass Java IDE, IntelliJ IDEA, but that'll be changing in the near future for all of you Eclipse and NetBeans junkies out there. You can download it here.

[ Technorati Tags: Java ANT IntelliJ IDEA
Eclipse NetBeans ]

My Seiko CPC Watch

2006-05-22T13:04:00.000+02:00

For a variety of reasons, I hadn't opened up my RSS client for a few weeks (been pretty busy or gone) ... but the first thing that popped-up when I did was an Engadget story about the Seiko CPC "Bluetooth" watch, which you can find here:

Engadget Story about Seiko watch!

The watch looked cool, but when you dig a bit further, man, it looks pretty big too (as shown here: Big'ol Watch).

So, in honor of this big monster, I decided to make my own "knock-off" version utilizing my Sony-Ericsson P900 ... I will help you make your own version for 100 USD pre-paid (includes sticky tape to hold your giant phone to your wrist). Check it out: My Seiko Knock-off!

Happy Monday Everybody! :P

Ajax Bandwagon, everybody hop on!

2006-04-27T12:16:00.000+02:00

For at least the last 6 months, I haven't been able to read anything without reading about Ajax: Ajax this and Ajax that. Well, you know, I don't mind technologies that change the way certain industries work, but all of the arguments for Ajax so far have been based on the same arguments other frameworks have been pushing for the last few years, namely, those driven by Echo. In fact, Jellingspot has used Echo since its inception in 2002 (that's why its admin is webconsole based, if you wanted to know). So, to me, all this talk about Ajax isn't all that interesting. The real question is, who has been pushing Ajax? Something is fishy ...

Of course, if something that makes certain applications easier to make and deploy to the web (especially as it relates to mobiles!), so be it -- you won't get any complaints from me! (this is just part of a broader plan to push RAD tools and frameworks...gotta make some new markets!)

[ Technorati Tags: Java Ajax Jellingspot
echo Rapid Application Development ]

Jellingspot Version Comparison Guide

2006-03-27T22:45:00.000+02:00

"Not quite sure what the difference is between the free version of Jellingspot and the commercial version? This simple guide should help you understand those differences, and if it doesn't, then please email us and we'll be happy to clear things up."

Read more here: http://www.jellingspot.com/features.htm

[ Technorati Tags: Jellingspot Marketing Advertising
Bluetooth Symbian ]

Spring Forward

2006-03-27T11:21:00.000+02:00

Aah, Spring is finally here (although Spring weather hasn't made it yet), so now it's time to loose an hour of sleep so I can gain an hour of daylight! Yippie! (North America springs forward next week ... so for one week, mainland Europe is +1 hour ahead all around [7-10 hours] to mainland US).

Which leads me to my next minor point: How come my Symbian devices didn't change time automatically? Neither my UIQ 2.1 (P900) or my plethora of Symbian Series 60 devices (N-Gage, 7650, 6630) changed. While my PC (Windows XP) and my crusty Loox PDA (Pocket PC 2002) did? If it weren't for them, I'd have my time all screwed up. Certainly, it can't be that hard for Symbian to implement such a simple (but life saving :-) function? Can it?

Anyway ... Happy Spring everybody!

Symbian Series 60: Starting to get messy ...

2006-03-21T17:40:00.000+01:00

Well, it seems the Symbian platform is starting to get a bit messy. For the last few years, all Symbian Series 60 devices had a screen resolution of 176(w) x 208(h). This made coding pretty simple and was one of the reasons why Series 60 devices maintain a near monopoly on the Jellingspot client application front. You could write the application once, and it pretty much worked on all Series 60 devices (the claim to fame for Java, which has never really materialized for mobile device platforms, yet).

However, if you notice, there are now a few new Series 60 devices that have a screen resolution of 352(w) x 416(h) [where do they come up with these numbers?] ... such as the Nokia N80, N90, E70 and E60. Also coming are some more traditional PDA like resolutions of 240(w) x 320(h) on such Series 60 phones as the Nokia N71, N92, and E61. This is starting to get messy.

While we have Jellingspot client applications for some of these phones already, we haven't tested them, and we know for sure the UI is gonna look funny. I guess we'll have to go purchase (I would really hate to go drop 600 Euro on a device I'm gonna use for about 5 mintues or less) a few of these devices now. Ufff...

The question is, why such strange resolutions when the physical screen size seems to look the same size? (at least on the N80 vs N70?) If the actual screen sizes are larger, than it makes sense I guess, but *if* they're the same, what reason is there for having a higher resolution (in the case of the N92, I undertand it's gonna be a media device, but still ... it's not like you're getting HDTV on that sucker)?

Whatever the reason, seems Symbian Series 60 is gonna become less and less developer friendly in the near future ... hope it doesn't get as bad as Windows Mobile! ;-)

[ Technorati Tags: Java UIQ Jellingspot
Symbian Series 60 ]

Jellingspot now in Wiki ...

2006-03-02T14:22:00.000+01:00

Well, I decided to add Jellingspot to Wiki today -- not sure if it'll last there, but check it out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellingspot_Data_Server

I tried not to be too "self-promoting" -- I even included links to my competitors ... in addition, I added a "Location-marketing" page ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location-marketing

This is to help push the idea of "location-marketing" a bit ... I will even email the other companies to try to get them to put their product info up. This industry is pretty fragmented, maybe I can help motivate the other companies to use the same terms and words to help move the industry forward a bit faster. Maybe I'm just day dreaming. If you see any mistakes (spelling, grammar, etc...) fix them! I wrote it quickly -- I'll go back and make edits to make it "smoother" when I get more time (I'll just wait for the WikiNazis to fix any spelling/grammar -- since they're like 'bots on that page).

Motorized Snowboard

2006-02-17T12:58:00.000+01:00

Well, it's winter still, so you know you're bound to get continued crazy posts about winter technologies from me (after all, the Winter Olympics are currently on the tube, too!). Anyway ...

My kinsmen in the Pacific Northwest keep amazing me -- this time, with their motorized snowboard. Dudes, you gotta check out the Power Plank! And then there is the video that makes it look super fun! While it doesn't look like you're gonna get the total body workout / exercise you wanted from doing traditional winter sports, it does look like a much cheaper alternative to a snowmobile. The guy in the video makes a good point -- people who live in countries that get snow but don't really have good mountains for downhill skiing or snowbaording could greatly benefit from this ... I have to agree. I'd love to zoom around one in Prague when it snows here :-)

Having some Wi-Fi FON ...

2006-02-10T10:50:00.000+01:00

Well, if you're into nabbing free Wi-Fi from off of the street (and offering your own Wi-Fi connection in return as payment), the rapidly emerging FON Community may be what you're looking for. With big names like Esther Dyson on board, you may want to keep your eye on it.

Basically, you buy their FON Wi-Fi router for 25 bucks/euro, hook it up to your broadband, and go. The router comes with special firmware (that allows client applications to log into the router?); however, there is still no naming convention, at least according FON forum posters (which means, there is no way to know it's a FON connection unless somebody broadcasts "FON Wi-Fi" or something), so this is kinda strange (they really should just standardize it in the router .. "FON Spot" or something...).

This idea is good for a few reaons -- 1. Users can be tracked and held responsible for the content they surf/send/download, 2. it is the "give a penny, take a penny" mentality ... you know that anybody on your router is offering their connection like you, and 3. Aside from the 25 dollar "donation" fee for the router, it's FREE.

Downside is 1. Users can be tracked and held responsible for the content they surf/send/download (it's always a 2-way street with this), 2. not sure how useful it's gonna be ... walking around some neighborshood to get Wi-Fi seems cheesy, especially when I can get it at Starbucks or some other corresponding cafe for FREE, and I get a chair and table to boot!, and 3. You gotta share your connection (watch out for bandwidth hogs!).

The concept is good, but not sure how far it's gonna go ... there are already gangs and grips for free Wi-Fi communities out there (like CZFREE in the Czech Republic), or larger, well established pay communities like Boingo Wireless.

Whatever the case, good luck to FON!

[ Technorati Tags: Wi-Fi FON Boingo
Hot Spots Free Internet ]

Lib Tech Snowboards ...

2006-02-09T14:40:00.000+01:00

While a tad outside of my normal postings on "technology," I think it's still a legit post, mainly because I'm a snowboarder and Lib Technologies is from (my native) Washington state.

Anyway, I haven't paid too much attention to snowboards and their technologies for a while, but now that I'm about to buy a new one (yeah, and the season will probably be over soon), I've been looking, and it appears our local maker Lib Tech has some pretty cool new designs out, called Magne-Traction boards ... which, in short, makes ice riding feel like powder and lets you climb half-pipes with ease (wink, wink). Their explaination seems legit enough, so I am convinced (I'm a sucker for marketing, aren't I?) I need to buy one. I just have to find some place I can buy one over here in the CZ ... wish me luck!

If anybody out there has a Magne-Traction board, drop me a line! And, if Lib Tech is reading this, you can always send "one of your sons" a test model to review :-))))

[ Technorati Tags: Snowboarding Lib Tech Magne-Traction ]

Tagging yourself with RFID

2006-01-30T11:17:00.000+01:00

I have been reading more and more about RFID technologies, and specifically, about those trend setters out there implanting RFID chips into their hands. Tagged, a forum dedicated to all those folks who have (or are interested in) doing such, has some interesting videos -- Logging into a Mac & an actual chip implant -- and comments about their procedures, what they're doing with their implants, etc... some pretty neat stuff.

I have been seriously thinking about implanting a chip too, but then I thought, why implant one -- I can just use the tags and stick them to my phone or add a small tag to my keychain. I have nothing against implants, but as you'll read if you get into the technology, there are very little "standards" out there, so your implant might work only on a few devices or with a few readers, so it's just kinda sketch to put something like that into your hand that's not gonna cover the whole sha-bang.

For those of you interested, you can purchase some pretty inexpensive chips/readers as RFID kits, so you can start to learn about and play with these technologies quickly. I have ordered mine recently, so I'll start to play with the technologies and test it out. I have been eyeballing some RFID locks, but just pipe dreaming for now.

Anyway, lots of cool things you might think about with RFID, but not sure why I'd use that over something else with standards (Zigbee or Bluetooth) or using finger print reader's for locks/logins, etc... (as some notebooks have now).

Whatever the case, check out the forum and read about all of the things these crazy cats are doing.

[ Technorati Tags: RFID implants wireless
telematics biometics ]

Symbian vs. Java MIDP Development

2006-01-26T10:37:00.000+01:00

Well, in the next day or two, we will finally be adding our first Java client that can access Jellingspot Data Server, in particular, it's a client app for the Nokia 6230i. Man, it's a real pain sometimes to code in Java. Frank, the main developer of Jellingspot, is a Java programming god ... he REALLY hates when he has to close his IntelliJ IDEA and open a C++ IDE like Visual Studio or C++ builder, etc. Not only are the IDEs straight suck'n for this langauge (I understand, it's just simply very difficult to have cool code-completion features, refactoring, etc... in C++), he just always forgets something since C++ is a lower-level language per say (he loves that trash collector in Java).

However, there is an "upside" to this pain. While he can crank out Java apps like some sweatshop worker, the limits on many Java enabled mobile devices really sucks. The Symbian/C++ Jellingspot client app is about 65kb ... and this includes all service support. Our Java client is now larger, and will only support the Adpusher and Textboradcast services on Jellingspot for the time being. Why? Because unlike Symbian where we can call native components for directories, folders, etc... we can't do that in Java. To make fServer work on the 6230 (which probably will not work on this phone), we'll have to write the entire GUI .. file icons, folder icons, and then store the downloaded files somewhere ... but since Java on this phone doesn't support storing data on the "native" disk ... we are going to have to store everything in memory or something (if we even decide to waste our time on it for this one phone). Should be fun.

I wish Sun would force, AT GUN POINT, phone makers to install EVERYTHING of the MIDP 2.0 spec -- not just the JNI layers they choose. That'd make life much nicer. Uff....

[ Technorati Tags: Java MIDP Jellingspot
Symbian Nokia ]

Bluetooth Headsets with Skype

2006-01-14T19:59:00.000+01:00

Well, months ago, I was trying to get my Bluetooth headset to work with Skype, and I had no luck -- that was because I wasn't aware of Vitaero -- a cool project that bridges the Widcomm Bluetooth stack and (seemingly) any Bluetooth USB device that uses it -- to Skype. I will try to test it in the next few days if I'm lucky ... in the meantime, if anybody else has already given it a go let me know, I'll be curious as to its pros & cons. As you can see in my mobile blog, I found a Bluetooth headset that was "Skype Certified" on my trip back in the US (from Motorola). Obviously, the goal is to untangle the mess of wires on my desk, and that was one of the main focuses of Bluetooth in its beginning. So, the sooner the better, I need some more space! ;-)

[ Technorati Tags: Widcomm Bluetooth Skype
Vitaero motorola ]

Intel in Mac: BFD

2006-01-11T13:52:00.000+01:00

The whole world is spinning faster again because Apple finally announced they were using Intel chips ... wow, big whoopie, BFD. Maybe I missed soemthing, but I've been using Intel chips for like the last 6-7 years ... sounds like Apple is just catching on, eh? How innovative. What is even funnier is that their entire marketing campaign is focused around the new Mac with Intel being 4x faster .... ha ha ha ha! After hearing the loads of crap sprayed by Mac users who always bent reality to claim Macs were really "faster" than Intel/AMD PCs (their lame ass argument -- Adobe opens faster in it ... ha ha ha! Anybody who does real development, where a processor is really needed, would tell you otherwise), their Emperor Stevie J drops the bomb and spits in their face -- now it's 4x faster. Not 20% faster, not even 50% faster, but 400% faster. With Intel. With the same chip Billy G and his boys have been juiced on for a long-while running.

I can't wait to see how all of the Apple Fan Boys squirm out of this one ... (ooh, wait, now it's faster than PCs ... look, look!)

Only Apple has the marketing power to pull off a big stunt like this ... the rest of us will just be using Intel (or AMD) chips as we have been for the last half decade.

Back in Prague ...

2006-01-07T16:23:00.000+01:00

Well, my 3-week trip back to the USA has come to an end -- it was, as always, great to visit family and good friends (especially my best friend's "newly released" baby girl Zoey). It seems those "extra large" portions one gets in the US when eating out has caught up to me -- I gained like 5 lbs in 3 weeks, all around the gut! Ooh, M&M Cookies and Peanut Butter Balls aside, it was cool.

From the tech front, it was also educational. I saw, for the first time in the states (keep in mind I come back once or twice a year for business/pleasure), people constantly looking down at their phones for SMSs (or Texting messages as Americans say). One night, while hanging back in a well-patroned pub, I saw no less than 10 people within a 15 second walk starring at their phones and typing SMSs. It was pretty surreal, considering I've only been seeing such behavior in Europe (since 1999). It may have taken 5 years, but SMS has finally established itself in the US market. Bravo my fellow Amiks!

I also noticed a lot of Bluetooth headsets. That's good news, if for anything in means that phones are Bluetooth wireless technology enabled, and will eventually be working with Jellingspot. I do say eventually, because the choice of phones in the US market (from carriers) is horrid. The phones are still pretty darn primative (Motorola just makes crap IMHO ...). Whatever the case, it seems evolution is "progressing" in the US, even if at a snail's pace.

All in all, it was cool ... I enjoyed the time with my family and friends, and as always, it was fun window shopping to see what the market is bringing to folks on the tech front.

As an aside, my new Ipod Nano is doing well, but the fact that I'm FORCED to use iTunes to add music and pictures still pisses me off. If Apple can pull their head out of their butt, and allow me to drag and drop music into folders, AND play WMA files without the need to convert, and I might say nicer things about Apple (if the old argument that Microsoft was a bully, Apple people can NO LONGER use that lame excuse).

Happy New Year!

2005-12-31T20:10:00.000+01:00

Just quickly dropping a line to everybody to have an excellent New Year's celebration! Don't forget to set some positive New Year's Resolutions for 2006 ... and of course, enjoy the night responsibily but have loads of fun!

I have brought back a few bottles of Absinthe for friends and family ... the Green Fairy should wreck some havoc tonight in the Sea-Tac area for sure! ;-)

All the best in 2006!

David Stennett

Ipod Nano Misery Continues...

2005-12-30T07:44:00.000+01:00

The misery doesn't stop -- to add photos to the Nano, I must now install yet ANOTHER application -- iPhoto, just to add freak'n photos to my Ipod -- how retarded is that? What if I go to my friend's house, and want to take some pics from his computer to add them to my device? Sure, I can, but I have to install iPhoto on his computer -- if that's not retarded, then I don't know what is. So, I have to install to large, processor hungry applications, iTunes, iPhoto, just to manage my Ipod? Am I the ONLY ONE??? that finds this tedious? My old Creative device -- plug it into the USB, open, drag/drop, unplug ... go ...

I was under the impression Apple was supposed to be all about usability -- guess not. They're worse than Microsoft now ... I almost feel like taking the Nano back! (it does play music well, though ... I give it that much)

Hey, Apple, let me copy/drag/paste into the Ipod, and I'll give you some props ...

I sold out to Apple ...

2005-12-29T01:20:00.000+01:00

I have just purchased an Ipod Nano (2GB) ... I was VERY set on not buying Apple's products, mainly because they're more proprietary than than anyone else on the planet ... but, that "Best Buy" giftcard I received for Xmas helped me knock the price down to where I figured I'd just give it away if it sucked. It's most certainly living up to "sucking" status -- gotta install iTunes, Quicktime, iPhoto, iThis or iThat just to get the freaking thing working (as of writing this, I still don't have it working). Doesn't seem I can just copy/paste music into the damn thing -- I have to use the software ... this is just silly. Damn you Apple, damn you to hell!

It does look nice and is small (why I got it -- iRiver charges too much for 512mb devices ...) ... I wanted something I could use at the gym, and Apple has filled a nice market niche -- but this setup deal sucks ...

Back in the USSA ... you don't know how lucky you are, boy!

2005-12-23T06:02:00.000+01:00

Well, I've been quiet for quite a while, mainly because I was doing lots of last minute work before my trip back to the states. I've been back for a week already, and I managed to make it to a Seattle Mobile meet-n-greet, where I met some pretty savy mobile cats, that included the Seattle Mobile founders David and Mario. I've already made quite a few trips up and down the PACNW, hitting up the big malls, and having some low-key meetings with mall property managers about deploying Jellingspot. My first thought that comes to mind is that mobile has come a LONG way in the US since I first returned from Europe back in 1999 for a visit. Back that, analog phones were still all the rage ... now, it seems, most people are using GSM or some varient, where you can send SMSs (Texting, as in the UK, it's called here in the US). I've even manged to con some girls I know into "texting" me mainly (I hate phone calls generally, as they're intrusive). They're getting hooked.

However, there is still a LONG way to go. While a lot of people are wearing Bluetooth headsets, I see that Motorola still maintains a large monopoly on the phones being sold at carriers, and these phones straight suck. There is a commerical on TV or the radio every 2 seconds for the Motorola Razor, but that phone stinks. You can't do much with (from a Jellingspot, or just Java/Flash perspective) ... it's being pitched as the next best thing next to sliced bread, but man, it's a laughing stock in Europe. I briefly tested the Razor for a few days (psuedo tester for a friend), and I couldn't stand the phone. I've been lucky enough to be carrying around and testing a new HTC Wizard, and that's a real phone (although Pocket PC Windows Mobile edition is straight buggy and lacks a lot of features ... can't even Bluetooth a picture to a friend -- have to use IrDA or MMS/Email -- stupid) compared to the Razor. In fact, it's light-years ahead of anything else out there really, minus the few Nokia Series 60 phones floating around out there. Motorola must have a monopoly on the network equipment sales to the carriers, and so they're pushing their crappy phones via this blackmail method -- that sucks. :(

Whatever the case, hang in there USA -- things are getting better ... rumor has it that Nokia is gonna start aggressively pushing their products there (not sure how...) ... and Sony-Ericsson is eye-balling the US market more aggressively, too. Let's hope -- because Motorola hasn't impressed me at all thus far and the US mobile market is suffering because of it!

Jellingspot White Paper: Cinemas / Multiplex Theatres ...

2005-11-02T00:05:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm gonna be making a series of website changes to the Jellingspot site this weekend, again, I hope -- I have started by adding a new white paper to the Jellingspot website, targeted at Cinemas / Multiplex Theatres (Warning: .PDF 350kb). I'm sure the white paper can be improved (you ever re-read your own work so much you get sick?), but I think it clearly makes its point why Cinemas / Multiplex Theatres can benefit by using Jellingspot (I stayed away from the Open API stuff, not to mention complex high-level speak about how Jellingspot is a platform that acts more like a container and services are like EJBs [which we call .jsbs or Jellingspot Service Beans] ... but, I digress ...).

I will soon publish another for Gaming Stores, so stay tuned.

[ Technorati Tags: Jellingspot Advertising Cinemas
Marketing mobile ]

The world of Venture Capital ...

2005-10-29T14:00:00.000+02:00

Well, I have been taking casual glances at VCs again after more than a year of completely ignoring them. Doing some pretty extensive research the last week or so, I found a cool site called Ventureblogs, where many links to the industry's most vocal VCs can be found (heavyweights like Mark Cuban, David Sifry, etc...). I have read over quite a few of them, and let me state outright some of these guys just don't get much of anything. I'm not gonna call any guys out, but it's painfully clear that Web Bubble 1.0, and the new coming-to-a-town-near-you Web Bubble 2.0 are the direct result of these slick and sly masters of money manipulation and outright hob-dob crookery. Just big words coming out of my mouth? Maybe, but check them out yourself.

I *did* enjoy reading the insights of folks like Steve Hall, Roger McNamee, and Jeff Clavier among others ... they seemed to know what they were talking about (at least not talking out of their asses) and had a good sense of humor about the industry. I'm sure there are many more out there worth reading, if you know of them, please let me know.

Having said all this - I do understand that these guys demand (and deserve) a ROI for their investments -- generally in the form of a M&A (merger & aquisition), or a a full-blown IPO. Therefore, this means generally they do not need to really get the "technology" for technology's sake, but only that they can see a clear path to ROI. However, what's difficult to deal with sometimes is explaining the hidden human-technology interaction factor (or, in short, the "WOW" factor) that, much of the time, many of them do not get because they themselves do NOT use technology outside of email or a mobile phone.

I've heard lots of negative things about our technologies in the past, be it our older IM technologies we brought to the mobile world, or with our current Jellingspot Data Server. Maybe it's just me, but I remember one clear example that proves this point in someways -- SMS. Back in 1999 when I moved to Europe, SMS was starting to move, but was by far not crazy like it is today. I would make the main argument about bring additional SMS services to customers to drive new business models and new ecosystems, but marketing managers and financial gurus at the carriers would shoot me down and say, "SMS isn't that big, it's too difficult to use for most, and people can just use voice." A few years later, SMS is a super billion dollar industry, and most carriers are pushing it hard. It seems tech people are always ahead of the people who just look at the bottom-line (they don't seem to see anything else around them). I've heard the same arguments against Jellingspot at times from VCs, but that defiant rejection is slowly turning as more and more location-marketing/POS systems hit the market and people are actually using them (not to mention some of my competitors have pulled off funding).

Which brings me back (getting off topic a bit) to the VCs -- yes, I'm looking again, so if you know any bright folks out there who are into the VC business, I'm more than willing to throw down with them verbally to discuss Jellingspot if they have an interest in this very promising market. However, I will still continue to avoid VCs who generally, with their first question, ask, "What is the projected ROI?" You're already showing yourself to be an ass, so it's best you don't waste my time (or yours).

Flash Lite: Revisited

2005-10-24T13:00:00.000+02:00

Well, I have been reading all about Flash Lite again lately. My main motivation for doing so is because my good friend (and marketing genius) just landed a primo job at Smashing Ideas, a Seattle-based interactive marketing agency, that among many things, is focusing on bringing interactive Flash Lite content to mobile phones for their customers. I believe he might be working on this in the near future, and as he's familar with Jellingspot, I now seem to have additional motivation to bring a Flash Lite service to Jellingspot.

Now, blogger Bryan Rieger (who appears to be moving his blog again) has been discussing Flash Lite for a while, since he and his wife are Flash developers. To make a long story short, bringing cool Flash Lite content to mobile phones with Jellingspot seems to be something down the immediate road we'll think about. Instead of using our static banner rotation service Adpusher (see demo) on Jellingspot, we'll create some "Flash" service where multi-media Flash banners will be viewed. Won't be that difficult of a service to create, so maybe we'll start on it in the next month or so. The problem is just finding Flash enabled phones ... it's just not a standard run-time environment yet like Java on phones. I guess it's coming, it's only a matter of time.

We'll see how it goes -- currently improving the UI on Jellingspot, which of course, you can download and use for free right now.

[ Technorati Tags: Jellingspot Advertising Flash Lite
Marketing mobile ]

The Fear of Technology ...

2005-10-19T17:00:00.000+02:00

There is an interesting (ok, not really ... ) article today on CNN's website that tries to give some kinda of "Technology for Dummies" overview of how technology, wireless in particular, has "changed" and/or will continue to change society. Without being a complete twit, I am always amazed how sensationalist American "main stream" media outlets tend to be in regard to EVERYTHING, but even technology? Being a stalwart American living in Europe, I can't help but gag everytime I read something from American "main stream" (read, idiotic and generally misinformed ... among other things) media ...

Europe has been much more wireless than the USA for at LEAST the last 5 years, and I just don't see people addicted to the internet (minus freaks like me, that I digress) ... "shooting up" on every corner wherever a Wi-Fi hotspot can be found. Currently, I have a PDA with Wi-Fi and a mobile phone with a GPRS connection, which means I can get pretty fast to very fast i-net access almost anywhere in the Czech Republic ... I tend to check my email if I'm out for more than a few hours and I'm standing around waiting for a Tram or something, but I just don't see it. The problem isn't really technology, the problem is a sedentary life-style. Americans are just fat slobs who generally just sit around around watching TV (if you think it's just the USA, however, think again .. most W. Europeans are even bigger, so don't believe the hype) ... at least in the CZ, people are out always playing football (Soccer), or something ... they just don't watch TV like Americans.

Of course, I won't get into the details of why I think Amiks watch so much and are lazy (overworked, under "vacationed", and over consumed???) ... but these articles from outlets like CNN just tend to reinforce the idea that Americans really DON'T know anything, since they never pay attention to anything beyond themselves.

Now, don't get me wrong ... Technology DOES have a sort of crippling effect ... if you want to read how Technology has changed the human soul, check out Ernst Juenger's Storm of Steel ... I won't spoil the book. But, think of it this way ... today, some over-weight slob jamming away to 50-Cent can be eating away on a Subway sandwich in some control room 500 miles away and completly BLOW to smithereens a group of ancient Arthurian knights on horse back (if they existed), whose every ounce and fiber of existence was to be honorable and chivalrous. I think that makes my point ... obviously, we all know which side you'd WANT to be on in your sub-conscious, but let's be serious -- nobody wants to take a 500lb. laser guided bomb for the team.

Anyway, I'm a bit off topic now -- but, I think you get my point -- technology has its goods and bads, but in the case of this article, it's nothing but fish-wrap (in regards to the scare mongering).

Apple's New Video IPod

2005-10-13T12:00:00.000+02:00

Yawn ....

Apple released, finally after everybody else on the planet, a video playing version of its popular IPod PAP ... now it's entering PMP (no, not pimp ... Personal Media Player ... even if Apple is denying it) status .... as I posted eariler, it's almost laughable how Apple gets big headlines for releasing new toys that other people have been making for a while. What I *do* like is that Apple has forged a few deals to bring TV shows to the IPod's screen, allowing you to purchase for $1.99 TV show episodes... that's actually kinda cool, I guess if you think people watching idiotic TV shows on the run cool (minus the Simpsons of course) ... but, as I noted, others have been doing it for a while, and doing it in a much cooler fashion using TiVo.

Of course, Apple's IPod is pretty slick in terms of size (but then, again, only a 2.5" inch screen, so what should you expect?) ... not to mention, Apple's probably illegal deal with Samsung has given them a slight advantage in getting new memory goodies (hence smaller devices) ... putting them (seemingly, innocent until proven guilty!) into the same bowl as Microsoft, who Apple fanatics like to bash as a bully .... whatever the case, if anybody can help mobile video get popular, it's gonna be Apple.

Way to go guys ...

[ Technorati Tags: Apple IPod Mobil Video
Tivo mp3s ]

6th Sense

2005-10-09T18:00:00.000+02:00

Well, 6th Sense Communications has decided to jump into the location-based "personal networking" market, going toe-to-toe with the likes of Nokia Sensor and Mobiluck. If you don't quite remember, let me refresh your memory ... "personal networking" is where you generally search for and then, once found, interact with other people in your immediate area, generally via Bluetooth wireless technology on your mobile device, to send messages, pictures, etc... basically, taking the art of flirting to the mobile-tech level.

However, whereas Mobiluck is free to use (once you purchase the software), it's my understanding from the quick blub about 6th Sense on Windows For Devices, that you can get the software for free, but you must pay for data services to use it (ie... you are making server requests via the carrier). In other words, what seems to happen in their own words is this (from Windows For Devices):

"6th Sense says its approach differs architecturally from similar applications such as Nokia's Sensor and MobiLuck, in that it is client/server-based rather than peer-to-peer. By having much of the processing done on a remote server, the client application can be made smaller and simpler. Additionally, new features can be added on the server, without having to upgrade the client. Also, security is improved because no user data is exchanged over Bluetooth, the company adds."

The article goes on to say:

"On the other hand, one disadvantage of the client/server approach used by 6th Sense is that communications between the server and the mobile phones running the 6th Sense app incur over-the-air data transfer charges."

If you're still not following, basically, this is what happens:

You sign up for an account online ... and you store all of your information there. Then, you fire up your client application you have on your phone ... which I'm guessing (I will download it and play with it later) has some kinda unique ID for your profile in it or something ... then, when you search your location with the client (using Bluetooth technology), it can find other profiles .. and if you want information about that profile, you have to fire up your 3G/GPRS connection to get it (this is where you run up data charges).

I won't pass judgement on this take just yet (gotta try it first), but it's an interesting way to do what can be doing with simple P-2-P applications. I can see the good and bad (as the article indicates, too, above) pretty quick ... interesting to say the least. I suggest you all download it and let me know ... I'll do the same.

[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth Mobiluck Nokia Sensor
6th Sense Social Networking ]

RSS Feed Read'n ...

2005-09-29T21:34:00.000+02:00

Recently, one of my good friends has recently just obtained a new job where he gets to actually USE technology (he was in a very traditional sector before) ... I hinted that he might want to read RSS feeds so he can quickly read what's going on in the industries he is working in as information about new products, services, etc... is released. He didn't know anything about RSS, so I sent him to Wikipedia (which is always so slow!) to read more about it (Atom/RSS/OPML, etc...). Having done that, I recommended that he download Omea Reader, since I work for the company that makes it, so I could help him learn it quickly since I use Omea Pro on a daily basis, not to mention it's free. However, we quickly ran into a problem ... he needed to install the .NET Framework in order to use Omea Reader, and he did NOT have permission to install anything like that on his computer. He would have to put in a request to the admin to do it. What a bugger! But, this presents a problem which I'm sure he's not the only one to have run that course. What to do?

Well, get a browser based RSS reader of course! I then recommended Bloglines (although I personally don't have any experience with it, as I use a rich client) ... but then somebody else told me about Pluck. I haven't had a chance to crash test the two, but Pluck is pretty impressive, easy to use (a plus for novices), and free (at least for now). Plus, they have something cool called Shadows (I won't discuss that, since I don't know enough about it yet, but basicaly you can create your own personalized search engine ... more about it later when I play with it.) integrated into it.

Whatever the case, web based RSS clients are pretty useful, but if you wanna read off-line, there will be a need for rich clients, too, with off-line functionality. I guess it just depends what you need.

The Importance of Roaming

2005-09-25T12:25:00.000+02:00

Recently, on my trip to the US, I was pretty surprised that I was able to connect to a GPRS connection and send/receive MMS outside of my "native" mobile area (the Czech Republic). That surprise wore off quickly, as I remembered that Vodafone actually purchased the small mobile carrier I was using (Oskar) recently ... this purchase, which I didn't think was a big deal at first, automatically gave me access to all Vodafone networks and the networks of carriers they have agreements with. Wow, pretty freak'n cool! Last year, when I travelled outside of the CZ, I had to just "give up" my GPRS connection at the border, but it seems those days are long gone (sure, I could have switched to T-Mobile then, but I was happy where I was for the time being).

I guess sometimes, it's cool when a large company gobbles up your smaller one .... :-)

Back from the PDC ...

2005-09-18T17:42:00.000+02:00

Well, first off, I made it back ALIVE. I don't know how many of you have ever been in a plane that aborted landing on the first attempt, but let me tell you, if you want a sure way to crap yourself, this is it. As if flying 10 hours from LA to Amsterdam wasn't bad enough, the KLM Boeing 747-400 I was flying on decided to trick all of the passengers at the last minute, by jacking the jet-engines to full-throttle as we came over the runway to go screaming back up into the sky ... everybody in Business Class (where I was :-) had the look for SHEER HORROR on their faces ... I don't know how mine looked, but I counted to 15 and figured if I wasn't dead by then, it'd be ok ... after about 30 seconds of full-throttle going up at 45 degrees and then leveling out, the Capitan came on and said some plane hadn't managed to make it off of the run-way yet, and it was dangerous for us to land as we might rear-end it ... at least the guy was honest -- as we did a loop to come back around to land and he said, "Flight attendants prepare to land" -- everybody started laughing, since he had just said that about 10 minutes prior ....

Anyway, enough small talk ...

Microsoft's PDC, from a mobile stand-point, wasn't all that interesting. There was almost NOTHING there in regards to development stuff --- no specific SDKs for Bluetooth development ... nothing (Note: I didn't manage to see about 30% of the booths, so maybe there was something there I missed). They had some propaganda booths showing MS Mobile devices (I even played with the HTC Universial), but outside of this -- when I started pressing them with development questions in regards to Bluetooth development, seems they didn't really have anything to offer (however, I did land a Windows Mobile 5.0 Developer Eval Kit with VS .NET 2005 Beta 2 on it ...). Symbian is still far ahead in regards to SDK "openess" (although Symbian SDKs suck). Whatever the case, not much else to report ...

Off to Microsoft's PDC ...

2005-09-10T23:28:00.000+02:00

Well, I'm off to Microsoft's PDC in Los Angeles this week ... while this is a developer's conference, I hope to find some interesting development tools and technologies relating to the Compact .NET Framework and Bluetooth. Wish me luck on this 9/11 travel day (great) ....

Over-Hyped Apple Ipod Nano ... now in stores ...

2005-09-08T18:17:00.000+02:00

Ok, I'm gonna get thrashed for this, but I stand by my guns that Apple's portable music line, iPod, is both over blown (in terms of feature set) and over-priced (for equal players). Case in point, everytime Apple release a new player, such as happened today with the iPod Nano, it hits the airwaves hard, like no other portable music player. It even gets mentioned on CNN everytime something new about it comes out. I don't know if this is just paid advertising or what (I don't think so), but it is almost annoying everytime I hear something about Apple (who have a large chuck of the portable music market in the USA, but not in Asia or Europe ... and who were late into the market, and certainly haven't out innovated iRiver or Creative.

Hats off to the Apple Marketing Team -- I think nobody on the planet is as good as them as producing so much hype and driving so much interest out of products that have existed for some time.

Back to the Nano ....

It does, unlike the Shuffle, seem pretty cool -- small form factor, thin, and with 4GBs of space, it seems Apple may just have launced a REAL death blow to the other portable music player makers ... unlike prior hype, maybe Apple is for real this time. Guess I'll have to buy one to find out :-)

Omea 2.0 Released ...

2005-09-07T17:01:00.000+02:00

JetBrains' Omea version 2.0 has now been released. This is the ultimate integration information environment. If you're an RSS and Newsgroup junkie like me, this tool is essential. However, it also indexes all of your local emails and files, so you can find stuff quickly (better than Google Desktop) ... it even indexes ICQ and Miranda messages (which are then searchable). Plus it does a whole bunch of other things (for organizing this information -- you can link info, categorize info, etc...). Check out its demo to get a small taste of what it can do.

New Jellingspot Website... Kinda

2005-08-29T22:17:00.000+02:00

Well, I posted up some fragments (yes, I know, pretty freak'n cheesy) of the new website ... my designer doesn't get back until next week, and I don't want to wait anymore (I would have it all up, but I lost most of it in a HDD crash ...). Anyway, check out the main Jellingspot page -- you can even see our flash demo (but this animation is older -- the newest one was lost -- I'll update it once Alexander gets back from his vacation). It's pretty much the same as the latest, but he doesn't moonwalk in the new one (so, enjoy, it won't last for long). Obviously, I could have waited, but I guess this website is a rolling upgrade, so be pateint while stuff changes for the next few weeks (still). It shouldn't look like this (current) site much when it's all done. But, I've been doing blah, blah, blah, so long, so enough ... enjoy.

Spamming solutions causing backlash ...

2005-08-27T12:42:00.000+02:00

Well, some may consider it complaining, but I have warned about the alternative location marketing solutions out there that just spam ... the backlash is starting to grow:

http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/08/009681.htm

This is why solutions that use a client-side appilcation like Jellingspot (and I think Wideray and Bluepulse to some extent ...?) are needed, and not just spamming solutions.

Location Marketing: BlueCasting

2005-08-26T11:08:00.000+02:00

Well, seems like the market for location marketing solutions is starting to offer up lots of choice .... this "spam" solution (ie... as far as I know, no client is needed ... it just sends you stuff) from BlueCasting -- the guys who have been in the news lately for spamming people in London with Coldplay material from their new CD -- offers yet another similar soluton to Wideray, Kameleon, Hypertag, Futurlink, and the like ... it's good to see more people in the field, but as I noted in a previous post, I'm a bit nervous about these spam solutions -- there is a back-lash growing against them, I just hope Jellingspot is not caught in the cross-fire.

I wonder, will spamming win over "client" solutions (after all, if people dont' have a client app, how can they use it?) ... or, will there be some middle-ground I don't see, or will everything migrate to a client (let's just call it a browser) type solution? From a power and usability perspective, I'm betting on the latter.

Download page ...

2005-08-24T21:57:00.000+02:00

I've added a simple download page for the Windows version at:

http://www.jellingspot.com/downloadserver.htm

You can still nab the Linux version at the previous link, but I believe one of its internal licenses has expired, and I don't have the tools to update the license ... you'll have to wait until Frank gets back (so, in other words, the Linux version is worthless right now).

In the last 3 days since I made the link available to the public in my blog, there have been 22 downloads of the Windows version -- not bad for something not really made known yet -- I'm still holding out on the new website before I go live with everything, but my early adaptors and blog readers can get a taste now ... I also enjoy getting feedback. You can debate, discuss, or bash Jellingspot in our fora, too ....

www.jellingspot.net (community website) ....

Once the new website is up, I promise not to post so much about Jellingspot (since the product has taking over my blog lately) .... I'll return back to other things ... however, until then, just put up with me. ;-)

System Requirements for Jellingspot on Windows ...

2005-08-18T09:24:00.000+02:00

It seems a few sites have posted about my blog entry, as downloads for the Windows version of Jellingspot are starting to move quickly (the blog was really intended for my early adaptor audience, but Ooh, well!). Please note, that THIS IS STILL BETA SOFTWARE, so please report bugs if something crashes.

System Recommendation:

- Windows XP with SP2
- 256mb RAM
- Pentium 3 or 4, or AMD Athlon

We HAVE had it working on non-SP2 boxes, but everything has been optimized for SP2 boxes ... there still seems to be some problems between Pentiums and AMDs, but recently we "fixed" that (we hope) ... so, if you're using something older, let us know (if it works or crashes). We have NOT yet tried it on other Win32 platforms (Win2000, Win98, etc...). If there are enough requests, maybe we'll try to optimize it for those platforms, too, but as of now, good luck -- Win XP is our targeted platform.

You can read the requirements for the Linux distro here.

Jellingspot for Windows: Go Get it!

2005-08-17T22:00:00.000+02:00

Well, I have been promising the Windows version of Jellingspot for a while ... what has been holding me up is the new website, since it is pretty cool ;-) However, my designer has bolted for a 3 week vacation and our server just "happen" to crash right after he did, loosing all of the cool stuff, and so we have to wait until he gets back (I know, I know ....) before we can go live with the new site (since he has all of the newest animations, graphics, etc..). However, I have promised so much, I am having a hardtime beliving myself .... so, without any further ado, you can download Jellingspot for Windows here.

Download the Jellingspot-1.61.5.exe ... if you have any problems, then email us at info [a-t] midletsoft [d-o$t] com ... The Linux version is also there for anybody brave enough to install it, along with BlueZ, etc... go for it.

For the Windows version -- don't forget the license key in the license.txt file ... once you open the console (see the icon created on your desktop to start it), put the license in the "license space" there. Again, if you have problems, email. It has some content by default (you can delete it). You'll need a USB Bluetooth dongle and a Symbian Series60 phone (with the Jellingspot client) to use it. Feel free to use it however you see fit (in your shop, office, etc...) -- this does NOT come with the super powerful fServer service (not yet). Just the good'ol fashioned Adpusher and TextBroadcast services at this time.

[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth Marketing LBS Jellingspot Proximity Servers wireless advertising retail ]

FuturLink: Another Competitor

2005-08-08T08:51:00.000+02:00

Well, doing my occasional competition scan for Jellingspot, I ran into FuturLink, a Spain based company basically following on the heels of Wide-Ray (who just scored another around of financing .... 10 million USD!). First, I must say, I really like FuturLink's website and presentation ... things could always be better, but for the most part the visuals are good and the site is good at helping novices understand what their technology can do (Way to go guys!). I was actually happy to see another player in the field to help location-marketing grow.

My only concern is, that as our competition continues to grow (generally with large rounds of funding), they will move the industry more and more towards the "spam the hell out of everybody" philosophy, which is really a bad idea (and you see it out there already, people complaining about it). As our solution is opt in with a client-side application (our weakness -- however, or solution is more powerful), we ensured we would not spam people; however, it seems our competition doesn't care (at least, it seems that way, as many of them refuse to state you need some client side application to use their solution). I don't mind the competition, I just don't want to have to compete against party-poopers --- people who will DESTORY the industry before it has even bloomed.

Whatever the case, I wish FuturLink well ... see you on the battlefield!

Roaming & Pillaging

2005-07-13T15:00:00.000+02:00

It seems the stink from carrier pricing schemes in regards to roaming charges is starting to be smelt by everybody, because in Europe the EU is starting to investigate such charges and will make a list public of what people are getting charged when they're roaming (since it generally remains a mystery to customers who roam) -- with the goal of helping people select the better carrier when they are roaming (I guess).

I remember back in 1999, when I went back to the Seattle area with my GSM phone from Prague -- OMFG. GSM was available (by VoiceStream at that time) ... even if nobody knew what it was ... and with my pre-paid SIM card (with about 20 dollars credit), I could generally manage to send SMSs to friends in Prague (and they to me) for a 2-week stay, and I generally had credit left. It seemed, everytime I came back, I could do less and less. What's worse, I used up 10 dollars of credit in like 5 minutes on a train in Germany -- the "neighbor" of the Czech Republic. I dn't know if it was Deutsche Telkom murdering me or if it was the Czech carrier I was using (I'm guessing a little bit of both). All I know is after I used up all my credit, added more, I REFUSED calls from abroad -- they were simply too much. To this day, I still do -- even if I have a contract from a different carrier ... prices for calling are STILL out of this world (SMS'ing is a bit more reasonable).

What I find funny is it has taken so long for people to say something (Europeans are generally used to getting screwed by their Socialist governments, so it's nothing new -- I still find it funny that I pay "by the pulse" to make public calls from HOME!) -- but what is worse, is that mobile carriers act more like cartels -- the prices they have generally ARE because of AGREEMENT between them all. Sure, they have different programs, but when it comes down to it, calling "per minute" isn't much different nor is "per SMS" pricing -- only their packages and promotions differ. Unless it's regulated (which, lets be honest, NEVER WORKS) somehow, the prices will remain the same. Carriers know that Euros go SOUTH during the summer (warm), so prices go up -- it's basic economics (supply and demand, but in this case, supply never runs out -- just demand increases). I don't know the roaming charges in Norway, but I'm guessing Italians visiting Oslo pay less than Norweigans visiting Rome .... just a guess.

The only "true" way to let market forces dictate pricing would to be have a SIM card that could connect to ANY carrier at anytime .... that way, you might use carrier XYZ during the weekend, ABC during roaming, and QRS during weekdays -- all because of better pricing. The technology is there -- it's just locked when you're in the "native" area of your SIM card -- the EU should just force "open sims" -- that'd be fun :-) (obvioulsy, carriers would charge more to open sims than to "customers" -- so, maybe there is no hope?)

Ooh, the new Jellingspot website is getting there -- you guys (I hope) won't be disappointed -- hang in there -- I'm slow! But, the Windows version if ready for you guys :-)

Servers Migrated...

2005-07-01T15:04:00.000+02:00

Ok, I've migrated the midletsoft.com, jellingspot.net, and jellingspot.com servers to new boxes ... they're ready to be beat to death now. Now, this long 4th of July weekend, I will work on finishing the new websites and I hope by the end of next week (next weekend max) you'll see what I hope is the beginning of a new period in mobile content exchange ... time will tell. Get ready for the fun to start ...

Silence is a virtue, except if the UN takes over ICANN

2005-06-09T15:20:00.000+02:00

I know I have been quiet, but the Windows version of Jellingspot is done, the new site is almost ready to go, and then it's "go live" time! Yippie! So, hang in there ... once we've launched, I'll post more.

In the meantime (and on a whole other note), here is a VERY good (and very important, please read) article about the impending (possible) take over of ICANN by the United Nations ... CEO Elliot Noss of Tucows drops the hammer:

READ HERE

5GHz Computers?

2005-05-26T21:00:00.000+02:00

Well, I just had to bring this to your attention -- while you probably won't see this in Wal-Mart anytime soon, check it:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20031230/

Clocked at 5GHz at -190 c .... you go boyzzzzzzz..... ;-)

Jellingspot for Windows ...

2005-05-15T10:48:00.000+02:00

Just a quick notice, if any bloggers out there want to try out the Windows version of Jellingspot, write to info {at} midletsoft {dot} com, tell us the hardware you're going to use (which of these phones, BT USB device, and type of processor you have), and we will send you the link. We'll go public with the link soon, but need to finish the new page -- in the meantime, some of you guys can crash test it if you want ... the more feedback, the better. This will only come with the AdPusher and TextBroadcast services ... the more powerful fServer service will have to wait (few bugs to work out on the Windows version -- you can always try the Linux version if you want to test this service...)

Consider yourself a pre-Beta tester if you ask for the link ... so, be nice if you have problems .... report them.

Surgical Sales vs. Community Development ...

2005-05-12T15:00:00.000+02:00

Recently, I had a very good discussion with a pretty successful Sales guy about ways which Jellingspot should be pitched (since the Windows version will be on the site shortly...) ... naturally, being a sales guy, he's of the opinion that starting with large organizations who can thus push the product down the chain is the way to start, whereas my vision is to build a much larger user base and pick of smaller sales as the community grows and once the user base is larger, then hit up larger franchises, etc...

Both have their goods and bads and I'm not blind to them. For starters, being an unfunded company, getting a few (but large) customers would really help with accelerating development since their initial investment goes toward building and improving the product. Consider it "seed money" from them ... you give them a competative advantage ... a change agent as it's called, they tend to invest into you (since you're doing them a favor, even if your technology isn't mainstream ... doesn't generally matter, since these types of customers are of the Innovator class anyway). The problem with this approach is that you can then become slaves to these few companies, and while making money, the product itself can become neglected, and eventually, some other similar product with more vigor might surplant you. Having only time and an extremly large amount of my personal time involved in our product (no investors to pay back...), I'm not in a hurry to be enslaved (however, a few big customers also help nab additional customers ... kinda a bowling pin approach -- hit the first head right, and other customers/pins begin to fall).

The second approach (which I favor) is the "community" approach, which is to build up the user base FIRST and worry about the money later. Obviously, Jellingspot works fine ... it's not a concept technology but something people are using everyday now ... the problem is, it still needs some polishing and some new features we have planned just haven't made it in yet (time/resources...) ... our goal (soon) is to simply make it available to the community to use it .... period. We'll make steady improvements, but while the community uses it, we'll get feedback, and can make necessary changes when needed. The more people that use it, the better ... if people are using it, there is more reason for locations to install it, etc.... the chicken vs. egg argument is always coming up, and the best way to really get to the chicken or the egg is to get users. This also quickly helps you dominate (from a user perspective) the market ... just imagine now: You go to some location, each "big customer" has their own point server solutions (Jellingspot, Bluepulse, Kameleon, etc...) .... that is essentially 3 different client applications you have to have on your phone ... even being a phone geek, I'm not sure I'd even install 3 different ones. Since Jellingspot is not tied to any specific hardware solution, it would be foolish for us to ignore the greatest distribution tool on the planet (the Internet) to spread Jellingspot around the planet. This is what we're gonna do. Unfortunately, this industry is still in its infancy ... there is not going to be any compatibility between solutions (mainly because they're all a bit different ... however, if something gets similar, we'd be willing to make our application cross-compatiable ...) anytime soon, so expect a lot of cools things from different people, but expect to have a few apps on your phone until the industry consolidates itself ...

It's gonna get exciting soon ... stay tuned!

Nokia Sensor ...

2005-05-11T10:00:00.000+02:00

Well, it seems Nokia is always doing something last, but since they have the hardware and a massive market, looks like their Sensor application might just move "toothing" (P2P Proximity Social Interaction) into the mainstream. Unfortunately, they don't have the app for my N-Gage or 7650 so I can test it ... which doesn't make munch sense (maybe they're trying to drive new phones?), but IMO this is the kinda application that can really change how people interact. Just the otherday, some 13 year old girl was bluejacking everybody on a tram in Prague (I of course accepted the incoming .jpg ... it was the X-ray of Homer Simpson's brain) ... normally I'm the one doing it to everybody else, but this time I got it... seems like this sorta thing could become fun with such an application ....

Of course, I have already written about these apps before ... MobiLuck, CrowdSurfer, ProxiDating, and even my own (started, but not finished) P2P Proximity applications have been around for a while, but seems Nokia just might have the power to make it mainstream. Looks like we'll find out ... now if I can only get it working on my 7650 (Yeah, I know, I'm old school ... but Nokia (here comes the catch) doesn't make a S-E P900 client ... guess I gotta test it some otherway.

[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth Nokia Sensor
bluejacking Social Networking ]

Bluetooth vs. UWB: No more ...

2005-05-03T11:11:00.000+02:00

While I never really believed the hype some corners yapped about (whether it was Bluetooth vs. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth vs. wUSB, Bluetooth vs. [Add Technology]), this is good news for both Bluetooth and UWB in particular and the industry as a whole:

I am excited to inform you that the Bluetooth SIG will be announcing its intent to work with Ultra-wideband (UWB) developers to combine the strengths of both technologies. The uniting of WPAN will enable high-speed applications, reduce fragmentation and bring organizations together for the greater good of short range wireless technologies. The ultimate goal is to work towards an architecture that allows devices to take advantage of UWB data rates for scenarios requiring that speed while maintaining backward compatibly with both existing Bluetooth devices on the market and future products not requiring the higher data rate.

Joint development between Bluetooth technology and UWB is the fastest and most economical pathway for both technologies to meet the future demands of manufacturers and end users. This collaboration of technologies will allow manufacturers to maintain existing Bluetooth core values like low power, low cost and unique ad hoc connectivity. At the same time the WPAN user experience will be improved by offering applications with higher data rates, which will make new scenarios and enhancing existing scenarios possible. Bluetooth wireless technologys brand equity, market penetration, and technical and organizational maturity will allow UWB to skip costly time-intensive obstacles in technology and market development by joining forces with a technology that is past that stage.

We are aware that challenges still exist - two UWB technologies, the need for global regulatory approval, as well as interference, interoperability and testing protocols - but, we are certain that this architecture is the best move for the wireless community as a whole. Not only do companies want to leverage investments in Bluetooth technology, but 250 million consumers have also made an investment in Bluetooth technology and will want those devices to work with future high data rate WPAN products.

The SIG and its over 3,400 members should be proud of their past accomplishments and look towards future ones. This public announcement will be the first step in a process to make this effort, and its benefits, a reality. The past has shown that the Bluetooth SIG members and staff can work together successfully to further the technology through programs and initiatives like the new qualification program and testing tools. We will continue to work together in coming months to estimate the timing and requirements necessary to achieve these cooperative goals. As our first priority we will keep its members abreast of all major milestones that occur related to this work.

Sincerely,

Michael Foley Ph.D.
Executive Director

-----------------------

Not Earth shattering, but it does give hope to extend Jellingspot to every single PC on the planet with (eventual) native support for wireless technologies compatiable with our technology.... that can't be a bad thing, can it?

[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth UWB wUSB
Zigbee Wi-Fi ]

Alive and well .... in GPL Hell

2005-05-01T13:00:00.000+02:00

Yeah, it has been a few weeks since my last post ... just busy as heck. First, the Windows stuff is done. It's working (small bugs, I hope releasing it to the public will help us tune things a bit) ... we will release it to some pre-Beta early adpators soon (people who have been waiting for a while) ... I've just been writing some "copyright" stuff for some of the open source stuff we've written (which works with some GPL components we've used). I need to make sure all of the GPL software stuff we've used to get Jellingspot working on Windows has all of the proper disclaimers, copyright info, etc.... and we need to comment, add our copyright info, etc... to those things we've written from scratch. All of it will be released once we go public. Let me say from the outset that the GPL community is pretty wacky ... I've never seen so many zealots in one place. My original view of the GPL community as a "take a penny give a penny" bunch was completely warped ... many of the people in that community (not the stuff we're using, thank god) are nothing but bullies and vultures ... the GPL is more like a pyramid scam than anything. But, I digress.

Also, we're exploring running Jellingspot from a CD (with a Linux distro), so that you can pop in a CD on your Windows PC and use Jellingspot (if that CD boots into that Linux distro ran off that disk) ... I've been reading bunches, but if anybody knows some good distributions to use for this, drop me a line! Basically, we wanna make some image availble on our website, so you can just burn that Linux image to disk, and go ... otherwise, Linux is worthless for most people, since they cannot install, re-compile the kernel, etc... it's crazy (however, our larger customers have dedicated system admins for this, so it's fine -- but, you definately cannot conquer the world riding on the back of Linux). Speaking of Linux, this is why it will NEVER be usuable like Windows, because it's basically open source -- it's meeting the needs its individual developers, not REAL users (ie... the masses) ... I've seen "little" improvement in the last 7 years or so on usability ... pretty poor if you ask me.

Mobile Music & I-Tunes Theory

2005-04-18T16:15:00.000+02:00

I'm what you call a regular user of Real's Rhapsody ... my brother pays for the service, and I generally log in and use his service while he's sleeping (since I'm +9 hours ahead of him) .... toward the end of my work day, I generally get a " *Ping* User has logged in from another location" followed by an IM from him saying, "Get off my Rhapsody." It's a pretty cool service ... he pays I think 9.99 USD per month or something and can listen online to any (900,000 choices) song as he wants. Seemingly, it's much better than iTunes, as you get some pidly 30 music previews then gotta pay 99 cents per song in some crappy ACC format. Real allows you to burn Rhapsody songs for 79 cents (not sure what format, probably Real's).

Anyway, what is INTERESTING is that no client side application (a dumb downed version) has been made for PPC or Symbian based devices ... with EDGE/3G pretty much starting to hit a slow stride, I most certainly wouldn't mind draining a bit of my device's battery to pick any song I'd want to listen to on my phone/PDA ... why not. You don't even need a lot of space to stream songs ... Maybe it's just me but that would be pretty cool. Who the hell (besides Apple freaks) want to buy some over-priced Mp3 player and then pay 99 cents per song? Sure, people are doing it, but I bet if Real had their own player with such a service (and say, Bluetooth in their player to connect to a phones's GPRS/EDGE/3G connection), that'd be awsome and would murder Apple on the spot (ok, not murder, as Apple's marketing folks are awsome).

Again, all of this goes back to Platforms (Windows/Symbian) vs. Hardware (Mac/iPod) ... Nokia didn't learn much with the N-Gage (hardware, instead of a platform), it seems Sony with the PSP is gonna go pretty much the same route ... one day, maybe they'll all get it right. This is why I'm still crossing my fingers for Symbian. Time will tell.

[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth Mac iPod
Mobile Music Mp3 Players ]

10mb to 2GB email via SMS...

2005-04-17T17:11:00.000+02:00

Not all that interesting, but might have been something cool for Hotmail to do to sell "premium" email accounts ... Czech protal Seznam.cz has been offering free email accounts for the last 6-7 years .... you get a simple 10mb account (available via POP3 or IMAP, however....) for free just by signing up. Well, they've up'ed the act and offer premium accounts that come with 2GB of storage and allow you to send 13mb attachments.

The cool thing about it, is that they just didn't upgrade all 4 million of their users ... if you wanna upgrade, you gotta send a Premium SMS for 3kc (about 13 cents USD) to get it activated. It's obvious they're not trying to make extra money off this, but it's a good way to upgrade only those who WANT the space. Even though I don't use my Seznam account all that much, I sent my SMS -- it costs basically nothing and I'm juiced with 2GB now.... how cool is that.

Compare that with Microsoft's Hotmail Plus premium account $19.95 USD per year .... you basically get the same storage (2GB), ok, fine ... but you gotta pay with credit card. There is nothing impulsive about that, and I'm not keen on giving them my credit card -- they should just charge a premium SMS (and lower their price abit, since they'll never compete with Google's gmail) ....

It just goes to show that many US tech companies are still very primative when it comes to mobile technologies ... in the Czech Republic, you can join almost any online chat, make donations, etc.. all via premium SMS ... it's an old technology, but allows for impulse buys and is generally easy to use ... not sure why people haven't jumped all over it yet. Strange.

Jellingspot in Action

2005-04-13T22:00:00.000+02:00

Well, today I was doing my rounds at the Novy Smichov Shopping Center where we have our Project Novy Smichov under full steam with our Jellingspot Data Server ... I decided to make a quick video (Mp4 Format) of a Jellingspot in action with my P900 ... so please excuse the video quality .. you can't see much, but you can hear a cool "bling" (kinda like the "bling" in Monthy Pyton's film "The Meaning of Life," if you know what I'm talking about...). Once we go live with our 5th store (Palace Cinemas is on deck ... see title graphic), we will make a more professional video you can actually see. This video just shows our Adpusher service in action -- basically, once you connect via a phone with Bluetooth (and our client application), ads will rotate on your screen (in this case, game screen shots from JRC Gaming, one of our customers) ... you can save these ads to your phone's inbox and MMS/Bluetooth/IrDA them to your friends ... or whatever you want.

Also, for those of you out there who haven't noticed much activity on the Jellingspot website, it's because a new website is under construction ... our super bad ass designer Alexander fires me a few new samples every few days ... here is the latest sample. It has all kinds of little flash enhancements all over it, but it's not too robust -- so, we'll see. We want to launch it when we have the Windows stack complete, which I can say is basically done. Once everything is in place, we're gonna come all at once -- and it's coming soon, so stay tuned.

[ Technorati Tags: Jellingspot Proximity Servers Gaming
Bluetooth Marketing ]

PSP & Ad-Hoc Gaming

2005-04-08T13:10:00.000+02:00

Well, it seems talk about the Sony PSP has blown all over the place ... and for some reason I just don't get it. I mean, from a gaming point of view, it's just following the same "curve" of gaming consoles getting better from a (mainly) graphics point of view ... having owned an Atari Lynx back in the OLD SKOOL days (it rocked by the way, Blue Lightning was all that, and a bag of peanuts), it's not like it's getting "more portable" -- seems just the opposite. What seems to be happening (like with phones and PDAs) is a convergence of technologies ... so, instead of just a gaming console, you can now listen to MP3s, movies, surf the web ... it's not really doing anything special or new. Worse, in the case of the PSP, is that most of these "cooler" functions are hacks ... seeminly not intended to be open ... people are bragging about hacking the PSP to use IRC, etc... that's cool if you're a geek (hands up!), but is it really gonna impress the Early/Late majority? Why in Godzilla's name didn't the PSP just come with a browser option pre-installed (like Opera or a dumbed down Firefox), movie player, etc.... why does everything have to be hacked? Seems like a rather stupid move on Sony's part ... if your device can do it, why limit it?

Then there is talk about playing against other people -- which I think is cool, but the N-Gage has been doing it for 2 years ... and now, all of a sudden, it's a big deal? (granted, if you can play via Wi-Fi through your network against somebody playing on their LAN at home, that's an improvement) All of the hype just doesn't excite me ... I'm not really seeing innovation -- I'm just seeing technologies being mixed (which I like by the way) into one device ...

Does this mean that, PSP 2 might include a GSM module, so you can make phone calls? The days of propritary systems are coming to an end (anybody ever heard of a PC?) ... there needs to be an open platform on such devices .... and then we can go crazy. The N-Gage had the opportunity, but chained themselves to one game deck .... the PSP is essentially the same ... somebody, BIG, needs to come out and "license" a platform (Microsoft, are you listening?) that works one multiple phones .... do what the N-Gage failed to do, and rule the world...

Anyway, whatever the case -- backing up real quick to Ad-Hoc gaming -- the N-Gage has been doing it, the PSP is now doing it (with a different standard ... sound familiar?) ... what's next? Ad-Hoc gaming is gonna be big -- MARK MY WORD -- Nokia is pushing it hard on a "dead man walking" device (clemency would be the N-Gage jumping back as a platform) ... Sony will eventually start pushing this feature harder as well or its fans will. In fact, what I'm saying now has already been spoken about in a bit different form by others (Russell Beattie's comments HERE come to mind for starters).

Anyway, hype is good, but too much is a big turn off ... especially for the larger markets -- you can't hype up a device that you've gotta hack. That's rule number #1. Do you think Paris Hilton is gonna hack her own? However, get that out of the way, and somebody is gonna (actually, already is) make a lot of money.

[ Technorati Tags: Wi-Fi Sony PSP
Ad-Hoc Gaming Proximity ]

The Horror of Moving

2005-04-01T15:25:00.000+02:00

Well, you can see I haven't posted much lately -- OMFG, moving is getting harder and harder as I live over here in Europe ... mainly because 1. the longer I'm here, the more stuff I accumulate, and 2. I'm getting older (28), so lifting 200lb boxes just aren't tossed around anymore like paper (yeah, right) ...

Having lots of computers and tech toys in your flat is cool, but when you have to move them ... that's when the sucking begins. And then once you move in, there is the issue of buying MORE stuff ... a lot of tech toys I've been eyeing are now on hold as I pay back Mr. Creditor for lending me money to purchase more furniture, etc...

The good news is, I had cable broadband plugged back in the DAY I signed the contract -- so naturally, the first thing I had working in my flat was my computer on the net... I am such a geek.

Anyway, I've got a load of unpacking and cleaning to do still, so it may be a few days before I start posting meaningful (I hope) comments again ... in the meantime, looks like Europe and North America are starting to get some good weather, so those of you there go out and enjoy it!

Phallic Technology

2005-03-25T22:20:00.000+01:00

Today's post isn't about wireless technology, but wired -- more specifically, about switches (and I'm not talking networking technologies). What in Hades am I talking about? The Pomlazka. The preferred weapon of choice that Czech males utilize against their female counterparts to celebrate Velikonoce (Easter/Ostara). On Velikonoce, any fair young maiden is fair game ... a whack on the butt to help her get pregnant. The pomlazka represents the phallic symbol, the "ribbons" symbolizing the regenerative force in nature (ie... sperm). While most Czechs seemingly don't know these details (I'm not only a wireless freak .... I do have other hobbies :-), what they DO know is that on Easter they get to chase women and whack'em. It's fun, too ... you can do it in packs ... or, sniper style. Whatever the case, if you're lucky enough to find a female walking around (they're not stupid, they know what day to stay indoors), and you whack her, she's supposed to give you a colored egg in return (obviously a return fertility symbol). Of course, whacking people is generally done in villages, where people at least know your family -- don't try it in the big cities, as I did ... I didn't get an egg in return, I got something verbal.

Whatever the case, Christian, pagan, or any other variety in between, but sure to send the folks you like a "Happy Ostara/Easter/Velikonoce" via SMS (see, the wireless bent to this post) -- Spring time has arrived, it's time to pull the sandals out from their long winter hibernation ...

Ad-Hoc Social Networking: Jambo

2005-03-19T01:10:00.000+01:00

I have obviously plugged the Ad-Hoc Social Networking application scene out there a few times (and even threw my own company's hat into the ring) -- MobiLuck, ProxiDating, CrowdSurfer -- up until now have all been Bluetooth wireless technology based solutions. However, Jambo Networks is the first (that I know of) solution that uses Wi-Fi to search for and interact with other Jambo users with this wireless standard.

As with the previously mentioned Bluetooth solutions, the premise is still the same: Network with people in your immediate area (in the case of Wi-Fi, other people can be more than 100m away): get their interests, find out their marital status, and basically find an easier way to hook up with somebody (either for personal or business reasons) in your immediate area.

My problem with Wi-Fi vs. Bluetooth in these ad-hoc solutions is that phones are not Wi-Fi enabled generally, and therefore you're more dependant upon PDAs (which I guess is fine) or notebooks. Not everybody has a PDA or Notebook, but almost everybody has a phone. Additionally, those with notebooks are generally not going have their notebooks up and running while walking down the street or hanging out at a bar or club. Therefore, wide spread use is going to be a bit more limited (in their demos, they have a university as an ideal spot, and to this I agree ... in the library it would be useful, or to hook up with all of those fine chicks in your Computer Science classes, if you know what I mean ... :p).

Let me know if anybody can download it -- what I hate MORE THAN ANYTHING is to go to some site, and then have to sign up before I can get any application (I think) ... I won't be signing up anytime soon ...

[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth wi-fi Jambo
Ad-Hoc Proximity ]

ADSL or Cable?

2005-03-17T18:08:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm moving into a plusher flat, finally, after 2 years of living in a human hamster box (38m2) ... so, I may be a little quiet the next few days, as I'll be moving and migrating my Cable connection over to the new flat ... you'd be amazed how hard this can be.

In Prague, the real estate people are just now getting a clue on how to sell flats via "Ooh, this flat has bandwidth." Generally, before I go see a flat, I know which street it's on so I look up the address on cable provider's site to see if I can get broadband over cable ... it's not so easy, as it's not available everywhere -- so, I generally LOOK for flats on such streets (doesn't mean the building/house has been wired up, though). If I don't see cable, then I have to back up to ADSL -- and I can generally only check this if I have the phone number of the flat (or one in that building) ... a common run through looks like this:

Me (in mangled Czech): Does this flat have cable?

Realitor: It has SAT TV.

Me: No, no, I don't care about TV -- I need cable Internet.

Realitor: Why, you have a phone for Dial-up

Me: Dial-up sucks ass (ok, I don't say that) ... No, dial-up is very slow, I need a broadband connection

Realitor: What's that?

Me: Does this flat have cable?

You get the drift ... now, ADSL is also available, but it's more expensive and slower (and, while available pretty much everywhere, that's still not always the case).

Prices look like this:

Cable: 3mbit Down / 512kbit up = 1500kc (about 67 USD)

ADSL: 1mbit Down / 256kbit up = 2000kc (about 90 USD)

Both generally have a 15-20 GB data limit per month ....

3 times slower and 1/4 more expensive -- f--k that.

This thus means, unlike people who look for flats first, and then worry about that stuff later, my main criterion is: Can I get Cable or ADSL here ... if I can't, no matter how nice and cheap the flat is, they're not getting a sale -- ADSL only flats must be a good deal ... if it has cable, it has a good chance of getting taken by me -- that's just the way it goes ...

Proximity Content Distribution: Kameleon

2005-03-13T16:00:00.000+01:00

Well, I was gonna mention these guys a few weeks ago, but just haven't had the time ... it seems like "Proximity Server" solutions are now a dime a dozen in the race -- however, NONE have taken any signifant leap forward in becoming mass deployed. Kameleon is another player who utilizes Bluetooth wireless technology to send out"push" URLs of content. In other words, although they require, like previous solutions, the use of a specific client-side application to receive content, they do nothing more than send out "WAP Push" like URLs of content related to the specific location, and then via your GPRS/EDGE/3G connection, you download the information. Can this then be called a point or proximity server, since it doesn't do a whole lot of serving? Well, that's another issue altogether.

Basically, it works like this -- you see their logo on some billboard (say, some poster promoting the new release of an albulm from your favorite artist) ... you fire up their client application on your phone, and a URL is pushed to your phone via a small "tag" like device hidden in the billboard ... you then click on that pushed URL and your Opera / Native brower opens up on your phone / PDA and you're transported (via GPRS/EDGE/3G) to content relating to that poster -- MP3 sample clip, discography, or a link to buy tickets to their concert coming to town in a few weeks. It's a nice concept. The carrier-tyrants will love it -- it'll help drive up data use on their networks, advertisers will love it, because it gives a more dynamic feeling to their brand/product ... but, will users like it? Will they want to pay those GPRS/EDGE/3G costs to down load a 1mb or so clip? It'd cost about 1 dollar in the Czech Republic -- I know more in the USA and the UK. People generally aren't all that thrilled to PAY for advertising sent to them ... but, as data plans move down in price, and "unlimited" plans come into being (and become cheaper), this just might have a future. Note, I believe Nokia's solution which I previously discussed works in a similar fashion.

Check out Kameleon's site ...

[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth Wireless Kameleon
Symbian Proximity ]

CeBIT & Skype: Brass Balls

2005-03-10T15:00:00.000+01:00

I'm not going to summerize what's going on at CeBIT (I completely forgot about CeBIT this year -- so, I guess I'm not going ...) but, one post that caught my attention came from Niklas Zennström, CEO and co-founder of Skype ... check out his bold statements: He's got big brass balls ... Now, I thought Jellingspot might make carriers pay for their in-your-face hubris, bullying, and insolence to humanity -- but, looks like Skype is gonna kick'em into the dirt. Just imagine, using Skype via Jellingspot ... that'd be a cool service ... not just notebooks at Hot-Spots, but your mobile phones, via Bluetooth wireless technology, using Skype (and a location's internet connection) to make phone calls ... Hey, Niklas, give me a call ... let's bury the carriers once and for all (unless they get a more cooperative attitude and stop screwing content and applications developers in the mobile world) ....

[ Technorati Tags: Skype CeBIT Jellingspot
VoIP Tyrants ]

Skype on Symbian: The Killer App

2005-03-08T21:03:00.000+01:00

Gotcha! At least, all you RSS feed readers ... I WISH Skype worked on my Series 60 Symbian phone, but as of yet, it's still a no go. I have written them a few times pushing the idea ... if it works on my brother's Pocket PC 2003 powered Dell Axim, why couldn't it work on my N-Gage or P-900, or at least my business partner's Nokia 6630? After all, if bandwidth is the only consideration (my hypothesis), the 6630's EDGE/3G connection should suffice. Here in the Czech Republic, 2 of the 3 carriers offer EDGE, so I have a download rate (not sure on the upload, actually) in theory of 100 - 150kbps, certainly enough for Skype. If Skype wanted to take over the world, getting a client on Symbian, even if it's not as fancy as its desktop brothers, would certainly be the first step in doning so. Skype, what are you waiting for man? If you're not in the know-how to get it done, open up your communication protocol Jabber style, and let the community do it for you ...

Now, would Skype last on your phone -- who knows, carriers most certainly would try to protect "their interest" (but then, at least in the USA, we could sue the hell out of them for blocking the Skype port) ... check out this Oskar (carrier in the Czech Republic) document, which shows you which ports your GPRS/EDGE connection can acess. Obviously, Skype isn't on phones yet, but seemingly, if I try to connect via my EDGE connection (connected to my notebook via Bluetooth wireless technology), can I still access skype? I don't have an EDGE phone, but I'll ask business partner if he can get access via T-Mobile's connection in the Czech Republic -- if not, that's whack. BTW, does anybody know which port Skype run over?

Anyway, in the next few days, I might just set up a petition for people to sign to pressure Skype to go Symbian -- who is with me? :-)

Update: T-Mobile isn't offering EDGE in the Czech Republic until April -- so, I'm gonna have to wait -- anybody else out there have an EDGE connection they can test (via a notebook or something) to see if your carrier will let you use Skype?

[ Technorati Tags: Skype EDGE wireless
Symbian Pocket PC ]

Using Omea Pro

2005-03-06T19:59:00.000+01:00

If you are a information junkie like me, then you probably own a RSS reader, newsgroup reader, use Google a lot, and subscribe to a load news listservs, etc.... if so, then you REALLY need to check out Omea Pro (Disclaimer: I work for JetBrains ... but I'm responsible for ReSharper :-) ) Bias aside, this tool rocks: period. With Omea Pro, you can read/search in your RSS/Atom feeds, Newsgroups, Outlook emails, favorite (bookmarked) webpages, instant messages, and even local files -- and instantly find them. You can even link resources together (associate an IM with an Email, for example), so you can always keep track of your info, heck, it even has an integrated Bloglines tool that allows you to import your subscriptions!

Look, Omea Pro just does way to much for me to blog about -- download a 30-day evaluation copy for free. You can get a "lite" version of Omea ... called Omea Reader, for free (RSS/Newsgroups reader) ... you won't be disappointed.

If you're an early adaptor, try Omea Pro EAP -- the Early Acess Program release. This version rocks the house with a lot of other cool features (create annotations and clippings of webpages, and then organized them into Omea)

Basically, if you have hoards of info, this is THE tool you need to help you manage it - after using it, you'll be hooked. How much you wanna bet?

[ Technorati Tags: RSS Feeds Google Bloglines
organizer Omea Pro ]

'Proximity' (Bluetooth) Social Interacation...

2005-03-04T23:54:00.000+01:00

Well, it seems like Peer-2-Peer (P2P) -- or maybe it should now be called Person-2-Person -- proximity social interaction technologies/tools via Bluetooth wireless technology have yet another player in the game. Small Planet's CrowdSurfer follows on the heels of pioneer MobilLuck, and recent addition ProxiDating. The modus operandi of CrowdSurfer is basically the same as MobiLuck and ProxiDating: You install a client-side application on your Bluetooth enabled device (Symbian, Pocket PC, Palm, etc...). This client application allows you to add information about yourself (Single, Male, 28, Hobbies -- basically different types of information that might help you meet somebody interesting - or - get you laid), and then makes that information available to folks within a 10 - 100m area (that's about 30ft - 300ft .... or a football field, to all my fellow Americans out there) that are running a similar client application in search mode.

So, just imagine -- you walk into a bar, your fire up your application, and search for other users ... your phone rings/vibrates, you see that a user "Lisa" is running the same software, you download her profile (if she's allowing it), and it says, "Female, 21, romantic walks, expensive dinners, etc..." and it has a picture of some fine ass chick ... you can basically send her text messages (she's somewhere around you, but you haven't a clue, and neither does she) ... she checks out your profile, thinks you're cute, and sends you a text message (remember, all via Bluetooth -- FREE!) -- meet me by the bar downstairs, I'm blonde, belly ring, tat on the back, and carrying a white (pocket) dog. You get there, and BAM!, you already know a bit about her (that she is gonna break your wallet) ... doesn't matter, you're the man -- no need to drink a few shots before going up to some girl sitting at the end of the bar -- now you can geek your way into her life.

Pretty cool, huh? There is still hope for me yet ...

[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth Wireless Dating
Symbian Proximity ]

Beer Moblog

2005-03-01T22:58:00.000+01:00

Ok, I think I'm gonna have a new theme once in a while for my Moblog, and the first theme is beer. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't drink that much -- but when I do...ooh, heavenly bliss ... Living in Bohemia, you don't just drink beer -- you drink gold in liquid form. I don't supposed you'll see a whole lot of beer shots from me, but when I have a cold/warm (yes, depends on the beer and bar!) one, I'll try to take a pic -- so you can see -- if you get bored, do the same and upload it to my Moblog -- try to name the type of beer and get a pic of the label -- let's see how many we can get :-)

If you're not of drinking age reading this, well, then, snap your favorite drink anyway ... or snap your pa's beer in the fridge.

I bought a N-Gage QD and got jacked! (Part III)

2005-03-01T22:44:00.000+01:00

Well, I got my return number to send my QD back; however, I found the "Certifed Nokia Partner" store that actually had the covers -- same color, and original -- check this out, 80kc (about 3 bucks) for a back cover and 3 bucks for the entire FRONT cover with new screen ... (and I could buy them seperately, but since I had a girlfriend of mine get them for me, I couldn't be sure on the color, so I bought both). So, it set me back 6 dollars -- would have cost me 10 just to send it back to England. Looks like I ain't gotta do that now -- w00t, w00t!

So, I have a QD now, wat up! It was so bloody cheap, I couldn't help myself (I'm a whore for Symbian phones) -- Anybody up for a global match of Pathway To Glory? ;-)

Flash Lite: Redux

2005-02-28T22:29:00.000+01:00

Well, a few weeks ago, I said I'd comment on Flash Lite. I haven't felt like commenting on this topic, simply because I'm rather ignorant of the whole technology outside of creating fancy little graphics for webpages (and I don't do that anymore myself -- having never been good at it (check out the www.jellingspot.com title header for a sample -- anyone out there wanna improve it? :P ). In the mobile world, I'm a rather big fan of Java (or was, until I started finding that companies like Nokia, for example, had utterly gutted out socket connections in most of its Java enabled phones ... had to move to C++ to get those features). This isn't for any other reason than my partner is a Java Guru and I work for a premium Java Tools provider, so I know something about Java (but I don't program IN Java -- see the difference?) However, I am aware Macromedia makes "Enterprise" web application type software such as Cold Fusion, so you know they're doing more than just aninmation type-software.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, it was spreading all over the net, that thank god, it was gonna displace dismal Java (mobile Java, generally based on J2ME/Personal Java) because Java is "too hard" (ie... it requires more brain power to be an OOP programmer than a basic "scripting" langauge writer -- it what the feeling was anyway) -- and Flash Lite was the savior of the mobile world, as things could be written much faster.

All of this may be true ... Blogger Bryan Rieger dropped some verbal bombs on the whole thing, and being a Flash developer himself, they're well worth listening to. However, I just can't see (with my limited insight into the technology of course) Flash doing much more than sending nifty greeting cards (as it does now on the net), or some simple games (keep in mind, my favorite Sumo Volleyball, which ICQ seems to have murdered, was in Flash). This is all fine and dandy, but Java (and more so C++ Symbian/PCC/Palm) have real meat and potatos inside ... as I asked the rhetorical questions previously: Can Flash Lite access the native system's features? Such as the phone book, or Bluetooth radio, or store information onto a memory card? If yes, then I think Flash Lite could have a bright future ... but, from what I know, this isnt' the case -- it's not meant to do that, so why all of the talk about "replacing" Java, when it doesn't even come close to doing what Java does (or can/could do, if phone makers didn't gut it out).

It's obvious, people got ahead of themselves -- many of the time, people with no programming experience do that (I won't mention them here, cough...the entire commerical technology media, cough...) ... while others, kinda just go along with the crowd, I'm more inclined to be critical (not negative -- as I hate them types) ... show me the money I guess.

Having said that, can all of the Flash Gurus out there somehow port mini Pac-Man (I got to levl 4) and mini Pong to my phone? Sure, my eyes are blown out playing these two all day, but on a phone, wouldn't they just be so cute?

Ooh, one more thing -- Bryan also mentioned that, if Flash Lite were on most mobile phones -- especially as it relates to Jellingspot, then Flash ads/games/etc. could be distributed over Jellingspot -- Maybe there is more to this Flash stuff just yet ... ;-}

[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth wireless Jellingspot
Java Flash Lite ]