…I was in Houston enjoying The Police live in concert. And what a great concert it was; the original band and great performance. It was a full house — sold out.
The Police Tour 2007-2008. Photo taken by CEO on June 29 2007 in Houston Texas
The Police is one of the best rock bands ever… I've been waiting around 20 years for this concert, and it was awesome. If you have the chance, go see them…
ceo
I've been tagged by Zach of SymbianInMotion… Thanks Zack!
Since I've been tagged before, I am going to point back to that previous post “five things about me”. But let me add a new item (update) to that list, which is that I've recently started a new company where I am CTO called eZee Mobile.
ceo
Photo source: BBC article The man who invented the cash machine
The Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is 40 years old.
Invented by John Shepherd-Baron (OBE recipient) of Scotland, and first deployed at a branch of Barclays in Enfield, north London, the ATM changed the world, and societies all around the world.
And recently, the 82 years old inventor Mr. Shepherd-Baron was quoted saying:
“…ATM will be made redundant within the next three to five years by the demise of paper cash”
-and-
“I fervently believe that we will soon be swiping our mobile phones at till points (cash registers), even for small transactions to pay for goods and services.”
…and that is music to my ears. As I embark into the waters of mobile commerce, digital money, and related with my new company eZee mobile, it is very exciting to see the visionaries and pioneers such as Mr. Shepherd-Baron validate our vision and mission.
I believe Mr. Shepherd-Baron's prediction and time frames are accurate. But I will add that the ATM won't be replaced by mobile wallets, yet, the mobile handset and ATMs will complement each other…
ceo
…busy, but it was a good week…
Blogging will continue to be light in the next weeks… busy, busy, busy… but busy is good.
Oh, and don't forget about the Call for Mobility Panelists for the 2008 SXSW Interactive Festival!
ceo
Update: October 20, 2007: Due to timing issues, specifically the time that I’ve to dedicate to my startup company eZee inc, I’ve decided not to move forward with writing the book at this stage. I’ll get back to it at some point.
Yes we are… but don't take my word for it… Sumit Agarwal, a product manager in Google’s mobile division, also believes so…
See Mobile Web 2.0 May Be Too Ambitious, Let’s Call It Mobile 0.5
ceo
The 78th weekly Carnival of the Mobilists at Symbian-Guru.com.
As usual, great essays from Mobilists from all around the world… check it out. Thanks to Tim for including my entry.
Let me take the opportunity of reminding everyone about the call for Mobilists for SXSW Interactive 2008, to submit their ideas for panels on mobility. For more information see:
http://www.cenriqueortiz.com/weblog/Mobility/2007/06/12/2008-SXSW-Interactive-Festival-Call-for-Mobility-Panelists.html
ceo
Some of the best resources for mobile developers are the developer resources provided by handset manufacturers and network providers.
One of these developer resources is Vodafone Betavine, a website run by Vodafone's R&D group with the goal of encouraging collaboration in the area of mobile and internet communications. The website contains FAQ, forums, resources for developers, an area for community ideas/projects, and other sections. One of the sections of interest is the API section, that over time will include a set of services,including web services, that developers can use on within their mobile applications.
Recently Betavine added its first API, one that allows applications to send / push messages to mobile handsets. This API are services on the web that you can mashup. The API available in a variety of formats including XML, JSON and RSS – see the API Reference Guide.
The first step to using these services is to register and generate a Vodafone Betavine API Developer Key.
I'm not clear yet about Betavine's API licensing terms, but I will look into it…
It is good to see services like Betavine, helping developers with information and services.
Related to this, I'm keeping a list of developer resources on my website, that I will
continue updating over time.
ceo
Click to see video (Fox Chicago)
“I put the kids down, put the baby monitor on and saw two people floating in space.”
Happy Father's Day!
ceo
[Via The Raw Feed,
Wired Maganize,
and Fox Chicago]
A very nice introduction video by Jonathan Green on Jaiku…
Jaiku gets it and they have done an excellent job on (the more advanced) Nokia handsets, and with their platform.
There are not many (successful) vendors on this mobile social space. But we are going to see new vendors coming along. Some will introduce products that are purely mobile/handset-based while others mobile + platform, some more targeted to a specific handset (family) while others more generic, some text-based while others more media rich, and some more “verticalized”… And more innovation is still to come, with better ways to connect people, organize and present information, and integration at many different levels…
Remember that at the end of the day, The Mobile Handset is a Social Artifact…
ceo
Sun Microsystems surface computing, the Starfire (1994 concept):
>> See Sun Microsystems' Starfire concept video (complete with drama, heh)
Surface computing today, Microsoft:
>> See Microsoft's Surface video (Popular Mechanics)
ceo
Tom announces the official launch of Webwag mobile. If you have a recent Java ME phone you can experiment with their mobile widgets,
which are authored using an XML for the UI, and a simple scripting language for behavior.
Congrats to Tom and his team!
ceo
Currently there is a proposal within the MIDP3 Expert Group, to remove, or I should say, deprecate, the MIDlet pauseApp() life-cycle method…
The rationale is that 1) it is a source of confusion for both developers and implementers because it is not consistently implemented across, and thus 2) it is a source of fragmentation.
I personally am against such deprecation, as the whole idea for the named method is to notify the MIDlet of state changes, within the MIDlet life-cycle state machine. From the MIDP 2.0 specification:
“The application management software wants the MIDlet to significantly reduce the amount of resources it is consuming, so that they may temporarily be used by other functions on the device such as a phone call or running another MIDlet. The AMS will signal this request to the MIDlet by calling the MIDlet.pauseApp method. The MIDlet should then reduce its resource consumption as much as possible.”
The source of fragmentation or confusion is not the method itself, nor the life-cycle state-machine definition, but the issue is that certain implementations are overloading the original intention with inconsistent behaviors… Note that not calling the pauseApp() method at all is a valid behavior, because not always there is a need to reduce the use of resources… Why take away the ability for implementations to be able to notify MIDlets of the need to release resources and go passive? Handset capabilities will continue to increase, but not all platforms are created equal: some will continue to be embedded/resource-constrained platforms.
The method pauseApp() is a life-cycle signal, and it should be treated as such (as described above). No need to deprecate it or any of the other primitive life-cycle methods; a MIDlet enters the active state (startApp), the passive state (pauseApp), and destroyed state (destroyApp). This has nothing to do with Moore's Law and devices becoming more sophisticated; it is more trivial than that. And it is separate from the new MIDP3 system events.
(Note: If you are reading this via a feed reader, you might not see the survey below that is asking for your opinion to take to the MIDP3 expert group. Please go to my blog entry directly to enter your opinion… Thanks!
ceo
This week's Carnival of the Mobilists # 77 is at the Symbian in Motion blog.
As Zach the host puts it, “…sit back, take a sip of that coffee, make sure that your calls are forwarded – and enjoy!”…
… a great set of mobility blogging from around the world.
Thanks Zach for including my entry The Future of Web Applications is “Local”.
ceo
Photo Source: GIZMODO UK
…and the winner is… the carrier, yes, the network provider… or maybe not?
I was going to wait until the release of the iPhone, and wait and see, but I just can't hold this after reading today's newspaper… but before I continue, I will tell you that the looser though, is 3rd-party innovation…
“Third-party software developers and others had worried that they would not be able to write applications such as games for the iPhone. Apple and partner AT&T Inc. had worried that opening up the iPhone to outside developers could compromise its security and reliability”
By basing 3rd-party developers on Web standards, and including Safari on the iPhone “we've come up with a very sweet solution”, said Jobs to an audience of about 5,000 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.
I couldn't believe what I was reading…no access to native functions? That is NOT sweet enough… not for the mobile user experience!
But in this case, it is not the carrier, who already knows how to protect the network from evil code (via trusted/signed applications), it is Apple itself who doesn't want to give access to the handset…
…such a pretty device, such a great and innovative approach to the user experience — but a close one it is. The Apple iPhone, the not so open mobile handset. As David Beers says, So that's what he meant by “opening” the iPhone?
It is clear that Apple is pushing Safari big time… they are even releasing Safari for Windows… this is an interesting strategy, to grab a larger share of the browser market, even across PC platforms, all for the benefit of the iPhone — Apple/Jobs totally understands the future of computing, and that the mobile handset is at the center of it. This is a leap for Jobs, who is thinking beyond the Mac OS, to benefit the product that will very likely drive a large portion of Apple's future/innovation.
I still have hopes though… that in addition to pure browser-based applications, that Apple do have an SDK, they must, native or Java-based, for 3rd-party developers (together with developer support).
But what would be really awesome is to see Apple innovate on the mobile browser-side of things… not only by creating a consistent-correct-true-standards-based browser, but also one that allows for secure (trusted/signed applications) access to the native functions (messaging, contacts, camera, location, and the rest of the iPhone features), as well as disconnected behavior… I will say it again, maximizing the mobile experience is about taking full advantage of the mobile context, and that requires access to native functionality somehow…
Developers will ask for more… In the meantime, the winner is Apple, and the power for creating the best and richest applications for the iPhone belongs to Apple, and to Apple alone…
ceo
We had another great and informative MobileMonday Austin last night – the topic was Mobile Banking and Payments.
We started the night with some food, followed by industry metrics on mobile commerce, banking and payment courtesy of David Gill of Telephia. Great data that shows that interest on mobile banking and payments is increasing and will continue to increase, especially in the age groups 18-24, followed by 25-36 years old. Another interesting metric (Europe) was that Telecom Italia subscribers are the highest over-indexed demographic when it comes to mobile financial and banking services, followed by T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange, then O2 (in that order).
Next we had Awelle Ndili of MShift who spoke about mobile banking, past, present, future, as well as issues and challenges; he also covered their mobile banking product. MShift has been around since 1999, and truly is the biggest mobile banking player you've never heard of — I find pretty amazing how quiet they have been, but how successful they are! As I recently read on the Mobile Monday and Banking blog:
“the San Jose-based MShift has 32 clients live, 5 banks and 27 credit unions, many deployed through MShift's relationship with online banking platform provider, Digital Insight, now a unit of Intuit. Only 5 clients have been deployed prior to 2004. More than half (19) launched in the past 12 months, with 8 launching in December 2006 alone.”
…impressive is how they survived throughout the bubble burst of early 2000, and very smart how they accomplished that, as during those hard times they shifted towards the Japanese market, deploying, gaining customers and lots experience, then returning to the United States (San Jose). It was very nice to meet Awelle.
Next, we covered “The Future of Payments”, by truly yours, me, of eZee. The future of mobile payments begins in 2007…
…good set of presentations with good interactions.
The venue was great — I want to thank Amplify, for sponsoring our event last night; we really enjoyed it. Amplify is ahead of many other banks, including large ones, when it comes to mobile banking — they are early adopters who understand that offering extra convenience improves the overall customer experience. And thanks to the Austin Wireless Alliance for helping me with the logistical aspects of the event…
And thanks to the attendees from AWA, Bootstrap Austin, the Java Users group, MobileMonday, and other…
Please note that there will be no MobileMonday Austin event on July, and we will re-group more likely in August.
MobileMonday is a global community of mobile professionals and enthusiasts. The open community promotes mobile technologies, industry and research, and fosters cooperation among individuals, the industry and academia. In Central Texas, MobileMonday works in partnership with the Austin Wireless Alliance.
Join the MobileMonday Austin mailing list, for related announcements, discussions and news.
Sponsor MobileMonday Austin!
If you would like to sponsor a Mobile Monday Austin event, please contact C. Enrique Ortiz at eortiz[at]mobilemondayaustin[dot]com. Sponsorship typically entails a conference room for 50-100 people, plus drinks and appetizers for the attendees. Sponsoring an event will expose your company to Austin's best mobile and wireless technologists, while helping keep Mobile Monday a free event…
ceo
"Great individuals invent their own values and create the very terms under which they excel." -Kierkegaard and Nietzsche