About Mobility

Folks, just got an email from Google about their upcoming Android Developer Lab’s tour. Very cool and Austin is the 1st city in the tour on Feb 4, 2010.

Registration deadline for currently open sessions is February 1st.

The Lab will expose attendees to lab sessions working directly with Google Advocates. The session will last 4-6 hours. Details will be emailed to attendees in advance of the event. From their website (http://sites.google.com/site/androiddevlabs/home):

“Our Android Advocates are going on a world tour, traveling to locations all around the globe! Hear about the state of the Android platform, get hands-on with the latest version of the SDK, meet like-minded Android engineers, play with the latest Android devices, test your apps, and ask your questions directly to Android team members.”

I am definitely attending and if you are into Android, you should definitely attend as well! Again, register by Feb 1 by visiting the tour’s website.

ceo

I remember 10 years ago, 1998, or maybe closer to 1999, I was working at Pervasive Software working with a great group of folks, building an embedded DB for mobile, embedded devices, and smart-cards; a cool project with great people that was ahead of its time.

One of my co-workers said, “Enrique, come see this search engine”. It was Google. Back then, as I understand it, Google was running at the founder’s university dormitories (or apartment, whatever it was). I remember the basic/simple white search page, as it is today (not the iGoogle page). The search engine worked fine. I do remember thinking “why another search engine? i.e. there is Yahoo!”.

Today Google rules the world…

Google is Brain pictured above; “What are we doing tonight, Brain, I mean, Google? Well Pinky, same as we do every night, Try and Take Over the Connected, Web and Mobile Worlds!

Happy Birthday Google…

The SEOExpert blog has a very good article/summary about Google at 10 years.

ceo

Google continues to release very cool, functional, and more importantly, useful APIs. They have introduced a new Visualization API, and updated their Charts API. The updates to Google Chart include three new charts (Sparklines, Radar, and Map) and a more flexible usage policy:

Sparklines:

Radar:

Map:

Google Charts have usage restrictions, right now up to 250K charts per day, but I believe that is still very flexible from them. Hey, they are providing the free tools and horsepower; can’t complain!

The new Google Visualization API provides a number of very nice Visualization Gadgets for visualizing structured data. These visualization gadgets that can be included in web sites via their visualization AJAX API. In parallel with this release, the Google Docs team also released support for data visualization right from Google Docs spreadsheets.

These APIs and gadgets are like having a chest full of toys to play with; great tools for developers.

At eZee inc we are using/experimenting with the Google Chart API. Thanks Google!

See:

• New features for the Google Chart API
• Introducing the Google Visualization API
• Collaboration goes one level deeper

ceo

A former contractor sues Google for $25m, claiming Google stole his idea for Google Sky. The contractor claims that he got the idea and wrote about it in an internal Google Groups email discussion group back in 2006.

I am sure Google is covered there with respect to contractor agreements and Intellectual Property…

…but wait a minute. Forget that!

I wrote in my blog about a potential Google Sky back in 2005! I wrote about it first dude… I am the one who should be entitled to the $25M!

ceo

Very, very neat AND useful… Check out the Google Chart API.

See the announcement at the Google Code Blog – Embed charts in webpages with one of our simplest APIs yet.

ceo

[Via Jeremy Zawodny's blog]

Two years after I wrote about how cool it would be to have a Google Sky, Google has introduced that exact product, as an extension to Google Earth. Pretty neat.

See Explore the sky with Google Earth.

Says Martin Reynolds, VP at Gartner:

“Google is building out IT infrastructure at a rate that is simply unbelievable. Last year Google spent $2 billion on IT infrastructure and plans to spend $3 billion this year… compared with about $600 million by rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft. This gives Google a foundation for competitive advantage like you wouldn’t believe.”

Impressive numbers (and corresponding infrastructure) those are…

Google is Brain pictured above (I loved those cartoons); “What are we doing tonight, Brain, I mean, Google? Well Pinky, same as we do every night, Try and Take Over the CONNECTED World!

(source CIO Insight Magazine)

ceo

“Given Google’s overwhelming popularity, chances are that most consumers are going to put their privacy on the line. “

In what way do they own us?

What we search (Google Search), what we chat (Google Talk), what directions we look for (Google Maps), what email we exchange (Google Mail), what events we might have (Google Calendar), what feeds we read (Google Reader), what videos we watch (YouTube), what things we buy (Google Checkout), what things we have in our desktop (Google Desktop), and at a much lesser extend here in the U.S., our social network (Google Orkut).

See Is It OK that Google Owns Us? (eWeek)

I do hope Google sticks to their Do no Evil philosophy. But knowing history, what are the chances that such philosophy will change, or that information will end up in the wrong place with the wrong people? Very likely…

ceo

Interesting… Google is looking for developers to develop Google Widgets (Gadgets), and will even provide seed money! Check out the Google Gadget Ventures announcement and the Google Gadget Ventures FAQ. Some highlights below:

• “Google Gadget Ventures is a new Google pilot program dedicated to helping developers create richer, more useful Google Gadgets.”
• “Anyone who’s developed a gadget in our Google Gadgets directory that generates 250,000 weekly page views is eligible to apply.”
• “Recipients of these grants are then eligible to apply for a seed investment.”
• “For $100,000 seed investments, we make the investment in tranches (finance-speak for “segments”) based on milestones. We will give some funding up front and then incrementally provide funding based on usage targets for the gadget that we set in conjunction with the company.”

For more information see the Google Gadget Ventures FAQ.

ceo

No, it isn't Web 2.0… it is a Flash-based gadget… No installs, just pure instant satisfaction: IM, Gmail, video and photo previews…

See Google Talk in action. Go to Google Talk's web page.

ceo

Update:
I downloaded the PRC version to see how it compared to the Java ME version. The PRC version is 444KB and it requires 3MB of free storage space to run. After erasing some content on my handset I was able to run the application. The PRC version on Palm OS 5 is very nice, the UI is sharp, and responsive, the translucent buttons are a nice touch, and the touchscreen interactions I like a lot; very nice as well. I give it a thumbs-up to this native version of Google Mobile for Palm OS 5. The alternative on the Palm OS is running the Java ME version, but for that the WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment Technology for Palm runtime must be found and installed first, and it's a bit slower, and the experience is not as crisp…

Neat!

Check it out at http://www.google.com/gmm/index.html.

Download the Java ME application from http://mobile.google.com, or download the Palm OS 5 PRC file from http://www.google.com/gmm/palm.

ceo

I've added to my mobility resources and weblog web sites support for mobility-specific Google searching; check it out. I will continue tuning the search engine over time.

Google search results customized by
Mobility Resources using Google Co-op

ceo

Google has released the beta version of Google Patent Search, with full text search of the U.S. patents. Note this first version is for granted or issued patents, and not patents in progress.

This is going to be a very useful tool. Patent searches are a pain in the neck, and this tool is about simplifying just that…. awesome. Thanks Google.

ceo

Google's new Gmail mobile (local) client is now available. I installed the Java ME client for a quick spin. The app, even without push or autosync email, is a winner – an example of the kind of rich clients that I (and others) have been talking about, and why it is just better than browser-based and Mobile AJAX apps (OK, not a fair comparison, as Mobile AJAX is kind of non-existent). And it is a true example of the benefits of local, rich mobile clients, with their rich(er) yet simple and straightforward user interfaces that result in a better mobile experience. And why is that? No surprise here — because it's able to implement smarts (and access) locally, such as preloading and caching, better (graphical) navigation, menus, and UI. And just wait until they integrate with their IM, and calendar apps and other functionality via their services on the web — long live the platform!
While the local Gmail mobile client provides the same basic functionality as its browser counterpart, as previously mentioned, it simply provides a better experience.

Download the application for free by pointing your micro-browser to gmail.com/app …and note that you don't need .mobi!

For your viewing pleasure, below are some screenshots of the Gmail mobile client UI: the Inbox, some of its menus, text input, archive, and reply-to/sending a message.
Note how the application nicely implements a simple UI, the menus, and shortcuts (access numbers) within the menus. Also note how the application breaks some of the user experience implicit rules, for example when switching between fullscreen and non-fullscreen (which is bad experience) when typing information — but I don't blame them too much for that, as today in MIDP there is the limitation that to leverage the platform's native text input functionality (such as T9) you need to jump out of low-level (Canvas) onto a high-level TextBox or Form-and-TextField-or-CustomItem, unless you implement the text input yourself on Canvas, resulting on a larger application (the Gmail mobile Java ME client is only 112KB, not bad)… it is the traditional judgment call to make in an attempt to be as portable (by choosing Java ME/MIDP and the features to use) and small as possible while maximizing users/handsets reach. As a side-note, good news is that MIDP3 is going to address this and other things too…

Update: For completeness, let me add that I ran the Gmail J2ME client on a unlocked Nokia 6680…

ceo

Read about Google's latest mobile related efforts/offerings – see The rebirth of cool.

ceo