The Skyfire mobile browser is now available in public beta. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should; the browser is pretty neat, is fast, and works great. Currently, the Skyfire browser is only supported in the US on Windows Mobile (5 or 6) and Symbian platforms (Nokia N or E series 3rd edition).
See the Skyfire Open Beta registration page.
ceo
(Disclaimer: I help Skyfire with their product development)
If you work on mobile web technologies and/or applications, or are just interested on learning about them, you should consider attending Mobile Web Strategies 2008 event (September 9th 2008, San Francisco).
The are lots of interesting topics being discussed, including Who is using the Mobile Web and why, the strengths and weaknesses of the mobile web, to who and what will drive the next generation of mobile web applications and business models.
The event, organized by my good friend Ajit Jaokar (Futuretext), looks solid with expert speakers from all the mobile industry… (I was originally scheduled to attend and speak on the topic of mobility and analytics, but unfortunately I can’t make it).
Who Should Attend?
Carriers – Software Developers – Online Retailers – Media Outlets – Search Engines – Web Developers – Content Providers – Service Providers – Internet Marketers – Information Providers – Entertainment Companies – Investment & Commercial Banking – Venture Capitalist – Educational – Game Developers – Advertising Agencies – Consultants – Government Agencies – Brand Managers – Directories – Location Based Services – Billing and Payment Companies – Internet Security Providers – Analysts
A very interesting event that you should consider attending…
ceo
The MobileWidget Camp Austin planning is under way.
It is going to be a very cool event. We are having unstructured and structured sessions, labs, and a contest at the end of the day for the best Widget. We are having food and drinks all day. We are having speakers come in and present on the topic, and unstructured sessions are for anyone to present per BarCamp style. This event is kind of a (free) mini-conference and will be great for anyone interested in this topic. Stop by Austin on your way to CTIA.
So what is next?
First, mark your calendar — September 7th.
Second, we continue looking for sponsors and speakers; the sponsors are signing up, with W3C, the OMTP, and others already sponsoring.
If you would like to present or sponsor, please shoot me an email to enrique [dot] ortiz [at] gmail com.
See the MobileWidget Camp Austin web site for more information. The event is free, but only planned for 150 people;and please register at the MobileWidgetBarCampAustin event’s page.
ceo
Aug 5 ‘08 Update: Name changed from BarCamp to Camp, as the event has structured sessions.
Mowser lives; pretty awesome.
Just read that dotMobi has acquired Mowser, and that Mike and Russ will join dotMobi… From dotMobi Loves Mowser (dotMobi):
At long last we can announce some great news! dotMobi is acquiring the well-known Mowser service that provides content adaptation services for mobile.
We’re very excited about this. Russell Beattie and Mike Rowehl are both very talented mobile gurus and they’ll be joining the dotMobi team to help us do cool things with their technology. We did this deal because Mowser fits really well into lots of our current projects.
Good to see this, good move by James… A win-win situation.
Congratulations to all…
Related to this see:
ceo
Thomas Landspurg (CTO of Webwag) wrote in his blog about a tutorial they published on developing mobile widgets for the Webwag platform using XML and JavaScript:
The tutorial describes how to create a translator widget, using a web service and some Ajax techniques. And we’ve just opened the Developers corner on the forum, so support will be given to all our developers.
See Mobile Widgets: a comprehensible tutorial.
ceo
That’s too bad. Russell Beattie and Mike Rowehl, the two guys behind Mowser, truly understand mobility and mobile web, had the right idea on content adaptation, executed well on the technical side, but failed to execute on the business side. Actually I don’t think they failed on the business side; they just weren’t able to give Mowser sufficient time to succeed.
And in the process, Russ claims that the Mobile Web is dead. And with it goes a similar debacle when Michael Mace wrote Mobile Applications RIP.
And both are wrong. Both contradict themselves. Or should I say, it is all relative; so both are right, and wrong. Which means who cares because we are all right and wrong at the same time. It all depends how you slice the pie.
But Mobile Apps are not RIP, and Mobile Web is not dying. On the contrary, we have more mobile platforms, more advanced browsers, standardization is taking place, overall usage is growing, and the mobile web is growing.
But things move slow in the mobility industry, and not fast enough for Mowser unfortunately.
And good content adaption is needed, even for high-end handsets. Mobile web will never be the same as browsing on the PC/desktop — not because it is a different kind of web, but because it is a different delivery platform, and a different usage pattern.
Yes, mobile web on lower-end phones isn’t great, which is why I keep talking about local applications are better than mobile web when it comes to user experience. And yes, the number of folks with data plans (U.S.) is low today, but again, it is growing.
Running a startup is not an easy thing to do. It is not only about technology, but also about the business model. I understand their frustrations, and it takes a lot of patience to be in the mobile space; it is a shame to see them quit at this point. I wish the Mowser folks would just adapt their business model, and find the right person to run the business side, and press on.
In the meantime, the folks at Mowser are taking bids for their product.
Related to this see:
ceo
I’m glad to see Luca Passani et al. Rules for Ethical Reformatting: A Developer Manifesto.
These rules (or guidelines) on ethical reformatting for mobile we are a must, and I hope that everyone shows their support for it now, and through their evolution.
Those nasty techniques such as USER AGENT spoofing, header changing, and unwanted content adaptation are the worst thing that has happened to the mobile web since its inception. These techniques are idiotic, have a negative effect on innovation and progress, are simply wrong, and drives me nuts…
“This situation is a threat to the neutrality of the web and one that can jeopardize the mobile web as a platform in the years to come.”
The above sentence is a truism. Proxy vendors, and network carriers, listen up! Don’t block progress, don’t restrict proper adoption.
I, C. Enrique Ortiz, supports the Rules for Ethical Reformatting.
Thanks to Luca for leading this.
Related to this see How Web to Mobile Transcoding Should Work (Wap Review)
ceo
[Via Wap Review]
From Mike Rowehl’s blog:
“(A list or directory of Mobile Portals) is something that was mentioned at Mobile 2.0 a few times as well: there should be a mobile portal of the same form as the early Yahoo directory when it was still pages of links.”
Mike has published an initial list of mobile portals; see Mobile Portals at Mike’s blog…
ceo
I think Mowser rocks. It is simple, seems to use the right approach to context adaptation, and man, it’s fast — just check the Mowser version of Techmeme Top 100.
I am not sure though about the business model that Russell is going after; Russ wrote:
Mowser is focused on a very simple goal: Help small to medium sized publishers go mobile with a self-serve content adaption service. The business model is equally as simple: As publishers use Mowser, they include a link back to the home page which advertises the service to other publishers, and attracts mobile users via direct clicks and search engines. The Mowser home page can then be monetized as a portal for mobile content via advertising, sales, etc.
The problem is the ‘etc’ part and, of course, the rest of the details. But the core of the service and offering is solid, I think.
The monetization must occur right there, when the page is rendered — people won’t go back to the main Mowser portal; but I could be wrong. Or monetization must occur via services or up-sales available to registered publishers. Or maybe is by monetizing a specific part of the workflow (beyond adaptation). Or an SDK? Probably not. Or support for AJAX or a Java ME version! (I’m joking). Dunno, I haven’t sat down to really think about this, but I’m sure Russ has been going through many combinations and permutations.
In any case, I totally believe that Russ has a nugget here with Mowser, and that he eventually will figure out the right model… the model will continue to evolve; that is all fine. One day the light bulb will go off and he will say “but of course!”. Keep it up Russ…
ceo
Following the recent discussions on The iPhone, One Web, Content Transformation, Multi-touch, and fingers and Transcoding is a hot topic these days in the mobile community, here (at eZee) we are going through the pains related to this topic of mobile web and adaptation. Michael Yuan has been writing a series on JSF and mobile web applications based our experiences, as we build our platform:
Stay tuned to this interesting series on JSF and mobile web applications.
ceo
Today I read on multiple weblogs (Mike Rowehl, Barbara Ballard, David Harper), about Luca Passani’s rant on Vodafone’s mishandling of the User-Agent HTTP header.
I am writing about this, to show my support. I’m not going to regurgitate Luca’s point here, and you should go read how Vodafone UK is abusing its position. I totally support Luca on this.
Providing a better mobile web user experience is about properly identifying the web client (typically via the User-Agent header), with the goal of properly serving content to the connecting device (based on its features/characteristics). This is central to mobile web today.
Vodafone knows better… don’t break the User-Agent!
ceo
Cameron’s book on mobile web design is now available for download (PDF) at his http://mobilewebbook.com website.
I got the opportunity to review the book beforehand, and I enjoyed reading it. It is a design (high-level), well written, fun to read book, that provides Cameron’s insights and general strategies on mobile web design, while also providing good information about complementary mobile technologies.
Topics include:
I recommend this book.
Congratulations Cameron!
ceo
From the announcement:
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the OpenAjax Alliance are co-sponsoring a Workshop on Mobile Ajax, to take place on 28 September 2007 (the Friday following the AjaxWorld West 2007 conference in Santa Clara) at the Microsoft campus in Mountain View (following an OpenAjax Alliance face-to-face meeting to take place at the same location on September 27).
Important Dates
15 August 2007 — Submission deadline for positions papers
05 September 2007 — Final Workshop program available
18 September 2007 — Registration deadline
28 September 2007 — Workshop takes place
ceo
The W3C has released the XHTML Basic 1.1 as a Candidate Recommendation.
With it, Dominique has published a useful cheat sheet — the XHTML Basic 1.1 Elements and Attributes reference.
From the XHTML Basic 1.1 spec:
This revision, 1.1, supercedes version 1.0. In this new revision,
several new features have been incorporated into the language in order to better serve the small-device community that is this language’s major user:
- XHTML Forms
- Intrinsic Events
- The value attribute for the <li> element
- The target attribute
- The <style> element
- The style attribute
- XHTML Presentation module
- The inputmode attribute
ceo
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
"Great individuals invent their own values and create the very terms under which they excel." -Kierkegaard and Nietzsche