Posts from Mobile

People are mobile. Our solutions are too.

August 22

Development for Mobile Devices Part Deux

IDC has reported that it believes 1.3 billion (that’s about 1/5 of the world’s population) will be connected to the internet via mobile phone by the end of this year. With that much thin-client capability and connectivity, it’s hard to ignore the mobile browser as a very viable means of putting mobile applications in the hands of the consumer.

Developing for mobile browser however is a tricky business since the choice of browsers running on mobile devices is much greater than in the desktop world. The good news is that thin client development allows many organizations to reuse most, if not all, of the backend of their applications. Getting the apps to the device is also a lot easier. It’s the user interface portion of the application that needs to be addressed to support the mobile browser thin client.

Most of the mobile devices come with the built in browser however more and more devices allow you to download third party browser.

Here is the list of built-in default browsers:

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July 18

Code Blue! Cellphone!

Thursday evenings, it’s Gray’s Anatomy. Our living room suddenly converts into a breathless waiting room, inhabitants imbibing each nuance of dialogue with rapt attention. Will the patient miraculously recover and whisk Katherine Heigl away (if so, o Lord, let me get sick in Seattle), or croak at the very end of the episode?

Unlike the drama at the Seattle Grace hospital, the prognosis for the cellphone is certain, and it’s not good. As phones get smarter, data plans become cheaper, and consumer experience improves, the demise of the cellphone grows ever closer. People will still have phones, absolutely and always, but phones will have morphed into something else entirely.

Instead of a tool designed to support voice communications, it will become a digital jackknife – a device that does everything you want portable electronic devices to do. Not only take pictures, and voice, and text, but a storage center for files that can access the internet. Or act as your GPS unit complete with driving directions. Or act like a credit/debit card. Basically, the sky is the limit so long as people want new and better toys, and the way we use these devices will fundamentally change.

While Apple’s debacle last week was a bit of a pooch, the release of the app store is going to be gasoline on the fire of phone OS development. With a huge array of applications at the user’s disposal, the iPhone will be used less and less for talking, and more and more for other things. The iPhone is a platform, not a product, and it’s direction is oriented more towards compting than yapping.

This change will extend to other phones and applications, as well. Google is working on the Android platform, along with a host of other investments into the mobile computing space, to force the carrier’s grip off of network content. The software available to users, and the things that the systems will perform will mirror the functionality of our current laptops, not cellphones.

It’s truly exciting to watch the changes sweeping the mobile space. Almost as exciting as watching Katherine Heigl and the patient, but hey, I have yet to see a cellphone in scrubs.

oops, commercial’s over. bbl.

July 2

Recap - Mobile Mondays - Browsers: Driving the Web, or Driven by the Web?

We’ve all heard the news: Apple’s 3G iPhone (to be released next week) will again alter the mobile landscape with its low(er) price, rich features, robust platform, and powerful network. The iPhone is the most visible (and the most consumer-friendly) sign of change in the mobile landscape, but industry-wide, there are many interesting initiatives and advances are taking place. This past Monday, Mobile Monday Boston brought together a panel of mobile web thought leaders to discuss these changes, as well as the hidden challenges and opportunities for mobile content and technology developers.

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June 20

Haptic. It’s more than just a 25 cent word.

I love words; as a guy who specializes in how people interact with technology, a big part of understanding these interactions is framed by the vocabularies that articulate what we’re doing, or how we’d do it. And it’s really fascinating to watch how words evolve to describe our reality, especially as the rate of change accelerates how our culture adapts, and what we’re doing. Some words are new, and become used in interesting colloquial ways as technologies are adopted and integrated with society. For example, it seems highly unlikely that people in the mid-1700s were saying that they focused on churning butter with a laser like intensity. Other words are old, but get dusted off as technology picks them up and finds new applications for them.

The word ‘Haptic’ is a great example of this. From the Greek haptesthai, meaning ‘to touch,’ it made it’s debut circa 1890 describing the psychology of the sense of touch. Over time, it has come to include all things touch related. And now, as mobile technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, it is starting to be used as a new marketing term to describe phones that respond not only visually and aurally, but with some kind of touch response as well.

For example, I get in trouble with my girlfriend. Because I’m in low-to-mid trouble, I can get out of it by being kind of cute. So I might MMS her a little heart icon, and as the heart beats, the phone vibrates. Now, she’s probably not thinking “awwww, he sent me a little haptic message that alerts my sense of touch!’, she is hopefully thinking ‘awww he’s thinking about me and this is cute!’ (Disclaimer: I don’t actually know if haptic MMSing will get a guy out of trouble, and don’t plan to test. Don’t take unnecessary risks and rely on technology to get out of them) Another example would be a blackberry vibrating as it rings. Not terribly sophisticated, and not terribly sexy, but you get the idea.

It’s not the behavior of the iPhone; while multitouch is a revolutionary feature, the user still poking an inert screen with no response. But what the iPhone has done is raise the awareness with the consumer of a truly portable touch screen, and raise the bar for Apple’s competitors. These two forces will combine to accelerate development of truly haptic interfaces. Many iPhone users lament the fact that their phone is tough to use, and would prefer a more sophisticated typing experience. It’s certainly an area where competitors can hope to compete with the incredible design of the device, through creating an interface that actually reacts to the user pressing on the keyboard.

Enter Nokia. After more than 10 years of development, they have introduced a prototype device that makes touching a screen feel like clicking a keyboard. The N770 internet tablet provides the user with a true sensory experience, complete with downward movement, resistance, clicking, and an upward movement. It makes typing feel “incredibly responsive” and simplifies the task greatly. Apparently, they will ship the technology with the S60 touchphone, as well, and are working on haptic interactions for scrolling and painting applications.

When these applications reach the US market, and as the technology cascades down in cost and up in availability, terms like “haptic” will worm their way more and more into common usage. As the technology moves from the realm of research, to phone geeks, to mainstream, the word haptic will become more and more commonly used. While I don’t think it will capture the public imagination like the acronym LASER did in the past, it will become a feature that people expect, and marketing touts, until it’s taken for granted as a feature set on future devices. And hopefully, by that time, there will be a reliable technology that gets guys out of trouble – sort of the electronic equivalent of roses and chocolate. Lord knows I’m waiting for that one.

June 6

m-payments takes another step towards reality in the US

Otis, my dog, has learned to wait at the top of the stairs when we leave the house for a walk.  This is because Otis is a smart dog, and he knows that I’ve likely forgotten one of The Critical Three - cellphone, wallet, and keys, and will have to rush up the stairs, grumbling, to get whatever it is that’s sitting on the kitchen table.

But it seems like we’re getting closer to the day when I will only have to worry about the cellphone and the keys - mPayment, or the ability to use a mobile phone like a swipeable credit card, is taking strides towards reality.  Already in use in Japan and Korea, this technology allows the consumer to go into a store, grab their items off the shelf, and pay for them by waving their phone at the cash register.  Like many other mobile initiatives, this work is hampered here by a lack of standards, multiple carriers and device manufacturers angling for dominance in a rapidly changing market, and a relative lack of awareness on the part of US consumers.

However, there have been a few noteworthy changes in the past few months.   The Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) announced on June 5th that they will be working to explore different technology models used to support mobile payments, and make recommendations on approaches to facilitate interoperable mobile payments in the future.  25 industry players, including large banks,  wireless carriers, and technology providers, are collaborating to research the baseline by which this important technology might become a reality in the not too distant future.  In April, Sprint and PayPal inked a deal to enable person to person mobile payments.   MyMoneyManager enables Sprint customers with PayPal to transfer funds to other users.   When the transaction is completed, they get a voicemail or text message alert.    Phone manufacturer Motorola invested in Vivotech late last year.  Vivotech makes units which can interact with cellphones in a number of places, includingstores, movie theaters, taxis, and vending machines.

The financial vertical, overall, is seen to be a great place for mobile to flex it’s muscles and show consumers how useful the third screen will be.   It’s an exciting time, and hopefully, as the system matures and evolves, will be widely adopted and provide our clients with a great opportunity to reach out and provide value to, our customers.  And best of all, Otis will only have to wait at the top of the stairs for The Critical Two - the wallet can stay safely on the kitchen table while the keys and the phone come with me.

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