cellSuite

Send me a video message

2009-02-16T22:33:00.000+09:00

Here is a free, easy and open-to-anyone video messaging service called replybutton.com which I use all the time to stay in touch with my folks back home while I am out here in Japan. I love getting goofy videos from my bro who is totally comfortable with the whole online-lifestyle, I also get the occasional message from my mum which is really special.

cellsuite has moved to cellsuite.jp

2005-08-20T11:13:00.000+09:00

Yes its true we have a new home now at http://cellsuite.jp

e-learning on your mobile phone

2005-08-14T17:29:00.000+09:00

I have always been intrigued by the potential for e-learning on the mobile phone, it just seems to be a perfect medium for taking bite-sized lessons when you have nothing better to do, and I can easily see the day when salary men are swatting up for their MBA whilst taking the train to work or students are cramming for their physics finals on the bus to school.

Well that day is getting closer now, for the Japanese anyhow, as AU have launched a new service on their ezweb portal for delivering lessons directly to the mobile phone.

The service is called 'manabi' and so far has four lesson packs available which mainly focus on learning English which is a national passtime of the Japanese at the moment.

The packs contain short lessons and quizes to test your knowledge and feature a fair splattering of colorful characters and cuteness.

With a monthly revenue stream for subscriptions this may prove to be a lucrative gap in the market. Watch this space for more details.

Japan vodafone concept mobile phones

2005-08-12T16:17:00.000+09:00

If you want to see some very nice concept phones that are on the cards from Vodafone then you need to see this nice flash driven site.

http://www.vodafone.jp/designfile/

It is a classy site and the phones look great, my personal favorite is the 'wallet', which I think blends the normally hard, high-tech mobile phone into an elegant style accessory.

The flash is a bit hard to navigate but is definitely worth a look.

Hint: If the music annoys you then do switch it off on the first screen before launching the flash.

Easy to use mobile phone RSS reader - FREE and SIMPLE

2005-08-07T17:04:00.000+09:00

Today I am launching the first draft of my mobile RSS reader service: pixs.jp, and I would be grateful for any feedback you might have if you try using it.

I have been interested in a simple way of implementing a mobile internet site with contemporary content and have found that the easiest way to do this is by formatting the vast amount of RSS feeds availably into a format readable by mobile phones. It is a simple idea but so far I haven't found a site doing it in quite the same way as me.

This project started out as a way for me to get the western content that I like reading onto my mobile phone here in Japan. There are plenty of mobile sites here but few that cater for the English reading market so I decided to make my own. Since I made the service, me and my friends have found it extremely useful so I have decided to publicise it with a mind to making it into a bigger system.

The service is free and will remain free. If one day I can find a way to spin money off the top of it then I might do that, however, the content will never be affected as a result so I hope people will find it a useful day to day tool.

If you have any feeds you would like to see on the directory then please submit them, I will vet them of course as I don't want anything unsavoury appearing on my site, not that I am suggesting that you, my dear readers, would do something like that, but hey, there are plenty of weirdos out there.

And if you have any suggestions or find any bugs, or if the system doesn't work on your handset then please leave me a comment on this site. I will find it which ever post you choose to make the comment on so please don't be shy, it will help to grow this into a useful service for everyone.

So what are you waiting for? Point your phone to this address : http://www.pixs.jp

If the beta is successful I will put up a .com and .co.uk mirror to speed up the accesses for you guys outside of Japan.

Thanks for your support.

Marcus.

HDML is dead long live HDML

2005-08-05T00:15:00.000+09:00

I have decided that HDML is more trouble than it is worth, so I will not bother with supporting it with the newest system I am working on.

I'm basing this wide-sweeping judgment on the fact that HDML was introduced to solve the problem of low-bandwidth broadcasting of web content by pushing a few worth of text in one request. Now that the networks are progressing and the bandwidth is increasing I think the problem will disappear and people are not going to bother writing pages in this archaic format.

The problem with it, to be frank, is that it is a complete pig and complains too much when you get the syntax wrong. Other than that I really do not want to keep remembering how to create an anchor tag needing 'labels' and 'targets' so I have decided to dis-own the language.

General Mobile phone news

2005-08-02T20:47:00.000+09:00

OK I am feeling a bit lazy today so I am going to just point you in the direction of a really interesting article on Wired.com that talks about the future of mobile phone usage in the west.

I am not sure I agree with the comments about the expansion of the 'video on phone' market just yet, the feeling I have been getting is that the quality and content of most pilot schemes have failed to attract any serious usage.

Give it a few more years and I am sure the mini-break video clip will become popular.

Then again, that's just my opinion.

W31CA My dream mobile phone from Japan

2005-07-29T17:39:00.000+09:00

OK its rare that I feel the need to comment on how great a product is as I am a bit of a critic and a cynic, so this blog entry is coming as quite a shock to me. You see I have just found out more about the W31CA from Casio which is just out on the AU network here in Japan.

The phone just seems to pack it all in: it has a 3.2MPixel camera, funky swivel screen, full internet browser and best of all it can view Word, Excel and PDF files from a PC.

I am definitely going to get my hands on one of these soon and give it a whirl.

Here is a nice picture of the phone

Live earth cell phone application

2005-07-28T19:48:00.000+09:00

About a month and a half ago I went to a small exhibition and seminar called 'mobile land' here in Tokyo as the company I am currently doing work for had a stand and were doing a presentation there.

On the train going there I got chatting ( doing my best in my broken Japanese ) to a guy who used to program apps on the cell phones over here. He showed me the application he had built last and I was quite impressed, it featured a cool dynamic animated globe with calendar and date functions and the animation ran really well on the something-I-can't-remember-exactly-901iC phone.

It wasn't until about 10 minutes ago when I was cruising the internet that I saw the application again. It is the main attraction in the 'live earth' project, a new global environmental awareness drive by AU ( a popular network in Japan ).

Here is the google-translated link to the projects home page

The charitable initiative donates a portion of the money generated by the subscription charges to the service. It is so easy to subscribe to services using your phone and now that they have something worthwhile to download, the spinning earth thing is pretty darn cool, I am sure they will get loads of hits.

This is the first, real charitable drive I have seen aimed solely at the cell phone user I wonder if it will be a success.

D901is Mobile Phone News from Japan

2005-07-27T23:02:00.000+09:00

The D901is has a nice gimmick with its retractable keypad, though when I was using it I couldn't help but feel that it would break really easily after a few months of use.

This is a common complaint of mine with the phones on the market in Japan, they seem 'plasticy' and not very well constructed. It might be a personal thing but I like my phones to feel tough.

The slider mechanism is activated by a button and it is pretty cool, that is if you can press the button in one smooth move when pulling the phone from your pocket. You will have to practice this a lot because of the stupid position of the button. Its just not placed where you fingers would naturally land when gripping the phone.

The screen has a nice sharp display and the phone is generally good, however, the buttons are all on the small side ( maybe its because of my large - foreigners fingers ) and the navigation could do with a bit more thought.

Once again I stole this from the old news section of this blog and moved it to here.

Cell phone tracking ..

2005-07-26T21:29:00.000+09:00

Here's one for anyone who likes conspiracy theories or is a bit paranoid.. Imagine your cellphone tracking your every action, it can tell when you are asleep ( if you set your phone alarm like me when you go to bed ), it can tell who you called, who's call you dodged and with the GPS services, where you went.

So who gets access to all this information?

Well if the carriers collect it then the government for one will definitely want it and how valuable would this type of information to be to marketers?

It would be priceless.

I stole the basis of this story from wired.

F901iS Mobile phone review from Japan

2005-07-26T21:04:00.000+09:00

Seeing that I have turned off the 'news' section of this site I thought this article would be best off moved here..

This phone is well built with a solid feel, quite a chunky case and a little stubby aerial.

The screen seems a little small but has a nice sharp definition.

The GUI has a nice modern retro feel for the navigation and features a theme set as the interior of a stylish apartment, quite original.

The controls seems quite slow to respond, however, the finger print reader was really cool.

You set the finger print by sliding your finger down the reader slowly three times in a row. The phone maintains a digital image of your finger print which you can use instead of a keypad number for locking various functions. I was having a great time freaking out my co-workers by totally locking the phone up and going for coffee. It was all good until the third trial when I swiped my finger to unlock the phone and it couldn't read my print. I got into a mild panic after about 3 minutes of trying until it eventually let me in. Its a fun feature and has masses of 'cool' factor but might be a bit overkill for a mobile phone. Perhaps, if DoCoMo get their way and we all use phones as wallets this feature will be a necessity.

Mobile phone content vs Internet content

2005-07-23T06:15:00.000+09:00

What I have found during my time in Japan, which I admit does have slightly differing phone usage culture patterns to the west, is that there is a distinct difference between the way mobile content and PC based content are used. This is something important to consider because, as you are aware Japan is a market leader in terms of number of accesses to content-based services on the mobile phone ( thanks to DoCoMo's i-mode ) and so might be taken as indicative as to how the market will progress in the west.

When delivering to the mobile phone content has to be trimmed down not only in terms of images and other decorative paraphernalia but also in terms of the length and depth of sentences used to convey its messages. Mobile sites are used, in the whole, for short term, quick-fix surfing whilst on the go, the other main usages are for downloading multimedia content to the phone ( mp3, ring tones and wallpapers ) and access to 'utility sites' such as timetables and directory services. Again the length and depth of these types of content has to be cut down from the normal output to a browser for the site to be a success on the mobile phone.

This is due to the natural, physical limitation imposed by the size of the screen, the keypad and the by the mobile, 'access from anywhere, anytime' usage philosophy of phone browsing - you do not want to be wading through reams of text when you are only on-line for two minutes whilst waiting for a train.

Other considerations such as image sizes, and by this I mean file size in KB, and pixel resolution of images have to be considered as well. It is no good providing the same rich content that you would display on your website for the current generation of phones available. Images still take time to download, time which mobile users are not prepared to wait for, and large, high resolution graphics, especially when containing text, become hard to read when rendered on the small screen.

My point is this : There is a definate need for seperate content for PC and Mobile sites and people should start considering these requirements when planning their mobile campaigns.

Latest mobile phone in japan SH901is

2005-07-21T19:36:00.000+09:00

I had a play with the SH901 today and decided I don't want to maintain two areas on this blog so I will write about it here.

To tell the truth I was really disappointed when I got my hands on this phone, the colour we received was surprisingly disgusting and the phone actually looks quite old fashioned and badly styled.

The navigation feels like an old Atari system, the text, graphics and choice of colours really do seem like something out of an old 80's arcade game. Maybe this is to some peoples taste but after trying to work my way around the phone I got pretty sick of it.

The phone, like all the latest handsets I've been seeing is really big and chunky, it definitely takes up a lot of space in your pocket.

The one redeeming feature about this spanking new handset from Sharp??

That would be the camera. Excellent quality and features all round.

geo location meets RSS on the mobile phone

2005-07-20T23:12:00.000+09:00

Here's a cool idea, you combine RSS datafeeds with GPS position tags and create a location based browsing experience.

Not too dissimilar from recent ponderings about geo-tagged photos this idea comes with a twist.

Think about how RSS feeds when viewed in your reader give you streams of information from different sources all ordered by time and date, now imagine a portable reader with streams of information sorted by location. It would be so cool, you leave your mobile phone switched on and tuned into the application as you walk around town. You check it occasionally to see what people have posted from or about where you currently are.

The information could be mindless junk from surfers with too many gadgets or it could be corporate messages commanding your attention to a sale at a nearby store, the possibilities are huge.

Japanese Mobile Phone Culture

2005-07-19T23:12:00.000+09:00

Today I saw a prime example of the proliferation of the mobile phone into Japanese society.

I was riding the Metro home after work, finishing tonight at 9pm, which is early for me, and as I was being packed into an already overcrowded carriage I saw something that made me want to laugh.

Sitting down in front of me, looking as stern as anything, was a businessman who must have been in his fifties. He had his briefcase up on his lap and was holding his umbrella like a cane and in his hands was his mobile phone, this guy obviously meant business.

The intense look on his face couldn't give it away but the reflection in the mirror did.

He was deeply engrossed, trying to jump his way to safety, in a game of SuperMarioLand.

I'm sure there is no-where else in the world where you would see such a site. I only wish I had the guts and audacity to have taken a photograph of him to post here. Unfortunately I am too polite - I guess that comes from living in Japan too long.

Peer-to-peer geo location

2005-07-18T13:10:00.000+09:00

Digging a bit further into this idea I was pointed in the direction of an article on engadget discussing a similar application available from Nokia which connects people over Bluetooth.

The users can setup a home page with some descriptive text and a photo and then let their phone poll other users, displaying their home pages. When the user finds someone interesting they can then send them a message.

The Bluetooth connectivity is limited to a radius of about 30m so it is really only good for localized usage.

Nokia are marketing this as a fun system for clubbing and dating but with the right application of the technology perhaps this could be the first steps towards the all-pervasive system I am envisaging.

Thought for the day +

2005-07-17T19:03:00.000+09:00

I was just reading and interesting article from this blog about an SMS promotion run by Virgin in the UK. It was an interesting concept were people at a festival were sent a word via SMS and had to find someone else at the festival who had received the same word. If two people managed to find each other they could present themselves to Virgin and win a flight each.

Sounds like a great application of social networking through the mobile phone, I'm now wondering how this could fit in with real peer-to-peer connectivity. I guess the simple answer would be to provide a similar challenge but on a much larger scale you would be able to win a substantial prize if you found another user, online with the same word or code as you and managed to meet up with that person.

By keeping you online and keeping you looking to find the other user this promotion would be a great way to launch a peer-to-peer networking service or give coverage to other advertising.

Thought for the day

2005-07-17T17:59:00.000+09:00

It seems that there is a growing trend in the corporate world to get into peer-to-peer technology. Take 'Skype' for example, created by the founders of the file sharing program 'Kazaa', this software allows you to make long distance phone calls over the internet for next to no cost.

How do you apply the peer-to-peer mentality to mobile phone applications ? I've been thinking about this and am getting quite excited by the possibilities of peer-to-peer apps on phones. If you merge in Geo-position information then and you could create a useful service that alerts people when someone interesting is in their vicinity.

By creating a profile, users would be able to advertise who they are to the world and receive alerts when someone else who matches their search criteria is in the nearby area. This could lead to interesting networking opportunities for salesmen for instance, or for people who share obscure interests. On a more practical level you could advertise that you are looking for a builder to patch up your roof - the service would alert you when someone with the right qualifications passes you.

The idea of online-directories for finding services is not new, but take it to the next level with real-time, real-world integration and you have the beginnings of a datamap which you can overlay on your everyday life.

AU launch Felica..

2005-07-14T22:28:00.000+09:00

Sony Ericsson are to release two new models on the AU network that will use 'Felica' technology - the mobile phone wallet payment system.
The new phones - W32H and and W32S will be the first phones on the AU network and the first phones outside of the DoCoMo network to implement the payment system.

One thing worth noting is that DoCoMo has trademarked the Japanese term for 'Mobile phone wallet' but is now allowing AU to use the same phrase in their promotions. This points to a collaborative effort by the carriers in Japan to bring the Felica technology out to the mainstream user.

901is series

2005-07-14T19:18:00.000+09:00

I recieved a parcel today with a whole heap of Felica test phones and was delighted to see the new 901is series in there, I will test drive them all so please check the 'news' section to see how they fare.

Is i-mode dead?

2005-07-07T23:42:00.000+09:00

Today one of my collegues showed off a new i-appli that he had found. For anyone who isn't familiar with the Japanese i-mode network, an i-appli is basically a java appi specifically created for DoCoMo phones.

Anyway, this new i-appli that has got everyone in the office excited is a really good 'full browser' called 'scope' that lets you view real websites through your mobile phone. He showed me it in action and I must say I was impressed. With the 3G FOMA network the images and page content loaded up fast and looked sharp on the small screeen.

This has got me thinking about what this means for services like i-mode ?

Could it be that the in the future content for mobile sites will be no different from real sites? Will i-mode and WAP content become redundant?

Bite-sized content

2005-07-02T14:02:00.000+09:00

Have you ever tried to surf the web from your cellphone? Chances are, if you have, you were probably disappointed by the experience.

At the moment a lot of carriers are still only providing access to a portal of partner sites for their subscribers. The largest and most successful data service, NTT DoCoMo, provides a 'walled-garden' portal of content but also allows access to the regular internet. The problem is that most regular sites are not designed for mobile access and are only suitable for the larger screens of PCs, and those that are specifically made for mobile phones are hard to find.

Google is trying to break into the mobile market by offering a mobile version of their search engine that also translates the PC version of a site into a cut-down version for viewing on your handset. The feedback I have been reading so far has been mixed, I personally have not been that impressed by what I have been able to find so far, the translated pages I have been reading just don't 'gell' together well. Having said that I do think this is an excellent idea and with projects like the W3C's Mobile Web Initiative trying to standardise content so that it is readable by mobile devices as well as PCs we will soon be able to read normal content on the mobile phone.

As the carriers increase the capacity and speeds of their networks and as more sites adopt common web standards the next question we have to ask is, will the content of the 'full sized' internet be relevant to the mobile user?

The mobile user tends to surf for information when they are out and about and when they are waiting for something, the most common time for the Japanese and Koreans to surf on their mobile is in the train on the way to and from work. The user is usually looking for quick hits of information or entertainment and the successful sites know this and make it quick and easy to find. The user does not want to be sifting through countless layers of menus, have to click and load too many pages or have to type in or read lots of text. Granted the user will have to click through some links or type something in to find the content they are looking for but good design will mean they can get to the content with the least amount of clicks. The sites that do this are the ones that get bookmarked and being bookmarked from a mobile should be a much coveted thing as the memory space dictates ( for now at least ) that only the best sites get saved.

Getting your site featured on one of the main carriers home portals is the best way you can attract customers to your content but this is a highly competitive area and the service requirements placed on your organisation will block most small companies from access. This leads me to think that there is still space for new, high quality portals in the market and novel ways to link through to content. Maybe some form of context-based click-through portal would be good, where the dynamic links take you to information you have already expressed an interest in, either through previous searches or through filters you set when registering.

The typical user on the train looking for something to distract him or her from the journey is looking for 'bite-sized' packets of information, they do not want lengthy discourse on a topic - they carry books for that. So it is vital to tailor your mobile content for this audience.

Content has become more diluted with each phase of its delivery from the first printing presses through television and the internet information has become more widespread and more specialised. From a time when the only book you could read ( if you could afford it ) was the bible through to a time where you could look up the different sub-cultures of algae found in ponds, if you really wanted to.

With the new mobile media still in its infancy some argue that this model will continue, the internet as we know it will remain but with a new method of access, others argue that a totally new model will be needed one that caters for a new audience of short term users.

I personally think that both points of view are valid. The mobile internet will give the specialists even easier access to their topics of interest and at the same time a new style of site will evolve to fulfill the masses who will surf for short term distraction.

However, my money is with the short term users because of the simple fact that the small screen and keyboard really isn't suited for serious use. I have tried to work using my phone, I have also tried to publish to this blog using my phone and the experience in both cases has been painful.

SNAP Soccer

2005-06-29T21:43:00.000+09:00

SNAP Soccer is the working title for a new Java game being released by Nokia and SmallBall.com. The game allows players to create and train teams and compete against other players. The most interesting thing about the new game is that users can train up a single player and then play that player in an online team. The idea is that users will spend time to train up their player with specific skillsets and gain experience playing in the online tournaments.

Music downloads

2005-06-26T23:23:00.000+09:00

Nokia and Apple have been talking about creating a new ipod-mobile phone hybrid project to enable 'download anywhere' music services maybe they should look to the East to see what has been quietly taking Japan by storm.

The product is called 'Chuku Uta' which is a Sony format that allows full songs to be downloaded and played on mobile phones.

With maximum speeds of 2.5Mbps being reached over the 3G network and with fixed packet rates keeping the costs down the service is starting to take off - KDDI announced their 10 millionth download on June 15th.

The company launched the new service on the 19th December 2004 and currently have 37,000 songs on offer. The format allows for full digital rights management so that files cannot be copied and shared providing strict royalties protection for the artists. These restrictions on sharing don't seem to have put the public off so far and the benefits of the service is that it allows them to get access to music quickly and cheaply.

The real question is, does anybody really want to pay to listen to J-Pop?