http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2008/01/so-how-is-the-i.html

Well done Tomi for following up on the model I was only thinking about it a couple of weeks ago and had checked  back to see if there was an update.

It is interesting to see that as he predicted they are struggling outside of the US - also I seem to think his model took the iPod Touch into account - I wonder how that might have affected sales.

He is predicting a solution to the texting problem perhaps with a texting keypad - I wonder if this will be real or virtual - a virtual one would be a neat a solution as they could continue to provide a single platform and provide the keypad to all the existing users also.

I also think that the SDK might mean that sales leap forward (depending on the details) and they still have the 3G model to pull out of the bag at some time this year.

I wonder when the iPod Touch will hit larger volumes than the iPhone - this must be possible as there are no geographical boundaries to the sale of the iPod Touch (as far as I know).

ShareThis

‘Transparent’ gadget could trump iPhone interface - tech - 11 October 2007 - New Scientist Tech

Although this is a very early stage prototype at the moment there is a nice video of the device too:

I guess this technology is 4-5 years away and they have a lot of things to get through I think that idea of navigation on the back of devices is going to become an active area of research because it means the front of the device can have a large screen.

ShareThis

Cheap handset ‘will bring free mobile internet calls to mass market’ | | Guardian Unlimited Business

It is hard to imagine how the device will work - but ‘free’ in this case means that you pay for the phone and an unlimited data tarrif.

I like the idea of a phone that is geared towards this  - but why only one phone? What will be special about the phone - I would guess nothing physical - but maybe Skype puts special demands on memory and processing power. I would imagine that this is going to be software that can be used on lots of 3 phones - but on one it will come pre-installed.

ShareThis

Read more at the Guardian: McDonald’s to offer free Wi-Fi in restaurants | Technology | The Guardian

I wonder if the recent Fon and BT tie up will also allow more places to offer free Wifi?

Interesting Times!

ShareThis

uhavepassed.com » Why mobile phone practice is more effective than alternatives

Mobile phones are a new media for educational resources, and one that is proving to be very effective for particular content and revision activities. The content must be suitable to mobile phone revision, but then mobile phones are more effective for a number of reasons:

* Easy access
* Private revision in public places
* Less distractions
* Alternative Media
* Micro revision sessions

1. Easy access

To start revising on a computer or other resource generally involves moving to where the computer is located, once moved to the correct location it takes time to start up and begin revision. This change of location creates a barrier that stops students from revising.

A mobile phone is never far, so starting revision is a couple of key presses to resume the software just where you left it.

This ease of access encourages students to revise multiple times a day, because they can revise in alternate locations, on the sofa, on the bus, in bed to name a few of the most popular!

2. Private revision in public places

Revising or studying in public is not something most students generally undertake - on a bus, whilst waiting for friends, etc. A major reason for this is that revision resources generally make it obvious what they are doing.

Tapping keys on mobile phone however in public is not unusual, and the privacy of the mobile phone means that you can send an SMS, play a game or be otherwise engaged without making it at all obvious.

3. Less distractions

Computers now provide many alternatives to doing revision, chatting on instant messenger, reading websites or interacting on the favourite social website.

Phones also have distractions (SMS messages and phone calls) but students tend to multi task these activities better when they are able to do mini revision sessions instead of interrupting large revision sessions.

4. Alternative medium

Revising on a mobile phone is not common and this novelty makes the task revision more appealing than sitting in front of a computer or reading a book etc.

The inclusion of games that re-enforce the concepts behind the driving theory test also helps students to engage in the content by providing alternate ways to revise the key concepts.

5. Micro revision sessions

The most prevalent method offered to prepare for the driving theory test involves sitting in-front of a computer and completing mock test after mock test. This approach is continued until they have answered all the questions and think they know all of the answers.

Doing these tests takes a lot of time and it can become an unappealing to sit in front of a computer and click through multiple choice tests. Once it becomes an unappealing task this often means students start “cramming” their revision into large sessions. During these large session students stop thinking about the concepts behind the questions and the process becomes one of matching questions to answers, not understanding the underlying concepts.

On the mobile phone the ease of access means it is easy to do mini sessions of revision - 2,5 or 10 questions in a spare minute or 5 minutes - which can result in much better analysis of the concepts behind the question.

Note: In order to make sure students are adequately prepared for the real test, uHavePassed provides computer based access to realistic timed mock tests as part of a normal subscription.

Find out more about using uHavePassed to practice for the driving theory test, or buy a subscription.

ShareThis

I’d like to quickly explain my conclusions from the article and then discuss what this might mean for mobile phones.

Starting with the mistakes when Lotus Symphony was being built, removing all the innovation to fit the constraints of the most accessible computing platform of the time. The Lotus approach was compared with the Microsoft approach that meant the software was bloated but innovative. The argument is that the smart guys learnt you either spend 6 months trimming your software to give it better performance or you just waited six months and found out that Moore’s law helped you get better performance.

History lesson over he then looks at the state of AJAX technology and web apps - and compares Google’s fast and lightweight approach with gmail, docs and spreadsheet etc with other new technologies. The vision he creates is that someone will come up with a newSDK which solves not only cross browser compatibility problem, but starts on the real holy grail of web apps and starts to make web apps inter-operable in the same way cut and paste did for the desktop. I like the vision and see how it could work, but I am not sure that perhaps this idea of inter-op may not just be more a technical dream than a consumer ideal - especially with the security concerns etc.

The lessons to be learned and the conclusions he comes to make a lot of sense, I wish he had spent more time analysing the candidates for the NewSDK though.

I guess Joel is talking about two types of competitors for Google - those that are creating platforms (Microsoft, Adobe) and those that are competing on applications (Zoho, Salesforce, Microsoft). Google I think has a good chance of making their work become de facto standards as they tend to embrace open source but also open up their own ideas. I think that Google Gears is a great example of this - and Zoho are now working with them on the project and using the technology in their software.

I understand the compromises between efficient feature low and bloated feature rich applications - and I think that Googe have got gMail spot on I have no idea what I needed Outlook for all those years. The docs package is different though - I have tried both Google Docs and Zoho and I think that the simple interface for Google means that I miss a lot of things from word - however I love Google’s simple approach to collaboration. Zoho is feature rich but is also harder to use as it is harder to work out where the limits are - but if my key need is to quickly put together a nice looking document - I use Word, if my need is to collaborate on a doc then I use Google Docs as it doesn’t confuse other users so much.

So if we say that Google have usability worked out and their approach is working well and keeping users (the Spreadsheet I think is fantastic) I guess we are left with inter-operability. Is inter-operability important to users? and how can security issues be handled?

The platform at the moment is Facebook for interop - you can access a lot of applications and share data using their API and this is clearly going to advance - but the goal that Joel mentions of being able to cut a picture from flickr into gmail is not going to be enable by facebook. This sort of goal is going to need a change is the browsers and who is looking at making platforms and the browser work differently - Micrtosoft, Adobe and Google Gears. Which of these approaches is Open, lightweight and not bloated? Google Gears.

So to learn the lessons that Joel has pointed out and use them in making my prediction for the future of Web apps the newSDK he talks about to me won’t be a single javascript library. I think Prototype and jQuery and Scriptalicious will all continue to develop in the ways and compliment each other. I think that Microsoft will have a big problem using previous techniques to bundle Silverlight into the OS which will take away their normal tactical advantage. Abode will need to make sure that AIR has lightweight access in addition to using full flash functionality and gets installed as part of Flash installs. Google gears will need to have proper infrastructure set-up perhaps even a more open name and path forward “Web Gears”?. One of these three will be the choice of developers and with a complimentary back end Facebook, OpenId or some other system will allow the Web 3.0 apps to be about collaboration and interoperability.

So what does this mean for mobile?

Well lessons learnt from Joel’s history lesson and lessons to be learnt from future predictions mean that I think that Apple’s approach to phone apps is going to become predominant. The browser will be king - but browser choice will have to come into play if innovation is going to move us forward. Mobile has to have off-line more than desktop, mobile apps must have access to device capabilities to truly create innovative apps. I think that the rumoured gPhone will contain something similar to Google Gears and will allow developers to use the back-end infrastructure of Google to enable their apps to interoperate - I hope this can all be made much more open though. I think Apple with adopt Google Gears into Safari and other manufacturers will be able to use it too. As the number of iPhone and facebook applications rise - so too will compatible browsers on other phones - either Opera or manufacturer ones. So the iPhone API will become quite a standard - and if it is widely enough used and complimentary enough the Google Gears one - I hope both of them are already looking for W3C approval.

So my predictions for Web 3.0 and Mobile 3.0 see them converging - Google Gears (or some other candidate) along with facebook (or next years equivalent or openId) will be key to both platforms and the iPhone API (or a cross platform javascript library) will be key to mobile interactions and Prototype (or another dominant javascript library) will become a key API for the Desktop.

ShareThis

The service allows you to take practice tests for the UK Driving Theory Test using the official question bank from the Driving Standards Agency.

We have had great challenges developing the synchronisation software that sits under this service as we have found limits in the amount of data different phones will allow to be uploaded and also had issues with different hosting companies and their support for Transfer-Encoding:Chunked.

We are there now and would like to invite people to try the software out for free on their phone before purchasing a subscription.

Even though we are out of our beta testing - all feedback is well received as we would like to make the service as friendly and easy to use as possible.

ShareThis

the interesting thing is that a small fraction of those who claimed problems could tell when the mast was switched on or off - but those who believed the  mast caused problems and thought it was switched on had a higher number of problems.

BBC NEWS | Health | Phone mast allergy ‘in the mind’

This makes me think of similar issues relating to WiFi in schools - I hope there is a similar study about this!!

ShareThis

The service is called uHavePassed and it allows users to take mock driving theory tests both on-line and on their mobile phones.

The J2ME client for the mobile phone uses a synchronisation platform we have written that allows questions, images for the questions and the results to be synchronised with the website.

In order to provide some alternative ways for students to prepare for the driving theory test we are also including some games within the J2ME client.

So if you know anyone who is going to take their UK driving theory test soon - then please pass them on to us and get them to sign up as a beta user.

ShareThis

It looks like there may be hope for Apple by trying to have the keyboard work more often in landscape mode - rather than just portrait - apparently this only works in the browser.

Lets see…..

ShareThis