Everything and the Mobile Software Universe…

MSX is releasing gaxoo : it seems to be an embedded graphical framework plus a server side part to manage subscribers: very interesting, I really would want to know what kind of technologies they are using.

From their press release:

The MSX Platform extends this ODP functionality to include complete
control of phone functionality as well as the ability to download
new phone applications (also known as widgets). These can vary
from RSS/Blog widgets through to photo sync, branded media
players, storefront and customized promotions.

The xPhone UI works on a variety of high-volume consumer phones
and employs advanced visual effects including alpha transparency,
gradients, anti-aliased vector graphics, fast dynamic scaling and
rotation, as well as 3D transitions.

Really good read over at : The Mobile Web Tablet : The Mobile OS of the future is…

The bulk of most services will be on a web server. Google Maps Mobile, Widsets, Opera Mini or Gmail are all good examples of extremly capable mobile applications supported by a strong web service. These are all java applications, but as web browsers in mobile phones grow more capable we will see XHTML or Flash Lite-based applications. Widgets, if you like that term.

The Mobile Web Tablet : The Mobile OS of the future is…

Yes and this is a point I’ve discussed already (Back to the future mainframe, centralized computing anyone?) where the clear split between local and server is fading away, but is it really applicable to mobile phones? Not sure for now due to the high latency of the current mobile IP networks, but things are only beginning to be sorted out in the PC world…Mobility is next, for sure.

Web Developments frameworks (like Adobe Flex, MS Silverlight) are already migrating little by little to the mobility space, especially through the crop of On Device Portals that are, more or less services delivery platforms, with a “rich client” on the device, running some kind of Ajax/flash/svg/xml/javascript (put your favorite widget/UI/web2.0 technology here) framework to deliver “content”, content being here the service.

Ray Ozzie recently presented MS silverlight, outlining the following interesting trend:

Ray Ozzie outlined two types of web apps – what he calls “Universal Web” apps, meaning ajax, html, browser based apps. Then he discussed “Experience First” apps – xbox, mobile, pc desktop apps. He pointed out that “the most sucessful solutions have an element each of universal web and experience first”.

Ray Ozzie Keynote at MIX, Las Vegas

So really this is about integrating and adapting:

• On one side the service itself: how to render it, implement it as best as possible.
• On the other side: the device on which it is used: the write once runs everywhere mantra is definitively dead, long live to adaptative or even adapted software!

I’ll quote again the same Mobile Web Tablet article:

The problem with todays phones is not about access to the native OS, but rather how the web or downloaded applications are second grade citizens within the phone GUI. This, however, will change.

Nokias recent move to integrate a widget platform in S60 is a sign of exactly what I’m talking about. Sony Ericssons multitasking java and standby midlets are some other and so is the Apple iPhone. Good and useful widgets are really just a small window to a much larger web service.

The Mobile Web Tablet : The Mobile OS of the future is…

I sort of agree with this comment: service integration is KEY, and while VERY difficult right now, next generation UI (iPhone, LG Prada, SonyEricsson Feature phones (not smartphones, UIQ is for me inferior to their mainstream but I digress), etc) perhaps won’t help cause when a graphical designer is involved to define the whole SUI, it is very very difficult to complement it with new services from the outer world without compromising the phone UI integrity: this is where the notion of “system”, as a collection of services and “Master of Ceremony” of those services interactions is coming to life (I’ll certainly comment much more on this notion on my blog later…).

On the other hand I’m not sure that access to natives phone hardware and services is enough today for mass market phones (this is after all on of the Open-Plug purpose ).

Something I’m not sure today is how those kind of service platforms will be implemented: after all mobile phones are still, and will be for a foreseeable future and for the biggest part of the market really low CPU, low RAM devices, so I’m not sure how to technically leverage this service approach on the mass market (see here for some data ..but my point of view has evolved since then ) , but I’m looking for

It seems that C. Enrique Ortiz is also digging , and found with Dojo an interesting property: working cleanly offline:

But Dojo off line touches on a very important and needed characteristic, a key feature that future mobile web browsers must support: “The ability to work disconnected”, or “Support for disconnected or off line browsing (cache), allowing the Mobile Web application operate as an occasionally connected application”

C. Enrique Ortiz Mobility Weblog

And you? any clue? vision on what this platform will be?

I’ve just come accross this remote control design:

Inspired by the easy navigation and use of a book, the book style remote control was created. It was designed to tackle the current problem we face with existing remote controls for the elderly, interface being complicated and several remote needed to operate various machines. Consisting of three pages on the book remote to identify which are DVD, TV and Audio. With these label attached, we eliminate any misunderstanding that may otherwise have occured.

Designer: Chen Hung Ming

I get good comments from June on this post about Ultra Low Cost phones, about issues related to text entry for her native Kenyan language (Swahili I assume) : she gave me some great material about the impact and development of the mobile phone uses in Kenya. To write this article I’ve then wandering about the net to get some information about the Kenyan way of cellphoning … surprising.

Mobile Subscriptions Skyrocket: Africa far outpaces the rest of the world in average annual growth of mobile phone subscriptions. According to the International Telecommunication Union, from 1999 through 2004 Africans signed up for cellphones at a far greater rate than Asians and nearly three times as fast as Americans. Most of that growth was in the sub-Saharan region [left].

IEEE Spectrum: Africa Calling

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s done, kind of officially : first this one

Palm pays $44m for Palm OS source code license

Everything and the Mobile Software Universe… » Palm pays $44m for Palm OS source code license | Reg Hardware

Then this:

PalmInfocenter reports that Opera and Palm have cinched a deal to deliver the Opera 9 browser on future Palm products
…The Blazer browser that Palm has used in most of their products for years is a customized version of NetFront that they license from ACCESS…

Software Everywhere » Palm distances itself further from ACCESS

To finish here is, I think very good news for palm

Palm Announces New Linux Based Mobile Platform Posted By: Ryan Kairer on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 6:24:15 AM Today at Palm Inc’s Analyst Day, Palm CEO Ed Colligan officially announced that Palm will deliver a new Linux and open source based mobile computing platform combined with Palm OS Garnet technology on new products later this year…Colligan also revealed that this was a new platform that Palm has been working on, in house for a number of years. He stated that Palm would not license this new OS to outside hardware companies, meaning this will be a Palm exclusive platform…Colligan said that “clearly we [Palm] have been working on a major new area that has been speculated about in the press and talked about by Jeff Hawkins. Hawkins previously dropped major hints that he would reveal more details for Palm fans at an upcoming conference in May.

Palm Announces New Linux Based Mobile Platform

Here are some Ed Colligan slides on the subject:

So to sum-up:

• Palm get the old PalmOS back in house for 44 Millions $, meaning they want to sell millions of phones using this OS (as it or as a Linux layer?)
• Palm licensed Opera, and not access browser for its future products (and not webkit??? why such a move?? perhaps for the opera widgets approach?)
• Palm was working on its own OS for YEARS! and so they will have again full control over their product! why iPhone looked sooo good? because software and hardware were so well integrated and in control…
• I can’t wait until May when this new class of devices will be revealed….so perhaps I won’t buy an MS smartphone

Here is a little Open-Plug video that shows only the “step 0″ of our technology, here are some remarks:

• This is a real-time one, so it may be long at moment…especially when loading a new system (this is the case after the red and blue UI).
• The first UI (the red and blue one) HAS NOTHING in common with the second gray and red one called OPUS, really, only the porting layer and our application framework are left on the board, and on the SD card you have all the components that are implementing the UI and its services.
• As you can see it is an NXP board (platform: 5210), we do exactly the same on other platforms also (TI locosto and Neptune for the publics ones )…and on all the platforms, the code is the same, developed on our PC simulator, and it is C/C++ not java of course!
• I say “step 0″ because this demo is basically showing a complete MMI replacement (the O-phone demo), but our offer is in fact completely dynamically modular, as shown briefly with the sudoku download
• Yes Doom is there up and running : intern has ported the SDL library …and so Doom was in the package, sweet to have Open-Source code on such a platform in a matter of days!
• You can see some background play features: MP3 is in the background you edit a message and an icoming call is poping up: applications and services doesn’t know each other, the multimedia player doesn’t know anything about the call, nor the messager. The sound of the MP3 is autmatically prehempted for the call, but not by an ad-hoc way like in many high level OSes, you can see it as a window manager for the sound. Our focus is really on integration and modularity:
  • For static code with our component based technology
  • For services integration with a really original and system wide resource management system.
• We like Placebo

So have a good show

Found at cnn via engadget but it seems that the last cord has been cut by the folks over at powercast:

Powercast’s platform uses nothing more complex than a radio–and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device’s battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

Powercast’s technology cuts the electric cord – April 1, 2007

Powercast has already “signed nondisclosure agreements to develop products with more than 100 companies (Philips, for instance), including major manufacturers of cellphones, MP3 players, automotive parts, temperature sensors, hearing aids, and medical implants.”

Powercast looking to bring wireless power to reality – Engadget

So yes this is it, I have just one concern, in our time of power saving and global warming, what would be the ratio of the received energy versus the dissipated one? Really I’m not sure if the yield of this technology is ecologically correct , and of course you will always forget to disconnect your RF chargers …. Anyway this is exciting!

I’ve missed this one:

Nokia has just unveiled a new dual-touchscreen concept phone, called “Achieve”, which allows users to quickly and easily share ideas. Video after the jump.

Members of an architectural firm work feverishly together to win a competitive new project. Virtual teamwork is made effortless through smart wireless conferencing and remote presentations. Bluetooth audio ensures strong and clear communication. When mobile technology ascends to this level, we will achieve great things together

TechEBlog » (Video) Nokia Unveils Dual-Touchscreen Concept Phone

Always fun to see this kind of UI concepts…

If anyone doubted Texas Instruments’ sincerity in taking the mobile projection world by storm, now would probably be a good time to start boiling some crow. Making good on its wishes to cram DLP into even the most minuscule of locations, the company will be demonstrating its newfangled DLP pico-projector to select media groups…

TI showcases diminutive DLP pico-projector – Engadget Mobile

Check Texas Instrument DLP web site for more information about the technology.

So here we go: this little baby is named or branded OMAP also (I desperately wait for an OMAP car, kitchen sink or coffee machine). Anyway the concept seems great to share your latest desperate housewives show with your subway buddies .

Stop kidding, here are some data (in French from Clubic):

Doté de trois lasers, et nécessitant pour l’instant une alimentation externe, le micro-projecteur présenté par Texas-Instruments, qui rappelons-le est à l’état de prototype, affiche une image de la taille d’une feuille de papier A4 en 640×240. Pour l’heure, Texas Instruments n’a annoncé aucune date de disponibilité pour ce nouveau dispositif qui promet d’équiper de futurs téléphones portables.

Téléphone mobile projecteur par Texas Instruments

Short translation :

• 3lasers,
• external power supply,
• prototype onlmy
• resolution : 640*240, for a projection the size of a A4 paper sheet.

So yes, it will perhaps come one day, and may offer good virtual screens, so matching movies on the plane, or showing of some PPT, demos, etc, or playing games may really have a “fun” and productivity boost.

Even if you will always need a hardware screen on your phone for your “phones” activities, or “on the move” ones.

Wait and see, btu THIS IS innovation….

As seen on TrustedReviews:

Today the company announced it has signed licensing and ODM (Original Developer Manufacturer) agreements with bargain basement favourite Sagem. The deal will cover the development of entry level GSM, GPRS and EDGE mobile phones. As part of the deal, Sagem Communication will license certain hardware and software technologies to Sony Erickson and provide Sony Erickson with a number of Sony Erickson branded mobile phones.

trusted reviews – Salem To Make Entry Level Sony Erickson Handsets

So first it was Erickson, a big Swedish glory … and here comes the first unpredictable wedding: The raising samurai Sony  is now associated to the viking champion.

But now Sagem, once rumored to be bought by Motorola and expanding to China (or…migrating to China?) with its Bird Ningbo Joint Venture will do the SE entry phones! (so the Moto buyout rumors were, well just  rumors). Competitors one day may become partner the same day.

Anyway It is really good news for Sagem, with its talented team to have this design win! But really nothing can surprise me now, everyone can work/buy/trash anyone else, some may be willing to stop in-house production and design of low cost phones (like SE) or other to focus on it, like Moto.

This is consolidation area, difficult to really predict anything by now