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.

Suddenly everything’s coming up widgets – September 1, 2006 Is an interesting introduction to the widgets and why this concept is successful:

…In the early days of the Internet, most companies would create a destination website, wait for users to show up, and then make money from the advertisements. Now they use widgets to reel users in.

A Gmail widget on someone’s desktop that shows “10 unread messages” will make that user click and go back to the Gmail website, where the ad-based cash register goes ka-ching! Microsoft (Charts), AOL (Charts), Yahoo (Charts), and even Nokia (Charts) are also offering widgets. …

And …:

…Of course, the main reason widgets are hot is that users love them. That’s because they help to make the Web user-programmable…

So it has something to do with advertising for now : display snipets of information …. to attract user more often to advertized content.

As for RSS feeds the “data” coming from the content provider is highly minimized and standardized, and IS PUSHED to the content consumer; then a local “application” or service is displaying it nicely according to the system on which it is running: the winning equation seems to be again a strong separation between the content and its representation (as everything around XML, PUSH mode instead of passive publication plus a good standardization and description around the content itself : it reminds me of the microformats concept (see this great microformat blog for more information) and the concept behind Ruby on Rail …

Looking for links for this post, I’ve found this interesting MVC introduction, worth a read if you don’t know it!

UPDATE: I’ve crossed this post just after this one: Open Gardens: The implications of ‘Data is the intelligence’ on mobile software development the data IS the value. (found from the excellent “Carnival of the Mobilists” of this week)