Archive for Devices
by Darla Mack
June 28, 2008 at 9:35 pm · Filed under Devices, iPhone, ATT, Apple
According to Engadget, if you purchased your 2G iPhone after May you can trade it in for the new 3G model. How nice of AT&T and Apple.
So if I bought an original iPhone, I can trade it in for an iPhone 3G?
Yes, but only if you bought it AFTER May 27th, 2008. Anyone who bought theirs before that has to live with their purchase — not that anyone can stop you from showing up to your local Apple store and raising a ruckus.
Engadget also confirmed my suspicions on the dissappearance of the current iPhone plan. Rumors speculated that the plan would be discontinued, which didn’t make sense to me, but I’m happy to know that it’s being kept.
by Imran Ali
June 23, 2008 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Devices, User Interface, Research, Crowdsensing
Earlier this year we covered the emerging field of crowdsensing - the ability to aggregate sensor readings from networks of mobile devices.
Last week, CNET highlighted research underway at Georgetown University that’s exploring the use of mobile devices to track the glocose levels of diabetes patients…a more personal form of mobile sensors that may have some ‘crowd’ applications but are very much about individual users…
- RFID-enabled skin patches sense glucose levels.
- The patch sends glucose data to a nearby mobile handset.
- The handset can do any number of things - submit data to a healthcare tracking service, emergency services and first responders or use the data to direct a dispensation device to administer insulin.
The process and the technology are still in teh early stages of development, but have exciting implications for healthcare, further underlying the emerging role of cellphones as mobile sensing platforms.
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In a bizarre inverse of the Georgetown project, a recently published design concept for a digital tattoo display also uses blood - this time to power a fuel cell that runs a display surface implanted under the skin of the user! The display, could potentially be used in concert with mobile technologies and as the author points out, it would be ‘waterproof and powered by pizza’!
A food shortage coupled with a profilerating mobile market, potentially powered by said food? Oops!
by Ewan Spence
June 16, 2008 at 6:15 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, Carriers, Communication, emergency services, Android, Civic
want to look into the future of disasters - the so called ‘big ones,’ because while mobile phones are useful in ‘personal emergencies,’ it’s going to be in the large scale disasters that your smartphone could make the difference. At least, with some forward planning.
To a certain extent, mobile phones are already “emergency aware.” By that I don’t mean they’re constantly on the lookout for danger, like some sort of Finnish Knight Rider, but that they have systems in place that become useful in an emergency. The primary one for me, is that no matter what model of phone, even if the key-lock is on, then the emergency number (be it 911, 112, or 911) should still work - there’s no need to try to work out what the key-lock release is. They won’t even care what network they can find; you’re not network locked for an emergency call - if the signal can get through, through it goes.
The problem as I see it, is the reliance of the mobile phone on one thing. The network. Because in a major disaster (let’s pick the “it’s going to happen at some point” earthquake on the San Andreas fault as an example), there’s going to be a lack of power, and a lot of infrastructure damage. Do you think that the network cell towers are going to be around to carry the mobile signals from the handset?
Yet a mobile handset is both a receiver and a transmitter - and there are going to be times when that’s all you have in the disaster area. Traditionally, mobile phones are going to be useless (beyond the ability to take some pretty gruesome pictures). which is a shame, because communication is vital in these situations. If phones could literally piggyback on each other, chaining calls together like some demented Arpanet of mobile voice calls, then these little computers suddenly become a lot more useful in our scenario.
With the inclusion of Wi-Fi on many models perhaps that medium, rather than the GSM frequencies will act as the common carrier - although the range is far more limited than the radio circuitry for cellular calls.
I doubt we’d ever see anything like this on a regular mass market phone, but if Google Android takes off, and you get a bundle of handsets with re-write able firmware, I wouldn’t be surprised if (a) we see a Mesh Network using a mix of cellular and wifi hotspots spring up, and (b) it won’t really be noticed outside geek circles until something horribly big in the Bay Area. So if you start hearing of a strange underground phone network early next year, with no contract, no ties, but not quite 99.99% reliability, you know what’s happening.
by Tarek Abu-Esber
June 9, 2008 at 9:56 pm · Filed under Devices, Apple, UK, iPhone 3G
Today we witnessed the announcement of the Jesus-phone 2.0 - the Apple iPhone 3G. So pencil in July 11th as the date of the second coming of the iPhone, only this time with 3G (HSDPA baby), GPS (assisted) and a sexier body.
Darla and Ewan have already covered the American numbers between them and Imran has covered the lust-factor, but what does the iPhone 3G mean to UK users?
First and foremost the new iPhone will be Free from O2 on an 18 month contract. This finally brings the iPhone in line with every other Smartphone on the market in the UK and is no doubt down to Apples re-vamped revenue model for the iPhone. You know, the one that’s replacing the “revolutionary” revenue share model that AT&T and so few other networks agreed to?
Current O2 customers aren’t left out and can pay £100 for the privilege of upgrading to the iPhone 3G. When you compare that to the price point that the iPhone started at in 2007, we’ve come a long way.
As O2 haven’t released details of the subscription packages that will be available for the new iPhone in the UK it isn’t clear if we’ll see large rises in the cost of data packages and call bundles like we’ve seen in the US. Assuming they’re the same as the current iPhone packaged, then it looks like Apple may have hit a home-run when it comes to the price point of the iPhone in the UK.
However price isn’t everything and the UK market is, in some ways, more tech-conscious than the USA. Apple have done the obvious and added 3G and GPS to the device, two major flaws in the original design but they seem to have ignored far more basic improvements like MMS, video recording, instant messaging and an improved camera. My money says those features are as important, if not more so, than 3G and GPS to an average user in the UK.
But perhaps I’ve been too optimistic here. As soon as I heard the $199 price point my immediate reaction was “They’re going for the mass market.” but I don’t think that’s true just yet. The iPhone 3G has been updated specifically to take full advantage of the high-end Smartphone market with its top-end features and software updates aimed at the enterprise market. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that is Apple being short-sighted or a stroke of genius.
by Ewan Spence
June 2, 2008 at 9:13 am · Filed under Devices, Apple, Nokia, Design, Development
Don’t you just love it when you have to companies start moving in completely opposite directions? Especially when those two companies are rather important in the smartphone and messaging space, and they end up in the same place?
I’m talking about Nokia and Apple, which definitely aren’t N/A to the mobile space. Last week Nokia invited me to attend their S60 Summit, which was an opportunity for the Finnish company to talk about their future plans and thoughts on the space – and there was a lot of focus on their move into the widget space. Using their ‘web runtime,’ a framework devised fro the webkit root of their mobile browser, they are making development of web 2.0 enabling widgets as simple as putting together a page of html, some javascript, and a touch of CSS for the layout. This doesn’t leave behind the Symbian C++ or J2ME programmers, but opens up a huge number of new developers.
Time to change the names.
The SDK for Apple’s iPhone, along with the ability to use the iTunes store to distribute and sell native C++ applications that run on the phone is due to make a big impact this summer. People are itching to get access to the device, the extra onboard features, and to run “outside the browser.” Previously developers only had access to iPhone users by web based widgets, that ran on basic html, with a touch of javascript and CSS, in the browser. (Jailbreaking doesn’t count, just as running iPhone widgets on an N95 didn’t count either, m’kay).
The true balance point isn’t at the extremes of ‘all widgets’ pr ‘all native code,’ but somewhere in-between. The manufacturers have come around to that thinking, and are now going to be able to be compared on a like for like basis; both by developers looking at coding environments, and end-users looking at the respective software catalogues. Now the hardware on each side is pretty much defined for the next eighteen months beyond incremental steps (such as stepping up to 3G), the true battle of the hearts and minds is going to be in software.
Gentlemen, start your dev-kits!
by Ewan Spence
February 5, 2008 at 10:28 am · Filed under Devices, On Blogs and Blogging, 2008, Photomessaging
Before I go on, you really should head over to Kathryn and Daniel’s Flickr set that inspired this post.
Anyway, this Flickr set has sparked a question in my head – the set itself was the traditional unboxing that any Apple fan does on getting a new product, except in this case it was an old (yet unopened) Apple IIc. The comments are a stream of memories, questions and observations that reminded me of a group of Archaeologists looking over some fossils. One comment to illustrate the fun, from Brad Graham… I double-dog dare you to tote that thing up to a Genius Bar, put on your innocent face and say, “Something went wonky with my Leopard install. Can you have a look?”
So here’s what sparked. How many text messages did you get yesterday? Last week? Last month? How about multimedia messages? Quick snaps that were never mailed to Flickr? My guess is they’ve been deleted from your phone, never to be seen again. In the digital age, we were promised, everything would be available, we’ll never have to worry about finding anything every again.
Turns out that the d in digital is more like disposable. How much information have you trashed out of your mobile phone in the recent past? We spend hours and hours each month (well, I do) trying to archive our deskbound emails, but with more and more SMS and MMS messages, more pictures, and now more and more video. How much of that are you saving?
Yes there are partner applications to capture this data on your PC (Nokia’s Lifeblog for one), and store it for you, but these are few and far between – and really only aiming at the higher end phones at the moment. Even if you have a compatible phone, how many are using this feature? And then archiving the results somewhere safe? Or are we trusting Yahoo’s Flickr and Google’s Picasa to treasure our memories?
Yes, there are benefits to digital – if Kennedy was to be assassinated today the number of smartphone videos, camera shots and digital witnesses would surely make any Warren 2.0 Commission’s job much easier – but if you go into the archives of analogue photography then you have lots of negatives and factual ‘colour’ around the Pullitzer Shot. Nowadays these would be deleted in the field. Or they send back only the cropped resized version to the news desk.
How much are we loosing from our heritage every day?
by Ewan Spence
January 7, 2008 at 2:06 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, Apple, 2008
What’s going to happen in 2008 is going to be this… every smartphone manufacturer is going to proclaim that they have the fastest selling smartphone of it’s class in history. We might even see certain manufacturers shouting about the fastest adoption, the greatest rise in market share… blah… blah… blah…
Yes I can confidently predict that the marketing of smartphones and highly spec’ed out feature phones (here’s looking at you, Apple) will cloud over the reality of the situation just enough to cast their brand or device as the next coming. And you know what? I’m going to be pleased to see that.
After all, if we’re in a marketplace awash with marketing data, where companies are sniping over every customer, over every feature list bullet point, over store signage, that can mean only one thing… The idea of a smartphone is embedded in the public consciousness. While PR and marketing are going to be spending more and more money on their device, the first big hurdle will already have been overcome. In much the same way as you don’t see advertising on why you need a games console at home, you just see advertising on why you need this specific games console, the rubicon has been crossed.
Smartphones will be mainstream.
All that remains is for the market to decide which smartphone is the one. And that’s where it’s going to be handed over to the marketing department, that’s when it’s going to get interesting, that’s when it’s time to look at the small prints in the advertising.
So my first mobile messaging prediction? 2008 - the year that smartphone advertising gets vicious.
by Ewan Spence
January 3, 2008 at 11:08 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, Platforms, iPhone, Instant Messaging, Wifi, CES
With CES starting this Sunday, the rumour mill is already firing up, but the one of interest to me looks to be a racing certainty after Sony announced on their CES site that they would be bringing Skype to the Sony Playstation Portable device.
Call friends, talk trash to fellow gamers, or catch up with acquaintances via Skype for PSP System.
That’s right – a games console, with roughly 30 million or so units in circulation, will all of a sudden be switched on, via over the air firmware upgrades, to become VOIP telephones. That’s a masterstroke (and one that Nokia are tying to mimic in reverse, by switching on the N-Gage gaming features in millions of Nseries devices).
I’ve always been amazed at just how multi-media the Sony PSP games console is. Using Wi-fi and the built in web browser, it lets me read my email whenever I’m in Wi-Fi range. The built in podcasting application will stream audio or video, or save it to the memory stick for alter viewing 9something that the iPods still can’t do without iTunes support). You can watch full movies on the go, stack up your mp3’s take family pictures, and a recent addition of internet streaming radio, while still a little unwieldy, provides yet another way to get messages into the device.
Now Sony are starting to publicly explore how they’re getting messages out of the device, there’s going to be a lot of people wondering why such a machine is still marketed as solely a gaming console.
All that’s missing is some sort of instant messaging application and we have a 2.0 comms device already here. And funnily enough, that’s exactly what Sony’ partnership with BT in the UK will provide; the Go!Messenger was promised for January 2008 and should be here soon.
by Imran Ali
December 27, 2007 at 4:28 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, Studies + Research, On Blogs and Blogging, Ethnography, Communication, Convergence, Email
In the last couple of weeks, the various contributors to Mobile Messaging 2.0 have been holding an open debate on what the definition of a mobile message should be; with some insightful and thought provoking contributions from Debi, Darla, Ewan, Paul and Russell…almost the entire team!
From my own perspective as a user, cognitively, I don’t think I’ve ever made distinctions between mobile messaging or ‘fixed’ messaging. In fact the means of transmission is pretty much meaningless to me, with a focus on where I am, what I’m doing, what I’m talking about and with whom I’m communicating.
Every day I expect 100-150 incoming emails, around a 1000 blogposts at Bloglines, maybe 50-75 Twitters, an average of 5 voice calls, 5-10 Facebook messages and the odd notification from a blog comment, Facebook event, YouTube, Upcoming, Last.fm or eBay. Every now and again, I might even receive an MMS!
They’re all just messages - some land in my mailbox, others in various web application inboxes, some on my mobile phone. I might see a Facebook notification email arrive in my N95’s inbox and reply using the mobile web UI for Facebook. I may receive a direct Twitter on my phone as an SMS and reply using Twitterific on my Mac. Sometimes I wander around the house firing off replies from an iPod touch.
Conversations and communications start in one application, end in another and meander through various fixed and mobile networks…it’s all communication, driven by context and situation.
Perhaps there’s a meta-question we need to address collectively. Rather than exploring definition of mobile messaging, we perhaps need to understand why this definition is important. Are we more interested in the mobile portions of a conversation’s journey or in the multi-modal nature of that conversation?
I would argue that the latter question is perhaps more significant, simply because this is an area in which the industry lacks knowledge. Classifying messages by network or device is relatively easy to comprehend, but doesn’t reflect the reality of usage most of us now experience.
We can perhaps learn much more about the design and usage of communication by delving deep into the motivations we have when switching contexts between services, devices, location, time and relationship…
by Imran Ali
December 26, 2007 at 2:04 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, Studies + Research, Usage + Usability, Events + Conferences, iPhone, Twitter, Video Conferencing, Openmoko, Communication, Voice, Research
With the sad cancellation of O’Reilly’s Emerging Telephony conferences, it seemed that the unique melting pot of traditional telcos, cellcos and bleeding-edge disruptive innovators, hackers and entrepreneurs would dissipate.
Thanks to the efforts of one of the former ETel advisory board members, Lee Dryburgh, the unique conversation between these communities will move beyond telephony into ‘communication’ in all its forms - social media, telephony, ethnographics and - of course - mobility.
Lee is hosting the inaugural Emerging Communications 2008, conference next Spring in Mountain View at the Computer History Museum. The conference wil also be accompanied by an unconference day, providing a mix of traditional conferences with the energy of a parallel BarCamp-style event.
Though the lineup isn’t finalised yet, there are some interesting speakers lined up already, including sessions on Building Twitter from Blaine Cook, Emerging & Usage Patterns from Intel’s Dawn Nafus, OpenMoko’s Michael Shiloh and thought leaders such as Norman Lewis and Sheldon Renan.
One of the underlying implicit themes from the current programme of speakers seems to be the potential in the intersection of telephony and social networks - issues which speak to the future of mobile messaging, a topic covered by MM2.0 contributors just recently.
Though not focussed exclusively on the mobile industry, eComm 2008 promises to surface some interesting directions for messaging and communication. As such it’s a community that we need to watch closely, listening for the weak signals that’ll give clues as to what happens next in the industry…
{ Disclosure: I’m a member of the voluntary eComm 2008 advisory board. }
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