On The Margins

Monday February 04, 2008

[ Media ] Rotating Videos in the World of Images

Tonight, I discovered that the m.youtube.com works extremely well with Sony-Ericsson P1i. The quality and rendition far exceeded my expectations. Some P1i users have complained on the internet that m.youtube.com does not work well with their P1i even when using WiFi but it worked fine for me when the device connected with my WLAN at home, which runs on a 6-year-old NetGear MR314 wireless router.  In fact, I was able to watch the m.youtube.com mobile version of the video to the left, which could not be rotated, at least not trivially, either by youtube, by my camera or by my home iMac. However, it could still be viewed on the P1i in the correct direction—just turn the mobile device 90 degrees! I should note that it appears m.youtube.com encodes and streams the video using 3gp and  RTSP. Either the P1i does much better at rendering the 3gp format with its Media Viewer or it has a much better RTSP stack than the RealPlayer (on my iMac). The image quality is much sharper and jitter almost non-existent with with Media Viewer on the P1i! In fact, the image quality on the RealPlayer on iMac pales by comparison. Who would have guessed? Finally, and again as can be seen in the embedded video here, I shot it with a simple mobile camera (DSC W-30), but in the "wrong" direction. It is so much easier to rotate a mobile device that it is to rotate a desktop screen!

2008-02-04 00:21:18.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
cameras devices media mobile networks phone technology video

Tuesday October 23, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] Not Always Calling

From a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, it seems like text messaging has finally matured in the U.S.:

2007-10-23 23:13:13.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
mobile phones services

Sunday October 21, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] To Another Handset

I'm moving from my Sidekick II, which I've thoroughly enjoyed using in the last 3 years or so, to a Sony Ericsson P1i. I've already recorded the first few steps towards the move elsewhere. (By the way, P1i covers some amazing Java ground.)

2007-10-21 20:55:25.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
devices mobile

Sunday October 07, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] From Sony P1i

Blogging from a Sony-Ericsson P1i @ the Sony Style Shop.

2007-10-07 11:52:54.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
java mobile

Wednesday September 19, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] Wirless Broadband Planning

"Wireless Broadband Planning" is actually the name of a joint venture focused on obtaining WiMax licenses in Japan.

Essentially, WiMax extends WiFi technology over longer distances and larger throughputs. For a summary introduction to the technology, see here. WiMax Forum, the relevant standardization body, has grown in the number of participants as the base technology emerges and participants start thinking about actual applications. (For example, this August, Vodafone joined the forum.)

2007-09-19 15:58:06.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
mobile network technology telecommunications web wifi wimax wireless

Thursday September 06, 2007

[ Technology ] iPhone and the Midas Touch

Some say that the problem with the iPhone was its high introductory price or its play in a dangerous and crowded market infused with break-neck innovation. Others may have conjectured that its UI choice (the HMI of a touchscreen) relied on a dumbing down of that most sensitive of all senses—the touch. (To be fair, the screen actions remain superb.) The iPod, in its original models, remembered this sensitivity.

2007-09-06 09:17:48.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
communications interfaces mobile perception touch

Tuesday August 28, 2007

[ Technology ] A Database for Nomadic Users

Listen to Roger Brinkley interview Rick Hillegas about Java DB.

Java DB (Sun's distribution of Apache Derby) continues to prosper.

The potential for deployment in mobile devices and nomadic applications can be tremendous, while its ease of use and deployment continue to make it attractive in client-server modes.

2007-08-28 09:13:57.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
databases derby java java-db mobile open-source sun-microsystems

Friday August 17, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] Mobile Social Networks

Elsewhere, I point to a report on mobile social networks.

2007-08-17 10:43:48.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
mobile networks social telecommunications

Friday April 27, 2007

[ Technology ] Wireless and Privacy

April 26 edition of The Economist carries a 14-page insert on the evolving wireless revolution, focusing on wireless sensors and gadgets, their military and civilian applications. Presumably, connecting things without wires will bring greater communications and deployment efficiencies and versatility.

As machines talk to other machines, they may uncover facts and relationships that are not apparent to people. That may enable factories to “learn” and find ways to become more efficient. What happens on the factory floor will make its way, in a different form, to office buildings and homes. The next step is for wireless technology to enter human beings themselves.

In an earlier blog entry, I wrote of an intelligent scaffoldings that a super mobile-and-wired network mesh can create infused with self-connecting wireless devices and drawing on a service-rich network infrastructure.

Some concers about this type of technology linger. Here's Economist's rendition of one of these concerns. 

A greater concern in the long term is privacy. Today's laws often assume that privacy is guaranteed by a pact between consumer and company, or citizen and state. In a world where many networks interconnect on the fly and information is widely shared, that will not work. At a minimum, wireless networks should let users know when they are being monitored.

Yes, privacy matters when a lot of in-formation is available about certain individuals while similar information about others is fully hidden. (In a real village, everyone knows similar things about everyone else, and any privacy stops at one's door, if there.)

When it comes to sensors, the question is how privacy-valuable is the information regarding a person's body temperature, place in the world and the acceleration by which they are moving. (Yes, this data can be used maliciously but I'm certainly willing to carry a SunSpot if that makes someone happy.)

This type of argument does not get into the heart of the matter. For example, this type of information can hardly reveal how willing I might be to go visit a friend, watch a particular movie or stay put. This type of information may, on the other hand,  give some useful clues to my doctors, for example, if I suffer from some malignant disease or if I'm a rare, endangered species of tiger. (Yes, all tigers are endangered these days.)

So, I think the privacy issue may be a bit exaggerated, and I think we have to be aware that in-formation about someone does not necessarily mean any real knowledge about that person.

2007-04-27 19:59:16.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
communications mobile privacy wireless

Wednesday April 11, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] Mobile Media and RSS Readers

Mobile RSS readers and aggregators seem to have come of age. For example, take a look at the list here. Many modern phones, like this one, carry browsers capable of loading RSS feeds.

On the other hand, many sources of news media are beginning to use a similar naming convention for their mobile editions:

mobile.reuters.com
mobile.washingtonpost.com
mobile.iht.com

These are no-nonsense text editions that are easy to load and read. Using this de facto naming convention seems like a good idea and a tradition that should probably spread and continue.

2007-04-11 22:17:04.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
media mobile news readers rss

Sunday April 08, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] A Mobile Java News Reader for Financial Times

Try it out, starting here and comment below how you like it. Leiki, the company behind it, works out of Helsinki.

2007-04-08 23:50:54.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
java mobile news reader

Thursday January 18, 2007

[ Business ] Mobile Ads

A recent Wall Street Journal article by Amol Sharma features AdMob's system for placing ads on content directed to mobile users. (Subscription may be required to view this article.)

AdMob connects content providers and advertisers. Since advertisers cannot negotiate with individual operators or content providers for ad placements, AdMob has a market position well-suited for growth.

Under AdMob's system, as with Google's on the Internet, advertisers pay only when a user clicks on the link. Advertisers go to AdMob's Web site, fill out a form, and make a bid for a click in one of several categories, such as news, entertainment or communities. The bids for a click generally range from five cents to a dollar.

Surveys show that reception to mobile ads remains mixed even when some benefits accompany an expressed willingness to view the ads. Consumer studies completed in August of 2006 show that some 51% of mobile users do not want to receive any ads at all even if they can get free applications for their mobile devices.

2007-01-18 00:06:24.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
ads business mobile

Wednesday January 17, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] SMS Record in Iran

Tonight's JJTVN reported that celebratory SMS notes sent for Eid Ghadir Khumm on January 7 resulted in the biggest SMS revenue day ever for the Iranian mobile telecommunications industry.

2007-01-17 22:13:35.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
iran khumm mobile sms telecommunications

Tuesday January 16, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] Rich Presence

Years ago, at OMA we were looking at presence services. Now, a series of crude and ad-hoc solutions are taking form to enable rich presence. Solutions that enable contextual information create pathways to scaffolded intelligence as some AI experts have coined the trend. In an interview with IHT, a social information scientist describes the other side of the coin:
 

"I worry that people attribute too deep a meaning to raw information," said Danah Boyd, who researches social media at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

"An increased flow of information should not be confused with a deeper bond."

Boyd stressed that this also applied to other social media that gather large amounts of personal information, like blogs or digital photo accounts.

"The situation these technologies create is similar to what happens with Angelina Jolie or another celebrity," Boyd said. "Just because I know a lot about a person does not mean they will help me on a tough day."

An added risk for the location-announcing services is that people might find themselves unable to break away from following friends or old lovers, Boyd added.

"The problem is that people really, really love stalking," Boyd said. "When you have just ended a relationship, it is not necessarily healthy to follow the exact location of your ex- lover minute-by-minute on your phone."

2007-01-16 23:15:36.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
mobile presence services

[ Technology ] iPhone and History

John Markoff, technology writer for IHT, reviews the business history behind iPhone and what might lie ahead. Markoff draws parallels between the challenges the early Mac faced with those iPhone might face now. He identifies expandability as one of those challenges. (I should note that Steve Jobs gives his defense of iPhone in the interview fragments accompanies in Markoff's article, one well-worth reading in full.)

2007-01-16 13:07:23.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
computers history mobile phones

Tuesday January 09, 2007

[ Technology ] Electronic Apple

Is Apple's move to consumer electronics complete? Has it now learned to leverage a single successful product to create and dominate a whole market segment? There are already those planning the purchase of the newest i<something>: iPhone. The fans are on the move.

2007-01-09 17:32:45.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
apple consumers electronics mobile phones products

Thursday January 04, 2007

[ Technology ] Novels on the Small Screen

Not only films and haiku but novels are made and consumed on the cell phone. In a recent competition sponsored by NTT DoCoMo and D2 Communications, "most of the 2,400 entries were romance novels written by women in their teens and early 20s, other popular genres included horror, sci-fi and fantasy." However, The Outstanding Achievement Award "went to a man pushing 40 who told an apocalyptic tale of the last 24 hours on Earth," writes Lisa Katayama for Wired.

2007-01-04 14:41:03.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
books mobile phones services technology telecommunications

Tuesday January 02, 2007

[ Telecommunications ] phoneME Project Moves On

Developing and maintaining software targeted to hundreds of millions if not billions of devices can become a daunting task, and learning to use the tools of trade can be equally challenging.

Fortunately, when tinkering and development is in the open, knowledge--or should I say "know-how"--flourishes.

Developers learn from each other's work, and users can suggest (and make) useful changes. There is something akin to case law here. Unless cases are written and analyzed in a hierarchy of courts by communities of lawyers and judges, other cases cannot be judged and analyzed on the foundation of existing case experience.

Example: Java ME went open source recently under the guise of phoneME Project. Subversion commit messages can be found here. Discussion forums for phoneME Feature and phoneME Advanced can provide useful information. Some good weblogs to check for phoneME and Java ME are those by Hinkmond Wong, Stuart Marks, Terrence Barr, Mark Lam and Darryl Mocek. 

2007-01-02 19:01:16.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
java mobile

Monday January 01, 2007

[ Technology ] The Film and the Cell Phone

New tools have potential to produce new art forms.

Try reviewing some of the short films from the Pocket Film Festival. (BBC had a preview of the festival, and a later commentary can be found here.) 

Daniel Terdiman of Wired had written about cell phone films much earlier, and more recently, Boston University students are making short films using mobile phones provided by Amp'd. (Amp'd, a mobile communications operator, focuses on serving young subscribers.)

We probably have to wait a bit more to discover the best genre and quality characteristics of these films. For example, will the films have the same dimensions as usual dramatic work: premise, character, conflict and resolution? (Some of the shorts form the Pocket Film Festival seem to give a positive answer to this question.) What stories will these films be best suited to tell? Who will be the primary audience? For what purpose and how will the viewers watch these films?

2007-01-01 15:22:40.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
art film france mobile video

Friday November 10, 2006

[ Work ] Give Me Sun Ray

Good, timeless ideas keep reincarnating in better ways. 

We talk a lot about mobility and about devices. I have been mobile--moving around quite a lot recently among various Sun campuses and spaces in the San Francisco Bay Area, roaming through offices and conference rooms.

I now have a new office in Sun's Menlo Park campus and what I want more than the laptop that may be on its way (my laptop had a hardware failure some time ago), is a Sun Ray, even in my office. With a Sun Ray, my session is always there, and a card-key away, and because I do not have to carry anything but my cell phone and my corporate card-key, it makes me even more mobile--every pound counts. (The wear and tear on Sun Ray keyborads tell me I'm not alone.)

So, when do I use the laptop? When I go on trips where there is no Sunray, when I'm lying down on a bed or a sofa to work or when I'm trying to build,  test or demo a piece of software in the absense of a Sun Ray. Sun Ray is by far the best equipment for the corporate worker who is not doing any of these latter tasks in environments where Sun Rays are missing--and let's remember that few corporate workers are engaged in these sorts of tasks on a regular basis.

I can even leave this entry as it is, run to my next meeting and if my party is late, insert my card key in a Sun Ray and do a final edit at this very point, where I am. That typo is now gone .... next one for the next stop ....

2006-11-10 13:28:22.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.
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