Planet Mobile Web - W3C

Celebrate 30 Years Mobile! [Volker Hirsch]

2009-12-01T22:30:36+00:00

It was today, 30 years ago, that NTT (now NTT DoCoMo) launched the world’s first commercial mobile cellular telecoms network in Tokyo with 88 base stations and, boy, did we come a long way...

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LTE Dynamic and Semi-Persistent Scheduling [Martin]

2009-12-01T19:51:47+00:00

A technical post today - Here's some background info on how users are scheduled on the LTE air interface:

Dynamic Scheduling

In most cases, scheduling will be fully dynamic. In downlink direction resources are assigned when data is available. For data to be sent in the uplink, the mobile dynamically requests transmission opportunities whenever data arrives in the mobile's uplink buffer. Information about data being sent in downlink direction and uplink transmission opportunities are carried in the radio layer control channel which is sent at the beginning of each sub-frame.

Semi-Persistent Scheduling

While dynamic scheduling is great for bursty, infrequent and bandwidth consuming data transmissions (e.g. web surfing, video streaming, emails) it is less suited for real time streaming applications such as voice calls. Here, data is sent in short bursts while at regular intervals. If the data rate of the stream is very low, as is the case for voice calls, the overhead of the scheduling messages is very high as only little data is sent for each scheduling message.

The solution for this is semi-persistent scheduling. Instead of scheduling each uplink or downlink transmission, a transmission pattern is defined instead of single opportunities. This significantly reduces the scheduling assignment overhead.

During silence periods todays wireless voice codecs stop transmitting voice data and only send silence description information with much longer time intervals in between. During those silence times the persistent scheduling can be switched-off which is probably why it's called semi-persistent scheduling. In the uplink, the semi-persistent grant scheme is implicitly canceled if no data is sent for a network configured number of empty uplink transmission opportunities (see 3GPP TS 36.321, chapter 5.10). In downlink direction, semi-persistent scheduling is canceled with an RRC message.

The logical question that follows now is how the network can figure out when and for which packets to use semi-persistent scheduling. The answer is QCI and dedicated bearers. More about that in a follow up post.

Save Online With Coupons From CouponAlbum.mobi [Wap Review]

2009-12-01T19:39:34+00:00

Holiday shopping can be a budget buster. One way to save when shopping online is with coupon codes. Coupon Album, one of the larger coupon sites on the web, now has a mobile friendly version.

It's a simple, low bandwidth site which should work on all phones. It has a dozen featured deals on the front page, but if those aren't helpful head Coupon Album's best feature, the search box.

There are a number of mobile coupon sites but surprisingly Coupon Album is one of the few that offers a search option. In my tests the search returned quite a few relevant deals for common queries like "cameras", "Amazon". Searching by store name seemed to work better than by product.

It's not perfect though, I was unable to find any coupons for prepaid mobile refills although they are a dime a dozen of competing non-mobile coupon sites. Source OkOk via Mobility.mobi

Filed in: Wap Review Directory - Shopping/Coupons

Ratings: Content Usability

Ready.mobi Score: 4 "Good"

Mobile Link: couponalbum.mobi

Twitter’s New Retweet is Broken and How to Fix it [Cloud Four]

2009-12-01T16:57:27+00:00

When Twitter announced their new retweet feature, I read Twitter founder Ev William’s reasons for the design of the new feature with interest. I understood his points. I didn’t agree with the solution, but was comforted by his closing note that “there’s nothing stopping you from simply quoting another tweet if that’s what you want to do. Also, old-school retweets are still allowed, as well.”

My plan was simply to ignore the new retweet feature until they fixed its shortcomings. However, Loren Brichter released a new version of my favorite Twitter client for the iPhone, Tweetie, that incorporates the new retweet feature and “deprecates” the old way of retweeting.

After spending some time with the new version of Tweetie, it became clear that the new retweet feature and all of its warts are here to stay. Instead of ignoring it, it was more important to document the ways it is broken and try to get Twitter and the developers of Twitter clients to fix it.

What Ev Got Wrong

Ev’s post does an excellent job of outlining the perceived shortcomings of the old way of retweeting. I’m grateful for his explanation. Not only is it helpful to understand the design decisions they made, but it also helps me understand where Ev missed important uses of retweets.

Attribution Confusion vs. Credibility and Reputation

One of the main things that Twitter was trying to solve with the new retweet feature is attribution confusion. “Most notably, the text of the tweet is not written by the person whose picture you’re seeing, nor the username that’s at the beginning.”

The solution to this in the new retweet feature is to show the name and picture of the original person who wrote the tweet and annotate below the tweet the name of the person you are following who retweeted the post.

The problem with this solution to attribution confusion is that it eliminates one of the main values of retweets: the credibility and reputation of the person who is retweeting.

By removing the picture of the person who retweeted and making the name much smaller, it becomes much harder to tell quickly which of the people you are following retweeted the post.

The person who retweeted a link to an article matters a lot. We place different value on the people we follow and the information they share.

In the example above, it is more important to me to know that Dave Winer was the source of the retweet than it is to know that jenny8lee—someone I don’t know—wrote the original tweet.

Tim O’Reilly is someone who I find to have very intelligent takes on technology. When I see his picture in my twitter stream, I stop scanning and pay closer attention. His credibility and reputation is what makes me pay attention to what he tweets or retweets.

This is something that the independent Twitter clients have done a better job of addressing than Twitter itself. Both Tweetie and Tweetdeck have included both the picture of the person who originated the tweet as well as the person who retweeted.

I much prefer the way Tweetie handles the retweet in the screenshot above to the way Twitter handles it. I see both Dave Winer’s name and picture. My only complaint is that the picture of the person retweeting is often too small to recognize quickly.

Redundancy vs. Dipping in the Stream

Another point that Ev makes is that “if five people you follow retweet the same thing, you get five copies, which can be useful but is a lot of noise.”

Ev is right that if you are reading every single tweet having redundant retweets can be a bit of noise. That said, it isn’t something that has ever bothered me.

The multiple retweets has however been something that has alerted me to important information. When you think of Twitter as a stream that you dip your toes into when you have time, important information can be missed if it only shows up in your stream one time. However, the more people retweet it, the more likely you are to encounter it whenever you decide to dip your toes in your Twitter stream.

I have to look no further than this past weekend to see the importance of this. On Saturday, the City of Portland announced that e-coli had been found in some of its water supply.

I happened to be out with the family in one of the affected areas. While waiting in line, I checked Twitter. By the time I checked, it had been several hours since the announcement. Yet, I saw one of the many retweets about the outbreak and was able to advise the people around me what water to avoid.

Let me repeat, the only reason I learned about the e-coli outbreak was because I received multiple retweets.

Another reason multiple retweets are valuable is because of reputation and credibility. A retweet from someone I follow whose opinion I value more highly than others is more likely to catch my eye.

There is value in multiple retweets. I’d love to have this be an option to see all retweets or only the first one.

Problems with the Current Implementations

Aside from the two viewpoints about credibility and the value of multiple retweets, there are things lacking in the current retweet implementations. As my friend Peter Whooly pointed out, it’s hard to tell if these are problems with the Twitter clients or Twitter’s API.

No Way to See Who Has Retweeted Your Tweets

In Tweetie, when you go under your profile and look at the retweets, there is no way to tell who retweeted your tweet. This is possible on Twitter’s web interface.

No Notification of Retweets

One of the nice aspects of the old style of retweeting was that retweets also contained the @reply syntax. This meant that you could not only could see the retweets easily, but if your Twitter client offered notifications for replies, you would be prompted when someone retweeted you.

Knowing when someone retweets you is important so that you can participate in the conversation.

Retweets Don’t Show Up in Lists

This again is an issue of credibility and reputation. Say you create a list of people whose opinions and thoughts you highly value. It is a very select list and you read every tweet these people write. When you look at that list, you will miss any retweets using the new feature.

Being able to see retweets in Twitter lists is a big deal.

Ability to Annotate Retweets

This is already on the Twitter team’s radar. Ev says they have some ideas on how they might implement it. This isn’t a show stopper for me, but it is for a lot of other people.

Vocal Minority or Silent Majority?

One of the things that got me worked up about this was seeing Loren Brichter’s take on the new retweet feature. He said, “vocal minority have problem with change – no doubt once they try it they’ll realize how awesome it is.”

Because Loren is the developer of Tweetie, the iPhone client I prefer to use, his opinion about the retweet feature matters. The fact that he thinks that:

it is only a vocal minority that has problems with it and
that we simply have a problem with change

frustrated me. From the conversations I’ve had with other users, that isn’t an accurate description.

Many of the same people who have problems with the new retweet feature embraced the new lists feature. Discounting opinions by saying people simply have a problem with change is a way of marginalizing contrary opinions without having to address them. There are legitimate issues with the retweet feature as I’ve outlined above.

And I’m not convinced that it is a minority of people who have problems with the new retweet feature. So far, I haven’t seen a single person who thinks the new retweet feature is complete.

Unlike lists which a majority of people raved about and immediately started using, the new retweet feature is something that most people seem to be at best accepting with hopes that Twitter will address its issues and at worst, so strongly opposed to the new feature that they are taking actions like refusing to upgrade Tweetie to avoid it.

How to Fix Retweets

I don’t disagree with most of what Ev said were the reasons for the new retweet feature. I also think formalizing retweets can lead to some really interesting information and features.

That said, the new feature has significant shortcomings that need to be addressed before we should consider the old way of retweeting deprecated.

I’m thankful that Loren implemented the new feature in Tweetie. It made me recognize that the feature wasn’t going away and was already impacting me even if I choose to use the old style retweet because others may use the new feature and I won’t see their retweets.

Therefore, the most important thing we can do to fix the situation is provide feedback to Twitter and Twitter client developers.

My hope is that if enough people provide feedback to Twitter (they are asking for feedback on the feature) that we can have a new retweet feature that we embrace as enthusiastically as we did Twitter lists.

LTE Berlin conference [Open Gardens]

2009-12-01T10:53:11+00:00

The LTE Berlin conference last year was a huge success, and LTE World Summit 2010 has already been announced. You can see more videos of the event HERE. I will be blogging more about this event and attending it. So, if you are there we can meet.

Fraunhofer FOKUS IMS workshop in Berlin [Open Gardens]

2009-12-01T10:40:05+00:00

I had blogged about Fraunhofer FOKUS IMS workshop in Berlin before. Although I could not make it, here are the slides and the Event Minutes and some Statements from the Delegates.

O2 Can’t Do: Why it is going to lose me (#fail) [Volker Hirsch]

2009-12-01T01:13:04+00:00

Quick facts: I am an iPhone user. I wanted one, I am based in the UK. What to do? Switch to O2, which had the exclusivity for this. This post is not about bandwidth, 3G availability or anything like...

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i-Symbian Reborn As The Independent Symbian Blog [Wap Review]

2009-11-30T18:12:20+00:00

Asri al-Baker's been a Symbian enthusiast since the Psion days. He published i-Symbian for many years until shutting it down last year. Asri recently started up his blog again as "The Independent Symbian Blog". It's updated daily with items on the latest Symbian hardware and software including some of the best coverage I've seen of Opera Mobile 10 for Symbian.

Asri uses the MobilePress plugin for WordPress to generate the mobile version of The Independent Symbian blog.

Filed in: Wap Review Directory - Technology/Mobile/Smartphones/Symbian

Ratings: Content Usability

Ready.mobi Score: 4 "Good"

Mobile Link: www.i-symbian.com

Mobile Web for Social DEvelopment Roadmap published [W3C MWI Team]

2009-11-30T13:29:17+00:00

I'm glad that the Mobile Web for Social Development Interest Group I have been co-chairing eventually published its mobile Web for social development roadmap, its most important deliverable.

This is finalizing 16 months of hard work and discussions. We hope now to receive comments from different groups including the Web Accessibility Initiative, the W3C Internationalization Working Group, Mobile Web Best Practices, Voice Browser, but also from the community working in the field (NGOs, development agencies, etc.).

I believe this document is an important milestone in the path to extend the frontier of the Web in developing regions. It is the first document published by W3C that investigate the potential of the Web and mobile technologies in the Social Development domain, and identifies technology (and other) gaps to be bridged in the future by W3C, the Web Foundation and others.

It is also in my opinion a useful resource for those in the field willing to mainstream mobile technologies in their project. Having discussed with and visited different organizations deploying mobile content and applications in the field, I have come to realized that many of them have a vision of how ICT can help achieving their own goals/impact, but are missing an overview of the available technology landscape. They are usually moving from the vision to the tools directly: looking at what they can find on the market, and using it. I think that it is critical to add an intermediary step, before moving to the tools, to look at the specific needs, profile and requirements of the targeted end-users, the objective of the application, and the complete life-cycle of the project before choosing a particular (set of) technology(ies). The MW4D roadmap hopes to fill this gap, helping organizations to understand the technology landscape and informing them on the critical factors to consider before choosing one specific option.

Obviously, this is only a first step. They are lots of directions to explore. For instance, the document does not investigate specific application fields, and it would be interesting to understand the specificities of each domain (health, government, education, etc.), to identify patterns or information needs that are relevant to these domains, and how to address them. The current roadmap also focuses on using mobile phones to access content, but not to author or deliver content. If mobile phones are really the “computer for Africa”, it is critical to investigate how these devices could become an authoring platform, or a delivery platform (e.g. hosting a web server to deliver content and share information with surrounding clients).

This are only a few examples of potential future items for our group. The group just got an extension till the end of February 2010 to build a new charter, and define its future. Note that the MW4D IG is a public Interest Group, and does not require W3C membership to participate. See details on how to join the MW4D IG.

Therefore, I encourage everybody interested in this topic to join the group, the mailing-list and the bi-monthly teleconferences to participate in the work on this future new charter.

I also encourage everyone to read the published MW4D roadmap and provide feedback!

Stephane

Need accommodation in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress? Then Justin’s your man [MobileMonday London]

2009-11-30T13:12:06+00:00

Contact Justin Email: justin@reventz.com Phone: +44(0)2071937952 Mobile: 44(0)7507861533

rEventz is the premiere events agency throughout Europe, specialising in Spain and are Mobile Monday London’s latest partner during the run up to Mobile World Congress. rEventz expertise lies in making attending Mobile World Congress easy for you by finding you the right accommodation, the right meeting places, and making sure your stay in Barcelona is fuss-free.

Justin and his team have been working closely with the Mobile World Congress for over 5 years with some of the biggest (and smallest) companies in the industry and with a large stock of hotel rooms and other services; we can tailor every package perfectly to the individual needs of each individual client. And Justin knows Barcelona backwards which is a great help, especially if you’re new to Congress.

Every client has their own dedicated project manager working on their booking and only their booking so you so there are no distractions and all of your requests are handled immediately. If 100% perfection is the minimum that you ask for – trust rEventz with your next Event and see what 110% satisfaction feels like. Previous satisfied clients include O2/Telefonica, Tele Atlas, Cisco Systems, Verisign, Seven, Opera, Aliph, NXP and more.

All of rEventz’s hotels are located in the heart of Barcelona with easy access to the Fira Exhibition Centre and the Placa Cataluña (the very centre of the city) where most of the restaurants are and where most of the evening networking happens. So rest assured with rEventz we will keep you central and where you need to be avoiding unnecessary travel. All hotels are located within 5 mins of the nearest Metro station and all have taxis readily available.

Listed below are the most up to date list of available hotels with rEventz; with pricing on average less than the official organiser is offering. For further information about any of these hotels including pictures don’t hesitate to contact Justin. Yes, we know hotel prices are expensive during Mobile World Congress, but these are below the usual rate for the week of Congress when all prices seem to go up – sometimes double or even treble the usual room rates. Yes, it sucks, but Justin’s negotiated some good rates for Mobile Monday London members.

Hotel Paral.lel 2* - This hotel is an excellent budget hotel and although a 2* offers superb service and rooms for its rating, the hotel also has the added bonus of being just a 10 min walk to the Fira Exhibition Centre and just 10 mins to the centre of town – Placa Cataluña . Free Wi-Fi is available in all of the rooms of the hotel.
20 rooms available: €250/night inc tax and breakfast
The Hotel Aston 3* - This first-class business is well priced and is just 10 mins by taxi or metro to the Fira Exhibition Centre and Placa Cataluña. Free Wi-Fi is available in all of the rooms of the hotel.
17 rooms available: €240/night inc tax and breakfast
Hotel Junior 3* - Another first class, budget business hotel and the sister hotel to the Hotel Aston (located 30 seconds from it) and is located 10 mins to both The Fira Exhibition Centre and Placa Cataluña via metro or taxi. Free Wi-Fi is available in all of the rooms of the hotel.
15 rooms available: €235/night inc tax and breakfast
The Hotel Ramblas 3* - Excellent budget hotel offering all of the services that you could need during the event, located in the heart of Barcelona on Las Ramblas; a 5 min walk to Placa Cataluña and under 10 mins via taxi or metro to The Fira Exhibition Centre. Free Wi-Fi is available in all of the rooms of the hotel.
10 rooms available: €240/night inc tax breakfast
Hotel H10 Cataluña Plaza 3* Superior - This hotel is located right in heart of the city in Placa Cataluña so you couldn’t be more central and has recently been refurbished to the highest standard. 5 mins to the Fira Exhibition Centre via metro/taxi. Free Wi-Fi is available in all of the rooms of the hotel.
10 rooms available €315/night inc tax and breakfast
Hotel Reding 3* - This very comfortable business hotel is centrally located at just a 2 min walk to Placa Cataluña and 5 mins to the Fira Exhibition Centre via metro or taxi. Free Wi-Fi is available in all of the rooms of the hotel.
14 rooms available: €325/night inc tax and breakfast
The Sunotel Central 4* - This great business hotel offers everything that you would expect from a 4* hotel and is ideally located at just a 10 min walk to the Fira Exhibition Centre and under 10 mins to Placa Cataluña via metro or taxi. Free Wi-Fi is available in all of the rooms of the hotel.
14 rooms available: €345/night inc tax and breakfast
The Hesperia Del Mar 4* - This new 4* hotel is another good excellent hotel. Although located by the port of Barcelona its still just 10 mins in a taxi or metro to the Fira Exhibition Centre and Placa Cataluña (you don’t have to go through the centre of town – thus avoiding traffic). Due to the fact that it is slightly further away though it offers 4* hotel rooms at 3* prices! Free Wi-Fi is available in all of the rooms of the hotel.
20 rooms available: €275/night inc tax and breakfast
The Grand Hotel Central 4* Superior - Saving the best for last: this gorgeous boutique hotel offers unparalleled comfort and style. The hotel is also ideally located right in the heart of Barcelona offering perfect quality at unbeatable prices. The hotel is just 5 mins on foot to Placa Cataluña and under 10 mins to the Fira Exhibition Centre via metro or taxi. Free Wi-Fi is available in all of the rooms of the hotel.
20 rooms available: €320/night inc tax and breakfast

rEventz
rE...Inventing Corporate Solutions
www.rEventz.com
Tel: + 44 (0) 207 193 7952

Fax: + 44 (0) 207 900 2357
Mobile: + 44 (0) 750 786 1533

Automated tests creation for WebIDL-based specifications [W3C Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group]

2009-11-30T08:19:39+00:00

A growing number of W3C specifications describe JavaScript APIs using WebIDL, including HTML5, XmlHTTPRequest, the Geolocation API, and the many other APIs in development in the Web Applications and Device APIs and Policy Working Groups.

WebIDL allows to define these interfaces with their methods and properties in an abstract language, while giving specifics on how they have to be implemented in EcmaScript (JavaScript’s official name).

Using that abstract language makes it possible to automatically generate a number of test cases to check the specified interfaces are correctly implemented (or as often, correctly specified!): I discovered a few weeks ago the great WTTJS tool that does exactly this — it takes a WebIDL definition, some indications on how to instantiate the declared interfaces, and it then generates a bunch of test cases that can easily be used directly in browsers.

For instance, after having extracted the WebIDL from the Geolocation API using the WebIDL checker, I got a set of test cases that allowed me to find out that the Geolocation API was not clear enough on defining which interfaces were supposed to be directly instantiable — this has now been partially corrected in the latest Editors draft.

The WebIDL specification is still evolving, and as a result, not all its constructs are currently supported in WTTJS, so running it on a WebIDLs fragments that use the latest syntax capabilities will likely require some light hand edits; but it certainly remains a great tool to help in the development of JavaScript specifications. Thank you, Wakaba!

Last Chance to win a place at a MWC 2010 Pre-Show Press Event with UKTI [MobileMonday London]

2009-11-29T22:51:31+00:00

UK Trade & Investment has created a unique opportunity for 20 UK companies to engage with the media in the run up to Mobile World Congress 2010.

On 20th January 2010, UKTI will be hosting a media speed networking event in London for the successful companies, these companies will be selected from a panel board and notified of their involvement by 10th December 2009.

The event will enable UK companies to meet with relevant journalists with an interest in Mobile World Congress in advance of the show to share news and generate interest in their company's products and services.

It can be notoriously difficult to gain the attention of journalists at Mobile World Congress, particularly for smaller companies. This event aims to provide an opportunity for companies to do so before the Congress takes place.

There is a strict limit to the number of companies that can benefit from this event and for this reason companies that wish to be considered will need to complete a simple form and also be able to fulfil some strict criteria.

The criteria are:
» Submission must be made by 30 November 2009
» You will need to have someone available to be present in London on 20th January
» You will need to have a newsworthy story: product, innovation, or development that you are able to speak with the media about
» Whilst we will ask journalists not to use the information that they receive until Mobile World Congress, companies attending will need to be certain that the news they have will be ready for public release on 15th February 2010. It will not be possible to include innovations or agreements that are not certain to take place
» You will need to be available on the telephone during November or December 2009 to discuss the news that you will be announcing at Mobile World Congress

What kind of journalists will be attending this event?
We will invite journalists from national, trade, technical and consumer technology publications that have an interest in Mobile World Congress 2010. We will also invite the Mobile World Congress show newspaper and television station.

Will I be certain that my news will be published?
No. This will depend on the news agenda for journalists and the newsworthiness of your stories.

What is in it for me?
You will get the chance to tell the story of your company to up to 20 journalists with an interest in mobile communications before they arrive at Mobile World Congress.

APPLICATION FORM:

Name of Company:
Year founded:
Number of employees:
Turnover:
Primary spokesperson for the media:
Company description:
Company primary market:
Company primary customers (eg manufacturers, mobile operators):
Company's target media publications:
Briefly describe the news you will be announcing at Mobile World Congress 2010:

Submit you application to Jessica Eddens on mobileworldcongress[at]tradefair[dot]co[dot]uk

STOP PRESS: Please note that we will have tickets to give away for Mobile World Congress in a draw for delegates of Heroes of the Mobile Screen on 7 December. You can buy tickets now for £99 (ex VAT/bkg fee) at http://mobileheroes.net/register

Found on the Mobile Web #191 [Wap Review]

2009-11-29T19:05:37+00:00

Found on the Mobile Web is a weekly WAP Review feature listing newly added and updated sites on the YesWAP.com mobile portal and WapReview mobile site directory. With these latest additions the directory and portal now list 2036 mobile sites.

Weather

Weatherzone (AU) m.wz.com.au Australian and international weather information site with satellite images, weather radar, forecast charts and a full range of Australian forecasts and current observations.It's a "Middle-web" site optimized for the iPhone, Pre and Android but doesn't require JavaScript and is usable on most devices.
Content: Usability:

Reference

MobiLocation mobilocation.com Part of MobiPedia, MobiLocation is an annotated mobile world atlas created with a mashup of Wikipedia and Google Maps. It offers maps and background information on thousands of cities and towns around the world and is available in 17 languages. Source Oh! Mobile Directory
Content: Usability:

Entertainment/Mobile Video-Audio

AccuRadio accuradio.com/mobile/ A small directory of streaming Internet radio stations in streaming http MP3 (aka Shoutcast) format. Few if any phones support this format natively. The site has links to Palm OS and Windows Mobile players. Source Oh! Mobile Directory
Content: Usability:

Entertainment/Music-Nightlife

Royal Artist Club royalartistclub.com/mobile/ The Nokia sponsored Royal Artist Club, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary is a free blog platform for bands. Sort of like MySpace but older and not nearly as big with only about 50 bands represented currently. Source Nokia Conversations
Content: Usability:

News/Meme Trackers

Instablogs www.instablogs.mobi/?m A user driven news site. Stories are submitted by users with the most popular ones (based on user voting) appearing on the front page. Source: Oh! Mobile Directory
Content: Usability:

Travel-Transit/Destination Guides

Alcatraz.mobi alcatraz.mobi A nicely done guide to Alcatraz Island, the famous maximum security prison in on a rock in the middle of San Francisco Bay. Shut down in 1963, Alcatraz is today one of the top Bay Area tourist attractions. The site has Alcatraz history, photos, weather and tour information and phone numbers. Source Mobienthusiast
Content: Usability:

Reference/Translation

HYPY Chinese-English m.roshisoft.com/hypy Mobile Chinese-English-Chinese dictionary. Supports entry of English words and phrases, Chinese characters or Pinyin (phonetic representation of Chinese using Roman characters). Source: Oh! Mobile Directory
Content: Usability:

Spanish Translator spanish.mobi Mobile Spanish to English and English to Spanish translation site with a simple no-nonsense user interface. Source Mobienthusiast
Content: Usability:

Entertainment/Life Style/Food

Appetite for China m.appetiteforchina.com A beautifully designed blog by a professional writer and cooking instructor, Diana Kuan covers the cuisines of China. It's full of recipes, restaurant reviews and reminisces of the author's experiences growing up in the kitchens of her family's restaurants. Mobile view by Mobify.
Content: Usability:

News/International/Africa

SouthAfrica.info m.southafrica.info Published by the International Marketing Council of South Africa, a "public-private partnership established in 2002 to create a positive, unified brand image for South Africa", SouthAfrica.info's mobile site has headline news, local weather forecasts and currency exchange rates along with business, travel, world cup and events sections. Source: Oh! Mobile Directory
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You have to start SOMEWHERE :)… [Carnival of The Mobilists]

2009-11-29T15:37:24+00:00

You have to start SOMEWHERE – @COTMOBILISTS Twitter launches – no followers yet – but let’s change that!!

Carnival of the Mobilists #201 [Carnival of The Mobilists]

2009-11-29T15:25:06+00:00

This week it’s an encore Carnival with Phil Barnett hosting for the second time over at Burning the Bacon, a blog dedicated to “mobile and interactive marketing insight, perspectives and propaganda.” It’s a solid line-up of analysis and commentary provided by a mix of newcomer and veteran Mobilists. A special welcome to NewDigitalCafé, a blog founded by Randy Giusto, who was previously IDC’s GVP/GM of Consumer, Digital and Social Media, Mobility, and Computing Research. In addition to his in-depth look at the potential impact of Android tablets, we explore the Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition, the Droid, the many exciting use cases for SMS alerts and ask ourselves whether the time isn’t NOW for NFC.

Admob Earnings Hacked [Mobi Enthusiast]

2009-11-29T15:18:14+00:00

Our friend Dennis over at WAP Review had his site hacked recently and found his admob code had been switched and his earnings were being redirected to the hacker’s admob account. Take a moment to see if your admob codes are correct, and if they aren’t, it may be likely the hack is hidden [...]

Get involved in the best in mo… [Carnival of The Mobilists]

2009-11-29T13:49:53+00:00

Get involved in the best in mobile blogging! Sign up to host the Carnival of the Mobilists. 2010 schedule posted – http://bit.ly/7VPGfc

Technical Review for Apress Book [PavingWays]

2009-11-28T16:53:33+00:00

I have been asked to do part of the technical review of a new book from Apress called ‘Beginning Smartphone Web Development‘ and was happy to help.

The book is written by Gail Rahn Frederick and from what I have seen so far the book is going to become a great introduction to mobile web development. All the necessary fundamentals are well covered and explained with practical examples and there are some more advanced sections on using Ajax and device capability databases.

Anybody interested in the challenges and details of mobile web development can take away something from the book. Publication is due in December 2009, so make sure you put it on your Amazon wishlist now!

Leaked UCWEB 7 Java Version With Zoom Mode [Wap Review]

2009-11-27T22:32:10+00:00

UCWEB guru "Jbpseudo", sent me a link an English translation of a leaked version (7.02.3) of the upcoming UCWEB 7 browser. The main change since UCWEB 7 Beta 2, which I covered 2 weeks ago, is that it now offers the equivalent what Opera calls "Desktop View" where pages are formatted more or less as they are in desktop browsers, with horizontal scrolling required to see the full width of the page. In UCWEB it's known as "Zoom Mode" and is toggled using a check box under "General Settings" in the "Settings" Menu. Like Opera Mini, UCWEB 7 has only two zoom levels, a fully zoomed out thumbnail view and a zoomed in one. The "5" key instantly toggle s between the zoomed in and zoomed out views.

As you can see from the screenshots below UCWEB's Zoom Mode has some issues with overlapping text and images. The page shown isn't doing any fancy It uses a simple CSS float rule to position the image to the right of the text. While I'm disappointed that UCWEB fails to render such a simple and common use case properly, I don't personally consider it much of a problem as UCWEB's fit to width regular mode works very well. On mobile devices, especially those with a screen less than 3 inches diagonally or 320 px wide, I generally prefer a fit to width mode over one that requires horizontal scrolling. Except for viewing tabular data, I'd be unlikely to use the Zoom Mode even if it worked correctly.

A more serious problem with this version is that it uses a Chinese based proxy server and many popular sites including Facebook and Twitter are blocked by the "Great Firewall". Another issue is that because the server's requests originate in China and do not include an accept-language HTTP header, some sites, including Google and MySpace display their Chinese versions.

Mobile technology blogger Manojr Tiwari, has posted a number of screenshots of the leaked UCWEB, including one showing off the browser's optional (and rather garish) purple theme. Manojr also has a post about this version on his blog along with a link to what is apparently a different translation of it. I couldn't get Manojr's download to work on my Nokia N95, but the one Jbpseudo sent seems stable and usable except for the problems related to the Chinese server. You can download it here: JAR, JAD.

First they came .. Pub fined £8,000 for customer's illicit downloads over it's open hotspot ... [Open Gardens]

2009-11-27T19:58:22+00:00

It seems that a Pub is fined £8,000 for customer's illicit downloads over it's open hotspot

A legal expert told ZDNet that if the Digital Economy bill, proposed by the government last week, passes in its present form then the problem for hotspot providers could get worse, because under its rules the owner of the copyrighted material would simply target the internet address of the hotspot and look no further. In this case, that would be the pub.

THIS is why the new digital media bill in the UK is silly and old media has no friends(except Mandelson! See UK file sharers to be 'cut off' - Should we cut off repeat non payers of water bills from their water supply and drinking water as well?

But seriously .. That's why I oppose such lunatic regulation like the Three strikes bill ..

The principle is the same as the poem First they came .. by Martin Niemöller

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Worth thinking about ..

Image:Martin Niemöller - source wikipedia