About Mobility Weblog

dotMobi continues providing great services to the mobility development community, and has published Ten Mistakes in Mobile Web Marketing. It is a good compilation of things to avoid and related suggestions and best practices:

The mobile web is taking off, with traffic rising on thousands of great mobile websites from the world’s top brands and hot new players.

But there are still marketers who treat the mobile web just like the desktop PC web. We call it “dotcom thinking” and it makes for mobile sites that are hard to use, hard to find and hard
to like.

Ten Mistakes in Mobile Web Marketing shows you ten of the most common examples of dotcom thinking, so you won’t repeat them.

It includes examples of best practice from mobile sites…

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From Google lays out mobile future (Silicon.com):

Google Mobile group product manager, Hugo Barra, added a great user interface – like Apple’s iPhone - and a flat data plan are key in making mobile internet appeal to consumers.

A great UI and flat data plans…. Right on…

Also:

Chang said that Google prefers to avoid developing apps which require elements to be downloaded to the device as this makes the user experience slower and less attractive.

Instead, the company can focus on innovative web applications such as Google Grand Prix - the mobile software suite which includes search, email and location based services.

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If you own a home, or are looking to buy one, check out Zillow.com, a very cool website/tool. You can look at homes, or if selling, check your home, and all the information, photos and charts based on public records, market history, and other…. You can set estimates based on upgrades done to the home, and compare to other houses in the neighborhood. Very neat and useful tool.

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Interesting, I just read via Olle’s blog JavaWire, about MSA version 2 (JSR 249)… I haven’t been able to keep up with JSR 249 for a while; so I decided to take a look at it today.

…wow, lots of things have happened. For one, it is no longer called MSA for CDC, but now its called MSA 2; I think they made the right call, good:

Unlike the first version of MSA (specified in JSR-248), MSA 2 does not only cover Java feature phones (CLDC phones), but also more advanced phones (CDC phones). MSA 2 will specify three different sets of API – a limited, a core, and a full set – for different types of phones, from low-end phones to advanced smartphones.

Interesting. They followed the JSR 248 concept of API stacks. With MSA2, the API stacks are as follows:

Click to Enlarge (Source: MSA2 spec)

Click to Enlarge (Source: MSA2 spec)

Very cool. I’m very excited to see the new APIs that MSA2 includes:

• MIDP3 (JSR-271)
• Mobile Sensor API (JSR-256)
• Contactless Communication API (JSR-257)
• Mobile User Interface Customization API (JSR-258)
• Mobile Broadcast Service API (JSR-272)
• XML API for Java ME (JSR-280)
• IMS Services API(JSR-281)

This is great news; from NFC to IMS; can’t wait.

I do see (or fail to see) some JSRs that should be considered for inclusion:

• JSR 304: Mobile Telephony API version 2 -or- JSR 253 MTA version 1
• JSR 266: Unified Message Box Access API (UMBA-API)
• JSR 307: Network Mobility and Mobile Data API

MSA 2 looks hot. If all these APIs get delivered consistently across all handsets, we will be in business…

Related MSA news:

• MSA at JavaOne (Johan Vos)

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Mowser lives; pretty awesome.

Just read that dotMobi has acquired Mowser, and that Mike and Russ will join dotMobi… From dotMobi Loves Mowser (dotMobi):

At long last we can announce some great news! dotMobi is acquiring the well-known Mowser service that provides content adaptation services for mobile.

We’re very excited about this. Russell Beattie and Mike Rowehl are both very talented mobile gurus and they’ll be joining the dotMobi team to help us do cool things with their technology. We did this deal because Mowser fits really well into lots of our current projects.

Good to see this, good move by James… A win-win situation.

Congratulations to all…

Related to this see:

• $dotMobi[] = $Mowser (Mike Rowehl: This is Mobility)
• Is the mobile web dead? Maybe not. A conversation with Mowser co-founder Mike Rowehl (VentureBeat)

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Sun has released (at J1) its Lightweight UI Toolkit (LWUIT) for Java ME, the library, demos and example code, as part of the a new project LWUIT on Java.net:

LWUIT is a UI library that is bundled together with applications and helps content developers in creating compelling and consistent Java ME applications. LWUIT supports visual components and other UI goodies such as theming, transitions, animation and more.

LWUIT seems like a a cool addition/library, and provides a UI API with support for animations, buttons, forms, fonts, layout managers, scrolling and tabs, transitions, styles and themes. Very cool. For 225 KB, LWUIT will help developers add spice to their applications with less effort.

Jonathan Knudsen has written a tutorial that introduces LWUIT.

LWUIT binary library is licensed under Sun License Agreement (SLA), and the source code is licensed under GPLv2.

LWUIT competes with Paxmodept’s UI library and Tricastmedia TWUIK UI toolkits.

Related to this see 11 Things About LWUIT (Shai’s Weblog).
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I had missed this; thanks to Alex Kerr for point this out: Talking Transcoding (Mobile Marketing Magazine) where Novarra’s President and COO, Jayanthi Rangarajan, was interviewed. Also make sure to scroll-down and go over the comments.

My response to this:

Prime example of lack of vision, and lack of network neutrality; only the partners get preference. Shame on both, the network provider, and Novarra for promoting closeness (and unnecessary control), and shame on Novarra for failing to take advantage of their position to educate their customer.

Prime example of group of people, in this case Novarra and the network carrier, thinking they know better than the rest… Novarra and the network provider should be smart, and should listen to the collective intelligence (vs. being defensive); collective intelligence that surpasses the intelligence of any single company out there.

Come one, the Manifesto can’t be more clear than what it is! Embrace it!

And be considerate about the content owner’s original intentions! Off-deck web-sites do generate traffic, content, revenue to others in the ecosystem.

C. Enrique Ortiz, CTO @ eZee
— Signer of the Manifesto

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A good writeup by Joel Spolsky where he covers the concept or role of Architecture Astronauts:

I tried to coin a term for the kind of people who invented Hailstorm: architecture astronauts. “That’s one sure tip-off to the fact that you’re being assaulted by an Architecture Astronaut: the incredible amount of bombast; the heroic, utopian grandiloquence; the boastfulness; the complete lack of reality. And people buy it! The business press goes wild!”

The hallmark of an architecture astronaut is that they don’t solve an actual problem… they solve something that appears to be the template of a lot of problems. Or at least, they try. Since 1988 many prominent architecture astronauts have been convinced that the biggest problem to solve is synchronization.

See Joel’s article Architecture astronauts take over.

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Like 3 weeks ago I was reading about Fuzzy Databases. I used Google Books to mark an interesting book titled Fuzzy Database Modeling that I saw online. But since then, Google believes my name is “Fuzzy Database Modeling”.

…on my Google shared items: “Fuzzy Database Modeling’s shared items ”

…the comments I leave on Blogger-powered sites: “Fuzzy Database Modeling said…”

and so on…

Google, my name is not “Fuzzy Database Modeling”; you have a bug.

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We are moving towards the next phase in mobile-based marketing? Some people call this Mobile Marketing 2.0:

“…combines business and customer interaction data to automate the delivery of relevant marketing information.”

So what’s the next phase after MM 2.0? For some folks, the answer seems to be MM 2.0g — or get the government involved:

“We’re filing a complaint to force the FTC to take a proactive stance,” Chester said. Mobile ad companies “incorporate the same problematic business practices that we witnessed with PC-based broadband marketing, including behavioral targeting and profiling techniques–except that this time they know your location,” he said.

Jeff Chester is founder and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

Too much government involvement? Others deciding what is best for you or me? You decide. But in my opinion, the government is the LAST thing you get involved. Let the market/industry develop, and settle all by itself. Let those who abuse the trust of their customer just crash-and-burn, or just go sue their asses. But keep the government out; their involvement minimal.

See Groups Complain To FTC About Mobile Marketing.

Update: FTC Warns Mobile Marketers to Keep it Honest (Wireless Week).

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One of my Pet peeves is “why create unnecessary fragmentation?”.

A good example of such unnecessary efforts is JSR-324 the On Screen MIDlet API for Java ME, a JSR that basically attempted to duplicate functionality in MIDP3.

Submitted by Dave Kim of SK Telecom, and initially supported by someone within the following companies: Vodafone, Orange T-Mobile, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Samsung, LG Electronics, SUN, Veloxsoft, JSR-324 is a prime example of someone ignoring all that is happening within the Java community, even after being approached by some of us, and instead decides to press forward to try to fulfill their own agendas.

Drives me nuts…

But fortunately for us, the JCP ME executive committee did their job and voted it Not Approved, with the recommendation of making this part of MIDP3, which is the right answer. Thanks.

You should read how the committee voted for this JSR - see JSR-324 Review Ballot. Anybody who voted Yes either don’t get it (or didn’t do their homework to understand what the hell is going on), or I hate to say, have their own agendas. Period. Not that I’m a conspiracy theory buff, but I can’t resist to say this JSR was network carrier-heavy supported; do network carriers want to take control of the idle screen? Nah, why would they want to do that?

I was surprised by some of the votes from the committee; Sun voted “abstain”, Time-Warner didn’t vote at all (why Time-Warner is in the Java ME committee is beyond me; probably because of OpenCable), and Jean-Marie, the only Individual ME committee member member voted “Yes and with no comment”; Jean you are supposed to protect us, the individual developers; that is why we voted for you.

After all these years, you would think people will know better by now…

The JSR-324 author should have saved his and everyones time and efforts and instead should have contributed any new/different ideas related to on-screen/idle screen to the MIDP3 public review.

Say no to fragmentation.

Announcement

With this, I’m announcing the “Just Say No to Fragmentation Fund”. For just 50 cents a day, you can help create awareness of this important issue. In exchange we will send you a photo of a tormented developer who has suffered, either emotionally, financially or both (with some of them never recuperating), due to the pains of fragmentation… Operators are standing by.

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I was interviewed by Ericsson for JavaOne:

Java and mobility enthusiast and visionary C. Enrique Ortiz gives his thoughts on why mobile application development is still a niche activity for developers, and what the hot topics about mobility will be at JavaOne.

See the article JavaOne: Taking mobile application development out of the niche (Ericsson).

Thanks to Ericsson, Magnus Olsson and Olle Blomberg…

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JavaOne 2008 begins today. But I am not attending JavaOne this year; it would have been fun. But there is a good reason why I didn’t go. Instead I re-assigned eZee’s J1 budget so that Michael Yuan could attend instead. Michael will be speaking on two sessions:

• BOF-4940 — JBoss Seam: A Deep-Integration Framework for Web Applications
• TS-5584 — Building Interactive Mobile Messaging (Short Message Service) Applications

See more of Michael’s J1 sessions at the Content Catalog.

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Check out Bugs Labs, a very cool company and set of products; isn’t that great when you get paid to build cool “toys”? From the Bug Labs Product page:

BUG helps you explore the realm of personalized devices and applications, and find ways to solve many of the problems current gadgets can’t.

:
:

BUG is a collection of easy-to-use electronic modules that snap together to build any gadget you can imagine. Each BUGmodule represents a specific gadget function (ex: a camera, a keyboard, a video output, etc.). You decide which functions to include and BUG takes care of the rest, letting you try out different combinations quickly and easily. With BUG and the integrated programming environment/online community (BUGnet), anyone can build, program and share innovative devices and applications. We don’t define the final products - you do.

You code in Java, and it leverages OSGi:

BUG is built entirely with open source software. BMI, the BUG Module Interface, attaches devices to the BUG. Device-based services and applications are dynamically available based on which modules are connected to the BUG. Higher up the stack is Java, which hosts a service-oriented component runtime called OSGi. Java and OSGi make creating new BUG applications simple and intuitive, as BUG applications are essentially one or more bundles. In addition, each BUGmodule launches an OSGi bundle which in turn creates services for other components to consume. BUG applications are created using the BUG SDK (internally named Dragonfly), and are shared with other developers and users through BUGnet, our online community.

See Bugs Labs company website.

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OMG, this is way too funny! Steve Ballmer starring as The Creature…

…once you become a public figure, be prepared for anything!

…Ballmer as Dr. Evil (or leader of the Borg collective):

[Via The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs]

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