Point 3 – “Don’t Build for Just One Device”. For me, this is a real indication of progress, because the whole mobile web game to date has been massive effort to support multipe devices.
Luckily the current generation of high-end mobile browsers is excellent in terms of support for modern features. Many phones use a WebKit derivative, including the iPhone, and Symbian and Android phones. Other phones either come with or can use Opera Mobile or the new mobile version of Firefox (called Fennec). For the most part, very few changes are needed in order to support these browsers.
Code.Flickr article
No Comments Yet | Posted 10 November 2008 @ 10am | Blogroll, Devices, UI
From Engadget, news of an “epic” bug in Android:
It turns out that G1 firmware revisions RC29 and earlier literally interpret everything you type as command-line operations, so if you happen across a legit command, it’s going to get executed — with superuser permissions, no less. No, seriously. Just go to the messaging app, the browser, or anywhere else a text box is convenient, type “reboot,” press the enter key, and watch magic happen.
Epic Android bug interprets your typing as system commands
No Comments Yet | Posted 9 November 2008 @ 11pm | Android, Blogroll, Google
Wesabe have a helpful page that shows some key interactions from the mobile and iPhone services. This is demonstrated by a short description accompanying a screenshot from an iPhone and a Motorola Razr (early version methinks).
The Motorola has a pretty ordinary web experience, so it’s not the strongest contender the regular mobile device world could have offered up in this unintentional side-by-side, but the improvements apparent in the screenshots probably have pretty wide application across smartphones.
The iPhone layout is consistent and logical, it’s seems easier to know where you are, what actions are available and what information is available. The Motorola squanders alot of screenspace on browser info and soft key labels and there appears to scrolling for all but the most basic of screens.
The difference in the readability of text is remarkable, and the form buttons look like buttons, and so benefit from people not having to learn a visual language different to large-screen web conventions.
And at a glance you’d surmise that the above would mean the propensity for errors – be it entering your password, or adding a transaction, or navigating to the page you need – would be lower for the iPhone. If you were thinking about where to devote your energies in mobile web platforms, getting a sense of the difference in experiences is really useful alongside knowing your audience and what they like.
Wesabe Mobile
No Comments Yet | Posted 2 November 2008 @ 3pm | Apple, Blogroll, Devices, Text Entry, UI
Almost every nation keeps collections of native seeds so local crops can be replanted in case of an agricultural disaster. The Global Seed Vault, opened this year on the far-northern Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, is a backup for the backups. It’s badly needed — as many as half the seed banks in developing countries are at risk from natural disasters or general instability. The vault can hold up to 4.5 million samples, which will be kept dry at about 0°F (-18°C). Even if the facility loses power, the Arctic climate should keep the seeds viable for thousands of years.
Time’s Best Inventions of 08 : Global Seed Vault
No Comments Yet | Posted 2 November 2008 @ 11am | First Life, Links
First, this agreement is likely to change forever the way that we find and browse for books, particularly out-of-print books. Google has already scanned more than 7 million books, and plans to scan millions more. This agreement will allow Google to get close to its original goal of including all of those books into Google’s search results (publishers got some concessions, however, for in-print books). In addition to search, scanned public domain books will be available for free PDF download (as they are today). But the agreement goes beyond Google’s Book Search by permitting access, as well. Unless authors specifically opt out, books that are out-of-print but still copyrighted will be available for “preview” (a few pages) for free, and for full access for a fee.
Fred von Lohmann of the EFF goes on to outline five key concerns with the Book Search deal.
No Comments Yet | Posted 2 November 2008 @ 9am | Google, Words
If you come to this event expecting to hear anything about mobile Flash I don’t think we have very much about it. Not that it’s not a technology that’s in play, but it’s just not something – it’s not open. It doesn’t allow development of services very easily. It’s not in deployment by individuals or by users.
Daniel Applequist (Senior Technology Strategist at Vodafone Group & key W3C MWBP guy) talks to Tim O’Brien of O’Reilly about a mobile 2.0 conference he’s holding on November 3.
The mobile web is where it’s at:
Time and again I’ve heard from start-ups, that have started off trying to write a Java app, or something like that, that they abandoned that and when they went to mobile web they found that they immediately had way more customers.
No Comments Yet | Posted 30 October 2008 @ 9pm | Blogroll, Client Applications
