BBC is running a very cool piece on the Supermarket of the future. You scan your items as you go via your phone’s bar code reader and then the phone’s software generates a single bar code to total everything making it quick on the checkout side as well. You can even choose to pay via NFC or a biometric finger print reader!
The whole thing is shown running on a Nokia N82 and uses custom software specific for the store which looks like it’s a European Costco.
I find Google’s choice to release an iPhone web app version of Google Talk a very interesting choice. It’s less than two weeks until we see some true applications for the iPhone and this release clearly highlights the limits of the current browser functions. When you switch away from the window, you become unavailable. It’s rather self-defeating as it negates any presence opportunities and forces chat into a very task based activity which is awkward. Most of us leave chat running in the background all the time ..
I tried the site on the N95 while on the train and it was not detected. There does not appear to be a /i version either for the moment and the iPhone URL does not exactly work.
What’s really interesting though is how different Google’s approach is for Android. After installing Android on the Nokia N810 last night I noticed that there is an xmpp service running ALL THE TIME. While this will clearly connect you to the Google cloud and your services it will also open up some very interesting presence and communication opportunities.
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Android seems like it will have chat and probably presence as a core service.
The study published yesterday highlights how consumers are most interested in messaging – text and email, before additional features and functions like a and having a camera. From an application perspective people only tend to install around 6 things. If chat is a core service it could do some serious damage to the sms revenues carriers love and certainly be quite the kickstart to changing consumer behavior.
It’s not clear yet who will be buying the devices when they arrive aside from the early adopter types, but it’s pretty easy to see how IM could replace a good portion of your current text needs. I currently get news alerts in addition to the usual exchanges with friends over text. If there was an always on IM option running as a service on my connected device, I’d be all over that instead.
Flixwagon has released a big update today! They’ve also opened the service to anyone now from the previously closed beta. You can sign up here.
Notable enhancements:
Share on Twitter and YouTube directly from phone: you can share individual videos on twitter and YouTube directly from your device, as well as customize the message or titles. All you need to do is add your Twitter or YouTube account details on Flixwagon.com, and then you can customize posts directly from your phone.
Detailed sharing from device: on your device you can now easily choose which specific groups (friends, family, etc.) can access your video. Make sure you set up your contacts, groups, and alerts first on flixwagon.com and you can start sharing flix with them on the fly.
Digital Zoom-in and zoom-out.
Post messages back to chat. You can send IM messages back to the video chat room, making chats around your video 2-way. This is especially useful when you want to respond to your viewers’ comments without interrupting the video or audio in the broadcast.
Change title: you can now change the video title directly from the phone while broadcasting. This is great when the ‘right’ headline comes to you while you broadcast (and can help more viewers discover your broadcast while you’re still broadcasting live).
Choose between delay or video quality: in the preferences section you can determine whether your broadcasts will be optimized for the shortest delay, or highest video quality.
Almost three quarters of mobile phone users cite text messaging capabilities as the most important feature when purchasing a new handset, according to a consumer survey conducted by mobile solutions provider Access Systems Americas and independent research firm Amplitude Research. Given a list of 19 different mobile features and services, 73 percent of consumers cited texting as the most critical data component–cameras were second with 67 percent, followed by mobile email (63 percent) and web access (61 percent). Music (34 percent) and video (33 percent) also featured prominently in the poll. Conversely, only 0.5 percent of consumers said battery life plays a role in their phone purchase, with voice activation earning just 0.33 percent.
The Access survey also reports that 39 percent of respondents have added new applications to their handsets, with just over 21 percent adding six or more new apps. Forty-two percent of respondents cited stock tracking applications as the most necessary, followed by sports teams/game trackers (36.6 percent), business applications (10.3 percent), productivity apps (7.5 percent) and utilities (4.8 percent). Almost 40 percent of respondents said they use their cell phone for “alerts,” e.g. traffic, weather and stock market updates. Nearly 30 percent of respondents said they use their phone for banking transactions or to check account balances. [FierceMobileContent]
Messaging (txt and email) is the clear leader in what consumers want along with a camera… It’s easy to see how a device like an iPhone or a Blackberry with qwerty functions make it simple for people to select. Clearly those devices along with most others offer a host of additional capabilities, but people are installing only a few key applications.
It should be interesting to see what effect the iPhone applications store has on this once the initial frenzy cools out. My take is that we’ll see quite a few of the same types of applications and that there’s likely to be some fatigue after people get over the fact that they can even install something on the iPhone.
I don’t write to make money here though it’s certainly fun to drive traffic and see my adsense revenues grow. This blog has always been about my interests rather than rumors and breaking news. I have not leaked information through any employer, my clients or those who’ve reached out through this blog to share information. Actually, let me make one correction… I did actually share a very advanced preview of Rhapsody for the Nokia Tablet and enjoyed being first though that site has no ads and I was inspired only by my inner geek to share. I think it’s fair to say I have a far more mature view on things and would rather be able to have a collaborative and productive conversation around the product or service than purely leak information. I’m not operating under any NDA though I’ve certainly signed them for things in the past. I respect the people willing to share with me and share my opinion – that which they seek – openly whether positive or negative.
Recently Charlie Schick wrote a very thought compelling post on the Nokia Conversations blog about trust and leaks. It hit home for me then and again today because for the second time in a few short weeks I am seeing things discussed when I know they should not be quite so in the open. Granted, the mobile tech blogosphere is a small place compared to say the Wall Street Journal, but the point is that people are clearly violating the trust of those who are inviting us to share our opinions.
Charlie’s key takeaway is that leaked hardware and software products change before going public. As discussion builds around an early product, it can actually lead to negativity rather then the excitement companies hope to get when things are finally released.
I enjoy getting early and privileged access and am in no way looking to risk that access by violating your trust.
While I won’t be waiting in line for the 3G iPhone, I’ll probably still install Shozu as soon as it’s available as being able to share my media to any site is a core function of what I do with any smartphone. It’s good to see Shozu is releasing the feature complete iPhone version of their application so you can publish and subscribe to media across their full list of supported sites.
One of the downsides to digital mapping and GPS is that when driving regular routes you usually know more than the system. Seems Dash has felt the same way and with My Route, they let your knowledge contribute to the system:
With the new MyRoute feature, as you travel from one point to another, Dash Express will automatically learn your preferred route in the background. The next time that you drive between the same origin and destination, the first route choice will be MyRoute, complete with traffic-based arrival time data. MyRoute can be compared to the computed Dash routes, including traffic detours, to decide which is optimal. The Dash Expressvia jkOnTheRun
Google just released a media server gadget which enables UPnP sharing to your DLNA devices … things like your PS3 and XBox as reported by Crunchgear. I’m thinking this is actually far more about mobile then set top box though that’s likely to be both a source of content and a display end point.
Given what Nokia has cooking with Home Sync, the rumored iPhone wifi sync and AppleTV, this year is looking good for consumers to get a handle on media – both at home and on the go.
The iPhone definitely stepped up the bar for device sync and I’m looking forward to seeing where this all nets out. Anything that makes it easier to sync content to and from your mobile device as well as within a home network is a good thing in my book. The more functions we cram into things the easier it is for them to become islands and the main reason capture and create media really is to share.
The latest S60 update (Feature Pack 2) supports firmware over the air and today I had a chance to test it out. Using a wifi connection I was able to check and then download the update which then proceeded to reboot and update my device as shown.
I manually checked for the update via the Device Manager application (Tools / Utilities) which took care of the rest. Unlike previous efforts to update my phone, I did not have to have a SIM card inside and there was no worrying about bumping the cord.
I think it might be more likely that men are installing applications and in particular a new browser while women are perhaps more content to use the experience provided by their handset manufacturer or carrier. It’s hard to really know but the only way Opera can even report this type of data is based on who downloads, installs and registers their software. via Mobile Entertainment
I’m thinking this might be DOA at this point. Sure the landing page says Q2 2008, but it’s been a rocky road at Yahoo recently and I can’t imagine this project is high on the priority list.
I hope it’s still moving forward regardless as I think this is the only mobile lifestream / presence aggregator under public development. At Mobile World Congress Yahoo demoed both a standalone as well as Yahoo Go widget though I’m hoping if this comes through there will definitely be a standalone option as I really don’t want to be locked into Yahoo! Go which I loathe ….
You may have noticed that Google updated Search, Reader and iGoogle for mobile … The iGoogle page has been around for a while though not named iGoogle. If you’d signed into Google, you were able to personalize the start page via mobile which was nice, but now there’s an easier way from your desktop. (thanks AAS)
Reader has been enhanced via the iPhone URL for a while now and I enjoy that view on my N810 as well as the various handsets I tend to use. This morning, I noticed that the old default (and crappy) view has been altered to be more like the iPhone version though …not quite as nice. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see that you are probably within the Classic view. Click on Mobile instead and you will have access to the richer iPhone view which as discussed previously works great on S60 and on the Maemo Mozilla Browser. The new enhancements work great too … I can now share with note or email from within the mobile view on both platforms which essentially gives me (and you) a full featured mobile reader. Another tip is to hit # and the view zooms out one level which gives you more on screen. Enjoy!
There’s no need to wait for Apple to flip .Mac into MobileMe to take advantage of your iDisk via mobile …
The Nokia N78 as well as other Feature Pack 2 (S60 3.2) devices all have the capability to connect and use remote drives via a feature called Remote Disk. I’ve added my Apple iDisk from my .Mac account and can stream music and video over wifi. I’m sure it would work over 3G as well if 3G was accessible on my device and at my house.
If MobileMe doesn’t float your boat for your iPhone sync needs, don’t worry. Funambol are on the case, big time. Funambol provides open source push email, contacts & calendars for everyone — on a huge range of handsets. [SMS Text News]
While this post is not really about the iPhone it is the standard for experience and should be mentioned briefly. I’m sure plenty of people will be willing to debate the feature end as well though given the device is still playing catchup with hardware, I’ll leave it at that.
In the past couple of weeks I’ve received two new N-Series devices, first the N82 and more recently the N78. While the N82 handily beats the N78 in specs, I find myself enjoying and choosing to use the N78 more. Part of this is that it’s a new gadget ,but as I’ve thought about it it’s really the updated S60 OS. Feature Pack 2 (S60 3.2) really is a terrific update. There are many subtleties as I discussed in my overview and it’s hard to go back – not hard to use, but I am quickly growing accustomed to the new way it’s done on Symbian and not looking to revert. I am still carrying choices around – N78, N82, N95 at the moment but find I am even skipping over the 3G N95 for the moment to get the better experience from the OS.
Now if I had a second SIM card … I’d absolutely be using the N95 for the faster data access and tethering capability. That’s a considerable expense though and a luxury I’ve yet to convince myself I need.
Price is killer. 3G and GPS for 199(8GB) or 299(16GB). Though subsidized, it’s a very strong offer and should appeal to the masses in a big way.
MobileMe… I’m looking forward to getting this working and love the idea. Sync is very important and something that’s not very easy to do and usually not that simple for the end user. Apple seems to have nailed this for the key pieces of your mobile life – PIM and Photos. I like it. I also like that my .Mac account will just become MobileMe.
The applications marketplace is nice, but I did not see anything that really turned me on in the demos. I’m not much for mobile games, though the graphics were impressive. I already have a DS and a PSP and rarely use either …
Nokia’s probably feeling good about the hardware side of things today, though the MobileMe details really crush the still yet to be delivered Ovi service. The simplicity of it all is where Nokia seems to still struggle. There’s nothing like that on Windows Mobile or Blackberry either, but only Nokia has been pushing their new service model…
As for my own usage, I’m standing clear of the new iPhone for now. I’ll try the 2.0 software when it’s released and look forward to Exchange sync and potentially the VPN access … Otherwise the device is still basically the same. Camera has not been improved at all though the battery life being reported is very strong and something I look forward to hearing about.
While I am ready to be surprised, I just can’t see racing out to get the new iPhone. Last year I waited in line, had a blast, (wastorturedbyactivation) and generally enjoyed using the iPhone but after an initial honeymoon phase (3months) I moved on and have really not looked back. It’s been about a year since the iPhone was released and I’m reflecting on the most popular post I’ve ever written.
I think I should reiterate that I am not a normal user. I am a power user and push devices to their limits frequently. I have given this some considerable thought lately thanks to the influence and full effect of the hype machine. For me, and I would imagine a lot of other mobile power users, the iPhone lacks some key details and features we have had for years. Some of these things are likely to equalize but from what I have seen in both current applications and the leaks from the SDK my needs appear to be best met elsewhere.
I have yet to meet a mobile device whose battery can last as long as I need in a day – including the iPhone and I’d expect HSDPA to have the similar battery crushing power it has on other devices. I’ve had good to excellent photo and video capture on my handsets for several years and am not willing to give that up, period.
In the US 3G is still new so that’s a push, but …the applications, local storage, over the air downloading, 5MP camera with Flash, video recording, java, flash in the browser, enhanced bluetooth profiles (keyboards and stereo headsets) are all key pieces to what I look for and need. I often keep applications (other than email and music) running in the background. Cut and Paste are also things I use many times a day …
The browser of course still remains the golden ticket for the iPhone. The manner in which pages load and render on the large auto-rotating screen is excellent and has yet to be contested on a phone in my experience. The iPhone’s email client with HTML is also very strong.
While the application store is going to be a big deal, the trick for the iPhone will be how to prevent the user from getting in the way. What I mean by this is how do you manage more than a handful of icons in the iPhone UI. Looking at my father’s iPhone recently he had two full screens of icons for all of his bookmarks, I mean web apps. My wife’s device has been handled by the kids and is a mess as well. When additional applications arrive the desire to try will be high for many. The more you add the more complicated it gets and the less bullet-proof the experience becomes.
The iPhone’s greatest success has been the broad mass awareness (and relative adoption) of mobile connectivity and I am grateful for that. I hope that the next generation continues to push things as we all stand to benefit.
Things might change on Monday … I’ll be watching just like everyone else!
The Nokia N78 arrived last night and I charged it up and started to play after getting the kids to bed. I’ve found that the N-Series line is similar to BMW though instead of 3/5/7 we have 7/8/9. The 9 series tend to be all around experts, while the 8s are more like category stars and the 7 series generally provide much of what you get across the board, but perhaps a slightly lower spec. I don’t mean this to take anything away from the N78. The N73, which the N78 seems to be designed to replace has been one of my favorite devices in the N-Series lineup.
After less than 24 hours use, the N78 impresses. It’s the first N-Series with USB 2.0 and the first Nokia with an FM Transmitter. You’ll also find 3.2MP Autofocus Zeiss optics, WiFi, GPS, geo-tagging of photos etc etc. There’s ample system processing speed and the updated operating system (S60 Feature Pack 2) offers some improvements that are sure to make S60 more approachable to a first timer, though may actually take a bit to adjust to as an experienced user. The keyboard is highly compressed and honestly it feels a bit small to me. The N82 has very small keys, but they are well spaced and easy to use while the N82 has a unique key formation that while easy to use is just a tight fit. Overall the device is feels nice in your hand. It’s lighter and thinner than the N82, though they are both about the same length.
Feature Pack 2 adds easier access to what’s running, shows the clock deeper in the system and adds a few other tricks like Audio Themes, timed Profiles and vertical standby layout. You also get an alphabetical list when adding applications in the shortcut list which sounds obvious but seems to be random in OS releases until now. I’ve also noticed that when the N78 syncs with PC Suite, sync occurs in the background and you only see a small icon near the battery meter. A very nice addition is the use of access point priorities / groups which let you define an order of connection types to get the best you have (WiFi or cellular) through a single point. This was previously only seen on E-Series devices though it’s simpler here. It’s been a while since I’ve used the S60 mail client for any period of time, but I configured my Gmail as IMAP and have to say it’s far more responsive than I recall. I’m not sure this is FP2 specific, but I think messaging has definitely been boosted.
The unit I have is the N78-1 which is the EMEA release meaning I don’t have 3G for the US. This is a bummer, but I don’t have 3G at my house anyway, so I’m hardly missing it at the moment. The camera is uncovered which is a bummer, but something I’ve become quite used to as well on the N95-3.
The back cover is seriously challenging to removed compared to other devices and I actually already broke, yes broke, the pull tab. I’m hoping it’s still relatively easy to get access underneath as my SIM is in there … Otherwise the device is solid.
In my usage, I’ve found GPS acquisition to be super quick – less than 10 seconds. The UI is snappy, though the Navi-Wheel can be tricky. I tested the FM Transmitter last night with the BH-903 headphones and was very pleased to see that the connection worked meaning I won’t have to deal with A2DP drop-outs, though it was not as loud as the bluetooth audio …
I’ve done a walk-through video as well which should give a good sense of what the device is like to use as well as a comparison to other recent Nokia N-Series Handsets like the N82, N81 and N95 and even the N73 for good measure.
Yes I know the iPhone has no keyboard, so let’s just put that to the side….
There are however plenty of other devices that can take advantage of the excellent work that’s been done on the updated mobile UI which do have keyboards … like the Nokia N810 which runs a Mozilla browser and the N95 which has the S60 Webkit browser. The more I’ve used the latest Google Reader the more it’s clear that a very wide array of devices could be using this and why not add just a bit more functionality to enhance it that much more.
I’m thinking the N810 could probably get this going through a greasemonkey script … Anyone up to the challenge?
