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June 30, 2005
Nokia announces Java CDC for new Series 60 phones
Yesterday at JavaOne, Nokia announced that it would some new Series 60 phones with Java CDC. The CDC (Connected Device Configuration) as opposed to the CLDC (Connection Limited Device Configuration) that is supported on J2ME enabled devices presently, is a J2SE (standard edition) compatible configuration. With the exception of the GUI (AWT), it is pretty much the same set of APIs. This means that J2ME developers will have a much richer set of APIs to use when developing applicatons for Nokia Series 60 smartphones. At present developers who want a more complete set of functionality for their smartphone applications have to ascend the steep learning curve of Symbian.
Hopefully this will attract a lot more developers to the Series 60 community.
Posted by David Adams at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
"The Feature" wraps it up
Today was the last post from the writers over at
http://www.thefeature.com/article?articleid=101727&ref=7982835
Posted by David Adams at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2005
The Missing Link
As far as development goes I have been using a Unix box since college. Most of the 90's I used a Sparc 1, 5, Ultra 10. I started using linux as a dev box a few years ago when the desktop started getting good enough and there was support for decent IDE's. (I've been using linux for servers since 93). When I got into mobile however in 1999 I was forced to use Windows because most of the development tools are only supported on Windows. Specifically for doing any J2ME development. About 2 years ago I switched to Mac. I use my Mac for everything. With one exception. J2ME development. For that I have to park myself in front of a Windows XP dev box. Well no more! I've finally found a solution to my woes.
My friend Corey sent me a link to MPowerPlayer which makes a super nice J2ME MIDP 2.0 emulator that works on Mac OS X. It is a real easy install and very easy to get working. It is actually much nicer than using the KDE on a windows box. It comes with a preverifier and the docs have all the ANT build scripts you need to automate it's use. I just dropped their Ant build scripts into my Eclipse project and was ready to go. Apparently there is a pretty easy way of getting MPowerPlayer to emulate inside of Eclipse. I'll work on that next.
So now I can write MIDP code on my laptop, which is great because I usually feel the need to fiddle with some MIDP when I'm traveling or have an hour to kill in a coffeeshop.
Posted by David Adams at 11:00 AM | Comments (1)
June 23, 2005
This made my day
A little while ago I wrote a Stopwatch application for Symbian phones. Plopped it up on Handango for a $1.99 and have been selling about 4 copies a week. I spent a lot of time getting the UI nice and clean for a good user experience. Someone posted this review of the application today.
---
Rating: 5 out of 5
One line summary: FINALLY - a great countdown timer/stop watch at a great price!
Description: I have been looking for a countdown timer/stopwatch app for quite some time now, and particularly a countdown timer, so that i dont burn my meals every night ;)
I found this on handango and for £1.40 you cannot complain. (PS - i got it even cheaper by searchin on the web for Handango discount codes - http://www.handango.com/buyersurveyMay2005
you get a 20% discount valid til end of June 05 - perfect for Handango big spenders!)
It is a brilliant little app - you have various modes from lap/split timing for the stop watch, a very nice countdown timer where you can set hours, minutes AND seconds - the alarm tone isnt too bad either! And a clock as well.
I have seen stopwatch/countdown timer apps go for four times the amount of this thing and more that dont look half as good - it has a very clean, professional look to it.
Great functionality AND it works perfectly on my Nokia 6680. My only other tip for the 6680 is this: if the automatic Nokia Suite installer does not work, place the stopwatch installer DIRECTLY onto your memory card and then install it from your phone.
If you need a stopwatch/timer, this app comes highly recommended and for the price, it firmly deserves its 5 stars. Does exactly what it says!
--
Cool.
Stopwatch screenshots
Posted by David Adams at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2005
Scope
People I speak with about what Mobile Research is doing are always surprised when I tell them how long it takes to profile a mobile phone. As of now it takes approximately 13 hours to profile a mobile phone using our process. It takes quite a while, and a lot of that is using automated testing tools. I have been working this weekend on putting our list of device data into a PDF file so I will have something more than a word doc to share with prospective customers regarding what data we profile on the handsets, and the pdf is currently at 12 pages and I'm not done yet. So what takes so long? Well we are compiling a very accurate database. That means that when you test if something works or not, you have to be able to verify that your answer is correct. If we get a negative result for a test, we have to know what a positive looks like on that specific phone. Therein lies the rub. These mobile phones are so flakey that it takes a long time not only to run a test but to verify that the data is correct. Example: Digital Rights Managements tests. The first DRM test we test is for forward lock. That is, when you download say a ringtone, that you can't forward it on to someone else. OK sounds simple enough. Well, can you forward an unlocked ringtone on this device? Have to have a positive to compare a negative too. If so, then the test is pretty easy. Just two ringtone downloads, and try sending the two different ringtones (locked and not). However, if you can't forward an unlocked ringtone, how do you know if the DRM is working or if it is just the phone. And if we can't tell, we have to change how we are recording the data. Instead of yes/no, it has to become yes/no/device doesn't support forwarding. This kind of problem can crop up on any of our huge list of test cases, so we are conitnually updating our database and test cases when we run into weirdness with an individual device.
Anyways, we've gone through this for months and now are down to just re-testing a lot of devices and making the push to finish the testing on the rest. Get's tiring though looking at a mobile phone for hours at a time. The results are well worth the effort though. Each datum is known to be correct because we've tested it on an actual device against an actual carrier's network. You can't get that kind of assured accuracy when you get lazy and start taking shortcuts, like grouping phones together by platform/vendor.
For all those who have asked: Yes we are profiling the Motorola Brick. Here is it's Profile:
Manufacturer: Motorola
Model: Brick
Network Type: AMPS
On/Off switch - Yes
Antenna length: 5.25 inches
Weight: 2.45 pounds
A Mobile Research researcher demo's profiling of a Motorola "Brick"
Posted by David Adams at 05:57 PM | Comments (1)
June 16, 2005
Happy Bloomsday!
Happy Bloomsday!
Posted by David Adams at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2005
Another great Seattle Mobile meeting
Monday night was the first Seattle Mobile meeting we've had on a Monday. We moved the meetings so we could ensure availability of the room we rent. We had a pretty good turnout. June's topic was "Mobile Video" and we had some great presentations. Devkumar Gandhi of Vidiator gave a really interesting presentation of their technologies and services. Vidiator is a video technology company owned by Hutchicon Wampoa (The owners of Hutchison 3G) and they have launched product in 9 countries in Europe and Asia. Devkumar showed their awesome 3D avatar technology which lets them make 3D avatars complete with body/head/lip movement sync for people as well as other characters. They had some really compelling animated avatar video content that is currently on the market in Europe and Asia.
Tricia Iboshi from The Platform also a great presentation on what they are doing in the mobile space. The platform is a video/media hosting company that is doing all the hosting/streaming for Verizon's V-Cast service. Very exciting stuff.
I've posted all my pictures to the Seattle Mobile FlICKR photostream with the tag "Seattle Mobile".
Posted by David Adams at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2005
Seattle Mobile tonight
The June meeting of Seattle Mobile is tonight. This month's topic is "Mobile Video" and we have some great presenters from Vidiator and The Platform lined up. If you are in the Seattle area and work in the mobile industry please come by.
Posted by David Adams at 11:43 AM | Comments (2)
June 11, 2005
How to use iPod earbuds with a Nokia phone
So Ryan came up with a simple procedure for converting MP3 files into AAC and loading them onto a Nokia Series 60 phone. No chance I'm using my Nokia 3230 for a music player though because it can't hold a candle to my iPod. However I don't always have my iPod with me and it would be nice to kill time listening to a podcast once in a while. The problem is that the headset that comes with the Nokia 3230 sucks. I mean it really sucks. The ear buds fall out and the wires are rubberized and get tangled very easily. What I really would like to do is use my iPod earbuds. However you can't plug third party headsets into a Nokia 3230 because the only jack is the Pop Port.
Nokia headset
Nokia Pop Port connector
Solution: Modify a crappy Nokia headset with a jack to take my iPod ear buds.
First step: Take a look at the Nokia headset. The heaset has a little hub in the middle that contains a microphone and a mute button. This is where the ear bud wires are connected to the whole headset. Luckily this hub is held together with 4 philips screws. Make that 4 TINY philips screws.
Hub
The mute button is hidden behind the rubber button cover. It is held in with two rubber flanges and pops right out.
This is what the board looks like inside. It has a condensor microphone, a small microswitch, a surface mounted IC, and connector pads. Hey the wire connector pads are labeled. Sweet that is going to make wiring MUCH easier.
Well there is no way the board, and the new mini headphone jack are going to fit in the hub. Unfortunately getting rid of the board makes the headset unusable. The phone needs to talk to that IC to know to switch to headset mode. So some trimming is in order. I took my dremel and cut off everything I didn't need. Got rid of the condensor microphone and the switch. I never use the headset to make calls and I am planning on buying a bluetooth earpiece so this will be strictly for listening to podcasts.
Cut down the board quite a bit.
When I cut the board down, I cut a few ground traces so I had to wire the IC to ground with a length of wire wrap wire.
Next I wired the micro phono jack to the headset cable wires. Since the board was labeled I was able to get the connections right the first time.
Next I wired the board in with some wire wrap wires so I would have long enough length to move the board around. It is going to be a tight fit.
I was able to fit everythin into the hub. I had to take a dremel and cut out a lot of structural material from the hub. Also had to cut the flanges off the rubber button cover.
After some creative positioning (and more time with the Dremel) I was able to get everything lined up and fit into the hub.
Put (cram) the hub back together with the screws. Had to Superglue the rubber button cover back on.
Finished product: a connector/extendor that my iPod earbuds, or any other stereo headphones can plug into.
Posted by David Adams at 03:06 PM | Comments (1)
June 07, 2005
24 Hours in California
Just got back from a quick one day trip to SF and Silicon Valley. Just quick one day turnaround. It's suprisingly easy to get down to San Jose and back; and quick. I was able to coordinate business with the June Mobile Monday. Mobile Monday is a group similar to Seattle Mobile. There is a somewhat loose affiliation of Mobile Monday meetings in several states and countries (off the top of my head: San Francisco/Silicon Valley, L.A., Helsinki, London, Tokyo, Milan/Rome, and a new one in New York). Our good friend Brian Fling was giving a presentation on mobile usibility and had some meetings in S.F. so we hooked up and did some traveling together (mostly I think because I had a rental car).
So for an extra $10 I was able to "Biggee size" my rental car. Check out the beast that they rented to me. That's a bonefied 2005 Canyonero.
Twelve yards long, two lanes wide,
Sixty five tons of American pride!
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Brian Fling had a couple of late meetings in SF so I headed over to Cafe de la Presse to get some food, a cup of coffee, and do some work. Horror, of horrors; they are closed for remodeling. Ok. Crap. So 45 minutes of driving around downtown SF looking for WiFi signal near a cafe. Then some more time doing 1-way street loops looking for a place to park. I found a cool looking cafe called "Caffe Espresso" on Powell, and there was some free hotel WiFi nearby. Caffe Espresso is perfect. Good Panini and good coffee (Illy Caffe, my favorite), and decent Wifi. I was starving too. A little out of it because it was like 3:30 and I hadn't eaten all day.
Brian walked up to meet me after his meeting and we hung out and did some work until 5.
Apparently I was out of it enough from not eating, flying, and not having had any coffee all day, that when I parked the rental car, I neglected to see these signs at the end of the block.
Hey, where's the truck? Apparently the city of San Francisco has a tow truck large enough to tow a Canyonero!
Doh!. Ok, find me a cab, we've got 2 hours until the Mobile Monday meeting in Redwood City.
So about 30 minutes, a trip to the Hall of Justice (no really that's what they call it), and $180 later and we get the Canyonero back.
We made the Mobile Monday meeting with a few minutes to spare, so everything worked out ok. The topic was Usibility and it was hosted this month at OpenWave in Redwood City. Great turnout for the meeting. There were probably 70 people there and OpenWave had a big spread. It was a great meeting. I met some really interesting people who are doing some very interesting things in the mobile space. There are some pictures of the meeting on Flickr tagged with mobilemonday.
Posted by David Adams at 08:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 02, 2005
Check that off the list
Well instead of taking Memorial Day off, I spent 9 hours in the office reconfiguring our network. Finally moved from an old OpenBSD firewall to a newer all-in-one firewall/VPN solution. The OpenBSD box has served me well. I've been using it for years. However the firewall/NAT software (ipf/ipnat) are old and not supported anymore and the VPN software that I was running (ISKAMPD) is really hard to configure and I have never been able to get a Mac client to work with it.
So now we have separate networks for corporate, research and development, and a DMZ. All the boxes have new IP addresses which freed up a couple of static IP's for us. The WiFi routers are outside the firewall where they should be, and everything is working smoothly. I had to buy some VPN client software (VPN Tracker) for the Mac boxes, because the VPM client on the Mac is too user friendly to configure if it doesn't work the first time. It is nice to finally be able to send mail and access the dev boxes from anywhere securely over a VPN. My only problem now is that I can't print from my iBook over the VPN. So I've got to get that straightened out; then we are set.
Posted by David Adams at 08:28 AM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2005
New Rule
New Rule: Company buys lunch at least once every two weeks.
We've all been eating lunch at our desks a little too often, so we had a company lunch at "Sushi Land". Sushi Land (Marine Polis) is Kei Tan style sushi where the individual servings of sushi come by your table or counter on a conveyor belt. You can tell the price of the sushi by the color of plate that it is on. Plates range from $1.00 to $4.00.
Posted by David Adams at 02:08 PM | Comments (2)