Para quem não sabe, está a decorrer o PopUp, um evento “espontâneo” com pipocas, música, xboxs e passatempos para a malta. Para saber mais sobre isso podem ver as fotos na galeria. Dentro do evento há também apresentações surpresa pelos bares dos departamentos. A primeira de hoje foi a minha, sobre o Futuro da Web (para leigos).
Aquilo que era previsto ser uma curta apresentação, acabou por se tornar numa conversa, o que foi óptimo para ouvir outras opiniões. Tive apenas mais um participante de fora da área (os eventos surpresa acabam por ter fraca assitência) mas gostou bastante da conversa. Quanto aos outros participanetes, têm de começar a tentar esquecer os termos técnicos nestas conversas (hint hint). Em relação ao site da semântic web, eu simplesmente mostrei microformats e OpenSearch em uso, e falei de potencialidades do APML para sugestão automática.
Em relação à apresentação assim, tencionava falar das várias tendências que podem ser levadas para o futuro da web daqui a 5, 10 anos (claro que um puto numa garagem pode ter uma nova ideia que revolucionará isto tudo) e discutir um pouco cada uma delas. Depois no final tinha três scenarios possíveis usando a web daqui a 5 anos, mas nem foram precisos :)
Espero ter oportunidade de repetir esta conversa, mas num contexto mais geral e com pessoas de outras áreas.
Opera’s Chris Mills writes a great article titled Coding for the mobile web which I heavily recommend for any of you who is interested in developing websites targeting mobile devices, or just any webdesigner/webdeveloper in general, because you should make sure your website runs on mobile devices too.
In this article I learned something that I find amazing I didn’t know before: the fact that some mobile browsers, like Opera Mini in this case, work through a proxy system. This is, when you navigate to alcidesfonseca.com, you’re going for a opera script that fetches this website and formats it in a way it fits perfectly your browser (and saves you bandwidth costs!). I must say I’m admired! From the use I gave to Opera Mini, the speed didn’t make me think there was an external proxy doing this!
I must say I love XNA! I like making games. I do not like C++ low-level programming. When I was (am?) a kid, I did some stupid games with Game Maker 6. I did all those games without a line of code! I really like that. XNA brings that concept, but to professional (and casual) game developers. Of course you have to write code, but only the logic you need. Under XNA there are all those low-level functions you don’t want to be writing and debugging.
Yesterday John Schappert revealed a bit of XNA future in the GDC. They want to have the “Youtube for gamers” (seems like Nintendo wants too with WiiWare) and their also targeting mobile devices. He showed a Zune running a XNA game!
That made me thinking… Will Zune be a competitor against PSP and DS? And will the iPhone/iPod Touch with the soon-to-be-released SDK also join this market? And where the Windows Mobile stands in this scenario?
Whenever I connect my WM6.1 HTC TyTN to my Mac, SyncMate just goes spinning his beachball without stopping… I really wanted to sync my PDA with my Macbook, so I got a way of doing it with the latest version: RC2.
I opened SyncMate.app in Finder, looked in the Resources folder and found a sweet Smartphone2005.arm.cab! So I sent it to the windows mobile (I used my windows desktop, but you can send by email or web) and I installed the driver. Then clicked in the home icon and allowed my Macbook to sync with it and enabled autostart.
Next, I added the IP of my PDA to Syncmate and he did the rest! I have all the syncing now and wireless! I just ask for a Tasks plugin for the final version, since it’s the thing that I miss the most!
John Gruber shared his thoughts on why Apple doesn’t want Flash on the iPhone and I believe that this should be reason for Microsoft to get Silverlight on the Mobile world.
In Microsoft’s events I’ve seen that they are trying to get people to use Silverlight (until now, they’ve failed in my opinion. Only a bunch of their partners is using it in the real world). In terms of results, you can achieve the same with Flash and all designers know it already. They believe it will be used because their desktops apps will also be built with the same technology (XAML), but I also haven’t seen those yet… Who knows if MIX08 will bring some big news?
Back to the mobile world, Microsoft is loosing to Apple’s iPhone mainly due to the user interface everybody complains on Windows Mobile. Nokia, LG and others are already following iPhone’s design patterns, and even the Android has some similarities. Yes, the “G Phone” that will be the main competitor for the Windows Mobile, since it will run on the same mobile (HTC and others). There are even someplugins to make WM more user friendly.
So I guess WM7 (or 6.5?) should have this astonishing interface and Silverlight based and if possible making it available to the Android Phones and even Symbian. That’s how they could make Silverlight a ubiquitous platform.
Until now, I would swear that the only mobile device AJAX was available was in the iPhone. Well, I now know how to use the XHR activeX object in Pocket IE and it gets better: There is a library for working with the AJAX capabilities of mobile browsers. Frost AJAX lib(via Celso) is a really nice project that I will use when developing my next web application.
I really hate when I go to some website that is only meant to use with desktop browsers. Sure webdesigns should have fluid layouts and AJAX should be hiJAXed, but I believe sometimes the best solution is to make a mobile-specific website. Like m.twitter.com or GMail/GReader. Sometimes users in different devices have different needs so they should get different contents.
But yes, Javascript and AJAX is the future for Mobile also. The iPhone is a good example of that!
One of the advantages of the OpenID system is that you don’t need a password at all to login. In fact André showed me MyVidoop where they use image categories to login instead of the traditional password.
Here is a new login workflow that uses your twitter account to send you your password. You can receive it by IM, SMS or your favorite Twitter client, and just login with it. As simple as that, and you are using your twitter account to login everywhere OpenID is available.
Pretty cool! I just wish Twitter themselves buy or develop this system, so we can all have official Twitter OpenIDs!
This post is a best-of my feedreadings of today. Some people do del.icio.us posting and I’m getting infected too.
I found about Port25, a website where is explained why Microsoft hates OpenSource! (NOT) I’m curious about what will MS say about OpenSource in 10 years. When maybe Ballmer is enjoying his retirement and someone from a different background (and younger) will decide what direction will Redmond’s still-big Giant take.
Wooooooow… Portugal anda a evoluir e já fez um telemóvel! A empresa em questão é a NDrive conhecida pelas suas soluções de navegação. Depois de dispositivos GPS, e de Pocket PCs da HTC e Mio, decidiram lançar eles próprios o NDrive S300.
Este dispositivo, já apelidado de NPhone, é um Pocket PC tradicional com Windows Mobile 6, GPS integrado, teclado virtual, bluetooth, camera, e essas coisas todas que já esperávamos. E características inovadoras? Só o facto de ser anunciado como “o primeiro telemóvel português”, o que nos enche de orgulho. Orgulho esse que é engolido quando se lê que é produzido na China…
Mas mesmo assim é muito saber que um produto português vai ser entrar no mercado internacional. E em terras lusas é livre de operador!
Usually I do not post about something that everyone is talking about, I usually wait until things settle down to make my point about it, but this time I couldn't resist.
First thing I noticed and you too probably, is that the Android, Google’s OpenSource Platform, offers the GUI, browser and maps pretty much like the iPhone. They probably have planned it, so that the AvantGarde of the Web2.0 and Gadgeteers spend their money on the iPhone, and months later the so rumored gPhone comes out with a look-alike OS, but running on every device. Of course it lacks multi-touch and Apple’s design, but you have the freedom of choosing any operator you like and also it’s an open platform.
Apple lost my (and for sure other’s) respect when they closed the iPhone for 3rd party applications. They basically killed the change for the iPhone to be REALLY used. Of course there is a SDK coming up on February (until then, I will be making my own applications on my Windows Mobile and now, Android…) and I won’t be surprised if it comes out that the iPhone runs Android applications (as they both are UNIX based (iPhone runs on MacOS and Android on Linux) and Android has support for a accelerometer… Oh, and both have a webkit based browser…
Google has made the right choice launching it: first to the developers so they are part of the final product and giving away $10M for the best ones! Nokia had a contest on this and Microsoft runs several small competitions for mobile applications and Apple… hmmm, nevermind. Although we don’t have real devices yet (like OpenMoko is selling), you have a pretty fine emulator (yes, I have tested it) that gives you a perfect idea of what it is with a real device. I look forward to test this and have it running on my Windows Mobile. Of course a lot of apps are lacking and I don’t know what will be shipping the official Google version, since they have it all in the web!
The 3 carrier has announced the SkypePhone, a 3G mobile phone that comes already with a integrated skype client. And calls between Skype users are free! And it really means free since “3 won’t charge you for the data access for VOIP calls”! You can read more on this on Dale Lane’s blog.
I know you can already have skype on your phone, but for most of end-users it is simpler to buy a phone where it already comes installed and configured.
After the removal of VOIP service on the N95, I believe operators are taking the right path towards the ubiquitous web. They shouldn’t block alternatives like VOIP, they should encourage them and increase the value of their natural services.
I hope to see Skype launching the phone all around Europe including Portugal where I know a lot of people that would buy it the first minute it comes out. And seems like the battle for the mobile market has begun. First the iPhone, now the SkypePhone and in the next two weeks Google Phone!
Once you navigate to a website, the first thing you’ll see, is a overall image of the website. Like a resized screenshot of the desktop browser. Then you have to zoom to the part that interests you. To read some text, you’ll have to scroll both horizontal and vertically, what just sucks! And regarding the menus, it requires various clicks for something basic. One thing I really enjoyed was the scrolling drag of the page.
Pocket IE is the traditional browser that renders the content for the PDA resolution. Almost all the websites fit the window and you only need scrolling vertically, which is very good while reading text (and the TYTN scroolwheel is just marvelous!). The left button has also the most probable action you’ll take (favorites or back, depending on the situation) and that makes the navigation truly easy and fluid.
When on my PDA I visit almost only blogs, twitter, gmail, google reader (ok, and flickr once in a while), so I’ll keep using PocketIE that gives me exactly the kind of presentation I want for the content I visit. I guess Microsoft is on the wrong path here.
Nokia has released the beta (even in that is very web2.0!) of their social network targeting mobile phone users. It allows everyone to share their audio files, images, videos ,documents applications and games from (almost) any phone! With a nice and simple look that everybody feels in love with, it is a very attractive website for you to spend your time. And better, since it’s targeting mobile phones, there is the website version for your mobile phone and even a app for you to take MOSH along with you for everywhere.
I really think that this is a huge step towards the web2.0 everywhere. While social web users are people that spend most of they time in the Internet, now it will embrace people who don’t have that time, but keep attached to their mobiles phones. Web2.0 buzzword “mobility” has just gained another value.
Nokia has innovated in two other points. First, it allows contents for other brands, that might make it more universal and bring new customers to Nokia. Another point is the fact Nokia made it possible to share applications, games and images that are a income source for Mobile Operators and some niche companies (Like Jamba). This might be an issue in the future (as it was in the past when Symbian phones appeared) but I believe this is the right path.
I hope this website goes live soon so I can get some pretty nice content for my TyTN.
After Winamp, SongBird and MusikCube I am now using Windows Media Player. You may be thinking why do I use it when it’s so heavy and microsofty. Well, I use it to Sync with my TyTN and it’s one cent coin sized microSD card. But then again, this sync is not really a sync. WMP checks how much space is left and we can send musics there. They are copied even if they already are in the device. One-way sync sucks!
Next, I like to lie down a little lot in the sofa listening to music and watching morangos com açúcar tv. Well, due to my enormous playlist, most of the time I wanna skip songs (no I dont like to make different playlists) and I don’t like to take my wireless keyboard with me to the sofa.
So I’ve looked for WMP remote control programs for my TyTN, but I haven’t found any freeware and nice to use. These are the times I love to be a developer :) First I tried to control it from Python using this but it would only read things from WMP, not to perform actions.
Next, I thought about creating a webservice and then a PocketPC application to consume it. I did it (and can get you the code if you want), but it wouldn’t run in my IIS. Next try: did a ASP.NET website to control the WMP remotly, worked fine but when running on my IIS didn’t worked again. Damn IIS! I removed it and reinstalled, but no good. Looked for any hack or something, and no results. I tried to run ASMX without IIS but didn’t worked either. Next try: Mod_AspDotNet and this time the application was running, but not affecting WMP.
Finally I managed to have it running. How? I compiled a command-line executable (like remotecontrol.exe next/play/stop/previous) and I created a python web script to call it depending on the link clicked. It runs on my own Python CGI Server and I access it from the PDA using PocketIE. I hoped a WirelessLAN solution would be quicker but it takes almost 30 seconds to perform a page query. My webserver responds quickly, the wireless network is fast and PocketIE works fines with internet pages. Maybe one day I’ll find out more.
Following my last post, this one will also be about Microsoft Browsers. However this one is for mobile devices. As a Windows Mobile 5 user, when surfing the web I get all freaked out because a lot of websites aren’t rendering properly on the PocketIE (most because of frames, flash and image-based layouts btw). Well microsoft is getting ready the solution for these problems: Microsoft Deepfish.
Deepfish is a Windows Mobile browser in which content is displayed as in a desktop one, and then you can zoom, pan and cue map for quick navigation and browsing. It will also have new interesting features like ActiveX controls, AJAX, cookies, Javascript, and HTTPPOST that will make webdevelopers like me truly happy.
After reading this, you surely are thinking the same I did: Microsoft is putting a full browser into mobile devices just like apple did with Safari for the iPhone and copying the same navigation style. I bet in a near future multi-touch PDA running WM6 will be released.
Yesterday I attended a Workshop about Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems that took place at DEI. It was a very interesting experience, so in the next days I will post about some presentations that delighted me, starting today.
The first one was given by Marta Figueiredo and André Teixeira (who I will be working with in the next months). Despite being the youngest presenting their project, they had the courage to make a live demo.
Before presenting the project itself, they talked about Mobile Tagging, how it’s already being used in Japan and its possibilities. Imagine yourself reading a magazine and want to go to a website written there with a long address. Wouldn’t it be simpler to take a photo with your PDA or mobile phone, and view it?
Marta and André applied this concept to a museum where there were datamatrix codes associated with every painting. This allowed visitors using a PDA to take a photo of the code, and see more information about the artwork. It worked together with the floor plant of the museum, so people could know where they were, and the whereabouts of they favorite painting. It worked just fine with a mobile client and a server containing all the data accessible by WiFi. They also added voting and commenting possibilities that were shown in the demo.
I’m looking forward to see more solutions and innovations using Mobile Tagging, either barcodes, datamatrix or RFID.
Today my HTC TyTN arrived. It's in my opinion the best Pocket PC around, only lacks the GPS feature (what sucks since the chip is already in its motherboard, but an internal antenna is missing).
I took a few pictures of me opening my new gadget that will allow me to forget to study while developing cool apps for Windows Mobile.
I was happy when I found out that in the box, a screen protector, a leather pouch and a Ndrive CD with it's software were included (check flickr photos).
I found interesting that there are 4 ways of controling the device. 1st: from the touch screen. 2nd: from the arrows and buttons below the screen. 3rd: From the scroll and button in the side of the phone. 4th: throught the keyboard that's "inside" it.
The first thing I didn't quite like it, but I already knew, was the proprietary headset. I know that to work also as a microphone, it couldn't be just a mini-jack plug, but I would like to connect it directy to speaker... Too bad. Hope I don't loose the headset..
According to Sérgio, I’m addicted to twitter. I think it’s no big deal, but thanks to that, I made my first Windows Mobile application.
It is not a fully twitter client, because it uses the m.twitter.com inside the browser, but has notifications and I think it has all the basic needs to twit in your Pocket PC devide.
You can give it a try but remember is only a alpha version. Feedback is appreciated.
Soon I will make a less webby version of Mobile Twitter.
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I used to write in this blog, but I've found a better format to express myself. From now on, you may read my writings on ideas, programming and politics on my new wiki.
