About Mobility Weblog

If you work on mobile web technologies and/or applications, or are just interested on learning about them, you should consider attending Mobile Web Strategies 2008 event (September 9th 2008, San Francisco).

The are lots of interesting topics being discussed, including Who is using the Mobile Web and why, the strengths and weaknesses of the mobile web, to who and what will drive the next generation of mobile web applications and business models.

The event, organized by my good friend Ajit Jaokar (Futuretext), looks solid with expert speakers from all the mobile industry… (I was originally scheduled to attend and speak on the topic of mobility and analytics, but unfortunately I can’t make it).

Who Should Attend?

Carriers - Software Developers - Online Retailers - Media Outlets - Search Engines - Web Developers - Content Providers - Service Providers - Internet Marketers - Information Providers - Entertainment Companies - Investment & Commercial Banking - Venture Capitalist - Educational - Game Developers - Advertising Agencies - Consultants - Government Agencies - Brand Managers - Directories - Location Based Services - Billing and Payment Companies - Internet Security Providers - Analysts

A very interesting event that you should consider attending…

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Technology Review has published a Special Reports on the 10 Emerging Technologies for 2008:

• Modeling Surprise — Combining massive quantities of data, insights into human psychology, and machine learning can help manage surprising events, says Eric Horvitz.
• Probabilistic Chips — Krishna Palem thinks a little uncertainty in chips could extend battery life in mobile devices–and maybe the duration of Moore’s Law, too.
• NanoRadio — Alex Zettl’s tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics.
• Wireless Power — Physicist Marin Soljacic is working toward a world of wireless electricity.
• Atomic Magnetometers — John Kitching’s tiny magnetic-field sensors will take MRI where it’s never gone before.
• Offline Web Applications — Adobe’s Kevin Lynch believes that computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop.
• Graphene Transistors — A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer of Georgia Tech could lead to speedy, compact computer processors.
• Connectomics — Jeff Lichtman hopes to elucidate brain development and disease with new technologies that illuminate the web of neural circuits.
• Reality Mining — Sandy Pentland is using data gathered by cell phones to learn about human behavior.
• Cellulolytic Enzymes — Frances Arnold is designing better enzymes for making biofuels from cellulose.

Two of the emerging technologies listed have direct implications on future mobile software and applications: 1) offline web applications, and 2) Reality Mining.

What they call Reality Mining is an area of great interest to me, as it deals with taking into consideration user’s mobile context (and related behavioral analytics) to bring a better user experience, to bring the right information that matters and when it matters the most, to bring more value to both the end-user and the business-side of the equation:

Reality mining, he says, “is all about paying attention to patterns in life and using that information to help [with] things like setting privacy patterns, sharing things with people, notifying people–basically, to help you live your life.”

See the video on Reality Mining, where Alex (Sandy) Pentland, director of the Human Dynamics Group at MIT, describes “a future in which cell phones log data about their owners’ behavior, data that can be used to strengthen social networks, generate recommendations, help track diseases, and monitor personal health”.

As the tagline for this blog reads: Mobility is (about) People, their Interactions and their Data.

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SMS is King, from the end-user’s perspective. SMS is heaven, from the operators’ perspective, as it is a cash cow. And SMS is hell for businesses offering messaging, but that don’t have a good plan for monetizing it…

SMS is way expensive to offer. For example, in the U.S.:

• A dedicated keyword will cost you around $12K a year,
• Connectivity to a message aggregator will cost you like $2K a month,
• Messages originated from your server will cost you about 2-5 cents, depending on volume.
• Time and development costs related to certifications across carriers (and differences between them), plus the ongoing support for audits.

Startups must do appropriate planning and have a business model that will cover SMS operational costs, or your SMS support will be short-lived. For better or worst, the above costs are barriers to entry for startups and anyone wanting to play the game. But SMS is King, a necessary “evil”, an important channel to support.

Twitter recently killed its support for SMS on the UK; for a long time many of us have been wondering how the hell Twitter has been able to support its offering without a business strategy that allows them to make money and cover operational costs.

So I’m not surprised to see Twitter cut costs, but what I’m surprised to see is that they decided to cut support for U.K. instead of introducing a revenue model and validate it; people will pay for useful services.

The question is not “Will someone kill SMS already?”. But the question is “Will SMS (costs) kill a Startup already?”.

“To SMS” or “Not To SMS”; that is the question…

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Some people calls it a scam, others calls it smart…

At $999.00 and for those who can afford it, the “I am Rich” iPhone application (which implements no real run-time functionality, is a statement.

But Apple decided to remove the application from its App Store; and with it, it has set a precedent…

In my opinion, the “I Am Rich” application is a very interesting exercise. Here the author identified a segment of users who doesn’t care about functionality or cost, but cares about differentiation and exclusivity… A niche with great potential returns; cheap to build application with high returns. That is very smart.

So, as long as the author properly describes the application and what you get for the money, the app is totally valid, and should not be removed by Apple… people will buy.

See Apple’s iPhone-App-Approval Mouse Falls Off Treadmill: Buy The $1000 App That Does Nothing (AAPL).

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According to the Tiobe Programming Community Index, Java is the top/dominant programming language (Aug 2008):

Tiobe Programming Community Index, August 2008 (Credit: Tiobe)

The same reports indicates that COBOL scores a new all time low (at position 19), yet it still is above Objective-C (at position 42)!

Top 10 programming languages:

1.    Java
2.    C
3.    (Visual) Basic
4.    C++
5.    PHP
6.    Python
7.    Perl
8.    C#
9.    Ruby
10.    JavaScript
:
19.    COBOL
:
23.    Fortran
:
37.    Smalltalk
:
42.    Objective-C
:
50.    Caml

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[Via c/net Java still top programming language)

Hecl is a scripting language engine that runs on MIDP2.

The scripting language is a wrapper for MIDP, and allows you to very quickly create UI elements, access the record store, use HTTP, access the file system (if available) and even use kxml2 XML parser. You can call Hecl code from Java, and even create your own new Hecl commands…

This kind of reminds me of TCL.

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[Via Hinkmond Wong's Weblog]

Is Ruby the new BASIC?

For those looking to learn about Ruby, the Interactive Ruby Tutorial is a great way to get a quick introduction. This interactive tutorial would also be great for children wanting to learn about programming. MIT’s Scratch is another interesting tool to teach children about programming.

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A day like today, on 1948 (ABC) “Candid Camera” original run made its TV debut. But original title was “Candid Microphone.” Is “Candid Cameraphone” next? That would make sense: from microphone (audio) to camera (video/audio) to anywhere-and-anytime-(mobile)-camera… Hm, maybe there is an idea right there…

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I like Seth’s brief yet meaningful essay on architecture, see Is architect a verb?

So I reserve “architect” to describe the intentional arrangement of design elements to get a certain result.

:

Architecture, for me anyway, involves intention, game theory, systems thinking and relentless testing and improvement. Fine with me if you want to call it design, just don’t forget to do it.

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$150MM for startups that create new and exciting mobile applications, that uses context, location, payments, advertising, music and entertainment… very neat…

See Nokia to Invest an Additional USD 150 Million Through Nokia Growth Partners.

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The MobileWidget Camp Austin planning is under way.

It is going to be a very cool event. We are having unstructured and structured sessions, labs, and a contest at the end of the day for the best Widget. We are having food and drinks all day. We are having speakers come in and present on the topic, and unstructured sessions are for anyone to present per BarCamp style. This event is kind of a (free) mini-conference and will be great for anyone interested in this topic. Stop by Austin on your way to CTIA.

So what is next?

First, mark your calendar — September 7th.

Second, we continue looking for sponsors and speakers; the sponsors are signing up, with W3C, the OMTP, and others already sponsoring.

If you would like to present or sponsor, please shoot me an email to enrique [dot] ortiz [at] gmail com.

See the MobileWidget Camp Austin web site for more information. The event is free, but only planned for 150 people;and please register at the MobileWidgetBarCampAustin event’s page.

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Aug 5 ‘08 Update: Name changed from BarCamp to Camp, as the event has structured sessions.

The B for Bluetooth can easily stand for “Big Brother”…

Via Guardian (UK), a report on a study being done without people’s knowledge that uses Bluetooth to keep track of people’s aggregate behavior, see Bluetooth is watching: secret study gives Bath a flavour of Big Brother:

The data is being used in a project called Cityware to study how people move around cities. But pedestrians are not being told that the devices they carry around in their pockets and handbags could be providing a permanent record of their journeys, which is then stored on a central database.

:
:

More than 1,000 scanners across the world at any time detect passing Bluetooth signals and send the data to Cityware’s central database. Those with access to the database admit they do not know precisely how many scanners have been created, but there are known to be scanners in San Diego, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, Toronto and Berlin.

Good reminders

This is a good reminder to keep your Bluetooth OFF, or at a very minimum, in non-Discoverable mode; turn it on ONLY when needed / or when wanted be tracked (see bluetoothtracking.org).

And remember, to not use any personal information as the friendly name for your Bluetooth device (or your home wireless access point, for that matter); from the article:

Many people use pseudonyms, nicknames, initials, or abbreviations to identify their Bluetooth signals. Cityware’s scanners are also picking up signals that are listed using people’s full name, email address and telephone numbers.

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This week’s Carnival of the Mobilists #134 is at Justin Oberman’s weblog Mopocket. This week edition comes with essays by newcomers Shaun Zelbers and Ari Zoldan, as well as regulars including as Martin Sauter, Steven Hoober, Ajit Joakar, Andreas Constantinou, and others…

Thanks Justin for picking up my entry on NFC.

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There is a new application for anyone who must store and/or transmit sensitive data to/from their cellphones. Good examples are hospitals or hospice businesses (HIPAA), lawyers on the field (client data), and as recently learned, even the government users of BlackBerry devices — see UK prime minister’s office acknowledges aide lost a BlackBerry phone during trip to China.

A new application, called Data Messenger/SecureMobileForms by Media Sourcery, allows companies to do just data — securely store and transmit their data. The app is highly configurable, and allows you to create XML-based forms, combined with permissions and location-based data. This solution goes beyond the mobile client pictured above. It is a whole secure messaging infrastructure, already proven on the web and desktop environments, and now recently extended to mobility. The S60 version was recently featured at Nokia’s website.

Data Messenger uses the concept of “data parcels” — similar in concept to typical parcels from UPS and FedEx, except this ones packages pure data; a file, a form, an MP3, whatever needs to be secured. The solution not only brings peace of mind when it comes to sensitive content, but it is traceable all the way from source to destination, parcels have a permission-model that includes who can access it and when, and for how long.

The solution is available on Java ME platforms (S60 and BlackBerry) and a Windows Mobile version is in development.

The secure forms solution can be found at SecureMobileForms.com.

(A quick disclaimer: I was involved in the early design days of this solution)

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A little bit about my middle (older) brother — see Carlos (Rafael) Ortiz Longo (Wikipedia).

…he is the brain in the family

(yes, the manned space program is in our blood)

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P.S. It is very cool to see all those people who have been contributing to my brother’s Wikipedia page; thanks all!