Paul Golding: Devices

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 11:55:34 GMT

@ If you're still reading this....

...you shouldn't be. Your browser should have been redirected to my new blog

http://wirelesswonders.blogspot.com/

Thu, 29 Jul 2004 21:29:00 GMT

@ Running on air...

As someone who does a bit of running to keep fit, I can testify to the psychological importance of measuring one's performance. Most of the time, I feel the need to time my runs. Of course, I am looking for improvement, or at least consistency.

I am also interested to know how far I have run. With a friend from Motorola, I brain-stormed possible measuring apparatus for precision distance measurement. Most of the time, we gravitated toward optical measurement solutions using cameras, akin to the way an optical mouse works.

I was intrigued to find out about a pair of training shoes, I think by Nike, that include a microprocessor. I instantly assumed this was for such measurements, but it turns out to be a real-time controller for pumping goo around the sole of the shoe to adjust damping. I did think this might prove useful, with some kind of bio-feedback, to help avoid injuries.

It seems that Philips/Nike have now addressed the measurement problem. As one might expect, the solution is also an entertainment device, centred on music - or audio, playback. MP3 of course, hence the name, MP3Run. Fantastically, the sensor that straps on the shoe, communicating via Bluetooth back to the main arm- or body-strapped unit, uses 2D accelerometers to do the sensing. As a user of an air-mouse, I have an enthusiasm for these groovy sensors, so I was enthused by their use in this application.

Just take a read of Philip's whitepaper about the device to appreciate the processing power of the solution:

When the player is used for the first time, the runner does not necessarily have to input information on aspects such as length of stride beforehand. The sensor on the shoe measures 1000 times per second acceleration/deceleration of each stride using a 2 dimensional acceleration sensor. This information is used by a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to re-construct the actual gait and be finally able to give precise information about momentary speed and hence distance.

That’s what I called a usable system, at least on paper. No messing with stride measurements and the usual pedometer configurations – just strap, listen and run. Or, at least, I hope it isn’t listen, run and strap, after tripping on a kerb whilst fiddling with the controls. Let’s wait and see. I think I’m in the market for one of these goodies. Due out in August.

Now, how can we combine this unit with Spatial Messaging solutions? I'm thinking on that one......

Wed, 14 Jul 2004 23:27:43 GMT

@ WHOLE PRODUCT DESIGN....

How are we going to cross the chasm from techno-gadgetry to mass consumption whilst still not designing decent mobile services? We need "ENTIRE PRODUCT" design, not just itty-bitty applications that provide a function that no one can get to because the rest of the environment doesn’t allow it.

For example, take wireless email. Is the product "Wireless POP3 access to my mail server???" ABSOLUTELY NOT….this is not a product…this is a facility. If the interface sucks, then we can't get to this facility….if the air-interface is unreliable…we can't get to this facility…if we can't easily enter email addresses….we can't get to this facility….we need a WHOLE PRODUCT….not a facility.

Most "wireless email" solutions are still this bad....the Motorola v600 has an IMAP client with zero filtering. On GPRS, that means....sit and wait for ages poking buttons, enduring delays, until you get to the message you actually want. Why's it called messaging when it takes so much effort to get the message?

Sun, 11 Jul 2004 01:05:59 GMT

:: Is this the future ? ::

http://www.tapwave.com/zodiac.html

It's a mobile games device. It's got Bluetooth, which makes it interesting. It's also built on a Palm OS platform, which means any Palm app will run on it too. It would make an interesting platform for Visual Radio, although it lacks built-in cellular. Alternatively, what about a portable video player - http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/pmp-120.aspx.

I think these devices are not quite getting it right. Any portable device must be worth carrying. What compels someone to carry something around with them? In my opinion, it’s interruption that matters. The device must interrupt the user to grab his/her attention, preferably by receiving messages. What they say, and who sends them, is another matter – but messaging is a paradigm essential to portable devices.

Wed, 09 Jun 2004 15:59:58 GMT

:: Blackberry patent woes (again) ::

As founder of the Blackberry Users Club on Ecademy in the UK, I am keeping my eye on Blackberry related stories.

From the BBC

"A Washington court looks into who should hold the US patent for the Blackberry, the mobile e-mail gizmo and boardroom status symbol. "

This is a topic that doesn't really affect us as end users, but has significance for those interested in developing wireless email solutions. RIM has long had significant patents on their "single mailbox" concept for the Blackberry. Their technical approach is rather difficult to avoid if anyone wishes to implement a similar solution for pushing mail to the device and for making actions on the device be reflected back on the desktop (e.g. Exchange client etc.)

Fri, 21 May 2004 10:16:27 GMT

:: Cantenna ::

I have recently been writing about the invention of the "Cantenna", or the Pringles Yagi, as I prefer to call it. Andrew Clapp is the original "discoverer" (his preferred accolade, rather than "inventor") and I was happy to hear from him that it is still going strong, linking up his flat to the nearest community WiFi point.

I was also impressed to find out that someone (Jason Brook) has gone and made a business out of it and taken the domain name Cantenna.com. Andrew mentions on his website that he doesn't know where the name came from. It emerged from several places at once. I recall "discovering" the name "Zingo" for a wireless portal project. The name later "emerged" as a trademark for a London taxi company's wireless hailing system. They trademarked it, whereas I didn't.

Apparently, the name of a business can make or break it, so reports David Kipen when reviewing the book "Word Craft" by Alex Frankel. You can even buy names on the Net, from the likes of Names Express - 12 names in 24 hours for just 70 USD.

Some people invent/discover things. Some people name things. Some people make money on things. Some people write about it. I've tried all of them.

Wed, 19 May 2004 23:25:08 GMT

:: Yet more keyboard layouts ::

I thought i'd found every alternative keypad layout going, like the FITALY mentioned on this site last year. Scanning IBM's research, I found that they too have a project ("Atomik") to come up with non-QWERTY keypads optimised for stylus input.

Thu, 22 Apr 2004 16:53:21 GMT

:: Controlling a PC via Bluetooth Phone ::

Via the Ecademy network, I came across an employee of Baracoda and from there I ended up surveying their website. They have interesting products utilising Bluetooth and barcode readers, an inevitable area of convergence. Personally, I would like to see a barcode reader built into a "sleek device" (see IXI Mobile), like a watch. It would then be very accessible to the consumer for a variety of uses, some of which are discussed in my book.

What I also found on Baracoda's site was an interesting free download to turn my T68i into a remote control for my PC, which already had the requisite BT dongle. It was quite strange, and highly satisfying, to have remote mouse control via my phone. This is a demo I had been hoping to show on various training courses - and now I have it! It is a fantastic way of enabling presentations to be remotely controlled. I had previously gone out and bought a dedicated device for this purpose.

Mon, 19 Apr 2004 11:58:46 GMT

:: Social networking with Bluetooth ::

Recently, there was an interesting thread running on the mobile applications club at Ecademy. It was about proximity sensing using Bluetooth in order to assist social networking at a networking event. This is an idea that frequently circulates in various circles and one of my favourite examples for illustrating various aspects of peer-to-peer (P2P) services.

I thought it would be useful to blog a couple of interesting ideas from the discussion. Firstly, there is no need to utilise proximity sensing at a networking event, because via some kind of registration it is possible to know who is present at the event. We can imagine the event as being like a potential IM conversation, in which case the registration at the front desk is the "I'm online" announcement (or "I'm here"). Some kind of profile matching process on the backend could subsequently notify a present networker about a match.

Secondly, all the messaging could be done via SMS, which allows the service to be reached by most attendees (pending cellular coverage issues of course). However, notifications could also be made using Bluetooth, via Bluejacking possibly, using networked phones or a dedicated Bluetooth hotspot appliance.

There are so many ways to implement a social-networking solution and more than likely, a hybrid, or multi-modal approach will make most sense, combining BT, SMS and WAP.

[P.S. In terms of rapid prototyping of Bluetooth ideas, it is supposedly possible to use Visual Basic (for those who don't know C, OPL, Java etc.) using the AppForge incarnation on Palm or PPC with Bluetooth cards. AppForge has some technical notes on how to do this.]

Wed, 14 Apr 2004 12:28:17 GMT

:: Peephole interface ::

No, it's not a voyeur's gadget, but a technique for viewing large-area virtual spaces using a physically smaller display by moving the display over the virtual space. Think of moving a small picture frame over a large map or picture and that what you see in the frame is what the display would show. The concept is one that I had been developing some of my own ideas towards, although I discovered more prior art than I was expecting, mostly due to work already going on in the augmented and virtual reality arenas.

My interest, not surprisingly, is in mobile applications. It initially struck me as a useful solution for viewing original-format web pages on handheld devices without having to go through any content adaptation processes. I think that this is still a potential solution to the problem.

The challenge is really in how to achieve spatial awareness for the device so that the display software knows whereabouts the peephole is located relative to the underlying image. An optical technique makes sense and I have focussed my research on this approach.

Interesting prior art can be found at Kay-Ping Yee’s site out at Berkley.

Tue, 06 Apr 2004 01:31:08 GMT

:: Fastap™ enters the arena ::

I had previously blogged about the innovative Fastap™ keyboard design from Digit Wireless, a company whose energy and idea captivated my imagination and made me believe again in out of the box potentialities. Indeed, the excitement caused me to include mention of the technology in my new book ("Next Generation Wireless Applications" from Wiley). That's why I was happy to receive notice from DW's President, Chris Hare, of a major launch of Fastap™ technology into the mainstream of North American wireless markets.

Digit Wireless, LG Electronics and TELUS Mobility announce production of the world's first Fastap™ enabled mobile phone
Unique phone keyboard set to revolutionize text messaging, data communications...[more]

Wed, 10 Mar 2004 23:41:25 GMT

:: More Phoney Ideas ::

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3498714.stm

Coming soon after a week when David Hockney expressed despairing frustration about the erosion of photographic truth in a post-Photoshop age, this "invention" is a further foray into our digitally uncertain futures. This mobile phone product enables callers to insert false background noises to reproduce the desired milieu, perhaps a doctor's surgery waiting room, or a traffic jam. Supposedly, though I have not heard them, the false noises are authentic sounding: like the “real” thing.

Ironically, digital electronics was invented in order to gain precision, accuracy and authenticity. However, as Neil Postman commented in Technopoly, technologies have their own idea about the future. The power to correct digital mistakes lends itself to the ability to manipulate. Whereas we originally wanted to ensure that a “1” was indeed a “1” and a “0” was indeed a “0”, the corrective nature of being digital also allows for the “1” to become the “0” and vice versa, should we simply chose it to be so. Hence, the zeros of guilty silence in the philanderer’s motel bedroom become a frenzy of ones somewhere on the M4.

Little did the bedroom trickster know that his or her phone was reporting its real location to the technically alert spouse! Divorce was pronounced via text message, or an appropriately crafted photo message of two fingers, or something like that: most likely real ones, much to Hockney's delight.

Mon, 18 Aug 2003 22:55:27 GMT

:: Jakob Nielsen on the usability of mobile devices ::

Jakob Nielsen is a recognised expert on usability. I have referenced his works in my forthcoming book "Next Generation Mobile Services". He has recently posted an observation about the improvements in usability in mobile devices, having used a T-Mobile Sidekick for the last 6 months (an integrated PDA/phone device).

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030818.html

"New mobile devices show a huge improvement over previous generations, but they're still not good enough to score a real win. To get there, we need both PC-integrated applications and specialised mobile services rather than repurposed website content."

Mon, 18 Aug 2003 22:46:59 GMT

:: Q12 - Another exciting keypad design ::

It seems my previous comment to open up a channel just to discuss keypads was justified. No sooner had I said it than these guys at Softava emailed me about this exciting new design called Q12 (right). It uses the same principle I have already reported here that Unitap and Fastap use, namely deliberately positioning keys (“hills”) close enough together that pressing what appears to be the gaps (“valleys”) between them causes several keys to be pressed at once. This combination is used to generate the desired character, so in effect each valley is like a virtual key. Fastap and Unitap both use enough keys to represent directly the letters and virtually the digits. However, the Q12 takes this to another level and uses cleverly shaped keys to represent the digits directly and the letters virtually via all the various valleys sculptured in the keys (see the schematics on their website). It sure seems clever and I would love to try it out for real.

Sun, 03 Aug 2003 13:23:19 GMT

:: Mobile browsing security threats ::

Mobile users should be careful about responding to messages (i.e. WAP push) that take them to wap sites. They may just be fake.

In my forthcoming book, I've just started writing about securing HTTP and WAP connections. When I started thinking about the vulnerabilities of authentication, it occurred to me that mobile sites are perhaps a lot less safe then their desktop counterparts.

One way to gain a password from a user is to spoof a server. Pretend to be a particular website and then ask your users to log in. Voila! If they bite, then you have their username and password. This has been done on numerous occasions with famous websites and is an ongoing threat. In fact, regular users of sites like Ebay should learn to become vigilant against these types of spook attacks. With mobile sites it appears to be even easier.

Firstly, on most mobile browsers, to save real estate, the URL display box is not displayed, or there simply isn't one. This means a user typically has NO idea what website they are actually on in terms of its web address - surfing on mobile sites is sometimes an eerie experience, like walking in the dark. If a user is directed to a spoof website, they would have little or no idea.

Secondly, due to sparse interfaces, it takes little effort to mimic a mobile website, perhaps just by copying a logo at the top of the screen.

WAP push will soon start to become more widespread. It has been slow to catch on, but with the increasing number of picture-messaging phones, the necessary inclusion of the WAP browser means that more and more mobile users can access mobile sites, whether they know it or not. However, they don't need to know it to respond to a WAP push message - the phone itself will take care of accessing the embedded URL in the message if the user chooses to respond.

The other weakness is with the WAP push mechanism itself. It uses text messaging as the transport mechanism. With text messaging it is easy to change the sender's address in the message. In fact, many text-messaging bureaus offer this service to their bulk-messaging customers. This has some interesting and legitimate uses, but can also be malignant. It is easy to spoof the sender in order to make the message look legitimate, thus adding to the bait used to lure an unsuspecting user onto a spoof site.

Mobile users should be educated in the dangers of responding to WAP push messages.

Thu, 31 Jul 2003 12:47:02 GMT

:: Intriguing keypad design from Ventris ::

Things are getting hot in the race for new keypad designs. I am thinking of introducing a category on my blog just to handle it. It seems that there is a lot of activity going on in this area. Quite rightly, as widely adopted keypad designs could make someone very rich! There is no need to stick to conventions, especially bearing in mind that the QWERTY keypad is actually an exercise in deliberately poor design, aimed at slowing the typist down, not speeding them up.

Personally, I just can't seem to stop thinking about text-entry ideas. I avoided writing "keypad ideas", as that may be too limiting to start with. If we doubt that new layouts can be adopted by mobile users, then we may be wrong.

Take the 3650 from Nokia, with its circular pad layout. Whilst I personally don't like it and bemoaned the fact that it broke all usability conventions (in the Java gaming context at least), I was intrigued by its complete disruption of the standard layout and what impact that might have on texting. I raised this with one of the testing managers at O2 who assured me that his teenage daughter had "mastered" it within two days and could text as fast as ever. That's not scientific, but still revealing (what would Nielsen make of it?).

After Fastap, Unitap and FITALY, I was impressed to receive a note from Ventris, who have come up with a new design called HandyScript. At first glance (right), it looks like a prop out of a Star Trek film, something the Klingons would use - BUT I'M NOT MOCKING. This idea takes a little while to sink in, but I have downloaded the trial version and figured out the concept very quickly just by visual inspection. Of course, what I really need is a mobile version so that I can try it out in a context that interests me.

An interesting feature of HandyScript is that it is language independent, able to support multiple languages with the same layout and symbols. This is very intriguing and I would like to examine this more. However, I confess that I have not had much time to formally assess it yet, but I will post a follow-up later.

Thu, 31 Jul 2003 12:03:10 GMT

:: Unitap utilise FITALY keypad layout ::

Those of you following my blog may have read my thoughts on keypads, especially since discovering the wonderful Fastap solution from DigitWireless. My last blog entry mentions Unitap, an almost identical solution from Dutch company RL Technologies who posted a comment highlighting their claimed advantages over Fastap.

I was intrigued to receive a note from these guys stating that they have implemented the FITALY keypad layout (right) from Textware solutions, an alternative to the QWERTY layout, one that works better for one-finger (thumb) typing by minimising finger travel over an average lexicon. This was an idea I openly suggested would make sense with this type of technology. Of course, I'm now dying to try one out, but well done you guys at Unitap for supporting the FITALY. The mobile industry needs progressive solutions like Unitap and Fastap! Whether conservative operators will bite is another matter.

Thu, 24 Jul 2003 22:38:23 GMT

:: Another neat keyboard trick ::

These guys (Dutch company RL Technologies B.V.) seem to have developed a similar solution to the DigitWireless Fastap(TM), which I have mentioned (raved about) on several occassions on this blog. The Unitap solution seems identical in concept to Fastap, but possibly has a different implementation technique. I like that Unitap have suggested two layouts, one based on the QWERTY pattern, the other based on conventional multi-tap layout "ABC" "DEF" etc. As previously ventured on this blog, I am still keen to see how well the FITALY layout would work with this technology. I am also keen to understand more about how word abbreviation could be used, as also mentioned in the FITALY posting. Otherwise, I am curious about who invented this first, as Unitap and Fastap seem identical in concept.

Wed, 09 Jul 2003 20:54:47 GMT

:: Proposal for easier access to Mobile Web (WAP) sites ::

I had some thoughts regarding possible conventions for accessing mobile web sites.

Accessing a mobile web site is cumbersome if a user is expected to enter a URL, like http://www.myusefulapp.com. The entry of URL addresses is not easy on a lot of devices, especially those with numeric keypads. Seeing an advert on a train station billboard that has a convoluted web address is a difficult proposition for mobile users to follow up on; perhaps only the dedicated will try.

Attempts have been made to look at the use of numbers to act as site labels, but thus far all the attempts I have seen (like Bango) are proprietary systems vying for commercial attention. Furthermore, they are not universally known or accepted.

I propose here a simple convention for the mobile device manufacturers and Internet name registries to follow, that would make navigation to WAP sites easier and intuitive. The idea may not be novel, but i have not found it proposed anywhere in my research for my current book "Next Generation Mobile Services".

I summarised the idea in a slide for a new course I am working on ("Mobile Devices"). In essence, we adopt the convention of using domain aliases for our mobile websites, using a new high level domain ".mob". We use numbers for the sites only. So a site http://www.myusefulapp.com would have an alias, for example, of http://www.12213.mob.

The only other convention is that mobile device manufacturers enable these numeric .mob domains to be "dialled" into the phone, causing the browser to open at the appropriate address. I suggest the use of the "@" sign as a prefix. So, I simply dial "@12213" followed by the SEND key, like dialing a phone number, but the browser opens and jumps to http://www.12213.mob which can stay as it is, or be an alias as suggested.

On billboards and in adverts, we simply add the line "dial @12213 for more information on your mobile phone", or however we want to say it. Simple and effective. Over time, the prefix will become widely understood.

[We could consider extensions to the idea that make sub-sites accessible from a single domain. For example, "@12213.1" and "@12213.2" would translate to http://www.12213.mob/1 and http://www.12213.mob/2 and so on. More likely, as we would want to use this for targeted advertising, we would use a parameter, like http://www.12213.mob?param=1 and http://www.12213.mob?param=2. This would be useful for location-specific adverts that do not need to rely on location-finding processes in the mobile network. So an advert for train times could have different post-fixes that map to different timetables on the website.]

Mon, 07 Jul 2003 12:18:27 GMT

:: More usability issues ::

I apologise that I am currently only blogging about 1 post per week. This is because I am distracted by book-writing. However, the process gives me plenty to think and blog about. Just to let my regular readers know that I am planning to launch an email letter soon via the email list on this blog. This will contain links to lengthy articles that are better produced as a PDF, so they can be printed if necessary. I am nearly finished on the inaugural letter, which is going to be about leaving messages pinned on virtual notice boards.

For today's posting I wanted to return to usability issues, as I am now convinced that handset manufacturers do not conduct formal usability tests. Either that or they are just completely fixated with certain interface ideas (trends), which in my opinion don't work that well and significantly impede wireless service enjoyment.

I should state that formal usability testing, by my understanding, involves getting uninitiated and independent users to try tasks on the device and getting some kind of scores and also observations of their usage. It is subjecting the product to unabashed usage and abuse, in order to elicit opinion. It is not going through a designer's UI checklist in clinical lab conditions. Our usability friend Jakob Nielsen's website is a good starting point.

Today I was writing in my book about the problems of entering site addresses into mobile-device browsers with limited data entry modes. The worse case is a device that insists on the user entering the entire URL, including the "http://" bit. I don't see why some of the desktop shortcuts haven't made it onto mobile devices yet, like typing just "trains" to infer http://www.trains.com or http://wap.trains.com. There are so many other usability enhancements to this problem, like selective text-prediction so that "www" and ".com" are auto-completed in any case, but not the actual domain name.

By the way, the use of a "wap" sub-domain is a pointless distraction. All sites should stick to conventions as much as possible and use "www", so shortcuts can be understood. A simple redirect to the WAP pages can easily be accommodated at the main homepage on a site, so no need for typing special sub-domains.

The other bind is the amazing complexity that many browsers impose on managing favourites, or bookmarks. On many phones it takes many key presses just to get to the favourites, the very idea that these are supposed to be shortcuts seems lost on the browser designers. The worse case is the Accompli A008 from Motorola, which insists that you have to exit the browser altogether and go to a sub-menu from “Settings” and then enter the favourite by hand (not by “add to favourites” or even the possibility of cut-and-paste).

But for my money, it should be possible to view the favourites as a start-up page in the browser itself, that’s where the phone permits setting the homepage, it having been factory set to point to the operator portal.

It seems such a pity that with the ever-increasing pace of development with new browser technologies, content types and other advances, the basics of usability get glossed over. This is perhaps one of the problems of having so many devices to contend with – there is no focused effort on a consistent and acceptable user experience.

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 18:37:05 GMT

:: 50 Words per minute on your Palm ::

I am obsessed with keyboard and data entry problems. I still remember buying my first PDA and gleefully taking it to a meeting with a client. I had the idea that from now on I would record everything electronically. Several problems soon became apparent. I won't bore you with all of them, suffice to say that the need for a constant-sync device was near the top of my list, but wireless PDAs have arrived, so it's nearly an irrelevant problem (but for many glaring holes in the whole wireless PDA approach, but that's for another time).

The biggest problem, and one that led me to end up buying and trying a range of form factors, was the ability to type accurately and fast enough. Since then, I have agonised over this issue, even attempting to invent my own solutions (on paper at least). I recently blogged about the Fastap keyboard, which I finally got to play with. I got excited by the prospect of being able to engage in IM sessions via a small device. Personally, I use IM a lot. I find it a serious and valuable business tool, although too much use begins to nag me, mainly because it can easily end up being an inefficient use of time due to the pauses and slow typing.

Getting to the point, I recently found out about the FITALY keyboard and Instant Text technology from Textware Solutions. Its design is a departure from the QWERTY layout and it has been optimised for one-finger, or stylus, operation. The principle is based on analysing the frequency of letter-to-letter transitions in a representative corpus of the English language. Based on the distance of transitions, the FITALY keyboard has been proposed. There are plenty of examples of how the keyboard enables a higher word rate than the QWERTY layout when being tapped by one-finger or a stylus, hence the claim to 50 words a minute on a Palm, the average otherwise being about 12. That's a good improvement for my money.

Textware solutions have other products, like Instant Text that use abbreviated access to word and sentence completion, but without the need to memorise the abbreviations. I found this particularly attractive because I had previously invented a similar technology to search for people in a a large contacts database using abbreviated access to any information in the database, like first name, surname, company name, email domain, bits of a phone number and so on. This was more as an aide memoire for recalling names remotely via a text-message (SMS) query and maximising the chance of finding the right match, even with the sketchiest of input. We called this technology SmartName and attempted to patent it, though we didn't in the end.

This point about patents brings me closer to the conclusion. I started this weblog mainly to document ideas as and when I had them, at least so they were in the public domain where they might be useful to someone, recognising that my resources for patenting things is limited. That's why the theme of my weblog is more about connecting ideas and making links, not about news snippets, which seems to be a common blog format, which gets tedious if you get caught up in the blog stories loops - blogs that blog from other blogs from other blogs....loops that raise the noise floor a bit too much for my liking.

So my connected thought for this story was recalling how the Fastap keyboard felt a little odd at first due to its unfamiliar layout. I'm used to a QWERTY keyboard and somewhat used to the 2abc 3def keyboards on phones, but the Fastap layout was an ABCD... affair. I shoud hasten, in defence of my friends at Digit Wireless, that this in itself is not a problem. As was pointed out to me, I thought that the letter "a" was on the "1" key when asked, but it turns out to be on the "2" key, thus proving that I am used to the layout by tactile familiarity, even though I don't actually remember the mapping. I think this was the point being made.

The FITALY keyboard is another departure from QWERTY or ABCD, but that presumably is not a problem with regular usage. What immediately came to my mind is how well might the Fastap keyboard work with the FITALY layout? The point is that the Fastap keyboard does not have to be constrained to a 10-digit grid, and that the FITALY is a layout optimised for one-finger (or I guess two thumbs). Hence I propose a FITALY layout for Fastap. I would love to try it anyway.

Sun, 22 Jun 2003 14:18:49 GMT

:: Very neat utility for XUL interfaces on mobile devices ::

Thinlet is a GUI toolkit, a single Java class, that parses the hierarchy and properties of the GUI, handles user interaction, and calls business logic. It separates the graphic presentation (described in an XML file) and the application methods (written as Java code).

The GUI description is XML User-interface Language, XUL (apparently prounced "zool", rhyming with "cool"). XULPlanet has a tutorial on XUL.

The really great part is that the Thinlet toolkit supports MIDP, so there is a chance to play around with some interesting mobile interface ideas, not that I've tried any yet, just played around with XUL via the fabulous Thinlet authoring tool Theodore. Playing around with the Theodore tool is a great way to learn, or at least appreciate, the power and potential benefits of XUL. You can give it whirl by trying the evaluation copy online (but note that you need to have Java Web Start installed to do this).

You can try out the Thinlet class via some interesting web demos on the Thinlet website, including one that uses the Amazon Web Services API.

Wed, 18 Jun 2003 14:54:53 GMT

:: RIM patent losing steam ? ::

Stow Boyd's blog comments on a story in Business 2.0 about RIM's "single mailbox" patent possibly losing steam. Unfortunately, comments on Stow's blog (not his fault) are limited to 1000 characters, so I couldn't say what I wanted to say, which is:

It is not quite true to say that always-on email is commonplace now. I think that the uniqueness of RIM's solution was not widely understood. It is better to think of it as "constant sync" solution, and its uniqueness over most other solutions is that it interworks with the native email/PIM database, not with any email protocols. Many companies with standard wireless POP3 offerings touted their wares as comparable to RIM, that simply not being the case. The "Holy Grail" of corporate email solutions was to have a completely synchronised PIM operation without ever cradling, but even RIM did not solve that problem. (Having gone into it in some depth myself, it is a non-trivial problem and suggested to me a rethink about email protocols for the ubiquitous world we now live in.)

I have scrutinised the RIM "single mailbox" patent. It is nothing other than the Microsoft MAPI protocol described in a wireless context. I always felt it was scandalous to award such a patent, but patents don't work in intellectually obvious or fair ways, and that's part of the business landscape in the US with software patents; what I think about the patent is irrelevant.

My company developed a similar MAPI-based solution for Palm devices, but was not able to license it in the US due to the patent problem. In fact, we suffered a lot of commercial aggravation because of it.

Nonetheless, one has to be fair in criticism. The RIM solution is actually a good solution for business roadsters and I think most users end up addicted.

Having been in wireless solutions for a very long time, I contend that it is very difficult for any company to make a success in the wireless space with one idea, like RIM and many "wireless email" companies have attempted. Possibly, the days of a single idea business plan are dead anyhow. But the wireless landscape will be about huge numbers of applications amassing lots of micro-payment opportunities in myriad mobile marketplaces, most of which we probably have not envisaged yet. Bringing the Internet customised marketplace ability to the mobile world is probably what the future is all about, but I'm not sure that most operators have understood it yet, being telecoms folk and not computer folk.

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 19:09:51 GMT

:: Way cool product - FASTAP!!! ::

Today I met with one of the guys from DigitWireless. I previously blogged about their incredibly clever keyboard design, which they've trade marked as "Fastap".

Today I saw it, played with it, loved it! I not only played with the neat demo model, an anonymous phone mock-up with the Fastap keyboard, but touched and felt a production-ready unit under test by the operators (can't say who - sworn to secrecy).

Only when playing with the keys did I at last appreciate the genius of the design. Its simplicity was shaking; its inventor sure has ergonomic insight. The principle is that the letter keys are raised above the phone face, like "hills", and the digit keys are sunk in between, like "valleys". That bit I understood already. Each raised key has enough space around it to more or less (a little less) occupy the space of a key on a qwerty keyboard, believe it or not! The finger does not clumsily hit the numeric keys by mistake, as these are sunk, or so they seem, as, in fact, there's no need for a key there at all. I loved that magic bit! By placing the finger on the sunken "valley", over the desired digit key, the finger can't help but depressing some combination of the surrounding raised "hill" keys and the software picks up the combination and knows how to map it to the desired digit. Genius!

So what's my reaction? Is this another tech idea that has no real application? Absolutely not! This idea must surely come to fruition and I can feel that it has the potential to become commonplace. The reason is that we are not just talking about a better way to text. Actually, it is a better way to text, especially for those of us who cannot get to grips with predictive text (PT) input. I confess that I am a good user of PT, until I hit a word that's not in the dictionary, or I want to deliberately abbreviate. However, most people I know don't use PT, or find it somehow clumsy, although, to be fair, I think it is very phone dependent (T68i is one of the best implementations I’ve seen).

The reason that Fastap could be in demand is the gathering interest in Wireless Instant Messaging. Certainly, new initiatives, like Wireless Village (and the PAM forum entering Parlay) are generating momentum towards a big push for IM into the wireless space, but we seem to overlook the not-so-small problem of boringly slow typists – and that’s talking about QWERTY users! I would like to use IM on my phone, but it’s just too frustratingly cumbersome. Fastap could change that. If it does, then I think it will be a winner and could well assist IM take-off, along with email of course, which is the other mobile service still waiting to gather momentum, though it’s problems are not just character entry, but often poor usability, full stop.

I just emailed some of my contacts in the industry to look at Fastap. I think it should be a winner.

Fri, 06 Jun 2003 12:56:54 GMT

:: Load-and-carry Video ::

Archos have released a device that is like a portable MP3 player, but now includes the ability to carry videos. It will be interesting to see what the wireless strategy is for this device. May work well in a WiFi hotspot scenario, such as at a train station, possibly to download a TV program to watch on the train.