Author: atrasatti

Born and raised in Italy, US resident. Innovator with a soft spot for developers. Currently director of developer advocacy @kin_foundation, previously @Samsung_IoT, @Nokia, an advocate of the open Web

Shozu like Symbian, but with J2ME

I was just browsing around, checking some links and bookmarks and stumbled on the SonyEricsson’s developers site homepage where I read this very intriguing news. Shozu has now released a new J2ME application for devices that support JSR 75, this lets you take a picture with your camera and then upload to Flickr or your favourite web album easily.

This was a long awaited feature that has been available for Symbian from the first release of Shozu, but was lacking in the J2ME space. Of course the ability to upload pictures you take with the camera is not most important feature, so we’re happy to see it.

You can read the full article on the SonyEricsson site, title name is ShoZu, Java ME mobile blogging app using JSR 75

Blogging embedded

I just read from the Google Blog that blogger.com is now embedded in a new SonyEricsson phone.

Very nice feature. Too bad that we could probably do this with MMS, but unfortunately they seem to be too expensive for people to use them. This should probably be a hint for mobile operators!

Some worth links.

Shozu, a client to upload pictures to Flickr and other web albums:
http://www.shozu.com/portal/

MobUp, a J2ME client to upload images, much like Shozu, but J2ME and open-source:
http://mobup.org/

And of course, the long lasting “Peffisaur”, as the author calls it, “A Multiuser MMS Weblog community”. It has been offering web albums to all MMS users from around the world. If you are geek enough you can even configure your MMS client to use Peffis’ MMS gateway and avoid paying the MMS message (but you will pay for the data you transfer). Here’s the site FAQ:
http://peffis.com/faq.php

Read the news here:
http://buzz.blogger.com/2006/08/go-mobile.html

And the SonyEricsson device page:
http://www.sonyericsson.com/product/blog/

Apple computer, how reliable?

I am now an almost 4 years old Apple computer user. I have initially bought a PowerBook 15″ 1Ghz, then a PowerBook 15.2″ 1.67Ghz and plenty of accessories such as a Mighty Mouse, an iPod Nano and an iPod Shuffle that I got for free (thank you DADA!).

My first PowerBook immediately went to get repaired because my monitor was defective, all colors were messed. I got it back, but I haven’t even seen it, as the shopkeeper sent it back. The new monitor they installed was not installed properly. It took about 2 months to go back and forth to Netherlands and then to the Italian repair shops.

My Might Mouse was changed because the wheel stopped working after about 1 month.

My PowerBook 15.2″ is going to be changed with a new MacBook Pro because they can’t make it handle more than 512MB RAM. Works fine with 512MB freezes with 1GB or more. They changed the logic board twice and now I am going to get a new computer, hopefully. I would like to add that I called the AppleCare, they gave me a ticket number, called me about 10 days later to tell me that they tried again to fix it with the repair center, but was not possible. When I am ready (after backups) I call them they will come, pick up the computer and deliver the new one all for free. It took a little bit but seems like a reasonable service. My warranty is going to expire in two months.

Now here come the results to a survey about the new MacTel notebooks. 87% satisfaction is LOW, in my opinion. I wonder about the level of satisfaction with Dell, Gateway 2000, IBM or less known brands.

WURFL, what’s next

We just put online an overview of the ideas for the future of WURFL.

This is the result of the experiences, comments and requests that were made in the last months.
We think that it should address most of the possible technical issues that you might have and should also ease the management for me and allow more additions in the next months and years.

Read about it on the official site, here

Comments are welcome and required. On wmlprogramming of course. Or here, if you like it better.

The PHP library will obviously support all the new features one we agree on them and get them in place!

Nintendo’s choice for “simplicity”

There’s a new article on about.com about the Nintendo Wii.
Obviously the author likes the Wii and thinks it will be a success. I am impressed and not really sure that the Wii will take the lead as numbers of consoles (and games) sold. I still think that the PS3 will be on the lead. Yes, Yes, there are a lot of bad comments on it, but if you look at the games graphics you will most likely agree with me.
I doubt that the PS3 can have a worse start than the Xbox 360. Do you remember it freezing and getting vertical lines on the screen while playing? I doubt that the PS3 can be worse. But still the Xbox 360 has sold a lot. So the Xbox and the PS3 are going to fight on the graphics and CPU power. The Nintendo Wii HAD to be different in some way. They don’t want to get into the CPU power war, they have younger players to feed with games such as Pokemon (why not!) and so they went for an innovative path. According to the about.com article Sony and Microsoft are already trying to catch up, but of course Nintendo has at least 1 year advantage.

I have recently purchased the NDS with Brain Training (Brain Age in some countries), of course. The use of the pen is fundamental. The game would not be the same without it. I am also about to buy more games and I WANT them to be somehow innovative and using the pen.

For the same reasons, I think the new controller (Wiimote) will give a boost to the Wii and I really hope they can provide a number of games to use it smartly. Check out GameSpot or other gaming sites to read about the games that should come with the Wii. The about.com article already names a few, but GameSpot also provides video’s.
Look at the new Sonic game and the video (on GameSpot). How many times you played a driving game and while trying to steer you actually tilted the controller? I do it all the time!!

Madrid Workshop

As I wrote before, last week there was a two days workshop of the W3C centered on the needs and the possible future solutions for Device Descriptions.

It has been very interesting. Many different companies that not necessarily are part of the W3C joined the workshop. This broad participation made it even more interesting because we have seen new points of view. Companies that do network optimization, network testing (not IP network, but radio networks) and of course they brought their experience, their needs and their ideas.

It’s been very stimulating as it was supposed to be, but I was surprised by the new comments that we received. It is sad that we did not receive them earlier otherwise they would have been in the Landscape document that the DDWG produced.

I wanted to write this article before, but actually the W3C report seems to already cover all the topics. You can also find links to the position papers, participants and even pictures!

It was great the Bennett Marks from Nokia could join us because he is the former chair of the UAProf working group in the OMA and of course had a lot of ideas to share. I also appreciate how open minded he has proved to be.

Other great comments came from Flash Networks and Zandan (totally new points of view) and from the new kids on the block from Mobile Phone Wizards AS.

I tried to give my contributions with some comments and a WURFL introduction, of course.

This workshop served as a way to understand better the needs of the industry and to try to create a list of possible deliverables for a second charter for the working group. This will need to be prepared, presented and hopefully approved by the MWI Steering Council and the W3C.

Madrid July 8-15

I meant to write this article while I was visiting Madrid, but of course I did not get the time.

I was supposed to be in Madrid from the 11th to the 13th (included) and later needed to add the 14th. Of course there was not a good flight to go back on the 14th evening and had to stay until the 15th morning.

Anyway, the good thing is that I got to leave from Milan on the 8th (Saturday) and stay in Madrid with my girlfriend until the 11th. On the 11th she left and I went to the W3C Workshop.

The first day we arrived at lunch time, got our rooms and went to enjoy the sun and the swimming pool. Was really good.

The day after, Sunday, we went to visit the Museo Nacional del Prado. LOTS of beautiful paintings. There was also a special exposition of Picasso, but it was almost impossible to get in. I won’t go into the details of the paintings as I’m not an expert AT ALL, but enjoyed seeing them.
Good thing is the price. Normally it is only 6 Euro, which is already VERY low if you considering the number of paintings and statues they have, but on Sundays it’s FREE! Since we had enjoyed very much the museum I wanted to make a donation, something like 10-15 Euro, but they said they do not accept money on Sundays, that it’s just free. Well, thanks Spain!

On Monday we walked a little bit around the city, visited Plaza de Espana, Granvia, Puerta del Sol. Unfortunately it was REALLY hot. When it was about noon we went back to the hotel as it was impossible to keep walking under the sun.
For all the week it’s been between 34 and 40 Celsius!

We did not have a car to drive around and actually we would not have needed it! The subway is great, they have 12 lines and they take you anywere. They say it’s the most advanced subway in the world, and I would hardly say it is not true. All the trains I have used are new or at least recent; air-conditioning which is not bad in summer, and most of all they all smelled good as if they had just been cleaned. In summer, at least in Italy, you often get in very hot trains and… well… some people should probably get more showers.
Madrid did a really great job on the subway.
The station near our hotel was closed for renewal and so they provide a FREE bus service to the nearer station. Very nice.
All stations has good light and you often met guards that were controlling the area. As long as you’re not hiding anything you’re probably happy to see them around.

Last but not least, of course I got to eat Tapas. They are ok, but I actually like hot food better than cold. Most tapas I had were cold. Anyway it was a very good experience. I obviously also got to eat fish and rice, which I liked.

It was a very good trip, too bad it was too hot. We will have to visit again in Spring.