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

Be innovative

Are you looking for something innovative?
Apple’s Mighty Mouse

It looks like Apple eventually decided to produce (and sell) a Mouse that is not limited to a single button. Exposé already made it clear that Apple understood that more than a button could be useful but it seemed like they did not want to abandon the original design. Well, it looks like they eventually made it to keep their design and allow users to have more than a button. Even better, we now have 4 (configurable). Button personalization is Mac-only, but it is supposed to be compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I’m sure it will soon also be Linux compatible.

I just hope, for windows users, that the drivers will be better than iPod’s Windows drivers.

Slightly OT, if I were a windows user and got an iPod I would NOT switch to Mac after testing the BAD support. Who would guarantee that OS X will work better?

Anyway, I’m off to buy a Mighty Mouse.

Serial Numbers/IMEI in user agents?

“Recently” Vodafone has begun to force the user agent “format” to manufacturers producing device that will be sold as “VodafoneLive” devices. These devices follow a standard scheme for the user agent string.
Sample agent: “Vodafone/1.0/V802SE/SEJ001 Browser/SEMC-Browser/4.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1”.
As you can see we have the string “Vodafone”, then we have “1.0” (Vodafone specs version 1.0?), then V802SE (V802 from SonyEricsson), SEJ001 (SonyEricsson J001, it’s the firmware version) and then a string that can be customized by each manufacturer, in this case we have the SE browser version (4.1) and the j2me profiles supported.
On one side this can be good for the device detection, we know for sure that all devices with a user agent starting with “Vodafone/1.0” will be xHTML and have some basic feature (that I haven’t discovered, yet). On the other side some devices might be matched with a wrong device. This doesn’t make a big difference with regard to the markup (xHTML is always xHTML), but might make a difference when delivering contents.

Unfortunately, it seems that this rule was not so clear to manufacturers. Here are a couple of user agents that make an exception:
Vodafone/SonyEricssonV800/R1S025 Browser/SEMC-Browser/4.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1
Vodafone/R4.5/SEMC_v800/EU_1 SonyEricssonV800/R1A Browser/SEMC-Browser/4.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1
Vodafone/1.0/V902SH/SHG001/SN350257000024598 Browser/UP.Browser/7.0.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 Ext-J-Profile/JSCL-1.2.2 Ext-V-Profile/VSCL-2.0.0
Vodafone/1.0/V702NK/NKJ001/IMEI/SN354350000005026 Series60/2.6 Nokia6630/2.39.126 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1

While the first two user agents don’t respect the standard precisely, they still look “OK”, to me (but I don’t know the *real* standard, nobody asked my opinion or shared any official docs with me), but look at the last two. They are presenting the serial number that is to say the IMEI of the device. YES, they are printing the IMEI of the phone in the user agent.

WURFL is not going to list all these user agents, we’d have a ‘device’ for every phone sold around the world. It is strange to see this info in the user agent.
Could this be of any use? Is this against my privacy? Would a user be happy to see his IMEI distributed? Is the IMEI a reserved information? Does this identify a single person?

Is sourceforge keeping up with the site growth?

Sourceforge has fixed many of the problems they have had for a long time such as statistics. They still haven’t fixed the CVS+stat problem. It’s been there for about two years and we’re still waiting for them to fix it. Will it even be fixed? Will they move to SVN and drop CVS? Maybe this could be a solution!

Once again, while trying to upload a new release (WURFL 2.0, of course) I had problems with the FTP server. The upload failed, now there’s an empty file on the FTP and I can’t overwrite it. This has happened about 3 times in the last months. It is happening TOO often!
I have seen other developers complaining, they generally send you a reply in a couple of days saying:”do you still see the problem?” and of course the file has been removed and you may now upload a new file! Shall I simply rename the file and reupload it? Can’t they fix this?

When are they going to develop nicer forums? The homepage graphics has recently been updated, but the rest of the site is stuck at 3 years ago!
Sourceforge is a point of reference, every single developer on the internet knows it. I know it’s not simple AT ALL to keep alive such a huge site, but I think it could be better… There MUST be a “half-way” between the current status and perfection…

Just a little rant. Please, go on do your browsing…

WURFL 2.0 is out!

So WURFL 2.0 is eventually out!
It took months of work and while the updates on the CVS were more or less constant, we did not release any “official” version for more than 7 months.

This has been a long work and while it might have seemed that we were not doing anything we have been really active. Being an open-source project and not having anyone paying us JUST for this, of course there have been weeks in which I have been more productive and others in which I could not dedicate the time I would have wanted to WURFL.
Contributors have grown in number and I keep receiving emails from all around the world with many different devices (that I often have never seen and probably will NEVER see!).

Applications based on WURFL have grown, certainly, otherwise I wouldn’t be receiving so many emails, contributions and new user agents.

WURFL 2.0 includes many updates, not only about new user agents and new device information (OF COURSE), but also a deep review of the j2me group. This is the part that took most of the time. We have received a contribution from Telefonica I+D that is now in charge of keeping the j2me group updated also with the support of J2ME Polish who kindly provides their device database.
Did you see a device in j2me polish that is not well described in WURFL? We probably could not associate the model name with the user agent, LET US KNOW!
Are you a j2me developer? Well it’s probably time to give another look to WURFL. The new capabilities should help you develop applications and develop download servers.

If you are reading my blog you will also know that we have also introduced new capabilities about SVGT. The support from manufacturers is growing and we expect many more devices to support this format in the near future. Flash is also growing in the mobile market and we have it too.

Are you all about downloads? New capabilities are there too. Please, let me know of new devices and of information that is incomplete!

Hurry up to download the new WURFL, make sure you update your scripts and softwares with the new j2me capabilities and report back!

I know it’s impossible, but if you still don’t know where to get it, go to the WURFL website.

IBM paying banners for outdated content?

I was reading my email on gmail and of course I get emails about mobile contents, development, WAP, etc.

I often look at the banners around the page, I’m always curious to see how well they are aimed and what are the keywords that make a banner appear. Sometimes I even click on them!

Today was a particularly lucky (or well aimed) day for Google and I clicked on 3 links related to the same email. One of these was about a software by IBM called WAPsody.

Here is the link:
http://www.zurich.ibm.com/csc/mobile/wapsody.html

But take a look at the contents. The screenshots on the right, the devices emulated. Was this page ever updated in the last 3-4 years? Still talking aobut the Nokia 7110 and Ericsson (NOT SonyEricsson) 380s? Still linking to the WAPForum homepage? Did anybody tell them that something has happened in the meantime?

I don’t mind if they don’t update their sites everyday, Alphaworks is a HUGE site and is almost impossible to keep it up to date and also, it’s good to have it as an archive and not search for an old article and read a “page not found” error. I wonder how good it is to pay for banners that link to an outdated software, or at least software description. Would you buy a software that was last updated in 2000?

Konfabulator for free!

So Apple added to Tiger widgets. Widgets are tiny applications that float on your screen when enabled (press F12 on your Mac).

While Apple declared it was an innovation, the guys at Konfabulator didn’t quite agree and were rather upset that Apple developed its own technology while it was SO similar to their.

I have used widgets since I have had Tiger (a couple of months now) and I have to say that I’m not particularly happy with it. Honestly I still don’t see that big use with them. I have the iTunes controller, forecasts, Calvin & Hobbes stip, calendar, calculator and a couple more. What I don’t like about widgets is that I need to start them and while they are on I can’t do anything on my desktop.
Why should I press F12, wait for widgets to start or get updated and then press the button to move to the next song on iTunes, when I can do it with two clicks on my Dock? Also why do widgets move between sessions? Every time I start them, I need to re-position them.

On the other side Konfabulator (it was free for testing) offers about the same functionality and the same cool graphics (or even better) and has had TONS of widgets available for at least a year (I didn’t know it before, I don’t know how long it’s been available, but I KNOW it’s quite popular).
Of course when Apple released their own widgets (Konfabulator used to call them widgets from the beginning) the guys from Pixoria thought it was time to move on, but also thought that Konfabulator was great, so they ported it for Windows XP. While I don’t have Windows XP I understand it’s popular from the number of widgets that were developed for windows!

Now Yahoo! has bought the software and hired the developers. What’s going on? What will happen? I consider Konfabulator superior mostly because I can have it floating of my desktop while doing other things. What do I need stickies for if they are hidden in a menu/desktop that I can see pressing F12? I will not see them on my desktop, then it’s as valuable as storing them in a todo list in iCal or in a text file… I don’t see the difference, really!

I am really curious to see what will Yahoo do. They promised to keep the development of the Mac version and possibly extend it to other platforms such as Tivo. We’ll see.
In the meantime I have downloaded the free version, YES, Yahoo! is giving it for free!
Why is Yahoo giving it for free?
They understood the power of the Apple widgets and want their hands on the Windows version?
They liked the idea of the Apple widgets but Konfabulator is better?
They simply wanted a new good looking tool?

WURFL + J2ME

We have eventually reached the final stages of the new J2ME structure in WURFL.
It really took way longer than I thought, but thanks to the guys at Telefonica I+D we now have a tool to import new data an updates from the J2ME Polish files and can of course apply our own patches.

Considering the long time it took I have also added a ton of new user agents and device information. I also have a long queue of UAProfiles that were processed (thanks to Zev’s tools) and are waiting to be added to the main WURFL.
Things are really growing and something is happening. Contributors continue to grow and I receive emails from the stranges places of the world.

The new release will include more than 7000 user agents and 1000 recognized real devices.

What is needed to WURFL to beat the competition? We needed testers and contributions. We needed developers to let us know what they find out about devices. I know that everyone is buying Nokia 6230 and SonyEricsson V800 because those are the ones that sell well, but I also know for sure that each of us has some funky phone and we need to tailor it well in WURFL.

Do you have information about behaviour of Teleca browsers? Know about Samsung and LG devices? These are the information that is hardest to find.
Thumbs up to SonyEricsson that eventually produced a document that details differences among browser versions and names the browser version in the user agent!
FYI: the document name is “dg_browsing_r3a.pdf” and is included in the package named “dg_browsing_mar05.zip”. Any newer version from the SE developers’ site?

If you want to get the latest WURFL, get it from CVS and start testing!

just some pics

No real tech notes today. I am working on stuff not particularly innovative or complex, so I don’t have any real cool news or special things to post.

I will take this chance to post some pictures that will let everyone understand how hard it can be to work at home.

This is a picture of my cool Powerbook+external keyb+mouse+iCurve:

Cats like mice:

If you feel more serious, then you should read about what’s happening in London. Nothing to laugh about!

UAProf fun

A few minutes ago I needed to check some info about the V902 from Sharp, a VodafoneLive device. I opened the UAprof (http://www.sharp-mobile.com/UAProf/902SH_G001_base.xml) and started searching for the items I needed.

It looks like Sharp has made a new Audio codec: AMR nallow-band.
Apparently it is only supported for encoding. Decoding supports the more famous brother “AMR narrow band”.

I wonder how many companies and sites rely on this blindly…