Yesterday also saw the launch of another website I have been working on recently. The Fuelstretcher is an energy saving device that regulates boiler systems, generating savings of around 30% for business.
Fuelstretcher Ltd. required a new site build to refresh their online image, whilst retaining editable content through use of Contribute.
Harris Cox Woodcraft Ltd. design, build and supply shop fittings and interiors for some of the biggest names on the high street. I was commissioned to take their existing media (logos, shop photography, etc.) and build the company’s first website, introducing a clean and contemporary style to the brand.
Nokia has launched WidSets, a J2ME-powered widget/dashboard for mobile devices. I remember reading some time ago several posts by Thomas Landspurg about mobile widgets.
Mobile widgets are a cool idea for getting (mostly) useful information onto your mobile quickly and easily. In common with their desktop counterparts, most utilise simple formats such as RSS. I’ve seen a few mobile widget platforms spring up, and since getting a new phone and contract, I’ve been able to try out a couple of them.
There seem to be standard widgets that are, like desktop ones, often useless. Others, though, are instantly useful, and there are potential widgets that would be great on mobiles. As well as the obligatory feed-readers, mobile widgets could be
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I think mobile widgets are a great way to deliver the mobile Internet. On whatever platform, they can help to refine the relevance information we receive. Furthermore, web pages just don’t seem to be any good on phones, but these quick and relevant nuggets of information - delivered rather than sought - are not only more suited to the small-screen, but also potentially cheaper. I still believe the extremely high cost of GPRS access (in the UK) is one of, if not the single, greatest barrier to more widespread use of the mobile Web.
However, I think widgets should be more than an interface for consumption. They are a bi-directional interface for the mobile Web; a very real P2P platform. In the same way that RSS can be downloaded to the phone, data may be published from it by means of similar XML technology, to the wider Web. Sony Ericsson’s inclusion of a built-in Blogger capability is a beginning, but the mobile device is today an extremely capable publishing and distribution platform, with built-in recording, mixing, and coding technology; local, and global connectivity.
The myriad of APIs in Web 2.0 apps - the ability to publish information without resort to a single interface - gives plenty of scope to explore mobile publishing. A J2ME project I’ve been thinking about for some time - and this week decided to commence - is based upon this model.
I hope that mobile widgets - both those designed for consuming and especially those built for publishing - become mainstream. They could be what is needed to increase adoption of the mobile device as a serious platform for Web interaction. That such adoption might also help drive down the cost of mobile Internet access would be of great benefit not only to consumers, but also those developers investing in emerging mobile technologies.
Via MobileCrunch
Mike Phillips pointed me in the direction of this project. Built by Sascha Pohflepp, the Buttons project lets you take empty photos that record only the time of your snapshot. When you take your blind photo, the device searches the Internet (via a custom Mobile Processing app) for other peoples’ pictures taken at the same time. After a while, those images will appear on the screen.
The concept is nice, and certainly looks slick. With distant memories of Toupix, this type of work is of great interest to me, and with other projects like Radar, it’s good to see how this field of research is developing.
It’s been a long time since my last post, so I thought I’d try to catch up on whats happening. With Uni life behind me (although not forever…see below), I’m working away on a number of commercial projects, some of which are Web based and a couple of mobile projects that I’ll soon hopefully be able to publish.
I’m also working hard at trying to get HostManager 2.0 going. Trying is the key word though - Cocoa seems to have got a lot harder, and why are bindings so difficult to debug?! I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve started a new test project in XCode. Finally, though, these painful non-starter projects have given way to a working (albeit very early-stages) app. HostManager will also get a nice new website as well, as I fear the existing one is looking somewhat dated…
Also pushing the blog down the list of priorities, I carried out a short J2ME training course a couple of weeks ago, and am now preparing similar coding workshops for iDat. The J2ME workshops gave me some good experience and feedback on delivering code-based workshops that I’m sure will be useful for the iDat workshops next year.
So, to kick-start the blog again, I’ve treated the site to a new theme, and am considering finishing some of the half-written posts that are littering my drafts folder…