WE MOVED TO: http://www.sprxmobile.com/blog/
Jeppe is cool!
August 11, 2008
Just read a post at NokNok.tv about Jeppe. Incredible how Plug and Play the world is becoming….
Jeppe is built with modest components but still has quite a range of functionality
This is what Jeppe can do (as of July 2008):
- Make video calls with two-way audio, one-way video (from Jeppe to controller)
- Move according to six pre-defined gestures
- Move around when controlled with a Nokia Internet Tablet in the same WLAN: not remotely, yet
Demo of the NOS Mobiel Olympics client
August 11, 2008I got some requests from people to upload a demonstration video of the Olympics Mobile Application which is part of NOS Mobiel.
Well here it is..
Shot with my N95 (sorry)
Will try to get a decent quality movie up here soon.
Most useful tool while on holiday: GPS phone + Google Maps
August 10, 2008
Last week, while enjoying a fanastic holiday in Sicily (Italy), I found out that there was just one item I couldn’t have missed: my GPS-enabled N82 mobile phone – working seamlessly together with Google Maps.
Even though we had enough maps and card-reading skills on board (I simply love maps and both my boyfriend and I are good at navigating), we have been thanking Saints Nokia and Google a few times for having helped us out.
Being used to Dutch traffic and roadsigns (all extremely well organized), Sicilian traffic and wayfinding takes some getting used to.
Apart from really needing all your sensors to stay concentrated on traffic alone ['Keeping your lane" doesn't really exist, there were easily 5 rows of traffic on a 2-lane + safety lane motorway], road exit signs are simply very hard to find. And usually placed after an exit, amongst all kinds of other highly distracting signs.
We therefor used Google Maps, together with regular maps and route descriptions from our picturesque yet sometimes quite remotely located Agriturismos and hotels.
It works so easily. Just press “0″ and the GPS tells you immediately where you are. Zooming in and out, scrolling – it is all so incredibly intuitive. The fact that you can choose any level of (non)-detail via Google Maps makes it very easy to get an overview of the entire journey and of the details.
Satellite mode
We also used the ‘Satellite’ mode (= Google Earth) multiple times, for example to find ourselves a nice beach on our way to the next destination or to locate the ‘teatro Romano’ (lower right on the picture) from our location near the ‘teatro Greco’ (upper left) in Sicacusa.
Again, the roadsigns at that point didn’t help us out, Google Earth did.
We didn’t even use the ’search’ option for finding restaurants this time – this time we simply chose to follow our real life eyes, ears and nose to find lovely places to eat and drink…
So, where will this lead to?
Currently, there were no usable other mobile location services available for Sicily yet, apart from some very simple (but not so interesting) Lonely Planet content. But how would we have loved to get more information about the wonderful monuments ready at hand. However, this is just a matter of time- I’m sure that by next summer many of these services will be available. In the iPhone app store, you can already try out Wikime (link to article in Dutch).
My dream would be to point the camera of my phone at all of the archeological sites which make Sicily (and many other tourist destinations on this planet) so special – and see in the screen of my camera:
- how this site looked like in the old days
- how the people looked like, and what they were doing at that moment
This type of ‘Augmented Reality’ via your regular mobile phone is also only a few years away.
It could radically change the way we live our holidays… If we want to, of course. Luckily there’s always the possibility to switch off your mobile, simply get lost somewhere in the middle of nowhere and phantasize about how life and the historic sites could have looked like a long, long time ago.
Mobile Olympics application LIVE! ;-)
August 6, 2008As some of you know we work for NOS, the dutch news and sport broadcaster. I have been busy last months to build a great mobile application for them called NOS Mobiel. On top of this application we also developed an Olympics application (which is integrated in the navigation of NOS Mobiel the coming weeks). I must say that I am very proud of the result. Together with the NOS team, Triple IT (video encoding) and the client platform (WeComm) we made a hell of an application 
So what content is in this application?
- Newsfeeds(dutch and general)
- Radio Olympia
- Programming (what is LIVE now and what is next?)
- 12 livestreams straight from Beijing (with adaptive and fastchannel switching, streams are 115kb and 200kb 3gp streams)
- Dynamic screenshotsof from the live streams(refreshed every 3 minutes)
- Video on Demand (Highlights, ceremonies)
- Medalscore
- and some really fancy interaction elements..
Today we launched. Have a look at the screenshots. Video can be only watched by people in Netherlands IP range
For the dutchpeople:
download via m.nos.nl/nosmobiel
or
SMS NOS MOBIEL to 9090
WiMax in Amsterdam!
August 4, 2008
Wow.. Just read that the first commercial WiMax network in the Netherlands, called Aerea, is going live..
For 29,95 you receive a PCMCIA card (for XP only) and get a month access to the WiMax network. After one month you have a kind of pay as you go construction. So basically you can buy a new month for 9,95 euro.
Company behind the network is Worldmax
Too bad that there is no support for Apple yet. Would have loved to try it. They will come with a USB adapter in November according to Bright. How knows maybe that they have OSX software with the USB solution *fingers crossed*.
Bad thing is also that WorldMax uses a different solution than Sprint so the N810 Wimax doesn’t work either.. (Thanks Candyman for the info)
Be smart with context
August 3, 2008
Just read a post from Helen Keegan (who joined the MoMo London team..yeahh) about the relevant simple approach of the current wave of Location Based Services. I totally agree with her that we are still not very creative nor intelligent with the context information we currently have to our disposal. As I commented on her blog I believe that having the complete context in place is necessary to offer relevant contextual services. The first step after having the context information in place is being great in pattern recognition. Spotting the Nodal Points(as Jyri calls them).
Well what is the complete context? Here is my list:
- Taskrelated context: What are you doing?
- Social context: With whom are you?
- Spatio-Temporal context: Where are you? What time is it?
- Physiological context: Heartrate, movement, temparature(see post about the pill below)
- Environmental context: In what environment are you?
- Mental context: How are you feeling?
These context domains are all about the NOW! So not ” what are you plans tomorrow?” or “what is your favourite music?”. These are all legitimate profiling questions and offer great insight about a person BUT I question if in a mobile services context(hehe) they are relevant..
Some questions I am still puzzling with is what to do with informaton about your history or the complete context of the people which are important to you. Would you need to have this information to become more relavent to people in specific situations?
Curious about your thoughts..
P.S. Image is from Helen’s blog.. Just had to post it. LOVE IT!!
