There Seems To Be A Little Bit Of Interest In This Froyo Thing

From Android phone users there seems to be a great deal of excitment about the impending upgrade to Android 2.2. This was announced in May this year at Google I/O. In an industry where a week seems like a lifetime in terms of new innovation announcements, having to wait almost 3 months to actually receive the upgrade has left a lot of people salivating for a long time. OK to most consumers of mobile phones this probably doesn't mean a thing, but to Android geekdom this is Chritmas in late July! Or if you have a Network Carrier Locked HTC Desire, probably Christmas at the end of August if you are lucky! :-( Still a late Christmas present is better than none at all I guess. ;-). In fact even at the end of August it will still be 4 months early! Rock and Roll!

So here is a brief look at the coverage from the twitter-spere about impending Froyo updates to various devices! (Interestingly complete silence from Sony Ericcson for the SE X10 which was released with Android 1.6, while other handsets around it were being launched with 2.1. A great mistake in my view. I thought the SE X10 was a great looking phone but launching with 1.6 when others around it were heading out the door with 2.1 on board would have put me off if I was in the market at the time. So no news for either a 2.1 or 2.2 upgrade for SE X10 users. Sorry folks :-()

• @IntoMobile International Samsung Galaxy S to receive Android 2.2 (Froyo) in September http://bit.ly/9CFhnJ
  
• @HTC Please be aware any update.zip floating around for EVO are not final and may cause problems. Official updates are coming OTA next week!
  
• @IntoMobile Motorola Droid Gets Some Android 2.2 (Froyo) Lovin' Next Week http://bit.ly/bQl3KQ
  
• @MobileCrunch Don't Want To Wait For Next Week? Download Android 2.2 Now - http://is.gd/dTPeN
  
• @androidcentral Android 2.2 on the Evo 4G http://bit.ly/9ooUzI
  
• @IntoMobile Android 2.2 Froyo for Sprint EVO 4G Now Available from HTC http://bit.ly/aoAmWm
  
• @androidcentral Android 2.2 build for Evo leaked, rooted -- and released http://bit.ly/aYhLXO
  
• @AndroidGuys #Android: Verizon to Push Froyo to the Droid Next Week! http://www.androidguys.com/2010/07/30/verizon-push-froyo-droid-week/
  
• @androidcentral Original Droid getting Android 2.2 next week - it's official, folks! http://bit.ly/ba5idj
  
• @MobileCrunch Android 2.2 to hit the Motorola Droid next week? - http://is.gd/dTEhl
  

And so on and on!

Interestingly another Android release always seems to drive out the fragmentation issue again! An example can be seen here. At this stage with Android I don't believe think fragmentation is the biggest issue. I tend to agree with the comment posted at the end of the article

• The average user won’t even notice the differences between Android 2.0,2.1 or 2.2. The same Apps run on it, and most users only know one thing: “it runs Android”. I have rarely seen complaints about fragmentation from users, only websites that apparently are writing articles with the only reason of writing articles are mentioning things like this Fragmentation is overhyped and not something that is really that big a problem for either end-user or developer.

Lets see though. With so many different form factored devices there could still be issues, but the fact is that not all apps will run on all devices. Simple as that. Developers will always create where there is a need that creates a market where they can distribute their wares. So if a manufacturer deviates too far from the norm, either they make applications for their device themselves or the Customers have little to play with!

Cheers

m

You Think The Gardens Of W5 Are A Safe Place?

I have always been a massive fan of wildlife. I love getting out into open spaces and having a gander at what’s about and then being blessed by seeing some creature hanging out there to, doing whatever it does when it’s hanging out. In Australia we are blessed by having such a diversity of wildlife that so far has not been wiped out, although since European settlement there have been a vast number of extinctions. Humankind is just such an efficient killing machine and impact on the rest of the world. Just in case you didn’t know this is not an endearing feature of humanity. I always love being able to photograph wildlife in its natural environment as well. An example of some of these snaps can be seen here.

When I moved to the UK, 10 years ago now, and again apologies to the other residents of the UK but for now I am still here. Nothing more that I can do than apologies. Hey you let me back in! It’s not all my fault. Although blaming the Government for an individual decision should not be encouraged. I would refer back to my prize winning blog about the lack of common sense in the world but this blog is staying positive at the moment, so I will allow you to dig that one out yourselves if you can find it! When I say prize winning I believe the vote was about 14 – 3 in favour of my blog. So clearly a very important and influential award. Next stop the booker prize? Possibly not. Anyway I digest, where was I? That’s it ….

When I moved to the UK I found I was very deficient in my immediate access to wildlife and the chance to photograph it. In a way it was almost a blessing. I remember to get to work in Sydney my commute involved having to jump across the backs of the crocodiles, in the river flats at my front door. Following this was the drop bear forest. Seriously folks, you think Koala bears are cute? Try walking through a forest of the sleeping blighters. If you do, whatever you do don’t sneeze. The shock of the noise has them excrementing in fear and if that doesn’t cover you in an unwelcome shower, then a shower of petrified drop bears will, as they fall out of the trees after their initial deposit. It aint pretty by any stretch of the imagination! Then there’s the 50 foot anacondas, elephant monkeys, great white axelotle sharks (these babies walk on land as well as swim up the sewers) to name a mere few more.

In the UK you simply don’t have these dangers. As I say possibly a blessing in disguise. What I have found though is wildlife enjoyment on a totally different scale since having access to the garden. Every weekend morning, and most workday evenings, as I am pottering about I share the garden with 10’s upon 10’s of bumble bees. They infest the flowers, including the hollyhocks, and hover about seemingly getting drunk on the pollen. They are incredibly polite, unlike the afore mentioned drop bear, so if I am doing anything in particular to a particular plant, that they are currently hanging out on, they simply hover away and come back at a time that is appropriate for them. Although not quite to the same scale as the Australian vegetarian vampire bat, these bees are seriously huge! The biggest probably about the size of your average Australian coakroach. Seriously! The fact that they can actually get off the ground to hover between the flowers amazes me and must be considered a marvel of wing aerodynamics! So far this summer the daytime garden is pretty much in a constant state of hum thanks to the numbers of these beasts that share it.

I first noticed the bumble bees, and lets face it they are hard to avoid, when the first poppies blossomed near the front door. The bumble bees were literally rolling on their backs in absolute joy at the bottom of the flowers. It was either joy or some kind of Spring time fit they were having! Are they allergic to poppy pollen? The way they were acting it would not surprise me! I had a chance to photograph them in their joyous, drunken state. An example can be seen here. At the time I thought that they were so enamoured with their new found poppies that they had no idea that I was there. Since though I am not convinced, as they simply don’t seem to be camera shy. I have photographed many since. They probably think that I am somewhat weird to be wanting to take a picture of them, but I do think they are quite fascinating creatures.

We also suffer from visits from the odd urban fox. No, not some tarted up slapper but the four legged variety ;-)! These guys sift through the rubbish if allowed to. They are probably annoyed with me though as all our waste food stuffs are kept in a sealed recycling bin. Still that annoyance doesn’t stop then occasionally ripping through the rubbish bag due to an interesting smell that might have found its way in there.

The garden seems to be home to many a frog as well. I love frogs as it’s said that they are a great indicator of general environmental health. Not sure who said that but if you want to know why this is the case then you had best ask them. The first time I stumbled across a frog was when I was watering the irises. These are found in a large pot at the back of the yard and we keep it filled with water making a pond like effect. In this watering instance I saw a frog looking back at me seemingly thanking me for refreshing the swimming pool. On filling the pool he popped back underneath the irises for a bit of privacy. No need to hang about for a chat I guess, that’s a frogs prerogative.

After that though, sightings were few and far between until I saw a very dry, and regrettably dead, frog on the front lawn, Exhibit A. I was a bit disappointed to be honest, but hey everything has a lifespan and Exhibit A seems to have reached there’s. After that no further sightings until we cleared some of the low lying plants in the garden the other weekend. While kneeling down clearing out some debris I suddenly found a small frog hopping about behind my feet. Nice! Son of Exhibit A! Further clearing, and being close to ground level, uncovered two more frogs. One of them can be seen here.

OK four frogs, one of them now deceased, a few urban foxes of the four legged variety and a vast quantity of bumble bees doesn’t match the size and magnitude of having to commute on the backs of tigers to work, but I still love the close coexistence with animal life. I love that even if small there are examples of humans and nature hanging out is some form of harmony. I wish there was more, but even small signs of this please me greatly. This doesn’t take into account all off the birdlife in the area as well. Bizarrely there are flocks of parakeets that live in Pitshanger Park behind us. Where on earth did these originate from? Definitely not a native species. There are the great tits and blue tits as well, but this is not that kind of blog so we shouldn’t go there, phnarr phnarr ;-)

Anyways have a great day. I am off to hang with the Bumble Bees. I wanna be a part of their gang ;-)

Mostly Mobile Related Stuff From Week 30

It should be noted before I continue that these are my views on what I have found interesting in the mobile world in the past week and not necessarily anybody else’s! These stories may actually only be of interest to me!

I decided to write a weekly review of the links that I have posted to LinkedIn at the end of the week. Personally, I guess, I will use it as a review over time of what the heck is going on in the world I work in, and how things are dramatically changing. Every other day someone seems to be trumping someone else in the mobile technology world. So it’s not particularly a personal diary, but perhaps a professional one. Not that I actually work on any of the things that will be presented each week! Anyway here goes for what might be the first of many end of week reviews.

• With almost half your countries population on Facebook you'd be made not to get on the wave, or at least the ripple http://awe.sm/58cij - simple graphs that plot the ups and downs of the users of Social Networks. Facebook announced that they now have 500 million users this week. Facebook is a platform that allows others to integrate with it such that the users of Facebook can share their experiences from other sites on their Facebook account. I like what Yahoo have done with their integration with Facebook for example. With access to 500 million Customers, in my view, you would be mad not to be able to allow your Customers to share experience of your service on Facebook. It’s all about distribution.
• Despite shipping 111 million devices Nokia Q2 earnings drop 40% http://awe.sm/58cva . Time to start releasing Android handsets ;-) I used to really like Nokia phones. I used to work for them and the Nokia 5110 was my first mobile! They have taken a beating though from the iPhone and Android phones in recent times. They need to respond and respond quickly. I really think that there is a huge opportunity for Nokia to fight back if they go about it the right way. They need to respond now though, not tomorrow. Will be really interesting to see how they do fight. I would love to be a fly on the wall!
• Windows Phone 7 OEM launch partners http://awe.sm/58ejd . I don't understand why 25% of the home screen isn't used. Is it just me? – Looking at WP7, in the screen shots that have been provided, it seems that they waste huge amounts of space on the screen. There seems to be acres of space that are empty! On devices with limited screen size this seems to be a complete waste. I reserve judgement for when I actually get to play with a handset though. Maybe the design has its users in mind and is not just minimalistic pretty-ness that adds no value. Have they followed the look good first, run well second design principal? ;-)
• RT @mashable Android Versus iPhone: The OSes By the Numbers - http://ow.ly/2fpQL -> Do you think Android could overtake iOS – Yes – a simple review of the numbers of smart phones out there. I do think, simply via the vast numbers of different Android handsets available, that Android will zoom past iPhone in terms of numbers. In terms of style, consumer usability and fanboi god like worship that remains to be seen.
• An interesting opinion about what it will take to rescue Nokia from an ex Nokian http://awe.sm/58esT - an ex Nokia manager tells it like it is (in his view) apparently this has been about, in Finnish, for some time. Translated into English it makes for some interesting reading. Again I hope Nokia rise to the fight, if only to foster further and faster innovation in the smart phone market!
• The secret of Amazon’s $1 billion sales over mobile per year http://awe.sm/58f69 - 1 Billion a year in mobile payments? Thank you very much! Think this clearly demonstrates that if you make a mobile app simple to use, people will use it. Amazon do have some very cool features that allow for easy price comparison in their applications though which also encourage users to price compare in the real world and then buy online! I am a heavy user of their iPhone application!
• Another release for Google Maps on Android brings 'Places' to the idle screen http://awe.sm/58kyC Not as good as Local Mall app ;-) – Another release of Maps for Android! They are so frequent and the new features each release make the offering more complete and interesting to use. When you continually roll out new features Customers will continue to explore your product. Google are great at doing this with their successful products. Other companies would do well to follow their development ethos!
• Android UK sales quadruple in the past quarter http://awe.sm/58kz1 Helps when you have cracking phones come out and AAPL gets bad press – speaking to a customer care agent of one of the networks they mentioned that HTC Desire’s were still selling like hotcakes which was causing shortages in supply! He mentioned that the iPhone 4 receiving bad press was probably throwing lighter fluid on the sales fire as well. Android handsets are now really becoming a real Consumer alternative to iPhone, as opposed to a geek alternative. I look forward to each Android release to see the advances. Still in the end Consumer numbers pick which is the best phone. In the end the phone specification is not the final measure!
• WAC SDK will be available in Nov 2010 http://awe.sm/58lG5 and WAC are still asking devs what they would like in it http://awe.sm/58lGC - WAC, or the Wholesale Application Community, is an attempt by Mobile phone networks and device manufacturers to claw back some of the mobile application store markets that have been created, to a massive scale, by the likes of Apple, Google and Blackberry, amongst others. (Lets not forget the 2^nd largest app store GetJar in the equation who are delivering content to 2000 different devices and now handling 3 million downloads a day! http://awe.sm/58pZf) Lets see what happens in this space. I hope the carriers make a go of it, but again lets see.
• The time for foursquare targeted marketing might be now http://awe.sm/58mwH - This article is really about the fact that very few folks on the internet use applications like foursquare and that currently as a mainstream advertising source they are currently probably not your best bet for marketing. I would argue otherwise. Currently these services are heavily used by people who are actively interested in them. There is high concentration of a single demographic that leads to the possibility of highly targeted advertising, without potentially having access to targeting tools. Marketers who embrace these new check-in services in their infancy, in my view, will reap reward in the long run.
• Amazon recommendations based on your Facebook activity ... scary! http://awe.sm/58mwO But you have nothing to hide right ;-) – In an era of increasing concern about privacy this is a little bit of a worry. Amazon scraping your Facebook data to provide even better recommendations? Amazon are the masters of recommendations. I don’t know how much money I have wasted over the years based on there pesky recommendations! Damn you Amazon! ;-) These were made though on your previous activity and purchases on their site. To now be able to do this based on your lifestyle? A bit of a concern and worth checking your privacy settings on Facebook. As yet I am not deleting my Facebook account but lets see.
• Vodafone are stopping making Voda 360 phones http://awe.sm/58nPJ More surprisingly there are 7000 apps in the 360 download store! – So Vodafone are stopping making their Social phones and concentrating on making social services. These will be able to be used across any handset so probably a good direction change. It is so damned difficult to make improvements on the UI provided by device manufacturers. I don’t know how they go about doing this at Voda but from personal experience I know it’s a challenge. It is a far better idea, in my view, to develop services that are accessible across every handset, i.e. web services. This potentially allows your entire Customer base to access your content as opposed to a lucky few.
• RT @MarkIAllison Android Market Woes Spill Over to Developer http://bit.ly/aNBM0D - A demonstration of why Google might need to rethink their Customer service? They had issues with respect to Customer Service when they tried to sell their Nexus One handset. Now it seems that this has spilled over into developer relations. Developers are becoming the lifeblood of the device eco system so would be a good thing for them to get issues like this sorted, or at least more transparency between the relationship between Customer, Market Place and Developer.
• Good news for online gaming companies http://awe.sm/58p0a Google in the market to make another SN to peddle their products? - Online gaming companies are quickly becoming the darlings of the media world. Companies like Zynga who produce Farmville and others. More platforms to distribute their games can only be a good thing! Distribution is on of the keys to success in this industry (great content also helps ;-)) so the more platforms to hit potential Customers potentially the better, or does this dilute the active Customer pool?
• Voda running Mobile Clicks competition again. 100K€ to the best mobile startup. Start writing your business cases http://awe.sm/58p1G - I like the concept of a carrier attempting to promote innovation. May long competitions like this exist. The promotion alone for winning an event like this is probably even better than the cash! Then again 100K Euros is better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.
• For those of you with check in fatigue might be worth checking out m.check.in . Nice HTML 5 app to aggregate multiple accounts – I am an active user of Foursquare and Gowalla. Sometimes it’s simply a hassle to try and check in using both applications on your mobile. People who don’t play the games inevitably get annoyed with you as you fumble with your iPhone with every new place you go to! ;-) Here is a HTML 5 solution to the problem that provides an aggregation of check in services. I like the fact that it is also HTML 5 as increasingly I think app developers who want to be easily able to distribute their services across many handset Operating Systems will develop this way. To be fair when I used this app on my HTC Desire it was slow to lock on to my location. These are things that can be potentially fixed though.
• The reality of augmented reality in mobile - http://awe.sm/58pCN - Augmented Reality, in my view, at the moment is simply a novelty to get you engaged with an application. You use it, see stuff around you on a camera view of your handset, have a giggle and then access the data. Would I use my handset in this way on a street in London? No. It’s simply not a quick way to access data about the area you are in, and wandering around in circles on a busy sidewalk in any city is not realistic. It is a selling point to draw attention to your application though. Still AR is new on the block and I still expect the next thing we will see will be heads up displays in your glasses that are connected to your handset via Bluetooth. I fully expect the line at the iPhone 6 launch to be filled with Fanbois wearing thick rimmed spectacles looking at the virtual graffiti slamming Microsoft that some Fanboi left on the front of the Apple store at the iPhone 5 launch. They will all be laughing, not only at the virtual graffiti, but also at the losers who don’t have the AR thick rimmed spectacles who cannot see the graffiti. Oh how they will laugh. Normal people won’t see the funny side of it.
• JIL’s slow progress doesn’t bode well for WAC http://awe.sm/58pIs I hope he is wrong and the networks actually make a go of it – there is a healthy cynicism amongst developer circles about the potential success of WAC. This article presents one person’s opinion. I hope that the carrier/device partnership can make a go of WAC. They have a good deadline to work to, September 2010 and the 3GSM at Barcelona in February in 2011. Let’s see what the developers make of the announcements at this time. There will clearly be more comment about this moving forward.
• Opera Mini now serving 1 billion pages daily http://awe.sm/58pYC - I am a fan of Opera Mini. It does provide a great internet experience no matter what supported mobile you are running it on. On high-end phones it is less useful although the data compression still helps if you aren’t on a great network. But as a leveller across all phones it does provide a great mechanism to get on the internet and have a PC like experience on your handset. It’s not perfect but it does have its benefits. It reminds me of heavy traffic and crawling along at the same speed as the Ferrari driver next to me. Traffic is the great leveller of almost all cars. Opera Mini is a great leveller of the internet experience on mobiles.

That’s it. Thank God I hear you say! Well if you got to reading this last bit congratulations. Pat yourself on the back and reward yourself with a chocolate bar. Lets see how this format goes. Maybe I will change it to be a top ten for the past week, I think there are 20 up there ;-). Maybe I will post more regularly on a story by story basis. Maybe I should do a mid week chart and an end of week chart ;-). Who knows!

Now to make an Android application to test out mobile ads and distribution ;-). Well let’s see if I have time for that! After all gardening awaits and that should wait for no person! Maybe next week I will do a top 20 gardening tips that I have learnt since inheriting the garden? Hmmm that could be dangerous! Just wait for the product review of my push lawn mower though. This will be a doozy ;-)

Have fun

So What The Heck Is The Name Of This Flower? Anybody Know?

The way I wanted to start the gardening bit of this blog was to take photos of flowers within the garden, as they appeared, and then post them on the blog to highlight when they had bloomed and ask folks what they thought they actually were! To be honest I have no idea about the names of most of them! I always find it amusing when real gardeners come over and wander through the garden highlighting the names of everything. By the time they have rattled off ten names I have forgotten all but the last of them. Then I usually refer to the first plant they looked at with the name of the last. Even then I get the name wrong. I am truly destined to be a gardener of note ;-) I am thinking about entering Chelsea next year. The name of my garden will be ‘Garden with stuff in it’. Although I will probably spell stuf (sp?) incorrectly, or at least pronounce it stiff or some such. Trust me, I am going to be on the cover of Gardeners World in no time. No time!

Anyway I missed the boat really. Most of the flowering plants have come and gone, with the notable exception of the hollyhocks. I know the names of these ones so I regularly refer to them in the presence of real gardeners so they think I know what I am talking about. Gardening conversations that I am involved in tend to be heavily influenced by the topic of hollyhocks, the rest is just other stuff right? Well there are paeonies, irises, poppies, roses and some other stuff, to name a few. A sample of some of the flowers in the garden can be seen in the Flickr set I have been adding photos to here

Hollyhocks at the moment are still taking centre stage though, although I think they are coming to the end of the flowering at the moment. Not sure how tall these things are supposed to grow, and if the ones on my garden have been fed steroids or not, but we have some that are well over two metres tall. I would say pushing 3 metres some of them. At one stage I was unable to get through the front door due to the abundance of the beasts! I have never really noticed hollyhocks before, although I am sure that they have existed prior to me attempting to manage this garden! Can anybody clarify this for certain though? To my knowledge I cannot think of seeing a single one in Islington, where we used to live. I guess they must have been there, you just notice different things when they are on your mind

They really are surreal creatures. Over the three months we have lived in the new house they have grown from almost nothing, to over two metres tall. They seem to have an endless amount of flowers if the dead ones on the ground are anything to go by. Seriously picking up discarded flowers seems to be a daily past time at the moment. It's actually a welcome past time so no gripes there. The discarded flowers look as though they don’t come from a plant. The base of them looks like some plastic funky design that you might use to peg your curtains back or something. They also politly curl up so as to not leave any petals behind, unlike those flippin' roses! I tell you cleaning up after roses must be like cleaning up after a small child. Never ending! Again not a gripe, just a fact ;-)

Anyway's there you have it. Hollyhocks can grow to be enormously tall, can block access to your house, drop their flowers like a nicely behaved child, as opposed to the ill behaved roses, and all in all are quite a delight to behold. Just ask the bumble bees who have a tendancy to steal Bono's sunglasses, but more on them later.

Have a fun day

Cheers

m

I Believe It's Jogging Or Yogging. It Might Be A Soft J

"I'm not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It's supposed to be wild." Bless you anchorman for making our irrelevant lives so colourful!

So the other month I (foolishly?) took up jogging. What does this have to do with Gardening or Mobile Technology you ask? Well if you had a big enough garden I guess you could jog around that? No not really, although you could. I was interested in finding an inexpensive way of tracking the jogging that I was doing. I was not sure if it would be a fad or if I would continue so I didn't really want to spend a load of cash on it.

At about the time I started jogging a Facebook friend of mine started using a product called Runkeeper. I could see his regular updates on Facebook about runs he had done, specifying the time and distance. Yes a company that implemented a sharing use case on Facebook! How radical I say. Who on earth would think that would work? Piggy backing on a site that has 500 million users? Crazy...

Anyway spurred on by his regular updates I checked out the iPhone app, and subsequently the Android app. you specify your exercise, push the start button and run away! The application uses the handset GPS in order to track your location regularly, such that it can calculate the distance and speed travelled. At the end of your run you can see the distance travelled, time run and speed. There is also a map view allowing you to see exactly where you have run.

Despite being absolutely dejected the first time I used it, due to the minimal distances I was covering, quickly I was able to see the improvement in distances and times. It became a spur to keep on running.

I really love the application, and tied with the web service based at Runkeeper you can track distances covered and see improvements week by week, or in the case of this past month for me, see when I stopped running when I was on holiday!

There is a paid for version of the application, which I admit I have not purchased yet, but the free version is exactly what I was looking for. Cannot rate it high enough.

Of course you do have to run around with your iPhone in your hand, but that is a small price to pay, for me, in order to be able to track what I am doing.

There are many other running applications for both iPhone and Android. This one was the first one I found, thanks to them implementing the sharing use case on Facebook ;-). I cannot vouch for the others but this one works really well for me. If you are a part time runner who wants to see how well you are getting on I highly recommend this.

cheers and happy yogging ;-)