Jose's Cerebro

My research and how-to work on Nokia's Nseries Workshop

I've been writing a series of posts for Nokia's Nseries Workshop based on my research.  The rest are mainly how-to's - for those newbies that want to do more with their mobiles than make calls and send text messages - and coverage of current events in the mobile world.

Here's a list of the last 20 articles I've written:

How to use Mobile Web Server: Part 3

How to use Mobile Web Server: Part 2

How to use Mobile Web Server: Part 1

Maps On Ovi at Where 2.0

Internet Tablet Video Converter

How to use Skype Mobile Beta on your N95

The noBounds Project

Q&A with David Wood, EVP Research, Symbian

Silverlight News from MIX '08

How to send SMS from OS X with AT commands and Ruby

How to send SMS and make calls from OS X with AT commands

How to geotag your photos with Location Tagger

How to transfer your iTunes library to your Nseries device

New Nseries devices debut at MWC 2008

How to sync your Nseries device with Mac OS X

Stream videos online with Qik

How to flash an N800 image from OS X

How to run Ruby on your N800/N810

How to set up multiple email accounts on your Nseries device

How to use your N95 as an external GPS device

How to glog and more with WayMarkr

Skip the iPhone SDK and give me 3G

The latest attempt to sacrifice Steve Jobs and Co. seems to be the "apparent" lack of a native SDK. What a crock of shit. Call me crazy, but I don't really want or need a native iPhone SDK. That's right, no stinking SDK.

Don't give in Steve Jobs, don't give in.

What I really want is a few more "web hooks" to local data and hardware via a sandbox - Javascript would do - and a real 3G data connection.

You see, I come from an old school systems design philosophy - build and design not for the world you're in, but for the world you will be in. And from where I'm standing the mobile world we'll all be in is inundated with bandwidth and data everywhere. You heard me right - death, taxes and an always-on data connection. In fact, I see so much connectivity that if I was designing a phone today it would just be a terminal - no native OS or apps. Everything, including the UI, would "stream" from the server. In such a world, the data pipe is the hardware bus and applications are never installed, they're all there.

It's this pre-conceived notion that makes be believe that a native iPhone SDK is a waste of time, a security risk or just plainly... as archaic of an idea as the floppy drive - which Apple removed with similar criticism. Don't give in Steve Jobs, don't give in.

Apple: We still like Flash! Releases My iTunes Widgets

Is the iPhone getting a Flash player?

iTunes is giving you an effortless way to keep your friends up-to-date with your favorite music, TV shows, movies, and more. My iTunes widgets are simple, self-updating add-ons for your web page, social-networking profile, or blog.

Check it out.

Best iPhone feature? Email instead of MMS

I have a confession to make... As a mobile designer, I hate to deal with the carriers and their telecom networks. I wish their networks would operate just like the web - TCP/IP-based communications from top to bottom. Can you imagine how many more mobile applications we'd have if instead of SMS we had email based SMS - just like in Japan? Or SMS over instant messaging? At the end of the day, SMS is just text. Can you count all the different ways to send and receive text on the Internet? Exactly. So why the hell do carriers have this archaic way of sending TEXT MESSAGES? I think I know... Complacency and Control. Regardless of their attitude, the writing is on the wall:

All carriers will become Internet Serice Providers whether they like it or not.

Can you forsee a future where you don't need six to eight weeks to get a shortcode? Or one in which you can just think of all mobile devices as the IP devices they really are? Or a future in which you don't need to get your application "screened" or "approved" by a carrier? How about a world with no aggregators? Screw SMSC and MMS gateways. How about just plain STMP, Jabber servers and $5.99 domain names at GoDaddy?

So when I read people complaining about the iPhone's lack of MMS I say... bring it on. Why stop there? Get rid of SMS too and provide an IP-base way of sending text messaging and watch this industry's innovation explode.

Until then... Way to go Apple, way to go!

How do you spell the end of Flash on mobile phones? Easy... H.264/3gp

Are you a fan of Flash? I'm not. It's one of those open-canvas technologies that let people do lots of distasteful things for sake of creativity. Don't get me wrong, it has it's place, but I rather use some of the alternatives. To be honest, I didn't have much of a need for Flash until YouTube came along. There are tons of Flash sites out there, but the killer app for Flash right now is certainly YouTube. So it's ironic that the same site that put Flash on everyone's radar is the site that will eventually kill it: YouTube. You see, until last week, the only way to view videos on YouTube's site was with Flash. What happened last week? YouTube Mobile, that's what happened. YouTube Mobile is a version of YouTube with videos encoded in H.264/3gp instead of Flash. H.264 and 3gpp are related to MPEG-4. If you look even deeper behind the formats, you'll find Quicktime/Apple roots behind them. 3gp - the file format behind 3gpp - is also the standard of choice behind all GSM mobile phones. So it's also no surprise that a week after YouTube releases their Flash-free, 3gp version of their site, Apple announces that the iPhone will play YouTube videos in H.264. YouTube Mobile is not only relevant to mobiles or the iPhones of the world. Remember Foleo, from Palm? Guess what? All Foleo's will be able to view YouTube videos now. Nokia's N800/770? Those too will get some YouTube love now - as soon as Nokia fixes their 3gp implementation. Bottom line is that with YouTube's adoption of MPEG-4 via H.264 and 3gp, they've set their videos "free" for everyone to watch. Byebye Flash, Byebye Flash.Lite! Hello open standards.

Take a look at this video of YouTube playing on an iPhone.

Nokia's Mobile Web Server Beta is Out

I wake up this morning and what do I find in my inbox:

Dear Raccoon User,

I'm happy to announce that a more product oriented mobile web server is now available for download.

You can find it right now at http://mymobilesite.net and soon also via http://www.nokia.com/betalabs, where there are a number of other cool applications.

The main difference between Raccoon and MWS, which is based upon Raccoon, is that while the former is primarily intended for hard-core developers and others who don't mind spending time at the bleeding edge, the latter is more geared towards regular end-users. However, the possibilities for customization and for building your own kind of mobsites are still there.

Furthermore, MWS provides https and access control at the gateway, so the possibilites for controlling who can access what, are much improved.

Thanks Johan, Juha and the rest of the Nokia team for making this happen. These are the type of examples we need to make people aware of the power they carry in their pockets - not that kind of power you freak. Do I smell the makings of a mobile social network? Stay tuned... Mercurio and MWS integration is next.

How to setup an E61 or E62 with iSync and GPRS internet on a Mac

UPDATE: iSync now supports both devices natively.

Do you want to setup your E61/E62 with your Mac? Well, follow the instructions and enjoy the ride.

1.Turn Bluetooth OFF on your Mac and make sure that iSync is NOT running.

2. Download the files.
Download MarinezE61forMac.zip

3. Take the eseries.phoneplugin file - the one with the Mactomster icon - and drag and drop it on top of the folder that says "Drag the eseries.phoneplugin file here...". These files will allow your Mac to recognize your E61/62 and will install the software necessary for iSync to work.

4. Go to System Preferences -> Bluetooth and click on the Devices tab on the top. Proceed to click on the "Set Up New Device..." button.

5. Turn Bluetooth On on your Mac and your phone.

6. Pick Mobile Phone when asked about the Device Type and click Continue.

7. Your Mac will now scan for phones around you. Select your phone and click continue.

8. A number will show up your screen. Type that number on your phone and press OK.

9. The next screen will ask you about the services that you want to enable on your phone. Make sure that the boxes for "Set up iSync to transfer contacts and events" and "Access the Internet with your phone's data connection" are checked. Select the option to "Use a direct, higher speed connection to reach your Internet Service Provider (GPRS, 1xRTT). Click Continue.

10. iSync will open up on your Mac. You'll receive a request to Accept a connection on your phone coming from your Mac, accept it. Once you accept the connection on your phone, iSync will show the E61/62 icon and the settings to start the first sync and all consequent syncs after that. Leave iSync alone for a second and finish the Bluetooth Setup Assistant by going to step 11.

11. Leave the Bluetooth Setup Assistant running and open a Finder window and then from the Menu bar, go to "Go" -> "Go to folder..." and paste this path:
/Library/Modem Scripts/

12. Drag the NokiaE61ModemScript(Marinez) file to Modem Scripts folder in the Finder. This file will allow your Mac to use the GPRS internet connection from your phone.

13. Go back to the Bluetooth Setup Assistant screen and next to the "GPRS CID String" type: *99# if you're using T-Mobile. You'll have to do a search for the string for Cingular - it may be *99***2# or something like that.

14. For the "Modem Script" check the "Show All Available Scripts" box and select the NokiaE61(Marinez) script. Additionally, check the "Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar" and "Show Modem status in the menu bar" boxes. This will add 2 icons to your Menu bar next to the volume and clock icons on your menu bar. Click on the "Continue" button and finish the setup.

15. Go back to iSync and configure it to your taste. You can sync if you want to.

16. If you want to use the internet connection from your phone all you need to do is click on the little phone icon on the menu bar and select the "Connect" option. Make sure that Bluetooth is on your phone. Immediately you'll see the phone icon transform and scrolling messages will appear - "Dialing" "Connecting...", etc.. Note: You need to have an internet connection plan from your carrier - T-Mobile or Cingular - in order to have GPRS internet connect working.

That's all folks. Let me know if you have any questions.

Startups, US and Power

Paul Graham continues to carry the flag for those of us with startups living in a Web 2.0 era. Take a look at his last essay and tell me what you think.

Regards,

Jose

http://www.paulgraham.com/america.html

There's hope: Croquet SDK 1.0 is out!

Croquet is one of those technologies that actually has a chance to change the way we think about the web and collaboration. Check it out! I hope you see what I see.

Enjoy.

Checkmate: Apple runs Windows

Stop the presses! Not only is it snowing here in NY in April, but Apple just announced this morning a new technology called Boot Camp that will enable anyone with an Intel based Mac to run Windows XP and OS X. No other computer manufacturer in the world (Dell, IBM, HP, etc.) will be able to run OS X. So what does that mean? Well, that Apple will be the only one that will be able to run Windows, OS X and Linux (Red Hat already supports Linux on the new Macs). In the chess world we call that: Checkmate!

Where is this all going? Check it out:

Apple Patent
Intel Virtualization

Well done Apple, well done!