LocoMatrix - Use your Cell Phone and a GPSr to Play Games

When Swirl was in development, we started to build out a Bluetooth games platform. The idea was that games would have an organizer and use specially encoded phones that would record times and locations of the players in proximity. We could then build games like hide and seek and capture the flag on this platform. We ended up confusing just about everyone we presented the idea to, so we abandoned the idea, but you can still see remnants of some of that work in Swirl Connect.

That’s why LocoMatrix caught my eye. Using a compatible cell phone (newer Nokias and Sony-Ericssons) coupled with a GPS receiver, you can play location-based games that are not location-dependent. This was one of the big hurdles we had with Swirl, and why we were going to require an organizer. In LocoMatrix’s Fruit Farmer game, you have a game board that adapts to your environment. The fruit you collect is virtual, and you collect it by just being in a location — what makes it even more interesting is when you add players, the first person to a position collects the fruit, and it disappears from the game board on your phone.

After a while you’d begin to recognize the pattern, and just move to the appropriate position without even using your phone, right? Then build your own game board. There are multiple levels of difficulty available, and it looks like a good number of folks have designed their own boards for use.

LocoMatrix is in its infancy, and I would expect some rough patches on both their web site and with their software, but it looks like fun! I ordered my GPS receiver 5 minutes ago — though I won’t be surprised if the order is rejected 5GBP for shipping to the USA must be a mistake!

If you decide to try it out, I’d love to hear your feedback.

Excellent Mobile Blogs

I had intended on publishing my experience migrating from TypePad to WordPress today, but the post got very long, and had to split into two posts. I didn’t want to leave you with a cliff-hanger over the weekend, so I thought I’d instead point you to a few of the blogs that I’ve been reading lately. I’ll be posting the migration articles next week.

There are a wide range of blogs out there covering the entire mobility spectrum, and there are plenty of mobile gadget or phone review blogs, and for the most part, I’m disinterested in them. I tend to enjoy ones that discuss the macro impacts of mobile technology, programming, and practical applications of mobile technology. Or ones that are written from a perspective similar to mine (that’s my obvious statement of the week).

So here are the ones that I’ve been enjoying of late, in no particular order:

• Open Gardens
• Wireless Wanders
• MobHappy
• biskero.org
• Darla Mack
• TomSoft
• Xellular Identity
• About Mobility
• The Pondering Primate
• Mobile Phone Development
• Daily Wireless

Hope you enjoy them. If you have any blogs on your hit list that you think I might like, please add a comment. I’m always on the look out for new reading material, and most everything I find is either based on recommendation or serendipitous searching.

Because it’s mildly related to mobile. . .

A model shows off waterproof protectors for cell phones at CeBIT. Photo credit: Reuters via Yahoo! Photos

Modu: Genuinely interesting and slick mobile phone / gadget

Modu is a tiny, credit card-sized, powerful mobile phone. Slip the modu into one of many very well-designed “jackets” to give it a new look and new functionality. These modular components remind me of the concept behind Buglabs, but whereas Buglabs had more geek appeal, with open source hardware and software, modu has much more chic appeal. These things look slick.

When is a phone not a phone? When it has “mates,” which morph the modu into various consumer electronic devices. All modu jackets are universally interchangeable, allowing you to swap modu jackets at any time, and according to the web site, with anyone. It also sounds as if some of these modu’s will be artist-branded and come pre-loaded with applications and music. I couldn’t find any price estimates to speak of, but product is supposed to ship at the end of 2008.

Photos can’t do the concept justice. Check out the Flash intro to see how these work.

Pumbby: get paid for watching ads on your mobile phone

This is a new delivery twist on an existing concept. Pumbby pays users EUR 0.44 for each ad they view, up to a maximum of 10 a day. When you create your account, you specify how many ads you’re willing to receive per day, and they arrive as text messages. Click the link to open your WAP browser and view what amounts to a full-screen banner ad.

At the current exchange rate, that’s roughly US$6.50 per day if you elect to receive all 10 messages, and I expect, if they have a large enough ad inventory to serve you 300 ads per month. That would certainly pay for that unlimited data bundle, and even justify that purchase of an iPhone.

Alas, Pumbby is only available on a limited number of networks, and apparently my phone can’t be pumbed. Pumbby is based in Brussels, which I had hoped would uncover some clues as to what the root “pumb” meant, as it seems to be used rather impartially as a noun, verb, and an adjective.

Hopefully Pumbby will soon hire a professional translator to clean up some of these gems:

• “For each visualized advertizing, you receive 44 €. You accept to receive advertizing and no advertizing messages on your mobile phone and, to thank you , you will receive money you can manage. “
• “to pumbb ? You would like to pumbb your mobile, very easy register you and discover how its walk! “

Somebody set us up the bomb, indeed!

Check out Pumbby

Swirl Connect: location-based mobile social software

We have quietly released Swirl Connect, software for your mobile phone that helps you stay connected with your friends and their latest activity, as well find new people and places, whether you’re mobile or at home on your PC.

The current release is slightly hobbled, as $$$$ is tight, and we had to turn off the messaging features, but there’s still plenty to do and see. Here are a few features:

• Find your friends and get alerted to their latest activity
• Explore nearby places of interest
• View and share photos, notes, and places on your PC or mobile phone
• Mobile instant message or group message with your friends
• Meet new people while you’re on the move
• Get location-based alerts
• Interact with both PC and mobile users in real time

Try it out! It’s free, supports popular Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, and Motorola phones (with plenty more coming), and is a lot of fun.

All I Want for Christmas: BUG, from Bug Labs

This is one of the more interesting products I’ve seen in a while, and although it doesn’t look
like it’s going to be shipping in 2007, this is high on my wish list for 2008.

Bug Labs has created open source hardware modules that can be snapped together like Legos to create a mobile device. You start out with the well-equipped BUGbase, with built-in Wifi, USB, and ethernet. BUGbase has four connectors used for snapping on the open source hardware modules. Each module or combination of modules you snap on enables additional device capabilities. Current and upcoming modules include:

• Camera / videocamera
• GPS
• touch screen
• motion sensor / accelerometer
• qwerty keyboard
• speaker and jacks

Then comes the software, also open source and community-developed with Bug’s own SDK. It looks like there are a handful of applications out there currently, with most being of the test variety, but it doesn’t take long for these kinds of plug-ins to gather momentum.

Sure, these things look like bricks, but you can’t beat the gadget appeal.

Check them out at http://www.buglabs.net/.

15,000 Downloads for Amazon-OnTheGo

We’re just wrapping up device support and SEO on our new mobile / web application (if all goes well, we’ll deploy in a week or two). Great stuff: mobile messaging, a maps mashup, location-based alerts, friend finder, and a place finder all wrapped up in one package called Swirl Connect.

In working on the SEO, I looked at Amazon-OnTheGo’s traffic stats, because it’s received a fair amount of traffic with very little effort on my part. It was always supposed to be a quick and dirty little project, but it’s attracted just over 15,000 downloads to date, and has received some good feedback along the way. Feedback I’m sorry to say I’m just getting around to seeing. Here are a few mentions:

• SarahInTampa.com: Amazon To Go Good luck with your move to WordPress!
• Amazon-OnTheGo on java.com
• 10 of 10 rating on GetJar
• Short mentions in SearchEngineWatch, Wendong’s Smart Phone Blog, ResourceShelf, and The Cell Freak.

Thanks for the feedback!

J2ME Polish 2.0 Beta 3: ScreenInfo Revisited

I thought I’d revisit Polish’s handy ScreenInfo class, as it is working as intended out-of-the-box in the beta 3 release (earlier post here).

In my current application, I’m using it a bit differently than I did before, combining it with a Timer to remove the ScreenInfo element after a specified amount of time.

As before, add the corresponding variable declaration to your build.xml file:

<variable name=”polish.ScreenInfo.enable” value=”true” />

You can also style this element in polish.css by using the “screeninfo” predefined style.

In the code sample below, I’m using images and determining margins at runtime, so I’m not utilizing this element, but it’s a quick way to add default styling and positioning.

screeninfo {
margin-top: 10
margin-left: 10;
}

A sample class file is below. In my implementation, I query for the canvas height and width during start-up (and I’d recommend you do something similar), but below is a quick and dirty way to accomplish roughly the same thing. This example could also be improved by accounting for multiple elements and related details.

import javax.microedition.midlet.*;
import javax.microedition.lcdui.*;
import java.util.Timer;
import java.util.TimerTask;
import de.enough.polish.ui.ScreenInfo;

public class MyMidlet extends MIDlet {
public Display display;
private List mainMenu;
private Timer timer;

public MyMidlet() {
//your constructor code here
}

public void startApp() { }
public void pauseApp() { }
public void destroyApp(boolean unconditional) { }
public static void quitApp() { }

public void showScreenInfo(int icon, long timeout) {
String imagePath = null;
switch(icon) {
case 1:
imagePath = “/si_mail.png”;
break;
case 2:
imagePath = “/si_sync.png”;
break;
default:
//
}

ScreenInfo.setImage(loadImage(imagePath));

//#ifdef polish.FullCanvasSize:defined
//#= int width = ${polish.FullCanvasWidth};
//#else
int width = 176;
//#endif

ScreenInfo.setPosition(width-32, 1);
ScreenInfo.setVisible(true);

timer = new Timer();
timer.schedule(new InfoTimer(), timeout);
}

public void removeScreenInfo() {
ScreenInfo.setVisible(false);
}

class InfoTimer extends TimerTask {
public void run(){
removeScreenInfo();
}
}
}

For more information, you can check out the Polish documentation related to ScreenInfo: Overview | JavaDoc

Tips for Getting Your MIDP Application JavaVerified

Passing JavaVerified testing is not difficult, but the testing process is thorough. This article lists some tips I picked up while sending several builds through the JavaVerified process.

JavaVerified is not for everyone. It will not make your mobile application run on every handset out there, and it can be tedious and very expensive if you have many builds to certify, or if your builds are updated frequently. See my earlier post on JavaVerified to determine if testing is right for your application, and to see the steps in the testing process.

Test Categories

• Application Stability
• Application Launch
• User Interface
• Localization
• Functionality
• Connectivity
• Personal Information Management
• Security

[Read more]

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