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

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]

Location Based Services Post at MobHappy

If you’re not a regular reader of MobHappy, I’d encourage you to read a short post on LBS. Russell Buckley discusses a conversation he had with the folks at Openwave, and has some interesting statistics regarding LBS. Also read through the comments — some are spot on.

I find LBS to be the most compelling use of a mobile device, and therefore the most compelling area for development.

LBS Coming of Age? via MobHappy

Neighborhood vs. City-wide Wireless Networks in Pittsburgh

Living near Pittsburgh for a large chunk of my life, and in Pittsburgh for several years after college, the Steel City still has a place in my heart. We’re even considering moving back to Pittsburgh in 2007 (or perhaps to Portland, Oregon).

Pittsburgh hadn’t gotten a lot of props until about 5 years back, and people still think of it as a burned out steel town, but sentiment is swaying, and people are beginning to realize what a great place Pittsburgh is — great education, considerable history for an American city, great arts and entertainment opportunities, kick-ass sports franchises, plenty of parks, friendly people, and possibly city-wide wireless access.

These city-wide projects are becoming more and more common, and I like it. Of course, it would mean leaving one of the few EVDO markets in the States. . .

Chuck D launching Mobile Co.

Announcements like these scare me. They always remind me of the chatter that occurs near stock market tops.

Link: Chuck D launching Mobile Co., Speaks on Wireless Potential.

China Mobile cancels 19,000 subscribers for abusing SMS service

Link: China Mobile cancels 19,000 subscribers for abusing SMS service - Yahoo! News.

Cellphone operator China Mobile has canceled services for 19,000 subscribers in a southern city for using text messages for fraudulent or criminal purposes.

My Life = The Dilbert Zone

It’s been a hectic few weeks. I’ve decided to leave full-time employment with my long-time employer (5 years is very long for me). Instead, I’ll be doing part-time consulting work for them, and will be working full-time on a mobile start-up. These past two weeks, I’ve been getting my ducks in a row, transitioning duties, lining up projects to work on when I’m part-time.

I’m a Dilbert reader. There are frequently interesting parallels between Dilbert and my experiences in the corporate world. But Dilbert is generally filled with hyperbole. That’s what makes it funny. The comic strips are based in common experience, but they are kneaded and exaggerated for effect. Most of the time.

My job covers a wide spectrum of responsibility. I’m a project manager, but I have a development and analysis background, so I’m generally brought in early to projects. I had the most bizarre, illogical, unrealistic conversation the other day with a senior project manager in my firm.

His organization needs a custom application built. Fine, I suggest a teleconference with a few of his people so that we can discuss their requirements. For those unfamiliar with the development process, requirements and design generally require quite a bit of effort. A decade ago, they would require as much, if not more, time than development. Agile and iterative development have been somewhat embraced in the corporate world, so they don’t take nearly as long, but they still require a lot of effort.

We begin discussing their requirements, and it very quickly becomes clear that no one in the room has even considered what problems they are trying to solve with this proposed application. Without a purpose, goal, or objective of any kind, it’s impossible to propose a solution. So I dig a bit further. Many times, even if clients don’t know what they’re trying to solve, they still have an idea of what they want. Maybe they’ve been looking at an off-the-shelf product they want to integrate, or they’ve seen a piece of functionality that they want to emulate. Maybe they have something firm in mind for a deployment approach — they want software that installs on a PC, they want a web-based solution, they have server X they’d like to leverage, etc. Still nothing.

Okay, we’re getting nowhere, so I politely say something to this effect of “why are meeting, what did you hope to accomplish today?” And the response I get back is along the lines of they want an application built (here we go again).

We continue this exchange for another minute, and then they drop the bomb. I kid you not, this is verbatim. This statement is burned into my brain, and likely will remain there until the day I die. The senior project manager says “We don’t know yet what we want, but we want you to build it for us, and then we’ll tell you if it’s right.” Stunned silence on my part. He must be joking, I’m thinking. But he’s not, and he continues talking about how he wants us to build something that does something magical for him, but he’ll only know what he really wants until after he sees what we’ve already done.

Needless to say, this is not one of the projects that I’ll be taking on as a consultant. A day or so later, the Dilbert of the Day arrives in my inbox, and it’s a near perfect parallel for my experience.

Tags: Dilbert, corporate, software development, requirements, design

Isolatr: Web 2.0 Parody

I suppose it’s a sign of the times when the web 2.0 parodies seem to be executed better than actual business ventures. Viva Isolatr!

Visit Isolatr

Digital Convergence Mobile Content Festival

Call for entries: the Digital Convergence Initiative is looking for entries for their Mobile Content Festival.

Concept: MobileFest2006 is looking for mobile content submissions that explore the mobile lifestyle. The concept is most interested in content made for mobile devices, not so much made by them, although we certainly encourage you to push the envelope. Our criteria are extremely broad and we only ask that you keep word “mobile” in mind.

Deadline is March 5, 2006, and judging is based on best use of medium, creativity, originality, and technical ability.

Details at DCI Mobile Content Festival page.

Technorati tags: mobile applications