From what has been severely overhyped, there are three newsworthy breakthroughs:
.
Pre not out here yet, but already jumping in the scale of newness.
. Today VMWare U.K. showed two mobile OS’s running concurrently and performing, apparently fast enough.
. AppStore@BlackBerry
Spring around the corner.
[Image from ZenBound for the iPhone.]
Sometimes I question what really deserves attention nowadays.
1. No, the iPhone is not in my “to get list”, not even close.
2. I may consider hacking an iTouch with a mic and Wi-fi based VOIP plus free SMS.
3. Or to look at an OpenMoko and its Linux-based environment. Or some of the new LiMo phones.
4. But the short term is just too much hype. What about listening to what Doc Searls has to say at his EOF column in the LinuxJournal:
“Why chase the iPhone, when we can free the world with open mobile things”
Following on that, check the Bug Labs blocks: (after the Ethernet and Wireless blocks are shipped) it will include pretty much all you need to hack your own [U, mine?] phone. LinuxJournal also has a nice introduction to the currently available components. Hackable to the extreme.
And check out Chumby for that matter, which could easily make my list.
5. Oh, and there is Android. Open Sourced?
6. Or even an Open J2ME.
7. And don’t forget Open Symbian, according to Nokia. [Have you looked at the Greenphone Open Source codebase?] And Motorola’s OpenEZX, its Open Source effort.
So, it is an open space out there, you don’t need to get yourself locked up.
More Links @ Del.icio.us
Photo Credits by smardio
Waiting for news from CTIA this week to see how many useful PR’s would come up but seems like Dash is the real deal (Amazon only, $400 plus monthly service fee).
Dash has enough features to change the PND landscape.
First you have Linux in the form of OpenMoko, plus a GSM phone from Jasper Wireless (a M2M operator) included, so the data is fresh.
From this PR it seems that deCarta and Inrix are behind the traffic data for it.
Then you have an API for application development. RSS Feeds, Twitter, whatever you care for is a possibility or already implemented.
Cool stuff. Review by Walter Mossberg at the WSJ.
And
Garmin even announced a way to send location data from Google and Mapquest to their devices. Not the same, but something to say this week…
WSJ also talked about LBS Privacy (via APB) and Loopt closed a deal with Verizon.
Radar talks about location-based writing projects.
Desktop-based Local Search
If you are trying to find out what’s is open, you got two choices with What’s Open and GeoSpot which uses an Ajax-based interface to fill-in the what, where & when input fields and position the map based on the selected search result option. What about support for mobile?
Remember PowerBuilder? If you still playing with it here is an article about how to write code for its PocketPower version using GPS coordinates from a Bluetooth device (TomTom, Garmin).
TI gives Sirf some competition, Assisted-GPS chip combined with Bluetooth and FM (via GPSWorld).
Forbes also painting dark clouds for the GPS Biz.
And to close under the rumor mill category: next iPhone will have A-GPS from Global Locate.
I have to say that Steve Jobs had its Vision (with its meaning as large as a full moon) the day he entered Xerox Parc’s Place sometime back in the 80’s (79 in fact).
You know beauty when you see it.
He got a hold of that creative hippie energy floating in the air and like a grown-up Harry Potter made beauty and truth come together in pure reality. He is a visionary that as Wired published recently can push people enough to turn those visions, truth.
Jobs is capable to translate what everyone is hardly wishing (and therefore imagining) into a single piece of touchable reality. (Photo by Roman Lily).
Parc Place
What amazes me is the beauty of seeing Cocoa, OOP, MVC, Event Handling, Model/View bindings through the Observer/Observed pattern (KVC, KVO) all in a single & same place, platform.
Until now you had one or other aspect implemented in a different platform without giving you the whole picture. Ever.
A Mac running NextStep is what Jobs saw at Xerox.
He built on it and you can see that by looking at the way Cocoa Frameworks are put together.
The language is clean, clear. Get used to the NS and go ahead delving into the code.
Java brought a lot of that class, beauty to fruition. But the Mac puts the experience in a unique context.
It is all in one single, same box.
Flawless Not
BTW, not saying that the Mac is flawless.
Everyone & everything has its flaws, don’t want to sound “too rosy”.
It is just that beauty (com’on, it IS a piece of beauty - an expensive one) helps to put you in a positive, constructive, creative mood.
Even the logo, it seems…
Interface Builder
Apple released a new version of the SDK today. It includes a new version of Interface Builder, a drag & drop user interface design tool that will certainly make development simpler and faster. (Those Barbarians getting their way…).
Let’s see what Interface Builder can do with Cocoa Touch. Not everything, yet…
Check the Release Notes, full complete support for UIKit views and controls didn’t make for this rev.
But you can as a basic starting point, create Views, drag and drop controls and run the simulator.
From here
Did you check the introductory videos? Look at least the “iPhone OS Programming Guide” and the “Cocoa Fundamentals Guide”.
Finally, get used to the Smalltalk-ish implementation of the C syntax. To say the least, it is cute.
What is waiting for you in the future according to Wired.
CES 2008 coming up.
Dash Navigation GPS now available for pre-sale.
Apple decides that GPS are accesories and iPhone gets GPS module from TomTom and PartFoundry. Via GsmArena, Information Week
Meanwhile D-AMPS the historic TDMA-based, the first U.S. analog network standard will be gone in 2008. OnStar systems, home alarms, old analog based phones affected. Via SF Chronicle.
Sirf announced that it will provide infrastructure to Assisted-GPS phones for Android. Via GpsWorld.
Closing 2007 competition or merely survival skills get enough cash to keep Galileo viable.
Even Putin will keep track of his dog with Glonass, the Russian-based GPS that now has 18 satellites up in space.
Another successful launch for the American GNSS with Ariane 5 putting in orbit two new GPS satellites.
GPS chipset makers get through a consolidation phase where:
In the Map Biz Microsoft acquired U.K based Multimap. Via ItWorld.
Mobile phones are getting an evolutionary jolt these last weeks thanks to customer response to the materialization of their gadget desires with the iPhone (and Nokia’s N95); the realization that carriers can’t lock down the mobile platform forever and the possibility of open source-ness through Linux-based alliances thanks to a well-orchestrated PR by Google.
And don’t fool yourself: the main goal behind all of this show is to allow you to see localized ad’s on the screen of your cell phone. Talking Google, their LBS API’s win the hearts and minds of developers despite all the smoke and mirrors.
Android: The New Borg
Some dots to consider with Android. It was developed by Andy Rubin which created what became the SideKick at Danger. It runs its own version of Java. But next week is around the corner, so let’s wait to see what this thing actually looks like.
In the same vein, Wired, NYTimes and Slashdot hammered carriers and their crippling practices.
Trolltech announced the decision to stop development of its Greenphone (CNet, Slashdot).
OpenMoko is the game now which has a partnership with the same TrollTech.
DIY
New Lego-like kit for GPS equipped DIY hardware. ARM11 based from Bug Labs. Via LinuxDevices.
Elektor published an expensive GPS/GSM tracking project
And Hack a day keeps hacking… Build a GPS/Glonass receiver, GPS loggers, trackers…
Virtual BIOS
Major Development from where you would never expect: Phoenix BIOS is bringing virtualization to hardware so you can open your notebook and count to four before hitting the first key.
The idea behind “HyperSpace” is to virtualize the booting process by storing memory images and loading them up so you can choose which OS to use. Takahashi describes at the Mercury News how Phoenix will provide this mechanism for new PC’s as soon as 2008.
Dash is coming out to say what it is about: if you got wireless during traffic you can have your own RSS feed and it might even help you avoid… traffic.
At the NYT and Wired.
Nokia launched the N810, the third version of its tablet-like device which now includes an embedded GPS receiver. You can Maemo Maps on its Linux-based OS which Doc Searls and Jim Thompson talked about (running on a previous model) couple of issues ago at LinuxJournal.
GPSWorld talks about Samsung entering the GPS phone arena. Among the features of its i550 the article says that:
“Samsung did reveal that the i550 will feature voice-activated turn-by-turn guidance. The phone will also feature a pedestrian mode with specific directions tailored to walking speeds.”
and that
“some observers are holding up the i550 as a competitor to the Nokia N95, Symbian, it is noteworthy that the S60 interface is developed primarily by Nokia and licensed for use to other companies, including Samsung.”
Plus
iPhone copycat? Check the HTC Touch
Groundbreaking chip technology: pressure sensing GPS receivers from NemeriX in partnership with Bosch, via GPSLodge
Successful launch of a new GPS satellite.
And it is never enough to say Play Safe as in “Five tips for first time GPS Navigation users” via Navigadget.
National Geographic has one of the best topographic map offers.
The idea of going around with a color screen displaying good quality map data on a rugged GPS seems quite attractive.
Coming soon.