MomoLondon: Demo Night 2014

Amazingly enough this demo night finished on time and even a little bit early. Thanks to Julia Shalet for keeping things running smoothly on the night and Jo Rabin too for the varied selection of demos — lots of great ideas.

Pictures and more commentary on the Mobile Monday Blog.

5 Tiles

Android keyboard app

Previous demo night success

• Christian Lindholm now an advisor & investor
• available on Android Wear (Samsung Gear)
• soon available on iOS

Grabyo

Benjamin Bourdin, http://grabyo.com

• realtime video sharing
• get any IP feed, apply title, edit
• save & share using twitter, facebook, ooyala, brightcove etc
• monetize through in-stream ads
• initial customers are broadcasters
• done deals with ITV & Sky Sports
• also did wimbledon & big brother
• also have a consumer platform: if a broadcaster wants to get people involved in sharing content

Good Food Talks

Matt Wadsworth, http://goodfoodtalks.com

• web app to let visually impaired people read restaurant menus
• a very few menus offer braille but only 1% of visually impaired people can read braille
• surveyed 5000 people — main complaint was difficult navigation
• web app has simple navigation
  • search/near me > restaurant name > menu
• free for users
• various ways of getting data in
  • restaurants pay for input
  • API ingest, full service, etc
• commercial for just over a year
• 400 venues
• biggest so far is Carluccio’s, then Pret

Swytch

Chris Michael, CEO, http://www.swytch.com/

• additional mobile numbers on your phone
• just closing alpha tester list
• free credits to alpha testers
• only service that allows you to have multiple UK mobile numbers on your phone
• aiming for worldwide too

QuizTix

Ian Masters & Albert Marshall, http://quiztix.co/

• mobile quiz games
• opt-in adverts for rewards
• all four versions are available on iOS, Google & Amazon
  • movies, pop, world football, video games
• targeting around existing passions
• also want to target venues with seats

Mylo

Martin Sandstrom & Mark Lee, http://mylo-app.com/

• split your bill when you live in a house share
• direct connection to various providers
  • energy, TV, phone, etc
• push notifications to other housemates
• settle bill with paypal (peer to peer is free)
• no business model at moment
  • aiming for future paid features
• aiming to attract lots of users first…
• app available for iOS and Android

Viewmaker

Douglas Robb, http://www.scramboo.com/

• location-enabled augmented reality
• Android & iOS apps, CMS for template-based content
• content discovery & engagement
• can control timing of content as well
• also support image-recognition-based AR
• first commercial partner is Jockey Club
• prototype app for Sandown Race Course
• involving novice race-goers in the racing
• planning to roll out to other Jockey Club venues

Pronto

James Roy Poulter, https://www.prontoapp.it/

• food to wherever you are
• don’t need an address
• only get a choice of four options (different each day)
• authenticate through nexmo API by voice call
• credit card payments only
• launched 100 days ago in Trento, Italy
• initially iOS only, then Android, + Windows coming next week
• launching next week in London (now available in the City)
• won an accelerator in Italy
• worked with restaurants in Italy, but difficult for food in 10 minutes
• aiming to get own centralized kitchen as margins are incredible
• also get drivers — performance based pay
• but made easier with centralized kitchen with limited delivery range

Adsy

Frederick Tubiermont, http://www.adsy.me/

• create mobile web apps on mobile for mobile
• can now create apps on desktop too
• web apps are square shaped
• magic touch swipe to choose link destination
  • includes email, telephone
• can embed videos, twitter feeds, etc
• can embed adsy apps in web pages or just view on mobile
• use case:
  • kids & teens making a web app about a concert during a concert
  • then sharing the evolving content
• meant to create snackable content
• will announce a product based on the platform in 2-3 weeks

IFS

Matthew Bridge, http://www.ifsworld.com/en/

• business critical messages to smart watches
• useful feature: view on device — opens up more detail on the phone through quick selection on watch
• driven from enterprise resource planning
• staff can subscribe to specific notifications

OpenTRV

Mark Hill and Damon Hart-Davis, http://opentrv.org.uk/

• 60% of your energy and 20% of UK emissions flow through TRVs
• 50% of that energy is wasted
• one thermostat usually controls whole house
• target price £10 per radiator: save £300 in the first year
• production samples coming mid-November
• hotels losing £50 per room per year on heating bills

MomoLondon: Cloud Computing & Mobile

A new venue tonight — up on the 9th floor of Google’s Central St Giles office. They even provided good food for the hungry mobile mondayers…

The evening’s focus was on Cloud Computing and Mobile, and the questions seemed to focus mainly on the cloud with not much discussion about how it related to mobile. The chair, Camille, kept the discussion moving along briskly, but we didn’t really get into any depth on any of the subjects. Maybe the audience could smell the food!

The panel

• Chair: Camille Mendler @cmendler
  • Principal Analyst at Informa
• Rob Easton @Cloud_Easton
  • Head of Google Cloud Platform UK & Ireland
  • Eurovision app used App Engine for back-end
• Dr Janko Mrsic-Flogel
  • CEO of Private Planet — personal cloud
  • 7 out of 10 carriers are providing a personal cloud solution
• Caroline Van Den Bergh @GoldenGekko
  • Golden Gekko mobile agency
  • 85% of apps we build are based on Google App Engine
• Jonathan Raper @MadProf
  • CEO at Placr/transportapi & Visiting Professor at City University
  • purchasers of cloud services
  • mostly built on memset

outages & availability

• JR: best service providers are those that communicate well when things go wrong
  • one provider went down and didn’t tell us anything for an hour

looking forward

• RE: google datacentres include a new one in Taiwan at 15 hectares
  • green computing
  • Google can provide very low latency
  • enables reaching out to new business areas such as the film industry
• JR: still talking quite aggregated performance measures
  • can’t ask for X many transactions for Y pounds
  • not that detailed
  • next step may be platform products
• CVDB: mobile enterprise software saving two days a week
  • managing remote teams
• JR: sometimes blame is shifted between telcos & cloud
  • would like to have better tracing
• JMF: Private Planet have a totally green datacentre in Telecity in Holland for T-Mobile

internet of things

• JR: the problem is trading information
  • automatically discovering different feeds & blending them
  • spend 3 weeks integrating code and 3 months arguing over terms & conditions
• CVDB: best successes have been smaller ones
• CM: find my yak in nepal
  • the yak’s don’t talk back — so there’s no privacy issues!
• RE: getting electricity usage feeds every 10 minutes
• CVDB: there has been scaremongering around Google capturing data
• JR: all our data is royalty-free downstream
  • makes it much easier to deal with
• CM: Copenhagen have bike devices to share traffic information
  • provide individual exercise info
  • but also shared with municipality
• JR: Waze has lots of complicated terms & conditions
  • data is available but locked up

the next generation

• CM: has been proved conclusively that 3D gaming improves your cognitive ability
• JR: …minecraft
• JR: it’s still a bit like early 2000 — mobile operator walled gardens
  • want to take down the barriers and bring the data silos together
• CVDB: working with Saga
  • older people have more time, want to delve deeper
  • tablets more popular than mobile phones

data scientists

• CM: shouldn’t we moving towards everyone manipulating their own data
• JR: digital literacy is very shallow, especially in highest decision-making tiers

security issue — data protection

• safe harbour in tatters
• can’t use the cloud at all if we have any secure data
• JMF: Private Planet always has data centre in the specific country
  • but are governments the biggest problem? what about the corporates?
• JR: if you need to do it, in-country encrypted solutions are available
• RE: sure, there are some workloads that Google can’t take on
  • e.g. we won’t let you audit our data centre
  • so can’t work under FCA regulations
  • over time, some of these regulations are going to change
• JR: all have to do as much as we can to help the government make the right decisions
• JR: sometimes the safest place to do something is in the cloud — e.g. running Windows
  • we don’t allow it on any of our machines
  • but it’s great in the cloud!

what if cloud provider company goes bankrupt?

• JR: escrow
• JMF: most agreements done via a channel partner — so that partner will continue the service
  • single party relationship is much more complicated
• RE: cloud business could be bigger than ads for Google
  • SLA penalties are often a percentage of what you pay
  • but if you pay less and less, the SLA means less and less…

is it becoming like supermarket wars?

• RE: Google reduced prices — and if you use an instance more than 25% per month then get a discount
  • terabyte of storage is $26/month
• CM: just like a loyalty card…
  • who will be Lidl and who will be Waitrose?

will we still be waiting in several years?

• JR: overestimate change in the short term and underestimate in the long term — change is stepped
  • sometimes have to wait for the step change in technology or regulation
• CVDB: business are going to grow up quickly
  • first digital generation CEOs will be around in the next few years

third party dependencies

• JR: Apple reviews can be capricious
  • if Apple fall out of love with Dropbox, then that could cause a problem for lots of apps
• JMF: was a huge debate on mobile medical health a while ago
  • then suddenly there was an app that just works
  • and the issues can just disappear
  • gadget-led terms and conditions…?

speed & access?

• RE: check out server density review
  • blog by someone who reviewed lots of providers and switched to Google
• CVDB: Golden Gekko mandate that all backends must be on Google App Engine
  • mainly so that clients can scale

new innovations in infrastructure?

• RE: Google build our own servers
  • apparently they would be the 3rd biggest manufacturers in the world
  • they value new innovation

where is the next growth to make it easier?

• RE: focused on the developer
  • acquired StackDriver to manage cloud capabilities
• JMF: If This Then That
  • making cloud development open to the consumer
  • certain mobile operators are understanding this and joining up devices in the home
• CVDB: finding that parse.com doesn’t suit
  • one size doesn’t quite fit all
  • prefer google’s flexibility

inviting consumers to get more involved

• CVDB: user testing
  • avoiding ivory tower
  • developed O2 Priority Moments
  • built packaged solutions based on it
  • incentivized behaviour also used in enterprise apps
• JR: designed a first location bank
  • your own location storage — that you can choose to share
  • (Ed. see also fireeagle)
  • next generation have a different approach to privacy
• RE: snapchat is a massive google customer
• audience: teenagers using technology completely differently
  • using snapchat to have a whole conversation
• RE: snapchat consumes more IT than any banking industry
  • JDI has 10 petabytes on Google cloud
  • consumers of IT will be well away from the enterprise
  • can have failure at a much cheaper cost — can learn more

what financial services are possible in the cloud?

• RE: restricted by FCA regulations, but other options possible
  • e.g. datasift to search across twitter
  • big challenge to attract IT talent in financial services as there are so many restrictions

skills

• JR: right now it’s hard to hire — ruby on rails developers are hard to find
  • constraint on development right now
• CVDB: couldn’t agree more — mobile skills are in short supply

tools for analytics & loyalty/crm

• looking at how data can be analysed
• wanting to drive revenue per user
• wanting to get the right tools in place to complete the feedback loop
• CVDB: iris solutions company
  • built the backend themselves
  • ?? http://www.iris.co.uk/
• JR: “build it in the cloud, but just don’t tell IT”
• RE: tableau, BIME, etc. working on top of Google Big Query
  • now a lot cheaper

After the panel discussion

As often happens with Mobile Monday, the discussion after the panel was richer than the panel itself. Some discussion points that came up when I was talking to people afterwards included:

• How do you balance keeping data on the device and in the cloud, to deal with intermittent network availability?
• Will the banks get clobbered by more agile personal finance companies that don’t have to worry about so many regulations?
• Why has it taken Google since 2008 to move from basic App Engine web apps to a full cloud platform?
• How will Google make more money from Cloud Computing than from Ads? There’s a big market, but the price is dropping…
• …and on a completely different note, several people were interested in setting up Code Clubs in their local primary schools, but were stretched for time — perhaps they could work together and contribute part-time?

MomoLondon: MWC2014 Stand Competition Live Final

10 companies competing to win a place on the UKTI stand at Mobile World Congress 2014 and press & media activity to go with it. ICT KTN, Mobile Monday London, UKTI and Cambridge Wireless all work together to whittle down the competitors to a shortlist of 10, all competing for five places on the stand.

All the companies this year were remarkably different — in their approach, their development stage and their presentation styles.

In the audience vote, I went for Changify, but the five who were selected were PeachInc, 5 Tiles, 23 Snaps, Capito and Viewranger.

There’s also an official blog post with pictures on the Mobile Monday London blog.

Red Glasses

Adam Martin, Founder

http://MyEarthApp.com @RedGlassesApps

• embedding rich content into 3D objects
• have built a native 3D engine for iPad that deals with data
• also built two sample apps:
  1. visualization of magnified Earth heights
  2. showing videos on a 3D globe
• aim to partner with media & content organisations
• have built bespoke apps for clients for last 15 years
• want to expand to a white-label product
• other demos:
  • showing travel time from a point across the globe
  • luxury retail, where purchasing from

Changify: Design for Social Change

Priya Prakash, Founder

http://www.changify.org @Changify

• basic idea:
  1. spot & share ideas for problems
  2. get support from friends & neighbours
  3. ideas get backed by brands & biz
  4. earn credits for making the change
• partnering with Clear Channel to make a digital bus stop
  • crowdsourcing local opinion by voting on screen
  • touch & NFC
• council get realtime data of reports
• running a 3 month trial with Guardian Data at Elephand & Castle
• working with councils & local businesses
• http://changify.org has been available for 6 months
• also accessible via SMS

Coveritas

Sean Redmond, CEO

http://www.coveritas.com @Coveritas

• based in Bletchley Park
• founding team did functional verification of hardware verification
• have applied same system to software functional testing
• specialise in machine to machine interoperability
• uses randomisation & rules (constraints) to generate end to end use case tests
  • 3GP took 9,000 hours of test engineering
• looking to partner with domain experts in M2M standards testing
• customers are those companies with massive test labs for M2M interoperability
• have an annual time-based license model

SpatialBuzz

Leon Hardwick, Director Global Sales & Marketing; Andrew Blake, CTO

http://www.spatialbuzz.com @SpatialBuzz

• cloud-based customer experience management for mobile operators
• delivering info on status and capability of network
• give the operator an idea of how customers are reacting
• can also provide an early warning to operator of issues
• mix together operator outage & planned works with crowd-sourced input
• can cater for any service delivered geographically
• deployed with Telefonica UK & Germany, also Tesco Mobile
• benefits seen:
  • reduction in calls
  • reduction in response times
  • improving customer satisfaction

PeachInc

Dr Daniel Morris

http://www.peachinc.com @PeachInc

• mobile ticketing using the “MorrisCode” — 2D barcode
  • patented format
• optimised to be read from electronic displays
• at the moment PeachInc are the only people who can read them
• displays well on small screens
• stores a 16 digit number
• have built a suite of apps
  • can receive tickets via SMS (even on iPhone)
• also make hardware
• will be integrated into a
• biggest customer so far Saudi Professional football league
• versus QR codes:
  • reads faster and more successfully
  • reads at 20 frames a second with most mobile cameras
  • 5,000 people at an event with 100% success rate
  • 60,000 football matches in Saudi Arabia with no problems

5-Tiles

Michal Kubacki, Inventor & CEO; Piotr Pieczynski, CFO

http://www.5-tiles.com @fivetiles

• keyboard for Android
• business model based on app sales & licensing deals
• works well for smartwatches (with a touch screen)
  • takes a small amount of screen space
  • have a demo on i’m watch Android smartwatch
• looking to port to Windows & iOS
• also getting keyboard tested by RNIB
• currently have 100s of users on Android
  • and 4,000 downloads of the training app
• takes about 30-45 minutes to learn the combinations
• working to make the learning curve lower all the time

23snaps

Meaghan Fitzgerald, CMO; Ivailo Jordanoc, Co-Founder

http://www.23snaps.com @23Snaps

• mobile-first private social network for families
• spans across different generations
• also organise photos by date & location
• 500K registered users
• posting one photo every second
• make money by selling photo print products
• have users in 179 countries
• going to be launching in Brazilian Portuguese
• content owned by creators
• also provide a one-click export of all content
• wanting to meet consumer electronics, mobile networks, etc
• don’t want advertising next to family photos
• may go for other monetization such as premium features

Available for iPhone, Android, Windows 8, email, web and printed books!

Capito Systems

Tony Ballardie, CEO

http://www.capitosystems.com @CapitoSystems

• speech assistant technology specifically for mobile commerce
• about to sign first customer
• language variations, background noise?
  • have focussed on language understanding rather than speech recognition
• aiming to license to mobile commerce companies
• have built support tools to enable customers to build up a speech corpus of domain language

Viewranger

Ben Howard, Marketing & Sales Exec; Craig Wareham, CEO & Co-Founder

http://www.viewranger.com @viewranger

• digital mobile platform for outdoor activities
• interest-based social network
• publishing platform
• trail guide marketplace
• over 2 million app downloads
• used by over 100 search & rescue teams in UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Germany, Ukraine
• work with 22 mapping agencies & trail guides from 400 brands
  • including CAMRA :-)
• wanting to engage with handset OEMs & wearable manufacturers
• earn revenue through:
  • premium in-app data & services (maps & guides)
  • premium services & analytics for brands
  • syndication of content
  • could go for advertising in the future (have steered away so far to keep UX well)
• main competitors are still dedicated devices
• there are sport-based apps that seem to be fragmenting the need

Available for iPhone & iPad, Android and Nokia

UBIAPPS (Nquiring Minds)

Nick Allot, CEO

http://www.ubiapps.com @nallott

• secure end to end framework for managing apps both online & offline
• server management + enterprise-grade security is proprietary
• protocol is open-source (JSON-RPC over HTTP)
• all nodes are two-way — can manage apps and IoT devices using the same system
• easy & quick to integrate on any device
• looking to work with system integrators
• seen most interest so far from asset tracking systems

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Announcements

• Vision Mobile Developer Economics Survey
  • http://visionmobile.com/DE1Q14MoMoLon
• IDEALondon offering desks, mentoring & support for start-ups and SMEs working on new products & services
  • apply at http://idea-london.com

MomoLondon: Operating Systems – a new set of Davids take on the incumbent Goliaths

Some really useful insights this week — with the panel providing a different perspective on the mobile industry than the usual. Although one question started on the HTML vs Native war, this was quickly knocked on the head and left for a future Mobile Monday.

I really get the FirefoxOS aim of making the web more accessible to new markets around the world. Mozilla has its own motivations for making a new OS, which are different to the usual “make as much money as possible”. It will be very interesting to see how they compete against the low-cost Android devices that are getting cheaper every year.

As for Ubuntu Phone & Tablet, this seems to be more about an operator story than a consumer one. I’m not sure of the reasons why a developer or a consumer would choose an Ubuntu phone. Having played with the sample tablets that were available on the night, I couldn’t see any particular advantages over Android or iOS (or Blackberry or Windows for that matter).

Ubuntu’s message seems to be that operators can customise the devices for their own content (that always goes down well with consumers, not!), or that you can have a single superphone that you can plug in to a screen and get a desktop experience (seems like a bit of a gimmick to me…).

Thanks to Geoff Blaber for being an excellent chair and keeping the discussion moving fluidly, and to all the panel members and organisers for a great evening.

Intro

Victor Palau, VP of Phone & Hyperscale Delivery at Canonical

• hardware & os market has become monopolized in last few years
• standardization on Linux kernel (mainly from Android) makes it much quicker to set up a new operating system
  • don’t have to worry about chipsets etc as much as in Symbian days
• but platforms have to have something

Developer Economics Q3 2013

Andreas Constantinou, MD at Vision Mobile

• launching latest research today
• Ed.: this is always a really good read — Andreas gave us some highlights, but go and download the full report at http://www.developereconomics.com/go
• html5 is number 3 development platform in use
  • Android leads, then iOS, everything else way behind
• 61% of html is direct to browser
  • then phonegap at 27%
• Windows Phone going down in intent share (i.e. less developers interested…)
• iOS still leading monthly revenue at $5,200
  • Android catching up at $4,700 (using in-app advertising as main booster)
  • revenue models differ by platform
• seeing an increase in platforms used by individual developers
• main platform almost even between Android (34.4%) and iOS (32.7%)
  • html5 behind at 17.5%
• report trying to quantify platform loyalty amongst devs
• also trying to show which platforms are best for different challenges
  • and the different motivations for different developers
• more experienced developers are using more tools
  • e.g. crash reporting, ad networks, push notifications

Panel

• Geoff Blaber @geoffblaber
  • CCS Insight research house
• Alex Sinclair, CTO of GSMA
• David Wood @dw
  • principal at Delta Wisdom, formerly prime mover behind Symbian
• Andreas Constantinou @andreascon
  • MD at Vision Mobile
• Victor Palau @victorpalau
  • VP of Phone & Hyperscale Delivery at Canonical
• Christian Heilman @codepo8
  • Principal Developer Evangelist (HTML5/Open Web) at Mozilla

What do new platforms offer manufacturers?

• GB: essentially just 2 OEMs (Apple, Samsung) making any profit
• CH: not a problem of distribution but where it is going
  • producing lots of phones in saturated market
  • Mozilla’s job is to keep the web open
  • the web is worldwide
  • FirefoxOS is targeting markets that mostly have featurephones, aiming to be people’s first smartphone
  • you can get old Androids but they’re 4 generations behind with old browsers that don’t show stuff right
  • manufacturers actually quite interested in this proposition
  • Foxconn hiring 3,000 people to make a FirefoxOS tablet
  • Samsung & Apple neutering open web — you need expensive hardware and a credit card to be a part of it
  • in Spain selling €79 phone with €30 pre-paid credit
• GB: open initiatives have failed in the past: WAC, etc
• VP: open initiatives can have trouble with leadership
  • Canonical remain open but have strong leadership
  • offering operators ability to showcase their content
• DW: two good cases for disruption
  • companies that have shown their staying power
  • just an improvement in battery life would be welcomed…
  • smartphones naturally get stretched as new environments come along — and leave space for niches

What about the ecosystem?

• AC: for any platform to be successful need buy in from:
  • developers, operators, manufacturers, users, …
  • devs have to learn new platform
  • users don’t care what’s underneath
  • operators have pre-allocated slots, often by OS
• CH: Windows Phone is a great example
  • not seen the depth of commitment required from the operators
  • not willing to take the risk
• AS: not all operators subsidise handsets
  • when a new version of the iPhone comes out, AT&T’s share price drops as they have to subsidise it
  • need an alternative
  • different operators placing different bets
• AS: operators want to get their content onto devices
  • but are struggling to do so with iOS & Android
• Ed.: this is probably one reason why those two are doing so well!
• CH: app discovery as easy as searching
  • search for a movie: get IMDB deep link
  • go back to search and long-press to install app
  • then get offline goodness etc
  • drives me crazy that I have to wait 5 months for a game my friend is playing on his different device

What about the corporate sector or 3rd sector (training & education)?

• VP: one of our main focuses at Ubuntu
  • have a very secure platform, bringing to phone
  • converged device — plug in your phone and get full desktop
  • good for enterprise: single device, secure
• CH: enterprise difficult to get into as wedded to Blackberry or other platform that’s integrated with email system
  • difficult sell for open source
  • 3rd sector is an easier sell
  • e.g. simplified phone for elderly: just photos of family — click to call
• AC: changing the UI of the phone reminded me of SavaJe (way back in 2006, bought and swallowed by Sun)
  • html5 is top platform for enterprise
  • top driver is efficiency
• CH: developer scarcity — don’t have to go out to an agency
  • just use existing web team
• DW: enterprise can drive home usage too
  • LinkedIn most popular enterprise app?
    • switched back to native on mobile as tools were not good enough
• AC: html5 apps are like a car without a break
  • once it starts leaking, you can’t stop it

Are you seeing apps migrating from mobile to desktop?

• DW: more about device usage — consumer behaviour is leading
• VP: end of Windows XP support is great: making people think about it
  • at the moment can’t replace them with an html5 app
  • but solutions available in Ubuntu
• AC: crawled the Google store to find APIs used
  • only 1 in 4 Android apps could be done on straight web
• CH: that’s why Firefox provides access to device
  • some memory leaks come from platforms they are using to generate code
  • Chrome and Firefox dev tools making great strides

How many years are going to pass before clients say “don’t do native”?

• VP: has to be lots more about what’s good for consumer
  • depends on the situation and who you’re aiming it at
• AC: it’s not an either or…

Privacy: number one for Mozilla / chinese walls between work & home

• AS: virtualisation of phones available: multiple phones in one
  • lots of companies don’t use Dropbox for security reasons
  • don’t think about all the data that certain closed OSes are capturing about us
• DW: trustworthy and transparency may be change reasons
• CH: already seeing that for Firefox browser
  • sometimes have to make the UX harder to make people think about what they are doing
• VP: full Linux implementation
• GB: isn’t there an argument that deep integration with Google is part of Android’s success?
• AC: people don’t ask if Facebook & Google are spying on them: they give you something back which you perceive to be of value
• CH: it’s actually more addiction than value…

What positive reasons for getting new platforms?

• AS: it comes down to competition
  • is it a good idea for just a few companies to make the profits?
  • I represent people who used to make the profits from the industry…
  • was previously director of WAC, but by the time it was ready there was no need for it as only two platforms to develop for
  • operators want to implement RCS/joyn (operator-based IP messaging, voice, video, etc) and new platforms give them the chance to get involved
• DW: so many variations
  • e.g. Nokia mega pixel camera: “average user only cares 16/23 about camera pixels” — but actually there’s a reasonable niche here

What about the important services that users expect?

• e.g. Skype, Google Maps
• AS: was in Korea last week: their search provider is being investigated for monopolistic practices
  • also a messaging provider was worried about operators implementing RCS/joyn and taking away their revenue stream
• CH: service in China to add “written on an iPad” to the bottom of your email
  • $5 a month, and they stole your email data!

What about individual permissions?

• CH: permissions can be asked on a more granular basis
  • no great list of permissions as for Android
• AC: how much would you be willing to pay for a service that monitored and reported how your private data was being used?
  • people want it but are not willing to pay for it

Who is likely to nudge sub-saharan Africa into smartphones

• full of featurephones
• OLPC not doing that well
• CH: OLPC didn’t do so well as missing network connectivity
  • Ushahidi is building a wireless BRCK to be a modem for Africa
  • if someone asks “what if Google or Apple go after these markets after you”, answer is “then we’ve won!”

Visiting from Momolo Nigeria: what difference will a billion users in Africa have on design considerations?

• 120million mobile phones, mainly featurephones
• CH: sent UX designers to South America to come up with use cases
  • build apps with Telefonica targeted at those markets
  • need to meet somebody local who knows the area
  • can’t assume that everybody wants the same thing
• VP: community is very important
  • a lot of people in Africa want to contribute and make things better for their community
  • have a whole set of local community councils
  • e.g. large Catalonian community
• AC: if you need to access the internet you need a data plan
  • developing countries have very expensive access plans
  • need to have smarter ways of micro-access to the internet
• DW: designing meaningful UI for people who can’t read or write
• AS: some operators already doing micro data plans
  • e.g. facebook access not coming out of data plan (facebook zero)

Closing remarks

• GB: often on West Coast of US, it’s Android, iOS or the highway
  • been impressed that there’s a great strength in the alternatives
  • barriers to entry getting lower
  • html5 provides common access
  • market driven by growing diversity
  • fragmentation in OS space is likely to proliferate
• AC: there is no black or white
  • there’s always multiple alternatives
• AS: there’s a definite need & opportunity
  • don’t know who is going to win
• DW: which David will survive?
  • execution: can the company keep pushing out high quality?
  • proposition: will people bit?
  • community: can they start a virtuous cycle?
• VP: can you get a consumer to buy something different?
• CH: there’ll be a lot of opportunity for a lot of players
  • we were the only cool thing in MWC twice in one day
  • device should not spy on you: built the internet in a different idea and this should exist on mobile phones too

Announcements

• The Mobile Academy starts again Oct 1st - Dec 3rd
  • early bird discount of 25% if book before August 5th
• Tech meets Creative Unconference 26th July in Camden
• Campus Party 2013, 2-7 Sept, at the O2

MomoLondon: Mobile, Maps & Geolocation — so much more than “Where am I?”

This Monday’s session was a little less lively than the previous session on mobile marketing. I expected the panel to violently disagree with each other on licensing, data costs and providing data to the public… but they were all far too polite!

The panel discussion covered a wide variety of subjects, fulfilling the session’s premise: geocoding, open data, data quality, visualisation, alternative methods of navigation, indoor location… It was a huge area to cover in a couple of hours.

For me, the main change in the last year or two has been the opening up of data sets. Open Street Map has gone from strength to strength and can now be linked up with live transport information and other citywide data sets.

As Jeni Tennison remarked, the most exciting area at the moment is putting all this data together in innovative ways. More than the Google Maps mashups of earlier years, we can now experience 3D immersive visualisations of cities, with real-time data pulsing through the streets and under the ground — like ViziCities, for example.

Panel

• Gary Gale @vicchi
  • Director of Global Community Programs for Nokia’s HERE
• Christopher Osborne @osbornec
  • Currently at AlertMe, and founder and organiser of GeoMob
• Jeni Tennison @JeniT
  • Technical Director at the Open Data Institute and member of the W3C TAG
• Ian Holt @IanHolt
  • Head of Developer Outreach at Ordnance Survey
  • just launched their new OS OpenSpace SDK for iOS
  • offline maps really useful
• Harry Wood @harry_wood
  • Currently at http://placr.co.uk and OpenStreetMap volunteer

How easy is it for devs to turn lat/longs into human-readable info?

• HW: hard work to go to postcode or nearest POIs
  • getting hold of open data is important
  • is displaying the map the best thing?
  • FourSquare did really well with a location-based app that didn’t show a map
• GG: location powered by FourSquare has become a heavily used API
  • it’s free to access but large amounts of usage lead to business negotiations
  • similar for other geocoding APIs
• JT: Open Street Map allows us to choose what we want to mark on the map
  • Ordnance Survey was mainly restricted to Churches and Pubs…
  • Open Street Map has shops (and pubs!)
• IH: how do you ensure that all the data is there?
• HW: it’s a problem that goes away with time
  • always find your nearest pub? getting there in the UK, but some patches in the north with less coverage
  • but the map gets built out on an interest-first basis, so better coverage in more interesting/populated areas

How much do we trust what we see on our mobiles?

• GG: in US a woman sued Google ‘cos the walking maps told her to walk across all 16 lanes of a superhighway…
• HW: we trust it too much in some cases
  • OS really shines with quality of data
• IH: Google & Apple’s branding has gone a long way to encourage trust in map data
• CO: Apple chose not to visualise lots of data on the map, but they got panned for it
• HW: there’s an active market in insuring map makers against maritime mapping mistakes
  • it’s an expensive mistake when a supertanker runs aground…
• GG: people have been hauled before the coastguards for using consumer mapping systems to navigate ships
• GG: people tend to accept what they have on their phones

Should map data producers make end-user systems? Or leave it up to smaller companies?

• IH: paper-based maps couldn’t change, so had to make one-off presentation decisions
  • now the data can change for the user context
• CO: routing is hard - still dominated by big companies with background with navigation
  • but lots of space for smaller companies in other areas
• IH: huge explosion of neo-geographers a few years ago
  • lots of mash ups and visualisations using geo data

What’s next in display? Will wearables move away from the concept of maps?

• IH: we’ve always been shifting display methods…
• Jo Rabin: years ago, a taxi driver in Chicago had a book of turn by turn directions but no map
• HW: a large proportion of people get rather upset when they see a map (including Harry’s girlfriend…!)
• Audience: worth thinking about how blind people navigate
• IH: navigating a city by sound — turn away from the areas that sound threatening
  • Ed.: this is not new — there was an MIT project in this vein in 1999!!
• HW: Google Street View seems a useful addition at the moment, but not a replacement for basic navigation
• CO: 3D mapping is a bit gimmicky at the moment, but the data gathering behind it is massively useful
• GG: for every mapping service, you only ever see less than 5% of the underlying data
• CO: one of the best designed apps for mapping was an app for blind people on old Nokia phones — vibrate once for left, twice for right

What’s new and exciting in the next 3 years?

• GG: indoor navigation
  • multiple companies working on it
  • but all currently incompatible
  • holy grail: directions from your house, through the tube to the exact exhibit in the V&A Museum
• JT: putting open data together, e.g. being able to know when you’re in an area with a high risk of flooding after rain
  • 3D sim city-style simulation of London, with data such as crime rates superimposed
  • how can we bring in time-based information to our space-based navigation?
• IH: early years education
  • inherent part of the general data structure
  • Ed.: Scratch, a programming environment for children, is working on integrating Google Maps
• IW: Ed Parsons (Maps @ Google) — “geospatial will no longer be geo-special”
  • not just a map screen in the app, but mixed throughout the app
  • promise of access to raw data
• GG: NOAA have produced a low-power app which warns you about tornados, just using cell tower data
  • another innovative location-based service which doesn’t require a map…
• CO: massive growth in transactional apps, e.g. Hailo & YPlan
  • also Google etc building an ecosystem e.g. their purchase of Waze
• GG: wearables: I wouldn’t buy Google Glass, but I would buy a smart watch
• GG: hospitals making savings by tracking their equipment locations (and stopping it sprouting legs)

Licensing

• GG: businesses scared of using OSM data due to fear that they will have to share their private data
• HW: share-a-like license aims to ensure that data is not taken and locked away
• JT: OpenCorporates make company data available for free on a share-a-like license, but also offer a paid license with less viral terms
• HW: OSM can’t do that — would have to agree with all contributors…

What about mobile operators? Indoor location?

• GG: cell tower location works well in urban areas
  • less so in countryside…
  • and mobile operators in Germany are restricted to telling you only two of the nearby cell towers (not enough to get a fix)
  • mobile operators had their chance 8-10 years ago when they tried to sell their data to marketing companies
• CO: starting to see traction in government
  • e.g. who’s moved on what roads at what speed
  • useful for real-time traffic management
  • high value areas: marketing & business intelligence

Coping with geospam…?

• HW: Google are already dipping their toes in the water there (Ed: e.g. the map tiles have advertising built-in)
• IH: walking past a shop and being offered a service
• GG: been proved to be pretty worthless — you’ve already past when the message comes through
  • data of where you are not so valuable
  • where you’ve been is more valuable
  • where you will be is where the money will be made

Apple iBeacons — Bluetooth LE with an ID

• CO: one inspiration for that comes from certain countries with restrictive regimes
  • walk into a bar and turn bluetooth on — get offered services that are normally not available
  • need a strong well-designed way to broker your data

Where are you failed by current map services?

• HW: developing world — none of existing providers have coverage
  • Google Map Makers pushing hard
  • Open Street Map
• Dan Appelquist: cycle maps for London
  • Google maps keeps on directing me through routes on Hampstead Heath that are not passable by bike
  • http://cyclestreets.net routing for bikes based on OpenStreetMap data
• CO: pedestrian mapping
  • most of the data has come from driving cars around
  • huge value as people much more likely to make a purchase when they are walking
• GG: but getting data is hard as many areas are private
  • no public right of way
  • hard for commercial companies to map
  • OSM has an advantage here — can’t really sue OpenStreetMap for trespass

How long rather than how far away?

• IH: common GIS function, but doesn’t crop up in consumer stuff
• JT: mapumental by mysociety — where should I live so that I can commute to work?

Royal Mail PAF file restrictions

big database of postcodes & business locations for the UK — really valuable and the Royal Mail are holding tight…

• JT: campaigning to open it, but it seems extremely unlikely
  • would have to create an open street gazetteer
  • if someone would like to sponsor it — please see Jeni!

Linking to map model data

• HW: most OSM data has a URL
• GG: for roads — Nokia has Routing Segments, OSM has Ways, OS has ITN (Integrated Transport Network)

Summary

• JT: collaboration is the most interesting area
• IH: everybody should edit something on OpenStreetMap.org
• GG: expected a question on location & privacy, Facebook & Google…
  • “I now trust big internet companies more than I do the government”

Next session

• July 15th: Mobile Operating Systems — with Ubuntu from Canonical

MomoLondon: Mobile Marketing — Truth, Misconception and Wishful Thinking

This was a lively session — the audience really got involved and probably contributed at least as much, if not more to the evening than the panel.

Mobile marketing seems to be stuck in a bit of a rut — it’s growing but doesn’t seem to be innovating much beyond banner adverts and SMS messages.

The panel (all agency-based) didn’t really offer much new, but indicated that they wanted brands to engage the customer in a longer, more conversational process than the traditional advertising campaign.

This was proving a hard sell, as it’s more expensive to set up and doesn’t fit into the mindset of brand marketing departments.

Thanks to Infobip who sponsored the event, and kindly took us up to the top of Centrepoint for some refreshments afterwards, just in time to see the sun set over London…

Panel

• Alex Meisl @meislonmobile
  • Co-Founder, Sponge
• Rube Hulijev @more_mati
  • Global Executive, Infobip
• Ben Scott Robinson @bcsr
  • Creative Director, Sapient Nitro
• Ilicco Elia @ilicco
  • Head of Mobile, LBi
• Douglas McDonald @DMcDonald01
  • Independent Mobile Marketing Consultant

Where is mobile marketing now?

• RH: growing 100% year on year last few years
• BSR: mobile marketing on its own is pretty much dead — need to cover all media
• IE: no ads are actually getting people’s attention on mobile
• DMD: you just do marketing. some of it is mobile
  • not being recognised as mobile
  • being eclipsed by social media & iPads in terms of recognition

How broad is mobile marketing?

• AM: still need to agree on what is mobile…
• IE: what does your customer want and experience?
  • actually have to get into the mindset of the user and understand the context
• BSR: explore content on your mobile phone, moving towards purchase
• RH: it’s not a mass marketing personal
• IE: and yet the biggest complaint I hear is that mobile is not measurable enough
• RH: cross-channel measurement not easy but can be done
• AM: for a retail client, 3 times as many people on the mobile site use the “where’s my nearest store?” feature
  • but this doesn’t show up under P&L for mobile — it all goes to the physical store

personalisation

• DMD: no effort put into doing anything with the data collected
  • the best they do is add your name to the top
  • planning looks at percentage of budget for personalisation and then says “that’s too expensive, we’ll just spam everybody…”
• AM: very few bricks & mortar retailers have detailed information on their customers
• RH: personalised service might be only thing that will save the high street shop
• BSR: working for a retailer: people would come into the store and use their mobiles to purchase products using the desktop site
  • it was faster than buying in store…
• AM: 34% of sales in US lost to showrooming

ROI for all players, including agency

• mobile operators have a responsibility to help agencies with their mobile skills
• AM: http://weve.com/ trying to provide united message & service proposition from EE, O2 & Vodafone
  • originally about marketing help and mobile wallet, but the wallet stuff seems to have been deprioritised…
• IE: optimising web sites for mobile makes ROI go up

negatives

• BSR: marketeers still looking at mobile in a simplistic way: banners, print etc
  • need to consider whether a campaign should exist…
  • what happens to the conversation when the campaign ends?
  • what about all the data you collected?

positives

• AM: 20% of UK sales last year were via mobile
  • John Lewis opened up a store in Chester 18 months ago
  • they are channel agnostic and encourage people to use whatever way they want to purchase products
  • as a result, online sales in Chester grew by 30%
• the physical shop raised the profile of the business and acted as a showroom and delivery point for the goods
• DMD: mobile ad spend forecast to rise from 1-2% to 15% in next 18 months

changing away from dead print media

• agencies need to move to cost-per-acquisition rather than cost-per-impression
• starting to happen
• IE: can be hard — need to get all parties aligned
• who takes the risk?
  • if customers are seeing the marketing and purchasing elsewhere, then it can be hard to credit the acquisition to the marketing campaign
  • a gain for the brand but a big risk for the agency
• DMD: second screen great for getting take-up
  • TV adverts driving google search / URL
  • still believe print is big for driving on-ramp of mobile
  • Ed: doesn’t feel like much innovation going on here…
• IE: advertising is just about getting attention
  • can’t split channels up

relevancy & consent

• BSR: Blyk - mobile operator that gave away free minutes & texts in response to permission advertising
  • got 25-30% response rates
  • but value of texts & minutes went down to almost zero
    • customers took their SIMs out as they felt pestered by the very adverts they’d signed up for…
  • brands look at numbers being reached rather than response rates
  • 25% of 100 people sounds worse than 0.25% of 10,000…

other questions

The audience was really coming up with good things to say but we were running out of time, so the organisers attempted to have three questions asked at once. Unfortunately, this meant that only one in three questions got answered…

I’ve noted some of the better audience questions and statements (and their answers if they got them) below:

• how will personal assistant software, e.g. SIRI, affect marketing?
• mobile marketing basics get results
  • click to call
  • mobile SEO
• mobile is different:
  • video can be very successful
  • location-based services
• not just what is my mobile strategy, but what is my strategy and how does mobile fit in to it
• DMD: no point in re-inventing payment systems — use third parties
• AM: consumer technology moving faster than big brand systems
  • what systems do they target for future work?
• BSR: e.g. 125 legacy systems, 3-5 years to implement, what devices should they target when it is complete…

mobile advertising vs marketing

• BSR: mobile advertising usually defined as a banner on a mobile site
  • unsurprisingly it doesn’t work very well
  • mobile marketing more of a toolbox

taking the personalisation further

• need to fix basics first: e.g. checkout, sign-in
  • but when personalising for previous, how do you encourage creativity: surprise me with new ideas
  • AM: moving towards a one-to-one dialog
  • IE: but don’t do what a wedding pictures site did and send email to all guests inviting them to set up their own wedding…

banks & financial services

• BSR: automotive started with “I don’t see the point of a mobile site”
  • then one brand did a good job and everyone else piled in

dealing with data

• highstreetlabs: recommendation algorithms will get better
• struggling to analyse big data — how do you see it in the future
• BSR: analytics show what works and what doesn’t, but also need to know why
  • use a lean approach: involve customers and gain knowledge

summing up from the panel

• AM: need to target engagement
  • requires a different mindset & a different approach

some feelings from the audience afterwards

• agencies not really looking beyond what is out there now…
• still trying to talk to clients who are focussed on print & tv
  • constraining the agency thought processes
• what will the landscape be like in 5 years or 10?
  • need to get brands to think ahead and plan for future
  • what will adverts be like amongst software agents like Siri or Google Now?
  • anticipate user intents:
    • don’t just catch their attention with flashy graphics & moving pictures
    • figure out what they might do and offer them help that fits with the brand

coming soon…

• June 20th: Test on real devices: free London event from DeviceAnywhere #LondonMT
• June 24th: Mobile Monday: Mobile, Mapping & Context
  • with Ordnance Survey who are launching their new mobile APIs
• July 15th: Mobile Monday: Mobile Operating Systems
  • with Ubuntu who are launching their new mobile OS

MomoLondon: Demo Night 2013

Another fun demo night from Mobile Monday London. Some new ideas and some old — you never know which ones are going to stick!

My bets are on Vyclone and Critical Arc…

Blue Badge Style

Fiona Jarvis & Kishan Gupta @bluebadgestyle

• a guide for the discerning less able
• app available for iOS: Blue Badge Style
• graduated from the Mobile Monday & UCL Mobile Academy
  • (it’s really great! sign up now! :-))
• social media advisor suggested:
  • video of app to attract people to download
  • RSS feed in app
• added TTS (but not voiceover?)
• got 1000 downloads in Nov (PR & press) + 300/month afterwards

Boss Level - Scavengers

Nick Brown @boss_level

http://playscavengers.com

• game based solely in HTML5
• aimed at PC, mobiles, tablets & smart TVs
• want same control system across everything
  • up down left right & select - lowest common denominator
  • fixed 720x720 resolution at the moment (will need to change for different devices)
• closed alpha at the moment
• aiming for Kickstarter to raise profile
• cross between xcom & worms
• freemium business model with in-game purchases
• also thinking about a store for game assets
  • there’s a game editor that allows you to completely customise levels and characters
• would rather not have in-game adverts, but depends on the eyeballs
• currently two developers

Connecthings

http://www.connecthings.com/

• NFC tags for street furniture
• 1500 tags displayed in Strasbourg
• real-time transport info
• integrated with cycle info too
• also has event & POI database
• POI tags show POI info first, transport tags show transport info first
• tags have QR codes too
• license the platform to municipalities
  • though not sure how well it would go down with councils that already have their own portals….

Critical Arc

http://www.criticalarc.com/

• previous company led security & surveillance for Olympics
• security & safety in large open spaces
  • e.g. universities
• define SafeZones where there is a response team available
• security team have an app to see a situational view of the campus
• free app to call for help & get notified
• have created a platform for sharing location and situational information
• universities are first market
• no tracking in the background for general public
• security officers are tracked in the background
• Wi-Fi positioning covers off GPS issues
• can report on security staff location — heatmaps etc, can be used to actively plan response

Decibel Analytics

http://www.decibeltechnology.com/analytics/ @decibelanalytic

• actionable analytics
• object maps, which integrate with elements on page, to show which are actually being clicked
• attention maps — shows which areas of page are actually viewed
  • i.e. where is the fold for all your customers…?
• which content is contributing most to goals & revenue generation
• can filter by device and by incoming source
• adding A/B testing soon

Men’s Fitness UK iPad app

Paul Cooper, Design Director, Dennis Publishing @dmfcoops

iPad app: Men’s Fitness UK

• COPE — create once, publish everywhere
  • started by NPR in the US
• Drupal CMS with responsive design & native elements
• started with The Week (iPhone & iPad)
  • takes one person one day to lay out
  • less than 100Mb an issue
• now done a monthly magazine — more content
• Drupal 7 & responsive is a complex thing
• Adobe DPS takes over a week to lay out an issue of EVO
• content producers (photogs etc) struggled a little with responsive design, but get training
• can preview the issue before generating the app
• looking at licensing the system to other parties
• developing a system like InDesign that outputs responsive HTML

GO!Enterprise

Globo plc - Enterprise Mobility in a BYOD world

http://goenterpriseserver.com

• deploy access to back office systems in a secure manner
• no need for mobile device managment
• client app available from standard app stores
  • GO!Enterprise for iOS
  • GO!Enterprise for Android
• three products:
  • office — point and go
  • mobilizer — development for custom enterprise apps (cross-platform)
  • reach — make apps for customers

Trademob - mobile click fraud protection

Adrienne Gauldie @adriennegauldie (ag@trademob.com)

http://www.trademob.com/

• did a study in june (6m clicks)
  • 22% accidental (< 0.1%)
  • 10% botnet & hijacked clients
  • 8% server-side fraud
• can see it from data…
  • e.g. in-app clicks from non-mobile user agents
• don’t get fraudulent clicks from publishers with real customers
• building a blacklist of dodgy publishers
• 100 people in company

Vyclone

http://vyclone.com/ @vyclone

Download the app for iPhone

• wouldn’t it be amazing if we could make a single video from all the angles at a rock concert…?
• combine multiple vids in one
  • had 200 people filming a Jason Mraz concert
  • 150 people at Ed Sheeran in Hammersmith Apollo
• business model:
  • lots of interest from music industry
  • want to get footage and release it to fans for behind the scenes
• copyright: music industry recognise that this is already happening
  • now they get access to video, so a win-win
  • customers can choose to keep video private, or share with everyone
• app is winning lots of awards!

AudioSnaps

Marc Sallent, We Choose Fun

http://audiosnaps.com

• record 5 secs of ambient sound while taking a picture
• JPEG + MP3 = JPEG! (plus extensions)
  • all devices can still show it
  • web site can play audio with just one line of javascript
• why not just take a short video?
  • want to capture a moment, not tell a story

Chirp

Geraint, Animal Systems

http://chirp.io

Download the app for iPhone

• send small amounts of data using sound
• want to release an API for third parties
• have an arduino that can chirp
• teach the machines to sing!

Catch-up with last year’s demos

Two of last year’s Demo Night presenters returned to give us an update. See my notes from last year.

Ko-Su

http://ko-su.com @kosumobile

mobile learning for everyone

• demoed last year, one month pre-release
• been accepted into BBC Worldwide Labs
• material created in lots of countries around the world
• now “officially out of pre-revenue” (?)

Six-Three

https://six3.tv/

Simon Frost, CTO @spli

• started out as a private closed network — a messaging thing
• sports stars started using it to keep in touch with their public, but also to communicate with their private street marketing teams
• made it onto WAYRA Telefonica business incubator

MomoLondon: HTML vs Native

A lively and exciting debate (despite the old material!), well-run by Ewan MacLeod, Editor, Mobile Industry Review @ew4n

Panel

Team HTML5

• Andrew Betts @triblondon
  
  • HTML5 apps for FT
• Simon Arora, Biz Dev Mgr, Keynote DeviceAnywhere @devanywhere
  
  • Initially all about native
  • More and more customers asking for HTML5
  • More platforms with a single codebase
  • No need for appstore or marketplace certification
  • Wider reach to monetise services
• Jose Valles, Head of Bluevia @josevalles49
  
  • Been an HTML5 supporter for a long time
  • Launching FirefoxOS device

Team Native

• Alex Caccia, President, Marmalade @marmaladeapps
  
  • one of the leading cross-platform build platforms
  • take advantage of ARM instruction set…
  • two of top three games in US app store built using marmalade
  • HTML5 just doesn’t provide enough power - need native for performance
  • HTML5 does not solve fragmentation
• Chris Book, Bardowl @bookmeister
  
  • native gives close access to device APIs
  • deal with different network situations
  • HTML5 doesn’t work for audio streaming and caching
• Nick Barnett, CEO, Mippin @docnickb
  
  • make app builders for operators and manufacturers
  • provide both HTML5 and native app builders
  • it’s more about the business model and distribution
    
    • if you want to be in the app store, you have to be native

Last app you paid for?

• AB: Open House London
  
  • because their website is appalling and doesn’t work
• SA: Travel Deluxe
  
  • native london travel
• JV: probably a skateboarding app, or tripit or spotify
• AC: Expense Calculator
• CB: New Star Soccer
  
  • 10 games free, then in-app purchases
• NB: International Rules of Yacht Racing
  
  • native

All native apps. If you want to buy an app, it has to be in an app store…

What about Facebook?

• AC: Hardware platform is moving faster than anything else
  
  • If you come up against an issue, you’re against the browser
  • The only way past is to know the details of the insides of the browser
  • Can’t solve it by logic (terrible for project management!)

FT web app UX

• EM: FT webapp has to go through local cache expanding step before starting
• AB: equivalent to installing an app from the store
  
  • if you say no, it still works; but in a potentially limited way
  • actually a benefit: allows levels of access

Stats from deviceanywhere

• SA: out of 100 customers, top 25 are looking at HTML5
  
  • have a lot of enterprise customers
  • looking to increase their reach
• NB: these customers already have iOS and Android apps?
• SA: yes, looking to extend reach across devices without decent appstores

HSBC Business Banking

• EM: it’s an utterly crap HTML5 experience
  
  • banks say they’d love to do HTML5, but security say no!
• JV: why then do they have online banking?
  
  • want to keep customer experience
• CB: native NatWest app is better than web experience…
  
  • haven’t been able to update their website in 12 years!
  • loads of apps where you use native app first rather than web site
    
    • e.g. Hailo, National Rail Enquiries
• NB: cross-platform HTML5 is a nonsense
  
  • at Mippin, we build web app builders for each platform separately
• AB: that’s just ‘cos you’re not doing it very well!
  
  • FT use same codebase for Android, iPhone, iPad
• NB: but Windows Phone 7 UX is completely different from iOS
  
  • customers expect something different
  • so you need to write your UI differently anyway
  • may as well write it natively each time

How do we resolve vested interests? And designing for format?

• AB: each format and each channel will have differing expectations
  
  • if you define your constraints narrowly enough, natively will always be better
  • if you have a broad strategy and vision, then web technology will win
  • what about TV? what about kiosks?
  • a single web technology solution will adapt to those situations
  • single code base works with touch, keyboard and gestures too!
  • at a recent hackday, FT Labs connected a Kinect and controlled the app without touching the screen
  • the FT webapp works in the way that the people reading the paper are used to — independent of device expectations
• AC: want a fine degree of control over what it looks like and how it behaves
  
  • in gaming environment, you really want to make the app shine
• CB: isn’t this all about the 30% that Apple want to take out of the subscription?
• AB: it’s not (exclusively) about the 30% — it’s more about a direct relationship with the customer
  
  • enables customers to switch devices without losing their subscription
• CB: but Spotify have native apps and still go cross platform whilst keeping relationship with customers
• AB: if Apple changed their rules to say that Spotify would have to give a percentage of their revenue, then Spotify would be stuffed
• NB: if the Daily Mail went the FT route would people get their news elsewhere?

Is it fair to say that HTML5 is destroying usability of mobile platforms?

• JV: no, it’s building something
• CB: Google Maps browser version just not as good as previous native version

Hybrids?

• NB: mippin use unique per platform wrappers
  
  • PhoneGap works well for iOS, not so well for Android
  • BlackBerry has WebWorks
  • hardcore gaming is a pretty specialist use case
• CA: use the right tool for the right job
  
  • SDK supports HTML5 content within an app
  • and then you can switch out and use the native with ease
• Audience: built a PhoneGap app and was appalled by performance
  
  • scrolling 50-100 names was just not good enough

Native provides consistent experience?

• Spotify on some platforms lets you order playlist, Android doesn’t
• if been written on HTML5, then would have worked fine
• AB: people put 70% of budget into iOS
  
  • then 20% into Android
  • then 5% into Windows and Blackberry…
  • not surprising that non-iOS apps are crap

Discovery…

• JV: 700K apps in Apple appstore, so discovery there is hard too
  
  • don’t see a difference
• AB: FT not in a unique position – shared by lots of big brands
  
  • for small companies, app store is probably a good thing
  • FT have specialist native apps in the store which point users in the direction of the web app

Prisoners of the market owners?

• NB: usual retail model: retailer takes 30-40% of revenue
  
  • and benefits can be considerable!
  • if you’re in Brazil in 2 years time with Boot2Gecko devices, then the mindset could be completely different
• Dan Appelquist: isn’t that the issue — app stores are dragging us back into the old model that the open internet is breaking us out of
• CB: yes, the dominance is worrying
  
  • but it’s a business making opportunity for startups
• CA: native is not closed
  
  • hardware manufacturers trying to make best user experience

Security in native?

• CB: difficult to securely store offline data
  
  • premium audio streaming is not yet possible in HTML5
• EM: a bank developer said “the security people want a native app for encryption reasons”
• AB: why does the online banking not just work on the phone?
  
  • yes, you can have encrypted storage, but do you need it

Best way in for mobile development

• NB: use an app template toolkit for a size that fits
  
  • learn to be a mobile developer…
• what if you just want to see your idea?
• CA: most dangerous word when you start is “just”…
• AB: the reason for the standard layouts on web is ads
  
  • have to build the design to fit the adverts
  • there’s been a boost in design creativity from moving to new formats
  • you can take that newfound focus on user experience and bring it back to the desktop
  • you’d never expect a mobile app to have big gutters down the side
  • unless it’s an iOS 5 app on an iPhone 5…

Notifications

• NB: issue for HTML5 apps
• AB: W3C working on notifications as a spec…

New users from India, China & Brazil won’t be in Apple or Google’s ecosystem

• NB: won’t be a technology decision — more of a distribution

Javascript libraries?

• NB: 85% of development in HTML5 apps goes into javascript

Great new debugging suites for Android Chrome and iOS Safari

• Dominic Travers: great time to develop HTML5 apps!

Will we still be arguing in 5 years’ time?

• AB: native will always be able to innovate faster
  
  • web will be behind, but standardised
  • FT’s Android app is partly native for performance
  • as soon as the browser catches up, they’ll remove the native part

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Announcements

• W3C coremob.org community group
• UKTI Competition Final 29th October
• 7th Anniversary in November

Over The Air 2012

Only just noticed (in September) that I hadn’t posted my notes from Over The Air 2012 in June!

I had a fantastic time — and so did my dad and my son! We had three generations at the same tech conference :-)

I need to write a separate blog post about the LEGO hacks that people put together during and following my LEGO Mindstorms workshop, but in the meantime, here's my notes from the other sessions:

Hacking Science and Space

Ariel Waldman @arielwaldman

invisibility

• dark energy pushing us apart
• dark matter keeping us together…
• invisible superpowers:
  
  • belt that vibrates when you face north
  • synaesthesia for those that don’t have it…
  • syneseizure — feel vision through a gimp mask!
  • particle windchime
  • what would particle collisions sound like?
  • being used as an augmentation interface in collision labs

cyborgs

• your phone has loads of sensors, available all the time
• quake canary
  
  • monitor on your phone

interstellar

• humans are really good at pattern recognition
  
  • galaxy zoo
  • planet hunters
  • the work you do actually gets credited to you!
  • grean peas galaxies
  • discovered as galaxy zoo lets you drill down into data behind images
• NASA makes stuff available, but not necessarily accessible
  
  • spacelog.org
  • takes PDFs of transcripts and makes them come to life

science hack day

• weekend hack day
  
  • isodrag: a typeface where all the letters have the same wind drag
  • DNAckery: cocktail of extracted Strawberry DNA…
  • arm alarm: won’t shut off until your pulse is angry
  • near death lamp: lights up when an asteroid gets close to the Earth

Open Web Device

Francisco Jordan @mepartoconmigo, O2 Labs

Slides available

• still lots more people with feature phones than smart phones
  
  • 4 billion feature phones will be sold between 2011 & 2015
• mainly because they can’t afford a smart phone
• especially in Latin America, where Telefonica is trying to grow
• want to provide a phone for $60-70!
• Open Web Device - based on Boot 2 Gecko
• plan to launch in Brazil at beginning of next year
• Also partnering with Qualcomm to provide the chipset
• still haven’t decided the OEM(s) who will be manufacturing
• all open source: http://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G
• can build your own ROM based on Android 3.0 or 4.0 kernel/driver backends
• can also build B2G for desktop
• Gaia is Mozilla’s front-end for B2G (also open source)
• don’t have to use Gaia — B2G doesn’t even have to look like a phone
• the keyboard itself is an application
  
  • you can replace the keyboard with another web app!
• most new APIs in B2G are also finding their way into Firefox for desktop
  
  • just download Firefox nightly to see what’s available
• apps are just webapps in a directory with a manifest.webapp JSON file
  
  • can use appcache to store stuff locally as well
• using Sumon as a demo webapp
  
  • runs about 3x faster on B2G than on iOS!
• Marketplace: http://marketplace.mozilla.org
  
  • open for developers, but not yet for users
• or install from web: navigator.mozApps.install(manifesturl);
  
  • install an app from directly a web page

Anyone Can Code an Embedded Controller

Nicholas Herriot @nicholasherriot

Example device: connected printer — text questions to it and it will print them out!

• Vodafone trying to bring connectivity to embedded controllers
• Arduino and other microcontrollers exploding since 2005
• mbed (http://mbed.org/) similar to Arduino, but started by ARM
  
  • 96MHz
  • ARM Cortex M3
  • can run USB host and I2C slave
• online compiler & tool chain - works cross platform
• easy to install & run code:
  
  • runs as a USB mass storage device
  • just copy code across and press restart button
• can export from mbed online IDE to other toolchains:
  
  • CodeRed: eclipse & gcc based
  • others
• wanted to set up a platform for microcontrollers
• online IDE has a built-in SVN repository per project
• built-in libraries has lots of common stuff
• can extend with downloadable libraries (search available through online IDE)
• Vodafone has an M2M network - GDSB
  
  • used by Kindle, TomTom
  • SIMs don’t expire, don’t need to top up
• trying to open GDSB to developers…

You do know it is a phone, don’t you? (Adding voice to your mobile apps)

Tim Panton @Steely_Glint, Tropo

Tropo API

• SaaS for server-side phone handling
  
  • Voice (PSTN, VoIP/SIP, Skype, iNum)
  • SMS
  • Other services via HTTP or XMPP
  • Multi-lingual (with multiple voices in each language)
• SaaS provided by Voxeo
• Web API is JSON/javascript based
• also scripting APIs for Python, Ruby, etc
• example uses:
  
  • making calls without sharing phone numbers (e.g. speaking to taxi driver)
• scripting vs web api
  
  • scripting runs on Tropo servers and has no access to external data
  • web api runs on your servers - can access your data
• also a REST API to start outgoing calls and other control & management services

Phono

• jQuery plugin to make phone calls from the browser
• open source client
• picks up microphone from computer
• can use server-side voice recognition…
• can also pick up messaging from the tropo service
• requires a back-end (but same API for all)
  
  • Flash
  • Java applet - takes much longer to load
  • Panda (Flash with echo cancellation)
  • WebRTC - native in Chrome Canary
  • PhoneGap/Cordova plugin
  • iPad/iPhone actually works better than most laptops
  • pot luck on Android < 3.2
  • much better on Android >= 3.2
  • early version of native iOS (available in github/phono/phonosdk)
• can run both Tropo & Phono from a car battery
  
  • has been done at Burning Man

Development costs

• in the US can make free calls
• outside the US, need to ping Tropo for permission
• they will often let you run a demo server with small number of minutes for no money

Mobile Websites Can Have Nice Fonts Too…

Laura Kalbag @laurakalbag, front-end designer

slides available here

• typefaces can evoke emotional responses
  
  • not just in typographers!
• iOS app: Fonts by AppEngines — shows you all the fonts available on your device
• embed them on mobile using @font-face in CSS, just like on desktop browsers
  
  • works on opera mobile, android mobile >4
  • doesn’t work on IE Mobile, Opera Mini
• sources of fonts:
  
  • fontsquirrel - all free
  • fontspring - one off license per domain
  • myfonts - one off license per domain
• but can have a high impact on performance
  
  • and can flicker when load, etc
• tips for better performance:
  
  • just use the fancy font for headers
  • can choose to subset a font on some services (e.g. FontSquirrel)
  • see http://24ways.org/2011/unicode-range
• hosted fonts:
  
  • google web fonts - loads of free ones, but not so good quality
  • typekit, fonts.com, fontdeck are better - but pay subscription costs
  • but loaded using javascript… can be laggy
• watch out for missing fonts on mobile (e.g. no Arial on Android)
• and fonts can render differently on different devices

choosing a good font

• heineman: designed for people with dyslexia
• want to make something that’s really inviting to read, but then just sit back and actually read it easily
• what makes a typeface relevant?
  
  • context of content & features of typeface
• old style or humanist serif: based on early printing presses
• transitional serif: high contrast, sharp
• modern serif: modern classic, magazines, high class sophistication
• egyptian/slab serif: marketing, shouting, very bold
• humanist sans: clean & easy to read
• transitional sans: utilitarian, clinical, swiss
• geometric sans: clean, slick, structural, slightly childlike
• script: lots of variety, generally not good for body text, better for logos or headers
• novelty or themed: lack any subtlety, cheesy, decoration on a poster
• watch out for free fonts — they’ll most likely be overused
• choose the weight carefully:
  
  • too heavy is hard to read
  • too light may disappear on smaller screens

laura’s taste

• easy to read
• attention to detail
• subtle
• well-balanced, consistent & uniform
  
  • nothing jumps out too much

ePatient 101

Mark A M Kramer @mamk

• a lot of healthcare is based on communication between the doctor and the patient
• often doctor communication is not very effective
  
  • slow responses to email
  • constrained mobile devices due to privacy & security issues
• big issues just scheduling appointments
• quantified self — capturing and logging health information:
  
  • especially body monitoring
  • apps that take photos of food, confirm the food, then estimate the calories
• Dan Appelquist: most mHealth is focused on the hospital & medical enterprise