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

Droidcon London 2010 - Day Two

Whew! When I sat down and looked at the programme for the second day of Droidcon, I wasn’t sure I’d make it until the end — after I’d finished planning out my time, I saw I’d set myself up over 10 sessions I just couldn’t miss.

I’ve now had a day or so to recover so now I’m posting my notes. I hope they’re useful. Please @ me on twitter or leave a comment here if there’s something you’d like to add or correct.

Thanks once again to the organisers of this great event — Dominic Travers, and Kevin McDonagh and Carl-Gustaf Harroch of Novoda. You did a great job and I’m really impressed.

Android: User views

Ilicco Elia @ilicco — Reuters Mobile

Ilicco gave the first keynote speech, with some Reuters promotional video to wake us all up.

• Getting journalists to use mobile as well as working out how consumers use it
• Ilicco spends his time working out how people will use devices before they do
• The App Store was not about the apps…
  • it’s about people
  • it’s about the edge that people believe they will get from the app
• Great apps: * Google Talk — simply excellent * The browser: double clicking a column reflows the text as well as zooming in * Google Music — looking forward to what Google will do here * Vignette Photo app — just so many more styles that the equivalent iPhone apps * New keyboards — swype & swiftkey (great to be able to install device-wide improvements)
• In-app purchasing is seriously lacking
• “I want to buy an iPhone because it’s beautiful”
  • but… “I don’t want a phone that needs a new Mac to activate” !!
  • so… “I just want a normal phone” (HTC Desire)
  • Android can be just a phone — can have multiple personas
  • Great advantage, but also a flaw (not easily pigeonholed)

Growing the value of the application network

Christophe François — Vice President, Mobile Multimedia Products & Services, Orange

Christophe’s follow-up keynote just didn’t have the pizazz of Illico’s — though it was great to see Orange, Vodafone and Sony Ericsson committing so many people and so much time to Android.

• Orange San Francisco Android phone selling for just £99 on PAYG
• Customer survey over 5500 people in four countries (plus 300m customer interactions over 2 years):
  • relevant to their lives
  • security: privacy protected
  • straightforward pricing with no surprises
  • simple services to buidl their own experience
  • their content, when and where they want it
  • easy way to discover and pay for content
• Orange promoting a few focussed apps:
  • Orange TV with premium events
  • Connectivity & customer care
  • News, radio, Orange Map
• Have launched own distribution channel
  • Orange App Store
  • Don’t have to register — purchases go directly on to bill
  • Live in France, UK; out soon in Romania, Poland, Slovakia
• Orange has a strong presence in Africa
  • will be deploying Orange App Store and Widget platform
• Orange Partner Connect
  • register, submit, test & validate apps
  • central app inventory
  • reporting, sales administration & settlement services
  • private beta in Nov 2010 for Android developers

Create Killer Location apps

Alex Housley @ahousley — Rummble

Droidcon London 2010 - Create Killer Location Apps

View more presentations from ahousley.

• Looking about the same as internet was in 1995, but going faster
• 1.97 Billion on internet now (28.8% of world population)
• Location is not mature — it’s still early days but will accelerate quickly
• Location is not a feature: it’s one element of context
• Friend finders have been done to death
• Zinga have good huge business on top of facebook platform
  • similarly, there will be opportunities working with existing big players in location
• If adding game mechanics into a utility app, make sure you reward important behaviour
• “Where there’s a number there’s a game…”
• Android SDK:
  • android.location
  • can get last known location
  • set a LocationListener (can optionally control location providers)
    • can trigger per time or per distance (better for distance)
  • there’s also proximity alerts
• Alternatives:
  • Skyhook — commercial SDK, but open to revenue share
    • quite smart balanced A-GPS
    • have SpotRank
  • W3C Geolocation API via the browser
    • option: enableHighAccuracy: true
• Testing:
  • Create a mock location provider with a text file containing locations
  • Check out /data/app/misc/location/agps/nmea via DDMS-View
• Local data available:
  • crowd source
  • commercial license
  • open source
  • scrape it…
  • APIS
  • Future: open read/write service
• Rummble use:
  • Geonames — to create boundaries for “Local Heroes”
  • GeoPlanet
  • OpenStreetMap
  • Flickr
  • Google Places — some commercial Ts&Cs
  • Facebook Places — not yet a geo API
    • ask for an additional permission
  • SimpleGeo — cloud infrastructure for location data
    • SpotRank — can see heatmaps of crowd density
• Geocoder class in Android has minimal limits
  • need permission.INTERNET
• Use OpenStreetMap for mapping — better than tiles
• Notifications:
  • Android NotificationManager available since Froyo
  • Xtify
    • commercial, 3rd party API
    • have geo-fencing
    • compatible with 1.x upwards
• Measurement
  • assign key local metrics and goals
  • Flurry, Distimo, Google Analytics
• Rummble is based on subjective logic + other trust metrics
• Rummble API
  • people, places, reviews, check-ins
  • tremors — tweets in locations
  • offers
  • available at http://dev.rummble.com

Excellence in the Android User Experience

Roman Nurik @romannurik — Android Developer Advocate, Google

Roman extended his Android Design Tips (slides below) with some additional info on giving great first impressions, and some new prototyping and asset generation tools that have become available.

Android UI Design Tips

View more presentations from Android Developers.

First impressions

• User experience starts somewhere in the Android Market or even in a blog
• UX extends to reviews in market, recommendations, forums, support…
• set great expectations:
  • icon, title (unique & appropriate), description (honest & useful)
  • description:
    • give the user enough info to quickly glance over it
    • don’t need to include all features
    • leave room for screenshots!
• other first impressions:
  • provide screenshots, youtube video
• get the user up and running as soon as possible
  • don’t require a lengthy registration process
  • sync user data and context immediately
• home activity should be simple & straightforward
  • needs user testing on real users
  • highly aesthetic & consistent first impression of brand
• if the UI is more complex, consider a tutorial screen
  • e.g. WinAmp first screen
  • on first open, hide main activity with an overlay PNG
• tutorial screen also useful for introducing widgets & live wallpapers
• if you do have an intro screen, make sure it’s also available in app settings so user can go back

Design tips

• design process:
  • lay out information hierarchy & data model
  • primary UI navigation pattern
  • prototype UI (see later for tools)
• good nav methods:
  • dashboard + action bar
    • big icons + recently updated
  • 3-4 top tabs
  • horizontally sliding top tabs or homogenous content
    • but not for different content — user must know what they’ll get when they swipe
• bad nav:
  • 5+ bottom tabs
  • don’t use options menu for navigation
  • on-screen back button (all Android devices have a hardware back button)
  • tabs that alter the back stack
• prototyping tools
  • paper + pen
  • pencil for firefox — have some Android stencils available
  • adobe fireworks
• design & dev tips
  • full slides available at http://j.mp/androiddesigntips
  • don’t have modal dialogs (make sure back button works)
  • use dp (or sp for fonts), not px for units
  • don’t port UI from other platforms
  • support D-pad & trackball nav (focusable = true)
  • manage activity stack by using right intent flags
  • handle orientation changes
  • localize
• resources can be set up on a resolution specific mechanism
  • drawable, drawable-hdpi, drawable-mdpi, layout-port, layout-land etc
  • Kevin McDonagh had a good session yesterday on creating a great styles file
• make sure your UI elements are selectable
  • use the selector XML properly — with different drawables for different states
  • see frameworks/base projects in Android git for core system assets examples
• icon guidelines: http://j.mp/androidiconguidelines
  • Roman may be working on an update…

Design tools

• New tools: Android UI Utilities
  • http://j.mp/androiduiutils
  • prototyping stencils for Firefox Pencil
  • Android Asset Studio http://j.mp/androidassetstudio
    • generate icons with appropriate effects
  • Photoshop icon templates
• Blog post: http://j.mp/improvingappquality
  • stability, performance, UI

The story of ribot from penny arcade to retail giant

Antony Ribot @ribot

Antony gave a highly personal account of how he and his brother Jerome founded and grew Ribot to the point where they are designing and building Tesco’s grocery apps.

• started Ribot with £10k savings and two people
• now 10 people
• reading: “how to start and run sandwich and coffee shops”

Lessons learned from Future Platforms over the years

Tom Hume @twhume, Future Platforms

• growing pains
  • gone from 2 to 20
  • 5-6 just about at limit of collaboration without confusion
  • 7-8 is inflection point
  • 12-15 can’t organise a night that everyone can make
  • then need someone to run the process for you
  • 50-60 walk into work and see people you don’t recognise..
• you will have problems with staff
  • FP have introduced a much more rigorous hiring process in the last 18 months
  • interviews now includes brainstorming, estimating and other less usual tasks
  • people leave:
    • lack of career path
    • want to do their own things
• service work
  • resented account management, but realise now that you need it
    • need someone to handle the relationship issues between companies
  • your real process is what happens when the shit hits the fan
  • it’s hard to find a service company that doesn’t have aspirations to have its own products
    • it doesn’t work to leave things until the end of the project
    • instead have 1 day in 10 for each person for experiments
    • can get R&D tax credits for this time!
• get a peer group, advisory board (ex-customers)
• use lightweight metrics
  • use half day estimates
  • work out totals at the end of each month and compare to originals
• “Everybody wants to be Steve Jobs: don’t start by being an arrogant prick!”

Android and CouchDB

Aaron Miller, Developer, CouchOne

• started porting CouchDB to Android before he started working at CouchOne
• CouchDB is a non-relational database (NoSQL) that stores JSON documents
• instead of queries, create “views” that allow fast lookup by keys
• all comms over HTTP
• db is highly durable
  • append-only file format
  • survives battery drops out, process killed etc
• can easily transition an app that uses remote CouchDB
• really good at replication: multi-master replication
  • can write to any server
  • can introduce conflicts, but can deal with that
  • really powerful on a phone
    • can sync with a server or with another phone
    • can have multiple DBs on net syncd to a single DB on phone
  • can have continuous integration (via long-running HTTP response)
• on Android, ported the Erlang VM and then CouchDB on top
  • since all Android apps run in separate instances of Dalvik VM, not that expensive to run another VM
  • works with Android service model to shut it down when not needed
• can install from Android Market right now — but still in beta
  • installs quite a few bits on the phone…
  • takes a while to download
• can forward the CouchDB port from the device to your computer and use existing CouchDB tools
  • adb forward tcp:5985 tcp:5985
• can store application and logic in CouchDB as well (just another document!)
  • e.g. WikiLeaks available as a CouchDB instance…
• once you have a CouchDB app on your phone, you can access it even when you’ve got no internet access
• can show new data instantly as it appears
• CouchDB as an Android service — can bind to it from native apps
• DroidCouch is a Java interface library to CouchDB
• in production:
  • there’s not a good way of having your app depending on another app
  • at the moment Android CouchDB is pretty big
  • in the future, will have a slimmer version
• battery life impact of continuous replication?
  • if just watching, then not much (just holding open an empty connection)
  • will stop and only try and look when your device is awake
  • probably want to use scheduled replication in the background, but turn on continuous replication when app in foreground
• if don’t want to replicate whole server-side, can use a filter on replication
• CouchDB has a user model with login
  • validation methods can check user and associated data

Monetize your apps in emerging markets

Chua Zi Yong, SEO MoVend; runs Android developer group in Singapore

• movend provide: * in-app commerce in 10 minutes * DRM services, product management services
• what devices are popular in emerging markets:
  • S40 & S60 (esp in Philippines) — all top 10 devices
  • BlackBerry, though not corporate — students, housewives
    • 1:50 BlackBerry to iPhone in Indonesia
  • lots of MTK Java/Linux devices (mediatek) — knock-off devices
    • generally low-end devices below $150
  • iPhone is not even 1% in China today
• Android has really picked up in Asia Pacific over last 6 months
• Loads of Android devices coming through
  • Open source and free
  • Reduced cost of the handset by having services that charge per month
• support from low cost hardware manufacturers like MTK
  • seeing first ones in Indonesia
• population more familiar with connecting to internet on Nokia phone than on a computer
  • first and only connectivity to internet
  • only gaming console, social network tool, …
• “they probably know your app, but not that they are online”
• payment if different in china, indonesia & thailand:
  • have physical kiosks — people pay in cash for someone to download the app for them
• more than 50% of mobile app payments in Asia Pacific already
• highly fragmented markets & user behaviour
  • sizeable markets: China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia
• highly regulated market place
  • launching an app on China Mobile takes 6-8 months
  • they want to control everything…
  • and money takes similar time to come through…
  • and low cut of profits — at most 50%
• localized payment methods — at least 20 different forms of credit card in China
  • PayPal doesn’t work that well in many of these markets
• but a lot of money available if you get through…
  • hundreds of millions of users
• localize
  • languages…
  • avoid taboo images (e.g. pointed finger is not friendly in Malaysian context)
• casual games don’t work in China
  • more familiar with MMORG with in-game items

Android has a “dude” problem

Belinda Parmar @belindaparmar, Lady Geek TV

• Lady Geek TV: marketing company that helps companies talk to women
• in survey only 5% of women said Android for their next phone, 57% said an iPhone
• BUT… more women than men bought smartphone in the last 6 months
• and more female gamers 25-35 than men
• Forrester did some market segmentation on women gadget owners
  • 37% self sufficient, tech savvy
  • 35% neutral, little engagement, low willingness
  • 28% opportunity
• iPhone is marketed as what it does for your life
• women feel overwhelmed and confused by choice of Android devices
• women are twice as likely to have never downloaded a single app
  • don’t see most of the apps as relevant to their lives
  • want apps to solve a problem, to answer a question
• women are interested in apps but want to be involved on their terms
• Recommendations:
  • solve a problem
  • entertain, don’t educate
  • if you have an app and want it featured in the next season of the App Show, get in touch at http://facebook.com/ladygeektv

Android behind the scenes

Karl-Johan Dahlström and Erik Hellman

The afternoon keynote session: Sony Ericsson was very open about their process in designing, building and improving their Android phones. They’ve got some lovely devices (I bought an X10 Mini Pro for my wife) but are currently behind in Android software — their devices run 1.6 and a 2.1 update has only just been announced. However, they seem really committed to the platform going forwards (and they did make the best of a bad job on J2ME…)

• Sony Ericsson wanting to be the Android benchmark going forward
• have Google base, adding Sony features, then Sony Ericsson design
• have teams going out to cities and imbuing culture to identify macro trends
• current focus: Human Curvature, Precision by Tension
  • fits to your body, but precise interaction
• X10 Mini inspired by the Cloud Gate in Chicago, a “pure object”:

• hardware and software need to harmonise

• Now introducing “(Erik) Hellman, version 2.0 of Hellboy” :-)

• all products using same source code
• contributing all changes back to platform
  • sony ericsson one of the main contributors to Android Open Source project
• decouple apps — signature apps built on top of standard Android Platform
• No point setting up an Android forum solely for Sony Ericsson
  • we should be where you are already, answering questions and providing support
• promotions:
  • have app for the week on local facebook groups
  • Susanna working for marketing in UK — going out to stores, telling people which apps to demo
• launching Ericsson Application Awards 2011
  • theme: connected things
  • prizes: € 60K + phones at various stages of competition
  • two categories: students or companies with less than 100 employees
  • launch —> submissions —> beta-test —> prize ceremony
  • http://ericssonapplicationawards.com

Turn good ideas in to great apps

Reto Meier @retomeier, Developer Advocate for Android, Google

See Beginner’s guide to Android for more details on deadly sins & glorious virtues

Five deadly sins

• sloth
  • responsiveness is crucial
  • avoid modal dialogues & activities
  • always update the user on progress — and hourglass is not enough
  • render the main view and fill in data as it arrives
  • you’re not going to have the user’s full attention
  • as soon as they look away, they’re going to do something else
  • never lock people out of the app while you’re processing
  • have about 5 seconds for UI to respond until the OS pops up a warning
  • that’s a back stop to protect the user from crashing apps
  • UI should respond in 100-200ms
  • use AsyncTask
• gluttony
  • if you’re app uses too many resources, it will get killed when it goes into the background
  • don’t overuse WakeLocks
  • think about how to do battery-draining stuff as infrequently as possible
  • let users manage updates
  • share data
  • use Receivers and Alarms, rather than Services and Threads
  • instead of WakeLocks, add flags to WindowManager (FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON)
• hostility
  • respect user expectations for navigation
  • workflow should be self-explanatory
  • don’t hijack the native experience — other people use the device in different ways than you
  • give users options to do things, especially around network connections & location
• arrogance
  • undocumented APIs may not be supported in future releases
  • save state when app is paused so can restore nicely
  • will put off users if you restrict rotation behaviour
• descrimination
  • APK is designed to work with devices from SE X10 Mini to Galaxy Tab to Google TV
  • include multiple graphic resources
  • ensuring hardware happiness:
    • use uses-features in manifest (and make not required if happy for alternatives)
    • then check for API existence in code to modify UX

Five glorious virtues

• beauty
  • people perceive a beautiful app as more professional
  • e.g. tweetdeck gets installed on devices with a pre-installed twitter app
  • optimize assets
• generosity
  • use intents to start other apps
  • e.g. Where and OpenTable
  • create widgets, live folder, live wallpapers to increase user engagement
• utility
• measure your success
  • user feedback
    • can’t follow instructions
    • can provide unhelpful feedback
    • users LIE :-)
    • instead use analytics (e.g. Google Analytics for Mobile Apps, Flurry)
• be epic
  • change the paradigm

Quick tips

• let the runtime kill your service
  • service should return START_NOT_STICKY
  • if started several times then think about making it sticky
• kill your own service
  • use alarms & intent receivers for periodic tasks
  • use inexact repeating alarms
• cloud to device messaging
  • works best for targeted updates
  • com.android.C2DM package is open source sending mechanism for server

Android beyond the phone; Tablets, eReaders, and more

Al Sutton, Company Director of Funky Android

• Dell Streak uses mDPI resources but has much bigger screen
• android.os.Build gives you device-specific data
• use library projects to keep common core together
• even Facebook and Twitter get it wrong (and have done on Dell Streak)…
• there are Android dual screen displays
  • e-Ink displays behave completely differently
  • to get it to work requires a custom class…
• custom device manufacturers are really keen to have your apps on their devices
  • they’ll expect a 20-50% markdown, but you won’t have to pay app store fees
• ViewSonic ViewPad 7 available in the UK for £399
  • 800x400px display
  • offering £100 rebate for any old laptop or netbook
  • runs Android 2.2 and has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS & 3G
  • it sometimes says it’s a phone

Evolving past the fingertip

Nick Hunn, Director, WiFore Consulting (http://www.nickhunn.com)

• Lots of proprietary devices coming out that are essentially connected tablets (or could be)
  • Energy monitors (govt has mandated that we will all get two)
  • Home health hubs
  • Android can do their jobs very easily
  • But it’s much harder on embedded operating systems
• putting sensors into everyday objects
  • blood glucose monitor in toothbrush
  • thermometer in TV remote control
• Bluetooth low energy coming out — new name for WiBree * connectionless, mostly OFF * good at small, discrete data transfers * will appear in phones in middle of 2011 * coin cell will die of old age before bluetooth before it runs out! * costs about $1 in bulk, size of a fridge magnet * chips are 5mm square * not really Bluetooth, just been designed so it’s compatible
• can also do broadcasting
  • can be location — great for indoor location
  • range is about 100m outdoors, 50m indoors (can cut down if you want)
• people keep updating online tracking services (e.g. weight, running, electricity usage) for 4-6 weeks then give up
  • too much hassle
• instead, get devices (scales, pedometers, etc) to update online services via the phone
  • changing the source of ARPU for network operators (lots of small packets of automated data)
  • information is sent automatically, without user touching phone
• often much more compelling ways of showing data than just basic units and graphs
  • some scales are just showing difference since last measurement!
• phones don’t include RFID as it’s not a standard frequency around the world
  • one country’s frequency is actually illegal in other countries
  • NFC is different and starting to appear in phones
  • NFC requires more power than Bluetooth Low Energy
  • starting to see different standards working together instead of fighting

The Snapdragon Mobile Development Platform

Leon Farasati, Senior Product Manager, Qualcomm - leon@qualcomm.com

http://developer.qualcomm.com

• Qualcomm is taking on a new role of being the link in the ecosystem
  • ensuring that there are great apps for the ecosystem
  • have a huge installed base, want to make sure that apps work well
• Snapdragon is a system on a chip
  • ARM-based CPU, GPU, rich multimedia, GPS, 3G, Camera, power management
• offering pre-load opportunities…
• Snapdragon MDP (mobile development platform):
  • commercial-like device (can actually use it in the field)
  • will be available through bsquare
  • full load of sensors including:
    • gyro and compass
    • proximity, temperature, pressure
• early access to next generation hardware

Future of Android Panel

Ewan MacLeod with panel:

• Ben Medlock — TouchType (makers of SwiftKey)
• Volker Hirsch — ScoreLoop
  • mobile social infrastructure tools
  • virtual economy tools, good, gifting, etc
• Aaron Johnson — Principal Product Manager for Games & Applications at Vodafone
• Michael Smith — Head of Platforms for INQ Mobile

• Leon Farasati — Senior Product Manager, Qualcomm

• Anssi Vanjoki likened Android to “peeing in your pants”…

  • MS: Nokia not core of mobile software any more
    • Android opens up ecosystem of competition
    • Allows delivery of applications at web speed
    • Just that speed alone is enough…
  • AJ: there will be a point when people start asking for money for Android (”What!? I’m not sure I understand his fear here. There are licenses in place…”)
  • VH: SMS & Smartphone outside of Western Europe etc, Nokia is still a big player
    • but no longer in mobile developed countries
  • BM: a platform that fosters partnership is better
    • Android has challenges with fragmentation
  • VH: iPhone developers were complaining about 3GS causing fragmentation
    • nothing compared to J2ME: multiply devices by operators by bugs…
  • LF: one challenge for Android is capturing lower end
    • but high end phones will trickle down
  • MS: fragmentation to Android is similar to building your own PC in late 80s
    • i.e. no impact

• We’re still on the dream phase for Android: consumers “only buy one Android device”… Will consumers retreat to “something familiar”?

  • VH: is HTC sense out there because Android needs it or because HTC does?
    • Android lacks the polish at the moment
  • AJ: didn’t like the UI on various Nokias I had, but I kept getting them…
    • there’s whole range of reasons why a customer chooses a device
  • BM: the breadth of Google’s web services provides a very strong disincentive to leave
  • MS: Google is encouraging OEMs & operators to fight amongst themselves to get great user experience
  • LF: want to allow the people who actually know the end users to drive that
    • this is the OEMs & operators (”is it really?”)
    • e.g. Japanese phones are tailored to Japanese market — we would probably hate their UI over here

• If I was your fairy godmother, what would you wish to change in Android?

  • BM: I’d love to see a decent automated testing framework on a range of devices
    • love to see something comprehensive
    • I think this should be Google
  • VH: a working billing infrastructure
  • AJ: developers making sure that their app manifests include clearly defined API access and permissions
    • so can manage lifecycle
  • MS: Google has history of encouraging competition and then eating them
    • would like Google to be a little more open about what they’re aiming at and what they’re not, to provide some reassurance
  • LF: want a better way of getting hardware acceleration support

• What should we know about? What’s really interesting?

  • BM: the tech community
    • there’s a great community of tech blogs ready to test new software
  • VH: entering Google email in device and seeing calendar & picasa just popping up
  • AJ: paid Android submission to developer.vodafone.com
    • everyone can sign up, with charge to bill included
  • MS: cloud to device messaging
    • should destroy BlackBerry BDM very quickly
  • LF: this room right here — Java brings a huge talent pool
    • peer to peer proximity based stuff
    • device contextual awareness: walking, driving, in your purse/pocket

MomoLondon: 200,000 apps - where's mine?

Advert:

The Cloud releases new FREE iPhone Wi-Fi finder

Featuring:

• offline hotspot search — find your nearest Wi-Fi from an iPad or in the underground
• integrated maps — search the thousands of Cloud hotspots across Europe and see them all on the map
• easy registration for O2 iPhone users — make sure you get your free Wi-Fi!

Download now from the app store!

---

200,000 Apps — Where’s mine?

A busy Mobile Monday tonight — perhaps sparked by the twin pull of the “marketing” and “apps” tags in the event description!

It was a good panel with a fair spread of perspective: Eli from Vision Mobile provided a lot of useful information, based on research with mobile developers as to what works and what doesn’t; Dave Burrows talked about the traditional BlackBerry corporate apps; and Alyssa Tisne understood how to get people to buy things amongst 10 million different audio tracks.

There was a good mix of people afterwards as well — not just the usual suspects, but some design and marketing students on a 3 month course at Birkbeck and a load of BlackBerry developers too.

Anyway, on to my notes, typed at speed as usual. If you’d like to add anything or correct something I thought you said, please add a comment or contact me on twitter at adamcohenrose.

Keynote — Mike Kirkup, Director, Developer Relations, BlackBerry

• BB introducing lots of ways to pay
• enabling in-app payments
• running a Super-App Developer Challenge at the moment (ends Sept 6th)
  • focussed on “super-apps”: tightly integrated, efficient apps
  • apps need to be in Developer World to be entered

Panel

• Chair: Ben Scott-Robinson - Creative Director, We Love Mobile
• Chris Bourke - MD, Mobext
• Dave Burrows - Director of R&D Interchange Group
• Alyssa Tisne - VP Strategic Partnerships, 7Digital
• Tony Pearce - CEO and co-founder, TeePee Games
• Eli Camilleri - Asssociate, Vision Mobie
• Mike Kirkup - BlackBerry

Why apps rather than mobile internet?

• CB: speed. Apps compensate for the lack of speed across mobile internet
  • speed will gradually improve over years
  • but apps provide clean, sophisticated, richer user experience
  • but can have local storage & javascript in browser apps…
• AT: Apple has set gold standard for music apps
  • 7digital’s iPhone presence is web-only as can’t compete with Apple
  • however, can integrate with last.fm and built-in player on BB
• MK: BB6 web platform has been optimised to ensure that it gives a great experience
  • 30-50% increase in traffic just by having an app icon (on home screen and app store), even if the app just launches the browser
• EC: user experience is much better, but ubiquity is much harder
  • if you want to target a market rather than a technology then you have to strike a balance

Demographics & handsets: which demographics on which handsets?

• EC: most people are not looking at demographics…
  • when asked devs where they were getting market information, they said mates, colleagues… not really the people actually using the app!
  • survey sponsored by Telefonica — they have more experience understanding the demographics
• TP: hardest thing for any publisher is to get their app discovered
  • need to peel back the profile of the user
  • find out what they actually like
• DB: we do a lot of B2B work — boss buys app and imposes on staff
  • don’t have a high curve of under 25s
  • instead have a large number of users all the way to 60+
  • most people want to do one thing on the device and that one thing well
  • amongst first feedback: “yes, but can we take the phone away please” !?!?
• CB: mobile is moving too fast. although they’re tracking analytics, the market changes continually
  • seeing 13 year olds with iPhones purchased by their parents
  • they’re probably hand-me-downs as the parent gets the next version…
  • have run campaigns which were more successful with younger brother or sister of target audience — other family members were grabbing phone

BB has become a youth device — was this deliberate?

• MK: partially driven by people transitioning from SMS, but also by other capabilities
  • not a concerted strategy, unfortunately :-)
  • were surprised at take up of BlackBerry Messager (BBM)
  • people walk into shops and say “I want BBM”, “Oh, that’s for BlackBerry”, “so that’s what I want”

Apps as marketing tools & marketing for apps

• CB: iPhone apps may be a case of the CEO’s wife…
  • but also association with a cool company may rub off
  • launched a campaign for EBLEX: responsible for promoting beef & lamb in UK
  • made an app to help you BBQ better (iBBQ)
• TP: no-one knows the apps on facebook
  • top few games are there because the publishers have the money to keep investing in advertising
  • http://teepeegames.com is a discovery site for mobile & social media apps
• EC: market towards niches
  • these are services — can learn from old industries how to get to individuals who need them
  • even games are entertainment services
  • seeing links between old platforms (e.g. magazine) & new (digital) ones
  • can do guerilla marketing
  • need to take responsibility for own marketing
  • get association with a brand that’s trusted & known
• AT: 7digital want to integrate with other music apps
  • esp. streaming apps — “now buy the music you’ve just heard”
• MK: seems like a new problem but it’s a new set of people encountering the problem
  • if you convince crackberry.com blog to feature your app then downloads go through the roof… (email: kevin@crackberry.com)
• DB: the real estate is on the device
  • when first buy a PC, first thing I do is remove the ISP adverts
  • there will be a time that this will happen on mobile

Apps are pushed through other media. How?

• CB: need to have significant budget and use it wisely
  • for BBQ app, targeted mobile ad networks & aggregators
  • initially ran an explosive campaign to push app into top 25
  • then get organic usage and get talked about
  • when start to fall out of top 25, need to give app another push — a bit more budget
  • BBQ app relied exclusively on mobile media
• CE: Royal Academy of Arts app — all users had downloaded it when they visited the museum
  • front desk had told them about it
  • still don’t know why they’re not promoting retail apps in retail stores (e.g. Selfridges app)

Is it worth plugging a free app?

• EC: yes, if it’s extending services for a segment they want to own
  • again, BBQ example fits well
  • but not if it’s your core product
  • freemium works if the extra functionality is worth something and has clear value
  • bad free apps create noise — destroy space and time for apps that people will really value
• TP: Nokia users are used to paying £5 for an app, whereas iPhone users are shocked at 59p
  • unless you have a freemium model and can get existing users to give you money
• EC: ad-funded apps were not making money they expected
  • ones that were working were
  • maybe because of numbers
• TP: content is key
• DB: have to monetise somewhere?
  • sometimes get the money paid as development
  • marketing done by somewhere else
  • ad-funded market is in its infancy
  • have to have consolidated advertising mechanisms to provide content
• AT: can send push message to get people to interact with app
  • get free releases and browse associated paid ones
  • since 7digital is a store, the app is always free

Is sponsorship a realistic model for launching an app?

• CB: absolutely (see above)
  • actively looking for sponsorship opportunities
  • white labelling apps (esp. games)
• BSR: lots of useful case studies
  • e.g. VW approached a specific game, stripped it down just to show VW car and released it for free
• CB: Brand Butler idea
  • releasing services and games to consumers is a great way to get brand awareness & engagement

Andrew Scott (Rummble): discoverability should be about word of mouth but some operators still have a rate sheet for their promoted places

• BSR: in theory app stores provide word of mouth
• MK: BB twitter app has a load of feedback comments which are attempted first tweets… (is that a problem with the BB store?)
• TP: teepeegames.com will have a combination of user recommendation & editorial control
  • putting a social network behind each product
• AT: with 10 million audio tracks available, discoverability is about genre, really good meta-data (which is not always available from the item itself), friends recommendations, …

Fragmentation: has anyone used an app-porting mechanism, and how did it work?

• CB: they tend to break down at the edges
  • a bit like decorating your house — it’s only beautiful at the end when the details have been completed
  • app-porting tech tend to deal with heavy lifting well, but don’t deal with the polish
• Charles McCloud from metaflow: have sent roughly 50 million SKUs to market
  • there are a few porting technologies out there
  • it’s tough, complicated & costly
  • it comes down to what user experience you want to deliver
• BSR: if you want to deal with extra percentages covering the market, it gets more and more expensive
  • fragmentation is getting worse from an agency perspective
• when porting, you want to take advantage of the new platform — not just port the app
  • e.g. to port an iPhone app to iPad — a day or so
  • but to take advantage of the iPad and make a good iPad app — a couple of months

How can apps modify people’s behaviour? e.g. foursquare

• DB: “mission critical” apps need to modify behaviour or won’t get ROI
  • BBM is changing his behaviour
  • carriers want stickiness

How do small new companies get market knowledge?

• EC: talk to the people who you think are your real customers
  • mobile metrics are mostly irrelevant — they come from technology point of view
  • even talking to 30 people who you believe you want to use your service
  • also want to test apps with people who will actually use it
• CB: can also do croudsource-based testing (e.g. mob4hire)
  • can target individual segments or geographic regions
• BSR: avoid listening to the press!

Helen Keegan: where does a small development house start with marketing, PR, branding?

• MK: have a very popular “Marketing for Developers” session at BlackBerry World — can send slides
  • simple things: start a blog
  • respond to complaints — the faster the better
  • BB recommend mob4hire
  • get ideas from professionals giving a quote
• CB: only way to get noticed is to cause trouble!
  • have something in your app that people will talk about
  • do something that will upset somebody
  • or start saving and then come to us :-)
• BSR: don’t target a big audience — target a niche
  • communicate to people in context
  • if you’re in a niche, you probably know the people already

---

Notices

• Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition launching this week
• nothing in August
• Over The Air 10/11th September
  • need volunteers to help
  • and sponsorship money
• Demo night on Monday following
• October — Design for Accessibility
• October — DCKTN/UKTI competition for dev places to Mobile World Congress

MomoLondon: Go your own way? A fresh look at LBS

Tonight’s event was probably the busiest I’ve ever seen the CBI Centre — the room was packed and there were loads of new faces. In terms of the content, there were good bits and not so good old bits — the “walk past a shop and get a voucher” idea reared its ugly head yet again, despite being shown several times to be of no interest either to advertisers or to the consumers.

Vodafone showed off their 360 phone and some services, but shorn of the glitzy launch, it looked a little clunky. The panellists spent a lot of time talking about foursquare and Andrew Scott of Rummble got a few words in edgeways. I’m not quite convinced that either of them have a business model. Shazam looked impressive and gave a good demo — they do have a business model, even with Spotify around. The guy from Cloudmade knows his stuff about maps (the stuff they do is fantastic), but didn’t seem to have much of a clue about mobile.

Skyhook Wireless

Kate Imbach

• Now selling hybrid location: Wi-Fi, Cell ID & GPS
• 10-20m accuracy within 1s
• Drive to find networks
• London coverage follows people, but empty in parks
• 125m+ APs worldwide
• 70% population coverage in Europe
• Commercial apps require an ad revenue share or a licensing fee
• Free apps can use SDK for free

Some examples (all on the iPhone):

• Sit or squat — rate toilets…
• MyStarbucks
• Flixster — cinema reviews w/social features + find cinemas & restaurants close by
• Shazam tying music to locations
• Sportacular — voting by location, then see stats over country
• TuneWiki — see where people are listening to what music, and what’s popular around you

Advertising

• MyTraffic — driving alerts, works in Boston
  • has smarter location-based advertising — but who is selling them?
• Scoreloop — location-based leaderboards
• Amazon — what’s popular in Seattle this week? what are the business books selling in London?

http://www.skyhookwireless.com/developers/developersguide.pdf

New launch — Maps Booster for S60

• feeds Skyhook location into all location APIs on the phone

Vodafone 360 Demo

Patrick Weissert

• WiFinder acquired by Voda and providing location for 360 phone
• VF 360 widgets (see http://jil.org) have location API available
• Apparently Vodafone 360 is still beta…

Flook

Tristan Brotherton

• browse photos (“cards”) around you and see where they are
• can add comments to the cards
• have a follow model like twitter
• can collect cards you find interesting (favourite)
  • can then add categories
• scoring mechanism
  • if other people collect your cards, you score more
• seems too much like twitter with twitpic
• (integrates with twitter)
• what’s the business model?

Shazam

Jonathan Symons

• > 35m users
• live in 150 countries
• Jonathan’s role is to think of the money…
• money comes from:
  • users getting involved, sharing app & music
  • buying things
• getting roughly 60,000 tweets of music a day
• “I can find myself in a bar”…
• meet new people who like the same music
• basic service for free, funded by advertising & follow-on content acquisition
• additional services cost

Panel Session

Panellists:

• Stuart Dredge of Mobile Entertainment
• Kate Imbach, Skyhook Wireless
• Jennifer Hicks, Ink Communication
• Nic Black, Cloudmade
• Roberta Lucca, Vertu
• Patrick Weissert, Vodafone

Vertu

• just launched a new phone
• together with a location awareness service
• Vertu consumers work hard, play hard, spend hard
• travel way more than average
• not digital natives — use things that are relevant for them
• want recommendations & whole experience, completed with human concierge

Cloudmade

• here to lower the barriers to entry for location apps
• making location a feature, not a whole application

Ink Comms

• Global Marketing & Strategy
• analysis

Is iPhone leading the way? What about Android & Symbian?

• KI: a lot of focus on iPhone
  • Android devs scaling back and going for iPhone instead, since that’s where the money is now
  • Lots of faith in Android but it will take its time
• NB: various limits for iPhone, esp. everything has to be active
  • Android allows swapping out services for others, e.g. using Cloudmade map service instead of Google
• PW: VF360 addresses 3 out of 6 segments
  • iPhone is making mainstream what we thought a couple of years ago was just for geeks
  • Android will take similar path
  • can share VF360 even if you’re not on Vodafone (and it picks up facebook, etc)

Foursquare

• JH: foursquare may come up with a biz model with advertising on a local level
• NB: foursquare about building up local content
  • need it for developers to play with
• RL: content useful and so is location, but targeting is vital — need to match the right content according to the influencers
• NB: have a choice of “what don’t I show on the map”
  • depending on the activity, the time, the context
• SD: segmenting by the apps you select
• RL: sometimes people don’t want discover things — they want the choice made for them

Has the industry come round to starting with the service rather the tech?

• KI: lots of complaints that the Apple App Store has too many apps, but there are a lot of niches
• KI: 100s of millions of lookups every day — location is becoming ubiquitous within apps, becoming mainstream

How are people making money?

• KI: Visa are sponsoring a shopping app, seeing $15-24 CPMs — does anyone know what this is?
• JH: still trying to come together
  • lives in Amsterdam, people are using foursquare like crazy
  • social networking side of location services
• NB: releasing first part of location based advertising service later this year
  • tailor advertising to app’s context
• RL: need to involve audience
• PW: flixter are ticketmaster — they sell tickets
  • the app is advertising for their own service

@torgo: What about the privacy issues? Could that lead to a backlash against location services?

• KI: app developers are sensitive to the privacy issues
  • generally sharing location for the user experience
  • weird when app asks for location for no reason
  • Skyhook don’t do user application tracking
• JH: consumer issues will hit as this stuff spreads
  • consumers can get picky
  • getting libel suits as twitter becomes mass market
• NB: thinks the early adopter community are more concerned by privacy issues

How does immediacy affect social mores?

• RL: different countries reacting differently
  • next generation will not bother about personal info
  • e.g. Google StreetMap just useful
• KI: gave up on privacy after my mother guilted me into accepting her friend request on facebook
• Floor: In Amsterdam, youth feel privacy is very important
• JH: want you to ask permission to share their info
  • teens will not part with their phones
  • will not be sliced by age; depends on industry
• PW: need to enable location selectively
  • not enable every tweet
  • choose to

How does Vertu work with location?

• RL: Vertu handsets are Series 40, but luxury
  • use of location is made clear — transparency
• SD: more like “push my location to the paparazzi right now!”

What is the thing that O2 UK could do that would be most helpful?

• NB: reduce barriers to entry: make location part of the platform, and pay them for using it, via location

Does advertising really work?

• A user is in Kensington, shoe shopping and I want to serve them an ad. Right now, advertisers might have an advert about shoes, probably clothing instead, almost certainly not Kensington
• NB: might also want to tell people about coffee shops nearby
• JH: talks about walk-by advertising…
• @fj says “I’m not responsible for any store making money - get outta my phone!”
• KI: no inventory
  • no incentive to sell more targeted ads as they sell less impressions that way
  • location-based banner ads are probably not the way things will go
• PW: time & location push model doesn’t really work
  • more about pull — enabling people to find you

Will there be more integration between mobile and web apps?

• PW: VF360 all about that. Can sync them up
• RL: all about lead time: takes a long time to put a new device on the market, but not to launch a service

Are we going to see content fragmentation?

• PW: biggest problem of app store model — think that services will converge
• SD: federating content like wikipedia
• NB: will be launching a “publish content through a central service” later this year

For certain apps, a facebook app is worth about 400 leads

• JH: it’s too early
  • foursquare think they will make money from local advertising
  • they’re experimenting at the moment
• Andrew Scott: foursquare not making money — just taken $100m of funding…
• RL: concentrate on providing something that is highly valuable for their consumers

Upcoming events

• 26 Oct — Mobile Phones for the Senior Market
  • Even in the UK there is only about 50% penetration in the 55+ market
  • Learn about the opportunities and how to take advantage of them
• 26 Oct PM — DCKTN Mobile World Congress competition judging
• 9 Nov — Mobile Monday joint birthday part w/Swedish Beers
• 7 Dec — Heroes of the Mobile Screen
• 4 Dec — OpenMIC in Guildford on AR & Location

OverTheAir '09: Fluid Layouting Techniques for Widget Development

Daniel Herzog

Original slides:

Fluid Layouting Techniques - Over The Air 2009

View more documents from danfooo.

My notes…

• There’s one web — “You don’t want .mobi — it wasn’t a big success”
• widgets should be cross-platform
  • should take a small amount of space on the desktop, but be bigger (full screen) on mobile
• Vodafone widget engine is based on Opera 9

Fonts

• use media queries to switch to high dpi mode, e.g.

    @media all and (-o-touch) {
        a {padding: 1em}
    }

  • uses opera-specific -o-touch
• alternative:

    @media all and (min-resolution: 200dpi) {
        body {font-size: 22px}
    }
    .myDiv {margin: 1em;}

Images

• should use them at native resolution, loaded from server…
• if you’re desperate, use image scaling using screen width percentages

UI-Elements

• use dynamic images, or scalable SVG
• SVG works across most browsers, apart from IE (but may change in 2009)
• Google working on SVG Web — uses Flash plugin to render SVG content
  • But if widget engine doesn’t support SVG, it may not support Flash either
• Daniel uses Illustrator to create initial SVG, then uses TextMate to hand edit it…
  • Can also use Inkscape but the UI is horrible

More resolutions…

• Portrait & landscape, docked mode (also in portrait and landscape!)
• Deal with these using window.resizeTo
• Call this initially and when the orientation changes

Future

• We’re in trouble — widget runtimes need to return real dpi/ppi values
• Not possible at the moment since developers assume that 10pt is a certain number of pixels
• Would be nice to have an extra CSS property for the real dpi

And another thing… zooming widgets

• Zooming enlarges pixels — see Opera for an example
• But SVG still scales effectively
• Another example: WidgetCity is a widget version of Sim City!

MomoLondon: Mobile Entertainment Applications

A fairly slow evening, but some nice gems tucked away. Lots of interesting stats from Flirtomatic (and a few interesting ones from GetJar). Interesting to hear that Vodafone widgets will be marketed as apps to customers (but widgets to developers).

Anyway on with the notes…

Adverts for upcoming events

EcoMo — code camp

• http://ecomo09.eventbrite.com/
• September 11-12th
• Mobile Applications for sustainability

Over The Air

• http://overtheair.org
• September 25-26th at Imperial College

GetJar - some stats on downloads

Patrick Mork

• aim to make it seamless for downloads for 1500 handsets
• Half a billion downloads reached last month
  • but the Apple app store has been going for a much shorter time and reached 1.5bn just recently…
• 75% of downloaders are under 25
  • breakdown something like:
  • <10 12-13%
  • 11-17 23%
  • 18-24 28%
  • 25-34 15-18%
• 70-80% male
• all downloads on getjar are free
  • developers monetize content themselves
• no cost to upload content
• GetJar make money by paid placement:
  • 20-25% of developers bid for placement on their catalogue
• GetJar’s experience is that you must make the initial experience free to the user
  • the general public are not used to downloading apps yet so we need to provide free tasters with no bill shock
• Over 50% of users are downloading content at least once a week
• Top 10 downloaded apps in UK last month:
  1. Ebuddy
  2. Nimbuzz
  3. Google Maps
  4. Opera Mini
  5. Change Ringtone
  6. Magic Bluehack
  7. TV To Go
  8. GetJar (web site shortcut)
  9. Qeep
  10. Facebook (web site shortcut)
• which platforms?
  • 70% of getjar downloads is JavaME
  • mobile web growing fast!
• “applications is not about smartphones — it’s about everyone”
• #1 handset in Indian market: Nokia 6600
• games are growing and probably will grow faster when billing is easier
• what are people searching for?
  • often specific programs (e.g. ebuddy, mig33)
• over 30% of new people from word of mouth
• in Egypt see a lot of download for religious apps (e.g. prayer times)

Panel

• Chair: David Murphy from Mobile Marketing Magazine
• Audience:
  • few app developers
  • similar operators
  • slightly more agencies
  • one client side developer
• Patrick Mork: getjar
  • used to be at Glu and iPlay
• Andreas Constantinou: Vision Mobile (Analyst)
• Joachim Hoffman: Fjord (Services Agency)
• Mark Curtis: Flirtomatic
• Dan Appelquist: Vodafone Group R&D

How do you go about making money from mobile apps?

• PM: see various business models: adfunded, freemium, virtual currency
• AC: sharing revenue (e.g. Nokia Ovi sharing with operators)
  • sharing cost using open source (e.g. Symbian)
  • now talking of wallet sharing
• JH: funded (e.g. BBC iPlayer); ad-funded (and you have to make your service sticky)
• MC: 160m WAP pages in UK in May
  • every now and then they want to buy things
  • “every time we’ve given away flirt points we see an upsurge in spending a few days later”
  • users sent each other 5,000 ice cubes during the heatwave (at about 50p each)
  • “cost of materials was very high” :-)
  • most nights top spenders will be spending £20-30ea. to keep themselves at the top of the ratings!!
  • when we increase inventory, they respond within three or four hours
  • also do alerts (e.g. when people log in)
• DA: have been spearheading mobile widgets over past year
  • cross-platform, cross-operator
  • Voda will introduce an app store later this year with a “competitive” revenue split
  • are also launching in-app or in-widget billing events
  • when Voda launch widgets, it will be called Apps
  • Flight Control — see high scores of people playing around you (and on your twitter network)

Why does a developer develop for Vodafone and not for Nokia or SonyEricsson?

• DA: widgets mean you can make one thing for everybody
  • however, there is fragmentation for the operator APIs
  • widget specification is bedding down — next step is to get operators
  • setting up device APIs working group (Nokia, Mozilla, Google)
  • already have geolocation API standard launched in iPhone 3.0, Firefox 3, Opera 9(?)

Flirtomatic stats in May

• top handset was Nokia N95 and only 6%
• only 4 or 5 other handsets above 1%
• Vodafone is well over a quarter of our users in the UK

Is the future apps or web-based?

• PM: a mix
  • a lot of criticism a few months ago when Yahoo dropped apps apart from iPhone & BlackBerry
  • but GetJar Yahoo shortcut was doing 40-50K downloads a week, so app would have to be very good to be worth more than that
• JH: SportsTracker vs. Flirtomatic: SportsTracker needs hardware integration (bluetooth, etc)
• MC: had an appalling experience making a Flirtomatic app a few years ago with Jo Rabin
  • tried to make the service work in the tube offline
  • speed of development on web is much faster
  • games development are sold shrink-wrapped like a film — and are paid as such
  • web-based dev often gets paid by usage, or with ongoing revenue so need to be able to change things quickly

Since most widgets are free, does calling them widgets endanger the market?

• DA: you’ll be able to sell widgets through Ovi, Voda & others
• PM: Loopt — mapping service to share locations with your friends
  • make money by selling the service & helping operators sell data bundles

Flirtomatic: do you see a time when auction stuff will rival fixed price

• 25% revenue is advertising
• 75% is premium services
• about half of premium service income is auction-based

Where do you think mobile entertainment is going? What type of apps?

• DA: Casual gaming really taking off
  • Augmented reality making a lot of noise at the moment, but really in its infancy still. Will play out over a couple of years.
  • More interesting when put it together with advanced displays — in your glasses, or in your environment
  • “We could either end up in a very dystopian world or we could end up in a utopian place where the user in control and their privacy is paramount…”
• AC: augmented reality become possible due to simple sensor: compass
  • temp sensor could pick up if your phone is in your pocket
  • sound sensor could tell if you were at work or at home
• PM: frustrated that can’t get a basic cell phone reception on a train back from Northern England
  • apps must be useful for consumers
• MC: sneaky suspicion that NFC will be huge
  • Oyster went from nothing to mass market in 3 years (admittedly only in London)
  • “When TfL get a 95% revenue share, the rest of us won’t be stuck in a corner called special needs”
• JH: error handling has to be good

Are fragmenting app stores making getting money for development harder?

• J2ME development a lot better than it used to be
• PayForIt at least enables off-portal payment
• 3 UK can now go off deck

What are the next moves aside from technology?

• PM: Coming along a huge way since a year and a half ago, people now know about downloading apps
  • Apple started actually advertising download apps
• DA: Social apps will drive it e.g. Facebook
  • Flight Control local high scores shows how sensors enable cool features that drive user engagement
• AC: sensors will change how we communicate

MomoLondon: What have operators done for you lately?

Not quite as snappy and energetic as last month’s event, but still a good evening. I think tonight was missing some demos or video examples to get the crowd excited before the panel session. As it was, it took until the last few questions before we got to the nitty gritty.

O2 Litmus

James Parton, Head of O2 Litmus

James Parton gave a polished presentation about O2 Litmus with lots of pithy quotes. Some examples:

O2’s feedback from the developer community about what was wanted from an operator:

1. get out of the way
2. be transparent and honest
3. show me how to make some money

“Developers can get their app in front of customers in 18 minutes, not 18 months”

“The customer API is the real value”: refine ideas with feedback from real customers

The benefits of O2 Litmus: developers have access to customers; and customers get a voice, early access and rewards.

Operators and Operands, a Love Story

Terence Eden

Terence wanted to get across the network effect — the killer app of a mobile communication device being the people with whom you communicate.

He started by scaling up from the iPhone, selling 20 million worldwide so far. Quite a few people in the audience had one, unsurprisingly. But the largest selling phone across all operators in the UK is the Nokia 6300 — basic mobile web & Java apps only, but used mainly for talking and text. Scaling up still further, the Nokia 1100 sells more than any other phone worldwide, and its greatest feature is a built-in torch!

Operators exist to generate the network effect. The network effect is the real power. What operators really want is for people to say, “I enjoy using my phone, I want to use it more.”

To a certain point, I agree with him. Until you have a certain number of devices in the market, the most important thing is getting people to use more devices. However, we’re long past that in Europe. The latest stats from the UN say that Europe has 111% penetration of mobile devices. That’s more devices than people.

Once you have a network, it’s time to think about how to leverage it more than how to grow it. Treating connectivity as a given has led to most of the exciting and new services and business models of the recent years. Google Docs, Dropbox, Twitter — they don’t exist to encourage people to use the internet; they only exist because everyone is already on the internet.

That’s an area where the iPhone has stormed ahead in mobile. It assumes you’re connected and moves beyond that. Nokia is still stuck on helping you to connect.

Panel

• Chair: Anna Gudmundson, Ad.IQ
• James Parton, O2 Litmus
• Steve Wolkak, Betavine
• Jo Rabin, dotMobi
  • investors include Google, Symbian, Microsoft, etc
• David Wood, Symbian

How did Betavine begin?

• Engaging those outside of your workplace (now called crowdsourcing)
• Thinking of ways that we could encourage the developer community to move towards mobile
• Any application uploaded to Betavine.net visible on portal in Germany, Spain, UK and South Africa

Where’s it going next?

• Direct feedback from developer community
• Feedback from Vodafone
• Things that the team think are fun
  • at the moment, looking at emerging markets

What is the dotMobi business model?

• We derive revenue from domain sales, development software and services

Which apps get cherry-picked from O2 Litmus?

• We use “endorsements” — not just downloads, but feedback on forums etc
• Not just O2 staff that make the decision, but real customers
• Once app is endorsed, then

Why would you develop on Symbian?

• Since open sourced, trying to encourage a wider community
• Now want to make developers have a great experience so that the platform as widely used as possible

Why is there fragmentation across operators?

• JP: fairly happy if a developer joins O2, works with customers to develop an app, then leaves and sells the app on Orange or Voda
  • customers have had the experience, which is what counts
  • challenge to JP to make Litmus a place to stay, but of course it won’t be exclusive
  • Litmus is part of the marketing strategy — not led by the tech department
• DW: if you allow customers the freedom to move away, they’re more likely to come to you in the first place
• JP & SW: we meet up for coffee, it’s all good :-)

The iPhone question: How are you planning to get more user-centred design into your process?

• DW: Set up four councils, including one on UI. This one has been disappointing — no take up from members of Symbian Foundation.
  • but can you really design an interface by committee
• SW: put up betavine.mobi on redesignme.com for suggestions, but appreciate that iPhone was driven by one man’s vision
• JR: iPhone was executed well on all axes. Interestingly it was a vertically-oriented experience that didn’t have a parallel in the existing mobile landscape…

That sounds good, but what about reality? Isn’t there a £1000 fee to have a game listed on O2 Active?

• JP: Direct access to real customers from self-registration on Litmus
  • I sit here as an operator and know that we’ve screwed things up previously
• SW: Again, you can upload an app and see it on portal

What is customer experience?

• JP: Selecting customers who have all you can eat data service and latest phones
  • No point selecting customers just for numbers’ sake

What about app discovery?

• DW: Symbian won’t be running an App Store, will be running a warehouse that can be queried by lots of different app stores
• SW: From portal: Home > Mobile Apps > Free Apps
• JP: Don’t need to be a member to browse the catalogue, just to download

Do operators have a role in educating the market and if so, how? (Patrick from GetJar)

• Terence Eden: Putting apps front an centre on Vodafone Live. Homepage Beta is encouraging people to upload web widgets.
• JP: Not going to be placing TV ads — too broad. Instead targeting specific customer segments

How much money is actually going to developers?

• JP: we paid our first developer last week!
• Terence Eden: it’s all very well providing you with a connection to our customers, but what you really want is a connection to their wallet!
• JP: really want to create incentives for customers — Mob4Hire doing that

How many customers are you seeing?

• JP: email campaign to a selective audience: normal open rate is 10%, but 27% rate for Litmus email
  • typical market survey 5,000 customers, and already well in excess of that

How do you expect to protect your customers against viruses?

• JP: moderators check submissions for viruses
• SW: betavine the same

Clarify going from free to paid:

• JP: within Litmus, you can sell at different price points. While in Litmus, you can control that
  • if you want to go outside Litmus (to 260 million Telefonica customers) you still have to talk to O2 commercial team

Jo Rabin’s wishlist

• What I’d really like to see is a way of monetize mobile web services rather than apps

Announcements:

• April’s event: how to finance your business during a credit crunch…
  • Not on a Monday and in the middle of April
• May: mobile marketing/media