Technology or Not

A few months back I joined Mobyko.com to store my mobile contacts in a central online place. I was very suprised at how easy they make everything on the site. To show you how to setup synchronization with your phone they even have step by step screenshots for all the supported models. Not only is it all so easy to set up it also works perfectly. I have not had a single bug or problem with the service.

And a few days back I discovered that you can even link your contacts facebook's profile photo to your phone's contact picture. Thus if your friend calls, your phone would display his facebook profile photo. Now again this sounds complicated but I was able to set it up in under 5 minutes. And it works perfectly.

I really think they should be applauded for making something as complicated as synchronization so simple. And the best part of it all is it's free! I certainly recommend you all to try it. Http://www.Mobyko.com

Just got this recipe and it worked great. My very first self made chocolate cake! Made at 2am in the morning. Was so nice i forgot to take a photo before it was finished. I will make another one tomorow and add the photo.

Ingredients
4 table spoons flour
4 table spoons sugar
2 table spoons cocoa
1 egg
3 table spoons oil
3 table spoons milk

Mix all dry ingredients in a large mug. Add the egg to the mug and mix. Add oil and milk and mix till it has an even texture. Place the mug in a microwave for 3 minutes on high and voila! Will impress any wife or girlfriend. could be even better if you can drip a bit of melted chocolate over it.

I regard myself as a casual gamer. I like to play and try lots of different computer games, but I’m not that good at any. The existence of the casual gamer is however coming under real threat for the simple reason of money. I won’t spend hundreds on hardware upgrades and certainly can’t afford regularly spending $40 or more on a new game. This pushed me into the market of freeware and open-source games, but finding real good quality games is just a major struggle.

But hope has now finally arrived thanks to a major shift in EA’s business model. They become aware of the fact that pc gaming has become a hobby of the elite and this also limited their growth. Sales are no longer increasing and once a game is sold to the public they have no real way of profiting from it thereafter. So they came up with a great solution not only for them, but for everybody else as well. The solution: release the basic version (With enough features to keep any casual gamer happy) of the game as a free download and then rather make revenue by selling in-game enhancements for the more elite gamers and more in-game advertising.

This model was tested in South Korea with a free version of FIFA. Gamers can then buy extra/newer kits, skill upgrades, stadiums so on. It was a great success and this model will now go global with the soon to be released Battlefield Heroes, which will also be free. Players can then buy new weapons, characters and elite levels. These games also future more advertising, but hey I’ll accept a McDonalds billboard in my game if it means it’s free, won’t you?

I believe this would also result in more expandable/open ended commercial games for pc. Something consoles just can’t match with the same ease as a PC even if they claim they can. This would spur a comeback of user generated expansions and can only be great for the hardcore gamers while the casual gamers like me can freely try quality new games.

The model just works in everyway. EA must certainly be applauded for their forward thinking and I’m pretty sure the rest would soon follow.

Google just launched, or rather improved, yet another one of their great services. Those regular readers of Technology or Not would remember that I added Google Map’s mobile application to the top 10 Apps of 2007. Google today announced that they now have the ability to locate your location to within 3 miles or less, when you use this application from your mobile phone. Now that’s nothing new you say GPS has been doing it for years. The difference, it works on any mobile phone even those without GPS capability.

The method it uses is rather simple but works really well. Basically if you use your mobile phone it receives its signal from the nearest tower or base station. All these stations have a physical location and a Cell ID. All that the application has to do is send this Cell ID to the Google server where it looks up the coordinates of that cell’s tower and send it back to the application. And without much trouble you know where you are.

Now since this is still all relatively new it may not seem like much. You would have to be really lost almost suffering from amnesia for this application to help, right? No. This service like any other would be refined and soon could factor in variables like signal strength, previous Cell ID’s and so forth to pin point your location even more accurately. And who knows in the future it may even rival the GPS. But for now it only saves you from entering your current location to start using the application.

This update is currently in beta for the Symbian and Windows Mobile version. While no mention of the J2ME version has been made yet it should follow soon since the devices it runs on can all use the same technology. For more information visit Google Maps Mobile.

I already see how the privacy proclaimers are going to oppose this new development. But isn’t it time to stop worrying about all this? It seems the whole world is in a state of paranoia. Yes this could seriously invade our privacy, but come on; if someone really wanted all this information they can obtain it with or even without Google’s help. Isn'’t it time to start trusting again. But I do understand both sides and it is another one of those questions that has no true answer. The one’s I’'ve been going over and over again this year in Engineering Ethics classes. So I think I should just leave it here.

But what this development does show me is that Google may well be striving for that goal I have had for them since ever. To be a search engine where you can truly find absolutely any place, person or thing… even where I misplaced my car keys.

The J2ME Platform has a huge market out there. In fact it is so large that it includes nearly any mobile phone out there today and a whole lot of other mobile devices. The IPhone being the exception but that’s another story all together. This big market with huge potential is still relatively untapped and that’s very surprising, but if one search hard enough there is indeed a few gems out there.

And these are my picks of the bunch. You may notice some applications not on the list (Like GMail). That'’s mostly due to the fact that it probably did not work like it should on my testing device: a Vodafone branded Samsung SGH-Z400v. If however you know of another great applet that deserves a mention please leave a comment about it. And stay tuned to Technology or Not for information and full reviews of all these applications coming soon. Without more chatter here is the list

1. Opera Mini 4 (operamini.com)
Does this even need a description? If your phone can only fit one application make sure it’s Opera Mini. This great little app fits the real web on almost any mobile phone with its unique small screen rendering. It also features photo bloging and RSS feeds.

2. Flurry (flurry.com)
Flurry puts all your e-mail accounts in one place, on your phone. It’s fast, simple and very effective. It works with nearly 90% of all e-mail accounts and now even has RSS suppport.

3. Google Maps (mobile.google.com)
Get all Google Earth’s images and Maps directly on your phone where you need it on the road. It’s ingenious and shows off the future of our mobile world.

4. Yahoo! Go (go.yahoo.com)
A browser, RSS reader, Flickr account, yahoo mail, local information, weather and much more all in one well presented yahoo j2me application.

5. Nimbuzz (nimbuzz.com)
Make international calls at local rates while also keeping up with most
of your instant messaging accounts. Includes MSN, Gtalk, AOL and yahoo

6. Mobizines (mobizines.com)
Get snippets of your favorite magazines on you mobile phone to read anywhere and whenever you want. This great application also provides you with local content specific to the media in your country.

7. eBuddy (ebuddy.com)
It’s still beta but probably already is the best mobile instant messaging client out there if you have a MSN, Yahoo or AOL account. I just hope they add more in the future.

8. Mxit (mxit.com)
Mxit is a dedicated mobile instant messaging network. It’s probably the biggest network of its kind and is great to keep up with your friends. It’s very big in South Africa and is rapidly being taken up by the global market.

9. Bing (bing.im)
Yet another dedicated mobile instant messaging network. Has less dedicated features but deserves a place on the list simply because of its quality and better support of other web based instant messaging accounts.

10. CricketCast (plusmo.com/getcy)
Follow live international cricket on your mobile phone. Ball by Ball scores and updates from the world’s leading cricket website cricinfo.com. I would just like to see more sports apps like this!

Notable Mentions (Notice the M’s?):
Mobispine (mobispine.com)
A RSS reader
MovaMail (movamail.com)
A e-mail client
Mig33 (mig33.com)
Mobile IM network
MORANGE (morange.com)
Multi featured mobile app

Eye on the Future:
TruTap (trutap.com)
TryTap will soon be the one stop applet for all social networking and instant messaging. It’s still beta and lacks a lot at the moment but the project has some serious potential. To take a look at the future of J2ME applications go and grab it.