Hartti Suomela's Forum Nokia Blog
Note for people who have sent me question through discussion board email
hartti | 29 June, 2007 20:23
Solution: Ask the question on the boards! There it will be answered by also other active contributors.
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Introducing a new FN service - Launchpad
hartti | 29 June, 2007 01:11
The annual fee (800 Euros) is much lower than the PRO membership fee (4000 Euros), so this new offering really makes sense for the smaller mobile development companies, which need the technical help to get the application ready, but are not yet so interested in the business benefits included in the PRO membership (which is BTW now invitation-only developer program).
Juarez and Luis, didn't we talk about something similar while I was in Brazil for the FN TechDays?
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A number of Flash Lite sessions in Adobe MAX in early October
hartti | 27 June, 2007 22:33
Alessandro points out that there are quite a few Flash Lite presentations in the Adobe MAX North America, which will be held in Chicago september 30th - October 3rd. The sessions page lets you see all conference sessions (if you want to see only Flash Lite, they are filtered with the "Product" pulldown menu - there is no conference track for mobile development.)
I think there are a number of important topics missing in here (yes, I can only blame myself - I did not submit any session proposals in time), including:
- packaging swf files for various devices (Symbian, BREW, any others?)
- extending the capabilities of Flash Lite application on Symbian (including Flyer)
- overview of the Flash Lite marketplace (regional differences, etc.) - although this might be covered in the New Revenue Opportunities presentations
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Tegic getting deeper into multimodal world?
hartti | 26 June, 2007 20:20
The press relase states, that "the acquisition sets the stage for a new mobile user interface that combines voice, text and touch to dramatically improve the user experience for consumers and mobile professionals."
As I have been interested in multi-modal interfaces for some time already (although my daily work has slowed down my studies on HCI), I am interested to see what comes out from this marriage.
(via Always On Real-Time Access)
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Food for thought - design research
hartti | 26 June, 2007 20:07
Word of warning. These presentations really require you to hear the presentation too. Jan's slides are visually powerful, but without the narration one can get lost.
Also note Jan's comment on the reserach publication page:
"A lot of rich qualitative user research loses its soul by the time it's been squeezed into conference and journal submission formats and in addition, work involving concept generation tends to remain confidential. So what you see here scratches the surface, nothing more."
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Anyone willing to give us feedback on blogs, wiki & discussion boards (etc)?
hartti | 24 June, 2007 21:11
So in case anyone of you reading this has some time to spare for a phone call, I would be more than happy to do a short phone interview of your thinking of these things (how to improve Forum Nokia online community experience). Short means here that the call will not last more than 30 minutes even if you are the most talkative and idea-rich person in the world. Or giving you another estimate of the workload: I have about 15 questions to you, some more open-ended and some less so...
Unfortunately I do not have any cool gadgets to offer in return for the interviewees, just our humble gratitude....
How to participate? Just post a comment to this thread, with your phone number and give me some idea of best times to call during this last week of June (at least tell me your timezone, so would not call you during the night). I will not publish the comments to keep your phone number private. Of course, if you want to give feedback but are not willing to talk in the phone, I could send you the questions also by email (in that case include your email). Your call (although I would prefer a phone call to keep the interview more interactive).
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Sites designed for mobile phones?
hartti | 22 June, 2007 21:17
An email in the MobileMonday mailing list mentioned that this checking has something to do if the pages should not be "transcoded" and that 'the pages delivered are inspected to see if they have been adapted or if they are just "plain old html".' I guess this means that if the phone has a powerful Web browser like the S60 3rd Edition devices or iPhone, the numbers from this service are not really relevant. They matter if the phone has a WAP browser only.
Not surprisingly many of the mobile service sites rate pretty well (getting 3-5 out of 5). However without knowing what the service is really checking it is hard to tell how useful this service is. Any more infornation, anyone?
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MIDP security domain information on FN wiki
hartti | 22 June, 2007 04:32
Slowly (days do not have any more the number of hours they used to have... right..?) I have been adding Java security domain information to the Forum Nokia Wiki. Latest additions are more detailed information about the security domain policies by operators (still incomplete section) and API access settings tables for various phone models (like S60 3rd Edition devices and S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices).
The sections are still incomplete. For example I am planning to on the API access pages a list of devices using that settings table and also expanding the operator section. Feedback and additional information is most welcome!
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Checking the details of sales boxes
hartti | 22 June, 2007 03:59
I am apparently wayyy disconnected from the average mobile tech geek. I realized this when reading Darla Mack's blog post on differences of Made in Finland and Made by Nokia. I have never studied the box, the contents (manuals, addendums, etc) and the device itself to the last detail to note these kinds of differences. And I am not talking about mobile phones only (as I have not really bought a single phone yet, benefits of working for a mobile phone company), but digital cameras, MP3 players and other electronics stuff.
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Admiration of Apple (marketing?)
hartti | 20 June, 2007 01:12
For the past few days it has been virtually impossible to avoid iPhone topics on any media (for me at least TV has been an exception, but then, I have not watched much TV lately). Blogs and online news sites have been busy writing about it (here is a snapshot from technorati and digg). And of course also newspapers, like San Jose Mercury News (yes, still reading the paper version) has had a few longer artciles on it.
AT&T stores will reportedly close for two hours late afternoon one the launch date in preparation for the launch. It will be interesting to see if there will be lines forming already early in the morning. I doubt that, but let's see, as apparently 19 million people want one (?).
I do not yet have a definite stand about the iPhone. There are some issues, like price, closedness (yes, I know of the Web development possibiliies), regional availability, etc. But there are also many positive things in there too including Apple's undeniable skills in creating easy to use devices. (I have to admit that I do not own a Mac nor an iPod, even though I am familiar with both products and like the user experience on both devices)
I guess what I am saying that we need to see the device in use for a little while, before saying that it sucks or it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. And even then my opinion will probably be something in-between rather than "yesyesyes!" or "no thanks".
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New CA for Symbian Signed Publisher IDs
hartti | 18 June, 2007 18:48
Symbian Signed has a new certificate authority (CA) for it's digital identity / Published ID certificates called TC TrustCenter. (As Symbian developers know, the app needs to get signed with a Published ID which identifies the source of the sowftare before it can be submitted to the Symbian Signed testing.)
The old Verisign Publisher IDs are still valid for the duration of their validity period, but new Publisher IDs should be purchased from TC TrustCenter (and they are cheaper - $200 to be exact). So the CA change does not mean immediate changes to the developer (note, the process stays the same), only next time you need to purchase a Publisher ID, use TC TrustCenter...
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Churn data for carriers in U.S.
hartti | 18 June, 2007 07:04
the nokia phone blog points to a Motley Fool short piece on churn rates for the major cell carriers in U.S. (for those of you, who do not know, the big four in U.S. are AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile U.S.)
Churn rate basically tells how many people (or percentage of the total number of users) leave the carrier at certain period of time (usually one month). The numbers can be calculated differently, so comparing them across carriers can be misleading, but trend analysis is possible (within one carrier).
However the two big ones (AT&T and Verizon) seem to have a little better (smaller) churn rates - 1-2 %, whereas Sprint and T-Mobile have a little higher churn rates (between 2 % and 3 %).
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SuperHappyDevHouse
hartti | 18 June, 2007 06:28
Like SuperHappyDevHouse, which is a 2pm to 2am hacking party every now and then in various locations (usually at someone's home). How did I learn about it? By reading a newspaper article. Gasp. I am probably too old for these events... (the next one is btw in Hillsborough on June 23rd)
Snippet from the SHDH web page:
DevHouse is not a marketing event. It's a non-exclusive event intended for passionate and creative technical people that want to have some fun, learn new things, and meet new people. In this way, we're trying to resurrect the spirit of the Homebrew Computer Club. We also draw inspiration from the demoscene as one of the only intentional getting-things-done computer events in the world.
The newspaper article also contained sidebar a number of links to some similar events. I was not able to find the sidebar in the net, but here are the events listed: BarCamp, MashPit ("daytime SHDH"), and Coworking (there are more than 60 coworking locations around the world).
I do not remember seeing anything like this in Finland. Assembly is somewhat similar but it is annual event and much much bigger event.
Any other events you know of?
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Friday ramblings: Battery covers and SIM card holders
hartti | 15 June, 2007 22:07
To start with there are two models (ok, there might be more, but I only remember these two) which allow you to remove the SIM card without removing the battery first. Nokia 6111 and N93. Pretty cool (if you are geek), but quite unnecessary feature for a normal user with one SIM card and phone only.
On other phones you need to remove the battery cover and battery before being able to change the SIM card. On most of the phones this is really simple. Many phones have these sliding covers, which just require you to press them from one side and slide them open (sometimes finding the sliding direction could require few guesses...).
There are a few challenging ones though. At least N71 and E90 come to mind. They have small, pretty stiff lock buttons which you basically have to press with your fingernail. Unfortunately I am nail-challenged person (in other words nail-biter) so opening these covers is sometimes a frustrating experience.
With my short (non-existing) fingernails I do not even try to use them to take the batteries out. I just hit my other palm with the opened phone and the battery pops out.
The last challenge is getting the SIM card out. This is usually very easy step, but again my short fingernails cause problems on phones, where the SIM card is in a tight place - like in N75. I almost need tweezers (or at least patience) to get the SIM out from this baby.
The best open-the-phone experience? There are many to choose from, but 6131 is close to the top of the list. The battery cover is a easy slider and there is extra room for index finger to take the battery out.
What is your favorite or least favorite phone what comes to battery covers and SIM card holders?
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Best doctoral thesis in CS in Finland for 2006
hartti | 15 June, 2007 21:38
I have met with Risto a few times and especially during the time he was a visiting scholar at Berkeley at Garage Cinema Research Group lead by prof. Marc Davis (now at Yahoo!)
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