Jacek Wojciechowski's Forum Nokia Blog

Jacek Wojciechowski's Forum Nokia Blog http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/jacek-wojciechowskis-forum-nokia-blog Thoughts on new mobile technologies and development areas. P.S. Use Nokia barcode reader to read the code ;-) jack44 2009-11-23T19:04:41Z Location-aware browsing on mobiles http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/jacek-wojciechowskis-forum-nokia-blog/2008/12/13/location-aware-browsing-on-mobiles Natural way of using location-based services (especially maps and navigation) on our mobiles is to use dedicated applications like Nokia Maps, Google Maps for S60, etc. Such applications are written in native C++ and have access to AGPS, wi-fi, network/cellid information, and other technologies that work indoors or outdoors and provide information on location with better or worse accuracy. Also natural is to access map services through browsers - this works both in mobile device environment and PC/notebook world. But providing information about where you are for a browser in a mobile environment is a little bit tricky. Let's consider some potential solutions working in a browser environment (but you may also check <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/9ef38bb4-4407-4f1a-9f8f-5319acd998ac/S60_Essentials_LBS_v1_0_en.pdf.html">Creating Location-Aware Applications document</a>). Plugin for a browser First of all, this solution will work only for a chosen browser and you need to port it to different platforms (e.g. Symbian, Windows, Linux, etc.). Of course, knowledge of Symbian's C++ is a must to write such plugin (not mentioning about signing it by using Symbian Signed). Secondly, you have to force the user to install the plugin. Thirdly, is there a "proper way" to develop plugins for S60 web browser that will operate like Firefox Add-ons? Browser Plug-in API must suffice here. (OK, you may also develop an application that will use GPS and Browser Control API, but it's not a preferred solution here - it's like creating your own location-aware browser). Local geolocation server Of course, it's possible to develop such simple background server that will be a proxy/cache between a webpage running in a browser and location provider by using one of available S60 programming languages (e.g. use HTTP libraries for Symbian C++ or Python web server module to make the task a lot simpler, or even mix your solution with opensource <a href="http://wiki.opensource.nokia.com/projects/Mobile_Web_Server">MWS / Racoon</a>, <a href="http://wiki.opensource.nokia.com/projects/PAMP">PAMP</a> or <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/janussymbianeng/">this small HTTP server</a>). It forces the user to install additional software that will consume some disk space and RAM (not mentioning that the solution isn't portable). The big advantage is that such local HTTP server may be used by many other S60 applications running on different runtimes and it may provide any information you can normally get via native application (in case of location-aware services: when there's no GPS signal read MAC addresses/SSIDs of all available wlans with their signal strength, Cell Id/Location Area Code/MCC/MNC that combined with remote or local database provide <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Positioning_System">hybrid positioning system</a>). S60 Platform Services Currently, you've got access to these services via S60 5th+ WRT widgets (WGZ files) and S60 5th+ Flash Lite. <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/jacek-wojciechowskis-forum-nokia-blog/2008/11/05/s60-5th-edition-enhancing-widgets...-let-s-get-widgetized">S60 Platform Services</a> (Location Service API, Landmarks Service API) aren't ported to other mobile platforms (BTW, <a href="http://www.forum.nokia.com/Resources_and_Information/Explore/Software_Platforms/Series_40/">Series 40</a> could adopt WRT widgets from S60 - why not?). What's more, it seems that it's not possible to use <a href="http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=152641">S60 Platform Services in a web browser environment</a> (outside WRT widget) - what a pity! I can also imagine using embedded Flash content - Flash Lite 3 on S60 5th edition delivers extensibility through S60 Platform Services (<a href="http://library.forum.nokia.com/topic/Flash_Lite_Developers_Library/GUID-4DDE31C7-EC0D-4EEC-BC3A-A0B0351154F8.html#GUID-4DDE31C7-EC0D-4EEC-BC3A-A0B0351154F8">access to device location</a> through <a href="http://library.forum.nokia.com/topic/Flash_Lite_Developers_Library/GUID-65AAF569-D347-462B-B59A-9D7CA184AB9C.html#GUID-65AAF569-D347-462B-B59A-9D7CA184AB9C">ActionScript Service APIs</a>). I'm not an expert here - can someone confirm that such solution may work in practice for a Flash embedded into a webpage on S60 browser? Google Gears <a href="http://code.google.com/p/gears/">This (still beta) project</a> enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to web browsers. It provides <a href="http://code.google.com/p/gears/wiki/GeolocationAPI">The Geolocation API</a> that enables a web application to obtain a user's geographical position. It's available <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Gears#Support"> on some (also mobile) browsers</a>, but currently skips S60. It's great to see it <a href="https://garage.maemo.org/svn/browser/extensions/"> coming</a> <a href="http://code.google.com/p/gears/issues/detail?id=292&redir=1">slowly</a> to Maemo. W3C Geolocation Specification implemented by the browser IMHO, it's a very good solution to follow. Using <a href="http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html">W3C Geolocation Specification</a> will help to avoid fragmentation and that will have big influence on development of location-aware web applications (one API + many browsers = success!). Developers will not have to develop code to address browser-specific geolocation APIs (S60, Android, Windows Mobile use different solutions today). From the specs... "The Geolocation API defines a high-level interface to location information associated with the hosting device, such as latitude and longitude. The API itself is agnostic of the underlying location information sources. Common sources of location information include Global Positioning System (GPS) and location inferred from network signals such as IP address, RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses, and GSM/CDMA cell IDs. (... ) The Geolocation API in this specification builds upon <a href="http://azarask.in/blog/post/geolocation-in-firefox-and-beyond/">earlier</a> <a href="http://code.google.com/p/google-gears/wiki/GeolocationAPI">work</a> <a href="http://locationaware.org/wiki/index.php?title=Working_Draft">in the industry</a>."  Where's the catch? At the time of writing, the document has a status of informal proposal. Developers will be able to play with the API in the upcoming beta releases of Firefox 3.1, as well as alpha releases of <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec/Releases"> Fennec</a> (Mozilla Firefox web browser for mobile devices like Maemo based N810 or <a href="http://www.christiansejersen.com/blog/2008/12/10/fennec-mobile-firefox-for-symbian/">S60</a>). Developers can also try Firefox 3 and <a href="http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/10/introducing-geode/">Geode add-on</a> that provides an early implementation of the W3C Geolocation specification. I wish to have... S60 mobile web browser with geolocation APIs! I hope that many (mobile or not mobile) web browsers will support this specification in near future! (please do) I can imagine that I use geo-referenced blog, where notes, music, photos and videos I post to the blog are automatically linked to my location (no matter whether I use smartphone, Nokia Internet Tablet, or notebook for blogging; no matter whether I have access to GPS, wifi or GSM signal to define my current location). I can imagine RSS service/browser that treats in a special way <a href="http://georss.org/"> GeoRSS</a> feeds, so I can only see the information relevant to the place I am. I can imagine banking service that can show me the nearest ATMs (cash machines) after accepting the security note. I can imagine highly personalized movie website that... And what are your ideas? Browsing Location Based Services S60 2008-12-13T15:06:44Z jack44 GPS + Galileo signal - better possibilities for future mobiles? http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/jacek-wojciechowskis-forum-nokia-blog/2007/07/31/gps-galileo-signal-better-possibilities-for-future-mobiles According to the article "<a target="undefined" href="http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201201706">U.S., E.U. agree on common GPS-Galileo signal design</a>" at EETimes, The United States and the European Union are moving forward on a common system of satellite navigation after reaching an agreement on a joint civil signal for the technology. The US system, called Navstar GPS, is the only fully operational GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) currently in use, though the EU's Galileo project is in the initial stages of deployment. The new agreement eliminates compatibility and security issues, and will allow makers of GPS equipment to increase their devices interoperability by utilizing the new common signals, dubbed GPS L1C and Galileo L1F. The European Commission's Director-General Matthais Ruete says the agreement will "facilitate the rapid acceptance of Galileo in global markets side by side with GPS." This probably means that we're going to begin to see a whole sets of new chips / devices working with both systems in the near future. This will add better accuracy for location based services (LBS). Geocaching only gets easier... Location Based Services 2007-07-31T14:27:20Z jack44 Use of GPS and power consumption http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/jacek-wojciechowskis-forum-nokia-blog/2007/05/18/use-of-gps-and-power-consumption When we want to use GPS in our mobile devices we have two choices: either to use device with GPS onboard (like N95, E90, 6110 navigator) or to use external bluetooth GPS device. Each choice has some pros and cons. In-built means only one (convergent) device in the pocket, but using more power and having lower sensivity circuit; external - means additional device with its own power supply (plus probably additional charger to take care of!), more sensitive GPS (in addition: accuracy may be increased thanks to WAAS/EGNOS to 1-3m as opposed to the normal 10-15m; there may be included a logger of visited positions), such device will use power for computations and data communication only (for example every 1sec + maintenance of connection). I'm beginning to wonder which solution is better when we think about power consumption. The answer seems to be simple: mobile device + external GPS, but could you share your experience (maybe someone has made some real tests) on how longer will such configuration work (+30% more time?) Connectivity General Location Based Services 2007-05-18T16:27:09Z jack44