Harri Salminen's Forum Nokia Blog

Harri Salminen's Forum Nokia Blog http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog Random thoughts about mobile (enterprise) application development. widianuser 2009-11-23T14:26:28Z More questions for mobile developers http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2008/04/08/more-questions-for-mobile-developers Some time ago I wrote a list of questions to ask before a mobile project. I just posted another list of questions for developers who decided to create an installable application. This time list looks like this<ul> <li>Does installation package include configuration?</li> <li>Can you manage the application after the installation? </li> <li>Is your application brand-aware?</li></ul>If you want to learn more, <a href="http://mobilitics.blogspot.com/2008/04/more-questions-for-mobile-developers.html" target="_blank">check the article</a>.Some other recent topics go from <a href="http://mobilitics.blogspot.com/2008/04/mobile-mail-push-mail.html"> push mail</a> via <a href="http://mobilitics.blogspot.com/2008/03/mobile-linux-will-surely-come-next-year.html">mobile Linux</a> to <a href="http://mobilitics.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-if-phone-could-speak.html">speaking phones</a>.//Harri  General 2008-04-08T20:53:36Z widianuser Questions to ask before mobile project http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2008/02/13/questions-to-ask-before-mobile-project I made a small list of questions that I feel are important to ask from a project team before diving deeper to any mobile project. List goes like this:  <ul><li>Is solution needed regularly or does it contain information that changes frequently? </li><li>Do technical requirements match with target group? </li><li>Can you make it any simpler, please? </li><li>How to publish the solution? </li><li>Is it visual? </li><li>Well, how much does this cost? </li></ul> Complete list is available from <a href="http://mobilitics.blogspot.com/2008/02/some-questions-to-guide-mobile.html" target="_blank">my personal site</a>.I also set up a custom search engine for mobile developers, you can access it from <a href="http://search.mobilitics.net" target="_blank">search.mobilitics.net</a>. Idea is that search engine only uses sites that have been most important for myself when trying to solve mobile development related problems. There is also information available what to do is you want to contribute to make engine even better. //Harri  General 2008-02-13T14:48:28Z widianuser My not-so-technical side http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2008/01/22/my-not-so-technical-side For myself mobile solutions are interesting on the technical side but very interesting they become when put to the broader context:<ul><li>what kind of impact new solutions will have to everyday life</li><li>what kinds of solutions new enablers will allow us to create</li><li>which solutions I feel are still missing </li></ul><div>Recently I've started to write down my impressions at <a href="http://mobilitics.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">mobilitics.blogspot.com</a>, you are warmly welcome to visit and drop a comment there. After you've done that, navigate back here to Forum Nokia to find all the details about the enabling technologies.</div><div> </div><div>//Harri </div>  General 2008-01-22T21:05:21Z widianuser Disabling network access when abroad http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2007/07/22/disabling-network-access-when-abroad This summer I was able to take a wonderful two-week trip abroad with my family. One day during the trip I realized that I had a dangerous (=expensive) setup in my terminal: <ul> <li>lots of applications doing automatic network operations</li> <li>every application has roaming check turned off (reason is here, in <a href="../../../view_entry.html?id=337" title="my older post">my older post</a>)</li> <li>all applications are set up to download as much as possible, because I have a flat-rate data plan when at home</li> </ul> My first reaction was that I started to launch applications and manually changing their network settings. After doing that for a while I got frustrated when I understood that same project was waiting for me when I get back home, in order to allow network traffic again. Then I got an idea how to make sure my applications are not doing unwanted network operations (which would cost in a worst case something around 10€/MB). This trick worked fine at least in my E61: I opened the terminal's access point settings (Tools->Settings->Connection->Access points) and created a brand new access point by copying the settings from my previous access point (Options->New access point->Use existing settings). I renamed the new AP to "travelling" so that I could find that easily. Then I opened the settings of the AP that I had configured to all applications and made that AP invalid by making a minor change to setting field "Access point name". Now I was sure that there weren't applications opening network connection unless I explicitly allowed it to do so by selecting the new AP - if an application tried to use old AP it didn't work because of changed AP name. When an application tried to make a network connection, it either failed with broken AP ("Packet data connection not available") or application prompted for new AP. Returning to "home network" was now easy; I deleted the AP named "travelling" and returned the original AP to its correct settings. Applications found network again and those applications I had allowed to use network abroad prompted for new AP to replace the missing one. Connectivity General 2007-07-22T22:44:06Z widianuser MWS and mobile applications for families http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2007/06/20/mws-and-mobile-applications-for-families Like bloggers <a title="here," target="_blank" href="http://blogs.s60.com/tommi/2007/06/is_that_a_web_server_in_your_p.html">here,</a> <a title="there" target="_blank" href="http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/Previewing_Nokias_Mobile_Web_Server.php">there</a> and <a title="everywhere" href="http://www.hothandset.com/2007/06/nokia-launches-mobile-web-server-beta">everywhere</a> have already reported, Nokia has released a new version of the <a title="mobile web server" target="_blank" href="http://mymobilesite.net/">mobile web server</a> solution. Unlike <a title="Racccoon," target="_blank" href="http://wiki.opensource.nokia.com/projects/Mobile_Web_Server">Raccoon,</a> the previous version of the solution, this version is targeted more to end-users and I must admit that installation, setup and usage was now really easy. When I installed this application and tried sharing my calendar with my family, I suddenly remembered Hanna Parkkola's dissertation "<a title="Designing ICT for Mothers" target="_blank" href="http://dissertations.jyu.fi/studcomp/951392713X.pdf">Designing ICT for Mothers</a>". In her paper Parkkola studies technologies used in intra-family communications and notices that for the families, mothers are the real decision makers regarding the ICT technologies used and that <blockquote>"mothers are willing to use technologies and even implement new ones if they can obtain benefits with them." </blockquote>So, my big question is: Where are the mobile services for the families? Some examples of mobile services I'd love to see are: <ul> <li>sharing family calendar. I have my own calendar in my mobile phone and so has my wife. Soon my kids will have their calendars, too. Synchronizing these calendars is a difficult task - haven't seen a mobile solution for this</li> <li>mobile grocery list. Saving grocery list to a shared web server allowing all family members to access it using their mobile devices is something I think every time I go shopping and try to remember what to buy</li> <li>"family message mediator". This solution would allow me to send messages to all family members at once and also verify who really has read it.</li> </ul> For the design of mobile applications for families, remember two reasons from Parkkola's study why an application would not be successful: <ul> <li>application is slow to use</li> <li>application is not available all times</li> </ul> Could new MWS solution be a platform for mobile family applications? Browsing General 2007-06-20T23:15:09Z widianuser Browser and enterprise applications http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2007/05/11/browser-and-enterprise-applications For all these years that I have been in mobile industry one question has remained the same. Typically at some stage of enterprise project customer poses the big question: "But why we just can't use the browser of the terminal, instead of making this client application?" First the answer was that making data calls (this was before GPRS) is so slow, unreliable and expensive. Then we got GPRS, UMTS and even WLAN. Then the answer was that browser is not capable of doing the right things or the browser is so slow to use. Then came xHTML browsers. Then the answer was that browser user-experience is poor, page rendering bad and browser misses some vital parts that desktop browsers have. Then came the new OSS web browser for S60 3rd edition. Although the infrastructure now seems to be there, I still think that native application is the number one solution for mobile enterprise applications. Here are the most important reasons for this. Most importantly: native application can be used offline. It is a common scenario that application will be used by field workers in places where network coverage cannot be assumed. Do a test: visit some basements, machine rooms or stairways and see what happens to network coverage. Browser based solution that works fine outdoors and in offices would become unusable in places where application would really be used. Native application can cache data and work fine without network. Important design rule for (enterprise) applications is that user interface must be easy to use, robust and follow the same look and feel with other applications. UI that would in some other context be judged as uninteresting and non-innovative can work fine in enterprise application. Remember that users are not technology savvy early adopters, but people that probably use the application because their manager has told to. Native application with familiar UI components like settings screens, tabbed dialogs,  searchable lists etc. are valuable asset when trying to manage and display large amount of enterprise data. In many cases applications must be aware of the surroundings of the terminal and integrate with terminal's native applications. Assume an application that needs to take a picture, geotag it with GPS information, attach it to email and send it to office. Or application that switches terminal's profile based on meeting information stored to calendar. These are examples of features that just cannot be made with browser, but are typical enterprise requirements. Don't get me wrong, I like browser solutions and I also create those for enterprise and consumer use. Just remember to assess carefully the application requirements and usage scenarios before making the big decision about the overall architecture, no matter how fancy the browser would be. Enterprise General 2007-05-11T07:09:57Z widianuser Mind the battery http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2007/03/29/mind-the-battery Last weekend I had a small vacation, took cheap flight and visited a new city. While enjoying the sights of Riga I made a field test with my N93, trying to use it in as "converged" fashion as I could. So I packed my device with <ul> <li><a href="http://www.fring.com/" title="Fring">Fring</a> to call home</li> <li><a href="http://www.smart2go.com/" title="Smart2Go">Smart2Go</a> to locate myself </li> <li><a href="http://research.nokia.com/research/projects/SportsTracker/" target="blank_" title="Nokia Sports Tracker">Nokia Sports Tracker</a> to later see where I have been</li> <li><a href="http://www.shozu.com/" title="Shozu">ShoZu</a> to share and geotag pictures</li> </ul> and of course I used N93's browser, messaging, camera and WLAN connectivity with the applications listed above. The experiment started fine and one by one I got every application to work. When I let the applications run simultaneously the problems started: sudden terminal reboots, memory low messages, lost pictures. Well, I had been expecting problems with memory consumption, after all there were lots of stuff to keep in RAM. Also I was prepared to see shortened battery life because of Bluetooth and WLAN usage, but the result was much worse than I had expected: the device battery ran empty 4 hours after it had been disconnected from the charger. With my typical use with lots of talking and messaging the terminal keeps going for days without a battery recharge. In this small test "convergence" became "denial of service" when empty battery made device useless for the rest of the day. Here is my humble request to all of you, fellow developers: please keep in mind battery usage when designing the next killer application. If your application dries the battery within an hours, your application is really a killer, but only a terminal killer. General S60 Symbian C++ 2007-03-29T08:12:17Z widianuser Improvement suggestions for Symbian Signed site http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2007/01/29/improvement-suggestions-for-symbian-signed-site After working some time with Symbian application signing, I have small suggestions how to make developer's life a little bit easier: Publish test criteria in structured format Now the test criteria can be downloaded as a pdf-file only. Why not publish the test criteria also in some structured format, such as xml? That would let the developers to import the current test criteria to their in-house test system, thus removing the need to copy-paste the test cases from pdf-document to test systems. Allow users to save application templates to website Submitting an application requires lots of information to be typed in. Some personal and company information comes from user's profile, but application data must be written every time from scratch. Especially filling the declarative statement every time is frustrating - even copying text from older submissions seems to be somehow denied, text is blurred and cannot be copied. What I'd like to see is a template that I fill once and later when I submit the same (customer branded) application again, I can just select the template and get declarative statement automatically filled. Where is the test house? Now Symbian signed website has three test houses to choose from, but I hope that someday there will be more. Please indicate clearly where the test house is, because selecting a test house from a different continent an slow down the process, as described in this <a href="http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/view_entry.html?id=329">blog entry's comment.</a> General Testing 2007-01-29T13:45:15Z widianuser Where is my home network? http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2006/12/13/where-is-my-home-network Some time ago I changed my mobile network operator to get a cheaper data plan. After the change I quickly started to feel that something isn't quite right, but wasn't sure what it was... Then I understood that my phone thinks it is not registered to home network, i.e. it is roaming all the time. The situation is that my new operator is a MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) that doesn't have own network infrastructure but instead licenses it from a “real” operator. In this case interesting is that my operator has its own mobile network code allocated from ITU; I would assume that's not the case for most MVNOs. So now I have a subscription that is always roaming, current network is different than home network. In practice this means that <ul> <li> limiting automatic email pull only to home network will not work </li> <li> limiting MMS receiving only to home network will not work </li> <li> network registration -aware settings for many applications (like Mail for Exchange) will not work </li> </ul>   Techical note For S60 3rd edition network registration status can be retrieved with class CTelephony that will tell you the current network and registration information. However, with that class you cannot get information about the home network. To get actual home network information I used an older device and the <a href="http://developer.symbian.com/main/tools/utilities/cpp/index.jsp#mobinfo">Mobinfo </a>package from Symbian. Business note Of course there wouldn't be a need for “only in home network” kind of a setting if roaming costs were a little bit less astronomical. A short trip abroad with some web browsing and email activity will cost you more than a two-month domestic bill (just happened to me). There is an initiative to <a href="http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/roaming/roaming_regulation/index_en.htm">cut down roaming costs at EU level</a>, but unfortunately that wouldn't affect data costs. Enterprise General Symbian C++ 2006-12-13T22:58:27Z widianuser Updated terminal performance results http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/harri-salminens-forum-nokia-blog/2006/12/05/updated-terminal-performance-results Some new performance benchmark data about current mobile phones was yesterday published <a href="http://www.mobilemonday.net/mm/story.php?story_id=5104">here</a> (previous test is <a href="http://www.mobilemonday.net/mm/story.php?story_id=5052">here</a>), showing significant differences in graphics performance between the terminal platforms. The benchmark tests 2D and 3D graphics performance on Java platform, so the result mostly tells about the quality of JVM implementation and terminal's screen drawing capabilities. However, the test doesn't tell much about the performance of native applications on Symbian platform. It would be interesting to see the results of the same test when running a native instead of Java application – how much is the overhead of JVM? What I also would like to benchmark is the disk I/O performance of a Symbian terminal, for both internal and removable media. Do you know some other publicly available benchmark data or tests for smartphone performance? General Java 2006-12-05T08:11:57Z widianuser