Facebook is being used more and more for social communications. However, how would you know someone replied to something you have posted? Or maybe you want to be directly notified if someone makes a post.

In this article I will walk you to the process of enabling your Facebook notifications by E-mail and/or SMS text messaging. And the best thing of all is that you can respond back to these notifications by just replying in those e-mails and SMS Text messages. The experience with your mobile phone will be enriched by having these Facebook capabilities.

The KIN ONE, TWO and all other Mobile Phones

To enable push notification on all other phones you actually need to go to your Facebook on the computer to set this up.  Data and/or SMS Text messaging will be used on your phone and will charged according to your plan you have with your provider.

1. Login to your facebook page: http://www.facebook.com

2. On the right top of your screen you click on Account -> Account Settings

3. On the “My Account” Page click on “Notifications” in the top bar.

4. Now on this page you can already see that your email is listed and you can check on the list below of all the different notifications you would like to receive by email. If you get your email on your device they will show up accordingly to your email sync schedule of your device. The e-mails coming in will let you know that you can comment back to those notifications by just replying to those e-mails.
(Tip; remove your automatic signature in your email before sending back your reply)

Add these steps below to enable push notification via SMS Text Messages

5. In this next step we will activate your mobile number to receive instant push notification by SMS Text messages. On the in step 3 reached Notification Page you can now click on “Send notifications to my phone via SMS”

6.  A pop up will appear for step 1 out of three steps.

A warning will appear first

“Note:Before you can receive notifications via SMS, you must activate your phone for Facebook Mobile”

Open a new browser and go to http://www.facebook.com/mobile/ ->scroll down and select Mobile “Settings” and choose “Enabled” and save your settings. Some of you probably have it enabled already.

In the pop up screen select “your country” and then your “mobile carrier” and select “Next”

7. Using your mobile phone, send a SMS Text message containing only the letter “f” (without quotes) to 32665 (FBOOK).

8. At this point you will receive a SMS Text message back with a confirmation code. Select Next in the “Step 2″ pop up box from Facebook and enter your code there and check if you want this number listed under your profile for others to see. Now Select “Confirm“.

9. Your Facebook account settings page will now default to the My Account – Mobile page. Here you are able to select which notifications you would like to receive. This page also allows you to enter specific Facebook friends which status updates you would like to receive as well by SMS Text messages. Check out the other settings on this page to suite to your needs. Make sure to select “Save Preferences” on the bottom of this page.

10. When you receive a SMS Text message from your Facebook account you can respond back easily to those status updates by replying that SMS Text message.

iPod Touch and iPhone

If you have the iPod Touch and and the iPone you can actually easy activate your push notification within the Facebook application.

Go to Settings -> Facebook -> Push Notifications and turn all the notification you would like and go back to your home screen.

You might want to use the option above for other phones as well, since you will be able to reply back directly to your notification using the email and/or SMS Text Message.

Final Note

It is a little bit of work, but once you have it set up you will have instant Facebook push notifications by SMS Text message and email on your mobile device.

It has happened to many iPhone users. Suddenly your iPhone is draining very quickly, even without using the iPhone at all.

This has happened to my iPhone now for two times. On many blogs and forums people are complaining about it and many tips are given but not a real good answer to the sudden quick drain of your battery.  Below are these tips to save on battery power but won’t fix the sudden extreme drainage of your battery.

We have changed the title to include Android and Windows Phone devices now as well. We experienced the same battery drain on other mobile platforms. It seems that the exchange sync funtion (possibly calendar) hangs on the devices. In which it means it constantly is asking for data transfer in which your battery drains very fast. The device will feel hot as well. The solution is simple but takes some time.

• You need to delete to exchange account on your device
• After is is finished deleting your synced information you turn off your device and restart it.
• Set up your exchange account as before, the device will sync all your information back to your device.

The tips below will preserve more battery power:

• Turn off 3G (saves battery and is almost a must in area’s where you have Edge coverage)
• Turn off Notifications
• Turn off Push for e-mail
• Turn off  WiFi
• Turn off Bluetooth
• Set your Fetch schedule on all your other emails to manually
• Turn your Brightness down

Again these tips above will not fix your sudden battery drain on your iPhone. And really turning off all these options, kinda makes your iPhone a phone like any other. You really don’t have to do this.

I have discovered that the sudden extreme battery drain has to do with your Exchange Account that has been set up on your iPhone.  For some odd reason it keeps check and checking for new info and it won’t stop. Before trying to do a restore on your iPhone I would first recommend deleting your Exchange Push Account on your iPhone and set it up again as a new account. This will save some time in the fix for the extreme fast battery drainage.

Follow the steps below to fix the extreme battery drainage on your iPhone.

1. Go to your “Settings” on your iPhone.
2. Select “Mail,Contact,Calendars“.
3. Select your account that has been set up with an exchange server.
4. Select “Account Info“.
5. Copy down the information which you will need to set up this account again later on.
6. Select the “Arrow back ” on the top of your screen with the name of your account.
7. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select “Delete Account“
8. Let the iPhone do its work. It will remove all e-mails, contacts and calendar items from your iPhone associated with your account.
9. When done Turn off your iPhone and Turn it back on.
10. Once your iPhone is turned back on you can go back to Step 1,2
11. Back in the “Mail,Contacts,Calendar” Settings you have to select  “Add Account“
12. Select the “Microsoft Exchange” and enter the credentials you copied down before.
13. The server information is not visible in this field yet, it will appear after you set up your E-mail, Domain, Username and Password are entered and “Next” has been selected.
14. Now your account has been set up again. It will take some time for the iPhone to synchronize everything back. Give it some 5-10 minutes.

Now your Exchange Push account has been set up again and your extreme battery drainage has been stopped. If you think that after these steps you still have this issue, I would recommend using the “Restore” function in iTunes while your iPhone is connected.

Until now, the largest micro SDHC Memory card for your Mobile Device was 16 Gigabytes. Enough to store your maps, pictures, videos and music. The demand for more memory keeps on growing everyday and now SanDisk is the world’s first to ship their new 32 Gigabyte micro SDHC Memory Card.

“With the large volume of photos, videos and music that consumers create and carry around, a high-capacity memory card is a must-have component of today’s smartphone.
Smartphones have evolved far beyond the simple phone call. They serve as mobile offices, music players, movie theaters, cameras, video recorders, GPS devices and gateways to the mobile Internet. The highly-versatile 32GB SanDisk microSDHC card delivers immediate memory expansion that lets consumers enjoy the storage-intensive features of their advanced handsets. For example, the 32GB SanDisk microSDHC card can store enough music to outlast 35 round-trip flights between San Francisco and New York before repeating a single song.”

The 32GB SanDisk microSDHC card is available starting Tuesday, 3/23/10 on SanDisk.com U.S. and European e-commerce sites, with worldwide retail availability to follow next month. The new card comes with a 5 year limited warranty and carries a suggested retail price of $199.99.

Click here for the full press release.

About a week ago one of my international friends, Leigh Geary, Windows Mobile MVP and Editor in Chief of Coolsmartphone.com, wrote a news item about the availability of a new YouTube application for the Windows Mobile- and Symbian S60 platform. 

In this article I will provide a short overview of this new version of the YouTube application for Windows Phone. In addition I will share some of my practical experiences, although I must admit I’m not a heavy YouTube user on my HTC HD2 Windows Phone. 

Some pre-installation information

On the Official Google Mobile Blog you can read the following background information about the YouTube application design strategy: 

“We strongly believe that faster is better. The YouTube Mobile app is designed to be the fastest way to find and play a video on your smartphone. In the initial release we minimized the number of features and focused on speed for things that matter – app startup, finding a video, and starting playback.” 

With YouTube being one of the largest search engines, focused on seach of video’s, the YouTube application for Windows Phone probably is the fastest way to find an play video’s on your smartphone while on the go. A short application overview will be provided in the second section of this article. 

When you start the YouTube application for Windows Phone from the Windows Mobile 6.5 start menu, you first need to select your country from a list, which is shown in the right screenshot above. This selection is necessary to view, read and agree with the terms and conditions, presented in the language of your selected county. 

You need to confirm that you agree with the terms and conditions by hitting the right softkey with the accept command, that is shown in the left screenshot above. 

The next screen shows you a warning that using the YouTube application for Windows Phone, could result in additional data charges, and roaming costs abroad. I personally use a “flat-free” cellular data subscription from Vodafone, however it is good to inform people who don’t have a flat free cellular data subscription, so that costs can be minimized. 

YouTube application – A quick overview

In the left screenshot above you can see the “main screen” of the YouTube application for Windows Phone. 

In the upperpart you can see a large search box and large search button, that are optimized for touch control. In the bottompart of the screen you can see five buttons (1) browse videos, (2) favorites, (3) subscriptions, (4) playlists, and (5) my video’s. In the middelpart you can see a preview of a YouTube video, with the according information on the right side. On the Official Google Mobile Blog it is summarized as: 

“In today’s release we have added search query suggestions, ‘My Account’ support, and a new homescreen user interface that is optimized for larger screens. Now when you log into your YouTube account on our phone, you can view your favorites, subscriptions and playlists from wherever you are.” 

In the right screenshot above you see the pop-up window of the sign-in process, where you need to enter your YouTube username (= Gmail account) and the according password. You can sign-in via de right softkey “menu” on the main screen. 

Browse video’s

A pop-up window is shown if you the the touch-optimized button labelled “browse video’s”. In this pop-up window, shown in the left screenshot above, you can choose three types of filters to browse video’s:  (1) top rated, (2) most viewed, or (3) most recent video’s. 

As an example I selected the most viewed filter. In the right screenshot above you can see the resulting most viewed screen. In the upper part of the screen you can see a “pivot module” with a preview of the YouTube video. The left and right arrows on the sides suggest to the end user that you can pivot to the left and to the right, and on the HTC HD2 this is fully accomplished via touch control. In the bottom part of the screen you can see the video details and description of the specific selected video in the middle of the pivot module. 

No matter which of the three filters you select, the resulting experience with the “pivot module” is always the same. 

Favorites

I already mentioned in the introduction that I’m not a heavy YouTube user, so unfortunately I haven’t favorited a video yet. However the idea from this button is clear, you can easily find and view your favorite YouTube videos in this part of the application, without the need to search for it.  

Subscriptions

Another new feature in the YouTube application for Windows Phone is to easily view your subscriptions within two clicks. In the left screenshot above you can see the pop-up window which provides an overview of my subscriptions:  xboxprojectnatal and windowsphone. 

When I select for example the windowsphone subscription from the pop-up menu, a new screen with just the videos of the selected subscription are shown. The lateste video of the windowsphone subscription is the Demo from MIX Marketplace keynote, which you can see in the right screenshot. In fact this is a kind of similar experience, with the “filters” of the browse videos button. Again you see the ”pivot module” in the upper part of the screenshot, and details plus description of the specific video in the bottom part of the screenshot. 

Playlists

In this part of the YouTube application for Windows Phone you can view, download an play the stored YouTube playlists on your Windows Phone. For example you have compiled a playlist with video clips of your favorite songs of the moment. Now you can easily access the playlist and listen to your preferred songs, without the need of addional search actions. In my personal case however I get a “zero results” message in the pop-up window, since I haven’t stored a playlist in my YouTube account.  

My Video’s

The last touch optimized button on the main screen of the YouTube application for Windows Phone is labelled My Videos. Just like many of the other features, you need to be signed in with your YouTube / Gmail account to access your videos. However remark, that you don’t have to sign-in again for every feature, in that respect it is a single sign-on principle. 

About two months ago I wrote an article on my personal blog “Project Natal for Xbox 360 – A Controller Free Gaming Experience” in which I embedded a video of the Project Natal CES 2010 announcement with Robbie Bach, President, Entertainment & Devices Division. So I uploaded the video to my YouTube account and included it in the article. As you can see in the right screenshot above, this is the last video I have uploaded to my YouTube account. 

Google suggestions in YouTube app

On the Official Google Mobile Blog you can read the folowwing description of a new key feature, that is widely known from the pc-search-experience: 

“Another feature that we have added is query suggestions. When you type into the YouTube search box, you get relevant suggestions. This saves on typing which is especially useful for mobile phones where text input may be difficult.” 

As you can see in the screenshots above I started to type the word windows, and while I was typing suggestions for the search query are presented to me similar as on my Windows PC. I wanted to search for videos about the Windows Phone 7 series, which is suggested in the list. So I simply select that suggestion and hit he search button. The result is shown in the right screenshot, with 2151 YouTube video’s regarding the Windows Phone 7 series. 

Final thoughts and overall conclusion

The YouTube application for Windows Phone brings almost the same set of features and functions, that I have a in a browser on my Windows PC, to the mobile usage scenario. Despite we are talking about a Google product, I see a similar kind of reasoning as the Microsoft strategy of three-screens-and-a-cloud !! 

The application design is clean, and optimized for touch control. A small personal comment in the design might be the implementation that the description of a specific video takes up more screenspace than the pivot mechanism. In other words I would like to see larger previews, and less description. Furthermore the design feels very consistant, with similar experiences across the different buttons. 

If you are a heavy YouTube user this is a great application to enrich your Windows Phone. Especially when you are talking about the HTC HD2 with its great 4.3″ capacitive screen and awesome multimedia capabilities.  

“To download the app on your Windows Mobile or Nokia S60 phone, simply visit http://m.youtube.com/app in your phone’s browser.” 

If you are a Symbian S60 user, you might want to check out the review of Steve Litchfield, Editor of All About Symbian.com, “YouTube Mobile hits v2.4, gets account support“.

Jack Cook of Mobilitysite has put his thoughts together on the new Nokia E72.

Here are some quotes from his review:

Overall I have to say my experience with the E72 has been quite enjoyable.  It is a well built device that is comfortable to hold, easy to use and provides virtually everything you would want.

Since I typically charge my devices every night when I return home, I decided as I was writing my thoughts to see if I could get away with a couple of days without charging … and I easily made that mark.

I don’t want to spoil all the fun, so for the full review just head over to Mobilitysite and see what Jack has to say about the E72.

The HTC HD2, which features a massive 4.3″ capacitive screen, has been reviewed a few months ago in the article:  “HTC HD2 review – A new era in Windows Phones’ history“.

The new era in Windows Mobile history is reflected in the use of capacitive screen technology and the resulting absense of a stylus which has dominated the mobile market for many years. Those among us who worked with the Palm III, Palm V, Compaq iPAQ 3650 or any later Windows Mobile PocketPC do exactly know what I’m talking about !

Since the launch of the first generation iPhone back in 2007 (which also featured a capacitive screen), the complete mobile market is trending towards this “touch control” with you fingers.

However …. on the DAGi website you can read the following announcement, which includes a lot of recent smartphones:

“Dagi Corporation Ltd. announced the first patent protected transparent capacitive touch panel stylus for Apple all generation iPhone 3GS / 3G / 2G, iPod Touch, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, HTC Google Phone G1 G2, HTC HD2, HTC Droid Eris, RIM Blackberry Storm 1 / Storm2, Android Phones, LG KM900 Arena, LG GC900 Viewty Smart, LG GD900 Crystal, Motorola Droid Verizon, Nokia X6, Samsung i7500 Galaxy, etc.”

Handwritten notes and sketches – A practical engineering example

In order to illustrate why there is still a market for a stylus, despite that the majority of the market seems to be heading towards touch control, I will give you a practical personal example.

You probably know the proverd “A picture is worth a thousand words“, and I personally think that this applies to engineers. With a mechanical engineering background I always use (and used) sketches or models to explain a certain technical problem, and I would suggest that construction drawings are a kind of language for mechanical engineers.

A Windows Mobile PocketPC of Windows Phone can be a powerful tool for that use, especially when you are -for example- working on a construction site for trouble shooting. The massive 4.3″ capacitive screen of the HTC HD2, combined with the DAGI capacitive stylus is perfectly suited for this kind of mobile use on location.

Furthermore it is great to capture ideas, and have them with you in a central place. As you can see in the screenshots above I use Phatware PhatPad 4.7 for a few reasons.

At first Phatware PhatPad provides six different penmodes, and a lot of options to create and edit notes (different pen colors, etc.), which are not present in the standard notes application on the HTC HD2. In other words it is a more complete and specialized solution, where you can even run text recognition, or structure notes over different pages.

Second Phatware PhatPad is feels far more accurate than the standard notes application, both when I write with my finger and with th DAGi capcitive stylus. The main point is that the fine locomotion for handwriting is far more accurate with the DAGi capacitive stylus (remark the red dot). Especially at the points where lines connect, for example in case of the capital A or the sketch of the house. When you try to write or sketch it with your finger, the lines don’t connect but are offset which makes the notes less usable.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

While Devicewire reported this week to have the official HTC HD2 capacitive stylus in stock, the DAGi capacitive stylus looks identical. I personally think they even come from the same factory, especially if the capacitive stylus is patent protect as you could read in the introductary announcement.

On the DAGi website you can furthermore see there are a few different  models available. In the review I used the P001-Black model/type of the DAGi capacitive stylus. The clip on the back makes it easy to carry in the front pocket of your blouse (if you like).

In practice there are still a lot of situations in practice where the stylus is a helpful tool. In addition to my personal example outlined above, you can see screenshots of people playing a minesweeper or chess game on their smartphone with help of the “more accurate” DAGi capacitive stylus.

If you want to learn more about capacitive screen technology, I want to recommend the article “Resistive vs Capacitive: the invisible tech war in which both opponents can win?” of Steve Litchfield, Editor on All About Symbian.com, and the article “How do touch-screen monitors know where you’re touching?” on the How Stuff Works website.

To wrap-up I hope that the practical example above gives you an idea of a realistic scenario where the DAGi capacitive stylus is really helpful. I’m using this stylus for a few weeks now, it has earned a default place in my Crumpler BeanCounter L bag, and I must admit I use it frequently.

Are you a curious HTC HD2 owner, please head over to Brando Workshop and order you DAGi Capacitive Stylus !!

In this article I will have a first look at a cool new approach in mobile application development for various mobile operating systems, developed by a company called Steape.

“Steape has developed a unique innovative platform, via which it is pretty easy to build (highly advanced) applications in native language for five of the most common mobile operating systems: OSX (iPhone), Android, Symbian S60, Windows Phone and BlackBerry.”

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR0LuVpvOE8

Each of this mobile operating systems has its own programming language, and every mobile operating system has its distinct set of unique features that makes the operating system the best choice for its end-users.

However Steape limits down the knowledge of each of the different program languages and makes mobile application development even simpler (at least in concept):

“The platform developed by Steape is available through a web-environment and is working with a so called ‘drag and drop’ user interface in the Steape web-portal.”

On the corporate website Steape has a demo video of the ‘drag and drop user interface’ of the web-portal to give you a sneak peak how the application development works in practice.

The more technical oriented application developers or people with a formal IT background would probably like to know more about the technology implications or how the web-portal architecture is build, and therefore you can download a  Technical White Paper directly from the Steape website.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

I would like to start my concluding thoughts with the remark that I don’t have a formal IT eduction, and don’t work in the application development domain. Therefore I can’t value this approach from a technical perspective, but I will try to make some remarks from a business (development) perspective.

At first I like the theoretical concept of building an application on one platform, and transform the input of this platform into output code of the native programming language of the five leading mobile operating systems (iPhone, Android, Windows Phones, Symbian & BlackBerry).

With simplifying the development and applying a kind of automatic parrallel-development you can from a developer’s perspective significantly speed-up the time to market which saves costs and you can outperform competition.

Furthermore each of these mobile operating systems is bundled with a native application store, which increases the visibility of the application across the different platforms as well as it increases the number of cash flows via the different channels.

However will the Steape platform also hold for highly complex applications, which require interactions with remote servers or think about enhanced security features which can result into highly complex implementations. Furthermore you could also think if the intital user experience of the basic application idea, will hold and be as good on every mobile operating system.

I would like to conclude that Steape is an interesting platform that certainly has great potential and I truly like it in concept (from a business development perspective). I hope that some developers and people with an IT background can drop some comments and share their thoughts from a technical perspective !

]]> http://www.mobilityminded.com/5157/steape-one-development-platform-for-five-mobile-operating-systems/feed 2 http://www.mobilityminded.com/4202/3g-hsdpa-data-frequencies-answers-for-unlocked-phones-in-the-world http://www.mobilityminded.com/4202/3g-hsdpa-data-frequencies-answers-for-unlocked-phones-in-the-world#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:11:52 +0000 Johan van Mierlo http://www.mobilityminded.com/?p=4202

In the last couple of years many different frequencies have been added to the confusion of the worldwide GSM (2G/Edge) and High Speed Data Networks (3G,HSDPA,UMTS) on cellular phones. Since we all love  to have the newest gadgets we would like to be one of the first. In the Windows Phone forums, where I moderate, many questions arise why my phone bought overseas is not connecting to the high speed data service in a specific country. Hopefully I will be able to guide you below to the answer and give you the specifics before you purchase your next Unlocked Phone to use at home or world wide.

Well, many mobile devices are specially engineered for the different markets around the world. For example the HTC Touch Pro and the HTC Fuze are exactly the same device, however the build in radio’s for the 3G / HSDPA data network are different. When you travel overseas you can loose this high speed data signal and fall back on the Edge/GSM/GPRS/ 2G network.  Many people like to purchase an unlocked phone overseas and bring it back to their home country and then they realize that the 3G / HSDPA radio’s build into the device are not supported.

Why high speed data?  The mobile phones these day are more like small personal computers. They are more and more being used now for streaming media content (Internet radio and TV), Internet browsing, etc. over the high speed data networks. You even see that other non-phone mobile devices will have 3G build in to give the device the opportunity to download information at high speeds when needed. For example the Kindle 2 and DX from Amazon and many Netbooks are sold now through the mobile phone service providers with the High Speed 3G / HSDPA data connection.

Many phones these days are called “World Phones”. These phone most likely will support the High Speed Data Networks (3G,HSDPA,UMTS) world wide. However I would still look at the specifications of these phones before you purchase and balance them to the network frequencies in the area you live.

The GSM (2G/Edge) frequencies are often called Quad Band Phones. Most phones will work worldwide using these 4 frequencies for making calls and limited data connection. These frequencies are:

GSM, 2G, GPRS,Edge network frequencies (Quad Band)

• 850 MHz   (mostly North America)
• 900 MHz   (mostly Europe, Asia, Australia & Brazil)
• 1800MHz  (mostly Europe, Asia, Australia & Brazil)
• 1900 MHz  (mostly North America)

Below is a small table giving you the frequencies in High Speed Data Networks (3G,HSDPA,UMTS) with their known regions that these frequencies will work. Use this to make sure the phone you will purchase will work with the high speed data frequency connections you need. Please note that you need a data subscription with your mobile provider carrier before you can have data on your device.

3G,HSDPA,UMTS high speed network frequencies and their regions.

• 850 MHz      (United States AT&T)
• 900 MHz
• 1700 MHz    (United States T-Mobile)
• 1900 MHz    (United States AT&T)
• 2100 MHz    (Europe)

There are many other resources online to see which frequencies you have in your area. These tools will allow you to make an educated decision which unlocked phone and where you would like to purchase it from and if it will provide the services you want to have in your part of the world.

• GSM Arena – Listings of frequencies per country
• Wikipedia – Listings of frequencies per world region
• AT&T – 3G coverage map
• T-Mobile  USA - 3G coverage map
• GSM World- Different world and world region frequency coverage maps

Earlier this year Google released Google sync. Which allowed you to sync your Contact and Calendar items on your Google account. However you still needed to use the IMAP settings to get your e-mails in on your device. This was on a schedule and not push.

The Google Mobile Blog is telling us that the Google Sync supports the push Google mail accounts (Gmail and Google mail for your own Domain) in conjunction with your contacts and calendar.  Using the exchange server settings on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and Windows Mobile devices and the upcoming Windows Phone devices you can, in one easy set up, connect your device to Google Sync and live sync all your contacts, calendar items and now have your e-mails pushed to your device. No separate IMAP settings are needed anymore.

Most devices still only support one exchange account. So if you are already running an exchange account on your device for work, you can only use the IMAP settings to bring in your Google mail accounts.

Please visit the following sites to get the set up instructions for Google Sync on your device:

• Windows Mobile Google Sync
• iPhone and iPod Touch Google Sync
• BlackBerry Google Sync
• Symbian Google Sync

Please watch this short video below to get a sense of Google Sync as well. Hey it is exchange server for free using your Gmail or Google for your own domain account. (Data charges on your phone do apply)

This article will describe the most important facts of one of the largest global alliances in mobile industry between Microsoft and Nokia to Design, Develop and Market Mobile Productivity Solutions. The articles mixes slides, press information and own thoughts abouth this announcement, and possile implications.

Yesterday we could already read on the Microsoft PressPass website: “Microsoft and Nokia to Hold Teleconference“, while Mobile Crunch reported that “Microsoft Office coming to Nokia handsets“,  followed today by a New York Times article “Microsoft to Put Office on Phones From Nokia”  just before the official annoucement.

“Today, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Öistämö announced the agreement, outlining a shared vision for the future of mobile productivity.”

According to the speakers it will be a long term global alliance to design, develop and market mobile productivity solutions starting from today. It is probably the largest global alliance in mobile indrusty by bringing two industry giants together and work on wide range of user experiences.

“This announcement builds on the existing work Nokia is doing by optimizing access to e-mail and other personal information with Exchange ActiveSync. Next year, Nokia intends to start shipping Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, followed by other Office applications and related software and services in the future.”

Starting on the left side, Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile is covered in the article “Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 updated with significant improvements!” while new updates of Microsoft Exchange 2010 are covered in the article “Microsoft Exchange 2010 updates for Windows Mobile“.

At first it is great to see that Nokia continues to buy a license for Exchange ActiveSync, but more licenses will be added for Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile, and Microsoft Office Mobile which is by standard loaded on every Windows Phone now. But the alliance goes even further with addressing user collaboration via Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft System Center to easily manage mobile devices.

Both the companies address the advantages by combining both companies visions, as outlined today by Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Öistämö:

“Today’s announcement will enable us to expand Microsoft Office Mobile to Nokia smartphone owners worldwide and allow them to collaborate on Office documents from anywhere, as part of our strategy to provide the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser.”

“Together with Microsoft, we will develop new and innovative user experiences for employees of small and large businesses alike, ensuring Nokia’s smartphones are an integral part of the office and home-office environment, and addressing the significant opportunity in mobile enterprise productivity.”

The Microsoft applications and services will be first rolled out in the business aimed Nokia E-series and expand to other Nokia devices over time.

“Both Microsoft and Nokia possess a rare combination of enterprise experience and consumer understanding and, in addition to the collaboration on existing software and services, will use these assets to jointly design a range of new user experiences for future Nokia devices. These experiences will be identified together, and will be created by dedicated teams inside both companies to better meet the growing needs of the mobile professional.”

And despite that this collaboration agreement will also affect the underlying networks of partners and the surrounding ecosystem, I’m very curious how the Intellectual Property (IP) rights will be  ”used”.

“With more than 200 million smartphone customers globally, Nokia is the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer and a natural partner for us”

In addition the latest figures of Gartner Research show that Nokia has a marketshare of 45% in WorldWide Smartphone Sales to End Users in Q2 2009 leaving all the competition far behind. If you start to calculate a license fee per shipped device, this business deal could become a great cash cow for Microsoft (assuming Nokia will continue to be shipping the same percentage of smartphones world wide).

“If you are going to provide a seamless and integrated productivity experience on a mobile device, Microsoft is an ideal partner”

In the latest Microsoft related articles I have been addressing the Microsoft three-scree-strategy, in which computer, internet and mobile phone are connected and make it possible to access your information anytime from anywhere. The announcement today and the fundamental global alliance is perfectly in line with this strategy, with the difference that Symbian powered Nokia devices are one of the three screens. However the reasoning stays the same, and this will also help in the development of new user experiences.

Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Öistämö, furthermore addressed the main goal of the alliance of providing “more choice“. And while being competitors in certain niches, Microsoft and Nokia will be close partners when it comes to business productivity solutions. Nokia end users will be happy to make use of the rich Office Mobile applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) on the Symbian powered devices and become “more productive“.

“The scope of the alliance between Microsoft and Nokia, and potential value for the enterprise and individual is significant,” said Stephen Drake, VP of Mobility & Telecom at IDC. “By bringing Microsoft’s productivity solutions to Nokia’s large customer base, the two companies should be better able to serve the needs of the growing mobile worker population, which IDC estimates to reach 1 billion worldwide in 2011.”

Additional information van be found on the Microsoft PressPass website or the Press section on the Nokia website.  If you like to have short summary please have a lok at the video below:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAuepUyUMjk

Side-notes

1. Microsoft will be strongly commited to its Windows Mobile platform, while Nokia concerns Symbian to be the best mobile platform for its mobile devices. Speculations about Nokia devices running Windows Mobile are not true !
2. The embedded slides used in this article are extracted from the free public downloadable Microsoft Office Live Meeting recording of the Microsoft-Nokia teleconference available here.

SPB Software just announced today that it will have their popular softwares pre-installed on the Pharos Pack Traveler 137.  Bundeling these popular softwares will give the Pharos cunsomer a “Wow” factor and add a lot of new features and functionality to the phone.

The SPB Softwares that are going to be included in the bundle are:

• SPB Mobile Shell
• SPB Keyboard
• SPB TV

The user experience on mobile devices is becoming so more important and manufacturers are using this to make the difference.

HTC already are having their popular Touch Flo 3D user interface and the upcoming HTC Sense user interface as a shell on their devices.  Both for the Windows Mobile and the Andriod platform phones.

We just published that LG won the iF communication design award with their 3D S-Class user interface.

Samsungs TouchWiZ user interface is looking the same across the board with the the Omnia, Eternity and other devices, all on different platforms.

Looking at all of this, the (non geeky) consumer will in the end choose for a company with the best user interface and won’t even know what the under laying platform is and what it can do. The User Interface will hide the Symbian, Windows Phone and Android platforms. The Windows Phones in the future will be recognizable due to a Windows button on the phone. This is of course a great move by Microsoft to brand the phone so consumers will make an added “educated” guess. (either the buy the phone because the like their Windows brand or because the don’t).

Based on what createria would you choose your device ?

• Brand name?
• Platform?
• User Interface?
• Widgets?
• Features?
• Specifications?
• Added Partner Logo’s
• Carrier?

Many of you travel a lot and most of the time you should be able to connect through a Hotspot or Wifi network to read your email, surf the web or catch up with Twitter. Recently, when traveling to Sweden, I already found out that there was no Hotspot or Wifi service at the park we were staying. As I have a Dutch carrier, roaming costs were quite high if I used it in Sweden. The average price is around 10 Euros per Megabyte. With these prices you have to be very careful what you do, otherwise you are not happy when you receive your monthly bill…

So I had to find an alternative and after some research I found out that Telia has a very good mobile data service for a very fair price.
For my situation it should be ideal: I can use the simcard in my phone(s) or in my notebook and I can use it anywhere in Sweden !

It is called Telia Mobilt bredband Veckosurf and it allows you to surf the web for one week for 10 Euros. There is a datalimit of 2 GB per week, so it is perfect for checking mail, surfing the web and even download a small movie or upload your holiday pictures to the cloud.

If you happen to go to Sweden and need mobile data, you need to do this:

1. Buy a Telia Refill Prepaid card for 100 KR (10 euros)
2. Register it here: LINK (you need someone from Sweden with a Swedish social security number for this). Also enter the phone number of the prepaid card and the ICC number. Sometimes this website is down. Just call 90200 to have the card activated by a representative.
3. Buy the desired prepaid amount you would like to load to the card. 10 euro is enough for one week.
4. When you have the code press *125*prepaidcode# on your handset.
5. You receive a textmessage from 3182 which welcomes you to the Telia network and if you need more info on the prices you can dial 454.
6. Now send a text message to 4466 with the word ON in it.
7. After a short while you receive a text message from 4466 that the internet service Telia Online is now activated and can be used. I received another text message from 4466 right after the first one that my phone was not supported, but I had no problems at all connecting to the internet with my G1.
8. Configure your phone or laptop with the APN: online.telia.se without a username or password.
9. You can surf the web now !

Coverage of the Telia network is very good. On my way to the airport I did a mobile speedtest and the downloadspeed was 1.1 Mbit.
You can find a coveragemap here: LINK

Spb Softwarehouse combined a classical “old” game -in this case the jigsaw puzzle- with modern mobile technology, resulting in a brand new game called Spb Puzzle with an interesting gameplay. The article below will provide a brief overview of this new game, and will highlight on several features. The article will end with some first conclusion, and you might want to check out some considerations as well.

“A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces. Each piece has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture. In some cases more advanced types have appeared on the market, such as spherical Jigsaws and puzzles showing Optical Illusions.” [ref01]

How can you transform such a cardbord jigsaw puzzle onto a touch screen of  Symbian S60 or Windows Mobile Phone ? Well Spb softwarehouse had some important design key points:

“Building on the strengths of the classical jigsaw puzzle by using high-quality pictures;

Creating the simplest interface possible, minimizing the number of unnecessary and distracting details;

Keeping the game simple and attractive;” [ref02]

With these design keypoints in mind, lets have a look at the application itself. Below a step by step walk through will be provided, while some key features are highlighted.

Spb Puzzle overview

When downloading the installer of Spb Puzzle I was a little surprised by its large size of 13 MB, resulting in 7,2 MB (VGA)  in the ROM after installation on my HTC Touch Diamond 2. Opening the application from the start menu, directly shows me a clever designed logo, and a great flash screen with Leonardo Davinci’s Vitruvian Man as a background and Spb Puzzle as title on top of it.

If I want to start a new game there are three options (on first use) available at the carousel like homescreen we saw in Spb Mobile Shell 3:

1. Select an imagepack;
2. Select a custom image from your device;
3. Download a new imagepack;

Let me emphasize that the user interface is really intuitive, and Spb Softwarehouse has a solid track record in designing simple but very efficient user interfaces. with left right swipe gestures you can easily switch between the different options available.  However if you download and install a new imagepack, an additional panel is added to the interface. At some point in time with X panels available it would make sense to add a panel view like we are used from the Sony Xperia X1 and Spb Mobile Shell 3.

After this little sidestep, you can either choose an available imagepack (= a set of puzzles around a topic), or simply download a new imagepack.  Selec “Load new packs from internet” and your webbrowser is automatically opened and a list of imagepacks appears. Simply select one for dowloading (in the cab-installer-format), and open the file after download. Restart Spb Puzzle and you are good to go with the new imagepack.

“On release date around 3-5 additional puzzle packs will be available. Meanwhile a lot of new great packs are still in development and will become available bit a little later. ” [ref02]

Custom or personalized puzzles

Spb Softwarehouse has added a personalized approach in the development of Spb Puzzle. Users can create a puzzle from a photo taken with the cameria on the device. So just take a picture a your car, your girlfriend, your pet or what ever you like, and simply choose this image to create a puzzle from it. Set the difficulty level and you are ready to go ! In my perception this brings an additional funfactor into the application, while the process is very simple.

Gameplay and its highlights

Already described above there are three options to choose from when starting a new game. Two of these options are already described above, and this paragraph will focus on the gameplay using an imagepack. At the start with a new imagepack just the first image is available for puzzling, like in the screenshot above. However once you have solved the first puzzle, access to the next puzzle in the imagepack is granted. This approach can also be seen in Spb Brain Evolution, getting access to new games.

When you select the puzzle a preview is shown, and with pressing the right softkey “resume” the game is started. If you need to go back to the preview during the game, simply click the “back arrow” in the left corner below, and resume again after the preview. Some cool behavior in the gameplay:

“If two adjacent pieces face each other close enough and with the right sides – they will stick together and continue to behave like one. If piece is placed in its correct position, for example, in a corner – it will be fixed and will no longer move.” [ref02]

In addition when you put two pieces of the puzzle together, you get haptic feedback ( = short vibrate) on the moment you “click” the piece in the puzzle. Since this is hart to capture in a screenshot a short video is provided above.

If you have put the last piece right into the puzzle Spb Softwarehouse has included a nice “fading-feature”. The layer with puzzle-piece shapes is removed, and the original picture is shown.

“When a puzzle is solved successfully – an informative description of the assembled image will be provided, followed by the “congratulations” screen.” [ref02]

By providing some background information the Spb Puzzle game has also a learning / teaching aspect. Getting to know a little background on some pieces of art for instance. Spb Softwarehouse included a clever “auto-save function” if you close the game in a certain way, like described below.

“The game can be closed with the touch of the “End Call” button. This game will be automatically saved and will be opened at next launch at the same point.” [ref02]

Depending on the device and screensize, as well as the difficulty level of the puzzle, the size of the image exceeds the size of the screen. In other words it means that you just see a part of the image on the current screen, resulting in moving around the screen by using your finger or stylus. However you can also give the pieces a kind of swipe, which makes it easier to search among them.

“You can quickly move the necessary fragments through the whole field. This kind of jump can be performed in two ways:

1. Tap any field point, then quickly tap somewhere aside (at least a centimeter away) in the direction of the desired jump. If you do it right the screen will immediately move in that direction against the stop. If the first tap was done on a certain piece it will be quickly moved through the whole screen.
2. If the device has a joypad (hardware navigation buttons) you can carry out the same action: while holding a piece with your stylus, use the navigation buttons to move it to the appropriate edge of the field. ” [ref02]

First thoughts and some considerations

First I truly like the idea of transforming a classical “old” game into a digital game for use on mobile phones. I think almost everyone has solved a jigsaw puzzle, so it’s a very

“Puzzles are said to improve concentration, logic, attention, memory, and imagination.  Spb Puzzle lets you play the time-tested jigsaw classic on your phone – anytime and anyplace.” [ref02]

Second my compliments for the excellent designed gameplay. Because of the perception of a classical jigsaw puzzle is rather “simple” in concept, Spb Softwarehouse managed to develop an attractive and interactive game in a modern jacket.

Third the modular imagepack-concept is very welcome. The standard imagepack is about art, and if that doesn’t interest you it’s no fun in solving those puzzles. As stated in the overview above, several additional imagepacks will  be available for download, and hopefully the (Windows Mobile) developer community can add/or upload their own created imagepacks to Spb Softwarehouse.

Spb Softwarehouse developed a great gameplay in which touch (finger and stylus) are supported as well as the use of the hardware keys.

Als very cool that you can personalize the application and creat and solve your own puzzles. Simply take a picture of your girlfriend, car, pet or what ever you like and create a puzzle from it within Spb Puzzle. This brings an additional funfactor in this application.

Some considerations and remarks

“Typically, the size of images exceeds the size of the screen, so permanently a player can only see a part of the whole image.” [ref02]

This results in a lot of panning and moving the puzzle around. A screen on a mobile device isn’t as large as the kitchen table where you solved a 5000 pieces puzzle. Personally I find the relative small screen and resulting select and pan “actions” a little distractive. My view on this is that Spb Puzzle is shown advantage on large screen devices like the HTC Advantage, the HTC Touch or the Samsung Omnia.

Elaborating a little more in this direction, and adapting a part of the Microsoft three screen strategy, I would invite Spb Softwarehouse to develop a desktop version of the Spb Puzzle application. With touchscreens becoming more and more available for notebooks and desktops this might be a step to consider. Personally I use a Lenovo X60 tablet, and for instance the HP TX2  (= tablet) or the HP Touchsmart ( = all in one desktop) support finger-touch. The latter both I’ve played with @ CNTRSTG and we had great fun playing a simple game on the HP Touchsmart.

Remark that I wasn’t able to test Spb Puzzle on a Symbian S60 device with touchscreen. Simply because I don’t have such a device, but that raises an important  question:

“Why has Spb Softwarehouse  chosen for Symbian S60 as a second platform for Spb Puzzle, since there aren’t that many Symbian S60 devices on the market WITH a touch screen ?”

I’m only aware of one Nokia device that has a touchscreen: Nokia Xpressmusic 5800 and the Samsung Omnia HD also provides a large screen combined with the Symbian S60 platform. I don’t get the reasoning behind this, while there are large volumes in the iPhone market and Spb Softwarehouse already has experience with the launch of Spb Wallet for iPhone. Idea’s ?

Complementary Spb Puzzle review on Symbian S60

The review above just focusses on Spb Puzzle running on a Windows Mobile Professional device. Unfortunately I didn’t have a Symbian S60 device available. Matthew Miller from Nokia Experts has also written an excellent review about Spb Puzzle, but tested on the Nokia 5800.  His conclusions:

“Spb Puzzle is a fairly simple game, but like I said earlier I actually had quite a bit of fun putting puzzle back together on my 5800 XM. Spb stated they wanted to “Create the simplest interface possible, minimizing the number of unnecessary and distracting details.” I have to fully agree that they achieved this as I was able to jump right in and have fun assembling puzzles without any other menus, options, noises, etc. distracting me from the task at hand. While Spb Puzzle is quite enjoyable it is also a benefit that puzzles are said to improve concentration, logic, attention, memory, and imagination and we can all use some improvement in these areas..” [ref04]

The review is highly recommended and complementary to the review above, so head over to Nokia Experts !

Overall wrap-up

Spb Softwarehouse transformed a well known classical jigsaw puzzle into a modern game for mobile phones (running multiple platforms).  While this is version 1.0 of Spb Puzzle, the Russian developers did a great job with the haptic feedback, the realistic gameplay, and a very intuitive user interface. The custom puzzles give a high level of personalization, and the modular design with additional imagepacks and multi-platform approach make it a great application.

Available at the at the website of Spb Softwarehouse for a fair price of $9,95

Reference List:

1. WIKIPEDIA:  Jigsaw Puzzle
2. SPB SOFTWAREHOUSE:  Additional background information  about Spb Puzzle
3. SPB SOFTWAREHOUSE:  Spb Puzzle Product page
4. NOKIA EXPERTS:  Review: Solve jigsaw puzzles on your Nokia 5800 with Spb Puzzle