Comment on: “The Demise of Mobile???” at Blue Flavor

I was trying to leave a comment on this site and was having a hard time. So I decided to post it here.

"Good set of comments.

Buiding ovi.com for Nokia, I get this ‘one web’ stuff all the time.

In the end, it’s about the experience. There’s a reason why magazines, newspapers, and books come in all the forms they do. It’s all text and pictures, but each serves a purpose based on usage, audience, medium.

Likewise with mobile device – we will ALWAYS will want to optimize the experience if we can, there is a distinction between the desktop use of internet apps and the mobile use of the same.

I think you’re spot on here!"

Now go read this great article

Link: "The Demise of Mobile???" | Blue Flavor:

To paraphrase: As mobile devices get better at rendering the regular Web as we know it, like the iPhone, doesn’t the need to create mobile specific content disappear?

Honestly this is a question I’ve largely ignored addressing on the Blue Flavor site for several months, not out of apathy, just because I don’t usually have the time to respond to the deluge of comments that typically comes from pondering such a heated and controversial topic.

But when Jamie, a Mobile Monday London member, posted the topic “The Demise of Mobile???” this week I was compelled to chime in with my two cents. I spent so much time thinking about my response, I wanted to share it here… ominously bringing the debate to our own shores.

Google’s latest play

Gosh. I just need to read up on this. But what I’ve read so far makes me feel good in many ways. In other ways, it makes me feel bad. 🙂

There’s a lot on my mind around this, but I am sure others are spewing out their own take on it that might end up similar to mine.

Off the top of my head: Plaxo, opening the social graph, some washed up networks, Google, Google, Google, and that pesky rumor of an immanent device (mind you, most likely guided by Rubin from Danger from Android now from Google).

Eh, I still don’t think this might amount to an effective play against Facebook.

Link: » Google’s OpenSocial: What it means | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com:

Indeed, it is called OpenSocial in that the set of APIs allows developers to create applications that work on any social network that joins Google’s open party. So far, besides Google’s Orkut social net, LinkedIn, hi5, XING, Friendster, Plaxo and Ning (see Marc Andreessen’s post) have joined the party.

links for 2007-11-01

links for 2007-10-28

Google Calendar for iPhone

Stumbled upon this yesterday. So pretty.

Iphone Sml

Sigh.

And, yes, there is One Web, but if you can tailor the experience, then do it.

Link: Google Calendar:

Just launched!

Stay on task with Google Calendar on your iPhone

With an easy-to-read interface, Google Calendar now works (and looks) better on your iPhone. Enhanced ‘touch-screen’ buttons and color-coded events make keeping track of your schedule – and viewing others’ calendars – even easier while you’re on the go. Learn more.

Kids and phones and IM and SMS

A colleague was mentioning how his (American) daughters were getting all caught up with Webkinz:

“Webkinz pets are lovable plush pets that each come with a unique Secret Code. With it, you enter Webkinz World where you care for your virtual pet, answer trivia, earn KinzCash, and play the best kids games on the net!”

There’s some IM involved and he said his daughters were nuts over it.

Yes, girls are natural connectors and communicators and love IM.

But, my daughter has no interest in the Web or IM. Y’see, she’s had a mobile since she was 7 and from day-one grokked SMS.

My thought is: How does giving kids mobile phones with SMS change the way they view things like IM? _Especially_ for kids who have never done IM (that’s the spin – SMS kids of today grew up on IM)?

links for 2007-10-24

Tired words: Technology

Haven’t had many tired words lately (though I have had my overload of tired other-things). This one comes from an event I was at where it was way overused.

Technology – I am finding myself less and less a technologist and more and more a story person. I’m not an idiot (you can argue, if you want), I do know my tech. But, I spend more of my time searching for the story behind the solution – how is something used or hacked (as in, unexpected use and why) and how it relates to the person using it. It’s my service mind. Technology is not a thing, but a tool that needs to disappear into the background. At this latest event, I kept telling folks to quit obsessing about the tech and focus on what they want to deliver to the user. The word was repeated so often, like some sort of object, that by the second day it really bugged me. All that repetition suggested to me that ‘technology’ was a place-holder for something that was missing that they couldn’t put a finger on. And it seemed that the tech dominated over the simplest solution (hmm, sounds familiar).

You can review all my previous ‘Tired Words’ here on this page.

Puzzled Monkey

I was waiting for my mates, having a Dinglefoot at the Monkey Puzzle, while a Greek improv band with a bazuki was dancing on the tables.

I, spent from the regular collisions of inanity and insanity by the people I, by necessity, as part of a megacorp and all that implies, must conform to, sat there motionless.

The buzzooki’s mad melody rattled my brain like rocking a baby, mercifully snipping my stupefaction into thousands of cleverly cut shapes of rice paper, dumping them into a toilet and politely flushing them away.

Or might it have been the distraction of a gaggle of giggling girls gamboling in and goggling the Greeks, one of whom, casually held an unlit cigarette in one hand and his ouzo in the other, his head lolling, his feet regularly approaching the edges of the table, only to be pushed back by the bizerkee player, who hardly missed a note?

The pub proprietor approached the Greeks with a frown to curdle fresh milk, his bar rag in one hand and a bill in the other. It seems, the barkeep said, pointing up, back, and around, his Irish accent singing and cupping every ‘r’ gently in a velvety shamrock, that the neighbours were not appreciative of badsucky drilling and middle-age men pulling a Zorba on a peaceful London evening.

The stringéd instrument stopped suddenly enough for everyone to stop talking all at once and look from the Greeks to the keep to the Greeks and back to the keep.

The ciga-Greek finished his ouzo with one gulp and jumped from the table with a flourish and an Opa!, to which the whole bar clapped their hands once and also yelled Opa!. And then with a gentle bow under the scan of the Irish, the Greek said he would acquiesce and would pay the bill and take his bus away with he and his busooqui buddies to another venue, thank you very much, kbai now, and scampered away.

Turning to watch the Irishly scammed Greek table dancing improv bazuki band walk out of the Monkey Puzzle, my mates arrived, finding me sitting with my Dinglefoot, waiting for them.

13oct07

Dedicated and inspired by Don, Wes, Matt, and Ryan.