Content is king - December 29th

By Magnus Ingelsten

Just having experienced X-mas celebrations the Scandinavian way with Santa Claus coming on 24th, (this year it was me again dressing up, please do not tell my daughters younger cousins..) with the kids unwrapping their presents, eyes filled with surprise, astonishment, true happiness or slight disappointment for what content the gifts had under wraps. For us this year, we did not follow the trend to privately purchase tablets and slates, as we at Teleca bought both a Samsung Galaxy tab and an Ipad for our demo applications to show at upcoming Mobile world congress next year. So, I had now the opportunity to try them before my own private buying.

So a basic comparison, here it comes. The Galaxy was better prepared with applications and not much needed to be downloaded. Both devices however need you to register with either App-store/Itunes or Google to enable apps an app market to support. Because these devices are nothing without content. And content there are , more than anybody needs. And, that is why Android and Apple are so superior compared to anything else. Their app-stores are filled with all you can want, although an advantage to Itunes for it´s music etc.

Sizewise the Galaxy tab is half the size of the Ipad (yes actually and physically), and thus Ipad is a bit heavy.

For the purpose of using at home, the Ipad is a better choice since it´s larger screen, the Galaxy tab is my friend on the road, actually the only thing I need, works both as my phone, computer and as the great tablet/e-reader it is. And here at office, the Ipad´s browser was faster to download content over wifi. Screen/image resolution also a bit better. Still, however the Flash support lacking on Ipad is irritating.

Opinions on that?

Tablet war -December 13th

By Magnus Ingelsten

The Christmas present of 2010 could be a slate/tablet pc. See the new Teleca Talk Newsletter and the Mobile Trends article . ( http://www.teleca.com/Home/news_room/newsletters.aspx ) The worldwide sales of media tablets are expected close to 20 million units for 2010 and increasing to 55 million in 2011, continuing to >100 million 2012. (Gartner)

Does this mean that this gadget will replace or complement something else? Would we still carry also our phone and notebook and would we also have a 3rd gizmo? ..I think it will certainly complement. I know of a family just having bought their 3rd Ipad, and they still have phones and PC´s...

Gartner predicts that Ipad will have 80% market share this year. But according to Arete Analyst firm (article in our new Teleca Talk newsletter) Android is on a bender, and shows very high growth with many tablets coming out from Samsung , Motorola etc. So, would Googles invasion into the TV space with its Google-TV, make Android the perfect companion in the living room sofa with the tablet acting remote control, media centre and perfect on the go bringing TV shows and what else? Well, the choice is not easy, would it be Googles technology such as 3D maps etc and web domination or Apple´s compelling user experience and coolest design that will get the consumers blessing? Additionally Apples brand image, is 5x stronger than any other tablet brand.
See http://www.technobolt.com/2010/11/20/tablet-wars-which-tablet-you-want-infographic/ for more. (picture above from Technobolt)

The combat is interestingly supported by the fact Apple’s iPhone and iPad were top searches on (newfound) arch-rival Google during 2010. Google released its annual “Zeitgest” report for 2010 Thursday, a report that presents the top searches from around the world for the year.
Remember, Apple have the longest experience in tablets. You have not forgot about Apple´s Newton ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKHelCE9QAg&feature=related first presented in 1992 and on shelves in fall of 1993. Find data here: http://oldcomputers.net/apple-newton.html , 20MHz processor and 640 kB internal RAM. Hmmm, I think I go for the Ipad.

And our Teleca role in all this is that we bring outsourced innovation and highly skilled competencies and experiences to the table. On both iOS and Android, we support you to create differentiation, systems integration and compelling end-to-end applications enabling both OEMs and enterprises to benefit from this exploding market opportunity.

MeeGo Conference 2010, Dublin part 3 -December 2nd

By Toni Nikkanen

Last day; Wednesday, November 17th

On Wednesday morning some people were already leaving, missing some good sessions. I concentrated on three.
The first was libquill, or the MeeGo image editing library. Libquill is part of MeeGo, and holds a lot of promise: It is able to edit large image files in limited memory and enables fast response times for user applications by way of multi-threading, performing the editing operations in the background while the user is already seeing the edit operation as if it was completed.
The libquill editing operations are provided as plug-ins, enabling developers to add their own if needed. Also there was discussion on supporting the use of libquill as a step in gstreamer, thus enabling any libquill edit operation to be performed on the gstreamer pipeline – in video playback or capture from a camera, for example.

The second was tracker. Now I feel many don’t realize the importance of tracker in MeeGo: It is the core of the content management framework, and therefore almost any developer should be at least aware of it. While tracker only indexes content such as images, video and e-mail, it acts as the primary storage for content like contacts and feeds.
The power of tracker becomes apparent when you consider that it can link everything it has indexed together, enabling whole new ideas for both user interfaces and for the social web. Also demonstrated was the ability to make tracker-using apps both from Qt and QML apps using the QtSparql module. While you do need to learn a new query language and understand the concepts behind NEPOMUK ontologies, it is very powerful in what can be done with it.

Perhaps one of the most engaging sessions was the lightning talk session at the end of the conference program. I heard many hearted 5-minute presentations ranging from using MeeGo for education, to how to make a successful mobile version of your web site, to how to successfully build and publish your own app. And about the Marble Desktop Globe application, which is a powerful, versatile open source map and navigation application for both desktop, and now also mobile devices. Also available as a Qt widget you can use in your own applications, with a fully documented API available.

Wednesday evening we were treated with premium tickets to the Ireland-Norway soccer game at the same Aviva Stadium we had spent the last 3 days in. We were well catered for, including given green Ireland-MeeGo soccer scarves. I wonder what the Norwegian participants thought about that? I even spotted a MeeGo ad in the soccer game.

It was clear from the amount of people and companies present, that a lot of product development based on MeeGo is happening now.

Thanks for some great days and experiences in Dublin.

I expect many exciting product launches at or before the next MeeGo Conference in San Francisco, May 2011!

MeeGo Conference 2010, Dublin part 2 -November 29th

By Toni Nikkanen

Tuesday, November 16th

For many, Tuesday started with queuing for the free netbooks and I was no exception. Waiting in line was a good way to get some conversation with fellow aMeegos. Also, something funny happened. It was announced that Intel and Nokia employees would not get free netbooks, however the people in line front of me were from AMD, and they could get free Intel-powered netbooks.
Installing MeeGo on the netbook was a breeze and only took 10-15 minutes. Some functionality was missing, but already now some of them have been fixed by eager members of the community.
After I finished securing myself a netbook, it was time to grab a quick lunch and head on to the two security-related sessions, first one was with Ryan Ware (Intel).

Ryan’s presentation was mostly on motivation: Why are security features needed in MeeGo? The staggering concepts of Botnets for Hire ($8-90 per 1000 machines, which includes support by telephone!) and Malware-As-a-Service were presented among other good points. One: If you use your mobile as a wallet, what happens when someone steals it or breaks into it remotely? Or what if an attacker gains control of your battery charging function and makes it explode, all remotely? Or makes it call expensive service phone numbers? And the more powerful mobile devices become, the more it will be likely that they will contain your sensitive data like e-mail, documents or photos.

Security was clearly something lots of people in the audience shared interest in. Several questions were made related to DRM, for example.

Next was Nokia’s Elena Reshetova and Casey Schaufler, on MSSF (Mobile Simplified Security Framework). I saw the Maemo 6 Platform Security presentation by Elena Reshetova a year earlier at the Maemo Summit in Amsterdam, and was eager to see where they have gone from there. I soon found out that some things have changed, for example the introduction of SMACK, described by Casey Schaufler as “the simplest access control system that still works”. If we compare it to for example the complexity of SELinux, this sounds like a promising new development.
From “Writing Applications for multiple Meego devices” by Eduardo Fleury and Caio Oliveira, I picked up a good take-home message: Implement your UI with QML. If you are going to make your app available on different device categories, such as smart phone and tablet, don’t try to make a one size fits all solution. Instead implement common application logic, and then implement separate UI’s optimized for each device category using QML. You can of course re-use some QML UI components by being smart about what can be shared and what cannot.

The day ended as generously as it started. Hundreds of conference participants were smoothly transported to the Guinness Storehouse using a fleet of buses. There, we got to learn about the history of Ireland’s most famous beer, how it is made, and how it tastes. We also learned more about our fellow aMeegos as the evening went by.