Currently viewing the category: "mobile"

The SIM-less Phone Is Coming. And It Should Scare The Shit Out Of You

By On 12/05/2012 · 23 Comments · In mobile

The argument over the nano-SIM is a distraction. It’s a sleight of hand designed to catch the industry off guard and fool it into doing something really stupid.

The SIM is designed to do a number of things; encryption, address storage, hold SMS, etc.

Most importantly, it’s designed to be swappable. With GSM, you [...]

Continue Reading →

Senseg Feelable Touchscreen Video

By On 10/05/2012 · Leave a Comment · In mobile

I had a chance to play with Senseg‘s feelable technology today – here’s a quick video showing it off.

The guys are (naturally) cagey about their product launch, but here’s what I was able to glean.

It will be multi-touch compatible. The tablet appeared to be Android – that’s just the demo unit [...]

Continue Reading →

Windows Phone 7 vs Android

By On 01/05/2012 · Leave a Comment · In mobile

Last week, I posted this tounge-in-cheek suggestion.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a proper show-down between the two major players? You could really compare which OS was best given the same hardware. Is iOS’s camera software better than Android’s when given the same lens and CCD? Which runs faster when CPU, GPU, and [...]

Continue Reading →

Choosing an “Example Number” For Your App

By On 30/04/2012 · 2 Comments · In mobile

You cannot fail to have noticed that in most American films and TV shows, all the phone numbers start 555. This is a reserved number in the North American Numbering Plan. It means that it’s a number which will never connect to a real person or service.

So you can avoid the situation where [...]

Continue Reading →

The OAuth / App Anti-Pattern

By On 21/04/2012 · 13 Comments · In mobile, usability

OAuth was designed to combat an anti-pattern.

Typing your username and password into a third party site is bad idea. A really bad idea. I mean, you may think it’s a bad idea to give your bank details to a Nigerian prince but that’s just peanuts compared to giving away your password to an [...]

Continue Reading →

Do In App Payments Piss Off Users?

By On 19/04/2012 · 1 Comment · In mobile

Continue Reading →

BlackBerry PlayBook and Ubuntu Linux – HOWTO with Screenshots

By On 18/04/2012 · 2 Comments · In linux, mobile

Here’s a simple way to copy files to and from your BlackBerry PlayBook when you’re using Ubuntu. This should work with any form of Linux.

This is a step-by-step tutorial with screenshots.

On The PlayBook

Plug your PlayBook into your Linux computer using a USB cable. You may see this screen (or similar) you can [...]

Continue Reading →

Context Specific Content Surfacing

By On 16/04/2012 · 1 Comment · In mobile, usability

In a mixed paradigm environment, how do you ensure content is surfaced which is context specific?

By which I mean – how do you make your content serve the user’s time-bound constraints?

What I’m trying to say is – serendipitous discovery must be restricted based on temporal imperatives.

Or, to break it down further, a [...]

Continue Reading →

Should <img> Deprecate “height” and “width”?

By On 14/04/2012 · 1 Comment · In mobile

Image adaptation and resizing is a hot topic at the moment. With devices of varying screensize accessing your site, how do you ensure that the crappy 240*240 phone gets a reasonable experience while still making everything look gorgeous on the retina-busting iPad?

One of the very first things we’re taught in HTML school is that [...]

Continue Reading →

Do Adverts Really Use 75% Of Your Phone’s Battery?

By On 20/03/2012 · Leave a Comment · In mobile

No.

(N.B. I work for a mobile advertiser – but this is my personal blog. This post isn’t written on their behalf. Naturally I’m biased.)
(N.B. I’m in India and jetlagged to hell – this may not make any sense!)

Wild headlines abound – but very few people seem to have read the [...]

Continue Reading →

Switch to our mobile site