Nokia phones "running" Android

Is this just a hapless Photoshop mistake – or a sign of things to come?!?!?!?!

It’s a daft graphic designer – obviously. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take the possibility of Nokia devices running Android seriously. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Nokia will never ship and Android powered phone – they’ve invested too much in Symbian and MeeGo for that. But Nokia devices will run Android.

A few years ago, I coaxed my Nokia N810 into running a prototype version of Android – NitDroid. The project has been resurrected by Stephen Hyde at NITDroid.com.

This latest video shows the Nokia N900 running Android’s FroYo.

Why Is This Useful?

Nokia coined the term “Mobile Computer” for its range of phones. Computers aren’t hermetically sealed consumer devices. They allow the customer to modify both hardware and software. You would be understandably upset if the computer you bought last year wouldn’t let you install the latest version of Windows, MacOS, or Linux. But that’s the situation mobile phone customers are faced with today.

The Android G1 has been abandoned by HTC and T-Mobile – much to the chagrin of customers.
The HTC Hero has only been grudgingly updated to Android 2.1.
Nokia left the N800 and N810 to rot. Nokia regularly stops development of its “mobile computer” software even when the devices are in active use.

Mobile phone manufacturers exist to sell phones. They don’t get any extra revenue for releasing new firmware. Indeed, the cost of developing, testing, and shipping new firmware is prohibitively expensive. Not to mention dealing with customer complaints when things inevitably go wrong.

We are finally in a position to change that mindset. Hackers (in the original sense of the word) are now able to create custom firmware for new phones. Take a look at the XDA Developer Forums. Almost every Android phone released can have an improved firmware running on it.

True, a significantly older phone may not have hardware capable of running bleeding edge code – but it’s enough to give it a new lease of life.

I’d love it if Nokia updated the N95 8GB firmware. The hardware is still incredibly capable.

In these tough economic times, it makes perfect sense to focus efforts on software, rather than hardware.

Look at the PS3 or the Xbox 360. A single model with firmware updates to increase its functionality.

Rather than tooling up a factory for a 6 month run of hardware – phone manufacturers should be looking to keep churning out a limited number of models of high spec phones for years. As manufacturing efficiencies improve, the hardware becomes cheaper and – like the PS3 and Xbox – cheaper models can be produced.

The PS3 came out in November 2006. Nearly 4 years ago. Can you think of a phone released four years ago which is still in production – let alone receiving firmware updates? The original iPhone was released in 2007 – it got a firmware update earlier this year but won’t be receiving iOS4. Also, you can’t buy a new iPhone 2G. Apple aren’t in the business of selling inexpensive hardware.

The Future

I predict – or rather, I hope – we will see the following pattern emerge. Either from Google or Nokia.

• An insanely expensive and over-spec’d phone will be released.  I expect in the £500 – £1,000 range.
• A public roadmap for its OS will be released – new features promised every 3-6 months.
• A guarantee that official firmware development will continue for at least 3 years.
• The OS will be sufficiently open to allow “homebrew” firmware to run.  Hackers will jump at it.
• The hardware will sell – poorly at first.
• As production efficiencies are found, the price will come down.  The hardware capabilities will stay compatible with older models.
• The firmware will progress based upon consumer need, manufacturer desire and what hackers manage to achieve.
• At around the 18 month mark, major new features in the firmware will be announced.  This keeps the MNO happy as they don’t have to subsidise the cost of new hardware for customers coming to the end of their contracts.
• At the 2 year mark, the next hardware revision will be launched.  More memory and megapixels – cheaper price.
• If the hardware is still selling, expect others to follow.

The fly in the ointment for this is continuous manufacturer profitability.  Apple, I understand, gets a cut of call and text revenue.  Google gets a cut of apps sold.  Microsoft and Sony sell licences for releasing games on their platform.

Would this “super phone” have to sell firmware updates?  Would MNOs subsidise firmware rather than hardware?  Would customers part-exchange  an unfashionably old phone for the latest model?

Or will we be stuck with phones that are thrown on the scrap-heap by their creator in order to force us into buying the latest model?

One thing’s for certain.  Where there are hackers – there will always be updates.

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Here’s some basic code for an Android app which will post the URL of your app to Twitter. Stick it in a button or menu item for easy sharing.

Some important things to note.

1. This is set to post to the mobile version of Twitter.  Your user is on a phone – don’t direct them to a site that won’t work on their device.
2. The second string is URI encoded.
3. Consider if you want to post a “market://” link.  I would advise against it.  Twitter won’t render it as a link and, even if it did, 90% of users won’t be able to click on it.  Make it a link that will direct desktop users to your website, mobile users to a mobile friendly site and Android users direct to the market.

Facebook also has an API for this sort of sharing.

http://m.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=example.com&t=test

Again, it points to the mobile site and needs to be URL encoded.

Happy sharing!

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So it was with great mirth that I went along to a BizSpark event a few weeks ago. Microsoft were going to be showing off their latest “innovation” – Windows Phone 7.

I went along expecting to hate it and, instead, found myself curiously drawn to it.

Take a look at the emulator for an interactive demo.

I played with the demo hardware and software and had my expectations blown away.  I’ll be honest – I expected crap.  I had horrible memories of the stylus oriented Windows Mobile 6.  The phone which would display an hourglass if you had the temerity to receive a phone call while playing solitaire.

Windows Phone 7 (WP7) was a million miles away from the old Microsoft experience.

Pros

The user interface is refreshingly simple and fun to use.  It’s like nothing else I’ve tried before and I really think that Microsoft has outclassed both Android and Apple.

Pushing so much information to the homescreen really makes you want to use your phone constantly. iPhone only does this half-heartedly and Android does it without much animation or UI consistency.

App Store.  One excellent feature of the MS app store is the “Try Before You Buy” model.  Rather than a developer putting out a free, limited version and a “pro” version they can publish a single app.  They can restrict the features and functionality of the “demo” version until the customer makes the purchase. Or, after a set period of time, the demo version can become non-functioning. Or have reduced function.  Brilliant.

Gaming on this device will be huge. It looks like it will be simple to port games from the Xbox to WP7 – that gives it a great competative advantage. Tie in Xbox Live (or whatever it’s called) and you’ll get gamers buying the same game twice – once on the console and once on the phone.  The 3D power of the phones was stunning.

Cons

There are some serious shortcomings in the Windows Phone 7 vision of the future which Microsoft urgently need to address.

• Expand the development options.  If you want to write for Windows Phone 7, you’ll need Windows installed on your computer.  Given that Android allows you to develop on Windows, Mac and Linux, it doesn’t make sense to make developers buy a new operating system.  Especially as iPhone development is tied to Apple.
• Open it up.  I love the idea of integrating my phone with my Xbox live account – but I don’t have an Xbox! Open it up so that my Wii or PS3 gaming experience can be pushed to the homescreen.
• The same goes for mail and IM – don’t restrict it just to Exchange and MSN.  Openness is hard for Microsoft, but it will attract more customers to the platform.
• Have a firm, public roadmap for enhancements which all manufacturers stick to.  Android is currently being stifled by manufacturers like HTC who refuse to update the software on their customers’ devices.
• Revenue share for developers needs to be better. At the moment it’s the same 70/30 split being offered by Android and Apple.  It needs to be lower for two key reasons.

1. Attract developers to the fledgling ecosystem.
2. To avoid any accusations of a cartel.  To have all three major platforms “independently” converge on the same revenue share deal looks suspicious.

Now What?

I’ve played with the prototype hardware and I’m impressed.  The software is really good. Much better that Microsoft’s usual standard.

It has to be.

Microsoft are betting their mobile future on this platform.  Win6.5 failed. Kin failed. They can’t afford another high profile failure like this.  Mirosoft are putting their best people on this project and, as far as I can tell, are revisiting their Xbox strategy; SPEND SPEND SPEND.

By the time the phones launch (holiday season 2010) you won’t be able to move without seeing an advert.  They will crank up their media machine to 11.  Just like the original Xbox, they will buy their way in to the market with a view that – like the Xbox 360 – the real prize is several years away.

I hope they succeed.  Not because I have any love for Microsoft, but because Nokia, Apple, and Google will all have to raise the quality of their software and hardware to compete against Microsoft’s marketing expenditure.

I’m a Linux geek – and I think Windows Phone 7 is the best thing to come out of Redmond in a very long time.

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I’ve used this as the basis of a demo widget – “MI5 Terror Threat Level”. The widget displays the UK’s Threat Level on your homescreen. Clicking on it takes you to the MI5 page discussing the threat level.

The threat level is determined by parsing the RSS that the security services so helpfully provide. At the moment, the widget keeps a local copy of the graphics because the RSS feed contains references to “localhost” images.

You can download the widget by scanning in this QR code.

MI5 Widget - QR Code

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My second app presents a series of buttons which call the USSD commands – so you don’t have to remember if it’s the HLR or VLR which is queried by *#103#.

Useful, I know….

You can download the app by scanning in this QR code.

Android App - Vodafone UK USSD Commands

The majority of these codes only work on phones with a Vodafone UK SIM who are on the Vodafone UK network. I’ve no idea what the codes do on other networks.

A detailed explanation of the commands is available on Betavine.

Sadly, Android provides no native way to capture or interprate USSD responses. Please star the feature request if you’re interested in seeing this in future versions of Android.

One last thing – this app was neither designed nor approved by Vodafone UK. It has nothing to do with them!

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The first app I’ve created is “Advanced Test Card”. You can download it by scanning in this QR code.

Scan to download Advanced Test Card for Android

At the moment, it just has 5 modes. Red, Green, Blue, White and SMPTE colour bars. All are useful for checking out any problems you may have with your screen.

I’ll be developing more test cards in the future – leave a comment if there’s one you would like to see.

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Mistake #1

Take a look at this rather charming advert on the Guardian’s mobile site. The more astute among you will recognise the problem.

I’m being advertised an iPhone game when I’m browsing the site using an Android phone. This is the fault of the Guardian – or, more likely, whoever runs their advertising department.

Well, let’s click on it.

Mistake #2

The image expansion doesn’t work. This is probably because it uses iPhone specific code.

Mistake #3

Let’s take a look at the raw image.

The image is a 135KB PNG. That’s massive. At a time when unlimited downloads are under threat, it is incumbent on the mobile web designer to minimise needless data usage.

If we convert the image to a JPG, the size goes down to 26KB. Can you spot the difference in quality?

Mistake #4

What happens if we visit the destination?

Ah. Apple send us to the desktop version of iTunes. This is better than what used to happen, where they tried to install iTunes!

Preventing The Problem

Every browser sends a User-Agent String. The advertising server should be configured to only send iPhone-specific adverts to iPhones.

It really is that simple. You can use services like WURFL and DeviceAtlas to automate this process if you like.

What Should Have Happened

• The advert shouldn’t have been shown in the first place. The Guardian needs to ensure that the advertising space it is selling is being correctly targeted.
• The click should have gone directly to Barclays – if they saw the phone viewing the content wasn’t an iPhone they should display alternate content.
• Apple needs to have a mobile friendly page. It really is that simple. A great mobile friendly page with a link that says “Want to play this games? Find your nearest Apple Store here“.

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Getting my contacts from BlackBerry to Google was simple. I exported a VCF of all my contacts from Outlook and imported them to Google. Simplicity. Everything worked. Syncing back to Android was easy – input Google account and password and hey-presto. But that’s where it all broke down.

The address seems to be stored correctly. Right?

Wrong!

When we go in to edit, rather than “Address”, “City”, “Postcode” fields – Google just gives us a plain text field.

What Happens In Android?

At first glance, everything looks correctly formatted. But let’s go in and see how the data is represented within the address book.

As you can see – everything is represented on just one line.

We can edit it correctly on the phone to look like this.

Well, that’s a bit off effort (especially with over 500 contacts).

How does it look back at Google Contacts on the web?

Recap

It’s the year 2010. We can’t even synchronise addresses correctly without mangling them along the way. I sometimes think it would be easier to outsource my address book to Indian and have minimum wage labour ensure all entries are correct and up-to-date.

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Hello!

Your new Nexus One phone has many cool and useful features. Learn more by clicking on the links to watch brief YouTube videos directly on your phone:

• Take pictures with your 5mpx camera and view them in your 3D Media Gallery. Learn more
• Get transcribed voicemails and cheap international calling with Google Voice. Learn more
• Sync your contacts, Facebook and email accounts with QuickContact. Learn more
• Get cool applications and games on Android Market. Learn more

You can find all these videos and more on the Nexus One playlist at youtube.com/googlenexusone.

Enjoy!
The Android Team at Google

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

---

We sent you this one-time welcome message because you recently purchased an Android-powered phone

What’s Going On?

Take a look at the bottom of the mail again…

We sent you this one-time welcome message because you recently purchased an Android-powered phone

I haven’t recently purchased a new phone. I’ve had Android phones since early last year. What is different is that I recently hacked my HTC Hero and installed SenseHero 2.1. A modification which allows the ageing HTC Hero to run the very latest Android software.

What has obviously happened is that Google has seen me sign in to a “new” Android 2.1 phone and assumed that I’ve recently got a Nexus.

When You Assume…

There is a dangerous assumption – reflected in the email – that “phone with OS Z = phone with name Y”. At a stroke, Google have confused their users and diluted their brand name(s).

Welcoming new or returning users is definitely a good move. But unless your communications are correctly targeted and accurate, you risk alienating rather than engaging.

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Dead BlackBerry

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Due to a crazy taxi driver (are there any other kind) and a violent swerve, my BlackBerry Bold 9000 is no more. Bereft of life, it rusts in pieces, and other such Pythonesque metaphors.

Arse. I truly feel like I’m missing an extension to my body. There’s a symbiotic relationship which develops between a geek and his phone. It entertains me, informs me, keeps me on time and allows me to rapidly communicate with a variety of methods. In return, I feed it electricity, load it up with useful programs, decorate its skin and snuggle up to it.

I miss it so much.

Every Cloud…

Now’s a prime time to choose a new smartphone. So many new models on the market. Which to go for?

What I look for in a mobile

I’ve had many many phones. Some wonderful (Treo 180) some dire (Apple iPhone). I know exactly what I want and what I need.  For a device that I use several times an hour every single day, I don’t want to compromise on any aspect.  Perfection is what I demand.  So, what was it that made the BlackBerry Bold the perfect phone for me?

• Physical keyboard.  I do a lot of typing on the device.  I’ve used soft keyboards (Android, iPhone, Storm) and they just don’t do it for me.  Even with the haptic feedback, it’s just not the same for speedy typing.  I liked handwriting recognition on the Treo 180 and the Nokia N97 – but in terms of speed & accuracy a physical keyboard is a must.  More than that, it needs to be a good keyboard.  The keyboard on the N97 is dreadful – it feels like a cheap calculator.  The N810 has an awful layout and virtually no travel on the button push. I need raised keys and to feel a click so I can touch-type.
• Exchange integration.  I use my device for work.  Things which I regularly use my ‘berry for are were: email and calendar sync’d over the air.  Address lookup – if I meet Jo Blogs at work, I can type her name in to the address book and look up her email, phone number, address etc (if she’s in the corporate address book).
• The BlackBerry Enterprise messenger is also really useful.  I don’t use IM for personal use much any more – but work runs on it.  Sadly it’s basaed on Microsoft Office Communicator rather than anything open or useful.
• Quick start-up.  When you shut down a BlackBerry, it effectively goes into “suspend” mode.  I switch it on first thing in the morning and it’s on and receiving email instantly.
• Auto on-off.  At 2300 every weekday, my phone shuts down. So if I’ve forgotten to switch it off, I don’t get disturbed during the night.  At 0700 it wakes up and gets to work.
• Multiple email accounts.  I want to reply from 1 enterprise and 2 personal accounts.
• USB interface for charging.  Batter life isn’t massivly important and I’m never away from a power socket for a few hours.
• Compatible with Linux for charging, reading files, tethering.
• Speed dial, form factor, excellent hierarchical bookmarks structure.
• GPS & Mapping.
• Good browser.  I like the modern RIM browser – I know they’re moving to Webkit, but I don’t find the current one so bad.

Well, so far it looks like I’m going for a BlackBerry. Right.  Not quite.

What I hate about BlackBerry

• No front-facing-camera.  I like video calling. I’m the only one in the UK who does, apparently.  But with more 3G phones coming on to the market, I’m hopeful that more people will come round to it.
• Lack of updates.  It seems to take ages for any new developments to come out of RIM.  I understand why – you can’t fiddle around too much with business critical devices – but I like shiny new features.
• Speed. Perhaps it’s running OS 5.0 on the 9000, but everything seems a little sluggish.  I’m very quick with my fingers yet I often feel like the ‘berry isn’t working as fast as I am.  Once you’re running IM, SocialScope, Facebook and Weather at the same time and everything slows to a crawl.
• Camera. I like the flash and the geo-tagging, but the quality of images isn’t wonderful.  No focusing also impacts scanning QR codes.
• Video recording – low quality and sound is often out of sync.
• Calendar – only shows a single calendar. I don’t want my personal appointments on my work calendar.
• Media player. While it plays some .avi files better than Android, it won’t do .ogg or .flac, the interface is sub par.

The Android Intervention

With my dearly departed long gone, I’m reliant on my Android device. An HTC Hero.  It is a stunning device.

• Gorgeous screen, very responsive.
• Browser is good.
• The camera is great although sorely lacking a flash.
• It integrates with Microsoft Exchange reasonably well – although I haven’t got it fully working yet.

But – and there’s always a but…

• HTC. They are very unresponsive to customer queries. No software updates for the Hero, even though they’ve been announced.  Again, I understand the reasoning, but I don’t want to be stuck on Android 2.1 when 3.9 is out.
• Slow start up.  I don’t want to wait 60 seconds for my phone to wake up.
• Lacking in functionality – although it has plenty of add on software, some at cost.
• Lack of keyboard shortcuts.  I rely on these heavily – as described in my comment to The Really Mobile Project.
• Such tie in to the Google Eco-System.  If I ever want to leave Google, I’m not sure how the phone would cope.

Others

I’m big on Linux. Despite the slight disappointment with Nokia’s recent efforts, I’m intrigued by the N900.  I think I’d like to play with it for a day – especially the keyboard given the disaster of the N810 – before comitting.

I’ve tried a 3G iPhone running OS3.0.  It’s a toy and really not suitable for me.

Windows Mobile is… lackluster.  I can’t wait for Windows Phone OS 7.0 Mobile (or whatever they’re calling it today).  Besides, I don’t run Windows on my PCs – I can’t think of a reason to run it on my phones.

What else is out there?  Bada? Doubt Samsung call pull it off.  Pre? I want to like Palm, but it’s restricted to a single device and only on one network. Symbian? Hopefully it will be resurrected but after the disasterous N97 and the abandoned N95, it’s dead to me.

Choices

I think it boils down to three phones.

BlackBerry 9700

Bold 9700

This is the “safe” choice.  It’s the next model up from my smashed 9000.  I know it does everything I want.  I like the idea of replacing the trackball with a touchpad.  Good that it’s got the new standard USB charger, even if I’ll need to buy some new cables.

On the down side, it’s a bit boring.

SonyEricson Experia X10 mini pro / Motorola Milestone / Droid

My Android choice.  Has a keyboard and avoids HTC.  I don’t know how hackable it will be.  Given it’s one of SE’s & Moto’s first forays into Android, I’m concerned about how committed they’ll be to the device.

Would really like an Android with a decent keyboard – there are just so few of them about.

Nokia N900

Nokia N900

The outside choice. I generally love Nokia hardware – but their software sucks.  As innovative as the N810 was, they really dropped the ball in providing updates to their original Maemo software.  I’m slightly wary about how well this will be supported.

The keyboard looks ok, but the oddly placed space bar puts me off, as does the lack of ergonomic consideration.

Your Opinions

I’d love to know what you think.  Which phones rock your world?

This blog is a personal comment and does not represent my employers, Vodafone Group.  Nothing in this blog should be considered an official position on any phone, platform or manufacturer.

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Amarillo Roll is a 3D game in the same style as Super Monkey Ball. You tip your phone to move the armadillo around the course. The graphics are stunning. Reminiscent of early Xbox games. The one thing the photos don’t do is convey the speed of gameplay – it’s fast!

The game is a tech demo from Qualcomm. You can download Armadillo Roll directly from the Marketplace to your phone or view more information about it.

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Browsing http://m.youtube.com/ at the bottom is a new link

A link to a QR code

Clicking on it takes you to a QR code

The QR code

It’s using the Google Chart API to generate the code.

The Googe Chart API in use

Will this spur QR codes into the mainstream? I hope so!

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The premise is very simple.  There are blocks bouncing around the screen. You have a limited number of shots to remove a set number of them.

Each shot creates an explosion which, if it touches another block, causes that to explode.

This can cause a helpful chain reaction.

One of the many wonderful things about this game is how it pits you against other players.  Rather than posting high scores, it shows you how many other people have reached the level.

Being the massive geek that I am, I’ve graphed how player levels drop off.  I’m only skilled enough to get to level 89. Must try harder.

What I find fascinating is how steady the player numbers are until each big drop-off. Obviously, at least 50,000 people have downloaded the game, but only 371 players who’ve made it as far as I have.

Anyway, if you have an Android device, have a play with Prime – it’s a great little game.

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So, when I heard that some clever hackers had ported Google’s Android OS to the N810, I leapt at the chance to reinvigorate my sadly neglected Internet Tablet..

There are various tutorials on the web, but here’s my quick & pain free howto for people running Ubuntu. This is based on the instructions from the Nitdroid Homepage and the InternetTabletTalk forums.

You will need…

• A Nokia N810 (this should also work with the N800 and the N770)
• USB and Charging cables.
• A computer running Ubuntu (or most other flavours of Linux)
• A working Internet connection.
• NERVES OF STEEL! (Not really, it’s very simple to reflash the N810 if you do mess up.)

So here’s the HOWTO:

1. Back up any files you want to keep from your N810. We’re going to be wiping it clean.
2. Remove any SD cards you’ve got from the N810.
3. Make sure the battery is fully charged.
4. Create a folder on your computer called “Nitdroid”.
5. Download the following files (or newer if available)
6. The flasher – this allows you to flash the hardware (you may need a different version if you’re running 64bit or PPC).
7. The Android filesystem
8. The Andoid OS
9. Connect your N810 to your computer via USB, switch the N810 on.
10. If you haven’t got it already, install and run gparted.
11. You need to create 3 partitions, the first must be FAT32, the third must be ext3 with a minimum size of 128MB. See the picture for an example.
12. Take a note of the device name – in this example, it’s /dev/sdb
13. We need to mount the ext3 filesystem we’ve created – go to the command line and type
    

    sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb3 /android

    Remember to change /dev/sdb3 to whatever your device is actually called.

14. We now need to go to the “/android” directory and extract the filesystem to it. At the command line, type
    

    cd /android

    Then
    

    sudo tar -xjpvf /home/$USER/Desktop/nitdroid/rootfs-nitdroid.tar.bz

    Remember to change $USER to your username – or change the whole path to where you downloaded the nitdroid files.

15. Once complete, you unmount the filesystem by typing
    

    sudo umount /android

16. We’re ready to flash! Hurrah!
17. Turn off the N810, unplug it from the power and USB cables.
18. We need to make the flashing software executable so type
    

    chmod a+x flasher-3.0-static

19. Plug the N810 into the USB cable but leave it switched off.
20. Run the flashing software (yes, with the N810 turned off) by typing
    

    sudo ./flasher-3.0-static -f -k zImage-nitdroid-n8x0 –enable-rd-mode -R

21. You will see the following message
    

    flasher v0.9.0 (Jan 19 2007)
    Suitable USB device not found, waiting

    This means that the flashing software is looking for the N810.

22. On the N810, hold down the “Switch” button (The one which looks like two overlapping squares, just under the camera). With the button held down, push the power button.
23. You’ll see some messages on your PC’s screen indicating that the device is being flashed. Let go of the buttons.
24. Wait.
25. Wait a little while longer.
26. Have a biscuit to calm your nerves.
27. It should be over and done with in less than a minute.
28. Once it’s complete, unplug the N810. Power it off, then on again. You should see this screen.
29. It takes about 5 minutes for the first boot to complete. If it takes substantially longer than that, read the troubleshooting section.
30. TADA! You now have Android on your N810.WiFi works – as do the keyboard and touchscreen. At the moment, sound, BlueTooth & GPS don’t. There are a few random crashes, and the performance leaves a little to be desired. Much like the original Maemo software!

Troubleshooting.
If it all goes wrong, here’s how to get your N810 back to the latest official firmware.

• Download the latest official firmware from http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N810.php
• Plug the N810 into the USB cable but leave it switched off.
• Run the flashing software (yes, with the N810 turned off) by typing
  

  sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-44_DIABLO_5.2008.43-7_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

  Remember to replace “RX-44….” with the name of the latest software.

• You will see the following message
  

  flasher v0.9.0 (Jan 19 2007)
  Suitable USB device not found, waiting

  This means that the flashing software is looking for the N810.

• On the N810, hold down the “Switch” button (The one which looks like two overlapping squares, just under the camera). With the button held down, push the power button.
• Wait. You will have a factory fresh N810 in a matter of minutes.

Enjoy!

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A quick review of MobileCampBrighton.

Brighton is such a delightful city that it’s hard to begrudge it stealing one’s Saturday morning lie-in. As I wandered the laines looking for The Skiff, I was worried about how successful this BarCamp event would be. It was the same weekend as the popular Convention on Modern Liberty and it was being held outside London. Added to my worries was the fact that I had convinced Vodafone to sponsor the event – if it didn’t go well, it would be a personal and professional disappointment.

I needn’t have been so worried.

This was the site that greeted me at the door.

The Skiff began to fill up rapidly. One usually expect about a 30% drop off in participants – especially at a free event – but I think there were more attendees than were anticipated!

Usually BarCamps have several sessions running at once. The advantages being that more people can present and group sizes are manageable. However, this often leads to a bit of confusion as sessions finish at different times and a bit of heartache as one has to decide between two equally compelling talks.

Due to the relatively small number of participants, we managed to do all the presentations sequentially in the one room. This would not have been possible – or desirable – at a larger unconference, but here it worked beautifully.

The Sessions

(Photo courtesy of Pixelm Image is BY-NC-SA.)

So, a brief run down of the talks I found memorable.

Ribot gave a talk on the “Emotion, Behaviour and Human Context” focusing on the power of sketches. As designers & developers, we often go for the big bang approach. Often it’s more productive to paper prototype – it’s faster and you’ll be less emotionally attached to a “bad” idea.

Some sketches.

Marten van Wezel gave us his experience of building successful communities. I’d never quite realised the strategies one needs to employ to keep a service pleasant for its users.

A good looking fellow called Terence Eden, basically rehashed his blog post about mobile contextual advertising and its inasivness. A good points to come out of the discussion was the need for VRM (Vendor Relationship Management). Something I’ll be looking into closely.

Priya Prakash spoke about her research in to emerging market. This was an absolutley fascinating discussion about how different people use new technology. A choice quote was “if you want to see how people use technology, go to nail salons and cafes”.

That most melifulous of speaker, Terence Eden snaked his way onto the board again to say “Fuck the iPhone (and not in a good way)”. Regular readers will know of my distaste for Jobs’ Toy, but this was a discussion about how the focus on cool new phones and gadgets basically ignored a large swathe of the population. While it’s personally very exciting to develop for the cutting edge, we must not forget that the majority of people are on 18 month contracts and won’t be able to get to our products for some time.

Tom Morris gave us his thoughts on making mobile applications and services more relavent by making them easier to develop. It’s a good idea, but I still think the barrier to entry for programming (IDE, text commands, language paradigms) make it too hard for regular users to even think about programming.

Raul – a linguist – shared his experiences with how languages change to fit the digital landscape.

There were several other talks and I’ll link to the Qik streams / videos when I find them.

The final event of the day was a “fastest text” competition. Marten van Wezel won Army of Two and Nik won Spore. Both prizes were generously donated by Jessica Gwyther, the Games Content Development Manager at Vodafone Group.

I really got a lot out of this camp – it’s great to meet new people who aren’t afraid to challenge your ideas.

You can view the back channel chatter on twitter (or Google’s search for mobileCampBrighton if twitter is down…)

From a professional point of view, I felt that sponsorship was worthwhile. I got to demo our new products in front of a very intense audience and they gave great feedback. Hopefully I’ve left a good impression in participants minds about Vodafone and Betavine – if nothing else, they’ll remember that Vodafone provides a decent lunch!

So, no post from me can end without criticism. This is no different, although it’s aimed at organisers for all the BarCamps I’ve been to.

1. Time keeping is paramount. After the first session we were already running 45 minutes behind schedule. With some quick thinking from DanW and a bit of discipline from the participants we were able to finish on time without curtailing the programme of events. Every BarCamp should have a big clock on the wall or each presenting space to let presenters know how long they’ve got.
2. Organisers shouldn’t feel afraid to call for order. It’s really tempting to let intra-audience discussions flow freely. Indeed, I’m as guilty as anyone of talking vociferously when I should be listening. But organisers have two main jobs – keep everything running on time and stop presenters from being intimidated. I noticed that a few times the audience took over from a presenter and – except that’s where it’s the presenter’s intention – it’s a little ugly.

Overall – a highly successful MobileCamp. I can’t wait for the next one!

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