Mobile Software Development Spectrum

Mobile Software Development Spectrum from Sachin Palewar on Vimeo.

A seminar by Sachin Palewar (www.palewar.com) on various mobile software platforms and development choices for them. This seminar was held in Raisoni Engineering College Nagpur in Sept 2009.

Wi-Fi enabled, Mobile Ready, Solar Tent

I really struggled to think of a suitable title for this post. There are so many things about this innovative tent concept that you just can't describe it with a few words.

Anyway let's get started:

1. Do you notice that the tent is glowing in night as shown in the image to left? Now isn't that cool. Here is how exactly it works. You send a SMS to your tent and it starts glowing to tell you its location, so that you don't loose it :-)

2. This tent uses a special fabric to capture solar energy which can then further be used in many ways in your tent.

3. Wi-Fi and Mobile Charging - Yes true you have wi-fi inside this tent to use internet and you have a charging facility to charge mobiles or any portable device. Charging is done by using magnetic induction so no wires are required.

4. Internal Heating - Now the energy generated by the tent can also be used to automatically heat tent's groundsheet once the interior temperature falls below a set level.

This tent concept is a vision by Orange and has been designed in association with Kaleidoscope. For official Press Release click here.

Now I don't know how many people will actually like to use wi-fi or charge their mobiles while camping but I think automatic heating, night glow will definitely be handy and charging can be used to charge cameras as well. So let me know what do you think about this tent concept? Thanks for reading :-)

Here comes Google OS for your computer

Google has just announced Google Chrome OS on its official blog. It promises to be simple, fast and secure like all the other Google products like search, mail and Gtalk.

Chrome OS will actually be Chrome browser running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. Also since this will be an Open-Source OS, anybody will be able to download and play with the sourcecode of the OS.

Initially Google OS will only be available for netbooks but I guess later it will be made available for PCs as well. Netbooks running Google OS are expected to hit the market in second half of 2010.

Google also promises that its OS will boot faster, will be free from viruses, won't require you to spend time configuring hardwares or downloading updates. Your data will always be backed up automatically so you don't loose your data ever.

All the web-based applications will automatically work on Google OS, so you just need to write a web application in your favourite web-technology and it will run on Google OS.

Clarification: Image used in this post is not official release from Google, its sourced from maximumpc.com.

World's Toughest Phone from Land Rover

@angsuman just tweeted this. I followed the link and googled about it, what I found was VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE.

Ok so this phone is called S1 and is a result of collaboration between Land Rover and Sonim. During testing they ran over it with a Land Rover, submerged it in mud and had an elephant stand on it to test its durability. S1 also survived being roasted in an oven at 150 degrees centigrade, soaked in a pint of lager and tossed from the second floor of a building. No wonder they call it the ‘indestructible’ mobile device, which may sound very appealing to builders, workmen, adventure/outdoors enthusiasts and other people working in tough conditions.

Sonim manufactures ruggedized phones and have also launched a phone in collaboration with JCB earlier, its called JCB Tough Phone.

Some of the features of S1 are:
1. 1,500 hours of battery life.
2. 2.0 megapixel camera.
3. An extra loud ringtone to be heard overy sound of heavy machinery.
4. IP-67 International Protection certificate
5. GPS, Bluetooth, WAP, Opera Mini Browser
6. Torch
7. Extra-wide buttons, can be used wearing gloves.

Telegraph reports that - Tesco, who launch the phone today at a retail price of £249.99, are so confident it can't be broken that it comes with an unconditional 3 years guarantee. The S1 is available for £25 a month on a contract with Orange and is being sold exclusively by Tesco.

If you are a mobile developer like me, then you can take heart from the fact that Sonim has a Developer Portal as well, which enables you to register with them and download Java SDK complete with emulations tool to develop J2ME applications for their ruggedized phones.

Included below is a video featuring Land Rover S1 from TimesOnline.

Win a Windows Phone on Twitter

If you are already on Twitter, then its gr8. If you aren't then now there is one more reason to start tweeting. Now you can win a Windows Phone by using Twitter.

The contest is called Windows Phone Treasure Hunt and runs between 22nd June and 10th July. All you need to do is:

1. Start following @WPC09.

2. Keep an eye on updates. Questions aka missions will be posted as updates. Contains hint as well :-)

3. Respond via Tweet with your correct answer.

Remember you need to tweet in the exact format - @WPC09: Mission # , answer = . #windowsphone

This page contains full Rules and Regulations.

I am @palewar on Twitter and you are welcome to follow me as well, although I am not yet giving away any prizes on Twitter. Happy Tweeting :-)

PhoneBook 3G

I have been toying with idea of developing a phonebook application for sometime now. Here is what I think:

Location/Time-Zone Aware PhoneBook: Whenever I travel, I try to connect with people I know from that city. Contacts/PhoneBook app on my phone has address field as well, but there is no way to search contacts by city, country etc. I think if we can search our contacts by city, it will make things a lot easier.

Sometime before calling somebody I need to figure out their time because they are in different time-zone. If somehow I can see the time for a contact based on his time time-zone, then it will be easier to decide when to call him.

If we integrate PhoneBook with GPS/Maps, we can see our contacts on map and may even see contacts near your current location. There are apps which show your nearby friends on map, but haven't found any app which is integrated with your phonebook. Similarly city name stored with the contacts can be used to automatically derive time-zone and show user's time.  I just wonder why our inbuilt phonebook/contacts on mobiles don't support this already?

Other Possibilities:

I think this new PhoneBook can have enormous scope. It can be integrated with SocialNetworking sites like LinkedIn, FaceBook, Orkut etc so that your PhoneBook shows profile photos, updates from these sites as well. Some companies have already started doing this. PhoneBook 2.0 and INQ1 come to my mind immediately, though there are others as well.

I miss one more thing in the current PhoneBook, which is search contacts by their profession/company. I may know many lawyers, doctors but when I need one, I can't think of somebody immediately, so if phonebook contains company/profession info about my contacts and allow me to look-up all doctors or lawyers when needed, it will be cool.

PhoneBook is most basic but very helpful application on any mobile phone, but its probably being overlooked by most mobile handset/software companies. I think complete overhauling of existing PhoneBook application is required and RIM, Apple, Microsoft and Google can do a huge favour to all the mobile users by replacing existing PhoneBook apps in their respective mobile OS by what I would like to call PhoneBook 3G.

Best Mobile Handset

Mobile World Congress 09 is over and as expected there were lot of product and technology launches, you can read Marin Perez's post for a quick round up of the event. 

So I am not going to talk about MWC here, but I am going to talk about something which is equally exciting and that is a new mobile phone called INQ1. INQ1 won the award for Best Mobile Handset beating likes of Nokia E71 and T-Mobile G1.

INQ1 is first phone launched by a company called INQ. INQ likes to call its phone a Social Mobile as it has Skype, Facebook, Windows Messenger and Last FM built right in. For a test drive of this wonderful phone head right here. 

I think these phones will have a mass appeal not just because they are really great, I hear the pricing is equally great as well. You should be able to lay hands on these phones by shelling out just little over $100. Now that will really help in this recession  :-)

Before ending my post I would like to mention about very interesting approach to packaging of this phone.  In their own words they chose to turn its packaging into an object to cherish, not chuck, so an artistic illustration is what you find on the box cover. For more details about their ART connection click here.

To sum up they have got the concept right, have got the pricing right and have even got the packaging right. Oh my god - I really love this company.

Google for Windows Mobile

Google Mobile App started supporting Windows Mobile last week. It allows you to perform a google search right from your Today screen without need for opening a browser first. It also gives you quick access to other google applications like maps, reader, blogger, orkut, documents, calendar etc.

Google is regularly releasing applications for Windows Mobile platform. In the recent past it has released Google Latitude and Google Sync as well. Latitude allows you to see where your friends are on Google Map and Sync allows you to sync your phone contacts and calendar with Google. 

To check out all these cool Google applications for Windows Mobile click here. And to all the readers of this blog once again, you can contact me at- sachin AT palewar DOT com for any Windows Mobile software development requirement.

Pragati's brave fight with Cancer

I met Pragati in late 2003. Life really sucked back then. Though I was doing some freelancing software jobs, I didn't have a stable revenue source. I was not sure what will I do in my life. I didn't have many friends to talk to and used to feel lonely and depressed at times. Life was dull and boring. But then Pragati changed all that and very quickly as well.

All of a sudden my life started looking up, everything started looking rosy and bright. I was still not sure about what will I pursue as a profession, but I had a very strong support in Pragati. She became my close friend and soul-mate. After sometime professional life started looking up as well and we together founded our company. We got married in Feb 2006 and everything seemed to be perfect for us. We were blessed with a lovely baby girl in Nov. 2007 and everybody was happy. But my life was soon going to change forever again.

In early 2008, we found out that Pragati's cancer came back and in her lungs this time. She had a long history with this very rare form of cancer called Epithelioid Sarcoma, which started from her left toe. She was successfully operated for it in 2005 and we decided to forget about it and bury it in our past. Ofcourse we now realise that we were too childish and too optimistic about ourselves. Cancer does not leave you that easily. In hindsight I think it was good that we didn't think too much about it as it allowed us to get on with our lives and live happily with each other.

Year 2008 was spent in fighting with cancer and what a fight Pragati gave to that bloody cancer. It couldn't diminish her spirit in any way and that's why she so courageously planned secret B'day party for me with a chest drain hanging onto her and first chemo just over. She played and laughed a lot with our baby girl. When she had nothing else to do at home, she started reading and painting. 3 of her beautiful paintings hung on walls of our house will always remind of her. That was probably her way of giving a parting gift.

She was her usual charming and smiling self till her last day. Greeted everybody with her sweet smile whenever somebody visited her. She was unbelievably brave, positive and incredibly sweet and fun-loving even when cancer became really harsh for her. I can't probably sum-up in words her true spirit. I will always remain proud of her. She passed away on 1st of Jan 09 and I became a widower and a single father at the age of 30.

It was only due to Pragati, I understood what Love, Happiness, Success and birth really meant. Ironically now I have understood true meaning of sorrow, grief, failure and death due to her as well.

There is a tradition in my family where when you meet somebody for the first time after getting married or whenever there is an important function, you introduce your spouse using a couplet, which should contain his/her name in it. There are many popular and overused types, so when I got married I created an original myself. I thought it summed up what I really felt for Pragati. I will be not using that couplet anymore, so I am penning it down here on my blog for one last time. "सिसक रही थी जिन्दगी, उसको गति मिल गई, किस्मत मुस्कुराई और प्रगति मिल गई."

PS: You can add your name to my dedication to Pragati at Lanse Armstrong Foundation website.