Archive for February, 2009
If you use bugzilla and mediawiki then you need to take a look at BugzillaReports – http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:BugzillaReports. This extension allows you to integrate Bugzilla reports into mediawiki pages. It’s gone through a beta programme over the past 6 months with the stable 1.0 release out a couple a weeks ago. I’ve now released it onto Google code – http://code.google.com/p/bugzillareports/ – to make it easier to deal with incoming requests and also allow other developers join in a make direct changes. Download it, try it out and hopefully you find it useful.
Cheers,
Ian
In response to How the Wikipedia reputation engine works and why Wikipedia should not allow anonymous edits …
Great write up – I’ve always been fascinated by the way the Wikipedia content has evolved and especially around the different roles of the people making the content happen – right from the person watching the Oscars as it happens and editing the page with in seconds, all the way to the wiki gnomes keeping the garden clean. The wiki patterns @ http://www.wikipatterns.com/display/wikipatterns/Wikipatterns was enlightening for me on describing the different types of editors and administrators. Wikipedia is most of the time “correct”, but if it were to be a trusted source then there has to be some accountability for the content and that does mean edging away from anonymity and away from the very thing that has allowed it to grow so rapidly. For me, it’s quite a positive sign on the web community that there is a so much stronger force trying to make it “right” as opposed to the minority who mislead or vandalise. I often wonder whether Wikipedia should try to be like a trusted encyclopedia / journal – or whether it is simply a different beast with agile-mostly-correct content. Then I start philosophising on who do I really trust and have to remind myself to always take what I read and hear with a pinch of salt, even from the most trusted of sources.
Well, these are the devices that were most hyped and as was the rule at MWC this year the hype was inversely proportional to quality. Aside from the Huawei which is an unknown, they really should be better but don’t come close to the benchmark of the iPhone.
LG KM900 / KC910i
LG had a really fancy touch table, full multitap, much like the on in the latest James Bond film. Boded well for the phones but no, touch screen poor and therefore the virtual keyboard just annoying. Interface ok but not slick and not terribly intuitive. There was an interesting array of watch phones.
Samsung Omnia & Beat
Much like the LG’s and previous Samsung touch screens, they don’t do well at registering when and where your finger touches and the UI is nothing special and no real advance. I really liked the idea of the Beat (a mixer on a phone… nice) but with the rubbish touch screen mostly a frustrating experience. Only pics I have are of the stand as there were burly security guys making sure no one took photo’s of the phones. Probably because they are pants and Samsing don’t want anyone to have any proof 
Toshiba TG01
From a distance when we saw this we got rather excited and bustled out way over. Looks nice, big screen, wafer thin but once again let down by the touch screen and it’s Windows Mobile. I’m not particularly anti Microsoft, I’m writing this blog on my Vista laptop, but Windows Mobile is pants! Notice I’m not even bothering to mention the HTC Touch and Diamond (Windows Mobile) and just focusing on the HTC Magic. The TG01 didn’t work at all, the lady on the stand reset it by taking battery out, she couldn’t replace the back of the phone properly and it still didn’t work. She grumpily mumbled it was a prototype.
Huawei Android
This phone was the only one we didn’t manage to get our hands on. Lots of hype and fingers crossed the hardware lives up to Android. When we asked the guy on the stand if we could hold it he just laughed, I didn’t think the Chinese were renowned for their sense of humour.
These are the phones I was most impressed by at MWC this year. In order of preference, best first.
Palm Pre
Best new device I’ve seen, a whole new world of ease of use, great UI and productivity. For a fuller run down see my other blog at mwc-barcelona-palm-pre-best-in-show.
The left pic is the Pre sittingon it’s magnetic induction charger playing a movie. The right pic below is of the task bar you can drag up from below the screen.
HTC Magic (G2)
HTC’s second Android device with a very responsive capacitive touch screen this is a step up from the G1. Virtual keyboard which worked well with the capacitive touch screen. Only available on Vodafone in the UK. As you can see from the pics it’s very slim and good pocket size. To compare and contrast the G1 is bottom right.
Nokia N97
I really wanted to like this phone more for two reasons, the Nokia hospitality at MWC was the best and I really like my N82 but it’s not as good as it could be. Interface is slow (may be better for launch), not multitap, touch screen not very responsive, in fact aside from the big screen, nice angled flip out keyboard and widgets I can’t see any improvement on current NSeries phones. Available from June 2009.
Garmin Nuvifone G60
This nearly made 3rd but bumped to 4th as it’s not as functionally rich as the N97. What it does do of course is full on navigation. It has a nice responsive capacitive touchscreen like the HTC and Palm with a fast and slick UI. I was surprised at the user frieldly, well laid out UI but I guess Garmin are not encumbered with any phone history, just good experience of making decent navigation UI’s. It has a webkit browser with a PC user agent, hence the PC site displayed below, this will be changed for launch. Wi Fi. No ability to write apps for it, it’s a closed platform but does have some nice premade apps, for example “Ciao” a type of find things and friends near me app. In fact I couldn’t find anything it lacked when comparing to my N82 and it’s slim and a good size.
Let’s start with the depression and then I’ll lift you. There are a lot of big name device manufactures that are really struggling at creating that goal of usable mobile internet devices. So apple have paved the way and although they weren’t at the MWC this year – the iPhone they released over a year a go would still have been the cream of today. So what is the competition missing? LG, Samsung and Toshiba are all creating smartphones that miss on so many fronts – clumsy UI, unresponsive touchscreens and slow interactions. Docomo show some promise of innovation with the push into projector phones and I’ll keep an cautious eye on Huawei now that they’re press released their Android strategy and put a shiny phone in a glass box.
The Nokia N97 is making small step forwards, but it doesn’t feel a leap from the excellent N82. I like the home page widgets and the personalisation that comes from this, but the UI is a little tired and was slightly unresponsive. Not a bad phone, but didn’t impressed me like I wanted to be impressed.
When we finally tracked down the HTC Magic we got a glimmer of hope. The device was responsive and showed promise, but it still was lacking that end-to-end-I-want-one feeling. The UI is slightly cluttered and, although it looks more robust than the G1, it still needs someone to take Android and create a polished experience (a goal I don’t think is far off and I strongly believe will happen). A disappointment I’d had on previous windows mobile device was reaffirmed at HTC where I could try the HTC Magic (Android) against the HTC Diamond (Windows Mobile). The HTC Diamond felt it was stuck in the wrong gear. Other people have commented on a similar windows experience – Gizmodo, Edible Apple, PPCKitchen. Is it the hardware / touch screen or is there something inherently up with Windows mobile usability?
I was pleasantly surprised to see Garmin asus make a worthy contender with the G60. Garmin have Android rumours all over them – something that the Garmin representative did nothing to hide – but for the time being the G60 is linux based. Garmin I know well from the satnav section of my Halfords store and Asus I know well from defining and conquering the low priced, well built small laptop market. What a great combination of two trusted brands. People are already budgeting for Garmin satnav devices so the cross over into a tight mobile internet phone seems perfect. The G60 UI is clean simple fast and does the job. It doesn’t show off and isn’t trying to be an all functional smartphone, but it has it’s worthy place and things can only look up for Garmin as they take this strategy forward. Lot’s of choices for them on the direction – not least their distribution channels and how they engage with the operators.
So … leaving the best for last. We were blown away by the Palm Pre – something that Tim has already blogged about. So now wanting to repeat his message, I’ll quickly summarise my thoughts. It’s such a rounded device – both physically (like a polished pebble) and user experience wise. For me user experience is everything – if something annoys or bugs me in a device then it can ruin the whole experience, but here is a device that I couldn’t fault. Albeit, through the rose tinted glasses of desire, I did try to find faults – but they were difficult to find. A few days in my pocket may unearth some. The battery life might be an issue as could the price tag – rumoured at ~$500 (keeping it firmly in the high price end of the market). Those aside – we’ve got a very user-centric device here. Palm have thought about the user and what they want and that includes multi-tasking/multi-cards, clever gestured, subtle on screen feedbacks (where your finger has been), consolidated search interface. The synergy concept to aggregate contacts and calendars from multiple source is great from a consumer view, pulling together social contacts, but also from an enterprise side where it could be pulling in contact from your CRM. This device really is true cross over between consumer and enterprise, seemingly without compromise to either (we’re all people aren’t we so it should be possible). I can see people who like the iPhone and people who like the Blackberry take more than a double look at this Palm pre device and consider that it’s time for a change.
… and did I say the Palm Pre packaging is neat. All recyclable, no bits of plastic and unnecessary plastic bags, whether they did this for marketing or altruistic reasons – it doesn’t matter. It shows they care.
Take care – and here’s to an exciting future for the (mobile) internet.
Cost effective data roaming shouldn’t need to be complicated or expensive, however for the time being where there is a huge differential between roaming data, e.g. £4.25/MB on vodafone, and pay-as-you-go data charges, e.g. €0.06/MB on MÁSmovil. It’s worth spending a little time getting connected locally so you can use your mobile cheaply whilst abroad. Here’s a step-by-step guide one what you need to do:
- Pick up a MÁSmovil SIM from a phone shop, e.g. at MÁSmovil with your phone number as username and PUK as password
- Click on “Mis Servicios → Configurador de Terminal”, enter your phone model details, phone number and network and enable “Internet/streaming” and “WAP”. Click the confirm buttons so that MÁSmovil sends you a configuration message by SMS
- When you get the SMS open it and enter the password “1111″ (or whatever password is told you on the WAP configuration page
- Click on “Mis Servicios → Datos / Internet” and make sure MÁSinternet is selected. Note that I had to call up customer care on 1473 so that they could enable this since it was greyed out for me. You might have to wait to speak to an English speaking assistant, but they’re good at getting back to you if one is not available when you call
We found it slightly ironic that we needed to use Google latitude to locate a Phone House shop to get connected on 3G – however we were lucky to be able to do some free (but intermittent) Wifi hopping to get there. Several people were recommending Yoigo pay as you go – however they seemed to have sold out when we were looking – possibility because of the popularity.
The painful side effect of switching SIMs is that your old number doesn’t work – although when I’m 3G connected it’s easy for people who know me to connect to me with email, skype (with Fring) etc. Maybe one day the .tel domain will take off and then I can change my phone number as much as I change my IP address.
So if you want to save a few pounds or cut your expenses bill – it’s worth the effort if you’re in Spain for some time and you want to stay connected on your mobile. If you don’t, operators can enjoy the revenue from your travels.
On the whole I was hugely disappointed by the new phones at MWC. Mostly trying to copy the iPhone and not doing a terribly good job. Worst were the much hyped Samsung Omnia and Beat and LG’s KM900 and KC910i. The touch screens were not responsive and UI’s lacking true user friendliness and not a patch on the iPhone. Notably Apple (and Google) were not at the show and it was looking like they didn’t need to be as noone was close to rivaling them.
Then things started to look up, the garmin asus nuvifone G60 had a great touch screen and a clean clear UI. LBS-centric with all the LBS features you would expect plus “Ciao”, a find my friends near me application that is becoming more common.
Then we found the almost hidden Android device the HTC Magic. Even though it had been announce this week by Vodafone, the Vodafone stand didn’t seem slightly unnerved that they didn’t have the device to show. On the HTC stand huge fanfare around the Touch and Diamond, Windows Mobile and pretty poor comparatively. Two HTC guys in plain clothes had the Magic who we tracked down. Very nice device, great touch screen, Android working well. The other Android device that looked good from a distance was the Huawei. When we asked if we could touch it the Huawei guy just laughed.
Then we got to see the Palm Pre. It was meant to be press only and it took us two attempts to blag our way in but it was definitely worth it! Ed Colligan, president and chief executive of Palm, said the platform was brand new, created for the Internet age, from the ground up. It’s aimed at “redefining the center of your access point to the Net.” Sounds poncy but I think they have got it just right.
Two years in development, fabulous touch screen, fast hardware and amazingly well thought out UI with productivity written all over it. Highlights:
Palm Pre draggable task/app bar
- magnetic inductive charger
- area around the screen is touch as well and used for device navigation and the browser
- browser is webkit
- 3.1 inch multitap screen, very responsive (I hear Apple are thinking of claiming IP over multi tap and may go after Palm)
- ambient light sensor adjusts the screen brightness to save battery,
- new ‘card’ concept where everything is a card, whcih helps with multi tasking, e.g. new email is a card, browser windows are cards and it’s easy to flip between them
- GPS + Google maps
- Wi Fi
- styled like a polished pebble with a flip out portrait oriented keyboard, keys were sort of sticky which really helped typing with the small keys
- 8 Gig internal storage (can’t expand)
- 3mpx camera
- Texas Instruments 3430 processor
- will automatically go to speaker phone if you take it away from your ear
- the big thing re the UI is “Synergy”, this brings all sorts of things together in one view but manages to not get messy, e.g. multiple inboxes, calendars, contacts. It worked really well, would de-duplicate and also would notice, for example, if a contact changed their facebook phone number and would then update the phones contact list
- full phone search e.g. if type in matt would get shown contact details, any SMS’s, emails etc.,
- new XML SDK and there will be a free O’Reilly developers book
- there will be an app store
- it’s so well thought out it will rotate photo’s 180 degrees if tilting the phone to show someone else
A great end to MWC and as we finished talking to the Palm guy they wheeled out the wine, which was also the best we’d had at the show.
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, Barcelona, 16th February 2009: UK-based mobile web experts, bemoko, today launched bemokoLive 1.2, the latest version of the company’s mobile web platform.
bemokoLive enables:
- Web content to be delivered to any mobile phone accessing a web site without the need to create specific sites for all mobile devices
- Organisations to use their current web content to deliver an effective web experience to any mobile browser
- Mobile web sites to be rolled out quickly and effectively to organisations that may previously not have considered the potential of the mobile internet
- Visitors to mobile web sites to upload content (pictures, status updates, video) to a web site and also share this with their Facebook, Twitter, MySpace pages, or other social networks
bemokoLive recognises a user’s mobile device before they arrive at the site and automatically delivers relevant mobile content to the device being used. By delivering the right content to the right device, bemokoLive delivers a browsing experience on the mobile that is intuitive and effective, without the problem of unreadable pages or non displaying images or video.
Mat Diss, co-founder of bemoko said: “bemokoLive 1.2 enables any organisation to use the mobile internet as an effective marketing and communications tool. bemokoLive repurposes the content to ensure that any mobile device visiting a web site sees a professional and effective online presence.”
The flexibility and speed of development with bemokoLive means that the likes of shopping centres, theme parks, music festivals and entertainment venues can all benefit from delivering relevant content to any mobile device quickly and effectively at a fraction of the cost of building device specific mobile sites.
Performance testing is an often overlooked and/or poorly executed activity. A standard part of any project implementation is to test the system under load – often this is the first time the code has been tested in such a way and it highlights major problems which should have been found in the QA cycle. I can’t count the number of times, in previous corporate lives, that I have had to jump on a flight at the last minute because there is a panic as the product has failed load testing. In one case it was found that the throughput was a stunning 0.5 tps!!
Whilst all situations and loads cannot be catered for, there should be a standard test suite so that the performance of new releases can be checked and compared to previous releases. A new release with lots of fancy features should not be slower than the previous release!
At bemoko, we use our own website as the test application. This provides us with a benchmark to test all our releases.
We test for performance and memory leaks using the excellent Apache JMeter to generate the load. We have a file containing all the URL’s on the website and another file which contains various user agents to run against the site. We can then simulate any number of users continually accessing the pages on different devices.
Java profiliing is done using the YourKit profiling tool. Of all the profilers I have used, this is the easiest and least intrusive one I have found. It must be good if I can track down memory leaks using it!
I’ve just done the testing for our latest release and am pleased to report that under a load simulating 600 users we got an impressive 25tps with an average page load time of 414ms. After a 6 hour run and a quick garbage collection, the memory use went back to the level at the start of the test – so no nasty memory leaks to track down this time. Top marks for the technical team!
So I am now confident that we and, more importantly, our customers will not get any nasty surprises when it comes to performance testing the application. And my wife and children will be pleased that I don’t have to disappear off on a flight at short notice!