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Posted on October 2 2005 by Jag @ 11:21 pm
It’s not very often that I write (blog) about “work” in this journal. There are too many “life” things that consume my brain cycles as I travel to and from home on the buses every day- but I would be lying if I said that some of these weren’t consumed by all things “work”. It’s when the boundary between “work” and “life” blurs so much that I find it difficult to comply with a self-imposed rule to separate the two things – especially when there are exploitable art-forms in both – as indeed there are. Ever since I embarked on the “Genie” adventure a few years ago “work” has been a long quest to to get something that vaguely represents the Internet – on a mobile phone. And (without this sounding like an advert on behalf of my employer) for the last 18 months I have been working on a project (in both my “work” and “life” time) that I really believe represents a step towards this most personal of missions – and that thing is something called “i-mode”
i-mode is arriving soon
i-mode has been incredibly successful in Japan over the last 5 years – and its success has been reproduced in many European countries as well. The i-mode service will arrive in the UK and Ireland over the next few weeks too. I don’t have enough space in the margin of this journal to explain why the Internet as we know it on PC/laptops/TV-sets hasn’t been able to cross-over onto mobile phones so readily. Some of the reasons are obvious – some aren’t. And this is despite the fact that “WAP” technologies have been around for a while – and some WAP services are really popular. But whilst the vast majority of people are absolutely comfortable using their mobile phones to make and receive voice calls, and send and receive text messages, the vast majority do not use their mobile phones to browse Internet content or send and receive emails. The challenge for the industry has mostly been one of “usability” and “performance”. For the price you pay – it’s really hard to figure out how to get online – and it’s sometimes a really slow, poor experience doing so. Also, mobile phone operators have far too often been preoccupied with the concept of “walled gardens” in WAP – which have limited the customer choice for content browsing- and often penalising the customer for venturing “off-portal” for Internet content by charging very high prices. Even the manufacturers of mobile phones have not made it easy to get online. Heck: do you know how hard it is just to find the menu option that allows you to type a URL to go to on a mobile phone? Hopefully – it will be a lot easier with i-mode. A good next step. Anyway – I’ve produced a musical video demonstration of the sorts of things that you can do your i-mode mobile phone in the UK soon. It’s a 3.5 minute Windows Media Video (WMV) file – just under 6 megabytes in size. I have tried to keep the file size down by limiting the video to 15 frames per second at 320×240 frame size – which should be fine for viewing on most PDAs as well as PCs. If you have broadband DSL or cable it should only take a few minutes to download. Just do a RIGHT-CLICK and “SAVE TARGET AS” on the “Windows Media” icon below.
In the video – you will see how easy and fast it is to get into i-mode – and how fast it is to go browsing for content and send and receive emails – as well as an example of sending pictures to Flickr. Some parts of the video are speeded up so that you don’t have to spend ages watching my helpful assistant type out stuff on the mobile phone – but the critical parts of the demo are played back in real time (next to my ticking watch) – so that you can witness how fast the service is. The background music is a track called “Hole in the head” by a local-to-my-neighbourhood girl-band called “Sugababes” – who made it big in the UK in the last couple of years. Turn up the volume and enjoy!
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Route 79 Reflections on a bus journey home |
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| From London: By a British, European, 2nd-Generation Indian. Probably confused - but proud to be them all! Half of my journey to and from work is a 20-30 minute bus ride: London Bus Route 79 - between Alperton in West London and Kingsbury in North West London. I very frequently get pissed-off and frustrated waiting around in the DARK, WET and COLD - waiting for the 79 to turn up. But I have to be eternally grateful for the quality thinking time I get to myself. | ||
I loved the demo.
And the phone does seem very capable too. And feature rich.
Does it require every website to have a “imode” version of it?
I did have a rudimentary form of internet on my phone.
The main difficulty was typing urls in it. Prefer the qwerty keyboard anyday to a T9 dictionary.
All thats missing in that nec phone is a touchpad (like in laptops) or a scroll wheel. Touchpads would be even better. The entire region where the numbers are present should be like a touchpad.
Comment kindly left by sat — October 3, 2005 @ 1:17 am
Will watch the news for it. Surprisingly, inspite of it’s extreme popularity in Japan, it hasnt picked up in the rest of the world. Hope it picks up well in the UK.
But mainstream 3G is just around the corner. If UMTS picks up it will be broadband on mobile phone. And UMTS will be launched commercially in the US in just a couple of months.
And a very cool and slick video: I am sure your marketing folks would love to see this and maybe use it in their demos.
Comment kindly left by Anand — October 3, 2005 @ 6:52 am
Very nice video, Jag. Funky tune too!
i-Mode looks very impressive from what you have written and from the video, and I may just have to switch from my T-Mobile line back to 02 just for this new feature.
That NEC phone looks quite nice aswell.
Stay cool.
Comment kindly left by Gaurav — October 3, 2005 @ 8:17 am
Interesting services, clearly beats Voda Live! not sure about the screen although like the ipod look a like.
Not sure but guess you have a little conflict of interest going on here but we will forgive you this time
MJ
Comment kindly left by MJ — October 3, 2005 @ 12:04 pm
woah that seems pretty wicked and ive just checked the o2 site and ya got some good deals going on it to, if only i had seen this a month ago before i took out another deal with 3
it seems really fast and pretty wicked,would be interesting to see what the next step after imode will be!
Comment kindly left by randomdude — October 3, 2005 @ 4:21 pm
ooh nice phone. what model is it?
Comment kindly left by alex — October 4, 2005 @ 4:29 pm
Sat: Thanks! Yes – i-mode versions of websites are best experienced on i-mode phones – but it doesn’t take much efforst for a website-owner to create i-mode version of existing website – the markup language is XHTML (Mobile Profile) – so very easy to do – and there are thousands of i-mode-enabled website out there – including Google etc. I do agree with your point about better user interface for keying stuff into phone – especially touchpad type concept.
Anand: Well actually – the i-mode service has been extremely popular outside Japan – notably in France, Spain, Netherlands and Italy – over 5 million users in these markets. And re: your point about UMTS – yes this will increase speeds on mobile – but will not address the fundamental issue that Internet websites will still have to be “purposed” for mobile (like in i-mode) if they are to be usable on a mobile device – and devices themselves have to be less “fragmented” than they are now – i.e. must be consistent browsing/emailing experience across all devices – which is not the case right now. i-mode solves some of these issues – and “usability” is key to factor in this model. As an example: many WAP sites are just as slow on 3G as they are on GPRS. i-mode forces the content provider to make sure websites on mobile phones load fast – and are easy to use. It’s not entirely about speed – it’s much more about usability. Thx for the feedback!
Gaurav: Thanks for your comment! Well you should definitely check out the O2 i-mode service before renewing with T-Mobile – the “O2 Online” deals are very good! (Blatant plug!) Yes – the NEC phone is cool – but be aware that the one in the video is very much an “entry” level model.
MJ: Cheers! Yes – the phone is very iPod like I have to admit. And i-mode is def better than VLive!
Randomdude: Thanks! I’m sure it can only get better – a step in the right direction at least.
Alex: It’s the NEC 343i – you can get by clicking here
Comment kindly left by Jag — October 4, 2005 @ 9:10 pm
Am I the only person in the world who doesn’t own a mobile phone yet? lol
Comment kindly left by Jackal GB — October 6, 2005 @ 12:25 am
this sounds really interesting. will definitely try and have a look at this from home (if my slow internet connection allows me
. also, wanted to let you know that i will be in london between the 13-17th, so do hope i can catch you at some point of time. can you mail me at anitabora5 at rediffmail dot com as i have misplaced your address…
Comment kindly left by anita — October 6, 2005 @ 7:22 am
hi,
its a wonderful presentation with the sugababes song at the bg…
now i get it..hw u could update your flickr blogspot on the goo….
Comment kindly left by Rajesh — October 6, 2005 @ 4:05 pm
Hmmm. I admid it’s fast, but is there anything that you can do with it that you couldn’t do with WAP/GPRS?
I think the choice of both technologies on the same network might be quite confusing to the customer. Are you planning to switch off WAP?
Comment kindly left by Snappy — October 7, 2005 @ 6:14 pm
Excellent tour, enjoyed the music accompanying it as well. It has taken me simple ages to figure out the origins of the i-mode ad song that is being aired these days on TV Down Under coz the minute I see the i-mode logo, I start singing it, “I, yai, yai, yai, yai I like youvery much.” It’s by Carmen Miranda. You’ve got to like it or simply hate it, but I love it and sing it to my baby!
Comment kindly left by Ritu — October 8, 2005 @ 1:17 am
Jag
Thanks for the explanation. That clears out my confusion about i-mode. I didnt quite understand completely, until now, what exactly i-mode did. From what you say, i-mode is here to stay regardless of the technology or the speed of the service. So I-mode is essentially a giant step from WAP?
Comment kindly left by Anand — October 8, 2005 @ 6:24 am
JackalGB: there can’t be many people like you – well not in the UK anyway – as there are more mobile-phones than people here! (Can you believe that?)
Anita: have emailed you – and will do so again over this weekend with ideas for Paris and London!
Rajesh: Thanks!
Snappy: Good question: from a technical perspective – the markup language for i-mode is pretty much the same as WAP2: XHTML/MP – so the simple answer on this dimension is that there is not a lot that you can do with i-mode content that you cannot do with WAP2 – but the big difference is in the *implementation*: WAP implementations are typically very poor and fragmented across handsets – whereas the i-mode implementation is better, consistent – and biased towards providing a simple, fast browsing experience for the user.
Re your second point: i-mode is not a technology – it’s a *service*. As you know – we have a wireless portal service called O2 Active as well (based on WAP). Both i-mode and O2 Active services will be offered: i-mode service on i-mode handsets – and O2 Active on the non-i-mode ones. The two services are aimed quite differently: O2 Active is very much about “youth” and “entertainment” – whereas i-mode adds more “info”, “lifestyle” and “transactions” – aimed at a more broader customer segment.
Ritu: I’ve seen the Tesltra i-mode ads being aired on Oz – and yes I agree that the music is quite infectious if you keep listening to them over and over again!
Anand: Cheers! Yes – i-mode is a kind of like a next-step on from WAP – better and more usable – and more like the open Internet.
Comment kindly left by Jag — October 8, 2005 @ 11:24 am
Hi there! I’m sorry to leave this comment here but I couldn’t leave it following the recipe for the Chana Masala. Forgive me?
I’ve been nosing around and I’ve finally made the Chana Masala… it was really yummy! I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes. BTW, you mention using “tinned” tomatoes… what size can is that? Here in the States our standard size can is about 12-15 oz (425g). I winged it and used 15 oz of crushed tomatoes…it tasted pretty good so I guess it was ok, but I was curious if I should have used more or less…
Take care!
Elizabeth
Comment kindly left by Elizabeth — October 10, 2005 @ 5:45 am
Elizabeth: Thanks for your comment – and no problem! (There is a known problem in leaving comments on my old blog which I haven’t gotten around to fixing yet).
The 425g tomato tin is what I used (I think) – so that much is absolutely fine. As long it tasted good for you in the end – that’s what matters!
Glad you liked it! be sure to share any variations and secrets that make it taste even better!
Comment kindly left by Jag — October 11, 2005 @ 10:03 pm
Very nice and impressive video Jag. I loved it although i have been with i-mode for the last 4 years. One comment to you, it should be i-html, not x-htmal, even easier than html at all. And for MJ, V-live is a bad copy of i-mode as they tried to transfer a similar service , J-SKY, after getting J-phone into Voda family in Japan .
Comment kindly left by Murat — October 13, 2005 @ 6:31 pm
Thanks Murat!
Comment kindly left by Jag — October 15, 2005 @ 12:10 pm
Hi, Browsed thru yr pix on imode at flickr. Great O2 ads. I don’t think Singapore’s is so bold & simple. Yes, Singapore also launched i-mode last week! So happy that it’s finally here! I m so excited!!! Will collect my i-mode phone nxt wk for FREE! How do the O2 i-mode brochures look like? I’ll try to post the Singapore’s versions up to share too. Thanks and hope u can post @ my blog soon
Comment kindly left by i-moder Gia — October 24, 2005 @ 3:23 am
this video is supberb, it is the best demo of i-mode Ive come across, and Ive been using/demoing i-mode for over a month now. Is it ok if I show it during my training sessions? Dave Morgan O2 Field Sales Team.
Comment kindly left by Dave Morgan — October 30, 2005 @ 11:17 am
i-moder Gia: yes I saw your blog – some great pics on there – glad to see that you are really excited about i-mode out there in Singapore!
Dave: Go ahead – feel free to use the video however you choose – and pass it around if it helps! Glad to be of assistance!
Comment kindly left by Jag — October 30, 2005 @ 12:18 pm
Hey Jag,
Very nice job with these recipes, I live in Jersey City, NJ in the US and there is a very large Indian population here and me and my girlfriend love Indian food. We go to the local restaurants at least twice a week
But I just stumbled over your website, I was talking to a friend of mine from Brazil and he had never tried Indian food. So I did a search on Google and found your site.
He said he will try to make the Lamb Rojan Josh, This is my favorite dish, and I have it at least once a week.
Thanks so much for all the pictures, I can’t wait to start trying the recipes out.
The only thing, I do not have a non-stick pot like the one you have there with the clear top.
What manufacturer is that pot?, I need to get one.
Thanks,
Sal Cameli
P.S.
Your Preview is not working at this url:
http://www.route79.com/journal/archives/000237.html
Comment kindly left by Sal Cameli — November 25, 2005 @ 2:56 pm
Sal: thanks – glad you like the recipe instructions – Indian food is the best!
Regarding the non-stick pot – I bought it as part of a complete set. The brand is Meyer – and the range is Anolon Professional (hard anodized) – as endorsed by professional chef Raymond Blanc. You can see the pots and pans in the range that I have by clicking here: http://www.meyeruk.com/products/productrange.asp?section=1&range=4
Just click on the “Items in Range” link to see the individual pots and pans that I use – I have the whole set. They are great because they have metal handles that can be used in the oven – and also have glass lids that are also safe to use in high-heat situations. You should be able to source these in the USA – prob cheaper than UK too.
Yes – the comments are not working in my old blog – and I haven’t had the time to fix them. Alas.
Comment kindly left by Jag — November 25, 2005 @ 8:55 pm
Hi Jag,
Thanks for your reply on Tom’s site.
I agree with your comments and don’t get me wrong – I do believe i-mode could and should be very successful as a technology much more focused on delivering content exclusively for mobile users.
Having said this, a developer community, sales rep expertise and some marketing buzz would’ve not hurt
Finally, a few technical questions I’ve not been able to find answers for yet, maybe you can help
- How does i-mode email works, does the email application periodically checks the server for new messages or is it push-based, i.e. similar to sms, the server can deliver email to the user without anything initated on the phone?
- Is it possible to push information somehow to a particular user between sessions. E.g. a user registers with the content provider, content provider delivers periodic data messages (other than sms) to the handset that trigger some application?
- is it possible to automatically launch an application on phones startup in to stand-by mode?
- is it possible to automatically launch an application when an email arrives?
- what user data is available when the user accesses a third-party server (ip address, handset environment)?
- can an application access information such as handsets IMEI, user\’s phone number etc.?
Thanks
Comment kindly left by Igor — November 29, 2005 @ 12:57 pm
Hi Igor,
Sincere apologies for the delay in responding to this.
Thanks for leaving a comment – and your email – will make sure that you get notified when the developer community activity gets going.
Picking up on your points – accept your point about the lack of info to the wider content/developer community – the strategy of recruiting and targeting certain CPs for the initial content line-up is a deliberate one. The “ecosystem” has to get going to start with – and has to have some time to get usage going – and revenues to CPs flowing. It is part of the overall plan to “open up” in the second phase – to encourage more usage both on and off-portal – as well as user-generated stuff.
i-mode email (i-mail) is push based. You when an email arrives in the platform for your email address – it is immediately pushed to the handset if the handset is connected to the network at the time. If not – then it is sent when the handset attaches to the network. So – yes – the user doesn’t have to initiate a “poll” – although the user can do that as well at any time if the push notification is lost/expired (typically only happens if user’s SIM has not been an i-mode handset for a long time – or has been switched off for a long time – e.g. weeks.
At this point in time it is not possible to send “trigger” type messages between CP and handset (other than binary SMS) – the user has to permit applications on the phone to connect to network in order to communicate with a remote server.
Re auto-start of applications in standby mode – I believe this is possible with more recent version of DoJa – best to check out the Doja Developers Network for info on this sort of capability: http://www.doja-developer.net/
Not sure what you mean by “user data” – but if you mean agent string type data – then there is a spec for this – and the data includes stuff like handset model, type, flash capability etc. etc. This will be supplied to third-party’s in due course.
Applications cannot get at IMEI or phone number. Applications may request a unique serial number for personalisation purposes – but the user will have to specifically confirm the sending of this when it is requested by a server. If, however, you are an official CP – then the network-platform will supply a user-id to the CP application. But IMEI and MSISDN are never supplied.
Hope that helps for now.
Comment kindly left by Jag — December 3, 2005 @ 10:35 am
Entries are now open for the inaugural DoJa Application Contest hosted by NTT DoCoMo. Submission deadline is January 31st!
The contest is open to developers around the world but not to currently established Telstra Content Partners.
Apart from the prizes (which include a Aibo robot, laptop and digital camera) the developer would gain access/visibility to DoCoMo and the i-mode global alliance operators.
More Info : http://www.doja-developer.net/contest/
Don’t miss it !
Comment kindly left by i-mode animal — January 5, 2006 @ 2:36 am
[...] I found this i-mode commerical for everyone to check out. There is also an i-mode demo that I got from one of my online classes but I can’t it post on here since wordpress doesn’t support windows media. If you want to check it out click this link and scroll down until you see the windows media file then follow the instructions. [...]
Pingback kindly left by i-mode commerical « upside down & backwards — September 13, 2006 @ 5:13 am