Watch xml.com this week: the XML Annoyances column is returning, and not a moment too soon it seems. -m
Month: October 2006
So, the question I posed here was what effect Number Portability would have on #3 carrier Softbank Mobile customers in Japan. Would they leave for greener pastures, or would lower prices and free Yahoo! content (not to mention a bit of advertising) attract new subscribers? Yep, file this under good problems to have. -m
ZDNet Asia offers a rare glimpse inside Yahoo! Mobile, including the code name for a current project I’m involved with. Read on to get an idea why I keep saying to expect big things soon in this space. -m
Opera just released a version of their Mini browser for Treo. Here’s what the download and install process looks like. point your existing Blazer browser at http://mini.opera.com the page detects your device (a Treo 650 in this case) and offers a download link clicking the link starts a 100k download the phone offers to store…
A brief nod to the east: now Japanese mobile users have the option to switch carriers while keeping their existing number. This development is triggering a new round of competition among the carriers and bringing in a new era of free content, something we take for granted in the U.S. -m
Just ran into this. Nice! Mobile mashups are getting some serious momentum. To elaborate on my previous comments a bit, the concept of what people find usable differs between sitting at a desktop and sitting/standing/running/driving with mobile in hand. Desktop sites aren’t optimized for these kinds of use patterns. Ergo, fertile ground for lots of…
Link. My comment: “duh”. In fact, don’t even try to copy Web 1.0 on phones. Even the concept of what’s uable differs on the small screen. -m
Lots more going on at Yahoo! Come join the fun! We’re specifically looking for PHP, SQL, DHTML, XML, and JavaScript folks. And if you have some knowledge of video codecs, definitely get in touch. -m
Whoops, the feedback email address for the XForms Validator was down after my last round of changes. Fixed. -m
One other thing that caught my eye recently: a report from a mobile industry task force led by Nokia that extolls the virtues of unplugging your phone after it’s charged. The report claims that if 10 percent of mobile phone owners would unplug their phones when done charging… it would reduce energy consumption by an…
Another great confererence I missed. Who wouldn’t want a trip to Espoo, Finland? Proceedings (link directly to large PDF). Looks like an interesting mix of theoretical and practical stuff. -m
On a PHP 4 project, I need to use XSLT, but the interfaces seem far more complicated than they should be. Check out this declaration for the function to run an XSLT: mixed xslt_process ( resource xh, string xmlcontainer, string xslcontainer [, string resultcontainer [, array arguments [, array parameters]]] ) Wow, it returns a…
Just a little FYI. Anyone use uses the word “pretexting” in a conversation with me is likely to get on my bad side. At least have the decency to call it identity fraud or even good old fashioned “lying”. -m
Check out this site from Dreamhost: Files Forever. All files are DRM-free and can be re-downloaded at any time. Expect to see more of this from an unhealthy market that wants to break free from artificial constraints. Currenly in beta and open only to Dreamhost customers. -m
The little one just turned a month old. Since I have a spare moment, time for some blog catch-up. A C|Net puff piece survey reports More than two-thirds of respondents said that their data was most vulnerable on laptop PCs, while 40% chose “other mobile devices” (i.e. PDAs, mobile phones, wireless devices) Mind you, this…
Today Softbank Mobile launched a new mobile service, delivering tons of Yahoo! Japan content, powered by Yahoo! US technology, to Softbank Mobile phones. This is notable for a few reasons: In the past, content of this caliber been inside paid walled gardens in Japan. Opening this up could be the tipping point for a shake-up…