In this issue

• Crystal-gazing
• Taking Verizon by Storm
• How much is that number in the window?
• Don’t like hands-free calling laws? Try texting…
• Will mobile operators become “dumb pipes?”
• Masthead

Crystal-gazing

According to Strategy Analytics, Google will capture a 4% share of the U.S. smartphone market in Q4 of 2008. Neil Mawston, Director, Wireless Device Strategies at Strategy Analytics, said, “We forecast 10.5 million smartphones to be sold in the United States during Q4 2008. We estimate smartphones with Google’s Android operating system, led by HTC of Taiwan, will reach 0.4 million units in the quarter, for a 4 percent marketshare. Android is a relatively late entrant and it will join an increasingly crowded market alongside Blackberry, Microsoft, Apple, Palm, Symbian and LiMo.”

Chris Ambrosio, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “Google has the brand power in the USA to make a big impact at launch. The main issue will be operator subsidies. As seen with the iPhone and smart devices in general, retail prices need to be well below $200 to be competitive. (The Android is anticipated at $199.) Longer-term success will, of course, rest on Android vendor ability to create designs with wow factor and an intuitive user-interface. Google will do its part to drive growth, and we expect Android will eventually offer a compelling range of mobile applications emphasizing Google’s online assets, such as advertising, mapping and search.” http://tinyurl.com/gomo042

Not bad for what RCR Wireless’ Mike Dano calls his “Worst of the Week.” Says Mike: “…if there’s one thing I know, it’s that we need more mobile-phone operating systems in the wireless industry. Yes sir, it’s not enough to have Symbian and Windows Mobile. Throwing in BlackBerry OS, iPhone OS, Palm OS and LiMo’s Linux doesn’t satisfy my need. No sir, I need more, darn it!

“Thankfully, Google is here to scratch my itch. And if Google’s new Chrome Internet browser (released last week) is any indication, the Google Android cellphone operating system will be a stripped-down effort, with virtually nothing new or exciting, that is clearly intended as a placeholder for more advanced services and functions that may or may not be released at some point in the future. But I’m still very excited. Mainly because if a Web site can launch a mobile-phone operating system, then it’s obviously not that hard and I should probably give it a shot too.” http://tinyurl.com/gomo044

Taking Verizon by Storm

The BlackBerry Storm — the first touchscreen device from Research In Motion Ltd. — appears ready for landing at Verizon Wireless, which is both advertising the device and demurring from providing details. The device is called the BlackBerry Storm 9530 Smartphone “with global capabilities,” potentially indicating GSM/CDMA support, and one can sign up for e-mail alerts on its availability by going to www.verizonwireless.com/storm. But, Verizon has not given any official information regarding the arrival date or pricing.

A heavy market in touchscreen devices was predicted for the fourth quarter, but Nokia’s announcement that there was a weakening consumer market globally has dampened hopes that some of the anticipated devices would be released yet this year. http://tinyurl.com/gomo043

Is the economy up or down? I seem to have forgotten what day it is.

How much is that number in the window?

If you are like me, you simply buy a cellphone and take whatever number the carrier gives you. Maybe you go so far as to ask for “an easy one to remember.” But it is not so with all phone numbers and this week Qtel in Qatar entered the Guinness Book of World Records with the sale of phone number 6666666. The price that earned this the record as the world’s most expensive phone number? $2.75 million. Previously, the record was held in China where the number 8888 had sold for $480,000. What I’d like to know is if the bidder got a free phone with that number. http://tinyurl.com/gomo045

Don’t like hands-free calling laws? Try texting…

Federal authorities investigating why a commuter train engineer ran through a red signal and into an oncoming freight train have confirmed that he was text messaging while working on the day of the fatal collision. The revelation came a day before the California Public Utilities Commission was scheduled to vote Thursday on a proposed emergency order banning the use of cell phones while operating a train. Commission President Michael R. Peevey, who is seeking the order, said some railroads have such policies but they're widely ignored. "Our order would make it the law and we'll go after violators," Peevey said earlier in the week.

The National Transportation Safety Board requested the cell phone records of Metrolink engineer Robert Sanchez after two teenage train fans said they had exchanged text messages with him shortly before the train collided head-on Friday with a Union Pacific freight train in suburban Chatsworth. The wreck killed 25 people, including Sanchez, and injured more than 130. http://tinyurl.com/gomo046

A study carried out by the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) revealed that, despite the danger, nearly half the UK drivers between 18 and 24 years of age admitted to texting while driving. Carrying out the first UK research into the effects of texting while driving, the RAC Foundation and TRL used TRL's driving simulator to research the effects of writing, reading and ignoring text messages on the driving skills of a test group of 17 - 24 year old motorists. The study found that reaction times deteriorated by over one-third (35%). This was worse than alcohol at the legal limit (12% slower) and driving under the influence of cannabis (21% slower) Drivers also drifted out of their lane more often. Steering control was 91% worse, compared to 35% worse when under the influence of cannabis. http://tinyurl.com/gomo047

It is comforting to know that the obvious can be scientifically quantified.

Will mobile operators become “dumb pipes?”

As mobile operators seek to drive revenue growth from flat rate, or nearly flat rate, data access packages, one of the main concerns is whether or not they will end up being commodity ISPs - the dreaded "dumb pipes" scenario. But analysts at Ovum this week said that the same fate need not befall the mobile operators as it did the ISPs which adopted this approach for the internet model several years ago. "The short answer is that operators don't have to be dumb pipes, unless they are stupid. There are ways to avoid this," said Michele Mackenzie, service manager and practice leader.

"One of the challenges that operators face is that a lot of content which is paid for today will become ad supported going forward - or at least some components of it will", said Eden Zoller, principal analyst of consumer practice at Ovum. "However, we do not believe that the mobile internet model will go the same way as the fixed model and become wholly ad supported. There will continue to be a mix of paid for and ad-supported content over mobile," Zoller said. This is largely because the economics over mobile do not stack up, with the CPM (cost per thousand ads) rate generally insufficient to cover mobile network and delivery costs. The analyst expects that mobile operators can look forward to a period of growth in mobile broadband connectivity. But to capitalize on this opportunity, operators need to invest heavily in new high-capacity networks, effectively marking a transition to becoming ISPs. To avoid the fate of fixed-network ISPs, mobile operators will then either need to partner with internet firms and share revenues and/or develop a smart-pipe strategy. This involves 'exposing' different parts of their networks to third party service providers and monetizing access to them. http://tinyurl.com/gomo048

Masthead

This is issue #30 of Going Mobile. The stories that I refer to are all among the 200+ publicly published articles I scan each week, but the commentary is entirely my own and does not represent the views, opinions, or official position of Microsoft or the Windows Mobile management team or any of the sites or companies referenced herein. You can refer stories to me or make other comments below. I'd like to make this better each week.

In this issue

• RIM gets Live Search on Blackberry
• Who is Johnny X?
• Nokia uses Microsoft to compete with RIM
• Smartphone sales grew 16% in Q2
• Asus rolls out Windows Mobile 6.1 touchscreen phone
• Teens shaping and reshaping their world
• Masthead

RIM gets Live Search on Blackberry

After agreeing to allow access to Live Messenger and Hotmail in May, Microsoft's addition of search to its RIM partnership further signifies the company's embrace of Blackberry. Under the terms of an extended agreement announced Thursday, Microsoft's Live Search will be given prominent placement in the Web browser and mapping applications of RIM BlackBerry handsets. Users will be able to make Live Search their search engine of choice, which is not exactly the same as being the default search engine. http://tinyurl.com/gomo03b

It seems to be part of a larger push by RIM to fight for the consumer market. In what looks like an attempt to compete toe-to-toe with Apple's iPhone, Research in Motion announced a slew of new integrated application deals on Thursday to make its e-mail-optimized smartphone more appealing to consumers. E-mail was the killer application that catapulted RIM's BlackBerry device into near cult status in the corporate world. And now the company is trying to win the hearts and minds of consumers, not only with new phones—like the flip-style Pearl 8220, which was announced on Wednesday, or the BlackBerry Bold, which recently launched in the North American market—but it's also loading BlackBerry devices with what its co-CEO Jim Balsillie called "lifestyle" applications. In addition to Live Search, RIM announced working relationships with TiVo, MySpace, Ticketmaster, and Slacker music, among others. http://tinyurl.com/gomo03c

Who is Johnny X?

In fact, what is “Johnny X?” I’m guessing that it is an upcoming movie in which Sony Ericsson has negotiated premier product placement for the soon to arrive Xperia X1. Sony got great product placement for cameras, laptops and cell phones in the James Bond movie “Casino Royale” just two years ago. If the trailer playing on the Sony Ericsson site is any clue, we could surmise that “Who is Johnny X?” is the story of an Xperia X1 that helps a man who has lost his memory. What? No retired executives or once-popular television comics? The trailer shows a dark, action-packed thriller and promises additional installments if you subscribe to updates. If the movie and the phone live up to the trailer, I’m first in line for both! http://tinyurl.com/gomo03a

Of course, in spite of the fact Sony Ericsson announced this week that the device would be available in the UK, Germany, and Sweden on September 30, there is no indication that there will be a U.S. release of the product. Imminent Web search. http://tinyurl.com/gomo041

Nokia uses Microsoft to compete with RIM

Nokia Corp. has greatly expanded the number of handsets able to connect with Microsoft Corp.'s business email system, an attempt by the mobile-phone maker to better compete with rival devices like Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry. All Nokia phones using the S60 platform, developed by Symbian Ltd., will be able to download Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync—a program widely used by corporations—allowing users to get work emails regularly sent to their phones. New phones in Nokia's high-end N-series and E-series will come loaded with the program. The devices, which don't receive carrier subsidies, sell for around $450 to $950 at retailers. ActiveSync will now be available on 43 models of Nokia phones, which means lower-end phones will also be able to run the program. There are 80 million Nokia devices in the market already using the S60 operating system that can download the program. http://tinyurl.com/gomo03d

Smartphone sales grew 16% in Q2

Mobile users around the globe are increasingly purchasing smartphones but the economic slowdown may affect adoption rate, according to new data from Gartner. The report, "Market Share: Smartphones, Worldwide, 2008," said 32.2 million smartphones were sold in the second quarter of 2008, a 15.7% increase from the year before. But the second quarter couldn't escape growing concerns over the economy, and Gartner said the sales increase was at a lower rate than in 2007. "The current economic environment continues to negatively impact the market, limiting consumer spending and replacement purchases in general," said Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner, in a statement. "In addition, smartphone sales slowed down as a result of new compelling touch technology mainly available on enhanced phones rather than smartphones." http://tinyurl.com/gomo03e

Asus rolls out Windows Mobile 6.1 touchscreen phone

Computer maker Asus on Monday announced a touchscreen smartphone that should make mobile professionals more productive. The company's latest handset—the Asus P552w—uses a Marvell Tavor 624 MHz processor to run Window Mobile Professional 6.1, and it's capable of many productive mobile applications. The handset's can send and receive e-mail and instant messaging, and it can view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. The smartphone lacks a physical keypad, as all of the input is done through the phone's 2.8-inch touch screen. Some have found Windows Mobile to be a cumbersome to use on a touchscreen device, so Asus has implemented a custom user interface it has dubbed Glide. With Glide, a user can perform navigational functions like zooming, selecting, and scrolling with flicks of the finger. The interface can also be used with integrate applications for functions like reading news, viewing slideshows, and checking the weather. http://tinyurl.com/gomo03f

Teens shaping and reshaping their wireless world

A generation widely defined by mobility, today's teenagers are now making demands of their mobile devices and, in doing so, redefining what mobility will be in the future, according to a US survey, published by the US trade body - the CTIA, in conjunction with Harris Interactive. According to the Harris Interactive study, second to clothing, teens say a cell phone tells the most about a person's social status or popularity, outranking jewelry, watches and shoes. The study also found that cell phones are fast becoming a social necessity among teens. A majority (57 percent) view their cell phone as the key to their social life.

With nearly four out of every five teens (17 million) carrying a wireless device (a 40 percent increase since 2004), it's not surprising that six in ten teens (57 percent) credit mobility for improving their quality of life. Over half of the respondents (52 percent) agree the cell phone has become a new form of entertainment and one-third of teens currently play games on their phone. On a more serious note, 80 percent of teens surveyed said their cell phone provided a sense of security while on the go, confirming the cell phone has become their mobile safety net when needing a ride (79 percent), getting important information (51 percent), or just helping out someone in trouble (35 percent). From texting to talking and logging on to social networking sites, teens carry cell phones to have access to friends, family and current events. Ironically, while only one in five (18 percent) teens care to pinpoint the location of their family and friends via their cell phone, 36 percent hate the idea of a cell phone feature allowing others to know their exact location.

"Teens expect mobile technology to change the social fabric of their world and they have laid the future at the feet of this technology like no other," said Joseph Porus of Harris. "To our knowledge, no other industry carries these hopes; while teens are interested in cars and music and movies, it is mobility that will change their future!" http://tinyurl.com/gomo040

Masthead

This is issue #30 of Going Mobile. The stories that I refer to are all among the 200+ publicly published articles I scan each week, but the commentary is entirely my own and does not represent the views, opinions, or official position of Microsoft or the Windows Mobile management team or any of the sites or companies referenced herein. You can refer stories to me or make other comments below. I'd like to make this better each week.

Live mobile video mixing and collaboration Arvid Engstrom

[Mobile video production] + [collaboration] + [mobile context] = mobile collaborative live video mixing

Mobile context is realtime production and consumption plus public events. Mobile context equals VJing. Occurs in dance clubs. the VJ does the real time graphics as the DJ spins the music. THe VJ interacts with both the DJ and the audience. Oriented to experimentation. What if these people could do a VJing show for each other? Mobile phone plus laptop plus club visitors plus VJ and DJ.  Social interaction is ambient interaction with the audience. Orientation to the DJ. Interaction between VJs. Temp expression, media compositions. Swarmcam: Three nokia N5 and N93, live video capture on the device, broadcast to Internet, captured by VJ mixer, Displayed on screen.

An interesting concept with very little that could actually be quantified. They felt that they had proved that it was possible to do this, but they were really just using cellphones instead of cameras for the video feed to a person who was still mixing everything together. It looks cool, but I don't know the extent to which there is a need or benefit.

User needs and design guidelines for mobile services for sharing digital life memories. Thomas Olsson

A digital media entity which is a multimedia representation of the actual memory and meaningful to its user. A digital life memory may be enriched with contextual information as well as comments from others in the capturing situation. User needs to capture moments that are significant. User often regards memories as an event. User memories include stories and contexts. User wants option to choose how extensively the memory is shared. User wants to receive comments and enrich the memory through discussion. User wants to create collective memories. Users agree that when capturing recordings, there is a higher probability to have an important memory.

The biggest thing about this is defining the term digital life memory. There was no real new information on techniques or process.

Social Playlist: Roger Andersson

The Astonishing Tribe (TAT): Specialists in mobile user interface tech and design, UI framework that enables the creation of complete UI

Shared Music Listening: Focus: Collaborative and shared music listening among friends in mobile context and continuous experience. Share the listening experience with groups of friends who share a channel. Associate music to activities and locations. Music is played according to current activities and locations. Everyone hears the same music at the same time.

Interesting concept that brings specific group together to listen to the same music at the same time without being in the same place. Friends seem concerned about what people will think about them based on the songs they choose. Also think about why their friends chose certain music. Resulted in discoveries and relationships, feeling connected. Implications and challenges: integrating the music, having free associations, supporting relationships, counterbalancing experiences of bad songs and misinterpretations, encouraging active participation, dealing with beyond the honeymoon period.

Supporting a Mobile Lost and Found Community: Dominique Guinard

In 2006, 400,000 objects were lost in Switzerland. Amongst these, less than 40-% recovered. This creates a community where you can post missing items and can post found items. Community based reporting: Members can identify objects. Uses RFID to trace objects and record ownership. Uses the owner's Visa card to identify the owner and registration. Useful for people on the run. Makes sense for valuable items. Liked the people to people aspect. Are people nice? How about privacy?

Privacy is going to be a huge issue on a thing like this. I doubt that people will want to use their VISA card to identify their belongings. Also, RFID tags are easy to get rid of. The illustration used was that an object was registered as it came out of Wallmart. But at Wallmart the RFID tags that are being added are on the packaging, not on the product in most instances. There is a lot of question as to the benefits of RFID tags and the invasion of privacy.

TimeWarp--interactive time travel with a mobile mixed reality game: Anne Braun (Top long paper of the conference)

Elves are still in Cologne, stuck in other time periods. Players must find them and bring them back to help the citizens. 4D multimedia experience. Spatial Plus Time. The game area is the inner city of Cologne (the old city). Includes 3D objects superimposed over photos to show the past and what was in a different time. Also audio. To free the Heinzelmannchen, the player solves challenges. Include historical background and appropriate locations. Design objectives for social, temporal, and spatial presence.

This paper received the top award at HCI Mobile for understandable reasons. The research is comprehensive and well-thought-out. The game itself has a clever plot. What was most obvious from this study, however, was the kind of cobbling that goes into setting up an experiment of this scope. The initial gear required to play the game made players look like aliens on the streets of Cologne with headgear and backpacks that make playing an isolated and dangerous function. Second trial reduced amount of equipment and increased player interaction, but still showed the problems of creating a mixed reality game in a real environment. Since one is dealing with a real environment, the paths the game can follow are limited. Once you know where the clues are, you can progress directly to them.

Deploying and evaluating a mixed reality mobile treasure hunt: Snap2Play: You Yilun, Institute for Infocomm Research

What mixed reality techniques can be implemented on current phones? Can we still achieve a pleasant AR with limited screen size? Are the interaction modes natural to users? Performance of the place recognition engine. Perfect system vs. limit of users' patience. Treasure Hunt Game. A real and a virtual card. Have to get both and match them up. Game conducted in Singapore at National University Campus with three pairs of cards.

Users do not pay attention all the time, expecially in location. Need to provide tactile feedback to indicate they are near the objective. Yilun also found that in spite of enjoying the game, only half would play again unless the content of the game changed. It would have to move locations or change collections, etc.

Gauntlet, a wearable interface for ubiquitous gaming: Tiago Martins

Looking for a user interface for pervasive gaming which is intuitive to use yet still generic enough to allow different game-play modes; supports ubiquitous use without requiring different locations to be prepared beforehand. People interact with the world most often using their hands. Pointed them toward gesture-based and tangible interaction with real objects. This facilitates inclusion of everyday objects into a game. Direction: Sensors are placed on the user, to obtain data on the users gestures and attempt to identify objects she may be holding. User carries a game controller (IO device) which should be unintrusive and unobtrusive. A wearable device providing ubiquity of use. Chose The Gauntlet: A bracer (common carpal tunnel wrist-brace) embedded with sensors and actuators. Object identification by RFID. Gesture recognition using accelerometer and compass. I/O device, Bluetooth serial port connection. Game: Noon-A Secret Told by Objects. Player wears the gauntlet and carries the black book which is a PDA embedded in a book so people wouldn't touch the PDA. Touch the object and point to a candle for the time period to piece together a portion of the story.

Nice experiment on fantasy interaction with real objects. As it is a role-playing single path mystery, it is not really a repeatable game once it has been won. However, the use of the gauntlet showed that interaction with gesture might be possible. Think of this as Wii in three dimensions with real objects.

In the hands of children--exploring the use of mobile phone functionality in casual play settings: Petra Jarkievich

Looks at children's everyday use of mobile phones while they are playing. Study in Stockholm in fall 2007 with 150 children age 10-12. Interviewed 30 children in six groups. Looked for a place where children could play for a long time without being interrupted.

1. Children act locally in the group: Experience media together in the group and facilitate social interaction. They watched videos together, listened to music together in big groups. They gave away tunes to each others. Also powerful way to exclude someone from the group by not giving them a tune. Children displayed skills in using the mobile phone.
2. To adapt the technology in a variety of ways in a way it was not intended for, like Cops and robbers and ringtones. They used their phones for old games. Using the video phone to show each other where the "enemy" was. Used ringtones to call the enemy and hear where they were located.
3. Physically engaged, creative and socially active: New possibilities to get the children engaged with Camp game and Photo War. Camp game used a phone as a light to identify where the enemy was. Photo war they ran round taking pictures and then gathered to tally how many enemies they had captured on their phones.

This may have been the most exciting presentation of the day. It was inspired by an actual observation of children playing in a park using their cell phones as part of their play. The key thing here is that children will adapt anything for use in their play. We have advanced from an age where kids would pick up a stick and point it as a gun to an age where they use their cell phones as walkie-talkies to track down other players in an elaborate game of "hide and seek." It emphasizes the fact that people in general find ways to use technology that are not anticipated by the inventors.

Playing different games on different phones--an empirical study on mobile gaming: Henry Been-Lirn Duh

Henry is focused on empirical research, so this experiment carefully defined a nine cell matrix of three games and three Nokia devices to chart which game/device combination gave the best player experience. Interestingly, Henry focused the research on charting the player's negative facial, verbal, and body expressions during play. Device/game with the fewest negative expressions won. Even though smaller screen size and standard candybar form-factor, users preferred the Nokia 6610 (1.5" screen with 12 key board) vs. the Nokia 3650 or N-Gage QD with 2.1" screen and keyboards on all three games. Simplicity, it seems, brought up fewer negatives than complexity.

Dr. BJ Fogg, Stanford University - Mobile HCI 2008 Keynote

Created a new class at Stanford in 2007: How to create and distribute applications for Facebook. 120 students on the first day of class. Students graded on how many people used the project. Had 16 million users on Facebook in 6 weeks. On a daily basis 1,000,000 were using the applications. Lesson: Many crummy trials beat deep thinking. You will be much further ahead if you have 200 hours to try a whole bunch of things that to do a lot of thinking and develop one perfect thing. Fogg's dissertation, reason to go to Stanford, was "Can you computerize persuasion?" in 1993.

Captology: Computers as persuasive technology. We can now create machines that control human behavior. One of the implications of designing persuasive tech is "who should be allowed to do it?" A huge moral question.

Facebook as a persuasive technology. Mass interpersonal persuasion. Automated, social network easy to do, oberservable impact, fast cycle, persuasive application. Everyone here is in the persuasion business. What is the target behavior? Phase 1, user needs to discover the service. PHase 2, try out. Phase 3, use the service through a true commitment. resuse over and over. You need to think deliberately about what the behaviors are and decide how you want to change them.

"The mobile phone is humankind's greatest invention ever. There has never been a more important invention." It has tremendous power to change what we think and do.

Will the power of mobile persuasion be used by many to benefit many, or by few to benefit few.

Three symbols that represent the mobile phone and its relationship to us.

Heart: We love our mobile phones. We have a yearning for it when we are not in its presence. Everybody new in this world will have a mobile phone. It is the next step in human evolution. We marry our mobile phone. We spend more time with it than our spouses, our children, or our jobs. It is stressful to be linked up with one that is not suited to you. Trust confidence and delight make us more open to new behaviors and experiences.

Wrist Watch: It is always with us. If not biologically part of us, it is still part of the human experience. a) Concierge: if you have a problem, it will provide answers in the moment; b) Coach: a reminder. I go to a concierge for help, the coach comes to me. It pushes help to you. c) Court jester: It entertains and amuses. This is the sneakiest characteristic of all. When put into the context of fun and games, our defenses drop. Think "The Daily Show." It exposes far more people to real news than network news because it is fun.

Magic Wand: It has amazing capabilities. With a sophisticated mobile phone I could orchestrate an entire movement or business enterprise. The power is very personal. It should be designed to help us achieve our own goals, not someone else's. We will reject experiences that are heavy-handed. Web 2.0 has stolen the thunder of what is happening on the mobile freenet. But Web 2.0 is becoming far more interesting and powerful as it moves to the mobile phone. You have to capture the essence of the Web 2.0 experience. The essence of Flickr is to comment. You have to get that experience right.

Eventually we will trust our mobile phones so much that it will no longer be persuasive. We will just follow what it says. And we will like it.

Target Behavior: How do you achieve them?

Kairos: Timing. The mobile phone has a huge opportunity because it understands where we are, our context and our goals. It is something the desktop PC cannot do. If you want to achieve a target behavior, three things have to happen at once: sufficient motivation, the ability to do it, the trigger to start the action. I wrote this at Mobile HCI three years ago: Like murder, feature usage requires motive, means, and opportunity.

1. Motivation: three factors: a) Instant gratification or instant pain. b) Anticipation of pleasure or pain. (hope or fear) c) Social acceptance vs. social rejection.
2. Ability (simplicity): six elements: a) time, b) money, c) physical effort, d) brain cycles, e) Social deviance, f) non-routine.
3. Trigger. Facebook is especially good at triggering. Do it right now.

Smart people sitting in a room talking doesn't work very well. You are better to get less smart people doing stuff and pushing it out there.

Start with a point of inspiration and put it out fast in a broad way, have your goals, and evaluate how well it worked, then send it back through the process again. The faster you go through the cycle, the faster you will succeed. If we miss a day we are behind on Facebook. It may not be that fast on mobile apps, but it is that kind of thinking that will create success. Everything big on the Internet started small. Do one little thing, do it fast, and see if it works. Once one little machine working, then build off that machine.

Think of all the teachers in your life who have made an investment in you. Think of all their teachers. Think of their teachers. That is how I find courage to finish something hard. Look at all the investment that has been made in me.

Albrecht Schmidt, Universitat Duisburg, Essen - Context Awareness

Sense and sensor are not the same.

Devices are used everywhere, in context: Mobile and ubiquitous use; Interaction with the mobile device is the secondary task. People use devices in context and the context doesn't change the device's use or function.

Context is a key for efficient communication. Everything that is clear from context, we leave out of the conversation. "Incoming at 2:00." "What time is it now?"

Compare hands-free phoning in the car, talking to a passenger on the front seat, and talking with a child on the backseat. What is safest? Why? The passenger in the front reacts to the context with the driver. With the phone, the other person has no context for the driving situation. The child is a distraction and is the most dangerous because of looking away from the road.

How to use context? For an adaptation of application, content, presentation, interaction. Adaptation is really difficult to do. You tend to lose effectiveness for experienced users. As content for tagging media, creating meta information, recording content, and real-time sharing. Much easier to do. Lots of examples. To rethink UI options for output, input, communication. Sharing my context to help set parameters for communication. Make use of context, adjust media quality, adapt media usages, choose the modality, adapt content and visual representation, timing of output/notification (as in interrupt at appropriate times). Ease input by using context knowledge, automate input with time, presence, tracking documents, places visited; provide context-dependent defaults; Optimize input space to fit to current context for handwriting/speech recognition and context sensitive menus. This is not easy. If it is adaptive, it must fit people's perception of the presentation mode.

Designing for context is natural. We design for a certain context and certain type of use. Now, we need to have context at runtime to recognizes new contexts and act depending on the context.

Defining context: Exploiting the changing environment

Context is any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity.

Resulting interaction paradigm: implicit interaction: Utilizing context for human computer interaction. Implicit human computer interaction is an action, performed by the user, that is not primarily aimed to interact with a computerized system.

Stephen Brewster, Glasgow Interactive Systems Group

Use various senses in combination (multimodal) to create context and interactions.

Interaction problems: Mobile interaction takes place in the real world. Users are involved in other tasks, on themove, contexts very varied, users need effective ways to interact with sophisticated new applications and services. Current interfaces can make interaction difficult.

Multimodal interaction: Ned interactions that llow people to get on with their lives whilst using the technology (eyes-free or hands-free). Need to develop new interaction techniques that suit real environments of use.

Non-speech audio interaction: Music, structured sound, sound effects, natural sounds. Icons vs. text, non-speech vs. speech. You could have earcons. Why use audio? Good for rapid non-visual feedback.Types: beeps, earcons (musically structured abstract sounds), auditory icons (natural everyday sounds), sonification (visualization using sound, mapping data parameters to audio parameters.

Audio interaction: Need to increase the audio display space to deliver more information and quickly use up display space. 3D audio profiles larger display area, monitor more sound sources, planar sound (2.5D). Audio windows: Each application gets its own part of the audio space. Techniques: How do we use spatial audio? Progress indicator, diary. Pie menus: audio menu items placed around the head, cardinal points or front 180 degrees, users can select audio menu items with head gestures when on the move.

Haptics: Sense and/or motor activity based in the skin, muscles, joints and tendons. Kinaesthesis: Sense and motor activity based in the muscles, joints, and tendons. Touch: sense based on receptors in the skin (tactile: mechanical stimulation to the skin).

Why haptic interaction? Has benefits of visual display because it is eyes-free. Has benefits over audio display because it is ears-free.

Dr. Michael Rohs, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, TU Berlin

In 2000 the first camera phone (Sharp J-SH04) came out with 110k pixel CMOS sensor. In 2009, 89% of mobile phones will ship with a camera. Camera phones can be used match location based information. Lining the physical to the virtual world, bridging devices.

Issues with camera-based interfaces: Digital cameras: Very rich sensor data, interpretable by humans and machines and can be processed in many ways. General issues of perceptual interfaces (computer vision, gesture recognition, speech recognition) include potential for recognition errors and severity depends on application. Problems of camera-based interfaces include recognition errors, delay for processing, dependence on lighting conditions, and computational resources needed.

This session had good info, but less digestible. It was filled with stats and performance possibilities without really reaching conclusions.

Mirjana Spasojevic of Nokia Research in Palo Alto.

Why do user research? We are not our users. Users don't always share our assumptions, values, or interests. Technologists are early adopters and visionaries.

What do we build? Developing new ideas for products & features. Ethnographic studies, personas, concepts.

How do we build it? Create specifications, iterate on design prototypes, build.

Did we meet our goals? Evaluate product success and compare against competitors.

Focus shifting away from lab tests. Radically new user study methods needed!

Methodologies

Qualitative vs. Quantitative data gathering. Qualitative is primarily focused on design and specification. Quantitative data focuses on validation and evaluation of design. We need both in order to move forward.

Contextual Inquiry (a.k.a. Ethnographic research, field studies, diaries, and shadowing): Collect information about usage through direct observation and diaries; In-depth "Discussion" (unstructured or semi-structured interviews); Results in deep and rich stories of users' experiences; Is a foundation for creating design principles and personas.

Data collection and analysis: What we saw/heard => What it means => Why it matters

Storyboards and Concept Evaluation: Get feeedback on concepts from future users.

Participatory design: Co-designing with users: Rapid iteration between design and testing of ideas; Move design forard and minimize risk of "bigger" usability problems later; Established practice in Web design but have not been used as much in the mobile domain.

Pilot deployments and Wizard of Oz: Tech centric vs. user-centric: New technical ideas and solutions are frequently embodies as initial prototypes, user population and context of use not certain. Challenge: follow the user-centered design approach with a high fidelity prototype already designed.

Longitudinal Studies. Long term. 3-6 months up to years.

Summary: Research method is not a substitute for a good research question. Mobility makes everything more difficult and more interesting. We are at the forefront of a new research methodology.

Scott MacKenzie -- York University Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Bit about the history of text input on everything from typewriter on to cell phone. Focus on handheld devices as keyboard, soft keyboard with finger entry, and stylus entry either on soft keyboard or text recognition. Most items have been pretty summarily dismissed, including the presenters own developments. Focus is on whether or not we need a qwerty keyboard, either literal or virtual.

The significant different keyboard layout appears in shipping and inventory devices that orient keys alphabetically and vertically. Emphasis is on how to reduce the number of keys that you need to use in a physical keyboard. The fewer keys, the more ambiguity on what we are entering. In text messaging, about 60% of attendees use T9 instead of multi-tap. But those who use multi-tap use a) multiple languages, b) a lot of slang, c) technical language not in the dictionary. It is always accurate.

What strikes me is that the text entry systems from qwerty to dvorak to opti or others are all English-based test and systems, or if not English, then still western alphabetical. Is it reasonable to base text entry study on such a limited example of the world's population? Obviously, Canadians, Americans, English, and a lot of Europe are going to be biased toward the alphabetic text entry. But I'm not convinced that this is wise for business when we are acknowledging that the bulk of the device market today is in Asia and emerging nations. When I designed the "black river" system for predicting best character size, line length, and line spacing for rows of text on a display, one of the primary principles was that the system needed to work across any language, character set, or cultural prejudice. I don't see that in any of the studies on text entry for devices that depend on "well-behaved English text entry." As I look around this room, far less than half of the people present (about 60 people total) are native English speakers. Somewhere near a third do not natively use a western alphabet. Granted, predictive text and character entry probably have even more variant characteristics than character shape and readability, but it seems we the consideration of various language systems is important in designing the driving software for text entry.

That brings me to the next question: Is text entry superfluous? Granted, today some of the major communication techniques are text-based on mobile devices. But will they continue to be? The development of various abbreviations in SMS messaging, often depending on emoticons in addition to text cut the entry process significantly. But the current text entry algorithms do not predict the abbreviated text that is still evolving. Culturally, in western languages, we are progressively circumventing the T9 or other predictive process and the number of keystrokes needed per word by changing the language. I'd like to know if this is a process that is evolving in developing markets as well. It would be a great study to compare the number of keystrokes needed to type out a message in "well-formed English" vs. the keystrokes needed to enter the same message with abbreviated text techniques.

Patrick Baudisch, Microsoft Research in Redmond: Design for small screen

Battery life, processing power, screen space. Because of changes, this is about screen space.

Interesting view of the navigation and touch technique. So instead of really talking about designing (as in layout) for the small screen, the talk is about touching. Difference between finger and stylus. Face of device touch vs. back of device touch.

Using a pseudo-transparent screen. You touch the back and see your fingers through the screen. The technique is borrowed from augmented reality. Currently working on a very small screen with pseudo-transparency. Showed doing a first person shooter game with fingers behind the screen so there was no occlusion of the screen. That's pretty cool.

Next is experimentation with accelerometer. Problem: It is easy to tilt, but it is very difficult not to tilt.

One problem with a small screen is that you don't know where you are in relation to the whole. So, the assumption is still that there is a large flat display and you are looking through a window at it. You see some portion of the full display on the small screen and need to navigate around the large display, peaking through the small window. This is referred to as a peephole display.

Ah. Part 2. Output. So the first part was all about input techniques (touch and gesture) and now he's looking at the display. Peephole, zoom, web thumbs, hybrid zoom, enhanced thumbnails, fisheye view, (fisheye is most commonly used on maps and is the one place it should not be used), summary thumbnails (talk about ugly!), smartnails, collapse to zoom (that is closer--you collapse unimportant areas and let important areas zoom), simple arrows, edge radar, scaled arrows, city lights, halo (the smallest arc is nearest to the screen, so you can tell how close something is to the screen).

Extending screen-space. Stitch, near-eye.

Eyes-free interaction. Gesture of a specific length is difficult, but gesture of a specific direction is easy. Tactile like vibration. Keyboard has constant tactile calibration. You feel the edge of the key and adjust to where you believe the next key is in relation to that location. That is a problem with a projected keyboard or a flat keyboard that does not have anything but vibrator or audio, it does not let you auto-calibrate. Design of phones is for visual impact, not for tactile impact.

PC screens have the users' undivided attention. Desktop PCs are a different world than mobile devices. In a mobile situation there is almost always something else happening. If the mobile device requires visual attention users will fail at their current activity. Relying on the visual channel is good on a PC, but limiting on a mobile device. The usage pattern of a sighted device stays the same over time. It doesn't get easier or faster to use. Use of visual channel limits how skilled users can get.

How to design for eyes-free use.

1. predictability is more important than number of keystrokes. "I use multi-tap because it always works." Fitts' law is the least important of all UI laws.

1a. Don't mode me in. Most-recently used list are 99% evil. THey make new users 5% faster but make experienced users 10x slower. Communicating a mode on a device is really hard. Much better to have things in a locked position.

1b. offer an escape.

2. Avoid "casting." For discreet tasks use discreet controls (such as buttons for typing or launching app)

3. No eyes-free without tactile features.

3a. Spend buttons wisely. Does entering phone numbers deserve 80% or our buttons in home screen mode? Should each button in app start smart search?

• Google’s app store
• Wash your laptop, mister?
• Test first, text later
• Mobile HCI 2008
• Masthead

Google’s App Store

Google outlined its answer to Apple’s Mobile App Store, outlining a distribution system for applications built on its Android platform.

Android Market will serve as an unrestricted storefront where registered developers can offer their wares simply by uploading their applications and posting descriptions. Google said it will also provide a dashboard and analytics to help developers tweak their applications to find broader audiences.

“We chose the term ‘market’ rather than ‘store’ because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available,” Eric Chu posted on Android’s developers blog in a swipe at the App Store. “Developers will be able to make their content available on an open service hosted by Google that features a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube.” http://tinyurl.com/gomo02c

Wash your laptop, mister?

Before they ship PCs to retailers such as Best Buy, computer makers load them up with lots of free software. For $30, Best Buy will get rid of it for you. Speaking as a person who spends hours searching and killing all the promo on a laptop when I first get it in order to have room on its hard-drive to install the apps I actually want and not have annoying pop-ups reminding me that it is time to buy after my trial period, I’m ready to march right down to BestBuy and put my money on the table. But there are those who aren’t so pleased with the service.

Software companies spend big bucks with the computer manufacturers to put their sample software on the laptops, and if BestBuy removes it all, they get no value for the $2-10 they spend on each install. With hardware margins getting thinner and thinner, the loss of that software revenue could spell the difference between profit and loss for hardware companies like HP, Dell, and Sony.

Then stop and think about what it might mean for the mobile industry. What might happen if BestBuy started offering to wipe your smartphone before you take it home from the store and let you install the applications (maybe even the operating system) that you want on it? There’s no word of this actually happening, but it is a logical next step. The real question is, will customers pay as much (or more) for devices that are cleaned up as for those that come with fifty bells and whistles that are always in their way. Will added services end up helping or hindering smartphone sales? http://tinyurl.com/gomo02d

Test first, text later

Nearly three million mobile users received Barack Obama's SMS about his new running mate, but many of those who signed up may have gotten the text late — or not at all — according to new figures from Keynote Systems.

The mobile and Internet test measurement company out of San Mateo, CA, Keynote sent 600 trial messages to the Obama '08 Campaign short code in the days before the Democratic candidate's massive SMS effort last weekend, with only about 55% of the experimental messages reaching their destinations within 90 seconds if they arrived at all.

"Based on its data, Keynote believes that between 40% to 50% of people subscribing to receive the VP selection text message from the Obama campaign may not have received the text message in a timely fashion or in fact very likely never received the text message at all," the company said in a prepared statement. http://tinyurl.com/gomo02e

Mobile HCI 2008

Yes it is a short issue this week, but watch the blog for daily updates. I am attending the 10^th annual conference on Human Computer Interface for Mobile Devices in Amsterdam. http://tinyurl.com/gomo02b. So in addition to the weekly installment of Going Mobile, will be blogging the latest, greatest, and newest insights from the industry’s far-thinkers at http://goingmobile.spaces.live.com. The program looks to be one of the best I’ve attended in the past four years. I’ll post multiple times each day, so check back often!

Masthead

This is issue #28 of Going Mobile. The stories that I refer to are all among the 200+ publicly published articles I scan each week, but the commentary is entirely my own and does not represent the views, opinions, or official position of Microsoft or the Windows Mobile management team or any of the sites or companies referenced herein. You can refer stories to me or make other comments below. I'd like to make this better each week.