Yesterday was the first Mobile Monday Austin! It was a nice event, with 80 - 100 people attending. The event started with some mingling/networking time, followed by an introduction to the group and an explanation of how it came into existence (credit here going to Enrique Ortiz for pulling everything together.) [Michael Yuan, author of the O'Reilly, "Nokia Smartphone Hacks" book, has a few pictures from the event on his site.]
The main presentations were by Mike Trujillo and I. Mike talked a bit about the Nokia phone platforms and the services offered by Forum Nokia. I presented next, talking briefly about some of the new mobile technologies and trends. My criteria for selection was that the list should be limited to about a dozen things, that each technology had to be coming to market soon (if not already) and that it will change the way people use mobile devices. This wasn't meant to be a "blue-sky" list, but things that are currently changing in the mobile market that are exciting.
For those who missed the presentation, my list looked like this:
Expanding the Series 60 platform
Nokia has announced that it is merging the Series 60 and Series 90 platforms. This will widen the range of devices compatible with Series 60 applications and allow greater flexibility in device form factors.
Open source programming languages
Projects like Python for Series 60, Perl for Symbian, and OPL are making it possible to develop mobile applications without a heavy domain-specific learning curve (meaning, if you know Python, you can be up and running with Python on Series 60 in a day.)
Nokia's announcement of a new web browser using open source technologies
There hasn't been much talk about this since the original press release, but the potential is huge. The announcement describes a new mobile browser built on Apple's WebCore and JavaScriptCore (ie., the guts of the Safari browser.) If this new browser brings Safari-quality rendering and standards support to mobile phones, we're looking at a leap in mobile browsing technology.
Macromedia Flash Lite
The Macromedia development tools are wonderful, and the Flash engine is amazing. Much like the promise of open source programming languages, the ability to use Flash to author mobile applications will greatly expand the mobile developer base and should produce a whole new class of stunning applications.
Location based services
There are already a number of mobile applications that utilize Bluetooth GPS units (like the Nokia LD-1W) for positioning and way-finding, but the next generation of devices will feature on-board positioning equipment to satisfy the E911 requirements. If devices open APIs to this new positioning system (like the new Series 60 Landmark APIs) the promise of location based services will finally come true.
Fast(er) data networks
We've heard the promise of 3G for years, but unfortunately, the high-speed networks have been slow in coming to the States. However, there are a few starting to roll out, and the latest announcements from U.S. operators indicates that we should have greater coverage in the next few years.
Higher quality cameras and high-resolution screens
In my slide I had a picture of a 6680 and an N90. The 6680 is a unique phone in that it features two cameras -- a 1.3 megapixel unit on the back for photo-taking, and a smaller VGA camera on the front for "real time video sharing", ie., video calls (if you can find a 3G network.) The N90 has a 2.0 megapixel camera with a high-quality lens, and a new 352x416 screen with a much higher resolution then the other Series 60 devices.
Music players
Phones that can play MP3's have been on the market for awhile now, but the capabilities of music phones are about to get a whole lot better. Take for example, the N91. The trouble with music phones though, is typically a lack of storage. Which leads to the next point...
Increasing on-board storage
Again, the N91 is the centerpiece of this discussion since it features 4GB of storage! That's incredible. Forget your other MP3 player and you're keychain thumb-drives, because this puppy has the storage of a mini iPod. And how are you going to get all that data on the phone, you ask? Well...
Standard USB connectivity
We're going to start seeing a lot more phones that can plug directly into a USB port and mount as a drive. Copy your music and videos, backup your files, heck, you can run a CVS repository on your phone so that your latest code is always with you. And if USB isn't enough...
Wi-Fi
..then how about 802.11? Wanna listen to podcasts? Well now we're talking about phones with plenty of disk space, standard size headphone jacks, stereo sound, the ability to run Perl and Python scripts, and a Wi-Fi connection for downloading content. If you live in a city like Austin where free Wi-Fi is abundant, then not having a 3G network isn't so bad.
The Maemo linux tablet platform and the Nokia 770
Now for something completely different. The Nokia 770 has been on my list of lust-worthy technology since I first heard about it. This is a pocketable linux tablet with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a nice browser, and applications for streaming media. And to top it off, the whole platform is open source. I had the pleasure of playing with a prototype 770 last week, and I definitely wasn't disappointed. The screen is fantastic, and I could easily see this device being used for casual browsing instead of lugging around a laptop. It really is that nice. And being linux-based, this thing is going to get a HUGE number of applications (at least the kind that geeks like me like.)
Voice over IP
VoIP is coming to hand-held devices, and it will start with the Nokia 770. Without VoIP, the 770 tablet isn't actually a phone. But with it, the lines are blurred a bit. I also expect to see phone manufacturers coming out with dual-mode phones that can do both VoIP over Wi-Fi and traditional mobile radio calls.
The presentation was fun to put together and hopefully it lit a few light-bulbs in the crowd. I certainly got some great questions.
If you're in the Austin area and interested in mobile tech and applications, keep an eye on the Mobile Monday Austin calendar for the next event!