some of mom's art...

a sample above, more linked here

google local for mobile

i recall excited conversation a couple of years back about the fantastic consumer, service provider and advertiser promise of mobile location-based services. much of the hoopla was more about technology than services, e.g. focused on handset-based (e.g. gps), network based (e.g. tdoa), or some combination of the two. as the vision went, mobiles would know/discover where they are and networks would pipe location-dependent services and/or ads to users poised to consume on the fly.

reality is, gps is not yet widely-deployed in handsets, and carriers/service providers have yet to otherwise deliver mainstream location-based services of any compelling value. and, it's unclear whether "discovering where you are" really adds all that much value (unless you're really, really lost). and, moreover, the potenially intrusive nature of "always or mostly-always on" location techs - e.g. in terms of pushed advertising - has it's downside as well...

...so, if i know where i am, and know what i want (and/or don't want) in terms of service or information, why wouldn't a web-based service like google local for mobile (linked) be enough?

for me, lacking some compelling alternative that negates the comments above, i think it might do just fine - indeed, i like the level of personal control it affords.

i've been playing with the beta. screenshot from the nokia n70 above. there are some natural bugs - e.g. the address database is a bit dated - but nothing unlike what one regularly experiences with any online mapping or directory tool. truth be told, biggest issue i've got so far is rendering/loading times, and those are factors dictated by wireless network speed/throughput which should become of less concern as the networks are further upgraded to 3g.

yeah, for me this is fine. not bad at all. another indication, incidentally, that content is content, services are services, and brands are brands - regardless whether fixed, mobile, nomadic or whatever.

weekend. later.

more vizrea - usatoday...

Edward C. Baig: Personal Tech - Moving phone pics a snap with Vizrea - Yahoo! News

shozu & yahoo, meet vizrea...

the mobile imaging (taking pictures with your phone) experience just got simpler. again.

while most people are still using their camera phones as latter day wallets - or perhaps to snap photos to use as background on their phone's display - doing something more with those images (sharing, storing, editing, printing) is becoming a more real and mainstream possibility. the timing's about right, since the picture quality/resolution of most camera phones has reached a level (multi-megapixel) that makes images worth keeping.

having now enjoyed a few months using the shozu app (linked) to upload images to my flickr account (also linked) - see my october 2005 post for full detail - and having had a few weeks to play with the yahoo!go photo sharing app (see my january 6 post for detail and links), i'm looking at the vizrea snap app (linked) with as seasoned an eye as any. and i like what i'm seeing.

like the other two, vizrea enables quick and simple straight-to-the-net sharing of the pictures you take with your mobile. all three solutions are designed for nokia symbian/series 60 devices - gotta love that open platform. no multimedia messages surcharge. no multimedia message-inspired file size limitation. rather, your photo uploads at full quality and as a simple data stream. as is the case with the other two solutions, you'll want to make sure you have an unlimited data plan before using.

vizrea doesn't stop there. it not only allows for uploading images for web storage, sharing, editing, printing, whatever (and tagged however you may wish), but also let's you upload directly to your (vizrea software enabled) PC, from wherever you may be. and, just as cool, the app allows you to in turn use your mobile to browse the images on your personal vizrea webpage or those images stored on your pc. all quite simple. really very cool.

and free...

view out the front door...

...after last night's storm - a big one (those bushes are s'posed to flank the door, not meet midway). from the phone

songbird takes flight...

...been waiting for this. open source desktop media player/internet music browser that's agnostic, e.g. not locked to anyone's proprietary digital rights management solution. quite sweet from what i've so far sampled (as it were) - mozilla influence is obvious. look out itunes, windows media, etc.

link to songbird.

another ringtone primer...

...this one not mine. quite a bit more detailed (and perhaps complex), with myriad links. while not a beginners guide, a worthwhile resource for those who've perhaps graduated beyond my november 2005 post post (linked).

so, without further ado, check out: mopocket (linked) february 1, 2006 post.