Tag Archives: Open Handset Alliance

Android Netbooks Will Boost The Mobile Web

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As yet the mobile web has been growing strongly based on only a very limited use of the functionalities that will be available.  In addition the price gouging policies of the Canadian telecoms for broadband services has throttled the mobile Web growth in Canada, relative to the rest of the world.

Without too much fanfare, the increased functionality for mobile devices that will be possible is moving on to the radar screen of the movers and shakers.  The efforts of the Open Handset Alliance is particularly important here.  Rich Miner, Google’s Group Manager for Mobile Platforms, says no one party should control the future of the mobile platform.  All must work together in concert.

Now we have an example of what will be possible with Mobile devices with experts testing Android, the Google mobile operating system, on Netbooks.  (Tip of the hat to Lee Messenger, Cre8asite Tech News Reporter, who spotted an article suggesting Android Netbooks coming, but more likely in 2010.

The fact that various OHA partners have already developed Android enough to easily work on our netbook may be considered evidence enough that Google is getting increasing buy-in from industry players to realize this vision.

Android already has two product “policies” in its code. Product policies are operating system directions aimed at specific uses. The two policies are for 1) phones and 2) mobile internet devices, or MID for short. MID is Intel’s name for ‘mobile internet devices,’ which include devices like the Asus netbook we got Android running on.

Once the full functionality of the Mobile Web is available on mobile devices such as Netbooks, it may be expected that market growth will accelerate rapidly.

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Mobile 2008 – Year Of The Google

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As the Chinese are reputed to say, may you live in interesting times. 2008 will undoubtedly be interesting. That’s how David Armano is seeing it. For him, 2007 Was The Year of Social Media. 2008 is the Year of Mobile Media.

2008 is a good year to think beyond Websites and start thinking about lifestyles?how we live and why we do what we do. The Web isn’t going away?but the way we interact with it, might just turn into a moving target. Actually, it already is.

(Thanks to Jennifer Laycock for this). As Armano says, life is becoming increasingly mobile.

While fully supporting his sentiments, and although Microsoft has some powerful initiatives, I predict that Mobile 2008 will be the year of the Google. They have a number of irons in the fire, but the activities of the Open Handset Alliance will strongly support their mobile thrust.

By chance, the US Patent Office has already published in 2008 a Google Patent Application on a User Interface for a Phone, which Bill Slawski describes:

User interface for mobile devices
Invented by Sanjay Mavinkurve, Shumeet Baluja, and Maryam Kamvar
US Patent Application 20080005668
Published January 3, 2008
Filed June 30, 2006

Since it was filed in 2006, nothing should be read into its appearance now. However I believe it has symbolic importance.

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Minimal Handsets Can Bridge The Digital Divide

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Let your voice bridge the divide

Not surprisingly Microsoft and Yahoo seemed to be somewhat cool on the Open Handset Alliance initiative being promoted by Google. However part of Google’s thinking is music to the ears of developers in the Third World. Just listen to the words of C. Mohan Ram, founder of LatticeBridge Infotech Pvt Ltd (LB) of Chennai, India.

We are working on very simple devices with only a speaker and microphone and connectivity to a central server (a ?personal assistant? for everyone) to do connections, transactions and search for information, etc.

He believes these newer devices like a minimal mobile can help overcome the shortcomings of a low PC penetration in his country. Lattice Bridge (LBIT) is a pioneer in the Speech Technology space and empowers people to communicate with information systems using voice commands. In that way you can get rid of the keyboards on the PC or the key pad on the telephone and just communicate by speech. Mr. Ram believes that Speech Recognition can make this futuristic dream come true.

Related:
Surprise! Microsoft And Yahoo! Cool To Google Mobile Effort
More Speech-Enabled Applications With The Open Handset Alliance
Mobile Learning for Africa

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More Speech-Enabled Applications With The Open Handset Alliance

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Let’s Hear It For The Open Handset Alliance

It was good news to hear that Google is making available Open-Source software for cell phones and bringing together the Open Handset Alliance. For those who believe that speech technology will be a powerful driver of the Mobile Web, it is also good to hear that Nuance will be part of this Alliance. They publicly stated that they feel that this will set the stage for Robust Speech-Enabled Mobile Applications.

Some question whether sound really brings advantages. Perhaps with tongue in cheek, Sarah Houghton-Jan, known online as the Librarian In Black, questioned whether sound technologies produce less polished works, as compared with the slightly slower pace that is enforced by writing. However it seems quite clear that the immediacy possible with sound and the reduced effort required make speech-enabled applications winners.

Perhaps an almost trivial application illustrates the advantages. The Grocery List Organizer uses voice recognition software and a list of 2,500 grocery items that are pre-programmed. Just reel off your unsorted grocery items into this voice-recognition device and it sorts them by category and prints out your grocery list on thermal paper (No need for ink).

More and more applications are available to convert your spoken words into text. The quality of this process is improving all the time. For example, the SimulScribe Voicemail-to-Text Solution got an ‘A’ from InformationWeek for Transcription Quality and Audio Playback.

Given the speed at which improvements in speech technology are being made, it could well be that when Google Open Source phones become available in 2008, your voice will direct where you travel on the Mobile Web.

Related: Sound Will Drive Mobile Web Growth

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