Yahoo Blueprint

Mobile games and applications development has come a real long way since the early days.

At some point in time, developers realized that in making mobile applications, they were repeating mundane 'base codes' for every project. After a few projects, each developer had his own set of 'engines' and a library of code snippets which could be assembled and themed ('re-skinned' as the industry jargon goes) to get a range of applications out in shorter time frames.

Another important factor which influenced the growth of development tools was the fact that despite its premise of 'write once run anywhere' that Java (the most popular development flavor) proposed, the sheer variety and subtle differences in the JVM implementations and feature-set of handsets made it nearly impossible to have one set of code that could work on all handsets. Netbeans was one of the first IDEs to introduce the concept of 'profiles' that tried to standardize the process of creating multiple builds with pre-compile like instructions. Another significant development was toolkits such as J2ME Polish

All these led to the process of mobile applications development slowly becoming 'design' processes rather than 'development' processes. Put in a different way, it became possible to 'script' a complete application and use a standard script interpreter/ compiler to translate this into a working application on the phone. The net result - one could now develop pretty professional looking applications in a matter of hours rather than weeks! We too, like most development companies had one such framework. These frameworks took a cue from the desktop phenomenon of widgets. Widsets (now acquired by Nokia) was one such initiative. Widsets allowed one to script applications that could be downloaded into the Widsets main application that resided on the phone in a simple point and click operation.

The latest entrant in this category is Yahoo Blueprint. I like what I see here!
From its website:

Blueprint is Yahoo!’s platform for building mobile sites, widgets and applications. Using a simple yet powerful language based on W3C XForms developers can design and host their Blueprint markup which Yahoo! will deliver to 1000s of different mobile devices.

The process is analogous to building a mobile website - you can use any server technology you like such as Apache, IIS, Java or PHP. Just return Blueprint XML and we do the rest. Remember: your Blueprint services run on the same platform that powers our own mobile services, including oneSearch, oneConnect and even our mobile homepage. Not only is it responsive and powerful, but we supply you with analytics to help you find out what makes your customers tick.

I must admit that Yahoo! did a pretty good job with the Y!Go application for the mobile and I think that they have put in a good tool in the hands of the developers with Blueprint. You can now make real slick mobile apps pretty easy. And guess what, this could be your short-cut development tool for the iPhone too! The only negative I could find from a quick read on the docs was the lack of secure communications for a lil more serious apps - I could have missed it, and in any case this could be added easily. So if you're into mobile apps development, go ahead, download the SDK and if possible, do return here to post your feedback.

Now you can track your lost mobile phone! - Google Latitude

In May 2008, I had posted about how great it would be if Google Maps (Mobile) would add the capability for users to 'Sign In' to the service since that would automatically add the capability to track one's mobile phone, if lost; without even needing to have a GPS capable handset.

Well, finally - its here! As an update to existing Google Maps Mobile, it is not primarily intended to help you when you're 'lost' but to share your location with your family and friends, in real time!

Its called Google Latitude. Check it out! As usual, here's the YouTube video intro:

Break the code!

I used to think that the FBI challenge on cryptanalysis... was more fiction than fact until I came across this page:

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec08/code_122908.html

This page shows this year's (?) cryptic message that the FBI challenges folks to break :). It seems this is the 'round two' :)

Do give it a shot, break the code - if you're into this kinda stuff. Click here for a primer.

(Makes me wonder if and when Indian agencies too would put up stuff like this)

Tax, Regulate, Subsidize

Picked up this interesting quote from the last edition of the Week magazine:

“The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”- Ronald Reagan.

Smile, smile, smile!

I just couldn't resist putting this here. Thanks to Pluggd.in for this wonderful lead :) :) :)

In times like these, a smile might make a big difference :)

Proto Jan'09 Edition

Proto.in '08 Delhi edition was one event that really helped us (Eko) in many ways- the least of which was giving us a chance to learn the art of making a good demo (or 'proto') presentation that fit in a 3 minute slot:).  It is an event that is a queer but mature mix of professionalism and volunteerism.

The enthusiasm shown by the organizers esp. the 'curator' Vijay Anand (must try and get to know what energy drinks he gulps) is plain infectious. Trust me, the exercise is well worth it especially if you do get a chance to be one of the dozen odd companies that can get a slot to present there. 

Even otherwise, the event is a good dip-stick to gauge the current state of affairs in the startup space. Also, given the right circumstances, vital-statistics, and some match-making magic, it could be a potential dating opportunity for an entrepreneur with an Angel/ VC/ Mentor. So if you are a startup guy located elsewhere in India and dont mind heading to Bangalore (/Bengalooru - I hope the spelling is right!) or are there already - do try and make it a point to attend the Proto.in Jan'09 edition.

Here's the badge for the event. Do spread the word around.

Happy Proto and Best wishes!

Bill Gates at Uttam Nagar

We were told that some senior officials from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation would be visiting our pilot site at Uttam Nagar (Delhi) and that we had to give them a demo.

Almost 9:00 am on the 4th, we were pleasantly surprised to see Bill Gates himself along with a few other family members walk in to our small office there!

Bill Gates came across as a keen listener, sharp thinker, avid note-taker and someone who asked just the right questions. It is always a pleasure interacting with someone who just needs the bullet points and obvious sub-points never need to be stated :). To be honest, not many people in high positions to whom we have spoken to (or tried to speak to) were as down-to-earth and even a fraction as sharp as he was. In fact, most 'top' guys would rather send their subordinates for a visit rather than take the pain and time for visiting a place like this.

He even took time to visit 'Gupta Medicos' a shop which used be an 'Eko Relationship Center' to hear first-hand what they felt about Eko.

All in all, that was one great day in each Eko member's life. In spite of our challenges, the very fact that we seem to be on a track which has at least created a 'micro' interest in a man no less than Bill Gates himself is something that gives our team a huge boost.

Breakeven

Ever wondered why almost all projection sheets always predict company breakeven in three or five years (odd numbers ;) )?

Whats so great about the numbers 3 and 5 that have caught the collective fancy of investors and entrepreneurs alike? Any ideas on its origins? Does it have anything to do with the average lifetime/ working-life of a person?

myMobile extends myMemory { reQall () }

"Imagine being able to talk to your phone while it intelligently organizes your utterances into your Calendar, Notes or To-Dos."
Disclaimer: I'm just about to give all iPhone and Blackberry users an big dose of ego boost and everyone else a sense of envy (apologies).

I have a confession to make, I am an extremely forgetful person. I mean, if my wife asks me to buy a pack of bread, a dozen eggs, a pack of butter and toothpaste; I'd most likely forget the toothpaste. To take care of this I'd begun to jot notes - Post-It style. That mostly used to work, except when I'd forget to take the Post-It notes themselves! :). That said, I do not recall having forgotten to take my mobile phone - ever; its almost become an extension of me - a part of my identity.

"Imagine being able to simply right-click on this webpage and add this post to your list of The-Greatest-Posts-Ever-Made list (just kidding ;) )"

In my 'phone of the future' vision, my handset would seamlessly extend the function of my brain and one department of my brain which could do with some serious extension is my memory.

Let me cut the chase and get to the point. A few days ago, I was pleasantly surprised when I read somewhere about reQall. While they do not claim to have any direct neural interface to my brain yet, they claim to be able do be supplement my memory!

In their words, this is the 'simple' problem they'd solved: "Ever had a brilliant idea while driving, but couldn't write it down? Needed to remember something, but didn't have a pen?"

Being a Blackberry user, I downloaded this cool app from http://www.reqall.com/blackberry [Note: reQall for BlackBerry requires OS version 4.2.0 or higher.]. It integrates seamlessly with my device. So now I can fire up the app click the 'Add by Voice' Option and speak "Meeting with John Doe, prepare the presentation". reQall transmits this voice signal to its server where it does a voice-to-text conversion and sends me an email apart from adding the event to my calendar and reQall interface! And the best part - it works.

reQall gave me a pleasant deja-vu as well! Back at TinfoMobile we'd developed a similar app which won us an award at the Reliance-NASSCOM Developer Contest. We'd made an app that helped the visually impaired by reading out SMS and Call History in Voice. We did the exact opposite of reQall. We transmitted the SMS text over GPRS to a server where a Text-to-Speech engine converted it to Voice and this was played back by a Media-Player instance on the phone (it worked even on a very basic and cheap Reliance Java Black-and-White handset).

There are a dozen other things you could do with reQall and I'm sure it would increase your productivity one small notch higher. Do give it a shot. Its innovation at its best and is powered by Indian brains. Its a company called QTech founded by Sunil Vemuri and N. Rao Machiraju. Three cheers for the duo!

Beating Recession

While stock markets are crashing left , right and center, I salute the spirit of its entrepreneurs who despite the seemingly pervasive gloom are battling on with their dreams. If there is anything that can get us all out of the mess we are in - its folks like these.



Beneath the speculative value of any company lies its real worth, based on the value it delivers to people it touches. As long as these foundations are strong, I guess it will be able to survive the bloodbath. While it is true that the prevailing conditions will pull even the strong ones down, persistence will pull them through sooner or later.

It is important for all leaders to now focus on shedding their flab and concentrate on sharpening their cutting edges. If possible - spread a little cheer around. Even 'recession' is a matter of the mind, if you don't mind it does not matter. If there is a collective decision to beat it, we should be able to beat it.

To all who have lost a lot the past few weeks, as difficult as it might sound - let go completely or hold on blindly. The few fleeting moments in our life are too precious to be wasted on whats past! Dream on!