Zero preparation … a presentation made in 5 mins and my Nokia 6630 loaded with the apps..

Took the guys through Mobile blogging and a few demos on how to moblog ..

Mobile Blogging in India is an emerging topic for discussion in India.

Most bloggers would have heard about it . Its also called Moblogging
The number of mobile users in india is so huge. But the percentage of users dedicated

GPRS or internet connectivity is still small compared to the no of mobiles.

This can be attributed to the costs connected to this VAS (Value Added ) services.)

But as on date, service offerings from cellular operators are far more important factors than the cost.

The average guy having an internet enabled mobile phone might not hesitate to shell in a few bucks for net access. (atleast me )

The reliability of these VAS services is seriously not as good as the global counterparts.

The latency during the mobile browsing just suck big time, no matter u got gprs , egprs /edge.

So does all this sound great news if you want to use your mobile phone to blog ?

You must be thinking, I m crazy to title the post as Mobile Blogging  and then downplay it.
Blogging has become a big addiction among internet users in India. Mobile Blogging can become popular only if the state of the Mobile internet services improve.

So Telecom operators can cash in on mobile bloggin if they are able to cater to the needs of the tech savvy crowd

Today I got some time to test 3 Mobile RSS Readers on my Nokia 6630. I have Mobile Office from Airtel which is not the fastest GPRS in the world(They charge me rs.399 per month for this .. even Hutch’s 49 bucks a month is cheaper )

But Hutch connectivity at my area is pathetic.. so i am forced to stick to airtel..

Back to business .. I tested three apps ..

1. The FeedBurner™ Mobile Feed Reader

This is a free J2ME RSS Reader from Feedburner.

• Supports feeds in all major formats (RSS, RDF, and Atom)
• Smart “If-Modified-Since” content retrieval conserves your wireless bandwdith
• Adjustable content retrieval count (i.e., retrieve only the 5 most recent items to save time/bandwidth) cuts download time and clutter
• Opens original content links in your handset’s default web browser
• Updates feeds manually or on a set schedule
• Displays content in several font sizes
  Download here

The app is quite slow and sluggish in operation . But the features are amazing.. Try it out urself..

2.Plusmo

Plusmo is still in beta and looks promising .. Took a lot of time to open up.. Going to try it when i get the time. Needs you to register .. can also do that from ur mobile

3. Litefeeds

Requires you to signup and also is nice to use..

Will keep you posted after i test all the 3 apps fully

After reading a few articles about AJAX for mobile phones , i was tempted to find the ground level situation in india.

Nowadays most mobile phones are Data capable.

Smartphones are being accecpted by public at a very rapid rate here. Nokia 6600 ,3230 and 6630 are the biggest hits in India. (forgive me mobile makers other than nokia – u ppl dont make affordable smart phones or don’t market them properly )

Javascript support in phones browsers are also good in these phones.

Thats not a big problem. Opera mobile browser is awesome . They have even launched a SDK for ajax mobile development here

But a big question – Are data services good enough to handle AJAX mobile services like flickr for example ?

Can the network latency or deficiency be handled/ tackled ?

These questions seem unanswered.

Cool article on J2me replacement by AJAX by Ajit Jaokar

Read

Screenshot for Symbian is a FREE program to take screenshot on your Symbian mobile phones (UIQ or Series 60). You can capture screenshot and save it to a file in JPEG, BMP or MBM formats (the Series 60 version supports PNG format too). The screenshot can be sent directly to a PC via bluetooth or infrared or to another mobile phone as MMS. Furthermore, you can customize the shortcut key, file name and delay of capturing.

Screenshot for Symbian OS

Its small proggie from Antony Pranata. He does not charge (Freeware) for it and it takes a good screenshot

The World Wide Web Consortium announces the publication of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.1) as a W3C Recommendation. Thanks to enhancements in SMIL 2.1, W3C is well on the way to making multimedia presentations on mobile devices a reality.

I think this is keeping in line with further reccommendations that are expected for mobile compliant languages including XHTML2 that will maybe include small device definitions.
Source via [seo forums]

Ever wondered what are these tiny chips? Confused by the names?

I am here to help you.

This article is about the various memory components available in the market for mobile phones.

Memory Stick

MS Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998, and is also used in general to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks. This family includes the Memory Stick Pro, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity and faster file transfer speeds, and Memory Stick Duo, a small-form-factor version of the Memory Stick.

50.0 ????? 21.5 ????? 2.8 mm

Memory Stick Duo

MS Duo

31.0 ????? 20.0 ????? 1.6 mm

The Memory Stick Duo, which is slightly smaller than the competing Secure Digital format, was developed in response to Sony’s need for a smaller flash memory card for pocket-sized digital cameras and cell phones, as well as Sony’s PSP. Memory Stick Duos are available in all the same variants as their larger cousins (normal ones limited to 128 MB, larger Pro Sticks, with and without High Speed mode, with and without MagicGate support), and a simple adapter (often sold along with the Memory Stick Duo) allows a Duo to be used in any device that can accept their larger cousins.

Memory Stick Micro M2

15.0 ????? 12.5 ????? 1.2 mm

In a joint venture with SanDisk, Sony announced a new Memory Stick format on 30 September 2005. The new Memory Stick M2 (”micro”) measures 15 ????? 12.5 ????? 1.2 mm and could theoretically have 32GB in the future. Maximum transfer speed is 160MB/s. It will come with an adaptor, much like the Duo Sticks, to ensure compatibility with current Pro devices.

Multi Media Card

MMC

32 ????? 24 ????? 1.5 mm

The MMC card or MultiMediaCard was introduced in 1997 by SanDisk Corporation and Siemens AG. At that point the MMC card was the smallest memory card, about the size of a postage stamp, in the market based on flash memory technology. The MMC card is very similar to the Secure Digital Memory Card, actually the SD Memory Card is based on the MMC card. They have almost the same form factor the only differences are that the SD Memory Cards are slightly thicker and they have a write protection switch.

Since the MMC card had slow transfer speed, 2.5 MB/sec, in comparison to other memory cards, mostly compared to SD Memory Card, a new high performance version of the MMC card was introduced in 2005 by the name MMCplus. The MMCplus has today the highest, up to 52 MB/sec, theoretical data transfer speed in the whole memory card industry.

The MultiMediaCard Association announced that by the end of 2005 the secureMMC application will be available only for the MMCplus and MMCmobile memory cards. The secureMMC is a copyright protection application that features DRM, Digital Rights Management, and VPN, Virtual Private Network, capabilities.

Reduced Size Multi Media Card

RS-MMC

16 ????? 24 ????? 1.5 mm

MMCmobile (RS-MMC)

RS-MMC, Reduced Size MultiMediaCard, was introduced in 2003 by the MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) as the second form factor memory card in the MultiMediaCard family. The RS-MMC is a smaller version of the standard MMC card, approximately half in size, and was specifically designed to be used by mobile phones and other small portable devices.

Dual Voltage Reduced Size Multi Media Card

DV RS-MMC

16 ????? 24 ????? 1.5 mm

In 2005 the Dual Voltage (DV) RS-MMC was introduced. It is basically the same card like the standard RS-MMC but operates with dual voltage, 1.8V and 3.3V, leading to lower power consumption which contributes to longer lasting battery life for the host devices. The DV RS-MMC and the RS-MMC are completely compatible with each other but since some mobile phones, mostly from Nokia, only operate with 1.8V cards the regular RS-MMC will not work. We recommend to always buy the Dual Voltage RS-MMC for being sure your memory card will function with the electronic device.

MMCmicro Card

MMCmicro

12 ????? 14 ????? 1.1 mm

The MMCmicro, formerly known as S-CARD introduced by Samsung, was adopted and introduced in 2005 by the MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) as the third form factor memory card in the MultiMediaCard family. MMCmicro is the smallest, about the size of a fingernail, memory card in the MultiMediaCard family and among the smallest in the world. It was specifically designed for being used in mobile phones and other small portable devices.

The MMCmicro memory card is available with an adaptor, MMCplus. This makes it not only compatible to all MMC and MMCplus slots but also to all SD Memory Card slots. It is important to keep in mind that music stored on MultiMediaCards my not be able to play back when inserted into a SD Memory Card slot due to the copyright protection features supported by the SD slots.

Since the MMCmicro is the latest memory card to be developed and introduced to the market it is not that compatible to many mobile phones and electronic devices yet. Still it is expected to be one of the memory card formats that will dominate in the mobile phone industry among the frontrunner microSD and the under development Memory Stick Micro.

Secure Digital Card

SD

32 ????? 24 ????? 2.1 mm

The SD Memory Card or Secure Digital was introduced in 2001 by SanDisk Corporation, Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba. The SD Memory Card was based on the MultiMediaCard, MMC, memory card standard and has almost the same form factor, the size of a postage stamp, the only differences are that the SD memory card is slightly thicker and has a write protection switch. Since MMC cards are thinner than SD Memory Cards they can be used in all SD Memory Card slots but not vice versa.

The SD Memory Card is today the most common used memory card. It can be found in most digital cameras, PDAs and in many other electronic devices. The SD Memory Card slots can be used for more than flash memory cards. The SDIO, Secure Digital In & Out, is the general name for the many expansion modules that can be found in the SD Memory Cardâ??????s form factor. SDIO modules can be inserted in the slot and be used for other functions like Bluetooth adapters, GPS receivers, digital cameras, TV tuners, etc

miniSD Card

miniSD

21.5 ????? 20 ????? 1.4 mm

The miniSD was introduced in 2003 by SanDisk Corporation in cooperation with Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba. Later in that year the miniSD format was adapted by the SD Card Association as the second form factor memory card in the Secure Digital family. MiniSD is a smaller version of the SD memory Card format, about 60% smaller in volume, and offers the same benefits as the SD Memory Card expect of the writing protection switch.

MiniSD was designed specifically to be used in small portable electronic devices like digital cameras and mobile phones. But since all miniSD memory cards always come with a SD Memory Card adaptor, they are compatible to all SD Memory Card slots and thereby provide compatibility with the rapidly growing number of SD Memory Card compatible devices in the market.

MiniSD was the second, after SD Memory Card, memory card to be adapted by the SD Card Association, which today consists of three members. In 2005 the microSD was introduced as the third, and smallest, member of the Secure Digital family.

microSD Card also known as Transflash

??µSD

11 ????? 15 ????? 1 mm

rashFlash, formerly known as T-Flash, was introduced by SanDisk Corporation in 2004 as the worldâ??????s smallest memory card, approximately the size of a fingernail. TransFlash was specifically designed for being used in mobile phones. Motorola was the first mobile phone manufacturer to adapt the TransFlash memory card standard.

In the 3rd quarter of 2005 TransFlash was adapted by the SD Card Association as the third form factor memory card in the Secure Digital family, after SD Memory Card and miniSD. After the adoption, TransFlash changed name to microSD. The microSD has exactly the same dimensions and specifications as the TransFlash and therefore both memory cards are completely compatible to each other.

Today the microSD is the most common used memory card in mobile phones and the SD Card Associationâ??????s objective is to make microSD a de facto memory card standard for all mobile phones. All TransFlash and microSD cards always come with a SD Memory Card adaptor, which makes them compatible to all SD Memory Card slots. The microSD is about 10% in size compared to SD Memory Card and about 30% compared to miniSD.

xD-Picture Card

xD

20 ????? 25 ????? 1.7 mm

The xD-Picture Card was introduced in 2002 by Fuji Film and Olympus as a replacement to the older SmartMedia Card. It is produced exclusively by Toshiba and can be found branded only under the name of Fuji Film and Olympus.

The xD-Picture Card format was developed to be used in digital cameras and is more or less only used in Fuji Film and Olympus digital cameras. Like SmartMedia Card, the xD-Picture Card does not incorporate a controller chip which allows it to have a small form factor but at the same time making it dependable to the host deviceâ??????s controller chip.