Dan’s Blog (2.0)

The experience my kids (2 and 4) have of media is radically different from my experience when I was growing up. Of course, they clamor to watch certain programs and it’s always a challenge to balance the “right” amount of television with their wants, what’s good for them, and the temptation that television can have for exhausted parents who just need some down time. But what’s different is what these kids expect from media. Of course, they want to watch what they want when they want — which is enabled by video-on-demand from Homechoice for us, but they’re also just as likely to want to play (Web-based) computer games associated with the characters they like (like Dora games on NickJr., Sesame Street or Teletubbies) as to want to passively sit there and watch things. In the case of Sesame street, this is rarely seen on UK TV so most of their knowledge of these characters is actually through the Sesame street Web site. Many of these sites also let them stream video clips. So they are beginning to “curate” their own experience of media in much the same way that adults are. They are demanding more from their media. And why not? Why sit there and passively watch Teletubbies when you can go play an interactive Teletubby game with lots of direct feedback?

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 10:10 under Kids, Web 2.0

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So I managed to figure out how to use CSS media queries to make the Mobile version of the blog even better: I’ve hidden the ads, and correctly sized the images. CSS is cool. Really kooky, but cool. The ads are an experiment, by the way. If they turn out to be too annoying, they’re going. One good thing about signing up for Adsense though: I get some free pageview stats.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 20:17 under Web

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By the way, I don’t mean to be too down on Opera here. Clearly, Opera are leading the way, both when it comes to mobile browsing and in providing mobile-friendly Web sites (such as Opera Community). Also, I don’t want Charles to kick my ass.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 17:29 under Mobile Web

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Nope — Opera Mobile somehow had the same problem. I got through editing my post using the phone keypad (actually, due to T9, not as painful as it sounds) but when I was all done and published the post, it turned up empty — everything I had painfully thumbed in had been lost. Gah!

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 14:10 under Mobile Web

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Ok — Opera Mini still needs some work on the content creation side. I tried to make a Blog post earlier and ended up with 2 blank entries, which I only found out about because a friend alerted me. To be fair, I should have double-check that it posted something. Live and learn…

Reinforces my view that content creation is now the key issue for the Mobile Web.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 18:35 under Mobile Web

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Well, tomorrow I’m off to Edinburgh for the WWW conference where I’ll be co-chairing a workshop (where they seem to have posted a bio from me that dates from 2001, but never mind) and participating in the W3C Advisory Committee meting and in the first (and last?) face to face meeting of the Web Content Labels working group. And when the work is done, I plan to sit down with a nice dram at the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society. It promises to be an interesting week.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 17:02 under W3C

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I actually do my own version of PC Recycling — it’s called the laptop graveyard under my desk. I now have three laptops there from previous generations of technology: First there’s a Powerbook Duo 210. This was my first laptop — absolutely cutting edge for its time — it featured a gray-scale passive matrix screen and clocked in at an unbelievable 25 MHz. It was and still is the lightest Apple laptop — weighing in at 4.2 lbs. Then there was the IBM 386 piece-of-sh*t Thinkpad that I inherited from an ex-boss. 640×480 screen. It was awful. Finally, my beloved Sony VAIO laptop that only recently gave up the ghost — well 3 years ago anyway — the only non-Apple PC I ever really bonded with. That one I got as “severance” from a former employer - no I did not steal it. I got them to agree to make it part of my severance package when they downsized me. Good thing too, since it was the only part of my severance package I actually received. I’m over it though. Not bitter. Really.

Anyway, they each have a story to tell and some measure of sentimental value — Ok maybe not the Thinkpad. The Duo is perfectly functional as well — there’s just currently no way to get data in or out of it because it only has one port (serial/Appletalk). I figure they’ll stay in the laptop graveyard under my desk for now.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 16:43 under Technology

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The London Science Museum is featuring an exhibit called “Dead Ringers?” which highlights the problem that discarded phones pose to the environment. By their count, 1712 mobiles a day are upgraded, and if not properly recycled they can leak poisonous materials. It’s a great little exhibit but unfortunately it didn’t do enough to highlight how people can recycle their phones now. For example, at Vodafone (in the U.K. anyway) there is actually a program in place to accept phones for recycling at any Vodafone store where any money made goes to the Autistic Society.

One of the coolest things in the exhibit though was a showcase of some technology under development to make phones bio-degradable and/or easier to recycle. Of particular interest to me was an exhibit of a prototype Pasta-based circuit board. Personally, I find this very exciting because it combines two keen interests of mine: mobile technology and Italian food. Lots of other cool stuff on display as well - I highly recommend checking out their site and visiting the exhibit.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 23:36 under London, Mobility

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While at the MoMo Global Summit some people I had never met told me that they read my blog. This was a bit of a shock to me. But it got me thinking - I really need to spruce up the place. First of all, I think I need a new name. I chose Dan’s Blog when I created the thing because I really didn’t know what it was going to be about. It turns out most of what I have to say in a public forum is about what I do for work - most of which fits into the category of evangelism and musings about technology and mobile stuff. So I may need a new name for this blog. Something sexy like “dispatches from the razor’s edge of the vanguard of the technorati.” Or something. I’m still formulating.

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 19:53 under Blogs

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Using Comeks, in 5 minutes I was able to author this on a Nokia N70, including image manipulation, based on a picture that was already there in memory. That’s no mean feat for an application that runs on a phone and relies on a key-pad and 4-way rocker switch as its only means of user input. The one thing I could wish for is a “save to blog” or “save to Flickr” function — maybe they need to do an integration with ShoZu, another great application featured at this week’s Mobile Monday Global Summit. ShoZu was our entrant into the Global Peer Awards but it was Toronto’s ComVu that took top honors with their live video broadcasting application. Live video broadcasting from a Mobile! Even working for an operator, I shudder to think of the data costs on that one!

Filed by Daniel Appelquist at 11:08 under Mobile Monday, Mobile Web, Mobility

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