iPhone, Google & My Wish next year

This year's top news would be iPhone. Actually I bought 2 even though I can't use them as phones in Korea. After $200 price cut, I was really upset.

But iPhone is still worth. Whenever I goes to the US, I am activating iPhone with pre-paid service. As a handset, it does not have best quality but it has best user interface. It is easy to use. Pundits always have been saying that ease of use is the key to the success of handset. If you look at Nokia phones, Samsung phones, and other handsets, you feel like you are in a maze. Too many functions are scattered around the menu trees. Sometimes it is not intuitive to locate functionalty what you want. Apple worked out this difficulties by sacrificing lots of important features like MMS, Java and Carrir specific things. Actually this kinds of jobs could be done by Apple. Usually Carrier is the boss. All the handset makers should have to follow their boss's orders. They have to integrate all the features that are not necessary for the most of users into their design. It worses the ease of use.

Fortunately, we will have another player like Apple in the next year. Google announced Android this year. They will encourage developers to make easy of use applications. The phones based on Google would be free of Operators tight grip.

I hope we can see bunch of user-oriented (ease-of-use) approaches in the mobile world. It dosen't need to be a touch screen phone.

Nokia&The Cloud,Helio YouTube,NTT DoCoMo Child-Friendly 3G Mobile Phone

Nokia&The Cloud
- Nokia announced an agreemnet with The Cloud (European WiFi provider) like Apple's agreement with Starbucks. Nokia will launch "Nokia Comes With Music" with UMG(Universal Music Group). Nokia accounced about Ovi (Internet Services). The Cloud deal is a part of Ovi Project. I have thought about this kinds of content-oriented shift. I really liked the way Nokia is doing. I hope to see they are innovating the world.

Helio YouTube
- Helio debuts feature-rich YouTube service. YouTube is one of the killer-applications even in the mobile. The mobile world need to give user YouTube experience.

NTT DoCoMo Child-Friendly 3G Mobile Phone
- Interesting concept. There is always niche market for old and children. Take a look at the phone. It is really cute.

Dell Smartphone, Tryphone.com

Dell Smartphone
- Dell seems to try another consumer device. Dell had AXIM in the PDA market. About a year after it stopped making AXIM models, it is returning with smartphone. Actually I thought they are making a MP3 player. Recently they bought Zing (audio streaming service). I was wrong. Mobile phone is really attractive device for business. Even if it is very small, you can earn lots of money. Look at Apple. I am expecting reasonable price ranged smartphone device like AXIM.

Tryphone.com
- Choosing a mobile phone out of lots of devices out there is really difficult. This site gives user a great tool to evaluate the real device before decision. It is in beta. There are only 4 devices to be able to try.

Google in mobile world, AT&T open network?, MS mobile ads, BetaBlue

Google in mobile world
- Google is trying to build up its position in the mobile world.
700MHz bid, whitespace program, Android platform, iPhone interface.
They are really ambitious. Will Google be successul in mobile, too? Actually I have mixed feeling about this. I like Google. But I don't want another MS. I hope Google is always open. Up to this point, Google is my taste.

AT&T open network?
- AT&T executive claimed that they has been always open network. I don't agree to this. Even though GSM network is generally open, the carrier has lots of restriction on the network. AT&T seems to have a different definition on "openness".

MS mobile ads
- MS has been trying to catch up Google in ads field. MS lost a chance in the past. Now, they are in ambition to have ads on their hands in the mobile world. They started MSN mobile ads. But ads market in mobile world is very competitive. We will see if MS would achieve their goal.

BetaBlue
- JetBlue started WiFi service in the flight. I hope we can see all flights with WiFi service in the near future.

Nokia UGC 25%

Nokia UGC 25%
- Nokia is one of the greatest visionary in the mobile business. I think they know what it will look like in the future. As lots of social networking services, IM services implies, user would be a key to all mobile services. Thanks to digital technology.

Google Maps 2.0, Verizon into Android

Google Maps 2.0
- My Location added. They are using Cell ID to locate the position. It is J2ME based mobile application. I am very curious if there are many handsets that implemented JSR179 for this. I need to dig in for more detail.

Verizon likely to join OHA
- After openning up their network, it is natural to have open mobile platform.

Google in bid for 700MHz, Blackberry 9000, Sprint back LTE, Activision Blizzard

Short note: I changed my tactic. From today, I will try to list all the issues I am interested in. Sure I try to add my opinions for all of them even though some are very short.

Google in bid for 700MHz
- Goolge made it official. It will go on the bid alone. I would like to see the real openness in the wireless world. It will change the whole picture about the mobile world. It will give more creativity and freshness to the all the players.

Blackberry 9000
- It looks like an another iPhone contender. As you already know, iPhone is lack of lots of good features (3G, MMS, Mobile Games, Java, Video Capture). I hope this new gadget fullfill the missing parts.
- In the other part of my thought, Blackberry is going out of its core market. It has been popular for its easy messaging capability. If they remove their excellent qwerty keyboard (best feature), what could be their real differentiator?

Sprint back LTE
- CDMA would have a big blow. We will see what other CDMA players (SKT, KTF, KDDI...) are doing for the future. In personal, I would like to have only one universal device.

Activision Blizzard
- Big merger. As of Korean, Blizzard has more power than EA. Will they beat EA in the brand power? We will see.

Motorola breakup possibility

Ichan talked about Zander's resignment. He is thinking it's not enough for the company. He would like to have Motorola split into 4 companies.
I am not sure if he is right. But it is worth to see what is happening.
Motorola lost its market share in the mobile handset field. It is now 3rd. 2nd is Samsung.
Long time ago, Motorola was no. 1.
It might lose no.3 in the near future. At the moment, the future for Motorola looks dark.

Google Android vs. JavaFX Mobile

I am a Java Engineer. I had been programming in Java for last 5 years. Recently, I am working on J2ME porting into a mobile device.

I am really happy to see this kinds of popularity around Java.
However one thing always have bugged me. "Fragmentation".

Original goal or motto of Java was "Write Once, Run Anywhere".
This is not true. There are 3 kinds of Java products. J2ME, J2SE, J2EE.
That's not it. We have to customize an application for the each specific platform even though it is in the same league like J2ME.
Even though all platforms abide by the rule set by SUN or other spec leads, there has been fragmentation.

Worse. Google and SUN added one (or mightbe two) more.
They who is proud of java based technology are always saying that they have huge amount of developer base. Is this real? I don't think so.
It is true there are lots of Java related people and product. But it is severely fragmented. The proud Java base is not that big (still big).

Unfortunately, Android and JavaFX Mobile have lots of similarity in common. Linux OS, Java Application Framework, Open platforme, and even its announcement year.

Java as an application framework is really great. But I don't want any more fragmentation. Lots of options would be good. Too many options, especially in the case that those are very simillar, would cause confusion.

Don't get me wrong. I am a Java advocate. I love Java. I would like to be a Java engineer as long as I can. What I really want is real "Write Once, Run Anywhere".

Verizon Open Access: Too good to be true ?

For the last 2 years while I have been in mobile industry, I have thought the tight grips of carriers prevent the innovation from taking off. When carriers loose their grips, it can make a lot of innovative things happen. We already have seen this innovation through Apple iPhone. Google is also trying to disrupt this tight grip and innovate mobile world.

Verizon had been on the side of tight grip. It has changes its stance dramatically yesterday. It was a huge story all over the media. "Any Apps, Any Device". Nice catchy phrase.

Verizon did not disclose anything detail about it at the moment. We will see how it is going to shape this open network. Is Versizon going to be a pipe for apps and services?

It is worth reading AT&T VP's interview with engardget.

Amazon Kindle can change the landscape

As I am in part of technology world. I am always interested in the new shiny product. If it is a sort of hyped or revolutionary product, I get really excited about it. ( I bought iPhone in August even if it is unusable in Korea (only CDMA world) :-( ). Amazon Kindle made me excited.

As I read an article about Kindle, I did a little research about it.
What surprise me most is that it is using Sprint Network without costing customer's money. I know they cost up-front when we buy Kindle ($399).
However, it is still revolutionary. This is a very important differentiator from other e-book reader like SonyReader. I think contents are always the key to success for the device. Look at iPod and other mp3 players.

After I have seen a few YouTube clips, I thought it is not perfect but it has good potential to change the book world. I would like to try it but am hopless as I am in Korea. The Whispernet is only available through Sprint Network.

I would like to see a few similar tries in Korea. And I want more features like color e-ink, folderable design (2 pages like traditional books), easier grip, backlight, and global access to the book network.

I am starting over again with determined mind

Hello myself,

I know there is no reader for my blog. Actually this is my personal place.
At first, I would like to make this place popular among people who are specially interested in mobile and tech. But I am so lazy. I did not update this page for a long time. This site does not contains anything meaningful.

From today, I tried to experiment my new determination.
I will post a few things I have interests in and try to put my opinions on that.

I hope some people come and read my opinions and get me feedback even if they are very small numbers.

Another challenge is my poor english. I am Korean. I am still learning and seems to be learning English all my life. I try to use correct word and phrase for my opinion. If there are any mistakes, the comments would be much appreciated.

AT&T to workers: No vacation during iPhone launch

Today I found out interesting information.
Is iPhone a hype or a real thing? Even if it is hype, it would give a huge impact on the market. Actually, I am seeing lots of things are happening around iPhone hype.
We will see what is really happening just a month after.

According to leaked emails from AT&T, the carrier has warned its sales teams that they will get no vacation time between June 15 and July 15, and those that have taken vacation are encouraged to cancel their plans. The memo refers to the iPhone launch as "likely to be the biggest selling period we have seen in a few years." Rumor also has it that Vodafone and/or Orange will ink the deal with Apple for the iPhone in the U.K.
UBS Investment has also issued a report about AT&T recently: "The company will use the launch as a branding event and increase its advertising around the product to cement the AT&T Mobility name in the market. They expect Apple to market the product aggressively as well." While the wireless unit at AT&T has been officially renamed AT&T Mobility Inc., the company has yet to market that particular brand in full yet. The new AT&T is as far as the marketers have gone thus far, but it appears the iPhone launch could change that.

from FierceWireless

Confusing situation

I am in some trouble, I think. These days, I couldn't sleep well. I had lots of bad dream. I think I have to pull myself to go forward. The book I'm reading had affected me. The book is about Dracula. The title is "The Historian". I think this book is really great at describing the architectures, arts and some old historical places. I am not history person. Also, I am not European. I have lots of problem in reading this book. I've stumbled the weird named places I have never heard before. I am trying to search for information about that, but it's not easy. It is slowing my reading which is already slow due to my lack of english skill.

Anyway back to my life. I am thinking about my future seriously. I have to find something to give me a comfort. I think I am at a stake. I have to gather my thoughts and make up my mind. --;

Hard working

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. I am new to blog. It's not easy to keep the blog updated. I'm trying to update as often as I can, but I'm lazy. T.T

From last friday, I started my java porting work on Windows Mobile. It has been delayed about a month. I have only a month before the Lab Entry. I have to work hard. There are lots of obstacles to deal with. I hope everything goes well. Cross my finger to myself. ^^

COM (Common Object Model)

To summarize, COM defines several basic fundamentals that provide the underpinnings of the object model. The binary standard allows components written in different languages to call each other's functions. Interfaces are logical groups of related functions—functions that together provide some well-defined capability. IUnknown is the interface that COM defines to allow components to control their own life span and to dynamically determine another component's capabilities. A component object implements IUnknown to control its life span and to provide access to the interfaces it supports. A component object does not provide direct access its data. GUIDs provide a unique identifier for each class and interface, thereby preventing naming conflicts. And finally, the Component Object Library is implemented as part of the operating system and provides the "legwork" associated with finding and launching component objects.

The core of the Component Object Model is a specification for how components and their clients interact. As a specification, it defines a number of other standards for interoperability of software components:

• A binary standard for function calling between components
• A provision for strongly-typed groupings of functions into interfaces
• A base IUnknown interface providing:
  • A way for components to dynamically discover the interfaces supported by other components (QueryInterface)
  • Reference counting to encapsulate component lifetime (AddRef and Release)
• A mechanism to uniquely identify components and their interfaces (GUIDs)