With the market saying 'no' to Nokia's Ovi Store, what do you think can be done to change this?Vive le Mobil!
The first stop on our all new DeviceAnywhere European Roadshow tour arrives just after Christmas.
That’s right, we’re heading to Paris first, closely followed by London. As many of the MIR Team as possible will be joining us for the evening event.
If you’re a mobile developer in Paris (or nearby), we want to get you on film and tell the planet about what you’re up to — drop me a note to let me know if we should be interviewing you.
More news soon…
I’m delighted to bring you the first in the DeviceAnywhere Developer Roadshow series. You can find background on the roadshow here.
Our first featured developer is Mark Tynan of mobile travel experts, ShopQwik. The application is nothing short of a piece of genius and allows you to book a flight and/or hotel, anywhere on the planet, within about 60-90 seconds, direct from your mobile. What’s more, if you’re American (true paperless ticketing at just about every US airport), then the service really comes into it’s own. You don’t need to bother printing out nonsense. Just click, click and you’re done. You can get all your details at the touch of a button via the ShopQwik application.
In the video below, Mark talks about evolving ShopQwik along with the challenges they face developing for hundreds of handsets — and gives a perspective on how useful DeviceAnywhere would be in that process.
DeviceAnywhere Developer Roadshow: ShopQwik from Ewan MacLeod on Vimeo.
If you’d like to feature in the DeviceAnywhere Developer Roadshow, drop me a note. Provided you’re in the UK, we’ll do our best to try and feature you. That means a visit from me, bearing gifts in the form of an extended DeviceAnywhere trial. We’ll aim to profile your company and get your viewpoints on the DeviceAnywhere service.
The roadshow is kindly supported by DeviceAnywhere.
I’ve just spent an hour or so pointing a camera in the face of a very patient and highly animated Mark Tynan, founder of mobile travel geniuses, ShopQwik. With their service, you can book a flight or a hotel, anywhere in the world, in 60 seconds, from your handset.
I was interviewing Mark for the DeviceAnywhere Developer Roadshow we’re doing here at SMS Text News. I tell you, it’s just brilliant. Brilliant. I’m thoroughly enjoying being able to show DeviceAnywhere to top quality developer/entrepreneurs like Mark.
I sat him down and flipped open the DeviceAnywhere Studio (check out the walk-through) and brought up a few devices.
“Awww, look at that!” he said, as I opened up a few handsets, “It’s like having the handset there in your hand!”
Mark went on to explain that he’s spent about 20,000 pounds or more on handsets over the last three years (including contracts). With burgeoning demand for ShopQwik on a whole load of different platforms, testing is a key issue for him — he reckons he’ll be able to get some excellent benefits from using DeviceAnywhere, although I’ll leave the specifics ’til the video.
We’ll have it cut and online next week.
Meantime I’m off now to catch my flight to Dublin for Unlimited Drinks tonight!
I still meet people who either haven’t heard of DeviceAnywhere’s services or don’t quite ‘get’ what they offer. It’s a constant irritation. Ever since I got a demonstration of it about 9 months ago, I’ve been telling everyone and anyone about it. I’m also proper-made-up, as they say in some parts of the North of Britain, that they agreed to chip in and support my on-going quest for folk to get a grip and use these types of services.
I decided we needed to do a roadshow a few months ago. Spread the word. The mobile industry is difficult enough (as per my piece on Monday) without adding even more arse in the form of development and testing woes.
(If, by the way, I was aware of any competitors with such a comprehensive offering, I’d also be including them too.)
I’ve already covered the basic proposition of DeviceAnywhere in a previous post so here’s a quick primer before we jump in:
You want to test your applications and services on hundreds of different devices on different networks, right? Don’t buy them all yourself, just log on to DeviceAnywhere’s site and, bish-bash-bosh, you’ll be using a real, live unit, remotely. Don’t mess around testing easily repeatable actions on a ton of different devices, DeviceAnywhere’ll do that.
Right.
I logged into DeviceAnywhere and added a few packages to my account. First off I chose 3UK. This really is a piece of genius, this service. With the 3UK package, you get to play with a total of 39 live devices. That is, 39 devices that you can remotely mess around with — each with it’s own sim card and account on 3UK. A quick glance down the list shows handsets from 3’s key suppliers — LG, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. They have, ready for me to play with (amongst others) the U-300 and U970 from LG, a horrifying RAZR 3x from Motorola, a veritable cacophony of Nokias (6000 series, E61, E65, N70, N73, N95) and a big showing of Sonys (K530 all the way up to the K850 and W950s).
I want a bit of variety with my testing.
I decided to add AT&T! Woo! I can actually check out American devices — all 158 of them!
And that’s only the first of four pages worth of devices, standing by for testing.
What about the Vodafone and o2 range of test units? Here’s Voda’s first page:
And o2’s first page:
(Interesting to see the “Helio Cocoon” — for a moment I thought that was referring to the US MVNO…)
Right, let’s have a play with one of the devices.
It’s quite simple. At the top of the DeviceAnywhere page, there’s a toolbar:
See the big orange button? Click it and then this pops up:
DeviceAnywhere’s Studio is java-based so it’ll work on whatever you’re using, provided you’ve got Java support (sometimes I use it via my Apple, other times via a nearby PC).
Here’s the login box via my Apple:
You need to allow the app to load it’s various datasets — perhaps a 2-3 minutes — and then you’re up and running.
Now, before we go there. I’ve actually uploaded Anthony Pranata’s brilliant ‘Screenshot’ application to my DeviceAnywhere library — the concept being that I’m pretending I’ve just made it and I’m going to demonstrate it working for you with DeviceAnywhere Studio. I thought it’d be neat to publish a screenshot I took on a remote device in this manner (Although you can take snapshots and video from the Studio easily).
Right! Let’s get the Studio up…
There’s my package — it’s defaulted to Vodafone UK. Scroll down and I can choose to visit and play about with any one of the devices that’s available. Sometimes you’ll see someone’s already working on one and it’ll be marked with a little no-entry sign. You can choose to hop on to it the moment they’ve finished work.
Let’s swap to my AT&T package:
Ok. Let’s have a look at the E61…
Click, click… woosh. It’s mine for the moment! See the locked icon?
Right. Let’s have a play!
It’s startling when the device pops up on your screen like this:
I’m hesitant for a moment then I decided to click about on the E61’s keypad…
The device wake’s up from standby:
Right, let’s get on the net, eh?
Before I know it I’m surfing AT&T’s homepage and trying to search for Anthony’s site:
I typed the URL incorrectly! So I thought I’d then try out a Nokia N95 from Vodafone:
See how you can run devices next to each other? Wicked! I typed in Anthony’s site URL and woosh:
A quick glance into the N95’s applications folder confirms the app installed:
.. and here it is running!
Then I installed Nimbuzz. Worked like a charm… and then I decided it was time to play with the iPhone! I wanted to give that a go…
I’m without my iPhone at the moment as I’ve given it to my other half… so let’s have a look at SMS Text News on the iPhone’s Safari browser:
Nice! Ok. Right. Now I want to add a bookmark on to the front screen… (I’m simply dragging my mouse over the iPhone as though I was tapping it with my finger)
And let’s see if the icon is there…
Ah, brilliant! There it is.
So that ends the walk-through.
If you’re a developer charged with making your service available to as many people as possible across this mobile industry of ours, I defy you not to get value from DeviceAnywhere. If you’d like a trial, you can get a few hours free with no commitments from their site at www.deviceanywhere.com with immediate activation. If you’d like a bit more time, drop me a mail (ewan@smstextnews.com) and I’ll get you double the time to play with. Once you’re out of trial, the cost starts at around $100/month per package (depending on promotions) and then around $16 an hour.
Interestingly, there’s a feature on the DeviceAnywhere site under your account that lists the most popular devices and operators being tested that day, by package. The winner today form the 3UK package? The E61. And the AT&T package? The Apple iPhone. No surprise, eh?
Back to the roadshow. We’re visiting ShopQwik soon and then Palringo. Standby!
I first met the Chief Executive and Chief Marketing Officer of DeviceAnywhere (formerly known as MobileComplete) in a briefing late last year. I’d heard of the company quite a few times. It’s a name that comes up regularly whenever I’m talking to developers. At the briefing, I had a chance to check out the DeviceAnywhere service in detail and it blew my socks off.
If you’ve come across DeviceAnywhere before, then, you know what I’m talking about and can nod sagely with me.
If you haven’t, then just wait ’til you see it. It’s pure genius.
When I arrived at the briefing, I saw, on the table, a pizza-box-sized server — one of those that you’re used to seeing in a rack, in a data centre. Although this wasn’t just any 1U server. No, sir. There was a Blackberry inside it. Literally. I could see the Blackberry’s screen flashing away — the phone had been disassembled a little and plugged into the circuitry of the server. As though The Borg had interfaced with it.
I nodded to the DeviceAnywhere chaps, “So, you can actually control that?” I said, pointing to the Blackberry screen, “From here?” I said, pointing to the laptop they’d setup next to it.
“Yup!”
Wow. The implications of such a facility hit home immediately. If you’re a developer and you’d like immediate access to a Blackberry, a Nokia, an iPhone… I am not talking simulation or emulation — in fact, a whole range of mobile handsets (500+), working on veritable array of international networks, you can have it remotely over the internet. One or two clicks with the Mobile Complete client software and within seconds, you’re using a real device on, a live network of choice.
Want to upload an application? Go ahead. Want to send a text message? Sure. Go for it. Each phone has it’s own account on a mobile network (you pick what you want, e.g. Blackberry on Vodafone) and you can rent the phone exclusively or for a few hours to test with. You can do absolutely anything you want to the device — when your testing/tinkering session is finished, it’ll be reset to factory default. What’s more, the pricing is eminently affordable, whether you’re developing in your bedroom or a multi-national.
They don’t just offer easy access to a whole range of mobile devices — they also offer automation, scripting and monitoring: Absolutely invaluable for most developers. Just as an example, if you’re working away testing an application on a device and it freezes, well… not only is it a bit of an arse, you also want to know *what happened* to cause the freeze, e.g. a memory overload or the like. That’s where DeviceAnywhere really comes into its own. Plus, the automation tools can save you hours and hours of time — think, for example, trying to test out performance at peak network congestion times in different time zones (when you actually want to be asleep).
It’s a really, really useful offering, DeviceAnywhere. It’s exactly what developers need when they’re developing for international markets (and, let’s face it, if you’re not, there’s a problem). It’s all very well having a Sony handset on each domestic mobile network. That’s useful. But when you get an enquiry from someone using a Nokia N95 8GB wondering why your service isn’t working, device-specific bugs can be a real annoyance.
Clearly, anyone who’s doing any sort of mobile development or marketing needs access to DeviceAnywhere.
Which is why, when I talked to DeviceAnywhere again recently, I suggested they support a Mobile Complete roadshow here at SMS Text News. I was delighted when they readily agreed.
So where’s what we’re going to do. I’d like to spread the word about the service. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to four different mobile developers in the UK — large and small. We’re going to their offices (or, in some cases, they’ll be coming to SMS Text News towers) and we’re going to give them a demo DeviceAnywhere account and see what they make of the service. We’ll write each company up and do some videos too.
Standby! The first roadshow entry will be online shortly!
Recorded on Friday, the 5th SMS Text News podcast is now available. This week added several more microphones and a ‘mixer’… hence there’s twice as much background noise and Dan is only partially audible for most of it (next week we’ll twiddle the knobs a bit differently). This time we kick Vodafone and Orange about data some more, anticipate the arrival of the Nokia E71 (except Ewan) and Ewan explains how he is going to build his own mobile network on a desert island as SMS Text News gets all ‘LOST’.
A transcription of the podcast will be available later this week when the lady who does them has stopped sobbing and pleading that we only speak ‘one at a time’.
Listen now using the player below or see the links below for other options:
Episode link and feeds:
[Link] Direct link to this episode’s MP3 to download
[iTunes] Subscribe or listen in iTunes
[RSS] Subscribe via your feed reader or another podcatcher
…or listen by phone on +1 206 438 4026 thanks to Greg Farrell and his team at CommerceTel.
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The contributors:
Ewan MacLeod is the mayor of SMS Text News. He built this city out of rock ‘n roll… probably.
Dan Lane’s blog is at http://invalid.name. He’s CTO at Howler Tech.
James Whatley’s blog is here. He works for SpinVox doing clever social media stuff and their blog.
Ben Smith is a management consultant. He has a blog, but anything worth reading is contributed here.
Sites mentioned in the podcast:
Vodafone’s updated data offering - 500MB per month ‘fair use’. Why isn’t it mentioned yet on their consumer-facing site?
Three’s data offering is one of our favourites.
Shozu is a clever image uploading tool we prefer like.
Qik allows you to live-stream video from your S60 handset.
Vodafone has a Forum Intervention Team who’ve stepped in several times to save the day.
Ewan made a video of the Orange brochure that stays schtum about data (mostly).
James is a card-carrying Vodafone-VIP.
Ben wrote some nonsense about the UK operator’s mobile stores.
Truphone is a smart voice-over-IP application for S60 handsets.
The Boy Genius Reports been giving lots of coverage to the not-yet-released Nokia E71.
‘Unlimited Drinks‘ is back in London on the 10th June.
DeviceAnywhere do clever application testing on all the handsets you can imagine and a few you can’t.
OJOM are the recently shut-down games development team - who will surely go on to even better things.
The S60 team are hosting another one of their excellent events in Boston.
Ricky keeps tabs on the ‘advertising for minutes’ operator Blyk at Blykwatch.
Trippo is a clever on-handset translation application.
HandyTaskman and HandyCalendar are must-have S60 handset enhancements from EpocWare.
Slandr.net is a cool mobile Twitter alternative interface.
We’re really keen to get your feedback on the podcast - please let us know in the comments or tell Ewan - ewan@smstextnews.com.
If you’re a mobile developer — games, applications, anything like that, and you regularly test your applications out on an array of handsets, then I want to know. Big time.
Next week, SMS Text News begins our UK mobile developer roadshow. This has been something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I’m aiming to visit with four different mobile developers across the next few weeks to profile them and their applications on SMS Text News and get their opinions on DeviceAnywhere’s MobileComplete service. I’ve seen it demonstrated live and I know people who use it — it’s a regular piece of magic and, I reckon, an essential service for developers. So much so that I talked to DeviceAnywhere and I’ve asked them to give each developer that we showcase a free test account to play with and they’ve agreed to support the roadshow.
If you’re potentially interested, the only mandate is that you need to be UK based so I can easily visit you (or vice versa) for an interview. We’ll publish full details here on Monday. Please do drop me a mail (ewan@smstextnews.com) if you’d like to be profiled.
