Thursday, November 18, 2010

Nokia N8 Smart Phone

I got one for free at Nokia's Qt Hands-on Seminar :)

Introduced in April 2010.
Long time competitors of Nokia in the Chinese market: Samsung, Motorola.
New upstarts that are a threat: Huawei, Lenovo, Tianyu.

N8:
3.5 inch active-matrix OLED touchscreen (rivals the AMOLED screen on the Samsung Galaxy S)
12 Mega-pixel camera (highest resloution on any current smartphone)
16 Giga-bytes internal flash
Symbian^3 OS
TI applications processor
Samsung memory
4-Gbit OneNAND flash
2-Gbit Mobile DDR DRAM
TI ARM11 core based application processor underclocked at 680 MHZ (spec: 772 MHZ)
[iphone4: 1-GHZ A4 processor (more ARM A8 core)]
[Samsung Galaxy S: 1-GHZ Hummingbird (more powerful A8 core)]
high definition video: Broadcom BCM2727 graphics processor with 3D graphics accelerator
AMOLED touch screen: Synaptics T1021A controller
TI WiLink6.0 songle chip WLAN, Bluetooth, and FM solution
TI NaviLink 5.0 single-chip solution for GPS
TI baseband processor (for analog baseband)
NXP Semiconductor IP5130 power management
Toshiba memory controller
HDMI output




Reference:
EETimes Design article: "N8: Solid start for Nokia's Symbian^3 strategy" by Allan Yogasingam


Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Seminar on eLearning / Multimedia / Adobe eLearning Suite

I went to an eLEarning seminar hosted by the IEEE Education Society, Silicon Valley Chapter tonight
Title: " Overview of Multimedia eLearning Theory with a View Towards Efficient Creation and Dissemination"

speaker: "Allen Partridge, Adobe"

Previous to going, when I read the title, I thought "multimedia" meat multimedia in the usual sense which would mean audio/video oriented, however, during the talk I realized that the "multimedia" here referred to multiple mediums used for teaching, for example, showing a child a picture in addition to text, etc.

It was an interesting lecture, I learned many new things, which made it worthwhile, and there was free pizza as well :)

Adobe Software for producing eLearning content:
1. Adobe Captivate
2. Adobe Connect Pro (older, seems like people used this before Captivate was released)
3. Adobe eLearning Suite 2 (this bundles Captivate with software like Dreamweaver and Flash, but if you already have those other components, you might want to just get Captivate)

*Today's talk was more on the cognitive theory of learning and teaching, other recorded talks on more practical issues like software usage are also available online

*Studies show tht the proximity of text to images makes a big difference -> closer is more effective


*Spoken audio is usually more effective than printed text, however, if what you are presenting is too long (longer than the brain can "buffer" at once), then printed text might be better.


Captivate -> Captivate Device Central
allows you to simulate your content on all kinds of different devices, including various mobile device platforms

Adobe's "Open Screen Initiative" -> Aims to allow developers to design once, and be able to deploy to all kinds of platforms (including desktop, mobile, and even TV, etc.)

Android
Backberry
iOS
Wii
Flash 10.1

Feel free to contact with any questions:
Anthony Warren
206-675-7109
awarren@adobe.com

www.adobe.com/products/captivate
www.adobe.com/products/eLearningsuite
blogs.adobe.com/adobeElearning
www.adobe.com/adobeElearning
tv.adobe.com/channel/e-learning

bit.ly/aCHm2e
bit.ly/9wjykY

"LMS" : "Learning Management System

Below are pictures of the cover of a eLearning book that the local moderator brought (the speaker was actually speaking from his home remotely), and some slides that I though were interesting, the slides are from Adobe













Abstract:
This talk reviews key points in what is known about the principles of multimedia e-Learning, rooted in cognitive theory and some of the pitfalls of the classic "Information Delivery Theory." The discussion includes what current cognitive theory says regarding content creation and delivery, providing evidence-based guidelines for both self-study and virtual classroom forms of e-learning. Some descriptions of Adobe's Captivate software, one of the more popular programs for e-learning development and delivery. The presentation is aimed at an audience of designers, developers, and consumers of e-learning.

About Allen Partridge:
Dr. Allen Partridge is the eLEarning evangelist for Adobe. In addition to his work for Adobe Systems, he continues to serve on the doctoral faculty in the Communications Media and Instructional Technology program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Allen has written several books and a host of articles on topics rangning from 3D game development to Instructional Design for new technologies. He is active in explorations of Immersive Learning as well as traditional multimedia enhanced eLearning and rapid eLearning. Allen works closely with the eLEarning Suite and Captivate teams at Adobe, providing a channel to customer needs and concerns and helping to facilitate communication among team members.


The Santa Clara Valley chapter of the IEEE Educatoin Society welcomes new members: www.ieee.org/scv/es/



Tuesday, November 16, 2010

elance.com

online site for contracting out and hiring niividual services

spotery.com

spotery.com

Spot it. Share it.

Reddit.com

the collective internet hive mind known as Reddit

http://www.reddit.com/

Crowdsourcing

Explanations from Answers.com

Obtaining information for the general public instead of hiring professional people to do it.

For example, if a natural disaster strikes an area, locals can capture and upload images before a professional news crew arrives.

"Let the people do the work"

Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk (http://www.mturk.com/) enables people to enter a task description and an amount they will pay for its completion. A body of workers (the Turks; the crowd) peruse the job list and fulfill the task.

InnoCentive (http://www.innocentive.com/) enlists scientists worldwide to do research for pharmaceutical, biotech, agribusiness and other companies. Awards are issued for solutions that best meet requirements.

The internet is often the chief tool used in crowdsourcing.

The Human Cloud

Mathew Ingram wrote an interesting article on GigaOM titled "The Human Cloud and the Future of Work"

It is partly about tools like Skype, Jive Software, Yammer, and Rypple that make personal interaction easier online. It is also about the fact that working in new and different ways changes our lives.

Built upon a cloud of web-enabled infrastructute, the human cloud is a new term for the new way we work. Companies have dispersed teams that are located in different geographic locations. In this way, companies are able to get the best talent at the lowest cost.

Term: "crowdsourcing"

Many people outsource themselves and their skills through services like Elance or ODesk.


GigaOM is holding a cenference on the subject of the Human Cloud called "Net:Work" -> this event will be streamed live!

Multimedia eLaerning Theory

The Santa Clara Chapter of the IEEE Education Society

17, Nov. 2010

Overview of Multimedia eLaerning Theory with a View Towards Efficient Creation and Dissemination [Dr. Allen Partridge, Adobe]


Abstract:
This talk reviews keys points in what is known about the principles of multimedia e-learning rooted in cognitive theory and some of the pitfalls of the classic "Information Delivery Theory". The discussion will include what current cognitive theory says regarding content creation and delivery, providing evidence-based guidelines for both self-study and virtual classroom forms of e-learning. Some descriptions will be included on Captivate by Adobe, one of the more popular programs for e-learning development and delivery. The presentation is aimed at an audience of designers, developers, or consumers of e-learning (as well as professionals curious about how the new educational tools can be used to further student success).
About Allen Partridge:
Dr. Allen Partridge is the eLearning Evangelist for Adobe. In addition to his work for Adobe Systems, he continues to serve on the doctoral faculty in the Communications Media and Instructional Technology program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Allen has written several books and a host of articles on topics ranging from 3D game development to Instructional Design for new technologies. He is active in explorations of Immersive Learning as well as traditional multimedia enhanced eLearning and rapid eLearning. Allen works closely with the eLearning Suite and Captivate teams at Adobe, providing a channel to customer needs and concerns and helping facilitate communication among team members.
The Santa Clara Valley chapter of the IEEE Education Society welcomes new members.
Find out more at http://www.ieee.org/scv/es/

http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/es/mtg/html/2010/20101117tech.html

Monday, November 15, 2010

Excellent YouTube Video on How to Use Google Adsense

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUcxRmzmB18&feature=channel

Google Gadgets - Thousands of Cool 3rd Party Gadgets to Choose From

In the Add Gadgets Window, only the basic ones are displayed in the middle. Go to the Menu list on the left and browse categories to see thousands of cool, useful gadgets that you can add into your blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OVRlXn9mAs

CNN Report: "Baidu Succeeds where Google Struggles"

Video

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2010/11/11/ns.china.baidu.kuo.cnn

Talks on Computing Systems (TOCS) - CMU Silicon Valley

Talks on Computing Systems

Each week, the Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley campus features a different speaker giving a talk on computing and tech topics.

Talks are broadcast and recorded using AdobeConnect.

Remote attendance is available via http://cmysv.acrobat.com/tocs.

Recordings are available in the talk archive.

http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/news-events/seminars/index.html

http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/news-events/seminars/archive.html

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Business - Internet - China

Zhou Hongyi is founder of Qihoo 360, which is an anti-virus software company.

He says that "The Internet in China is currently a Jungle."

Chinese Teach - Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook

Facebook co-founder Mark Zukerburg, who has talked about setting up operations in China, is studying Mandarin Chinese.

Operating Systems & HW/SW interfacing

www.tianocore.org
www.tianocore.sourceforge.net


The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, or UEFI, specifies the layer between an operating system and the platform firmware. The end result of this is a standards based environment for running pre-boot applications and for booting an operating system.

 Intel-promoted Standard

Cloud Computing / Supercomputing / HPC high performance computing

top500.org

good site on cloud computing / supercomputing / HPC (high performance computing)

Meego - IDF 2010

IDF 2010 Slides:

www.intel.com/go/idfsessions


other:

www.intel.com/go/cloud
www.intel.com/go/ethernet


Intel Developer Forum  2010

Meego - IDF 2010

intel.com/go/idf

Download/Install  Meego SDK


Intel Developer Forum IDF 2010
September 13 -15 , 2010
San Francisco, CA

thesis instructor recommended format

A mobile database design approach in problem-based learning / Sunita Sharma
 
(author: Sunita Sharma)
 
 

NAVTEQ App Warehouse

App Catalog
Allows viewers to explore location apps using NAVTEQ map data and content running on various devices and platforms

For Developers
Developers showcase their location apps and market to NAVTEQ partners and customers - for free.

For Partners and Customers
Makes it easy to search for compelling apps all in one place, providing direct contact to developers you want to work with - for free.

www.NN4D.com/appwarehouse


NAVTEQ App Warehouse
Location app buyers and sellers connect here to discover the latest trends in location solutions using NAVTEQ map data and content.

Promo Opportunities
Participating developers get invited to events, are promoted across social media channels and receive promos and press at NN4D.com

Contact
Christina Claure
Developer Relations Manager
christina.claure@navteq.com
office +1 408 617 5050
mobile +1 650 353 0234

Friday, November 12, 2010

Mobile - Phone Hard vs Soft vs Directional Buttons

It is often a matter of debate how many hard or soft or directional buttons a mobile phone should have, and what implications this design has on the overall usability of the phone.

With mobile phones, the user experience is critical. Providing a great user experience is crutial, and the ease of navigation is a key part of the user experience.

How many Hard Buttons do you think a mobile phone should have, and what functions should they provide?

How about Directional Buttons? 2-way? 4-way?

Mobile - New Nokia N8 Smart Phone

This seems like a cool, slick new phone.

The camera on it is awesome, it has 12 Megapixels.

It has a game that can be controled by just tilting the phone (using motion sensors, accelerometers, etc)

I am surprised to say that, at least for the past couple of days, I have been having more fun with it than with any of my other iphones, android phones or blackberries.

Let's see if it can continue to surprise and impress.

I'll uplaod a picture whe I get a chance.

Moblie - Challenges of Mobile Apps When compared to Desktop Apps

Challenges / Differences when Developing for the Mobile Versus a Desktop Platform

1. Small Screen Size
2. Dynamic Orientation ( portrait, landscape, upsidedown , etc)
3. Do not get hints when hovering over
4. Much more frequent interruptions (the mobile user is often on the move, with many distractions they have 
    to attend to, and this key factor need to be considred in the design of the UI and interactive model of your 
    mobile application)

Nokia - Qt -QtQuick

QtQuick

A Declarative language

Nokia mobile phones - A Webkit Browser

Webkit Browser

How many people know that nokia has a webkit browser

Webkit is very popular, many browsers like android ect are based on it

Nokia is commited to supporting html5, not yet supported today, but next version will support
(sometime in 2011)


Mobile - Android - Monetizing

Does everybody know how  "ad networks"  work?

- InMobi
- Ad Mob

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Nokia - Qt Workshop - Install in N8 phone before you can run apps on phone

C:\Nokia Qt SDK\Symbian\SIS\Symbian^3 ********.sisx

double click on the above file to install "TDR" (?) on phone

this needs to be done before you can run your apps on phone through OVI suite

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Mobicase Conference - Day 2 Notes

the web of documents is still there

the web of people

the "web of the world"

mobile metadata

1. four square
2. facebook spaces

Marc Davis
2 months into tenure at Microsoft
http://marcdavis.ms (?)

connecting the web of people to the web of pages

Attention network
Interest network
Social network

Part of our lives!
Social Computing

computers: have no context => give them context



"small world network"

"HTML5 is very big"

could services  V.S.  native app

Browser   V.S.   native app

Browser apps are easier to develop than a native app



"GetJar" <- sounds hot, mentioned multiple times

*music: "shizam"

WCA - Wireless Communications Alliance

Shopkick app

Friday, October 22, 2010

Google TV

excerpts from:
http://www.google.com/tv/

TVs are the center of our living rooms. 5 billion people use them. That is more than the number of people who use mobile phones or computers.

Knowing how the web transformed those devices, imagine what it could potentially do for the most ubiquitous screen in the world (TV)!

Google TV is an adventure where TV meets the web, apps, search, and the world's creativity. Like Android, Google TV will be an open software platform. From the Beginning, it will be able to work with any TV. Before long, anyone will be able to write applications for it. 


Apps, on your television. 


Your smart phone has apps. Now, your TV does too. Google TV comes with several of your favorite apps, and next year developers will be able to create their own. 

Google TV lets your search across every channel, every app, and the entire web simultaneously. Television, meets search engine. 


Google TV --- TV, apps, search, and the web-----together at last. 




Some early information regarding app development for Google TV and app/website optimization for TV screens(does not yet seem to be very clear or definitive):


information from :
http://www.google.com/tv/developers.html


Starting early next year, developers will be able to create and sell Android apps for Google TV (more information coming soon)


Optimize for TV
Designers are enhancing their existing websites for an optimal viewing experience on the television. 




Google TV Web Site Optimization


Optimize your web site for a "10-foot" UI designed to be used in a home entertainment system environment, and specifically for Google TV. The Google TV logo: 

Four main topics for website optimization:
  • Adhere to various user experience (UX) concepts that are relevant to the 10-foot UI and that work well in the Google TV Environment.
  • An implementation guide that provides HTML, CSS, and JavaScript samples as well as other technical tips on optimizing your site for Google TV.
  • Guidelines for optimizing performance of Adobe Flash on your site.
  • A checklist of optimization tasks to track your progress.
(referenced from: http://code.google.com/tv/web/ )


Android Apps Market Extends Support for Selling and Buying to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore

Excerpted from:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-countries-more-sellers-more-buyers.html


Support for paid application sales is now expanded to developers in 29 countries, with today’s additions of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan.
In addition, Android Market users from 32 countries will be able to buy apps, with the addition of Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, and Taiwan. No action is necessary if you have targeted your paid apps to be available to “All Locations” and would like to launch in these additional countries. If you have not selected “All Locations” and would like to target these additional countries, or if you have selected “All Locations” and do not want to launch your apps in these additional buyer countries, please visit the Android Market publisher site regularly over the next two weeks to make the necessary adjustments as the new buyer countries launch.

Monday, October 18, 2010

chinese teach - interesting eLearning company


http://www.extremelearn.com/about.htm
 
Extreme Learning was founded in 2002 by David Payne, a former school principal motivated by a strong desire to continue working to improve children and families’ experiences with the California education system.  David crafted a new technology-driven approach to academic support designed to ignite students’ passion for learning and boost academic achievement. The first Extreme Learning Center opened that founding year in Morgan Hill, providing tutoring and enrichment services directly to families.
In July 2003, the California State Board of Education approved Extreme Learning as a Supplemental Service Provider, and the company began offering an Academic Support Program and Exit Exam preparation to school districts. Through customer-oriented, high-tech, low-cost programs and documented student success, Extreme Learning has expanded statewide.
Extreme Learning currently serves more than 13,000 students per year in 1,000 schools across 98 districts throughout California with our onsite and @Avanza Online programs.
Extreme is led by a team of distinguished, experienced executives:
  David Payne, Founder & CEO
  Mary Smathers, Co-Owner
  Ben Politzer, VP & CFO
  Damian Cozzi, VP Operations & Technology

mobile cloud - 10/18/2010 -1

Event Information: Mobile Internet Offload: Pitfalls and Best Practices 

Date and time: Tuesday, November 2, 2010 8:00 am
Pacific Daylight Time (San Francisco, GMT-07:00) 


Description:

Broadband wireless networks are approaching saturation due to an explosion of traffic spurred by smart phones and wireless dongles. If not addressed, congestion leads to poor quality of experience and ultimately customer churn. However, adding capacity to the wireless core network is a significant investment and thus operators are looking at novel approaches to deliver more capacity more cost effectively. Appropriate solutions can empower network equipment providers to incorporate Internet Offload / Traffic Offload Gateway functionality to provide congestion relief for the wireless core network. By identifying and routing certain classes of traffic directly to the Internet rather than via the wireless core network, operators can increase customer satisfaction and delay costly core capacity upgrades. An Internet Offload / Traffic Offload Gateway is flexible in its deployment options and is applicable to both LTE and 3G wireless networks.

This webinar address the drivers for the massive increase in traffic, presents the options for offloading traffic from the carrier core network both for 3G and LTE and presents a solution architecture for an advanced internet offload / traffic offload gateway.

Speakers

Todd Mersch, Director of Product Line Management, Continuous Computing

Karl Wale, Director of Product Line Management, Continuous Computing

Devaraj Srinivasan, General Manager, Wipro Technologies

Mary Lennighan, Editor, Total Telecom


 


Duration: 1 hour