Gravity

Gravity v1.00 is the first fully-featured and native Twitter client for the S60 platform. It supports multiple accounts, Twitter Search, Laconica, TwitPic and wraps everything into a gorgeous looking interface.

• Compatible with Twitter and Laconica
• All functions available on your S60 phone: tweet, reply, DM, follow & unfollow, create favourites, search, auto-update and many more …
• Tabbed view of your Timeline, Replies, Messages, Friends, …
• Setup and use as many accounts as you want at the same time
• Twitter-Search section with multiple search tabs and Twitter Trends
• Post pictures via TwitPic
• Open URLs from any Tweet
• Kinetic scrolling on S60v5 ( Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 )
• Theme support on S60v3 ( fixed dark and bright theme )
  (source)

The only downside to this software is that it may create too much traffic whereas the alternative – Twibble (which I’d also used since its first day as a public release) – seems to generate less traffic.

I’m on a 1GB flat for my phone, which means I can generate 1GB in traffic via the phone and only pay 9,90 EUR / month. I actually don’t need 1GB at the moment because we also have DSL here, but it makes sense if you happen to download more than 41 MB / month (9,90€ / 0,24€/MB = 41,25 MB) + it isn’t limited to a proxy server, special online pages or other crazy limitations. And DSL sometimes fails, so it’s a good fall back option.

Creating a sceenshot of Gravity is a bit complicated as the Shift (Pencil) key on the phone (which is used in combination with the middle joystick button) also triggers the input form for new tweets on Gravity:

The beautiful part is that you can really SCROLL between tweets like you would do on an iPhone – bila the touchscreen on my N95 though..

And another good part is that it’s now much easier to insert images on your tweets (Twibble also has this but isn’t as comfy to use).

Gravity comes with a 10day demo version and I instantly (!) registered it after using it for only 2 minutes. Now, you’d have to know for yourself if you’re willing to cough up ~ 10,- € (in Germany – sijui why they are adding VAT on shareit.com for other countries) for an otherwise free and time consuming service such as Twitter, but then, again, there are other – much more useless – applications for the iPhone ppl are willing to spend money on and also: there are only a few really good applications for Symbian devices. Gravity is one of them.

You’ll also need to access the download page for the registered version via a normal computer as the phone’s internal S60 browser is having problems identifying the .sisx format. Jan, the developer behind Gravity, also mentioned that he’ll be working on some bugfixes now, so maybe there’s a way to include this as well (refers to the purchase of the software directly from a phone. Update routines are just flawless!).

Verdict: If you’ve been on Twibble before, you’ll LOVE Gravity. Highly recommended application.

—–

UPDATE: After some recent updates (currently 1.1x), Gravity also has the following additional features:

• Configurable Audio Alerts for Timeline/Replies/DM’s
• Group support for creating custom tabs with user-defined filters (S60v3)
• Post pictures to MobyPicture and TwitPic
• Preview pictures from MobyPicture or TwitPic
• Full-Screen mode on S60v3
• Built-in auto-update function and beta access for testing the latest features

And while I think that Gravity is the best application I’ve ever bought for a phone, I’d like to add two remarks:

• There should be a cheaper version of Gravity as not everyone out there is able to cough up 9,95 € on a mobile app – and sometimes it’s technical reasons as to why a prog like Gravity is only successful in developed countries: how would you pay for this app from e.g. Kenya (where there is money but no payment system such as Paypal?). And how about a sponsored (& localized) version with fixed banners? Would it make sense? And what would ppl be willing to spend on an app (in other countries than Germany)?
• There should be a mobile WordPress editor that’s just as easy to use as Gravity. After all these years of using WordPress for blogs and mobile phones, I’ve often called for better mobile blog editors and tested quite a few on this blog. Twitter indeed already is some sort of microblogging, BUT! it would be great if there also was an easy-to-use editor tool on the phone which could provide true mobile blogging.

Fellow blogger Mzeecedric and I are today attending AfrikaCamp which just started a few minutes ago.
Please stay tuned for more as I will try to update this post throughout the day (see updates below). Oh and btw, there’s no ustream from the event (no videos). Sorry!

First of all: Africa = continent = many different countries, cultures, etc. (just to be clear on that).

AfrikaCamp is some sort of follow-up to the BarCampAfrica , which recently took place @ Mountain View/Google HQ in the US.

It’s my first ever vísit to Vienna btw and I am already quite surprised how great this city is!

10:00 am:
We arrived at W@lz, the location for the AfrikaCamp.

The whole of Austria is covered in snow.

11:00 am:
Sessions planning started, Cedric and I will be talking about AfriGadget.com and some blogs we’ve created for dev aid sector / German NGOs.

There’s free WiFi. Yaay!

Free chocolate provided by FairTrade. Nice!

Christoph Chorherr giving an introduction to the different session to some of the ~ 40-50 attendants.

BarCamp-styled sessions.

11:30 am:
Attending the first session by Helge Fahrnberger of helge.at about laafi.at and OpenStreetMap project they are doing on Ouaggadougou.
Helge is one of the organisers of the AfrikaCamp.

Helge Fahrnberger talking about laafi.at and OpenSourceMap.

12:00 am
Christoph Chorherr talking about two schooling projects in SouthAfrica: “social sustainable architecture” and “Ithuba Skills College“. Interesting quote from a school headmaster in SA: “We provide schooling but no education”.

[pic to follow asap]

They are also using dry toilets as the sanitation system. GREAT!

12:47 am
Yours truly presenting Erik’s slides on Afriagadget
Mwalimu JKE :-)

Had to recharge my netbook after 6hrs in use. Lovely little live-blogging device (despite of its tiny keyboard).

01:20 pm
Having lunch with a guy called Kavindra who works in Vienna as a consultant at a Indo-European Developemnt Agency. Nice vegetarian stew followed by free drinks – thanks to the organisers of this fine event!

02:00 pm
Attending a session on ICT4D.at by Martin Konzett, Karola Riegler, Florian Sturm and Anders Bolin

Audience clearly dominated by MacBooks. Hmm… ;-)

Martin and Anders showing a preview of their upcoming documentary on mobile phone uses in East Africa. Martin says there’s a 90% penetration of Nokia phones in Africa. Very promising documentary btw which will be released soon. Martin and Florian shot it with a Nikon D90 with different lenses

Says this guy is a famous athlete who’s constantly on the phone.

A pouch / CD sleeve made of a Kanga as alternative cover for the upcoming DVD.

Martin also talks about empowerement and mobile financing. Someone from Togo in the audience mentions that we need to have a better infrastructure in many African countries. Debatte started about technology and how it is used in many places.

03:00 pm
Attending a session by Andrea Zefferer & Andrea Ben Lassoued who are presenting their projects @ http://www.clean-it.at and http://www.kinderpate.at

Clean-IT is a project that focusses on an improvement of working conditions among IT-manufacturers (in China) by setting some social standards on the demand side…

Kinderpate.at focusses on finding sponsors who are willing to support disabled kids.

03:30 pm
coffee break

04:00 pm
Giving a short video interview to Martin Konzett and Anders Bolin, both of ICT4D. Talked about AfriGadget and that we’re are currently looking for a French speaking editor who could cover parts of the francophone Africa on AG. I hate being in front of a camera, my first ever interview/pitch. Camera goes on (fisheye lens) and you’ll have to talk about your agenda for 4 minutes.

But I wasn’t the only one – seen here: Florian Sturm, Anders Bolin and Martin Konzett playing the same game with Andrea Zefferer.

04:30 pm
AfrikaCamp continues, two or three more sessions – but without us. We had to leave a bit earlier for downtown Vienna. Met an old friend of mine with whom I’d been schooling back in the days in Nbo and whom I hadn’t seen in ages.

Soo….AfrikaCamp imho was a great success, met many interesting people who are doing interesting projects, having the right visions on what works in the African context and what doesnt (NGOs tend to be more realistic then the bigger donor orgs). ICT4D.at guys are quite ambitioned, doing a good job on a tight budget. Make sure to check out their awesome documentary once it’s released on DVD (see comment below)

Else: Vienna is a GREAT city, will def. be back for more. Even my new netbook proved to be portable enough and was a great live-blogging device.

Kudos to Helge, Christoph and Karola who organised this BarCamp + Africa event!

Cheers from Vienna :-)

[UPDATE]
Florian of ICT4D also compiled a very interesting summary of the sessions I couldn’t attend. It’s a pitty that you can’t follow all sessions at once as everyone has interesting ideas to present.

A list of all sessions + list of ICT4D.at interviews are also available.

Following my other mobile blogging related posts, both my colleagues @AfriGadget – Frerieke & Erik – adviced me to take a closer look at a wonderful (new) WordPress plugin called MobilePress.

“MobilePress is a WordPress plugin that will render your WordPress blog on mobile handsets, with the ability to use customized themes.” – We’ve seen this feature with others before, but – as the author correctly points out: “Plugins exist, but, at best, contain sneaky ads and backlinks and are not all together well written.” I do share those feelings regarding the WordPress Mobile Plugin as mentioned earlier.

Despite of MobilePress being just the right choice for the mobile accessibility of your WordPress-based blog, I am still using the out-dated WPhone Admin Plugin because MobilePress (currently) lacks one important part: it automatically chooses the right rendering option based on the browser.

Now – I would like to choose that myself! WPhone does that by providing a “use mobile admin interface” checkbox on the WP login screen.

Mzeecedric and I recently had to look for a solution to a low-bandwidth blog-access issue and ended up using WPhone. I would, however, prefer to use MobilePress (also because it’s from SA, yay! :-) once such a “use mobile admin interface” functionality is integrated so that blog editors can actively choose a low-bandwidth login to the WP backend while using a normal browser.

(It’s btw interesting to see how a plugin is used for another purpose – something else than what it had been designed for. See M-Pesa in Kenya and how it is used these days.)

Well…

Donna of WomWorld/Nokia contacted me the other day, asking if I’d be interested in testing the Nokia E71 business phone as a blogger. What a rhetorical question…

[disclaimer: this post is REALLY long! You've been warned! :-)]

From a Nokia N95 to an E71?

What she probably didn’t know is that I’d been playing with the idea of changing my Nokia N95 for an E71, mainly because I’d been longing for a phone with a true QWERTY/Z keyboard.

My N95 isn’t that bad, especially since I’ve changed the silver cover into a black & cheap one earlier this year, but I really miss a decent keyboard for longer text input and if there’s one thing I still can’t stand about my N95 , then it’s the slider mechanism. While the first row of N95s still had some issues with the slider mechanism itself (which I’d fixed myself already by adjusting the tiny slider rails), the really bad product design on the N95 is that it also opens to both sides. Nice for marketing purposes and for creating the “WOW!” effect way back in early 2007, but when it comes to putting the phone into the pockets of your trousers, your only thought is: “Oh..maaaan”. Put the N95 into a monoblock cover, add a decent keyboard and I’m your next customer (the Nokia 6220 classic actually comes close to this, but lacks WLAN …and the N82 isn’t much better even though it basically is a N95 in monoblock format – N79 maybe?).

The E71 promised to be a welcome change on the horizon, keeping in mind that the Nokia E series stands for the businEss line, while the N series stands for eNtertainment. Confusing? Indeed!

As a consequence of that, comparing the E71 with an N95 is almost as wrong as comparing the N95 with an iPhone. And due to the lack of the (precessor model) E61 and E61i (E62 in the US), I can only judge the E71 through the lens of someone who a) has been using Nokia phones since 1998, b) has some experience with the downsides of the S60 operating system and c) is still trying to see it as a phone. After all, it’s just a mobile phone!

Talking about the downsides to the E71 – there are of course quite a few issues I’d like to mention here. After all, a review is imho meant to also focus on the stuff customers can only tell you about once they’ve used the phone for some time. On the other hand, most customers of a business phone are those that just want to have a working phone which enables them to check their mail without hassle and surf the net. The main reason for getting an E71 – as opposed to an N95 or even a much simpler phone – is that you want to have a QWERTY keyboard with some tactile feedback. If you don’t need a QWERTY keyboard on your phone, there are hundreds of other phones that probably suite your needs. But still, the E71 is great phone with an extremely great battery runtime for such a phone and probably also one of the best QWERTY phones out there that covers so many different aspects.

Since the E71 has already been on the market for at least 2 months, others already did a great job of compiling great reviews on the E71 that just have to be mentioned here, here, here, here, here, here and here. These reviews will also be able to give you some feedback on whether you should upgrade from an existing QWERTY phone and whether it can compete with Blackberries and other business phones.

With all these great reviews out there on the internet, I thought about focusing on my favourite subject: mobile blogging. I’ll also have a closer look at the extra applications the E71 came shipped with, so this will not remain my only E71 review*.

As mentioned earlier in my previous series on mobile blogging, I had come to the assumption that mobile blogging a) depends on a well-integrated software package and b) requires a decent QWERTY keyboard for text input. Entering text via the (T9) keypad or even via an external Bluetooth keyboard isn’t that sexy. And while the best solution for true mobile blogging currently seems to be the combination of a (low cost) Netbook with a (simpler) 3G-capable phone , blogging directly from the phone is what needs to be explored here.

How well does the Nokia E71 perfom in mobile blogging?

Take a snapshot with the built-in camera or even shoot a simple video (at reduced frame rate due to the lack of a dedicated graphics cpu in the phone), add some text and upload it onto your website.

Obviously, mobile blogging is much more than the tumblr-stlyed Twitter service and it’s clones. While Twitter provides the same experience either from the web, from a dedicated app and the phone (via Twibble or SMS) – true mobile blogging would include the creation of content on a restricted device on one hand, and on the other hand the correct rendering of multimedia content within a given layout on a much more flexible and bigger website space.

So, let’s use the E71 together with the WordPress installation on my blog. Is it compatible? Am I able to feed my blog with content directly from the phone? And why WordPress and not any other blogging platform?

Yes, why WordPress and not a dedicated mobile blogging site?

Well…because I see mobile blogging as an addition to the blogging I normally do from a browser running on a PC-based operating system (Win, OSX, GNU/Linux distro, etc.). If I wanted to only do mobile blogging, there’d sure be other systems available that do a much better job on a different scale. And WordPress, because it’s my choice. :-)

A) WP WPhone mobile plugin

Anyways, if you happen to run a selfhosted WordPress blog, try to get your hands on the WP mobile plugin which provides a much simpler WP backend interface. Activate it and access your backend from the phone.

[screenshots: using the WP dashboard via WP mobile plugin]

What you’ll see here is the basic S60 browser that comes shipped with the phone’s (internal) firmware and which just provides a rather simple access to the backend of our WordPress installation. Using this method to edit your posts, mobile blogging is reduced to a rather primitive (but pure) method of entering text. Formatting is done via HTML-tags and provides basic layout options, completely depending on your HTML-skills.

And obviously, it’s much smarter to preformat your text offline and then copy&paste it (ha! try that with an iPhone…muahahaha :-) into your blog editor while you’re online. Users with an unstable or expensive Internet connection will definitely appreciate this method.

The WPhone Admin Plugin has been around for quite some time now, the latest version was released in Nov. 2007 and those who created it dropped its further development due to the official WordPress-iPhone app . Sad.

You know what? The WPhone Plugin + Opera Mini browser is my #1 choice when it comes to mobile blogging. Why? Because it just works. Which goes to show that the phone’s internal S60 browser still isn’t that great (even though it’s based on WebKit which also provides the basis to Google’s Chrome, Safari or the wonderful Midori browser on my Ubuntu platform).

[screenshots: WPhone Plugin in use with the OperaMini browser]

What I particularly don’t like about the S60 browser is the [back]-navigation – which is so much better on the OperaMini. Both browsers though still display the web as it’s also seen on a full-screened PC-based operating system (using different technologies of course). The success of the Symbian OS imho also greatly depends on a good browser. Or else ppl will jump on the Google Android + mobile Chrome browser waggon asap it becomes available. After all, the browser experience is what’s good on the iPhone…

[screenshot: navigating on the S60 browser]

B) WordPress Mobile Plugin

The WP Mobile Plugin actually isn’t used for mobile blogging, but instead bridges the gap between creating and consuming blog content. Once installed and activated, it will “detect mobile phones and show them a version better suited to a small screen”. While I haven’t tested the latest version, I’ve tested the previous one for quite some time on this blog and did not like it that much back then. I am mentioning here because it still has great potential, includes mobile ads (!!) and was created by Andy Moore who’s a certified mobile web developer and sure knows how to benefit from all of this (~ adsense revenue..).

Both plugins are interesting and should also create an awareness for the many internet surfers out there who are fixed to a mobile phone due to the lack of a connected computer.

Our next option is to use a dedicated phone application that provides a dedicated user interface for offline editing of blog content. I currently know of two applications that I’ve tested with both the E71 and my N95 and which I’d like to introduce here:

C) Wavelog 1.0

Here’s what the developers wrote on their website: “Wavelog is a blogging client application developed for S60 phones. It allows posting of the content as text, image, audio or video, to a Web log (blog) directly from the mobile phone using any type of available network (mobile phone or Wi-Fi network). (….) Wavelog has been developed and tested on Nokia N95 mobile phones. Wavelog uses XML-RPC protocol for posting to blog publishing systems that support MetaWeblog API” (WP, Drupal, Joomla, MovableType). A trial version is available from their website, for a purchase of the software you’ll have to cough up USD 10.00…

[screenshots: using Wavelog on the E71]

Configuring Wavelog:

• Open “Options” >> “Settings
• “Post to URL” : [enter the link to your WP XML-RPC file here]
  e.g. https://www.mydomain.com/wordpress/xmlrpc.php
• That’s it!

I’ve tested Wavelog 1.0 with a test account on my blog with both the N95 and the E71 and – while the demo version doesn’t support the uploading of media files (audio, video). Wavelog 1.0 didn’t really convince me on the E71. On the N95 it’s a bit better (should be the same, actually!).

Wavelog also runs a public (test?) blog to showcast the capabilities of the tool and forwards its users to a blog that is said to be entirely fed through the use of Wavelog 1.0. Well…

…which gets us to option:

D) SCRIBE (+ Mobile Python For S60) [h/t via]

Aaahhh, Python. Thinking about the (mobile) programming language Python, I instantly have to think of Nathan Eagle and his students at University of Nairobi. For some reasons, it always comes back to folks who at one point in their life spent some time in good old Nairobi. Home, sweet home!
Besides of that, Python is beautiful way of *pimping* your S60 phone. Just think of adding another layer of multiple options that will turn your phone into a little computer (what it basically already is) that can run much more than what it had initially been designed for.

Scribe is one of those applications directly running on top of (Mobile)Python For S60 – and while those coders among my readers here certainly have a much better and more accurate explanation of what PyS60 actually is and isn’t – all we need to know at this point is that in order to use SCRIBE, you’ll also need to install the free PyS60 package

Here’s the manual from the Scribe website:

2. Visit this site from your mobile browser (Optional)
3. Install Python for S60 using: PythonForS60_1_4_2_3rdEd.SIS
4. Install Scribe™ for S60 using: scribe_S60_3_0_v0_9_3.sis
5. You’ll then find Scribe™ in your Applications folder!

Jay Fenton

, the developer of Scribe, recently commented on symbian-gure.com that a new version of Scribe is in the pipeline which will also be much easier to install and come with an image uploading feature.

[screenshots: Scribe on the N95]

[screenshots: Scribe on the E71]

E) Kablog

Tested it on the E71, works. Hasnt been updated since Sept 2006 though, so I left it out.

—

Well, whether you’re using the WPhone mobile plugin, Wavelog, Scribe or any other system I forgot to mention here, this list will maybe also explain why a blog system like WordPress and most modern mobile phones still need to come much closer. Who knows, maybe in upcoming WordPress releases we’ll also find an integrated mobile blogging backend?

Me thinks that mobile blogging has to be reviewed asap those HTC phones running Google’s Android OS will come out by the end of this year. Until then, the E71 is my choice when it comes to QWERTY phones, and I’ll also tell you why in my next post on this phone (as part of JKE’s E71 review).

Stay tuned! :-)

* part 2 & 3 will deal with some extra applications as well as with the already awesome BH-903 Bluetooth headset that came with the E71.

Add this for other mobile operating systems (other than Nokia’s S60 line – though Series 60 is quite good for this special task), combine it with a monetary incentive programme (~ citizen reporters get paid in terms of airtime or via M-Pesa for each published multimedia item) and hook this up to AllAfrica.com or A24.

Back in 2007, both the Nokia N95 and the Apple iPhone were released – two completely different phones that were only compared on numerous blogs due to setting new standards on each segment: the N95 being a true multimedia phone with a decent 5mp cam, 640×480 @ 30fps video (albeit a mono mic), a (slow) internal GPS module and a really nice multimedia player. With the latest firmware, it even plays flash videos (YouTube & Co.) and has different applications run at the same time (sort of multitasking). The iPhone on the other hand provided a compatible device that suits Apple users – a nice user interface and all-in-one device like the N95 which unfortunately still missed some basic phone tools (MMS, Bluetooth exchange, etc.). And although both phones aren’t the only cool devices out there, they sold quite well. Even if the iPhone doesnt feature all these special goodies the N95 comes with, Apple’s phone still has the best browser on a mobile phone.

GoogleReader on my N95…

Back in 2007 I had bought the N95 because the music player on my Nokia 6230i had constantly failed (due to a bug in the firmware) and because I urgently wanted to have a new, sexy phone. Something that enables a better mobile blogging experience.

And that’s exactly the basic point here: until now, no mobile phone has actually delivered this *sweet mobile blogging* experience so far.

Back in 2007, I argued that it’s a software issue. And still believe it is. So instead of buying new phones, a systematic adjustment between the phone’s software (firmware & single programmes) and your blogging platform (WordPress, Vox, Typepad, etc.) comes into mind.

Sure, there’s this WP iPhone app some of us have tested some time ago, but still: it doesnt work that well, and it doesn’t provide a similar experience we’re having online on our laptop, surfing the net with decent browsers on bigger screens with full JavaScript support etc..

And this – I believe – is also one of the many reasons for the success of Twitter. Twitter just filled that gap on mobile blogging, phone manufacturers have failed on providing. Why? Because that special Twitter experience is the same whether you’re online via a browser window on your laptop, use it via an extra widget somewhere on the desktop, have it run as a stand-alone utility on S60 & iPhone platforms or just use SMS (for sending only, though).

You know I had a discussion with my Minister of Finance earlier this week on getting a new phone (again), and I had mentioned the new Nokia E71 and why it could be an improvement on what I am looking for (~ mobile blogging device). However, with the above mentioned discussion on mobile blogging being a software issue, I am rather confused now and think I should stick to my N95 at this point. Maybe wait for Google Android’s phone being released by the end of this year?

Another interesting developement since 2007 is the success of so-called Netbooks – which are lightweight laptops at 7″-10″ screen sizes, often equipped with an energy saving CPU, a solid state disk and enough flexibility to provide surfing the net, answering your e-mails and doing some other office work. Battery runtime still is an issue though, often only giving 2-3 hrs. Netbooks are currently sold for 300-400,- EUR in Europe and are small enough to fill that special gap the need for mobile blogging has created.

So here’s my conclusion: instead of waiting for the ultimate mobile web experience via a dedicated & maybe also expensive smart phone, I’ll bet on another setup: ppl – especially those in need in a rural Africa – will imho be introduced to the combination of basic GPRS & UMTS (3G) phones, hooked up to cheaper laptop computers such as netbooks.

Not today, not tomorrow – but maybe in two years time when basic netbooks wil sell for ~ 150,- EUR and will also be sold on the African continent in a big style. Why? Because a mobile phone is – although it is often shared with members of the extended family – still a device for a single user (despite of these new Nokias that come with multiple phonebooks). A computer though can easily be shared with others. Here’s what I had in mind:

Solar panels are already for sale in rural Kenya as well as simple GPRS-capable phones, netbooks could be equipped with a free & open OS (+ BT, serial port & USB cable driver package) and it would still cost below the amount you’d normally spend on a) getting a normal desktop pc online or b) a fancy smartphone that just still doesnt deliver the real web experience.

And the best part: this setup isn’t reduced to the needs of a rural environment, but also applies to urban areas in the US, Europe or Asia. In other words: if I had to do true mobile blogging right now, I’d go for this setup (ok, maybe without those solar panels).

Netbooks are what Twitter is used to be to SMS: added value.

Well, computers in the form of desktop personal computers or laptops are still expensive. Despite of relatively high initital costs, an uncertain power supply and restricted internet access not only in “underdeveloped” countries for conventional computers, interesting stories are often best caught through the use of mobile devices. Another very important reason is that many consumers today are using mobile phones as the mobile phone sector is a fast growing market. We do not necessarily need to have a look at the unstable political situation in a country like Burma/Myanmar to understand the importance of being able to directly post content to the internet through a mobile device – but it serves as a good example to illustrate what should be possible with todays technology.

Obviously, the process of mobile blogging may be split up into a) the creation of content/media and b) uploading everything to a website/database on the internet.

As mentioned in my previous post on this subject, I initially assumed that it would all depend on the right gadget.
An advanced smartphone with a dedicated QWERTY keyboard does of course add comfort to the process of entering longer text, but it isn’t necessary to use one in order to get your stuff online. Hence it comes down to the right software solution on both the phone and online.

Another interesting observation is that manufacturers of mobile phones have in the past often only put an emphasis on giving users the ability to pull content from internet to their phone. Apple’s iPhone is a very good example for this as it comes with a media player which plays YouTube videos and a flexible browser which even display the URL. But also other phone manufacturers like the big players Nokia and SonyEricsson implemented RSS-capable browsers into their phones that automatically pull the required content from the internet without any computer in between. Now compare that with other mobile multimedia devices such as an iPod or a Creative mp3 player, which in the past always required a computer in between to synchronize content. With todays mobile phones, you can directly pull content from the net via GPRS, EDGE, UMTS or WiFi. Sexy.

The internet, though, and especially the Web 2.0 approach online lives from user generated content. I think that the use of the internet through a mobile platform will become more and more important in future, especially since mobile phones have become the leading platform for IT in developing countries.

And this upcoming development where we’ll see global players like Google distributing a sound software solution which combines and contains all these different services (telephony, messaging, streaming of multimedia content and uploading it to a site online) is reason enough to believe that we’re just at the very beginning of mobile services. Especially those that are I) easy to use (~usability) and II) don’t cost anything extra to the user – because he’s the one who creates content. Mobile phone operators seem to have understood that so far, which is why everyone wants to jump on the train of providing the right platform for content generation.

Anyways, I promised to deliver a small – not complete – overview of decent phones that already add some comfort for compiling mobile blog post. If you think there’s any phone that should be part of this list, pls feel free to drop a comment below. Thank You!

Ok, let’s start with Nokia ‘s range of phones:

1. Nokia N95

Since I am using this phone, I can acknowledge that it’s a great phone with a good camera but lousy built quality (compared to other slider phones), a slow camera (autofocus), weak battery runtime, chronical shortages of RAM which limits true multitasking and a simple T9 keypad – which of course doesn’t offer the same comfort as a QWERTY keyboard. However, since it is one of Nokia’s flagships and just offers a wide range of services at once, I included it here in this list. The N95 also connects to Nokia’s SU-8W bluetooth keyboard:

The downside to this external solution? Relatively small keys, a bluetooth connection that will further drain the battery on your phone and a huge price of at least EUR 100,-. That’s a lot of mbeca just for a keyboard.

The new N95 8GB version (N95-3) as well as the improved version for the US-market (N95-2) come with an improved battery and more RAM and some other minor changes that don’t affect its blogging capabilities.

2. Nokia E90

Woooohaaaa! Expensive, bulky and a little bit buggy, which is why Nokia took it from the market for some weeks. Since it’s also based on the Symbian S60 platform (as opposed to the previous “Communicator” models which were based on Symbian S80 platform), it also runs the same programs as other S60 3rd edition phones. Comes with a sweet QWERTY keyboard (as pictured above), 3,2mpix cam (which is ok), two displays (!) and average battery runtime.

3. Nokia E70

Fellow blogger Kirima is using such a phone for surfing the inet from his rural home. I like this phone, even the previous models that came with a foldable keyboard like this one were nice (although they are known to be having some software issues…).

4. Nokia E61/61i/62

Sigh. The E61 (no camera, joystick instead of joypad) and the E61i/62 are very nice for mobile blogging. Especially the above pictured E61i which comes with an average 2mpix cam and a perfect QWERTY keyboard as well as the whole connection range of GPRS up to WiFi. VoIP included. Sweet!

5. Nokia E51

Best Nokia release imho. A small, brick-styled (candy bar) business smartphone with a 2mpix cam, the S60 platform and VoIP capabilities. This phone will sell quite well, I think, despite of its humble appearance. Comes with a T9 keypad.

6. Nokia N93/93i

I played with the N93 and the N93i in a shop last weekend, and while N93 is still better than the N93i, both phones are actually only good at recording videos because of their stereo microphones (important fact) and extremely good lenses + optical zoom. No QWERTY keyboard although of course you can also connect the above mentioned bluetooth keyboard.

7. Apple’s iPhone

…delivered to you as a printable cut&glue version (pdf), because that’s the best way to handle this design object. :-)

Seriously, the iPhone is a great innovation and comes with a VERY unique user interface. It lacks a few features that other phones have but has its own market and will therefore be just as good as other phones. I like the iPhone although I’ve figured out for me that it does not have what I need in a phone.

No exchangeabooool battery, no keypad or keyboard = no tactil feedback while pressing the virtual keys on the display, no MMS (not really needed if e-mail is used instead), lousy camera. I think the iPhone is good for WiFi environments – so if you’re in the USA and hopping from one Starbucks WiFi hotspot to the next – then this is your phone.

Have to ask fellow bloggers Christian and Erik on their mobile blogging experiences. And what about the iPhone that was on display @ Skunkworks Kenya earlier this week ?

8. SonyEricsson K800i

SonyEricsson’s sweetest phone ever (except for the T39m, yes :-)!
Comes with a nasty little joystick that often tends to retire within the first three months, but satisfies its user with a very decent 3,2 mpix cam and the best T9 keypad from SE ever. Included in this list because I see many ppl using this phone as a camera and music player. Actually had plans of buying this as a substitute to my N95.
The K800i comes, like most other new SE phones, with a little program that enables direct uploads to blogger.com (= Google). More on this later (part 3) as Nokia also supports the “blogging” platforms offered by Yahoo!.

Hmmm….SonyEricsson => Google and Nokia = > Yahoo! ??

9. SonyEricsson P1i

The SE P9i comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, a 3,2 mpix cam, WiFi and a stylus similar to those found on Windows Mobile phones.

10. SonyEricsson M600i

Obviously, the M600i comes without a camera but with a QWERTY keyboard.

11. HTC phones….

This list will never be complete, and while I am just confused about which HTC phone I should add to this list (Aegeus, saidia mimi tafadhali…si i hear u r back online anyways :-), I will update this post during the next few days and even deliver a part 3 which will cover the other side of the game: the software solutions that make mobile blogging possible.

Pls stay tuned!

An impressive setup with the right, self-made (!) add-ons to improve the N95′s performance. Now I only wish Nokia would improve the firmware on the N95-1 and even add some extras to the S60 browser.

(note to myself: i should become a journalist so that I can get my hands on fancy gadgets instead of saving my mbeca for these gimmicks..)

I just twittered/tweeted (?) this as a question and decided to turn it into a blog post, so please feel free to comment.

Yes, mobile blogging, blogging content to an online blog as most posts/ideas come up when I am on the way to work/home/downtown. Blog content does not pop up in my head when I am at home, sitting in my dark little roof chamber, but instead when I am travelling or walking through the city and then suddendly there are these “Oh my, I neeeeeed to blog this” moments. Does that sound familiar to you?

What’s mobile?
I am already using a 15,4″ laptop as my primary computer, where I am compiling most posts using Blogdesk (for Win), pulling images from my mobile phone and getting online through a local Wi-Fi connection. Whenever I am travelling with my laptop (which doesn’t happen that often), I use a GPRS or even UMTS data connection to surf the internet via my mobile phone which is connected to my computer via Bluetooth. This is how I went online in Kenya, and this is also how I go online whenever there’s no local Wi-Fi available.

However, I often have this urge to blog directly from a more mobile device, a gadget I am always carrying around with me. What’s this? The mobile phone, of course!

So, where’s the difficulty?
Mobile devices often only offer pure text posts without any hyperlinks as editing alone is quite a pain. Entering text is usually done using a small T9 keypad, and some phones also offer dedicated QWERTY keyboards.

So I am using a Nokia N95 which enables me to take decent images (the picture quality isn’t as good as on a normal digital camera because of the CMOS sensor and its reduced size, but it’s more than sufficient for blog posts), it enables me to take decent videos @ 640×480 VGA with 30 fps but with the limitation of a mono microphone and no optical zoom and connects to the internet via HSCSD, CSD, GPRS, EGPRS, HSDPA and WiFi. The N95 even comes with an advanced video editor so that I can edit a video right on the phone! While this obviously takes some time and isn’t that easy, at least it’s possible.

The difficulty is to upload multimedia content onto the internet! This is exactly where most phones still lack a simple solution. Nokia eventually realized this and introduced the Ovi platform earlier this year, but it’s still in closed Alpha mode, so I guess we’ll have to work on a better solution. And not everyone is using Nokia phones. What about Apple iPhone users? And what about those that are documenting their life on blogs through SonyEricsson phones?

Mobile phone manufacturers apparently want their users to upload content to their own walled gardens. This blog here doesn’t run on blogger.com, ovi.com, wordpress.com, vox.com and other sites. Do they seriously want me to upload MY content to any obscure community platform? Hey, facebook is already enough in terms of walled gardens – I want to control my own content on my own website. I have a domain, webspace and am running a blog which is powered by WordPress. I want the content from my phone to directly load into the given space here.

And this is why I’ve split this post in two different parts: the a) software and b) hardware issues.

The hardware side is rather simple: considering that most phones offer sms services, blog entries may – in their shortest form at a length of 160 characters – be directly sent to a blog via sms. I can do that. I can upload an sms to my blog. Simple. And then there’s also e-mail: my blog comes with a (secret & currently inactive) e-mail address so that I could also send an e-mail to my blog which would then be posted online.

The short message, multimedia message and e-mail services are the common denominator on most phones, meaning: even Mama Wambui on the vegetable market in a rural town in Central Kenya may post blog content from her simple Motorola C139 phone via sms. But how does she read it?

See? Blogging simple and short text to an online platform isn’t that difficult. The difficulty lies in editing it and enriching it with hyperlinks, multimedia content and responding to comments.

When I started thinking about this subject, I initially thought that mobile blogging depends on the right device. Well, maybe it helps to have a computer so that surfing the net isn’t limited to a mobile device which just doesn’t offer the same comfort you’d have on a “normal” computer. But I quickly realized that instead of always blaming my not-so-perfect multimedia phone for the lack of this and that function or usability, I should instead look out for the right software, plugins, services that enable me to post from a mobile device in a way that offers more comfort than a short text which is limited to 160 characters. Mobile blogging is a software issue!

Meaning: the only difference I see between good and bad mobile phones in terms of their blogging capabilities is that some recent smartphones come with browsers that also work with Javascript and other advanced technologies which are sometimes needed online. I don’t need YouTube on my phone, but would like to comment on a K2 theme in WordPress where the comment function is based on this AJAX thing.
For pure reading of online content – and that’s what most of the current phones are capable of – I was already happy while using my old Nokia 6230i. In fact, I succesfully blogged an update on December 30th last year from a lobby in a hotel in Mombasa, using the OperaMini browser on the 6230i. It just worked.

I think that mobile blogging is a nice feature on a phone, but until it becomes as easy to post content as it already enables me to read online content from a mobile device, the only real killer application I can currently think of in the mobile sector is mobile banking/payment. Who knows – maybe in just a few years time devices will be advanced enough so that it all melts into one single application and service. This is why Google came up with the GPhone – coz it’s a software issue, not so much a hardware thing.

In part 2 I will try to compile a list of modern mobile phones that offer some comfort, and in part 3 I will try to highlight how to actually upload multimedia content from my phone to my blog (which I still have to figure out, hence this blog post :-).

Stay tuned!