Cameron Moll droppin’ science on the iPhone hype
Cameron Moll’s take on the iPhone hype: Why iPhone won’t revolutionize the mobile web landscape. Below, his main points (which Cameron, being the keen-minded designer that he is, calls out with boldface run-in heads to make them easy to spot), and my comments on them.
- Content zooming isn’t new.
- Amen to that. As Cameron points out:
The technology to see an entire web page and zoom in/out — “adaptive zooming”, “mini-map navigation”, what have you — has existed, to my knowledge, for some time now (at least a year?). Additionally, Opera has been developing similar technology for non-desktop browsers, notably of late in the version for Nintendo Wii.
- Data costs will continue to plague subscribers
- Yep. And that’s not a problem the iPhone nor Apple nor any device manufacturer nor browser vendor can solve. The you-know-who-they-are entities who control such things are the only ones who can. And unless/until the data costs go down, doing anything more than casual mobile browsing on the iPhone or any other device is not yet economically feasible in a lot of places.
- Context is still king
- Cameron’s elaboration: “If iPhone isn’t GPS-enabled, that is to say it can tell where I’m at rather than typing in my location, it doesn’t radically alter the existing experience anyway.” Word.
- iPhone owners won’t be the typical mobile web user
- Right. Cameron points out: “India is outpacing all other countries in mobile subscriptions growth, but don’t expect them to be iPhone owners anytime soon”. So the iPhone is hardly going to change the world. Unless you’re one of the people who live in the San Francisco Bay or Silicon Valley area and you think that’s the extent of the known world.
2007-01-11 · comments
Details about Safari version on iPhone?
Media reports about the iPhone note that it has Safari installed, but don’t provide any real details. I would guess that it must have a different UI than the Safari that runs on Mac machines, but I haven’t had time to watch the videos yet to see. I’m wondering what display-mode options it provides (if any) — something similar to the Nokia S60 browser’s “mini map”, or like Opera’s small-screen rendering or fit-to-width?
Update: OK, so it looks like it displays pages in the same layout as you’d see them in in a desktop browser, then uses some smart and slick zooming to let you focus in on whatever part of the page you want to view. As noted in some of the media reports, it’s much like the zooming features in Opera running on the Wii. Very much like.
Update: See the iPhone writeup over at the WapReview site.
Update: See Peter Harbeson’s This is my iEntry over at the S60 browser blog. Peter has the following to say about Apple’s claim about iPhone Safari being “the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device…”:
Maybe it’s just me, but wouldn’t you think that since our browser and Safari are pretty much the same thing…
2007-01-10 · comments
Yahoo! oneSearch launch, and on Opera Mobile & Mini
Yahoo! has launched what looks to be a very clever search service, targeted for access from mobile devices. It’s called oneSearch and I suspect it’s something that they must have had a pretty smart team putting a truckload of work into designing, developing, and testing. You can find more information about it over at the Yahoo! search blog. Here’s a nutshell description:
With limited bandwidth, screen size and time, this service puts information all right in front of you without having to click on multiple links and then find your way back through a convoluted navigation process, as you might have to do on a more conventional mobile search service.
It’s also interesting to hear that Opera and Yahoo! have shaken hands on a deal to make Yahoo! “the exclusive provider of mobile search” on Opera Mini and Opera Mobile, “across more than 100 countries worldwide”. See the Opera press release and writeup over at webpronews site.
2007-01-09 · comments off
New mobile-projects database at kiwanja.net
Ken Banks of kiwanja.net has announced that kiwanja.net has launched a new online database of projects around the world that are using mobile technologies for
social and environmental initiatives. Spread the word and contribute listings to it.
kiwanja.net has also created an online gallery of royalty-free
images related to mobile technologies. It’s free for anybody to
use, but especially intended for NGOs and non-profits who want
images to use in “brochures, general literature, websites or
project reports and proposals”.
2007-01-09 · comments off
WebKit devs kicking some CSS ass
David Hyatt appears to have kept himself busy over the holidays by implementing support in WebKit for a couple of very nifty CSS features: first, some custom CSS properties for stroking text (that is, for adding outline effects to character glyphs), followed by support for the CSS3 box-shadow property.
Bonus feature: While you’re over at the Surfin’ Safari blog, make sure to also check out the video of KDE/KHTML developer-demigods Lars Knoll and George Staikos talking about KHTML and WebKit. If you’re a browser-technologies junkie, consider it a must-see.
2007-01-08 · comments
New version of Nokia S60 browser
David Storey gave me a heads-up about a review of a new version of the Nokia S60 browser that ships in “S60 3dEditionFeaturePack 1″.
2007-01-07 · comments off
