Mobile industry still grounded when it comes to applications on the phone

Database News - Wednesday December 19, 2007

OPEN THOUGHT

Mobile industry still grounded when it comes to applications on the phone

DON SAMBANDARAKSA

It seems the the days of smaller phones are over and big is definitely in. And the mobile is used for more than just talking nowadays - email, RSS, instant messaging and navigation are now often accessed through the phone. Indeed, Nokia has called its latest N-series "what computers have become." But before Nokia succeeds in taking over the world, some things need to be taken care of.

I am often very productive on my trips to the city/state/island/dot of Singapore, writing up a couple of stories while flying 36,000 feet in the air. However, I was recently bought down to earth when a pleasant but determined air hostess on TG410 asked me to turn off my PDA phone.

First she asked if it was a phone or a PDA, and when I replied that it was a PDA phone with the phone off, she told me that it was not allowed and that all phones are banned, even in flight mode. I replied that it was absurd and that all other flights allowed it without complaint. And what of the new generation of notebooks that have a 3G HSDPA phone built in? The concept of a laptop phone seemed to confuse her but she apologised and said that she would be in trouble if the inflight supervisor saw me using it so please, could I turn it off.

Upon reading the Sawasdee in-fight magazine, it turns out all Thai Airways flights do ban phones, even in flight mode. On the other hand, Singapore Airlines does not have a problem with such devices being used once in level flight. Nor did Etihad the last time I flew with them.

Since then, I regularly ask for a Singapore Airlines flight where I can. Not only does that allow me to work while on the plane without having to lug a full scale laptop around, but the gates are much closer - both at Cobra Swamp airport and at Changi. The morning TG flight requires one to take a bus to a plane parked on the tarmac. Even some budget airlines have the cash to rent a proper parking slot with an airbridge, so why does our national carrier resort to competing with the likes of 49 percent Malaysian and 51 percent Shingaporean "Thai" Airasia in the boarding and disembarking?

But back to PDA phones. Another place where they are unwelcome but where notebooks, for the most part, are is in embassies. The US-style steakhouse restaurant at the JW Mariott asked me to stop typing once, which was quite awkward when conducting an interview. I only hope I got the facts right in that interview with Salesforce.com as my handwriting was all but unintelligible.

A few months back I bought a Dopod 818c, the Hutch CDMA version, expecting it to be great and to fall in love with it. But like many pretty girls, love at first sight can make for a troublesome long-term relationship. The main problem I have with a stylus-based phone is that it is a two-handed affair, and one where you cannot write much while walking. The Internet experience also was a disappointment. The 818c's 200MHz CPU is too slow to convincingly run Mozilla Minimo, while Pocket Internet Explorer does not let you explore much.

The plus points are the speed of the CDMA network and the expandability: Google Maps is nice and I plan to save up my pennies and buy an external Bluetooth GPS soon. The 320x200 screen is also just big enough for serious word processing when I can (not on TG flights).

But after a few months with it, I ended up using my old, battered and memory-challenged Nokia 3250 for more of my day to day emailing and commu- nications. The Nokia's web browser is a full HTML browser with multiple "windows," unlike Pocket IE's single page, almost subset of HTML style. The T9 keypad makes for easy one-handed use and today there is a lot of useful software for Symbian S60 R3.

I have installed Pfingo (Starhub's software that provides IM, email, RSS and a few other things), Yahoo Go (somewhat of a disappointment), Gmail and a few other miscellaneous things.

Many web sites are now tuned for mobile access with versions made for these devices. Calendar.google.com is now fully compatible (months ago it was read-only) and m.facebook.com is useful for accessing the core facebook features, if not the add-on applications.

One application I cannot find on either Windows Mobile or Symbian is GPG/PGP encrypted email. This is probably more than just useful when one writes about the telecommunications industry.

Going forward, Nokia is probably going to have a hard time convincing many to stump up the extra cash for an N95 when a 5700 music phone costs half as much and, smaller screen and memory aside, is just as capable of running third party applications as its higher end cousin. I use Gmail on my 3250 music phone every day and have not used it for music for ages. It has probably dealt with more email than half of Nokia's E-Series (business, emailing) phones out there. Just think of the situation Nokia will be in if Google does a proper mobile version of Picasa (today they only have a mobile-centric web site) to bring N-Series multimedia album functionality to any Symbian phone. Google already has Google Docs for Mobile, which essentially is its software as a service web-based word processor that can now be accessed through a phone. When that happens, the hard work in differentiation with music, business and media phones will be diluted the way today's business PCs and home PCs are only marginally different.

As for Windows Mobile? I was expecting Microsoft to do better, much better. Perhaps they are complacent. If a phone you can buy today is too slow to run a web browser like Minimo and crashes when you accidentally press the voice call button on Skype, as a platform it is not too stable. Perhaps I will start to like it again when I get one with a T9 keypad for one handed operation and a faster CPU.

Hopefully by the time things fall into place, Thai Airways will allow PDA phones to be used in-flight.

Bangkok Post