Am letzten Montag fand der vierte Mobile Monday in Berlin statt. Nach Dashed Hopes vs Silver Linings – Mobile in 2008 & 2009, Operator Day, Mobile Entertainment / Mobile Games ging es diesmal um

Location Based Services

For many years, Location Based Services (LBS) have been the most disappointing “Killer Application” of the Mobile Internet. Technically, it was possible to locate a mobile phone user based on his proximity to mobile network cells and offer him bespoke services as early as 2001. But the well-known hindrances of the German mobile business – namely handset fragmentation and suffocating operator policies – prevented LBS to ever take off. [...] So how can LBS avoid the same fate?

Unter dieser Fragestellung präsentierten folgende Unternehmen:

MoMo Berlin, Agenda 2009-09-07

Kate Imbach, Skyhook

Kate Imbach (Skyhook) stellte in ihrer Keynote neue LBS vor. Spannend wird es dann, wenn Musik-Erkennungsdienste wie shazam lokal basierte Funktionen entwickeln und man sehen kann, was z.B. rund um Chicago getaggt wird. Wozu das alles gut sein soll, kann sich ja jeder selbst überlegen. In diesen Services steckt noch sehr viel Potenzial, man muss halt nur drauf kommen, welche use cases Sinn machen

Kate Imbach, Skyhook

Thomas Nindl, Qualcomm

Wer will denn sowas? Der Family Locator (Qualcomm)

Weitere Photos der Präsentationen auf flickr. Ich habe mal eine Gruppe für MoMo Germany eingerichtet, weil es noch keine gab. Wer Photos hat, kann diese hier hochladen (vorher der Gruppe beitreten).

Die Präsentationen sind demnächst unter Tiburon TV zu sehen.

Insgesamt eine interessante Veranstaltung in nettem Rahmen, mit relativ kurzen Präsentationen und gutem Zeitmanagement sowie anschließend guten Gesprächen. Inhaltlich war für mich am spannendsten, dass LBS erst wirklich interessant werden, wenn sie a) live und b) social sind, d.h. in Echtzeit Infos liefern wie: wer (von meinen Freunden) ist gerade dort? Ist es z.B. sehr voll? Gibt es besondere Aktionen? Mit Services wie Umkreissuche, POI und Navigation kann sich kein Anbieter mehr differenzieren. Ganz interessant war auch die Sticker-Aktion von servtag, deren Präsentation schon auf slideshare ist und die ich hier mal einbinde:

Nachtrag 25.09.09: Alle Vorträge gibts hier zum Download als PDF oder PPTx.

Inzwischen gibt es auch eine Definition der twittertags. So gilt natürlich generell #momo und spezifisch #momober #momoham usw. Ich  hatte ja noch unter #momoberlin getwittert, weil mir das irgend jemand gesagt hatte… egal. Es findet sich ja alles wieder. Ich und freue mich, dass meine Anregung umgesetzt wurde

Die nächsten Termine:

• 14.09.2009 MoMo Hamburg: Mobile Application Performance
• 21.09.2009 MoMo Düsseldorf: Turn it on – your location

Einige meiner tweets vom #momober: (hier sind noch mehr von anderen)

woabi finds current local deals of 52.000 shops in Germany based on data by Marktjagd (Dresden) #momoberlin
9:27 PM Sep 7th from web

now presenting woabi.de (woanders billiger) gets product id via user barcode scanning at pos, indicates where prices are lower #momoberlin
9:25 PM Sep 7th from web

my net was down. last presentation at #momoberlin was vooch – location based vouchers or coupons paid by stores (pull)
9:23 PM Sep 7th from web

@skobbler displays what is going around you NOW with live data #momoberlin
9:08 PM Sep 7th from web

now philipp, ceo at skobbler a navigon spinnoff 1 year in the market #momoberlin
9:07 PM Sep 7th from web

aloqa allows publishers to create customized push channels to reach theris users – is looking for content partners #momoberlin
9:05 PM Sep 7th from web

aloqa = relevant content specific recommendations pushed to your phone based on your preferences data from your communities #momoberlin
9:03 PM Sep 7th from web

mobile users are surrounded by dynamic opportunities they never discover … #aloqa #momoberlin
8:59 PM Sep 7th from web

gabriel about looking for sex via LBS #momoberlin – “you might as well get gay and an iphone” I’ll leave out the part about @heikescholz
8:55 PM Sep 7th from web

now aka aki ceo gabriel #momoberlin (LBS is like syphyllis… harhar) lol ok he IS funny. people get invaluable LBS info like ’starbucks’
8:52 PM Sep 7th from web

servtag used nfc for login + facebook publishing + sms – social lbs for sharing real-time info and micro UGC #momoberlin also #playforsquare
8:49 PM Sep 7th from web

people want real time information, social context, places not latitudes … servtag tested stickers with nfc + QR code on bars #momoberlin
8:46 PM Sep 7th from web

now florian resatsch, servtag about a test they drove in berlin with location stickers #momoberlin
8:41 PM Sep 7th from web

nokia ovi sdk is a beta developer platform which can be used by web developers without special mobile platform knowledge??? #momoberlin
8:39 PM Sep 7th from web

now nokia ovi sdk by martin from nokia social location berlin #momoberlin
8:34 PM Sep 7th from web

nextel and att are providing family locators, see videos on their pages. #qualcomm #momoberlin
8:32 PM Sep 7th from web

Now speaking: Thomas Nindl qualcomm End-to-end LBS Platform #momoberlin
8:28 PM Sep 7th from web

traditional mobile advertising (coupons = general) vs. dynamic banner ads: gasbag, changing with distance from store #momoberlin #skyhook
8:19 PM Sep 7th from web

shazam + LBS – e.g. what music is sought after in Boston? #skyhook #momoberlin
8:17 PM Sep 7th from web

LBS plus social – flixster with city info plus facebook connect to share and chat what movie you wanna watch
8:16 PM Sep 7th from web

skyhook supports adnroid, symbian, windows mobile and desktop. business model – ad rev share or licensing.
8:14 PM Sep 7th from web

twittere live vom #momoberlin. Keynote beginnt: Kate Imbach, Skyhook Wireless – How location will drive mobile revenue
8:10 PM Sep 7th from web

As Rahul Sonnad told me for my earlier piece on Sherpa, Geodelic, Inc. has a number of partnerships lined up for announcement over these first few months after the roll out of the App. these announcements are for partnerships to increase the usefulness of their Sherpa app. Ultimately the goal is to allow users to receive localised and customized experiences based on their current location.

With that in mind, Geodelic, Inc. announced yesterday that they have partnered with Skyhook Wireless to increase the accuracy of Sherpa’s location reporting.

“Skyhook offers a major enhancement to the application’s location awareness,” said Rahul Sonnad, CEO and founder at Geodelic. “This allows Geodelic to more accurately target content for a user, whether they are in a mallor walking down the street. We developed Sherpa to give users a customized experience based on their location and interests. Skyhook provides the location performance that our application demands.”

That summer I lived in a treehouse I built in the redwoods. This was before Richard Preston and The New Yorker discovered redwood trees. It was a big summer for me.

I started rock climbing that summer, too; and got my own copy of Russell and Whitehead’s Principia Mathematica. I found Edward Gorey books at Nepenthe’s. I told myself I would climb the four tallest mountains in the four Western states. Oaths you swear to yourself, or to anyone else, can be a lot of work.

I’ve seen three summits and I’m working on number four. Week 91. Living strong. I am resisting the urge to relive my past, too. Someone already lived it once.

Unbeknownst to many, all six “Paints Dudes” have not been in the same room since we started this blog. However, all were present at a party hosted by The Franchise at his home. A seventh, never-before-seen “Paints in the Point” blogger was also present and provided the following commentary for his first post on “Paints in the Point.”

Please enjoy the following recap of two half-court three-on-three basketball games, as told by the newest “Paints Dude,” known only as The Enforcer (with some minor editing by The Freelancer).

A photo of the Paints Dudes playing basketball.

Game One

• The Dudes argue at length over teams. Game to 21, win by two.
• The teams are as follows: The Ivy Leaguer, The Freelancer, and The Champ versus The Octagon, The Franchise, and The Custodian.
• The Champ suggests a team name: “The Missouri Compromise.” The Octagon-The Franchise-The Custodian team does not come up with a name, but will herein be referred to as “FOC.”
• The Octagon notes that the abbreviation for a “Man’s Rebound” is “MR.” He wonders if it is coincidence that “MR” is also the abbreviation for “Mister.”
• The Freelancer flies on The Ivy Leaguer. The Octagon scores two with assist from The Franchise. 2-0 FOC.
• The Freelancer gets first man’s rebound, but The Franchise blocks the subsequent shot.
• The Custodian and The Franchise: telepathic connection?
• The Custodian as Chris Paul, The Champ as Sasha Pavlovic Damon Jones when he sucked.
• The Franchise sinks three. Gorgeous rotation on shot. 5-0 FOC.
• The Octagon assists The Franchise. 7-0 FOC.
• The Ivy Leaguer makes himself useful with a steal.
• FOC would be even better with more accurate shooting, but they can’t complain. 9-0 FOC.
• Much like real life, the Missouri Compromise is failing badly.
• The Ivy Leaguer learns that you don’t back The Custodian down.
• The Octagon hits from two-point range. 11-0 FOC.
• The Franchise slams it down. BOOM SHAKALAKA! 13-0 FOC.
• The Champ contends that he never liked the teams from the start, and considering the score, he may be right. The current game is ended and a new game is ordered.

Game Two

• The teams have been reshuffled: The Franchise, The Champ, and The Custodian (hereafter known as “The FCC”) on one side, The Freelancer, The Ivy Leaguer, and The Octagon (hereafter known as “FOIL”) on the other.
  

  FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski served as Honorary Team Captain.

• The Octagon regrets wearing flip-flops. The Freelancer gets a steal.
• The Champ assists, The Franchise scores. The FCC leads, 2-0.
• The Freelancer combines ballet and basketball for a picture-perfect rebound.
• The Custodian assists, The Champ scores. The FCC up, 4-0.
• The Franchise is a judo master of basketball. The FCC now leading 7-0.
• The Freelancer and The Octagon fail a give-n-go, stolen by The Custodian. The Freelancer steals back, but the shot is off.
• Skyhook from The Octagon. 7-2.
• The Octagon should never trash talk again: “Dog and fur?”
  

  What the other team was, according to The Octagon.

• The Custodian is the best ball handler this court has ever seen.
• The Champ is the worst shooter this court has ever seen.
• Conclusion: The Champ is not worth of playing with The Custodian.
• The Champ sinks a shot, his first of about ten since The Champ’s first basket. The FCC increases their lead, 9-2.
• The Franchise botches a dunk. The Octagon pretends to block.
• The Dudes have got to learn about high-percentage shots. Somewhat embarrassing to watch.
• Six shots missed in a row.
• The Franchise finally puts something in. The FCC way up, 11-2.
• The on-court rapping must stop. NOW.
• The Freelancer sinks a two-ball. 11-4.
• The Freelancer gets it done. BOOM SHAKALAKA! 11-6.
  

  A photo of The Freelancer's dunk.

• The Champ: “Has anyone watched Dawson’s Creek lately?”
  

  The stars of The Champ's favorite show.

• The Champ with the least enthusiastic dunk in history. The FCC is now up 13-6.
• The Custodian: Point Guard extraordinaire.
• The Octagon makes a hook shot. 13-8.
• The Ivy Leaguer slams it. 13-10.
• The Franchise puts a stop to FOIL’s 8-2 run by sinking a two. 15-10.
• The Octagon responds with a two of his own. The FCC leads, 15-12.
• The Octagon hits the board, not the hoop.
• The Champ suggests that his team turn it on and win.
• The Champ puts his money where his mouth is. 17-12.
• The Freelancer thunderdunks over awed teammates. No, not that thunderdunk. 17-14.
• We have a game with The Octagon’s skyhook-thingy. 17-16.
  

  The Octagon releases his skyhook.

• The Custodian works defenders over. All three of them. Pass to The Champ. The FCC are now two points away from victory, 19-16.
• The Ivy Leaguer saves a botched shot. 19-18.
• The Freelancer’s heroic D: two blocks, three stopped passes in about thirty seconds.
• Game slows down until a Freelancer dunk. FOIL takes their first lead of the game, 20-19.
• The Dudes remind each other that the game must be won by two.
• The Franchise with the killing three! The FCC wins a hard-fought game, 22-20.

Final Stats
Points
Name           G1  G2   T
The Octagon     4   8  12
The Franchise   7  12  19
The Custodian   2   0   2
The Champ       0  10  10
The Freelancer  0   8   8
The Ivy Leaguer 0   4   4

Kareem dropping a deuce.

Intelligent. Graceful. Humble. Consistent.

Those are words that describe my original sports hero, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

ESPN has a fabulous pair of videos featuring classic highlights and commentary from players and coaches who faced Kareem and his skyhook.

Unstoppable is the consensus.

And still a work of art.

ESPN’s J.A. Adande has a fascinating story and short documentary about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his famous skyhook. The shot is probably the most effective and unstoppable moves in NBA history and helped Kareem become the NBA’s all-time leading career scorer. However, big men in the NBA have not used, developed, and duplicated the skyhook. Adande takes a look at how Kareem began using it, how it led to his incredible success, and why no one else seems to be skyhooking their way to NBA dominace. Good stuff.

Opera Software today said it has a deal with location data provider Skyhook Wireless to bring geolocation to its browser. Users can choose to share their location with any web site and get information about related products and services in their vicinity. Web site developers use a newly launched API to build location awareness into their sites. Opera’s singing a familiar tune with this deal as Mozilla has a similar pact with Skyhook and Yahoo (s YHOO) is doing the same thing with its Fire Eagle efforts.

…is an option to filter data jitter from the GPS signal, occuring when the receiver stands still. This has its advantages for navigation systems, but not for pedestrial applications. The filter will ignore data when a speed less than ~5 km/h (it varies) is detected. To switch this filter off I tried today the SiRFdemo application, which allows advanced settings for GPS receivers with the SiRF chip.
The bad thing was: to change these settings you have to change to the SiRF view, make your settings and then, switch back to NMEA view. It seems the blueNEXT receiver wont change back to the NMEA view (no reset works, bluetooth connection always breaks), and so each application which uses the NMEA can’t receive the receivers data… have to completly drain the battery for a reset…

Nye Parry sent me an interesting link of NAVIZON, a software which enables non-gps devices to use location based services through wifi and cell phone masts. Just installed the Navizon lite on the iPAQ to give it a try.
A very similar software comes from Skyhook, who distribute the XPS system. It’s a combination between GPS and wireless services to ameliorate accuracy and time-to-fix (iphone 3G). An API including an SDK for various platforms is available at their website.

Fecha: 8 de febrero de 2009

Google anunció el Miercoles de esta semana el lanzamiento de Google Latitude. Aunque pueda parecer otra aplicación más de Google de las muchas que salen con cierta regularidad de los Google Labs, Latitude es el API perfecta para completar la aplicación de mashup por excelencia de Google, Google Maps.

El objetivo de Google Latitude es simple:  indicar la situación geográfica de un usuario en los mapas de Google. Para que el usuario pueda ser localizado en primer lugar tiene que poseer un teléfono 3G que soporte Google Maps for Mobile 3.0 o superior. Eso quiere decir que teléfonos como los que tienen Android (sólo en USA), una buena parte de los Blackberry, los Windows Mobile 5.0 y los Symbiam S60 son aptos para utilizar Latitude (Google ha prometido que en breve habrá versiones para iPod con Google Mobile App y para los Sony-Ericsson). A continuación tiene que instalar un pequeño aplicativo que se puede solicitar de forma gratuita desde esta dirección web que se encarga de mandar un sms con el enlace al teléfono donde se quiera instalar (en España envía a http://m.google.es/latitude) . A partir de recibir el sms la instalación es inmediata y muy rápida. En un par de minutos Latitude debe estar en marcha introduciendo la URL enviada. En el momento en que el usuario ejecute la aplicación en el teléfono, todos sus amigos virtuales (es decir, los usuarios de google maps autorizados por ese usuario) podrán saber en todo momento dónde se encuentra su amigo (siempre que la aplicación esté ejecutándose en el teléfono claro, de lo contrario se guarda la última posición y se indica cuándo fue la última vez que el usuario se “autolocalizó”).

A partir de que Latitude funcione en nuestro móvil, todas las personas que hayamos autorizado (el programa permite al usuario escoger quién quiere que lo vea) podrán saber dónde estamos. Para esto basta que tengan Google Maps en su teléfono o que instalen este gadget de Google en su ordenador. El gadget de momento sólo está disponible para USA, aunque en breve estará disponible para muchos más países e idiomas, entre los que está España.

¿Cómo funciona Latitude? Latitude utiliza las coordenadas GPS, los puntos de acceso wi-fi, o las torres de telefonía móvil para localizar al usuario. Para esto Google ha escogido una tecnología similar a la que usa Skyhook para sus servicios de localización, que proporciona una exactitud de 10 a 20 metros utilizando exclusivamente software. Este sistema se denomina TTFF (Time To First Fix). TTFF hace uso de la primera de las tres referencias (wi-fi, GPS o torres de telefonía) que esté disponible para ubicar al usuario. El objetivo no es tanto la exactitud como la rapidez. Mientras que un dispositivo GPS tarda habitualmente unos minutos para conseguir estar localizado, TTFF puede reducir este tiempo a segundos. Además esto tiene la ventaja de que los usuarios de teléfonos sin GPS también pueden utilizar Latitude.

Las posibilidades de Latitude son inmensas (se me ocurren miles): seguimiento de coches para viajes (la pregunta de por donde vas tendrá una respuesta rápida), una jornada en un paque temático o de visita por una ciudad donde se puede saber en todo momento dónde está el resto del grupo, etc. El aspecto social que puede levantar Latitude es realmente interesante. Si pensamos en combinar esta aplicación con nuestros amigos de Facebook o linkedin, podríamos activar nuestro teléfono cuando fuéramos por la ciudad y ver qué amigos tenemos cerca. El mashup con tuenti o twitter parece también una cosa bastante directa, ya no sólo diremos lo que estamos haciendo sino que la aplicación puede decir también dónde lo estamos haciendo. El control de personas o mascostas puede reducir su complejidad con este servicio notablemente (a los padres les va a encantar, a los hijos no tanto).

Por último me estaba preguntando por el futuro de los servicios de control y seguimiento de flotas que utilizan aplicaciones propietarias en la mayoría de los casos (moviloc, D&M o Frotcom por poner algún ejemplo) . Latitude es sin duda la peor noticia que se les podía dar, porque con esta nueva aplicación el seguimiento de flotas a partir de Google Maps es gratuito siempre que se cuente con el teléfono apropiado. De acuerdo que estas aplicaciones ofrecen en la actualidad más valor añadido que Google Maps con Latitude, pero es sólo cuestión de tiempo que empiecen a salir mashups sobre estas dos aplicaciones que permitan modelos de gestión complejos para grandes flotas.

Back in May ‘08 I filmed the Midlands regional heat of the DMC DJ Championships at the Medicine Bar. From qualifying auditions earlier in the day, the 6 best entrants were selected to compete in front of the crowd. Each DJ has prepared a 6-minute set to diplay their technical skill, originality and tune selection, on which they are scored by a panel of judges.

The main players from the Midlands heat of the ‘08 DMC Technics DJ Championship.
DJ Switch took the win, going on to win the UK Supremacy title (for the third time), and then the World Supremacy title.
What does this guy put on his corn flakes?

Hello all, for my first venture into the world of blogdom I am going to talk about a subject which is a veritable buzz-phrase on the lips of every cocktail party-goer, political operative and taxi driver across the land: stop-frame animation.

(now stepping back in time to November 08…)

Today I was preparing for shooting the animation scenes that would represent a big step towards the long-overdue completion of my first full-length bike film, EuroDip.

It was a while back that I wanted to have a crack at animation, and below is the result of my first attempt at storyboarding one of the sequences (which was never made in the ends, as it happens). So with car and bike pictures, and South Park characters printed out and cut to size, and using a couple of pencils, a packet of sweets for the car boot and an apple to imitate the sunset, me and Dave went for it.



Unbelievably shit-looking? Yes. Useful to have done? Definitely.

Moving on a few months then, I had more of an idea of what the animation scenes would entail.

They involve two model cars (vans in fact) that move along a large old map of Europe by way of stop-frame animation, and thus represent the journeys that were made on the trip. It’s a nice way to break up the different sections of the film, and add a little bit of production value in there too.

Thanks to Birmingham University geography department for trusting me with an old a probably valuable piece of cartography.

The hire car we had on the trip was a black Ford Galaxy which wasn’t too hard to source as a model on Ebay, but the Howies van, a white Toyota Hi-Ace was not so easy to find. So had to settle for the next best thing, a VW Sharan, and  paint white over the back windows. This was not quite as simple as it sounds, but luckily I had the services of aerosol art extraordinaire and ambassador of all things Black Country, Stuart Styles to my semi-disposal.

Just masking the model was effort enough, then making sure the paint did not go on so thick as to run was a fair job.

Once it was drying, I went to get custom mini-prints of the howies logo to stick on the van. This was hassle again, but thanks to a friend of Stuart and his trusty CAD / cutting machine, it was sorted and looking good.

With everything ready it was time to head home, ready for a long shoot tomorrow…

[les robots] had a defective Eye-Fi card on his hands and when a replacement was sent, he was told to destroy the original. What better way to ‘destroy’ something than opening the case? The Eye-Fi is an SD card with a builtin WiFi radio so it can upload images while remaining in camera. One version uses Skyhook’s location service to geotag photos. You can see a few photos of the dismantled card on Flickr. The board is manufactured by Wintec. The wireless side is handled by Atheros’ ROCm, the same low power Radio-on-Chip module you would find in a mobile phone. The flash memory comes from Samsung and the antenna is along the back edge, where it has the best chance of getting signal.

More and more devices come with built in GPS and mobile browsing has become more popular with the iPhone and all the ultra mobile laptops such as the Asus EEEPC. So, mow it seems to be the right time to start building websites that adapt themselves to your current location.

To make the web applications location aware we need to get the location from somewhere. The most obvious way would be that the web browser makes it available by retrieving it from a GPS, mobile cell information, WiFi access point etc. It can provide the information to the web applications through a JavaScript API.

What is available?

Unfortunately there is no standard that is supported by all the major browsers yet, but there are some really interesting things ongoing.

For Firefox you have the Geode plugin that provides access to location information via a JavaScript API. The location information in Geode is based on Skyhook which calculates it from nearby WiFi access points. Skyhook has a database with MAC addresses of access points, mostly in USA and Canada.

The Firefox 3.1 beta release includes out of the box support for a JavaScript API. Firefox 3.1 will allow the user to choose a geolocation service provider, which can either be a peripheral device like a GPS, or a web-based service provider. The API is based on the W3C draft described below.

Google has done quite some work to location enable the web. As announced in their code blog they provide an AJAX API that lets you get a rough location based on the ip-address. Google Gears also supports a location API very similar to the W3C draft and with Google as editor in W3C I think the chance of conformance is rather good. Google Gears can use GPS, mobile cell id or WiFi access point to determine the location. As you probably know Gears is available as a plugin for Safari, Firefox and IE and of course comes built in to Chrome. Also Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices are supported and of course it comes pre-installed on Anrdoid phones.

The IPhone does currently not provide any JavaScript API for location information and it does not support Google Gears. There is however an application available for Jailbroken IPhones that implements the W3C draft API described below.

The W3C Geolocation JavaScript API draft

Google has submitted a simplified version of their Google Gears API to W3C. This draft specification is currently worked on in the Geolocation Working Group in W3C. The working group plans to have an official recommendation ready by end of 2009.

The current draft version of this API includes a method for getting location information and another to get periodic updates of location information.

    // Callback function
    function showMap(position) {
      // Show a map centered at
      // (position.coords.latitude, position.coords.longitude).
    }

    // One-shot position request.
    navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(showMap);

    // Callback function
    function scrollMap(position) {
      // Scroll the map so that it is centered at
      // (position.coords.latitude, position.coords.longitude).
    }

    // Request repeated updates.
    var watchId = navigator.geolocation.watchPosition(scrollMap);

    function buttonClickHandler() {
      // Cancel the updates when the user clicks a button.
      navigator.geolocation.clearWatch(watchId);
    }

'Sheed ate his Wheaties Saturday morning.

After building as much as a 29 point second-half lead, the Detroit Pistons barely managed to fend off the Bobcats’ furious fourth quarter rally, holding on to win in Charlotte, 90-86 (boxscore).

For the second night in a row the Pistons’ starting 5 had no trouble scoring.  Most of the shot making came from the Pistons’ three guard lineup, who were on fire from tip-off.  Stuckey, AI and Rip combined to score 51 of Detroit’s 90 points, and were the only Pistons to score in double digits.

For the first night in a row, the Pistons played defense.  It started with Sheed, who set the defensive tone for the night with a 4pt/3reb/1stl/4blk first quarter.  He was dominating early on, stuffing Bobcats left and right like a maniacal taxidermist (eeew), and really owned the paint whenever he was on the floor.  The level of his intensity spread through the team (surprise surprise), and the Pistons did ex-head-coach/defensive-guru Larry Brown proud by holding Charlotte to 13 points in the first quarter.

(A little foreshadowing here: Charlotte’s absurdly low-scoring first quarter was not the lowest of the night.)

Through three quarters the Pistons simply outclassed the Bobcats – a team who, in the interest of fairness, had just traded their best player to Phoenix for a couple role-players who combined to score 11.

Detroit led by 22 going into the fourth, and Coach Curry took the opportunity to give his second unit some quality minutes.  This is when your average person turns off their TV.  Even I would have, had I not already seen how badly the Pistons are capable of imploding.

They didn’t disappoint.

Eleven minutes fifty seconds and a whopping seven Detroit points later, the Pistons’ lead is down to one.  There’s ten seconds left, the Charlotte crowd is chanting frenetically, and the Pistons are reeling.

Enter Sheed to hit cold-blooded triple to ice it, then put finger to lips and proceed to shush everyone in Charlotte.

This win was, well, a win.  That’s pretty much what there is to say about it.  That and, as before, the Pistons went bipolar on an inferior team.  You gotta figure that eventually Detroit’s going to figure out that this is what happens when they don’t take their meds let off the gas.

Thoughts:

• Stuckey’s going to put someone’s eye out with those darts.  A couple times per over the past few games he’s whipped the ball past a defender’s ear into the paint to set up an easy basket.  It’s sweet, and a bit (Steve) Nash-ish.
• Sheed busted out his patent-pending Hookzilla again.  Turns out it looks equally goofy when he makes it.  Weird, considering that 20 years ago the skyhook was a huge part of the game.
• I did a double take watching DJ Augustin guard Iverson in what has to be the one time in history Iverson’s had size on his side.
• Amir watch: Looked like a lost little puppy squished on the end of the bench.

The Wall Street Journal this morning had a short article pointing out the somewhat obvious reasons why location-based services on cell phones are still not mainstream. It also helpfully pointed out that carriers were working on it. To recap, LBS services need three main things: a way to get location (which we have thanks to GPS chips and even the ability to triangulate using Wi-Fi networks), software that can make sense of geographic information and do something with it (which are out), and cooperation between handset makers and carriers to enable developers to access such services easily.

It’s the cooperation piece that fails, but the article points to several companies such as Nokia (s NOK), uLocate’s Where application and SkyHook Wireless that are attempting to bridge that gap by offering a platform that will sit between carriers and smaller developers. For example, uLocate has signed a deal with Sprint (s s) to act as the LBS platform for its WiMAX network. Smaller developers can sign on through Where and get access to WiMAX subscribers without worrying about working with Sprint (s S) or getting the location information form a provider. I suppose since we’ve waited this long for LBS, most of us can wait a little longer.

image courtesy of Where

Location Based Services (or LBS for short) is another technology Symbian was demoing at the Smartphone Show. Specifically, we had a demo application that was showing how the LBS system within Symbian OS can use a variety of technologies to find out where you are and then make that information available to applications on the device.

Our demo used a variety of methods to locate itself on a map (the map data was provided by Open Street Map):

• Cell-ID & last known position within that cell. This least accurate but also the fastest method (and requires no extra power assuming that your phone is not in flight mode). It’ll tell you roughly which part of a town you’re in and is useful if you just want a map of your surroundings (perhaps to see what places of interest are nearby or to get a local weather forecast).
• WiFi positioning. This method uses a locally stored database of WiFi MAC addresses and their locations (though there’s no reason this couldn’t be updated via the internet). In built-up areas where there are lots of WiFi hotspots it can narrow down your location to the building you’re in and do so pretty quickly (within 5 seconds). This would be accurate enough to show you roughly where you are on a map (for example which street you’re on).
  The underlying implementation in this demo was provided by Skyhook Wireless, but the LBS framework in Symbian OS is extendable so this could be replaced or augmented by other implementations (potentially user-installable ones too!). Interestingly this is not limited to WiFi positioning – you can use any method you like!
• A-GPS. Finally, the good ol’ GPS that we all know and love. The most accurate but also the slowest when it comes to getting a fix on your location. In this case the GPS is assisted not only by the cell ID but also the WiFi positioning. When used in our office (in a room with thick stone walls and tall buildings outside) this combination managed to get a GPS fix within about 15 seconds despite the very weak satellite signal.
  Apart from pinpointing where you are down to a few metres, GPS is useful when your location needs to be tracked. For example for turn-by-turn directions.

Positioning on phones isn’t really a new thing, but the nifty part is LBS framework can take care of choosing or combining different positioning technologies for you. It can trade off power-consumption and speed versus accuracy depending on the application and it can combine inputs from various methods to get a quicker or more accurate lock on your location. And since it’s built right into the OS all applications can take advantage of it.

If you happen to have SDN++ access, you can find a video of the demo and some additional information on the Smartphone Show page there (SDN++ log-in required).

موزیلا تکنولوژی جدیدی را منتشر کرده است که به وب سایت ها اجازه میدهد -البته با اجازه کاربر- تا مکان دقیق کاربر را بدانند. این تکنولوژی هنوز در مرحله آزمایشی است و قابل استفاده برای عموم نیست اما در نسخه 3.1 فایرفاکس قرار خواهد گرفت.

این قابلیت از تکنولوژی به نام Skyhook استفاده می کند. به کمک این قابلیت در عرض چند ثانیهمی توان مکان کاربر را با دقت 10 تا 20 متر تخمین زد.

نسخه آزمایشی آن از اینجا قابل دانلود است. اطلاعات تکمیلی را میتوانید در ویکی موزیلا بخوانید.

The whole location awareness of the iPhone interests me. I don’t own one but my resolve to wait until my existing contract expires is waning. I like the Skyhook appraoch to triangulation simple and effective. Another Skyhook client is the Eye Wifi SD card, this is basically a normal SD card with a WiFi card in it so that it can tranfer your photo’s without having to fanny around with USB leads or card readers. I’ve not used one but I’m lusting (xmas is coming!). Now they have one that uses the Skyhook database to geotag you pictures before uploading them. Genius. Obviolsy this approach is useless out of the WiFi world or beyond the current limits of the Skyhook database but for the rest of the time – Genius!

In the same vein there’s Loki, probably lots of others, this is a web site that will tell you where you are. It has various plug-ins that range from showing you local geotaged Flickr photos to updating your Facebook status with where you are. 

This is great stuff and I think the future for location based services is great, I think the key will be convergent services, imagine an app that can look at your Facebook friends who are updating their locations and tell you who’s nearby and how to get there. OK fairly lame example but you get the idea.

Links:

Skyhook

Eye WiFi

Loki

Update: I realised that I’ve recently changed my WiFi access point, probably after the Skyhook trawl of where I live. So I compared my reported location with and without the old router switched on and here are the results:

Without

And with the old AP on

You notice that the arrow now points to the apex of he corner, about two doors away and much closer thanwith the old AP turned off.

This means that the first location pinpoints the one other consistent AP that I can detect, privacy issues anyone?

The Eye-Fi Explore memory card

Looking back at those pictures of that huge rub on your buddy’s land from three years back but can’t remember exactly where it was? That shouldn’t be a problem for much longer, the new Eye-Fi Explore memory card will instantly stamp your digital camera pics with the GPS location every time you snap a shot. This makes a ton of sense for deer hunters as we scout for sign and stand locations. It seems snapping a quick photo is a lot more useful and faster than messing around with a handheld GPS.

This technology actually isn’t GPS either, it is running off of something called Skyhook. Skyhook gets it’s position by using WiFi signals to pinpoint locations. As neat as this is, it also lends itself to one major problem for outdoorsman as of now. At this point many rural areas are not covered by this Skyhook technology, so the GPS stamping would not work everywhere, but it’s safe to say that these areas will eventually be able to use this service in the future. In addition to the geotagging ability, the Eye-Fi Explore also will automatically upload your pictures from your camera onto your computer or your favorite online photo album, like Flickr.

The Eye-Fi Explore looks to be a bit of technology that we should keep our eye on in the future. Being able to tag pictures instantly with GPS location is a real slick feature and automaticaly uploading these pics online is just the icing on the cake. Although this product might not work in all areas yet, it is definitely something worth checking out in the future, as it’s utility for hunters is pretty exciting.

For more information you can check out this article in the International Herald Tribune, or head over to the Eye-Fi website.

A quick recap of the 7/28 Mobile Monday New York event held at the Samsung Experience Center in NYC. The topic of this event was “Viability and Monetization Potential of Social Networks”.

The event started with a series of 5-minute presentations by three companies..I have provided brief overviews below. Further on, I will offer my personal take on each of them.

• MOBOW : Are you an absolute microblogging/livestreaming addict ? If yes, then MOBOW might be a way to get your fix on your mobile device. Deepak Das, MOBOW Co-Founder talked about unleashing the potential of the address books on your mobile device. Mobow is tapping into the lifestreaming services bandwagon (like friendfeed, iminta, profilactic, identi.ca). But with an additional twist – they integrate lifestreaming onto your mobile device and within the context of arguably that most “social” asset, your address book !! They augment the typical phone conversation by integrating location, presence awareness, feeds (from Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn…) , etc. into your address book. They claim to have a WindowsMobile client ready, and are working on a RIM and iPhone version, and are also looking at leveraging XMPP .

• Next2Friends – As the name implies, Next2Friends is about live video streaming from your mobile device. Playing in the same space as the recently transitioned-to-beta Qik , Next2Friends has the usual embed-in-3rdparty web sites. Plus using Bluetooth-based proximity for targeted applications (yes, marketing was mentioned…), and also white labeling the entire application suite (for businesses/corporations looking to develop communities around their offerings or for specific events like product launches).

• Skyhook Wireless – Skyhook uses their database of several million WiFi access points, in addition to GPS data and cell tower triangulation as part of their hybrid positioning system (XPS). So unlike the previous two, they are primarily an infrastructure player who talked about their recent foray into providing location smarts for 3rd-party apps and websites through their Loki offering. It is available for developers through a Javascript API, or to end users via a downloadable application.

  Both MOBOW and Next2Friends are playing in a relatively crowded space. For MOBOW, figuring out how they can differentiate against and compete with the existing lifestreaming services (including Jaiku), getting an iPhone app out soon, adding XMPP into their roadmap, and leveraging GNIP are just some of the challenges in my opinion.

  In a similar vein, Next2Friends competes against Kyte and Qik. I do find Next2Friends white label idea intriguing as it opens up the opportunity to help organizations (from both a B2E and a B2C perspective) leverage these technologies. See this post from Jeremiah Owyang for a related discussion on how traditional Content Management System (CMS) vendors are angling to get into the social software space. Also check out the entire MoMoNY event captured via live video stream by Next2Friends, here.

  Much like WHERE , Skyhook wants to tap into the convergence of social software, location, and neogeography. And it seems like they have put a decent amount of effort into the Loki platform. As always, adoption will be dictated by how they evolve the platform, the reach they can get, and how they can set up the revenue model. As a personal user of the WHERE app on my iPhone, I can attest to the utility of such an application.

  These presentations were followed by Lubna Dajani providing a preview of the results that her organziation, Stratemerge is conducting on the “viability and monetization potential of social networks“. If you are interested in participating in this online survey, you can do so by going here.

  This was followed by a panel discussion on social networks moderated by Lubna and featuring six participants. The panel covered a variety of topics including privacy, potential winners, carrier attitudes towards social networks, role of advertising. The discussion was for the most part, fairly civil and stayed within script in terms of opinions from the various players (device OEM, carrier, ISVs, VCs), except for a little bit of back and forth on whether users really read the T&Cs from their carriers and how much control carriers continue to exert on innovative mobile applications.

I haven’t checked, but I am sure that an seven-week decline in the GGSI is a record.  The GGSI has not posted a weekly gain since May 30.  Again, the GGSI is at a low not seen since March 2007.  The index closed lower by 12.61 points at 1167.17.  Nokia, NAVTEQ’s new parent, was added to the index at the end of the week.

Biggest winners – SiRF (14.40%), Stewart Information Services (11.41%), Autodesk (8.96%)

Biggest losers – Cobra (-18.97%), Google (-9.83%), Fujitsu (-5.04%)

News

Broadcom (3.90%) – Coverage initiated by Broadpoint Capital at Neutral.  Top GPS chipmaker according to ABI Research due to placement of Broadcom chips in Apple’s 3G iPhone.

Garmin (5.58%) – Coverage initiated by RBC Capital Markets at Sector Perform.  European Ford dealers to sell nuvi 760 and custom mount.

Google (-9.83%) – 51 things blurred out on Google Maps.

Intermap (6.06%) – Sales begin of AccuTerra maps for Magellan’s eXplorist and Triton models.

Nokia (new) – NAVTEQ maps to be bundled with Intrinsyc navigation software.

Trimble (3.27%) – Expanding VRS Now service to Florida.  Introduced TrimTrac Pro Locator for tracking construction equipment.  VRS Now H-Star service in Germany and Great Britain.

Yahoo (-4.75%) – TrafficCast International extends deal with Yahoo for real-time traffic data.

Other – Skyhook brings XPS 2.0 positioning service to Europe.