We are quite pleased with the first reactions we've received and are certainly not going to sit still for very long in making adjustments where necessary and adding some features that we felt would risk the necessary perfectioning phase of version 1.

Testing prior to the release showed that the update to iPhone firmware 2.2 improved stability drastically as we are relying on Firefox for the time being to display the map. For future releases, we plan to have a native Objectice-C implementation. We recommend anyone who might not have yet updated to move to the version 2.2 which also brings along many other nifty new iPhone features alongside improved overall stability.

In the coming days we will approach the Department of Health and Ageing once more with an official (this time) request for a license of the toiletmap.gov.au data. We have always meant for this app to remain free and there theoretically shouldn't be a compelling reason to reject our request. It appears however that we are not the first to try and fail, judging by this blog entry by Joshua Gans on CoreEcon. I fully agree that data that was created by public funding should be accessible to all Australians and am looking forward to being in touch with the Commonwealth copyright administration to discuss the matter.

After many days of waiting for Apple's approval, 'Show the Loo' can now be downloaded for free in the App store! We also launched a mini-site under showtheloo.com for product support.

read more...

Ever since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone SDK roadmap (talk about goosebumps), we have been keeping a keen eye on the evolution of the iPhone ecosphere. Due to other commitments we haven't been able so far to dive into developing an application but we are certainly going to give it a try at some point. Allowing transLucidonline customers to manage their sites and comments is one of the possibilities of delving into this space.

It is clearly fascinating to see how fast the market for iPhone application seems to be maturing. If we were to get into this space now as a provider, only seven months after the launch of the SDK and app store, we could be considered opportunistic rather than cutting-edge and early adopters.

Nonetheless, it is good to see that there are still segments that - even though they seem obvious to launch an app in - have not yet been well catered for. Example: Surfers. Living in Australia and having an office at the beach must sensitize me to this particular lack in solid offerings. :) Here a good overview from MobileCrunch describing the recent launch of an app by Oakley providing surf forecasts around the globe.

We'll see what the future will bring. Surely it's going to stay an exciting market and maybe we'll decide to get into it as well.

Thinking that some little stories might have a lasting character to them, i decided to post a link to the following post on SmartMobs even after having held onto it for a little over 4 months.

Read it in full here. Even though both reviews, including the one review on Gizmondo had a smily written between the lines, this Japanese service did make me wonder what chances a similar one might have here in Australia. There is an ever growing obesity problem here in Australia, something I would have never thought of before coming here in 2006. A quick Google search reveals numerous services and websites dedicated to helping you loose weight. But what about ones that are focused on educating Australians how to not gain fat? Shouldn't insurance company down-under also love a concept similar to what we read happens in Japan, maybe with a spiffy website in addition to the phone service to help people make their own choices?

Personal Tech - technology news and reviews from The Times, The Sunday Times and Times Online

Essential quotes: 

"DoCoMo’s forthcoming launch of the world’s first mobile handset with a built-in credit card chip"

...

"The move exploits the growing popularity of DoCoMo’s range of “e-wallet” handsets that allow the phones to be charged-up with pre-paid cash, waved over a contactless reader and used for a range of purchases in shops and restaurants. More than 11 million customers are regular users."

So if I understand well, one would swap one's phone over specific readers (JP only) just like with a normal credit card and voila !

The extension to other credit card issuer such as JCB will come in a 2nd phase that would broaden the usage quite some.

I somehow stumbled over this article ,Gates  says mobile  will become digital wallet, which after all doesn't say much about Gates vision on m-commerce. So why did it catch my eyes? Well it reminded me of my own thoughts on the topic. I recalled vaguely having drafting something down about Yahoo! and mobiles at a time B and I were brainstorming on that particular subject.

So I dug into my old sent emails and look what I unearth! It smells like a piece of history ;-) (sent on 24 August 2005) :

"How to leverage the power of Yahoo ID:
with it you can already access your yahoo email (if you use it), your
yahoo groups, your my-yahoo page, your yahoo messenger , your Flick-R
account...
Great ... but it could be extended further... a lot farther...
for instance :
* Google is about to launch a new payment system online 'a la' paypal
... why not counter-attack and offer a wallet attached to your
YahooID?
* extend partnership agreement with other online subscription services
to allow subscription by mean of Yahoo ID ( a la Flick-r
www.flickr.com )
* and open-up gateway to ... m-commerce

- m-commerce:
What is really becoming a killer is payment using your cell-phone and
all kind of transaction, aka m-commerce, see this article:
http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/08/21/japans_m-comme.html
Again yahoo initial business was to be the most famous web portal ,
why not transfer that onto the mobile world
and somehow attached Yahoo ID to a m-ID allowing transaction through
your mobile ?
look at that : http://www.op3.com/en/technology/shotcodes "

Smart Mobs: Location-aware, open-source, Blobject cars in Cordoba

What is it about?
Gems (made by Daimler Chrysler) are small, environment friendly, electrical vehicules, perfect for the kind of business this guy in Cordoba (Spain) started. He launched a tourist car rental business in the city of Cordoba and his park is 100% base on Gems. However an enhanced kind of GEMS which come with an onboard computer system with a touch screen, onto which you can plug a USB flash key with local infomation in French, English or Spanish.
Everytime you then drive by a landmarked spot you would receive all the details about it thanks to that open-source, GPS enabled, system in your vehicule. The car + this system constitute a Blobject also the name ot the company.

I especially dig this quote from the inventor and creator of Blobject:
"With proprietary software, innovation comes from the people in marketing,
...
But with open source, innovation comes from the guy who is really in the market. It comes from someone who knows the city."

That is the spirit!

Wireless Wonders: Street logos...

I especially like the Grafedia idea.
I can imagine Mobile games where gamers could actually interact and play in real life, with the city streets as a playground. Hey let's wear our urbanwarriors suits babe! Let's start a graffity based Sherlock Holmes business ;-)

The Street Memes collection is also a refreshing discovery, I'd say for cutting-edge marketing folks...

Smart Mobs: WiFi coverage for Sydney and Melbourne CBD's

Yeah ! Full Wifi coverage across Sydney area !
Can't wait to move there... Take my laptop to the beach, make it my virtual office, pretend a coffee-break while diving into the waves ;-)

iPod-crazed youths invade London station | The Register

I can totally see myself participate to such a spontaneous unleashed dancing experience! Just to buy myesel an ipod... or ... Honey ? you ar hear that? ;-))

Worried parents willing to know where their teens are? Wife looking for your husband ? Reverse ?
Girlfriend / Boyfriend ? I just heard this morning onradio that Geolocalization which is already proposed in UK and somewhat in Paris will be soon available in Belgium...

Testing grounds for local based services ?

Might the day arrive where you will have to go on a cellular detox? I've always been wondering if all those electro-megnatic fields can be good for you. I for one know that I won't feel all that refreshed in the morning if I sleep next to an electrical circuit.

Read the story on Wired.

Alien smartphone lands in Netherlands | The Register

That looks like a pretty neat piece of smart phone with interesting PMI integrated.

Bloglines | My Blogs

This is from Wireless Unleashed's inaugural post:
"Spectrum policy may sound like an obscure, technical topic. However, it governs wireless technologies with huge impacts on our lives: television, mobile phones, WiFi, GPS, and radio, to name a few. Opening up wireless capacity could improve broadband connections to the home, spark deployment of peer-to-peer or location-based wireless applications, and more. In the developing world, unlicensed wireless devices could create economic opportunity by bootstrapping network connectivity. The potential benefits are enormous, and the consequences for business and social interaction are significant."

There's more. Dodgeball.com let's you connect with friends that you might have orkut, tribe.net and LinkedIn. Now this is a service to be watched!

Might be an interesting idea to bring this over to good ol' Europe. There are many other categories where this could work, it's not constrained to networking sites at all.

I swear I have it somewhere, in my brain, on one of my (and TheB as well) mindmap. We discussed passionately about it. "We were onto something"... Yeah we were, indeed, and it's already up in the air and running :

An Engadget visits NYU�s ITP Spring Show post:

" Next up is Socialight, which we�d describe as an amped up version of Dodgeball (which is itself sort of a mobile version of Friendster). It involves signing up for yet another of those friend of a friend social network websites, but if you have a phone that can run the Socialight software and that supports location-based services (right now only the Nokia 6600 fits the bill) you can see if your friends (and your friends� friends) are in the area or leave messages for your pals around town that they�ll only pick up when they actually pass through that specific location. "

Entry from: socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com