The T-Mobile Smartphone Community
The Next Mobile Generation
Many of us have been using mobile devices for awhile and as Windows Mobile and applications evolve so do the mobile sites we visit. From time to time, I make it a point to revisit favorite sites of mine explicitly to find if they have a mobile or improved mobile version. As it seems, many sites are still a bit behind on their mobile sites, whereas most are developed with standard cell phones in mind.
On the other hand, there are quite a few sites that give the term ‘mobile site’ a good name. I’m talking about functional and effective sites here. Mobile Facebook and MySpace are great but wouldn’t you rather visit them on a desktop browser? How about driving directions or business searching? My opinion is that the latter two aren’t developed fully enough. I have mentioned integration briefly before, but I would really like to see a more complete desktop/SMS/mobile/application solution out of the bigger companies. Keep reading for full disclosure…
One company that has done a great job is Mobipocket.com. They are an eBook retailer and the solution they provide is very functional. You can download the desktop eBook reader as well as the Windows Mobile eBook reader for free. The two actually sync very well with each other, exchanging eBook titles, annotations, and bookmarks. This enables you, the user, to seamlessly transition from the desktop environment to the mobile environment. Mobipocket.com has extended the functionality to the purchasing/trials of new books as well. You can search the online bookstore through Pocket Internet Explorer, download trials and make purchases that are useable on the desktop reader as well (much like our online store). I would love this to extend to other applications.
The first place I believe this would be most effective is in the arena of driving directions and maps. Say you are planning a trip. Most of the time this planning begins at the desktop computer where you search a desktop browser formatted driving directions site like maps.live.com or maps.google.com. From there you plan your route and make any needed changes. Now maps.live.com, Ask.com and Yahoo have the ability to send the directions to your cell phone, Google does not. But that is where the functionality hits a speed bump.
Both Live and Google offer independent applications that make driving direction and map viewing easier on Windows Mobile but the integration is limited. You can send directions from each application to someone else but you cannot receive directions or maps in the application. See my point? The most useful applications we download could be tremendously improved if this were possible.
The directions you send from Ask, Live, or Yahoo come in a text message and open in Internet Explorer. They do not interface with any GPS or ‘My Location’ type service so there is no updating from your current position. The maps do not scroll, instead the page must be reloaded. In many ways it seems that developers of these products do not actually use them.
It seems that I am talking about a killer-app with heavy cross-platform integration that is fool proof to use. I’m curious what you, the AllShadow Community, want for a killer-app. Set aside what exists today, what is missing right now? What should be built to make life easier? Be heard in the comments!
Related posts:
about 1 year ago
People of the earth, HEAR ME!
I want a Yo Mamma App, one where i can have Yo Mamma on my phone!
about 1 year ago
good article
about 1 year ago
I want some sort of software – or perhaps it would require hardware, that could anticipate my needs based on many variables: time of day, my outlook schedule, the people that I communicate with and what they talk about, the food I like, and so on. A few examples:
I call Billy and we talk about having lunch on Friday. I put the call on speakerphone to check my schedule, and my phone, knowing that I want to schedule lunch with Billy on Friday, shows me that I’m free on that day, and even offers suggestions based on where I’ve eaten lunch before.
Or, because my phone knows that every morning on the walk into work I check my email, it’ll have my Outlook inbox open and ready to go when I pull out my phone at 7:30AM.
There’s just so much that can be done when a phone “knows” more about you.
about 1 year ago
Brandon, are you really THAT lazy and can’t think for yourself? Geesh.
about 1 year ago
Haha – if technology can do thinking for me when it comes to mundane/time-consuming tasks, I can spend more time contemplating the things that matter: like what exactly I’m going to eat at the restaurant that my mobile device suggests =D.
about 1 year ago
derrick – Thanks
Brandon – I could see this being possible and very useful. Maybe a background service that monitors the accelerometer or gps and if it detects high speeds it will switch to a simple screen with a few links like Maps/Directions and Contacts that automatically shows up along with your next appointment.
about 1 year ago
Brandon -
That is a really really good idea. I would love for my phone to know that im driving and switch to gps direction mode, or detect that im at school and switch to a quite mode . Or see that im driving to the gym and give me a work out plan, or see that im going to a certain store and give me coupons codes for that store… so many possibilities.
about 1 year ago
Eli C -
Those are some great ideas as well. These are possible now with current technology. The databases exist to tie into and are updated automatically already, all the newer phones are coming out with GPS and accelerometers/gyros. Additionally, a phone could also learn your habits with a by taking note what apps you use at a certain time of day. You don’t even have to plug appts into a calendar for it to notice that nearly every tuesday at 6pm you go to a certain location, monday mornings you open outlook, or at noon you always open media player press play and go to a certain site.
For actions that make noise or use airtime it could simply have a popup that says something like “Enact your Lunch Routine?” you click yes and it plays your 5 star rated or most listened to music and goes to AllShadow.com
About silent mode, even without GPS its possible for it to chirp the Wifi on and off quickly and see that you are near a School or Library wifi and turn your phone to vibrate.
The same could be done with the store coupons. Nearly every shopping center has a coffee shop with wifi. The phone detects it, checks google/msn for nearby stores, pulls coupons off a coupon sites and alerts you to it. Even telling you what the special of the day is at each restaurant.
Other ideas that spring to mind:
* True location-free printing.
* Walking Aware Friend Aware – detects when you are at walking speed and alerts you when you come within a certain time/distance of a friend or friend’s house/work. Could be very useful for drunken nights and you can’t make it home.
* detects when you are in a bookstore and pulls up the best seller list
* detects when you are at a car dealership and pulls up relevant info on the cars
* near a stadium/theater pulls up game times, show times
* detects when you are driving towards a national park and prefetches data for when you are walking through the woods, to help find nearby hot springs, geocaches, trails, routes, bodies of water, edible plants and survival info, even Video, Audio and Images
* detects you are in a foreign country and downloads a translator app, city guides and nearby services like consulates, embassies, hospitals etc.
There could even be an emergency function tied in with wilderness areas, it detects that you (or the phone) haven’t/hasn’t moved in 2 days and turns up the juice on the transmitter and blasts a text to a predefined email/phone or emergency services with location and user info.
This kind of app should be written now and could be ad driven as well.
There are several apps that have many of the components to make it happen, Live Search, Google Maps, WorldMate Live, Viigo, vTap, Help 2 Speak
Keep the ideas coming!
about 1 year ago
What I would like to see is something where I can have a list of preset automated msgs that when activated can be sent to people as a response if i am not available. Almost like an away msg on most IM services. There are times when I am at work and the boss calls a meeting and people are texting me wondering why i am not responding. With a program like this i can activate it as soon as i go to the meeting and when someone text or calls me they can get an automated response telling them i am in a meeting, or in a movie, or driving or whatever else you could be doing that wouldn’t allow you to respond back to someone. I am not sure if there is anything like this or not but i would love to see it.
about 1 year ago
I always thought having preset voice mail greetings would be great. Kind of like what Nick had in mind, but to just work on the voice mail level. When you’re calendar indicates that the current time is busy, have it go into a preselected voice mail greeting. ie. “Sorry, I’m in class. I’ll call you when I get out at X.” Maybe something like this would be easier on AT&T’s network with its added capabilities of voice mail for the iPhone.