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“With GarageBand 4.1.1 you can export your original song, your original audio recordings, or use Apple Loops and iLife jingles to create a custom ringtone for your iPhone.”
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Styling of forms consistently remains elusive. Good resources to have.
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Estimate traffic from given keyword phrases
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OpenID 2.0 (including the attributes spec) has been released
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Allows people deciding on a phone to try a web mockup of the interface.
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Advertising and marketing guidelines. Need to see if IAB is in this space too.
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“This tool was written to make my Java programming life easier. It can be used to build graphical user interfaces for the Android cell phone platform.”
Author: Jason Grigsby
3.3 billion mobile devices = half the planet
(Cross-posted at http://www.cloudfour.com/21/33-billion-mobile-devices-half-the-planet/)
I wrote recently about how the number of mobile devices dwarfs all other media and how this staggering this statistic is. A recent study puts the number of mobile devices at 3.3 billion, up from the previous number of 2.7 billion. That is one mobile device for half of the world’s population.
Tomi T Ahonen provides some context on these new numbers:
- Growth is accelerating, not slowing down as many predicted
- 3.3 billion is the number of devices, not the number of people. Many people have more than one phone. Italy has a 140% subscriber rate. The number of people using mobile devices is 2.55 billion which means there is still room to grow.
Much like Tomi’s previous article, the real perspective comes from his comparison of the number of mobile devices (3.3 billion) to things we take for granted. For example. there are only 1.5 billion people in the world who have credit cards.
Mobile Updates Part I
Some significant mobile updates over the past few weeks:
- Verizon opens up their network — In response to Google Android and the iPhone, Verizon has promised to open their network to any device that meets their minimum compatibility guidelines. The pressure on mobile carriers to loosen their stranglehold on the industry has never been more intense.
- Verizon Joins the Android Party — A little while after opening their network, they decide to join the list of carriers supporting Google’s Android OS for mobile devices
- Google Maps Adds Location via Cell Towers — Now you can determine your location based on your the strength of the signal from the nearest cell towers.
- Google to bid on the 700Mhz Spectrum — “Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today’s wireless world.” If Google were to become a mobile carrier, it would completely change the mobile landscape.
- Over an eighth of US households are totally mobile — One of my coworkers commented recently that she couldn’t remember the last time she used a land line.
- In Japan Half The Top Selling Books Are Written On Mobile Phones — Yes, that headline is true. Read on to learn more.
- Is Dell readying a new mobile device? — Another mobile device coming to compete as well?
- SVG & Mobile — More for developers than the other articles. This talks about how to use SVG on mobile devices.
Site Speed News
I’m catching up on a backlog of RSS feeds. I’ve got a few posts highlighting news that I missed. Hopefully it won’t be too out of date to be relevant.
Let’s start with two bits of news to pass along regarding site performance:
- Study: Web Will Slow by 2010 — The increase in video usage is likely to saturate home internet provider networks. The study believes that speeds will decrease to dial-up levels. If this comes to pass, which I still consider a stretch, it will be more important to build fast sites.
- YSlow-er — Yahoo released a new version of their YSlow plugin. Some of the changes may cause the grades for sites to drop. Details in the article. Update your firefox plugin to take advantage of the new features.
links for 2007-12-16
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Helps explain the significance of cloud database and computing structures for developers. These developments are a BIG deal.
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Detailed article on using SVG for mobile. Makes sense because of resolution independence. Best quote: “This leads to a rather interesting situation where handset support for this standard [SVG] is arguably broader than desktop support”
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Further details on Amazon Simple DB
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I keep thinking I’m going to get a chance to look at the apps on this list, but it doesn’t happen. Time to store it for later.
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Scrapbooking for design samples
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A collection of different designs for inspiration organized by type.
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Another flickr pool of design inspiration
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Another design inspiration pool
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Another gallery, but more focused on design patterns than overall design
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Standards for email clients are long, long overdue.
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Examining the input of address information in web forms
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May have to take another look at developing using Safari. It will be hard to beat the Web Developer Toolkit + Firebug combo
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Examples of building charts using Google’s new charting service
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Directory of free fonts
links for 2007-12-14
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This is such a nice tool for selecting the right type of charts for your data.
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“CSS features that we can honestly list as having ‘full’ or even ‘partial’ support in IE are few and far between (color is one, font-size is not). Most of them are ‘buggy’, even in IE7 … and we expect even more IE bugs to come out of the woo
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Alternative to viewcvs
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“However, when we do run into two strong opposing viewpoints on a particular design decision, we usually diffuse the tension by making the person championing the progressive idea responsible for any issues related to their decision.”
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Hope
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Good overview on the ugly code you have to write to make sure html emails looked good in every email client.
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qrcode reading open source
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Great design patter library for forms
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Uses css sprites
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I love this ancedote about Dwight Howard: At one point Suns guard Raja Bell, never one to shy away from contact, asked assistant Alvin Gentry what approach to take when Howard comes steaming down the lane on a screen-and-roll. “Should I step in and plug?”
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I got some push back at my last job for banning laptops during the meetings that I ran, but I noticed a big increase in the productivity of the meetings when people were engaged and not distracted.
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Need beta service and plugin for wordpress that suggests links to content and photos as you type your blog posts.
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Old stats from 1995 to 2003 on Internet adoption.
links for 2007-12-12
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RSS aggregator and scraper
Office Warming Party
Note: Cross-posted at http://www.cloudfour.com/19/office-warming-party/.
Please join us as we celebrate the grand opening of our new office space and the birth of our new company:
- When:
- Thursday, Dec 13th at 5:00pm
- Where:
- Cloud Four
107 SE Washington St., Suite 440
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 477-5340 - Directions
- Map (The main entrance to our side of the building is on SE Stark St)
Festive drinks and light appetizers will be served! RSVP if you get a chance (but feel free to drop by).
links for 2007-12-04
Cloud Four’s Web Site Launches
Tonight we launched CloudFour.com. Tomorrow we pick up the keys to our new office. Friday we start painting and assembling furniture. If all goes well, we’ll open doors on Monday and start planning our office warming party.
We’re overwhelmed, excited, and anxious. What a remarkable thing it is to start a company. There is really nothing that compares.
So why another web development company? Here’s why.
First, my co-founders and I have spent the last several years doing very similar work, but for a very specific market. In some ways, we’re just continuing what we’ve always been doing, but with a larger public presence and in a different location.
Second, we’re see new opportunities in spaces outside of the niche market we worked in. We see opportunities to:
- provide web site optimization services to people who want to make their sites faster;
- help companies determine their new media direction and emerging technology strategy;
- and develop applications for the 2.7 billion mobile devices in the world—it won’t be long before others realize that 2008 is going to be the Year of the Mobile Web.
We’ve also got some exciting side projects. More on that later. ;-)
Finally, we’re thrilled by the idea of building a business and a culture together, continuing to work closely with our former colleagues, and meeting new people tackling interesting challenges.
It’s been three fast months since Guy Kawasaki’s video kept me awake with the realization that I wanted to start my own company. I’m proud to be working with such an amazing group of co-founders, and I’m pleased that we’re all sharing equaling in the creation of the company. We have an all-star team. If this was a pick-up basketball game, I’d feel guilty for having so much talent on one squad.
Most importantly, I find myself going back to what inspired me about that video and what compelled me to choose a different, more risky direction. I believe we have a chance to make meaning—to make an impact—in the lives of others. That means a lot to me.
So that’s what Cloud Four is about. We’ll have more to discuss in the coming months. If you know of someone who can use our services, we would appreciate you pointing them in our direction.