JAJAH Development Blog

There are many PMP players in the market that offer wide-screen video playback, a Wi-Fi Internet browser, the ability to play Internet video content from YouTube, wireless music purchases, a music player, photo viewer, video player, and much more.However we can say that the kings of the superplayer domain right now are the iPod Touch (IPhone) and the Archos 605 WiFi . What Specification the IArchos will have ? In order to answer this question I put in a table all the specification of both products: IPhone and Archos and I selected in each criteria the best one

	Archos 605 Wifi	IPhone	Who’s better?
Capacity	Up to 160 GB	16 GB	The Capacity of the IPhone is really low and the archos here can be up to 160 GB
Display	800×480 pixels, 4.3” TFT LCD, 16 million colors Touch screen	480×320 pixels,3.5 TFT	The screen in the archos is really Good. You can enjoy the movie.
Video	Mpeg 4, WMV, H.264,MPEG-2, Copy and Past	Mpeg 4, WMV , H.265 and more. Max Resolution is 640×480, Using IPhone software	The Archos support much more resolutions and files type. The same As Archos. Just copy and Paste your movie to the device
Audio	Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 Kbits/s CBR & VBR, WMA, Protected WMA, WAV (PCM/ADPCM).	Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV	I like more the sound in the IPhone. There are some people that might say otherwise but this is my opinion.
PDF viewer	Can read PDF File	Can read PDF File	Can Read PDF File
Video recording	Via the optional DVR Station/ DVR Travel Adapter. Records NTSC/PAL/SECAM in MPEG-4 AVI format with stereo sound, VGA resolution (640 x 480) @ 30 or 25 f/s	Can record video but with very low quality	You can use your archos like a DVR or VCR. The recording is in good quality
GSM	Doesn’t support al all	Quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)	This is a really cool feature. No Doubt the IArchos should Have it
Connections	WiFi	Wi-Fi EDGE Bluetooth 2.0+EDR	The IPhone has much more connections.
Browser	Opera® Web browser and Adobe Flash® Player - support flash 7 at present.	Safari Web Browser Don’t support Flash	Both browser are good. The fact that the Archos support Flash is a big Advantage.
Camera	Don’t have	2.0 megapixels	This is a nice feature and the IArchos should have it.
Battery life:	Music playback time: 17 Video playback time: 5.5	Talk time: 8h Standby time: 250h Internet use: 6h Video playback: 7h Audio playback:24h	The IPhone has a better battery.
Dimensions & weight:	Avg 122 x 82 x 15 mm/4.8” x 3.2” x 0.6” (For 4/30GB* models) - 150gr/190gr Avg 122 x 82 x 20 mm/4.8” x 3.2” x 0.75” (For 80/160GB* models) - 260gr	Height: 4.5 inches Width: 2.4 inches Depth: 0.46 inch Weight: 135 grams	The Archos is too big. I think that the IArchos need to be in the middle (The IPhone has small screen that you can’t really enjoy a movie). The IPhone is very slim and has low weight and this is a big advantage over the Archos.
Operation System	customized version of Linux	OS X	There are much more Appz for the IPhone therefore I would say that the IArchos should have the same Operation system as the IPhone
User Interface	Nice	Amazing	There is no doubt. The IPhone look much more attractive and has a great User Interface.
Prices	160 GB - $399 80GB - $349.99 30GB - $299.99 4GB Flash - $199.99	8GB - $399 16GB - $499	The price differences are huge. In the price of IPhone 8GB , you can buy an Archos with 160GB.

The IArchos Specification:

• Capacity - Should be between 30-100 GB.
• Display - 800×480 pixels, 4.0” TFT LCD, 16 million colors Touch screen with scratch resistant
• Video - Mpeg 4, WMV, H.264,MPEG-2 - Should support up to Full HD Resolution.
• Audio - Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV.
• PDF Viewer should be included.
• Video Recording is a cool feature and it’s important that the device with external device can record like a DVR movies and clips.
• GSM - Should support calling and getting a call
• Connections - Should have WIFI, Bluetooth, EDGE and HSDPA (Missing in both products now but should be included)
• Browser - The browser should support the current flash version.Safari and Opera are both good browsers so I don’t really care which one we will use.
• Camera - The Camera should be at least 4.0 megapixels.
• Battery life - Due to the fact that this product will be used all the time ( phone calls , video, audio and surfing the net) ,the battery life should be extremely good. The IPhone battery life is not bad but it should be better like :Talk time: 12h, Standby time: 250h, Internet use: 8h, Video playback: 8h, Audio playback:24h
• Dimensions & weight: This device should be slim like the IPhone today and shouldn’t weight more than the IPhone.
• Operation system - Due to the fact that the OS X system is more common there are more appz and games for this operation system therefore the IArchos should have it.
• User Interface - The IPhone Interface is really attractive - It’s clear that the IArchos should have the same or a better one.
• Prices - There is a big differences in the prices of two products. Anyway for a good product I am sure that many of the people will agree to pay more.
• Missing Feature : GPRS - This is a feature that we don’t have right now in both product. IPhone plan to release the next version of the IPhone with it.

I hope that Archos and Apple will read this Article and we will see soon a product that has these specifications. There is no doubt that when a device like this will come out many of us will be happy to have one.

It is said that by 2013, 31 percent of all mobile phones will be smart phones, and by then, a smart phone might be almost like a full blown PC. In the meanwhile it seems like everyone is trying to push their feet into the blooming mobile phone market. We’ve seen a lot of ups and downs in this area, lots of promises that hasn’t been fulfilled. In fact only since the arrival of the iPhone, surfing the web become reasonable on a mobile phone.

I refer to RIA, not just as rich applications that runs inside the mobile Internet browser, but, also as reach applications that are easier and consistent to develop, that runs across platforms and more important across devices. This has been the main hurdle, beside the low performance issues, to develop for mobile phone and devices. The resources needed to port a mobile application to run on multiple devices is enormous. There got to be a better way to develop applications and games for the mobile phones, something as approachable as web development. I’ve heard lately that the "Developer is King" these days it’s more like the Web Developer is king.

I will summarize in this text the current leading technologies in the area.

 

Adobe Flash and Flash Lite

Flash Lite is the first RIA technology to run on mobile phones (since 2003), since then it has shipped pre-installed on more then . It is safe to say that, Flash runs on mobile phones, but, it is always a subset and always with some limitations. The  best thing about Flash Lite and Flash in general is that it’s easy to develop highly interactive applications, and the promise of - develop once deploy everywhere, is currently the closest to reality with it.

The Flash Lite player isn’t exactly the same as the full Flash player we use inside our desktop’s browser. The current version of the full Flash Player is v9, Flash Lite is similar in capabilities to older versions. The Flash Player is backward compatible.

Flash Lite 1.1 - Similar to Flash 4 - Simple games, screen-savers and animations.

Flash Lite 2.1 - Similar to Flash 7 - Small games and applications, much more advanced Object Oriented programming.

Flash Lite 3 - Similar to Flash 8 - Richer games, Youtube, live video and audio e.g., justin.tv, pandora.

Take a look at Flash Lite 3 in action

Pocket PC and Windows Mobile were supported by Flash and Flash Lite for a long time already. It’s been used also to enrich WM applications UI. Flash can be integrated inside a .NET Compact Framework 2.0 application to rapidly create rich UI. Microsoft recently announced they’ll support

Flash can be found, to some extent, on other type of devices, e.g., the cool Chumby runs Flash Lite 3, sony PSP runs Flash 7.

There are already some mobile devices that run the full version of Flash 9, e.g., Nokia N810

that are pre-installed with Flash-Lite 1 - 3

 

Microsoft SilverLight

Microsoft has finally realized that a development platform isn’t necessary an OS, it saw how Flash is becoming just that, and want to join (take over) the party with its SilveLight. SL is a rich environment targeted to work inside the browser and across desktop platforms as well as on mobile phones and devices.

The first SilverLight release 1.0, was mainly intended for PR. It lacks any impressive capabilities beside good support for video. With the upcoming SilverLight 2.0, which is currently released as beta 1, we’ll have the chance to really estimate it’s powers and if it can compete with Flash. SL 2.0  looks very powerful, as it supports a respectable subset of the CLR (Dot.Net runtime), rich UI framework and all kind of other goodies.

As for SilverLight on the mobile, there was a great buzz recently when Nokia announced  it’s going to support SilverLIght on it’s S60 and some S40 mobile phones. it is not clear yet what will be the limitation of the runtime on these devices only that it’ll "initially" support only SL 1.0, which means logic written in JavaScript and no CLR.

Windows Mobile will support SilverLight 1.0 as well from the middle of 2008.

SilverLight looks very promising, but it’s still a premature technology, especially for mobile devices. I wouldn’t fire my Visual Studio to develop a mobile SilverLight app, just yet.

Visitmix.com has some cool

 

Apple iPhone:

Although the iPhone isn’t exactly an ubiquitous platform and holds only 0.14 percent of the mobile phone share. It is still the most buzzfull mobile device ever. Creating your software to run on the iPhone and leveraging it’s dreamy features like the Multi-Touch and the accelerometer can lead to tons of PR and even some paying users.

The iPhone has redefined the way we interact with a mobile phone and lifted it to a all new level. Apple recently released the iPhone SDK but still keep it very restrictive. Hopefully Apple won’t repeat her history of dismissing 3rd parties, an act that we all know hurt her greatly in the past.

I’m a little tired of the iPhone and Flash affair already, this is the story in short: To the amazement of many, the iPhone was released without any kind of Flash support. The two most common assumptions were that Flash is too slow for the iPhone or that Apple is pissed over Adobe for some obscured reason. Lately Steve Jobs bashed on the Flash Player performance on the iPhone, Adobe replied and there were others. After the release of the iPhone SDK, Adobe’s CEO announced they will develop a Flash Player version for the iPhone. Hours later, Adobe clarified that it won’t be that easy to develop a decent version of the Flash player, only with the iPhone SDK and without Apple co-op. Now it seems that we won’t get Flash on the iPhone , at least until the next buzz alert.

It was a similar scenario for Sun’s Java, first they said they’re going to put Java on the iPhone only to realize later it’s not feasible under current restrictions. Don’t wait for SilverLIght to appear on the iPhone anytime soon, either.

Apple probably wants to push her own iPhone RIA platform, and insist to remain a sealed garden with a lot of restrictions to third party applications developed by their new SDK.

 

Google Android

Google has realized the need for a standardization on the mobile jungle, and came out with it’s , a platform designed to give the power to the developer.

Here is a good explanation of the Android platform and what it can do for you.

Demonstration of Android power.

Currently there’s not many Android smart-phones, but, with the dedication of google we’ll surly see some more soon.

 

Sun JavaFX Mobile

Sun, the inventor of Java and "Develop once deploy Everywhere" concept, don’t want to lose its mobile presence with j2ME and is porting Java’s richer sister, JavaFX,  to the mobile phone as well.

JavaFX Mobile

 

Trolltech QT

Trolltech the creator of QT - Cross Platform rich development platform, has been recently bought by Nokia and can be seriously considered as a player in the RIA mobile world.

 

Conclusion

For now, we can still use excuses like incompatibility and lake of an appropriate platform to continue and create dull mobile application but it’s going to change very soon.

If you have Quick Time or iTunes installed on your Windows machine it’s likely that you’ll get a gift from Apple very soon. Apple pushes its Windows Safari browser 3.1 as an auto update, even if you don’t have it installed already. The option to get Safari is pre-selected so non-watchful users might get it even if they don’t even know what it is.

This act from Apple reminds the behavior of companies like Microsoft, and this is why the Mozila CEO is against it, with some valid arguments IMHO.

Personally I don’t mind getting Safari on my Windows system as I need it for testing, but, anyway it won’t be 100% similar to it’s MAC twin, so testing will need to be done on the MAC OS as well.

I kinda agree with this move from Apple, you know the say: "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", same goes for the Internet. Just remember Apple, if you wanna be a Roman then give us a less restrictive SDK and be more open to third party in general, as the Roman do

Hi there! My name is Tzahi Efrati and I’m manager of mobile & tools development here at JAJAH. The mobile market has changed dramatically over the last years and continues to present new functionality every so often.

Over the last 6 month, two major events happened concerning the mobile industry. The first is of course the release of Apple’s iPhone. What I like most about this phone, besides its functionality is the one-touch-screen-fits-all approach. The user is not constrained to physical keypad and buttons. The phone enable the application to present the user interaction of their choice. I’d imagine that somewhere in the near future, iPhone 2.0 will enable the user itself to choose the UI he/she wishes to use. For example, left-handed people could choose the layout of game controls according to their needs.

The second major event is Google’s announcement of of the Android, the open software stack for mobile devices. The announcement, although not backed-up by actual phone models had already caused fundamental change of hearts with major operators like Verizon and AT&T. These two giants has declared their intention to open up their cell phone network.

Although it still remains to be seen the concrete implications of these announcements, one thing is clear. Mobile phones are becoming more and more a “one size fits all” machines. It already started with the introduction of camera and music players to the phones. The iPhone and android present a notion of having a device that can do almost everything. Want to hear your favorite song? Go to the iPod on your device and finger-scroll your way. Interested in checking how much your stock did lat night? open up the stock widget. Care to change the layout of the phone software? use your mobile browser to find and download the latest calling application.

Still, a couple of questions rise from this “all-you-can-swallow” wonder machines. “Can we handle it?” and “do we really care?”. Talk to your parents and your friends and I’m sure most of them will tell you that all they want is a simple device to make calls and send SMS. Anything else just complicates. Let’s face it, even technophiles, who take their cereals with a GigaOm.com on the side don’t master the entire functionality of their gadgets or the latest cool addition to their Firefox browser (so 2006).

I’m not sure that even teenagers who has more virtual friends on facebook than actual homosapien could master so much technology in one device or even care to use it. What do you think? is it just the beginning? should we expect mobile devices in the near future to be even more featured-pack? Or perhaps, this will cause the exact opposite. People will become so antagonized that they’ll stick to their old mint-condition 2G phones?