Iphone friendly version of this blog cast42

Apple's Iphone and Ipod Touch can render this blog using mobile Safari out of the box. Unfortunatly, this might not really what you want. Webservice DoYouFeed.com allows for for an Iphone friendly rendering. Fill in the feed address of your blog, choose a theme and click. Et voila, a link to an iphone optimized rendering appears. You can see the result for this blog at http://tinyurl.com/4cgap6 . It looks like this :

QR codes for mobile tagging

A "Quick Response" or QR code is an image that can be decoded into an text. It's like a two-dimensional barcode. Here's an example:

Scanning this picture resolves into the URL of this blog: http://castfortwo.blogspot.com .

This kind of pictures are typically used for tagging. Add the QR code picture to a thing, take a picture of the thing, decode the picture on the thing and there's the text. For example, a link to a website with product information.
You can make your QR code yourself here : http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

Using the Google Chart API, you can also generate QR codes. The URL

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=300x300&alt;cht=qr&alt;chl=Hello|World

generates a QR code for "Hello World":


Changing the parameter chl to the URL of this blog:

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=300x300&alt;cht=qr&alt;chl=http://castfortwo.blogspot.com/

gives:


Every BBC programme has also an QR code. Just add /qrcode to the URL.
For example, the URL of the Top Gear programme is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mj59
Adding /qrcode gives:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mj59/qrcode

which render to:


There are several free applications on the iphone that can decode QR codes:

• Barcode


• NeoReader


• iDecode


• 2D Sense

Several other mobile phones have such application to.

The BBC has even succeeded in tampering the QR code for the bbb.co.uk/programes URL such that the BBC text is clearly readable:

iGoogle on Ipod Touch

Recently, Google homepage iGoogle got an Iphone/Ipod Touch specific overhaul. It can be reached on http://www.google.com/ig/i. This is how it looks on my Ipod Touch:

New Google homepage in Ipod Touch in Belgium

just surf to http://www.google.com/m

In a previous post "No new Google homepage for Ipod Touch in Belgium yet" I remarked that when entering the URL http://www.google.com in mobile Safari, the browser is redirected to the classic Google homepage with the URL http://www.google.be/m. So Ipod Touch users in Belgium can not try the new integrated that Google announced. However, if you type in http://www.google.com/m in Belgium on the Iphone or Ipod Touch you reach the new Google interface on the Ipod/Itouch.

Iphone not in Belgium ?

The Register reports "Only 'major' EU countries to be in second iPhone rollout". Since our small Belgian country is anything but major (at least in terms op potential revenues from Apple products), I guess we will have to have some extra patience. Damn.

Future of mobile apps = Google Gears + Javascript on Iphone ?

Last Monday his Steve Jobness announced at WWDC'07 that native applications on the Iphone can not be developed (yet) by third parties. A highly contested strategy as explained in
Mobile Disruption: Apple's iPhone and Third Party Software
. More complaints arose after the keynote.

Read for instance what John Gruber wrote about the keynote:

Web Apps as the Route for iPhone Development

Perhaps it’s playing well in the mainstream press, but here at WWDC, Apple’s “you can write great apps for the iPhone: they’re called ‘web sites’” – message went over like a lead balloon.

Could it be that Apple opted for the way forward to escape the schisma between a secure and stable mobile platform and the richness of being open ? Remember that Google Gears is coming to Safari Webkit and hence the Iphone: Google employs advanced Apple technologies for Gears support. Is Gears + AJAX not THE technology for the next generation applications that blur the line between mobile and desktop? Something Iphone promises to establish ?
This nice example of a Javascript interface for the iphone shows that Javascript can deliver sleek interfaces. I guess the speed of Javascript on the iphone will be ok. At least it won't be slower then other sandbox solutions like Sun Java or Microsoft .Net Mobile. According to Steve Jobs keynote, Javascript executed faster in Safari than Firefox and Internet Explored. Google Gears has the potential to alliviate the drawbacks of networked applications that must store all their data in the network. Maybe the 4 or 8BG storage is a bit underdimensioned to shoehorn modern application into ? What do you think ?