The Skydeck API had only been out a few days when someone began a Ruby binding for it. We’re thrilled that there’s been so much interest already, and look forward to some great applications built against our API.
Of course, we like OCaml here, so we are pleased to announce the release of an OCaml binding to the API. You can find it on our developer downloads page.
As part of our API design we decided to use OAuth, so you can allow applications to access your data without giving away your Skydeck username and password. We are also pleased to announce the release of ooauth, an OCaml implementation of OAuth.
Ooauth implements both the consumer and service provider parts of OAuth (we use it in our server and in the API binding above), so you can use it to implement your own API or to consume the many APIs that use OAuth, such as the Google Data APIs. It is also available on the developer downloads page.
Skydeck is happy to say that we are a nominee for MobileBeat 2008: VentureBeat’s top mobile applications competition. Help us win!
If we get enough votes, we’ll be invited to speak at their upcoming conference on July 24, 2008.
VentureBeat is a top technology blog, and an appearance at their conference would give us a great opportunity to promote our service, bring more users to the site, and continue our mission of helping people get the most from their phone and phone bills.
Every few years the Valley gets excited about the potential for location-based applications. This time I think the excitement is justified, because of the iPhone. VentureBeat invited me to write a column to explain why.
If you’re curious about how we came up with the idea for Skydeck and what we’re planning to do next, the tech blog ReadWriteWeb published an interview with me today that answers those questions and should raise a few more.
I don’t write about the iPhone that often – Skydeck’s goal is to support every phone in the world – but it has had an extraordinary impact on the industry and I have a few predictions.
Lots of people have predictions though, so let me review my past performance before I ask you to take me seriously.
Today we’re announcing three new features that we’re really excited about.
The Network Tab
For most people, the best thing about Skydeck is the way we re-organize your address book around the people that are most important to you (and the people you’ve been neglecting). You could have a thousand names in your address book, but Skydeck knows who belongs at the top of your list.
We call it your true social network: your most important personal and professional relationships. But it’s just the ‘first degree’. Who are their most important connections?
I will be speaking on another panel about net neutrality issues on Monday. The forum is called “The Future of Content & Control”, the organizers are a public interest group called the Media Access Project, and the venue is eBay’s campus in San Jose.
No major carrier accepted an invitation to last month’s FCC hearing at Stanford, but this time my panel includes Jeff Brueggeman, Vice President for Regulatory Planning & Policy at AT&T. More details at the MAP web site; I hope to see you there.
A little company in New Jersey called Synchronoss had a very bad day today, and no one is quite sure why. I think it’s because the next iPhone will be subsidized.
Synchronoss sells software that allows cell phone companies and other communication service providers to activate cell phones and modems and cable boxes online. In particular, Synchronoss worked with Apple and AT&T to enable iPhone customers to activate the device at home via iTunes. This was one of many features that made the iPhone remarkable. Synchronoss deserves a lot of credit for pulling it off, and it was a huge deal for them, since AT&T accounts for more than 70% of their revenue.
Last night Synchronoss reported their Q1 earnings. This morning their stock dropped more than 40%. One line in the press release explains why:
“We have materially lowered our growth expectations for 2008 due in large part to reduced revenues associated with the iPhone.”
Synchronoss announced that they expect to make less money from the iPhone in 2008 than they did in 2007 – $30 million less. (more…)
Mobile Monday is a networking organization for people in the technology industry who want to learn more about mobile and wireless. There are chapters all over the world and they hold events on the first Monday of each month. May’s event in Silicon Valley is a panel discussion on ‘Running Your Mobile Business’, and I’ll be one of the speakers.
What: May 2008 Mobile Monday (Running Your Mobile Business)
When: May 5th, 2008 7:00pm
Where: Microsoft SV Campus, 1065 La Avenida St. Building 1, Mountain View, CA 94043
This week rings in the 120th printing of the Carnival. While a major theme of the week was the “death of the mobile web” per Mowser’s downfall, the articles we received included an especially diverse collection of mobile news and opinions. Thanks to all who have contributed.
Now on to the stories, starting with my pick for this week’s best post. Krisse from All About Symbian discusses Nokia’s “Comes with Music” service that allows users unlimited music downloads for one year. He explores its economics relative to the alternatives (e.g., piracy, itunes), and the possibility for other varieties of this type of promotion. Is it sustainable for music? What about videos, games, applications? I found this piece especially compelling because of the philosophical shift Nokia’s move embodies on behalf of the music publishers and their pricing of digital content (think 5 years ago), and also because of the massive implications that this could have on the current and emerging mammoths of music distribution (e.g., iTunes, Amazon).
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Continuing to the rest of this week’s picks, I will unabashedly start with a contribution from Skydeck’s own Jason Devitt, who participated in last Thursday’s public FCC hearing at Stanford University (video of his speech in post) with the FCC Chairman and five Commissioners. He wrote up a short post describing the experience and the contributions of others.
Next, we have long-time reader, first-time writer Sascha Konietzke from funkfeuer, based in Germany. He discusses how Microformats leverage existing standards and facilitate an early Semantic Web, and the advantages that they can bring to mobile. Its a comprehensive, educational review with great insights into the benefits for mobile.
Is the future of telecoms local… ’super serving’ a local community? Ajit from Open Gardens discusses this and other worthwhile topics while reviewing Cincinnati Bell’s often contrarian approach to the market under its leader, the candid Jack Cassidy.
John Puterbaugh from Nellymoser writes a comprehensive post on the role of widgets in mobile, which summarizes their value into 3 concise points, and goes far beyond the overly simplistic explanation of ‘user experience’ benefits. The review is very detailed and interesting, being a how-to guide, research paper, and opinion piece all at once.
Matt Davies from Taptu reveals in an article titled Design Thinking, the best practices for revealing the features of your site or service to new users. Learn about the progressive disclosure method and make sure you’re not overwhelming your users.
In three points Igor Faletski from mobscureattempts to rebut the notion that “Mobile Ads are the next big thing”.
Peggy Salz from MSearch Groove discusses Russell Beattie’s decision to pull the plug on Mowser, and asks whether the mobile web is really dead, or if we’ve simply been looking in the wrong places. Is it alive and kicking on the fringes as a Generation Y social medium, not the information play we were expecting?
James Cooper of mjelly complements Peggy’s piece with another take on the same topic, using mobile internet statistics to state 10 reasons why it is alive and well.
Dennis at WAP Review discusses the benefits and drawbacks of the new Openwave OpenWeb transcoder recently rolled out by Sprint, which makes full PC websites usable on the limited browsers of feature phones. In context, the piece reviews the decision by Openwave and InfoGin to adopt the Developer Manifesto for responsible formatting, and this decision’s impact on future development.
Ray at Money Blue Book tells the story of his ordeal with Verizon’s exceedingly persistent contract renewal sales team, and suggests to readers fortunate enough to be at the end of their cell phone contracts that they should negotiate with leverage. He continues by informing readers of the often unrealized savings available through employee or student discounts, and provides carrier-specific links to find out if you qualify. We salute his service to the consumer community.
Andrew Grill from his namesake’s blog writes a very interesting piece arguing that the development of new ways to gather and process user behavior will improve the mobile advertising end-user experience. Andrew also describes a Newsweek article that inspired his post, which is about an MIT project that is displaying phone connections on a map in real-time between different world cities.
Bena Roberts from GoMo Newssummarizes her experience at the Mobile Marketing Forum, primarily with a review of Google’s “shockingly good” presentation on Mobile Marketing.
Barbara Ballard at Little Springs Design put together a quick read that discusses mobile social networking trends and gives suggestions for how businesses competing in this area can succeed. If mobile is who you are and where you are, should an “everything is a community” approach apply and even thrive?
Announcements and Events:
* Handheld Learning 2008 is “the premier conference on mobile learning”. It will be held in London from Oct. 13-15, so you have plenty of time to read up and put it in your diary. Mark van ‘t Hooft from Ubiquitous Thoughts is on the event’s steering committee, and has written a brief overview here.
* Great news for Mobilists. We’re delighted to announce that our friends at AdMob have agreed to sponsor the Post of the Week starting in April. Every week, the post chosen by that week’s Host will win a $100 coupon for mobile advertising with AdMob to drive traffic to their mobile website.
This week’s winner is Krisse from All About Symbian. Congratulations!
AdMob is the world’s largest and highest quality mobile advertising marketplace, serving more than 2 billion mobile banner and text ads per month. Founded in January 2006, AdMob allows advertisers to reach their customers on the mobile web and enables publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites. AdMob offers both advertisers and publishers the ability to leverage targeted and personalized advertising in more than 160 countries. Sample AdMob customers include Coca Cola, P&G, Adidas, GM, MSN, Paramount Pictures, Reuters, MTV and many more. AdMob serves ads for over 3000 mobile web sites including ESPN, AccuWeather, CBS, Weather Underground, Maxim and Peperonity.
To learn more about advertising or publishing with AdMob click here
Thanks to all who support the Carnival. Next week’s will be hosted by 3-Lib.
