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Type=file Is The Most Important Tag To Support In A Mobile Browser

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If you make a browser these days, you MUST support a simple, basic, easy-to-use, tag called type=file in your web browser. It enables those forms we see which allow you to browse your local ‘memory’ (which you paid extra for) then upload a file to a website. Just like YouTube lets you upload a (potentially) massive file to create (and freely host) a smaller flv file in the browser – with progress bars! (If you need a desktop app to convert to flv BEFORE posting to YouTube – let me know – I have it built right here)

If your mobile browser does not support this then you’re losing out – trust me. Those that DO support it – don’t just support one system. The Metaweblog API (and even the Blogger API) was created for a reason. Those blogging vendors who don’t support that are leading your device into a walled garden – and no one wants that in the long run/tail.

It’s simple. This form tag supports systems that are easy to build. It’s ‘open’. It’s been around for years. If your device’s native browser does not support this, then it’s clear to me that you’re not supporting the user : you are supporting the carrier alone (hello iPhone) . Did you know that an MMS post typically costs about ten times the amount that a file upload via your mobile connection costs? If your device does not support open ‘wifi’ even though you harp on about that kind of ‘802 dot’ connectivity – forget it.

This is why I created camoby.com – which is now noklog.com for now. (Links to come once I sort out some setttings on WP which I fiddled with) – if your device’s web browser does not support the type=file tag then I’m sorry, but you’re missing out. You’re not in the game. You’re playing catchup with those that do support it. And what’s more : your carriers are rippiing people off. Period.

If you are a device product manager, or have any kind of sway in what goes out to the consumer, then please..’do what is right’. Enable the ability for mobile web developers to create systems which enable the owner of a device/phone/etc. to CREATE as well as CONSUME content. Your device CAN do it. If your app supports the ability for the device owener to add and browse OPML and RSS, then you just about have it right there. Hi Noki!

If your device supports the ‘podcasting standard’ of recording mime types of (at least) mp3, and your browser can upload that content, without installing anything at all, then you have ‘it’. (If not, then sure, we can transcode it for you!)

There are billions of mobile devices out there around the world. Sure, the majority of those devices stay used for years, and only recently are beginning to get updated more frequently, due to network availability, so .. why not enable that user to harp on about who or where they are, using a mobile blogging system which they control?

I believe that those device manufacturers which embrace this opinion will ‘win’. People WANT to upgrade their ‘pocket computer’.

I rest my case – aka/now pocket 😉

NOKLOG

What the Zune could have been

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This great new device from Sansa (built by Zing) has wireless sharing over the internet with your contacts. This means when you scan for people to share with, you’re looking online, like an IM message list, not for just those people with a device within the local vicinity.

Now THAT’S ‘social’. I should really start blogging my predictions for the future of the Zune over at another one of my crazy domains, zunestone.com 😉
posted by kosso using NOKLOG : [permalink]

NOKLOG

Embedding Flash in WordPress.com Blogs?

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Hi. Is there anyone out there who knows if it’s possible at all to embed a flash movie in a WordPress.com blog post? I see that not so long ago they added a ‘way’ to post YouTube flash to a post, but that would have had to been done like a ‘deal’ due to demand, and the plugin arrived. Is there no simple Flash plugin for WP.com users? Or am I missing something? Credits?

[WHOA! As I wrote this, my whole template seems to have borked. Hmmm others too. I wonder if the recent WP version is being rolled in? I didn’t touch nuffin – honest! HMMM: Seems back OK now. What could have caused that? Snap.com’s Javascript?]

I really need a way to post my flash mp3 player and movie player, as I am working on a solution to crosspost audio and video posts to my system via XML-RPC. It seems however, that WordPress does not like to accept the OBJECT/EMBED code required.

I could have done a JavaScript file back on my server to write it – given a ‘slugtype’ url in the post, but alas, no JS either (though possibly for good reason) – but why no Flash?

If any one has any ideas, please let me know – as I’m trying to add value to WordPress blogging from mobiles, as opposed to being forced to use another blog platform vendor – ie: Typepad/Vox

Do I need millions of users before I can make this happen? ;p

I do hope not.

Uncategorized

NOKLOG.COM : Mobile Multimedia Publishing

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Presenting NOKLOG.COM!!! 🙂

So, what else have I been working on? Well, some of you will already know about the BlogHUD system I built for Second Life users, which lets them post messages and articles to a blogging system. It will also crosspost the post to your external blog too (WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, etc) – as well as send on any images you take to your flickr account.

Well, all this is really a model for a simple web application for mobiles which I started think about and testing back in 2004 called ‘camoby’. I used it to post articles of gadgets back to the BBC News website while I was out at CeBit in ’04. The editor back in London watched my RSS feed for things he liked for the site, then republished them on the BBC news site like a blog (one of their first, actually!)

So, the camoby system has evolved – as have I. Since learning many new skills since then,I was able to sit here in my hotel room in Boston/Cambridge yesterday and build the whole proof-of-concept system at noklog.com. (This will probably move to another domain eventually, as more manufacturers allow this very useful feature)

NOKLOGNOKLOG is a mobile publishing system, optimised for mobile browsers which support the oft-requested file upload form tag. (input type=file) Nokia’s Symbian Series60 web browser and Sony Ericsson’s phones with the Symbian UIQ browsers have supported this for a while. No need to build and install more apps on the phone. It all goes via the web. Sweet! it also works with the connected Archos devices (PMA430 and 604WiFi).

The difference with this and the camoby system is that I can now support ALL media types which the handset can produce. Ie: Images, Audio and Video. Once uploaded, the user can choose to publish/post the media to the main noklog.com blog, when the server then processes the image to a sensible jpeg size (with branding / watermark) and transcodes audio (.amr, .wav etc) to mp3 for podcasts and flash players AND now also video – .mp4, .3gp etc will get transcoded to the ubiquitous Flash video format (.flv) to use in a webbased Flash player, a la YouTube. No reason why I can’t transcode to MPEG4 H.263 for iPods and PSP too. It’s easy once you know how 😉

BUT, not only that – like the blogHUD system, users will also be able to share this content and extent its reach even further by crossposting to your own blogging system – if it supports XML-RPC / MetaWeblog / Blogger APIs or email publishing. There is also no reason why I couldn’t FTP the media to a host provider like Libsyn too!

This means that as well as sending you post to your blog, you can also send images on to your flickr account or even your YouTube or blip.tv account – AUTOMAGICALLY!!! W00t! (as they say!) heheh Also each user has their own ‘home’ page and RSS feed to share their mobile life. Aggretastic!

I’ll be improving this system over the next few days, as I stay out of the cold currently blowing over Massachusetts and add things like tagging etc.

NEXT – the killer metadata support will be the Geographical Latitude and Longitude data (geotagging) of where the media was taken or recorded. I simply cannot wait to get my hands on the Nokia N95 phone, with built-in GPS, to see how I can grb the position data and populate a form field or Javascript variable, while using the Series 60 browser. I hope that wont be too tricky. We shall see. This will let me add real world maps from Google and/or Yahoo! very easily to the site. Kind of like the idea I had for ‘Geepster.com‘ – another unfinished project 😉

Using Second Life and the blogHUD to model this system – as well as model my own abilities and support/iteration mechanisms has been a truly wonderful experience, One which I emplore any developer to try out. You will not regret it.

I’ll keep you posted when I can let some testers to NOKLOG in to try the system out. It shouldn’t be too long – because it’s simple! Just the way we like it 😉

Naturally, all this fits in perfectly with the podcast.com system I am creating, which is about to get a big overhaul to the new system upgrade I have nearly finished 🙂

flickr, multimedia, Nokia, NOKLOG, OPML, podcast.com, podcasting, rss

So what happened at CES?

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Well, to be honest, there really wasn’t that much to write home about! Seriously, over the last two years since I last went to Vegas for CES, there really weren’t many new innovations at all (in my field). My connectivity in the hotel was restricting the secure access I needed to complete the moblog system (though, now I am in Boston I have nearly finished it).

There were a couple a devices which caught my eye, which I’ll post about shortly. Also a few ‘crippled’ devices which really could have been alot better thought through.

And don’t get me started about the iPhone/ApplePhone. First glance was ‘MMMMMMMMmmm!!’. Now after deeper research, I think they are making a whole load of mistakes with it. God knows what they’re going to do when it hits Europe re: carrier lockin etc. Not to mention all the other crippling I have since learned of.

It looks sexy for sure. But Apple really have no idea about mobile smart phones. Nokia still lead the pack, in my opinion. And they have more MP3/MP4/3GP players in people’s pockets than any other manufacturer out there.

When I get an N95 in my hand, expect to see a real world multimedia, moblogging, mapping version of the blogHUD system to appear very soon after! 😉 oooh yes!

I’m going to be in Boston for the next10 days, with a possible short trip out to Vermont to see the snow with the podcast.com gang. One of my legs is totally knackered from all the walking around – ThromVegas?

Another highlight of being around CES, next to ‘the other show’ was that I got to see Ron Jeremy and Larry Flynt up close, near the entrance to the ‘other show’, where the silicon wasn’t in people’s pockets, but slap bang, front and center on the chests of the slew of plastic girls wondering around the place! heh.

Also saw Jenna Jameson walk past with full entourage – she’s so short!! Never seen her ‘movies’ though, but I expect she looks taller lying down! 😉

CES, gadgets, iPhone, Nokia

Viva Las Vegas! CES here I come!!

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Lock up your gadgets!!!! Kosso is coming to Las Vegas!!! 🙂

I should be leaving home here in about 9 hours then off over the Atlantic andf the USA to Las Vegas for CES 2007! Hurrah! Last time I went there is was 2005. We had different gadgets and new ones which had promise which held truee till now. Here’s pic of my packing last time, when I went on behalf of the BBC 😉 Here’s the moblog I did from there last time!

I have been working on an upgrade to the camoby concept for stuff to do with podcast.com and bloghud.com  – It’s working nicely so far and I plan to use it to create a feed of text, images, aufio or video while at the show and around about.

This year, CES will be all about the CONTENT which can get on the gadget I saw a couple of years ago – as well as the new ones.  😉 I cant wait to see everyone again! And I do like a bit of BlackJack!
I’ll let you know the feed when I have it all set up finally. I’m still building it! 🙂

I am taking a little less with me, as now I have a better system written 😉 I’ll tell you all about it when I get there 😉

This, tied with the other stuff I have been cooking on the podcast.com upgrade will be very nice indeed, if I do say so myself. Different. Useful (hopefully), fun and informative.

See you on the other side!! 🙂

blog, CES, gadgets

Ansche Attacks!

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Before Christmas, I had heard about the griefing attack which happened on Ansche Chung, Second Life’s first ‘real’ millionaire, during an interview with CNET.

Some residents present took photos and video footage of the attacks, which included self-replicated flying penises floating at Ansche. Another attack during another interview saw a swarm of photoshopped photos of her holding a large copy-pasted penis.

It appears now that she is trying to enforce a takedown of all media showing her avatar or places her organisation has built. She has succeeding in using the DCMA to take down the video of the attack from YouTube.

Reuters have a full article on the events, which also included the mistake of also trying to get BoingBoing to step into line too. D’oh!

The video is still available on Google Video (and downloadable in .mp4 format which SL/Quicktime can play if you want to show it on your land) – all nicely edited to music too 😉

I host pictures people take in Second Life over on blogHUD and if she asked me to take down someone’s photo, I would be hard pushed to do so, as she’s a celebrity, who was effectively ‘papped’ in a public place. She cant stop that. The photographers should be rewarded! Community-style! 😉

And if she wants to try and stop photos of her ‘places’ and builds being posted online, then I think she’s totally off her rocker object. Sure she could try, but she’ll cause herself more harm than good if she does do that. People in communities don’t react well to that kind of control.

We have politicians who have eggs and stuff thrown at them in real life – do you see the footage of this being censored by the victim? No. It gets out there as ‘news’ content. Public domain. No holds barred. (Possibly there are occasions when it does happen though, depending on the image and circumstance and situation)

Ansche needs to deal with this PR in a different way. Laughing usually works. It’s not the emotion the attacker wanted or expected. Stamping your feet like a little girl is not the right way to go.

I think she’ ll learn – the hard way. Like most ‘celebrities’.

Second Life

Forums, Blogs, Threads, Comments… Structure!

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Over on the Web2.0 Show blog, Darren Stuart asks ‘Are Blogs The New Forums?’

“Lets look at the function of a forum.

Users post messages for discussion. Users post messages discussing other messages. These discussions are normally in categorised in to sub forums.

Now lets look at the function of a Blog

A Blogger posts something interesting. Visitors post comments on the Blogger’s post. The Blogger’s posts are normally categorised and tagged.

As you can see the core functions of both Blogs and forums are almost identical.”

I totally agree! I too love forums. From usenet groups to phpBB. IMHO, the thread structure of forums are perfect for almost all communication and publication online.

Now pause for a moment to think and have a look at an OPML file 🙂

I often say that the only web software we (almost) ever needed was the remarkably influential ‘WWWBoard’ perl script, from a place called ‘Matt’s Script Archive‘. (I’m amazed it’s still there! – looking different though 😉 )I cut my coding teeth on that lot, years ago. Even hacked it make a flat-file content management system too 😉 WWWBoard was one of the earliest examples of an ‘open-source’ script that I ever encountered. Matt had other scripts too, for voting and the like. All very useful stuff. Until I found PHP 😉

Any post of anything online has certain basic attributes – a title, body text, author and date.

Having a post exist within the structure of a ‘thread’ – ‘a reply to reply’ or ‘a sub category of a sub category’ – the content immediately has context, reference, ‘a place’ – based on the details of its ‘parent’. It could be a comment to a post, a post on a forum, a reply to that post, a new user submitted script in code documenation, a comment on a comment on an area of a photo, a threaded discussion of experiences at a geographic location. Anything!

I’m actually working on something interesting in this area (I think!) – based around the upgrade to podcast.com which I am (still!) working on.

Let me say it again : It’s “OPML PLUS RSS TO THE POWER OF USERS!” 🙂

Do you catch my drift? 😉 Look up the tree!

Update: It looks like Dave Winer gets it too! !

OPML, rss
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