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Hndhld blog

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Bubble or Opportunity?

Guess the amount of money that has been invested in start ups working in pure play Apple apps. 1, 2, 10, 50 million USD?

The correct answer is a 100 million dollars, says this piece.

Now, I dont know if its a bubble or an opportunity. For now, sitting in India, clearly it seems to be the latter.

Our website is up...

Our website is up :) Take a look (whoever is reading this blog, apart from me) Visit hndhld.com

We are on twitter too (twitter.com/hndhld) - now that's overkill for an audience of 1, dont you think?

What else is on in our lives? We seek to crack the secret code of Symbian over this weekend and also include the airport volvo routes in the volvo app...

And there is a ton of work staring at us...

Desi app stores?

The biggies are gonna roll out Desi app stores. And that seems to means Nokia and RIM. Apple gets mentioned in the piece, but their response leaves us with the feeling that they have no such plans. Sony Ericsson gets a passing mention. Google, no word...It basically seems to mean that Indian developers will be allowed to put up apps - it probably wont mean anything more than that.

What is big idea of a desi app store when the global version can do the trick? It is as great an idea as having an India specific social network. But there are already apps like Cab Lite in which Indian operators are present, so it does not prevent people from making "worldwide" apps too. In any case, this is good news for teams like ours.

And it is a good thing to create markets for apps. One, it will prove to many of the naysayers that the Indian IT market has no talent. It will also be an answer to the many who doubt Indias technical expertise. Also, it lets people do stuff that may be "too small" or in the "blind spot" of phone companies. The good thing about apps is that it allows users to customise their phone. In a nation with a multitude of languages, this is the best way to customise. But if that needs to happen, apps have be made available to phones with a much lower budget...

But there is a lot of potential out there...

Bangalore BMTC Volvo routes

Here comes our second app in the Android market. We have put up the Bangalore BMTC Volvo bus route finder as an app. Enter the "To" and "From" destination to get the appropriate Volvo bus routes. Enter just "To" or "From" for bus originating and terminating respectively. Or just get the route number listing and routes.

The Bangalore BMTC Volvo route finder is useful even if you new to the city. So, if you are visiting Bangalore (and have an Android phone), do install it and try out these bus services.

Go green, use public transport.

We are planning to enable the next version with GPS capability too...

Android phone in India

Finally, the Android phone is set to be launched in India.

We will keep you posted as our apps for the phone get ready.

The price point of the phone (on contract with Airtel, a la iPhone), though, disturbs me a bit. At 30k, I am not sure its a steal, unless both Airtel and Google have some ace up their sleeve. At this price it mimics the iPhone plan. 10K lesser and it would have given iPhone (not exactly selling like hot cakes in India) some food for thought...

In the meantime, Google, can you please let Indian developers upload paid apps into Android?

Augmented Reality

As it is, we are living in "The Matrix" and to top it we have virtual reality, second life and now, this. Augmented reality.

By definition, Augmented reality (AR) technologies offer the ability to layer data--including images--over our perceptions of the physical world. While science fiction versions of AR usually involves high-tech eyewear, real-world AR is moving swiftly from the labs to the users via advanced smartphones. These handhelds offer everything a basic AR setup needs: a good display; a camera to see the world; and location-awareness.

But, this is the first step really and you will see a lot more as all these worlds converge. The only thing I am willing to say at this point, is, it will all be on your phone...

And heres how to do it

To stay ahead of the curve, I mean, as Apples 3.0 demonstrates.

While the rest of the world believed that launching zillions of "phone models" was the key to success, along came a "computer" and "mp3 player" company that made all of one (or three)models, yet is perhaps the most successful mobile phone company in the world.

Related read. While everybody believes that the web is the end for newspapers and newsmagazines (including us), the Economist sits pretty. Superb read.

Jai Hanuman

So, finally, after months of trial and error, we managed to get our first app on the marketplace. It is a very simple one, where we have tried to digitise the Hanuman Chalisa.

Lots of learnings, lots of missteps, but finally we made it. Do let us know how you like it.

But then again, this is the first one. We have a few more in the pipeline that will be up soon...

Mobile 2.0, a presentation

Check out this presentation on Mobile 2.0, (via Emergic)

Mobile 2.0: Design & Develop for the iPhone and Beyond

View more Microsoft Word documents from Brian Fling.

Coming up next, Context sensitive phones

What exactly is a context sensitive phone? It means, that the phone knows what you are doing - running, travelling or sleeping and then it adjusts certain parameters within itself - like brightening or lowering the display, magnifying contacts.
And both Apple and Google have filed a patent that signifies their intent... (via Fast Company)

Mobile as center of life

Heres a glimpse of the mobile phone as center of life in South Korea (link via). Read the whole piece - it tells the next steps for mobile phones. There is a vast pool of untapped potential for this device and we will see it being unleashed over the next few years.

Also, heres a solid piece by Niti Bhan on the potential in the MTN-Airtel alliance titled African potential, Indian Experience.

Plox Lite

If you have ever played tower defence, this is a familiar game, but on a phone it seemed to be doubly exciting. After Trap, this is another game that I was completely addicted to for a while.
Worth a try...

Music Lite

This is not a multi-touch application, but does its job well for a single touch app. Its a nice musical keyboard with an option for a piano and a keyboard (with the full extended version avaiable for a payment).
Clearly worth it, if you are into this sort of thing!

Trap!

Heres a game I was completely addicted to. Trap is the name and what you are supposed to do is trap those floating balls using lines that go end to end. If any ball meets any unfinished line, then you lose a life. There are various bonuses, special balls and stuff to keep you occupied for a long long time. It does not seem so great when you start, but as you play, like any good game, it is supremely addictive.

Zebra paint!

A stunningly simple painting application - really loved by kids. Choose the colour with your finger, touch the relevant spot on the screen - thats it. Choose from a range of pre loaded pictures and a whole range of colours on the palette. Keeps kids busy for a while...

Android 1.5 sneak peek

Take a sneak peek at Next gen Android...
For the full list of features, go here...

OS 3.0 released

This is not the blog to read about OS 3.0. There are clearly, better places on the web like Engadget. But do read the link to see the "potential" that can be unleashed with this device. In that we at hndhld also concur that the potentilal of this device - or potential of wireless handheld devices has just about been tapped.

Fast company has an article that points to the direction that many of us have been. The iPhone is almost there as a gaming platform competing with Sony and Nintendo and perhaps a certain Xbox as well? Hmm...

Image Search

The new google image search is superb! It detects (atleast thats how it appeared to me) that you are connecting from a mobile device and tailors the results appropriately!

With the new Image Search results, you can easily scan up to 20 images on a single results page and get the details for images that interest you. From the details page, you can view a larger thumbnail, visit the web page containing the image, or view the image by itself in full size. The new results page also supports "search-by-style" filters, which allow you to restrict your search results to people's faces, clip art, line drawings, or photo content. [Google Mobile blog]

Where will you read books?

The great book reader war is on. Yes. Its Kindle versus google. Kindle wants you to buy a new e-book reader, while Google is giving it on your mobile phone. The big difference is that Kindle lets you buy almost anything on Amazon, while Google will let you buy stuff on its "book search". Right now it is too early to call and clearly, they can both co-exist, but since this is a mobile phone blog, here goes.

15 million books in your pocket. Imagine that!

How many do you want to read? Go ahead, download that book and read it on your phone..