Telstra begins 3G trials

Hopefully this will all mean that really rich mobile content is finally coming to Australia...

via Australian IT:

TELSTRA is set to begin a staff-only trial of its forthcoming 3G network in all capitals except Hobart and Darwin, having already ordered up phones for a public launch of the service.The trial will begin next Monday, using an undisclosed number of Telstra staff, the company said.
The staff had been drawn from all walks of Telstra life, in an attempt to mimic the different types of customer that would use the service, Telstra said. The trial is expected to last for several weeks, with the service made available to paying customers shortly after.

Telstra had already placed handset orders for the commercial launch of the 3G service, and a number of different handsets would be used in the trial, a spokesman said.
Telstra's 3G service would offer content "that competitors will struggle to match" wireless and mobility managing director Holly Kramer said. The company has already announced that its i-mode mobile service would make the transition from GPRS to the third generation network.

The network's back-end systems, including content servers and switching infrastructure, was ready for a full public launch of the 3G service, the spokesman said. "We are network ready," he said.

Telstra refers to the wideband CDMA (WCDMA)-based service as 3GSM to differentiate it from the company's EV-DO data network, which also comes within the definition of third generation mobile services.

The majority of the radio infrastructure used in the trial makes use of Telstra's network sharing agreement with 3G early-starter Hutchison, although Telstra said it had also built 40 3G base stations in Canberra, as well as base stations to provide "infill" coverage in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

A further 2000 base stations were available outside Canberra, Ms Kramer said.
"Telstra will increase its 3GSM coverage footprint in other centres over time and in line with customer demand," she said.

Forever dotty for Pac-Man

Another example of a good idea that becomes the undisputed leader, while everyone else is just cheap imitations.

via Australian IT:

For a video game, Pac-Man is getting old. The ghost-wary hero with an insatiable appetite for dots turns 25 this month. From the early 1980s Pac-Mania to today's endless sequels and rip-offs, the master of maze management remains a bright yellow circle on the cultural radar.
But there was more to Pac-Man's broad appeal than eating dots and dodging on-screen archrivals Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde.

"This was the first time a player took on a persona in the game," says Leonard Herman, author of Phoenix: The Rise and Fall of Videogames.

"Instead of controlling inanimate objects like tanks, paddles and missile bases, players now controlled a living creature. It was something that people could identify, like a hero."

It all began in Japan, when young Namco designer Toru Iwatani took inspiration from a pizza that was missing a slice.

Puck-Man, as it was originally called, was born but because of obvious similarities to a certain four-letter profanity, Puck became Pac when it debuted in the US in 1980.

Developers need the weekend too

Often as a business owner, I feel I don't get the time to "play" as a developer or designer as I used to when I was just an employee. As things grow, I spend more and more time running it and farm out more work to contractors, etc. My frustrations are often reaslised more when I do my daily reading of blogs and mailing list posts - it seems that everyone else is racing ahead with doing cool stuff, and I'm falling behind. I'm sure a lot of people feel this way when they read about some of the REALLY great stuff guys from around the world are coming up with.

This character trait of mine was recently exposed again when I joined the Flash Lite Yahoo Group mailing list - an excellent (and growing) email list comprising of some really talented people who love their Flash and their mobiles. Some great stuff has already come through my Inbox, and it's been great to join another growing "community".

But I was pleasently surprised this weekend just gone, when the posts stopped. Friday afternoon slowly worked its way around the timezones of the world, and with it came a nice and reassuring silence - developers still know the value of the weekend!

My weekends are sacred, precious time spent away from the computer, phone and clients, and spent with my wife, kids, and friends. Time to watch some football, or be domestic and clean the pool, or wrestle on the floor (!?) ... and not feel like the rest of the world is passing me by. I find it hard though to turn off the thoughts and day-dreaming about work and what's possible for us, so I keep a journal sometimes of ideas that I might come up with, so that I can have a good look on Monday morning when work starts again.

So well done members of the Flash Lite mailing list. Perhaps it was just a quiet weekend for posts, more of an anomaly that the norm, but hopefully it was the sign of people observing an age old tradition of "downtime" - long live the weekend.

DRD / Flash mobile interview in Design Graphics magazine

Following the session I presented at MXDU earlier this year, Terri Dentry from Design Graphics Magazine (a sponsor of the conference) offered to write up an interview with me on some of the specifics of designing with Flash for mobile devices.

This interview has now been published in this month's issue - Issue 117. Cool!

The article also features insight from Mike Downey of Macromedia (and the "Two Mikes" fame). Granted, a lot has happened in the Flash Lite world since the article was written, but it's still providing some great coverage for the platform and for DRD/Moket as well.

It's also nice to get some coverage for this kind of thing in mainstream publications that probably don't get a lot of interactive design content. And considering that a lot of print designers are going hear a lot about Flash through the Adobe channels in the coming months, that can probably only be a good thing.

Thank to Terri for the opportunity to be published in the mag!

Whack Attack moves up the charts

It's what they call a "sleeper" in the music industry :) Our first Flash Lite game offering, "Whack Attack", has climbed to second most downloaded Flash Lite application from the Macromedia Flash Lite Exchange.

We've got some really cool game ideas in development at the moment, and hopefully we can get some out in time for the launch of Moket (our Flash Lite development company). If you're a tradional game developer who is looking at moving onto the Flash Lite platform, then give us a call too!

And only a couple of weeks to Moket ... counting down :)

An addition to the last post

So with that all being said for Aussie companies to have a crack at Flash mobile, one side note to that call to arms ... when the hell are we going to get some Flash enabled phones off the shelf down here!?!? You're killing me Jerry!

I know they're coming, I know ... maybe by the time they hit, Flash Lite 2 will be released, and we'll be stuck having to code using Flash 4 for the local market while the rest of the world enjoys AS2.0 mobile apps.

Ahh not to worry, it's late and I'm starting to whinge cause my football team lost tonight :)

Att: Australian business - wake up to mobile!

To me, it's as obvious as the nose on your face - mobile devices are revolutionising how we interact with information in our daily lives. It's also obvious that Australia, my home and my favourite place in the world, is way behind in the mobile technology and infrastructure game. What people think of as "revolutionary" here at the moment is, to quote pop radio, "so yesterday" compared to the rest of the world.

This poses an interesting problem for Australian mobile developers, but I feel like the best answer I can give business people and decision makers right now is "Just get on with it - have a go!". Too many business people wait for something to become popular before getting on board, before taking the risk (by which time there's no risk at all and you've lost your competitive edge). With mobile, Australian business needs only look at our neighbours in the Asian region to see where it's going - or look a little further to our roots in Europe where it's going nuts!

C'mon Aussie, get going and see what happens. I'll tell you what happens - you lead instead of follow.

Here endeth the pep rally!

Flash Platform doc lays it all out

Well, I'm just getting through the overiew whitepaper on the new Flash Platform site (yes, even though I wrote about the Flash Platform here like a week ago, I'm just getting to go through it in detail myself now - what can I say ... I'm a slow reader!).

One of the nicest paragraphs I've read so far is this little gem:

"The next major release of Flash Lite, code-named Deuce, is based on Flash Player 7, which will elevate scripting for mobile applications to a more powerful level with ActionScript 2 support."

Noice.

Apple and Nokia team up for mobile browser

NOKIA is developing a mobile browser for its Series 60 smartphone software in cooperation with Apple, the Finnish telecoms equipment maker said.

Nokia said in a statement the new browser will use the same open source components as Apple's Safari internet browser. Nokia added the browser will be available during the first half of 2006 and said it would continue to cooperate with Apple.

In March, Nokia signed a deal with Apple's competitor, Norway's Opera Software to put Opera's mobile Internet software on more Nokia phones, after having licensed Opera's browser for a total of 11 Nokia models in recent years.

From Australian IT

DRDblog as seen on MXNA

A small win is still a win ... We're happy to let you know that our little blog here of semi-interesting thoughts, news and opinions has been aggregated by MXNA - the Macromedia XML News Aggregator. For those of you coming here from the feed on MXNA, welcome!

Up and down days

Sometimes running a business, you're going to have really great days. And other times, you're going to have really crap days! I'm constantly amazed at the highs and lows of running an IT related business, and how frequently, even within the space of one day, the rollercoaster can change direction. We've been really fortunate that we've been going for 3 1/2 years, and so far the good has by far out-weighed the bad. But it's just as amazing how quickly the few downturns in the track can affect you.

I've been reading in a few blogs lately that people believe that the IT slump has bounced and we're feeling a surge again. I certainly hope it has, well, I probably do agree that is on the way up. Those of us who have been in the web game for more than 10 years have ridden some pretty big highs and lows, and if we're still in it now (as we are), then you're looking forward to a high :) I have to admit that the web-browser has become a bit tired I think for a lot of people. Where we've come on the web in the past few years certainly hasn't changed the world - just more people selling stuff, more spam, more porn sites killing childhood ... ummm .... what's there to get excited about?

This is why Moket and mobile development is kind of getting me going cause it's a bit of a new rush ... something a bit different ... something still in its infancy really in a lot of territories (including Australia - we are like the mobile technology backwater of the world!). I'm sounding like a tech junkie looking for my next fix! Roll on 3G I say ... and where the heck are those Flash enabled handsets they promised us were coming ?!?! Nah, it's all good - hopefully there are many more highs than lows coming. Cheers!

You know a good album when you hear it

Just received my copy of the new Leo Nine album today, "Slow Steady Heart". If you haven't heard these guys before, they're a great band from Brisbane that have been around for a while now. Jeremy (bass) and I used to jam together when we were 15! Anyway, the album is great and deserves a big plug wherever possible. Check it out and buy it from their website now, and keep local Australian music alive! I mean, who really wants a freakin' Crazy Frog ringtone getting more sales than real music ... come on give me a break!!

Macromedia Launches the Flash Platform

Macromedia have given all of us who work commercially with Flash a helping hand by launching what they're calling the Flash Platform. It's a section on the MM site that contains a lot of excellent resources and articles explaining the different natures of Flash, and how it can be found in many different environments and scenarios. It's a great resource to help educate clients and bring them up to speed with what Flash has become, and hopefully to reduce the number of Flash intros clients ask you to do! Check it out at www.macromedia.com/platform