Date: 8 to 12 October 2003
This year’s Mobius was held in Seattle. To me, it is always a pleasure to attend Mobius and to meet up with fellow mobile enthusiasts from around the world. To attend Mobius, I had to take a seven-hour flight to Tokyo to transit and another eight-hour flight to Seattle. It was great to bump into Paul Matt from Three G Mobile in Tokyo for company.
It's a long flight on this baby. Thank God for in-flight entertainment
Once we reached Seattle Tacoma airport, we are transferred to W Hotel Seattle. Style and technology are simply oozing out of the hotel décor and setup. Can you imagine a hotel with broadband Internet access, large screen TV, digital cordless phone, VCR, and CD player? That’s W for you! I loved everything except the dim lighting.
That night, we had our welcome reception at one of the studios in W. Despite being extremely tired and severely jet lagged, I am still very excited to meet up with some old faces and get to know some new friends!
Attendees of Mobius
This year, attendees to Mobius include:-
Andy Sjostrom - http://www.smartphonethoughts.com
Bill Ryan - http://www.devbuzz.com
Dale Coffing - http://www.pocketpcpassion.com
Eric Levine - http://www.thefeature.com
Howard Chui - http://www.howardchui.com
Jason Dunn - http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com
Jenneth Orantia - http://www.jenneth.info
Joel Evans - http://www.geek.com
Jorgen Sundgot - http://www.infosync.no
Julie Strietelmeier - http://www.the-gadgeteer.com
Justin Ried - http://www.thefeature.com
Lisa Gade - http://www.pdabuyersguide.com
Matthew Miller - http://www.geek.com
Paul Matt - http://www.threegmobile.net
Peter Rojas - http://www.gizmodo.net
Rafe Bradford - All About Symbian
Rich Brome - http://www.phonescoop.com
Ryan Kairer - http://ww.palminfocenter.com
Wes Salmon - Formerly PDABuzz
And lastly, myself.
Mobius: Day One
Day one of Mobius was held on Microsoft campus. A transport shuttled us from the hotel to Microsoft’s Consumer Experience Centre. The Consumer Experience Centre is an area where Microsoft and its partners showcase their products to educate consumers on the possibilities of technologies and how it can improve our lives. It is certainly an eye opener to have a glimpse of the smart home of the future.
My mum will like this kitchen
My dream living room setup; XBOX on a large projection TV
We were given an overview of Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone, Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC and Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT). We also have ample opportunities for product hands on, some of which I will cover later in this article.
Mobius: Day Two
We went to Microsoft’s Visio Corporation Building for day two of Mobius. There, the focus was on Microsoft Consumer Strategy and Windows XP Tablet Edition. We were given a demonstration of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 and how it works by integrating services and hardware. We were also shown an “entertaining” video featuring the future smart home with plasma TV screen, smart display and other devices. I like the fact that it empowers you the ability to control all services with a single remote.
Huge Toshiba Satellite loaded with Windows XP Media Center 2004
Motion Computing's Tablet PC works in slate mode and has a keyboard that snaps to the front for travel!
Those who like to find out more about Mobius can head on down to Gadgeteer’s website for Julie’s travelogue. Rather than writing a travelogue that Julie has already done a great job at, I will give you an insight to Microsoft Mobility Platform for the rest of this article instead.
Microsoft Mobility Platform
Microsoft’s Mobility Platform that can be broadly segmented into four categories.
1. Notebook PC
2. Tablet PC
3. Smartphone & Pocket PC Phone
4. Smart Personal Objects – SPOT
Since most people are familiar with the notebook and Tablet PCs, I will skip them and jump straight into Smartphone, Pocket PC Phones and Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT).
Smartphone & Pocket PC Devices
The Windows Mobile for Smartphone 2003 platform is certainly an improvement over the previous version. The top ten enhancements include:-
1. Addition of a MMS Client
2. .NET Compact Framework support
3. New Pocket Internet Explorer that supports WAP 2.0, xHTML, HTML 4.0, CSS, and animated GIF
4. Support for 14 New Languages including Eastern Europe, Japanese, Chinese, Nordic
5. Enhanced cellular support – Always on, ALS VM Indicator, SIM Mgmt, Line 2 PIN, USSD 2, AoC
6. Bluetooth support
7. More customization and extensions
8. Always up-to-date Outlook with Realtime synchronization, email push
9. Windows Media Player 9 - Faster, more power efficient, pluggable codecs, WMA ring tones
10. NAND Support for faster read/write access, and the use of cheaper memory.
MMS client on Smartphone 2003 platform
Other minor enhancements include support for multiple email accounts, SIM contacts management and the addition of a new game called Jaw Breaker, better known as Bubbles.
As in the case for Pocket PC operating system, the availability of the upgrade to Smartphone 2003 is up to the operators to decide.
Some of the upcoming Windows Mobile Smartphones includes the Motorola MPx200, Orange SPV E200, and Sierra Wireless Voq.
The Orange SPV E200 is the more interesting one since it comes with integrated Bluetooth and camera. Unfortunately, the 132MHz processor has not been updated to a faster one. However, we can still expect see a speed increase compared to the old SPV due to the more efficient Smartphone 2003 operating system.
Priceless photo of Dale Coffing & me "in a SPV E200"
As Motorola is one of the major handset manufacturers with worldwide distribution, I am sure they will certain make an impact with the MPx200 Smartphone. This clamshell phone when compared to the MiTAC Mio 8380 Smartphone, is much smaller in size. Like the Mio, it has dual LCD. The bummer is, there is no integrated Bluetooth or camera. Note that it runs on the Smartphone 2002 instead of the newer operating system.
Nokia N-Gage, Mio 8380, Nokia 3650, Voq, SP E200, and MPx200 square off
Voq from Sierra Wireless is a Smartphone targeted at the enterprise or corporate users. The main attraction of this unit is its integrated keyboard that is backlit. Apart from adding keyboard support, Sierra Wireless has customized the phone’s software for easy navigation whenever the keyboard is flipped out. Again, this unit has no integrated Bluetooth or camera. Voq is expected to be available from Q1 2004.
Voq with integrated keyboard flipped out
Some of the more interesting Pocket PC phones on display at Mobius are O2 XDAII, Legend's Lenova and Samsung i700. If devices at Mobius are any indication of market trends, it seems like Pocket PC without connectivity are a passe. Therefore, we can expect Pocket PC phones and Smartphones to make up the bulk of the market.
O2 XDAII, Legend's Lenova and Samsung i700
XDAII in action
Smart Personal Object Technology
Another technology from Microsoft is Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT). The idea of SPOT resolves around wearable accessories that are able to receive small amount of broadcasted information through DirectBand that the user has opted to receive beforehand. As expected, the service is not free and works on a subscription-based model. For a start, watches featuring SPOT will be made available. Suunto and Fossil are two of the manufacturers that will be introducing SPOT watches. SPOT is designed and built based on existing technology with cost and power consumption taken into main consideration. Watches does not get any accurate than these as they sync with the atomic clock time server in Denver. A cool thing is that SPOT watches utilize inductive charging. You simply rest the watch on the charger and VOILA, it charges. SPOT will be launched in the US in a few weeks.
Fossil SPOT watches
Lastly, I would like to thank Microsoft, especially to Jason Gordon and team, for inviting me to Mobius. I left Seattle gaining more insight of Microsoft’s products and services. It was a great experience and nothing beats meeting webmasters from around the globe all at once. Hopefully, there will be more such chances to interact and build rapport with fellow enthusiasts in the very near future.