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AOL Search iPhone now with autocomplete

Last week, we updated AOL Search for the iPhone with query autocompletion.  Yes, I know Google did this a couple months ago, but we’re a very scrappy outfit.  Congrats to my dev team members Andrew for the client-side scripting and Lisa for the eye-catching graphics design.  Our Product Manager, Farhan, did a nice write-up in our official search blog.  Here’s the video he recorded:

Posted in AOL, iPhone | 1 Comment »

Moved to Seattle

I know it’s been almost 2 months since I last posted.  To my readers–yeah both of you–sorry about the long delay.  I recently relocated from Washington DC to rainy Seattle, and it was a heck of a journey selling the house, finding an apartment, and actually moving all our stuff across the country.  Anyways, that’s for another blog.  I’m making it a goal to post more and more broadly.  As a result, this blog isn’t just about mobile, but anything I find interesting tech-wise :-).

Posted in Alan | 1 Comment »

W3C Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0

The W3C Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 document is now an official recommendation!  There is not much info on the Web, much less books, on code for the Mobile Web.  This is a great list of best practices to follow on getting your mobile site to display optimally on a wide range of devices.  Also check out the Mobile Web Application Best Practices draft.

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Review of Opera Mobile 9.5 beta 1

Last Thursday, Opera Mobile 9.5 for Windows Mobile was finally released as a public beta.  I had been really looking forward to this release because 1) version 8.65 had been my workhorse Web browser and 2) the UI was totally overhauled to match the ease of use of the iPhone.  I consider myself a heavy mobile browser because I read all 50+ of my newsfeeds and GMail on my HP210.  So the past couple of days, I’ve put the new beta through its paces.

Pros

•  iPhone Safari-like navigation.  You start out in a full-page view.  Double-tap to zoom into a particular block and zoom back out to full-page view.  This worked remarkably well.  Opera does support finger flicking to page up/down, but I ended up remapping the Up and Down actions on the D-pad to do this.  The remapping is done in opera.ini.
• As fast as Opera 8.65 with page-loading.  I’m using AMV007’s Ramdisk for WM5 and WM6, and the speed is even faster than iPhone Safari!  The cache location can be set by adding the line “Cache Directory4 = \Ramdisk\cache4″ in the [User Prefs] section of \Application Data\Opera 9.5\opera.ini.
• All screen real estate is used. I like how the browser chrome is completely hidden after the page has loaded.  Just a translucent button in the lower right is shown to toggle the chrome.

Cons/Bugs

• Auto-switching of orientation.  If Opera is in landscape mode, and you task-switch to another application or just minimize Opera, it’ll switch to portrait mode.  This can be problematic because if you switch back to Opera, you’ll still be in portrait mode!  Also, you’ll likely want to remain in landscape mode for your other apps.  I wish this were a settable option.
• Turns off reminders.  According to Opera’s forums, this has been a deal breaker for some people.  One documented workaround is to open up the Settings > Personal > Sounds and Notifications utility and leave that open while using Opera!
• Zoom doesn’t always work.  e.g. for some reason, GMail’s standard view won’t let you click on links or even zoom into the block to change to Basic view.  Fortunately, you can use the direct link to Basic view: http://gmail.google.com/gmail/h/.
• No Flash support.  Version 8.65 had some limited Flash support.  Opera has said this will come in a future build.

Hopefully, future builds will have these all fixed.  This is still a beta after all.  All in all, this is the best browser on any device, including the iPhone!  I also have an iPod Touch, and while I like Safari, it’s resolution doesn’t compare to the 640×480 on my HP210.  And Opera 9.5’s UI has essentially matched iPhone Safari’s.  Anyways, here are some screenshots I took of AOL’s home page and zooming into the news block:

Posted in Apple, Opera, Windows Mobile, iPhone | No Comments »

First live videos of Android

One of the disadvantages of not being in silicon valley is that you have to travel to get to all the interesting conferences–quite tough given the state of the economy <sigh>. Most recently, I could only read the blog coverage on Google I/O this past Wednesday and Thursday. One treat that I found was the first live videos of Android. This project has come a really long way since it was announced last fall. Some things are just too cool:

• Interface is very iPhone-like with the touch UI, flicking, and drag and drop. From the first screenshots, I thought it would be a clone of Windows Mobile standard.
• Google StreetView with the motion sensor, which they called “compass mode”, was absolutely amazing! When you pivoted in place, the street view would pivot accordingly. It’s a very intuitive way to survey your virtual surroundings.
• Maps, was as expected, just like the iPhone’s, with the satellite and hybrid views and the tile-based scrolling.

Some complaints, though:

• The desktop metaphor is a BAD idea. You need a magnifying glass to read the text. And did we learn anything from Windows Mobile Professional? These phone screens are just way too small to be dragging clocks and making tiny icons as shortcuts that can be haphazardly placed around. I would again follow Apple’s lead and just keep the UI 1) minimal, 2) modal and 3) big enough to read comfortably.
• The dots unlock screen was original, I give it that. But when you’re on the move, I dunno about all that dragging. I still think the standard numeric combination is fine.
• I would have liked to see more apps demo’d than Maps and the browser, but that will come with time, especially with the Android Developer Challenge winners for round 1 recently announced. There’s still a lot of time before the end of the year, when T-Mobile is expected to have their first Android phone.

Anyways, I have heard that the Android SDK is a lot more stable now, so I think will try it out soon…

Source: androidcommunity.com: First Live Videos of Android

Posted in Android, Google | No Comments »