un-browsers

Tags: Design,  Java ME,  Mobile applications,  Mobile web
December 20, 2006 by Barbara
In a recent presentation, I addressed the future of mobile browsers and mobile web. For browsers, I want Opera Mobile features plus ...
I also want to see "un-browsers". This addresses things wrong with the mobile web and key issues in the browser model, such as reliance on constant availability of the network, accessibility of data locally, availability of local device capabilities. Specifically, features should include:

The industry as a whole, or at least certain players within the mobile industry, have been moving in this direction. The boundaries between web sites and applications are slowly degrading. Application-only companies like mFoundry has created a "mobile AJAX" framework. The main mojax page doesn't reflect the full story, so instead check out the rather informative mojax blog. It's in private beta, so I can't assess how well they did technically, but the blog certainly reflects an understanding of the lists above. For example, they describe "Moblets" (applications written in the mojax framework) as the following:

Moblets are applications... not web sites
In fact, because mojax runs as an application and not a website, an mojax Moblet offers distinct advantages over a Mobile AJAX application running within a browser:

1. Local Data Storage (Caching)
All Moblets have access to a global object called Cache. Via this object, Moblets can persist state across application sessions. It can be used to store simple string values, large XML data models, or even images.

2. Offline capabilities
Unlike a browser based application, Moblets can be written to work offline. All the application logic is cached upon install and unless the application requires access to an internet resource (e.g. Web Service) then it is fully capable of running offline and without a network connection of any kind.

3. Access to device specific features
Browsers running on a mobile device are strickly limited to rendering a web page. Granted, in concept AJAX provides a very rich experience, but it doesn't provide access to device specific features like Audio and Video playback, camera, LBS, and Bluetooth. These are all things that a Moblet running on mojax can access.

So I'm hoping to see more from mojax, and hoping to play with it soon.


«« user experience goes beyond user interface  |  US carrier experiences: 2006 »»

2 Comments »

  1. As far as I can see it’s implemented as a MIDlet. Functionality-wise it’s kind of like MIDP + J2ME Polish, yet easier to program.

    Comment by Anders Borg — December 20, 2006 @ 12:29 pm

  2. Totally agree with you of coure. We are working on a state of the art Widget engine too that is typically trying to solve these issues, plus more! One of the issue (with mobile devices) is screen size and navigation. That’s why a mobile widget engine is well adapted to this, trying to provide the maximum of pertinent informations to a user in a minimum of space!

    http://mobidgets.com

    The product is still under development, but you can see some old snapshots here:

    http://blog.landspurg.net/mobile-widget-frenzy-mobidget-is-coming

    (and by the way, there is a complete category about mobile widget on my blog: http://blog.landspurg.net/?cat=14 )

    Comment by Thomas Landspurg — December 20, 2006 @ 4:56 pm

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