Final stages

Both the emulators didn’t really work for me and I came across the fact that I can work without emulators by making a website (blog) for mobile. Though it’s available for mobile from the blogger.com but I will be making a small size website. I will have the frame size around 200pixels so it can fit the screens of the mobile. For interactive TV I will be working on Flash. I’ll be creating a remote and a screen on Flash. The remote will be controlling the screen. The screen will have the blog and other internet sites on it. The blog will be a copy of the http://nim-ic.blogspot.com/. I will be saving a few other internet sites to add to the interactive TV screen.

Research

These are the links to a few sites that I have been browsing to explore interactive TV and mobiles.
http://ready.mobi/launch.jsp?locale=en_EN
http://evolt.org/node/5409
http://www.craftwork.dk/set_top_box_emulation/
http://interactivetvweb.org/tutorial/gettingstarted/xletview/index.shtml

Working with Emulators

None of the mobile emulators worked for me and for TV I downloaded two emulators from above mention website. Xample and Xle TView. I didn’t understand how Xample works but I had some luck with Xle TView. Xle TView opened up and it consists of a screen and a remote.


There were no instructions on how to add sites or pictures to the application so I tried my best to link it to different things to view how it works but nil achievement. If this viewer worked I think my Interactive project would have been done.
I found another TV viewer from http://www.craftwork.dk/set_top_box_emulation/
which only has a screen without the remote. This was no good as well.

Emulators

Browsing websites looking for emulators for mobile and TV I came across a few websites listed below.

Mobile emulators
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=eec33ae3-c129-4c25-abaa-18e8e842178f&displaylang=en&Hash=nqKaT71ZzsEnNleyO1GfeZxx9yxXEwAFOa%2fg7wgAPqHDyh1ECX3a%2fbBzDi17POb9lN2Jj5CH1HGWy%2flOFfPxaQ%3d%3d
TV emulators
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=81591

Form Mobile emulators site I download first six Windows Mobile 5.0 Emulators Images for Pocket PC.
Windows Mobile 5.0 Emulators Images for Pocket PC – CHS
Windows Mobile 5.0 Emulators Images for Pocket PC – CHT
Windows Mobile 5.0 Emulators Images for Pocket PC – CSY
Windows Mobile 5.0 Emulators Images for Pocket PC – DAN
Windows Mobile 5.0 Emulators Images for Pocket PC – ELL
Windows Mobile 5.0 Emulators Images for Pocket PC – ESN

Downloaded SimpleXlet and xleTView from TV emulators’ website. I’m studying and working on both the types of emulators for time being. Going back to my earlier post about 5 Ways to create or Convert into Mobile Phone Website seem reasonable so I have been working on that too. I tried Google’s Conversion Utility it does work. I wrote my blog address into it and it showed me how my blog is going to look like on a phone. Though there was a colours difference. But it shows the text. Second part of the 5 steps was to try Zinadoo. Made account for this website and followed the instructions. This website allows user to make a website in a mobile format but it doesn’t allow the user to convert existing site into a mobile size or format. I was expecting the Zinadoo to convert the existing site.

Testing PDA and Mobile

I used the internet over a PDA Mobile to see what comes up if I was to write my URL address of the Blog. The address is http://nim-ic.blogspot.com/. The site opened up on the PDA. So I guess less work for me. On the PDA I wasn’t able to open more than one window at a time. I wasn’t able to view pictures as till now I haven’t uploaded any picture to this blog. The external links on the blog were not accessible.

Every Mobile or PDA is different from one another so I would have to provide the emulators mobile and TV.

I opened up the same URL address mentioned above on my Mobile, it opens and I’m able to open the external links on the blog page. My Mobile is capable of opening more than one window at a time. I opened up some other posts on the blogger account of mine which have videos and pictures; I was able to view both pictures and videos. So now I have to work towards the emulators.

Blog as my Site

For this module I thought it would be nice if I have blog on mobile and TV. I, being a student have to travel three and a half hours every day to come to university. It would be nice if I could write my blog while travelling. View my blog on TV. Over the internet blog can have all the options available but for TV and mobile it will be different. For Moblog (Mobile blog) the viewer can write the blog, view the pictures and video. To my best ability I’ll try to include the option to upload the pictures as well as the videos form mobile’s picture and video folder. For Interactive TV blog the viewer should be able to read the blog, view the pictures and watch the videos. The option for adding the pictures, videos or writing the blog will not be possible.

I decided to work on http://www.blogger.com/. After deciding what and how I want things to work for me I realised that blogger is already available on mobile. But as I don’t know how it works so I’ll still carry on with my initial idea.

I will have my own blog page as Index (Home). To make blogs viewable on mobile and TV I would have to work on emulators. According to Wikipedia “An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of) the functions of one system using a different system, so that the second system behaves like (and appears to be) the first system”.[1]

Emulators are totally new to me so I guess I’ll make making a lot of mistakes before getting all this working properly.


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator

5 ways to make Moblog

Searching on internet on how to make a Mobile Blog (moblog) I came across the site mention below,
http://www.tothepc.com/archives/5-ways-to-create-or-convert-into-mobile-phone-website/

This information on this site seems real and makes me think it might just be as easy as it’s written so I’m going to try and see if it works. The following is the information available on the website:
5 Ways to Create or Convert into Mobile Phone Website

People hooked to internet via their mobile phones are on the rise but only few websites offer mobile compatible format of their websites. Do you want to offer mobile versions of your website or blog?

Don’t worry, this does not involve learning any programming language or formatting/recreating your existing computer based website.
Here are few tools that will make this creation or conversion easier than expected. Your website is designed for screens 15″ or greater; these tools let you make mobile website for screens 3″ or less.

1. Google’s Conversion Utility - This is as simple as it gets. Just need to enter the URL of your website, check the option for ‘No Images’ if you do not want images to appear, then click on ‘GO’ button.
Mobile version of your website will pop up; add the link to your favourites for browsing website on mobile. You can even insert Google Mobile Ads to earn some money.

2. Zinadoo - Using this web service you can easily create, publish and share you mobile website. Besides you can also colour the website, create a page that site visitors can email you from or request that you call/email them back, create a guestbook page, and create a comments page and much more.

3. Winksite - Winksite is mobile Website builder that also includes RSS-driven content deployment and mobile-tuned community features such as forum, chat, and polls. No need to install software, do everything online. You also monetize your website with Google Mobile Adsense.

4. MobiSiteGalore - Let you build websites that will work consistently across all mobile phones as they 100% comply with W3C’s mobile web standards. You can host website wherever you want. This service is completely FREE and is supported by donations.

5. MoFuse - Yes your RSS feed to power your mobile blog. Design your mobile blog with WYSIWYG editor. Automatically redirect your mobile visitors to your mobile blog. You can also enroll in revenue sharing program and earn 50% of all advertising profits using Google AdSense Mobile and AdMob.

Now getting hooked to your website or blog on mobile phone won’t be that difficult. I am sure above tools will help you create your place on mobile web, what say?

Understanding Technology

Understanding Technology
-Interactive TV
-PDA- Mobile Devices
-WAP

Interactive TV
- Tele text
- Video conferencing
- Internet

PDA- Mobile Devices
- TV
-Internet
-Radio
-Music
-Video
-Camera

WAP(Wireless Application Protocol)
WAP is an open international application that uses wireless communication, which enables access to the internet from a mobile phone or PDA.

PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is a handheld computer, also known as small computers or palmtop computers.

Interface Design

Starting this module off with doing the research of Historical Development of Interface Design.

Assignment 1- Designing a Site-40%
Work on an existing site or make a site which should have navigation to at least 3 pages. The same site should be viewable on PDA and TV.

Assignment 2- Interactive Essay-60%
Annotated Bibliography
15 sources of research- 50-100 words on each resource.