Roland Tanglao's Weblog

Decent review of Lifeblog. but really it's too little too late and its Windows only-ness and no support for taking large amounts of photos is why I don't use it. The only good thing about Lifeblog is the archiving of SMSes but I don't use SMS (or IM) for things I want to look at later. That's what's email and blogs and wikis are for! Flickr and many other photo sharing sites do photos better and viddler, blip.tv et al do video better and organize by timeline and tags. The mobile Lifeblog client is still not very good for those who take more than 6 photos a day which will soon be everybody: Uploading 6 photos at a time is impractical. Having no UI cues about which photos you have uploaded to flickr is also not good.

FROM All About Symbian Review: Lifeblog:

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Lifeblog is a shoebox of personal media for a digital age, and with it being all too easy to lose digitial images on our computers, it’s like a searchable set of negatives. If smartphones have made taking pictures and videos more convenient, then Lifeblog has made finding them and storing them just as convenient. Throwing in the textual and messaging archives as well is a wonderful bonus.

If you’re not using Lifeblog… why not?

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Awesome vision (I am not a fan of Lifeblog (his previous vision) but I am fan of Christian! And of course I am a fan of Series 60 which was one of Christian's first visions!). Go Christian go! Wouldn't it be cool if Christian Lindholm built this OS at a startup around an open source core like Linux and wouldn't it be cool if Nokia bought that OS and used it on future phones? This would blow the iPhone out of the water. In the long run, this is what has to be done if the iPod-ization of mobile phones is to be avoided IMHO (but hey I could be wrong :-) !)

FROM ChristianLindholm.com: My speech at MEX, The SW Transformer A Vision for a mobile OS:

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I was asked by Marek Pawlowski from PMM to give a keynote at the MEX conference, a small mobile user experience conference. It is great small conference with key people in mobile user experience.

My brief for the talk was this manifesto:

"Manifesto point #4:

Handsets, applications and services should be more aware of the user's physical environment and adapt to provide the most appropriate interface for sound and visual conditions. We think multi-modal interfaces should be supported on many more mobile devices and can dramatically improve the user experience."

Summary:

We are at a stage where a new mobile operating system should be created. One that enables the creation of a cheap monoblock enabling best of breed convergence of mobility and computing. I envision an OS that morphs to accommodate both moving use and mobile use. Focused use and multi-tasking. I call it a Transformer OS.

One way to think of this is to think of RSS in terms of comand. Each command or feature in the user experience is wrapped into a meta language of context. This language of context will drive the use cases and the rendering. We do not only separate funtion and presentation we make function and context interdependant.

With such an operating system we would tear down classic application boundaries: like calling, camera, idle, and calendar into a fluid dynamic environment. The operating system is broader than the footprint of the silicon. It extends into the environment and the network.

I think this kind of device and system could be a massive hit in emerging markets where they choose a mobile before they buy a computer.

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Go Philippines! I wish we had this in Canada.

FROM dailywireless.org - Free Mobile Blog Software (via email from Steph Rieger)

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Globe Telecom, the leading telecommunications operator in the Philippines, and Nokia, today announced that Globe is the first operator in the world to offer their customers a fully integrated mobile online sharing experience with Nokia Nseries phones.

Without the need to download or install any additional applications, Globe customers can now upload their photos and video clips directly from their compatible Nokia Nseries device to G-Blogs, Globe's mobile blogging service. The first devices to support this feature are the Nokia N93 and Nokia N73 multimedia computers.

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Ivan, the S60 Lifeblog development manager, pushes back on the Lifeblog backlash (and the first quote below is mine, ha ha!). Ivan: I agree with you, organization, search and context are important and I need that for all the stuff I create on my mobile phone or elsewhere. What we disagree about is whether Lifeblog is "good enough" for this when compared to other systems.

I want the search, context and timeline functionality of Lifeblog. I just don't want it on my PC or Mac (when will there be a Mac version?) which is what Lifeblog does. I want it on a cloud that I can access anywhere and that I can backup and post to via open protocols like Atom and things like the flickr API. Lifeblog doesn't do this. It seems to be a proprietary single device PC centric hub in a multi-device non PC centric mobile world.

For me, for now ShoZu + flickr (especially if it were to add support for mobile phones videos) is more than "good enough" and much better fits my needs (I can browse flickr by time and date uploaded, search, search by tag and most importantly many of my friends use flickr unlike lifeblog and it's partner TypePad). I am sure that another competitor designed to contextualize, and organize people's multimedia (mobile or otherwise) will emerge and I doubt it will look like:
"mobile app called Lifeblog"
+
"PC app called Lifeblog" with proprietary and undocumented interfaces and APIs (e.g. Lifeblog 'sort of' works with non TypePad blogs and it doesn't have a rich API for uploading, backing up and manipulating content from it) ; it'll probably look a lot like the ShoZu + flickr combo

But hey I could be wrong :-) ! Viva la competition and I look forward to running whatever the best system turns out to be on my Nokia Series 60 phones (like the N93 which sounds fantastic for early adopter cameraphone fanatics like me).

FROM Ivan Kuznetsov: Lifeblog is not a blogging application!:

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When Lifeblog 2.0 has been launched most of the moblie-related web sites and blogs spread the news and a few discussions sparkled on various forums. Unfortunately focus of the most of the posts was on moblogging with Lifeblog rather than on the main functionality of the application.

Here are a few quotes to illustrate it:

"I have stopped using Lifeblog and will now upload my pictures using Shozu?"

"ive never seen the point of blogs, i odnt think anyone wants to read my life story and im not sure i want to tell everyone"

"please can somebody tell me for what is this good for?
lifeblog: you upload pics and everybody can see it?
why should I do that?"

"I dont use the PC software at all, seems useless."

While as Lifeblog definitely has blogging capabilities, it doesn't make it a solely blogging application. Blogging is just a part of Lifeblog functionality, and I dare to say not the most important one, even if the name suggests otherwise.

Having said that, I should mention that moblogging is still important for Nokia. In new Nokia Nseries multimedia computers - N72, N73, and N93, that were launched two weeks ago in Berlin, you will find yet another Nokia solution for moblogging (in addition to Lifeblog) that enables posting images to Flickr right from Camera and Gallery applications.

So what is Lifeblog good for besides moblogging? Three things mainly:

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[Tried to leave this as a comment on Stuart's blog but I couldn't remember my TypeKey id and MT was saying my URL-less post has questionable content, aaaargh!]

If you like uploading 4 photos at time and don't use flickr then LifeBlog might be OK for you. I uploaded thousands of photos to flickr using LifeBlog on my 7610 and switched to Shozu which automatically uploads photos and videos and has a resume feature. No silly 4 photo at a time restriction like LifeBlog and no flakey Bluetooth or USB + Windows only software required.

From Unbound Spiral: Nokia LifeBlog at CES.:

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I've been using the Nokia LifeBlog program to upload all my photos from my N90 mobile phone... no that is a camera to my PC. I put my camera down and via bluetooth all the photos are transferred. The cable supplied would be quicker I just don't want to carry it. Sharing the Lifeblog with others has a real wow factor.

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Go Andy go! Since the forthcoming N91 was designed in Vancouver, I hope some Vancouver based bloggers are involved in the official Nokia N91 Blog. Andy, I'd love to have an N91 on trial like Ross Mayfield and blog about it when the time comes. Call me at 604 729 7924 or email roland AT rolandtanglao.com!

My qualifications? I bought a 7610 and have uploaded 4576 photos to flickr (and more every day) using Shozu and Lifeblog. And I plan on doing lots of videos once Shozu works with the 7610's videos (which I hope is real soon now)!

From Nokia N90 Blog.:

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Welcome to the Nokia Nseries N90 Blogger Relations Blog site. Here you will find blogger and media information that you can repurpose and utilize in your blog postings about the N90.

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