And now... Bicing4Mobile

Some time ago I published a google gadget that allowed users of this service of google to have updated information of the Bicing (Public bike renting service) station they choose. Some days ago, discussing with a friend at work, we started thinking in something similar but accessible from your mobile phone. We were thinking about geolocalization with the network cells, google maps API integration... the usual stuff when one starts to brainstorm ideas ;-)
I put my hands to work and today I can release the Bicing4Mobile page. It is not google based but PHP based. The iGoogle platform is very powerful but too heavy for the browser of a mobile handset. So I contracted a (free)hosting with PHP engine and started to work. I adapted the same code for the BicingGadget from Javascript to PHP and it was not very difficult. Like always the most of the effort went in debugging and testing activites. I attach to the post an screenshot of what you get once you connect to the page. Of course, it just shows the information of the Bicing station by my home. If anyone wants to expand it, feel free, like everything I post in the blog its licensed under Creative Commons.



The address, if you want to access to it is http://domocat.x10hosting.com/index.php. Enjoy it!

GPhone, OHA and the SIM

Some days ago the announcement of Google entry in the Mobile Business made real the rumors on the GPhone. Finally it is not going to be a physical handset but a software platform. It is business as usual for Google, but we have to thing that selling hardware is not estrange for Google as their Google Enterprise servers are installed worldwide and come from them!
The first thing that surprises from the Google announce is the fact that it is an Alliance. Android, a company bought by Google some time ago, will be the base for the platform, but the Open Handset Alliance, as it is called, has more than 30 members and I am sure that it will grow up in time. Secondly, it is about openness. No software, as far as I remember, is open. It is free for private use, but not open. Neither the Engine nor Google Earth are open source applications. They are proprietary but for free use by particulars. I guess is an important bet from Google to go in the way of openness.
Another interesting thing is that big worldwide operators like Telefonica and T-Online are in the Alliance. This boosts the possibilities of it to a higher level as a handset without a network is a very disturbing thing. Additionally, my opinion is that the intentions of Google for bidding on the new frequencies auction of the United States has been a way to press the operators to join the Alliance. Google, as far as I imagine, is not going to enter the telecom world, it would make all the other operators in the world, far more than a thousand, in its competitors, not its partners, as recently has been seen with Vodafone.
And if the operators are in... who will protect their information? The SIM card seems the natural way, as has been in the GSM-3G networks, and I think it will be. Than SIM card is a security token that belongs to the operator and so, it decides what is inside it. Information for authentication, service applications, user information like the phonebook, everything is at the reach of them. This fact has been a boost for the growth of the mobile market in Europe, and one of the important points in the leading of Europe in the Mobile Industry, and it will continue this way. The question I have is, will it be the preferred security token for the user? In an open platform based handset the probability of virus, malware, sniffing, scamming growths exponentially, so will be the worry of the user for security. If the SIM cards positions itself, with the help of the operators, as a useful and trustworthy security token for the user and third parties, then its life will be long. If not, it will be replaced by a broad number of dedicated and proprietary tokens that will partially do the role the SIM card can play in this future. Personally I am pessimistic... why? Just think in the number of ID, credit, frequent traveler and loyalty cards you carry in your wallet.