With its Symbian OS, I’ve always recommended it with the warning that it’s a bit of a geeks phone. Downloading applications from the net, they don’t go through the same vetting that takes place with the Apple App Store. Some can be a little less stable than others and in some instances they conflict. Feature-wise it’s a solid phone if you’re prepared to perform the odd restart and fault find.

I’ve always thought it’s the utilitarian answer to the iPhone. Where Apple customers are until now unable to copy and paste, you can with an N95, but the button is somewhat hidden. Patches, fixes and apps exist for the Nokia where the system is not as locked down. What’s great about the N95 is that, where the need arises, someone’s usually solved a functionality problem in advance. The answer is hardly ever ‘we don’t support that’.

So before I get swept away in Apple and Palm hype, I thought I’d log my favourite apps. Here goes:

• Fring. One of my favourite apps for functionality. It links with Skype and you can have what looks like a normal phone call through WiFi (free if you’re calling someone on their computer). I regularly talk to people in Australia on this and after a few hitches (generally with the net speed at the other end) it now works perfectly. It also works with other social networking sites.
• Gmail. An amazingly fully featured app from Google. It keeps a local copy of your email but syncs with their server. You’ll never lose a message and it has better functionality than the iPhone app. I’m able to search, a feature iPhone users have only had through their web version up until now.
• YouTube. Another Google usability triumph. Although it doesn’t always seem to be as up-to-date as the web version and clicking on browser web links don’t open the app automatically, it does have one killer feature: it’s the only app I have that (without hacking) streams video over the 3G network. Really useful.
• Google Maps. Simply amazing. This app takes advantage of the inbuilt GPS receiver in the phone. With this I’m never lost, I can always find directions to a destination from my location to within a few metres. Coupled with Google Latitude, it’s a great tool for keeping up with people across London. I can also access Google Street View from my phone, I can’t count the number of times this has been really useful.
• WirelessIRC. Despite the name red-herring, I actually use this to access Twitter. Unlike most other Twitter apps, it runs happily in the background. Whenever I want to update myself on other’s activities I can immediately view, rather than take the time to launch an app > connect to the network > download tweets etc etc. I can easily copy and paste text to re-tweet (RT) and using Nokia’s inbuilt functionality, I can copy and paste posted URLs to my web browser. (NOTE: On the N95, the copy and paste functions are found under the key that looks like a pencil on the bottom left below the screen).
• BBC iPlayer (1.5). Although newer versions exist, they seem to have been blocked from working on the N95. Don’t despair, you can still download the app from sources across the web. BBC iPlayer is a fantastic boost to the multimedia capabilities of this phone. As long as you’re not worried about the jump between the listings app and the in-built RealPlayer to stream programmes, you’re never going to miss a programme again. Shame it only works on WiFi (unless hacked) and doesn’t support downloads.
• Opera Mini. A web browsing experience comparable with a PC. I use this mainly to access Google Reader. The Mini browser comes with the ability to create ‘bookmarklets’, something that when mixed with a little Javascript, allows me to post interesting links to Delicious. All of this functionality is a life-saver on long train rides (or even the cramped commute to work).
• Web development apps such as SIC! FTP and s60HTMLed. This combination means I can effectively edit web pages from anywhere. s60HTMLed is a great application but takes some setting up. You need to download Python for S60, the ‘appuifw2′ extension and in my case I had to Symbian Sign the web editor.
• Shozu. A multipurpose photo up-loader that allows me to tag and describe pictures that I upload to Flickr.
• Snaptweet. A service that scans my Flickr account and adds pictures with the ‘snaptweet’ tag to my Twitter stream.
• GooSync. Synchronise your inbuilt calendar with Google Calendar. Simple and effective.
• Last but not least, the other inbuilt features like the WebKit browser (yes, the iPhone isn’t the only one that comes with this); 5Mpixel camera; and accelerometer for quick transition between landscape and portrait display. (NOTE: to set the display, go to Menu > Tools > Setting > General > Personalisation > Display > Rotate screen ‘Automatic’).

My advice for N95 users is to every-so-often, backup everything and look for system updates. I think an amount of this functionality will not work, or would be more buggy with older software. Where lots of phone manufacturers forget about updates only months after release, Nokia have been consistent in their support so you may as well take advantage of this goodwill. The phone isn’t perfect and there’s lots of other software I haven’t mentioned, but I thought I should acknowledge this phone’s 15 months service to me before I upgrade.

Apart from the BBC internet blog and backstage etc. @media 2008 had the fortune of hearing a whistle-stop tour of the redevelopment of the BBC homepage. This site has haunted many web designers since it’s launch with comments from colleagues of “Why can’t we do… {insert name of feature here}… like the BBC homepage?”. It became a shining example of what can be achieved.

Tom Cartwright and Claire Roberts presented their short piece on the development of a site that: took them three months to build; had to cater for 6 million users per month; couldn’t contain loops in the code; couldn’t process XML; had to be accessible; where 5% of users (that’s 300,000) didn’t use Javascript. This is web development at the sharp end.

A point of interest is that they managed to get 60 image requests down to just 3 using sprites. This had the affect of reducing the number of HTTP requests, a big saving on a highly trafficked site.

The size of this project is reflected in the fact that the development team recognised a need to drop JQuery as a Javascript framework and develop their own. Tom described Glow (www.bbc.co.uk/glow), a new framework that supports Safari 1.3 (apparently unlike JQuery). We were told that Glow would be available as open source software towards the end of the year, but judging by the password it looks like this still hasn’t been finalised. They also mentioned that their next project will look towards a pan-BBC identity system for users. The idea is that they’d have implicit and explicit personalisation and that, once logged into one BBC site, your credentials would follow as you traverse the sites. In support of this the BBC joined the OpenID federation, looking at becoming a consumer.

For insights into the future of the BBC homepage see www.bbc.co.uk/home/beta/. They recommended Steve Souders’ High Performance Web Sites (he really knows optimisation).

Eureka! (Sort of). This week the fluoride story broke in the UK, something that could change the way I live for a long time to come. I couldn’t help but see the similarities between these two issues and this prompted the following post (two birds, one stone) – stay with me here…

Contentious

1. Proposal One. Add a tiny meta tag into your code in order to tell IE what iteration of the rendering engine you’d like to use. This is not because you’re doing anything wrong, in fact if you’re reading about it you’re more likely to be a standards aware web developer. It’s catering for the nonconformist (not conforming to accepted rules or standards*). Microsoft has to deal with a lot of fault calls when it updates its browser and would like a cheaper easier option that covers everyone and reduces the size of its headache.
2. Proposal Two. Let the government add a tiny amount of fluoride into your main water supply to help prevent tooth decay. This is not because you’re doing anything wrong, in fact if you’re reading about it you’re more likely to be an individual who’s aware of their dental health. It’s catering for the unaware, those who glug fizzy drinks and forget to brush. British health services have to deal with a lot of the after effects from years of tooth decay. They would like a cheaper and easier option that covers everyone and reduces the size of their headache.

Whether or not you agree with either of these proposals seems less bound with the facts of the situation (or their portrayal) and more reliant on your philosophy of life. Should the conscientious, the responsible make sacrifices to cater for the rest? Should I make small sacrifices with my (as I believe) health or code, to allow for those that can’t look after their own?

The arguments in favour of both are quite compelling. Put simply, implementing these fundamental changes means that in one fell swoop the majority of problems disappear. Web developers no longer need to worry so much about their sites ‘breaking’ in future versions of IE, similarly parents no longer need to worry whether their children are brushing their teeth properly. We’re all now protected due to this change in our environment. Also, it keeps the managers happy. Numerous posts hint to problems (again, see Zeldman’s article) faced by the IE team when trying to justify their apparent divergence from the development path of previous versions of the product (all thanks to ‘web standards’). Given Microsoft’s position in the market and the flak the company seems to get when it releases updates, the ‘standards’ argument is supposedly wearing thin with the management. Similarly, the NHS has limited resources and not enough dentists.

Fluoridation is a small addition to the structure of your daily life, if the experts are to be believed it won’t lead to conditions that compromise your health (although some disagree). In fact, if you compare the cost of fluoridation to the bill incurred correcting dental decay, it’ll be better for society in the long term (I guess). It will get us out of the current situation where dentists and GPs waste time and money trying to fix what should have been prevented in the first place. It will free up resources to improve public health in other areas.

Meta tags really are tiny pieces of code that there’s no point getting upset over. The burden incurred implementing this new tag in future sites should be minimal. If we can help Microsoft produce a better browser by relenting to their proposal, then surely that’ll produce a better web for all.

So where’s the problem?

I’m happy that plans are being made and people less fortunate than myself (I currently have no fillings and the time/patience to code properly) are on the verge of being helped. But, when these large organisations make such plans seemingly in my best interests, they sometimes (arrogantly) miss the point in the implementation. Standing behind bloggers such as Jeremy Keith and hopefully adding to the calls, I think both of these proposals need to be opt-in.

In the case of fluoride, it can be provided in salt as has happened in other countries; with the meta tag, let people find out about it only when their sites break (at least that way they’ll understand there’s a problem). Doing it any other way would cheapen life for all (which is funny because these descisions will have come from the economics originally). At least now dentists and Microsoft technical support will have an easy answer, but let people explicitly agree to be included.

Another option is to medicate the Microsoft offices water supply – instead of fluoride put aspirin in their water, that’ll cure their collective headache in the mean time.   ;)

* However, I don’t want to get sucked into a debate about how to define what ‘rules and standards’ means. Molly’s already doing a good job.

This is the first time I’ve seen an introduction to the platform and I must say I think it has acres of potential. Yes it might be later then the rest (Apple’s iPhone has been shipping since the summer, Android isn’t ready for consumers until late 2008), but the same happened with the Wii and, due to it’s unique features, it surprisingly dominates the games console industry. Apple, probably Google’s biggest ‘competitor’ (according to AppleInsider, Google chief Eric Schmidt sits on Apple’s Board of Directors), has redefined the mobile experience but their environment is not open (apps development is only available through Safari) which is why unless they release their grip they’ll never win at fighting the tide.

Conversely, if Google’s open platform can keep what looks like an iPhone inspired interface whilst also fostering innovation, it’ll soak up the demand for next generation handsets that Apple kick-started.

Update, 16 November 07: Google’s Dave Burke gave a presentation on Android at the recent Future of Mobile event held in London on 14 November. Mike Butcher blogged his talk. Although apparently he didn’t say anything new, it’s interesting to note that Android is Linux based with Java running on top. During the presentation Dave created a programme in under 8 minutes, it seems Google is trying to emphasise the ease with which programmes can be created.

A bit of digging unearthed another one to add to the pot, Firebug Lite and the confusingly named Firebug Lite ++ (for a moment I thought they were the same thing) “an evolution of the FireBug Lite script”. I don’t know if these are useful, I guess you’d only want to include the javascript on a testing site.

Beyond Ajax

In his keynote presentation, Jesse James Garrett focussed on the importance of user experience and the idea that the top web products create the best end-to-end system designed from the ‘user perspective’, not the ‘programme perspective’. Sam Felder and Peter Merholz have both written articles that seem to be based on versions of this presentation (Jesse doesn’t seem to have posted any notes so far). BTW, I enjoyed the Steve Jobs quote.

The Broken World: Solving the Browser Problem Once and For All

Molly Holzschlag firstly announced that she will no longer be speaking at general web conferences, as she blogged a few days before. It’s a shame, I like her style, it was fortunate for me that I got the chance to meet her and have a chat about energy etc – a usual drunken topic of conversation for me ;) – with her in the pub that evening. Interesting points from her presentation included an analysis of the reasons why each web browser develops so differently, she described six implementation variables:

1. Development Approach – browsers have different life-cycles, non-linear iteration has been the best technique so far.
2. Working with Standards – CSS2.1 is being used in some browsers but it’s not a recommended standard yet. W3C specifications are ambiguous, especially a problem.
3. Operating Systems and Tools. (didn’t write anything for this!)
4. Extending Browsers – example is browser bugs fixed in IE6 through use of JavaScript.
5. Proprietary Development – Past examples are Netscape’s ‘Blink’ and Microsoft’s ‘Marque’ technologies. Initially both of these took precedence over implementing CSS support.
6. Fractioning Specifications – Conversation has moved from CSS back to HTML over the last year. There is no specific sensible end to creating an evolved HTML.

Pathways to success:

• Create common baselines. Consistency between browsers.
• Clarify ambiguity – her case studies described how the W3C standards state one thing, but browser developers implement behaviour very differently.
• Transparent development cycles.
• Keep an open dialogue – currently Apple is the only major browser developer that isn’t joining the discussion.

High-Noon Shoot-Out: Design vs. Implementation

Simon Collison describes his passionate contribution to @media07 better than I ever could. Drew McLellan also gave a rousing arguement. Joe Clark live blogged the whole event (and I *mean* event).

Interface Design Juggling

Dan’s presentation. I don’t think I can add much more, I didn’t write much for this one, I guess you had to be there :)

Microformats, Building Blocks and You

Having missed last years inspirational talk by Tantek (I know this because my friend Rik came back bubbling with enthusiasm) I had to see it this year. Here’s his presentation. Tantek has a tendency to write every point on his slides, so there’s not much sense in me explaining. A few useful microformat links are Operator for Firefox and pingerati.net. If you haven’t already checked out microformats (trust me they’re useful), do so first!

When Web Accessibility is Not Your Problem

The last presentation of the day. I’m going to leave this controversial (on the face of it) presentation to my next blog post, I suspect it needs a fair amount of explanation.