Posts Tagged ‘mobile’

Some Considerations About Mobile Web Design

Monday, September 6th, 2010

Mobile web design is one thing that is finally maturing thanks to the mass availability of technology to users across the world. This is not as simple as recasting an html page to a different markup language. There are a numerous challenges that are associated with this job.

It is projected that around trillion web pages and above were downloaded in the year 2008 alone. This is truly a huge download volume. There are numerous kinds of applications that are accessed by people day after day and the same has transformed swiftly from the earlier game scores and downloads of simple ring tones for mobiles. Social networking sites too are available on mobile phones these days and this has resulted in information being obtained and up linked on the move. The model of usage has experienced a speedy change and is continuously transforming at a spectacular pace.

There also exist a lot of challenges that developers need to confront with in relation to this. The most crucial of the challenges is the wide variety of mobile phones popular in the market. Each model, irrespective of its simplicity or complexity, becomes a challenge to the developer.

The second challenge which is also equally critical is the understanding about the complexity of the user of the phone who makes user of the small screen and navigates from one web page to other. This becomes highly complex when making the web design user friendly.

Typically, two varied approaches can be taken. One would be to design web pages for starting models of phone. The other approach is to find out the kind of service being requested and then accordingly serve the same. The second approach could be done at the server level assuming that there is only one web design for a single web page.

Majorly preferred markup language in mobile phone web design is the Wireless Markup Language. Wireless Application Protocol serves as a proxy between the server and the phone. This also alters the web page consequently.

The second approach is to exploit the innovative phone browsers and take gain of the same to send the capabilities of the mobile to server. The content in the server can both animatedly be altered to tailoring the same to the service request.

Whichever is the approach taken, the truth concerning mobile website design is far more complex than the simple html design, and the same requires specialized insight.

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What do Oprah, the US Secretary of Transportation, the Auto Club, insurance companies and, state and federal legislators have in common?

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

The United States Transportation Department just offered a plan to ban text messaging while driving by interstate truck and bus drivers.  This regulatory action follows up on its call to mitigate distracted drivers that lead to accidents.

The plan would replace the temporary ban announced earlier in the year by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  The proposed ban applies to drivers of passenger buses and commercial trucks operating vehicles weighing more than ten thousand pounds.  To give an idea of the serious nature of the problem, violators could face civil penalities and/or even criminal charges.

The US Department of Transportation reported that 5,870 people were killed and about 515,000 were injured in 2008 in crashes involving driver distraction.  The department has not determined how many of those accidents were linked to mobile device.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mirror the Transportation Department statistics with projection that about eighty percent of accidents are caused by driver distraction.  The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is sponsoring research to find out the extent of the distraction issue.  The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA)   states that driver inattention is a determining factor in many crashes, and mobile phone calls and texting are some of the most common driver distractions.

State legislatures have responded to the growing concern over mobile phone use and texting while driving by passing  a variety of new laws, inclucing banning handheld mobile phone use or texting by all drivers or restricting cell phone use or sending text messages for a specific demographic, such as teens or school bus drivers.  The Governors Highway Safety Association reports that twenty states and Washington DC ban all drivers from texting when behind the wheel.  Another nine states restricting texting by novice drivers.  The remaining states are expected to implement the ban before too long.  However it is also widely recognized that the laws are not enough to stop the problem and technology is neede.  The GHSA purports to say it supports texting bans for all drivers, but does have concerns about enforcement.

One company with a monitoring solution is Phone Beagle.  PhoneBeagle installs on Android and BlackBerry mobile phones and monitors GPS location, and text messages along with other phone log events.

The trucking and passenger bus industries support the texting prohibition, and many companies have strict policies restricting texting when driving.  The government, industry and safety organizations all agree that driver distraction  caused bytexting is extremely dangerous, and deserves action.  Advocates for addressing the problem also include celebrity Oprah.  

Undoubtedly there are many distractions which may prevent a driver focusing on driving:  fiddling with the radio or a putting in tape or CD, talking to passengers, observing an event outside the vehicle, and of course, using mobile phones and texting.  Navigational and other interactive devices also distract drivers.

As regulations and technology develop to address the problems a software package from  Phone Beagle is available to help deal with monitoring phone use.  PhoneBeagle is installed on Android and BlackBerry smartphones and monitors GPS location, and text messages along with other call log events.

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