We’ve Been Mobilized!

A recent change in job function meant that for myself, promoting the mobile internet had become no longer an oddball interest, but a full time occupation. In the time-honored tradition of “practicing what you preach,” I decided a mobile version of this blog was in order, but thought I would need to go through the trouble of setting up a full version of WordPress and hunt down a mobile-friendly theme that rendered in plain xHTML to do so.

It turns out there’s no need to go to all that trouble, as I just stumbled on a quick and dirty method.

Kaiwa, that Swiss company I recently wrote up who provides free QR Code and Data Matrix readers, has a site up called Feed2Mobile that can turn any site into a mobile-friendly site, and it even provides a QR Code that allows you to enter this into your mobile browser without typing in the lengthy URL (after which you can bookmark the site).

You can also paste the code on your blog so other readers with code readers can access your mobile site as well.

Here’s a step-by-step procedure:

1. Go to http://feed2mobile.kaywa.com
2. Enter your site’s URL.
3. Feed2Mobile generates a QR code,a URL of your mobilized site, and some javascript to paste into your blog to display the code.
4. Test the site by scanning the code with your phone using one of the many code readers out there.
5. View your mobile-ized site on your mobile browser.
6. Bookmark the site and send the link to your friends via SMS.
7. Drink beer and celebrate.

Ayus. If there’s a shorter and easier method, I’d like to hear about it.

One caveat – Feed2Mobile doesn’t actually convert all content in your site to mobile format. Essentially it’s an RSS reader (hence the name), so it works best on sites like blogs, where most content is available as an RSS feed. It’s good enough for most blogs though.

If you don’t have a QR reader, you can visit my mobile site by typing this URL on your mobile browser: http://decode.kaywa.com/202185820

In the meantime, here’s a short list of sites you can download QR readers from:

• Kaywa Reader
• Nokia (for Nokia Series 60 phones)
• i-nigma

Mobile Codes: Three Views of a Secret

Mobile phones, bar codes, and jazz bass. There are probably not many articles you’ll ever see that feature these three things in the same piece, let alone the same sentence, but for the sake of doing something original, I’m going to give it a try and see what turns up.

First, let’s tackle the jazz bass. One of the most original tones the Fender electric bass has ever produced came from the late great Jaco Pastorius, formerly the bassist with the jazz fusion ensemble Weather Report. (If you’ve ever heard of Manhattan Transfer’s vocalese hit “Birdland“, then you might have heard of Weather Report, who recorded the original instrumental version).

Pastorius took the standard electric Fender jazz bass, stripped it off its frets, and turned a supporting instrument into a lead voice. In Jaco’s capable hands, the bass could alternate between rocking the bottom, then switching gears and soaring into beautiful melodies, with bell-like harmonics and lead lines sounding like a french horn. You can hear this in his recordings with Joni Mitchell, notably on “Coyote” and “Hejira‘

One of Pastorius’ classic tunes was his composition “Three Views of A Secret”. Jaco may have looked like a rocker, but this piece had a great sense of swing, and the sensitivity of a jazz ballad. Three different views of one musical sensibility.

Which segues to our discussion on camera phones. One of the great underutilized talents of today’s mobile phones is that the now ubiquitous onboard camera is capable of more than just taking pretty snapshots. The camera also allows the mobile phone to read visual data. Like bar codes for instance. And with the right software, these codes can be processed into actions – like calling a number, saving contact information on an address book, sending a text message, and connecting to a mobile website. All without typing in a single character.

Illustration from the New York Times, March 30, 2008.

So what does this all have to do with Jaco Pastorious? We’ll be taking a look at mobile bar codes (also known as 2D codes), and we’re going to use them to see three different views of the same secret message - just like Jaco’s tune.

Mobile bar codes come in different forms, and we’re going to check out three different types currently in use in the Philippines.