Welcome to the MobileCampVancouver2 Speakers Q&A Series. Today let’s welcome John Boxall (Handi Mobility).
If you’re interested in developing for the mobile web a good place to start is the DotMobi Mobile Web Developer’s Guide. It provides a general overview of the challenges of developing for the mobile web and how to tackle them.
For diving into Python for S60 check out a the Handi Mobility blog. I’ve recently written a series of articles for getting started with Python for S60. Other great resource’s are Jürgen Scheible’s MobiLenin website and Nokia’s Python for S60 Developer Wiki.
Python for S60 enables rapid development of mobile applications on S60 devices. It’s great because it works exactly as billed – powerful mobile applications can be created in a matter of hours. Django is a Python-based web framework for rapid development. Writing device and server code in one language speeds up development.
The issues of device detection, image resizing and video streaming are things we’re trying to solve with our open source Django extension, Bloom.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your startup (company) Handi Mobility?
John Boxall: Handi Mobility is a mobile web services company. We help companies develop and implement mobile strategies based around Short Message Service (SMS), mobile applications and mobile web sites. I’ve been interested in the mobile web since university and developed my first SMS application “MyBus” while I was still in school. MyBus used Mobile Muse’s SMS platform to deliever bus schedules by text message. It lives on today as TransLink’s SMS service.
Q: How many phones/mobile devices do you have? Any favorites? Old or New?
John Boxall: I’ve got a drawer full of phones! N73, N82, N93, LG Chocolate and iPhone 3G.
I’d been waiting for the iPhone for awhile – I was one of those guys who lined up early in the morning to get my hands on it. It’s my day to day phone right now. Having used it for some time now I’ve seen the less polished areas. It needs work to be perfect. I won’t be getting rid of the Nokias anytime soon. When you look at the world wide market Nokia is number one by such a margin that they aren’t going away anytime soon.
One of my favorite phones was my first, a Nokia 3210. It’s the one that is billed as having the first mobile game, “Snake”. It was a great phone and I almost broke my thumbs off guiding that little snake around the little screen.
Q: Any commentary on Apple’s iPhone? How does it impact or change the mobile web?
John Boxall: Taken separately none of the features of the iPhone are new or revolutionary. We’ve had touch devices before, location services, streaming video, wifi etc. But we’ve never had anything that brought all those parts together into such a pleasing package. The iPhone captured the attention of the mainstream and media in a way no other phone has ever done.
I just got back from a late night movie and looking around the theatre I saw almost a dozen people surfing the mobile web while they waited for the show. You wouldn’t have seen this a year ago. Now that people are aware of what is possible on the iPhone they are demanding more. The carriers are listening – look at the latest plans from Fido and Telus plastering bus stops – unlimited mobile web is now being bundled with many plans! We’re seeing an influx of mainstream users to the mobile web.
Q: What does the Nokia S60 web browser and runtime offer (for developer)? What makes Python and Django a great choice for developing mobile web applications?
John Boxall: The Nokia Web Browser is built upon S60WebKit, a port of the open source WebKit project to the S60 platform. As a developer, you can expect S60 devices to render web pages in a predictable, accurate manner. Python for S60 enables rapid development of mobile applications on S60 devices. It’s great because it works exactly as billed – powerful mobile applications can be created in a matter of hours. Django is a Python-based web framework for rapid development. Django has a huge open source community – it seems like every problem you run into has already been solved by a open source, pluggable Django application.
Writing device and server code in one language speeds up development. That said, any web framework will work for server side mobile development, I choose Django because I’m comfortable with Python.
Q: Tell us more about (the challenge of) developing mobile web applications (with Python and DJango)? (How does mobile development differ from developing “classic” desktop web services?)
John Boxall: The process of developing a mobile website will be familiar to anyone with experience developing for the desktop web. We’re presenting a focused view into the same content as desktop web and trying to use contextual clues to make the user’s experience as seamless as possible. Of course there are unique challenges to mobile website development. The issues of device detection, image resizing and video streaming are things we’re trying to solve with our open source Django extension, Bloom.
Q: Any tips, tricks and advice on getting started with mobile web development in general (and with Nokia S60 series-powered web development and Python/Django in particular?) Can you tell us more about the Vancouver Django meetups?
John Boxall: If you’re interested in developing for the mobile web a good place to start is the DotMobi Mobile Web Developer’s Guide. It provides a general overview of the challenges of developing for the mobile web and how to tackle them.
For diving into Python for S60 check out the Handi Mobility blog. I’ve recently written a series of articles for getting started with Python for S60. Other great resource’s are Jürgen Scheible’s MobiLenin website and Nokia’s Python for S60 Developer Wiki.
Vancouver’s Django Meetup Group meets every third Tuesday. The next meeting is on Tuesday, August 19th at Waves Coffee on Pacific in Yaletown. It’s a great place to connect with other Django developers and find solutions to the problems you’ve been having with the framework. If you can’t make it out to the Meetup, the Django Book is an excellent place to get familiar with the mobile framework.
Q: Tell us a little about the upcoming MobileCampVancouver2? Can you highlight some talks/topics and speakers/attendees coming to the MobileCampVancouver2?
John Boxall: MobileCampVancouver2 takes place on Saturday, September 6th at Workspace in Gastown. I’m particularly interested in Parven Kaler’s iPhoneDevCamp – I’d love to learn a bit about putting together an iPhone application!
Thanks John Boxall for your time and insight. Questions? Comments? Send them along to the Vancouver Ajax, Web 2.0 (3.0), Mobile Web forum/mailing list. Thanks!
