Phonautograph recording of the oldest sound

Most gadgets that I write about are at the fore-front of technology. This Phonautograph, arguably, doesn't look like such a device at first glance:

But in 1860, when Parisian inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville used his device to record Au Claire de la Lune, it was definitely cutting-edge technology, as his device predates Thomas Edison's work by 17 years. One recording from the above device has now been recovered and can be downloaded as an MP3 file almost 150 years later, and subsequently be played on your computer, or even your iPod or iPhone.

See the related press release and also the First Sounds website and this article on MSNBC for more details...

OOXML vs. ODF - the "battle" is heating up as we get closer to the ISO BRM date

I wrote about the Burton Group's report "What's Up, .DOC?" before on the XML Aficionado blog, and it didn't take long for the ODF Alliance to write a scathing rebuttal to the Burton Group report. Ironically, that rebuttal was published in PDF format, not ODF...

Before we take a look at what happens next, maybe it is time for a short review of the various acronyms and abbreviations that are commonly used in these reports, discussions, and in related blogs:

OOXML	Office Open XML is an XML-based file format specification for electronic productivity application documents, such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations, and word processing documents. Originally developed by Microsoft, it is already an Ecma standard and widely used due to its implementation by Microsoft Office 2007. It is currently in the process of being proposed as an ISO standard.
ODF	Open Document Format is a file format for electronic office documents, originally developed by Sun for the OpenOffice.org office suite and then later standardized through OASIS and ISO.
ISO	International Organization for Standardization
BRM	Ballot Resolution Meeting is the ISO process by which comments received during the previous ISO FastTrack vote and letter ballot phase are resolved by the meeting, during which national bodies and the submitting entity (Ecma) will possibly agree on a set of revisions to the originally submitted standard text. The DIS-29500 BRM is scheduled for February 25-29, 2008, in Geneva.
DIS-29500	The official ISO name and standard number for OOXML
OASIS	Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards; a non-profit consortium that defines open standards for the global information society
Ecma	Originally this was called the European Computer Manufacturers Association, but their new name is Ecma International - European association for standardizing information and communication systems.
XML	eXtensible Markup Language as defined by the W3C in 1998. Probably the most important standard of them all, because both OOXML and ODF are built on top of XML. If you don't know it already, you should definitely learn XML... :)

 

So what's new with the OOXML vs. ODF debate now that we are only two weeks away from the ISO BRM? Earlier this week, the Burton Group responded to the ODF Alliance's rebuttal in a series of three postings by Guy Creese on the Collaboration and Content Strategies Blog, and you can find them here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. In this response, the Burton Group addresses each criticism from the ODF Alliance point by point.

Also, Slashdot reported this week on the Ecma response to the ISO comments and the recent blog post from Russel Ossendryver (an open source and ODF advocate) criticizing the Ecma response.

If you prefer some demos over reading thousands of pages of specifications, you may find these videos interesting that have been posted on YouTube recently: a video of Open XML on the iPhone, as well as a video of Native Open XML support on Mac OS X. Both videos show support of OOXML on Apple's platforms, yet Martin Bekkelund (a proponent of Norway's "no" vote on DIS-29500) writes on his blog today about some headaches he's had with OOXML on the Mac and his iPhone. I was curious about his allegation that a .DOCX on the iPhone produces an error message, so I had to try it myself - and I am happy to report that any .DOCX attachment received on my iPhone (running the 1.1.3 software) displays beautifully and works pretty much exactly like it is shown in the YouTube video above.

More commentary and further information can be found on Michael Desmond's blog, as well as in previous OOXML-related posts on this XML Aficionado blog. Also keep in mind that the best way to learn OOXML is to start experimenting with it, and I recently wrote a longer article on Content reuse with Open XML and XSLT to show exactly how easily it can be done using the built-in OOXML support in your favorite XML Editor.

One thing is certain: everybody will be watching the outcome of the ISO BRM very closely...

iPhone browser traffic disproportionate to market share

I've said it all along - the iPhone's UI and especially the Safari browser on the iPhone are a quantum-leap over existing other smartphone technologies (e.g. Windows mobile, Symbian, Blackberry).

The NY Times has an article today on iPhone traffic on Google and confirms this by stating that despite a market-share of only 2% (compared to 63% for Symbian and 11% for Windows Mobile) the majority of mobile browsing traffic on Google over Christmas came from iPhones - that is simply astounding: more than 50% of the traffic from iPhones that have only a 2% market share!

The article also cites an analyst opinion:

"The iPhone has taken the frustration out of browsing on a mobile phone, said Charles Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Company."

Related discussions and other blog links can be found on TechMeme, as well as in previous iPhone-related posts on this blog...

XML 2007 (or not), IE8, and Google on the iPhone

XML 2007 ended in Boston today and despite planning to go to the conference today, I unfortunately missed the event due to some time constraints at work. Elliotte Rusty Harold blogged from the conference (thank you!), and he was asking if nobody else was reporting live from the event. Well, I was planning to do so, but couldn't. Sorry.

The one talk that I had really wanted to go to was by Irina Kogan (IBM) and Dr. Nick Nagel (Altova) who spoke on "XML-Driven Database Design and Information Retrieval" this afternoon - fortunately the presentation slides can be found here so I can read up on what I missed.

In other interesting news today:

• Bill Gates semi-announced Internet Explorer 8 to bloggers
• There is now a "wicked cool" iPhone version of the Google Mobile website

I've already played with the Google interface on the iPhone and it is really nicely done. I get Google search, GMail, and Reader all nicely integrated and with a slick iPhone like UI.

iPhone SDK - Apple (finally!) listening to user demands for 3rd party apps

Apple Computer's Steve Jobs just announced that Apple would (finally!) provide an iPhone SDK to 3rd party developers in order to enable them to create native applications for the iPhone (and, incidentally, also for the iPod touch). While the actual SDK won't ship until February 2008, this announcement is a monumetal shift in strategy for Apple, who has thus far tried to control the applications available for the iPhone and limit 3rd party developers to Web 2.0 apps running in the Safari browser.

The story leading to this announcement is also a great example of how public opinion of a product can quickly swing the opposite way, when a company attempts to not only create a closed system, but then also tries to punish customers, who used 3rd party applications, by turning their expensive phones into "bricks" (which is what happened during the recent 1.1.1 software update).

Pressure on Apple from customers and bloggers alike very quickly led to this turn-around in strategy - and this can only be a good thing or both Apple and its iPhone customers. Having the iPhone be a true mobile platform - similar to Palm, Nokia, and Windows Smartphones - is key to any long-term success of the iPhone product line.

While I haven't personally installed any 3rd party apps on my own iPhone in the past, there are certainly several that I am missing since I switched from a Windows Smartphone to the iPhone this summer - and I am looking forward to the ability to get this extra functionality back next spring!

iPhone vs. Windows Smartphone

Which one is "better" - the iPhone or the Windows Smartphone? That's the question that many gadget-loving road warriors and cell-phone geeks are asking these days...

Here is my personal take:

I've been a big proponent of smartphone technology for a long time, and have been chasing the "perfect smartphone" for a while. Specifically, I've been hooked on using Windows Smartphone devices, because of the seamless integration with Outlook and the resulting automatic synchronization of all my contacts, calendar entries, tasks, notes, and e-mail over the air. And my favorite Smartphone so far was the Cingular/AT&T 8525. To meet a new business partner on the road, enter their contact details into the smartphone, and find the same person automatically in Outlook when you get back to the office is simply great - same goes for calendar entries.

So when my wife wanted a new iPhone when it came out, I was very sceptical. Sure, I do use an iPod Video and have been a big fan of the early Macs from 1986-1996, but I could no conceive of how the iPhone could offer anything to me - especially since my AT&T 8525 device had it all: UMTS, Wi-Fi, Push-Email, Windows-based Smartphone, PDF Reader, Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Video, etc.

It took just one week.

I played with her new iPhone while we were in New York. I played with her new iPhone at home. I played with her new iPhone on the boat. After a few days she said "Buy your own iPhone!"...

So I did (at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in NY) and I haven't touched the Windows Smartphone since.

The reason is very simple: UI design, UI design, and UI design! Just like with any great piece of software on the computer, it all boils down to the design of the user interface. Apple has managed to pack the essential applications into the device in such a way, that I actually started using them. Sure, the Windows Smartphone had a browser (Pocket IE), but it pales in comparison to the Safari browser that comes with the iPhone. Integrating Google Maps into the iPhone was a stroke of genius - it's so easy to use that I actually use it. Technically, I could have used it on the Windows Smartphone, and I even did once or twice. But I use it on the iPhone on a daily basis: to find a restaurant, get the phone number for a school, get the doctor's number, or just look up the way, if the car GPS is confused again (which happens a lot in Boston!).

E-Mail connectivity with our corporate Exchange server works great, and the difference between Push-Email and email that gets polled every 15 minutes is unnoticeable in reality.

Sure, I'm missing out on over-the-air synchronization of my contacts and calendar at the moment, but Apple has already licensed ActiveSync from Microsoft, so it's only a matter of time, before that will work on the iPhone. And until then I happily plug my iPhone into the laptop once a day to sync my contacts and calendar.

Bottom-line: even though the Windows Smartphone has some technological advantages (UMTS, Push-Email, over-the-air sync), the iPhone wins this comparison easily with the best UI design I've ever seen on a mobile phone plus it's 1/4 the thickness of the Smartphone and has a much larger screen!

Here's another reason why this XML aficionado likes the iPhone: it's all Web 2.0 based and you know what that means. Yup, it's using XML to talk to the servers!

UPDATE: Apple just annouced that the iPhone price has been reduced by $200 - what are you waiting for - go and get your iPhone now!