intermorphic.com Blog

Having posted about JoikuSpot yesterday, I now reckon that JoikuSpot is probably the best app I have ever come across , as it has set me free in a (mobile) way I have always wanted, but never been able to figure out how to do.

I am doing this update from a cafe, and connecting my MacBook Pro to my S60 Nokia N95 wirelessly; no cable required. This morning I even had a googlechat session on my iPod touch (via N95) whilst on a walk and listening to music. JoikuSpot lets you see how much data you are using up, which is handy as I can see that doing chat etc uses very little, whilst normal browsing via the iPod touch uses quite bit as there is no way of turning images off.

Anyhow, with this kind of set up, all you need is a (suitable for your needs) data plan from your operator, and a suitable S60 device and a computer/laptop (or iPod touch) with WiFi. Provided you are not wanting to do too much, you don’t ever need to consider a mobile hotspot plan like with BT Openzone or The Cloud etc (well, I don’t now, anyhow).

Sorted, and big thanks Joiku!

PS: I would expect that operators without an iPhone offering would be jumping at the chance to partner with Joikusoft Oy. The reason being that instead of losing customers who wanted an iPhone, they could suggest instead maybe getting an iPod touch with an S60 device and it would be nearly the same (well, customers could use the iPod touch instead ). Maybe the operator would even want to offer customers a bundle of S60 phone, iPod touch and JoikuSpot, and bring their purchasing power to bear. Now that could make sense!

A while back we decided we needed a Windows Mobile phone on which to do testing of our mobile music mixing system Mixtikl, and that we needed a touch only version. We were not sure at that time on our iPhone plans otherwise we would have gone for an iPhone instead. We got a good deal on an HTC Touch HD from Orange, and so that was that. However, I have at long last retired the HTC Touch HD as my working phone, and none too soon as it drove me potty.

Why I got fed up with the HTC Touch HD is a long story, but I had a devil of a job accepting calls with the front slider, making calls by mistake, it being so very slow to do anything on and a host of other reasons. Besides which, having now got an iPhone Touch for testing out Mixtikl, I realised just how poorly the touch screen UI on the HTC Touch HD was implemented. Everything to do with it seems to happen in slow motion compared to the iPod touch.

Anyhow, enough said on that. I was always a big fan of my Nokia N95, as it just worked and always gave good service, so I decided to go back to using that (bliss!). There was one big but, though. Although I liked it as a phone, I was not so keen on going back to keyboard only control, especially for browsing, having experienced the iPhone Touch. What I wanted to do was to find a way to connect my iPod touch to the N95 so I could use that for browsing on, but then use the N95 as my phone.

As luck would have it, I came across a fabulous little app for S60 / N95 called JoikuSpot Premium. For around 15 euros this allows my N95 to become a WiFi hot spot that my iPod touch can connect to wirelessly (and with WEP encryption)! This means that when I am out and about I can browse on the iPod touch, connecting wirelessly to my N95 which in turn is connected to my network. I can also use chat etc on the iPod touch. I had being tempted to consider getting a monthly subscription to a hotspot network like The Cloud etc, but it always seemed so expensive when I was on a contract with a data plan sufficient for when I was not at home. So, all in all, a result!

NB: I did have a little problem running the app, once installed, but I took my heart in my hands and upgraded my N95 Firmware to the latest version, and that seemed to fix that.

What I am waiting for next is for iPhone OS 3.0 to be released, because I _hope_ the there will be drivers in it to allow me to connect my Apple Wireless (bluetooth) keyboard to the iPod touch. Great for making notes on the go etc. I also just hope Safari in iPhone OS 3.0 can be configured to turn off images so as to save bandwidth – goodness knows why that option was never included in the first place.

Finally, I figure I will be really sorted once I can also figure out how to connect up iTM Keys so that I can use MIDI to control (and input to) Sonar in Parallels. But I am a bit stuck on that right now…

Hi all,

Its been a huge amount of work, but we’re now ready to release Mixtikl Beta for Mac/Windows and Windows Mobile Smartphone / Pocket PC (2005/2006). Beta testers will get the build within the next 48 hours or so. This is going to be a very short Beta; technically, it is a release candidate to iron-out any last-minute glitches in the software or the Tiklpaks. So, the full Mixtikl release is only a week or so away!

Keep an eye on the Mixtikl site for the draft user guide and lots more information!
http://www.intermorphic.com/tools/mixtikl/index.html

In other news, we’re planning to start the port to Symbian Series 60 in December (and have been continuing to look at the iPhone platform). We’ll be sure to keep you all posted!

Pete

Two apps that I regularly use on my S60V3 N95 are:

Projekt by Kylom – a neat outliner and list making app, and;

Mobbler – a really simple looking but fantastic LastFM client (meaning I can WiFi play LastFM radio stations on my mobile around the house). LastFM really comes into its own for me, when it is on my mobile. Sure, for cost reasons I would not use it over my operator network, but if it could be priced right, it would be a killer service. To give this a chance of happening LastFM should really allow a user to decide the streaming quality they prefer (i.e. on mobile 64kbps would be fine).

Anyhow, I would really hope that one day we can get apps into Mixtikl that do these kind of things. But, we have to get Mixtikl out first, and there are a ton of things we would like to add down the road. Ultimately, it will all come down to what users want the most (and what we have the time and resources to build).

Do check out the apps above, they are cool!

We are really sorry to report this, as we really wanted to get the Mixtikl mobile music creativity system running on iPhone / iPod touch (see Create Digital Music).

There is no intrinsic reason why Mixtikl and its integrated Noatikl generative music engine and Partikl DLS MIDI synth, softsynth, sampler and fx network shouldn’t run very nicely on the iPhone / iPod touch. But, as with porting to any Device/OS, there are many issues to consider ranging from technical to commercial, and Pete’s blog touches on some of the technical issues behind our decision.

After further investigation, however, it turns out that it was not only the technical side that turned out to be a show stopper for us. It was the terms in the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement (and as a European developer it took nearly 3 months for us to reach a stage where we got to see them).

Because of NDA restrictions we are not allowed to talk about anything in that long agreement. There was one particular clause that, for us, was a total show stopper (and goodness knows why Apple have that requirement) and another that, depending on interpretation, would also be a total showstopper for us. There were plenty more to really think really hard about, too along the lines of risk vs reward vs control vs who benefits etc.

We were (and still are) very excited by the potential of our software running on these Apple devices, and we love Apple products and all our other software products run on Mac OS X (and Windows XP of course).

So, we have decided not to press ahead with development until Apple can:
- relax a number of (as we see it) overly restrictive terms in the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement
- allow apps to share/exchange data/files between themselves and an attached PC/Mac

Will Apple care that a small developer like us chooses to stay away from the party for now? Surely not!

Will Apple change anything and open things up more because we can’t contine? Surely not, cos there will be plenty of other developers that will develop for it!

Will anyone notice our apps are not available on iPhone, and will anyone care? Some people may notice and care, yes, because we know we create products for a niche audience; however, those people may now need to find other devices to use them on (sorry folks!).

Finally, is this sour grapes on our part? Most definitely not, we still hope to come back to it some time in the future.

So, now that the road ahead is clear for the present at least, we will be turning our attention to Mixtikl for S60 after we complete our work on Mixtikl for Windows Mobile.

Pete & Tim