Monday, January 02, 2012

Jeff Ullman - Mining of Massive Datasets

Famous Stanford professor Jeffrey Ullman
offers a free online book Mining of Massive Datasets


@Amazon


He is also planning (free) online class automata theory for the spring quarter...

PhoneGap: Adobe, Apache, Native HTML5 apps

presentation (video & mp3): InfoQ: Making the Mobile Web Native with PhoneGap


Many "mobile" apps could very well be web apps.
PhoneGap is a solution to "wrap" a web app into a "native mobile" shell,
where native APIs are exposed to JavaScript,
such as camera and storage on the phone...
This was available for years, not new.

The news is that PhoneGap team is now part of Adobe
,
and that its source is now open source, managed by Apache
,
under new name "Callback" ("Gap" jeans trademark was a problem for PhoneGap name)

There is also a "build" service

that makes it possible to make "native" iPhone app even without an Apple Mac computer,
or windows phone app without a Windows PC.

This will make it even easier to make even more mobile apps.
While most of such apps are not very good, out of large quantity
there will be some benefit too... not least saving developers time...

One more thing: apparently there are more contributors to PhoneGap
from IBM than Natobi (now Adobe)...

Wearable Android - WiMM

WIMM Labs

Behind the capacitive touch screen is an OS distilled from open-source Google Android™. Core capabilities include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth™ connectivity, an accelerometer, magnetometer, vibrating alarm and more. A 14-pin WIMM water-resistant connector is smart-accessory ready.

@sdtimes

With (dev) price of $299 is it not quite ready for prime time...
But the idea is interesting...
What would be "right" price? I think $99,
and it would be nice to re-charge battery on movement.

And it is already available!
Sony Ericsson Liveview watch micro display for Android Devices, $70

This device is effectively a "touchscreen" remote control for an android phone.
May be helpful to protect the phone, and have both hands fee...

Motorola MOTOACTV, GPS, mp3 player, watch

$205 @amazon + $30 wrist strap (free until 31-jan-2012)