I have just spent the weekend updating the ‘pixs’ RSS reader with a new feature that I think might be even better than the reader itself - I have added a web page translator tool that will read in any website and re-format it for reading on a cell phone. Which means you don’t have to settle for only reading the cut-down version that websites tend to publish on their RSS feeds.

Sounds good but what is even better is the image re-drawing function that will shrink images in height and width and also in file size so the whole site will display on the cell phone handset.

The code is brand new so the results are a little bit raw and I have seen a lot of areas that can be improved, but I have big ideas for this project and have new features I want to add. The two major drawbacks are that the site only works for XHTML compatible handsets and currently has only a simple re-sizing algorithm for the images.

I am going to road test it for a while longer, which might turn into quite a while longer as I have a new design contract starting tomorrow, so as always if you can try it out on your handset and let me know what results you get I will be really grateful.

Today I am launching the first draft of my cell phone RSS reader service: pixs.jp, and I would be grateful for any feedback you might have if you try using it.

I have been interested in a simple way of implementing a mobile internet site with contemporary content and have found that the easiest way to do this is by formatting the vast amount of RSS feeds availably into a format readable by cell phones. It is a simple idea but so far I haven’t found a site doing it in quite the same way as me.

This project started out as a way for me to get the western content that I like reading onto my cell phone here in Japan. There are plenty of mobile sites here but few that cater for the English reading market so I decided to make my own. Since I made the service, me and my friends have found it extremely useful so I have decided to publicise it with a mind to making it into a bigger system.

The service is free and will remain free. If one day I can find a way to spin money off the top of it then I might do that, however, the content will never be affected as a result so I hope people will find it a useful day to day tool.

If you have any feeds you would like to see on the directory then please submit them, I will vet them of course as I don’t want anything unsavoury appearing on my site, not that I am suggesting that you, my dear readers, would do something like that, but hey, there are plenty of weirdos out there.

And if you have any suggestions or find any bugs, or if the system doesn’t work on your handset then please leave me a comment on this site. I will find it which ever post you choose to make the comment on so please don’t be shy, it will help to grow this into a useful service for everyone.

So what are you waiting for? Point your phone to this address : http://www.pixs.jp

If the beta is successful I will put up a .com and .co.uk mirror to speed up the accesses for you guys outside of Japan.

Thanks for your support.

Marcus.

I have always been intrigued by the potential for e-learning on the cell phone, it just seems to be a perfect medium for taking bite-sized lessons when you have nothing better to do, and I can easily see the day when salary men are swatting up for their MBA whilst taking the train to work or students are cramming for their physics finals on the bus to school.

Well that day is getting closer now, for the Japanese anyhow, as AU have launched a new service on their ezweb portal for delivering lessons directly to the cell phone.

The service is called ‘manabi’ and so far has four lesson packs available which mainly focus on learning English which is a national passtime of the Japanese at the moment.

The packs contain short lessons and quizes to test your knowledge and feature a fair splattering of colorful characters and cuteness.

With a monthly revenue stream for subscriptions this may prove to be a lucrative gap in the market. Watch this space for more details.

If you want to see some very nice concept cell phones that are on the cards from Vodafone then you need to see this nice flash driven site.

http://www.vodafone.jp/designfile/

It is a classy site and the phones look great, my personal favorite is the ‘wallet’, which I think blends the normally hard, high-tech mobile phone into an elegant style accessory.

The flash is a bit hard to navigate but is definitely worth a look.

Hint: If the music annoys you then do switch it off on the first screen before launching the flash.

The D901is has a nice gimmick with its retractable keypad, though when I was using it I couldn’t help but feel that it would break really easily after a few months of use.

This is a common complaint of mine with the cell phones on the market in Japan, they seem ‘plasticy’ and not very well constructed. It might be a personal thing but I like my phones to feel tough.

The slider mechanism is activated by a button and it is pretty cool, that is if you can press the button in one smooth move when pulling the phone from your pocket. You will have to practice this a lot because of the stupid position of the button. Its just not placed where you fingers would naturally land when gripping the phone.

The screen has a nice sharp display and the phone is generally good, however, the buttons are all on the small side ( maybe its because of my large - foreigners fingers ) and the navigation could do with a bit more thought.

This phone is well built with a solid feel, quite a chunky case and a little stubby aerial.

The screen seems a little small but has a nice sharp definition.

The GUI has a nice modern retro feel for the navigation and features a theme set as the interior of a stylish apartment, quite original.

The controls seems quite slow to respond, however, the finger print reader was really cool.

You set the finger print by sliding your finger down the reader slowly three times in a row. The phone maintains a digital image of your finger print which you can use instead of a keypad number for locking various functions. I was having a great time freaking out my co-workers by totally locking the phone up and going for coffee. It was all good until the third trial when I swiped my finger to unlock the phone and it couldn’t read my print. I got into a mild panic after about 3 minutes of trying until it eventually let me in. Its a fun feature and has masses of ‘cool’ factor but might be a bit overkill for a mobile phone. Perhaps, if DoCoMo get their way and we all use phones as wallets this feature will be a necessity.

OK its rare that I feel the need to comment on how great a product is as I am a bit of a critic and a cynic, so this blog entry is coming as quite a shock to me. You see I have just found out more about the W31CA from Casio which is just out on the AU network here in Japan.

The cell phone just seems to pack it all in: it has a 3.2MPixel camera, funky swivel screen, full internet browser and best of all it can view Word, Excel and PDF files from a PC.

I am definitely going to get my hands on one of these soon and give it a whirl.

Today I saw a prime example of the proliferation of the cell phone into Japanese society.

I was riding the Metro home after work, finishing tonight at 9pm, which is early for me, and as I was being packed into an already overcrowded carriage I saw something that made me want to laugh.

Sitting down in front of me, looking as stern as anything, was a businessman who must have been in his fifties. He had his briefcase up on his lap and was holding his umbrella like a cane and in his hands was his cell phone, this guy obviously meant business.

The intense look on his face couldn’t give it away but the reflection in the mirror did.

He was deeply engrossed, trying to jump his way to safety, in a game of SuperMarioLand.

I’m sure there is no-where else in the world where you would see such a site. I only wish I had the guts and audacity to have taken a photograph of him to post here. Unfortunately I am too polite - I guess that comes from living in Japan too long.

Digging a bit further into this idea I was pointed in the direction of an article on engadget discussing a similar application available from Nokia which connects people over Bluetooth on their cell phones.

The users can setup a home page with some descriptive text and a photo and then let their phone poll other users, displaying their home pages. When the user finds someone interesting they can then send them a message.

The Bluetooth connectivity is limited to a radius of about 30m so it is really only good for localized usage.

Nokia are marketing this as a fun system for clubbing and dating but with the right application of the technology perhaps this could be the first steps towards the all-pervasive system I am envisaging.

I was just reading an interesting article from this blog about an SMS promotion run by Virgin in the UK. It was an interesting concept were people at a festival were sent a word via SMS and had to find someone else at the festival who had received the same word. If two people managed to find each other they could present themselves to Virgin and win a flight each.

Sounds like a great application of social networking through the cell phone, I’m now wondering how this could fit in with real peer-to-peer connectivity. I guess the simple answer would be to provide a similar challenge but on a much larger scale you would be able to win a substantial prize if you found another user, online with the same word or code as you and managed to meet up with that person.

By keeping you online and keeping you looking to find the other user this promotion would be a great way to launch a peer-to-peer networking service or give coverage to other advertising.