Original Moko Emails

From Snowulf

Email 1

From: Jon Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 11:59 PM To: John Subject: Moko ideas

I'm out on my evening walk and I wanted to write you about an idea I've been tossing around. I know you'd rather I do that through gmail but the mobile interface is too clunky. Anyways, after my last post about it, I'm on an openmoko kick again. I will buy one when they come out, and I want to do a project related. I know lakeside failed, but you had the right idea, we should have started small. So lets do that this time around.

I've been thinking about small easy games. Classic 2 player games, ex: checkers, battleship, etc. Now here is where my idea goes off the deep end. These days most people that would play these games don't have data service so we can't use tcp/ip - we use text messages. Think about it, you make a move and that move is sent via specially crafted text message to your oponent. On their end, the game catches the sms message and updates the game client. This will allow you to play "casually" with up to several friends at once.. Of course the trick is crafting a text message that contains the move, board status (to keep sync), etc... All while staying under the size limit. I think it would be an interesting challenge.

Of course the moko will need bunches of simple apps too, so we could do some non-multiplayer apps too. Even though I'm not a serious coder I would like to get in on this earlier than later. The other possibility is that we could convince rg to allow us to donate some of our office down time to work on these projects. Glabs gets credit, so they get free advert and we get payed to play.

I think tons of people are going to make pims, and themes and all the "typical" stuff. I want to make something interesting, fun or useful, the moko platform is completely open, so why shouldn't we be able to create some kick ass applications?

Brainstorm as follows: an offline BART schedule viewer. A gas mileage calc/log book. Super simple voice memos. Tip calculator. Offline currency converter. Flashlight/mirror. Halo 3 stats (scrape from bungie.net). Time zone/time converter. Unit converter. Wather/forecast. Gps to zip/area code lookup.japanese hiragana/katakana flashcards.

end

Email 2

From: John To: Jon Sent: Oct 13, 2007 11:22 AM

Jon -

The API is intriguing. I think TXT messaging is the right way to go about it, as unlimited text messaging is an option available to most plans and likely much cheaper than data services. Text message size makes it difficult, however if we use case-sensitive alphanumeric + special characters language we should be able to craft a message with all the requisite data, at least on a smaller scale.

As for downtime, let me be the first to say: hahahahahahahahahaha I am very interested in this "downtime" of which you speak. RG might be interested, but downtime isn't something that has been forthcoming lately.

Re: Brainstorm 1. an offline BART schedule viewer. Could do this via a website that pushes a file (or text message) to the Moko after the user selects which "lines" they are interested in.

2. A gas mileage calc/log book. Tiny app: Date/Time (default to Now), Location (Use GPS?), Miles since last fillup, Total Gas Added Read-Only field: MPG

3. Super simple voice memos. Save wave files with filename: DATE_TIME

4. Tip calculator. Tiny app: Check total Outputs: Tip at 10,15,20,25% and the total (so they don't have to do math on the Credit Card receipt)

5. Offline currency converter. Similar to 1

6. Flashlight/mirror. Former: Interface with brightness and contrast settings to max them Latter: Create a closed loop with a built in Camera (if applicable), or turn the screen opaque

7. Halo 3 stats (scrape from bungie.net). Similar to 1, however, could setup a recurring task, so they could schedule how often they get updates via specially crafted TXT message

8. Time zone/time converter. Simple enough, can store limited City info if desired

9. Unit converter. simple enough, add interface similar to google

10. Weather/forecast. Current could require data transfer, OR setup a subscription service where they text the info to us and we (via an engine) text right back with the current weather

11. Gps to zip/area code lookup. App would have a button to TXT current GPS to us and an engine would query a database and return Zip(s) and Area Code(s) depending on how specific we wish to get

12. japanese hiragana/katakana flashcards. Offline download, would just require flashing an image on the screen and then at a button press "flip" the card with the description/explanation on the back

Email 3

From: Jon To: John Sent: Oct 13, 2007 11:52 AM Other comments:

1. 1. BART Schedules don't change much, and when I'm in a hurry I want to get em fast. So some how just scrape all the current schedules and save them to a CSV or similar that would be kept on the user device. Possibility of accessing a website (We maintain) to check for updated files

1. 2. Possibly add a total of 3 modes. Add Gas, Add Maint, View Logs. Also for gas, might want total vehicular odo - and the ability to setup more than one vehicle.

1. 3. Spot on, possibly with the option to email them automagically after record - or save to device.

1. 4. Purfect.

1. 5. Again like the BART schedules, especially if you are traveling internationally you might not want to use the data service much. Save to local device, with a note of how old the data is on every start. Default screen should have 5-10 most popular currencies in the drop down / recently used, with the ability to expand to all listed quickly.

1. 6. More simple. Flashlight means all pixels go white, mirror is black. 100% back light brightness. (There is no camera)

1. 7. Probably wouldnt need re-occurence. Have the ability for users to punch in the name of the player they want to look up, it goes, fetches, and comes back. Might have to go through an interpreter on a web server (we maintain) that can scrape down the data to something useful. CPU power and network speed would be an issue.

1. 8. I would like to see multiple methods of selecting time zones, converting, etc. Like lookup by City, timezone itself, possibly GPS?

1. 9. I was thinking something like http://www.onlineconversion.com/ except w/o the "auto" function. Select a type, two units, and a value.

1. 10. I'm thinking quick databurst. I'm sure a few of the sites have ultra simple RSS/etc feeds that we could scrape and convert.

1. 11. Depending on what we can find, possibly offline also. Obviously would be US only. Also more leaning towards standard databurst.

1. 12. Yea.

Text Messages sent/received between users are great. As noted, most people do have unlimited plans these days, or some really high number. The problem is as a "service provider" it costs us money. Now this is an option worth considering. We charge them $3 a month, and allow them to request weather updates up to 30 times a month (10 cents a text message is about standard). This might be something to consider for later though. I don't know how we'd receive their messages. Going from us, outbound is easy - but getting the requests from them is a bit more tricky.