I was really hoping to go to the Mobile Monday Bonenkai yesterday. Unfortunately I was in mind-numbing meetings until 23:00. I could not believe it. Why, why can we not end a meeting quickly and gracefully? There is the tendency to digress into completely separate topics for no apparent reason. Maybe I just don't see the connection sometimes. Anyway, I hope Monday's become a little more reasonable so I can make it to Mobile Monday more often. We should all go!
Not much chance to do anything so far. Got here at 22:30 and have a morning meeting so it's about time to hit the sack. We took the Nozomi from Tokyo, but there's not much to see out the window at night. Heiwa Odori Street is all lit up for Christmas. In the crowded cab I only managed a few crappy pics. This is probably the best of them.
My coworker showed me the newest version of Navitime on his Docomo 903SH. It was pretty cool, with Google map-style aerial maps, smooth scrolling and pretty good accuracy. On the train he opened it up an we saw our location on the map as we traveled along the track. it even showed our speed. In contrast my AU W42SA using EZNaviWalk showed my position in the middle of a mountain about 1 km from the track and couldn't keep up with the movement of the train. To be fair he was using the premium version of his service and I was using the free version of mine.
A 2-hour meeting became a 5-hour meeting, and we went straight back to the station to catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. I did get a pretty nice pic from the client's meeting room. Sad, huh? Anyway, looks like I might have to go back in a few weeks.I have to go to Hiroshima tomorrow for a meeting with a client on Wednesday morning. Haven't been there before, so I hope I get a chance to sightsee a little. I'll try to post some pics via keitai while I'm out and about.
Ok, here goes... I'm not really much of a blogger, but for the past few years I have had some cool opportunities to work in the mobile web industry in Tokyo and Europe so I thought I'd start documenting some of the (to me, anyway) interesting things I come across in the mobile arena.
I love mobiles (I may occasionally refer to them as keitai) and creating web services. I even like having to learn about new technology "standards" every week or so as the industry speeds toward convergence of personal computer and mobile phone. There's also the opportunity to learn about the different business cultures in Japan and Europe. Sure, I wish I got out more, but I consider myself pretty lucky to have had the chance to live and work abroad. I also got to re-learn most of the Japanese I forgot from university. Well, some of it anyway.
So I'm off to a late start, having been in Tokyo and working in the Japanese and European mobile markets for almost 4 years now. From black-and white logos via SMS and 10K of memory available to Java apps to video streamng over HSDPA, 5 mega-pixel camera-phones and one-seg digital TV, it has been a real ride so far. Guess I'll just go about it, try to keep it interesting and not make this another work-rant blog.* Also, since the folks at Google have been cool enough to endow many of their services with mobile/keitai compatibility I would be remiss not to take advantage.
*Disclaimer: This will definitely contain work rants.
