Occasional Brief Observations

Monday, April 12, 2010

Coolbphone first look - I

Take a look at the CoolbPhone multi-media cell phone, quad band GSM (850 900 1800 1900). The specifications:

Operating System: Linux
CPU: Marvell PXA310（624MHz）
Screen: 5.0 inch touch screen, 16,000 colors, 800 × 480
Languages: English, Chinese

Radio: stereo radio FM, should play with earphone
Music: MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV.
Movie: AVI, FLV, 3GP,MP4
Memory: 128M RAM, 256M ROM, support TF card up to 8GB TF extended
Connectivity: WAP, GPRS, WIFI, Bluetooth A2DP V2.0

Other Functions: Trackball, MP3, MP4, Java, Handsfree, Voice recorder, Handwritten insert, FM, GPRS, WAP, MMS, E-book, calendar, alarm, calculator, GPS
Data Transfer: USB cable/bluetooth
Talk time: 120－150 minutes
Standby time: 50－80 hours
Size: 145 x 96 x 26 mm
Net Weight: 359 gm
Battery: 2800 mAh rechargable
Charger, Headset, USB data cable
No user manual

Unboxing pictures below:

Available from Chinagrabber ($569.99, includes shipping) or Buy Wholesale ($489.99 + $5 for shipping)

BPhone: Quad Band ARM-Linux smartphone
BPhone smartphone/UMPC hybrid runs Linux and available to order

Mental health break

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Barcode happiness - II

Yet another group has come up with a different use for barcodes and smartphones related to food. In Australia, Deakin University and Nestlé are working to allow access to allergy information via the product barcodes. Read the barcode with your smartphone and get warned about seafood, peanut, etc. allergens (there's the "traffic light" system again, this time red or green).

All well and good... However, end users are not going to want to use multiple, different, barcode-reading applications on their smartphones to look up all the different pieces of information on the same item. When in the grocery it would be too onerous to check for allergens via the Deaking University application, then for nutritional value and pricing via the barcoo application, etc., etc. As new ideas spring forth and are developed by different parties this problem will increase... At some point there will need to be a massive amount of "convergence" and consolidation.

Barcode application tracks allergies
Beat allergies with mobile barcode

Previous barcode-related blog entries:
Barcode happiness - I - Apr 11th, 2010
Misc update - Jan 30th, 2010

Barcode update - Dec 29th, 2009
No luck - Dec 15th, 2009
QR codes to hit the U.S.? - Dec 13th, 2009
Misc. update (BB/2D barcodes) - Aug 22nd, 2009
QR update - May 19th, 2009
BB & 2D barcodes - Apr 21st, 2009

Barcode happiness - I

A German company has created another application for bar codes and smartphones... barcoo software, available for a number of smartphones including the Blackberry and iPhone, allows you to use your smartphone to take a picture of a a grocery product bar code. This launches a browser and takes you to their web site where they provide information on the product, including:

Best price available for the product,
How good/bad the product is for you. This consists of a traffic-light system (red, yellow, green) for the amount of sugar, fat, fatty acids, and salt in the product,
Social responsibility feedback for the product manufacturer.

OK, so this blogger downloaded (OTA) and installed the barcoo software, then hit the kitchen:

Tried a number of products, including peanut butter, cheese (spreadable 'La vache qui rit'), etc. Each time the software read the barcode and navigated to the barcoo web site. However, no information was pulled up on any of the items in question, presumably because these particular products are not for sale on the German market...

Curiously enough, the spray-on anti-stick Pam created a hit. This had the pricing information, but no health information or social responsibility information on the company. Interestingly enough, the web site asked for the ingredient information (see below), which you could enter off the can and submit so looks like they are crowd-sourcing... There also is a possibility of submitting comments (the 'Neue Notizen anheften')

Below are screen captures of what you would see for a product in their database... (green: neidrig = low; yellow: mittel = medium; or red for high)

Occasionally you get the following help screen if you don't get a good bar code capture...

Bottom line: not a bad little application. Perusing their web site their coverage appears to go beyond groceries to also cover books (looks like it pulls in Amazon reviews), and electronics.... The screen capture below shows HP's "green" rankings as rated by a number of third-party entities (Greenpeace, Rank a Brand, etc.)