Warping it up! » Mobile

Vodafone acquires ZYB

Fini Alring — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:29:27 +0000

My former employee ZYB has been acquired by Vodafone Group, this is certainly is nice to see that all the hard work is finally beginning to fall into place with time and space. I worked there for seven months during 2007 and helped turning ZYB into a Web 2.0 social thingy, basically crunch time from start to finish – but I guess in retrospect it was well worth it! – I also initially made The official ZYB blog, so obviously has to mention that on my blog! Go go ZYB and the wonderful ZYB Crew!

Vodafone acquires ZYB « ZYB blog

ZYB jumped on the blog wagon

Fini Alring — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:45:18 +0000

Woohoo it’s official we have a blog at ZYB, which is where I am working – Greatest service to hit your mobile ever!

It was created rather quick using the brilliant WordPress blog management system. I used an existing theme in order to cut dev time down (we are working on the new ZYB! – so not much time for all this blog fun!) and used a custom CSS to tweak it to our needs. – Hope you like it, it’s rather simple for now.. We will add more fancy stuff when the blog has grown up a bit.

If someone told you that ZYB didn’t have a blog, would you believe them? Well they were right until yesterday.

While other current internet start-up’s tend to set out with only a blog and a launch date (and then use the blog to announce postponements of the launch date), we started out by launching our free mobile backup service (and then got too busy to think about blogging).

But now we’re finally here, so let’s just get straight to the point. ZYB is changing!

Read the full first post at blog.zyb.com.

Big news, ZYB is blogging! (and changing) « ZYB blog

3D Graphics for Java Mobile Devices

Fini Alring — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:19:47 +0000

Claus HÃ¶fele has written a nice introduction to 3D graphics on Mobile Java Devices.

This article, the first in a two-part series, describes the Mobile 3D Graphics API (JSR 184). The author introduces you to 3D programming for Javaâ„¢ mobile devices and shows how you can work with lights, cameras, and materials.

Playing games on mobile devices is a fun pastime. Up until now, hardware performance has favored classic game concepts that use addictive game play, but simple graphics. Today, Tetris and Pac-Man are increasingly complemented by two-dimensional action games with extensive graphics. Consequently, the next step is to move toward 3D graphics. Sony’s PlayStation Portable shows the graphics power you can put into a mobile device. Although the average mobile phone is technologically behind this specialized game machine, you can see where the market is heading. The Mobile 3D Graphics API (M3G for short), defined in Java Specification Request (JSR) 184, is an industry effort to create a standard 3D API for mobile devices that support Java programming.

M3G’s API can be divided roughly into two parts: immediate and retained mode. In immediate mode, you render individual 3D objects. In retained mode, you define and display an entire world of 3D objects, including information on their appearance. You can imagine immediate mode as the low-level access to 3D functions, and retained mode as a more abstract, but also more comfortable, way of displaying 3D graphics. In this article, I’ll explain the immediate mode APIs. The second part of this series shows how to use retained mode.

Article: 3D graphics for Java mobile devices, Part 1: M3G’s immediate mode

Atom 1.0 vs RSS 2.0

Fini Alring — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:27:15 +0000

/. heeeraldo writes “Is there another format war on the horizon? This wiki compares the two, and finds that even though RSS has far greater deployment (and mindshare), Atom 1.0 solves a lot of the problems associated with it.”

* Slashdot | Atom 1.0 vs RSS 2.0

Cracking the Bluetooth PIN

Fini Alring — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 15:01:30 +0000

Yaniv Shaked and Avishai Wool have written a report about the security flaws in Bluetooth that they have uncovered (investigated).

Abstract:
This paper describes the implementation of an attack on the Bluetooth security mechanism. Specifically, we describe a passive attack, in which an attacker can find the PIN used during the pairing process. We then describe the cracking speed we can achieve through three optimizations methods. Our fastest optimization employs an algebraic representation of a central cryptographic primitive (SAFER+) used in Bluetooth. Our results show that a 4-digit PIN can be cracked in less than 0.3 sec on an old Pentium III 450MHz computer, and in 0.06 sec on a Pentium IV 3Ghz HT computer.

* Cracking the Bluetooth PIN1

Glucose monitor watch

Fini Alring — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:34:28 +0000

Barb Dybwad wrote at engadget: “Calisto Medical has wrapped up a successful clinical trial of the Glucoband glucose monitor, a wristwatch device that uses proprietary technology to non-invasively measure blood glucose levels in the body. It uses a bio-electromagnetic resonance technique to continuously monitor glucose levels after an initial measurement, with the results viewable on an integrated LCD screen in the watch. So, if your phone or Gameboy doesnâ€™t already do this for you, you can strap on the Glucoband for all your ubiquitous glucose monitoring needs.”

* Glucoband wristwatch continuously monitors your glucose levels – Engadget

RFID: The Next Internet?

Fini Alring — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 18:41:43 +0000

/. “RFID Journal has an artricle about how an open source foundation is creating a new Internet based on RFID tags. ‘The founders [RadioActive Foundation] liken the EPCglobal Network as a whole to the Internet, with RFID tags acting as URLs, and the tags’ associated data being the Web site for that tag . The software the foundation develops, Michael Mealling adds, will act similarly to an Internet search engine. With Discovery Service software, for example, companies will be able to search for an RFID tag without requiring connected links between each point of the tag’s travels.’ Pretty neat concept, probably decades away.”

* Slashdot | RFID: The Next Internet?