First, props to Dotsisx, she held down the fort last week while I was in Boston at the Nokia Office and for the Evening with S60 event. She did a great job, and it looks like tons of great conversation was had around several posts, which is awesome.
The Evening with S60 event was stinkin awesome, in my opinion. I was able to meet several new people and make contacts in several companies, which is awesome. What’s even cooler is that I’ve attended 2 Evening with S60 events, one as a guest and one as an employee, and it doesn’t feel very different at all. What I mean by that is that the events are designed to help build relationships, and I feel like everyone benefits from that.
Here’s a rundown of those who came, based on the stack of business cards I ended up with:
Zeemote - Michael and team were there showing off their Bluetooth gaming accessory for S60, which currently works with a select few Java games, such as Sonic the Hedgehog. The Zeemote looks alot like the joystick part of a Wii remote, and the team has big plans through the end of the year. I’ll definitely be keeping up with them, and will bring you any updates, as I think there’s some SERIOUS potential there.
Keynetik - You’re familiar with Keynetik, and you also probably know that I’m not a big fan of these accelerometer-based apps. However, a short chat with Gene, the VP and COO, and a demo of Hi-N-Bye, their latest app, and I’m a bit more open. The problem, historically, for me has been that these apps don’t know when to activate/deactivate. I.e. ShakeLock, while handy, would constantly lock/unlock my phone when going up and down stairs. It wasn’t smart enough to know when it wasn’t needed. Keynetik is working on making their apps more intelligent in this regard, and I’ve loaded Hi-N-Bye up on my N95-3 for further testing. More to come on that, soon.
iUnlock.com/Warlox Wireless – I’ve known of these guys for a long time, coming from HowardForums, and used them in the past to unlock/unbrand a few handsets here and there. I finally was able to meet them, and have to say, they’re definitely a cool group of guys. Adam went home with the NAM N78, lucky devil. These guys can unbrand nearly any S60 handset, even roll-back to older firmware, if you need it.
Untravelmedia.com – Ira is the CTO and gave me a quick rundown of what UntravelMedia is trying to do – they want to make GPS local, and tell a story. I’m still exploring to get a good grasp, but I like the concept. It seems alot like those audio recorders you can rent at a museum, that are triggered by different things to give you more background on a particular piece of artwork. Imagine that feature built into your GPS system. Sounds REALLY cool.
Superlatives.com – Conrado had plenty of questions, but also let me check out the Georgio Armani phone that he had with him, which was rather cool. Superlatives.com is a great collection of lifestyle and other links to interesting places.
Biskero.org – Alessandro knows nearly everything there is to know about Flash, with plenty of related credentials from Adobe. If you’re interested in developing with Flash, or using Flash some other way, Alessandro is a great starting point to see what’s possible.
RajSingh.org – Raj’s blog keeps an eye out for different mobile innovations, especially in regards to mapping and geolocations. As the Director of Interoperability Programs at the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc, he’s directly involved in the area. Definitely a good read.
GwapzInnovation – I nearly forgot to give a shoutout to Gwapz, who also hails from HowardForums, my stomping grounds. Gwapz has recently kicked off his own blog with some good posts already, and he made it up to Boston to hang out with us all.
If I met you and didn’t mention you, I apologize, tremendously! Feel free to leave your information in a comment so others can find you easily. I’m looking forward to the next Evening with S60 event, as I hope you are, as well!
Also, to those who are yearning for an Evening with S60 in their backyard, we’ve got a single place for you to make this request, here on the Consumed By S60 blog. This will be kept as a running tally, so that as planning starts on future events, we have a good idea of the demand for different locations. Please, also, be specific with city and country.
