Continuing the trend set at last year's event, considerable diversity is currently being witnessed in the mobile data industry with new applications emerging both for consumers and the business community.
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The Best Short Range Data Application Award went to the Kolam Partnership for its StarSight Project, a multi service architecture delivering solar powered WiFi within solar powered street lighting units, and providing light and broadband internet access with the future potential for voice.
The WiFi implementation within StarSight is primarily used to provide control of solar powered street lights, enabling its users to control battery life, on/off mechanisms and maintenance. It also provides security monitoring. As excess WiFi bandwidth is rolled out into the local community, it allows different types of business, government and the local community to access standard information technology and communication capabilities.
StarSight has other niche applications in security with WiFi enabled CCTV and also as a tsunami early warning system, with solar powered WiFi and sirens connected to local seismology centers. It has been designed to enable emerging nations and those undergoing transitional change, to roll out street lighting and information technology infrastructure via one economically and environmentally sustainable unit.
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The award for the Most Promising New Mobile Data Application for the Consumer went to SpinVox Ltd for the world's first voicemailtotext service for mobile and fixed line telephones.
Launched in October 2004, SpinVox's network independent voicemailtotext services can be used on any contract/pay monthly mobile phone. Unlike traditional voicemail, SpinVox lets mobile phone users instantly see their voicemail on their phone's screen or via email and decide how and when to respond. When a caller leaves a voice message, the proprietary voicetotext system converts the message into text and sends it to a chosen mobile phone number or email address through the SpinVox integrated push technology platform. There's now no need to dial into voicemail, write down message details or replay messages. SpinVox users can instantly and discreetly see who's called and what they said, wherever they are. The service further adds to the user's ability to stay in touch wherever they are, to choose how and when they wish to communicate with others and provides a facility of retaining important messages.
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The Best Data Application on a Personal Mobile Device Award was won by mxData Ltd for Traffic TV, the map based application for mobiles that provides its users live "at a glance" realtime Trafficmaster information overlaid with CCTV camera pictures from the entire UK trunk and motorway network (excluding Ireland).
The application provides realtime traffic information and webcams showing road conditions, helping road users save time and avoid congestion/accident black spots.
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The MDA Personal Award for Innovation went to Adam Curry for his creation of Podcasting.
A serial entrepreneur and pioneer of Internet technologies, he is probably better known for his time as a video jockey with MTV in the late 80s. Through the 90s he established and ran a major web services group. In 2003 he combined his broadcasting and technology skills to create a method of delivering MP3 files to personal computers and mobile music players on a subscription basis using weblog syndication technology. With the Apple iPod as the intended mobile platform for the output he released this as open source software called iPodder and in 2004 began creating and distributing a daily audio file called the Daily Source Code which attracted first hundreds, then thousands of listeners.
This regular audio feed spawned a whole new movement of copycat audio bloggers, able to create and distribute their own "radio" shows for iPods, known as podcasts. Podcasts are now available in many languages, on a rich diversity of topics and able to be delivered to a whole range of personal audio players including the latest mp3 capable mobile phones.
Adam continues to lead the technology he created through his Daily Source Code Show and has been dubbed 'The Podfather' by his loyal band of listeners. His current projects include the company Podshow? bringing together podcasters with potential commercial sponsors, and the Podsafe Music Network? an online exchange of royalty free music licensed for distribution within podcasts.
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The Best Wide Area Data Application Award for 2005 went to Stent Foundations Ltd for its Hand Held Roving Piling Assistant SHERPA.
Stent is a specialist piling company, involved in the construction of foundations for large structures and civil engineering works. At each stage of the construction process, information is recorded and checked to ensure conformance to specification. Accurate information collation and its onward communication is an essential part of the organisation's activities.
Until recently, Stent's data recording was paper based, involving a labour intensive process that was prone to error. The new hand held roving piling assistant 'SHERPA' eliminates much of the paperwork and automatically collates site data. It provides a way of delivering information directly to Stent's site operatives and of recording asbuilt data at the point at which it occurs. The system uses rugged PDA's (Dolphin 7900's) that are either wirelessly networked to a server on site or connect to an internet server via GPRS.
SHERPA greatly enhances the completeness of Stent's site records and reduces the time involved in collecting and collating information. Furthermore, the device has contributed to a significant reduction in the number of recorded nonconformances and has also detected nonconformances that would otherwise have gone unnoticed, leading to a considerable reduction in remedial work and cost.
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DigitWireless scooped the prize for Most Innovative Hardware with its Fastap application, a revolutionary, lowcost and powerful mobile phone interface that is surprisingly small!
The Fastap Keypad can provide a standard telephone keypad, control keys (such as "shift," "space," "delete") and eight other functions in an area 42mm wide x 38mm high) -- and is surprisingly easy to use. It has been designed for the modern mobile phone with individual letters available by one touch of a dedicated key. The solution is completely intuitive, more efficient and provides an appropriate interface for computer functionality: text messaging, calendar, address book, stock trading, games, and Web access.
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O4 Corporation was singled out for providing the Most Promising New Mobile Data Application for Business/Machine to Machine for magazine marketing group and distributors, Frontline.
This second generation PDA application has been designed for the organization's team of account managers and merchandisers, who now have access to a full color information system. Frontline uses O4 Corporation's Sales Force automation solution on QTEQ devices on Pocket PCs for planning and recording a variety of day to day business activities and to access company data/product information (magazine publication dates, distribution, dates on sales etc). Compliance on entry/exit can be monitored using the camera in the device to photograph displays that are then embedded in Windows CE database. This business application on a PDA also has offline capabilities, its users can sync to Microsoft SQL server by WiFi, GPRS, 3G or dial up. As a result of using the new generation PDA, Frontline is now able to operate proactively and can influence the outcomes of issues rather than trying to resolve them at the end of each month's reporting when it is too late. Integrated photography of before and after merchandising activity also provides required visual impact for their customer base.
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For the second year running the award for Best Network went to O2. The award for Best Network was open to public voting by text message. Network users were encouraged to nominate the Network that has done most to encourage successful partnerships for the growth of mobile data in 2004/2005.
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This year's award winners are testimony to how mobile data is significantly shaping our every day lives both at home and at work.
