Michael Voong HCI Researcher @ Birmingham University

W910i J2ME Bluetooth Stack Problems

I’ve been programming with the W910i recently. Theoretically, it should be a great phone to work with. Plenty of optional APIs included, has a J2ME accessible accelerometer, BUT, Bluetooth keeps failing randomly with the following error message (in console output, testing in Java Developer mode using Sony Ericsson Device Explorer/Connection Proxy):

[Java/OJEX] bt.core[Util.raiseBluetoothConnectionException] FAILED_NOINFO

I’m using a separate thread that keeps making a serial profile connection (BTSPP://) to a GPS device that outputs in NMEA-0183 format. During random times (sometimes 20 secs, sometimes 5 mins) the thread locks up and any attempt to access it locks up that thread too. It must be to do with some of the bugs listed here - even after updating my firmware using the auto update within the device it’s not fixed. There seems to be no fix available anywhere!

I’m going to do a more simpler test later to see if it’s my code, but I doubt it will make any difference.

This is just a warning for those fellow developers out there tearing their hair out. For now, I’m sticking with Nokia phones and my Sparkfun accelerometer… Just need to re-solder that power connection!

Navizon Login Problems - Solution

If you’re having problems logging in with Navizon’s iPhone application, the faux-GPS application for iPhone and get the following message:

“No connection to server Could not contact the navizon server. please check internet connection”

I couldn’t find the solution with a quick Google search, but I fixed it! Try changing your password to something simpler. I don’t think it likes special characters. Works for me. The “moving mode” and buddy tracking is particularly interesting!

Mac Mouse Acceleration

Am I the only one that has problems with the default mouse acceleration in Mac operating systems? This was one my main problems when I switched to a Mac over a year ago. It just feels ‘odd’ compared to windows, and more sluggish. As far as I’m aware, this happens with all external mice. I installed SteerMouse, which changes the acceleration curves to be more linear, but began to ponder whether it was possible to get used to the Mac acceleration. Over the next few days I’m going to run a little experiment.

• Day 1: this feels so weird! If I don’t move the mouse fast enough, it feels like I’m on a surface of viscous syrup. Changing the tracking to ‘fast’ in the Keyboard & Mouse prefs pane doesn’t seem to make a difference at all.
• Day 2: I’ve gotten used to it. Wow. That’s unexpected - I guess this demonstrates ergonomic adaptability. Which means we as designers must be careful - to take advantage of this as less as possible - which is the only way to drive forward the development of more usable systems.

Other apps that might make the mouse feel more like in Windows: USB Overdrive and ControllerMate.