Jaikido Blog

When we resumed work on the S60 mobile application two weeks ago, we first picked out the things we could release quickly to improve the current beta. We don’t have an office space yet, so we’ve been coding at Mika’s student fraternity while on the lookout for a space.

Today we’re releasing a version that includes these quick improvements. It’s a rather minor update - the version number is 0.2 beta. It’s still for Nokia S60 Second Edition phones only at this point. Download it now for free. For a personalized version, Sign up to get a free Jaiku account, or sign in if you’re already a member.

The main improvements are:

• Manual connection management and data counter help you to observe and control data costs.
• Jaiku has now been separated from S60 Contacts into a standalone application. The main benefit is that you can use Jaiku occasionally if you still prefer the standard phonebook for daily use.
• Your own rich presence is automatically activated when Jaiku starts for the first time, and stays at the top of the contact list.
• The phonebook now has a cleaner UI.
• Easier uninstall. It’s no longer necessary to first manually close Jaiku.

Smaller UI improvements and bug fixes:

• Simpler menus
• Location naming fixes
• Better battery life
• Better focus handling in phonebook
• Bluetooth neighborhood is now available directly from the Options menu
• More informative contacts list
• Shorter country names
• Jaiku Settings no longer flashes on the screen during startup
• New application icons
• And a bunch of other little things.

The main known issue at this point is the relatively short battery life (about 1 day) running Jaiku continuously in 3G mode. If you keep Jaiku on all the time and want longer battery life, we recommend switching from 3G (Dual Mode) to GSM. You can now also easily disconnect and reconnect Jaiku to save on both data traffic and battery.

Also, on the 3G network, you need to disconnect Jaiku and reconnect again to update your location. In GSM mode, Jaiku updates the location automatically. We’re working to fix both issues.

There are some very cool completely new features in the works. They require a more major revamp of the back-end, which is going to take us a while (we’ve decided to hire a back-end developer - there’s now an open position on the team). Stay tuned for more updates!

I keep getting feedback on Jaiku from friends and interested people, and also from investors and other entrepreneurs. It really splits opinions, and everyone - including non-technical people - feel strongly when they see Jaiku.

There are those who are really excited and say this is exactly what they have wanted all along. Also, there are some people who tell me they wouldn’t want others to know their presence - except maybe their partner or hand-picked family members/friends. I might be slightly biased (grin) but luckily most people seem to love it.

Many of those people are still waiting to join the game because right now Jaiku requires a handset and a data plan, and it takes work to install. Jaiku’s value is in the network of family and friends, and that value gets realized when everyone can participate.

So we’re now taking a look at the part of the beta that’s still almost completely missing - that is, the Web service. We want to make it easy for everyone to share their rich presence - not just the folks with cool phones.

There’s work involved in building a server that can handle both asynchronous, every once-in-a-while updates that we get from the Web and synchronous, always-on presence we get from phones. We can build this cool new thing in small steps. Keep the feedback coming so we know what works and where it hurts. Thanks!