Future seems brighter by Claudia Sonea

It’s amazing how creative and smart student’s can be especially when they are under the pressure of a grade. Professor Hal Abelson from Massachusetts Institute of Technology managed to stir up the creativity in his students by giving them as assignment for the final mark to create a software program for cell phones using the long awaited Android. There were 20 students divided in 7 groups and all of the groups focused on location, although at the end of the project they confessed Google’s Android must go beyond that and revolutionize the mobile phone industry. There were projects like GeoLife (remiders on the phone based on previously established lists), Flare (a program enabling pizza shops to track their drivers), Locale (phones would automatically adjust settings when detect as being in certain zones; for instanceif you’re attending lectures the phone would automatically switch to vibrate mode), Re:Public, Loco or KEI. All the projects had a short term of three months and had to meet some conditions like a veritable business that could bring in money. Surprisingly, they did not even have a real Android phone as none has been released on the market; therefore they had to use a PC simulating a phone's operation.Even so, the possibilities of the new wireless age seemed clear to the class. Their work was a solid evidence of how the Internet could break grounds in the phone industry with customization and other inventions. LiMo Foundation supports the creation open-source phones, while Apple Inc. made the iPhones available to the creation of new applications. Actually, besides the fact that all students got an A, the Locale group got a $25,000 prize and a chance to the finals of the challenge that Google started. Stunning performance, isn’t it?

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.<br><br><font size=2>These news are original content from young talents around the world and are selected for you by Chris Cantell.</font><br>

edited by Zuzana Lakostikova