So … I do a fair amount of traveling (I logged about a dozen trips last year in the US and abroad) … speaking at and attending events, whether they might be conferences, user group meetings, festivals, code camps, and the like.

One of the challenges I face as mobile and device developer is carrying gear around without looking (too much) like a nerd. I have a lot of computer gear.

A couple years back, in fact, I bought a Scott-E-Vest to try to tackle the challenge of carrying around devices, and as an easy way to pack my devices away in an organized fashion without throwing them into a computer bag (and additionally having to carry it around).

Scott-E-Vest:

BTW: This is in fact, Scott that made Scott-E-Vest, but it’s not me.

This worked to some degree, but wearing the Scott-E-Vest isn’t always an option, nor is it always prudent in event settings (i.e. due to weather, or if the event is “formal attire”). I must admit though, Scott-E-Vest has done a great job on expanding their clothing line to suit many occasions, and spans both genders now!

One thing that Scott-E-Vest does not do too well is store a lot of stuff without getting weighted down. Some gear like sync cables and/or power adapters you don’t need to carry around. They just add weight and really just need to be packed in a bag. But the problem still remains … how to organize all those dozens of potential cables, power adapters, and other computer accessories you might have in your bag without them tangling, or getting lost amid a mix of hardware and other items.

Well, my first attempt to address this was a Camera Bag with several compartments. I got a Lowepro Camera SlingBag last year, and it has worked pretty well.

Camera Bags such as Lowepro Slingbag are awesome for storing items other than cameras … like say mobile devices or a small laptop (i.e. netbook or macbook air)

I’ve also used a trick a while back, by storing wrapped/tied cables within heavy duty see through freezer bags. This works pretty well, especially since you can see what’s inside each bag. Problem with this has been the bags tend to open sometimes, and after some time they tend to rip. It’s a temporary solution, albeit it an inexpensive one.

Overall the “plastic baggie” technique worked pretty well, but I just became aware of a new product called GRID-IT! a few months back (the main reason for this post, actually). GRID-IT is a clever bag accessory than turns a flat surface into a multiple item “surface bag”.

Basically you tuck your accessories (power adapters, cables, or anything) underneath the many elastic “belts” overlaid in a grid pattern. They call it an “OBJECT RETENTION SYSTEM”.

Here’s more marketing spiel:

“The GRID-IT!™ organization system is a proprietary patent pending object retention system. A unique weave of rubberized elastic bands made specifically to hold personal objects firmly in place.

Designed to provide endless configurations of objects, digital devices and personal effects,
GRID-IT!™ is as versatile as life itself!”

Demo Video:

Here’s the results of a couple GridIt’s on the partial contents of my bag.

BEFORE GRID-ITs!:

AFTER 3 GRID-ITs! (one small, one medium, and one large unit):

Amazingly, all 3 GRID-ITs fit nicely into my lowepro camera bag. I haven’t been on the road yet with the GRID-ITs, but I imagine they will work very well. Rather than dumping out my bag to search for a cable, I’ll only have 3 things to dump out, instead of a hundred different tangled items.

I’m sure you could DIY yourself (check instructables, maybe), the price is worth the ROI (I think).

ok, enough the blatant product endorsement … but if you do decide to buy someGRID-IT, please mention my name (“Scott Janousek”) in the “Referral” field.

Check out GRID-IT!:

Via CNN : Apparently, an android device called the “Galapagos OO3SH” over in Japan will debut 3-D on a phone … and without the aid of glasses.

Looks like Capcom is making 3-D versions of several games including “Mega Man,” “Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Gold Knights” and “Resident Evil: Degeneration”.

Although the use cases are still TBD, games and media seem to be the obvious choices.

Gimmick, or practical? Guess the Japanese will find out first.

Has it really been a year since last year’s FITC Mobile? Yep. And with this FITC Mobile event, 2010 did not disappoint.

Congrats to the whole crew who help organize & produce the event.

I’d like to take some time to spill out my gut reactions on what I saw and heard here at FITC on this blog.

For more Flash Mobile commentary, please check out flashmobile.scottjanousek.com (post is pending, BTW).

This year, due to my schedule and other events, I deicided to go as an attendee rather than a speaker.

As one who has been involved with mobile and devices for quite some time, here are some thoughts on the day 2 conference and what I had a chance to see and hear (on a very high level):

DAY 0
ok. So day “0″ it was a rainy day, but a good one to attend an indoor all day workshop. Of course at FITC there were several to choose from. Among them, one for Unity on Mobile (iOS, specifically), one on iOS development (specifically iPad), a native Android development session, as well as a (free) BADA event sponsored for Samsung.

I attended the BADA even primarily for my lack of general knowledge about the platform and its capabilities … Ok, I also attended to also to see the Galaxy Tab in person and gets some hands on (which I eventually did). I’ll post my reactions about the Galaxy Tab in another post, but in summary : “it’s a very nifty device and the closest thing I’ve held in my hands that comes close to an iPad … and in some respects even surpasses it”.

Back to BADA … so BADA is Samsung’s platform to target lower to mid range feature phones. Upper elchon (aka “smartphones” and premier tablets, etc) is reserved for Android, which is a really a good way of moving IMHO. It’s a move I’d would have expected from Nokia, but they are all tied up with Meego, and Symbianv3 as part of their strategy.

Anyways, BADA is a C++ framework developers can utilize to create applications for feature phones in Samsung’s worldwide lineup. Overall, I found the platform to be like OF and/or objective-C workflow. The development is very low level, yet powerful.

There’s also a tie in to Samsung’s App Marketplace, but I haven’t really explored that quite yet to be honest.

I’m not exactly sure on the future of feature phones and on BADA, but it is something I’ll be thinking more about.

DAY 1

Developing Apps on Android as an Entrepreneur with Ash Kheradmand – overall this was in my top 5 presos. Good business presentation, not technical. Of course it was a marketing schpeal for the service Ash & Fasaid are working on, but it still had some very valuable insight into “business savvy 101″.

Building Applications for Windows Phone 7 using Microsoft Silverlight (Part 1) with Mark Arteaga – I stepped into the WINPHONE 7 session to see what Mark had to say. Basically, it was “101″ into some of the toolset involved with creating Windows Phone 7 apps. Pretty cool, but overall it was bit dry, technical material, but still yielded a lot of info into the overall platform and its quirks.

Networking – I did some networking rather than attend any sessions.

Flash Platform for Mobile and Devices with Mark Doherty – Mark talked about the overall Flash Platform and recent activities, including AIR on Android, as well as Flash Player 10.1 on Android. He gave some great insight into the mindshare of Adobe’s philosophy and take on multiscreen. He also attempted to demo some of the Flash apps on devices. Of course the demo Gods weren’t on his side for some of them, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Still, it was good to hear what Adobe had to say on Flash across devices in these recent days of “HTML5 vs. Flash”.

Catalyst for AIR on Devices with Terry Ryan – I caught some of Terry’s preso. Basically the idea of creating prototypes quickly from Flash Catalyst. Overall I found the session to be interesting. Right now Catalyst does not support any kind of mobile flow, but you can “fake it” to a degree. I think this material was more of Terry exploring the possibility. Of course whether or not Adobe decides to make Catalyst a prototyping tool for mobile and devices is to be seen. Once Hero gets closer, it would make a whole lot more sense for marketing and sales at Adobe to take another look at it.

Intro to Unity – High-Quality Interactive 3D Content with Tom Higgins – this was one of my favorite presentations at the event. Tom gave a great overview of the ideas and philosophies around Unity, as well as lot of business insight. I didn’t see much in the way of technical usage of Unity, but he did run a Unity workshop so I imagine that was the place to be for that knowledge transfer. Overall, I found his explanations and forthcoming of Unity mindshare to be refreshing and brutally honest.

Google Event Party – The Google event was pretty cool. The venue was not bad. The thing about FITC after hour events is that they are almost always noisy and not very conducive to networking. Still, I managed to find some less noisy locations at the venue to talk with some folks.

Dinner with Adobe – Some Adobe folk (i.e. Brian Rinaldi, Terry Ryan, Mark Doherty, and Paul Trani) took Rob Rusher and I out to an Indian place for some dinner (AROMA?). Oddly enough this is the same place, I had lunch with Nokia several months earlier this year. Great food and conversation. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about any of it here.

DAY 2

HTML5 and Mobile Web Development with Alex Kennberg – Given that there’s so much hub-bub about how HTML5 will “kill Flash”, or how HTML5 this or that, I thought I’d check in and see how Google is approaching HTML5. Although the session was bit disjointed I did come off with how Google felt about HTML5. What struck me about the session was it was mostly how HTML5 was leveraged internally at Google. I don’t think I saw one demo shown in a real browser during the session. This kind of threw me for a loop. If you are going to promote technology, it’s best to show some live demos of pushing the limits, even if it’s not your limits you’re pushing … and no … a canned video of Doom or Quake playing within a highly unstable and massively configurable setup does NOT COUNT!

An Android App Case Study with Adrian Lee-Kwen – this was about how Adrian took an idea to hobby, and then eventually sold off the property. His session had some good stats and numbers, as well as some insight into the app market. Some of his presentation I agreed with, but other parts, not. Hobbyist app developers are a double edged sword for the Mobile (App) Industry.

networking – caught up with some folks at the event

Best UI Practices Across Various Mobile Platforms with Boris Chan – basically this was a common sense approach to building mobile apps and experiences. The material validated a lot of thoughts. “Know your audience. Know your device …” was the motto. To me it could be summed up as “Know your Industry”.

Coding practices for Android developers with Anna Schaller – Motodev is where Anna works. Nice to see the Motorola thoughts on Android. Some tips and tricks were shown.

networking – I spent the remainder of the conference talking with folks about mobile and devices.

EVENING – I spent it working.

MISC – Of course I glossed over playing around with the Galaxy Tab or playing games on the huge 55″ Samsung LED. Plus there was some talking with Microsoft about Windows Phone7 as well as some other Canadian mobile app developers.

So, overall that’s in a nutshell of what happened at FITC.

Overall vibe:
In terms of platform outlooks, well … last year might have been about iOS, but this year it was diverse, but there was definitely a lot more focus on Android. There was only a couple RIM sessions and I didn’t spot even one session covering working with any Nokia platform development this year. It was mostly iOS, Android, and WinPhone7 … and who knows, next year it could be Windows Phone 7 that’s the big winner for # of sessions at FITC.

On another note, seemed like based on some sessions, Telcoms might be on the verge of striking back to reclaim developers in 2011. Telecoms with their own app stores and new models. We’ll have to see how that pans out for them.

Oh yes, before I forget … anyone traveling from the US into Toronto should checkout Porter Airlines. It takes only < 1 hour to get there, arrives at harbor island downtown, and is really easy avoid the crowds at the International Airport.

Also, if you want a decent hotel and can’t get into the venue chosen hotel, Hilton Garden Inn in Toronto is not a totally bad choice.

The event was held at the same venue … The Toronto Convention Center. Space is definitely not a problem there! No need to change it for 2011, I don’t think.

Anyways, just some thoughts on this year’s event. I’ll be going through my business cards, and hope to be in contact with some shortly. If not, get in touch at @scottjanousek.

A few months back I started doing collages of stuff I bring back in my bag. Here’s a snapshot of FITC Mobile 2010.

I’m working on a post conference summary which I hope to have here sometime very soon. Stay tuned.

CNN article : “When phones are too big for pockets” pretty much sums up my thoughts for the past year … they aren’t phones anymore … they are “devices”.