I wholeheartedly agree, in principle at least.
However, things get a bit complicated when the gateway does infact compile the wml/xml. This is a key point not to be ignored, as the phones have to turn the wmlc into xml/wml before any parsing is done.
I agree the error messages leave a lot to be desired (in fact, they are often quite misleading!), but it's not necessarily a plain browser issue..
Of course, the networking and terminal departements of several big telecom companies, such as Nokia and Ericsson, tend to be somewhat seperate (not necessarily a bad thing, actually).
I am an avid WAP-user (work related) from Norway, and here's my opinion on the most useful services:
Overview of police acitivity / controls in trafic. There is a rather popular service which lists the current places and type of control that is taking place. Extremely useful information when driving (especially longer stretches). It might say "0900am: Laser control in city XXX, by the bridge, north going". The system is just a private homepage, based on alerts posted by the avergage Joe user (from his WAP-phone or web-based)
Access to mail account
I really like being able to access my email account from anywhere. And not just ordinary POP/IMAP, but even my Outlook account off the company intranet (with the right software and security considerations from the GSM carrier). With a smartphone such as the Nokia9110 or Ericsson R380, it is quite acceptable to read and even reply (briefly). With an ordinary WAP-phone, it's still a hazzle, but still heaps better than any SMS-based system. General news
Most, if not all, major news services (mostly papers) have WAP-editions based on their web-services (here in Norway anyway). There's plenty of times where a newspaper would be handy in every-day life (I'm sure even non-newspaper-addicted people can think of at least one...:-), and now I always carry ten of them right in my pocket. Always updated as well. Travel booking and guides
I don't travel that much personally, but when I do, I really appreciate the availability of numerous city guides. And especially when making travel arrangements on-the-fly. Check the schedule of the airlines, or even book a seat (or change your booking to a later flight as you just read in the cityguide that your favorite band is playing here tonight). Auctions
need to stick to your computer whenever bidding for something on E-bay? heck, just re-bid from the subway on your way home. Killing potentially interesting discussion with facts
Oh man, this is a good one. I always tend to get into pointless discussions with a friend of mine about just about everything. How many people live in Mexico City? Who won the world-cup in 1970? Are there crocodiles on the American continent or just in Australia? And so on.. Kinda handy to have an encyclopedia in your pocket.. Look it up, brag like an idiot if you're right, claim the service is down if you're wrong..:-)
And the list goes on.. The main point is that WAP is great because it is..well mobile. Anywhere, anytime. Not everywhere, all the time!
We are running WAP over 9600 CSD, so there is a lot be desired in terms of speed and convenience. (even though, my experience is that WAP services really does not require more bandwidth, slow browsers/phones are the main problem). Setting up an connection is rather slow (15 sec), but in comparrison, how long does it take to boot your laptop? With packet switched networks thing will improve dramatically, even though you will probably never use a wap-phone over a PC. They complement eachother rather than compete.
Also, we should not forget that WAP is a pretty good standard (not flawless, though). It is very well adapted to wireless devices, regardless of speed and network setup. Without a well though-out standard, I fear the wireless communications would be be mess of separate systems (heck, WAP is flaky enough as it is, especially come implementation time...) When networks improve, as will the usability of WAP, just as the Internet usability improves as bandwidth increases. It also has the (planned) features of providing a standardized interface to PUSH, identification (SIM-based for example) and so on (just about everything that might be useful on a networked wireless device), which is taking it a step further than just HTML vs. WML.
Slashdot Mirror
I wholeheartedly agree, in principle at least.
However, things get a bit complicated when the gateway does infact compile the wml/xml. This is a key point not to be ignored, as the phones have to turn the wmlc into xml/wml before any parsing is done.
I agree the error messages leave a lot to be desired (in fact, they are often quite misleading!), but it's not necessarily a plain browser issue..
Of course, the networking and terminal departements of several big telecom companies, such as Nokia and Ericsson, tend to be somewhat seperate (not necessarily a bad thing, actually).
Are you sure it's the Nokia browser's fault?
Don't rule out bad wml and/or a picky gateway (that would be my guess).
I am an avid WAP-user (work related) from Norway, and here's my opinion on the most useful services: :-)
..well mobile. Anywhere, anytime. Not everywhere, all the time!
Overview of police acitivity / controls in trafic.
There is a rather popular service which lists the current places and type of control that is taking place. Extremely useful information when driving (especially longer stretches). It might say "0900am: Laser control in city XXX, by the bridge, north going". The system is just a private homepage, based on alerts posted by the avergage Joe user (from his WAP-phone or web-based)
Access to mail account
I really like being able to access my email account from anywhere. And not just ordinary POP/IMAP, but even my Outlook account off the company intranet (with the right software and security considerations from the GSM carrier). With a smartphone such as the Nokia9110 or Ericsson R380, it is quite acceptable to read and even reply (briefly). With an ordinary WAP-phone, it's still a hazzle, but still heaps better than any SMS-based system.
General news
Most, if not all, major news services (mostly papers) have WAP-editions based on their web-services (here in Norway anyway). There's plenty of times where a newspaper would be handy in every-day life (I'm sure even non-newspaper-addicted people can think of at least one...:-), and now I always carry ten of them right in my pocket. Always updated as well.
Travel booking and guides
I don't travel that much personally, but when I do, I really appreciate the availability of numerous city guides. And especially when making travel arrangements on-the-fly. Check the schedule of the airlines, or even book a seat (or change your booking to a later flight as you just read in the cityguide that your favorite band is playing here tonight).
Auctions
need to stick to your computer whenever bidding for something on E-bay? heck, just re-bid from the subway on your way home.
Killing potentially interesting discussion with facts
Oh man, this is a good one. I always tend to get into pointless discussions with a friend of mine about just about everything. How many people live in Mexico City? Who won the world-cup in 1970? Are there crocodiles on the American continent or just in Australia? And so on.. Kinda handy to have an encyclopedia in your pocket.. Look it up, brag like an idiot if you're right, claim the service is down if you're wrong..
And the list goes on.. The main point is that WAP is great because it is
We are running WAP over 9600 CSD, so there is a lot be desired in terms of speed and convenience. (even though, my experience is that WAP services really does not require more bandwidth, slow browsers/phones are the main problem). Setting up an connection is rather slow (15 sec), but in comparrison, how long does it take to boot your laptop? With packet switched networks thing will improve dramatically, even though you will probably never use a wap-phone over a PC. They complement eachother rather than compete.
Also, we should not forget that WAP is a pretty good standard (not flawless, though). It is very well adapted to wireless devices, regardless of speed and network setup. Without a well though-out standard, I fear the wireless communications would be be mess of separate systems (heck, WAP is flaky enough as it is, especially come implementation time...) When networks improve, as will the usability of WAP, just as the Internet usability improves as bandwidth increases. It also has the (planned) features of providing a standardized interface to PUSH, identification (SIM-based for example) and so on (just about everything that might be useful on a networked wireless device), which is taking it a step further than just HTML vs. WML.