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Apple Changes the Rules (again)…

By Richard Kinder
VP, Technology
Red Bend Software

Another day, another business model innovation from Apple. Having shaken up the mobile world with a reported strategy of taking a cut of ARPU generated by iPhone users, Apple is now monetizing its software assets in other device types.

Being the owner of an iPod Touch I was delighted to discover the availability of a new firmware release (v.1.1.3). This adds some of the interesting applications and new features previously only available on the iPhone, including the Google Maps application and Mail client. At a cost of 12GBP I was more than happy to indulge. I have to say the end results are great; but what about the software update user experience?

First off, I needed to be at my home iMac to perform the update. At least I was at home and could walk up the stairs…initial download of the new image took a while, even at home on an “up to” 8Mbit/s DSL line. The actual update went smoothly (although I didn’t have the courage to test whether the software update is failsafe in the event of loss of device power or PC connectivity!) and the billing process via iTunes store worked well.

What would I improve:

Lose the iMac’s role in the process (I can wirelessly purchase songs direct from iTunes Store on my Touch, why not software?)
Reduce the size of the update to make wireless download feasible (perhaps there’s a company out there with some technology to do this? Wink, wink)

Not only would these improvements benefit the user experience, but making updates available more frequently and more conveniently (when not at home, for example) could help to drive the attach rate up and generate Apple additional revenues from device software.

Other device vendors take note – many of you have valuable software assets that currently are underutilized.

When will the ‘traditional’ mobile phone industry catch up with Apple?

Labels: Apple, Google, iMac, iPod, iPod Touch, software

posted by Red Bend @ Friday, January 18, 2008 - 11:18 AM 0 Comments

The “Short Blanket” Effect – Engineering Challenges in Implementing FOTA

By Sharon Peleg
Founder and CTO
Red Bend Software

Updating mobile firmware is not a simple task. Some have compared it to updating software on a PC, but there are in fact many engineering challenges that make updating mobile firmware much more difficult. While the generator running on a PC in the office can practically enjoy no resource limitations, the design of the update process on mobile devices must take into account the lack of any auxiliary data, lack of extra storage to be used as temporary buffers, lack of RAM in some cases and a much weaker CPU. Ineffective approaches could easily lead to conflicts between the various resources, and result in the “short blanket” effect – if you pull it from one side, the other side is left uncovered.

When evaluating, testing and integrating FOTA on mobile devices, manufacturers and operators should consider the following:
· Speed, accuracy and predictability of update generation
· No spare flash memory on the device
· Fault tolerance
· Size of the delta file and update package
· Positive user experience
· Updating compressed firmware
· Type of flash memory

In this blog entry, I will address the first three.

Speed, Accuracy and Predictability of Update Generation
The update algorithm must be fast enough to generate updates at a reasonable speed and should provide sufficient feedback to allow proper understanding of the behavior of the update process on the device. Another equally important requirement is the need for the update generation to be predictable. It is not only sufficient that the generator will produce a small update when few changes are introduced to the source, it must do so consistently.

No Spare Flash Memory on the Device
The fact that there is no spare flash memory for building two side-by-side alternating versions when updating the new version (as some embedded devices can afford to have) leaves no option but to perform an update in-place. In-place delta-updating is challenged by limited spare flash and RAM resources to hold the new version.

Fault Tolerance
When updating firmware on mobile devices, it is crucial to assume that the process could be interrupted at any point in time due to a power failure. Power failure during flash re-programming not only can corrupt the written flash sector but also leave the device in a useless state. In addition to having to be both in-place and fault-tolerant, the process must run at maximum speed to minimize downtime. Fault tolerance requires writing additional data when updating in order to maintain the integrity of the persistent data at any point in time. The challenge here is to minimize writing data in order to minimize the number of re-flash operations.

Learn more about implementing FOTA in our new white paper, “Principles of Updating Mobile Firmware Over-the-Air”.

Labels: FOTA, mobile, software

posted by Red Bend @ Monday, September 10, 2007 - 12:31 PM 0 Comments