December seems to be Launch Month for us! We launched our first direct-to-consumer product onto I-mode today: SnowSpy.

It's a service for skiing and snowboarding fans, with both a practical and a more airy-fairy aspirational element to it. Basically we've mobilised a vast amount of data on ski resorts across Europe, from resort details through to weather reports (and forecasts), as well as webcams which are set up on location.

So, from a practical point of view, this lets skiers see where the best snow is, take a look around resorts and get a feel for what's out there. But more interesting (to me) is the aspirational stuff. When we booked a summer break earlier this year I found a webcam of the village we were staying in, and found myself obsessively checking it in the run-up to our stay: hmm, wouldn't it be so much better if I could carry my holiday around with me, before it even started?

The service right now is basic, but functional: this is phase 1. We've got about 5 or 6 new features and facilities which'll be going up there in the next week or so; and next year we'll be starting the task of bringing SnowSpy to other operators and territories across the world. It's not the only product we have planned, either (but we don't want to go overboard: our core business is, and will remain, service-based).

As for the I-mode platform: it's nice. Simple, sensible, coherent. It feels pragmatic rather than clever, which I quite like. CHTML isn't any quicker to develop for than WAP, in our experience, but it's certainly less intimidating to someone who's not done it before. And we're in the fortunate position of only having to cater to a few handsets (there are only 2 I-mode devices which are currently on the market in the UK). As we roll out elsewhere the behind-the-scenes magic which lets us deal with device diversity (a subject close to my heart - sad I know) will become more apparent. And yes, of course it's WURFLy :)

All credit to recent(ish) FP hires Mr Falletti for driving this internally and externally, to Mr Skinner for doing all the donkeywork of getting it up and running, and to the O2 I-mode team, who've been extremely helpful.

FP client Puzzler Media sold to DC Thomson:

"ABN Amro Capital has lined up the sale of Puzzler Media, a magazine publisher that has capitalised on the craze for Sudoku number puzzles, for 85 million pounds."

"The sale of Puzzler Media to DC Thomson's John Leng & Co subsidiary will allow the company to develop Sudoku for mobile phones, interactive TV and the Internet, according to managing director Mel Lewis."

We're hard at work on the next round of work for Puzzler, with all sorts of fun things in the pipeline: new puzzle formats, new services, new distribution.

Do gamers really want photorealistic graphics?: "The problem of increasing programming and artist time is one that a vast section of the industry is going to have to address. As budgets and graphical expectations (from the greedy gaming public) rise out of control, publishers and developers are going to have to make a choice: graphics or gameplay."

The assumption that photorealism means a better game, or that 3D means a better game: deeply flawed, I reckon.

Designing for illiterate people is an interesting one. It's something we've been looking at out of the corner of our eyes, sidelong-ly rather than a full on stare. I draw your attention this paragraph, about I-Cue founder Marc Lewis: "Marc retains a 75 per cent interest in ICUE but intends to channel all his profits into a new trust to help children and adults improve their reading skills."

Cameras as input devices: "As I’ve written in the past, one of the wonderful aspects of mobile devices is the availability of alternate input devices such as voice and camera. A recent News.com article on camera phone search technology describes several companies using the camera as web input."

Of course, all the noise recently has been around barcodes (in their 2D and 3D variety), but that's not all that can be done here. We're putting out a proposal in this area at the moment with some lovely ideas in it - you know, the kind that when you hear them you break into a grin because they're so very sweet.

I'll write about it soon.