Hey, it must be UIQ week! Ewan's been reviewing Scribbler for UIQ 3 - a free form, inifinite paper note-taker. It's a cool idea for a touch-based smartphone and I think it's a keeper on Ewan's P990. Highlights are the strip overview and the export to image files.
The Windows Live client for S60, which includes the Windows Live / MSN Messenger (IM) and is available via Nokia's Download! client, will shortly become a paid for service in select markets. Up until this point in time no charges have been levied, but starting immediately consumers will be offered a 30 day trial after which time they we be asked to pay a monthly fee to continue too use the service.
The next time you think Symbian Signed is a major problem on your otherwise wide-open smartphone, consider the world of Apple's iPhone. This scare story tells how even one unauthorised ringtone was enough for Apple to refuse honouring the device's warranty. Gulp. Hey, Apple, remember that famous Big Brother video you wanted to smash up? Careful you don't turn into the same character...
Ever since Jaiku was bought up by Google, questions have been gathering about the mobile presence-based network. Now Ewan's spotted a pertinent post by Ryan Paul and has written up his own thoughts on the saga . Is Jaiku long for this world?
Wired are carry a rather US-centric report on the history of the iPhone. Dramatically titled "How the iPhone Blew Up The Wireless Industry", it's still a good read, and for those of us outside the US, an interesting look at the US carrier structure that every handset manufacturer has to deal with.
Are you sitting comfortably? Steve quite likes the W960. The latest UIQ3 device, Sony Ericsson's second UIQ Walkman phone, with regular keypad, regular styling, flush screen and a practical 128MB of RAM, has made an impression. His thoughts on the W960 from the point of view of a smartphone user are here. I'll be looking at the Walkman components for the audiophiles next week.
Carlo Longino has been covering the CES Show for MocoNews, and he's posted a summary of the impact on the announcements and products from the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Centre; Mobile Internet Devices, Mobile TV, better Bluetooth and pico projectors were on display, but Longino wonders if CES is falling behind 3GSM (Feb 11-14 this year) in the product release schedule?
Popular Palm and Windows Developer Astraware (with a number of mobile phone titles, and the promise of S60 and UIQ this year) has been acquired by Handmark, the company announced this week . I've been waiting a long time for the team behind the addictive Bejeweled titles to come to Symbian OS, and they promise it's still happening in Q1 this year! Congratulations to Howard Tomlinson and the team.
These accelerometer applications are getting more and more fun - PyPiwo runs on the N95 et al and provides free water or beer, you will have fun with this down the pub, I absolutely guarantee. And it's written in my current favourite development system, Python, showing what can be done with this RAD (Rapid Application Development) language.
There's a fabulously interesting article over at Unwired View, where the author's got hold of the probable tech details of Nokia's multi-touch system, to be seen this year. Even more interestingly, the article goes on to describe a Nokia patent for a touch-less, ultrasonics-based 3D control system. 2008's shaping up to be quite a year!
The Juniper Research paper on mobile music has been getting a lot of comment today (see SMSTextNews and MocoNews) and it's easy to see why. Reporting that the market in 4 years time for subscription music service will reach $3.5 billion for subscription services, and $2.8 billion for downloaded original content is sure to generate headlines. The honest truth is nobody knows what is going to happen with music. What we see today is not the market in six months time, let alone four years. Look at the game-changing Comes With Music program from Nokia. Whoever can guess the right landscape may make money, but for now, Research Firms doing big extrapolations are clearly delivering a profit.
Yup, it's out. A whole new version of the free Yahoo! Go! on-device portal. Version 2 was actually pretty handy, including mapping and routing and support for built-in GPS. Version 3.0 claims better email handling, more news, satellite maps, live traffic. Sounds a bit like Google's portfolio, except that here it's all in the one Java application. Worth a try? Type get.go.yahoo.com into your smartphone's browser.
