NTT DoCoMo has announced it will develop an Operator Pack for FOMA handsets. This will result in the adoption of a global software platform across the FOMA range of devices. The Operator Pack will reduce development costs and speed time to market, it should also make it easier for the manufacturers to offer phones (variants based on Japanese FOMA models) to overseas markets. Operator Packs will be developed for both the Linux (LiMo compatible) and Symbian OSs.
Over the weekend, Google released a cute plug-in for Firefox users called "Google Send To Phone." Highlighting any text in your web browser, and then click the phone icon on the toolbar to send the text to your phone as an SMS. One caveat, it's for US based phones only.
OK, so the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 isn't Symbian OS-based, but it's a form factor that's got a lot of people interesed from all corners of the smartphone world. And, as it's Friday, here's a little off-topic link to WMexperts' initial review of the X1 prototype. Plenty of good information here, plus some good comments and extra Q&A at the end too. (via IntoMobile)
One for the paranoid this Friday, as the O'Reilly Radar reports that the A5 Hardware Project will be releasing a web service to crack the GSM A5/1 Encryption Protocol. Pick up a radio receiver (around $700) and the potential is there to crack and listen to a call while it is in progress.
With Mowser's impending demise, a lot of discussion has been centred this week on the future of the mobile web. Ewan reckons that it's stronger than ever and has produced a rundown of his Top 10 mobile web sites as evidence. What's especially interesting is that some of these m.versions are more useful than either the full desktop-designed site or the service's own downloadable client. Comments welcome: what other m.sites have you found that are also worthy of a mention?
Dublin based Developer BitRabbit has released v2.0 of RabbitFactory, their middleware for PDA and smartphone game developers. Included are a number of C++ API's that will allow the same title to be easily ported over a variety of devices, including Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Symbian OS; alongside a universal C++, desktop based, emulator. RabbitFactory will power the upcoming multi-platform release of Platypus from Astraware.
In Smartphones Show 57, I challenge Stavros at Position Art (unsuccessfully - but then he is a genius), I cover Google's native S60 Search utility and there's an in-depth video review of the Samsung i550 business smartphone. Here's the main Smartphones Show 57 page, the high res YouTube version, and the QVGA (low res) and VGA (high res) RSS feeds.
Nokia has released official figures for Q1, 2008, revealing growth in 'Devices and Services' of 50%, year on year, net sales up 35%, overall phone market share of 39%, smartphones sales up 24% to 14.6 million in the quarter, with 10 million Nseries handsets and 2 million Eseries. Geographically, unsurprisingly, market share was down in North America, static(ish) in Europe and growing in emerging markets (e.g. China). Here's the full Nokia statement, tables and their own analysis.
Never mind small local trials of DVB-H mobile TV, never mind twiddling with cell towers, the Americans just love doing things bigger than the rest of us. Yesterday they launched a huge satellite dedicated to covering the whole of the USA with DVB-SH signals, reports PhoneMag. This is a satellite-friendly (higher frequency), extended version of DVB-H, the new Euro and (arguably) worldwide mobile TV standard. See also DVB-SH at Wikipedia. So look for DVB-SH compatibility in the next generation of smartphones. Now, why can't we have a huge European satellite to serve the same purpose?
Krisse delves into the economics and logistics of Nokia's upcoming Comes With Music system, explaining how it's possible in today's climate and then goes on to ask why other types of digitally protected content couldn't also be bundled in? Games? Applications? Videos? Thankfully, a line is drawn before we get to 'Comes With An Indian Takeaway'...
British based Mippin are happy bunnies today, with Red Herring labelling them as one of 100 Top Tech Start-ups in Europe. Nice to see their service get the recognition it deserves after six months of public availability.
Many readers will be familiar with Mowser, the content adaptation engine that made making mobile-friendly URLs from traditional web sites fairly easy. It seems that Mowser's main developer has admitted commercial defeat, saying that there will be no more development of Mowser and that it 'could disappear at any time'. Great shame.
I'd been bending the ears of Nokia's Eseries team for ages about signing up with WOM World to handle buzz about their products and to manage triallist programs. And now it's happened, although my nagging was probably only a small part of the process(!) Here's the new, generic WOM/Nokia home page for you to keep track of via RSS. There will probably be an official statement along soon, too, hopefully with the announcement and trial-availability of at least one new Eseries smartphone.
To promote N-Gage, Nokia has put up a new interactive gaming site - Get out and Play. The loading screen itself is Breakout, there's a film based on Snake and you can then play Breakout with real people as blocks/paddle/ball. Hmmm.... Comments welcome. (Tzer2 adds: The film is made entirely in stop-motion without any special effects, using 1000 extras to make up the snake at its largest. Everything in the film existed in real life, there's no CGI at all.)
In which I rant a little about the glaring lack of common sense in today's navigation applications, end up rather late and stressed for a wedding I should have been half an hour early for... and I explain what's happened to the sat-nav group test that we promised six months ago...
