Widsets, java-hosted online widgets that bring you news or filtered web lookups, have a steadily growing following. They're also partly funded by Nokia, fully compatible with every Symbian OS smartphone in the last few years and the always excellent E-series blog has just published an eloquent Widsets write-up.
Rather (ahem) delayed, the Carnival of the Mobilists is now back on track, this week at Software Everywhere. Read it for the usual mix of mobile musings!
It's.... AAS Podcast #14, (almost) live from 3GSM 2007, in which Rafe Blandford interviews CEO Johan Sandberg about the new MOTORIZR Z8, and about UIQ Technology's aims and mission.
Research firm IDC has issued worldwide figures for smartphone sales for 2006, reporting that 80 million shipped in all, of which Nokia accounted for around half, 38 million devices. RIM's Blackberry came in second with 7 million, with Motorola's Windows Mobile and Linux portfolio in third, at almost 5 million. (via RingNokia)
Mash ups (mixing two services together) has been one of the keystones of the Web 2.0 toolset and we are starting to see this trend move into mobile. In AAS Podcast 13 Ewan talks to Tom Morris about his mash up of Twitter (a SMS social networking tool) and the London Underground.
Krisse explores the myths and deceptions involved with selling phones 'locked'. When is a free phone not really free? What about the so-called advantages of buying through a network operator? And how can you and I change the situation? Read on in another thought-provoking Krisse rant!
Rafe Blandford looks in detail at the Nokia E90 Communicator. A legend reborn? It's undoubtedly feature packed and technically impressive - but is there still a market for the qwerty clamshell form factor? Rafe and Steve include plenty of hands-on observations, photos and screenshots of this, Nokia's upcoming flagship.
Think phones are all about what's happening in Europe, America and Japan? Think again. According to the BBC, mobile phones are now overwhelming bought by people in developing countries. They quote a GSMA report which shows that 85% of the one million new mobile phone subscribers every day are from emerging economies, not rich ones. Mobiles also provide a secure banking and trading system in developing countries for people and businesses who have never had accounts before.
Ewan's been comparing the W950i with a non-smartphone 'Walkman' phone, the W900, and finds that the comparison reveals quite a bit about Sony Ericsson's thinking in the styling and interface of the newer, UIQ 3-powered device.
One of THE major launches of the last couple of weeks was Smart2go. The best intro to Nokia's mapping and routing software by far is Ed's write up of the free service at E-series.org. In the meantime, I've clocked up 300 miles driving with the premium voice-guided upgrade and will be doing a proper review and TomTom comparison as soon as Smart2go comes out of beta.
S60 and Vodafone last week announced the release of the first Vodafone specific software package for S60 to all S60 licensees. The customised version includes Vodafone specific applications, services and branding. The first two handsets that will receive this software are the Nokia N95 and the Samsung SGH-i520. S60 and Vodafone first announced their collaboration a year ago at 3GSM in 2006.
Announced over in our forums was that emoze, the popular (for those on flat rate data plans) push email/contacts/calendar system, has just been upgraded to work on S60 3rd Edition devices like the Nokia E61 and N73.
Rafe Blandford looks in detail at the Nokia E90 Communicator. A legend reborn? It's undoubtedly feature packed and technically impressive - but is there still a market for the qwerty clamshell form factor? Rafe and Steve include plenty of hands-on observations, photos and screenshots of this, Nokia's upcoming flagship.
