Steve mulls over his favourite theme, convergence, and tries to spot where it's all going to end. If all phones are smart, there's no real point in talking about smartphones...
It's the now weekly Carnival of the Mobilists - always worth a read for anyone interested in all things mobile. This week it's at Helen Keegan's place.
Another blast from the past, perhaps, but if still have any old Psion 5mx, Revo or Series 7 netBook palmtops, note that Opera has now been made freeware for each of these. See PScience5 for the appropriate ZIPs and instructions.
Opera Mini, the proxy browser that I declared in my review would 'change the way you browse, the sign of a killer application' seems to be going from strength to strength, according to Opera's latest press release and observing a number of industry deals, ranging from added-value branding and support from Onspeed Mobile to a variety of redistribution deals. Opera Mini currently serves up over 4 million pages a day to mobile and smartphone users.
Interesting to see figures coming from Telephia, which included Pan-European (UK, G, Sp, F, I, Sw) sales for Nokia's main S60 smartphones. The 6630, N70 and 6680/81 each sold around 1.5 million units in Q1, 2006, way more than any other smartphone and comparable to mass market proprietary best sellers like the RAZR. (via Nokia Phones) [Thanks to those you wrote in pointing out my maths error yesterday!!]
Right before the whole smartphone thing kicked of, Psion (one of the Symbian founders) were close to releasing a third generation Revo PDA - while it never made it into the retail channels, a number of prototypes were manufactured, along with a unicode rebuild of Epoc Release 5 / Symbian OS. One of these is now up for auction on Ebay. I've been in touch with the seller, and it is a genuine sale and unit. So if you want one of the last Psion machines ever, head on over to Ebay, and bid on The Conan.
There's an interesting overview of the role of Symbian devices in the enterprise over on symbian.com this week. Might be worth forwarding the URL to the relevant IT managers in your company?
A tiny bit misleading in places, this new Wikipedia entry has an interesting ready reference table of the pros and cons of the various smartphone development options. Something for everyone?
For all those occasions where you need quick and cheap web info on your smartphone and it's not covered by RSS subs or other Internet apps, what you need is a bookmarked page of essentially text-only 'useful links'. I've just updated the 3-Lib web guide.
There's a huge significance in Russell Buckley's vision of the future, I know there is, even if the realisation is still a few years in the future. Here's part 2 of his musings over on MobHappy, and here's part 1, in case you missed it. If I were Russell, I'd be considering a trip down the patent office...
Push email is arriving at a Symbian smartphone near you shortly, and Ewan's been living with push email for the last 3 weeks while in the USA. A welcome tool or nagging distraction from the business of life? Push email treads a fine line. Comments and experiences welcome!
T-Mobile just announced an unlimited data plan (web'n'walk') as a £7.50 addition to their existing business tariffs. You'll still end up paying around £40 a month or more though, but it's a step in the right direction. Who'll offer me £20 a month for unlimited data with no calls? Vodafone? O2? Roll up, roll up...
