The slightly predictable mess that's Microsoft's altering of their Office file formats (to XML) has left smartphone owners in the lurch. But at least there's light at the end of the tunnel with today's Smartphone Show announcements: Dataviz has announced Documents To Go Premium Edition version 4.0 for UIQ 3 smartphones and Quickoffice has announced Quickoffice Premier 5.0 for S60 3rd Edition, both offering full Office 2007 editing. In other news, Quickoffice has announced a partnership with SoonR, dubbed Quickaccess.
UIQ has announced its second ‘Open Application Competition’ for 2008 at today’s Symbian Smartphone Show. Aimed at finding some of the best new applications (and developers) in the UIQ ecosystem, the competition runs from today until the end of 2007 (December 31st), where a jury of experts will judge the submitted applications.
Symbian has announced a number of changes to the Symbian Signed program at today’s Smartphone Show in London’s ExCeL center. Joining the existing ‘Certified Signed’ and ‘ Open Signed’ areas of the program is a new ‘Express Signed’ service, which should be welcomed by a large number of smaller developers.
Dreamspring has announced a 'Life Information Management' tool, DreamLife, planned to be released in early 2008. They are recruiting beta testers at the moment. DreamLife integrates DreamConnect 3 with the UIQ 3 Calendar, allowing you to link contacts to activities and giving you the ability to add and edit activities and contacts from one place. Full press release after the break.
Sony Ericsson, Motorola and UIQ Technology today announced that Motorola has taken a 50% stake in UIQ Technology. UIQ Technology was previously wholly owned by Sony Ericsson following its purchase from Symbian earlier this year. This represents a very significant endorsement of UIQ by Motorola and underlines Motorola's plan to expand its high end multimedia portfolio using UIQ powered phones.
What more timely moment for a Carnival of the Mobilists than right before the annual Smartphone Show? And, just to confuse people, my Smartphones (i.e. plural) Show is the Carnival host this week. Lots of good reading in Carnival 95, if (as the editor) I do say so myself...
BT has launched a developer competition aimed at encouraging the creation of innovative applications and services for WiFi enabled devices. The competition will formally launch at next weeks Symbian Smartphone Show. The overall winner will receive £1000 prize money.
UIQ Technology, now owned by Sony Ericsson of course, is ramping up its profile ahead of next week's show, announcing new partnerships with EMCC, Epocware, Visto, SysOpen Digia and others. SymbianOne has a good article describing the changes and some of the thinking behind it here.
Web portal, proxy service or online RSS reader? Sometimes the boundaries can get a little blurred. Ewan takes a detailed look at Mippin, launched yesterday, and finds it surprisingly useful.
Sony Ericsson today announced the forthcoming availability of a range of new accessories today. The HCB-105 is a in car Bluetooth speaker system which is effectively Bluetooth speaker phone accessory designed with car usage in mind. The MBS-100 is Sony Ericsson's first portable wireless speaker system to accept stereo audio Bluetooth streams (via A2DP) and features a striking design and 5 hours of music playback.
Next Monday, the day before the Symbian Smartphone Show, is the All About Symbian Pub Meet. It is a completely free and open event and everybody is very welcome to come along and join in. We'll be giving away a Sony Ericsson W950 and a Nokia E61i along with a raft of other prizes. There's also going to be two lightning talks, one from the people behind WOM World (about what they do) and one from Robert Harmsen (Trends in Mobility).
Sony Ericsson and UIQ have released some of the details of their activities at the Symbian Smartphone Show. Developers are being offered the opportunity to test their applications on all the current UIQ 3 phones, there's also a chance to get one on one expert help to solve your development difficulties and there are a number os seminar sessions and training opportunities to attend.
Ewan's got a fairly honed sense of hearing, which is why Rafe and I packed him off with a Bluetooth stereo headset to investigate wireless sound quality and reliability. Did A2DP pass the test and is it ready for the prime time? A qualified yes for low grade pop listening, but an emphatic no (for several reasons) for anyone serious about their music...
Ewan's got a fairly honed sense of hearing, which is why Rafe and I packed him off with a Bluetooth stereo headset to investigate wireless sound quality and reliability. Did A2DP pass the test and is it ready for the prime time? A qualified yes for low grade pop listening, but an emphatic no (for several reasons) for anyone serious about their music...