Announcing the inaugural ForumOxford: Future Technologies Conference to be held on 13 April 2007 at Rewley House, Oxford, UK. Sponsored by Google, Alpheus, Admob, Horizon Channel and Mi-Pay, this one-day conference includes speakers from Symbian, Google and AdMob. More details below.
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.
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.
UIQ Technology has released the sixth and last of their official themes for all UIQ 3 smartphones: Amazonia is 'inspired by the mighty Amazon rainforest'. Unfortunately, the link is to a Flash widget, so you'll have to click through to find it, and see the note on the UIQ page about the .utz download.
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!
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.
Remembering Michael Mace's excellent generic positioning (in the handheld industry) diagram from last year, I wondered where the current and upcoming crop of Symbian OS-powered hardware might sit in his Entertainment/Communications/Information chart. Comments are welcome as always.
Here's your game-for-the-weekend. Ewan has been reviewing Napoleonix for UIQ 3. A souped up, characterised variant on the likes of Chess and Chinese Chess? Maybe, but it looks gorgeous and is surprisingly playable.
Probably a touch of formality after completing their accquisition, but Sony Ericsson have confirmed that UIQ is still being licenced to other manufacturers if they so wish. In addition to this they're also inviting other phone vendors to become share holders in UIQ (which is currently 100% owned by Sony Ericsson). An interesting move, but will anyone take them up on it?
Remembering Michael Mace's excellent generic positioning (in the handheld industry) diagram from last year, I wondered where the current and upcoming crop of Symbian OS-powered hardware might sit in his Entertainment/Communications/Information chart. Comments are welcome as always.