Posted 03/20/10 at 09:12:57 PM by Justin Kerr

Opera has always had a tough time taking on the big guys in the desktop browser market, but anyone who has given Opera Mini a try on their smart phone platform of choice would probably be pleasantly surprised. Rather than simply spitting out web pages just like everyone else, the "Mini" version of the browser will actually relay messages through the company's compression servers, vastly reducing both load time and data usage on the device. This feature makes it one of the fastest mobile browsers available for any of the open smart phone platforms, which up until now, included just about everything short of the iPhone.

Well according to Opera's Jon von Tetzschner the company is not just working on an iPhone version of its browser, but that it doesn't anticipate Apple having any problem with it either. "Our expectation is that Apple will allow it," von Tetzschner said. "Why will they block ours?" My response to this would be simply, why wouldn't they block it? Apple has a pretty strict policy when it comes to app's that duplicate native phone functionality, but I suppose only time will tell.

Maybe Apple wants to get ahead of the anti-trust wrecking ball then inevitably hunts down anyone who tries to shoehorn web browsers into monopolistic markets, but I wouldn't count on it. Expect to see a release notice, or angry blog posting from Opera within the next few weeks.

Read More

Posted 03/20/10 at 07:10:39 PM by Justin Kerr

Blackberry users love email, and those who don't probably wish they had an iPhone. RIM's primary advantage over the years has been dynamite push email services, but as any Gmail user will tell you, support for Google's free email service has been somewhat lacking. Push support allowed users to retrieve Gmail messages, but when they got home to check their inboxes the old fashion way, anything read on the Blackberry was still marked as un-read even with IMAP enabled. Gmail users simply had no way to label or organize messages on the go. This was a frustrating limitation, but luckily for Blackberry Gmail users, this is all set to change.

RIM has confirmed plans to upgrade its North American BIS servers from 2.8 to 3.0 on Sunday March 28th, and along with a slew of other compatibility updates, support for 2-way Gmail sync as well as labels will be added. The BIS servers are the secret sauce hosted by RIM which allows up to 10 email accounts to be pushed to a single device. This allows mobile users to drastically reduce the amount of data the phone needs to transmit in order to conduct common tasks such as forwarding and opening email attachments. 

Blackberry push email service will be disrupted between 2AM and 6AM EST as a result of the upgrade, but if you're a Gmail user on a Blackberry, it's a small price to pay. 

Read More

Posted 03/19/10 at 06:01:48 PM by Pulkit Chandna

With applications becoming increasingly vital to a mobile platform's success, it makes perfect sense to lure developers to your platform early in its development cycle. It is something Microsoft is trying to accomplish using the Windows Phone 7 Series emulator, which was released earlier this week at its Mix10 event.

The emulator presents a fantastic opportunity to developers looking to learn more about developing apps for the upcoming platform. There is one caveat, though: The emulator only provides limited access to the mobile operating system's features. With hackers not shy to take apart expensive gadgets to get past any exasperating limits, it was always going to be a matter of time before an ingenious developer unfettered this free emulator.

A developer named Don Ardelean announced today that he has successfully “unlocked the ROM image in the emulator CTP.” The task only snatched 6 hours from his life. Ardelean was quick to publish an unlocked version of the emulator, which he later pulled down in as much haste. “I have decided to take down the link because Microsoft could get upset and I don't really want that (if someone at Microsoft will tell me that it doesn't bother them I will put it back),” he wrote on his blog. Besides unlocking all features demoed by Microsoft, Ardelean's hard work also yielded the first glimpse of the Office Apps for Windows Phone 7 Series.

Read More

Posted 03/19/10 at 08:38:34 AM by Paul Lilly

Apple seems to be getting pretty serious about social networking. For the fourth time this year, the Cupertino company plans to release a social networking app for the iPhone, the latest of which it will call iGroups.

As Apple explains it, iGroups will be a new service that will work on your iPhone and probably with MobileMe. As the name implies, the app allows groups of friends or colleagues stay in touch with each other to share information, such as during a concert, convention, or other event. In addition, users without GPS-abilities will be able to triangulate their position using the positions of other GPS-enabled devices in their group.

PatentlyApple.com says the app works with a highly sophisticated cryptographic key generation system, which should help alleviate any privacy and security concerns.

More here.

Read More

Posted 03/19/10 at 07:38:28 AM by Paul Lilly

Apple news site AppleInsider.com uncovered an interesting filing from Steve Jobs and the gang that dates back to November of last year, but apparently has gone unnoticed until now.

According to the paperwork, Apple is working on a way for iPhone users to transmit data, like text messages, over voice channels, somewhat similar to Nextel's walktie-talkie mode. As it stands now, sending a text messages relies on a wireless carrier's backend server.

"With the rapid deployment, proliferation, and technical advancement of mobile personal communication devices, such as cell phones, a user of these devices is presented with any number of ways to communication with another user," Apple wrote in the filing. "For example, a user can send a text message using, for example, Short Message Service-Point to Point (SMS-PP) protocol as defined in GSM recommendation 03.40 where messages are sent via a store-and forward mechanism to a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which will attempt to send the message to the recipient and possibly retry if the user is not reachable at a given moment. Therefore, SMS-PP requires the use of a backend server to provide the necessary support for transmission of data between sender and receiver."

What Apple's proposing is a system where data is transferred back and forth by way of a voice channel only, bypassing the backend server altogether. It gets a little geeky from there, all of which you can read right here.

Read More

Posted 03/18/10 at 10:50:09 AM by Paul Lilly

Google likes to refer to the Nexus One as a "superphone," but there's nothing super about the sales figure. On the contrary, sales of the Nexus One will probably be around 1-1.2 million during its first year of release. That's a good chunk less than the 2.5-3.5 million units many had originally projected.

Google may have shot itself in the foot in a number of ways, the first of which is offering the Nexus One as an online-only item. That's fine for geeks, but does nothing for the average smartphone owner who prefers to roll old school by walking into an actual store front.

Numerous other factors have held the Nexus One back, including a high unsubsidized price tag, initially limiting the device to T-Mobile, limiting the upgrade pricing to only those on an Individual 500 plan, and implementing their own termination fee in addition to any applicable carrier fees.

The latest announcement from the Google camp is that a second Nexus One model is now being offered, one that is compatible with AT&T's 3G network. But so far only offered at the unsubsidized price of $529, it's difficult to see this move reversing the Nexus One's sales fortunes.

Read More

Posted 03/18/10 at 09:09:23 AM by Paul Lilly

Building a thin and light ultraportable notebook means making a few concessions, and in some cases, that includes removing the optical drive. Not so with Gateway's new EC series, the company's first ultraportable to sport an integrated DVD drive. Kicking off the new series is the 11.6-inch EC14D01h. 

"Customers understand how convenient it is to have a notebook PC that is portable enough to take nearly anywhere to stay connected and have fun -- and the new EC14D01h brings a new element of entertainment to customers with the ability to watch DVD movies, play games on CD and DVD and more," said Chris Chiang, product manager for Gateway Canada. "The integrated DVD drive in such a compact device will be a huge benefit for customers who want the flexibility to enjoy and share different movies, music, photos, and more stored on a DVD or CD."

Other hardware consists of an Intel Peniu. SU4100 ULV processor (1.3GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz frontside bus), integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, 4GB of DDR2-667 memory (upgradeable to 8GB), 320GB hard drive, memory card reader, Wi-Fi, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and S/PDIF, multi-gesture touchpad, 6-cell battery,a nd Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Gateway said it will begin shipping the EC14D01h later this month in Canada for 580 moose bucks ($574 USD). No word on when, or if, Gateway plans on shipping this one south of the border.

Read More

Posted 03/18/10 at 07:32:49 AM by Paul Lilly

Take note, software developers - there's big money to be made in the mobile app market. According to an independent study commissioned by GetJar, the world's second largest app store, the market for mobile software will balloon to $17.5 billion by 2012.

"It is easy to see how mobile apps will eclipse the traditional desktop Internet," GetJar chief executive Ilja Laurs told AFP. "It makes perfect sense that mobile devices will kill the desktop."

That might be taking it too far, but there's no denying how huge the mobile app market has become. Apple's App Store alone contains more than 150,000 iPhone apps and has noted over 3 billion downloads, and Google's Android Marketplace is gaining steam. At last count, there were more than 30,000 programs designed for the Android platform.

Market analysts say the explosive growth is a direct result of the increased data plans, which isn't surprising when you consider that many wireless providers require some sort of data subscription.

Read More