Here’s a summary of the week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.
Top digital lifestyle news
The biggest headlines were in mobile this week on last100.
The release of Software Developer Kits for Google’s mobile-OS known as Android have been delayed till April. Meanwhile the iPhone, which should see its own SDK released later this month, is now the No.2 smart phone in the U.S. but still trails significantly worldwide.
In an update on the 700 MHZ spectrum auction we reported that Verizon is rumored to be in the lead ahead of Google.
This week also saw a number of new mobile products being announced or finally seeing the light of day. Opera Mobile 9.5 was revealed, trumping the iPhone’s mobile browser on a number of features including Flash video support; Nokia relaunched its mobile gaming service N-Gage; and stealth startup Modu made public their product offering: an interesting looking ‘modular’ cellphone:
… that can be slipped into different “jackets” to give the base phone additional features and functions depending on the user’s needs.
Basic “jackets” may include an MP3 sleeve, turning the phone into a digital music player. Or a GPS device. Or a digital camera for wireless image transfers. Or an alarm clock interface. Or with a larger screen, a video playback device. The possibilities are plentiful.
More digital lifestyle news:
- Yahoo! exits music subscriptions, Rhapsody to pick up the pieces
- Rumor: Microsoft interested in purchasing startup Ustream.tv
- Through patent filing, Apple hints at rich future of AppleTV
- Archos TV+ DVR now available in the UK
- iPhone, iPod Touch get supersized
- ESPN begins opening up access to its broadband channel ESPN360
Features
In a post titled ‘Yokia! Why Nokia should buy Yahoo‘, last100 editor Steve O’Hear explains how Nokia could benefit from acquiring the dot com giant:
If Nokia is repositioning itself as a Web services company, to combat falling profit margins on its hardware, then acquiring Yahoo would help to give the company a much needed presence on the desktop (not just mobile), as well as beef up its Web offerings and Internet brand recognition in general.
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Alternatively, a nightmare scenario exists for both Microsoft and Yahoo: Yahoo sells it ad business to Google in return for an ad-revenue partnership. Meanwhile, the Open Handset Alliance starts to produce real results and Google’s Android becomes a widely adopted mobile OS. The result? Google dominates the mobile Web (i.e. mobile ads) as it does on the desktop.
That’s a wrap for the week. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
