Archive for the ‘Mobile’ Category

Why the latest iPhone update should worry the competition

by Steve O'Hear

November 21st, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments1 Comment

Upon first unveiling the iPhone, Apple CEO Steve Jobs proclaimed that the company was five years ahead of the competition. And while that is debatable — although I think he had a point — the latest iPhone software update, and those than came before it, prove one thing for sure.

However far ahead the iPhone was when it first launched, Apple isn’t resting on its laurels, with the company continually improving the phone’s software at a pace that the competition can’t keep up with. This is in no small part due to Apple’s unique relationship with its partner carriers, which enable both incremental improvements and major new features to be delivered direct to customers without the networks getting in the way.

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Zune Pass now offering rent to own music subscription model

by Steve O'Hear

November 20th, 2008 | Posted in Audio, Mobile | Comments3 Comments

Do you like to rent your music collection or own it outright? With the updated Zune Pass, Microsoft’s subscription service for its Zune line of portable media players, you can now have the best of both worlds. Sort of.

For a monthly fee of $14.99, Zune Pass subscribers get access to millions of tracks on a rental basis — once the subscription ends, access is shuttered — but with today’s changes they can also keep ten DRM-free tracks on a to-own basis to add permanently to their music collections.

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Nokia's Comes With Music is everywhere, but is the message getting through?

by Steve O'Hear

November 19th, 2008 | Posted in Audio, Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

Having spent a fair amount of time driving around London over the last few days, one thing is evident: Comes With Music, Nokia’s all-you-can-eat music service, has definitely launched in the UK, backed by a costly ad campaign and a big holiday season push by retail partner Carphone Warehouse (prime time TV ads shown during X Factor, if I recall correctly). But how well is the message getting through?

On that note, I decided to pop into one of Carphone’s larger stores to take a closer peek at the display advertising for Comes With Music — there was plenty of it — and to ask a few subtle questions about how well the concept is resonating with consumers.

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Zatz Not Funny: TiVo, Flip MinoHD, CES Unveiled and more

by Steve O'Hear

November 16th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV, ZNF | CommentsNo Comments

A periodic roundup of relevant news from our friends at Zatz Not Funny (one of my all time favorite blogs)…

Flip goes HD, adds FlipShare software

Mari Silbey: Pure Digital unveiled its anticipated Flip MinoHD today packaged with new FlipShare software for editing and sharing… One of the issues with the Flip camcorders to date has been keeping a sharp focus for close-up shots. According to a Flip spokesperson, the MinoHD doesn’t necessary solve that problem, with the minimum focus range staying at 80 cm. However, it’s likely not a significant concern for casual users, particularly with the new HD resolution.

(Ed. I looked at purchasing a Flip but after reading multiple reviews I’ve plunged for the more expensive Sanyo HD800 – review coming soon).

Dave dumps XM (again)

Dave Zatz: See ya, XM. I was on the fence and you pushed. Our time together has been mostly positive, but the massive lineup modifications yesterday without any advance notification isn’t the proper way to treat your customers. So I’m walking.

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It's official: 3's "Facebook phone" unveiled

by Steve O'Hear

November 13th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

At a launch event this morning here in London, the mobile carrier “3” and sister company INQ Mobile unveiled the much anticipated “Facebook phone”. That’s not its official name, nor is it an official offering from Facebook — although the social networking site did have a hand in the phone’s deep Facebook integration.

Alongside the built-in Facebook client, the device — dubbed the INQ1 — includes apps for Windows Live Messenger and Skype, a web browser, widgets for Google and eBay and others, as well as music site Last.fm being integrated into the phone’s media player (“scrobbling” of tracks only not actual streaming). However, its the way in which Facebook and the other included social apps have been integrated with the INQ1 that stands out.

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iPhone app climbs Apple's 'walled garden' to display photos on TiVo

by Steve O'Hear

November 12th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

DVRPics is a new application for iPhone and iPod touch that enables you to stream photos to a networked TiVo so that they can be viewed on the TV.

Currently only one photo can be selected at a time — a limitation the app’s developer blames on Apple, since third-party developers aren’t given direct access to the iPhone’s photo library. However, a version of DVRPics that supports photo slide shows is next on the app’s road map. The app costs 99 cents from the iTunes AppStore (iTunes link).

Interestingly, DVRPics isn’t the only TiVo-related app for the iPhone. After a quick search I discovered an app called DVR Shows (iTunes link) that enables you to see what recordings are stored on your TiVo via an iPhone or iPod touch, including full program details. Unsurprisingly, you can’t actually stream those recordings to the iPhone or even use the iPhone as a TiVo remote a la iTunes or the recently released iPhone app for Sonos.

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I've been playing with Nokia's new touchscreen phone – the 5800 XpressMusic (aka the Tube)

by Steve O'Hear

November 10th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments28 Comments

Hands-on: Nokia XpressMusic tube 5800

See also: Video demo: Nokia XpressMusic 5800’s media playback features

Ever since Nokia officially announced its new consumer touchscreen smartphone, the 5800 XpressMusic (aka the “Tube”), I’ve been dying to get my hands on the device. Not because I was expecting an iPhone killer — it isn’t and probably wasn’t really intended to be — but because I was curious to see how well Nokia could adapt its S60 user interface for a touchscreen phone. After a few days playing with the 5800, albeit a ‘prototype’, here are my initial impressions.

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Forget iPhone or GPhone, 3 to debut "Facebook phone" next week

by Steve O'Hear

November 6th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

Just don’t call it the F-phone

A new low cost cellphone that puts Facebook and other social applications at its center will debut next week on Hutchinson-owned 3 in the UK and Australia, according to Unstrung. The new handset has been designed by another Hutchinson subsidiary, INQ Mobile, and is the first of a number of “low cost social mobile” offerings in the pipeline.

Apart from a dedicated Facebook client the device will also include applications for Skype, email and IM.

INQ Mobile’s CEO, Frank Meehan, told Unstrung that the company’s goal is to build cheaper 3G phones — two to three times less that the average smartphone — in order to persuade more consumers to start using mobile data.

“For 85 percent of our customers, we can’t really sell more than voice and text,” he says. “You need to drive data usage higher right across all the handset segments. You want the majority of customers, not the top-end of the community that rules strategy at the moment.”

Meehan says that with regards to Facebook integration, INQ worked closely with the social networking company in order to offer better integration than is available on existing handsets. Unlike the iPhone, for example, INQ’s Facebook application runs in the background so that users can automatically receive updates from their Facebook friends. “So Facebook becomes like SMS and can be used in the same way as SMS,” says Meehan.

Interestingly, before heading up INQ, Meehan was involved in the development of the first dedicated Skype mobile phone, also sold through 3, which we enthusiastically reported on just over a year ago.

Sonos delivers touchscreen controller via iPhone

by Steve O'Hear

October 28th, 2008 | Posted in Audio, Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

Similar to Apple’s own ‘Remote’ app for iTunes, Sonos today released a free download that turns an iPhone into a wireless controller for the company’s Multi-Room Music System. Now Sonos owners or prospective buyers can do away with the official remote and opt to use their iPhone or iPod touch instead, which not only may work out cheaper – the Sonos CR100 is priced at $400 – but also provides the touch interface that some users have requested. On that note, Dave Zatz shares this interesting tidbit:

… more fascinating than the software itself is the iPhone Controller back story. Sonos has heard the touchscreen requests, but hybrid analog/touchscreen prototypes didn’t fare well in their usability testing and a pure touchscreen device was uncomfortable for some. Whereas the iPhone demographic is obviously already in tune with touchscreen conventions.

While it’s surprising to learn that Sonos has thus far been unable to develop a touchscreen controller that resonates with its userbase, by releasing an iPhone app out in the wild they’ll gain a lot of valuable user feedback that would otherwise be hard to come by. The move also demonstrates once again the versatility of Apple’s multi-touch UI, whereby the on-screen virtual buttons can be infinitely reconfigured for different purposes.

See also: Logitech announces Squeezebox Duet, takes aim at Sonos

View the official video demo of Sonos Controller for iPhone after the jump…

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Netflix streaming to Mac courtesy of Microsoft! Could Nokia phones be next?

by Steve O'Hear

October 27th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

Oh the irony

Netflix has finally began rolling out a version of its video streaming service for Mac users, and it comes courtesy of Microsoft. Although only available initially to “a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers”, with a full roll-out anticipated by the end of the year, the new PC-based version of the company’s ‘Watch Now’ service is powered by Microsoft’s Flash competitor Silverlight, a technology that crucially includes its own cross-platform ‘studio approved’ DRM solution, thus enabling Netflix to support both Windows-based PCs and now those running MacOS (Intel only).

Along with adding Mac support, Netflix says the adoption of Silverlight delivers a number of usability improvements too, including “a faster, easier connection” and “a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding.” Yes you read that right, fast-forwarding and rewinding. Who said the revolution wouldn’t be televised?

In the future, it’s very possible that Neflix’s use of Silverlight could see its streaming service reach even more devices beyond PCs and set-top boxes currectly supported. In particular I’m thinking of mobile phones and Internet tablets from Nokia. The Finnish handset maker has already announced that it plans to support Silverlight on future handsets, starting with those powered by S60, with S40 and Maemo devices to follow. And from a marketing perspective, a partnership with Netflix would make a lot of sense as it would surely help the company shift more handsets in the US. In this regard, Nokia has previous form too. The company’s flagship smartphone, the N96, is in part being sold in the UK based on its support for the BBC’s iPlayer service.

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