Archive for the ‘Mobile’ Category

What's in a name? Google's announces the Android Market, not the Android Store

by Daniel Langendorf

August 28th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | Comments2 Comments

The choice of name says it all: Android Market, not Android Store.

By design, Google is preparing the equivalent of an open-air marketplace for applications that will run on Android-powered smartphones. Google, which announced the Market late this afternoon through its Android developer blog, believes that developers should have an “open and unobstructed environment to make their content available.”

It’s a stark contrast to Apple’s App Store, where developers must submit applications for approval before release. The process has miffed many developers because their iPhone and iPod touch programs may take days, or weeks, before they show up for sale in the App Store.

Like a market or bazaar, Android developers can show up, set up shop, and sell their wares hassle free. Developers can submit applications to the Market using three steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe the content, and publish it.

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GigaOm's Mobilize conference 08 (last100 readers get 10% off)

by Steve O'Hear

August 20th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

Our friends over at GigaOm are putting on what’s shaping up to be a very interesting looking conference on the Mobile Web (Disclaimer: last100 is an official media sponsor). Here are the details:

MOBILIZE presented by GigaOM
“Embrace Opportunities in Mobile Web”
September 18, 2008
Mission Bay Conference Center
San Francisco, CA
Conference web site – www.mobilizeconf.com

“MOBILIZE will explore the advancements driving growth of the mobile web and what they mean for entrepreneurs and their investors. Despite big plans and visions, the promise of the mobile web and a truly untethered Internet hasn’t been realized yet. Now, developments in design, user experience, handset technology, location and wireless network technology are changing everything. The mobile web is about to take off like a rocket.”

Note that last100 readers qualify for a 10% discount off the entry price to Mobilize by using the discount code ‘LASTONE’ at http://mobilize.eventbrite.com/?discount=LASTONE

Mobilize LaunchPad deadline is today!

If you’re a startup or budding developer in the mobile space you have just one day left to get your submission in for the Mobile Startup Launchpad. The details:

“We are looking for the 12 most promising mobile web startups to strut their stuff at the MOBILIZE Startup Launchpad. This dynamic dozen will focus on the emerging technologies that are the foundation of the mobile web era. Think your startup has the right stuff? Deadline for submission is today, August 20th. We will announce the winners on August 25th. Get in touch with us here.”

Remember that last100 readers can get a 10% discount off the entry price to Mobilize by using the discount code ‘LASTONE’ at http://mobilize.eventbrite.com/?discount=LASTONE

Review: Samsung Tocco SGH-F480

by Steve O'Hear

August 18th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile, Review | Comments8 Comments

Tocco is the Italian word for touch, and as you may have guessed, the Tocco SGH-F480 is Samsung’s latest touchscreen phone to hit the market. Once again, comparisons to the iPhone are inevitable, and although the Tocco is no iPhone killer – not that such a thing exists – it does sport at least a couple of features – haptic feedback and a 5 megapixel camera – that better Apple’s iconic device.

The Tocco is also smaller than the iPhone, measuring 98.4 x 55 x 11.6 mm compared to Apple’s 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm. It’s lighter too, shaving off just over 25 grams. Of course, what you gain in pocketability, you lose in screen real estate (particularly important for a touchscreen device), although we think that for those who find the iPhone to be on the bulky side, especially when used as a phone, the trade off could be worth it. If you’ve ever wondered what an iPhone nano might look like, the Tocco gives you a pretty good idea.

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PlayTV: Sony cripples portable features of its PS3 DVR

by Steve O'Hear

August 15th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | CommentsNo Comments

It looks like we jumped the gun in our praise of PlayTV, Sony’s forthcoming DVR add-on for the PlayStation 3. The feature we liked the best, the ability to transfer recordings onto the PlayStation Portable (PSP) or any device that supports MPEG2 playback, appears to have been dropped at the last minute. Instead, users are restricted to streaming live TV or recordings to a PSP over a local network or the Internet, SlingBox-style. And while this is still a neat feature in itself, it renders the device nearly useless for watching recordings on-the-go since the Remote Play functionality of the PSP requires Wi-Fi access.

“With regards to PlayTV, you can not transfer content to your PSP, PC, or memory sticks” a Sony spokeswoman tells The Register.

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Why Google should have developed its own Gphone

by Daniel Langendorf

August 13th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | Comments8 Comments

It’s been almost a year since I wrote “The Gphone is coming; how Google could rewrite the rules.” And during this time I’ve wanted to give Google the benefit of the doubt for choosing its Android strategy over developing the phone itself.

But I can’t. It’s the wrong strategy.

Whether the Google phone comes out in September, or later this year, or sometime in early 2009, it really doesn’t matter. All this bickering over supposed hardware delays, software issues, and hurt developer feelings has me wondering how Google would have fared if it had taken a different path and developed the Gphone on its own.

Why should Google do this?

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Surprise, surprise: Why I refuse to upgrade to iPhone 3G

by Daniel Langendorf

August 11th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | Comments10 Comments

I’ve had the money in my wallet since July 11, but I refuse to spend it on iPhone 3G. And this really, really surprises me.

As the second generation iPhone went on sale, I wrote down several concerns — or predications, depending on how you look at it — and waited a month for everything iPhone 3G to shake out. I wanted to use hindsight to tell me whether I made the right or wrong decision not to upgrade from the original iPhone.

So far, I have no regrets. And here’s why.

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The real surprise of the App Store isn't number of downloads or revenue

by Steve O'Hear

August 11th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments10 Comments

That the iPhone’s App Store has delivered 60 million downloads and generated an average of $1 million a day in revenue since its launch a month ago isn’t all that surprising.

To begin with, the App Store couldn’t be any easier to use. All apps available to purchase and download either from the familiar iTunes Store or from the device itself. Next, factor in Apple’s marketing machine, the quantity and quality of apps available from Day One – many of which are free – combined with the fact that the typical iPhone owner has cash to spare and an early adopter mentality geared towards trying out new things, and you have a surefire hit on your hands.

Instead, the real surprise is that the carriers – AT&T in the U.S. and 02 in the UK – agreed to Apple launching the App Store in the first place. Or more specifically, that Apple could offer the App Store in the manner in which they have done.

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Smartphone parade – one size doesn't fit all

by Steve O'Hear

August 8th, 2008 | Posted in Mobile | Comments2 Comments

(Left to right: Palm Treo 650, HTC Touch Diamond, Nokia E61, Nokia E71, Samsung Tocco)

We at last100 love the iPhone as much as the next person. Yet I remain convinced that for all of Apple’s innovation – especially on the mobile browsing front and major improvements in usability – the iPhone in its current incarnation will have significant but limited appeal. There’s only one iPhone, and in the smartphone market, one size doesn’t fit all.

Case in point: I love a QWERTY thumboard. Although the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is the best of its kind, it isn’t a real keyboard. And in the words of Duncan Bannatyne from the TV program Dragon’s Den, for that reason, and that reason alone. I’m out.

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Report: HTC's Android-powered "Google phone" may be delayed after all

by Daniel Langendorf

August 7th, 2008 | Posted in Comms, Mobile | CommentsNo Comments

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Developing a phone — even if it is just an operating system — is not something you do overnight with a bunch of cajoled software developers.

Just a week after High Tech Computer (HTC) said it was on schedule to deliver Android-powered cell phones by the 4Q of 2008, another report surfaces Thursday that says HTC is “having structural problems to incorporate Google’s demand feature set” and “demanding a guaranteed minimum revenue surety from Google,” according to Barron’s Tech Trader Daily.

Barron’s picked up a research note from Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research saying his “contacts” contend that HTC’s Android handset — the so-called Google phone — will be delayed until the first quarter of 2009.

Additionally, Chowdhry’s “contacts” tell him that another problem Google is having is attracting software developers to the platform. They’re too busy writing code for Windows Mobile, Nokia (Symbian), Research in Motion (BlackBerry), and Apple’s iPhone.

That’s no surprise. These guys actually have phones, real working phones, to develop for and test.

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Mobile browser more important than operating system

by Steve O'Hear

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

In light of the move towards cloud computing, the Web browser is fast becoming the most important application on any mobile platform, whether it be the Nokia-led Symbian OS, Apple’s iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, LiMo or any other. An argument I made recently in relation to Android and fears that native third-party applications running on different versions of the Google-developed OS could face compatibility problems.

See also: Android, it’s the browser stupid

Today GigaOm summarizes the thoughts of Bob Morris, head of mobile marketing for ARM Holdings, the company that designs “cores” for chips that power mobile devices. Morris goes one step further by arguing that the importance of the browser now supersedes the operating system itself. Browsers are the new application framework, he says, and as a result ARM is researching how to optimize their cores for specific Web browsers not just the various operating systems.

“Morris believes the increasing number of services accessed through a web site such as Facebook or Gmail are what chip vendors and device makers needs to pay attention to”, writes GigaOm’s Stacey Higginbotham. As a result, ARM recently inked a partnership with Mozilla and other vendors to build a Linux-based mobile computing device designed for Web browsing.

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