Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta — July 15th!

If you’re like me, you don’t favor hate the standard Pocket Internet Explorer that comes pre-loaded onto your Windows Mobile 6 device, so you search for alternatives. Opera has been around forever in the mobile browsing industry with small Java versions for most Java enabled handsets and stronger, more intensive and feature based versions for Windows Mobile phones. At long last, here comes version 9.5!

While some early versions of phones, such as the HTC Diamond are already coming shipped with Opera 9.5, the release has not been made official. For those wondering why, Opera explains it all:

Some versions of Opera Mobile 9.5 are already shipping on great phones like the HTC Touch Diamond, and some of you have asked why we wouldn’t be able to release it publically yet. As you probably know, releasing a version that works on a large variety of phones is more complex than making it work on one specific phone. You should also expect a few differences between the versions that are pre-installed on phones and the public version of Opera Mobile 9.5.

Mark your calendars folks, it’s just over two weeks away!

[Via Opera Blog]

Open Source Symbian: 2010 or Later

The muffled hoopla surrounding around Android enjoyed a temporary spike in interest earlier this week when Symbian, the operating system on more smart phones than any other platform, announced they wree going Open Source. The explosion of articles pitting Open Source Symbian vs. Android could not be avoided.

As usual, people broke out their “Jump to Conclusions Pad,” and begun writing articles claiming that Android and the iPhone are doomed, Symbian will rule the world and its only a matter of time! Muahahah. Afterall, developers can start building for the platform TODAY and were promised their applications would work on the first devices to come out.

And then we found out the earliest these open source Symbian phones will launch is 2010. Before me start making assumptions about NEXT decade the 1.5 years left in THIS decade will have a lot to say.

That’s not to say that Symbian should be written off or underestimated - afterally, they DO dominate the smart phone platform market and their Open Source announcement is incredibly meaningful. While there won’t be any immediate implications it illustrates the direction in which the mobile industry is headed.

And we like that direction.

Whether the iPhone, Android, Open Source Symbian or another platform earns dominance in the next decade, it doesn’t really make a difference. We’re just happy to see this strong movement and new direction the mobile world is taking towards providing consumers with the greatest choice and flexibility.

Or we could be bitter… took ya long enough, didn’t it?

Google Maps for Mobile and More on S60

A recent contest held to showcase the capabilities of S60, the Symbian Smartphone OS owned mostly by Nokia, recently came to close. Submissions came in the form of YouTube videos and the winners have been announced. That gives us an awesome opportunity to showcase to you some of the things that S60 can help you do:

Here’s a video showing Google Maps integration on S60, illustrating how to find a pizza shop with an amusing (but quickly annoying) old-style Charlie Chaplin video:

Here’s an example of Joikuspot running on a Nokia N95. It will allow you to connect to the internet on your desktop computer using the connection from your mobile phone:

Are you a nature person, outdoors person or hiker? Are you a dog lover who goes on frequent walks with your pup? Or, maybe you are abandoned on an island but have an S60 based phone and want to know more about the landmarks and geography around you. This video/application is for you:

One winner posted a helpful, 5-minute video with various S60 tips and tricks. Definitely worth a watch if you’ve got an S60 based device:

We’ve left out another Tips video winner which was painfully boring and monotone. The Yoyap! video posted by Rita was also too annoying to include. We wouldn’t wish a forced viewing of these upon our worst enemies, much less our readers.

So, for the original posting with all the winners listed visit the S60 Blog. We originally found this on the Official Google Mobile Blog who were apparently excited that a winner featured Google Maps for Mobile. Seems kind of like an NBA player being excited that their hometown newspaper wrote an article about them, does it not?

Oh, and congrats to all the winners… even those we refused to post here.

Samsung i900 is I-Want-It Worthy

There have been a lot of phone rumors dropping where, with one look of the phone, you think, “I want it.” The Samsung i900 definitely fits into that category. Scroll down for pictures.

Speculation on Specifications (say it 10 times):

Not too shabby, eh? Not at all… and those pics you’ve been waiting for:

[Via NaviGadget]

Android Top 50, Links and Descriptions

Google has announced the 50 Winners of Android Developer Challenge Round 1. Well… okay, we lied. They only announced 46 because 4 of the lucky 50 wanted their applications kept secret. Those buggers!

Here is the announcement form Google: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/05/top-50-applications.html

But below, we’ve published a more exhaustive list from Phandroid.com that has links and descriptions for most of the winning applications:

  1. AndroidScan - Use your phone to scan a barcode, get pricing information from dozens of stores, product reviews and more. Never make a bad purchase again! (by Jeffrey Sharkey)
  2. Beetaun - Social network around geographical content created by people and for people (from your neighborhood, from your city, from your country, from all over the world). By Sergey Gritsyuk and Dmitri Shipilov
  3. BioWallet - Jose Luis Huertas Fernandez
  4. BreadCrumbz -Navigate your route using pictures instead of a map (there’s also a map, if you like). Easily record routes using your smartphone. Share them with your friends, share them with the world. By Amos Yoffe
  5. CallACab - Konrad Huebner and Henning Boeger
  6. City Slikkers - PoroCity Media and Virtual Logic Systems
  7. Commandro - Commandro shows where are your friends REALLY are and what they’re doing at the moment. Using GPS location information, it will display 100% true real-life event and location information with regards to you and your friends. By Alex Pisarev, Andrey Tapekha.
  8. Cooking Capsules -Simply “watch” a very short cooking show, “shop” with the grocery list, and “make” using the handy step-by-step recipe directions. If you are out of your usual neighborhood you can use the ‘find nearest market’ gps feature. If your friend is stopping at the market, simply hit the ’send to friend’ button to text your list to them. By Mary Ann Cotter and Muthuselvam Ramadoss
  9. Diggin - Daniel Johansson, Aramis Waernbaum, Andreas Hedin
  10. Dyno - Virachat Boondharigaputra
  11. e-ventr - Michael Zitzelsberger
  12. Eco2go - Reduce your carbon footprint. Eco2go finds and suggests public transit alternatives for your trips - right on your phone. By Taneem Talukdar, Gary Pong, Jeff Kao and Robert Lam
  13. Em-Radar - Jack Kwok
  14. fingerprint - Robert Mickle
  15. FreeFamilyWatch - Navee Technologies LLC
  16. goCart - Rylan Barnes
  17. GolfPlay - give support to all the real time necessities of a golf player during a game, using GPS location and an online querying site where it is possible to access to their game statistics, tournament creation and a social network to exchange impressions with other users about the sport that links them: golf. By Inizziativa Networks
  18. gWalk - Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus ten Hagen, Christian Klinger, Marko Modsching, Rene Scholze
  19. HandWx - Delivers 7-Day weather forecasts to your phone. By Weathertop Consulting LLC.
  20. IMEasy - Yan Shi
  21. Jigsaw - Mikhail Ksenzov
  22. JOYity - Coming soon. By Zelfi AG.
  23. LifeAware - Gregory Moore, Aaron L. Obrien, Jawad Akhtar
  24. Locale - Locale is one of 7 Android applications submitted by MIT students. It enables you to set up location- and time-based profiles for your phone, so you can make it shut up when you’re at work, forward calls to your landline when you’re at home. Clare Bayley, Christina Wright, Jasper Lin, Carter Jernigan.
  25. LReady Emergency Manager - Chris Hulls, Dilpreet Singh, Luis Carvalho, Phuong Nguyen
  26. Marvin - Marvin allows you to publish and browse geo-localized objects around you. Objects can be static or move by themselves and follow you. You publish and browse where you are, based on your current location or where you virtually are on the map. By Pontier Laurent.
  27. Mobeedo - Mobile Search. By Sengaro GmbH.
  28. Multiple Facets Instant Messenger - Virgil Dobjanschi
  29. MyCloset - Mamoru Tokashiki
  30. PedNav - an application that helps you plan your activities efficiently when moving around and interacting with an urban environment. Like a good personal assistant, PedNav first inquires about your general plans for the day. By RouteMe2 Technologies Inc.
  31. Phonebook 2.0 - Coming soon. By Voxmobili.
  32. PicSay - Eric Wijngaard
  33. PiggyBack - Christophe Petit and Sebastien Petit
  34. Pocket Journey - connects your location to the voices of a global community of artists, historians, architects, musician, comedians, and others so you can quickly know everything about anywhere. By Anthony Stevens and Rosie Pongracz.
  35. Rayfarla - Rayfarla turns your phone into a musical instrument as well as providing a variety of mini games that are music related. I’m not saying too much about Rayfarla at the moment as I’m now in competition with 49 other semifinalists but suffice to say there will be some interesting twists when it is finally released on hardware. By Stephen Oldmeadow.
  36. Safety Net - Michael DeJadon
  37. SocialMonster - Ben Siu-Lung Hui and Tommy Ng
  38. SplashPlay - SplashPlay offers the next generation in musical tuition and learning to play the guitar just got a whole lot easier. Simply attach the pod and light panel to your guitar and start strumming to your favourite songs in minutes. Songs are sent to the pod from a mobile phone or computer using a USB or Bluetooth connection, giving total portability. Other features include a guitar tuner, guitar metronome and a hands free, Bluetooth foot pedal. The product will provide an easy, portable and fun method of learning music.
  39. Sustain- Keeping Your Social Network Alive - Niraj Swami
  40. SynchroSpot - Shaun Terry
  41. Talkplay - Sung Suh Park
  42. Teradesk - José Augusto Athayde Ferrarini
  43. The Weather Channel for Android - The Weather Channel Interactive Inc.
  44. TuneWiki - Our goal is to have the lyrics always on, always available, always synchronized to music - on any device that can play music back and connect to the internet. By TuneWiki Inc.
  45. Wikitude-the Mobile Travel Guide - Find points of interest based on your current location. By Philipp Breuss.
  46. Writing Pad - ShapeWriter is an innovative, original, fun, and highly efficient method of entering text into touch screen mobile phones. ShapeWriter lets the user to simply draw a continuous stroke from letter to letter on a soft keyboard and lift to complete the word. The resulting trace is recognized as the intended word. For example: to write the word “fun”, land the pen (or mouse cursor) on the F key, drag to the U key, continue to the N key and lift up the pen. ShapeWriter recognizes the curso trace F-U-N as the word “fun”.By ShapeWriter Inc.

[Via Phandroid]

Microsoft Launches a… BlackBerry App?

As we all know, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and BlackBerry are fierce competitors in the smart phone OS market. But then why was Microsoft’s best ever application, the recently released “TellMe”, launched for BlackBerry and not Windows Mobile? Because BlackBerry’s are better and even Macrohard knows it…

Just kidding. There is actually a more logical response. Microsoft purchase a company called TellMe which was midway into development of the application already. A Windows Mobile version of the app is surely forthcoming.

Okay, logistics aside, this little application is pretty kickbutt. Use your BlackBerry to navigate to http://m.tellme.com and download the little App. You’ll be able to speak locations into your phone such as, “Coffee” and it will show you the closest coffee shops or “Nordstrom’s” and it will show you the closest Nordstrom’s.

This is a pretty handy tool that we’ll look for Windows Mobile to take full advantage of in their next release… which might not be for ages unfortunately. Hey Mr. CEO Mike McCue… could we get an Android version please? Thank you!

Apple and Google Need Eachother

There are many reasons the government cracks down on monopolies, but it all boils down to the fact that competition is good for the world. It’s even good for the companies involved. Think about it…

Competition fuels progress and just as in sports and entertainment, businesses will often “play up” to their competition. They want the edge. They need the edge. And if they feel like they are being “pushed” they will constantly strive to be ahead of the curve. Apple and Google will push eachother forward as we witness the birth of a mobile renaissance and a technological revolution.

But it’s more than that. In each of the three above cases there were fans who took “sides” and cheered on their favorite of the 2 rivals. Tupac and Biggie were just two men… but their rivalry sparked a complete rivalry between the East Coast and the West Coast in the United States. Right now there are plenty of other Mobile OS platforms out there just as there were plenty of other East Coast Rappers and West Coast Rappers when the Biggie/Pac feud began. But its a matter of timing.

When Android was announced, many people were disappointed there wouldn’t be a single, heaven-sent gPhone. But when analysts explained further, people wised up a bit and the outlook became pretty sunny. The lackluster line of Mobile OS available was actually a detriment to Google. The cries of, “How will this be any different than Windows Mobile,” and “Google is only good at search and they fail at everything else,” became louder. And then along comes Apple with their SDK.

The Apple SDK was announced with much fanfare and an immediate rivalry was spawned between Apple Fanboys and Android Enthusiasts. Now that Android (and Apple) had a formidable and timely opponent, attention was refocused on what exactly an Open Mobile OS would mean. Google can thank Apple for this.

When Apple makes a move - people notice. They are already successful in the mobile arena and iPhone owners are a loyal and faithful group of people who identify with the brand. They are the brand. When they realize that APPLE is going to do what ANDROID just announced… all of a sudden the “stupid ideas that will never work,” became, “We’ll soon be living in a Mobile2.0 World and Apple, not Android, will take us there.”

Enlightening these early adopting Apple fans to the possibilities of Mobile’s next technology wave will prove instrumental in getting Android off the ground. Apple helped Android because they have the two companies have the same exact message when it comes to designing an Open Mobile OS. Apple opened the minds of early adopters to Android.

Android isn’t the only company getting a boost - this healthy rivalry is a two way street. Think about the concepts behind Mobile Applications. Many of them include social networking and user generated content integration ideas. Many, such as shopping comparisons based on your location and locational based barcode coupons, require the participation and sponsorships of businesses. These concepts won’t even approach their full potential unless these Mobile OS platforms are disseminated on a mass scale. Do you think the iPhone can do that alone?

Apple needs Android to help make the Mobile Dreams of the iPhone SDK & Android come true. Third party applications would be tremendously limited in scope and potential if the iPhone were the only host. The applications just wouldn’t be as useful.

How helpful is a permission based “track your friends” application if only 2 or 3 of your friends have iPhones? How cool would it be to have your “I’m Single” app open at the bar so single people nearby could browse/tap eachother if it were only iPhone users that could do so? Sounds more like a 21st century extension of the High School Chess Club to me.

Google Android, and lets not forget all the dedicated players of the Open Handset Alliance, will help get this new wave of Mobile Technology into the hands of the MASSES. Once the masses have the infrastructure and the capabilities of these new Mobile OS Platforms, both Apple and Google are golden. That is when the door will be opened wide for them to walk right into an industry of arguably the highest growth and profit potential.

Anyway you look at it, Apple and Google will be splitting market share for the mobile market. But with a mutually beneficial rivalry of epic proportions, Apple and Google will put their platforms into the hands of the masses and in turn, will be splitting a pie that is worth billions more than it would be if they didn’t have eachother.

Only three questions remain: Who is Ali/Tupac/McGwire and who is Frazier/Biggie/Sosa?

HTC Planning May 26th Android Handset Unveiling?

An invitation has been floating around the interwebs asking some of the top tech sources to “Witness the Next Wave of HTC Innovation,” at a press conference in London on May 6th.

Some folks are speculating this will be the official unveiling of the first ever Android Phone… the HTC Dream. The verbage of secrecy and unmatched innovation make this seem like a logical choice. However, there are plenty of doubters out there.

The pessimists remind us that Android handsets certainly won’t be available before the 2nd half of 2008 and for them to do enough testing and sampling of 3rd party applications to make Android worth the buy… an October or November launch is probably accurate.

We agree… We agree…

But what these pessimists have forgotten is that Samsung recently upped their efforts in order to push out an Android Phone before HTC. Releasing the first Android Phone has become a matter of Pride and HTC doesn’t want to lose that distinction.

Some may still argue, “It doesn’t matter whose device comes first… when Android phones are made available for purchase it will matter whose Android phone is better.” Initially… yes. But HTC is looking to advance in the ranks as a mobile manufacturer and having created the first Android enabled device would be a huge notch in its belt. If Android is incredibly successful as many analysts are predicting, being the “Original Android Makers,” will be an honor that nobody can take away.

We’ll admit… part of the reason we’re leaning towards this May 6th event being the Day of Android Destiny is because we WANT it to be. Let us see the Dream… please?