mail2web.com Blog

Samsung’s bada mobile OS and SDK

Birge Basik — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:54:28 +0000

The world is ready for a new mobile operating system. Samsung has announced that its new open mobile operating system ‘bada’ will arrive in the first half of 2010. It will compete with existing open platform operating systems such Android and LiMO. bada’s software development kit will be available little bit earlier, but you’ll see this on the market in December.

It seems that Samsung will no longer be using other operating systems like Microsoft Windows Mobile OS, Symbian or even Android. The bada website states that: “Samsung bada includes a next generation UI framework with feature sets and design elements that facilitate leading-edge user interfaces for every bada application.” bada means ‘Ocean’ in Korean, the name is chosen due to the limitless variety of potential applications. This would seem to indicate that bada will also support Apps and its user interface could be altered to feature a more attractive design by its developer following.

There’s no clear word on whether it will support any Activesync method in order to sync to exchange based email accounts, but here’s hoping!

Unfortunately, we have to wait until December to see first screen shots of this new system.

Press Release of Samsung bada is below:

Samsung bada – The Next Wave Of The Mobile Industry

Developers get the chance to create mobile applications for millions of new Samsung handsets

November 10th, 2009, Seoul, Korea– Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, today announced the launch of its own open mobile platform, Samsung bada [bada] in December. This new addition to Samsung’s mobile ecosystem enables developers to create applications for millions of new Samsung mobile phones, and consumers to enjoy a fun and diverse mobile experience.

In order to build a rich smartphone experience accessible to a wider range of consumers across the world, Samsung brings bada, a new platform with a variety of mobile applications and content.

The name ‘bada’, which means ‘ocean’ in Korean, was chosen to convey the limitless variety of potential applications which can be created using the new platform. It also alludes to Samsung’s commitment to a variety of open platforms in the mobile industry. Samsung bada also represents the fresh challenges and opportunities available to developers, as well as the entertainment which consumers will enjoy once the new platform is open.

Based on Samsung’s experience in developing previous proprietary platforms on Samsung mobile phones, Samsung can create the new platform and provide opportunities for developers. Samsung bada is also simple for developers to use, meaning it’s one of the most developer-friendly environments available, particularly in the area of applications using Web services. Lastly, bada’s ground-breaking User Interface (UI) can be transferred into a sophisticated and attractive UI design for developers.

Samsung will be able to expand the range of choices for mobile phone users to enjoy the smartphone experiences. By adopting Samsung bada, users will be able to easily enjoy various applications on their mobile.

Samsung bada also offers an easy-to-integrate platform for mobile operators so that mobile operators can provide unique and differentiated services to their customers.

Samsung established its mobile application ecosystem through the launch of Samsung Mobile Innovator in 2008 and the Samsung Application Seller Site followed by Samsung Application Store as another key element of this offering.

Dr Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics said, “By opening Samsung’s mobile platforms we will be able to provide rich mobile experiences on an increasing number of accessible smartphones.” He added, “bada will be Samsung’s landmark, iconic new platform that brings an unprecedented opportunity for operators, developers and Samsung mobile phone users around the world.”

The official website (www.bada.com) will open on November 10th and will feature a range of information on bada including updates on product launches, features, and event notices. Samsung will also host an official launch event for bada in London, UK in December and will also unveil its bada software development kit (SDK) to developers for the first time on this date.

About Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company consists of two business units: Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com

Sun Drive

Birge Basik — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:43:15 +0000

Sun drive is both USB flash drive and solar charger. It’s available in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16 GB capacities. It works as an emergency charger for gadgets too!It can give you 100 minutes of extra talk time on your cellphone and an additional 35 hours of playtime to an MP3 player. It costs $23, which is little bit higher than usual USB sticks but the solar charge could save your life in emergencies.

The Withings WiFi Body Scale With Twitter Integration

Birge Basik — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:41:00 +0000

I’d bet 50 bucks that the inventor of this WiFi Scale is a guy. Plus, he will be bankrupt, soon… I’m arguing that, no woman on this earth can say her weight honestly. (Including me…)

Anyway, if you are tweet-psycho and would like to declare your weight every time you scale, Withings WiFi Body Scale is just for you. This scale has Twitter integration through its WiFi connection and can tweet your weight, body fat, BMI every time you weigh. It costs $160 and ready to ship from US.

Revo’s Retro Heritage iPod Dock

Birge Basik — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:11:53 +0000

I’m sort of a Geek; I really like tech-stuff. It’s my pleasure to gather togehter those kind of new gadget stuffs for you, but I should confess that I really admire retro stuff aswell. I fell in love with the new dock series of Revo’s.

Revo Retro Heritage iPod Docks are really amazing. They have a shiny OLED screen, DAB, DAB+, FM and WiFi internet radio support. It is also offers wireless radio streaming.

The audio is provided by a 3” neodymium speaker drive by a 7 watt amplifier. The package contains a joystick control system, built-in USB port and supports for 3.5mm auxiliary cable. The Retro Heritage Dock measures 260×175x98mm. It is compatible with Apple iPod and iPhone generations. Yes, it’s little bit expensive; it has a $380 price tag. Now available for pre-order on the company’s official website.

Get Mobile with Cloud Based Services

Kevin Richard — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:24:13 +0000

More and more we are becoming people on-the-go. From business travel and meetings, to events, appointments and the many other things going on in our daily lives we are constantly on the move.On average we spend more than an hour a day traveling to and from work. And with the demands of our digital lifestyle with smart phones, email and instant messaging, we often need our files and computer programs ready and with us where ever we are.

Ensuring that our digital lives are as mobile as we are once meant transferring files back and forth between various computers; a process which often results in a disorganized mess of files across multiple systems. With the growth in netbooks popularity, that has quickly changed. With these micro computers operating on very little processing power and smaller hard drives cloud based services (web based programs) have been growing in popularity. Cloud computing is allowing people to not only save space on their computers but also have their files and documents stored in one central location.

File Storage:

Working on multiple systems can be an easy way to become disorganized and even loose important data. With cloud computing files can be stored in one central space online, ensuring that these files are safe and secure. This means no worrying about whether your system crashes and no searching through multiple computers to find the documents you need.

Two popular online storage services are Syncplicity and Dropbox. By downloading a single storage folder wherever you need your data, these services allow you to save your files online and syncs them with all of your devices. As an added feature both services provide up to the minute backup allowing you to go back in time to retrieve older copies of your files. Both of these services provide 2 gigabytes of free storage space in their basic accounts but for a monthly fee you can also upgrade your space by up to 50 gigabytes of storage. A few other online storage options include Mediafire, Yuntaa and Orbitfiles.

Productivity:

Having your essential office programs online means you can take your work with you where ever you go. A more widely known cloud based office suite is Google docs, which allows you to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations through your Google account. This can act as a great central storage hub for all of your documents. Similar to this service is Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace which allows you to store and share your Microsoft Office documents in a single workspace and may be a sign of things to come with Microsoft Office 10.

For email on the go mail2web Webmail and mail2web Personal Webmail are great options. Without having to use computer based email systems such as Microsoft Outlook, you can securely read your email. mail2web Personal webmail also provides you with your own personal email portal (such as http://mail2web.com/kevin) and contact manager which you can view on your laptop or mobile device and customize whichever way you want.

In addition to these services there are some other great productivity tools to build your digital office such as presentation tools like Slide Rocket and Prezi , digital desktops such as G.ho.st and Evernote or online collaboration tools such as Adobe Acrobat, Zoho and Microsoft Sharepoint services.

Photo and Video Editing:

Once thought to be the most hardware intensive tasks for your computer you are now able to upload and edit your digital media on the go. Well known for their software based photo editing suite Adobe has released a simplified version of Photoshop for the web. Containing many of the basic photo editing tools it allows you to save and edit your photos on the go. A similar service to this is Picnik which allows you to grab the photos you have stored online from sites such as Facebook and Flickr and edit them with their online toolset.

For online video editing there are also a number of services to choose from such as Stash Space , Motion Box and JayCut. With easy upload and online storage space these sites let you edit your videos and share them with your family and friends as well as help convert them to storable files when you’re ready to produce it on physical media.

As more and more traditionally software based tools are transferred online, people are becoming less tied to their desks and are able to take their work with them on the go. By using cloud based services you don’t need to worry about where your files are stored as they’re now available to you anywhere you can find an internet connection. With services that store your files across computers, allow you to work and collaborate as well as edit your digital media on the go the internet is allowing people to do what they want wherever they are.

V-Moda Vibe II Earbuds

Birge Basik — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:29:38 +0000

V-Moda Vibe II Earbuds add style to technology. You can enrich your music listening experience with these stylish earbuds. They aren’t exactly cheap but they’re still affordable. Its wiring is made of 24-karat gold. There are two options to buy the chrome-ruby version and the metal-black version. The earbuds, microphone and buttons are metal, which makes it just a little bit heavy. On the other hand metal is much more durable then plastic.

The plug has a 45 degree twist-able design. It comes with 8 sets of silicone fittings to conform to your ear. V-Moda Vibe II’s technical specs are also beyond satisfactory. It has 12 Hz- 22kHz of frequency response, 8 mm V-MASQUE dynamic technology with neodymium rare earth magnet, 32’’ plug to y-connector , 13.5’’ even-length earphone cables and 3.5mm (1/8’’) 24k gold plated stereo plug. It’s compatible with all iPhone models (1G, 3G, 3GS), iPod nano (4th gen), iPod touch (2nd gen), iPod classic (120GB), MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac Pro (2009 models), BlackBerry Smartphones, as well as with VOIP, Skype, iChat and other audio recording applications, MP3 players, CD players, DVD players and computers.

Sony Ericsson Kurara

Birge Basik — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:01:11 +0000

The Sony Ericsson Kurara is on the stage again. Leaked pictures of this new smartphone have been spotted at Phones.db. There are also speculations of an ability to record and playback HD videos. It will have a 3.5’’ AMOLED touch-screen, 8.1 MP camera and 720p video recording.

It is possible to run on Symbian S60. Price is not clear but Kurara will be on the market in the first half of 2010, maybe with a different name.

mail2web.com in the ‘Palm’ of your hand!

Jeremy Adams — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:57:45 +0000

While I’m sure Palm Inc. has grown tired of such puns, they work all too well when describing the capabilities of their ever expanding repertoire of devices and software. With the release of the latest Palm webOS, support for Activesync push email for Exchange based email accounts is now as integrated as this article’s title pun is to the Palm brand.

Touted on their Palm Pre and Palm Pixi devices, webOS boasts a simplified mailbox configuration tool and an environment that allows you to run multiple applications simultaneously. You can easily switch between your Exchange calendar, contacts, email and even Facebook without worrying you might loose changes while you do.

Also, we’ve launched a new Palm section within our Mobile Email services page! And, in case it hasn’t been stressed enough, with the simple configuration tool on your new Palm device the setup is as simple as described here.

EOps i24R3 Portable Sound System

Birge Basik — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:36:09 +0000

No it’s not a dartboard or shower head It’s a portable, wireless, waterproof, single-speaker surround sound system.

It’s a project by Hong Kong designer Michael Young. It has no inputs, instead you have to use wireless USB (2.4 GHz) or Bluetooth (A2DP) connection. EOps i24R3 Portable contains four 2.6-inch flat speakers and two 4.5-inch passive radiator speakers, plus a 2×10 W Class D amplifier. It also recognizes softwares like iTunes and devices like the iPhone automatically. Finally, it’s powered by an internal lithium polymer battery. Unfortunately its cost and availability not yet announced.

Microsoft Exchange & the Great Smartphone Boom

Kevin Richard — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:49:46 +0000

The IBM Simon first shown in 1992 was the world’s first smartphone. It had all the basics like smartphones have today including a calendar, contacts, clock, and notepad and most important to every person on the go, email. But the smartphone actually didn’t reach large public sales till the 1996 release of the Nokia Communicator line of phones. Seen as a take-with-you-anywhere device within the enterprise segment, this communications tool did not become popular until the larger expansion of Microsoft Exchange and Activesync products.

IBM Simon in Charging Station

Microsoft Exchange, first released with the Windows 95 operating system was Microsoft’s first module in charge of handling email. This would later become an important tool for companies to manage emails and other collaborative tools within their company network and would grow in popularity as an industry standard overtaking the former industry leader Lotus Notes in 1997.

Microsoft Exchange would later introduce a mobile option called Activesync which was released in 1996. Used in its line of pocket PC’s and mobile devices it was the beginning of mobile email that we see today. Primarily distributed on Pocket PC’s and other mobile devices using the Window’s Mobile OS it would be sold by manufacturers such as HP, HTC and Dell.

It wasn’t until 2004 that Microsoft’s Exchange Activesync system would be open for use on other platforms and become an increasingly popular mobile communications tool. Seeking to make it easier for users to connect their mobile devices to corporate email servers, Palm One bought licensing to the Activesync protocol where it would first debut on its Treo smartphone. To not be outdone, Symbian LTD would also become a license holder in 2005, allowing major manufacturers such as Sony Ericson, Samsung and Siemens use of the Exchange Activesync platform. This may have been the turning point for Microsoft as a major player in the smartphone segment.

By 2005 Microsoft had Activesync and Exchange in use on over 100 million mobile computing devices but was then facing larger competition in the smartphone market. Recent entrant Research in Motion (RIM) and their Blackberry where offering customers push email and messaging and was quickly beginning to be known for their smartphones made for business. In reaction to this Microsoft began offering what they called Direct Push service (based in Activesync) looking to compete as a lower cost alternative.

According to RBC Capital Markets, while smartphones were still widely considered a niche in the cell phone market, during the period from 2007-2009 was when this phone really began to see mass market appeal. Said to have occurred as a result of larger demand for mobile email and wider enterprise adoption, RBC estimated that while in 2007 there were 19 million enterprise smartphone users, it is expected to grow to 74 Million by 2011. A large driver in this growth would be due to the larger expansion of the Microsoft Exchange platform (RBC Capital Markets,2008).

In February of 2007 the Microsoft Exchange server system through Activesync was opened to third party licensing for all smartphone manufacturers providing a broader base for enterprise users to choose from for their mobile communications. The smartphone was now beginning to be seen as not only a tool to surf the web and make phone calls but for secure enterprise messaging; something that was limited to only a select group of mobile devices prior.

After opening up to the market in 2007, makers like Nokia began using the system in the fall of that year. Apple and Google would follow in 2008. While Microsoft already had wide distribution with its Window’s mobile platform on phones from manufacturers such as HTC, LG and Motorola, making Microsoft Exchange and Activesync available on all major platforms made these phones more relevant to business and gave them a wider choice of handhelds. Phones such as the Apple iPhone which has mass consumer appeal were often disregarded as not suitable for business. As a result of adding Activesync and the Microsoft Exchange system, phones like this were now made viable for the business market.

What’s next for the Exchange platform and Activesync?

While 2009 was a major year for Microsoft with the introduction of its Window’s Mobile Market Place and of Window’s Mobile 6.5, 2010 will be looking like a year of major growth in the smartphone market. With the introduction of Windows Mobile 7 and its branded ‘Project Pink’ smartphones Microsoft’s smartphone offerings will be made to be easier to use and more visually appealing to attract a larger consumer audience who will begin to have mobile email and web communications more widely available to them.

Some highly anticipated phones are also expected to support the Microsoft Exchange system as well. In November the Motorola Droid running the Android OS and the Palm Pixie running Palm’s Web OS will be released to the public. Expect to see the Microsoft Exchange and Activesync systems to continue to be a major push in the adoption of the smartphone. With wider availability these communications devices will continue to be a draw to enterprise owners and the general public for secure mobile communications.