Today, Sony Ericsson is announcing its latest phone, first SE Android-powered phone. The Xperia X10 show off some really advance hardware capabilities, as well as a new UX (User eXperience) platform on top of Android which SE says will evolve over time as well as expand over other products.

Android is finally maturing and all manufaturers are releasing their Android-based devices. A few include customizations made by the manufacturer, read HTC Sense, Motorola Blur… and most include common hardware found nowadays, while others are betting on the lastest hardware in an effort for standing out of the rest.

Sony Ericsson bets for Android, and their first device, Xperia X10, really stands out for what we are used to:

• 4.0 inches, 480 x 854 pixels (WVGA), scratch-resistant capacitive screen (non-multitouch)
• The processor is the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
• 8.1 megapixel camera with smile detection

These are a few of the powerful hardware details, but the phone also comes with a nice interface on top of Android, called SE Timescape and SE Mediascape, the first for managing your contacts and social networks, the later for music, photos and videos. These interfaces, still unnamed but referenced over some SE press-releases as the new UX (User eXperience) platform, is said to be platform-agnostic, which mean we could eventually see UX platform running on top of Windows Mobile.

To note that Xperia X10 runs Android 1.6, so it doesn´t include Google Navigation Beta as Motorola Droid, but they include SE WisePilot to make up for turn-by-turn directions.

We are eager to try-out one of these, hopefully someone at Sony Ericcson could send us one ?  ;-)

Check these links to read more, and don´t miss the teaser below:

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Product Page [english]

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Product Page [spanish]

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Press Release

Sony Ericson Product Blog

If you want to have an in-depth look to the Sony Ericsson UX platform - Timescape and Mediascape -, check this video SE just released on their blog:

Enjoy it!

SevenClick, TBS Group Company specialized in developing of mobile solutions, has today become one of the first developer of applications for the Vodafone360 platform.

From the hand of Editorial LID, and during the presentation ceremony of Vodafone360, SevenClick has launched “Búsqueda de Empleo for Rookies”. A new version of this popular bestseller specifically developed for the new terminals of Vodafone, which will be distributed for free through the application store launched by the red operator.

The application stands out for providing a method of interaction and reading adapted to a mobile environment offering a multimedia experience that overcomes even the possibilities of the physical book or of a simple eBook.

Thus SevenClick and Editorial LID turn into main actors of the step of the printed book to the mobile book betting for a specific design for the mobile channel of their books and specialized dictionaries.

The rest of the books of “For Rookies’” collection of LID will be joined with the “Job Search for Rookies” Vodafone 360 version, including the launch of over 300 specialized bilingual dictionaries. “For Rookies” is also available for downloading in versions adapted for iPhone and iPod Touch through the AppStore

Moreover, Daniel Vecino, SevenClick CEO, has confirmed his bet to this one and other development platforms, indicating the importance that they involve in order to stimulate and socialize the market for mobile applications.

For Rookies Marketing Campaign by Confëttika
Press Release

After several days of hard working we are proud to introduce our last marketing campaign, this time produced by Confëttika, a TBS Group company specialized in image&design, audio&video production and corporate advertisement and communication.

Its name is Weird Rabbit, and we are sure that after the success of “CLAB” and “What Obama Needs“, it will be remembered for a long time.

Weird Rabbit I/II

Weird Rabbit II/II

We look forward to your comments!

Sample :: peters clock
Sample :: duppyHipFunk03_120bpm
Sample :: wind.wav
Sample :: Goblet_G_Loud.wav

Our LifeStyle Room has a new addition… seems the darts, the scalextric, and the rest of our Wii games will be leaved behind for a while… as we now only want to ROCK !!!









PS: We are getting better (LOL), the first try wasn´t specially good, but we are managing to play some awesome gigs ! (we already had some practice with the guitars)    ;-)

My name is Toño, and I have already been at SevenClick’s office for more than five months, where I have learnt a lot about mobile technologies and developing proccesses, and where my work mainly consisted of developing native apps for the iPhone, while trying to acquire some knowledge from the work of my mates in some other platforms, like Windows Mobile, Blackberry or Android.

Some weeks ago, I received good news from the company, cause I was told SevenClick wanted me to continue here. So, as I wanted the same thing, I’ve definitively joined the company. I’d like to thank all my workmates for the environment which has been created here, which helps a lot in enjoying the work we do, and specially Daniel and Jose Manuel for the confidence they put in me.

My goals for the inmediate future are simple, doing my best for helping the company in keeping its unstoppable growth, and becoming the official after-lunch drummer. I had another dream for some weeks, but I’ve finally discarded it cause I consider it near impossible. It was being defeated, just once, in any Pro Evolution Soccer game, but no such a thing was near to happen here until now :(

Dissapointing, I know, but at least this lines will be surrounded by a beautiful green, which fits, of course, the corporative color.

Seriously, thanks to everybody again, and I hope this will be the first (in fact, it’s not the first, but that’s another long story) of a series of emblematic posts.

If your reader app does not support embedded video, click here and enjoy it!

I will explain more important changes and improvements of the device:



Size.

We may think it is too big, but it is the price we pay when we go to mobile devices that are thought to browse the web, use a touchable keyboard and have a good screen to see your videos and pictures. So it has 107.85 mm high, and 53.1 mm wide. About its thickness, its 13.7 mm make me think it is too much. In general, I think it has a good size, for instance is shorter and narrower than iPhone, but much thicker.

Compared to the HTC Touch Diamond (1) it is taller, wider and thicker, as you can see in the below and above pictures.

The screen.

At first sight, it shows a big screen of 3.2 inches (TFT-LCD), and WVGA resolution (480×800). But it is not only physically ‘big’, it also has a good touch response, it is not needed to make too much pressure on the screen, less than in usual Windows Mobile devices, and it also has better response for finger touch pressure.



Zoom bar.

This device adds a new touchable area close to the screen, it is a touchable zoom bar. It is horizontal and it is located behind the screen. I found it really useful cause you can use it everywhere you think it will be able, like browsing the web or watching your pictures.



Windows button.

This device also includes a Windows button that is a quick link to the ‘old’ Programs section. I say ‘old’ cause it has disappeared from the TouchFLO carrusel and the only way to acces it now is by pressing this button or pressing the ‘Start’ traditional link in the Windows bar which is always on the top of the screen. In traditional Windows Mobile devices pressing that ‘Start’ link, shows a menu with most recent used programs, settings section and some others, which is not available so that TouchFLo replaces them.

As a detail, previous HTC devices with Windows Mobile had a Home button instead of this, but actually the behaviour was to access the first section set in the TouchFLO carrusel (which could be selected by the user).



Camera.

It has an amazing 5 megapixels camera with autofocus in the back side, an also a VGA CMOS camera in the front side for videoconference. Here you can see a picture I took with it.

TouchFLO 3D.

It has version 2.0.37890.0 which includes several improvements. These are most important features:

• Contacts.This part has considerably improved. When you click a contact you can not only access its contact info like, telephone number or e-mail, now HTC brings us the chance of accessing the SMSs, e-mails, and calls we have sent/received with each contact, so we can see this actions by contact instead of entering the Messages section for instance (this keeps available). And all this with a good and pretty user interface, much better than Windows one, like HTC is used to showing us.In addition, when you make or receive a call, it shows up a menu that also allows you to access the SMSs, e-mails and calls, while you are talking with your friend. I find this useful when you need to find a previous related conversation with that contact, instead of going throw a lot of steps by entering the menu, which is always annoying while you are talking.
• Pictures and video previewer.It has improved cause it lets you move the picture touching the screen, instead of pressing hard buttons like in HTC Touch Diamond (1).
• Configuration Manager.I emphasize in this point cause apparently it has not changed but it has. In the previous version of TouchFLO, when you pressed on an item in the Configuration section, then you just could activate or deactivate it. Now you activate it pressing the switch on the right and also can enter its settings pressing the left side of the item. This could only be done by entering the Windows Mobile Configuration section, which is not so easy to use (it keeps available).

In my opinion it is a good device, but maybe too thick and heavy. About TouchFLO 3D… just say it is modern and smart. I really like the look and feel it gets, but I like even more HTC Sense on Android phones. I wish you could change the whole Windows Mobile interface… ;D

We are happy to introduce you to Vodafone 360 H1, which has just arrived to the office. Their features will be inmediately tested and we are looking forward to discovering its very own secrets pretty soon.

Today HTC Spain has announced their new device HTC Touch2. Behind the press release, the most important information is that it comes with Windows Mobile 6.5, includes the new software Windows Phone and that the new Internet Explorer Mobile supports Adobe Flash.

According to its design, seems to be really compact, clean, tough and comfortable. It includes a zoom bar really useful when browsing the web. As other HTC smartphones, the user interface is based on TouchFLO, which gives you direct access to weather forecast info and most used applications. It includes Google Maps and YouTube among others.

Windows Mobile 6.5 improves e-mail experience allowing to synchronize with Exchange and manage several e-mail accounts. New Internet Explorer Mobile allows to move the web content and use the zoom bar for a better experience.

About Windows Phone, it allows to download applications via Windows Marketplace service and using My Phone service you can synchronize your pictures, music and messages to the Internet. If you want more info, here you have the technical specifications:

• Processor: Qualcomm ® MSM7225 ®, 528 MHz.
• O.S: Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional.
• Memory: 512MB ROM; 256MB RAM.
• Dimensions: 104 x 55 x 12,9 mm.
• Weight: 110g with battery.
• Display: TFT LCD 2.8′ touch screen with QVGA resolution.
• Networks: HSDPA/WCDMA with 384kbps as maximum upload speed and 7.2Mbps as download speed. Frequences of 850/900/1800/1900 MHz in Europe/Asia depending on the operator.
• Controller: zoom bar.
• GPS: built-in GPS.
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP for wireless stereo headphones; Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b/g); 3.5mm audio jack; HTC USB (11pin mini-USB 2.0).
• Camera: 3.2 megapixels.
• Audio formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A.
• Video formats: WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI.
• Battery: 1100 mAh litium battery; 370/440 minutes in conversation (WCDMA/GSM); 500/370 minutes in stand-by (WCDMA/GSM).
• Expansion slot: microSD card (supports SD 2.0).

Caixa Penedès presents with SevenClick, TBS Group company specialized in mobile software development, its mobile eBanking system completely developed for ANDROID, Google’s mobile operating system.

This way, along with the iPhone solution and the electronic banking solution compatible with any mobile device of the market, Caixa Penedès customers will be able to access from mobile.caixapenedes.com a brand new access environment for ANDROID where they’ll be able to consult and operate their accounts, as well as visualize corporative, commercial and Social Activities information.

Global Position of Accounts and Credit Cards, Movements checking, external and personal transferences, mobile prepaid recharge and ATM localization through Google maps. These are some of the main features.And all of them for the first time specifically developed taking full advantage of those devices running Google’s brand new operating system.

Undoubtedly, a big step taking Caixa Penedès to the top of worldwide mobile electronic banking.

Press Note

Campus Party is one of the greatest LAN parties of the world. Born in Spain, it even spread out to other spanish talking countries over the years, reaching Colombia and Brasil. Campus Party has never been so live.

However I feel a curious feeling (kind of pity?) each time I look at the TV news showing Campus Party like a zoo of freaks. I´ve been on Campus Party 2009 on the developers area, and I want to share with you a different vision of CP: conferences, workshops, competitions… a nest of learning and collaboration.

The thing I like most about CP is the mix of people. Some are there just to play games as long as their eyes could keep open, others came in order to learn or to share their knowledge on the most diverse areas… there are people with their robots, with big modded cases, with a camera on their hand and a MacBook
on the other… Definitely, its a great place to know new and interesting people.

In Campus Party you just can´t be bored, there are tons of things to do each minute. In order to get all these people organiczed, and trying to give to all these differents profiles the more focused entertainment and learning, this year CP was divided into four areas: Innovation, Digital Leisure, Science and Creativity. Each one has sub-areas like Developers, Open Source Software, Photography, Modding, Astronomy, Open source software, CampusBot… just get into www.campus-party.es and take a look.

The other great thing about CP is that all the contents are streamed live at Campus Party TV, and then all is uploaded to Youtube. So you can watch all the conferences as well as other events on their Youtube channel.

I guess I´m probably a kind of “freak among freaks” as I didn´t play a game all over CP. There´s always time for a quick match on CP no matter if you are a developer or bot lover or whatever area you are into… but I just was overwhelmed with all the incredible conferences that took place on this 13th edition.  Take a look to the Youtube channel if you have some time, there are some interesting conferences there.

My two favourite conferences were the one of David Del Val about entrepreneurship, (you can download the mindmap he used on the conference on this post of the blog that Telefónica I+D made for the ocassion), and the one about pishing on emails, with live demos of how to cheat all the big ones: Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail; and explanations on how they could implement the security to defend over these cheats (in case you are interested, you will find the video on the CP Youtube channel, and here is a post of the blog of the speaker, explaining step by step the techniques showed on the conference). But there were other conferences really interesting about ethical hacking, cloud computing, eyeOS, developing widgets for Nokia and for Windows Mobile 6.5 and so on …

There were also several workshops, personally I made the Arduino workshop leaded by David Cuartielles, Arduino´s father. Arduino is a nice piece of Open Hardware, perfect to introduce students to the world of electronics. Visit David´s blog for read his thoughs of Campus Party and the workshop we made.

The other side of CP are the contests. One of the reasons for me to come this year to CP was that I came to the 11th edition two years ago, but I didn´d participate on any contest, and I felt I really wanted to. This year several competitions were organized, apart from the traditional videogames fast-programming contest (on 72 hours). One was Nokia´s Challenge for developing Widgets for Nokia N97. As a mobile software developer, I had interest on this one, specially because I´ve never developed nothing for any Nokia technologies. It was really hard because the challenge took place on 48 hours, but I finally won the second prize and the reward worth it: a Nokia N97!! (Stay tuned with us on the third week of August -when I came back from holidays- for a deep review of the N97!).

So, in conclusion, Campus Party is more than anything anyone could imagine before coming in. And I almost forget the human side… you will know very nice people sharing your motivations, personal and professional. Most are “campuseros” like me that came  because we wanted to, others came with their companies like the people of Telefónica I+D, the bloggers of And.roid.es, or the boys from Noise Marketing… I bet I will see all them again on another Campus Party.

Campus Party Links

www.campus-party.es

Campus Party TV

Campus Party Youtube channel

Campus Party on Flicker

Other Related Links

Arduino Blog

Telefonica I+D on Campus Party Blog

Un informático en el lado del mal Blog

Once you have the HTC Hero in your hands, you can say at first sight this is the first 100% HTC ANDROID project, as one of HTC members said.

In fact it’s the first device delivered by HTC not including the “with Google” logo on his back, what makes the Hero more independent from Google services than was Magic or G1.

GUI

With the introduction of HTC Sense, HTC gives Android their own look and feel, very close to the look and feel of their Windows Mobile devices, but integrating much better with the most basic applications of Android such as calendar, dialer, etc…

HTC Sense makes the device look more elegant than original Android and includes some functional improvements as well. For example, the number of desktop tabs. Pure Android devices as G1 or Magic have only three tabs for placing all your shortcuts and widgets, what becomes insufficient after the first weeks (well… at least for me), but HTC Sense provides up to 7 tabs for placing your favorite shorcuts and widgets.

And there is a lot of widgets to put on! It’s specially remarkable the great widget collection included in HTC Sense. Quantity and quality! Stocks, clocks, calendar, twitter, and more… This is one of my favorite things in HTC Hero.

Hardware

Looking at hardware design, HTC has tried to improve their previous models and to include something new. The most impacting thing is the Teflon layer that is covering all the external surface except for the screen. I really like it. It makes the Hero very comfortable in your hands. And, of course, harder to scratch.

The 3.5 mm audio jack is one of the improvements we expected and here it is. No more problem deciding listening to music or charging your device.

But there are a couple of things I don’t like. The first is the new layout of hard keys, that makes usuability go one step back in my opinion. Specially the ‘Back’ key, that becomes more difficult to use for right-handed people. The second, the curvature in the area of hard keys. I guess the goal was to make more usable the keys, speciallly with only one hand, but I think the only result is that HTC Hero is very uncomfortable when you left it on a table and try to use it with a single hand.
Maybe it’s just a matter of taste.

Software

Talking about productive software, I must confess I was a bit dissapointed with the software shipped with Android (at least on Magic). No PDF viewer, no documents editors, no task manager, … HTC has addressed this issue in some extent shipping on the Hero applications such as QuickOffice, Stocks, Footprints, PDF Viewer, Peep, … This provides a better experience with the device and can make life easier to some users as they won’t need to Android Market for getting some important applications.

A separate mention is deserved for web browser, due to the prominent place it takes in such a connected device. Two very important milestones have been reached with HTC Hero: multitouch and Flash. This allows a much better experience browsing the ‘desktop web’.

Moreover, some other little but yet appropiate improvements in the browser makes the experience better than in the original Android browser. And so it happens with the virtual keyboard, that shows a better performance and usability.

Another interesting point of HTC Hero is the management of social networks, integrated in system settings and in the configuration wizard for initializing setting at first start up. This allows you to manage your Facebook, Twitter or Flickr accounts in a very easy manner.

And last but not least, the mail application shipped with HTC Hero includes Exchange support out of the box.

Other features

Of course, HTC Hero includes all features already available in HTC Magic like A-GPS, compass, YouTube application, accelerometer,… that have become a commodity in this kind of devices.

To sum up here’s a list with pros and cons of HTC Hero, but, better than all I can say, you should look at the video review we posted yesterday.

Pros

• Great widget collection
• Improved virtual keyboard
• Flash support
• Multitouch
• HTC Sense makes GUI more elegant and usable
• New 3.5 mm jack for headphones
• 5.0 megapixels camera
• Exchange support

Cons

• New keys layout
• Curvature makes difficult to use on a table with a single hand

Now, we have put our hands on this little precious for a couple of days, and have new things to share with you: a video review showing the main features of HTC Hero and Sense and how the mobile applications can help in our daily life. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Thanks to our friends of Confëttika, for this great videos.

First, unboxing and looking at HTC Hero design …

Getting it to work …

Reviewing …

And a real life sample …

If you are experienced on all these fields, don’t miss this great oportunity for joining a young, creative, eager,  top-level team.

Below, in Spanish, the job opening description.

Confëttika, empresa enmarcada en el Grupo TBS, está especializada en la prestación de servicios de imagen, diseño, producción audiovisual y comunicación corporativa.
Con un carácter original, divertido e innovador, Confëttika uno de los principales actores en la difusión de eventos, marcas y productos internacionales mediante estrategias complementadas por nuevos medios y canales como internet y las redes sociales. Y todo ello con especial relevancia en clientes pertenecientes al mercado de las comunicaciones y tecnologías de la información.

Qué buscamos

Con dependencia directa del CEO, el candidato asumirá la Dirección Técnica (CTO) liderando a nivel técnico y creativo la compañía en todas sus áreas (imagen, diseño, producción audiovisual y comunicación corporativa).
Además, será el responsable de la implantación, desarrollo y coordinación del área de producción audiovisual, involucrándose además de como gestor de la misma, como técnico de producción.

Condiciones

• Siempre has querido ser director de cine, cámara, fotógrafo, diseñador, actor,…
• Tu primer mandamiento es: “Amarás la 5DMarkII por encima de todas la cosas”
• Varias veces al día te sorprendes haciendo un visor de 35mm con tus dedos
• Como en Muchachada… “No puedes para de crear”

¿Te ves reflejado? Si es así, te hemos encontrado! Piensa que además deberás aportar

• Experiencia en la gestión y liderazgo de equipos en las áreas definidas
• Capacidad de gestión y coordinación de clientes y propuestas
• Experiencia aplicada y demostrable como cámara, sonido e iluminación ENG
• Experiencia aplicada y demostrable en edición y montaje (FinalCut Studio)
• Conocimientos aplicados en herramientas de imagen y diseño web e impresión
• Conocimientos aplicados en soluciones tipo AfterEffects, Motion, Combustion,…

Valoramos además

• Experiencia internacional y buen nivel de inglés
• Conocimientos sobre internet TV, blogs, web 2.0
• Experiencia en el manejo de Steadicam
• Inmejorable sentido del humor

Te ofrecemos una experiencia profesional con grandes clientes, asumiendo el liderazgo de un equipo material y humano de primer nivel, bajo un contrato estable de duración indefinida y con unas condiciones económicas que varían en función del perfil que puedas aportar. La incorporación es inmediata en nuestra sede central en Zaragoza.

Envíanos cuanto antes tu CV junto con una fotografía y tu demo reel a job@confettika.com, indicando como título del mensaje “REF01”, seguido de tu nombre y apellidos. No se admitirán candidaturas que no vayan acompañadas de un demo reel personal o en su defecto de un video curriculum personal.
Por favor, ¡se original y demuéstranos lo que vales!

In few words, we can say that SevenClick is a European mobile applications company with an worldwide scope. It has been so since the very first day.

But is hard to get rid of our developed-country point of view that makes mobile applications as a new feature. Very clever, very fun, very interesting… but just a fancy new feature, not essential in any case.

Not many people understands mobile applications as a new way that can change their life. For sure, our life is already comfortable enough, so mobility will not dramatically improve our daily routine.

But in developing and underdeveloped countries mobile is just another story. It’s a matter of daily life. Specially in rural areas, where mobile networks are the best link with the rest of the world for many villages. Building a road or a motorway is much more expensive than building a cellular network.

In this situation, where no other infrastructure exists, mobile phone can be your bank, your shop, your encyclopedia, your newspaper, …

Google has noticed and has released “Google SMS in Uganda, a suite of applications which provides access, via SMS, to information on a diverse number of topics including health and agriculture tips, news, local weather, sports, and more“. Don’t miss the Google Official Mobile Blog  post.

We wish this innitiative to reach great success and to spread, making life easier for many people.

Link GoogleMobileBlog

Past Friday SevenClick was involved in a workshop day at Zaragoza Council, where a new project sponsored by Science&Technology area was launched aiming to bring public administration closer to citizens and enterprises.

Twenty five users have been recruited for the pilot project that targets the delivering of certified notices for publishing the resolutions of Town Planning board. These selected set of users covers up to 90% of overall transactions processed by the board.

All participants were excited to participate in this interesting initiative of m-Government, and folllowed with interest the words of Daniel Vecino, SevenClick’s CEO, who explained the operation of the system and how easy is to work with the mobile client application.

Specially remarkable was the interest in the advance of new releases of the platform with new and improved  features, that are already ongoing.

Enjoy! And do not miss this pictures!

As we announced, HTC invited SevenClick to attend the presentation which took place last wednesday in London. The secret surprise was twofold:

• HT SENSE. A brand new user interface created by HTC for ANDROID powered phones.
• HTC HERO. The third ANDROID phone by HTC.

The event was very impressive, bringing together people around the world to the presentation. The organization was perfect, allowing media to talk directly with HTC executives present in the event.

Peter Chou, HTC CEO started the presentation talking about HTC’s perspective of mobility. Then, he introduced the new HTC SENSE interface. Finally, Horace Luke presented the Hardware specs. After the presentation, HTC staff made personalized demos of the devices, allowing people to use them on their own, touching, feeling and sensing them, which is very important in my opinion.

HTC SENSE

Just like the TouchFlo interface for Windows Mobile devices, ANDROID phones will have a specially adapted interface. As one of HTC members said, this is the first 100% HTC ANDROID project. They have invested lot of time (and money) in the software part, and the most remarkable result is HTC SENSE.

The main change from the user point of view is that SENSE focuses on contacts. What does it means? Accessing your contacts you’ll be able to browse their mails, SMSs, Facebook profile, Flickr photos… and so on.

From a user perspective, HTC SENSE is much better than regular ANDROID interface. Looks better, keeping the best things current interface offers, but powering the user experience through a myriad of widgets.  Because all of this is about Widgets.

HTC HERO

With a design very similar to the HTC MAGIC, the most remarkable feature of this device is Teflon. HTC has used this material to create a harder and stronger phone, less prone to scratches. HTC has included a 3.5 mm audio jack, wich is much better than just a Micro USB jack.

I don’t want to include an extensive specification description. Just follow the link in the botton of this post.

HERO will be available on July, and HTC announced agreements with T-Mobile and Orange.

I’m my opinion a very interesting device powered by great software too. We must demand great pieces of hardware running the best software. If one of the parts is not good enough, the formula doesn’t work.  This device follows the path initiated by HTC with the MAGIC (I’n my opinion, the HTC DREAM was just a proof of concept).

I’d like to thank HTC people for the invitation. It’s been a pleasure to be there and attend this great event personally. We look forward to your new presentation guys!!!!

Technical specifications

Product WebSite

Today, Club de Marketing hosted a meeting in Zaragoza where Santiago Baselga, TBS Group President, had the opportunity to make a presentation. Along with Daniel Vecino, SevenClick’s CEO,  they did a very funny presentation which concluded with an special appearance of “our” President Obama.

We have found this picture on Twitter.  Thanks to the peson who published it.

Link Obama’s Picture

Today June 18th, Iniciador comes for the first time to Zaragoza. Iniciador gathers enterpreneurs allowing them to share experiences. This event wants to transmit the “enterpreneur spirit” all over the country.

The guest speaker will be Santiago Baselga, founder and CEO of TB·Solutions and  Co-founder and President of SevenClick.

Schedule:

• 19,30 h Presentation Iniciador Zaragoza
• 20,00 h Presentation of the participants name, company or project and goals for the Iniciador.
• 21,00 h Guest speaker: Santiago Baselga.
• 22,00 h Networking

Place:

• Digital Water Pavilion (Pabellón Digital del Agua, Avda. Francia, s/n, en La Almozara. Zaragoza)

Other:

• Free, but limited to 45 people pre-registered
• To register you must complete the following Registration Form: Formulario de Inscripción del Iniciador Zaragoza (Indicate Name, email contact and project where are working or planning to work)

Stay updated on upcoming events:

• Facebook Group (Join the group on Facebook)
• Google Calendar.

Via: Loogic

HTC has invited SevenClick to attend next 24th of June to an event in London. Everything is very misterious.

No information. Just a cryptic picture of a guy with a Rose (Rosie????).

By the way, SevenClick is going to be there. The mistery will be revealed in two weeks.

Stay tuned for more information.

SevenClick, TBS Group company specialized mobile solutions development, is participating as speaker in the Banking Technology Comittee of the European Savings Banks Group, taking place in Madrid on June 8 and 9.

Invited by La Caixa for such an important event, José Manuel Cristóbal, SevenClick’s CTO, will make a presentation entitled “Mobile Banking. Getting Satisfaction!”covering a number of first-level success stories.

Among them, those related to iPhone and Android electronic banking solutions, mobile Digital Signature, secure authentication mechanisms and payment authorization methods. All of them from a pure mobile perspective, assuring security and legal validity of each process.

Undoubtedly, a new opportunity to know the most important innovations in banking and mobile technology.

All of them in a exclusive environment with representatives of Technology Departments from the main European Savings Banks.

Press Note

I’m the fortunate owner of a HTC Magic, the last ANDROID powered phone launched by the Asian phone manufacturer. I have waited one week to write down my first impressions of the device. The reason: I felt in love with this gadget in the last Mobile World Congress, so I think that my opinion would be more precise after some time using it.

My veredict couldn’t be more possitive. Along with the iPhone, this is the best smartphone ever. Fast, reliable (no hang-ups in one week), smooth, easy to use and, the most important thing, easy to understand. Everything looks pretty clever and easy to find.

By the way, if you are a Google allergic person, stay away from this gadget. Google is everywhere. The first thing you see when you turn on your device for the first time is ANDROID, and then it ask you for a Google Account. What for? It automatically configures your gMail, contacts and calendar. You can use it without configuring your Google account, but you won’t fully enjoy this gadget’s capabilities. In my opinion, it’s made to be used with Google services.

One thing I don’t like is that It comes with two different mail clients, Mail and GMail. The device automatically configures Gmail, but in my case, the first place I went to check my email was Mail, so I configured it. The results? I received double notifications in the notification bar till I realized I had two mail clients working at the same time. Maybe is my mistake, but I don’t like it at all.

In summary, a great device. I don’t want to cover every single aspect since there are plenty of features I still have to look in detail. Marketplace, YouTube, Applications, Notifications, Sync…

Get back to blog.sevenclick.com for new information about this awesome gadget. You won’t regret it.

SevenClick and LID editorial presented yesterday at Hotel Eurostars, Madrid, a brand new collection of personal and enterprise skill development books, FOR ROOKIES.

This time, SevenClick has been in charge of the creation and development of the application to download FOR ROOKIES books to the mobile phone.

The project’s first phase allows to freely download  an extract of the book Búsqueda de Empleo For Rookies. You can download it right now and enjoy reading and listening to it on iPhone and iPod Touch.

This initiative will be complemented with the complete version of the book, followed by the remaining books of the collection. All of them with a free extract and a commercial version of the book.

Download from Apple’s iTunes Store

Presskit

After more than a month of daily use of this nice WinMo device, I can affirm that its one of the best HTC devices right now. Here you have the full review.

HTC Touch Cruise 09 highlights an integrated GPS with CoPilot pre-installed, with a direct button for starting it, as well as a car charger and cradle which also starts automatically the GPS software when setting the device on it. So this is the natural evolution of the HTC Find, which already was substituting the original HTC Touch Cruise.

But let´s review all the hardware and software specs and features one by one.

• Hardware

HTC Touch Cruise weights only 103 grams and fits perfectly on your hand. The materials are good, is plastic but the back has a really nice touch.

1. Screen. The screen is bright and clear, 2.8 inch and QVGA resolution. A bit difficult to read outdoors, but that´s the standard on the current screens, will have to wait for AMOLED to fix that. Regarding the touch capabilities, the responsiveness surprised me, very nice for a resistive screen.
2. Buttons and Wheel. Really nice big buttons with metal-look style. There are two direct buttons for CoPilot and FootPrints (see the software review further on). The other two are the old green and red ones. There´s also a lateral double-button for volume. Like other HTC models, zoom is implemented through a useful wheel. It´s not as impressive as iPhone´s multitouch gestures for zooming, but its a really handy addition, miles away from the typical WinMo zooms.
3. Camera. The 3.2 Mpx camera takes big shots, specially on good light conditions, but forget to take photos on night or in poor illuminated places.
4. Speakers, MicroSD. The speakers are just correct, nothing to highlight, they do their function and that´s all. Regarding the MicroSD card slot, is great to have SDHC support, and you can hot-swap cards just by opening the back.
5. Battery. Provided with 1100 mAh, it lasts long enough, altough other HTC models come with a little more power (e.g. HTC Magic battery features 1340 mAh). My experience is that with “just-phone” use (no wifi or GPS) this longs over three-four days of use. Extensive use of Wifi and GPS translates on a double-quick drained battery, lasting about two or less days.
6. GPS. The quality of the antenna was a surprise, it adquires the signal really quick, and gets it from more satellites that my TomTom.

• Software

HTC Touch Cruise brigths by its soft bundle. It comes with a heavily modified Windows Mobile 6.1, based on HTC Touch FLO, with the already commented CoPilot GPS soft, FootPrints which means integrated photo geotagging, and other nice additions like Youtube app, Google Maps and the brilliant Opera Mobile, which works great with the wheel.

1. CoPilot 7. This GPS software is really cool, probably the best I have tried till now. Big buttons, several view types, integrated radar POIs, live traffic info over their own service (requires registration and registry), weather forecast… The included maps for the spanish version is obviusly Iberia (no European maps) which comes in a 1GB MicroSD. Remember that HTC, CoPilot and MoviStar had announced other collaboration agreements lately, including lifetime licenses. It´s a pity that there is only one voice included by default, and also the speakers are not loud enough when you are driving.
2. FootPrints. A nice tool for geotagging your photos, adding sound clips, opening directly CoPilot with the geoposition of the photo already loaded… It was not very useful for me, but its nice.
3. HTC Touch FLO. Well, nothing new here as its the well-know HTC front-end for Windows Mobile. Just highlight that it works really quick, withouth any lags, and integrates fine with the extra software (CoPilot, FootPrints, Maps and Opera. Youtube has to be opened from the WinMo program list).
4. Extra Apps: Opera, Youtube, Google Maps. All work really fast, even over 3G connections, and its great to use Opera with the Wheel (not as great as iPhone multitouch zooming, but its the next better experience out there).

• More Tech Specs

1. Micro and RAM. Powered by a Qualcomm MSM7225 at 528 Mhz and 256 MB RAM, it means forget about WinMo lags.
2. Network. Four-band, HSDPA… talk and navigate everywhere over the globe.
3. Connectivity. Wifi b/g, Bluetooth including A2DP, and HTC ExtUSB (no standard headphones can be used with the Touch Cruise, however, the included ones are nice).

We want to thank HTC Spain for the opportunity of testing this great device.

Innovate!Europe has started its final phase in Zaragoza, Spain. Yesterday´s official opening featured the conference and roundtable discussion “Thriving in the crisis”, leaded by Ignacio de la Vega, founder and director of the International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Ventures Development at Instituto de Empressa Business School.

All finalists, including zuppex by Sevenclick, are attending today to a series of Master Classes which will offer strategic counsel and first-hand learning to all of us.

The closing event will take place tomorrow at the Teatro Principal of Zaragoza with a public forum, “Meet the Entrepreneurs,” where ten finalist companies will present their businesses plans. Mr. Juan-Tomas Hernani, Spain’s newly-appointed General Secretary of Innovation will announce and present the award to Innovate!Europe’s High-Potential Startup of 2009.

Visit www.zuppex.com to learn more about zuppex, our multidevice product suite featuring operator independent push communication, encryption and digital signature, in a multicontent environment.

Link Innovate!Europe
Link zuppex website

Last week, Vodafone created a new blog about the HTC Magic in order to get their echo on the blogosphere. Altough is just marketing, and they have rush to fill it up with 2 or 3 articles per day (some of them a bit incorrect like the third post that on 21th April stated that HTC Magic was coming on february), they have used this platform to unveil some details of Magic´s launch some hours before the official Vodafone website announcement (which is supposed to happen in just an hour).

The device comes with a 12 €/month data plan which includes unlimited music downloads through Vodafone Music app, made by Real Networks, specialists on streaming. From there, the price range will change depending on the monthly voice plan, 9, 25 and 50 € are available and you´ll get a price of 199, 139 and 19 € respectively for clients coming from other carrier.

The HTC Magic will also be included on the phone upgrade catalog for existing clients, and Vodafone´s blog assures it´ll cost 159€ with only 2000 points.

Via Un Androide en Vodafone

There has been a lot of buzz around the new Skype iPhone app blocking calls over 3G networks because of mobile carrier´s pressure. The fact is that most 3G data plan contracts specifically block P2P and VoIP calls… So, given today market rules, it was just a matter of time for someone to break that apparently holy rule at a certain point, and stand out over its competitors.

MÁSmovil (an Spanish MVNO) not only allows VoIP calls, they are actively promoting the use of Skype and Fring over their networks (well, as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, they don´t have their own licensed frequency allocation, but they use another´s carrier network.. in this case, the service provider is Orange).

I wish this would be the first of a long list of carriers allowing VoIP… but this is simply not the correct time for this to happen. The true convergence of voice and data wireless networks will come with 4G, called LTE (Long Term Evolution) which is still far away from the current market horizon.

Even these are good news and provide an added value for this MVNO (for me a decisive one), I would have appreciated more transparency with their 3G prices comparisions, as they are a bit “tricky”.

For instance, when comparing with their stronger MVNO competitor, SIMYO, the charts show that 25 MB with MÁSmovil costs 0,75 €, which is better than the 0,99 of SIMYO. That´s completely correct, but they seemed to forget that with SIMYO you only pay 0,99 for the first 100 MB. Of course they don´t made a chart showing that you will pay the triple (3 €) for 100MB with them… on the other hand, MÁSmovil computes each single 3G connection as a minimum of 512 KB, in front of the 256KB gap of SIMYO, so forget configuring your mobile mail client for polling every 5 minutes (with both carriers).

Anyway, allowing VoIP over 3G networks is a big step forward for the final users.

Link MÁSmovil 3G prices [eng] | MÁSmovil 3G prices [esp]

Link MÁSmovil promotes VoIP calls [eng] | MÁSmovil promotes VoIP calls [esp]

Link SIMYO 3G prices

Link Skype & Fring reviewed

Android 1.5, based on the Cupcake branch from the Android Open Source project, has been released as an early look version. Although 1.5 is still not supported on Android devices, developers can download the 1.5 SDK and start testing the new features, as well as send feedback to Google in order to improve the 1.5 final version.

Cupcake is full of new features, and though there are no big surprises, the feeling is that most things have been improved. I´d stress the ability to install downloadable IMEs in order to get customized soft-keyboards (we already knew the importance of IMEs for Android roadmap). Here´s a summary of 1.5:

• User interface improvements (refinements of UI core elements, window animations…)
• Home screen Widgets
• Updated linux kernel and SD filesystem checks
• Google Apps integration (uploads to YouTube, Picassa)
• Faster GPS signal acquisition as well as faster camera start-up
• Speech recognition
• New APIs and developers tools (improved JUnit support, easier profiling…)

Via Android Developers Blog

A few days ago the Skype application for iPhone/iTouch was launched. You can download it from the App Store for free. This let us make calls to other Skype users for free and to mobile and landline phones using the known Skype credit.

We have tested it making some calls between an iPhone and a computer or a Windows Mobile device. These are the results and the devices we have used:

• Test iPhone - Computer (Windows XP sp2):

We have installed the desktop application on a PC running Windows XP sp2, and the voice has been transmitted really fast between the PC and iPhone, just like in a standard call, what has really surprised us.

• Test iPhone - HTC Touch Cruise 2 (Windows Mobile):

This time we have installed the application Fring on a HTC Touch Cruise 2. This app, as we already posted, allows us to use different accounts (MSN, Google Talk, AIM, SIP, Facebook, Twitter, Skype) from our mobile device. But the voice sound did not run fast, it had a lag between one and two seconds. The sound quality decreased but just in Fring, not on Skype iPhone.

About Skype UI on iPhone:

It is simple but clear, just what we need and how we need it, so it is easy-to-use. It takes our contacts from iPhone contacts in case you want to call them using your Skype credit. And it also allows to use the camera to change your user picture. The BIG drawback is that it only runs when using Wi-fi connection, not 3G. We hope this changes…

About Fring UI on Windows Mobile:

The user interface is too simple, some features are not easy to find. And it has an old-fashion look, so that it uses WM square buttons and other resources.

It is great to see these kind of applications come to our mobile devices, so we just don’t need our computer to call for free! =)

HTC has introduced a new terminal this week, the HCT Snap. A mobile phone which, as they say, shows you “Your life in a Snap“. It is a slim and stylish device with an exposed QWERTY keyboard, out of useless features and perfectly suitable for people who want to simplify their life. This can be good for smartphone newcomers or users focus on e-mails, sms and web browsing.

This is not the first HTC device with portrait QWERTY format and, as his predecessors , it doesn’t have touchscreen, but it offers some new features that make it really interesting:

• Inner Cyrcle:  A system which “get to your most important emails with a single press of a button.”  You can create your own group of contacts and, pressing the “Inner Cyrcle” button, emails from these people you have selected will be moved at the top of your inbox.
• Jog ball: There is a trackball similar to Blackberry’s one, that allows you navigate in phone applications and menus.
• Keyboard: A Keyboard with raised keys for comfortable typing and buttons to direct access to the main functions as contacts list, calendar or inbox.

Although others of its features don’t stand out from the current mobile phone market, it doesn’t fall behind it either:

• Processor: Qualcomm MSM 7225, 528 MHz
• Operative System: Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard
• Memory: 256MB ROM, 192MB RAM
• Size: 4.59 X 2.42 X 0.47 inches
• Weight: 117.6g
• Screen: 2.4 inch QVGA (320×240)
• Battery: 1500mAh Lithium-ion (300 minutes WCDMA and 510 minutes GSM)
• Expansion Slot: SDHC (SD 2.0 compatible)
• Camera: 2.0 megapixel with fixed focus
• Communication: GPS, HSDPA, Wifi, Bluetooth 2.0

The HTC Snap is expected to be launched first in Europe in this quarter (the US version will be launched later).

Vía HTC Press Note

Last week  HTC Spain prepared a meeting to present its new devices for the upcoming months. SevenClick was part of the audience, composed by some of the most important people in Spanish blogosphere, with people from Xataka, PixelyDixel, etc…

Let’s take a look at the novelties.

HTC Diamond 2

HTC focused the presentation in two devices. First one, HTC Diamond 2, focused to the consumption market, is the evolution of the HTC Diamond. The device looks a bit different, with a metallic aspect which I prefer to the plastic one.

Reagrding software, the most remarkable aspect of the device is its video playing features. We had the opportunity to watch Star Wars Episode 2 and the results are awesome. Fluent, perfect colors, nice screen size…

HTC Touch Flo interface has also been updated, getting closer to the current tendencies in button sizes and finger operation. Despite we are talking about a Windows Mobile 6.1 device, the buttons are bigger than usual, getting close to the aspect of future Windows Mobile 6.5 software. Great point here. Every new release improves this interface, but It still has to improve in terms of fluency. Nevertheless, much better than older versions.

HTC Touch Pro 2

The second Windows Mobile device presented was HTC Touch Pro 2. Focused to the enterprise market, the device features a really useful qwerty keyboard. The most important part of the device is software.

HTC has developed a new interface focused on contacts. This way, users will be able to navigate through the contact list, allowing to call, e-mail or message every person of the contact list. It’s a paradigm change. Other devices allows you tu make a call, dialing the number or chosing the contact to call. This propotition focus on contacts, not on the action you want to make. Believe me, it’s a wiser approach and you’ll get use to it very quickly.

Another feature of this device is what HTC calls “Push Internet”.  The service allows the user to set-up a number of websites that will be automatically downloaded at a certain time. How useful it is deppends on personal taste.

And the jewel of the crown. The device is prepared for multi-conference in a really easy way. Just turn around the device and put it on your table with the screen on the botton. The back loudspeaker and microphone are activated and you are able to share the conversation with more people. Do you want to mute your call? A useful button has been included in the back of the device to do so. Smart, really smart.

HTC DREAM

This device has generated plenty of noise since launched by T-Mobile. The device will be distributed by Telefonica Movistar, which is already late, since the official launch was planned for March 2009. Basically, is the same device you can find in other markets. Nothing new regarding hardware design. Anyway, an interesting device for those who don’t want to change their mobile operator and want an ANDROID mobile phone.

HTC MAGIC

First of all, I love this device. Since I fist saw it in HTC’s stand in MWC I felt in love with it. The device has been slightly modified from MWC. Now, it has 6 buttons, including a Google Search button to directly access Google Search Engine. It comes in two colours, black and white. The black model is very nice, being the white one the most appealing for people. Put both models side by side and the first one to be picked-up will be the white one.

ANDROID really means a strong competitor for iPhone. The screen is pretty similar, with a really, really good response to finger operation (oh, no  stylus here, everything must be operated with your fingers). The best thing we can say about it is: It works!!! Is nice, is Fluent, is clever (don’t miss the notification zone) and works, which in my opinion is the best you can say about a mobile operating system.

As you might now, the device will be launched next April by Vodafone Spain. I can’t wait to have one in my hands!!

Finally i’d like to thank HTC for inviting SevenClick to this event. It was really nice to share points of view with other people about HTC technology. Thanks!!!

Oh, HTC gave us a Touch Cruise 2 Device for testing purposes. Don’t miss the review!!

Can´t recall her name?… Google can help you, just use Google´s CADIE technology to search into your memories with your phone !

Nice April Fool’s joke, guys.

Link Google Mobile Blog |  Google Brain Search | CADIE | Google´s hoaxes

Finally, we have on our hands the first beta release of Fennec, the Firefox browser for mobile devices. It’s the milestone number 12 in the development roadmap and its intented for testing purposes, get wider feedback, engage community and encourage add-on developers to port existing add-ons. It’s only available for ‘Maemo’, the Linux OS running on Nokia N810 Internet Tablets.

You can look at all the features in the Release Notes. There’s nothing shocking, but some of them are really inteteresting. I specially like what they call ‘Devices services integration’: click on a phone number to initiate a call and a JavaScript API to get device location.

Anyway, I must confess I’m a bit disappointed by the pace of Mozilla’s advances in its mobile version. Two years ago, Mozilla decided to discontinue the Minimo browser project. It was the first attempt. Some months after, they announced their intention of starting a new project and Fennec development started from the ground up.

From that moment, the release of a stable version has been delayed time over time, and now we have no idea of when we’ll have a version for a mainstream platform (Windows Mobile or Symbian, the only two covered by Fennec).

Let’s hope all the feedback and re-encouraged contributions of the community will help to make Fennec a reality as soon as possible. Otherwise, it could be too late for them, as all WebKit-derived browsers take the market.

Via ObservatorioInternetMovil
Links ReleaseNotes SevenClick SevenClick

HTC has announced that their high-end smartphone HTC Touch HD, offered by Telefónica in Spain, will incorporate the awarded GPS software CoPilot Live, developed by ALK Technologies.

And what´s more, they give you a perpetual CoPilot license just for signing a 3G data contract !

In case you still don´t know the incredible HTC device Touch HD or the contract options with Telefónica, please visit our coverage for the Spanish HTC Press Conference presentation, where you will find all these details plus some interesting videos of the Touch HD´s TouchFLO 3D interface. You can also read its technical specifications here.

So, you know HTC´s Touch HD… now put its 3,8 inch high-res touchscreen together with a magnificient turn by turn GPS software. What you get its the best GPS on a smartphone nowadays. Apple finally announced support for turn by turn GPS software on iPhone 3.0 by summer, but there are still no announcements for any concrete GPS software, and the screen its not as good as HTC´s for this task. Also, CoPilot Live benefits not only from Touch HD screen, it also runs great and smoothly over HTC Touch FLO interface.

There are just a few dedicated GPS hardware devices with such a screen and capabilities, and the price for those which can face the specs of the Touch HD is just too high comparatively. Take into account that Touch HD runs Windows Mobile, so you have a media player (music, videos, photos) and a bluetooth handsfree.

Thanks to Telefónica 3G Data plans (10 and 15 euros depending on the maximum traffic) and the perpetual license you get with it (you can get a license for 99 € on ALK website shall you don´t want data plans), you will be able to upgrade CoPilot Live with new updated maps and POIs (Points Of Interests) like the included radar warners.

In the last Mobile World Congress, Microsoft give us a official word about new features on Windows Mobile 6.5 like MarketPlace, MyPhone or the new look. However, they forgot to tell us an important one: WM 6.5 will feature Widgets!

Last weeks we have read lots of rumours about it, but it was not clear how Microsoft will use these widgets. At last, yesterday, a member of the Windows Mobile Developer Team explained us this new feature in their blog.

Widgets are a good advance for user, who are going to enjoy using nice looking applications, and a great one for developers, who will able to develope them easier.

WM widgets will be powered by Internet Explorer. Take a look to some outstanding matters about Windows Mobile Widget platform:

• Widgets written using all the Web Technologies (Html, Ajax, JavaScript…).
• Full access to flash and ActiveX controls.
• Look like a normal standalone application.
  • Individual app in task manager.
  • Own start menu icon.
• The platform implements the latest draft of W3C standard for mobile widget applications.
• Basic things of normal applications like native support for transparent PNGs or Window.XMLHttpRequest object are considered.

On the other hand, don’t forget that widgets already exist in Windows Mobile since, some months backs, the Opera’s widget runtime engine was released. The advantage of the Opera’s platform is that it works in Symbian O.S. too, but it has a significant drawback, it doesn’t expose much device functionality to developers.

Soon we will see how the Windows Mobile Widget performance is.

Vía Windows Mobile Team Blog.

Five out of ten items of our wishlist for iPhone firmware 3.0 have been announced to be included on iPhone 3.0, on the special media event held on Apple´s Cupertino headquarters. Well, sort of. And there are a bunch of unexpected surprises, too. Anyway, to test all the features you are going to find out after the jump, we all will have to wait till summer…

Let´s make it clear: some of iPhone 3.0 new features will come included into the new firmware, while others are SDK improvements that will allow developers to include new features on their apps. Some of the firm-included features are not as good as the community awaited, and others were not even mentioned, perhaps that´s why Apple made the event full of 3rd party demos… it´s clear they trust on the developer community to cover the hole they can´t (or don´t want to).

But I´m critizicing to soon, go ahead, read the facts, and decide wheter the new firmware it´s just an stylish way of accepting their errors (while earning more money with the new appStore changes), a deception for not including all the features that other mobile devide brands support since years (while earning more money), or a great leap forward for the mobility world (while Apple earns more money).

iPhone Hall of Shame

iPhone represented a big step forward for mobile devices in many senses, and that´s one of the reasons of its success. However, there are a few simple things that iPhone is not able to do, even old mobile standards that all devices can do. The list below is a list of the features that iPhone still NOT support after “major” 3.0 update:

• Video Capturing. And what it´s worse, they gave no word on this… as I said, seems apple trust on the developers and their apps to cover their holes.
• Standard Bluetooth. Don´t be confused! Apple has announced P2P connectivity via bluetooth (read more on “Hall of Surprises” list) which means they don´t use standard bluetooth and iPhone won´t be able to communicate with other bluetooth mobile devices. They say developers woul be able to do teir custom P2P protocols, so there will probably exist the possibility for an app to use standard bluetooth, but the P2P included with 3.0 firmware it´s not standard.
• Background processing. It´s “not good for the customer”, on Apple words. They say that their tests shows it drains battery for up to 80%. So Apple decides for you.
• iTunes wireless syncing. Was not even mentioned on the event.
• Flash. I was expecting flash support to be the big hit for iPhone 3.0 firmware release, but I´m a fool. As the Wired guys perfectly explained a while ago, “Allowing Flash — which is a development platform of its own — would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it“.

iPhone Hall of Lateness

At least, they have partially redeemed enabling the next long awaited features:

• Tethering ? That´s one of my favourites, as I consider it as a MUST for any 3G device. However, it´s not completely clear if 3.0 will provide complete tethering support on all countries. Why? Many carries have special iPhone data plan contracts, and the legal stuff of that type of contracts usually specifies that the source of any 3G connections will be the iPhone device. For instance, in Spain where iPhone is exclusively sold by MoviStar, they charge an extra fee each time you use 3G from anywhere but an iPhone if your SIM is associated to an iPhone data plan. That´s what Apple guys said on the Q&A round: “There’s two pieces needed to support that: client side and working with carriers. We’re absolutely supporting tethering in the client side in iPhone 3.0, but we’re working with carriers around the world to see when they can add tethering support on their networks. But we are building that support into iPhone 3.0“.
• MMS. Wooow! What an incredible feature !!! This is the best innovation I´ve ever seen !! … Now back to seriousness: iPhone has now MMS support. Shall we say thanks? Note: 1st gen iPhone con´t support MMS even with the firm update, because of hardware issues, they said.
• Cut & Paste. At least copy, paste and cut is supported, they apologized stating that there were too many security issues for implementing such a feature, and they wanted to do it fine. The UI seems great, there´s also an undo option, and you can delete by shaking the iPhone.
• Turn by Turn GPS. Finally !! And as seen on some photos of the event, “B.Y.O.M.” (Build Your Own Maps). Which is logical because of Google Maps licensing. So again, Apple leaves the hard work to developers.
• Stereo Bluetooth. A nice feature, unfortunately 1st gen iPhone won´t be able to support this, as happened with MMS.
• Push. They canceled push support on firm version 2, now they have re-engineered all the system and they are ready for 3.0. There are notifications as badge alerts (shown on the app icon), text alerts and audio alerts. Apple states that it affects battery life just on a 23% (not much compared whith the tests they said they did to background processing which drains 80%). That´s how it works: the Push Notification Service (PNS) will have a permanent connection with the iPhone, then a 3rd party server will send notifs to the Apple´s PNS and it will forward them through the permanent connection. So they say the good part is that they do the “hard work” of adapting to the carrier networks of each country… There are other solutions out there and they handle push withouth problems (e.g. our zuppex product provides push notifications over any provider on any device, and we also are multi-carrier… ).

iPhone Hall of “Surprises”

There were space also for unexpected features added to 3.0, to highlight the improved App Store.

• App Store improvements. They expanded the bussiness model, so subscriptions are now possible (e.g. magazines), also there are “in-app” payments, which will allow to download extra-content. For instance, you could get by a low amount the first levels of a game and then if you like it you will type your iTunes password inside the app and pay for the next levels. In the Cupertino event, two interesting demos of games used this: Sims 3, where you could buy in-game objects for real money, and LiveFire, a first person shooter where you could buy new weapons, as the rocket launcher. In other words, as I said above, Apple earnings grow with this model.
• P2P conectivity via Bluetooth. This will allow users to share files, apps, and what´s more, this will introduce iPhone games to the multiplayer world. It´s a pity that they don´t follow the standards and also we will have to test its performance, as it would be quickier with Wi-fi.
• Voice Memos. An integrated app for voice-recording which supports external compatible microphones. nothing special.
• Lanscape on All included apps. Including Mail.
• Shake to shuffle. A bad copy of Sony-Ericsson´s shake controls for music.
• Notes sync. So you can synchronize your notes with iTunes.
• Search (Spotlight). That´s a new function which can search over all your iPhone, including Mail, iPod library, your apps…

iPhone SDK 3.0

Thanks to the new SDK, developers will be able to create richer apps.

• Control over accesories. The new SDK provides support for controlling the accesories, for instance, if a hi-fi iPod dock has an equalizer, you could control it in your app.
• Embedded Google Maps. To get them into your apps.
• Access to proximity sensor. Still have to see who uses this on an innovative way.
• 1000 new APIs (e.g. VOIP APIs). That´s too much.
• Streaming audio and video over HTTP. This is good for live audio apps, as HTTP isn´t usually blocked by firewalls.

And that´s all. The new SDK and firmware are available for beta testing to people affiliated to the iPhone Dev Program, but the final release won´t be available for downloading till summer. Btw, iPod touch users will have to pay $9.95 again to upgrade.

So now it´s your time to judge. What do you think about the new firmware 3.0 ? Does it deserve such a version jump (from 2.2 to 3.0) ? Is it enough to beat Android and WebOs outstanding features?

As you already may know if you follow the specialized blogosphere, iPhone has set a meeting for some invited parties on their Cupertino base on next tuesday, to show off what they have been working on for next iPhone firmware, as well as a new SDK.

That´s 3.0 firmware version, an such a jump (from 2.2 to 3.0), plus the fact of such an intimate event with selected media, must mean that Apple is cooking something big and juicy.

The wishlist was just too long, and the speculations of the coming changes covers all of them… These are the top-wanted features for iPhone:

1. Tethering. Which means using iPhone as a 3G modem from any non-mobile-connected device (e.g. your desktop, or your not-3g-laptop). Note that most iPhone rivals provide tethering. We´ve talked about this before, check it again for learning how to make your current iPhone tethering-capable (it´s not so easy).
2. Flash. Adobe is working on Flash support for iPhone since long ago, and recently they said they had a working version which had to be approved… I bet next 17th Apple will unveil that iPhone finally supports Flash !
3. Video capturing. That´s one of the inexplicable awkward things of the iPhone, I just can´t understand why they don´t support something that´s implemented on all camera phones since years ago. Next 17th will be a good moment for redeeming, so users won´t need to install apps for doing something basic.
4. MMS. Those are a kind of ghosts for the iPhone. another inexplicable thing, as MMS are not precisely new…
5. Cut & Paste. One of the more feverish requested feature. There are some “unnofficial” apps providing copy&paste on jailbreaked iphones, one of my favourites, OpenClip, get broke on firm 2.1.
6. Standard Bluetooth. Only Apple-certified bluetooth devices are able to understand iPhone´s bluetooth implementation. Now it´s the time for Apple to provide support for standard bluetooth.
7. Background processing. Don´t you hate losing your game advancements each time you hit the home button or on any entering-call ?
8. iTunes wireless syncing. What era is it ? Cables are just not needed anymore except for charging your phone (unless you have a Palm Pré with the TouchStone thing)
9. A decent GPS software. hope the new SDK announced next tuesday will help GPS software developers to provide a decent software for iPhone.
10. Real Push. Apple announced the MobileMe service along with firmware 2.0, but the service was never stable and they finally recalled it. If you need Real Push for any device, just try zuppex ! ;-)

These are the points the community wants fixed. Stay tuned with Sevenclick Blog&More for live news next 17th !

Check this out! Two people named “Simon and Steve” have developed a software application that lets remote control a F1 toy car from a BlackBerry Storm via Bluetooth.

You can see it in the above video, but that is not the end! Simon and Steve were invited by Vodafone and McLaren to the Grand Prix training circuit to show them something.

Also they had developed a similar application, but more advanced and for a real F1 car! It lets control everything just like if you were driving it. In the video you will see how Lewis Hamilton uses the Storm to control his car.

Just amazing. =O

Thanks to Jesus Viñuales for these news.

After a long time discussing about which mobile operator will be carry the Palm Pre in Europe, today the battle between Vodafone and Movistar has finished.

Although it seemed clear that Vodafone was the favourite, due to Vodafone and Palm already have a history of co-branded Vodafone handset versions (such as the Treo 500v), this time they have not reached any agreement, and it will be Movistar who is going to have an exclusivity Palm Pre carrier in Spain, Latin America and UK (O2).

Probably the device is going to be distributed before the summer in the same way as Movistar markets the IPhone, it is will required a data plan contract.

Have a look at the Palm Pre features:

• WebOS: Brand new proprietary operating system based off Linux.
• 3.1 inch 480×320 screen that slides vertically to reveal a keyboard.
• 3MP Camera with LED Flash.
• EV-DO wireless wide-area access, as well as Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and 8GB of storage.
• Gesture Bar on the screen for navigation and use.
• Removable battery. Inductive charger.
• Micro USB, USB mass storage support.
• Synergy: application which can pull contacts from all your sites (Facebook, Gmail, AIM, etc…).
• Light sensor, proximity sensor, and accelerometer.

The first impressions about the device are good enough to whet our appetite… soon we can bear these opinions out.

Vía Gizmóvil, elPais

The new Blackberry Storm opened as new mobile device for the members of Congress of the USA. They were waiting for a touchscreen device, but was not well received, though it had passed the tests the CAO had performed on the phone.

Some of the Washington elected officials have found problems using the Storm. Senator Harry Reid had trouble sending emails on the Storm and did not like the touchscreen. I guess that is because of the particular functionality of the touchscreen that consists on that the screen must be pressed like a button (not just touch, cause actually is a button, =(  ). Jeff Ventura, spokesman of the House chief administrative officer, said that many who tried the Storm on the Hill have returned it.

A number of members tried to use the Storm but only one or two still use it. A workshop has been started for Storm users, teaching them how to use the many functions on the device. But maybe this does not solve the problem, cause, for instance, some people don’t like the touchscreen even if they know it has to be used like a button.

Via PhoneArena

Firmed by artist Marius Watz, Nokia has released an application for Nokia E71 that turns your text messages into “unique pieces” of Art.

The picture can be set as wallpaper, sent via MMS, and many other not-so-useful options. Right now, the Text Art application is only available for the E71 and can be downloaded for free on the Nokia E71 website, where you can also try it online in the most likely case you don´t have an E71.

Via Register Hardware

Skype and Nokia announced on Tuesday a colaboration agreement to work together in the incorporation of Skype application on Nokia devices. This concerns Nseries devices, having Nokia N97 as first device to incorporate it, which is planned to be released on 3Q 2009. N97 will incorporate Skype as a new feature of the Guide section, where we will be able to check if our contacts are connected to Skype and even use the IM system.

This involves that Nokia users will be able to speak among them for free if they are connected to a WLAN or only paying the cellular operator for the 3G service. In this second case, people who have a plain-rates contract (usual case in mobile-internet users) will never be charged for those additional calls, so it is like they talk “for free”. Even the kind of 3G contracts that decrease the bandwidth to 128kbps doesn’t signify a drawback cause that BW is enough to transmit VoIP calls. Skype also allows to make calls to mobile phones and land lines at low rates.

Skype has 400 million users, since the beginning of the project in 2003. This and the big impact Nokia has on mobile world can make this agreement a real triumph and a new feature for mobile tech users who will take it really glad.

The competitor: Fring

We can say that they have a competitor, Fring, which is not new. The big difference is that its application supports multiple IM accounts (MSN, Google Talk, AIM, SIP, Facebook, Twitter…), including Skype. So it also allows making calls via Skype or any SIP/VoIP account, which opens the functionality of the app to almost any user. So this is also a similar solution, and also free, but multiaccount and which supports the open protocol SIP. So this gives the user Skype functionality and more.

Since its beginning Fring application has increased the supported devices, including WM, iPhone, Symbian, UIQ, Linux and J2ME devices. So they reach any user.

Trend?

All this is not just a new functionality on mobile devices. We are talking about that any person with a mobile device and a Skype account or a free SIP account can talk for free to other mobile users and at really low rates to mobiles and land lines. Just using WLANs or data plans. This means if our mobile telephony contracts just included data plans (3G, GPRS, …), and no calling plans (GSM …) the trend would be to use those data plans to call via SIP/Voip/Skype, which is cheaper than tradiotional calls.

We’ll see…

Link Skype | Nokia

Last fall the french manufacturer Archos released its last three Internet Media Tablets. The Archos 5 and Archos 7, which both include high-resolution touchscreen, WiFi, up to 320GB storage besides slim casing, and the Archos 5g which adds 3G HSDPA cellular broadband. They are powered by OMAP 3 applications processors from Texas Instruments, based on a 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor.

Now, Archos has announced is going to combine this Archos’ multimedia framework with Google’s Android telephony stack. This makes Archos possible to think in a IMT with smartphone capabiliteis. With the integration of voice Archos is looking to expand beyond portable media players, and moving into the mobile device market with a high-quality video content delivery clearly better than its competitors. Android also provides access to its fast-developing applications environment.

The new Archos’ IMT will offer:

• PC-like Internet experience enhanced by a high-resolution 5″ screen and full-width page viewing
• Adobe FlashTM and Flash VideoTM support, full screen
• Access whenever and wherever to TV, movies, photos, music and game
• Uncompromised TV recording and High Definition (HD) playback, all formats
• Innovative design: compact 10-mm ultra-thin tablet
• Long battery life, 7 hours’ video playback
• 3.5G 7.2 Mb/s HSUPA
• Laptop-like performance from the first implementation of OMAP3440 processor based on the ARM(r) CortexTM superscalar microprocessor and DSP

ARCHOS’ new Android-based IMT with voice functionality will be released in 3Q 2009. Don’t miss it.

Via PRNewswire

According to several of the most respected on-line sources, including Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Wired and Information Week ( the original source of the information seems to be The Wall Street Journal), Microsoft plans to announce next monday a brand new Windows Mobile Application Store.

Monday 16th February seems to be the chosen day. Well, it looks pretty clever, since Steve Ballmer is making a keynote presentation in Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona.

Along with this new service, Microsoft is also presenting My Phone service, an on-line repository of personal information for mobile devices. This seems to be true, since the official website has been up and running during the last weeks (in fact, it was discovered by fault, with the subsequent confirmation by Microsoft).

Don’t expect details of the new Microsoft Service. Nothing has been disclosed yet. Nevertheless, everything seems to be true.

I believe Microsoft will use this keynote to present more products and services, like Windows Mobile 6.5, My Phone, and so on… Last year’s MWC announcementes were, you know, disappointing. Hope they have learned the lesson. At least, Steve Ballmer will be present this year, and it assures the show. If you don’t what I’m talking about, check this video.

Via Wired, WallStreet Journal, Information Week

I criticized Google recently for not including Gmail Tasks as part of Google Calendar instead of a Gmail Labs add-on, because of the missed synchronization capabilities of tasks management.

Despite that this fact has not changed, I won´t be surprised when it would, as Google folks can´t keep quiet. Now it´s time for extending a synchronization feature already available for Blackberry, to a bunch of SyncML capable devices, including iphone/ipod touch.

It´s called Google Sync and even it´s a beta (as usual) it provides full bi-directional synchronization capabilites with Google Calendar via Microsoft Active-Sync. This includes up to five calendars, but note that a Microsoft´s Exchange Active-Sync config could not co-exist with a Google Sync config, so you´ll have to choose from which to sync if that´s your case (and beware Google Sync will erase your local contacts, so you have to back-up before proceeding).

Keep up the good work.

Link Google Sync |  Known Limitations
Via TUAW

As we already knew, Windows Mobile 6.5 (available on the second half of 2009) will have a new and more atractive interface, which is called “honeycomb interface”, as we can see in the below picture. We will see on the screen several joined polygons which form the honeycomb menu and an application will be available on each polygon. This interface gives a new and fresh look to the current Windows Mobile version which seems more like a Windows 3.11 style.

Anyway, we can turn off this interface and access the O.S. using the classic view, which consists on browsing folders, like we can see in the below pictures. The folders show a 4×4 icons grid (current version shows 3×4 grid). LIttle changes are new scroll bars, which seem thick to be on a mobile device, and the close cross button, that is too big (I guess this is a beta icon). We can also see the new WM Media Player interface menu, which looks nice and reminds of the WM 7 version.

Let’s talk about something new! These screenshots have revealed some cloud-based services: My Phone, Outlook Live, Marketplace.

• My Phone: it is a cloud-based syncing service that will come preinstalled.
• Outlook Live: this is a cloud-based mail solution that will replace Pocket Outlook. It lets the user manage several accounts from the device and over the web.
• Marketplace:a centralized applications marketplace or what it’s the same, an app store. Its codename is “Skymarket” but it’s not official yet.

UQ Communications - a Japanese consortium led by KDDI and also including Intel, JR East, Kyocera and several banks - launches a commercial Mobile Wimax trial service at Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki. Nagoya and Osaka will also go online in June. This means the major areas of Japan will be covered at a 40$ monthly flat-rate, a rather interesting fee.

They also will offer a Wifi service on Shinkansen trains that will be available for all customers by September (though some commercial clients will have it by March).

We’ll have to wait patiently until we see this in Europe.

Via WirelessWatch

Now you can upgrade your iPhone camera from 2mpx to 4mpx by software!

Occipital ClearCam turns your iPhone into a high quality camera with more than double the resolution ofthe original camera application.

How to get it? Easy! (^_^)

Install the application using Cydia (only jailbroken iPhones), search for ClearCam on Cydia´s browser, Select “Install” from the menu at the top of the screen, and then “Confirm”. Now you have a new camera application on your iPhone desktop.

How does it works? Easier than its installation!

Open the application, push the camera icon and it will capture 6 photos in 2.5 seconds, then it automatically create an enhanced 4·megapixel photo. Send it to your camera roll and enjoy the 4mpx picture.

Easy and useful, just if you want to take a special picture of something or somebody, because it takes a few seconds to enhance the picture, but you´ll obtain a sharpener and bigger picture than the original.

Free version is limited to take one picture in the album, you must to delete the picture to snap another one. You can use the trial version using all the features for free for a period of 15 days or pay 10$ to get the entire application.

Try it to believe it. I recommend it (~_^)

link Occipital