mobile content

On Technology
“It takes these very simple-minded instructions—‘Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it’s greater than this other number’––but executes them at a rate of, let’s say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***
“The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and this stuff doesn’t change the world. It really doesn’t.
“I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much — if at all.
“These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that.
“But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light — that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” [Wired, February 1996]

***
“I think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television — but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.” [Rolling Stone, Dec. 3, 2003]
On Design
“We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.
When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***
“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
“Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have. [Wired, February 1996]

***
“For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” [BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998, in a profile that also included the following gem: "Steve clearly has done an incredible job," says former Apple Chief Financial Officer Joseph Graziano. "But the $64,000 question is: Will Apple ever resume growth?"]

***
“This is what customers pay us for–to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We’re supposed to be really good at this. That doesn’t mean we don’t listen to customers, but it’s hard for them to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it. Take desktop video editing. I never got one request from someone who wanted to edit movies on his computer. Yet now that people see it, they say, ‘Oh my God, that’s great!’” [Fortune, January 24 2000]

***
“Look at the design of a lot of consumer products — they’re really complicated surfaces. We tried to make something much more holistic and simple. When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or energy to get there. We believe that customers are smart, and want objects which are well thought through.” [MSNBC and Newsweek interview, Oct. 14, 2006]
On His Products
“I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn’t be ours anymore. When we finally presented it at the shareholders’ meeting, everyone in the auditorium gave it a five-minute ovation. What was incredible to me was that I could see the Mac team in the first few rows. It was as though none of us could believe we’d actually finished it. Everyone started crying.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***
Playboy: We were warned about you: Before this Interview began, someone said we were “about to be snowed by the best.”
[Smiling] “We’re just enthusiastic about what we do.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***
“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.” [On Mac OS X, Fortune, Jan. 24, 2000]

***
“It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry. This is landmark stuff. I can’t overestimate it!” [On the iTunes Music Store, Fortune, May 12, 2003]

***
“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. … One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world.” [Announcement of the iPhone, Jan. 9, 2007]
On Business
“You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that it’s humorous, all the attention to it, because it’s hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that’s happened to me.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” [The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993]

***
Q: There’s a lot of symbolism to your return. Is that going to be enough to reinvigorate the company with a sense of magic?
“You’re missing it. This is not a one-man show. What’s reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there’s a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they’re not losers. What they didn’t have was a good set of coaches, a good plan. A good senior management team. But they have that now.” [BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998]

***
“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” [Fortune, Nov. 9, 1998]

***
“The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.” [Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer Inc., May 1999]

***
“The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it. That’s somewhat understandable, because there are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are.
“So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.” [Fortune, Jan. 24, 2000]

***
“The system is that there is no system. That doesn’t mean we don’t have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that’s not what it’s about. Process makes you more efficient.
“But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.
“And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important. [BusinessWeek, Oct. 12, 2004]
On His Competitors
Playboy: Are you saying that the people who made PCjr don’t have that kind of pride in the product?
“If they did, they wouldn’t have made the PCjr.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***
“Some people are saying that we ought to put an IBM PC on every desk in America to improve productivity. It won’t work. The special incantations you have to learn this time are the “slash q-zs” and things like that. The manual for WordStar, the most popular word-processing program, is 400 pages thick. To write a novel, you have to read a novel––one that reads like a mystery to most people. They’re not going to learn slash q-z any more than they’re going to learn Morse code. That is what Macintosh is all about.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.”
“I am saddened, not by Microsoft’s success — I have no problem with their success. They’ve earned their success, for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products.” [Triumph of the Nerds, 1996]

***
“I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” [On Bill Gates, The New York Times, Jan. 12, 1997]
On Predicting the Future
“I’ll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I’ll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I’m not there, but I’ll always come back. [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***
“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people––as remarkable as the telephone.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

***
“The desktop computer industry is dead. Innovation has virtually ceased. Microsoft dominates with very little innovation. That’s over. Apple lost. The desktop market has entered the dark ages, and it’s going to be in the dark ages for the next 10 years, or certainly for the rest of this decade.
“It’s like when IBM drove a lot of innovation out of the computer industry before the microprocessor came along. Eventually, Microsoft will crumble because of complacency, and maybe some new things will grow. But until that happens, until there’s some fundamental technology shift, it’s just over.” [Wired, February 1996]

***
The desktop metaphor was invented because one, you were a stand-alone device, and two, you had to manage your own storage. That’s a very big thing in a desktop world. And that may go away. You may not have to manage your own storage. You may not store much before too long. [Wired, February 1996]
On Life
“It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.” [1982, quoted in Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple, 1987]

***
“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.” [Wired, February 1996]

***
“I’m an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what’s happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.” [Wired, February 1996]

***
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

***
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

***

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

***
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.” [NBC Nightly News, May 2006]

***

And One More Thing
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

Unreal Engine 3 devs won't pay royalties until they pass $50k in revenues

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:10:00 +0000

Epic Games has upped the point at which developers using its Unreal Development Kit must pay royalties from $5k to $50k.

Developers making a mobile game using the Unreal Engine 3 will no longer have to pay royalties to the engine's creator Epic Games when they pass $5,000 in revenues. The limit has now been set at ten times that amount - $50,000.

"We're really excited about folks making some amazing things with UDK and we realize that a lot of you are just started in the business so not having to pay royalties on your first $50,000 should help you get a financial footing toward building a quality game development business," says Epic boss Mark Rein.

Once a game passes $50,000 in revenues, developers start paying a 25% royalty to Epic Games on their revenues.

The Unreal Development Kit has been used for big iOS games like Infinity Blade (pictured) and Dungeon Defenders - a trend that is spreading to Android devices too.

To give a concrete example for mobile: once an iOS developer makes more than $50,000 in revenues from the App Store, they will start paying a 25% share of their net revenues to Epic.

in other words, once their UDK-powered game is successful, the gross sales will be divvied up 30% to Apple, 17.5% to Epic Games, and 52.5% to the developer.

Instagram launches its real-time API with 2,000 developers signed up

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:08:00 +0000

Photo-sharing service has unveiled details of its new real-time API, and a list of developer partners already using it.

Social photos service Instagram has taken the wrappers off its real-time API, which allows other app developers to tap into its photos, tags, locations and geographies.

The API is already being used by Dropbox, Foodspotting, Fancy and Momento, with Flipboard and About.me on the way soon, according to TechCrunch.

"We really wanted to push our API to the next level to support a new kind of interaction around photos – one that supported the real-time nature of the content that people create on Instagram," blogs CEO Kevin Systrom, introducing the new API.

Developers can sign up here to use the API, and Instagram says more than 2,000 already have.

Instagram's iPhone app is popular, with more than two million users. However, what's important for any app looking to become a standard is APIs, to push it out into as many other apps as possible.

Microsoft will publish Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7 handsets

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:07:00 +0000

Smartphone smash Angry Birds will make its debut on Windows Phone 7 in April, via a publishing deal between Rovio and Microsoft.

Rovio's Angry Birds game is finally heading to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 handsets, but the most intriguing aspect of the deal appears to be the fact that Microsoft is the publisher.

The news was announced on the official Windows Phone blogby Microsoft's Michael Stroh, citing six games coming to Windows Phone 7's Marketplace from 6 April. Besides Angry Birds, WP7 is also getting Doodle Jump, Plants Vs. Zombies, Hydro Thunder Go, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I, and geoDefense.

Stroh's blog post linked through to a Must-Have Games on Windows Phone 7 webpage, which gave more details on the six games. Microsoft Game Studios is listed as the publisher for WP7 Angry Birds, as well as geoDefense, which was developed by Critical Thought Games for iOS and Android.

Assuming this information is correct, it seems Microsoft is not just courting popular iOS and Android developers to bring their titles to its platform: it's also offering them publishing deals. All six titles mentioned above will tie into the Xbox Live community for achievements and leaderboards.

One in five US and UK adults use the mobile web every day

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:06:00 +0000

Not quite as ubiquitous as many would have thought.

A study by YouGov commissioned by Antenna Software found that 23 per cent of UK adults use the mobile internet every day, compared to 13 per cent a year ago.

The US daily user base is 20 per cent, up three per cent on last year.

On a weekly basis, the rate for browsing is 34 per cent of UK and 33 per cent of US users.

Is this good or bad?

Depends on how you look at it. It probably reflects smartphone penetration levels in these markets – and don't forget how ubiquitous PC broadband access is too in these advanced markets.

Of course, there is still a large army of people who don't use the mobile web at all: 44 per cent of American consumers who have mobile-internet-capable handsets never use it.

It's worth noting that many mobile web users are launching a sesssion not from the browser by via another application.

Instant messaging drove 21 per cent (UK) and 22 per cent US, while social networking services was the prompt for 27 per cent for both the UK and US.

Emdigo closes $1.1m funding round

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:02:00 +0000

That's $7m to date for the company behind the Get It marketing platform.

The cash came from Javelin Venture Partners, and will accelerate the development of a firm that 'streamlines the delivery of apps, video and mobile websites to all popular mobiles and tablets'.

Get It appears to supply a single call to action across multiple touchpoints, including the web, Facebook, SMS shortcodes, QR codes and more.

It then optimises the content to work with the user's handset, OS and network.

Get It was launched last October and is used by Electronic Arts, CBS and CNET.

China has 853 million subs

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:01:00 +0000

About 500 million more for the full set.

The new stats, from the country’s three major operators, show just how voracious the Chinese mobile market remains.

China Mobile saw its subscriber base rise to 589.3 million in January, including 22.6 million 3G subscribers.

China Unicom increased to 169.7 million for the month, including 15.5 million 3G subscribers while China Telecom’s base rose to about 94.1 million, including 13.6 million 3G subscribers.

Analyst firm Wireless Intelligence forecasts China will hit the 1 billion connection milestone in the second quarter of 2012.

Broker note suggests iPad2 delayed to June

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Taiwanese brokerage blames production bottlenecks.

According to Reuters, Yuanta Securities said in a note that production company Hon Hai had to change their production processes after Apple made design changes to the iPad2.

The firm's head of downstream tech equities, Vincent Chen, wrote: "Our checks suggest new issues are being encountered with the new production process and it is taking time to resolve them."

His note claimed a delay would reduce iPad shipments to 23 million from 30.6 million units.

The new device is said to be thinner and pre-loaded with a camera.

Adobe confirms Flash won't be ready for all Android 3.0 tablet launches

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 05:58:00 +0000

Motorola's Xoom tablet will be launching without Adobe's Flash Player, with early purchasers having to wait for an OTA download.

Adobe has announced that its Flash Player 10.2 will not be preloaded on the first crop of Android tablets, although it has promised to make the Player available as an over-the-air download soon after.
Its announcement was sparked by blogosphere speculation about the wording on Verizon Wireless' webpage for the new Motorola Xoom tablet, which noted that "Adobe Flash expected Spring 2011".
Motorola then confirmed that this meant no Flash when the device launches this week. "Motorola Xoom will include full support for Adobe Flash Player for accessing the rich video and animations of the web, to be available after launch," said the company in a statement.
Flash is one of the key advantages Android-based tablets have over Apple's iPad, so the news came as something of a surprise. However, Adobe has since published its own response to the reports.
"Adobe will offer Flash Player 10.2 pre-installed on some tablets and as an OTA download on others within a few weeks of Android 3 (Honeycomb) devices becoming available, the first of which is expected to be the Motorola Xoom," says the company in a blog post.
It goes on to say that "Consumers are clearly asking for Flash support on tablet devices and the good news is that they won’t have to wait long. We are aware of over 50 tablets that will ship in 2011 supporting a full web experience (including Flash support) and Xoom users will be among the first to enjoy this benefit."

MWC 2011: Microsoft promises Windows Phone 7 updates and Kinect crossover

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:48:00 +0000

Also plans to integrate Twitter as tightly as it has Facebook in WP7 OS.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer provided MWC attendees with a sneak peak at the future of the Windows Phone 7 operating system in his keynote speech.

One of the highlights was news that WP7 handsets will be able to interact with Xbox 360's Kinect motion control system. A demonstration showed someone firing balls with their WP7 smartphone at a friend, who had to dive about to block them using Kinect.

Microsoft also showed how Windows Phone 7 multi-tasking will work in a forthcoming software update - it's similar to iPhone's fast app switching. Music apps will be able to run in the background too, matching other smartphone platforms.

Ballmer also said Microsoft will soon integrate Twitter deeply into the WP7 software, just as it did Facebook for launch. The Internet Explorer 9 browser will also get a pocket-sized version for Microsoft's mobile OS later this year.

He gave an update on Windows Phone Marketplace too, saying the store now has 8,000 apps available, with 30,000 registered developers.

Interestingly, Ballmer also made a direct appeal to operators, saying that WP7 "will be the best place for operators to add value... we will be the most operator-friendly platform available" - a direct challenge to Android and BlackBerry.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was a guest on-stage during Ballmer's keynote, reiterating the two companies' ambition to create "a third ecosystem" to rival iOS and Android.

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay, the leader in cloud-based digital content services. NewBay’s LifeCache white label platform enables operators and device makers to deliver a lifetime of content experiences across mobiles, PCs, tablets and TVs. Customers include T-Mobile, Telefónica O2, France Telecom Orange, AT&T, Telstra, LG and more.

MWC 2011: HTC Salsa and HTC ChaCha are the latest Facebook phones

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:47:00 +0000

The Android devices both have dedicated sharing buttons branded with Facebook's logo, but aren't The Facebook Phone.

After all the rumours about a Facebook Phone, HTC launched two this morning. The HTC Salsa and HTC ChaCha have been produced after working closely with the social network, with sharing their key feature.

The ChaCha (pictured) is a BlackBerry-style handset with a Qwerty keyboard and 2.6-inch screen. Meanwhile, the Salsa is a touchscreen-only model. Both run the very latest version of Google's Android OS, version 2.4, which hasn't yet been seen in a live handset.

Both the ChaCha and Salsa sport an 'F' button towards the bottom of the handset - Facebook's instantly recognisable mark. It's used to share photos, updates and check-ins, depending what you're doing on the phone at the time.

The handsets also feature unified inboxes, pulling down Facebook messages as well as emails and texts. The devices also link their address books to a user's Facebook friends, tying in Facebook chat. Both the ChaCha and Salsa are due to be available this summer.

MWC 2011: ZTE previews Skate Android phone

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:46:00 +0000

Inspired by the skateboard. Let's hope the wheels don't fall off.

The rise of China/Hong Kong based ZTE has been synonymous with the emergence of a mass market mid-range Android device.

IDC says ZTE has become one of the world’s top five handset makers – in 2010 it shipped 60 million units and terminal products in over 90 million units.

This new phone will definitely maintain that momentum, but actually it's a pretty smart bit of kit, featuring a large 4.3-inch screen, the Android 2.3 operating system, an 800MHz processor and the Adreno 200 graphics processing unit.

There's also a 5mp camera, multimedia Bluetooth extension, A-GPS capability, hardware compass, and G-sensor.

The Skate is expected to be available from May.

It also kicks off ZTE’s “Light Your Smart World” strategy, which will become the family brand of its smat devices, including Amigo, Blade Android Smartphone, and the F952 handset running Brew MP and supporting the WAC.

Samsung Wave 578 bada phone showcases NFC partnership with Orange

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:45:00 +0000

The latest NFC-capable handset to be shown off is the Samsung Wave 578, which has NFC as one of its main selling points.

Samsung waited until this morning to announced its new Samsung Wave 578 handset, the latest device to run its own bada operating system.

One of its key features is Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, for mobile payments, ticketing and touch-based coupons. The phone also comes with the Samsung Apps store preloaded, as well as the company's Social Hub software to aggregate contacts and social networking.

Alongside the Wave 578's debut, Samsung has extended its existing partnership with Orange on the NFC front. Orange will sell the device in Spain, Poland and France from the second quarter of this year, before launching it in other countries. Orange says it will also launch new NFC handsets from LG, Nokia and other manufacturers.

"We are spearheading the third biggest revolution in the mobile arena, after mobile voice services and the explosion in mobile data," says Orange's EVP of mobile services Anne Bouverot. "Mobile contactless services will change people’s daily lives."

MWC 2011: RIM's 4G BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and App World expansion

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:44:00 +0000

Research In Motion has unveiled new models of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, along with new countries for its App World store.

Research In Motion has announced plans to launch LTE and HSPA+ models of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in the second half of this year, following the debut of the Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi/WiMax models in the first half of 2011.

"We are now building on the BlackBerry PlayBook’s many advantages with support for additional 4G networks that will allow enhanced business opportunities for carriers and developers and unparalleled mobile experiences for users," says president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.

RIM has also announced that it's launching its BlackBerry App World smartphone apps store in 27 more countries across Europe, Africa and the West Indies. That means the store is now available in 101 markets around the world, with the 20,000 apps in its catalogue generating two million total downloads a day.

Big news for App World at MWC includes the announcements by T-Mobile and Vodafone that they'll both start offering carrier billing within RIM's store this year across various local subsidiaries.

The company is hoping to spur the development of more innovative apps by chipping in to the BlackBerry Partners Fund II, a VC fund with $150 million to invest in mobile startups. It's launching in 2011, and will apparently have a wider focus than the first BlackBerry Partners Fund, which launched in 2008 and has invested in 13 startups.

"We are very pleased with the positive impact of the first Fund on our mobile ecosystem and we look forward to BlackBerry Partners Fund II bringing additional resources and support to mobile innovators in a broader range of international markets," says co-CEO Jim Balsillie.

RIM has also announced a new BBM Mobile Gifting platform that will allow BlackBerry users to give one another apps, airtime and other operator services using the BBM Messenger service. Finally, RIM has launched a new BlackBerry Travel app for users.

MWC 2011: SPB demos 3D user interface

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:42:00 +0000

Presents 'auto-stereoscopic' experience for glasses-free 3D phones.

SPB is well-established in the interface market, and is best known for its down SPB Mobile Shell product.

That mimics 3D by letting the users move 'through' the graphical menu system. So it was inevitable that the firm would explore 'true' 3D now that it is available.

It's therefore joined with Spatial View, a pioneer in stereo 3D auto-stereoscopic technologies, to deliver 'an all-encompassing home screen'.

This houses a set of animated 3D widgets, a collection of 3D folders and a suite of customisable panels in stereoscopic 3D.

Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, CEO of SPB, said: “By partnering with Spatial View and combining our flagship SPB UI Engine with Spatial View’s leading auto-stereo 3D display technologies, we are able to demonstrate a very compelling stereo 3D UI platform for readily creating highly responsive stereoscopic 3D user interface solutions.”

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay, the leader in cloud-based digital content services. NewBay’s LifeCache white label platform enables operators and device makers to deliver a lifetime of content experiences across mobiles, PCs, tablets and TVs. Customers include T-Mobile, Telefónica O2, France Telecom Orange, AT&T, Telstra, LG and more.

MWC 2011: Myriad Group launches text-based social networking service

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:41:00 +0000

Myriad Updates aims to help operators bring social features to phones without data connections.

Mobile technology firm Myriad Group has announced a new white-label service called Myriad Updates, which helps operators bring social networking services to non-data users.

The service uses Myriad's Xumii platform, allowing people to connect to friends on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Flickr. The software pulls down updates and collects them into one place, for operators to offer to users.

Myriad is targeting developing countries with the new service. "Through Myriad Updates, operators can enable mobile users with no access to data services, to connect with each other and the world around them for the first time," says CEO Simon Wilkinson.

The company recently inked a deal with Telefonica to launch Xumii-powered social networking across the operator's Movistar and Vivo brands in Latin America.

MWC 2011: Motorola XOOM coming to Europe

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:39:00 +0000

Google-endorsed tablet will be available from Q2 2011.

The XOOM runs on Google’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb – the Android OS for tablets – and is unofficially the Google tablet (in the same way that the Samsung Nexus was its Gingerbread phone).

Let's get the specs out of the way: widescreen HD display with 1280x800 resolution to support HD video and with HDMI out; 5-megapixel rear-facing camera for 720p video capture; 2-megapixel front-facing camera; gyroscope; barometer; e-compass; accelerometer and adaptive lighting.

Its being launched in a 3G/WiFi-enabled version as well as WiFi-only.

MWC 2011: RIM and Samsung sign with Navteq location ads

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:38:00 +0000

Handset firms join the LocationPoint ad network to drive proximity-based advertising.

LocationPoint delivers ads to smartphone users when they’re near to signed-up merchants.

Navteq trialled the service in 2010 and reports a seven per cent click through on McDonald’s ads.

Nokia is already a partner, as are location-based app providers including Appello, CoPilot Live, Navigon, NDrive, Poynt, and Telmap.

Now RIM and Samsung are on board, though it's not clear from the release exactly how the relationship works.

We'll try to find out.

But this is clearly very significant for Navteq, which has made lots of money from licensing its maps but now sees a huge commercial opportunity in linking these assets to contextual marketing.

MWC 2011: Out There lands Deutsche Telekom contract

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:37:00 +0000

Another big win for the opt-in mobile advertising specialist.

Out There Media has grown its business hugely over the last two years, securing partnership agreements with 40 carriers across Europe and Asia.

These deals are built around its Mobucks cross-carrier, cross-advertiser platform, which delivers message-based ads to opted in customers.

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay,

Out There got its start in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, but has steadily expanded into Asia and Western Europe.

So this deal is a major coup.

Its highlight will be “SpecialOffers”, which will be free for customers that sign up to receive news, promotions, special discounts and opportunities to enter competitions.

Prizes including a Mini, tablet PCs, phones and more will help entice people into signing up.

Kerstin Trikalitis, CEO of Out There Media, said: “Bringing our Mobile Advertising expertise to a market of such strategic importance like Germany is an achievement that makes us extremely proud.

"The fact that this milestone is undertaken in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom not only maximizes its importance, but is also a guarantee of its success.”

MWC 2011: Qualcomm unveils quad-core chipset for Tablets

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:36:00 +0000

Dual core? That's, like, pre-historic or something.

The new spec is the flagship for Qualcomm's Snapdragon family, and it's full name is the APQ8064.

It's the first in a new family of Snapdragon chips based on the codename 'Krait', but it's still based on the same basic ARM design as the recently launched dual-core APQ8060.

However, the speed is ramped up to 2.5GHz and doubles the number of processing cores to four.

Yeah, four.

Qualcomm says the new chip can deliver 12 times the overall performance of the APQ8060 yet requires 75 per cent less power than the original Snapdragon SoC platform.

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay, the leader in cloud-based digital content services. NewBay’s LifeCache white label platform enables operators and device makers to deliver a lifetime of content experiences across mobiles, PCs, tablets and TVs. Customers include T-Mobile, Telefónica O2, France Telecom Orange, AT&T, Telstra, LG and more.

MWC 2011: Sony Ericsson adds two Xperias

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 08:40:00 +0000

pro and neo revealed – and there's the official unveiling of Xperia Play.

The newest additions to the Xperia smartphones range, follow after the launch of the arc earlier this year, and are based on Android Gingerbread.

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay

The neo is all about the screen. Its 'Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine' plus Exmor R mobile sensor enables the capture of quality pictures and HD videos even in low light. All this can be shared on an HD TV via the built in HDMI-connector.

Meanwhile the pro is messaging focused and combines a slide-out keyboard with Type & Send functionality eliminating the need to open a dedicated app for each type of message.

Its Smart Keyboard function triggers predictive messaging actions automatically when the user slides out the keyboard.

And it comes pre-loaded with Office Suite Pro to let consumers view and edit office documents directly on the phone.

The Play also got its official unveiling today. That's the PlayStation phone, and it's all been covered before. Clickhere.

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay, the leader in cloud-based digital content services. NewBay’s LifeCache white label platform enables operators and device makers to deliver a lifetime of content experiences across mobiles, PCs, tablets and TVs. Customers include T-Mobile, Telefónica O2, France Telecom Orange, AT&T, Telstra, LG and more.

MWC 2011: Samsung Hubs content stores debuts on Galaxy S II

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 08:39:00 +0000

Four discrete stores for books, music, games and social all accessible from the home screen.

Another interesting move from Samsung, which is stealthily evolving from a pure device maker to one with its fingers in many services pies.

It's already launched the Samsung App Store and its own bada OS on lower-end smartphones.

Now Samsung Hubs.

It's broken into four parts:

• Social Hub Premium: Contact list, IM status, and updates from social networking sites in one place.
• Readers Hub: 2.2 million books and novels, 2,000 global and local newspapers in 49 languages and 2,300 magazines in 22 languages.
• Game Hub: Free and premum titles from Gameloft, plus social games including ngmoco’s We Rule and We City.
• Music Hub: Over 12 million tracks from 7digital.

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay,

The home for these new services is the Galaxy S II, which Samsung says is the “world’s thinnest smartphone”

It's 8.49mm thick, and looks a lot like iPhone 4, which is 9.3mm.

This follow-up to one of the darlings of the Android world was widely expected.

However, the specs remain very impressive. The Gingerbread (Android 2.3)-powered phone has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen and Dual-Core processor.

Samsung says this dual core capability speeds up web browsing, and brings multi-tasking comparable to a PC-like environment.

There's also an eight megapixel camera and a camcorder with 1080p full HD recording and playback.

Another new innovation on the device is the Live Panel, a kind of content bar that aggregates live web and apps on a single customisable home-screen.

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay, the leader in cloud-based digital content services.

NewBay’s LifeCache white label platform enables operators and device makers to deliver a lifetime of content experiences across mobiles, PCs, tablets and TVs. Customers include T-Mobile, Telefónica O2, France Telecom Orange, AT&T, Telstra, LG and more.

MWC 2011: Samsung unveils Galaxy Tab 2

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 08:38:00 +0000

Actual name is the Galaxy Tab 10.1, because of the screen size.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab has been the only serious rival to the Apple iPad, and now the vendor has got in first with a 'sequel'.

The firm says the new machine is intended to be a 'multimedia hub for afficionados of games, electronic books and social media, with a 10.1 inch (25.7 centimeter) screen, dual surround-sound speakers, and front- and rear-facing cameras.

It's based on the new Android tablet platform, Honeycomb.

Vodafone has got a limited time exclusive in more than 20 countries.

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay.

Samsung has sold around two million Galaxy tablets to date, against seven million iPads - although the later has been out for longer.

ME’s news coverage of MWC is supported by NewBay, the leader in cloud-based digital content services.

MWC 2011: Google launches Heat MWC app to help find the busiest bars

deldywoy@gmail.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 08:36:00 +0000

Or stands, keynotes and press conferences. But we sense it'll mostly be used for bars.

Google's mobile advertising team has teamed up with ad agency Jung von Matt Stockholm for a social location app focused on this week's Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.

Called Heat MWC, the free app is available for Android and iPhone, and shows a heat map of which areas in the Fira - and out in Barcelona itself - are 'hottest' at any point in time.

Suggested uses are stands, keynotes, events and bars. Users can filter their map to only show activity from a specific nationality of attendee, if they're feeling particularly xenophobic.

The app also uses the Bump API to help two users exchange contact details by bumping their handsets together. It joins an existing official MWC 2011 app from the GSMA, which is available for various smartphones.