C500/C600 SmartPhone (or replacement)

Optus confirms iPhone plans

Dave Caddick — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:17:57 GMT

So here in Australia we might be one of the first countries to have the iPhone unlocked and provided by two Carriers? (Optus and Vodafone) BUT - only if you are prepared to wait until the end of the year? Please..... anyone I know who is seriously interested in the phone has already arranged one from elsewhere.

BTW, a colleague recently found out how delicate the glass screen is, OUCH!!

So I would have provided more of a quote for this story but it appears that MISaustralia.com has come up with a mechanism where when you highlight a section of text it then drops every second character .... :-)

Optus confirms iPhone plans

MISaustralia.com - Optus confirms iPhone plans

What is Mobile 2.0? Coming now to a mobile near you!

Dave Caddick — Sat, 10 May 2008 03:57:02 GMT

So from a note on Jason Langridge's blog about Mobile 2.0 I started looking deeper at some of the recent developments in the mobile world.

Of particular note is the presentation embedded below from Rudy De Waele of m-trends.org and I would encourage anyone who is remotely interested in where things are heading with regards to mobile usage, Internet and information services to review this.

| View | Upload your own

Rudy definitely appears to have a finger on the pulse of what's going on in the rapidly changing landscape of mobile technology?

Understanding Mobile 2.0

On the eve of Le Web 3 in Paris - and one month after the Web 2.0 Summit concluded - it seems like an appropriate time to explore the world of the mobile Web, a.k.a. mobile 2.0. There has been a lot of discussion lately on this topic, a good deal of it inspired by the mobile 2.0 event - a one-day event held on 6 November 2006, organized by Daniel Appelquist and Mike Rowehl.

Carriers and Mobile Operators are taking notice...

In the closing session about carriers and operators at the Under The Radar: Mobility Conference on 16 November 2006, I heard an Executive Director from Verizon Wireless using the term "Mobile 2.0". Also Orange (France Telecom) is sponsoring one of the biggest web 2.0 related conferences in Europe, Le Web 3 in Paris. The fact that carriers/operators are now linking their brand name to web 2.0/mobile 2.0 related content and conferences, shows that progress is being made. Web 2.0 inspired projects going mobile and/or mobile 2.0 projects have been considered as things to avoid for carriers/operators up till now, since they are disruptive to their current business models.

So does this mean, with the carriers/operators entering the space now, that mobile 2.0 is finally taking off?

.....

What is Mobile 2.0?

It's absolutely necessary that more connections are made between the players in the web 2.0 sphere (a.k.a. next generation web apps & services) and what some Mobilists are calling mobile 2.0. What we mean by 'mobile 2.0' is another (r)evolution, already started, that will dramatically change the web and the mobility landscape that we currently know. The idea is that the mobile web will become the dominant access method in many countries of the world, with devices that become more hybrid and networks that become more powerful - everywhere in the next decade to come.

.......

Well Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, put it very well in a Financial Times article in May this year (subscription only):

"Mobile phones are cheaper than PCs, there are three times more of them, growing at twice the speed, and they increasingly have Internet access. What is more, the World Bank estimates that more than two-thirds of the world's population lives within range of a mobile phone network. Mobile is going to be the next big Internet phenomenon. It holds the key to greater access for everyone - with all the benefits that entails."

.....

Mobilist blogger Enrique C. Ortiz sees another hindrance (and I think he's right): the lack of open standards and tools to build your own mobile 2.0 applications. He says:

"Web 2.0 is based on user intelligence instead of technologies, i.e. by giving users smart tools that enable them to apply human semantics to information provided, you get a more intelligent web. This can only be done in a massive (thus useful) way with open standards and protocols that are inclusive and inviting to everyone. Now, as I see it, this 'open-source' story is an aspect seriously lacking from mobile platforms."

Carriers/operators need to cover their investments and so they want to be compensated by any 3rd party using their network. This is fair enough, but the fact is that operators are losing more and more control over mobile devices - because these devices can communicate with other devices over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wimax, NFC, etc. That is, more options are becoming available for mobile users to access the web over networks other than the closed networks of the operators.

.....

Mobile Startups

There's definitely a lot of movement around on the mobile start-up front. Besides Yahoo with Flickr and Google with YouTube going mobile, there are some very interesting start-up companies resolutely going mobile. Many of them are building easy-to-use mobile web apps and services. Here's a starter for ten to check out (too many to link to, but just google them!):

BluePulse

ComVu

Funambol

Gizmo

Loopt

JuiceCaster

Mobo

Mystrands

Plazes

Plusmo

Sharpcast

SlingMedia

Shozu

SoonR

TalkPlus

Widsets

Winksite

... and many others.

In fact please add your name/project to the list here in the comments, so someone can start categorizing them ;-)

.....

Conclusion

To conclude, check this nice mobile 2.0 definition from Daniel Appelquist:

"Mobile 2.0 is not "the Future." it is services that already exist all around us. These services are maturing at an amazing rate and what they are doing is effectively knitting together Web 2.0 with the mobile platform to create something new: a new class of services that leverage mobility but are as easy to use and ubiquitous as the Web is today. These services point the way forward for the mobile data industry."

It took the internet a couple of years after 1994 to reach its maturity on the technology side, not to forget the business side of things. I believe the time has come for another exciting period, the Mobile Web. Some carriers/operators are finally starting to act - how about you?

Written for Read/WriteWeb by Rudy De Waele of m-trends.org.

Understanding Mobile 2.0 - ReadWriteWeb

Is that a Server in your pocket? - Qualcomm unveils 1 GHz mobile phone processors

Dave Caddick — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:04:07 GMT

Holy Smokes Batman, what wont you be able to do on the go? Considering that this quite likely eclipses the resources that you would have typically used for a Server a decade ago?

What with Samsung now looking in to running a hypervisor on mobile devices and the ability to actually run a web server as well - it make me wonder what's next?

The only thing that's still missing is a new and innovative way to communicate to the device, I'd love to be able to bypass the keyboard if we could just find a better faster way?

Qualcomm unveils 1 GHz mobile phone processors

Nov. 14, 2007
Qualcomm has unveiled the first two products in its "Snapdragon" family of chipsets aimed at next-generation mobile phones. The dual-core QSD8250/8650 chipsets clock to 1 GHz, include a "universal modem" claimed to support "all 2G and 3G mobile broadband standards," and are being demonstrated running Windows CE- and Linux-based OSes, the company said.

According to Qualcomm, the QSD8250 offers HSPA data rates of up to 7.2 Mbps on the downlink and 5.76 Mbps on the uplink, with full backward compatibility. The dual-mode QSD8650 offers HSPA, as well as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. B, again backward-compatible with WCDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE.
Both chipsets include an ARM-based 1 GHz "Scorpion" microprocessor with 128-bit SIMD (single instruction multiple data) capability, plus a 600 MHz low-power, "low-leakage" DSP. According to Qualcomm, they also offer WiFi, Bluetooth, and a "universal broadcast modem" that can receive broadcasts in MediaFLO, SDMB, ISDB-T, TDMB, and DVB-H formats.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips offer a wide array of functionality
(Click to enlarge)

Other multimedia capabilities are said to include XGA display support, WVGA (800 x 480) encode/decode, and audio support for MP3, aacPlus, and enhanced aacPlus. In addition to supporting GPS, the QSD8250 and QSD8650 also support cameras with resolution up to 12 MB, Qualcomm says.
In addition to offering "unsurpassed mobile processing performance," the new chips also provide extended, "all-day" battery life, claims Qualcomm.

Qualcomm unveils 1 GHz mobile phone processors

Google's Android Developer Challenge

Dave Caddick — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:13:57 GMT

So it's an interesting way of Google to release their mobile offering in an Emulator/SDK download to stimulate interest before the actual hardware - and it certainly won't hurt that they've put $10m up for grabs for potential developers?

Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project

Getting Started

Learn about Android

Download the SDK

Join the community. Participate in our discussion group through email or the web.

The Android Developer Challenge will award $10 million to developers who build great apps for Android. Learn more!

Featured Videos

Sergey Brin and Steve Horowitz discuss the availability of the SDK, that it will be open source in the future, and demo some applications.

Three part overview of the Android architecture and APIs

First look at building an Android Application

more videos

The Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies, is developing Android: the first complete, open, and free mobile platform. To help developers get started developing new applications, we're offering an early look at the Android Software Development Kit.

Android

HTC Touch - now with GPS, that makes 3 different flavours so far...

Dave Caddick — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:20:07 GMT

I must confess that I noticed a colleague with a HTC Touch a few weeks back and was instantly drawn to "Touch" it, it wasn't the actual Touch interface that did it, it was the size and elegance of the design - very sweet, almost like a case of "if Apple did black mobile handsets, this is what it would/should look like"

So I recently made a slight deviation on the way to a Clients just to call in a shop that has the Touch so that I could have another look and feel - and I have to say that my gadget lust has not diminished one bit - the only issue now is that I haven't had a chance to see the other two flavours in the flesh down here in Australia.

I'm still using my trusty Orange C600 (iMate SP5) that I brought back from the UK and the size and format with just the numeric keypad is very nice and I'm very used to it, so I'm really loath to head off and get the Touch when what I really might find is that I can't live without the Dual - and now there is the Touch Cruise? When will it ever end.... <sob> ;-)

HTC Touch Cruise Announced - Hands on video and pics!
By Gears. Published on 12 Nov 2007.

HTC have just announced the latest addition to their range - the Tom Cruise. Sorry.. HTC Touch Cruise. It's that HTC Polaris we saw some time back and it looks set to replace the HTC Artemis (T-Mobile MDA Compact III etc).
It comes complete with the enhanced finger-poking HTC TouchFLO technology plus the funky new HTC Album and keyboard additions we saw on the HTC Touch Dual. You also get the HTC Home system with real-time weather, large clock, quick app launcher and access into ringtone settings. Oh, and let's not forget that this comes with a new-style wheel system and built-in GPS functionality and software to get you from A to B quickly and easily.
The Qualcomm MSM7200 CPU drives Windows Mobile 6 Pro at 400MHz and there's 256MB ROM/ 128MB RAM. Quad-band 3G / HSPDA connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11 b/g WiFi will keep you online.
Now, as you may have spotted before, we managed to get one of these devices a few weeks back. Read on for exclusive pictures, press release and a hands-on video of the HTC Touch Cruise ! We'll have a full review up soon, so keep it locked!

CoolSmartPhone.com - HTC Touch Cruise Announced - Hands on video and pics!

Change of location

Dave Caddick — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:08:46 GMT

Hi All,

I have been posting both at this site as well as at my new blogging home of www.techagility.info for a few weeks now, and although I still have some tweaking to do on the graphics side of things, it's time to open the doors for all. I will probably still drop the odd post this way, but essentially all is now going to the new site.

So the home page is at www.techagility.info and if you are after the feed then you can find it at www.techagility.info/feed

See you there? ;-)

Tiny Mobile Handheld Projector

Dave Caddick — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 05:29:33 GMT

So, don't fancy lugging the projector with you to that next meeting with the customer? Want to do some impromptu PowerPointing for more than one person while having an informal meeting at Starbucks?

No problem, just use your mobile SmartPhone as your projector!

Hands-on with Texas Instruments' cellphone projector

Now that we have email, internet, TV, GPS, cameras, and satellite radio on our cellphones, our next wish is for bigger, higher resolution screens -- which seems paradoxical, because larger displays almost always mean bulkier devices. Well Texas Instruments thinks it'll soon be able to nullify this trade-off with an in-handset projector that we've heard about several times before, but last night's Pepcom event in New York was the first time we've been able to peep the technology up close. Not that the TI reps made it easy to do so: the prototype unit was in a locked metal case underneath the table, and we had to swear up and down that we saw Walt Mossberg getting a demo before they'd cough it up. As you can see, the reason they want to keep this under wraps for the time being is that the quality and brightness are certainly not ready for prime time yet; while the unit we saw used lasers as the light source, we're told that an LED-based model still in the lab offers significant improvements. Keep reading for more shots of this rare prototype -- along with a video courtesy of Popular Science -- and give yourself a few moments to bask in the future before returning to the stark reality of your own phone and its dim little QQVGA action...

Continue reading Hands-on with Texas Instruments' cellphone projector

A lengthy plea to Apple, Microsoft and Nokia on how to improve their SmartPhones and PDA's from Stephen Fry?

Dave Caddick — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:17:38 GMT

I have long been a fan of Stephen Fry's work even before our stint living in London and his ability to set forth on a diatribe on any number of topics is almost unsurpassed. Here in what I gather is only his second blog post he describes what he considers the faults of all manner of SmartPhones, and I do mean ALL as he is a self-confessed addict for PDA's and SmartPhones

Stephen Fry

Blessays, blogs and blisquisitions

Let Fame »

Device and Desires

All the big guns want an iPhone killer. Even I, mad for all things Apple as I am, want an iPhone killer. I want smart digital devices to be as good as mankind’s ingenuity can make them. I want us eternally to strive to improve and surprise. Bring on the iPhone killers. Bring them on.

YOU might, somewhere along the way, have picked up the impression that I am a passionate Mac advocate: I bought my first 128K machine in 1984, the second Macintosh to be sold in the UK - at least so I’ve always maintained and believed (the first went to the still desperately missed Douglas Adams) and I have never had fewer than ten working Macs on the go since the late 80s. It is true that I value both the platform and the hardware, that I admire the imagination, flair, elegance, quality and pioneering spirit of the Apple corporation. All quite true.

HOWEVER……..

I have, over the past twenty years been passionately addicted to all manner of digital devices, Mac-friendly or not; I have gorged myself on electronic gismos, computer accessories, toys, gadgets and what-have-you's of all descriptions, but most especially what are now known as SmartPhones. PDAs, Wireless PIM's, call them what you will. My motto is:

I have never seen a SmartPhone I haven’t bought

After all, the Mac itself was founded on a notional smart device, the Dynabook, fruit of the many brains of the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC). The Dynabook concept gave us the WIMP user interface, (Windows, Icons, Mice, Pull down menus) and thence the Apple Lisa and its successor, the Macintosh. The Dynabook was a posited form, a notional device that would deliver information to its user with the greatest ease and intuitive functionality. As a result of this mission statement, the command code line found in all standard computing of the time was made to yield to a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Apple took up the call (poached some PARC staff) and produced the Mac OS; IBM and latterly MS took years and years to get the message. But that is how the GUI was born, out of a quest for a better relationship between man and machine, individual and digital device.

much, much more at source.... ;-)

Analyst's love the Touch Phone concept

Dave Caddick — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:44:13 GMT

Since around late 2003 I was getting fed up with Vodafone's service at the time in London and was looking to switch, I was also getting somewhat fed up with Nokia's offerings with it's monochrome screens while everyone else was offering colour screens.

So I switched to Orange and the MPX 200 from Motorola, not only for it's colour screen, but also the fact that it was a Microsoft device that seamlessly (well sort of....) synched Outlook contacts etc....

Anyway, the point is that since switching to MS devices some while back I have never looked back, and I now think that it would be very hard for me to shift back to Nokia, although I should never say never? ;-)

But you can't fault the way that Apple has launched the iPhone, and it's clear that not only do we all want something like this, but the Analyst's think so as well?

500 million touch-phones to ship by 2012

More than 100 million handsets with touch screens will be shipped in 2008, and more than 500 million will ship by 2012, according to a new study by ABI Research. Citing recent product introductions, the research firm says intuitive user interfaces are now becoming a critical ingredient in smartphones.

The 18-page report, "Mobile Phone User Interfaces," specifically discusses products such as Apple's iPhone and the Windows Mobile-based LG Prada, HTC Touch, and Samsung F700 devices, as well as various handsets from Sony Ericsson. Touch screens and touch pads make the handsets more intuitive, pleasant, and efficient to use, the study's authors note.
According to the report, there is a difference between a standard interface, which may or may not respond to a touch screen, and one that has specifically evolved to employ touch. The firm says that for a handset's user interface to be considered "advanced," it should offer the user or programmer the following elements:

A dynamic layout
Skinning/theming
Animation
Support for 3D effects
At least one specialized authoring tool
Window management ABI Research's abstract gives examples of seven different frameworks for creating advanced handset interfaces. These are Adobe's Flash, Bluestreak's MachBlue, Mizi's Prizm, Qualcomm's uiOne, Trolltech's Qtopia, Tat's Kastor, and Symbian's UIQ interface layer.
Of these, only Flash has commonly been associated with Windows CE and Windows Mobile-based products, though Windows-based implementations of Kastor are also cited on Tat's Web site. Though not directly addressed in the ABI Research report, Microsoft Research has created its own advanced user interfaces including, but not limited to, the "zooming" ZenZui, and the Microsoft Surface concept initially applied to table-top devices.

This promotional video shows Microsoft's ZenZui user interface

According to ABI Research industry analyst Shailendra Pandey, "Handsets with intuitive user interfaces ... can result in higher ARPUs [average revenues per user] for mobile operators by generating greater usage of their value-added services." In the past, many smartphones and high-end handsets with a good number of attractive features have been commercial failures, simply because their user interfaces were too complex, she adds.
ABI's research report is available now, though pricing was not released. More information is available on the firm's website, here.

Now here is a very professional looking mod for your iPhone? ;-)

Dave Caddick — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:36:25 GMT

continuing on the same theme from Engadget...

anySIM is here: open source GUI iPhone unlock app

By Ryan Block on unlock

Filed under: Cellphones

We've seen a couple of early versions of GUI iPhone SIM unlock apps from the open source community, but it looks like the iPhone Dev Team's got its proper release in order. Unfortunately, the app's source code won't be released for a couple days yet, so if you want to see how the Dev Team got from iUnlock (and iUnlock Reloaded) to their "final" anySIM solution, you'll have to wait a little while longer. In the mean time, we've mirrored the tool here on our super-fast server farm. Oh, and don't blame us if it doesn't work or bricks your phone -- especially because we've yet to test this thing.

And...

Update 5: Ok, the graphical unlock app still isn't yet out, but we've tested an early build, and it definitely works! Check it out here.

Read - Official unlock guide
Read - Unofficial unlock guide