Category: Technology

Mobile search startup, Medio Systems, has just announced it is to benefit from US$30m in investment funding according to SeattlePI.com. Mobile search development has been a massive part of mobile news of late, Google launching their own mobile service while in the US mobile operator Sprint have announced a partnership with Microsoft to launch a new mobile search facility.

On Medio itself –

Created specifically for mobile, the Medio Search System combines an intuitive, effortless user interface with powerful recommendation and personalization technologies, for a search experience that keeps subscribers coming back.

On the web, a search normally results in pages of links, leaving users to browse for information. On a mobile device, the time and effort required for a traditional search prevents subscribers from finding and purchasing the mobile content they want. Medio’s technologies provide a click-saving experience, returning answers instead of links. And Medio’s proprietary ranking algorithms balance the subscriber’s preferences, device, location and other information to present personalized, relevant results.

• Where to Submit Your Podcasts
  Best Podcast Search Engines and Directories
  (tags: podcast podcasting directories)

Came across the above link yesterday, pretty good going. Was looking for directories to submit the Sound System Podcast too – iTunes was having none of it trying to submit the Apple way. If you’re podcasting, its worth a look.

Thats how it looks for 2010/2011, according to DNA Evolutions. How true the statement is remains to be seen. I can still point you in the direction of people holding on to their Nokia 3210s and 3310s because they’re solid phone and do whats needed of them (the odd call and SMS).

But does it mean that mobile production as we know it now will cease? More and more we’re seeing smartphones come in to the market, bluetooth and camera (still or video) options are now a standard, with WiFi likely the next minimum standard in mobiles. We’re already in a 3G age of streaming media content, video conference calls via mobile and highspeed internet access. So whats next?

Mobile computers – according to University of Salford Professor Nigel Linge.

Instead of mobile phones, in five years we will all carry mobile computers on us. So, for example, the communicator on our collar might send signals to the keyboard on our sleeve. Already we are seeing simple everyday objects with communications systems called ‘tags’ built into them.

Of course it comes as no surprise. When I was finishing my college degree a few years ago we were already looking into options for wearable computing – from RFID chips embedded in clothes to electronic tags embedded in the skin. However, I can’t say that they’ll be completely extinct. Every generation there is a technology that gets left behind – those who refuse to install cable TV as they’re happy with terrestrial, those who refuse to rent DVDs because they’ve already got a video player. Extinct in its current form – maybe, but extinct as a whole I seriously doubt.

Meteor, now owned by Eircom, have announced that from March of next year they’ll be joining Vodafone in a roaming deal to provide extended mobile coverage for those in the west of Ireland, the move mainly of benefit to customers in parts of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal, according to RTE.

Meteor’s existing mobile network now covers about 93% of the population – still lagging behind O2 and Vodafone and have been using O2’s network to provide extended coverage to date.

Yahoo’s CEO, Terry Semel, has spoken out aobut internet advertising and how its potential growth has been vastly underestimated – given that people never factored in video, social websites and mobile internet content.

Speaking at the Internet Advertising Bureau Engage conference, Semel said

Video as you all know will become a major factor on the Internet. It will be everpresent throughout the Internet and it will find its proper way to advertise. So whether it’s mobile or whether it’s video or whether it’s more and more community (social networking sites), these factors have not gone into those numbers, so we think the actual growth potential of advertising online is really being understated.

This is an interesting point as I feel, and YouTube feel, that mobile advertising from online media sources is seriously underdeveloped. Full integration and operation of the likes of Bebo, YouTube and MySpace into the mobile web, particularly in handset form, offer huge gateways for advertisers, particular amongst younger age groups.

God knows theres enough people sending around funny videos by mobile phone – why not a funny advert?

Looks like a good year for Meteor and it looks like their massive advertising campaign of the last few months including a huge spate of radio and TV spots has paid off as they’ve managed to increase their customer numbers by 50% jumping from around 500,000 in November 2005 to around 750,000 in November 2006.

Number porting (bringing your mobile number to a different network) has been the key to their success they reckon – particularly with contract customers (who now make up 10% of their customer base) and “high use pre-pay customers” (via RTE).

Not that you’ve had your second-hand mobile handset stolen, but now if you go to buy a previously owned handset you’ll be able to check whether it has been stolen or not – at least in India.

The Delhi Police are making public the information that usually mobile phone operators only have and are to publish an online database of IMEI/ISMI numbers which you can search directly from their site to check whether the handset has been stolen.

In a lot of cases, mobile theft goes unreported to police, even at an Irish level. Since mobiles are reasonably affordable with some handsets falling under E70, people often opt to simply buy a new mobile, particularly pre-paid customers. But if you were to report the theft, the mobile operator could flag the phone as stolen and bar it from being used on its network by knowing the phone’s IMEI number (try pressing *#06# on your phone’s keypad to see yours).

This kind of setup I would certainly like to see in Ireland as I myself have been victim of mobile theft.

(via)

“The fastest and easiest way to get email on your mobile” – thats what MovaMail say about themselves. The software itself is aimed at java enabled phones and offers direct downloads from the website or via your mobile by pointing your phone’s browser to http://movamail.com.

Check some of the features…

• Speed: MovaMail is up to 10X faster then most built in email clients or WAP based email services.
• Multiple Email accounts: MovaMail allows you to consolidate all of your email accounts.
• Compatibility: MovaMail supports POP, IMAP and Webmail (including Yahoo!, MSN, Hotmail, AOL, Gmail and more) ensuring you have the best solution for accessing all your various email accounts.
• Address Book Integration and Synchronization: Synchronize your mobile phone address book with your MovaMail service for easy email address access.
• Image Attachments: Full support for viewing, sending, forwarding and receiving image attachments.

According to Om Malik, who is quoted on the MovaMail website itself –

Believe me, this is the best email client for mobile phones ever – fast, nimble and intuitive.

Consider me downloading MovaMail for my new mobile (which also happens to feature on the MovaMail homepage 🙂 ) The download itself is just 121kb… not bad going.

[Source]

Logging in to O2 today to pay the mobile bill, I’m wondering, could they improve their online security? Or have daily tasks on the web actually become too easy?

Check the original post on kenmc.com.

Word has it that Sony Ericsson (who I’m enjoying a lot of late with my new K800) are out to snap up symbian software developer UIQ.

Via iTWire

UIQ offers excellent technical flexibility enabling us to provide compelling features such as push email, Internet browsing, end user personalisation and enhanced music applications” said Mats Lindoff, chief technology officer at Sony Ericsson. “By acquiring UIQ Technology we will further invest and exploit the full potential of UIQ on Symbian OS for phone vendors, mobile operators, developers and consumers.”

The move would certainly benefit UIQ who would certainly gain a massive boost in the ability to compete in the software market for mobiles. UIQ itself is owned by Symbian and under the terms of the sale (with no financial details available at this time) UIQ will operate as a seperate subsidy of Sony Ericsson and, according to Business Week, “its products will be openly available, licensed on equal terms to all its licensees”. Sony Ericsson is already a licensee of UIQ.

The deal, while having been announced, isn’t expected to close until Spring next year.

YouTube, recently snapped up by Google are reportedly looking to go mobile in 2007 with Chad Hurley hoping “have something on a mobile device” by next Christmas (via). Whether the transition works or not is the next thing with YouTube trying to work out a mobile advertising option or port their existing advertising model to the mobile experience.

YouTube themselves already have a mobile service in place and creating a mobile profile when you’re signed in is a breeze, YouTube giving you a unique email address from which to send video from your phone via MMS, alas their present online service is just for uploading videos, not browsing them.

Getting YouTube straight to your mobile would be a massive achievement and if successful could open them up to another massive revenue stream. Best of luck to them too if they can pull it off.

Via MobileCrunch we’ve got news that Google have launched a great version of Gmail for java based mobile phones, allowing you all of the common features you would expect from the online version as well (reporting spam, flagging conversations etc.). You can still access Gmail via your phone’s browser directly but this new standalone application should go a long way towards speeding up everything, Mike Arrington saying it was “the best email experience outside of a Blackberry I’ve ever had on a mobile device.” Not bad going there.

Check the demo here or point your mobile browser to http://gmail.com/app to get cracking…

So today I made the bold move and switched over to an Easy Life plan with O2 having been a prepay customer for all of about six years. The joy of doing so is that I can now enjoy the use of a Sony Ericsson K800 which I may have mentioned earlier. No, I didn’t pick up the limited silver edition but I have to say that over the first day of use of the phone I’m extremely impressed.

Until recently I had been using a Motorola v360 for personal calls, standing in for my HP iPaq 6515W which I’m disappointed just hasn’t lived up to its enormous pricetag.

The improved PC Suite (in comparison to the one I picked up with the P900 many moons ago) is a delight, the USB charging extremely handy for mobility (or if like me you tend to leave your phone charger in the office) and the quality of the camera, a mobile option I’ve never had much use for before, is excellent.

More on the phone as I give it a lengthier run over the next few weeks.

Looks like the $100 laptops are going to start rolling out in the first quarter of 2007 according to PC Advisor.

The OLPC initiative is aimed at ensuring school children in developing countries keep up with their peers in modern nations by putting a laptop PC able to wirelessly access the Internet into their hands. The founders of the OLPC group hope the programme keeps people in poor nations from being left behind in the digital age. The $100 laptop PC concept has also prompted companies, including Intel, to start creating lower cost notebooks for developing countries.

It is already estimated that up to 10m laptops will be shipped with orders already confirmed in each of Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria and Thailand.

The laptops will come pretty much barebones and will use Linux as their OS (you’d hardly expect Microsoft to give up 10m copies of Vista now would you?). The laptops are to be produced in Taiwan and will be sold off to various governments who will distribute the laptops on a “One Laptop Per Child” basis (hence OLPC).

More on the proposed laptop, The Children’s Machine, here at Wikipedia.

Smart Telecom will learn today the fate of their proposed 3G license when the High Court rules in Dublin as to whether the troubled telecoms company can retain its license. ComReg (affectionately now known as the Telecoms Poodle in certain circles) had withdrawn the phone license from Smart due to problems surrounding a bond due to be paid by Smart to the tune of €100m.

Smart recently had its phone service cut by Eircom due to unpaid bills and despite spending millions on advertising, the company remains with just 17,000 broadband customers and debts of €40m.

Via RTE…

This afternoon, shareholders will vote on a proposed takeover of the company by businessman Brendan Murtagh.

Mr Murtagh is proposing a rescue package to buy the company for E1 and take on the liabilities. It would give him control of Smart’s network and 17,000 broadband customers. 40,000 residential phone customers of Smart were recently disconnected because Smart owed Eircom E4m.

3 have announced their Christmas handset releases for the UK which includes the Nokia 6280, already available on the 3 network in Ireland.

This holiday season they’ll be stocking

• Sony Ericsson W950i
• Nokia 6280
• Motorola MotoRAZRV3xx
• LG U310
• LG U830
• Sony Ericsson K610i

If you”re interested, the K610i is already available on 3 in Ireland for €199 on pay-as-you-go, the Nokia 6280 for €279 (same plan).

Steve Litchfield at All About Symbian has a great review of Tom Tom Navigator 6 for the S60 based phones. The review show how Tom Tom “garners enormous respect and a pretty high score” even if it pays no heed to S60 style designs and doesn’t exactly have the greatest support for non-standard S60 displays.

Complete with straight comparisons to Navigator 5 and fully loaded with screenshots, you can read the review right here.

Microsoft today launched Windows Live for mobile at http://mobile.live.com (or http://www.live.mobi).

The service lets you get access to the most familiar Live elements through your mobile including

• Live Mail
• MSN Messenger
• Live Calendar
• Fox Sports
• RSS Feeds

You can also customise your own Live landing page much in the same way that you would with Google.com/ig. More via MobileCrunch.

Of course… you’ve still got to pay to use Live Messenger! That and browsing to Mobile.live.com via your PC will lead you to http://ideas.live.com, something which is starting to look a lot more like Google Labs.

Just a followup to yesterday’s post on Eamon Dunphy’s new made for mobile show, here’s 3’s press release via 3G.co.uk (photos too).

Ireland’s ‘Love Him Or Hate Him’ soccer pundit and radio DJ, Eamon Dunphy, has signed a deal with 3 for a made-for-mobile soccer show streaming live from Dunphy’s sitting room on Mondays with a small show on Friday to build up the weekend’s games, according to IOL.

The show borrows the name from his old Today FM evening show, The Last Word, now chaired by Matt Cooper and will be called “Dunphy’s Last Word On Football”, covering the real ins and outs of the week in Premier League football.

Speaking about the show, Dunphy said

I’m looking forward to broadcasting my views to a new mobile audience and for the first time I’ll be giving Irish football fans a chance to have the last word with their own video comments. Join me on 3 for the real action on the pitch.