Internet telephony VoIP company Skype has just announced a new partnership with Nokia to bring Skype preinstalled on the Nokia N97. Skype will also be available on the other N series Nokia handsets. “With more than 400 million Skype users worldwide, the integration of Skype on Nokia Nseries mobile computers is a significant step in bringing converged Internet experiences from the desktop to the world’s most advanced mobile computer,” said Jose-Luis Martinez, Vice President, Nokia Nseries.
HTC has just announced the Magic, the first all touch-screen Google Android powered handset. The handset also includes the Android Cupcake update, which now includes a virtual on-screen keyboard, among other UI changes. Unfortunately, one major inconvenience from the phone is that it does not offer a standard headphone jack and will therefore require an adapter. Additionally, 3G will not be supported in North America. The HTC Magic also features a 3.2-inch HVGA display, a trackball for navigation and a 3.2MP autofocus camera. HTC President and CEO Peter Chou said, “The HTC Magic embodies the compact style and sophistication for which HTC has come to be known, with the powerful and intuitive internet experience for which the Android platform was designed,” HTC confirmed Vodafone will be the exclusive provider in Germany, France, the UK, and Spain. The HTC Magic will also be available in Italy non-exclusively from a carrier. Exact pricing and availability was not disclosed.
Microsoft has just officially announced Windows Mobile 6.5 at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona. The new OS is expected to arrived in the second half of 2009 boasting a new interface and a new version of Internet Explorer mobile that promises desktop-like browsing. Adobe also announced MWC the support for Flash for Windows Mobile 6.5. Read the full story
IBM has just been awarded a U.S. patent (7,484,451)straight from science fiction. The device essentially emits electromagnetic waves that reflect off of fast incoming projectiles, and then uses the data to position the body armor to move to avoid being hit.
A method of protecting a target from a projectile propelled from a firearm comprises detecting an approaching projectile, continuously monitoring the projectile and transmitting an actual position of the projectile to a controller, computing an estimated projectile trajectory based upon the actual position of the projectile, determining an actual position of a target with a plurality of position sensors and a plurality of attitude sensors, determining whether the estimated projectile trajectory coincides with the actual position of the target…
Apple has just added the ability to share files on its MobileMe service. File sharing on MobileMe was initially promised by Apple in July 2008, and has now finally arrived. You simply log into your Me.com account, and then you can easily upload and share any file stored on iDisk. You can also set an expiration date for your files and protect select files with a password. You can check out the Apple video tutorial that shows you how easy it is to share your files via e-mail and so on.
Blackberry Internet Service 2.6 is set to launch in March and will bring many new updates. BIS 2.6 is expected to have better Gmail integration and the ability to use Gmail through IMAP as well. Unfortunately, only one-way sync of your Gmail account is still expected. Blackberry emails accounts (@carrier.blackberry.net) are still going to be capped at 32kb, and there will still be no attachments or HTML support. BIS 2.6 will cost less at $5 per month.
BlackBerry Enterprise Service 5.0 will be released in Q2 2009. Probably the most important new feature in BES 5.0 is the Mobile Voice System, which lets subscribers make cheap calls. Other features include the ability to change folders from your desktop email client from your BlackBerry, and save both emails and attachments to your external storage. BES 5.0 will also include push over-the-air updates for IT administrators.
Google My Tracks is a new application from Google that will surely get cyclists and runners excited. It currently only supports Android powered devices. The application uses GPS to track your outdoor activities and in the process records your tracks, which you can easily share with your friends. Google My Tracks also displays other statistics including elevation, speed, and distance statistics, though will prove a lot more useful if it can measure more statistics such as calories burnt. You can also export your tracks as a GPX file and easily import it into Excel or Twitter your tracks directly from the phone with Twidroid.
Facebook says 13% of its users use the service from their mobile phones. Facebook is getting ready to launch a significantly revamped mobile app to better accommodate mobile users. One of the most significant features will be the ability to easily sync your Facebook contacts with your mobile phone book and add Facebook profile pictures as your caller ID. However, recently, tech blogger Robert Scoble tried to use Plaxo to export his 5,000 Facebook contacts to Outlook, only to have his account disabled for apparent terms of service violations. Now, this certainly raises ethical questions here, especially because not all people on Scoble’s friend list would want their personal information stored, especially because they don’t even personally know him. Should data portability on the social web be really open? What are the implications for Twitter accounts that have 55,000+ followers (including Robert Scoble with 58,000+ followers), should they be able to mine the data out? Read the full story
Harvard grads Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and Divya Narendra originally hired Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook, to program their ConnectU social network. They allege Zuckerberg stole the code to create his own social network, Facebook. The law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oilver & Hedges represented ConnectU, and now, the law firm leaked the settlement price with Facebook to have been $65 million in cash and Facebook stock options. The law firm now apparently regrets the release. Facebook did not comment.
Google has just released a beta version of its new Google Sync service. Google sync will let you automatically keep your Google Calendar, email and contacts synced between your iPhone and Windows Mobile phone automatically. This sync capability was already available on the Blackberry and Symbian S60 powered phones, though now support has been added for the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and other SyncML supported cell phones. Google Sync offers two-way synchronization, so if you make a change on your mobile phone or your PC, the changes will be immediately synched with the server. Thankfully, you don’t have to send SMS messages to “GVENT” to update your calendar from now on.
Google has also partnered with TrueSwitch to make it easier for you to migrate data from other email services including Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, among other services. You will be able to easily copy over contacts, old emails and other information to gmail. The new settings for you to start doing this are already available under Accounts and Import in the settings page in gmail. Just remember these services are beta and things can still go wrong.
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