note-taking.net

AT last, now some more people will get the chance to experience Googles Android mobile phone operating system.

Until now, only T-Mobile customers could buy a phone with it installed, the G1.

But VODAFONE has now started taking orders for the HTC-made device known as MAGIC.

It will be out in the Spring and is sure to conjour up a few fans.

The interface on the G1 is excellent and while not as good as an iPhone, Android does have plenty of benefits, not least the seamless integration with Google search, GMail, Maps and StreetView on the move.

via Vodafone announce HTC Magic Google Android phone | The Sun |Fun|Gizmo.

PRINCETON, N.J. (Feb. 24, 2009) – U.S. mobile advertising revenues (search and display) will grow to $3.1 billion in 2013, from $160 million in 2008, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 81.2 percent, according to The Kelsey Group (www.kelseygroup.com), a division of BIA Advisory Services, LLC (www.bia.com). During the same period, the firm forecasts mobile local search advertising revenues will increase from $20 million to $1.3 billion, a CAGR of 130.5 percent.

“As mobile data consumption rises, we expect local marketing to be a big winner,” said Michael Boland, program director, Mobile Local Media (MLM), The Kelsey Group. “There is a strong correlation between local search and the mobile use case, which will cause a good portion of the ongoing mobile application boom to focus on local.”

The Kelsey Group’s Mobile Local Media Forecast (2008-2013) is highlighted in the report “Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity,” distributed to clients of the firm’s new MLM advisory service. Additional findings covered in the report include:

• The percentage of mobile searches that have local intent will increase from 28 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2013.
• Currently there are 54.5 million mobile Internet users in the United States, representing 25 percent of online users.
• Approximately 15 percent of iPhone applications are local. 

 “We’ve been covering the mobile local space for some time within our Interactive Local Media practice,” said Neal Polachek, chief executive officer, The Kelsey Group. “The trend lines for usage, revenue and application development indicate a turning point that compels us to devote more resources and deepen our coverage of this market segment. Our MLM practice will focus on mobile as a critical and key driver in the overall transformation of the advertising industry.”

“The most critical emerging media venue is mobile. Having Kelsey now able to provide insights into this arena coupled with their expanded view of the market will make them an even more important source for the industry going forward,” said Scott W. Klein, CEO, Idearc Media.

via U.S. Mobile Local Search Advertising Revenues to Reach $1.3B in 2013.

Note-taking app with sync and share

*Text & Photo notes with less work

*Secure sync & backup with free 3banana.com account

*Share via Email, Facebook, Twitter

*Label notes by putting a # in front of any word, #label

*Easy sign-in with Google Account

Next update in a few days, please send us feedback!

Follow @3banana Thx!

via Cyrket – 3banana Notes .

In our quest to find the best iPhone note taking application, we have produced another comprehensive ranking of iPhone applications that can be used for jotting down notes. These applications range from Notepad replacements to task managers to personal database managers for lots of information including notes.

Rankings are based on the popularity within the Apple iTunes App Store in the Productivity section. Of the Top 100 Apps in the productivity section, nearly 30% have some form of note taking functionality, making notes the most crowded application category.

Not all note taking apps are created equal, however. Most apps miss the fundamental functionality of being able to synchronize notes with a web service or desktop, so that you truly can take your notes everywhere, while keeping them secure and backed up at all times.

We have jotted our comments in the right-most column, but if you are the developer or a user and you have noticed that we have missed an important functionality or differentiator, please leave a comment below so we can look more carefully in the future.

Top iPhone Applications that can Take Notes — Paid Downloads

Top iPhone Applications that can Take Notes — Free Downloads

Nowadays we have so much going on everyday that its hard to remember what needs to be done. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could leave a note for yourself reminding you what needs to be done? And even better, if you could see that note every time you grabbed your iPhone, without the need to go to a specific application? Now you can! This is a very simple application that will definitely help you simplify your busy day! It is as simple as writing what you need to do, and save it as your wallpaper. This application has other uses as well; you can send notes to co-workers, or a loved one in a very simple step. Furthermore, the note is sent as a picture, saving you the cost of text messages, or time writing long emails with what needs to be done. The recipient can also save it as their wallpaper, making it convenient for them to! We are constantly working on our applications, in order to help you simplify your life; any comments or suggestions are welcome! Have a nice day!

via iPhone Apps – Wallpaper Notes | Apptism.

Jot is a simple categorized note-taking application that allows you to store any information you like using a fast, user-friendly interface.

* Create categories to order your notes logically.

* An optional subject field can be applied to any note.

* Email your notes to anyone in your contact list.

A video demonstration of this product is available at my website. Please watch the video brief before posting negative reviews regarding functionality. The video demonstrates all of the functions available.

via iPhone Apps – Jot Notebook | Apptism.

Unfortunately, TextGuru’s huge feature set isn’t without problems, and its finicky text selection for copy and paste isn’t the end of it. The FileServer program mentioned earlier is prone to crash, at least under Windows Vista, and wifi sharing in general is unreliable.

Additionally, sometimes the user interface doesn’t give solid feedback, and it’s unclear whether a tap has actually performed an action or not. Lastly, the app’s inability to preserve the very folder structure that it allows you to create when you share files or upload them via FTP undermines it and prevents you from using it as a means of not only editing and viewing files, but also backing them up to your computer in their native format.

TextGuru is a great utility that should be on the iPhone of anyone who needs more than simple note taking or document viewing. It has steadily grown in usefulness since its release, and its sheer versatility means that just about anyone can find some use for it, or some way to make use of its sharing features. While it has its share of problem, it’s a necessary app simply because you can never know when you might find a need for one of its features.

via TextGuru – Productivity,Reviews – 148Apps – iPhone App and Game Reviews and News .

With the first wave of iPhone contracts expiring in June, consumers have plenty of other options.

Imagine a smart phone that worked on only one carrier’s network. Now add in the cost of a wallet-draining $20 monthly data plan. The thing has no keyboard, and you can’t even swap out the battery if you’re on the road and want to keep on talking without stopping to charge up.

You don’t have to imagine it–it’s been here since 2007, and it’s called the iPhone. In fact, if you were among the first to buy the original iPhone in June 2007, your two-year contract is almost up. Sure, you could buy the upgraded version, the iPhone 3G, and sign up for a new two-year contract if you’re willing to shell out $199 for the phone and another $30 a month for the data plan. But guess what? It’s now “the future,” and you’ve got options.

The iPhone 3G is one heck of a phone, to be sure. It’s a first-rate digital media player; it can handle e-mail and light Web surfing–oh, and you can use it to talk to people, too. And, thanks to Apple’s (nasdaq: AAPL – news – people ) App Store, it’s almost infinitely customizable. Looking for a portable gaming device that also lets you control your desktop computer remotely? The iPhone can do that.

The iPhone, however, is no longer your only option if you want a touch-screen, multi-function smartphone. So if you’re not comfortable with AT&T Wireless, for whatever reason, you’ve got plenty of options.

via Ditch Your iPhone – Forbes.com.

Will the first Google (GOOG) phone become the apple of your eye? We’ll have an inkling in six days when the much-anticipated T-Mobile G1 with Google goes on sale.

The G1 is a highly capable handheld computer with a responsive touch-screen like Apple’s hot-selling iPhone has. It also packs a slide-out physical keyboard. And it has multimedia picture messaging, a removable battery and other features the iPhone lacks. The mobile operating system at its core ? what Google calls Android ? is slick, if a little raw in some places.

But folks expecting iPhone-like glitter and glitz are bound to be disappointed. The hardware is unsexy. The phone performs better on T-Mobile’s fastest data network, but the carrier is only now rolling out that network in a lot of places. Even with access, Web pages took a long time to load.

What’s more, without such things as Outlook synchronization or Microsoft (MSFT) Exchange, the G1 is not a smart choice for businesses, not that T-Mobile is saying it is.

The battle for tech supremacy is increasingly going mobile. While Google products and services are embedded in other phones, Android marks the company’s entry into the high-stakes smartphone market dominated by Apple and Research In Motion.

via T-Mobile’s Google Phone Heralds Android Invasion | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Local News .

Who can keep track of all the touchscreen smartphones — and their attendant app stores — that emerged from Mobile World Congress this week to compete with Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone?

RBC Capital’s Mike Abramsky can. Attached to a report to clients released Friday is a handy chart of “emerging competitors” that covers most of the latest mobile operating systems: Palm’s (PALM) webOS, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile 6.5, Google’s (GOOG) Android, Nokia’s (NOK) Symbian S60 and couple of proprietary outliers.

The chart would be more realistic if it included the two smartphones battling most fiercely for the U.S. market: the iPhone and Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry.

via A taxonomy of iPhone competitors – Apple 2.0.

Open or perish. It’s a meme that’s been embraced as fact ever since Eric Raymond published his seminal essay, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar.” If you are not “open,” i.e., open source or open APIs, you don’t get it, and you’re destined for obsolescence. But while there is an appealing logic to this premise, the reality just isn’t that black and white, especially when it comes to the mobile arena.

Consider the different approaches to openness taken by the two companies with arguably the greatest product differentiation, most thriving ecosystems and potent cash-flow generation engines in the business: Apple and Google. The former Apple is more proprietary, with an integrated approach to hardware, software and service. The latter Google is generally perceived to be more open, taking a “loosely coupled” approach to systems and services. Both are breakout businesses, with legions of devoted followers. So which approach is better?

Apple is widely lauded for delivering a superb user experience, offering great synergy and seamless integration across its different product offerings, but it’s also an occasional bully, self-selecting which services and offerings it anoints as value-adds, and which it blocks as deleterious Flash or redundant Podcaster.

Google, by contrast, is pretty prodigious in terms of rolling out a lot of product offerings, and its openness has encouraged the proverbial thousand flowers to bloom e.g., site-optimized mapping functions have become endemic to many third-party sites, thanks to Google Maps. Critics note, however, that many of Google’s products are uninspired and unfocused from a product lifecycle perspective.

So, let’s look at Apple’s iPhone platform, and compare its prospects to those of Google’s Android.

via Android vs. iPhone: Why Openness May Not Be Best .

Google’s reported favor in dropping multitouch support from its Android phones emphasizes why we need the Palm Pre to succeed. Palm flicked two fingers at its Silicon Valley rival and says it’s ready to fight any legal claim that Apple might mount over its multitouch patent.

Google’s fingers, meanwhile, are stuck in so many pies that it runs into inevitable conflicts. The VentureBeat report summed up a few, including Google wanting to keep its search, maps and other services on Apple’s iPhone.

Palm’s is a purer play in handsets. It has more motivation to buck Apple and force a healthy airing of the iPhone maker’s multitouch claim.

via Google “Favor” Shows We Need Palm Pre vs. Apple iPhone – Dave’s Download (usnews.com).

Hawkins sees iPhone and the App Store as part of a bigger tipping point in the mobile industry, proving that there is a demand among consumers for mobile content, if it’s offered to them in the right way.

He points out that the mobile industry is now racing to try and catch up with Apple, whether it’s Android and the Android Market, operators like Verizon Wireless pushing the BlackBerry Storm, or everyone and their aunt looking to launch an App Store-like service.

“It’s a big deal that the entire mobile industry is moving in this new direction,” he says. “It’s a wonderful direction for the games industry. All of these devices, and everything that is being developed for them from a technology standpoint, will be good for gaming.”

Hawkins has some interesting views on how iPhone is spurring more word-of-mouth recommendations, with users keen to show it off to their friends, and games often providing the reason.

However, his contention that iPhone is “a platform where the cream really does rise to the top” may elicit disagreement from some of his peers, who’ve been complaining that their titles are being buried under thousands of cheap, low-quality iPhone games and applications.

Isn’t there a problem brewing there? Hawkins thinks not. “The rubbish does not rise to the top,” he says, forcefully.

“Go into the Release Date portion of the App Store and you’ll see a lot of products that have never been reviewed. The vast majority of applications that have been released are stillborn. A game does not rise in the ranks unless there’s a public burst [of enthusiasm] around it.”

via Trip Hawkins talks iPhone, Android and Nintendo, feature, Digital Chocolate, PocketGamer.biz .

Only about 20% of people who download a free application were using it the next day, a research firm found.

Most people stop using iPhone applications downloaded from Apples App Store after the first day, an analytics firm found.

Only about 20% of people who download a free application were using it the next day, Pinch Media found. Paid apps fared slightly better with nearly 30% of people still using the download.

Pinch Media, which provides iPhone developers with analytics on their applications, presented on Wednesday its findings on app use at the New York iPhone Developers Meetup. The findings, offered in a slide show on the companys Web site, were based on the monitoring of more than 30 million downloads.

In general, Pinch Medias analysis indicates that iPhone developers applications will have to be immediately compelling to hold a user for any length of time. After 90 days, the percentage of people still using downloads hovers around 1%.

Applications related to sports are best at retaining users over the short term, while games are best over the long term, Pinch Media found.

For most developers considering ad-supported applications, Pinch Media advised taking the paid route instead. “Unless theres something inherent about the app that screams free, sell it,” the firm said.

via Apple App Store Downloads Often Abandoned — IPhone — InformationWeek.

Owners of the Android-powered G1 handset seem more anxious to get things done with it than to play games, according to download statistics from the long-awaited phones first few days on sale.

The device — the first to use the Google-backed operating system — went on sale from T-Mobile USA on Wednesday morning after a preview sale at one store on Tuesday night. The Android Market, an online store for applications and games, launched at the same time. More Android phones are yet to come, and the open-source operating system and associated applications have been anticipated as possibly the next phenomenon to shake up the mobile industry following Apples iPhone and App Store.

By late Friday, games were taking a back seat to applications in the Android Market, based on broad ranges of download numbers displayed on the store. It showed that 20 applications had been downloaded between 10,000 and 50,000 times, compared with just five games in that class.

via Techworld – Android users favoring apps over games.

If Apple (AAPL) is the elephant in the room this week in Barcelona, dominating the cellphone industry’s annual showcase without having to show up (see here), Microsoft (MSFT) is the 800 pound gorilla — throwing its weight around and scaring all manufacturers.

That’s the conclusion of Daniel Eran Dilger in a long Roughly Drafted post entitled “Did Microsoft Kill Android at Mobile World Congress 2009?“

“How does one sell an aging mobile operating system lacking the multitouch sizzle of the iPhone and the addictive messaging savvy of the BlackBerry in a world where Google is butting in with a free, open source alternative that allows manufacturers to freely customize it as they like?” he asks. (link)

Dilger’s answer, delivered in a closely reasoned 1,800 word diatribe, is to crush the competition that scares Microsoft most. That’s not the iPhone, which CEO Steve Ballmer has repeatedly laughed off as an over-priced toy, but Google’s (GOOG) Android, the smartphone platform that competes directly with Microsoft’s own offering, Windows Mobile.

Android is anathema to Microsoft for many reasons, but the chief one, says Dilger, is that it is an open source platform running on Linux.

“In 2001, Steve Ballmer referred to Linux as a ‘cancer,’ specifically citing its open source license as the most troubling part. Software that allows manufacturers to customize it themselves anyway they choose is more threatening to Microsoft than software offered for free.” (link)

According to Dilger, Microsoft has orchestrated a behind-the-scenes attack on Android, using its considerable leverage with manufacturers up and down the supply chain to discourage them from promoting Android devices too enthusiastically.

via Microsoft plays the heavy in the smartphone wars – Apple 2.0.

MySpace has seen impressive growth in its mobile services over the last six months, especially outside the U.S. At the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, I recently caught up with John Faith, the vice president and general manager for the social network’s mobile services, to learn more. In the interview below, he tells me about MySpace’s collaborations with mobile carriers, handset manufacturers and content creators around the world, to help it deliver a more compelling experience to mobile users.

The results of MySpace’s mobile efforts so far: In the United States, traffic to its mobile site and mobile applications grew 50 percent — but it grew 80 percent in Europe and 60 percent in Asia. Overall, the company more than 20 million of its 130 million users have accessed a MySpace mobile service, for a total seven billion pageviews to date. To be clear, 76 million or so of MySpace’s users are in the U.S. — this means growth rates will appear for smaller audiences in other countries. However, MySpace is trying to grow its presence internationally, and mobile has proven to be essential in that effort. The News Corp.-owned company is also launching a new version of its mobile web site this week (see screenshot below).

via MySpace’s John Faith sees half of all its users going mobile | The Industry Standard.

In a scene right out of a spy movie, an MWC attendee asks an Acer representative about rumored Android handsets and in the blink of an eye, a notebook and a sketch of Acer’s product road map appears. The sketch reveals the presence of two “secret models” under the heading “Android”, not to mention four other not-yet-announced handsets that are slated for release in the second half of 2009. A quick snapshot of the handwritten document is snagged and the attendee flees to share it with the world. No other details are revealed about these “secret” handsets but rest assured we will be on the lookout for them. Maybe – just maybe – they’ll be a bit more current and relevant than, say, these. Hit the jump for a shot of the sketch book.

via Acer working on two secret Android phones? : Boy Genius Report.

Barcelona — Although not as exciting as in previous years, the 2009 Mobile World Congress has certainly been surprising. In fact, everything we thought we’d see failed to appear — A GSM-flavored Palm Pre aimed at the non-US market, for example. Or the avalanche of Android phones that really should be rolling by now.

What did we get instead? We got App stores, and we got them from every direction. Nokia’s Ovi and Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace join the iTunes App Store, the Google Android Market and PocketGear’s Symbian store (itself lined up alongside PocketGear’s own WinMo and Palm stores).

The lure is clear. Money is part of it — Apple passes 70% of the ticket price for iPhone apps onto the developer. The remaining 30% stays at Cupertino to pay for bandwidth, account admin and, we presume, a little profit. But more important is the retention that these stores buy. Anyone with an iPhone will think twice about moving to another kind of phone if they have to re-buy all those applications, and that’s assuming that similar apps are even available.

via Does Everybody Have to Have a Mobile App Store? | Gadget Lab from Wired.com.

Adobe says Flash coming soon to a smart phone near you

The day when we can get a full desktop version of Flash on our smart phone is just around the corner, according to Adobe.

The technology that powers Web video, animation and some of the cool interaction we take for granted on our computers has been slow to make it to the smart phone in its full form. The knock on Flash is that it’s too resource-intensive for mobile devices.

Now, Adobe says that by the end of this year, it will be ready to release Flash 10 for smart phones running Symbian, Windows Mobile, Android or Palm webOS. The devices probably will appear by early 2010, though Palm announced it will have Flash 10 on its new Pre handheld by the end of this year. At this point, there is no firm time frame for Flash appearing on the iPhone and BlackBerry platforms.

With the finish line in sight, Adobe has teamed with Nokia to create a $10 million Open Screen Project fund to encourage developers to build applications and services using Flash. The hope is that designers can make robust Flash apps that work on multiple screens, from PCs to television set-top boxes to mobile phones.

via Tech Chronicles / A daily dose of postings from The Chronicle’s technology blog (sfgate.com/blogs/tech).

While Acer unveiled its plan to launch a pair of Android phones this year via the slightly ancient pen-and-paper method, Samsung used an even trustier method: spoken word. According to Reuters, the company’s head of product strategy Won-Pyo Hong affirmed that Sammy would sell “more than three” Android phones by the end of this year, and furthermore, it would “definitely” unwrap a phone using the LiMo Foundation’s Linux-based software before 2010 dawns. Hong wouldn’t disclose whether those Google-powered handsets would hit America, Europe or elsewhere first, but he did remark that both the US and Europe would be covered by the year’s end. We’d love to say we’re totally unaffected by such a tease, but c’mon, who has that kind of patience?

via Samsung: at least three Android phones and a LiMo handset in 2009 – Engadget.

Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering at Google, demonstrated an offline-capable webapp for the iPhone 3G this morning that allows full access to a user’s GMail even while the handset is in airplane mode.  The app – which Gundotra described as a “technical concept” – relies on HTML5′s AppCache and Database standards, keeping an on-device store of not only the user-data but the software itself.

via Google demo offline GMail webapp for iPhone: Video Demo | iPhone Buzz.

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 17, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ —-Mobile World Congress — VISTOR: 27.41, -0.77, -2.73%, the worlds leading mobile push synchronization platform and service provider, today announced that VISTO MobileTM: 66.48, 3.01, 4.74%, including the recently launched VISTO Mobile 6, now supports Googles Android mobile operating system.

VISTO supports the broadest array of mobile devices and mobile operating systems including Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm OS, Java, iPhone, and now Android. Available on over 400 mobile devices worldwide, VISTO Mobile provides the industrys most user friendly mobile email and messaging services on the broadest range of mobile handsets worldwide.

“Our support of Android from Google demonstrates VISTOs ongoing commitment to providing push and synchronization services including email on all leading mobile phones as they come to market,” said Doug Brackbill, VISTOs executive vice-president and chief marketing officer. “Android is rapidly emerging as a popular operating system for new and innovative mobile phones and were delighted to be supporting it. Together with ease-of-use and flexibility, device choice is one of the keys to driving the mass adoption of mobile email and messaging.”

via VISTO Announces Support for Googles Android Platform – FOXBusiness.com.

HTC and Google are getting closer to perfection with the new Android G2, the HTC Magic. Nice finish, great form factor. Check out our video, including the obligatory comparison with Apples iPhone, and hands-on impressions:

The bad news first: Apart from my gripes about the user interface—which are still there—there is one but. A big BUT, bigger than Ramonas, the planetary lady with accidental moustache who serves the bocadillos down at one of the fairs restaurants: The software keyboard. On this first touch, the keyboard felt cramped, probably a result of the screen size, which is smaller than the iPhones—which is the obvious soft keyboard reference, since it was the first one to implement a finger-touch software keyboard.

via Android G2 Hands On: Close to Perfection.

At the worlds biggest mobile phone show, the buzz is about software.

While dozens of new smartphones are being introduced at Mobile World Congress here this week, the industrys biggest players – and the newcomers that have shaken it up – are less likely to be touting their latest devices than what makes them run.

Google, one of the newcomers, got a boost Tuesday from Vodafone, the worlds largest mobile operator. Vodafone said it would sell phones made by HTC carrying Googles Android software in Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy in March, and later, around the world.

The emergence of Android last year followed the arrival two years ago of the Apple iPhone, with its touch screen control system, triggering a shake-up that has caused the more-entrenched players to step up their efforts.

“Apple and Google have shown that with the right user interface, with the right environment in the phone, you can generate significant consumer interest and usage of the device,” said Jörgen Lantto, vice president for mobile platforms at ST-Ericsson, a maker of white-label cellphone equipment in Geneva.

via At mobile show, software gets the buzz – International Herald Tribune.

I’m pleased to announce that Android Market is now accepting priced applications from US and UK developers. Developers from these countries can go to the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish to upload their application(s) along with end user pricing for the apps. Initially, priced applications will be available to end users in the US starting mid next week. We will add end user support for additional countries in the coming months.

We will also enable developers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain to offer priced applications later this quarter. By the end of Q1 2009, we will announce support for developers in additional countries. Developers can find more information about priced applications in Android Market at http://market.android.com/support/

Google Checkout will serve as the payment and billing mechanism for Android Market. Developers who do not already have a Google Checkout merchant account can easily sign up for one via the publisher website.

via Android Developers Blog: Android Market update: support for priced applications .

Android’s progress elevates Google’s mobile aspirations

By Rob Minto in London

Published: February 15 2009 22:17 | Last updated: February 15 2009 22:17

As Mobile World Congress begins, it is easy to forget how quickly Google has become part of the mobile story. At last year’s event, Google had only just unveiled Android, its open-source mobile operating system. The G1 phone was still just a rumour. The company had applications for mobile phones, but they were usually a cut-down version of the desktop PC program.

This year, the company will not just be at Mobile World Congress to showcase the G1 and promote Android. It now has a fully fledged application store – Android Market – to rival that of the iPhone, and is looking to create mobile applications that will become as ingrained on mobiles as desktop search is for PC users.

Android Market has far fewer applications – 800 – than the iPhone App Store’s 15,000, but Google doesn’t really mind. The company wants every phone to be a Google phone, regardless of platform, and is building its own applications to make that happen.

Ann Mei Chang, Google’s director of mobile engineering, says: “We want everything you can do on a desktop to be possible to do on a phone. But there are unique capabilities from being on a mobile. For example, our mobile voice search is not much use on a desktop, where you can type easily and no one really talks to their PC, but is great on a phone.”

via FT.com / In depth – Android’s progress elevates Google’s mobile aspirations.

It’s Mobile World Congress week in Barcelona, where the city’s famous pickpockets have dozens of new gadgets to choose from, and the shadow of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone once again looms large.

Last year, rival cellphone manufacturers used the event to announce their own touchscreen smartphones.

This year, what’s getting the love is the iTunes App Store, with its 20,000-plus applications and half a billion downloads.

Among the announcements making headlines this week:

Nokia’s Ovi Store. An online app and media portal that comes “pre-integrated” on Nokia’s (NOK) new N97 (right), but will be available for download on a slew of existing Nokia phones come May. (link)

Windows Marketplace. Along with a new version of Windows Mobile, Microsoft (MSFT) announced Monday that it will open a new Windows Marketplace offering — you guessed it — 20,000 apps, some of which actually run on mobile devices. (link)

App Store for Symbian. PocketGear, which had previously built its own Palm App Store and an App Store for Windows Mobile, unveiled an App Store for Symbian, the operating system that runs Nokia’s smartphones. How it will compete with the Ovi Store remains to be seen. (link)

Android Market. Google (GOOG) opened an application marketplace for the Android platform last October, but so far it has only accepted free apps. Look for an announcement from Google this week about how that’s going to change.

BlackBerry Applications Center. Research in Motion (RIMM) invited developers to submit programs to its forthcoming Applications Center in October. We may be hearing more this week about when that will open for business.

Palm Software Store. This one went live in December with 2,000 apps and 1,000 free games available for download to both Palm (PALM) OS devices and Windows Mobile.

via Now everybody has an App Store – Apple 2.0.

Two years ago all the talk at the Mobile World Congress was of the imminent arrival of the Apple iPhone, and how it was going to change the industry. One year ago, all the talk was of Google’s open-source Android operating system, and what a radical impact that might have. In each case, the big established players blew a collective raspberry at the thought that these upstarts would rock their world – so how much has changed?

However often it is pointed out that the iPhone has only a tiny fraction of world handset sales, a walk around the halls here provides plenty of evidence of its influence. Touchscreen phones are everywhere – and although early versions appeared pale imitations, some of them now look as good as the original, and have a lot more firepower.

via BBC NEWS | dot.life | A blog about technology from BBC News | Game-changers – Google or Apple? .

There’s a new mobile OS, Windows Mobile 6.5, that’s supposed to be friendlier than the notoriously clunky earlier versions. (ZDNet’s mobile maven Matthew Miller is still disappointed.)

There’s a set of cloud-based services for synchronizing data like contacts and photos. (Although apparently v.1 will not be connected with the Windows Live or Live Mesh platforms or services, so the vision of unified data sync across devices is still a whiteboard drawing as far as Microsoft products and services are concerned.)

There’s a marketplace for Windows Mobile apps. There’s a brand change–the phones will be called “Windows Phones,” although the OS is still “Windows Mobile.” (Confused?) Oh, and the company has finally acknowledged that competing in the consumer space is important, a year and a half after CEO Steve Ballmer dismissed the iPhone as a “$500 subsidized item” that had “no chance” of gaining any significant market share.

Assuming that any of this makes you want to run out and buy a Windows Mobile phone, too bad. None of it’s available until late this year.

I’ll give Microsoft some credit for envisioning and beginning to build a free alternative to Apple’s MobileMe service. And the mobile marketplace is a no-brainer. But Monday’s announcements just underscore that Microsoft has no answer to the iPhone.

via Microsoft still has no iPhone answer | Crave – CNET.

BARCELONA—It’s taken a year and a half, but there’s finally a decent word processor for the iPhone. Oh, and for Google Android, too.

“It’s a big hole currently on those platforms. We’re bringing the whole Office to Android, and we’re bringing the missing pieces, basically, to the iPhone,” said Rob Hoxie, director of business development at Dataviz.

DocumentsToGo for iPhone will begin with a Microsoft Office document editor and creator sometime in the second quarter of this year, Dataviz spokesman Ilya Eliashevsky said.

Because of the iPhone’s software limitations, you’ll be stuck with editing documents synced over with a desktop application – the iPhone can’t use a third-party program to handle e-mail attachments or Web downloads. Dataviz is working on a way to “break open the box,” Eliashevsky said. That plan includes accessing documents in some sort of online storage, he said.

With that limitation in place, though, this looks like the best word processor the iPhone has ever seen. You can create new documents, or edit existing ones. The program puts a menu of icons along the bottom of the screen that correspond to traditional PC program menus; they include Save, Cut/Paste, font formatting, paragraph formatting, and a mysterious e-mail icon that the Dataviz guys wouldn’t click on.

You can edit or create bulleted or numbered lists, edit tables, change font sizes and colors, and cut or paste from either a standard text entry mode or from the iPhone’s zoomed in “magnifying glass” mode. You can’t bring in photos or attachments from outside the program, though, because of those darned software limitations.

via DocumentsToGo For iPhone and Android – News and Analysis by PC Magazine.

Microsoft is preparing to announce a new version of Windows Mobile that will hopefully be able to compete with Android and iPhone — but my money says it will be a disappointment. Microsoft has a ways to go to compete with Apple and Google, and many people have already lost confidence in Windows Mobile (which can be difficult to reverse).

In my opinion, the biggest mistake Microsoft has ever made was focusing too much on competing with Google when they should have been investing in their Windows Mobile operating system. Instead, they have wasted billions of dollars on a sub-par search engine, and let the mobile future slip through their fingers.

Microsoft has a chance to change my mind with Windows Mobile 6.5 — and who knows, maybe it will knock the ball out of the park. The new operating system apparently looks an awful lot like Android right now, but it’s too early to say what the final product will look like since it’s not even in beta yet.

In related news, the Windows Mobile Marketplace (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) will be launched sooner than later — it’s the equivalent to the iPhone App Store, and the Android Marketplace. Applications found here will be compatible with Windows Mobile 6 when it’s launched.

What do you think of Microsoft’s attempt to get back into mobile?

via Microsoft responds to Android with Windows Mobile 6.5 | Googling Google | ZDNet.com .

The mobile phone industry as a whole is expected to contract in 2009 for only the second time in its existence, and headlines have been filled with quarterly losses and layoffs. While it may be impossible to avoid the specter of the global economic slowdown, next week’s GSMA Mobile World Congress should have enough new hardware are services to get businesses and consumers excited.

The market as a whole could decline by as much as 10%, but smartphones will continue to see tremendous growth over the next few years. The major manufacturers will have a full slate of new smartphones at the show that will take advantage of this rising consumer demand.

Many consumers are still taking a wait-and-see approach with Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s open source Android platform because users haven’t had a good look at other handsets besides the T-Mobile G1. With multiple Android handsets expected to be released in 2009, Mobile World Congress could be Android’s coming-out party.

via Smartphones To Take Center Stage At Mobile World Congress — Cell Phone — InformationWeek.

Next week, more than 50,000 people will descend upon Barcelona for the GSMA Mobile World Congress, the largest mobile event of the year. Attendees will hear from some of the biggest names in the business, from Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) to Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and MySpace. My colleague Dianne See Morrison and I will be there from MocoNews to cover the events live. But already, it’s clear that one topic will be in heavy rotation during the week: the move by handset-makers and carriers to ape the success of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and roll-out their own app stores.

Samsung has already confirmed that it will make an app store announcement during the show, while Microsoft is also rumored to be unveiling its store, codenamed SkyMarket, at MWC. Today, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) got a jump on the news by announcing that it was opening up the Android Market to developers who want to charge for their applications. Other announcements are clearly on the horizon: RIM’s BlackBerry store is set to launch any day, and even Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is expected to make an app store announcement next week. It doesn’t stop with handset makers. There’s even hints that wireless carriers are ready to jump in to this arena. Amdocs, one of the big powerhouses for back-end carrier infrastructure, is expected to announce the Amdocs (NYSE: DOX) App Store, a new application portal available for carriers.

via mocoNews.net – Apple Won’t Be There, But The Impact Of The iPhone Will Be Everywhere At Mobile World Congress – washingtonpost.com.

Nokia NYSE: NOK will announce the opening of its applications store at next weeks Mobile World Congress, the largest industry gathering for the sector, according to Reuters citing two unnamed sources, and lending more credence to the rumors of a Nokia app store that have swirled on the internet for days now. The news wire reports that the Finnish handset giant that is trying to reinvent itself as an internet services provider had promised in early December to launch its own download store “soon,” the likely product of a merging of its software Download Store with its free media sharing site Mosh and its widget service WidSets.

Nokia is, of course, just one of many industry players jumping on the application store bandwagon, motivated by the runaway success of Apple App Store. In the six months following its July launch, Apple reported that it had 15,000 applications available at its store, and that consumers had conducted some 500 million downloads. Google NSDQ: GOOG launched its Android Market in late October, while Palm NSDQ: PALM unveiled its online storefront in December. At Mobile World Congress, Korean handset maker Samsung will also launch its version of an online store, which it announced last week. Microsoft NSDQ: MSFT and RIM NSDQ: RIMM will also roll out app stores, but its unclear at this point when this will happen. Even China Mobile, Chinas dominant network operator wants to get in on the act, apparently spurred on after its talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to China hit a sticking point over which company would control the billing relationship of the App Store.

via mocoNews.net – Report: Nokia To Unveil Its Application Store Next Week – washingtonpost.com.

A researcher who found a security hole in the Android mobile platform in October has found another one that he says is serious enough for him to recommend people not use the Android browser until the patch is installed.

Charlie Miller, a principal analyst at consultancy Security Evaluators, said on Thursday that a patch for the vulnerability is available on Google’s source code repository, but has not yet been made available for download onto the phones via the T-Mobile service.

Like the previous hole, the new vulnerability could allow an attacker to remotely take control of the browser, access credentials, and install a keystroke logger if the Android user visits a malicious Web page.

via Android phones await security patch | Security – CNET News.

Today I’m pleased to announce the new My Tracks application for Android-powered phones such as the T-Mobile G1. My Tracks records tracks of outdoor activities using the phone’s built-in GPS. It shows these tracks on a map and presents live statistics, including an elevation profile. And here’s the best part: it lets you easily share your activities with friends and the world using Google Maps, as well as archive your training history with Google Docs.

via Official Google Blog: Happy trails with My Tracks for Android-powered phones.

Google on Thursday released an application called My Tracks that turns the T-Mobile G1 Android phone into a full-fledged GPS receiver.

The free software can record tracks showing where youve been, display them on a map, show elevation gains and losses, and share data with various online services.

via My Tracks turns Android phone into GPS device | Wireless – CNET News.

Shares of Palm Inc. jumped to a 52-week high Thursday ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show, which kicks off Feb. 16 in Barcelona, Spain.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Palm has seen its stock price soar this year ahead of the launch of the Pre, an iPhone and BlackBerry competitor, and a new operating system. The company will present at the trade show next week.

Lawrence M. Harris, an analyst with CL King & Associates, said in a client note Thursday the company’s stock gained because of reported delays of two new smart phones from Samsung based on Google’s Android operating system.

via Palm shares jump ahead of Mobile World Congress – Forbes.com.