note-taking.net

Not looking to drop $360 bucks on a gadget purposed almost solely for book reading, but still want to partake in Amazon’s new found love for eBooks? You’re not alone – and if you’ve got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you’re in luck. As we’d assumed they would, Amazon has just launched a free Kindle application for Apple’s much-lauded touchscreen, available immediately.

While it won’t go and turn your iPhone’s display into an e-Ink screen (we feel bad for our eyes already), the Kindle application does replicate much of the functionality provided by the namesake device. You can read any Kindle-compatible book you’ve purchased from Amazon’s catalog, read the first chapter of other books for free, adjust text size, bookmark pages, and view notations made on the Kindle.

One of the big features here is WhisperSync, which automatically keeps track of where you left off in each book, allowing you to pick up from that spot from any Kindle-friendly devices you may have. The feature didn’t seem too useful when the Kindle 2 was announced (How many people have more than one Kindle?) – but with Amazon stretching Kindle across multiple platforms, it makes perfect sense. Leave your Kindle on the bed side table, pick up where you left off on your iPhone once you’re on the bus.

via Amazon launches Kindle application for the iPhone .

“The real market momentum with operators and the real market momentum with device manufacturers seems to primarily be with Windows Mobile and Android.” Thats Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmers alternate reality take on the smartphone market, expressed to analysts during a midyear update in New York. While he acknowledged that Apples iPhone has “consumer market mojo,” he suggested that it does not have the same market potential as the mobile platforms controlled by Microsoft and Google.

via iPhones Not So Hot — Try Windows Phones, Ballmer Says – Business Center – PC World.

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.

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 .

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 .

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.

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.

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.

Kraft has become one of the first packaged goods brands to go the iPhone apps route.

The food giant has unveiled iFood Assistant, a new service-oriented application which offers a mix of recipes, user reviews and instructional cooking videos. The downloadable app is available on both Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch for 99 cents.

Kraft executives are touting iFood Assistant’s depth, as the application houses its own content rather than simply driving users to Kraft-branded Web sites. “People’s lives are becoming increasingly complex and they’re looking for relevant content and solutions to make their lives easier,” said Ed Kaczmarek, director of innovation, new services at Kraft.

Overall the app contains 7,000-plus Kraft-tested recipes, various corresponding shopping lists and nearby store recommendations, and iPhone-ready video demonstrations for on the go chefs. Plus, iFood Assistant features several content sections which are updated on a daily basis, such as Dinner Tonight and Recipe of the Day.

Kraft tapped Meredith Corporation’s subsidiary agency Genex to produced the new iPhone app, said officials.

via Kraft Rings Up iPhone iFood Assistant App.

And so, with the death of the restrictive terms in the iPhone development non-disclosure agreement and the refinement of customer reviews, everything at the App Store is peaches and cream, right? No problems to speak of?

Really, come on: you should know better than that. While those issues certainly affected developers and their business, they were hardly the only impediment coming out of Cupertino. Theres the still-mysterious application approval process, for one. And, for another, the fact that the store has been inundated with 99-cent apps.

Thats a problem? Doesnt it just mean inexpensive apps for all of us? Well, on the one hand yes, but the fallout has farther-reaching implications. Iconfactory developer Craig Hockenberry, the man behind iPhone apps Frenzic and Twitterrifc, penned an open letter to Steve Jobs on the subject of what he dubs “ringtone apps” and his concern that theyre affecting business for other developers. Hat tip to Philip Elmer-DeWitt of the Apple 2.0 blog at Fortune.

The problem, as Hockenberry sees it, is that low-cost and free apps climb to the top of the charts on the App Store due to their low price and high volume glance at these charts compiled by Edible Apple and youll quickly see that 99-cent applications outstrip any other price point. Its much harder for a higher-priced app to get the same level of exposure as a 99-cent application; that, in turn, means that its harder to justify the higher cost of developing a more complicated, more expensive application.

via IPhone Developer Writes Open Letter on App Store – PC World.

The hacking contest that has grabbed headlines two years running will take aim next month at browsers and smartphones, according to the security company that sponsors the “PWN2OWN” challenge.

“We’re still in the planning stages for how the competition will be structured,” said Terri Forslof , the manager of security response for 3Com Inc.’s TippingPoint , regarding discussions she’s had with organizers of CanSecWest , the security conference slated to begin March 16 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

While the details have yet to be sorted out — including the dollar amounts for prizes and the contest rules — Forslof confirmed that PWN2OWN will actually consist of two separate hacker challenges this year.

The first will be a contest to break into one of several browsers, including Microsoft Corp. ‘s Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), which recently reached “release candidate” ; Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox; and Apple Inc. ‘s Safari.

That contest will play out on a Sony notebook equipped with Windows 7, the still-under-construction successor to Windows Vista.

The second challenge will pit hackers against a variety of smartphone operating systems, including Google Inc.’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Apple’s iPhone operating system, which is a scaled-down version of Mac OS X.

Cash prizes will be awarded, Forslof said today, but the number of prizes and their amounts remains to be decided. As with the past two years, TippingPoint will be the sole sponsor of the PWN2OWN contest.

via Hacker challenge takes aim at browsers, smartphones | ITworld.

When Amazon announced its second-generation Kindle Monday, the company boasted of the more than 230,000 available titles — most of them priced well below print equivalents.

Impressive, but not nearly as impressive at the 1.5 million books that Google has made available for free to anyone who owns an iPhone or any device that runs Google’s Android OS.

Assuming Google makes the service available on phones that run Symbian, Windows Mobile and the BlackBerry OS, Google Books Mobile represents an incredible resource: nearly every famous books (and plenty of obscure ones) written before 1920, available free on most smart phones.

via TECHNOLOGY Blog | The Dallas Morning News .

Google Monday announced that it is adding support for Microsoft’s ActiveSync to Google Sync, which will give iPhone and Windows Mobile offline access to their Google calendars and Gmail contacts from their mobile applications.

Google already supports calendar and contact synchronization via Google Synch on the BlackBerry and on its own Android mobile platform. The Android sync is a technology developed by Google and built into Google Apps.

The Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support means users can sync Google Calendars and Gmail Contacts information with the ActiveSync compatible calendar and contact applications they run on their iPhone and Windows Mobile devices. The synchronization happens in real-time so when a contact or calendar entry is added or upgraded in Google Apps it is updated with applications on the mobile device.

As part of the announcement Google said it also has added contact sync for mobile devices that support SyncML, a platform independent synchronization standard.

via Google adds ActiveSync to accommodate iPhone, Win Mobile – Network World.

What’s Google’s long-term mobile ad strategy? Publicly, the Web giant has said little about that, but last spring, at a briefing with advertisers, it offered some insight. In the presentation — titled “Google Mobile and What’s Next: Little screen, big opportunity” — the Web giant says it sees a number of advertising opportunities in mobile.

High on the list: “Local Relevant.” That’s the idea of using local search results — local pizza parlors, for example — to provide links for “instant action” such as clicking on a number to call the restaurant, or on a business name to link to a map.

via With people on the go, Google’s ad strategy goes mobile – USATODAY.com.

One of the biggest areas where the HTC G1 phone on T-Mobile’s network lags Apple iPhone is the app store.

So far, the Android Marketplace allowed only free apps in its online store but that is set to change this week. Google is expected to allow developers to start charging for programs sold through the Android market place, says The Wall Street Journal.

Unlike the iPhone App store that has splits the revenue with the developers, Android allows for third party programmers to keep the profits to themselves. Apple keeps 30 percent of the revenue from apps sold through the iPhone store.

The Android marketplace is also open. Apps do not have to be approved by either the carrier or Google which developed the Android mobile operating system. That is in contrast to Apple’s walled garden approach that requires all apps to be scrutinized by the company. iPhone users are billed for paid apps through their iTunes account. It is not clear what kind of payment framework Android will use.

Paid apps should help improve the Android marketplace. At the least, G1 phone users deserve equal access to Tipulator, Super Monkey Ball and iBeer.

via Paid Apps Coming to Android Phones This Week | Gadget Lab from Wired.com.

The T-Mobile HTC G1 — the first phone to run Google’s Android platform — may lack multi-touch capabilities because of an agreement with Apple.

VentureBeat’s MG Siegler cites an anonymous Android team member, who said the G1′s touchscreen isn’t multi-touch because Apple asked Google not to implement it.

Why would Apple do such a thing? It’s a feature that sets Apple’s handset apart from its competitors, whose touchscreen phones can’t detect simultaneous input like the iPhone’s. It’s the feature that enables that precious “pinching” gesture for zooming, which Apple is attempting to protect with its recently approved, 358-page iPhone patent.

via Google May Have Crippled Android Because Apple Asked | Gadget Lab from Wired.com.

The new Google phone, dubbed the G1, has been touted as a working man’s smartphone — a cheap, Web-friendly wireless device that can make life easier for millions of consumers.

The G1, as it turns out, also stands to make life a whole lot easier for Google — by making it a snap to track your movements on the mobile Web and send you ads as it does on the desktop. The device, sold exclusively by T-Mobile, gives Google access to your e-mail, instant messages, contact lists, Web-search history and geographic location. By keeping tabs on your mobile life, Google (GOOG) can quickly figure out what sort of ads to send your way, and when.

via Google’s G1 phone makes it easy to track surfing habits – USATODAY.com.

Who was it who wrote, in March 2008, just after Apple announced its intention to create an online app store for the iPhone, “You’re witnessing the birth of a third major computer platform: Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone”?

Oh, right–that was me.

Anyway, there are now 15,000 programs available on the App Store, and so many more are flooding in that Apple’s army of screeners can’t even keep up. I keep meaning to write a thoughtful, thorough roundup of the very best of these amazing programs, but every day that I don’t do it, the job becomes more daunting. (But don’t worry. I’ll get around to it.)

via So Many iPhone Apps, So Little Time – Pogue’s Posts Blog – NYTimes.com.