mobile

Nokia launches Ovi digital media, folds in Twango

Nokia acquired media-sharing start-up Twango last year, and now it's finally doing something with it.

Twango has been folded into Ovi, a new brand for Nokia's mobile Web services such as gaming, social networking, and mapping.

"The Twango brand will be a fond memory," a blog post from Twango director of service development Jim Laurel reads. "We are now Share on Ovi."

Nokia made the announcement Monday, though Laurel's blog post is dated last Monday, February 4. Go figure.

Twango originally pitched itself as a more functional alternative to photo-sharing sites like Flickr; … Read more

Samsung introduces ARM-based smartphone chip

Samsung Electronics introduced a new ARM-based processor for smartphones at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Spain. The S3C6410 "mobile application processor" includes special hardware accelerators to handle motion video processing and 3D graphics, thereby freeing up the main processor for other tasks and speeding overall performance.

At the heart of the S3C6410 is an ARM1176 processor core that can be clocked up to 667MHz. The chip is made on Samsung's advanced 65-nanometer manufacturing process.

By embedding a hardwired Multi Format Codec on-chip, the S3C6410 can perform video capture in MPEG4/H.263/H.264 formats and … Read more

Sony Ericsson to do first Windows phone

Update: 10:25 p.m. with photo, more details

Handset maker Sony Ericsson is announcing plans for its first Windows Mobile device, a move aimed at boosting the company's presence in the North American smartphone market.

The first product is a business-oriented phone with a QWERTY keyboard, but a family of devices is expected. Over time, Microsoft hopes Sony Ericsson will leverage its camera and music expertise to help build more consumer-oriented devices.

"They've really got some great consumer brands that we'd love to partner with and bring to Windows Mobile," Microsoft Vice President Pieter … Read more

GSMA begins in Barcelona

We told you that were going to the GSMA World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM), and now we have arrived. After a long flight from San Francisco, and a layover somewhere in Germany, I landed in Barcelona ready for a long sleep. After recharging myself, and my gadgets (good thing I remembered those electrical adapters), I took off for a walk to see the sights. Though GSMA doesn't begin until Monday, the city is already buzzing with thousands of visitors. As the largest mobile show in the world, GSMA has completely taken over the city. Indeed, when I checked … Read more

Photos: Nokia's Mobile Century traffic project

It's not often that you get people volunteering to get stuck in traffic. However, that's exactly what happened today in Northern California. About 150 students from the University of California at Berkeley participated a project devised to test the potential of using GPS-enabled, internet-connected cell phones as aids for reporting real-time information on traffic congestion. The test by the university was done in collaboration with Nokia, and the California Transportation Department. Real-time traffic services are nothing new. Services from Satellite companies, such as XM and Sirius, as well as maps from Google and Yahoo provide color-coded estimates of … Read more

IM photos and videos from phone to phone

If IMing friends from mobile to mobile is faster and cheaper than sending SMS messages, then IMing photos, videos, and music clips is even better.

Fring announced this week an update to its Symbian 9.1 and Symbian 9.2 offerings (sorry, Windows Mobile) that lets registered members swap files. This is the first I've heard of file-sharing from any mobile IM service, though saving the best perks for members is common to others, like EQO, that have far grander ambitions than simple all-in-one chat.

Much like file-sharing from desktop chat apps, fring (it really is lower-case) files ride … Read more

Where this weekend we're going waterboarding!

EPISODE 32

Today we talk about how Monster cables are overpriced (duh), how much Paris Hilton sucks, and how to "hack" T-Mobile. Plus, Comcast is covering its ass by amending the company's Terms of Service to allow for throttling of BitTorrent traffic.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Firefox Mobile could be invisible

A few days ago, two prototypes of Firefox Mobile, the latest bun in Mozilla's oven, made it onto the Mozilla wiki. Today Firefox Mobile product manager Doug Turner released two more designs.

Turner's team didn't scrap the toolbar entirely, but based on user feedback, they did make it much less intrusive. Why look at the buttons when users really want the Web, they reasoned. Letting the toolbars dissolve away when they're at rest is one method for making the most of the screen. Tapping a translucent icon (shown solid here) could bring the command buttons back.… Read more

Rumor: Apple planning late February event?

Apple could be gearing up for a late February event, according to a report out Thursday.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog reported that Mira Mobile Television, a West Coast television production firm, is hiring in preparation for an Apple event to be held at the end of February. TUAW notes that the listings aren't posted on Mira's site, and it calls its own report an "unconfirmed rumor" based on a single source.

So why give it any credence? For one, Apple's Greg Joswiak earlier this week reiterated the company's plans to introduce the iPhone software developer's kit … Read more

It's official: Cell phone carriers are the dumbest companies in the world

What? You didn't know that already? I thought I was telling you something you already knew.

In case you missed it, Ad Scheepbouwer, the CEO of a Dutch telecom known as KPN told the Financial Times yesterday that "[He] had [an iPhone] and thought it was a pretty useless phone, to be quite honest. The battery ran out in no time. I didn't like the touch screen."

Of course, the company's CEO still didn't want to leave Steve Jobs and company out in the cold just in case it decides to start selling the iPhone to the Netherlands. Scheepbouwer said that his company would "be more than happy to sell it." After all, he pointed out, his company has "half the market in the Netherlands and hopes it will will be the party of choice."

Even better, this clown has allegedly been wining and dining Steve Jobs at every chance he gets in an attempt to win the deal. Am I missing something? Didn't he say that the product is 'useless'? And didn't he say that the battery runs 'out in no time'? If he believes that, why would Apple want to strike a deal with his company and why would his company want to sell such a junker?

If nothing else, this just goes to show us all how crazy these carriers really are.… Read more