Ah, that's refreshing, an American source that recognises some of the leading developments in mobile comerce coming out of Europe.
"The future of commerce on the go -- like paying for a cup of coffee with a few clicks on a cell phone, perhaps -- is getting closer now that four of Europe's biggest wireless carriers have formed a clearinghouse to boost mobile payments."
The New York Times is getting all excited about a new US based consortium's idea for mobile video monitoring. They're reporting this as possible the "killer app" for the new generation of video phones. Sheesh, haven't they head of the Nokia Observation Camera??
The Register: "The 3650 is available -sim free - now in Finland for €550. But as volumes ramp up, prices should come down a little in Europe. UK retailer mPhone is offering a sim free Nokia 3650 on pre-order at £279.65 inc. VAT (approx €409). But it is quoting an estimated delivery date of May."
Darn, I can't wait until May! I'm just going to have to be a sucker and pay early adopter prices :(
PMN: -- "Hungarian operator Westel is providing wireless video services to its GPRS subscribers using a PacketVideo system supplied by Siemens. Users can download MPEG-4 video clips over GPRS and view them on compatible handsets such as the Nokia 7650."
The Register reviews the SonyEricsson P800:"I've had two weeks with one and generally, I'm as pleased as punch with it. As early reviews indicate, it's a great phone and a thoroughly respectable PDA, all in one, at a price that undercuts todays PDAs."
"But for the real news, and why I called it 'revolutionary', you can thank Opera. This is the first handheld that does the full web - Opera's native Symbian browser is quite amazing. I think this is the beginning of the end for two quite horrible, but related ideas: repurposing content through WAP gateways or "clipping" (the Palm VII/Danger Hiptop model); and closed-garden carrier services. People want the full web, and want to go where they please - not where some phone company wants them to go. This they can now do, at a very affordable price."
Amen to that, how right they are. The sooner the operators realise that they are utility companies the better. Stop wasting money identifying yourselves with David Beckham and realise that we are not going to be happy to stay behind your garden wall. Do you hear me?!?!
The Nokia 3650 Imaging Phone is Now Shipping Globally. I walked into a Vodafone store in Limerick, Ireland, yesterday and asked how long it would be before they had the Nokia 3650. The sales guy seemed a kind of taken aback that I was even aware of the phone and immediately started bluffing that it would be at least 6 months because, "the Nokia 7650 was only just out a little while now".
So, it's good to read that his projection was a little on the pessimistic side. Maybe, just maybe, it won't actually be available in the Vodafone outlets here until the summer but as long as I can order one from www.Expansys.com I'll be happy :)
infoSync: "According to the latest numbers from Strategy Analytics, more than 18 million camera phones were sold worldwide in 2002 - and the numbers are expected to double in 2003."
Stewart Alsop is getting fairly excited that, "the brave new world of cellphones has finally arrived in the U.S". Welcome to the party folks! :)
Stewart thinks that this new generation of cellphones (or 'mobiles' to us Europeans) will usher in the 'convenience revolution'. He compares the jump in technology to his experience of using VisiCalc on the Apple II in 1981; "The reason the Apple II inspired me is that it let me do something with the first electronic spreadsheet that wasn't possible with pen and paper: It allowed me to rapidly try out different business ideas and test the outcomes. The Motorola T720 and its ilk also inspire me because they promise a new world of usefulness as personal assistants."
infoSync : Review: Nokia Camera Headset HS-1C. This accessory is compatible with Pop Port equipped phones such as the 7210, 6610 and 6100. To be honest I'd much prefer have an inbuilt camera as it looks like I could hang myself trying to use this. Now if it was based on bluetooth......
ZDNet |UK| Opera refuses to perform on Microsoft smartphone:"Opera, which recently launched its Small-Screen Rendering technology that makes it easy to read standard Web pages on smartphones, last week said it will never offer a version for Microsoft-powered devices such as the Orange SPV."
This little spat just get's funnier and funnier. Fair play to Opera though for milking out they can out of the publicity in this David Vs Goliath battle.
SingTel Optus crows over mobile streaming video: ZDNet Australia: "SingTel Optus has announced the availability of video on mobiles by March 5, and streaming video on mobiles by the end of April. This is all happening over its GPRS network, an apparent attempt to pre-empt the launch of Hutchison's 3G network later this year. The video clips will be delivered via MMS technology, and will arrive as files under 100 Kb in size, which SingTel Optus claims allows up to 30 seconds of video."
Now that last bit is interesting. Any of the Nokia 7650 generated video clips I've seen so far which maxed out at 96kb 'only' covered 15 seconds at the most. Maybe 30 seconds is possible with very little actual movement in the frame but I'd imagine this is just one of the usual exaggerated claims :(
A view from India on the Microsoft Vs Symbian saga. Oddly, the article is summed up with the advice to keep away from either camp!!
"What about you? Stick to what you can afford right now, chances are that it is not one of the technology demonstrating smart phones, but what is called a plain vanilla phone. And you know what; vanilla is a flavour that has given a lot of pleasure to millions of pallets for generations!"
Janey Mack that's amazing! I hadn't realised that the banner on top of this blog*spot hosted blog is content driven. Right now, the banner displayed is advertising an SMS/MMS/WAP Push Gateway and Premium MMS Solutions.
There ye go now lads; I'm after giving ye another bit of publicity for free!
A few days after the Wired story the BBC get in on the act, as regard mobile blogging (or moblogging) in what appears to be a rehash of the Wired item.
I bet that in the wake of the purchase of Pyra Blogger by Google these guys must be getting excited. The Google endorsement make Blogging a potentially lucrative area to be in right now and with the added dimension of mobility, I'd imagine these developers/companies must be in a few radar screens.
Indeed, in the BBC story, Paddy Holohan of NewBay seems to give tacit acknowledgement of this - "Google's buy is a recognition that the news in future will be reported by ordinary people with their own particular bias on stories."
