Several gadgets and one SIM

NTT DoCoMo has created a prototype of what they call a modular phone. It has one inexpensive handset that you can dock into more advanced hardware, like a game device, a slider phone, a device with a QUERTY keyboard and more.

Read the short article.

This is a concrete example of an ide I have had for a possible future solution where you have a SIM that identify you and license you to access the network and other things. The SIM is package into some small gadget that you dock into whatever larger gadget you want to use but need to identify yourself to be autorized to e.g. use the network.

Maybe it is not hardware docking - like the DoCoMo solution - but some kind of "over the air" docking. This might also allow several devices to be autorized at the same time.

Amazone and Google race for books on phones

This is taken from this article in Rethink Wireless:

Amazon is also looking to port the software to general purpose smartphones, perhaps offering just a subset of the Kindle Store’s 230,000 books, targeting more casual readers. "We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones," spokesman Drew Herdener told the New York Times. "We are working on that now."

Google said on Friday that it is making titles from its PC-based Book Search service available for the Apple phone and the Android-based T-Mobile G1. This offers 1.5m public domain titles, which were previously scanned and released for free on the PC. The mobile version will be text-only, rather than scanned book pages.

Rethink Wireless also have these related stories:

Verizon plans rival to Amazon Kindle

The United States of Google?

An article in Business Week by Jeff Jarvis thinks about different ways of running the government in the U.S. He has been to Davos and heard Gore and the Google founders talk about solving the energy challenge and see their different ways of attacking it.

Link

He refers to the book "Here Comes Everybody" by Clay Shirky. And in view of this his last comment is:

Google & Co. aren't taking over Washington. They're helping us take over.

7 lessons from Mozilla

Link:
Article in The Open Road.

Two noteworthy lessons - more in the article:

1.
Superior products matter. Apache, Firefox, WordPress, Wikipedia, etc. What's the common theme? "All are known for being best-in-class for users." If the code is weak, the project will be weak. Period. Open source is an accelerant: it either makes poor code die faster or great code thrive faster.

6.
Communities are not markets: members are citizens. It's therefore important to treat them like active, valuable participants in open source, not consumers thereof because, as Lilly notes, such citizens "don't just make products better. They make them what they are."

Maybe an example of the first lesson is seen in another article in The Open Road:

Firefox, Google's Chrome speed past IE, Opera

where they tested the speed of the various browser as measured by the industry-standard SunSpider JavaScript test.

Deutsche Telekom spawns of cloud company

Deutsche Telekom spawns cloud vendor Zimory

From the page:

Part distribution strategy, part software development strategy (Zimory uses an array of third-party open-source code to build its service), open source is fundamental to Zimory. However, the model's magic is in connecting disparate computing needs and resources, which is a "proprietary" service that only Zimory will be able to manage through its cloud infrastructure. It's a very smart idea.

Even Microsoft agrees. It named Zimory to its select German incubator program.

Google moving to meet enterprise customers

Gmail grows up with offline e-mail access

This is important for enterprise customer so that they can read their email e.g. on a plain. Google now has off-line email as a Beta.

Reading Google's tea leaves

I'm very interested in the things Google do, and I follow them closely. I've written a short piece about this process called "Reading Google's tea leaves." The post both describes some of the things I do to keep track of Google, but I also analyze some recent tea leves indicating that Google is pointing its guns at the telecommunications industry.

A Store is Comming to a Phone Near You!

New term MAS: Mobile Application Store. Interesting article in Vision Mobile.

Here is a list of some of the MAS or efforts that plan to add MAS to their developer offerings:

• Apples iPhone AppStore is up and running with payment through Apple iTunes and developers get 70% cut.
  
• Google has a Market for Android where they now allow payment and promise 70% cut to developers. You choose the Payment Processor. Here is the Developer Distribution Agreement. Articles on Market in Rethink Wireless: Google to let paid-for apps into Andorid Marked, Android Market officially opens
  
• RIM is planning Blackberry Application Storefront to open in March and will use PayPal to process payments. It promises 80% cut for developers.
  
• Microsoft is planning an application store for Windows Mobil called SkyMarket. This is done in conjunction with upgrade to WM 6.
• Palm has created a Software Store that also deliver to Windows Mobile devices.
• O2 in the UK has a store named Litmus with a developer community. At present it seems to be web only but there are (probably) plans for an on-device version.
  
• T-Mobile plans a devPartner Community Store in 2009. At present it is just a developer community.
• Nokia Download! has exited for some time (since 2006) but not taken off... Why is shortly discussed in the article mentioned at the top.
• GetJar is a MAS, and rather successfull, but does not have an on-device store front.
• Handango offers InHand, an on-device storefront which features ratings, recommended and best seller apps. InHand can be freely downloaded from the Handango site and in some cases comes pre-loaded on handsets.
• mPortal offers a white label client-server product that combines an on-device storefront, application provisioning, aggregation of 3rd party application catalogs and integration with operator billing. Also known for having powered Disney Mobile’s on-device portal.
  
• Adobe is working on AppZone - or... Found little on the net and somebody else owns appzone.com...
  

Who is next to announce a store? And maybe I forgot some?

Apple also has MobileMe, that allows smartphone users to back-up, restore, sync and share data. Microsoft is planning something similar called Skybox and an Exchange version called Skyline. What are the others planning? Rethink Wireless on Microsoft to joins software store race. Are there others in the same game?

Google the phone company

I've written a short piece about Google the Phone Company.   Bjørn

What we have been waiting for: Skype mobile

From Rethink Wireless editorial today:

The lite client brings the full functionality of the VoIP application to Android and Java phones, but uses the voice network to connect to an internet server and complete the call, and the data network for presence applications. Meanwhile, the MID implementation is a first step towards a platform suited to Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 3G and LTE, said Skype.

Finally Skype moved to the mobile platform!

Who needs Television to view sports?

At http://www.myp2p.eu/ you find links to all kinds of sports that are shown on Web-TV.

If you are looking for e.g. a match with Arsenal that you can't see unless you pay for a sports channel from your cable TV operator, you will find it here. Maybe its sent from an Arabic channel - but who cares. You see the goals anyway!

And while your watching you chat with your friends with MSN, GTalk or something. You just have to make sure you watch the same channel so you get the events at the same time. You would not like to watch togeather with someone who gets to view the goal 30 seconds before you do...

New Android MID - like Android version of iPod touch

Links:

GiiNii's Movit Mini WiFi Android tablet hands-on
Hands On Giinii Movit Mini: The Android Tablet

A built-in mic and front-facing camera lend themselves to out-of-the-box Skype support, there's also Bluetooth and a built-in speaker.

Sadly, there's only 256MB of internal storage, but there's an microSD slot for expansion.

Price guess around $150.

GiiNii link - they sell cameras, picture frames, HDTV - California and China based.

- Bjørn og Else

The future of TV

I've written a short piece about the future of TV. My point of view is that TV is gradually becoming a part of the internet (and vice versa) both technically and culturally, the blog entry explores this issue a little bit. - Bjørn

Has OpenID lost its mojo?

I've written a short piece on OpenID titled "Has OpenID lost its mojo?" The short answer is "no, but there are certainly some issues to be adressed" the longer answer is the blog entry itself ;)

Bloggen er åpen

Bjørn og jeg har diskutert - igjen - og funnet ut at vi lar bloggen være åpen.

Hvis den ikke er åpne kan man bl.a. ikke få Atom Feed fra den og ikke abonnere på epost når det kommer kommentarer.

En ulempe er at det ser ikke ut som man kan få epost når noen skriver inn en post i bloggen... Vi får se nærmere på dette.

- Else

SaaS and open Source

Here is a comment about SaaS and Open Source:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10132369-16.html

Mainly: Customers are sceptical to lock-in and the answer is Open Source!

- Else

Welcome, Velkommen etc.

Bjørn og jeg diskuterte hvordan vi kunne lage en blogg hvor vi kan dele linker og spre tanker - slik vi gjør med epostlisten ilabscore. Det hadde vært kjekt å kunne ha dette "litt mer ordentlig".

Derfor forsøker vi oss på å lage denne bloggen så kan vi se hvordan det går.

Foreløpig kan bare de som inviteres til det lese bloggen. Vi kan evt. lage en offentlig blog også hvor vi skiver med bearbeidet stoff til "almuen" :-)

Bloggen eies av ilabs42-brukeren.