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Site Development & WAP versions: Geoff Dennis
News by permission of Tony Dennis's Mobile Insight, and the Inquirer 
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Phone News and New Phones
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 ZTE to make smartphones mass market
Posted by tonydennis on Wednesday, October 07 @ 13:07:30 CEST
Piggybacking on the announcement that it already has a commercially available Windows 6.5 handset available, China's ZTE emphasized how it ends to make smartphones genuinely affordable.Figures like 22 per cent of all handsets in 2010 being smartphones and raising that to 40 per cent in 2012.
ZTE is achieving its goal of producing smartphones that can be sold by operators for "well under 200 Euros" through two means. Firstly it is utilising chipsets from Qualcomm. Secondly, it has created a single smartphone hardware platform which, according to ZTE's top honcho - He Shiyou - can run any OS.
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Bemoko claims easy web site 'mobilisation'
Posted by tonydennis on Wednesday, September 02 @ 11:25:13 CEST
There've always been products which claim ease of conversion from full web (HTML) to mobile (WML & XHTML) but Mat Diss, co-founder with Bemoko, reckons to have cracked it. Developers write in HTML and his software does the rest.
Diss claims that his rivals use two basic techniques: - trans-coding (conversion-on-the-fly) or a proprietary markup language. Bemoko's package, however, offers a series of templates which developers design to in HTML.
The theory is that when Bemoko's server software encounters a handset it's never seen before, it works out the optimum performance and remembers it for subsequent handsets.
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iPhone to be offered by all UK networks
Posted by tonydennis on Monday, August 10 @ 15:00:33 CEST
Am I the last person to hear this rumour? I have it from two seperate sources that during Q4 2009, Apple will drop its exclusive deal with Telefonica/O2 for the UK, and the iPhone will be available on all UK networks. That would obviously include 3 UK given the comments that its UK md, Kevin Russell, made about how he'd like to be able to offer Apple's iconic handset. Meanwhile, my source gave the most bizarre reason I've encountered for swapping over to an iPhone. Apparently there's an app for the iThingey which turns it into a mosquito repeller. Better search for that on the App Store, then!
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Samsung S8000/Jet Part I
Posted by tonydennis on Monday, August 10 @ 14:54:20 CEST
Rather reviewing Samsung's S8000 from the Press release, I've actually been putting the handset through its paces. Some interesting discoveries have resulted including the fact that the GPS facility appears to be disabled in the UK version. The first thing that strikes you is the user interface. Given that I'm no great fan of the iPhone, the fact that the S8000 looks similar doesn't help. Anyone who assumes that a touch screen interface is always user-friendly would be seriously wrong. In the S8000's case, the UI can be described as powerful and complex but certainly not friendly. It's a long time since a handset has sent me scurrying for its quick guide and then had me printing out the user manual. Why? Because, in the S8000 - aka the Jet - 's case, in addition to tapping on the screen, you also need to learn what functions at least four other buttons perform.
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Samsung S8000/Jet Part II
Posted by tonydennis on Monday, August 10 @ 14:50:40 CEST
Surely I'm not that unusual in having more than 200 entries in my handset's phonebook? So why was it so difficult to transfer my numbers from a Nokia to the Samsung S8000/Jet? Perhaps I've been spoilt by having Nokia handse's which support the 'Transfer/Switch' facility which makes it so easy to transfer data when you upgrade to a new Nokia. Blackberries have an equally easy switch capability, too. Yet even though I'd installed the accompanying PC Suite software for the Jet, -I could find no obvious way of importing my 347 records (which include email addresses not just phone numbers).
Curiously it would have been possible to send each individual entry via Bluetooth using the Nokia 'Send business card' option.
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118800 in temp shutdown
Posted by tonydennis on Sunday, July 19 @ 21:45:35 CEST
In an apparent response to the furore surrounding its mobile phone number directory, 118800 has decided to suspend what it called its 'beta service'. Reading between the lines, the site appears to have been bombarded with requests from phone users wanting to ensure their number stayed ex-directory. The company says it is currently processing the requests to be placed ex-directory but won't be accepting any new requests until it has resumed the service.
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Identifying data intensive mobile apps
Posted by tonydennis on Thursday, July 16 @ 16:25:40 CEST
It's no secret that mobile operators has little idea what apps their mobile data networks are actually carrying. Alcatel-Lucent, however, claims its 9900 Wireless Network Guardian (WNG) device discover this in real time. It's the myths that this black box has exploded that are the most interesting. When a mobile data network slows down or falls over, there's always a great deal of finger pointing. Contrary to popular belief, according to A-L's Mike Schabel, peer-to-peer networks are actually quite efficient in their consumption of network resources.
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Mobile CRM is high priority says RIM
Posted by tonydennis on Thursday, June 25 @ 13:08:10 CEST
Crazy as it may seem, 58 per cent of respondents to a study commissioned by RIM from Forrester reported that putting CRM apps onto mobile phones was a key part of their IT strategy for 2009. There appears to be an interesting mix of factors driving this motivation. Fear of losing a competitive edge is certainly one of them. However, I detect other influences. For example, built-in GPS is one of them. It's one thing providing a field engineer or salesperson with the name, address and number for the next assignment. Now, they can use the phone to get there, too.
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Be a mobile network nastie with meru
Posted by TonyDennis on Monday, June 08 @ 22:27:41 CEST
It's a network manager from Hell's (NMFH's) dream come true. Dictate to your network users via that fashion icon the Apple iPhone without having to return to your desk.
Meru Networks probably doesn't even know what it's unleashed. But, by providing a completely browser based application that is fine tuned for the iPhone, the company has introduced the ultimate network management tool. The best bit is that managers don't even have to go onto the infamous App store to access this facility, it's simply a part of Meru's standard network management console.
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MEX- what's wrong with handset design
Posted by tonydennis on Thursday, May 21 @ 12:16:03 CEST
At yesterday's MEX meeting, John
Forsyth - who is on the leadership team with the Symbian Foundation - maintained that in certain circumstances, the entirety of a handset vendor's software R&D budget is being wasted on maintaining such a physically large number of handset models. Yet he still appealed for handset diversity. MEX the Mobile User Experience is an annual affair hosted by Marek Pawlowski and held in Central London. It's a kind of mixture between a conference and a technical workshop. Some figures which Forsyth shared with us included the fact that the Top Five handset vendors were launching
a new model around once a month in 2000 only to see this increase to around 1.5 models a week until there was a peak around 2006.
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3 offers completely free calling and IM via Skype
Posted by tonydennis on Thursday, April 23 @ 12:48:37 CEST
To further concrete its alliance with Skype, UK mobile operator, 3, has struck a deal whereby anyone with a 3G phone can use Skype for free after purchasing a £1.99 SIM card. Unlockers will rejoice. The move means if any of your mates have Skype working, you can talk to them from a mobile phone and pay absolutely nothing. You won't even have to use text, if you utilise Skype Chat for messaging. Sounds unbelievable? Well, 3 has found that regular Skype users with its handsets are less likely to 'churn' than non-Skype users; make more voice calls; and are higher margin customers because they use the Internet. So, 3 hopes to tempt new prepaid customers onto its network through this deal.
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Truphone welcomes the iPhone Skype move
Posted by TonyDennis on Monday, April 06 @ 10:54:21 CEST
There is nothing like a bit of healthy competition to spur interest in a sector and Skype's announcement of iPhone support today will do exactly that for mobile VoIP. The rival welcoming the iPhone announcement is Truphone whose package for the iPhone was there right at the start of the Apple iTunes App store. Truphone is claiming, naturally, that it is way ahead of its rival. That's because any way you look at it Skype is reliant on Wi-Fi access. By contrast, with its Anywhere package, Truphone can take full advantage of 3G when Wi-Fi is missing.
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Tweeting with Vodafone is possible
Posted by TonyDennis on Monday, March 30 @ 22:54:28 CEST
This publication has just spent the last three days trying to receive tweets from Twitter on an ordinary mobile phone using SMS/txt on Vodafone. Mobile Software Insight has finally got it working thanks to Vodafone's PR. See my previous story 'Vodafone steals a march with Twitter receives'. Here's the answer. You have to positively turn on the tweets you want to follow. It's not automatically set that all those tweets you are following already are delivered to your handset/mobile device.
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Vodafone UK steals a march with Twitter
Posted by TonyDennis on Friday, March 27 @ 18:27:39 CET
The news has just broken that - for the first time in the UK - it is now possible to receive your tweets on a mobile handset via SMS. Before this is was only possible to send Tweets via SMS as a Brit.The facility to receive tweets has long been possible in the US and Canada and I note that it's also possible to do so in India as well.
The shortcode for UK Vodafone customers is 86444 and you can activate your mobile in your Twitter settings. I tried it and nothing happened so I sent the word 'ON' to 86444 and at least got an acknowledgement.
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First ad funded mobile lifestyle mag, maybe
Posted by TonyDennis on Thursday, March 26 @ 17:43:15 CET
Mobile Software Insight has been contacted by Imagine Fashion which claims it is the first ad funded online and on mobile film format fashion and lifestyle publication. Whatever that is. The web site doesn't explain. Anyway, the guys behind it swear it will launch across Europe this year [2009]. Being sensible bods, they've started out by putting their advertising agencies in place. So Imagine Fashion has just announced its relationship with AD2ONE, a leading UK digital sales agency. This follows similar deals with Affinity Media France and Affinity PrimeMEDIA Switzerland. MSI supposes Imagine Fashion is going to be some kind of version of The Face but for mobile phones.
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mSync from Newact revisited
Posted by TonyDennis on Thursday, March 26 @ 17:38:44 CET
This review first appeared April 15th 2008. Whilst mSync from Newact holds plenty of promise, currently [2008] it fails to deliver on most of them. The software aims to be the best application for syncing a handset with the web. Unfortunately, it's not quite ready yet. Mobile Software Insight gained access to a beta account and found that Newact hasn't yet implemented most of the features that its rivals such as Synchronica - might fear. The objective with Msync is laudable. The intention is to enable mobile phone users to back up all of the data held on their mobile phones not just telephone numbers held in the phone's address book.
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Are O2 and Vodafone really arch rivals?
Posted by TonyDennis on Thursday, March 26 @ 17:24:08 CET
Unfortunate juxta positions of our time. The Sunday Times interview with Telefonica's Cesar Alierta and a sub links to Vodafone and O2 to pool networks. It's unfortunate because the whole premise of the article is the Telefonica chairman's confession that he's vying with Vodafone for world domination. Telefonica owns O2, of course. Meanwhile The Guardian carries a news story that "Vodafone and O2 are to pool their networks in a bid to cut costs while continuing to operate under their own brands."
Hardly the action of arch enemies is it? So it's unlucky that a sub has put a link to the timesonline story reporting The Guardian story at the bottom of the Alierta piece.
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Novarra says screen scraping is ARPU increaser
Posted by TonyDennis on Thursday, March 26 @ 17:19:50 CET
Either you are trying to promote your own mobile browser or not, surely? Well, Novarra - which offers screen scraping technology - displayed a split personality over this particular issue in a press briefing. The company is adamant that getting mobile phone users to employ their handsets as the primary means of Internet access is the way forward and will increase ARPU for network operators. It claimed that the iPhone - for example, increases AT&T's ARPU from subscribers using data services from $59 to $95 per month. And - as well all know - the iPhone has a full HTML browser. But it still can't support Adobe Flash apparently. Even the rumoured iPhone 3 won't do this, the company claims. So the answer is that network operators stick one of Novarra's servers in the middle and it enables the whole gamut of mobile phones to see pages which were really designed for the desktop. Including Flash, of course.
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First Look: Vufone from Newact
Posted by TonyDennis on Thursday, March 26 @ 16:29:26 CET
For anyone who's ever wanted to backup or manipulate the wealth of information that now resides on a mobile handset, Vufone is one answer to their prayers. Mobile Software Insight (MSI) first came across the app's author, Newact, when we reviewed an earlier product known as mSync. Vufone has built on this product and rightly changed its name because it doesn't just provide synchronisation. There were a number of holes in mSync which MSI
highlighted back in April 2008. As far as we can tell, they've all been plugged. What Vufone does is enable the handset owner to sync data
held on the mobile phone with Newact's servers. This would normally be achieved over a cellular connexion.
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Mobile banking comes of age with Fundamo
Posted by TonyDennis on Thursday, March 26 @ 16:25:47 CET
"The largest mobile banking software deal ever to have been announced" is a claim made last week by Fundamo. Does a $9.7 million deal mean m-commerce is finally taking off? It looks like it is for this South African company. Fundamo has been handed a contract from leading African mobile operator, MTN, to roll out its MTN
MobileMoney offering to a further 20 additional countries. Many of the target customers live in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle-East and were generally regarded as unbankable until now. All that has changed with the introduction of the MTN product which is a SIM-based version of Fundamo's Mobile Wallet ver 3.1 product.
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Old Articles |
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| Sunday, March 22 | | · | Smile Bank implicated in text scam (0) |
| Tuesday, March 17 | | · | Truphone launches Crackberry business app (0) |
| Monday, March 16 | | · | Holes in Symbian signing exposed (0) |
| Thursday, March 12 | | · | Vyke and Nimbuzz unite (0) |
| Tuesday, March 10 | | · | YouTube/PRS spat will impact UK live music scene (0) |
| Monday, March 09 | | · | Motorola boss blames 3G handsets (0) |
| · | China Mobile to subsidise TD-SCDMA R&D (0) |
| Tuesday, March 03 | | · | Agito claims success in Wi-Fi/cellular integration (0) |
| Saturday, February 28 | | · | GSMA ignites interest in microUSB (0) |
| Wednesday, February 25 | | · | Was Mobile 6.5 handset stolen to order? (0) |
| Monday, February 23 | | · | Report finds Brit high tech PRs are best (0) |
| · | Music industry increases pressure on ISPs (0) |
| · | Recycle phone comparison site (0) |
| Saturday, February 21 | | · | GSMA happy with 2009 MWC figures (0) |
| Friday, February 20 | | · | INQ phone beats G1 and Crackberry (0) |
| Thursday, February 19 | | · | Truphone puts multi-country roaming on 1 SIM (0) |
| · | Omnifone to target ISPs like BSkyB (0) |
| Thursday, February 12 | | · | Option offers Virtual PC 3G dongle (0) |
| · | Mobiu secure stick should be 3G (0) |
| Tuesday, February 10 | | · | Kindle 2 launch sparks interest in mobile books (0) |
| Monday, February 09 | | · | Aussie Vodafone swallows Aussie 3 (0) |
| Sunday, February 08 | | · | Palm Pre developers targeted (0) |
| Friday, February 06 | | · | INQ1 in GSMA awards finals (0) |
| Friday, October 17 | | · | Mobisoc launches Mitr development environment (0) |
| Sunday, October 12 | | · | Nokia's Music for Windows targets iTunes (0) |
| Sunday, May 18 | | · | SIMable easily unlocks most smartphones (0) |
| · | Nimbus puts Skype, IM into 1 package (0) |
| · | Mobiles used to fight gun crime, sort of (0) |
| · | Valerie UK ringtone scam revealed (0) |
| Sunday, April 27 | | · | Apple is planning trainer iPhone (0) |
Older Articles
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