mobile

The mobile social: Not ready for prime time?

There's a reason why no mobile social-networking company has broken out yet. They haven't found themselves--on a map, that is.

Mobile networking, at least in the U.S., remains a limited extension of the social-media industry's biggest PC-based players: lighter, messaging-focused versions of Facebook and MySpace.com, as well as instant-messaging software like Yahoo Messenger and AIM. Social-networking start-ups with a major or exclusive focus on mobile use, like Twitter, have failed to amass a following outside the alpha-geek crowd. For mobile social networking to really take off, it's going to have to move beyond providing … Read more

AMD goes where Intel isn't: Mobile phone processors

AMD is doing something Intel can't do: compete in the massive mobile phone market. AMD processors and mobile graphics technology were disclosed at the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday.

The Imageon A250 applications processor is used for video recording/playback and photo imaging, among other applications, and can be programmed for multimedia and high-level graphics, referred to as vector graphics.

The Imageon D160 mobile TV solution is a hardware and software package that allows mobile phone makers to receive over-the-air broadcast TV signals in a USB-powered device. The chipmaker also introduced the Imageon M210 audio processor … Read more

GSMA Day 2 Wrap-up

Phone madness continues on in Barcelona, Spain, as the second day of GSMA Mobile World Congress comes to a close. Vodafone's CEO said he sees the mobile web as the future, Microsoft announced MSN Direct availability on Windows Mobile devices, and Yahoo launches OneConnect, a new tool that lets mobile phone users to aggregate their social-networking updates and messaging in one spot on their phones. T-Mobile also finally announces plans to launch 3G in the U.S. by summer 2008. There's also hope for an Android phone, as well as an Austrian version of the iPhone by the … Read more

The mobile world bands together on advertising

In a bit of a shocker, the U.K.'s five biggest mobile operators have formed a working group to collaborate on a common mobile advertising system. This endeavor could, of course, go absolutely nowhere, but the fact that it's even being considered is an exceptional move for an industry not known for collaboration.

Of course, the operators aren't holding hands for the sake of friendship. It's all about the money. From the Guardian:

Now the international operations of Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile, Orange and 3 have formed a working group to define a common mobile advertising audience … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 659: Microsoft: No means yes

EPISODE 659

Swift does mobile blogging for the LEGO generation

I'm a fan of having all the tools to blog in one simple editor, but if you're more the piece-work type (hence the LEGO reference) then check out Swift, a new blogging tool created by the folks at Proteus. Swift lets you design and maintain a blog built specifically for handheld devices. It's completely free to use, although it's subsidized by targeted advertising based on the content you're serving up on your site. Paid "pro" members who pay $10 can get rid of the advertising altogether.

Similar to Zinadoo, which we checked out … Read more

Yahoo launches OneConnect

BARCELONA, Spain--Yahoo has upped the ante in its campaign to rule the mobile Web.

On Tuesday, the company announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress here OneConnect, a new tool that allows mobile phone users to aggregate their social-networking updates and messaging in one spot on their phones. The service integrates directly with a phone user's address book and allows people to share status updates and messages from a variety of messaging and social-networking platforms. This means it can provide status updates from Facebook or MySpace.com as well as provide access to e-mail and archived instant-messaging chats.

Using … Read more

T-Mobile promises 3G by summer; Android phone, Austrian iPhone by end of year

Almost every U.S. T-Mobile customer wants to know when the carrier will be activating its 3G network. After all, it is the only major carrier in the United States not to offer 3G. Though it has slowly begun introducing 3G-capable handsets, the carrier has remained maddeningly vague on when the service will activate.

But a news conference at the GSMA World Congress, T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan dropped a few hints. When I asked him when the magic day will come, he didn't give an exact date but he did promise it would happen by this summer. Akhavan said … Read more

AOL announces new open-source mobile platform. Who cares?

AOL is jumping into open source and offering a new mobile platform. The real news here, however, is that AOL still exists. Its mobile platform will help developers to integrate with such applications as AIM, AOL Mail, AOL Video, MapQuest, Userplane, Truveo, Winamp, and others.

I use AIM (on Adium) and vaguely remember MapQuest (and once used Winamp), but is AOL's mobile-platform play meant to be a funeral dirge or a real effort to be relevant again? I just can't see too many people getting excited about this move. While its new open-source mobile platform will contain an … Read more

MSN Direct now on Windows Mobile devices

At GSMA 2008 Mobile World Congress, Microsoft announced that its MSN Direct services is now available on Windows Mobile devices. A technology preview allows you to get instant, at-a-glance updates on weather, top news stories, stock updates, sports scores, and more. The service will also automatically refresh the content so you have the latest information. You can download the free technology preview in one of two ways: by pointing your mobile Web browser to http://phone.msndirect.com or by downloading the MSN Direct client to your PC, then synchronizing it with your mobile device. Just be aware that using … Read more