Oh hey, Ericsson has labs just like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Neat. They’ve published their first YouTube video, showing off a map with 3D structures working on the Xperia X10. Of course, the X10 runs Android, the APIs for which have been available since November, but it’s pretty sweet to see them in action. Ovi and Google Maps have their own ways of making buildings pop out, and also include tools for enabling third-party developers – I wonder if any developers would pick Ericsson’s solution over theirs, especially if they’re making something for Android. For a closer look at the tools, hit up Ericsson’s 3D Landscape page.
Do you develop mobile apps for the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian or webOS? Well, we want to hear from you! We’ve partnered up with “Under The Radar” to find cool mobile apps that will blow our minds. We’re asking any and all mobile app developers to submit their app for the “FAST PITCH” mobile app talent search, where your app will vie for a chance to be showcased in front of an audience of global dealmakers and start-ups. Even if we don’t pick your app for the talent search, you’ll get some serious recognition for your app (and possibly prizes, like handsets).
Interested? Here’s what you need to know:
You must be able to attend Under the Radar (in Mountain View on Nov 19)
If you’re selected as a finalist, you’ll get a free conference pass
Your app has to be live and available for download
We welcome any and all apps for iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, etc
Your app must be unique and new – no tip calculators or sudoku apps, please
You must be able to pitch your app in 2 min (and 4 slides) on stage
We’re going to make it simple for you to submit your app for consideration in the “Under The Radar” FAST PITCH mobile app talent search. Interested mobile devs need only leave a comment or tweet @IntoMobile with a quick one-liner pitch for your mobile app – Twitter is limited to 140 characters, so choose accordingly. Please make sure to include a link to your app’s download page (or homepage) and your Twitter handle with your submission.
Your app will be judged for its “uniqueness” and the all important “awesomeness” metric. We’ll be accepting mobile app submissions through Friday, Nov. 6 Monday, Nov. 9 (deadline extended). The 6 lucky finalists will be contacted directly through email and/or Twitter.
Augmented reality applications have the power to turn the world around you into an information rich environment tagged with data points. The technology is certainly amazing and all, but what do you do if your smartphone lacks the requisite hardware (GPS, digital compass) to support AR features? If you’re Israeli startup Xsights, you take the idea of live augmented reality and apply it to still pictures. Xsights is a new service that lets you analyze your cameraphone photos to extract the information associated with the text, image, landmark, street sign, etc. Since most mobile phones today can take photos, almost anyone can take advantage Xsights’s AR-esque service.
Imagine you’re going about your typical day reading billboards, shopping, and navigating your way through rush hour traffic. You come across something interesting and want to find out more about that particular “something” (books, newspaper articles, buildings, cars, etc.). All you need to do is snap a pic of the object, let Xsights work its image analyzing magic, and wait for pertinent data to be delivered to your phone. Xsights can provide you with related information like photos, prices, videos, coupons, and anything else their system has associated with your image. But, that’s also where Xsights needs your help.
The catch is that Xsights relies on users, like you, to upload images and tag them with related information. To help get the service off the ground, Xsights is opening up their service to 1,000 people today. In exchange for helping seed the foundation of the Xsights service, beta users will be allowed personalize their uploaded content with video clip attachments. Find out how to sign up here.
For now, Xsights doesn’t really work in the real world. Movie posters will bring back trailers for some movies, but the service just doesn’t have enough tagged content to be useful for most objects. Once Xsights hits critical mass, however, the information flood gates should open up.
Xsights is available as an iPhone app and even supports MMS and video call. A BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) and J2ME version on on their way.
I recently got a chance to take a sneak-peak at Opera’s Opera Mini 5 beta last week, and it basically blew me out of the water. Opera asked that I keep the launch of Mini 5 on the hush until they were ready to go live. Today, Opera took the wraps off its all-new Opera Mini 5 mobile web browser, introducing it as the “next generation in mobile browsing.” Compared to Mini 4.2, Mini 5 beta is an impressive revamp, especially if you’re already an Opera Mini fan. Read more in Stefan’s review of Opera Mini 5 beta.
“In our own research, we have learned that the number-one reason people use Opera Mini is because it is easy – easy to use the Web you know. The idea of navigating the vastness of the Web from such a small screen can be a daunting leap, which is why we have long committed to make the browsing experience you are familiar with from your PC, easy to do on your mobile phone,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “With new, sleek navigation buttons, tabbed browsing and Speed Dial bookmarks, you are never more than a click away from where you want to go on the Web.”
I managed to get some face time with Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner to talk about the Opera Mini browser – about where Opera Mini has come from and where it’s going. Check out the interview and Mini 5 tour below.
You know how everything goes around apps these days. In that sense, every handset maker and platform builder wants to attract as many developers as possible to its platform to offer end-users a better experience. Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) is no exception and in that sense, they said they’ll extend their sorta, kinda powerful mobile Java platform to the entry-level 3G phones.
The idea is logical – by making more phones run applications, a single app could be used by millions, something every developer would appreciate — or that’s at least the theory, which we see doesn’t always work, like that’s the case of Symbian.
Anyway, the company hopes that this move will especially be important for those developers which want to make apps for the ever-growing Chinese market. We’re not sure whether this can fly, but we’re certainly happy to see a major handset maker thinking about the application offering for the end-users.
Samsung’s proprietary user interface, TouchWiz, could be getting a lot more interesting, as today they have announced a software development kit that will allow programmers to create widgets on a range of supporting devices. Previously, you were stuck with the selection of widgets preloaded on the phone, but soon the doors will be open for third parties to make their own. The Eclipse-based tools support Windows Mobile, Symbian, Java, and, of course, the TouchWiz user interface.
On the user end, a Widget Gallery will be available on the Omnia II (which is due out on Verizon by Christmas) and later devices. To kick off the new development environment, Samsung is hosting a contest at a devcamp running September 11-13. The creator of the best in each of five categories will win $5,000, on top of a $20,000 grand prize for the best in the show. It sounds promising, but let’s see what the turnout is like and if a reasonable stable of widgets can be built up before the Omnia II launch strikes.
Hooah, the Samsung Pixon 12 and Sony Ericsson Idou have some unexpected company. Altek, a relatively unknown Taiwanese camera manufacturer, is getting into the phone game with the T8680, which baosts above all a 12 megapixel camera with 3 x optical zoom, dedicated image processor, aperture ranging from F3.0 to F5.6 and up to 3200 ISO. A notable feature is the use of a CCD sensor, which is less suceptible to image noise and have higher light sensitivity than traditional CMOS sensors, although they tend to gobble up more power. VGA-resolution recording and TV-out make it an ample video device as well, but it’s otherwise a fairly unremarkable Java-based phone with all the usual fixings (tri-band EDGE, Stereo Bluetooth, 3″ QVGA touchscreen, FM tuner, 1020 mAh battery). It’s pretty unlikely we’ll see this on our side of the pond, but if you happen to be in Taiwan, you’ll be able to nab the T8680 later this month for 3000 yuan. You can get a closer look at the features and specs over here, or check out some hands-on pics of the user interface from the launch.
Another King.com news. Just few days ago the online skill games company announced the release of 20 JavaME games for feature phones. Among the titles that have been released are such popular games as Midas Miner, GoGo21, Jungle Bubble and Word Battle — all of which are free to play, and King.com will even deposit $5 for free in every new account (which can be used to participate in cash tournaments).
King.com’s mobile games are available through a custom app that can be downloaded at www.king.com/mobile. From there, you can grab all 20 titles and more games are planed to be added every month.
Commenting on the release, King.com’s CEO Riccardo Zacconi said: “King.com’s games are now available to hundreds of millions of consumers to play wherever they are. Through the device that never leaves you, King.com now puts skill games directly into the hands of even more consumers worldwide.”
EXIT Festival is taking place in my city (Novi Sad, Serbia). During the last few years it was selected as the single best summer music festival in Europe, according to MTV Europe and some British newspapers. 20+ stages, hundreds of concerts, and a great venue (old fortress) certainly helped.
That said, I’m proud to announce that this year they have a mobile application to help guests find their way around. A JavaME-enabled device is required, and NO Internet connection (once you downloaded the app).
EXIT MOBILE is a mobile application that enables an insight into current events at Exit Festival, access to all necessary additional information for visitors and the possibility of updating the news from the festival. This application is possible to use with all mobile network operators, from any location. If you are a tourist and you download this application in time, you will have all the necessary info in your pocket before you even arrive.
Finally, the download instructions. To grab the application, point a browser on your mobile phone to fortmobile.com/exit09 and take it from there. See you on EXIT!
J2ME is the most highly deployed application platform that exists today. Any mobile phone with a color screen and two soft keys, even the one that has been living in that back of your desk drawer since Clinton’s second term, probably has support for J2ME applications. Some of the best J2ME apps are Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps, Google Mail and Opera Mini and … well that’s all. Making money off writing J2ME applications is close to impossible, just ask any developer. Smart phone operating systems are where the cash money is, but don’t tell that to Nokia (NYSE: NOK), who just released version 2.0 of their Java runtime for S60.
It’s beta, so excuse the bugs, but it only runs on S60 5th Edition, and from the first two comments from Tommi Vilkamo’s blog post, people are complaining about the large amount of internal memory the installation requires. This new version is supposed to allow one click installs, reduced application load times, and increased performance. Fascinating, but what about making those engineers work on something important like the next version of Symbian or making Ovi suck less?
Is there something wrong with today’s J2ME engine? Not really!
Do you develop mobile apps for the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian or webOS? Well, we want to hear from you! We’ve partnered up with “
Augmented reality applications have the power to turn the world around you into an information rich environment tagged with data points. The technology is certainly amazing and all, but what do you do if your smartphone lacks the requisite hardware (GPS, digital compass) to support AR features? If you’re Israeli startup Xsights, you take the idea of live augmented reality and apply it to still pictures. Xsights is a new service that lets you analyze your cameraphone photos to extract the information associated with the text, image, landmark, street sign, etc. Since most mobile phones today can take photos, almost anyone can take advantage Xsights’s AR-esque service.
Mini fan. Read more in Stefan’s 
Samsung’s proprietary user interface, TouchWiz, could be getting a lot more interesting, as today they have announced a software development kit that will allow programmers to create widgets on a range of supporting devices. Previously, you were stuck with the selection of widgets preloaded on the phone, but soon the doors will be open for third parties to make their own. The Eclipse-based tools support Windows Mobile, Symbian, Java, and, of course, the TouchWiz user interface.
