Telenor Pakistan selects Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email

November 29, 2007

New York, NY, USA – Nokia today announced that mobile operator Telenor Pakistan will offer Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email to its consumer customers, small-meditum enterprises (SMEs), and large corporations. The service, branded as “SmartMail”, is currently available.

 

Telenor Pakistan started mobile operations in March 2005 and today owns the fastest growing and the largest mobile data network (EDGE based), in the highly competitive mobile market of Pakistan. According to Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) the mobile penetration rate reached approximately 43 percent in August 2007. By comparison, Pakistan’s fixed line market is moving slowly, reaching only a tenth of the mobile teledensity.

 

“Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email supports all kinds of mobile devices from entry level phones to high-end smartphones for professionals, this together with Telenor Pakistan’s largest EDGE coverage in Pakistan will provide customer convinence to all service subscribers” said CMO Telenor Pakistan Sigvart Voss Eriksen.  “A fast growing market such as ours demands a flexible solution that offers not only the possibility to host the solution for consumers and SMEs, but also to meet the special requirements of large corporations,” Eriksen added.

 

“Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email supports more than 100 devices from various vendors – the broadest support in the industry — allowing Telenor Pakistan to deploy email on a range of devices to meet the needs of various customers,” says Scott Cooper, senior vice president, Mobility Solutions, Enterprise Solutions, Nokia. “Given the highly scalable platform, Telenor Pakistan is well prepared for further fast growth of their customer base, followed by increasing demand for mobile access to email.”

 

Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email is part of Nokia Intellisync Mobile Suite that provides access to powerful collaboration tools such as email, contacts, calendar, device management and synchronization of files, data and enterprise applications. Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email works in any groupware environment – ISP, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes or Groupwise and can run on any kind of device platform – Symbian, Windows, Palm J2ME, or Pocket PC. The highly scalable email solution supports for more than 100 different devices in addition to Nokia Eseries portfolio.

 

refrence: www.nokia.com

Linux Develops Towards Becoming the Future Main Mobile OS

A bright future lies ahead for the Linux operating system in the case of mobile phones, when considering the results of recent studies. These expectations come from the growing rate of development that it has reached over the past time and also due to the fact that more and more handset producers show enthusiasm over using Linux on their devices.

The Windows operating system currently holds the majority when it comes to PCs, although Apple Macintosh and Linux also hold some small percentages from the market. In the case of mobile phones, the number of such options is considerably larger, with Symbian, Palm, Windows Mobile, Linux, BREW and RIM among the main solutions.

Motorola and Vodafone are among the companies that have come to appreciate most this operating platform over all others. Moreover, others are joining them, including Samsung and LG Electronics, by choosing Linux for their handsets instead of other options. These two handset producers have already started to develop mobile phones equipped with a next-generation dual-core chipset of Qualcomm, and plan to launch them on the domestic market this October.

There is a large number of advantages in using Linux over other operating systems. To start with, it needs no license fee and can be managed by a third party developer. Moreover, it brings support for software similar to that used on a PC, including a web browser.

Mobile devices using an open source operating system such as Linux have a highly customizable look and feel. This is mainly the result of the developer’s work, without the licensing restrictions that can often hinder creativity and apply certain constrains. Linux is the result of the work deployed by a large number of developers and always ready for even more development.

ABI Research has reached the conclusion that, over the next five years, the number of Linux-powered mobile phones will go well over 200 million. That is a high hope in the case of an operating system with huge potential.

iPhone overview: Apple of discord

Cutting edge, sleek and promising, the iPhone stirred the mobile world – not bad for Apple’s first go at the mobile phones market. Inspiring and provocative, the iPhone will always come to mind when a handset with full touch-based user interface is in question.

Well, since the official release of the iPhone on 29th June 2007, a lot of reviews came out, too many controversial things were said, and there we are – finally having our say about the handset. As wise people say, better later than never.

Apple iPhone official pictures

Apple is a company which specializes in developing products on the verge of science fiction. The iPod is a perfect example. Around 2001 the company decided to change portable music players as we know them, and pretty much succeeded. Much like the iPhone, the announcement of iPod generated huge amounts of hype and when it came out in October 2001 it actually lived up to almost every promise, turning out to be a total smash. As it developed, throughout the years, Apple’s portable music player became the most popular mobile multimedia device and its reputation never seems to fade.

Following the same credo of being a feature-rich, yet simple-to-use device, the iPhone will undoubtedly build a strong fan base. It will surely attract the many “if-it-ain’t-shinin’-I-ain’t-buyin’” customers, since the iPhone is definitely among the most beautifully crafted mobile phones we’ve seen.

It will be a while before we get a hands-on with the European version of the iPhone. As Apple has confirmed the device is due to hit the European market November 9th 2007 starting with UK and Germany and later on this month in France. The craved device already appeared throughout retailers in Europe ss unlocking efforts so far are managing to overcome the protection of the handset.

Key features:

• Stylish design
• Scratch-proof front glass cover
• 3.5″ 16M color TFT display with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels
• Handset orientation sensor and proximity sensor
• 2 megapixel camera
• Touch-based user interface
• Great UI graphics and animations
• Supreme web surfing experience

Main disadvantages:

• Camera has no auto focus or settings
• No video recording
• No custom ringtones allowed
• Safari browser doesn’t support Flash and Java
• Really basic Bluetooth capabilities
• No Office documents editor
• No third party applications
• No 3G support (at least the US version)

refrence: http://www.gsmarena.com/

Nokia plans cellphone of future

Nokia is marking a new direction in cell phone technologies, testing wireless mobile phone headsets powered by tiny fuel cells – a hydrogen-based energy source, which can increase the life of portable devices. The cells are recharged by squirting methanol from a small container into a tiny internal tank on the headset, and each charge provides about 10 hours of talk-time. Motorola, Fujitsu and Toshiba are also investing heavily in the research, mostly for batteries for laptop computers.The company is also working to incorporate RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification, into cellphones. “RFID could be a real convenience booster,” Yrjo Neuvo, Nokia’s chief technology officer said. “It’s two-way communication that can do much more than a bar code can do.”

Another part of the phone getting Nokia research attention is the screen. According to Tero Ojanpera, head of the Nokia Research Center, the screens “don’t have to be rigid, either. They could be wearable, bendable, why not stretchable,” depending on the materials.

Ojanpera also mentioned much more distant technologies that could evolve out of mobile phones: a phone that uses infrared vision, or a phone that records and enhances the sounds or speech around you automatically. “So no more missed introductions at cocktail parties,” he said.

refrence: http://www.gsmarena.com/

Samsung Prototype Devices

Mobile website Mobile Review has gotten a hold of some slides of Samsung prototype devices. (The slides have since been removed from Mobile Review.) Most of the devices are more conventional cell phone devices, but three are Windows Mobile based. One, code named “B-Bop,” is a Phone Edition device. The other two are Smartphone devices, the “Javelin” and the “Thor,” the latter of which is said to be running “MS Smartphone Magneto.”

Here are the slides for the Phone Edition and Smartphone prototypes:

Samsung “B-Bop”
Samsung has requested we remove the information that was here, but in the words of Engadget, “the ‘B-Bop’, a smallish Pocket PC Phone … with a slider-style keypad and a 400MHz processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, a two megapixel digital camera, and a miniSD memory card slot.”

Samsung “Javelin”
Samsung has requested we remove the information that was here, but in the words of Smartphone Thoughts, “…based on Windows Mobile Smartphone 2003 Second Edition … and has the following specs: fast 500MHz processor, 1 Mega Pixel camera, 65K color screen and miniSD.”

Samsung “Thor”
Samsung has requested we remove the information that was here, but in the words of Smartphone Thoughts, “The second one is based on Windows Mobile ‘Magneto’ features a 3GB hard disk drive and is aptly codenamed ‘HDD Music Smartphone.’ This one looks like it has all the ingredients to be a big hit. It sports a 262K color screen with a resolution of 240×320. It has USB 2.0 for quickly syncing those big music files. A jog shuttle navigation system instead of the traditional joystick/joypad.”

No further information is known about either device or if/when they would be released.

Update: I am sorry that the above slides and specifications had to be removed. As you can see they have been replaced with quotes and photos from sites that are still being allowed to run the information. Smaller mobile community websites like mine simply cannot fight large corporations that want information removed. The information that was here is available on many websites including mirrors of this site (which I have no control over). So is out in the open and it is unfair that sites such as mine should be targeted for removal even though davespda.com is one of many sites carrying the information. Plenty of other companies know how to hold on to their secrets…it isn’t really my fault that someone else published Samsung’s plans.

Update 3/10/2005: I have reposted two of the three slides because Samsung has demoed the B-Bop and the Thor (i300 and i750) at CeBIT 2005. Since the devices are public now and Samsung has published information on them at the conference, the slides return.

refrence: http://www.davespda.com/index.php?itemid=158

Symbian OS support for the ARM Symmetric Multi-processor (SMP)

ARM and Symbian announced Symbian OS would support the ARM Symmetric Multi-processor (SMP) architecture in future OS versions. This technology allows for multiple CPU cores to be used in mobile phones. Don’t get too excited though, the first phones using multiple core processors are not expected before 2010. In other Symbian related processor news Renesas today announced it has commenced sample shipments of its new generation chipset, the SH-Mobile G3. Read on for more details.

So Multiple Cores – what does that actually mean?

Current mobile phones use single core processors.  The processor / core is the brain of a computer (mobile phone) that performs the computational operations that make it work. Processors have tasks to perform (these are referred to as threads). A single core processor can only actively work on one thread at a time – effectively it performs it tasks sequentially. By contrast a multiple core processor is able to have several tasks at once (one for each core) – effectively this means it is able to perform tasks concurrently. Multiple cores are still one processor (they are physically made up of a single integrated circuit and may share memory), but in effect it is a bit like having multiple processors working in concert.
However in the mobile context it is actually the implications for power management (battery life) that are more significant. An OS can be written to allow cores to be accessed on demand (rather than having to power the whole processor). This means that functions that require less processor power are less battery intensive. For example most of the time a phone would run with just one core powered up, however when using processor intensive functions (e.g. capturing video) then the other cores would be powered up.

As phones get more powerful and use faster processors the lack of matching development in battery technology means that power management issues are only going to become more important.

The Symbian OS is already the most technically advanced of the major mobile software platforms in this area and Symbian believe it to be one of their key strengths. Support for ARM SMP architecture continues to build on this.

Here’s the more technical explanation as described in the Symbian press release:

Symbian Limited today announced Symbian OS support for the ARM Symmetric Multi-processor (SMP) architecture. SMP support in future versions of Symbian OS will use multiple CPU cores to provide ‘performance on demand’ – battery life will be improved by accessing cores only when running demanding high-end multimedia applications and powering them down when they are not in use. This announcement is a milestone in Symbian’s strategy for power efficiency for converged mobile devices, reinforcing Symbian’s position as technology leader.

Symbian and ARM are long standing partners and have successfully collaborated on technology development and product planning for over 10 years. The ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ multicore processor was announced earlier today at the ARM Developers’ Conference. Symbian and ARM are working together closely on supporting Cortex-A9 MPCore multicore processor-based CPUs in Symbian OS.

Multi-processing technology underlies next generation Cortex-A9 processor designs. In converged mobile devices, SMP CPUs consist of multiple cores which can be individually powered up and down by the operating system. This delivers high performance for high-end applications such as games, browser-based intelligent services, and media-rich applications such as video streaming or TV recording, while offering low power consumption when the device is idle or executing less performance-critical tasks. Symbian believes SMP support is a crucial step in continuing to deliver industry-leading battery life in a world where converged mobile devices offer increasingly performance-demanding features with constant battery capacity.

In order to take full advantage of SMP, Symbian is taking the following technology steps:
• multi-processor support in the Symbian OS kernel and device driver model
• targeted enhancements throughout Symbian OS
• extended Symbian OS developer tools to allow developers to access the benefits of SMP
• Symbian OS validation on Cortex-A9 based hardware and models

Symbian has already started to deliver SMP technologies to its customers and will roll out the above incremental developments in future versions of Symbian OS. Details of this will be announced in due course. The first Cortex-A9 MPCore processor-based Symbian smartphones are expected in 2010.

FirstSQL/J Embedded Mobile Initial Release

FFE Software has announced the first release of its new Java DB – FirstSQL/J Embedded Mobile Edition. Embedded Mobile is a special packaging of the standard FirstSQL/J Java DB for a small footprint, supporting JME and suitable for other embedded configurations.

FirstSQL/J Embedded Mobile includes full support for JME (Java Micro Edition) as well as for JSE (Java Standard Edition) in small footprint configurations. Embedded Mobile Java DB has components for both JME MIDP (CLDC) and JME Personal Profile/Basis (CDC).

The first release of Embedded Mobile is Version 3.10, to align it with the just released Professional & Enterprise Editions. FirstSQL/J Embedded Mobile is a complete DBMS implemented in 100% Java and features SQL92, Intermediate Level, subset of Professional and Enterprise; JDBC 3 Driver; In-Memory and Persistent modes of operation. Persistent mode uses:

• Record Management System (RMS) for JME MIDP
• Disk for JME Personal Profile and Personal Basis and for other embedded systems

Configurations supported:

• JME MIDP (CLDC – Connected, Limited Device Configuration) using a KVM,
• JME Personal Profile and Personal Basis (CDC – Connected Device Configuration) using a CVM, and
• Other embedded systems using a JDK 1.1 or JSE JVM, or lesser (e.g., PersonalJava)
• Utilities and APIs for executing SQL statements and for maintaining persistent databases
• Database synchronization with external server available in beta

You can download FirstSQL/J Embedded Mobile through the Download Page.

Winners of Global Mobile Content Awards 2007

2006 Real Football 3D”, Gameloft (France)

Website: www.gameloft.com

Best Mobile Game

“2006 Real Football 3D”, Gameloft (France)

Website: www.gameloft.com

Company Information
Gameloft is a leading international publisher and developer of video games for mobile phones. Founded in 1999, it has emerged as one of the top innovators in its field. The company creates games for mobile handsets equipped with Java, Brew, or Symbian technology. As a result of agreements with telecom carriers, handset manufacturers, specialized distributors and its online store, Gameloft now boasts a distribution network covering 75 countries.

Content Summary
Users can play Real Soccer in genuine 3D. The field and stadiums were designed and rendered with high-quality 3D graphics. The 3 camera modes (normal, near and follow) and the different view angles let you watch all of the match details, so you¡¯ll feel completely immersed in the action. Furthermore, realistic and extremely detailed animations (dribbling, technical moves, scissor kicks), the atmosphere of a real match (pyrotechnics, fans¡¦), intuitive game play and improved artificial intelligence, make this game the most realistic soccer game on the market.

Best Mobile Music “Jamba Music”, Jamba (Germany) Website: www.jamba.de/jcw/music Company Information Jamba Music allows the consumer to simultaneously rent and play music on their mobile and PC. Unlike most other made-for-mobile-music download services, Jamba Music’s model is unique in that it can be used on any network and on all recently made mobile phones. Jamba has developed software that makes the simultaneous download of music onto both the consumer’s PC and mobile phone possible. Jamba Music offers tracks for download by artists from major record labels, including Song BMG, Universal, EMI and a number of independents. Over one million tracks in total are offered. Content Summary Jamba Music offers consumers a diverse and all major genres range of music including pop, rock, soul, jazz, etc. for download onto their mobile phone and PC. The service is consumer-friendly, easy to use and provides an advanced music experience on the mobile phone. Users have access to artists’ biographies, album reviews and music news as well as to create and share play lists enjoyable easy and speedy access system. They select a song direct from their mobile phone and play it within 10 seconds thanks to progressive download.

Best Mobile TV & Video “Jig Movie”, Jig.jp (Japan) Website: www.jig.jp Company Information jig.jp aims to focus on the mobile application area of this vastly growing field. The mobile phone is the personal internet terminal that can be used anytime, anywhere. We hope to contribute to advancements in mobile technology by creating an interface to connect people to the Internet. “jig appli” released on Sep. 9th, 2003, improved browsing speed for mobile phones by reducing correspondence time with the web server. As an extension of the “jig appli”, the company released “jig browser” on October 1st, 2004, aimed at viewing PC full web sites on the mobile phone. With the release of “jig browser”, jig.jp have been continually adding to its functionality, so that its customers can have a comfortable user experience. jig.jp values the opinions and requests of our users. We also strive to provide faster, high quality services through continued research and development. Content Summary The “jig movie” is a platform that enables video streaming for viewing mobile phones. Users can watch long content streaming and live content streaming on mobile phones by the “jig movie” easily.

Best Mobile Information “Mobile Diabetes Management”, Healthpia (Korea) Website: www.healthpia.com Company Information Healthpia Company, founded in 2002, developed the world’s first diabetes phone which is an innovative solution which enables patients to effectively control their blood glucose level. It is the breakthrough solution integrating the bio-sensor embedded mobile phone and the data network. The effectiveness of this device has already been proven in some beta trials in Korea. Healthpia has filed 59 patents in some key countries-among those 59 patents, 42 patents are registered, and the rest are pending. In US Healthpia received an approval from FDA in June, 2006. Content Summary The contents of Healthpia’s diabetes management service are focused on “Intensive Care” and “Easiness to Use”. Usually chronic disease can be getting better due to timely feedback and monitoring. In this point of view, Healthpia’s content is focused on monitoring and prevention of diabetes. Especially step counter function, calorie book, and alerting abnormal result are the main stream of the content.

Best Mobile Community & Communication “GOOVII”, Green Tomato (Hong Kong) Website: www.gtomato.com Company Information Green Tpmato provide one-stop mobile services focusing on emerging mobile Internet applications ranging from Application Platform Solution to Value-added content for mobile operators, handset manufacturers, branded content providers and virtually any company who would like to expand their presence and build their user community on mobile space. Today, Green Tomato’s content and platform solution is distributed through more than 30 mobile operators and service providers in Asia with over one million users. Green Tomato’s products are highly recognized by the industry with numerous International and local awards, including the International Nokia Forum Pro Award and the regional Asia Pacific ICT Award. Content Summary GOOVII is a cross-platform video sharing and blog community that offers great user experience for any user with mobile Internet and video capability to share multi-media content with their friends and family, without the need for special software download. Users can view, share, upload, write their own content or comment to others through similar user-friendly web and mobile interface.

Best Mobile Commerce “CJ Mmall”, CJ Home Shopping (Korea) Website: http://company.cjmall.com/company2_eng/company/index.jsp Company Information The goal of CJ Home Shopping is to become ‘the most reliable, powerful online distribution & marketing service company in Asia by 2010’. For the first time in Korea, CJ Home Shopping started broadcasting TV homeshopping programs in 1995. Since then, it have been loved for reasonable price and credible quality. CJ Home Shopping has become a comprehensive online distribution company by diversifying business. In 1997, we started publishing catalogs, and CJmall was opened in 2001. In 2004, Dongbang CJ was established in Shanghai. We are now leading the market by developing new future channels such as M-commerce, T-commerce, IPTV, and Wibro. Content Summary In the year 2002, CJ Home Shopping opened M-commerce site CJ Mmall, earlier than anyone in the industry. ‘CJ Mmall’ is now leading the market with exceptional service model, UI, function evolving at a fast rate. CJ Mmall is also used as a platform for convergent services related to DMB, digital TV, and websites. We expect to execute wide variety of cross-media marketing strategies as well.

Global Mobile Content Awards 2007

All the programs of GMCA-Mobile Content Seminar, Business Matching and Awards Ceremony-were successfully ended. Six winners of GMCA 2007 received their awards during the ceremony in their honor on May 29th with more than 750 participants from around the world.

On May 29th, the GMCA Mobile Content Seminar sparked big interest from mobile content industry people, featuring 3 topics- Mega trend, trend & outlook in major mobile sector and business guide seminar. 11 global leaders shared their insights and opinion for the mobile field with 150 attendees.
Also at the business matching program on May 30th, over 150 meetings were arranged with about 60 companies from 12 countries making 2 times outcome than last year.

 refrence: http://www.gmcawards.org/

Proposed Specification for MIDP 3

This JSR will build upon the success of MIDP2 by enhancing the Profile with the following additions/changes:

• o Enable multiple concurrent MIDlets in one VM
  o Specify proper firewalling, runtime behaviors, and lifecycle management issues for MIDlets
  o Enable background MIDlets (e.g. UI-less)
  o Enable ?auto-launched? MIDlets (e.g. started at platform boot time)
  o Enable inter-MIDlet communications
  o Improve UI expressability and extensibility
  o Better support for devices with larger displays
  o Enable MIDlets to draw to secondary display(s)
  o Enable richer and higher performance games
  o Secure RMS stores
  o Removable/remote RMS stores
  o IPv6
  o Multiple network interfaces per device

* Enable and specify proper behavior for MIDlets on each of CLDC, CDC, and OSGi, for example:

* Enable shared libraries for MIDlets
* Tighten spec in all areas to improve cross-device interoperability
* Increase functionality in all areas. E.g.

* Specify standard ways for doing MIDlet provisioning through other means (e.g. OMA (SyncML) DM/DS, Bluetooth, removable media, MMS, JSR-232, etc.)
* Extensive device capabilities query
* Localization & Internationalization (if appropriate, integrating/augmenting JSR-238 as needed)

A key design goal of MIDP3 will be backward compatibility with MIDP2 content.