Mobiles

Meridian Group and Opera Software today announced a partnership to pre-install Opera Mini on Meridian Mobile’s new Fly E310 handset. The Fly E310 handset is available in the United Kingdom, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with a pre-installed Opera Mini browser available in all the local languages.

“We aim to provide our customers the best services available,” says Andrew Collinge, Member of the Board of Directors, Meridian Group. “When it comes to offering our customers a fast, secure and cost-efficient Internet service on a mobile phone, the popular Opera Mini browser offers the user an outstanding experience. Accessing the Web could not be easier, as Opera Mini brings the Web to our customers in local languages.”

Opera Software and Meridian Group have partnered since April 2007, delivering Opera Mini on mostly all handsets.

The Casual Connect Conference shows up in Seattle this week - leaders in the casual game space will be on hand - both from the PC environment as well as mobile and the Movaya team will be attending. It is a full 3-day event and we'll try to report on any interesting mobile news we hear.

I was poking around the site and saw this recent release from Popcap about the benefits of casual games for ADHD sufferers:

A new survey has discovered that casual games appear to have a therapeutic effect on ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

According to the survey conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of PopCap Games, the titles appear to lessen symptoms of ADHD by increasing attention span, providing stress relief, and improving memory strength and focus.

Moreover, because of the increased sense of accomplishment experienced in playing the games, survey respondents reported enjoying this form of therapy.

New York-based psychologist Dr. Carl Arinoldo said: "It seems that children with AD/HD often lack that sense of control that comes much more easily to their non-AD/HD peers. Playing casual games such as Peggle and Bejeweled, among others, is one area in their lives in which these children can experience some sense of control with the added benefit of achieving success in something. Both of these aspects, taken together, can serve to enhance the child's self-concept and self-esteem."

A total of 13,296 casual game players responded to the Information Solutions Group survey, with 2,728 respondents claiming they, or someone in their care, were suffering from some type of disability.

Of these, 422 were identified as children, ranging in age from five to 17-years old, the majority falling between the ages of eight and 16. Of the children, over half (52 per cent) were said to be suffering with a mild (30 per cent), moderate (55 per cent) or severe (15 per cent) form of ADHD.

The second largest group was children with autism (21 per cent), followed by Dyslexia (8 per cent) and Down Syndrome (3 per cent).

As consumers increasingly surf the Web on their mobile phones, handset vendors are looking toward open-source browsers such as WebKit - the browser engine at the heart of the iPhone’s Safari browser - as a way to bring it to them. However, despite growing interest in WebKit and Gecko (the engine for the Mozilla Corporation Firefox browser), commercial browser vendors such as Opera and ACCESS continue to see growth in their businesses. According to ABI Research, overall growth in the mobile browser category will lead to a total pre-installed revenue of $492 million by 2013, driven by the trends of more complex HTML-based browser integration. 

“Device manufacturers are interested in open-source solutions where there is a desire for increased control of their software footprint, and where they can bring internal programming resources to bear,” says research director Michael Wolf. “At the same time, vendors such as Opera are seeing strong growth in their mobile browser offerings, which provide the ability to access Web pages with advanced features such as zoom, bookmark syncing, and landscape mode, while also permitting handset vendors and operators to focus development resources elsewhere.”

Open-source offerings such as WebKit are experiencing adoption by vendors such as Apple, Nokia, and others. Google made WebKit its core browser and Web-rendering engine for the Android platform; and application framework vendors such as Trolltech have integrated WebKit into their development framework. Mozilla also continues to develop its version of mobile Firefox, and Nokia has integrated a Gecko-based browser on its N800 Internet tablet.

“The mobile browser market continues to be dynamic as hardware vendors embrace a variety of options for their family of devices to best meet their business, technology, and partner requirements,” continues Wolf. “ABI Research expects the larger trend to place emphasis on closing the gap between the experience of the Web on a mobile phone and that of a PC, while focusing on technologies such as content adaptation that optimize experience for the mobile screen.”

Joe Pisani at CNBC has a good article about the changing landscape for mobile gaming with the introduction of the Apple App store. "The store allows users to purchase games -- as well as other applications -- directly from the iPhone itself with just a few taps on the screen. The process is much simpler than with other phones."

Nothing earth shattering in the article that those of us in the space don't already know, but it is great to see mainstream news sources begin to catch on. The discovery and purchase of games from the carrier stores is clumsy at best and as the article highlights, "phone carriers haven't advertised the fact that their customers can play games on their phones."

The fact that consumers in the US spent over $700M on mobile games last year with such an archaic experience tells me that this market has the potential to explode as new (and better) distribution channels open up.

And this growth will not be dedicated to the iPhone. As Joe mentions, "Analysts and game publishers also say that the release of the new iPhone itself will raise the profile of the entire mobile gaming industry and make non-iPhone users more aware that they can play games on their phones." And this is specifically where Movaya's platform comes in - helping game publishers reach mobile phone consumers through stores outside of the carrier channel.

Joe says the industry is "bullish" and we couldn't agree more.

Today Sony Ericsson has unveiled three new sets of speakers, the MBS-200, MBS-400 and MPS-100, to help music lovers go beyond the individual and play music directly from their mobile phone. Enhancing its music accessories collection Sony Ericsson has also introduced three new stereo headphones, HBH-IS800, HPM-88 and HPM-66 for the optimal listening experience.

If you’re after music wherever you go, free your music with powerful sound from the MBS-200 wireless portable speaker. Stream music from your mobile phone via Bluetooth which then mutes if you receive a phone call. For those who want a more powerful sound, the MBS-400 comes with two speakers. The Wireless Portable Speaker MBS-200 and MBS-400 will be available in selected markets from Q4 2008.

Made up of sleek headphones and a short cable, the HBH-IS800 wireless stereo headphones is the smallest headset from Sony Ericsson. The stylish and compact headset rests discretely on your neck and boasts a top of the range audio performance. The Wireless Stereo Headphones HBH-IS800 will be available in selected markets from Q4 2008.

For those who want to bring the music but leave the noise, the HPM-88 noise cancelling headphones allows you to listen to music without background noise, reducing outside sound by up to 75 per cent. Using Sony technology, this is the first noise cancelling mobile phone headset on the market that is powered by the phone itself. The Noise Cancelling Headphones HPM-88 will be available in selected markets from Q4 2008.

Other Enhanced range

The new affordable MPS-100 builds on the success of the very first and best-selling portable speaker, the iconic MPS-60, giving impressive sound from mini-speakers that plug into your phone for ultra-portable sound wherever you are.

The Active, behind the ear, stereo headphones HPM-66 allows you to get active with your music. Convenient and easy to use these comfortable and stable headphones will help you go that extra mile.

Want to protect your phone? Keep your Sony Ericsson Walkman phone safe with a new stylish phone case, IPC-40, which is available in two colours. All above will be also available in selected markets from Q4 2008.

AT&T today announced the availability of AT&T Navigator Global Edition, a GPS-based service that provides international navigation capabilities. AT&T Navigator Global Edition can be used in 20 countries on AT&T-powered smartphones featuring built-in GPS capabilities. AT&T Navigator Global Edition’s coverage area includes most countries in western Europe, North America and the U.S. Caribbean as well as the six cities in China that will host Beijing Summer Olympics events.

AT&T Navigator Global Edition provides customers with many of the same features as AT&T’s domestic GPS-based navigation service, AT&T Navigator. Customers can get spoken or text-based turn-by-turn directions - in English, German, Italian or Spanish - and are rerouted automatically if they miss a turn.

AT&T Navigator Global Edition also features a local “business finder” service, which allows customers to find the locations of businesses by category or by specific name with the click of a button using AT&T Navigator’s GPS-based navigation capabilities. AT&T Navigator’s business finder database contains more than 19 million businesses and services located in the U.S. and abroad, including ATMs, hotels, restaurants, gas stations and airports.

AT&T Navigator Global Edition will be particularly useful to customers traveling to China in August for the Summer Olympics. AT&T customers will be able to use AT&T Navigator Global Edition in the six cities hosting Olympics events - Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenyang, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao. AT&T also is providing AT&T Navigator Global Edition service to select athletes and their families and to the eight grand-prize winners in AT&T’s “How Are You Connected” to Team USA sweepstakes.

AT&T Navigator Global Edition, which includes domestic service, is available through AT&T retail stores nationwide and AT&T direct business sales channels for $19.98 per month. The new international navigation service is available in conjunction with the domestic AT&T Navigator solution on the AT&T Tilt, BlackBerry 8800, BlackBerry 8820, BlackBerry Curve 8310, BlackBerry Pearl 8110, BlackJack II and MOTO Q 9h global smartphones.

CSR gave the world’s first public demonstration of Bluetooth low energy technology provided by CSR’s BlueCore7 in a mobile phone handset. The demonstration took place at the San Francisco meeting of the Bluetooth SIG Medical Working Group and consisted of a set of weighing scales and a temperature sensor connected via Bluetooth low energy to a cell-phone. The Bluetooth SIG expects final adoption of Bluetooth low energy technology in Q1, 2009.

The demonstration showed the two Bluetooth low energy devices transferring data to the handset using a Bluetooth low energy advertising packet without any prior configuration or pairing. When a button is pressed on the weighing scales the embedded Bluetooth low energy radio wakes up and sends a short burst of data to the handset. The temperature sensor transmits data continuously. The name and value of both sensors are then simultaneously displayed on the phone. The application automatically updates the display with the new value each time a new advertising packet is received.

The mobile phone handset was modified for the purpose of the demonstration to incorporate CSR’s BlueCore7 dual mode silicon (Bluetooth low energy and Bluetooth v2.1), and a Java API and MIDlet application to provide a simple user interface for displaying the information received.

Bluetooth low energy (previously known as Ultra Low Power Bluetooth or Wibree) is designed to be used to transfer simple data sets between compact devices. The technology uses fewer frequencies (3 rather than 32) to make connections compared with standard Bluetooth, resulting in lower power consumption when connectable.

Sony, originator of the vastly successful Walkman portable music devices, has resurrected the title for use in their new series of phones intended to do a little bit of everything. The new W902i Walkman phone is a music-oriented handset that plays tunes, takes photos, and displays video on a scratch-resistant 2.2-inch QVGA display.

The W902i will deliver music through Sony Ericsson's audio service and will come packaged with Sony Ericsson premium headphones (HPM-77) right in the box.

In addition to the 5.0 mega pixel W902i (shown), Sony will be simultaneously releasing two more affordable models: The W595a, which will offer a 3.2 mega pixel camera, and the W302i with a 2.0 mega pixel.

All of the units are set for release in the 4th quarter of 2008.
See full article.

Related Entries:

Sprint Announces New Palm Treo 800w - 16 July 2008

New Mobile Browser Available Now - 17 July 2008

LG KS360 Hits The Streets - 18 July 2008

Free Wireless Encounters Resistance From Service Providers - 21 July 2008

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It took us a little bit of time, but we have finally put together our review of the new Apple iPhone 3G. Aaron comes out liking the device, thinking it a worthy upgrade to the original - in spite of its shortcomings.
Read the full story here.

Cell phone service provider Verizon Wireless said today it added 1.5 million net new subscribers during the second quarter, bringing its total to 68.7 million.

Verizon still lags behind the No. 1 carrier AT&T (NYSE: T), which reported 71.4 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter. However, this will soon change, after Verizon completes its acquisition of Alltel for more than $28 billion. Together, the two will have 80.2 million subscribers.