Mobile FireFox for Maemo released

Software News No Responses »
Jan 312010

Don’t ask me what the mobile FireFox team is doing – but it most certainly isn’t helping their market share in mobile. Vendors like Opera have made a killing off Windows Mobile and Symbian…and the folks at Mozilla’s have just released their first final FireFox mobile version.

Believe it or not – it is targeted at Maemo:

…

Firefox is currently supported on Nokia’s Maemo5 platform and is available for download on the Nokia N900. Users can download and learn more by visiting Firefox.com/mobile. Visit the FAQ for more information.

…

Even though I don’t want top be accused of mindless ranting, one question comes to mind: WTF. Why does the Mozilla Foundation release its first-ever browser on a platform which essentially has 5 users world-wide? And why not on a platform like WM?

Ideas, anyone?

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 5:47 pm

Palm Pre gets Gameboy emulator

Palm News No Responses »
Jan 312010

Palm devices have been among the first mobile devices to receive a Gameboy emulator – as good things tend to come back, it’s now time for a GameBoy emulator for webOS.

User sonicnkt86 has shared the following video via YouTube:

According to him, speed is more than ok:

The Palm Pre port of the GB/GBA Emulator for the Palm Pre running Mario Kart Super Curcuit for the Gameboy Advance. In Game Speed with sound arround 60%, without up to 90% (VBA 1.0.1)

Further information can be found in the forum thread below:
http://forums.precentral.net/webos-internals/224974-visualboyadvance.html

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 3:03 am

Big finance in mobile software: Astraware solo again

Uncategorized No Responses »
Jan 302010

Big acquisitions do happen in mobile – but they usually take place between hardware manufacturers. Don’t ask me why and how the folks at HandMark’s managed to buy up Astraware two years ago – but the company is now solo again.

A press release has just gone out. It states the following:

KANSAS CITY, MO and LONDON, UK – January 27, 2010 – Handmark®, the world’s leading developer and distributor of mobile applications and services, today announced it has spun off its mobile games studio, Astraware, as the company streamlines its business to focus on other strategic areas of mobile development and support.

Astraware returns to the management of Howard Tomlinson and David Oakley, two of the original founders, and will remain a Handmark preferred partner. Handmark will continue to support Astraware on a variety of distribution and promotional opportunities.

“We saw a great opportunity to join forces with Astraware to help create and extend a collection of fun, well-designed mobile games titles to a new audience, and we did just that,” said Paul Reddick, Handmark CEO. “I still see a great opportunity for their team to continue proving their leadership as a major player in mobile games and we will continue to work alongside them.”

…

The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

P.S. I asked them about specifics of the deal at a tradeshow two years ago – and got a really really pissed off HandMark manager on my back…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 12:21 pm

Trial versions in a post-App store economy

Development No Responses »
Jan 302010

Apple’s App Store is unique in two aspects: it is, first of all, insanely successful – and does not allow time-limited trial versions. These two aspects have led quite a few to question the value of free trials – unfortunately, getting data out of developers has been all but easy.

Todd A. Sherman from Smart Box Design (a games company) now shares the following – according to him, trial versions don’t really pay out in the “nice new world”:

I did an analysis of the best selling Word games and compared their numbers and ratings against their free version. For the Word category it did not seem to make a huge difference if you had a free version or not. We got a huge bump in downloads from our Free version, thousands and thousands of downloads, but only saw a modest change in sales. However, getting on people’s mind space was worth it for us.

We are, of course, looking at an individual opinion here. However, the information I have received from other parties sounded similar…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 2:02 am

Verizon Pre Plus – a buyer’s experience

Palm News No Responses »
Jan 292010

Verizon’s Pre Plus has already been handled and reviewed by hardware professionals all over the world – but it has not, so far, been tested by a former Palm OS head. Ryan Kairer’s PalmInfoCenter now did just that, pairing up a long-term Centro head with a Pre Plus obtained from Verizon’s via a Best Buy store.

Unfortunately, the initial experience was all but smooth – not only did the activation take ages, but staff also loathed the box:

…

The BB Mobile sales staff seemed fairly unenthusiastic about Palm’s products, being unaware of several key specifics about webOS, such as its current lack of support for Visual Voicemail, voice dialing, and video capture. In general, our salesclerk was quick to recommend a Droid over any of the webOS devices but we refused to be deterred from our mission to acquire a Pre Plus.

…

The new owner of the box then proceeded to note speed issues – the Centro is said to be significantly faster:

…he stated that despite the steep learning curve, he’s cautiously optimistic about his chances with the Pre Plus. He likes the improved screen size and clarity over his Centro and has surprisingly even adapted to the card metaphor for multitasking. Overall he remains irked about the lack of voice dialing and lack of voicemail number customization and misses the lighting quick response of his Centro…

Further information can be had below:

P.S. If I were Palm, I’d gang up with a PC hardware manufacturer (MSI, anyone?) and open up a retail store ASAP. And more than one…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 3:37 am

Elevation Partners increases Yelp investment

Palm News 1 Response »
Jan 282010

In a move which does not really surprise me, the folks at Elevation Partner’s have just increased their stake in the local search / user review engine Yelp from 25 to 100 million USD.
elevation yelp investment Elevation Partners increases Yelp investment

CNet reports the following:

Elevation Partners, the Silicon Valley private equity firm that counts U2′s Bono among its investors, announced Wednesday that it has committed up to $100 million in funding for reviews site Yelp.

It’s initially investing $25 million in the Series E round, and plans to increase the investment to up to $100 million through the purchase of stock from employees whose stock has vested, as well as other eligible shareholders.

…

If we look at Elevation’s past investments and the way they have moved the webOS, a clear trend emerges: the folks at ELP want to become a major player in “user data processing” for individuals.

The real strength of the Pre is not so much its powerful applications, but rather its “communicativeness” – the webOS is truly a “web OS” in that it makes getting the most out of your data its prime task.

In the future, there is little reason why the data created by Yelp users should not be integrated into the Pre. Think that you are standing next to a restaurant, and wonder whether its any good – maybe there’s some Yelp data to help you decide?

Things could become interesting soon…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 8:06 am

PSA: possible AT&T ETF settlement

Miscellaneous No Responses »
Jan 282010

This one could be useful for (former) AT&T customers – there’s a class action lawsuit against AT&T’s ETF provisions which could also provide a benefit to people who never paid an ETF.

The web site explains it as follows:

This Settlement will provide the benefits discussed below to qualifying former customers of AT&T Mobility or its predecessors who were charged a flat-rate ETF between and including January 1, 1998 and November 4, 2009, and qualifying current customers of AT&T Mobility who had a flat-rate ETF provision in their subscriber agreement(s) as of November 4, 2009. YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR BENEFITS WHETHER OR NOT YOU PAID A FLAT-RATE ETF. Three categories of benefits are available. Submit your claim under the category that describes your situation. Even if you have multiple claims, you may choose only ONE of the categories and ONE of the benefits under that category. The benefit amounts shown are the highest possible amounts. In the event that the claims for cash exceed the available settlement funds, the cash benefit amounts will be reduced pro rata in order to allow the maximum number of claims. In the event that the value of claims for non-cash benefits (other than the prorated ETF benefit) exceeds $2,000,000, the non-cash benefit amounts (other than the prorated ETF benefit) will be reduced pro rata in order to allow the maximum number of claims.

The Court has not decided whether the claims in the lawsuit have any merit. However, if you are a member of the Settlement Class, you have a choice to make now.
…

Further information can be had below – if you were or are an AT&T customer and have a few minutes to spare, why not give it a click:
http://www.attmetfsettlement.com/

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 6:31 am

On the Apple iPad

Editorials 1 Response »
Jan 282010

Just in case anyone of you has still been living under a rock: the Apple tablet has just been released, and it will be called iPad (not iSlate). Those of you needing a bit of technical information can find it below – the rest of this piece will look at the reasoning behind the box.

Hands-on with the iPad
Price information

First of all: the folks at Palm’s will likely jump over their house door backwards three times. The iPad is no danger whatsoever to their new devices – no multitasking and no keyboard mean that the device is almost unusable for business. Other manufacturers don’t have to worry either…

Apple’s iPad also doesn’t target the existing tablet PC crowd: these devices also cater to a completely different audience. Business folks and note takers are not the target here…

When it comes to mobile usage, the box also can’t achieve much: it is too big to be truly portable, and offers too little to replace a notebook. So no cheese here, either.

Instead, the iPad is a passive media consumption box. It is a large personal media player more than anything else – users are expected to take the critter to bed or to the couch and look at TV, do some casual web surfing or listen to music. Active input will take place someplace else.

The device thus ties in perfectly into Apple’s existing ecosystem, and will likely sell like the AppleTV did. But it IMHO won’t have much of a lasting impact on the mobile world as whole…

What do you think?

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 2:43 am

Palm sells CDMA webOS devices without contract

Palm News No Responses »
Jan 272010

Don’t ask me why, but it looks like the folks at Palm’s definitely are willing to put up more than just “a fight”. With rumors of some kind of upcoming CDMA device from the A boys, somebody at the Orange house figured out that getting a few extra customers on board quickly is always great.

The result of this thinking is that all CDMA webOS devices can now be purchased via Palm.com without a contract – while they will still be bound to their designated carrier, the carrier does not have much to say regarding plan choices or binding times.

Customers who are still on contract (but are unhappy with their phone) thus get an opportunity for a relatively affordable out-of-plan upgrade. This not only makes them unavailable for Apple, but also helps generate revenue for webOS devs – if somebody pays 600$ for the box, he is extremely likely to spend another 3-5$ to maximize his ROI.

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 2:12 am

Verizon releases Pre Plus and Pixi Plus

Palm News No Responses »
Jan 262010

Call it expected – Verizon has just released the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus:
verizon palm pre released Verizon releases Pre Plus and Pixi Plus

Further info at the URL below – use the ZIP 60002 to get past their barrier…
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/ …

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 2:33 am

MiLiberty & Mobile World Congress press accreditation – or – how to kill an event

TamsPalm internal No Responses »
Jan 252010

Tradeshows are struggling for some time: most manufacturers think that the money spent on a booth is better invested into direct advertising. After all, journalists can be reached significantly faster by just sending them a press release – and a free sample goes quite a long way, too.

Keeping an event successful thus requires not only smart management, but also an effective way to attract the media. Unfortunately, the folks at MiLiberty’s seem to have issues understanding this basic rule of thumb.

Their response to an accreditation request by the yours truly looked like this:

From: Sam Tring [string@miliberty.com]

Your message

To: press@mobileworldcongress.com
Cc: pressregistration@mobileworldcongress.com
Subject: Press accreditation
Sent: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:38:50 -0000

was deleted without being read on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:18:19 -0000

Well, well – it’s a bit difficult to say much here. I should have no issue covering the event due to exhibitor passes from partners – but it nevertheless serves as an excellent example for how to kill events!

The folks at Nokia’s have already ditched the GSMA – I can understand them well. After all, the purpose of such an event is to get press exposure – and if you keep the press out, well, you get the idea…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 10:36 pm

Palm Pre Plus / Pixi Plus – GSM versions on their way

Palm News No Responses »
Jan 232010

Given that the best way to save in mobile is the reduction of production costs, producing two different cases and planars is not particularly smart. As RAM costs nothing nowadays, it is logical that the Pre and Pixi Plus would hit the GSM world sooner or later – the boxen have just been certified by the TÜV Rehinland:
palm pixi plus gsm Palm Pre Plus / Pixi Plus GSM versions on their way
palm pre plus gsm Palm Pre Plus / Pixi Plus GSM versions on their way

Just in case anyone of you wonders: the TÜV (short for Technischer ÜberprüfungsVerein, or technical checking association) is a kind of standarization organization in Germany and Austria. If a device is to be sold in these regions, it usually has to pass the TÜV tests…

P.S. Palm’s partners likely still have some Pre stock – which means that the introduction can still take a few months worth of time!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 6:52 pm

Firefox 3.6 released

Miscellaneous No Responses »
Jan 232010

Long-term readers of the Tamoggemon Content network probably know that yours truly loves FireFox – it indeed is one of the first programs I install onto a new device.

I am thus extremely happy to report that FireFox 3.6 has just been released:
firefox 3.6 released Firefox 3.6 released

It brings a significant performance increase, which should also lead to longer battery life on mobile devices. Hit the URL below for that download ASAP, folks:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6/releasenotes/

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 4:37 am

Verizon: Pre Plus costs 149$, Pixi Plus 99$

Palm News No Responses »
Jan 222010

Palm’s official blog has just confirmed the long-rumored pricing for the Pre and Pixi Plus at Verizon’s.

The Pre will retail for 149$, while the Pixi will cost 99$ on contract:

… you can get yours on Verizon Wireless on Monday for only $149.99 (after mail-in rebate and two-year contract). Not to be outdone, Palm Pixi Plus at $99.99

…

And how’s this for an extra plus: Through February 14, buy a Palm Pre Plus or a Palm Pixi Plus and get a Palm Pixi Plus free (after mail-in rebate). Can Monday come soon enough?

Any takers?

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 4:49 pm
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