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Friday, January 26, 2007

PDA, smartphone syncing for Ford vehicles.




"The Ford Motor Co. is introducing the first vehicles with Microsoft's Sync software, which allows a car to connect to a variety of Bluetooth and USB devices, including PDAs, smart phones, music players and cell phones", reports eWeek.



Features include:





  • support for iPod, USB thumb drivers, Zune and PlaysForSure devices.

  • voice recognition to control phone and recognize music track titles.

  • speech system to read text messages and provide canned replies.

  • use call list from the handset to make calls.


by Richard @ 10:14

Friday, January 19, 2007

GPS to become more widespread.



Following two acquisitions, chipmaker "CSR said it expects the cost of adding GPS to devices to reduce to less than $1. The firm is the largest supplier of Bluetooth chips to builders of PCs, smartphones and Bluetooth peripherals".



Reported in Computing.

by Richard @ 10:11

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Enterprise mobile apps: the whole platform matters.



Research from IDC, reporting in Computing, suggests that the market for enterprise mobile application will grow from the estimated US$1.2bn in 2005 to US$3.5bn in 2010.



"Vendors and organisations alike must recognise that mobile enterprise applications are not just about mobilising a particular application, but delivering a set of composite applications based on the mobile workers' business processes," said Stephen Drake, programme director for IDC's mobile enterprise research.

by Richard @ 08:37

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Operators choke services.



"Ninety-five percent of mobile services fail in the market - and it's thanks to greedy network operators who have treated their customers as a lumpen mass" (The Register).

by Richard @ 07:02

Monday, January 01, 2007

Mobile as the centre of entertainment.




The Register asks: How long until the mobile is the heart of entertainment? They estimate 2010-2012, and discuss the steps along the way:





  • ubiquitous internet access

  • no walled gardens

  • increased storage

  • high-bandwidth short-range data transfer

  • device and function discovery

  • resolution of DRM issues

  • use of external displays

  • audience measurement


by Richard @ 08:48