Finally, we have on our hands the first beta release of Fennec, the Firefox browser for mobile devices. It’s the milestone number 12 in the development roadmap and its intented for testing purposes, get wider feedback, engage community and encourage add-on developers to port existing add-ons. It’s only available for ‘Maemo’, the Linux OS running on Nokia N810 Internet Tablets.

You can look at all the features in the Release Notes. There’s nothing shocking, but some of them are really inteteresting. I specially like what they call ‘Devices services integration’: click on a phone number to initiate a call and a JavaScript API to get device location.

Anyway, I must confess I’m a bit disappointed by the pace of Mozilla’s advances in its mobile version. Two years ago, Mozilla decided to discontinue the Minimo browser project. It was the first attempt. Some months after, they announced their intention of starting a new project and Fennec development started from the ground up.

From that moment, the release of a stable version has been delayed time over time, and now we have no idea of when we’ll have a version for a mainstream platform (Windows Mobile or Symbian, the only two covered by Fennec).

Let’s hope all the feedback and re-encouraged contributions of the community will help to make Fennec a reality as soon as possible. Otherwise, it could be too late for them, as all WebKit-derived browsers take the market.

Via ObservatorioInternetMovil
Links ReleaseNotes SevenClick SevenClick

After having talked about the mobile browser Skyfire, now it’s available to be downloaded. So far it works on Windows Mobile (5, 6, and 6.1) and Symbian S60 (3rd edition), and only in these countries: US, Canada, and UK. However, you can use it in other countries at your own discretion. But the problem now, is that from their website you can only download it sending an SMS to phones from thos countries. So some of us will have to wait…

Technical features:

• Screen: support VGA and QVGA screen resolutions.
• WM models: works on Windows Mobile phones (not PDAs) like HTC Tilt, HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Fuze, Motorola Q and Q9, Palm Pro, Palm 800W and Samsung Blackjack II.
• Symbian S60 models: works on E61, E61i, E62, E71, N73, N75, N76, N78, N79, N80, N81, N82, N85, N95 and N96.
• Tech support: it supports Flash 9!!!, AJAX and Quicktime.
• NOT support: WM PDAs!!! and WVGA WM phones.

How it works:

Skyfire works in a similar way to Opera Mini. The site you want to visit passes through Skyfire servers and then is sent to your mobile device the way it needs. It uses Firefox engine to render the sites. It allows zoom ans saving pics and other files from sites.

We are looking forward to having other countries and mobile devices to be supported!!! 

No, it´s not a mistake. You can really run a web server on your S60 mobile phone. Wheter you find it useful or not, that´s up to you.

Nevertheless, they have found some interest uses. Accesing calendar, contacts or SMS through the website the phone provides (and that includes sending SMS) are just the basic features. Sharing the pictures of you camera gallery and maintaining a mobile website like a blog with RSS support are some of the advanced features.

Beware, get an unlimited data plan or prepare to face the famous “carrier charges may apply”.

Link Mobile Web Server

Some weeks ago, people from Fullsix launched the web Please fix the iPhone. A peculiar web where people can add a wish to the wish list for future iPhone implementations or just to fix something.

Today there are 1800 wishes and 272846 votes catalogued in more than 60 categories.

Here we leave the wish top 3. Of course these are the most needed

I hope Mr Steve finally listen to the voice of the people, because iPhone exists thanks to them.

Many thanks Daniel Domingo

One of the best plugins for web browsers are now available for the iPhone. Cooliris for the iPhone is perfect for browsing through media-rich web content on the fly with an incredible displayed interface.

Simple and cool as in desktops, Cooliris Piclens runs perfect on the iPhone and works as a web browser too when you simple tap on the image link.

Discover on the iPhone has some additional features that distinguish it from the traditional web client. Since the iPhone knows where you are, you’ll get news customized to your locale (Spanish users will automatically have a Spain News feed available to them, for example). This is a great new feature and a big shout-out to our enthusiastic international user base!

Discover on Cooliris for the iPhone also allows you to zoom in on the media and pull up the related story in-line by using the Earth icon. There’s no need to jump out of Cooliris and visit the parent website in order to get the full story!

We have been testing Cooliris and our verdict is: essential. It is simply the best way to search for images and video on the web, cool and simple interface.

You can download Cooliris on the AppStore for free now!

Link Cooliris

Last 29th August, Nokia introduced Ovi, the company’s new Internet services brand name. Ovi, which means “door” in Finish, is the new gateway to all Nokia services and represents an easy way for consumers to access content, communities and existing social networks from Nokia compatible devices or from PCs.  With these services, Nokia is poised to take on Apple’s iTunes market.

As part of Ovi, Nokia announced:

• Nokia Music Store: Allow to try and buy music from artists around the world. The dynamic recommendation engine and genre-based instant playlists provide access to show what others are enjoying. The store opens across European markets this fall and tracks will cost 1€, albums 10€, and a monthly subscription for PC streaming for 10€.
• N-Gage: Selecting the N-Gage application on a compatible Nokia device, its possible to preview available games, connect with other users, read reviews, download a free demo or buy the game. It will be ready in November 2007.
• Nokia Maps: A navegation service that offers maps, city guides and more directly to compatible devices.
• Share on Ovi: A media sharing online that allows the upload and storage of photos, videos etc. Users can upload media direct from their nokia mobile phone through the share online 3.0 application or can alternately use their PC.
• Files on Ovi: The service allows users to access files on their computers from any remote PC (via Web browser) and many mobile devices, and also facilitates sharing files.

To take down Apple’s iTunes will be a difficult task for Nokia. Both are prolific hardware designers and both have entered the multimedia download market. Apple is doing very well with their iPhone, but Nokia is the number one mobile device company in the world.

Vía cotizalia

Wimob is a great tool that helps web developers to convert their multimedia contents to mobile formats, and deliver them to the user´s device through a common framework, supporting more than 1000 phones. They call it “The Revolution of Web to Mobile”.

Such an application means a giant leap on mobile content delivery, as it provides a unique framework for developers, offering an abstraction of the device itself. As usual, the full version is not free. The differences with the free basic version are a customizable interface and delivery of your own mobile applications.

It currently supports downloading media through bluetooth, USB or infrared, but Wi-Fi, SyncML and others are on the way. Its uselfulness is not only limited to “live” video conversion to virtually any device, but also to whatever web content developers would need. Some suggestions are catalogs, schedules, brochures… the limit is up to you. Look at the official presentation (embedded below) for more information, or visit their site.

Link Wimob – The revolution of web to mobile

¿Cuando llega mi bus? is a new website developed by our friend Abel Mendivil, which  allows you to consult how many time you should wait until the bus arrives (only for Zaragoza).
You enter the number of pole and returns a list of buses passing through this stop.

Currently working on iPhone version, in order to add features such us create link associated with the poles you use most often, improve the design, and more and more.
It is a simple website but very useful if you live in Zaragoza and have a 3G mobile phone.

Link ¿Cuando llega mi bus?

Apple said to us Tap into the App Store and you’ll find applications in every category designed to take advantage o iPhone features. And iPhone users must being done, because Apple have announced that over 60 million iPhone and iPod touch apps have been downloaded in the one month since the iPhone 2.0 firmware has been availabe.

Although there are a lot of free downloads, the benefits reach about $1 million per day, generating a total of about $30 million in sales per month. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my career for software”, Steve Jobs says, adding that sales could “crest a half a billion” in short order and that $1 billion could arrive “at some point”.

It seems that the most important for the success of a device, is the applications that it provide. “Phone differentiation used to be about radios and antennas and things like that”, Jobs explains. “We think, going forward, the phone of the future will be differentiated by software.”

Vía AppleSfera, Electronista.

Simyo, a low cost Mobile Virtual Operator, has launched an internet flat-rate for 24,99€/month, one of the cheapest in the market.

The maximum speed is 3,6Mbs, but the speed drop to 128Kbs when the first 5G of data have been downloaded. On the other hand there is no limit on downloading and P2P traffic is totally allowed. Some of the drawbacks are that this data plans are only enabled to mobiles with contract and the connection only supports data connections (no voice).

Simyo Spain was born on January 2008 on the Orange network but, before that, it had been already operated by KPN in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. It is an online telecom operator (it has no stores), so that is how they keep their rates so low. If you are interested in this offer you can make yourself a new Simyo user through its web site.

Vía Error500, Xatakamovil.