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Category: mobile telephones

Microsoft and Nokia join forces to develop Office for Symbian smartphones

After launching Bing and signing a search agreement with Yahoo, Microsoft announced an alliance with Nokia during a live teleconference on Wednesday in New York City.

The companies will collaborate to deliver an enterprise version of Microsoft Office for Nokia's Symbian devices and optimize data access for corporate customers using Exchange ActiveSync.

By next year, Nokia hopes to ship Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile on its smartphones, starting with its E-series models. Other features the alliance will develop include mobile-optimized versions of enterprise instant messaging and conferencing with Mobile, access to corporate intranets and extranets based on Microsoft SharePoint Server, and enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center.

According to Kai Oistamo, Nokia's executive vice president for devices, forming an alliance with Microsoft does not mean Nokia will develop a Windows Mobile device.

"There are no such plans," said Oistamo. "This is about combining the best of the mobility world."

Although it looks like Microsoft is reconsidering Windows Mobile, Stephen Elop, Microsoft's business division president, says Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones will still compete with each other and against other handsets in the market, such as Apple's iPhone, RIM's Blackberry and the Palm Pre.

"What we're focused here today is saying, 'We need to take the broad productivity experiences as far as we can, to put it in the hands of many people as possible,' and that's clearly what we're doing with this relationship," said Elop. "I think what it really speaks to is an ongoing pattern at Microsoft where we partner with significant players in the industry. You saw in recent announcements with HP for example, where in some quarters we compete, in other quarters we collaborate. And I think the same is true here."

Microsoft hopes to establish its Mobile Office software as the leading rich office mobile application, which will integrate with Nokia's Symbian operating system and hardware devices.

According to data by Gardner, Nokia has 45 percent of the global smartphone marketshare. Recently Nokia entered an alliance with Intel to work on sharing technologies and collaborate on mobile Internet devices.

"With more than 200 million smartphone customers globally, Nokia is the world's largest smartphone manufacturer and a natural partner for us," said Elop. "Today's announcement will enable us to expand Microsoft Office Mobile to Nokia smartphone owners worldwide and allow them to collaborate on Office documents from anywhere, as part of our strategy to provide the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser."

"It is about creating the best possible tools to accomplish what you want to do, both professionally and privately, and that's how we want to address the market," said Oistamo.

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Category: mobile telephones

iPhone app RunPee makes movie bathroom breaks less stressful

You've spent $9 -- or more -- on a movie ticket. Who wants to miss a key plot point just to relieve yourself of the 48-ounce soda you foolishly bought on your way in?

Not the folks at RunPee, who first started a website, and now offer a 99-cent iPhone app to help you figure out which parts of a movie are safe to skip out on.

It's brilliant, I say. I thought the website was a neat idea: You browse in, find the movie you're seeing, and it lists out key plot points along with key non-plot points, letting you know the best times -- in minutes and seconds -- to dart away from the silver screen and off to the porcelain throne.

But I feared that using the site to plan ahead would allow me to see spoilers that might ruin the experience. Worse, I worried that firing up the site on my iPhone's Safari browser in the theater would raise the blood pressure of those sitting around me.

But the iPhone app is well-thought. Its yellow and off-white text on a black background isn't likely to get you tossed (or to get popcorn tossed at you). Like the website, you browse for the movie you're seeing, and you're presented with a series of times (displayed in terms of minutes into the movie) and cues (usually a line delivered by an actor) telling you when it's safe to run and for how long. The app includes a timer for tracking your progress into the film. A planned update not yet implemented can even alert you by vibrating the phone as each potential bathroom break approaches.

Before the iPhone app version of the service, creatore Dan Florio came up with the idea for the website RunPee.com during the 3-hour run time of Peter Jackson's King Kong, where he said he wished someone could have told him when to duck out from the movie and, well...run pee. Since then, Florio has seen a lot of movies, paying closest attention to the parts that are okay to miss. The Global Mail reports, "Florio looks for scenes that can easily be summed up in words "like a long car chase" or (are) simply so unexciting they can be recapped without sacrificing drama."

Oh, and there are other bonuses: If you do miss something, you can read the spoilers while you're in the restroom to keep up with what's happening. And, because the app tracks everything that happens, it'll even let you know when a movie has those extra bonus scenes tucked into or after the closing credits.

Finally, a way to take advantage of movie theater refill policies.

Category: mobile telephones

A help site that actually offers some real help

Ever tried to get support on a feature on your favorite gadget? Good luck digging through FAQs or coming up with the right search keywords. But Verizon Wireless has done support right, with their new 'Online Learning Center.'

Need to know how to set up your LG phone to pick up your e-mail? It's here. Want a Powerpoint-like presentation to run you through the features of your Blackberry Storm? It's here. And all with point-and-click Simplicity.

I'm often among the first to complain when I can't find what I'm looking for in a firm's oft-misnamed 'Knowledge Base.' Usually, such digital facilities are the equivalent of looking for a very tiny needle in a very large haystack. It's nice to see a return to an easy-to-use system that puts real answers at regular users' fingertips.

Category: mobile telephones

Jailbreak your iPhone? Start working on your cell door

The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to keep you from becoming a criminal just for trying to avoid Apple's draconian efforts to keep its iPhone platform closed to unblessed software.

The EFF has asked the U.S. Copyright office for an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that would allow "jailbreaking" iPhones for the purposes of testing and installing third-party software applications. Without such an exemption, the use of software like QuickPwn and Cydia to install apps could bring you a fine of several thousand dollars.

Predictably, Apple has filed a lengthy brief opposing the request. They argue the restrictions protect the safety, security and stability of the iPhone and carrier AT&T. We can only assume that lifting the restrictions would lead to the apocalypse.

I think it's much ado about nothing on Apple's part. I briefly jailbroke my iPhone shortly after purchasing it. There's no question that the wealth of third-party apps that have been barred from the iTunes App Store is amazing, and that the store's rules are stifling innovation. But some of the software is a little on the buggy side, and occasionally rendered my phone almost unusable.

Then there are the updates. Jailbreak your iPhone, install all your apps, wait for Apple to release an iPhone system update, then install the update and re-install all your apps -- it's not exactly the way I want to spend my free time. I gave up jailbreaking after two cycles of the insanity.

But I'm not everyone. And everyone who wants to should be able to do what they want with a phone that costs $300 and $60-a-month.

Read the EFF's take on the issue here.

Category: mobile telephones

Own a smartphone? Chances are 50-50 it's from Apple

Advertising firm AdMob says it's latest data indicates that 51 percent of all smartphone traffic in the United States is now conducted via an Apple iPhone -- despite the device's limitation to a single carrier.

The report also said Apple/AT&T even beat venerable phone veteran Motorola by 10 percent in the study.

The bottom line: The iPhone is simply amazing, and will do for phones what the iPod did for portable music players. Once upon a time, those devices were clunky, with clunky interfaces and frequently wed to clunky applications with clunky content restrictions.

Then the iPod redefined what was acceptable.

I used an Audiovox-made Verizon XV6700 SmartPhone for a while before my iPhone, and it, too, was kind of clunky. It crashed often. It's touchscreen was fussy and difficult to use. And the interface just required too much clicking -- with a stylus -- to be considered easy-to-use.

Now the iPhone is redefining what's acceptable, and we have devices like the Googlephone and the Blackberry Storm trying to catch up. And, at the same time, there are rumors about what Apple and AT&T have lined up next.

Stay tuned. It's going to be interesting.

Category: mobile telephones

Are you in? Arey they? New service helps you find out

Whitepages.com has added a nifty new feature that'll end all those questions about your friends' and family's cell phone service: A carrier lookup.

Why is it useful? Because, as we all know, all the major cellular carriers offer free mobile-to-mobile calling within their networks. That means it makes sense (and cents) to know which other people you call -- friends, family, business associates, etc. -- use the same cell phone company as you.

Go to http://www.whitepages.com/carrier_lookup to check it out. I found a whole host of people with whom I can now talk all day long. If I want to.

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Category: mobile telephones

Pressing my buttons

There has been one major causality in the iPhone era that seems to be apparent now more than ever: Buttons. With the popularity of touch-screen cell phones flooding the market, mobile phone makers seem set on eliminating buttons from their devices.

While I never expected a rotary dial gizmo to go cellular, I never thought the button would be an endangered species. I mean touch screens make sense as phones are now expected to serve as cameras, camcorders, music and video players, gaming devices, GPS navigators, voice recorders, calculators, alarm clocks, watches, Internet surfers and, believe it or not, still make telephone calls.

But there's something about losing buttons off the phone that I find problematic. It's too hard to use a touch screen without looking at -- cough, while driving. And don't suggest Bluetooth headsets ... they don't fit everyone comfortably (I've tried using five kinds). You have to watch yourself type -- a ninth-grade typing class no-no. And there's something personal about pressing a button and feeling response in the movement of the key. I can only imagine what touchscreen keyboards will be like in mainstream application.

All of this leads me to supporting Verizon's just-released enV2 - a mobile device covered in glorious buttons. Its full QWERTY keyboard snuck in-between its clamshell design is truly a comfort in the world of the iPhone. It's only slightly larger than a credit card, thick as a candy bar and still has all the versatility you need to do dozens of functions.