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Content Tagged with blackberry + mobile

Facebook Connect for Mobiles to Come This Fall, With iPhone Support

Fresh off their launch of Facebook Connect at their second developer conference, the social networking company is going to launch a mobile version of the Facebook Connect this fall, Jed Stremel, director of mobile for Facebook, said in a chat today. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is going to release the code of their entire “mobile subsystem” he said.

This will allow developers to add Facebook’s social graph into their applications. Stremel said the company was going to release the code first for iPhone, mostly because they have been contacted by various developers who want to build social features into their iPhone and iPod Touch apps. The company will shift attention to other platforms later, he added.

When I asked how it’s different from Facebook Connect for the web, he said that instead of just technical protocols, the company is going to give out the entire code so people can drop it into their applications and have consistency with Facebook’s own mobile applications.

Stremel said that mobile has been a huge winner for the company. They have doubled the number of active mobile users in the past six months, and the growth trajectory is getting even more momentum. Facebook has about 10 million active users every month.

The introduction of FC for mobiles would mean that a lot of applications that are now static will have a social networking element built into them. It could help games get more social, and that is why Stremel expects a lot of iPhone game developers to quickly embrace this FC for mobiles.

“With Facebook Connect for mobiles you can find people who are online and play with them,” he said. Of course, this opens up the possibility of extending Facebook games to the mobile domain, allowing for cross-platform (mobile and web) play.

Stremel was clear in saying that the company was staying away from advertising on mobiles for now, a statement reminiscent of founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments about monetization being a low priority right now. I think Facebook Connect for mobiles makes their overall plan even more potent, since it brings back even more personal data back to the Facebook brain.

If this story interests you, check out our upcoming conference:
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Technology-News: GigaOm

Mobilize Your Rails Application with Mobile Fu

<sep/>devices that access your Rails application. People can access your site from a Palm, Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia, etc. and it will automatically adjust the

iphone: deli.cio.us/tags/iphone

The Second Coming: Ars goes in-depth with the iPhone 3G

"Considering that Spotlight is such a hit feature in OS X and that Apple has had a year of listening to this often-cited complaint, the fact that search is still MIA is getting pretty unforgivable. It's also going to be a big minus to potential corporate

iphone: deli.cio.us/tags/iphone

zxing - Google Code

ZXing (pronounced "zebra crossing") is an open-source, multi-format 1D/2D barcode reader library implemented in Java. Our goal is to support decoding of QR Codes, Data Matrix, and the UPC family of 1D barcodes.

opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource

SourceForge.net: Barry

Barry is a GPL C++ library for interfacing with the RIM BlackBerry Handheld.

opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource

On Sale: The iPhone (well, in Europe, at least)

Well the iPhone may be hard to come by in the U.S. these days, but they’re practically giving them away overseas. As Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster notes today, two more mobile phone retailers — Britain’s 02 and Carphone Warehouse — have cut the price of the 8 GB iPhone by 37 percent. This follows another, even more drastic price reduction earlier this month, of 75 percent, by T-Mobile in Germany.

Munster thinks the cuts indicate that the demand for iPhones in Europe is light. However, he also believes iPhone carriers are clearing the way for the new 3G model, expected to be launched in June.

Meanwhile, RIM’s BlackBerry keeps adding addicts overseas: Roughly 33 percent of its subscriber base is now outside of North America, according to Scotia Capital’s Gus Papageorgiou — with most of it in Europe.

Technology-News: GigaOm

What Makes a Good Mobile Application Great

What separates the good from the bad in the mobile web space? More importantly, what makes a good mobile application truly great? There are lots of examples out there, but what can mobile developers learn from them? Here are some common sense guidelines:

Mimic the desktop UI

Facebook mobile Each web site or web application that we use in this Web 2.0 world has a feel that we’re used to; the mobile version of web sites should merely be an extension of that experience. Web developers should use the same fonts, color schemes and buttons wherever possible to make us feel at home. For an example, check out Mobile Facebook (here on the left), which uses the same blue hues and fonts as the Facebook I use everyday in Firefox. Facebook has also made it easy to click on a friend’s name and pull up their profile page with a mini-feed, contact information, and other Facebook features we know and love.

Good examples: Mobile Flickr, Mobile Google Reader and Pownce Mobile.

Strip it, strip it real good

Flickr MobileA great mobile web site is a stripped-down, more functional version of its original incarnation, and simplicity is king — all unnecessary graphics should be be excluded. In terms of screen flow, content should be presented first, with navigation placed at the bottom of each page. Having to scroll past navigation to get to the real meat of a web page is the bane of any mobile user’s existence.

Good examples: Mobile Twitter, Google and Mobile Wunderground.

It’s the hardware, stupid

Smart mobile application developers utilize the hardware to its full extent. One example is the Nokia platform, which is known for being completely transparent and vulnerable to developers and has subsequently yielded some great applications.

Good examples: JoikuSpot will use the built-in Wi-Fi to turn your WAP cell phone into a wireless access point; ShoZu will use the N95’s GPS to automatically geo-tag photos and upload them to Flickr; Nokia Sports Tracker will use the GPS module to give you a map and stats about your workouts.

Know thy platform

Mobile web applications should be written natively for each device. Java applications, including GMail for mobile and others, are quirky and routinely lock up, requiring the user to either exit or restart. Having to write apps for multiple platforms may be tedious, but will result in happy users.

Google was able to take Google Maps to an entirely new level of usability by adding “My Location,” which uses cell-phone towers to give an approximate location and has been called a “poor man’s GPS.” It’s only accurate to around 1,000 meters, but saves keystrokes when trying to find a local pizza place.

Unfortunately with most mobile platforms, especially here in the U.S., hardware is limited by cell-phone service providers that subsidize handsets. But Google’s Android and the Open Handset Alliance will help put in motion a new era of “openness,” and consumers will be the direct benefactors.

And of course, Apple’s SDK is coming out soon, which will undoubtedly spawn numerous touch-based applications.

My prediction: The iPhone will be the most hotly contested mobile application platform and the App Store will be full of highly functional and downright fun applications to add to your precious iPhone.

Technology-News: GigaOm

Oh No….Blackberry Ban In India?

Put this in the dumb-things-dumb-government-officials-do category! Apparently India’s Department of Telecommunications has rejected Tata Teleservices’ application to offer RIM’s BlackBerry on their network. DoT’s dumb excuse: “BlackBerry service does not allow for ‘lawful interception’ mandated for all Value Added Services (VAS).” In other words, they are bringing up the national security bogeyman! Current BlackBerry service providers have been contacted by DoT as well. The question is, what will DoT do with overseas visitors who show up with their BlackBerrys?

Technology-News: GigaOm

MidpSSH

SSH and Telnet client for Mobile devices (MIDP/J2ME)

opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource

Gizmo 5 Beta - Home

Open Software version of a Blackberry

SIP: del.icio.us tag/SIP

bbTracker - Trac

bbTracker is a simple application for Java-enabled smartphones to create GPS track logs. It tracks ones movement and provides that data for later analysis. It is not meant as a replacement for full-featured GPS software that does display maps and do path-

opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource

BlackBerry Java Development Environment 4.3.0

The Release Notes and Known Issues related to the BlackBerry JDE 4.3.0

Eclipse: del.icio.us/tag/eclipse

SourceForge.net: GCalSync

J2ME application that offers two-way synchronization between Google Calendar and the built-in calendar of a mobile phone (cell phone), BlackBerry or PDA

opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource

funambol :: open source

open source mobile application server software that provides push email, address book and calendar (PIM) data synchronization, application provisioning, and device management for wireless devices and PCs,

opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource

Research In Motion

RIM Opens New BlackBerry APIs (press release March 27, 2007)

opensource: del.icio.us tag/opensource

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