Opera has announced an experimental port of its Opera Mini mobile browser to Google’s Android platform.
The Android version runs in an emulated Java ME session and still has a few small issues, although that’s perhaps understandable when you consider there is no actual Android hardware available to test it on.
This could be a great move for Opera. Symbian, the iPhone and Windows Mobile each have well established browsers with big user bases. While it would see natural to expect the open source Firefox browser to take pole position on Android, the mobile Firefox is dragging its feet a bit and the developers seem to be focusing on the Windows Mobile platform for their initial release.
Opera mini is a very capable Java browser - certainly its better than the default Symbian and WinMo efforts - the problem Opera have always had is in persuading users to leave their comfort zone and try somethng unfamiliar.
With Android offering virgin territory, could this be Opera’s big chance?
Do you remember a while back, we came across a video on the BBC where Google showed off a ‘reference design’ handset running Android? Course you do. Well, the plot is officially thickening as phonemag is reporting that HTC has just announced May 6th as the date for a special event that will be held in London with the tagline “Witness the next wave of HTC Innovation”.
Why is this relevant to Android? Only because HTC has already committed to getting an Android phone into retailers by mid 2008. Here’s where things get really interesting; HTC has already announced a handset called the HTC Dream which is widely rumored to have all sorts of iPhone baiting features such as a full touchscreen interface and onscreen keyboard. The prototype phone demoed for the BBC had just such a design and considering the time frame, it’s not such a dramatic leap of imagination to consider the possibility that what was demoed to the BBC was in fact an early version of the HTC Dream.
Are we right on the money with this, or are we just dreaming (sorry couldn’t resist). Either way, we will be covering the event on May 6th so stay tuned for more info.
Chances are, if you are already thinking of using some of Google’s services on your mobile, then you already have a fair idea of how they work. But that doesn’t mean that a refresher course (or indeed a crash course if you are new to all of this) isn’t a good idea and so Google has obliged with a new YouTube channel called GoogleMobileHelp.
The channel is aimed squarely at newcomers really and contains four videos (not counting the older Gmail test video) covering the basics of Google Maps and YouTube for mobile on S60 and UIQ 3 hardware. You can bookmark the channel by hitting up this link but if you just want to watch the videos, simply hit the jump.
Continue reading ‘GoogleMobileHelp channel launched on YouTube’
Obviously feeling a little overlooked in the aftermath of Apple’s high profile SDK release, Rich Miner, group manager for mobile platforms at Google, has been doing his best to remind everyone about a little know mobile OS called Android.
Following a presentation on Thursday at the Emerging Communications Conference at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, Miner stated that he expects Android to be more successful than the iPhone.
Once you have devices out there from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and so on, there’s a much larger potential market on Android than for the iPhone
Miner went on to point out the significant restrictions of the iPhone SDK that will potentially limit the scope for iPhone applications.
There are things I saw people doing with the first version of the Android SDK that it seems like you can’t do with the iPhone at least at the moment
This comes on the back of Apple’s boasts of having supplied 100,000 downloads of its SDK in just four days. Google’s Android SDK has been downloaded 750,000 times which is certainly not to be sniffed at either. Either way, with Windows Mobile and Symbian also thrown into the mix, 2008-09 might set the stage for an OS showdown that makes Apple’s battle with Microsoft back in the day look like a playground scuffle.
(Via Yahoo! News)
So far we have only seen a key driven interface for Google’s Android OS but yesterday, a video that appeared on the BBC website seemed to confirm that there is already a touchscreen version of the OS up and running.
The sleek looking unit pulling this trick is referred to in the video only as a ‘reference design that one of our partners built for us’ by Google’s director of mobile platforms, Andy Rubin. Could this be the first ever video of a true Gphone?
Continue reading ‘Android touchscreen ‘reference design’ demoed on BBC’
Hmm. We can’t see this one lasting very long
At first glance, Google2Go seems like a Googlized version of Yahoo! Go - Yahoo’s Symbian and Windows Mobile portal app. And it kind of is. Kind of.
Google2Go is in no way an official Google product, and seems to have been knocked together by a fan of the big G who liked the idea of Yahoo! Go, but who prefers the mobile web to be a bit more, y’know, Googly.
The app is fairly well put together, allowing access to many Google services including Gmail, Reader, Google Docs, Picasa and Google Calender. It runs on Windows Mobile 6 ( there are reports of some WinMo 5 phones working too).
We can’t really imagine that Google will suffer this to live - maintaining the brand identity and all that - but it is a reasonable effort and is available as freeware (thank goodness - I hate to think what would happen to the guy if he tried charging for it).
Without pausing for breath following Nokia’s announcement last week that they are integrating Google into Nokia Search, Google have released a native S60 client that could see them getting a crucial one-click headstart on their rivals.
The app sits on the standby screen activated by the ‘Pencil’ key on most Nokia mobiles, and will pop up a search bar that will send your search terms to Google via the phone’s web browser.
Browser esults are opened in the newly-revamped mobile versionof Google’s search engine that should be clearer to read on small screens than the main site.
Ok time for the gPhone rumour du jour. According to yet another tipster, Samsung is going to build two Android based devices both of which will bear the Google brand as opposed to its own.
Apparently there will be a higher end model released first this autumn followed by a lower spec device which it is claimed will cost less than $100. The source also claims that the device won’t look dissimilar to the Blackberry Pearl but will have a flip out screen.
Sounds like a bit of a design contradiction to us and considering the frequency of similar claims that have been made over the last year, it is hard to take these supposedly leaked facts seriously. What you can bet on is that Google will look to an experienced third party to craft a branded handset at some stage, whether or not that third party will be Samsung remains to be seen.
(Via engadget mobile)
The problem with PIM software on most mobile phones is that it ties you down to using whatever apps the phone designers thought would suit - either a plugin for something generic like Outlook (over my dead body) or a lame custom-made desktop version of the phone’s own calendaring software that is incompatible with anything else.
CalSyncS60 will, in theory, allow you to sync your S60 3rd edition phone’s calendar with a Google Calendar. Google Calendar is another one of Google’s many spin off services - a pretty full-fuction calendar and scheduling app with a web interface and an API that helps it integrate into many other similar projects.
CalSyncS60 is still very much beta software and currently only syncs over a wifi connection. But sync it does, and the ability to near-instantly place your appointments on the web is a useful one. Given that this is freeware, it is certainly worth a download and an encouraging email to the coder responsible, in the hope of an update.
It’s been a long time coming, but Nokia has finally given in and added Google to Nokia Search.
Google joins Yahoo! and Microsoft Live in the app’s list of search options. Nokia plan to roll out the changes in the Nokia N96, N78, 6210 Navigator, and 6220 phones initially although there are plans to release firmware updates to some older handsets later in the year.
Although this is undeniably great news (personally, I never use Nokia Search for precisely this reason) you have to wonder - why now? Could Nokia be trying to prepare for the release of Google’s Android by which presumably will tightly integrate with its parent company’s search engine?
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