Microsoft has entered into talks with French mobile music specialist Musiwave with a view to purchasing the company.
Musiwave currently provides mobile music services for several operators including Orange, and Microsoft may be planning to use its software to set up on-demand music downloads and streaming similar to Nokia’s Music Store for use with both Windows Mobile and Microsoft’s iPod competitor, the Zune.
Musiwave has relationships with music labels and content providers, which should mean Microsoft get a boost in those areas.
“Musiwave would bring key assets to us as we continue to bring our vision of Connected Entertainment to life,” said Microsoft’s J Allard, MS Corporate Vice President in charge of music
No financial details have been released as yet, but it will be interesting to see how Musiwave’s other clients react to this.
They just wouldn’t let it lie, would they? After seemingly dismissing Google’s Android mobile OS and its Open Handset Alliance (OHA), Nokia is now saying it might participate after all.
After Google unveiled its open-source rival to Symbian earlier this week, Nokia was notable by its absence from the OHA.
Google announced over 30 of the world’s largest operators and manufacturers as partners, but Nokia and Microsoft, who have their Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms respectively, hadn’t signed up.
At the time, Nokia said Android wasn’t a threat to its part-owned Symbian OS. Now, Nokia has told Reuters it might be interested after all.
“It’s not ruled out at all. If we would see this as beneficial we would think about taking part in it,” said Kari Tuutti, spokesman for Nokia’s multimedia unit. “We should never close any doors.”
So is this an admission by Nokia it mis-judged the industry’s attitude to the upstart Google?
[Via Yahoo]
Despite some people, notably Nokia, Microsoft and Symbian dismissing Google’s new Android operating system, it is apparently ploughing ahead with five prototype phones of one design, based on its Open Handset Alliance software development kit (SDK).
The phone is codenamed ‘Dream’ inside Google and will be used to show what it’s open-source software can do and also woo potential partners to join the Alliance.
The Dreamâ looks like an iPhone only thinner and features a rectangular touch-sensitive screen. Interestingly, the screen is time-sensitive, so when you hold your finger down on an icon, the area expands. The screen also swivels to one side to reveal a QWERTY keyboard.
The ‘Dream’ has the usual functions like email and other messaging forms, and also YouTube. Unlike other phones the YouTube application runs like a java application, meaning that once open it stays open (but running in the background) until you close it. This way, if someone sends you a YouTube video you can run it immediately without having to run your browser.
The ‘Dream’ is made by HTC, which is already considering a commercial version for the second half of 2008 (the one mentioned by Google?).
[Via Forbes]
Nokia, Microsoft, Apple and RIM - notable omissions from Google’s Open Handset Alliance - have all dismissed Android, the new upstart to a mobile OS market dominated by Symbian and Windows Mobile.
Reuters canvassed the companies on their responses to Android and all brushed it aside, claiming that it may boost web browsing on handsets but won’t threaten their dominance.
“If Google was not involved the industry would have just yawned and rolled over,” John Forsyth, strategy chief at Symbian, told Reuters. He said it would face difficulties basing the platform on an open-source, collectively designed Linux operating system.
He went on: “We have been going nine years and have probably seen a dozen new platforms come in and tell us we are under attack.
“We take it seriously but we are the ones with real phones, real phone platforms and a wealth of volume built up over years.”
Meanwhile Nokia, which owns 48% of Symbian simply said: “We don’t see this as a threat.”
Continue reading ‘OHA rivals Nokia et al dismiss Google’s Android mobile OS’
You kind of have to ask why this wasn’t included in the first place, seeing as how Windows Mobile 6 hasn’t been around all that long. But still, it’s good to hear that Microsoft is supporting its own file formats, with the addition of .docx to Office Mobile.
The Unwired is reporting that this 6.1 update to Office Mobile is due imminently, but we’ve not seen sight of it on any of Microsoft’s pages. Keep your eyes and ears open because it’s bound to drop sooner rather than later.
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