Mobility Phones - Mobile Phones

“It’s all about openness and sharing at Google.”That’s the message the Internet giant will be chanting at its third-annual developer conference in San Francisco this week. The two-day event, which is called Google I/O and kicks off Wednesday, will focus on the company’s efforts to foster cloud computing via its open source developer platforms–namely Android, a platform for mobile applications, and OpenSocial, a Web applications platform for social networks.

“Vic Gundotra, an engineering vice president at the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, says the Web made it possible for Google to create developer platforms that are open to anyone and can be accessed from any computer. “Before the Web became a platform for applications, we lived in an era of monarchs,” he says. “You were really at the whim of the owner of the platform. This conference is about Google working to move the platform forward and contributing to the broader community.”

Mobile Linux is well poised to take on the surging smartphone market according to “Mobile Linux: Google and Motorola Hold the Short-Term Keys to Success,” from the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies Service.Mobile Linux offers an attractive package in terms of customization, cost, developer community, time to market, security and multi-chipset support to handset manufacturers and mobile operators, according to industry analysts Strategy Analytics. This report evaluates the current status of the mobile Linux market and assesses the impact of recent initiatives by industry players in the mobile Linux arena.

“Unlike the desktop PC industry there are more than 30 operating systems existing today in the mobile phone industry, over 20 of which are Linux-based,” comments Sravan Kundojjala, Analyst at Strategy Analytics. “This has been a concern for the industry, but recent moves suggest consolidation is in the cards.”

Stuart Robinson, Director of the Handset Component Technologies service, adds, “Strategy Analytics believes recent initiatives by Google and Motorola could solve problems like consistency of APIs, slow adoption of mobile Linux in developed markets and fragmentation. We also believe that interest in Linux is at an all-time high and that it will emerge as a worthy competitor to market leaders Symbian and Windows Mobile.”

Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google announced they have agreed to form the OpenSocial Foundation to ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web. Yahoo!’s support of OpenSocial and role as a founding member of the new foundation are landmarks for the rapidly growing specification which will now offer developers the potential to connect with more than 500 million people worldwide.The OpenSocial Foundation will be an independent non-profit entity with a formal intellectual property and governance framework; related assets will be assigned to the new organization by July 1, 2008. The foundation will provide transparency and operational guidelines around technology, documentation, intellectual property, and other issues related to the evolution of the OpenSocial platform, while also ensuring all stakeholders share influence over its future direction.

“Yahoo! believes in supporting community-driven industry specifications and expects that OpenSocial will fuel innovation and make the web more relevant and more enjoyable to millions of users,” said Wade Chambers, Vice President Platforms, Yahoo!. “Our support builds on similar efforts with the OpenID community and will expand the opportunity for developers and publishers to benefit from an open and increasingly social web.”

“OpenSocial has been a community-driven specification from the beginning,” said Joe Kraus, Director of Product Management, Google. “The formation of this foundation will ensure that it remains so in perpetuity. Developers and websites should feel secure that OpenSocial will be forever free and open.”

The OpenSocial Foundation website at www.opensocial.org will serve as the portal for the community to find all information about OpenSocial and the foundation as they evolve. Developers and website owners can now visit www.opensocial.org for the latest specifications, links to other resources, and the opportunity to get involved.

Engineers from Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google will continue to work together and with the OpenSocial community to further advance the specification through the new foundation, continuing several core elements of OpenSocial since its announcement by Google, MySpace, and many others in November 2007:

* all specifications are available under a Creative Commons copyright license

* public community involvement shapes the specification’s direction

* an open source reference implementation called Shindig is being created and developed as a project in the Apache Software Foundation incubator, available at http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/

About OpenSocial

OpenSocial addresses an emerging problem for developers who are eagerly building applications people can enjoy with their friends: before OpenSocial, if a developer built a “favorite photos” application to work on one social network, it would have to be built all over again to work on another site. OpenSocial tackles this problem at its technology roots, providing common “plumbing” that lets social applications run on many different websites without requiring duplicate work from either developers or the websites.

The result is a vast distribution platform for social applications, whether they are for sharing photos or playing games or arranging real-world meetings or any number of other activities — everything is more fun, interesting, and useful when users can involve their friends and contacts.

Steady Evolution, Important Milestones Millions of people around the world are beginning to see the benefits of the OpenSocial platform as new features appear on their favorite social networks. MySpace launched the MySpace Developer Platform, which uses the OpenSocial APIs, and began rolling out applications to its users. orkut has also started making OpenSocial applications available to its users, and hi5 will do so at the end of March.

Thanks to the Shindig reference implementation, most websites can have a proof of concept of OpenSocial applications up and running in days. That means websites need only to make this small time investment in order to make thousands of new social features available to their users.

Global members of the OpenSocial community include Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, XING, and others. In time, OpenSocial will unlock more powerful and pervasive social capabilities across the entire web, as developers’ applications can easily reach users across any of the websites, web applications, or social networks they use.

Verizon Wireless and AT&T were the major winners across the board, together accounting for more than 80% of the auction’s $19.1 billion in bids. Verizon won seven of the 12 Regional Economic Area Groups (REAGs) in block C which provides nationwide coverage in the continental United States and Hawaii, and which also carries an “open network” requirement for the license holder. According to ABI Research senior analyst Nadine Manjaro, “These licenses will enable Verizon to extend coverage into rural areas and potentially pose a significant threat to rural operators. In addition, since Verizon has announced plans to deploy LTE, it is highly likely that LTE will be deployed in this frequency band.”"It’s no surprise that Google didn’t win,” Manjaro continues. “Google just went in to get the networks opened up. They did achieve their goal of requiring that the networks be open to whatever devices they intend to bring to market, without incurring major costs. The rules of the C block requires the spectrum to be open to any device and any application.”

EchoStar, which won a nearly nationwide footprint in the E Block, could be the new mobile broadband operator which the FCC hoped the 700 MHz auction would produce. EchoStar could potentially deploy mobile WiMAX services similar to those of Sprint and Clearwire, realizing its longtime strategic goal of adding broadband data services to its video offering. A major hindrance, however, says Manjaro, is that EchoStar only has six MHz of spectrum in each market compared to Sprint’s approximate 90 MHz in each market.

There is one other fly in the ointment: the failure of the D Block emergency services part of the spectrum to attract the required minimum bid. While some have suggested that Sprint might spin off the Nextel iDEN network to form the basis of a new nationwide public safety network, Manjaro disagrees: “Sprint is committed to iDEN, and has announced plans to grow it to 36 million customers. After this major disappointment for the FCC it’s back to the drawing board for them, and I think they will re-run the D Block auction with new requirements - probably lowering the reserve price.”

“The results of this auction will mean changes for existing operators,” Manjaro continues. “With flat rate pricing, all operators are now commoditizing the bandwidth. They will have to get creative in developing new services to increase revenue. Some are already starting down that path, with Verizon creating its A-IMS (Advances to IP Multimedia Subsystem) platform and kicking off its Open Development initiative, which allows third-party developers to build new applications and services for the network. That means consumers will win through flat-rate pricing and the ability to buy any device and use it on any network. That’s what the FCC wanted, and to me, it looks like a win-win situation, except for the rural operators mentioned above.”

“Google Inc has seen an acceleration of Internet activity among mobile phone users in recent months since the company has introduced faster Web services on selected phone models, fueling confidence the mobile Internet era is at hand, the company said on Tuesday.”

Relevantis, Inc. today released the first advertising solution to support Android, Google’s new mobile phone platform. Beating Google to the punch, Relevantis’ Universal Ad Platform supports Android-optimized web sites but is aimed squarely at developers of Android widgets, applications and games. The platform allows these products to include relevant advertising, giving developers an ad-supported distribution option. Relevantis takes a small portion of advertising revenues as its fee, and only makes money when the developer makes money.Relevantis specializes in supporting highly relevant advertising within embedded applications and widgets. Its new platform enables Android developers to include personalized and location-aware advertising within their applications. And, unlike the expected Google ad platform for Android, Relevantis supports a variety of ad networks — not just Google.

“When Google announced Android, everybody expected that it would exclusively support Google ads. However, Google’s ad platform doesn’t even support Android applications at all yet; and, when it does, the ads will most likely be available for Android-optimized web sites instead of embedded applications,” said Relevantis CEO Scott Searle, adding that “Relevantis’ solution is uniquely designed to support Android widgets, games and other embedded applications as well as web sites. And, perhaps more importantly, our platform supports multiple ad networks, not just Google. So, developers can choose to receive ads from one or more major networks like Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL in addition to Google.”

Relevantis provides Android developers with access to a powerful set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow for full control over the advertising presented in their products. The APIs also enable the caching of ads on Android devices. This allows applications to display advertising even when the device is out of range of a network or when it is in airplane mode. For example, an Android user riding the subway in New York City can view and interact with ads without being connected to the Internet.

“The goal is totally integrated ads that compliment the Android experience,” said Mr. Searle.

Six months after the iPhone’s U.S. launch, has the device changed the mobile landscape? According to M:Metrics, the mobile media authority, the answer is yes. Today, the measurement firm reports that the iPhone is already the most popular device for accessing news and information on the mobile Web, with 85 percent of iPhone users accessing news and information in the month of January.”The iPhone has certainly delivered on its hype,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst, M:Metrics. “Beyond a doubt, this device is compelling consumers to interact with the mobile Web, delivering off-the-charts usage from everything to text messaging to mobile video.”

M:Metrics found that a staggering 30.9 percent of iPhone owners watched mobile TV or video, versus a 4.6 market average, and more than double the rate for all smartphone users. Usage of social networking is also popular among iPhone users: 49.7 percent accessed a social networking site in January, nearly twelve times the market average. Twenty percent of iPhone owners accessed Facebook, one of the first Web properties to customize its content for the iPhone, versus 1.5 percent of the total mobile market.

“This data indicate that the iPhone’s widgets are an effective means to drive mobile content consumption,” observed Donovan. “Two featured widgets, YouTube and Google Maps, are extremely popular among iPhone users: 30.4 percent accessed YouTube and 36 percent used Google Maps. In comparison, only one percent of all mobile subscribers accessed YouTube and 2.6 percent checked out Google Maps.”

M:Metrics is also the first to report use of the music playing capability of the iPhone, with 74.1 percent of iPhone owners listening to mobile music in January, compared to 6.7 percent of the total mobile audience. Eighty four percent of iPhone owners who use an MP3 player use an iPod.

M:Metrics revealed the demographic composition of iPhone users, which are similar to the demographics of other smartphone owners. They are more likely to be: male, aged 25-34, earn more than $100,000 and have a college degree, than the average mobile subscriber.

“While the demographics of iPhone users are very similar to all smartphone owners, the iPhone is outpacing other smartphones in driving mobile content consumption by a significant margin,” said Donovan. “In addition to the attributes of the device itself, another important factor to consider is the fact that all iPhones on AT&T are attached to an unlimited data plan. Our data shows that once the fear of surprise data charges is eliminated, mobile content consumption increases dramatically, regardless of device.”

M:Metrics applies trusted media measurement methodologies to assess the audience for mobile content and applications. As the world’s most authoritative mobile media measurement firm, M:Metrics delivers the most accurate mobile market metrics through the world’s largest monthly survey of mobile subscribers as well as automated data collection methodologies. Below are the findings of its January Benchmark Survey.

Opera made Google(TM) the default search engine in Opera’s mobile Web browsers. Now anyone using Opera Mobile or Opera Mini can access Google’s powerful mobile search directly from the browser start page, meaning they’ll be able to quickly and easily get the information they need, whenever and wherever they need it.Opera Mini’s ongoing success is proof of the mobile Web’s adoption by mainstream consumers. Because Opera Mini targets feature phones that have traditionally possessed limited browsing capabilities, millions of people have made the personal choice to download and install Opera Mini to their phones. These consumers tend to use the mobile Web more frequently and actively than consumers with more static, less dynamic mobile Web browsers. Every month, Opera Mini users browse more than 1.7 billion pages, with much of that traffic generated through the search function in the browser.

Google has been the default search option on Opera’s desktop browser for seven years. This new mobile collaboration covers all global territories except Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and includes all of Opera’s standard mobile Web browsers.

“Google and Opera have established a valuable relationship over the years and we look forward to continued collaboration on mobile products,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. “With 2008 poised to be the year the mobile Web goes mainstream, Google and Opera are extending this collaboration to give our users immediate access to the quality and convenience of Google’s search results. We’re excited to extend this productive relationship and we hope that the nearly 100 million people using our mobile products will agree.”

Opera Mini is available completely free from http://www.operamini.com/. Opera Mobile is also available from http://www.opera.com/ in a free trial on select platforms. Google will appear as the default search engine for new and current users of Opera Mini as of March 1, 2008.

Nokia and Google today announced that Google’s popular search engine will be integrated with the Nokia Search application. The integration will begin in select markets with the Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 6220 classic. Google search will be extended to additional Nokia handset models in the future. Ultimately, Nokia will make Google search available to its customers in over 100 countries around the world, serving mobile owners speaking more than 40 languages.Nokia Search, now with Google, offers fast and easy access to web information from the handset. In addition, Nokia Search also makes it possible for users to search content on their device and use local search engines for a complete search experience. Nokia Search is available on many devices and provides direct access with one click from the active standby screen, saving users time and steps in their searching. Once users have found the information they are seeking, Nokia Search enables users to act on that information by engaging device assets such as maps, messaging or the browser with just one click.

“Providing choices for our consumers is an important driver in Nokia’s Internet service strategy,” said Ilkka Raiskinen, vice-president, software and services at Nokia. “This integration allows our consumers the ability to use the innovative search technologies, which have made Google almost synonymous with Internet search.

“Adding Google to Nokia Search provides mobile users with fast, relevant and comprehensive search experience that will be familiar to the people who use Google to search the web from their desktop,” said Google’s VP of Engineering and Products for Mobile Vic Gundotra. “Google search combined with the high quality applications on Nokia devices help make information available to Nokia device users wherever they are and provide an excellent overall experience.”

The collaboration announced today builds on previous cooperation between Nokia and Google. Google search has previously been available on Nokia Internet tablets, and last year the Nokia N95 8GB became the first mobile device to fully support YouTube, the video-sharing platform owned by Google.

“Korea’s Samsung Electronics hopes to have a phone based on Google’s Android mobile phone software platform by early next year, it said at the Mobile World Congress on Monday.”

“Bidding on a valuable chunk of nationwide wireless spectrum Thursday reached the level needed to trigger new “open access” rules championed by Google Inc. and others.”

Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. and the world’s leading GPS manufacturer, today announced its entrance into the mobile phone market with the nuvifone, an all-in-one, sleek and slim, touchscreen device that combines a premium phone, mobile web-browser, and cutting-edge personal navigator. The nuvifone is a work of art in features, design and functionality and is destined to transform how individuals connect, communicate and navigate their life.”The nuvifone is an all-in-one device offering unmatched integration of utility and function in a single mobile device,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO. “This is the breakthrough product that cell phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for — a single device that does it all.”

The nuvifone is an innovative mobile phone that has a wide range of advanced yet easy-to-use features. The all touchscreen device is the first of its kind to integrate premium 3.5G mobile phone capability with an internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging, and personal navigation functions in one device. When powered on, the 3.5-inch touchscreen display reveals three primary icons — “Call,” “Search,” and “View Map” which allow the user to effortlessly master the nuvifone’s functions.

The nuvifone is the ultimate multi-tasker. Calls are easily initiated by tapping the “Call” button and selecting a name from the contact list or by using the on-screen keypad. When the user is trying to juggle talking on their phone while entering their vehicle to start a trip, the nuvifone makes the transition simple. When the nuvifone is docked onto the vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling so that the user never misses a beat in the conversation and is able to begin routing to their destination with ease.

Customers familiar with Garmin’s industry leading nuvi product line will feel right at home using the nuvifone’s personal navigation features. It includes preloaded maps of North America, Eastern and Western Europe, or both, and allows drivers to quickly find a specific street address, establishment’s name or search for a destination by category using the nuvifone’s built-in database with millions of points of interest. Turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions guide the user to their destination. If they miss a turn along the route, nuvifone automatically recalculates a route and gets them back on track, speaking the names of the streets along the way.

The nuvifone is Garmin’s first device to include Google local search capability, which harnesses the vast point of interest information available from the world wide web. Nuvifone users can search for locations like “coffee shops” and Google will sort the results based on the user’s current location and relevance. Information provided by Google includes a web-based rating so that users can select the most appropriate destination and route directly to it. In addition, the nuvifone includes a web browser incorporating premium features and touchscreen operation for an optimum mobile browsing experience. The nuvifone also includes personal messaging functions, including email, text, and instant messaging.

For the ultimate in safety, the “Where am I?” feature lets users touch the screen at any time to display the exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations. The nuvifone also helps drivers find their car in an unfamiliar spot or crowded parking lot by automatically marking the position in which it was last removed from the vehicle mount.

In addition to navigation, the nuvifone includes access to Garmin Online(TM), an online service offering constantly-updating information such as real-time traffic, fuel prices, stock prices, sport scores, news reports, local events and weather forecasts.

The nuvifone also includes numerous mobile entertainment applications. The built-in camera allows individuals to take a picture that will automatically be tagged with the exact latitude and longitude reference of where the image was taken. The user may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the image to a recipient who can navigate directly to the location. The nuvifone also provides direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through Google’s Panoramio picture sharing site. The Panoramio photo search feature enhances the enjoyment and adventure of sightseeing in an otherwise unfamiliar location. Other multimedia functions of the nuvifone include a built-in video camera, MP3 and MPEG4/AAC.

Garmin anticipates that the nuvifone will be available in the third quarter of 2008. Specific details about pricing and sales partners will be announced in the future. Additional information about nuvifone is available at http://www.garmin.com/nuvifone.

“Bids for a national bundle of licenses known as “C block” of spectrum in the 700 megahertz range reached $4.29 billion Wednesday, falling short of the FCC’s minimum price of $4.6 billion to trigger “open-access” conditions.”

“Bidding on a valuable chunk of nation-wide wireless spectrum Monday progressed more than halfway toward triggering new “open access” rules championed by Google Inc. and others.”

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and Google Inc. today jointly announced that they formed a partnership that includes providing search services, search-related advertisement and potential applications to i-mode(TM) users.The two companies will also collaborate to enhance the user-friendliness of i-mode services, by making various Google services easier to access through i-mode handsets. The default pre-loading of Google Maps(TM) application into upcoming DoCoMo i-mode handsets is one of the initial initiatives being discussed.

Google, one of the largest search engines in the world, is aiming to fulfill the mission of “organizing the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” i-mode, the pioneering mobile Internet service provided by DoCoMo, boasts nearly 48 million mobile Internet users. By connecting i-mode with various services provided by Google, the parties together intend to increase accessibility, user-friendliness and further develop the usefulness of mobile Internet services in the Japanese market.

In addition to the existing i-mode menu site search service, through the partnership with Google, i-mode users will be served Google search results for mobile and PC web sites via the i-mode portal search-box. Launch of the expanded search services is scheduled in spring 2008. The new search-box will be placed on the top-page of the i-mode portal, increasing the immediate accessibility and convenience of searches on i-mode.

Simultaneously with the launch of the new search services in spring 2008, key-word based advertisements using Google’s ad platform AdWords(TM) will also be provided on the search-result pages in conjunction with the search results.

As a first initiative beyond searches, Google Maps for Mobile is under discussion to become a standard pre-installed application on upcoming i-mode handsets to be launched in the near future. The parties are also planning to collaborate around other services and search-related functions. The parties intend to make it easier for i-mode users to use Google services such as Gmail(TM) YouTube(TM) and Picasa(TM)by giving users more seamless and immediate access over the mobile phone. Furthermore, in all upcoming DoCoMo full-browser capable handsets, Google will be set to appear as the default start-page on the full-browser.

Google, in conjunction with DoCoMo and its subsidiaries, will also further study the possibility of new mobile marketing services directed towards i-mode users. DoCoMo and Google will also continue to study the possibility of bringing Android based handsets to the Japanese market. Android, a revolutionary platform for mobile phones, was announced by the Open Handset Alliance(TM) (OHA) last fall, in which Google was the key initiator of the Android project.

* i-mode and FOMA are trademarks or registered trademarks of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan and other countries. NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA service is only available to subscribers in Japan. * Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks

Wireless broadband pioneer Clearwire Corporation today announced it is teaming up with Google to deliver the company’s popular Google Apps communication suite to Clearwire customers. Clearwire will begin migrating its current customers to Gmail and Google Calendar in the first half of this year. In addition, Clearwire customers will also have access to Google Talk.”Clearwire is excited to launch our relationship with Google to further our commitment to deliver all the Internet has to offer to a person rather than a place. Both companies are built on the foundation of providing a simple to use, rich and open Internet experience and we believe the addition of these communications tools will be a tremendous benefit to Clearwire’s customers”, said Scott Richardson Clearwire’s chief strategy officer. “We look forward to expanding our working relationship with Google further enhancing our customer’s access to the Internet ��� anytime and anywhere.”

In addition to Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Talk, Clearwire will use AdSense for Search to provide Google search capabilities on future Clearwire portal applications.

“We’re pleased to work with Clearwire to offer its high-speed wireless broadband customers access to our leading search and communications tools,” said Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager Google Enterprise. “Our companies share a vision of giving consumers innovative choices that will the change the way they interact with each other.”

a la Mobile announced the support of Google Android with the industry’s first demonstration of applications based on the open source Android application framework, running on HTC’s Qtek 9090 advanced smartphone. The demonstrated applications, some with enhanced graphical user interface (GUI) developed by a la Mobile, include: browser, phone dialer, audio player, maps, camera, games, calendar, contacts manager, calculator, tasks manager and notes.Dispelling the Mystery of Android

“While mobile Linux has made steady progress in the industry since 2006, Google’s advocacy with the unveiling of the Android framework further substantiates the position of Linux as a major mobile operating system alongside Windows Mobile and Symbian,” said Pauline Lo Alker, President and CEO of a la Mobile, Inc. “However, despite the market enthusiasm about Google Android, many questions remain concerning the technical details, and skepticism exists concerning its readiness. As the leader in mobile Linux, we believe it is our responsibility to take the initiative to allay the ‘mystery’ and dispel any skepticism surrounding Android by first demonstrating a complete mobile Linux system stack, including drivers, middleware, and a suite of Android-based applications running on an existing advanced smartphone manufactured by one of the premier handset vendors in the market.”

Building a Complete Mobile Device System Stack

A Linux application platform for mobile devices, Android provides a framework and Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to enable third-party developers to create applications based on a ‘unified application standard.’ While Android’s impending official release of the source code is a great stimulant for popular adoption of Linux and a good platform that enables application interoperability among various mobile devices, it is not an off-the-shelf complete software stack.

A complete system solution for mobile devices consists of numerous software components, including: device drivers, Linux kernel, system utilities, mobile middleware (such as security, device management, provisioning, etc.), an application framework (such as Android) that supports JAVA services, browser, and miscellaneous applications for the end device.

“Despite the open-source nature of the Android framework, developing a complete mobile system solution with customized, differentiated features continues to present major technical challenges requiring considerable time, effort, and resources — a barrier and reach beyond the scope of many handset vendors,” continues Alker. “Our mission is to remove the complexity for handset vendors and mobile operators to enable them to accelerate their device time-to-market, ensure high quality while reducing total development and device costs. The experience we have gained in putting together this demo will enable us to trim a device’s time-to-market by at least half!”

“The wireless industry is preparing itself for the growth in the use of Linux as the operating system for smartphones” said Bill Hughes, Principal Analyst with In-Stat. “Some industry participants are seeking to offer mobile Linux platforms that are only partially ‘open,’ with key interfaces being kept proprietary. In contrast, a la Mobile is pursuing mobile solutions that are open and support third-party application developers and network partners to provide solutions that apply across multiple platforms. a la Mobile’s demonstration of the Android framework on an actual smart device is a concrete example of this vision put into practice. Such efforts support the growth predictions In-Stat has made about the smartphone industry as a whole and the mobile Linux platform in particular.”

“Communications regulators have cleared Google Inc to bid in an upcoming auction of coveted wireless airwaves, according to auction documents released by the Federal Communications Commission on Monday.”

Magellan today premiered its Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS connected auto navigation unit featuring Google Local Search that enables users to get deep, location-specific information on the go. Scheduled to ship in Q1 2008, the Magellan Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS will be the first GPS model to enable users to search for local events — from concerts to local library events — as well as local businesses and services. Magellan will be showcasing its new products in its booth at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show booth (no. 31247) beginning Monday, Jan. 7, 2008.Accessible on the Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS connected navigation device is Google’s real-time local search enabling users to search the Web for businesses in a specific neighborhood, providing detailed, Internet-based information about those businesses — not just the business name or category. For example, users can search for “Star Wars” and find “Target” and “JPM Comics,” among others, or get recommendations for the best banana cream pie near their point of reference. Users simply type in what it is they are looking for and Google displays relevant results around the user’s current location or a user-specified location.

Through the new Maestro Elite 5340’s wireless GPRS connection, Magellan also delivers real-time traffic information, local weather forecasts, and makes it possible for users to wirelessly send addresses and notes to the GPS device directly from a PC with an internet connection. The user can send destination addresses to the Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS in advance of the trip or have someone at home or back in the office send information from the Magellan website directly.

The Magellan Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS is the company’s premiere GPS model. Like all of the newly introduced Elite models, it provides rendered 3-D landmarks and buildings; 6 million points of interest (POI); a USB port; and advanced voice command functionality. The Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS also features a 5-inch WQVGA widescreen; a 533 MHz S-Media 3362 processor; and the ability to perform deep searches on local areas and receive information sent from a PC for on-the-fly changes.

“We’re pleased to be partnering with Magellan to provide users with detailed, relevant local information while on the road,” said John Hanke, director of Google Maps & Earth. “Magellan devices are powerful, interactive tools for navigation and discovery that serve as a cutting-edge platform for Google’s robust local search capabilities.”

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Google to provide GPS users with the most relevant local data available in a format that puts people in control of their travel experiences more than ever before,” said Nelson Chan, president and CEO of Magellan. “Google’s renowned expertise in helping users search and organize information adds a powerful and compelling component to our new Magellan Maestro Elite line. As the GPS category begins to expand beyond basic navigation and into more versatile exploration uses, the personal navigation device (PND) will become a primary resource for drivers and travellers to search for and access real-time information, monitor traffic information about their specific routes, and transmit data between communications devices.”

“Connected PNDs can offer much more than just turn-by-turn navigation,” said Chris Jones, vice president and principal analyst at research firm Canalys. “The successful vendors in this area will combine the compelling, dynamic services the connectivity potentially brings, in a device that is easy to use, has an attractive design, is affordable (both the device and subscription cost) and is well-explained to the customer at the point of sale. The partnership with Google will provide the owners of this new class of device with a familiar and trusted local search engine.”

The Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS is scheduled to be available at retailers in March 2008 for an estimated MSRP of $1299.

The Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS will be compatible with Magellan VantagePointTM, the only desktop application on the market that helps people manage their GPS maps, information, and other content and easily sync it to their devices. Through VantagePoint, which is a free download from http://www.magellangps.com, Magellan customers can personalize and expand their GPS experience.

“Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc is considering a tie-up with Google Inc., adopting the Web giant’s search and email features in its mobile phone Internet service, company sources said on Tuesday.”