In the last few weeks, there have been all sorts of agreements over various technologies on mobile devices, so we thought we would summarise them all…

• Adobe has announced it will be producing a Flash player for the iPhone, despite Steve Jobs not being happy with it (claiming Flash Lite was too light, and normal Flash was too “bloaty” for the iPhone)
• Nokia has announced the new Microsoft Silverlight technology will become available on Nokia Symbian S60 devices, traditional S40 devices, and their range of Internet Tablets.
• Microsoft has signed a deal with Adobe to bring Flash Lite to Windows Mobile devices, which will be used within the Internet Explorer Mobile browser. The deal also includes Adobe Reader LE for reading PDF documents.

It’s nice to see the main competitors supporting each other’s technology, and not limiting us users, and ensuring each technology has a future irrespective of your chosen mobile device.

The iPhone Dev Team have announced they have already managed to jailbreak (allow running of additional programs) and successfully SIM unlocked (allowing use of other SIMs) the new iPhone v2.0 firmware, which was only released as a beta (as part of the SDK beta) last week. This bodes well for the formal release in June.

Combining the skills of the user development community with the possibility of Sun releasing JME for the iPhone and you start to wonder how long Apple will be able to continue to really control the iPhone applications we can install.

Story and picture courtesy of Engadget.

Although it’s mainly just a rumour right now, it’s believed Sun is working on a version of Java Mobile Edition for the iPhone, using the now released SDK. It’s likely to be released in June or July, not long after the SDK itself is fully released. This should open up a whole range of applications for immediate access on the iPhone, and if available, may limit Apple’s control over what applications are available for the iPhone.

Amid all the Apple announcements yesterday, the BBC updated their website so that they now have iPhone support for their iPlayer. This will allow UK iPhone users the ability to watch selected BBC TV programmes again for up to 7 days after broadcast.

Story courtesy of Berble.com.

Last night, Apple announced that the SDK would be available in June, including an iPhone simulator than runs on Mac devices. A Beta is available now, and some large Enterprise customers will even get access to the new v2 iPhone Beta firmware too. The new firmware brings a number of new, key features for corporate customers:

• Push Email, Calendar and Contacts
• Exchange ActiveSync support
• Cisco IPSec VPN
• Network Authentication (WPA2, 802.1x)
• Security Policies and Enterprise Configuration Tools
• Remote Wipe

Developers will generally be happy with the SDK and the sales model Apple have selected for people buying applications from iTunes or the new App Store option on the iPhone. Basically the developer sets the price the user should pay for the software and Apple will simply take 30% of the revenue as and when it occurs - if the developer sells nothing for months on end, Apple will not charge. Should the developer go one step further and offer the application for free, Apple will not charge anything at all to distribute that application.

Apple have indicated certain types of applications will not be allowed; unlocking tools, illegal items (eg hacking tools, malicious software, pornography).

EA Games, Salesforce.com, and AOL’s AIM were example applications at the launch.

As with the previous enhancement announcement, the new firmware will be provided for free on the iPhone, although there will be a small charge for the same new functions on the iPod Touch.

Some information courtesy of Engadget.

NavNGo have announced plans to release their iGO MyWay 8 SatNav software for the iPhone. It was either use the gomite LogoGPS hardware module to provide the GPS data, or will use their WiFi GPS unit, which allows the iPhone to pick up the location information via WiFi (allowing the GPS unit to be hidden and hardwired into a car, for example). NavNGo already provide a similar solution as part of the Sony PSP solution, so are well used to working on a variety of platforms. Although this has been announced in advance of the iPhone SDK (rumoured for announcement later today), it’s likely to be using the SDK, and may even feature as an example of an approved 3rd party application in Apple’s presentation.

There’s a short YouTube video about this solution here.

The picture is a mockup of what the software may look like, courtesy of Engadget.

Sony have announced this iPod / iPhone Dock / Clock Radio, with the catchy model name of ICF-ClipMK2, which will be available in the US in May for around $100 in both Black and White. No word on UK availability though. Interesting that a main brand like Sony is to support a rival’s device like this…

Well, with the Apple event (to show the iPhone SDK and Roadmap) due on Thursday, what are the main snippets of information that are likely to be announced…

1. Firstly, Apple mentioned an “Enterprise” element to the event. Now, despite many people guessing weird and wonderful things that this could be, we wonder if it’s not the Lotus Notes support announcement that we first covered here and here.
2. The SDK itself will be announced, but rumours are suggesting it won’t be until around June when it will be complete (and possibly to coincide with the launch of the 3G iPhone), so some advanced function may not be available, which may well limit some third party apps from being considered for a while.
3. Again, the rumours are saying that Apple will limit which apps can be installed on the iPhone / iPod Touch, via the use of a chargeable verification scheme (limiting the freeware authors from releasing apps). However, with the iPhone easily unlocked, we wonder if a solution to this will be found soon enough.

We’ll know more for sure on Thursday…

If you are in the market for an external battery pack for whatever device you own, be it an iPhone, a Nokia smartphone, an iPod, or you just want to be able to spend more time away from your device plugged into the mains for charging, then you may be looking for an external battery pack. Berble.com have reviewed one, and the review is here.

Business Week (in the US) has reported that the release of the iPhone SDK, and Apple’s support of third party applications will now not happen in February as first expected, but is still likely to occur in March.

[Via Engadget]

Although it’s not yet made it to the UK Apple Store, the US Apple Store is now listing a 16Gb iPhone for sale. We expect this will be available in the UK too in the very near future.

Also, just announced, a 32Gb iPod Touch is available now too.

O2 has updated the iPhone tariff (to bring them into line with the similar changes they have made to their standard tariffs). The main changes are:

• If you pay £35/month, inclusive calls change from 200mins to 600mins, and texts from 200 to 500.
• If you pay £45/month, inclusive calls change from 600mins to 1200mins, and texts stay at 500.
• If you pay £55/month, you should get moved to the £45/month tariff (which offers better value), although…
• A new £75/month tariff will be launched, which gives 3000mins and 500 texts.

These new tariffs will become available for new customers on Friday, and all existing customers will be moved over during February / March (so don’t go out using all these extra minutes / texts until you are sure you have been moved onto the new rates).

The IBM Lotus Notes support for the iPhone we mentioned here has been delayed by IBM (ie it wasn’t launched at LotusSphere). It’s not clear if the decision was from IBM, or forced on them by Apple, but we expect it should be announced in the next month or two alongside the Apple iPhone SDK.

According to various rumours, Nokia is in talks with Facebook. The exact nature of the talks seems unknown, although some are suggesting Nokia may take a stake in the social networking site. The most prominent features will be opening up the Facebook users as an advertising target for Nokia to target, especially in the US, where Nokia do not have the market share they do in Europe. Another option will be putting a Facebook icon on their phones, in a similar way that the iPhone has a YouTube icon. In return, Facebook may well get advertising space in Nokia’s retail displays.

IBM are apparently soon to launch a Lotus Notes solution for the iPhone (and iPod Touch). Many large corporates are Notes users, and this will allow greater business usage of these devices throughout these companies. Apple and IBM have been working together on this solution, and there are rumours that IBM have had earlier access to the SDK due for release next month. More details are not likely before IBM’s LotusSphere, which starts over the weekend, although it is likely the software will be free.

As we mentioned earlier today, Steve Jobs has announced the ultra-thin MacBook Air just now. The device features an 80Gb 1.8″ hard disk (or an optional 64Gb SSD), 2Gb RAM, a trackpad with multi-gesture support, a 13.3″ widescreen LED backlit screen, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a full sized backlit keyboard.

The laptop thickness (or should we say thinness?) varies from 0.76″ down to 0.16″.

However, the $1799 turns into £1199, which is a premium compared to the US/UK Dollar exchange rate.

In other points, the MacWorld keynote speech also announced iTunes Movies Rentals ($2.99 to $3.99 for a movie, add an extra dollar for HD versions), a major software update (and price drop) for the Apple TV, new applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch (Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes and Weather) although this will be a chargeable upgrade on the iPod Touch, the iPhone 1.1.3 firmware update that we’ve already mentioned, and native Office Mac 2008.

JBL have announced an iPhone speaker dock, the JBL OnStage IIIP, which is similar to previous OnStage docks, but is for the iPhone. It comes with a remote control, and a mini stereo jack for other music devices, and is powered from the mains or from batteries. It will charge the iPhone, and has connections to allow you to sync your iPhone with your PC / Mac. No details of UK availability yet though.

partfoundry have developed a GPS solution for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the locoGPS, and are hoping to release it in February this year. This will allow jailbroken devices to have GPS functionality and a GPS application. Along with the Google Maps Cell-Based Location Services due for the iPhone, it seems these Apple products are adding one of the few features that the top of the range Symbian devices had to differentiate them. With the SDK due to ship in February, we can safely predict this year there will be a lot of new applications and hardware accessories for these devices.

According to Engadget, we may well be seeing a new iPhone firmware very soon, although it may not be released until MacWorld in a couple of weeks. The key features are Google Maps Cell-Based Location services (as already available for many Symbian and Java phones), and the ability to reorder the icons on the home screen (springboard). The springboard also support pagination, which appears to be in preparation for additional applications, due around February 2008 when the SDK formally ships.

There are already rumours that you can’t downgrade, and people with jailbroken / unlocked phones may suffer problems upgrading to 1.1.3

Avaya plan to release their one-X mobile client for the iPhone in the first quarter of 2008 (likely to coincide with the formal release of the Apple iPhone SDK). This will allow corporate iPhone users to link their iPhone to their corporate Avaya PBX (and many other enterprise IP telecommunications networks), allowing calls to be transferred to and from the office and the iPhone. This is already available for other mobile phones, such as Nokia Series60 devices.