Motorola has just officially announced the MOTO Z10, an upgrade to the Z8 and the first phone based on UIQ 3.2. Compared to Z8, the Z10 has HSDPA (3.6 Mbps), support for up to 32 GB microSD cards (in addition to 90 MB of internal storage memory), 3.2 Megapixel camera (3 shots per second) with 30 fps video recording (QVGA only though) and a video editing software preinstalled. Sadly, the specs do not mention any trace of WiFi, so most probably it's still not there. This dual mode, quadband phone (UMTS 2100, HSDPA 3.6Mbps Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE Class 12) weighs 115 g and measures 109x15.5 / 16.5mm and retains Z8's "banana" design. Li-Ion 1030 mAh battery provides approximately 5 hours of 3G talk time, 5 hours of video playback and 12 hours of music playback. 2.2" QVGA 16 million colors TFT display provides 30 frames per second video playback. Read more @ Motorola.com and UIQ.com. Learn more about UIQ 3.2 here.
Friday, January 11, 2008
First UIQ v3.2 phone is launched!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Ask the Expert about Symbian Platform Security, manufacturing grantable capabilities and Java verified.
Forum Nokia has taken initiatives to resolve developers issues regarding new symbian signing process, if any. It is going to devote one week to answering questions on a specific topic on our discussion boards.
So if you have any questions about Symbian Platform Security, manufacturer grantable capabilities and Java signing please ask them. However, Symbian Signed questions are to be asked at the web site set up for Sybmian Signed questions and not in Forum Nokia.
A new complete guide explaining the changes to Symbian Signed and the signing process is also available.
World's First In-Flight Mobile Phone Service on Board International Flights is launched!
Finally dream comes true for Air France. Air France has become the first airline in the world to offer an in-flight mobile phone service on international flights. At the beginning of new year, frequent air-travelers have good news.....they can use mobiles in airplane :-) Currently OnAir supports 2.5 G so data transfer may not be fast. We hope they will upgrade to 3G very soon.
What can passenger do?
Using to the Mobile OnAir system, passengers travelling on board one of the Airbus A318 aircraft operating European routes can now:
- Send and receive sms and mms messages
- Send and receive emails via all phones with Internet access
How does it work?
- Mobile phones connect to a miniature cellular network installed inside this aircraft.
A modem transmits data and calls to a satellite that routes them to a ground station. Data and calls are then routed to the passenger’s usual telephone network. This network is located inside the aircraft. Passengers’ mobile phones only emit at minimum power, which does not risk harming interference with aircraft avionics or ground telecoms network. - Phones are used just like on the ground. To make a call on board the aircraft, passengers simply dial the international prefix (+) or 00 + country code + full number (without the 0).
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
NFC Forum Global Competition
The NFC Forum (www.nfc-forum.org), a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, today announced a call for entries for Touching the Future: NFC Forum Global Competition. In the competition, developers in a commercial track vie for the honor of having their solutions named "The Best NFC Service of the Year 2008," while a research track recognizes "The Most Innovative NFC Research Project of the Year 2008."
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a standards-based, short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables simple and safe two-way interactions among electronic devices. NFC technology allows consumers to perform contactless transactions, access digital content and connect devices with the simplicity of a single touch. NFC technology provides global interoperability of contactless identification and interconnection technologies.
Focusing on the theme "Innovation at Your Fingertips," the competition is intended to promote the development and deployment of innovative and exemplary NFC services. Entries will be judged on their innovation, commercial potential and usability, as well as quality of design and implementation. The competition's Organizing Committee is now accepting submissions; all final proposals must be received by February 15, 2008. Twenty finalists will be judged on April 29, 2008 at the NFC Developers Summit, held in Monaco during the WIMA event (www.wima.mc). The winners will be selected by a jury composed of professionals and experts from sponsoring companies. Entry fees are $150 per submission for commercial entrants, and $50 per submission for research entrants. Entry forms and competition details are available now from www.nfc-forum.org/competition.
"One of the most exciting things about NFC technology is how organizations are applying it to the broadest range of applications in new and imaginative ways," said Christophe Duverne, chairman of the NFC Forum. "This competition recognizes the top innovators in the world while supporting networking in the NFC community to exchange ideas and create new business models."
The competition is divided into two tracks: a Commercial Track for NFC services based on a business case; and a Research Track open to university students and research institutions.
Commercial Track submissions require a business case and prototype; entries will be evaluated on how successfully and innovatively their solutions meet the needs of key vertical market segments. Research Track submissions require a prototype and will be judged on creativity and innovativeness. The Pre-selection Committee will evaluate each entry, and 20 finalists will be announced on March 17, 2008. Each team of finalists will be asked to deliver a presentation and live demonstration at the WIMA event on April 29, 2008, after which the jury will vote to select first-, second- and third-place winners for each track.
Further details about the competition can be found at www.nfc-forum.org/competition.
Gold sponsors of the competition are NFC Forum members Nokia, Over-C and SCM Microsystems. Silver sponsors are NFC Forum members Inside Contactless, Innovision Research &Technology plc, Stollman E+V GmbH and WIMA. Sponsorship is open to both NFC Forum members and non-members. Sponsors may not enter the competition. Organizations interested in sponsoring the competition may contact sponsorship@nfc-forum.org.
Questions about the competition may be sent to competition@nfc-forum.org.
Reference: NFC Forum Global CompetitionSymbian Platform Security - hacked?
Well, I can't believe it, symbian security is hacked. First I thought it was the case only with Nokia phones but I saw application selling this hack on UIQ phones, too :0
We can learn about the big security vulnerability of our Nokia and Sony Ericsson Symbian 9 smartphones. We need to do following steps:
- Take an update firmware package (currently supported only by Nokia for S60 smartphones).
- Edit some part of it, where all those capabilities are listed that a user can grant to a 3rd party application upon installation.
- Update these capabilities.
- Flash this modified firmware.
I think we all now can watch DRM ontent for free on S60 devices like N95 or N73. This will be the big surprise for all content providers. Also we can browse all files in our smartphones including Private folders!
References:- Symbian Platform Security - Hacked?
- Goodbye S60 Platform Security, Hello CAPABILITIES!
- Exploring S60 with AllFiles
- Security Hack on UIQ
- Policy file on Symbian phones
- Hacking S60 3rd edition firmware - Unlimited permissions for untrusted midlets
Thursday, January 3, 2008
S60 3rd Edition SDK for Symbian OS, for C++, supporting Feature Pack 2, Beta
An Extensions plug-in for S60 3rd Edition SDK for Symbian OS, for C++, supporting Feature Pack 2, Beta is released. Details about the content of this package as well as example applications can be found in Forum Nokia's Wiki page for the SDK API Plug-in.
PLEASE NOTICE THE FOLLOWING ISSUES WITH THESE APIs:
1. Nokia is not giving any binary compatibility promise for these APIs; neither between platform versions or within a platform version.
2. You must test your application with each device that the application can be installed on. This is needed to ensure the best possible user experience. To prevent application installation on other than tested devices, define the Product ID/s (also known as Machine UID) in the .pkg file. More information can be found in the document S60 Platform: Identification Codes available on the Forum Nokia Web site.
