Rapid Web News

In a move that should help with mobile web design and development for Nokia’s mobile devices, the Symbian operating system which powers these devices has been made open source.

Nokia is releasing their Symbian operating system, which includes the Symbian web browser, under an open source license. Symbian is the most popular smartphone operating system, and its total code base is valued at “billions of dollars”. The open sourcing of Symbian hopes to allow for a greater adoption of the operating system and a method by which to increase the evolution and innovations of the various features of Symbian OS, the Symbian web browser and all its integrated components.

From a web developer’s point of view, the open sourcing of mobile web browsers is fantastic. Open sourcing the mobile web browser in Nokia phones will enable it to be made to comply more accurately with web standards and can allow for increased performance and functionality, which may not be possible or financial viable in a closed-sourced proprietary licensing model.

More information regarding the Nokia OS moving to an open source software model can be found on the BBC website.

If you are interested in web design and development for mobile devices, feel free to browse our web design section or get it touch.

I’ve been trying to get some clarity on what defines a ‘Smartphone’ and the true answer is…nobody knows! Its just a made up phrase by someone in the industry. Some believe that a Smartphone simply allows the use of Email and Internet. Ok looking into this further I see the first phone which allowed this functionality, using WAP, was the Nokia 7110 Dual Band GSM 900/1800 which was first seen in 1999! So if you’re still the proud owner of one of these antiques then you have yourself the very first, by some definitions, Smartphone…Congratulations.

Although this still isn’t good enough for me, if I go into a mobile phone shop and ask to see a range of Smartphones what would I be shown? Well searching for ‘Smartphones’ on the net turns up some varied and interesting results. The top 3 sponsored links display the Motorola Dext, BlackBerry Smartphones and the all new Palm Pre so I think we need to look at the common factors (I’m only using these as examples as they are the first to display, personally I’m waiting for my HTC HD2 to drop through the post any day now, ye-haw).

Firstly I was hoping that all of them are touch screen, but a lot of Blackberrys are not – yet they are still referred to as Smartphones. The plot thickens. The next thing I approached is the ability to use the myriad of different social networks at the touch of a button, Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, My Space etc. Motorola listed this as one of its key features as did the Blackberry but I noticed a lot of Palm Pre users frustrated at the lack of an app for Facebook – so still pulling up short on what defines a ‘Smartphone’. It has to be unification in operating systems for phones but I know this isn’t true without even skimming the net.

Other definitions you may enjoy:

• ‘A ‘Smartphone’ is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with PC-like functionality.’
• ‘Electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other information appliance.’ – This pretty much describes a laptop using Skype.
• ‘A generic name for voice centric mobile phones with information capability’ – this seems more realistic but we’re back to almost any mobile phone ever made!

Well I guess if ‘Smartphone’ is just made up corperate language to sell more PDA’s which you can also make phone calls on I guess I’ll go and run some ideas up a flagpole using some sky blue thinking to make sure all my ducks are in line…

I thought I’d stumbled onto a great piece of tech in the Powermat but digging a little deeper I’m not so sure. So what is the Powermat? Powermat is a device that allows you to wirelessly charge devices like mobile phones and portable gaming devices on a magnetic ‘board’ which can take up to 3 devices at a time.

Now as long as you have an iPhone, Nintendo DS or a Blackberry this is true but for most other devices you have to use something called a ‘Universal Powercube Receiver’ which is basically a small box that contains lots of different adapters for various devices. Ok so looking at this there are only actually 3 types of device which are fully wirelessly supported – 4 Blackberry phones, iPhone/iPod touch and the Nintendo DS lite/DSi so if you have to plug in a device to then place on the mat using the Powercube couldn’t you just save yourself a ton (£69.99 for the home and office Powermat and a further £29.99 for any of the charging devices) and use the provided cable?

I’m struggling to see where it has merit but also I don’t want this article to sound like a drubbing. Say there are 3 people in your office all with iPhone or Blackberrys (all be it limited on the Blackberry models) and you all chuck in for the mat and 3 charging cases then you’ll all pay around £63 for the ability to charge your device wirelessly. Alternatively I did look how much a second charger for each of these units would be; it’s less than £15 for an iPhone charger and for a compatible charger for the Blackberry and DS its £4! So again where’s the merit? To me it just looks like a big boy’s toys.

Personally I feel if they had waited a year or so and spoken to manufacturers about incorporating the technology into the devices it would be a far superior product. At work myself, having a HTC phone, I can use a bog standard USB 2 A to mini B lead directly from my PC with the added bonus of being able to plug lots of other things into it also. This type of cable comes with lots of modern devices and if you work in a tech environment I’m sure you have a bunch knocking about the office.

Hopefully a couple of years down the line it will be a larger part of mobile devices and I can see Powermats on boardroom tables throughout the world after all the ‘jet set’ businessman would breath a huge sigh of relief, I’m sure, if he could go into a meeting and just drop his phone onto a Powermat to charge without having to look for the correct attachment. If you still like the idea you can pick one up from here