Opera Mini was launched about a year back for the Android. It was called Opera 4 then, now we have Opera Mini 5 (Beta) available for download which has some very impressive features. The guys at Opera say that this browser “makes your mobile browsing experience as close as it can be to your desktop experience.” The new features introduced are:

• Tabbed Browsing: Needs no explaining, but this is feature is a must for smart phones.
• Speed Dial: On opening a new Tab, users are presented with a list of small icons, a click takes them to the desired page.
• Opera Link: With this feature users can synchronize their bookmarks and Speed Dial between their Mobile Phones and Desktop Computers.
• Download Manager: OMG, manage downloads form your smart device. This options lets users Pause and Resume downloads at will.
• Page Compression by about 90% ensures that browsing speed are greatly increased.
• Page Zoom.
• Password Manager: Users won’t have to remember those countless passwords instead the manager will store them on the Phone.
• Landscape Mode.

Download from the Opera Mini Page and better still watch the Demo via a neatly designed Simulator that will leave you dazed.

This is it, now we have Skype for the Symbian available for download and use. It is a full feature rich Skype and not a run down version of the popular application. The beta was launched a few months back but this version id presumably free of errors and necessary fixes have been made. Oh and off course the Ovi store is hosting it.

The app will allow users to make Skype to Skype calls on their data connections thus reducing massive phone bills, both local as well as long distance. The app also lets users share and send images  video files. The list of supported devices is rather long and you will find it at the end of the post.

Now is the tie people can really benefit from a WiFi enabled Nokia or even some other device running the Symbian. They say support for Sony Ericsson is coming shortly so hopefully the newest Vivaz might run the app. Those going out of country might find this app extremely useful in cutting down on International calls. However, the preferred medium would still be a WiFi network rather than a 3G Volume based connection. Download from the Ovi store.

The supported devices are enlisted below:

Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 GB, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator,  Nokia 5320,  Nokia E72,  Nokia E71,  Nokia E90,  Nokia E63,  Nokia E66,  Nokia E51,  Nokia X6,  Nokia 5800,    Nokia 5530, Nokia N97 and the Nokia N97 mini

PocketGear has acquired Handango, the announcement was made just a few days back. This might come as a surprise but the benefits are truly amazing, at least for PocketGear, quite simply because this lone move now gives it access to some 140,000 apps of various categories. This includes paid as well as free titles. This might as well be termed as  the creation of so far the largest cross platform, open app store on planet Earth.

The two stores are known to have generated over $ 400 million in revenue resulting from sale of mobile apps. This they say is spread across 175 countries, and the variety of mobile devices supported is well over 2000 in number.

PocketGear’s developer base alone has expanded to some 32,000 strong giving it more variety and reach. This will help improve its stats further as the company has already worked in conjunction with Samsung, Microsoft, LG, Sony Ericsson, RIM, Verizon and AT&T. Simply put more developers and more companies mean more variety and hence more revenue. And remember this is for a variety of devices unlike Apple.

PocketGear supports supposedly all brands less the “i” category Some of the brands under its belt are Java, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Android, Palm, Blackberry and the ever present Symbian.    

PockerGear’s strength comes form its business model which supports developers more than other competitors. PocketGear’s developers get to keep up to 90% of the share as against 70% in case of other models. Besides this the company CEO Jud Bowman says it has perfected its systems in a big way and Handset manufacturers or carriers can now launch their own customized stores in weeks.

Google maps for mobile is an impressive mapping and navigation application, while Google maps has quite detailed maps of Pakistan, way better than any other navigation and map provider but one thing which was missing from Google maps for mobile was turn by turn navigation feature. But now Google has enabled this feature for Pakistan and now users using Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Windows and Symbian s60 series smart phones can use this feature. Google maps for mobile is a free application and just requires a data connection on your smart phone, although GPS is not required but availability of GPS or A-GPS can enhance the experience many times.

I guess this has to be the gadget of the year. No matter how much I surf for new gizmos this one gets the cake, I mean we have heard about wireless charging but this one beats them all. The device I am talking about is an RCA charger from Airnergy that harvests electricity form Wi-Fi signals to charge batteries. Now that is certainly cool, but wait there is more to it.

It was unveiled at CES 2010, and charged a BlackBerry from 30% to 100 % in about 90 minutes. All it needs is a Wi-Fi router or AP in the vicinity, if there are more than one off course the performance will increase. It also has a battery inside it so one can charge it and carry anywhere. It also has a USB for attaching to various mobile devices. Coming in summer it will cost around $40.

Watch the video here.

Mobile phones have become a part of our lives so much that we can not imagine going anywhere without them. Sometimes fitting in our pocket, sometimes sitting in a purse these devices make our lives easy, till we go on vacations. Every now and then we hear of people loosing their mobiles which is catastrophic for most, as a mobile phone not only carries one’s contacts list but also data that is vital, like family photos, videos and other info.

A new device simply called as the “ZOMM” is a brainchild of a Laurie, who happens to be a mother of three. The motivation was simple, she kept on hearing about people loosing their devices and set out to make a wireless leash. The product was demonstrated at CES 2010 and attracted quite a crowd.

The device secures mobile phones, acts as a speakerphone for incoming calls, has a panic button for calling emergency numbers from anywhere in the world. The gizmo works over Bluetooth, just pair it with your mobile phone and if you walk away for more than 30 feet it will sound an alarm telling you that you have forgotten your mobile phone. It is also a hands free through which one can receive calls. Besides all this one can make emergency calls to 911 by pressing it for 9 seconds.

A good device, but my question is what if you loose the ZOMM? Check out the ZOMM website.

CES 2010 in Las Vegas is the event not to be missed by technology enthusiasts and consumers alike. The events has everything for anyone and everyone, ranging from the latest cell phones, home theatre systems, laptops, processors and what not. The event is still very much in progress till January 10th 2010. One hot attraction is the Quadricopter that was unveiled at this show. It is a small toy craft which has four propellers, it can be flown anywhere (indoors as well as outdoors), has dual camera system, flies at 18 Kmph, weighs around 400 grams, connects via WiFi and best of all it can be remotely controlled by an iPhone or iPod Touch. That just about sums it up.

It is a work of art and only a genius could have imagined such a device. Also called as the AR Drone, it is made of Carbon Fiber and high resistance plastics. This means one doesn’t have to worry about the minor bumps, bruises and falls that might come. The device will stream live video to users iPhone/iPod Touch on a WiFi link.Besides all this it has necessary Image processing software for added reality, and better piloting of the craft.

In my previous post on the Nexus One I wrote that that the Nexus will take sometime in beating the ever present iPhone, I still maintain this. But let me for a change say this that the way things are going (in the Google world) competitors need to feel threatened. What made me think so? well to begin with was the Google’s new approach to buying a Mobile Phone which gives one the ability to explore a mobile phone in ways that were previously unimagined. Impressive is the word that comes to one’s mind followed by “Ingenious”. Imagine holding your hand next to the screen in order to compare it with an editable image and then see how the Nexus One would look in your hand.

The Android today is running on at least 20 devices, in 19 languages, in 48 countries supported by 59 mobile companies. All this happened just a year back! That’s good going so far. Google now is selling the Nexus One on a Google hosted web store and the first device to be sold will be the Nexus One off course. This is quite different form the previous practice and welcome indeed. According to Google they want to “make the overall user experience simple: a simple purchasing process, simple service plans from operators, simple and worry-free delivery and start-up.”

It takes someone like Steve Jobs to make an iPhone, the very device that has literally taken the world by storm. As of today some 21 million devices of various models starting from the iPhone to the iPhone 3G and the 3GS have been sold. Downloads at the Apple Store have crossed the 3 billion mark in just 18 months. Even if these figures are exaggerated by 10% we can safely say that iPhone has sold like no other mobile phone has. Like it or not this makes it the most popular device on the planet. Try as the may Nokia (with Maemo), HTC (with Android) and Samsung (with Bada or TouchWiz UI) are no match for the iPhone.

But now it seems Google with HTC has got the iPhone in the crosshairs with the much touted and hyped about device called as the Nexus One. It is said that the looks alone are enough to make one drool. Both companies have worked hard in an effort to beat the mobile phone the world loves so much. The device is going to have a Snapdragon CPU clocking at a cool 1 GHz, it will boast of Android 2.1 besides having a 5 MP camera. The important specs are:

• 3.7″ capacitive Touch screen with 480 x 800 display.
• 512 MB of ROM and RAM
• 4 GB microSD card (included) and expandable microSD up to 32GB

I think it will be a long time before Nexus will be able to make a serious dent in iPhone’s popularity. Yes, iPhone’s market share will go down but it will take a sometime, ingenuity and good luck for Nexus One or any other mobile phone to beat the iPhone. Simply because people the world will not stop using their devices and Apple will not stop making/selling new models. In my opinion the coming months will see intense competition which is good for the buyers. The unlocked device it is said will cost around $530, whereas a two year contract with T-Mobile will cost something like $200.

Buying a new mobile phone is an experience which is always full of excitement. There is the pre-purchase period during which one tries to find information about the object of his/her infatuation, then there is the smirk period during which one enjoys the thought of buying a new gadget and finally is the dreaded period during which one starts using the device. That is when one has to move contacts and other data from the old device to the newer one.

Moving stuff form the (old external) memory card like photos/videos etc is easy as one can copy it on a PC and then transfer it to the new device using USB card reader or any other method. The major problem in most cases is moving the Contacts (which we are all afraid to loose). The prime reason is because all mobile phone makers have their own customized software for synchronizing data between devices and PCs. Nokia for instance has Nokia PC Suite and Nokia Ovi Suite, Sony Ericsson has its own version of the PC Suite and off course Samsung calls its sync application as Samsung New PC Studio.

Contacts are always saved in formats like .csv, .vcf, .npf. These formats have various fields for storing personal data like Name, phone number, email address , street address etc. The problem arises when you buy a different brand of mobile device then your previous one and your contacts are present in the old PC Suite.If your contacts are stored on the SIM then all you have to do is insert the SIM in your new mobile phone and start using it. But that is seldom the case, because normally we have contacts that far exceed the maximum 250 contacts limit set by SIMs. In  that case we are forced to store our contacts on phone and this means trouble when transferring them on to a device of a different brand.