Skype for Symbian enables Nokia smartphone users to:
- Make free Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world*
- Save money on calls and texts (SMS) to phones abroad
- Send and receive instant messages to and from individuals or groups
- Share pictures, videos and other files
- Receive calls to their existing online number
- See when Skype contacts are online and available to call or IM
- Easily import names and numbers from the phone’s address book

This gives Nokia an added boost in the face of decreasing marketshare at the hands of Android and the iPhone. The inclusion of the Skype VOIP app will allow users to make voice calls over their 3G data connection, rather than use up their (relatively) expensive voice minutes.

Mobile VOIP seems to be the way of the future, as data speeds increase, and data plans become (slowly) cheaper. It will be interesting to see how the telcos adapt, as voice plans and all of their additions such as SMS, voicemail, caller ID etc, are their bread and butter right now, and these features are all included for free with a $3/month Skype unlimited calling plan, and/or Google Voice.

Skype-To-Go is a service whereby you can call a local number through your regular phone, which will allow you to use your cheap Skype long distance credit (if you have any) to make long-distance calls. You will still be charged for regular minutes usage through your provider, but at least they will be local minutes instead of long-distance.

With Skype offering an unlimited Canada and the US calling plan for $2.95 a month, this basically allows you to get free unlimited long distance for that amount. Not bad.

To enable the Skype-To-Go feature, simply log in to Skype, click on “Account” and then “Skype-To-Go”.

One can only wonder what this means for Canadian Skype-In numbers…

Skype CEO Josh Silverman and Russ Shaw, VP and GM of Skype mobile

According to the announcement, several BlackBerry and Android phones will come with Skype pre-installed upon purchase from Verizon. All Skype-to-Skype calls will be free, and Skype’s standard low international long distance calling rates will apply, while standard Skype calls will function over the traditional PSTN network.

Some of the phones available in March will be the BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8330, Curve 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR.

Perhaps the single biggest factor that will ensure this will be a success is the fact that the Skype apps will always be running, ensuring that you never miss a call – no hoping that you get a push notification in time to close the app you’re working in and start up Skype in time to take the call.

With such a heavyweight in the wireless industry taking such an interest in Skype and putting into good phones which will run Skype to the fullest of its potential, this really makes some noise in the mobile VOIP industry.

Canadian providers will probably be slow to adopt Skype, instead preferring to retain their long-distance voice plan revenue.

3 years after the iPhone, Microsoft has finally gotten into the mobile phone game with Windows Phone. Today, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft announced their OS entry into this sector.

The UI

Microsoft seems to have finally gotten it right this time around, completely redesigning the UI instead of making a smaller version of a desktop OS. Not only have they departed from the stylings of Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft has also departed from the standard “app-grid” layout prevalent in other smartphones, instead going with more of a home-screen-centric design style which has been described as different (gizmodo) and really quite original (engadget).

Microsoft has placed the emphasis on communications instead of apps. This makes sense as the OS is used on a device primarily used for communications. The home screen can apparently be customized, but by default seems to come with a social media portal, a quick button to get to your phone, another for text messages, and another for email. I guess this would be equivalent to the quick launch bar on the iPhone being populated with mail, dialer, an SMS app, and a combined facebook/twitter/whatever app. Except it seems that twitter currently isn’t supported, and it doesn’t seem like google buzz support is likely to be included. Okay, so maybe it’s not so different in practical terms, but it sure appears different.

Music

The Zune software is included of course, allowing access to your Zune library. Whatever phone you get will feature this multi-page Zune software to manage your music.

Office

With Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft has included Office file type support. This is a big bonus for those on the go who need to view and edit office docs quickly and without access to their full computers. While one would obviously not want to fully author entire documents on a phone, the ability to make quick changes and view files sent to you without resorting to some third party app is a huge bonus.

The fact that this OS syncs over the air and has access to the cloud also goes to show that Microsoft has really designed this OS from the user out.

Compatibility

It won’t work with a Mac. This means Microsoft is largely ignoring the droves of students who now use Macbooks, chalking them up as being lost to the iPhone, and are looking at the people who still use Windows computers – businesses. Their competition in this market is the very well established RIM with their BlackBerry devices. It seems shortsighted to eliminate Mac users right off the bat, yet this is Microsoft’s strategy.

Is It Better?

Not really. At least, it doesn’t seem like it. Sure, the UI is different, and with 6 months to go before launch, chances are good that there will be a lot of apps sitting in the app store when phones become available, but many of the complaints about Apple’s app store persist in Windows Mobile 7.

First, there’s no multitasking. Instead, Microsoft is going with a “push notifications” style of multitasking, emulating the iPhone. While this makes sense in a lot of respects due to the limitations of the hardware and battery, there’s serious usability issues with some apps that require instant response, such as VOIP apps. Even instant messaging might prove to be too slow through push notifications.

Second, Microsoft is tying down the OS in terms of hardware and limiting manufacturers as to what they can do to the OS (basically, nothing). HTC’s theming modifications of WinMo 6.5 are out. The handset is just a way to deliver the OS, nothing more.

Third, the Marketplace hub “allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.” I wonder exactly what certified applications means. It implies some approval process, which has been the single largest complaint about the iPhone app store.

Take

3 years late. No multitasking. Strict control. “Certified” apps. Yet another app store for developers to write for. It seems as though Microsoft has missed the mark here. The iPhone app store is on one end of the spectrum – locked down tight, proprietary hardware, closed-source, developers are at Apple’s mercy for approval. While this makes users gripe, it also gives them a very smooth and consistent experience.

On the other end of the spectrum we have Android – wide open, many hardware partners with few limits, open-source, and a relatively open marketplace. While this strategy opens up the market to allow all players to customize their experience, it has the disadvantage of having to support different platforms running different versions of the OS.

Now here comes Microsoft, late to the game, with all the controls of Apple’s solution, and all of the problems of Google’s. Maybe they’ll be able to strike a balance, and maybe if this was 3 years ago we’d have a serious race on our hands, but I expect the windows phone to gain about as much marketshare as the Zune has.

The goal of this alliance is “to create a wholesale applications ecosystem that — from day one — will establish a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services to the widest possible base of customers around the world. In the immediate future the alliance will seek to unite members’ developer communities and create a single, harmonized point of entry to make it easy for developers to join.”

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/02/15/wireless-carriers-app-store.html?ref=rss#ixzz0fdEEx1P7

The current system of app stores (iPhone App Store, Google Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, Nokia Ovi World) seems to work well for consumers if you are only ever going to stick to one platform. However, what happens when you want to switch phones? Maybe you have an iPhone today, but tomorrow you want to go with an Android-based phone? Or what if your job gives you a BlackBerry? All of your purchased apps are now stuck on the old platform and there’s no way to bring them over, even if the same app is available on your new phone.

The current system is no friend to developers either. If a developer wants to reach the different platforms, they have to code up as many different versions of their app as there are platforms, often in different languages altogether. Different APIs, different rules, different features, and different platforms all need to be accounted for and supported.

Just about the only group that benefits from segregated markets are the established app stores. Forcing users to double-buy means that they get that extra cut  on the extra sale, however this is a double-edged sword. For an established app store like the iPhone’s, it provides user retention – someone who has spent $100 on apps isn’t likely to switch to another platform and lose access to their apps. For up-and-coming app stores it’s a rather sizeable barrier to entry. Why should a user with $100 invested in the app store switch to the new guy?

The app developers do get some benefit as well, receiving double revenues on double sales, however these aren’t expected to be very high, and if they are putting in quadruple the amount of work to develop and support multiple versions of their app, it’s of little benefit.

1. google.com/games10

First, google has started a new Vancouver 2010-specific site, google.com/games10 with maps, transit info, news, medal counts, and venues all listed.

2. Streetview atop Whistler Mountain

Second, (and quite cool), google outfitted a snowmobile with streetview cameras and gps equipment, and drove it up to the top of Whistler Mountain.

3. Updated Transit Info

Third, they’ve updated their google transit directions for Vancouver to incorporate all the route changes, making it (hopefully) quite easy to get around town if you have a smartphone.

4. Best of Vancouver

Fourth, users (including athletes), have compiled a “best of Vancouver” archive of interesting spots you can visit via google maps.

5. Google Doodle

Fifth, there’s apparently going to be a new google doodle for each day of the Vancouver Olympics.

The LA Times is reporting on a conversation with an Apple spokesperson who confirmed the recent VOIP over 3G developments in the new iPhone OS 3.2 beta SDK licensing agreement.

“We revised our Program License Agreement in conjunction with our updated Software Development Kit for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Apps,” wrote an Apple spokesperson.  “Included in this update is the ability for developers to create VoIP apps that utilize cellular networks.” -LA Times

The reason why Skype has not yet updated their client to allow this functionality is because their current app and current iPhone users are still under the licensing terms of the 3.1.2 version of the iPhone OS. This version, which is currently running on most devices, forbids the use of VOIP applications over 3G, instead restricting them to WiFi-only. Skype spokesperson Chaim Haas has said that Skype is waiting on Apple for clarification of this issue. “As soon as we have that clarification, Skype will submit its application for approval.”

What this likely means however is that we will have to wait until iPhone OS 3.2 is released so as to not be bound by the restrictions of version 3.1.2.

It seems as though the integration of gizmo5 into Google Voice is steadily progressing, taking one more step last week. The gizmo5.com domain was transferred to google on 18 January 2010, and now gizmo5.com redirects to google.com/gizmo5.

Gizmo5 was a VOIP company which provided both software and a service which allowed users to make VOIP calls. Similar to the popular skype-in/skype-out service offered by Skype, gizmo5 allowed users to register a phone number to attach to their gizmo5 software or device for the purposes of receiving calls, and allowed users to use the service to make cheap calls out to regular phone numbers.

Back in November of 2009, google acquired gizmo5, adding the missing piece to google’s telecommunications services.

It looks as though google’s intentions are to incorporate gizmo5’s VOIP capabilities with google voice’s services to provide a full VOIP service on its Android devices. This means one could have a fully functioning phone through google on only a data plan – no voice plan would be required. Furthermore, due to google voice’s cheap long distance rates, one could conceivably get unlimited talk and text in North America on just a data plan.

DAVE has been pretty tight-lipped about its launch plans, except that they are targeting the consumer rather than the business market.