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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

WAC, Opera and Android

James Rosewell writes:

Just in time to make it into 2010, the Wholesale Application Community (WAC) has gained some important but relatively unreported publicity courtesy of Opera. It’s a slightly early Christmas present for Peters Suh, WAC CEO and a man keen to ensure the industry is presented with a story showing WAC meeting its targets.

Yesterday Opera announced that its new widget runtime for Google Android will support the WAC 1.0 Specification. This runtime enables developers seeking to launch apps with the WAC on day 1 to start development and testing on the Opera platform. It also provides some assurance that a significant and major vendor is going to support WAC technically on the fastest-growing mobile Operating System (OS). The announcement should go some way to eliminating doubts concerning the technical credibility of the project. After all, Opera has a reputation for supporting a wide range of mobile devices and this announcement means all the Android ones will support WAC applications. Expect more Opera platforms to follow in 2011.

However WAC 1.0 and Opera’s new runtime are both Alpha status, so I’m anticipating some fairly major technical changes before version 2.0 is agreed and the whole thing moves to Beta late Q1 or Q2 2011. So don’t rush out and start creating WAC applications unless you’re prepared to make some changes in a few months.

Considering Opera is widely used by many network operators who are members of the WAC to reduce demand on their networks via proxy server technology, it makes sense for Opera to be among the first companies to announce support. The question now is “when will other browser vendors follow?”  Expect to see many more announcing support in the run up to MWC11. After all, building on HTML5 makes it relatively easy and cheap to support and there’s little to lose at this stage.

So the technical credibility of the WAC seems rosy. However, commercial credibility remains in doubt and will be a matter for 2011. I’ll have much more to say next year!

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Opinion Articles

Review: BeeWi BBS020 solar-powered hands-free Bluetooth car kit

Mark Bridge writes:

Persuading mobile phone users not to hold their phone when they’re driving should be a simple task. It’s dangerous, it’s against the law and the penalties include a fine plus points on your licence.

But even then, there’s often an excuse about convenience and usability. Some people don’t like wearing headsets, some don’t like wires and some simply forget to charge the batteries.

That’s why a new hands-free Bluetooth loudspeaker from French company BeeWi caught my eye.

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The simple case of the disguised iPhone 4

Mark Bridge writes:

I remember the launch of Carweek back in the 1990s. It was a motoring magazine produced as a weekly glossy newspaper; a novel format, although one that probably led to its demise. 'Spy shots' of prototype cars seemed then – as now – to be much sought-after, despite them often not showing much resemblance to the finished product. Indeed, I often wondered how you could possibly road-test the handling of a new car when it was covered with unflattering body parts that served to disguise its shape.

Author: The Fonecast
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Maria Sharapova and the 'geek porn' of unboxing

Mark Bridge writes:

'Unboxing' is - or was - the new geek porn. We know this because The Register told us so in 2006, when the practice of video recording the unpacking of new consumer electronics products started to become popular. Just over two years later The Independent tried to tell us that unboxing was still the new geek porn but, by then, conventional porn had probably returned to... er... pole position.

Why do I mention this?  Well, Sony Ericsson has just published its own unboxing video featuring tennis player, model, charity worker and Sony Ericsson brand ambassador Maria Sharapova.

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Scaremongering news stories? There's an app for that

Mark Bridge writes:

Here’s a news headline that caught my eye.

Shotgun certificate up for renewal?  There's an app for that

Or, if you prefer…

Police to allow gun users renew licences with iPhone app

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Mobile payments: solutions get dumber while cards get smarter?

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week I spotted a couple of mobile-related news stories that involved payment company MasterCard. One came from CPI Card Group, which had introduced a “next-generation, MasterCard-approved payment tag” (a.k.a. 'sticker') that enabled “any mobile device to be used to make payments anywhere using the worldwide contactless MasterCard PayPass standard” (by sticking it on the back).

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