Computers And Internet Blog

The Real News

2010-05-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

The Real News is a member-supported English language global online video news network. Launched in 2007 by Paul Jay, a former producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation it states it is "focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism", on "the critical issues of our times".

The Real News relies on supporters' donations, and does not accept funding from advertising, government or corporations. It also receives funding from grants and funds.

The Real News uses internet broadcasting, but it has contracts with satellite and cable television channels which it intends to use for broadcast once it reaches its first sustainability goal of 50,000 supporters. The Real News has bureaus in Washington D.C., and Toronto.

Stated goals

The stated goal of The Real News is to provide "independent and uncompromising" verifiable worldwide coverage of "the critical issues of our times". They aim to avoid what they consider to be pitfalls of mainstream journalism, such as a disproportionate focus on people in high office and reliance on official press releases or wire services to frame debate. Their editorial policies in practice result in focus on issues affecting less powerful people, children, indigenous people, immigrants, women, and laborers. Human rights and environmental issues, topics on religious freedom and freedom of conscience, movements for moral and spiritual values, against war, and against racism usually get daily coverage.

While covering people in high office, The Real News attempts to seek the facts that they feel matter and not limit themselves to reporting what they believe their interlocutors want audiences to hear. In this way, and by bringing in well-informed guests, they hope to trigger debate which covers many aspects of an issue, avoids personal attacks and partisan rhetoric without substance. The Real News also operates forums where their work can be debated and criticized, purportedly to remain aware of their own biases.

The Real News relies exclusively on supporters' donations, and does not accept funding from advertising, government or corporations.

History

On August 10, 2008 The Real News was featured on PBS Foreign Exchange, where host Daljit Dhaliwal interviewed The Real News senior editor Paul Jay.

Staff

The Real News journalist committee includes Lewis H. Lapham, Gore Vidal, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, and Howard Zinn. The most regular political analysts are Aijaz Ahmad, Pepe Escobar and Eric Margolis. The Real News features experienced professional journalists from all over the world. It is planning to host reports from volunteer-based citizen journalism in a dedicated portion of the network's website.

Analysts and correspondents:

* Host and senior editor: Paul Jay.
* Main journalists: Jesse Freeston covers a wide range of topics but specializes in Latin America and resource exploitation. Lia Tarachansky covers Israel and Palestine from the region, and Ania Smolenskaia covers U.S. domestic policy and the health care debate.
* Global senior analysts: Pepe Escobar, Aijaz Ahmad, Minqi Li, and Forrest Hylton
* Other guests: David Harvey, Naomi Klein, Phyllis Bennis, Eric Margolis, Michael Ratner, Gideon Levy, Helen Thomas.

Technical staff:

* Mishuk Munier - Director of News Operations
* Hezvo Mpunga - IT and Website Development
* Taruna Godric - Communications and Volunteer Coordinator
* Elena Perova - Executive Assistant

Other staff:

* Sharmini Peries - Executive Director

Content

The Real News also frequently hosts content by the American News Project, Al Jazeera English, and SleptOn Magazine

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Rabbit Bites

2010-04-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

Rabbit Bites is an Internet video series created by Nicholas Quixote in June 2006. It is featured each week on the cover of the online magazine Salon. The show has been airing on the website since January 2007 and stars two rabbits: Buns, a gray male rabbit, and Chou Chou, a black and white female rabbit.

Overview

The internet show stars Buns (a brown dwarf rabbit) and Chou Chou (an English Lop), two rabbits who critique popular culture from the chairs in their living room. Rabbit Bites began as a good-natured, yet harsh critique of the current state of Internet video and vlogging in particular. Rabbit Bites has satirized many of the video creators who were central in popularizing web video, on which it originally focused. After 6 months, Rabbit Bites started to examine popular culture and give opinions in the rabbits' typical "biting" style. Buns and Chou Chou have covered topics ranging from television shows, such as American Idol and To Catch A Predator, to celebrities, such as Tom Cruise and Britney Spears, and general pop culture topics, such as the iPhone. Now, Rabbit Bites continues in this format as a social critique, particularly of celebrity, attitudes about wealth and luxury, and the death of culture.

The show also has two additional components in some episodes. Chou Chou has her own show, called Coffee With Chou. It's a talk show with Chou Chou as the host and Buns as the sidekick. Chou Chou has done real interviews with author Andrew Keen and blogger Robert Scoble, as well as fake interviews, created by editing previous interview footage with celebrities. Chou Chou has done interviews in this style with stars such as Paris Hilton and Eli Roth. Since the show began, real guests include David Alan Grier, William Redpath, Greg Fitzsimmons, Dana Snyder, Bobby Lee, Tom Papa, Michael Ian Black, Jane Lynch, Carbon Silicon, Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garofalo, and the band They Might Be Giants.

The third component of the show is a "man on the street" segment, in which the rabbits ask one of their correspondents to go out and seek responses from the public. The first of these was done by Nalts, who is popular on YouTube, in regards to finding out about Generation Y and its need for praise.

Philosophical and historical references

Although the show is mostly a critique of pop culture, it does contain some hidden meanings and references to art and history:

* Plato's Allegory of the Cave has been referenced in two episodes. An older one about the podcast "Amyville", and a more recent one about horror films, such as Hostel and Saw.
* In an episode about the infamous Alec Baldwin voicemail message, Buns and Chou Chou talk about how the camera obscura is present in life.
* An early episode about Robert Scoble features paintings by Piet Mondrian.
* An early episode about The Long Tail features the Tower of Babel.
* Two episodes feature the idea and significance of mirror images. An episode covering CSI features mirror images in a painting by Vermeer. Also, an episode covering blogger Ryanne Hodson features the rabbits mentioning mirror images when Hodson holds a stained glass piece that is made to look like her.

In the media

In addition to being featured each week on Salon, the show has been featured on the YouTube homepage, as well as the Yahoo! Video homepage. The show has won The 9 on Yahoo! twice and has been featured in the British newspaper The Guardian. Amanda Congdon covered the show and interviewed Buns, Chou Chou, and Quixote on her series Amanda Across America, and the show has also been mentioned in the New York Times as being "twisted and sublime".

http://en.wikipedia.org/

P2PTV

2010-04-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

The term P2PTV refers to peer-to-peer (P2P) software applications designed to redistribute video streams in real time on a P2P network; the distributed video streams are typically TV channels from all over the world but may also come from other sources. The draw to these applications is significant because they have the potential to make any TV channel globally available.

Technology and use

In a P2PTV system, each user, while downloading a video stream, is simultaneously also uploading that stream to other users, thus contributing to the overall available bandwidth. The arriving streams are typically a few minutes time-delayed compared to the original sources. The video quality of the channels usually depends on how many users are watching; the video quality is better if there are more users. The architecture of many P2PTV networks can be thought of as real-time versions of BitTorrent: if a user wishes to view a certain channel, the P2PTV software contacts a "tracker server" for that channel in order to obtain addresses of peers who distribute that channel; it then contacts these peers to receive the feed. The tracker records the user's address, so that it can be given to other users who wish to view the same channel. In effect, this creates an overlay network on top of the regular internet for the distribution of real-time video content.

The need for a tracker can also be eliminated by the use of distributed hash table technology.

Some applications allow users to broadcast their own streams, whether self-produced, obtained from a video file, or through a TV tuner card or video capture card.

Many of the commercial P2PTV applications were developed in China (TVUPlayer, PPLive, QQLive, PPStream). The majority of available applications broadcast mainly Asian TV stations, with the exception of TVUPlayer, which carries a number of North American stations including CBS, Spike TV, and Fox News. Some applications distribute TV channels without a legal license to do so; this utilization of P2P technology is particularly popular to view channels that are either not available locally, or only available by paid subscription, as is the case for some sports channels.By January 2009, there were about 14,000 P2P channels on PPStream.

Other commercial P2PTV applications outside China are Abroadcasting (USA), Zattoo (Switzerland/USA), Octoshape (Denmark), LiveStation (UK).

Issues for broadcasters

* Broadcasting via a P2PTV system is usually much cheaper than the alternatives and can be done by private individuals.
* No quality of service (QoS). Compared to unicasting (the standard server-client architecture used in streaming media) no one can guarantee a reliable stream, since every user is a rebroadcaster. Each viewer is a part of a chain of viewers which all can have a negative influence on the reliability of the stream (by having a slow PC, a filled downlink or uplink or an unreliable consumer grade DSL or cable connection).
* Less control. If a broadcaster prefers to limit access to their content based on regions, and would like good data on viewer behaviour, such as volume, trends and viewing time, then a traditional broadcasting solution offers more control.
* Professional broadcasters and distributors have used a hybrid solution for many years. Distribution servers are not centrally installed, but are rolled out in a smart, decentralized way. A central management facility manages content distribution over multiple peer servers (also known as Edge servers, or Caches), strategically located near user swarms (generally popular access ISP networks), manages load balancing, redirection of users, view reporting and QoS. Examples are Akamai.

Notable applications

Branded webtv service for end-users

* Babelgum.com (non-live)
* BBC iPlayer (live and non-live, used peer-to-peer technology until December 2008)
* Joost.com (non-live, live trials)
* LiveStation.com (Windows, Linux, Mac) - based in United Kingdom
* Miro (non-live)
* ReelTime.com (non-live)
* Zattoo.com (Windows, Mac)

Commercial solutions for broadcasters

* Alluvium - based in Texas, USA
* Octoshape (Windows, Linux, Mac)
* Pando
* Rawflow

Unclassified (yet)

* CDNetworks (CDN service)
* CoolStreaming (discontinued service)
* Cybersky-TV - software
* PeerCast (Windows, Linux, Mac)
* PPLive - based in China mainland, chinese only program.
* PPStream - based in China mainland
* Tribler - linked to P2P-Next, relies on BitTorrent protocol
* TVUnetworks - Windows and MacOSX P2PTV Software and Network
* Pulse - (Windows, Linux) LGPL P2PTV engine with announcement portal and unrestricted access

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Multicast

2010-04-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

Multicast addressing is a network technology for the delivery of information to a group of destinations simultaneously using the most efficient strategy to deliver the messages over each link of the network only once, creating copies only when the links to the multiple destinations split.

The word "multicast" is typically used to refer to IP multicast which is often employed for streaming media and Internet television applications. In IP multicast the implementation of the multicast concept occurs at the IP routing level, where routers create optimal distribution paths for datagrams sent to a multicast destination address spanning tree in real-time. At the Data Link Layer, multicast describes one-to-many distribution such as Ethernet multicast addressing, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) point-to-multipoint virtual circuits or Infiniband multicast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

MediaCore

2010-04-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

MediaCore Video CMS is an open source media focused content management system. It features: video & audio support, YouTube & Vimeo integration, podcasting, iTunes RSS generation, user-submitted content, embedded media player, wysiwyg editor, search, and is highly customizable. There is both a front-end for users and a back-end for administrators. It is built upon TurboGears, SQLAlchemy, MYSQL and runs with Apache, FastCGI or Mod_WSGI.

Requirements

MediaCore requires a Linux or Unix server that runs Python 2.5.x and MySQL 5.0.x or newer. It should also be noted GCC must be installed and available on the $PATH for certain required Python packages to install properly. Additional requirements can be found on the MediaCore website.

Features

The following is a list of some of the major features in Mediacore:

* Users can browse videos or podcasts
* Users can search for videos by topics and tags
* Users can upload videos to the platform, administrators can moderate newly uploaded videos
* Administrators can add video, audio, or podcasts
* Comment platform and moderation is built-in
* Podcasts can be video or audio
* Automatic iTunes podcast generation
* Automatic RSS generation
* Feedburner support

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Local-News TV

2010-04-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Local-News TV is a local news channel for Bedfordshire, England. The channel is broadcast solely over the internet with content available on-demand.

The channel's primary focus is local news and events in and around Bedfordshire. Local News TV's main aim is improving communication between the people who live in Bedfordshire, delivering information between the public and the public authorities.

Most content is produced by the channel in short clip format by a regular team of 3 or 4 main presenters, though viewers are encouraged to contribute their own local-interest stories and videos. The channel works in partnership with organisations and groups associated with Bedfordshire. These include the Bedfordshire Fire & Rescue Service, Sport England, and with national figures based in Bedfordshire. The channel recently interviewed the president of the NFU Peter Kendall, who farms in Bedfordshire. Local News TV also show studio based recap episodes covering recent OB (Outside Broadcast) stories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

List of streaming media systems

2010-04-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Servers

* Ampache
* Broadwave Allows you to create your own broadcast from pre-recorded or live audio
* Darwin Streaming Server
* dyne:bolic GNU/Linux live CD ready for radio streaming
* Firefly Media Server
* Flash Media Server
* Flumotion Streaming Server
* FreeJ video streamer for Icecast
* Helix Community
* Icecast an open source streaming media server
* PlayOn a cheap media server that runs on a PC and supports Netflix streaming
* PS3 Media Server open source media server for streaming to a Playstation 3
* QuickTime Broadcaster
* Red5
* SHOUTcast audio streaming (HTTP and/or multicast)
* Sockso Free streaming music server, stream music via any web browser
* SqueezeCenter Open source music streaming server, backboned by a music database (formerly known as SlimServer)
* Steamcast a freeware streaming media server
* Subsonic is an open source, web-based media server
* TVersity partially open source, web-based media server
* UltraStream SoundBox Commercial media server based on IceCast
* Unreal Media Server Live MPEG4/MP3 encoding; MPEG1/2/4, WMV, MP3, AVI files
* VideoLAN
* Windows Media Encoder
* Windows Media Services
* GNUMP3d

Streaming server for MP3s, OGG vorbis files, movies and other media formats.

P2P & Multicasting

* FreeCast Java application which allows peer-to-peer stream broadcast
* IceShare P2P Icecast protocol
* MediaBlog
* Octoshape
* PeerCast is a peer-to-peer broadcasting tool which allows you to broadcast without needing much upstream bandwidth
* Peercasting multicasting streaming in a P2P network
* Rawflow
* Red Swoosh
* Tribler
* Veoh

Software as a Service

* Deezer
* eMusic
* eSnips
* gogoyoko
* Grooveshark
* iLike
* Justin.tv Allows users to produce and watch live streaming video.
* Last.fm Internet radio and music community website
* Live365 Live365 streaming media library
* MeeMix
* mog
* Musicovery
* MySpace
* Pandora (music service)
* Playlist.com
* Qik
* Radiolicious Internet radio
* RadioTime
* ShareTheMusic
* Songza
* Spotify free and paid streaming music tool, currently UK/Europe only
* UStream
* we7
* Wuala a free online storage solution with streaming capability

Clients

* Amarok
* RTMP Stream Plugin

* MediaMonkey
* MPlayer
* Screamer Radio
* SDP Multimedia Open Source project to save streaming media to disk
* StationRipper
* Streamripper
* Totem
* VLC Media Player
* Winamp a freeware media player for Microsoft Windows
* XMMS
* Zinf

Other & Unknown

* Campcaster Open source radio station management, live broadcast and remote automation
* FFmpeg
* FORscene Java video reviewing, logging, editing and publishing
* LastBASH
* Liquidsoap
* Mod4Win
* Mount
* Muziic
* Qtch
* QuickTime
* SAM Broadcaster Professional internet broadcasting automation system
* SomaPlayer
* Swarmcast
* Traction
* Xiph.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/

IPTV

2010-04-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is a system through which digital television service is delivered using the architecture and networking methods of the Internet Protocol Suite over a packet-switched network infrastructure, e.g., the Internet and broadband Internet access networks, instead of being delivered through traditional radio frequency broadcast, satellite signal, and cable television (CATV) formats. See Internet television.

IPTV services may be classified into three main groups: live television, time-shifted programming, and content (or video) on demand. It is distinguished from general Internet-based or web-based multimedia services by its on-going standardization process (e.g., ETSI) and preferential deployment scenarios in subscriber-based telecommunications networks with high-speed access channels into end-user premises via set-top boxes or other customer-premises equipment.

Definition

Historically, many different definitions of IPTV have appeared, including elementary streams over IP networks, transport streams over IP networks and a number of proprietary systems. Although (in Mid 2007) it is premature to say that there is a full consensus of exactly what IPTV should mean, there is no doubt that the most widely used definition today for consumer IPTV is for single or multiple program transport streams (MPTS) which are sourced by the same network operator that owns or directly controls the "last mile" to the consumer's premises. This control over delivery enables a guaranteed quality of service (QoS), and also allows the service provider to offer an enhanced user experience such as better program guide, interactive services etc.

In commercial environments IPTV is widely deployed for distribution of live TV, video playout channels and Video on Demand (VOD) material across LAN or WAN IP network infrastructures, with a controlled QoS.

The official definition approved by the International Telecommunication Union focus group on IPTV (ITU-T FG IPTV) is as follows:
"IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as television/video/audio/text/graphics/data delivered over IP based networks managed to provide the required level of quality of service and experience, security, interactivity and reliability."

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Internet television

2010-03-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Internet television (otherwise known as Internet TV, iTV or Online TV) is television service distributed via the Internet. It has become very popular during the 21st century with services such as the Hulu in the United States, Nederland 24 in the Netherlands and BBC iPlayer, 4od, ITV Player and Demand Five in the United Kingdom.

Concept

Internet television allows its users to choose the program or the TV show they want to watch from an archive of programs or from a channel directory. The two forms of viewing Internet television are streaming the content directly to a media player or simply downloading the program to the user's computer. With the "TV on Demand" market growing, these on demand websites or applications are a must have for major television broadcasters. For example the BBC's iPlayer brings in users which stream more than one million videos per week, with one of the BBC's headline shows "The Apprentice" taking over 3 - 5% of the UK's internet traffic due to people watching the first episode on iPlayer.

Every night the use of On Demand TV peaks at around 10 pm, Most providers of the service provide several different formats and quality controls so that the service can be viewed on many different devices. Some services now offer a HD service along side their SD, streaming is the same but offers the quality of HD to the device being used, as long as it is using a HD screen. During Peak times the BBC's iPlayer transmits 12 GB (gigabytes) of information per second. Over the course of a month the iPlayer sends 7 PB (petabytes) of information.

Before 2006, most Catch-up services used peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, in which users downloaded an application and data would be shared between the users rather than the service provider giving the now more commonly used streaming method. Now most service providers have moved away from the P2P systems and are now using the streaming media. This is good for the service provider as in the old P2P system the distribution costs were high and the servers normally couldn't handle the large amount of downloading and data transfer.

Market competitors

Many providers of internet television services exist including conventional television stations that have taken advantage of the internet as way to continue showing programmes after they have been broadcast often advertised as "On Demand" and "Catch Up" services. Examples include the BBC, which introduced the BBC iPlayer on 25 June 2008 as an extension to its "RadioPlayer" and already existing streamed video clip content, and Channel 4 that launched 4oD ("4 on Demand") in November 2006 allowing users to watch recently shown content. Most internet television services allow users to view content free of charge however some content is charged for, Channel 4's internet television service employs a pay per-download system for some of its content. Other internet television providers include ITV player, Demand Five, Eurosport player and Sky Player.

Access/usability

Accessing internet television is a relatively simple process. Using an Internet Service Provider, something which is common in many homes in the developed world, the user simply enters their chosen website address. For example, bbc.com/iplayer or http://video.pbs.org

. If the user has no select preference of streaming service, the name of a chosen television programme can be inputted into a search engine followed by a phrase such as “online streaming” or “watch on the net”. Accessing television on the internet has never been so simple, due to this usability of streaming services has had to be improved to maintain the simplicity of the process. Upon selection of a programme and website, the user may have to wait a few seconds or minutes to allow their desired programme to stream. A process called buffering allows the programme to run in one smooth showing as opposed to stopping and starting to allow the programme to stream.

Control

Controlling content on the Internet presents a challenge for most providers; to try to ensure that a user is allowed to view content such as programmes with age certificates, providers use methods such as parental controls that allows restrictions to be placed upon the use and access of certificated material. The BBC iPlayer makes use of a parental control system giving parents the option to "lock" content, meaning that a password would have to be used to access it. Flagging systems can be used to warn a user that content may be certified or that it may be post watershed for a programme. Honor systems are also used where users are asked for their dates of birth or age to verify if they are able to view certain content.

Archives

An archive is a collection of information and media much like a library or interactive storage facility. It is a necessity for an on demand media service to maintain archives so that users can watch programmes that have already been aired on standard broadcast television. However, these archives can vary from a few weeks to months to years, depending on the curator and what programme it is.

For example, BBC iPlayer offers most of its programmes for 30 days after their original air date on the BBC. However, some special programmes such as Panorama are available for an extended period because it is a factual programme and is highly watched and so is worth the extra money needed to host it for longer.

In contrast 4OD channel 4's on demand service offers many of its much older programmes as well that were originally aired years ago. An example of this is the comedy "The IT Crowd" where users can view the full series on the internet player. The same is true for other hit channel 4 comedies such as "The Inbetweeners" and "Black Books".

Having an extensive archive however can bring problems along with benefits. Large archives are expensive to maintain, server farms and mass storage is needed along with ample bandwidth to transmit it all. Vast archives can be hard to catalogue and sort so that it is accessible to users.

The benefits in most cases outweigh these problems. This is because large archives bring in far more users who in turn watch more media, leading to a wider audience base and more advertising revenue. Large archives will also mean the user will spend more time on that website rather than a competitors, leading to starvation of demand for the competitors.

Broadcasting rights

Broadcasting rights change from country to country and even within provinces of countries. These rights govern the distribution of copyrighted content and media and allow the sole distribution of that content at any one time.

An example of programmes only being aired in certain countries is BBC iPlayer. Users can only stream content from iPlayer from Britain because the BBC only allows free use of their product for users within Britain because those users pay a TV license to fund part of the BBC.

Broadcasting rights can also be restricted to allowing a broadcaster rights to distribute that content for a limited time. Channel 4’s online service 4OD can only stream shows created in the US by companies such as “HBO” for 30 days after they are aired on one of the Channel 4 group channels. This is to boost DVD sales for the companies who produce that media.

Some companies pay very large amounts for broadcasting rights with sports and US sitcoms usually fetching the highest price from UK based broadcasters.

Profits and costs

With the exception of Internet connectivity costs many online television channels or sites are free. These sites maintain this free TV policy through the use of advertising, short commercials and banner adverts may show up before a video is played. An example of this is on the abc.com catch up website; in place of the advert breaks on normal television a short 30 second advert is played. This short advertising time means that the user does not get fed up and money can be made off of advertising, to allow web designers to offer quality content which would otherwise cost. This is how online TV makes a profit.

Technologies used for Internet television

The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) consortium of industry companies (such as SES Astra, Humax, Philips, and ANT Software)is currently promoting and establishing an open European standard (called HbbTV) for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast and broadband digital TV and multimedia applications with a single user interface.

Current providers of internet television use various technologies to provide a service such as peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies, VoD systems, and live streaming. BBC iPlayer makes use of Adobe Flash Player to provide streaming video clips and other software provided by Adobe for its download service. CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and Showtime use live streaming services from BitGravity to stream live television to paid subscribers using a standard http protocol. DRM (digital rights management) software is also incorporated into many internet television services Sky Player has software that is provided by Microsoft to prevent content being copied. Internet television is also cross platform, the Sky Player service has been expanded to the Xbox 360 on October 27 and to Windows Media Center and then to Windows 7 PCs on November 19. BBC iPlayer is also available through Virgin Media's on demand service and other platforms such as FetchTV and games consoles including the Xbox 360, Wii and the PlayStation 3. Other platforms that internet television is available on include mobile platforms such as the iPhone and iPod Touch, Nokia N96, Sony Ericsson C905 and many other mobile devices.

Website vs applications

The main problem with on demand video services that are applications on desktop computers is getting users to download them and register. It is far easier for a user to simply log onto a webpage without registering than to have to spend time registering and downloading often large programs.

However applications are more powerful in that they can manage the downloading of content far better and these programs can usually be watched offline for 30 days after downloading.

Stream quality

Stream quality refers to the quality of the image and audio transferred from the servers of the distributor to the home screen on a user.

Higher quality video such as video in high definition (720p+) requires higher bandwidth and faster connection speeds. The general accepted kbps download rate needed to stream high definition video that has been encoded with H.264 is 3500, where as standard definition TV can range from 500 to 1500 kbps depending on the resolution on screen.

In the UK BBC iPlayer deals with the largest amount of traffic yet it offers HD content along with SD content. As more people get internet connections which can deal with streaming HD video over the internet iPlayer has tried to keep up with demand and pace. However, as streaming HD video takes around 1.5gb of data per hour of video it took a lot of investment by the BBC to implement this on such a large scale.

For users which do not have the bandwidth to stream HD video or even high SD video which requires 1500kbps iPlayer offers lower bitrate streams which in turn leads to lower video quality. This makes use of an adaptive bitrate stream so that if the users bandwidth suddenly drops, iPlayer will lower it's streaming rate to compensate for this.

This diagnostic tool offered on the BBC iPlayer site measures a user's streaming capabilities and bandwidth for free.

Although competitors in the UK such as 4od, ITV Player and Demand Five have not yet offered HD streaming, the technology to support it is fairly new and widespread HD streaming is not an impossibility. The availability of Channel 4 and Five programs on YouTube is predicted to prove incredibly popular as series such as Skins, Green Wing, The X Factor and others become available in a simple, straightforward format on a website which already attracts millions of people every day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Grid casting

2010-03-22T18:28:00.001-07:00

Grid casting or gridcasting is a file and stream sharing system that cooperates transparently by using idle bandwidth on a user's computer to deliver large scale live or on-demand broadcasts. Grid casting is used for the purpose of improving performance, scalability, and cost efficiency, of delivering files and streams to end users through the use of a media plug-in.

Grid casting is similar to peer-to-peer file sharing systems such as BitTorrent, but has the advantage of providing a robust live or on-demand streaming solution. The original high bit-rate stream is split up into smaller bit-rate streams that are shared through users computers, by incorporating a plug-in, that reconstructs the smaller streams back to the original high bit-rate stream.

Grid casting constructs several smaller data streams a lower bit-rates from an original higher bit-rate stream. In grid casting, none of the data streams are identical.

As an example, assume the live stream is a 400 kbit/s signal and the gridcasting solution constructs multiple data streams at a size of 100 kbit/s. Now, an end user receiving any four of the different data streams at 100 kbit/s may use these four data streams to construct the original live stream back to 400 kbits/s, and thus the movie can be played in real time at the end user.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Content delivery network

2010-03-16T22:58:00.000-07:00

A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a system of computers containing copies of data, placed at various points in a network so as to maximize bandwidth for access to the data from clients throughout the network. A client accesses a copy of the data near to the client, as opposed to all clients accessing the same central server, so as to avoid bottleneck near that server.

Content types include web objects, downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications, real time media streams, and other components of internet delivery (DNS, routes, and database queries).

CDN benefits

The capacity sum of strategically placed servers can be higher than the network backbone capacity. This can result in an impressive increase in the number of concurrent users. For instance, when there is a 10 Gbit/s network backbone and 100 Gbit/s central server capacity, only 10 Gbit/s can be delivered. But when 10 servers are moved to 10 edge locations, total capacity can be 10*10 Gbit/s.

Strategically placed edge servers decrease the load on interconnects, public peers, private peers and backbones, freeing up capacity and lowering delivery costs. It uses the same principle as above. Instead of loading all traffic on a backbone or peer link, a CDN can offload these by redirecting traffic to edge servers.

CDNs generally deliver content over TCP and UDP connections. TCP throughput over a network is impacted by both latency and packet loss. In order to reduce both of these parameters, CDNs traditionally place servers as close to the edge networks that users are on as possible. Theoretically the closer the content the faster the delivery, although network distance may not be the factor that leads to best performance. End users will likely experience less jitter, fewer network peaks and surges, and improved stream quality - especially in remote areas. The increased reliability allows a CDN operator to deliver HD quality content with high Quality of Service, low costs and low network load.

CDNs can dynamically distribute assets to strategically placed redundant core, fallback and edge servers. CDNs can have automatic server availability sensing with instant user redirection. A CDN can offer 100% availability, even with large power, network or hardware outages.

CDN technologies give more control of asset delivery and network load. They can optimize capacity per customer, provide views of real-time load and statistics, reveal which assets are popular, show active regions and report exact viewing details to the customers. These usage details are an important feature that a CDN provider must provide, since the usage logs are no longer available at the content source server after it has been plugged into the CDN, because the connections of end-users are now served by the CDN edges instead of the content source.

ASP versus on-net

Most CDNs are operated as an application service provider (ASP) on the Internet, although an increasing number of internet network owners, such as AT&T, are building their own CDN to improve on-net content delivery and to generate revenues from content customers. Some develop internal CDN software; others use commercially available software.

Technology

CDN nodes are usually deployed in multiple locations, often over multiple backbones. These nodes cooperate with each other to satisfy requests for content by end users, transparently moving content to optimize the delivery process. Optimization can take the form of reducing bandwidth costs, improving end-user performance (reducing page load times and user experience), or increasing global availability of content.

The number of nodes and servers making up CDN varies, depending on the architecture, some reaching thousands of nodes with tens of thousands of servers on many remote PoPs. Others build a global network and have a small number of geographical PoPs.

Requests for content are typically algorithmically directed to nodes that are optimal in some way. When optimizing for performance, locations that are best for serving content to the user may be chosen. This may be measured by choosing locations that are the fewest hops, the fewest number of network seconds away from the requesting client, or the highest availability in terms of server performance (both current and historical), so as to optimize delivery across local networks. When optimizing for cost, locations that are least expensive may be chosen instead.

In an optimal scenario, these two goals tend to align, as servers that are close to the end user at the edge of the network may have an advantage in performance or cost. The Edge Network is grown outward from the origin/s by further acquiring (via purchase, peering, or exchange) co-locations facilities, bandwidth and servers.

Content networking techniques

The Internet was designed according to the end-to-end principle. This principle keeps the core network relatively simple and moves the intelligence as much as possible to the network end-points: the hosts and clients. As a result the core network is specialized, simplified, and optimized to only forward data packets.

Content Delivery Networks augment the end-to-end transport network by distributing on it a variety of intelligent applications employing techniques designed to optimize content delivery. The resulting tightly integrated overlay uses web caching, server-load balancing, request routing, and content services. These techniques are briefly described below.

Web caches store popular content on servers that have the greatest demand for the content requested. These shared network appliances reduce bandwidth requirements, reduce server load, and improve the client response times for content stored in the cache.

Server-load balancing uses one or more techniques including service based (global load balancing) or hardware based, i.e. layer 4–7 switches, also known as a web switch, content switch, or multilayer switch to share traffic among a number of servers or web caches. Here the switch is assigned a single virtual IP address. Traffic arriving at the switch is then directed to one of the real web servers attached to the switch. This has the advantages of balancing load, increasing total capacity, improving scalability, and providing increased reliability by redistributing the load of a failed web server and providing server health checks.

A content cluster or service node can be formed using a layer 4–7 switch to balance load across a number of servers or a number of web caches within the network.

Request routing directs client requests to the content source best able to serve the request. This may involve directing a client request to the service node that is closest to the client, or to the one with the most capacity. A variety of algorithms are used to route the request. These include Global Server Load Balancing, DNS-based request routing, Dynamic metafile generation, HTML rewriting, and anycasting. Proximity—choosing the closest service node—is estimated using a variety of techniques including reactive probing, proactive probing, and connection monitoring.

CDNs use a variety of methods of content delivery including, but not limited to, manual asset copying, active web caches, and global hardware load balancers.

Content service protocols

Several protocols suites are designed to provide access to a wide variety of content services distributed throughout a content network. The Internet Content Adaptation Protocol (ICAP) was developed in the late 1990s to provide an open standard for connecting application servers. A more recently defined and robust solution is provided by the Open Pluggable Edge Services (OPES) protocol. This architecture defines OPES service applications that can reside on the OPES processor itself or be executed remotely on a Callout Server. Edge Side Includes or ESI is a small markup language for edge level dynamic web content assembly. It is fairly common for websites to have generated content. It could be because of changing content like catalogs or forums, or because of personalization. This creates a problem for caching systems. To overcome this problem a group of companies created ESI.

Peer-to-peer CDNs

Although peer-to-peer (P2P) is not traditional CDN technology, it is increasingly used to deliver content to end users. P2P claims low cost and efficient distribution. Even though P2P actually generates more traffic than traditional client-server CDNs (because a peer also uploads data instead of just downloading it) it's welcomed by parties running content delivery/distribution services. The real strength of P2P shows when one has to distribute highly attractive data, like the latest episode of a soap opera or some sort of software patch/update in short period of time. One of the advantages of this is that the more people who download the (same) data, the more efficient P2P is for the provider, slashing the cost of the transit fees that a CDN provider has to pay to their upstream IP transit providers.

On the other hand, the “long tail” type material does not benefit much from P2P delivery schema, since, to gain advantage over traditional distribution models, a P2P-enabled CDN must force storing (caching) data on peers—something that is usually not desired by users and which is rarely enabled.

Contrary to popular belief P2P is not limited to low-bandwidth audio-video signal distribution. There is no technical boundary, built-in inefficiency, or flaw-by-design in peer-to-peer technology to prevent distribution of full HD audio+video signal at, for example, 8 Mbit/s. It's just environmental factors, like low (upload) bandwidth or inadequate computing power in CE devices, that prevent HD material being publicly available in P2P CDNs. (Low bandwidth problems also apply to traditional CDN, though.)

There are some concerns about lack of Quality of Service control over P2P distribution, but these are being addressed by the P2P-Next consortium. Other concerns include security (e.g. modification of content to include malware) and DRM.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

American News Project

2010-03-13T09:15:00.000-08:00

American News Project is an English-language journalism network broadcast via the Internet. Launched in May 2008 by Nick Penniman, its aim is to collaborate with other journalists in the independent press. According to their website, their videos have received "hundreds of thousands of views on dozens of websites all over the world." The website hosts professional and citizen journalism typically outside the United States' mass media.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

ACC Select

2010-03-08T07:34:00.000-08:00

ACC Select is a subscription-based internet television service hosted by CBS College Sports Network that broadcasts live Atlantic Coast Conference sporting events. ACC Select broadcasts over 600 sporting events throughout each year, including many of the conference's otherwise untelevised college football games. The service was previously hosted by the now-defunct PlayOn! Sports before moving to CBS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

User:Charliebobgordon/TuneVibez

2010-02-27T15:53:00.000-08:00

TuneVibez is an international internet radio station ran by a group of British teenagers. The station airs for a few hours in the evening on weekends and primarily gains their listeners from the social networking website, Twitter by asking users of the website to tweet about the station.

The station plays music primarily from indie record labels and artists like DFTBA records, Outasight, Dave Days and Music from Blue Skies. Although, they have gained more popular artists like Marina And The Diamonds.

The station uses an Icecast server to stream live audio to the stations listeners, the station currently streams at 56kbps but there are plans to raise this to 128kbps to provide better audio quality for the stations listeners.

The station was founded by 15 year old Andrew Brackin on December 26, 2009.

Content

People involved in running the station

TuneVibez has gained volunteers to manage the radio station over the past few months. The following are listed in order joined:

* Andrew Brackin (Producer, founder, presenter and DJ)
* Alexander Odam (Presenter and DJ)
* Grant Parkes (Presenter and DJ)
* Charlie Gordon (Website designer, presenter and DJ)
* Jonathan Rowntree (Co-producer, presenter and DJ)
* Liam Forkings (Presenter and DJ)
* Matthew Underwood (Presenter and DJ)

More detailed description of each DJ can be found on the TuneVibez website.

Music

TuneVibez broadcasts from a selection of artists and record labels that they have written permission to play on air. The station plays independent music, as well as more popular music from artists like Marina And The Diamonds.

Genres of music that TuneVibez plays include Rap, Hip Hop, Rock, House Music, Electronica, Dance Music, Drum N' Bass and Pop Music. The station also plays cover music, and humorous parodies.

Discussion Topics

The TuneVibez presenters use Twitter as a way to get the community interacting with the shows by them being able to talk to the presenters live on air.

Frequencies

The station is streamed in the Windows Media format via the "TuneVibez Player" at http://tunevibez.com/player/

but can also be listened to from mobile devices, and desktop applications such as Apple iTunes, VLC Media Player, Winamp or Windows Media Player

Website features

The TuneVibez website

was built by 14 year old Charlie Gordon. The website was created to allow users to interact with the station more.

Twitter chat

The TuneVibez website uses a Roomatic Twitter chat

that allows listeners to tweet about the station and communicate with the presenters and the other DJs.

Requesting songs

The website has a Request Tunes page

where the listeners can fill in a PHP contact form to request a song to be played on air. Listeners have a selection of artists to choose from.

Contacting the station

Users of the website are able to use the Contact page

to get in touch with Andrew Brackin, the founder of TuneVibez. They created the page so that artists and record labels that would like their songs on TuneVibez, can contact them, it's also used to report website issues.

Help pages

The webmaster created a help page

where users can visit the page to get assistance with using some of the website's features, as well as giving users ways to promote TuneVibez.

Founder

Andrew came up with the idea for TuneVibez in late 2009 after creating a few test streams under his company name Brackin Media. Andrew comes from South London in the UK and is 15 years old. In the past he has ran technology blogs such as TotallyTechBlog which has now been sold and has produced video content on YouTube since late 2006. Brackin Media has started a number of

Further reading

* Rowntree, Jonathan (2010-02-12). "Me and TuneVibez".
http://jonnyrowntree.com/2010/02/me-and-tunevibez/.

* Cec, CpFilmsLike (2009-02-13). "TuneVibez (YouTube video)".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_HuBA_lPXg.

* Underwood, Matthew. "TuneVibez".
http://www.greenmanvideos.com/#/tunevibez/4538463958.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

ASTRA2Connect Maritime Broadband

2010-02-22T20:49:00.000-08:00

ASTRA2Connect Maritime Broadband is a two-way satellite broadband Internet service for use on private boats and commercial ships throughout European waters.

ASTRA2Connect provides high-speed Internet access (at up to 2Mbit/s downlink) along with VoIP telephone, email, and virtual private network services to vessels while at anchor/moored or in motion. The service started in September 2009.

The ship-borne service is based on the ASTRA2Connect land-based satellite broadband technology and is operated by ASTRA Broadband Services (ABBS), a subsidiary of SES ASTRA, itself a subsidiary of SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg, in conjunction with Korean marine antenna manufacturers KNS.

Uses

ASTRA2Connect Maritime Broadband provides an always-on Internet connection to vessels, and the service can be used equally well while a vessel is either docked or underway at sea, to provide users the same connectivity capabilities they have in their homes or offices.

The service is intended for pleasure crafts, fishing and coastal ships, ferries and smaller commercial cargo carriers, operating mainly in the North and Baltic Seas, and the northern Mediterranean. ASTRA2Connect coverage is available throughout Europe and so the service may also be used by boats on in-land waterways.

Astra Broadband Services claims that the service provides for all aspects of maritime communications, including:

* VoIP telephone
* email
* on-board entertainment
* worldwide web browsing
* crew communications
* data transfer
* content-on-demand
* virtual private networks

The main alternative to the service is Inmarsat's FleetBroadband service that, although almost global in reach, is based on 3G technologies and limited to a 432Kbits/s download speed.

Marketing

ASTRA2Connect Maritime Broadband is marketed to end users by third party service providers, of which there is currently one for all of Europe – UK-based H2OSatellite. The H2OLitespeed package includes hardware rental and broadband access in a fixed-rate monthly fee, dependent on the speed of connection (512Kbit/s download, 96Kbits/s upload, 1024Kbit/s download, 128Kbits/s upload, and 2048Kbit/s download, 128Kbits/s upload are available).

Technology

The Internet connection provided by ASTRA2Connect Maritime Broadband is a two-way satellite link between the user’s vessel and the Astra 1E communications satellite at 23.5° east, which in turn is linked to the Astra Broadband Services HQ and teleport in Betzdorf where a hub connects to the Internet backbone.

Downlinks and uplinks to/from the vessel's antenna comprise IP data embedded in a DVB-S2 carrier using the Ku band (10.70GHz-12.75GHz for downlink, 14.00GHz-14.50GHz for uplink).

User Equipment

essels using ASTRA2Connect Maritime Broadband require a simple VSAT terminal comprising an antenna developed by KNS and modem from Newtec. The antenna is an in-motion motorised and stabilised dish for reception and transmission (500mW), which automatically aligns to the Astra 1E satellite and maintains its orientation (and therefore the IP link to the satellite) even while the vessel is in motion – underway, manoeuvring, rolling or pitching.

ASTRA2Connect Maritime Broadband uses the KNS SuperTrack A9 antenna – an 85cm dish weighing 57 kg, housed in a 110 cm x 103 cm protective radome – which is mounted on the superstructure and connected to an ACU (Antenna Control Unit) in the control room. Also in the control room, the ASTRA2Connect satellite modem connects to the dish’s iLNB and to the user's local area network using a standard RJ-45 Ethernet connector, behaving as an IP Bridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Internet

2010-02-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by a broad array of electronic and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.

Most traditional communications media, such as telephone and television services, are reshaped or redefined using the technologies of the Internet, giving rise to services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IPTV. Newspaper publishing has been reshaped into Web sites, blogging, and web feeds. The Internet has enabled or accelerated the creation of new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking sites.

The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks. This research and a period of civilian funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation spawned worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and led to the commercialization of an international network in the mid 1990s, and resulted in the following popularization of countless applications in virtually every aspect of modern human life. As of 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth's population uses the services of the Internet.

The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own standards. Only the overreaching definitions of the two principal name spaces in the Internet, the Internet Protocol address space and the Domain Name System, are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely-affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Future Internet

2010-02-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

Future Internet is a summarizing term for worldwide research activities dedicated to the further development of the original Internet (see also History of the Internet).

While the technical development of the Internet has been an extensive research topic from the beginning, an increased public awareness of several critical shortcomings in terms of performance, reliability, scalability, security and many other categories including societal, economical and business aspects, has led to Future Internet research efforts.

Given the diversity of technologies related to the Internet, extended by lower and higher layers and applications, the related research topics are wide spread.

In addition, the approaches towards a Future Internet range from small, incremental evolutionary steps to complete redesigns (clean slate) and architecture principles, where the applied technologies shall not be limited by existing standards or paradigms such as client server networking, which, for example, might evolve into co-operative peer structures. The fact that an IP address denotes both the identifier as well as the locator of an end system, sometimes referred to as semantic overload, is an example of a conceptual shortcoming of the Internet protocol architecture. The clean slate type of approaches are based on the experience that supplementary or late additions to an original and established design are limited in their acceptance and introduction. Technical examples for evolutionary approaches include supplements to existing Internet technology, such as MobileIP, IPSec, DiffServ, HIP, RSerPool, Shim6 or IPv6. Illustrative examples for alternatives that follow the clean slate idea can be found by using search engines. Since most of the projects are either ongoing, or technically not settled yet, and also to avoid instability or bias of this article towards any of them, none of them are listed or explained here.

Regarding the current status of Future Internet, it seems too early to identify any technical consensus or even standardization. Therefore, the term Future Internet should be used with caution only, especially not as a specific technology but instead as an abstract referrer to the visible, worldwide activities in this direction.

The non-technical aspects of the Future Internet span large areas such as socio-economics, business and environmental issues. The OECD has picked up the term and shown activities such as publishing recommendations for the future of the Internet economy, for example (see the activities section).

The time horizon of Future Internet studies is typically considered to be long term, taking several years before significant results can be expected or corresponding deployments take place in the real world.

Research areas that could be seen as components of the Future Internet include Network management, see Management of the Future Internet, Network virtualization, and an approach called network of information, treating any kind of information as objects, independent of their storage or location.

Implementation plans and activities

While Future Internet is often connotated with the Global Environment for Network Innovations initiatives of the NSF, several other international research programmes have adopted this term. Future Internet Research and Experimentation is a research program funded by the European Union to foster research on the future developments of Internet technology and services. While the list is non-exhaustive, it exemplifies the world wide or national scale, and not on single projects.

* European Future Internet Portal
* FIA - Future Internet Assembly
* EU ICT FP7 Future Internet projects
* Future Internet Research and Experimentation
* FIND - Future Internet network design
* GENI - Global Environment for Network Innovations
* Clean Slate Research Program - Stanford University
* ITU-T Study Group 13 (SG13) on Future Networks including mobile and NGN, focus group FG-FN, Q21/13
* ITFAN Inter-Agency Task Force for Advanced Networking (USA)
* it839/u-it839 (Korea)
* it839/u-it839 and FIF (Future Internet Forum) funded by MIC (Korea) http://www.fif.kr/
* NICTA (Australia)
* ANR (France)
* Groupe de Reflexion Internet du Futur (France)
* G-LAB funded by BMBF (Germany)http://www.german-lab.de/project/
* ICT SHOK (Finland) http://www.futureinternet.fi
* AKARI Project (Japan) http://akari-project.nict.go.jp/eng/index2.htm
* Super Janet funded by EPSRC (UK)
* Plataforma tecnologica española de convergencia hacia IF (Spain) http://www.idi.aetic.es/esInternet/
* Internet del Futuro (Spain) http://www.internetdelfuturo.es
* Ambient Sweden http://www.vinnova.se/upload/EPiStorePDF/AmbientSweden.pdf
* Belgium http://www.ibbt.be
* Luxembourg ttp://www.ipv6council.lu
* Italy http://cit.fbk.eu/future_internet
* Netherlands http://www.futureinternet.ez.nl
* Ireland http://www.futureinternet.ie

http://en.wikipedia.org/

ACC Select

2010-01-22T04:06:00.000-08:00

Zarafa (software)

2010-01-17T15:40:00.000-08:00

Zarafa is a European open source collaborative software solution developed in Delft, the Netherlands. It provides email storage on the server side and brings its own Ajax-based mail client called WebAccess. All server side components and the WebAccess of Zarafa are published under the AGPL license. Advanced features are available in commercially supported versions ("Standard", "Professional" and "Enterprise" (different feature levels)). The community edition supports three Outlook users for free.

Zarafa is designed to integrate with Microsoft Office Outlook and is meant as an alternative to the Microsoft Exchange Server. The WebAccess has the same "look-and-feel" as the Outlook desktop application. People used to working with Outlook will be able to use the WebAccess without any problems. Besides the personal address book, calendar, notes and tasks, "Public Folders" and shared calendar functionalities (inviting internal and external users, resource management) can be handled by the software as well.

On 18th of September 2008 Zarafa launched the full server side stack under the Affero General Public License. The open source community version can be downloaded at www.zarafa.com/community.

The company that develops Zarafa has used Connectux as a tradename but is now called Zarafa.

Technology

Zarafa provides its groupware functionality by connecting the Linux-based server with Outlook clients using MAPI. The communication between server and client is based upon SOAP technology. The secure Outlook connect is realized using HTTPS. All data is generally stored in a MySQL. Attachments can be saved on the filesystem. The Zarafa server can get its users information from LDAP, Active directory, Unix users or the MySQL database. The webmail is based on AJAX technology, with a PHP backend using a MAPI php extension. Other clients can connect via POP3, IMAP and iCalendar.

The project Z-Push was initiated by Zarafa in October 2007. It supports ActiveSync compatible devices (Symbian, Pocket PC, iPhone (firmware 2.X), Nokia (mail4Exchange)) implementing the ActiveSync protocol and using the Incremental Change System (ICS) provided by the PHP-MAPI extension.

Zarafa is part of the OpenMapi project which is developing an open groupware API based on MAPI.

Supported clients

* Outlook 2000 - 2007
* Web access via Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8
* All ActiveSync compatible PDA's and smartphones via Z-push
* BlackBerry devices via the Blackberry Enterprise Server
* POP3/IMAP4 email clients
* iCal/Caldav calendar clients

Features

* Addressbook
* Calendar
* Notes
* Tasks
* Personal Folders / Public Outlook Folders
* Permissions for every User and Folder configurable
* Meeting invitation and free/busy option
* Resources planning
* POP3
* IMAP
* iCalendar
* Caldav
* PDA synchronization via Z-push
* BlackBerry integration over BES
* Out-of-office message
* Brick-level backup
* Single sign-on

Screen Shot

Screenshots are available at the Zarafa homepage.

Integrated in open source

Zarafa is compatible / integrated with many other open source projects.

* MTA: Postfix, Exim, Qmail, Sendmail
* Database: MySQL
* Authentication: OpenLDAP, Kerberos (protocol)
* Web technologies: Apache, PHP
* Anti-Spam/Virus solutions: ClamAV, SpamAssassin, AMaViS/amavisd-new, DSPAM

Integration with other applications

Zarafa developed and recently released an integration framework for 3rd party software. On the serverside the Zarafa calendar, contacts, tasks and notes can be replicated in realtime to other applications using the replication framework Z-Merge. A demo integration for SugarCRM was realized. The Alfresco ECM system was integrated using the Webaccess Plugin System. The user is able to archive attachments directly to Alfresco and send e-mails attaching files from the Alfresco repository. An integration with OpenERP is also available.

A overview of integrated applications and an online demo (incl. SugarCRM and Alfresco ECM) can be found at the homepage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Z-push

2010-01-14T16:39:00.001-08:00

Z-Push is an open source implementation of Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol which is used 'over-the-air' for multi platform active sync devices, including Windows Mobile and other ActiveSync compatible devices.

Z-Push enables any PHP-based groupware package to become fully syncable with any ActiveSync-compliant device.

Currently, Z-Push is available with only four backends: the IMAP and the Maildir backend for e-mail synchronization, the vCard backend for contact synchronization and one for the Zarafa package which is sold by allowing full synchronization of E-mail, Calendar, Contacts and Tasks.

Technical background & Architecture

The Z-Push protocol is HTTP based, and uses WBXML (WAP Binary XML) as a communication layer, which is used for bi-directional communication between the PDA/cellular phone and the Server.

Inside the protocol there is everything you expect from a synchronization protocol: the process of sending items from one side to the other, while keeping track of what has already been sent. The Z-Push hides the complexity of handling these protocol requests to the backend developer, who only needs to implement various standard functions, like getting a list of items, and getting the data for a specific item. All that is needed is a good understanding of the WBXML object definitions and fields, and a developer can quite easily get the items of any groupware solutions onto the PDA/cellular phone.

The Z-Push has various performance and usability-related features; for example, the entire architecture of the project is based on the idea that only one message should ever have to be in memory at one time, even when the server is sending hundreds of messages to a PDA. This may sound easy, but in most XML-based applications, the XML result data is built in-memory before being serialized to the network - exactly the opposite to what Z-Push does, as data is streamed to the client while it is read from the backend. This not only improves already restricted memory usage in PHP, it also makes the progress bar on the client more user-friendly, as data starts arriving as soon as the synchronization request is made. Z-Push has provided a streaming WBXML encoder and decoder to make this happen.

When a backend supports it, Z-Push can also make use of advanced features which bring server load down even lower, for example reading message changes directly from a 'diff' source, instead of comparing all the messages with whatever was in there last time. So if the groupware backend can provide a list of changes on-the-fly, then Z-Push can use this information almost instantaneously. Zarafa provides an incremental synchronization backend for its own MAPI-based solution here through their PHP-MAPI extension, enabling extremely low-load synchronizations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Remo Sync

2010-01-05T07:52:00.000-08:00

RemoSync is a software application that provides corporate email, calendar and contact synchronization for mobile phones capable of running BREW applications. Conceived as a low-cost alternative to BlackBerry or iPhone devices, RemoSync is currently available on the Verizon wireless network.

RemoSync was developed by Remoba, Inc., a software firm in Santa Clara, California.

Criticism

Advantages

* RemoSync operates on a variety of low-to-mid-range handsets.
* No additional server infrastructure is required. Back-end implemention is via Microsoft Exchange Server Mobile Policy Settings.
* Data transmission is encrypted with SSL. RemoSync implements all mobile security features available on Microsoft Exchange.

Disadvantages

* Service must be offered by wireless carrier. Currently only Verizon wireless enables RemoSync.
* Only available for companies running Microsoft Exchange Server or those using a hosted Exchange solution.

Notable Devices Using RemoSync

* LG Dare
* Samsung Alias 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Push e-mail

2010-01-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

Push e-mail is used to describe e-mail systems that provide an always-on capability, in which new e-mail is actively transferred (pushed) as it arrives by the mail delivery agent (MDA) (commonly called mail server) to the mail user agent (MUA), also called the e-mail client. E-mail clients include smartphones and, less strictly, IMAP personal computer mail applications.

Comparison with polling e-mail

Post Office Protocol (POP3) is an example of a polling email delivery protocol. At login and later at intervals, the Mail User Agent (client) polls the Mail Delivery Agent (server) to see if there is new mail, and if so downloads it to a mailbox on the user's computer. However, outgoing mail is generally pushed directly from the sender to the final Mail Delivery Agent. Extending this push to the last delivery step is what distinguishes push e-mail from polling e-mail systems.

The reason that polling is often used for the last stage of mail delivery is that, although the server Mail Delivery Agent would normally be permanently connected to the network, it does not necessarily know how to locate the client Mail User Agent, which may only be connected occasionally and also change network address quite often. For example, a user with a laptop on a WiFi connection may be assigned different addresses from the network DHCP server periodically and have no persistent network name. When new mail arrives to the mail server, it does not know what address the client is currently assigned.

The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) provides support for polling and notifications. When a client receives a notification from a server, the client may choose to fetch the new data from the server. This makes retrieval of new messages more flexible than a purely-push system, because the client can choose whether to download new message data.

Mobile users

Although push e-mail had existed in wired-based systems for many years, one of the first uses of the system with a portable, "always on" wireless device outside of Asia was the BlackBerry service from Research In Motion. In Japan, "push e-mail" has been standard in cell phones since 2000.

Apple iPhone and iPod touch

Apple's iPhone do not support background services, this means that there is literally no push mail when the phone is in standby mode. To overcome this Apple have integrated the Apple Push Notification Service in the OS3. To use the service each email provider must build a separate notification service and connect it to the Apple Push Notification Service, and as usual have the application approved. When the phone is turned on Apple's iPhone and iPod touch support Yahoo! push e-mail, Gmail push e-mail (via Google Sync) and Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync platform allowing them to synchronize e-mail, calendars and contacts with a Microsoft Exchange Server, Zimbra, NuevaSync or Kerio MailServer. Apple's own MobileMe subscription-service for push email, contacts, and calendars is also supported.

Google Android

Google's Mobile OS supports Push e-mail based on Microsoft's ActiveSync platform, including push GMail.

Helio Ocean

Helio began adding support to its "ultimate inbox" for push e-mail to the Helio Ocean in July 2007 with support for Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, and AOL Mail. On April 23, 2008 push support was added for Gmail, along with automatic notifications for POP and IMAP services.

Microsoft Windows Mobile

Microsoft began offering real-time e-mail notification with Windows Mobile 2003 (sending SMS mesages when new mail arrive), then replaced it with a simulated push experience (long polling) in 2007 with the release of Windows Mobile 5 AKU2 under the name "Direct Push Technology". 'Direct Push' technology is an additional feature added to Microsoft Exchange 2003 with service pack 2 that adds messaging and security features. A phone device running Windows Mobile 5 is enabled to poll Exchange Server each 30 minutes. If new mail arrives in polling interval, it is instantly pulled using a subscriber's existing wireless phone account (this allows device to have changing IP or traverse NAT/Proxy). To achieve push mail with e-mail providers other than Exchange, there is a commercially available plug-in from Emansio that enables push mail with almost any public e-mail provider (such as Google, AOL, GoDaddy), or any e-mail server that supports IMAP-IDLE. Additionally, a free, open-source, executable has been developed to take advantage of the IMAP-IDLE command.

Nokia Symbian Series 60

Some Nokia Symbian S60 models support basic IMAP IDLE functionality with its built-in client.

Mail for Exchange

The Nokia Eseries smartphones and select models of Nseries smartphones support the Mail for Exchange software, which is compatible with Microsoft Exchange Server Active Sync and Direct Push, allowing the Nokia smartphones to receive push email as well as sync contact lists, calendars, and tasks with Exchange servers. Global Address Lookup is also supported, starting with version 2 of the Mail for Exchange software.

Nokia Messaging

Nokia Messaging Email is a push e-mail service and client application, that supports most of the popular e-mail providers like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, GMail and many more. Nokia Messaging servers aggregate messages from up to ten accounts on and pushes them to compliant devices (Nokia S60 and some S40, plus Maemo-based devices like the N900).

Palm OS

Palm Smartphone devices such as the Treo have had IMAP IDLE available through the use of 3rd Party software ChatterEmail as early as 2004. There is no additional server software required.

Palm webOS

The Palm Pre webOS has push email for Gmail, IMAP, and Exchange accounts.

Research In Motion BlackBerry

RIM's BlackBerry uses wireless Mail User Agent devices and a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) attached to a traditional e-mail system. The BES monitors the e-mail server, and when it sees new e-mail for a BlackBerry user, it retrieves (pulls) a copy and then pushes it to the BlackBerry handheld device over the wireless network.

BlackBerry became very popular, in part because it offers remote users "instant" e-mail; new e-mails appear on the device as soon as they arrive, without the need for any user intervention. The handheld becomes a mobile, dynamically updating, copy of the user's mailbox. As a result of the success of BlackBerry, other manufacturers have developed push e-mail systems for other handheld devices, such as Symbian- and Windows Mobile-based mobile phones. However, IMAP synchronization through BlackBerry Internet Service is not two-way.

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson Smartphones (M600, P990, W950, P1, W960, W995, G900, G700) as well as some Cybershot phones (K790, K800, K810, K850, C510, C905) feature push e-mail using IMAP IDLE or with the built-in ActiveSync client (developed by Dataviz). Most other Sony Ericsson phones support IMAP IDLE push e-mail quite well (only the inbox however).

Other mobile users

Other open push e-mail solutions available in the market today are NotifyLink, Visto and Good Technology (part of Motorola) as well as Synchronica.

NotifyLink supports the following backends: Alt-N Technologies, Communigate Pro, Kerio MailServer, Meeting Maker, Microsoft Exchange 2000/03/07, Mirapoint, Novell GroupWise, Oracle, Scalix, Sun Java Communications Suite, and Zimbra, plus other solutions for e-mail only. The supported mobile devices/operating systems include Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian OS and Palm OS.

The key benefit of Visto Solution is that it works on any SmartPhone Treo680, 700w, and the new MotoQ.

Good Technology's Good Mobile Messaging (formerly known as GoodLink) supports Microsoft Exchange 2000, 2003 and 2007 as well as Lotus Notes.

Visto supports Exchange 5.5/2000/2003, Domino all versions and works with any ISP e-mail. Visto acquired Good at early 2009 and changed their Company name as GOOD.

Synchronica provides a client-less, carrier-grade push Email and synchronization solution based entirely on open industry standards. Their core product, Mobile Gateway, supports push mail standards like IMAP, IDLE and OMA EMN as well as PIM synchronization using OMA DS (SyncML). Towards backends, it supports POP, IMAP, Microsoft Exchange and Sun Communications Suite.

Peek provides mobile push email for consumers. They have their own device, very much like the BlackBerry. Peek supports POP and IMAP, with compatibility to 'Yahoo Mail', 'AOL Mail', 'Hotmail', and 'Gmail'. The Peek device is email only and does not provide voice or any other converged services available on cell phones.

Another company to offer a push e-mail solution is Critical Path, Inc. under the brand name Memova Mobile, the only requirement of this is that the handset have GPRS and MMS capability.

Most of these non-proprietary solutions are network independent, meaning that as long as a device is GPRS enabled and has an e-mail client, it will have the ability to send/receive e-mails in any country and via any telco that has GPRS on its network. It also means that so long as the device itself is not SIM locked, the constraints of BlackBerry such as Network locking, vendor locking (BlackBerry devices and BlackBerry Connect devices) and GPRS-roaming charges (for non-home access) are not an issue. Pop in a local SIM card in any country the user is in, have the correct APN settings and get your mail at LOCAL rates.

Simulation using traditional e-mail

Traditional mobile mail clients may poll for new mail at frequent intervals, with or without downloading the mail to the client, thus providing a similar user experience as push e-mail.

IMAP in fact allows many notifications to be sent at any time, but not message data. The IDLE command is often used to signal the ability of a client to process notifications sent outside of a command running, which effectively provides a user experience identical to push.

Protocols

In contrast to traditional e-mail, most of the protocols used in popular current systems are proprietary; for example, BlackBerry uses its own private protocols developed by RIM. Both the Push-IMAP standard and parts of the SyncML standards are attempting to develop more open solutions.

IETF Lemonade is a set of extensions to IMAP and SMTP to make them more suited to the demands of mobile e-mail. Among the extensions are rapid IMAP resynchronization and a new NOTIFY command in IMAP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

O3SIS

2010-01-01T17:13:00.000-08:00

O3SIS AG Founded 1996 by Bernd Rützel, Ute Heymann and Dirk Dörre, O3SIS AG initially has been focusing on research and development of middleware connecting "thin client" devices to application servers via IP networks.

O3SIS AG is a provider of carrier-grade mobile software solutions. O3SIS living mobility products help to protect and share personal mobile data and media content. Users can interact and communicate through web, mobile phones, communities and social networks.

History

O3SIS AG (formerly O3SIS Information Technology AG) was founded by Bernd Rützel, Ute Heymann and Dirk Dörre in 1996, specializing in carrier-grade mobile software solutions.
Now
New Living Mobility product suites presented for next generation mobile communication, data protection and sharing of personal data and media
2008 New company divisions "Enterprise" and "Retail" with tailored products introduced
2007 O3SIS start roll out of its market leading mobile device Client strategy to enable Synchronisation and Push Mail on Windows Mobile, Blackberry, iPhone and other smartphones
2007 O3SIS introduces Over-The-Air Backup & Restore and Push Mail on PocketPC and Windows Mobile Smartphones
2006 o2 Germany is first mobile operator to deploy a fully fledged Communication Center based on the O3SIS Unified Mobile Applications platform (UMA)
2005 Worldwide marketing of O3SIS' Over The Air Data Synchronisation Services
2004 Vodafone Germany is the first mobile operator to offer O3SIS Over The Air (OTA) Backup & Restore services of personal addresses to its customers in Germany
2001 New product "XPAnywhere" presented for seamless synchronisation of contacts and calendar as well as transfer of files from PC to mobile phones
2000 Introducing first Mobile E-mail with T-Motion UK
2000 Launch Wireless Companion and "Untereschbach.com" – first "Wireless Village" of the world
1999 Launch of famous "YourWap.com" portal for personal communication via Internet and Mobile Phones
1996 o3sis AG – company founded

Acquisitions

O3SIS’ solutions are currently deployed by top tier mobile operators, including Vodafone Group, E-Plus, O2, and T-Mobile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Funambol

2009-12-26T01:38:00.000-08:00

Funambol is an American corporation that earns revenue from its dual-licensing business model that includes commercial software and free open source mobile data synchronization software based on the Funambol core project.

Funambol project

The Funambol core project is a free and open source mobile synchronization server that provides push email, address book and calendar (PIM) data synchronization, and device management for wireless devices, leveraging standard protocols such as SyncML. For users, this means BlackBerry-like capabilities on commodity handsets.

Funambol is also a development platform for mobile applications. It provides C++ and Java client APIs and server side Java APIs, and facilitates the development, deployment and management of any mobile project.

Funambol consists of several components, including:

* Funambol Data Synchronization Server: a mobile application server providing synchronization services for wireless clients and PCs, including push email.
* Funambol Device Management: an OMA DM server to remotely manage mobile devices.
* Funambol Connectors: gateways to file systems, databases, email systems, and applications for two-way synchronization with existing data assets.
* Funambol Client Plug-ins: protocol extenders and clients for Microsoft Office Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird (experimental), Mozilla Sunbird (experimental), Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm and iPod and iPhone so users can synchronize their email messages and PIM data (address book, calendar, tasks and notes) with the server.
* Funambol Software Development Kit: tools to develop sometimes-connected mobile applications on devices (in Java - J2SE and J2ME - and C++) and to add data sources to the server.

History

The Funambol project was started in 2001 by developers because of the lack of an open source Java implementation for mobile device data synchronization. The Funambol project has gone beyond the original server engine, and now includes administration tools and client-side APIs. According to the project website, Funambol has been downloaded more than two million times. The project won Linux World Editor's Choice 2006 Award and Gold Star awards from Mobile Village readers for consumer push email and PIM solutions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Skyfire (web browser)

2009-12-24T01:14:00.000-08:00

Skyfire is a mobile web browser for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and Symbian S60 v3. On May 27, 2009, version 1.0 was released.

It is the first browser software for Windows Mobile which can view Adobe Flash content and streaming video.

In Skyfire, a webpage is fully rendered by a server separate from the mobile device, similar to the operation of a thin client. This approach is also used by Opera Mini, and is usually faster and supports better rendering techniques.

How it works

Skyfire is a web browser which operates by rendering requested web pages on a server using the Gecko rendering engine before sending the rendered output to the browser. The output is sent as images annotated with interactive items such as links and text-fields.

Consequently, the browser is able to use features from a fully-featured desktop web browser without the need to have a powerful mobile device. Features such as Adobe Flash, Silverlight and QuickTime are usable without additional plug-ins on the device, and can be easily updated server-side without the need to update the client.

Supported Devices and Platforms

* Windows Mobile 5, 6, 6.1 AT&T 8525, HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Fuze, Treo 750
* Symbian OS, Nokia Eseries and Nseries running Symbian S60, 3rd edition [1]

For a complete list of devices visit the support site

Awards

* 2008 Read Write Web's one of six must have applications for Windows Mobile
* 2008 Laptop Magazine's Mobile Maverick Award
* 2009 Webby People's Voice Award for Best Mobile Application

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Skweezer

2009-12-23T01:29:00.000-08:00

Skweezer is a Mobile HTML Transcoder for users of handheld devices such as personal digital assistants and mobile phones. Skweezer reformats and compresses web content in order to reduce a web page's file size and makes the downloaded content easier to view on a small screen . Skweezer was developed by Skweezer, Inc. (f.k.a. Greenlight Wireless Corporation) and initially released in 2003. Skweezer's technology is used to mobilize Web content service by search engines, Web portals, and wireless carriers such as IAC/InterActiveCorp , Bloglines , and Orange SA . Currently Skweezer is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese languages and serves customers in over 175 countries worldwide.

Mobile browsing innovations

Skweezer has introduced several mobile browsing innovations since its inception, including the first:

* Portal-based transcoding engine: Skweezer (2003)
* Globally distributed mobile advertising platform: Skweezer Ads (2004)
* Pagination system that splits large Web pages up for viewing on cell phones (2005)
* Mobile Web page translation feature (2005)
* Portal-based mobile RSS reader (2005)
* "Find in page" search that carries Web search keywords into search result pages (2007)

Controversy

In 2004 Skweezer became the subject of controversy in the Blogosphere when blogger Jason Calcanis objected to advertisements being placed by Skweezer on transcoded versions of blog content. A debate ensued over the legality and propriety of proxy-based services such as anonymizers and transcoders placing ads against other publishers' content and the scope of coverage under "fair use" copyright protection. While this is a subject that is still under debate, Greenlight Wireless stopped placing ads on transcoded content in early 2005.

Skweezer has also blocked WebTV and other TV internet surfing devices on the basis that it is not intended for web browsing but it allows web browsing from computers using Skweezer

Awards

* 2008 Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Best Software Awards: Winner - Pocket PC Internet: Web Compression Service
* 2007 MobileVillage Mobile Star Awards: Gold Star - Consumer Software: Mobile Web Content Aggregator / Portal
* 2007 PDA Friendly Website Awards: Winner - PDA Home Page category
* 2007 Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Best Software Awards: Winner - Pocket PC Internet: Web Compression Service
* 2006 MobileVillage Mobile Star Awards: Gold Star - Personal Software: Mobile Web Content Provider category
* 2005 MobileVillage Mobile Star Awards: Gold Star - Personal Software: Mobile Web Content Provider category
* 2005 Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Best Software awards: Finalist - Browsers & Web Utilities category

Competitors

* Google Mobile site
* BareSite.com
* Mowser
* IYHY

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Opera Mobile

2009-12-21T15:40:00.000-08:00

Opera Mobile is a web browser for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed by the Opera Software company. The first version of Opera Mobile was released in 2000 for the Psion Series 7 and netBook. Today, Opera Mobile is available for a variety of devices that run Windows Mobile, or S60 and UIQ user interfaces of the Symbian operating system.

History

The first devices to run a mobile edition of Opera were the Psion Series 5, Psion Series 5mx, then Psion Series 7 and Psion netBook. They ran Opera Mobile 3.6, released in 2000.

Opera Mobile was ported to the Windows Mobile operating system in 2003.

* Version 6.0 was the initial release.
* On June 25, 2003, the first update came in the form of version 6.01, which was a minor update, mainly correcting bugs.
* Version 6.10, released on October 27, 2003, introduced several user interface and usability improvements, considerably optimized performance, and slightly improved page rendering. It was also the first version to support proxy servers, WAP pages, and the first one to be released in localized versions for 9 different languages.
* On July 13, 2005, almost two years after the previous iteration, version 8.0 was launched. This version was the first to require Symbian OS 7 (previous ones could function in Symbian 6.1). This version introduced the Opera Mobile Accelerator, a technology that used an Opera-run external server to slim-down the pages' content to reduce the traffic to the phones. This was also the first version to support dynamic HTML, and greatly improved compatibility with several web standards.
* On November 14, 2005, version 8.5 was introduced. This version introduced password management and form auto-filling functionality, added some more languages for localized versions, and made some improvements to stability and reduced-screen rendering quality.
* On April 5, 2006, version 8.6 was released and was also the first version to support Symbian OS 9. New to this version is the ability to support multiple browsing windows, support for Scalable Vector Graphics, introduction of URL autocompletion as well several changes in the customization aspect. It was also the first version of Opera Mobile that allowed for the possibility to configure it as the device's default browser, allowing for it to be launched whenever a web page was requested to be opened.
* Version 8.65 was released on August 29, 2006, which was mostly a welcome makeover and optimization to the then considered mature 8.60.
* Opera Mobile 9.0 was announced on February 2007 with a planned feature list, "coming soon" banners in the official Opera Mobile website, and official announcements in Opera's Community Forum. With no reason given, version 9.0 was cancelled, all references to it swept from Opera's site and 8.65 went back to being the latest version, being given a very slight refresh in the form of a new build that offered a handful of hardly-noticeable features, some of them platform-dependent.
* On February 5, 2008, Opera Mobile 9.5 was announced and has been given several estimated release timeframes, each of which has been silently ignored with a new one being set after it. An initial beta version of Opera Mobile 9.5 was released on July 17, 2008, although the only platform supported by this version was Windows Mobile.
* A second beta release of Opera Mobile 9.50 was made on October 20, 2008, including support for Opera Widgets, and adding Symbian UIQ3 as a further platform. With this release, the newest version of Opera Mobile for Symbian S60 remains 8.65.
* On March 26, 2009, Opera announced that there won't be any final version of Opera mobile 9.5. Instead they would flip over to developing 9.7 because of changes in the Presto layout engine.
* On June 8, 2009, Opera Mobile 9.7 beta was made available for download. It introduced the new rendering engine Presto 2.2 and Opera Turbo. Other features planned for 9.7 are an improved Widget manager, Google Gears and OpenGL ES support.
* On November 2, 2009, Opera Mobile 10 beta for Symbian S60 was made available for download, sporting a revamped user interface and performance enhancements.

Features

Opera Mobile can dynamically reformat Web pages for narrow tall screens, using Opera's Small Screen Rendering (SSR) technology. The technology itself is proprietary, but Web page authors can affect how their content is handled by SSR with Cascading Style Sheets.

Opera Mobile supports many web standards, as well as Ajax.

Awards

* Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine "Best mobile browser for both Windows-based Pocket PC and Smartphones" 2007
* Mobile Gala "Best program for mobile phones" 2004
* Mobile Gala "Best program for handheld computers" 2004
* Tietokone magazine "Best Software Product of the Year" 2003

Devices

Opera Mobile comes pre-installed on some devices, and often a special build is made for the particular device. Some devices that feature Opera Mobile pre-installed are:

* Nokia N90
* Sony Ericsson P1
* Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1
* HTC Touch Diamond
* HTC Touch Diamond2
* HTC Touch Pro
* HTC Touch Pro 2
* HTC Touch HD
* Meizu M8
* Creative Zii
* Samsung i900 Omnia

Future development

The Opera Software company announced that Opera Mobile 9 would support widgets and offer a more intelligent zoom feature. Opera Mobile 9's internal builds passed the Acid2 test. Opera Mobile 9 was being ported from the desktop edition of Opera. It was expected to be released in the first half of 2008. On February 5, 2008, Opera announced that it would now instead be working on towards releasing Opera Mobile 9.5, in order to unify its Opera Mobile and desktop browser product around the same release version and underlying rendering engine. A pre-alpha internal build of Opera Mobile 9.5 was leaked onto the Internet, for the Windows Mobile platform. There are now multiple different versions of Opera Mobile leaked on the internet, with varying rendering speeds and even different way of zooming. Some versions now even support flashlite 3.1 for full youtube and flash webpage support. Opera has since released the official beta: Opera Mobile site

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Opera Mini

2009-12-19T16:47:00.000-08:00

NetFront

2009-12-17T15:55:00.001-08:00

NetFront is a microbrowser for embedded devices developed by Access Co. Ltd. of Japan, and was designed to function as an embedded browser.

Mainly deployed on mobile phones, NetFront is available for multiple platforms and has been deployed in Multifunction Printers (MFP), digital TVs, set-top boxes (STB), PDAs, web phones, game consoles, e-mail terminals, automobile telematics systems and other device types.

The browser converts tables in a Web page into a vertical display, eliminating the need to scroll horizontally. This allows the user to zoom in and out on Web pages from 25% to 100%, and can select or scroll anywhere on a page with the stylus on Pocket PC devices. The software can open up to five windows and the user can tab to any one of them.

Compact Netfront

Compact NetFront Plus is a Netfront version designed for the next-generation of mobile wireless services, including international i-mode phones.

Compact NetFront Plus supports Compact HTML, which is popular in Japan; WML (Wireless Markup Language), a markup language based on XML which specifies the content and user interface for WAP-enabled devices used by overseas services; and XHTML Basic, a subset of XHTML.

NetFront supports common technologies such as a TCP/IP protocol stack, AVE-TCP, which supports IPv6 and the WAP Wireless Profile, a JV-Lite 2 Wireless Edition Java environment for cellular phones, and a AVE-SSL secure communications protocol and encryption module.

The latest version of Netfront supports:

* Ajax support
* Document Viewer
* New RSS viewer libraries
* SMIL 2.1 support
* SVG 1.2 + microDOM support

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Minimo

2009-12-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

Minimo (from "Mini Mozilla") was a project to create a version of the Mozilla web browser for small devices like PDAs and mobile phones.

The project aimed to make it easier for developers to embed parts of Mozilla into systems with limited system resources (for example, machines with low amounts of RAM). This project is still in use although is being outmoded by Mozilla Fennec, another mobile device web-browser.

Background

To minimize the use of system resources, Minimo did not include a lot of Mozilla's functionality, such as support for SVG. In addition, the browser used small screen rendering technology to reformat Web pages for pocket-sized displays. The user interface was also designed to take up minimal screen space, with a single 8px high toolbar and a hidden-by-default address bar. Other user interface functionality, such as bookmarks, history, and search, was migrated into a special homepage called the Homebase. Because Minimo is based on the Gecko infrastructure, developers can decide to build specific versions and evaluate other features such as the canvas, SVG support, and more.

Most Minimo development has centered around ARM devices (such as Hewlett-Packard's iPAQ) with around 64MB of RAM, running Familiar Linux and the GPE Palmtop Environment (where it is now the default browser). Minimo 0.1 was released for this platform in 2004. Version 0.2 came out in March 2007 and represents a product targeted for developers.

A Windows CE version of Minimo was also under development, built against the Pocket PC 2003 software development kit. The first public build of Minimo for Windows CE was made available in February 2005.

Chris Hofmann created the Minimo project shortly after leaving Netscape Communications, under funding from Nokia's Maemo team. He single-handedly saved this project from being canceled many times. The loyal dog, Sparky, is the project's Chief Mascot. Currently Chris works for the Mozilla Corporation. Chris is also responsible for some of the Minimo key features such as the Homebase bar, a format for displaying bookmarks more amenable to mobile devices.

The lead Minimo developer is Doug Turner, who has headed this and additional Mozilla mobile projects such as the Mozilla labs project named Joey. The Mozilla Foundation hired Turner in December 2004 to work full time on Mobile projects. Minimo has been funded by Nokia and others. Nokia's involvement became public in mid-2004.

On December 17, 2006, Turner, in his blog, acknowledged the slow pace of development, and revealed that Mozilla developers are exploring alternatives for Gecko-based web browsing on mobile handsets. Turner issued an invitation for others to "step up" as his own development priorities shift.

On March 31, 2007, Minimo 0.2 for Windows Mobile was finally released. The new version adds tabbed browsing, an upgraded interface, and support for Windows Mobile 5.

On November 27, 2007, project head Doug Turner announced that the project was no longer supported.

By 2008 Doug Turner had begun on yet another mobile web browser, this time known as Firefox Mobile or Fennec.

Criticism

Probably because it was in the early stages of development, the Windows Mobile version of Minimo performs significantly slower than expected.

The quality of rendered pages is congruent with the well-respected layout engine it implements (Gecko), but the program has very high memory and hardware requirements compared to what is typically available on most handheld platforms (e.g. 64 megabytes of RAM, 206–624 MHz ARM-compatible CPU).

Version 0.016 (~8 MB CAB installation; Windows Mobile 4.2 + 5.0) and Version 0.2 (~4 MB CAB installation; Windows Mobile 5.0 only) are not recommendable for end-users not used to running bleeding edge software. In this version the browser may make the Windows Mobile OS unstable and a soft-reset may be required to make the system work again.

Version 0.2 was recommended for developers targeting mobile devices or interested in AJAX- and Web Services-driven Web application for the mobile space. Minimo is compatible with many Web 2.0 applications, such as Gmail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

MicroB

2009-12-13T08:19:00.000-08:00

MicroB (pronounced /ˌmaɪkroʊˈbiː/) is a mobile web browser developed by Nokia for use in smartphones and mobile devices that run the maemo operating system. The browser is Mozilla-based and uses the Gecko engine.

It is shipped with Nokia's N800 and N810 Internet Tablets, and is also available for the 770 via the 'Hacker Editions' of the operating system. In place of Mozilla's XUL-based user interface, MicroB uses the Maemo-native (GTK-based) Hildon API and widgets.

History

MicroB was initially released as a public beta for Internet Tablet OS 2007 on July 17, 2007 to allow 3rd party developers and community members to develop and port plugins, and help shape the development of the browser. It was updated several times before it replaced Opera as Internet Tablet OS's default browser with the release of Internet Tablet OS 2008 on November 18, 2007 with the N810.

Architecture

MicroB is Mozilla-based and uses the Gecko engine, but a number of features are omitted due to platform-specific limitations. In particular, SVG support is disabled due to unacceptable performance, and XUL is not included to reduce size and decrease memory consumption. As XUL is not included, most Firefox plugins require porting and repackaging before they can be used with MicroB. In place of XUL, MicroB uses GTK and the Hildon UI toolkit to provide a native interface.

Add-ons

As mentioned above, despite being Mozilla-based, most Firefox extensions cannot be used directly in MicroB (largely due to the lack of XUL support), so porting is usually necessary. The Maemo Browser Extras project is responsible for a large number of the available add-ons.

Some MicroB Plugins

* Adobe Flash 9 (bundled with Internet Tablet OS)
* Windows Media Player Stream and Real Player stream supports via the built-in Media player
* Google Gears
* Greasemonkey - All scripts that work on the desktop version of Firefox work fine in MicroB, extending the capabilities of the browser and even replacing the need for some extensions which are not available for MicroB.
* Adblock Plus
* MPlayer plugin
* Flashblock
* wmlbrowser

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Internet Explorer Mobile

2009-12-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

Internet Explorer Mobile or IE Mobile (formerly named Pocket Internet Explorer or PIE before Windows Mobile 5.0) is a web browser developed by Microsoft, and comes loaded by default with Windows Mobile and Windows CE for Handheld PC. It does similar operations as Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 and 7 browsers; however, it is not based on the same layout engine. IE Mobile is available both for Windows Mobile and Windows CE platforms, though the latter is more feature-rich.

Version history

Pocket Internet Explorer was first introduced in Windows CE 1.0, released in November 1996. It does not derive from the Internet Explorer code and was written from scratch for being as light-weight as possible. PIE 1.1 was later released that supported cookies, HTTPS, and SSL. Pocket Internet Explorer 2.0, released in September 1997 with Windows CE 2.0, added many new features: offline browsing, resizing images to fit to screen, and richer HTML support, including framesets and tables. PIE 3.0, introduced in July 1998 with Windows CE 2.10, added support for JScript and various secure protocols.

The next version, Pocket Internet Explorer 4, was the first to support ActiveX, CSS, VBScript as well as further extending support for HTTPS and advanced HTML features. Pocket PC 2002 version of PIE brought limited support for DHTML and XML, and also the ability to browse WAP sites – a feature not present in Internet Explorer for PC, Internet Explorer 6.0 added support for IFrames. The browser supports FTP, XSLT, cookies, animated GIFs among other features.

On July 8, 2008 at the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft announced Internet Explorer Mobile 6 for their next version of Windows Mobile. Andy Lees, Microsoft's senior vice president of mobile communications business said that Internet Explorer Mobile 6 was going to be a full version of Internet Explorer 6 on Windows Mobile It was shown running briefly during Microsoft's 2009 CES Keynote on a Palm Treo Pro, and again in an official video for Toshiba's TG01 phone, which has Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor.

Internet Explorer Mobile 6 was released as part of Windows Mobile 6.5. New features include enhanced script and AJAX support (Jscript v5.7 from Internet Explorer 8) and support for Adobe Flash Lite 3.1. The browser also has a redesigned Graphical user interface.

Extensions

As with the desktop version, Pocket Internet Explorer's underlying rendering technology is exposed to program developers. This has led to various web browsers built on Pocket Internet Explorer that add additional functionality. Browsers that add "tabbed" browsing include Webby Mobile and ftxPBrowser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Bolt browser

2009-12-09T01:52:00.000-08:00

The BOLT Browser is a web browser for mobile phones including feature phones and smartphones that can run Java ME applications. The BOLT Browser is offered free of charge to consumers and is produced by Bitstream Inc., the company that also produces the ThunderHawk (web browser) for Mobile network operators and handset manufacturers.

BOLT was originally introduced into private beta on January 15, 2009 and was made available to the public on February 16, 2009 when the public beta was announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Today, BOLT can be installed on Java-based handsets with Java MIDP 2 and CLDC 1.0 or higher support. BOLT also has a specially optimized version for BlackBerry smartphones and works with Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices that employ a MIDlet manager or Java emulator. BOLT was built using the WebKit rendering engine to display a full Web page layout as found on desktop Web browsers such as Opera or Safari.

Features

Introduced in Public Beta

Version 0.86

* Fast, secure, desktop-style web browsing on both high-end and low-end handsets
* Streaming video capabilities to websites such as YouTube, vids.myspace.com, video.yahoo.com, blip.tv, dailymotion.com, and metacafe.com
* Support for XML, ATOM and RDF formats of RSS feeds
* Split screen and full screen modes for easy navigation and viewing
* Easily add and select favorites and view browsing history
* Intuitive keystroke shortcuts for easier navigation and content selection
* 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for secure access to web pages
* Server filtering to protect users from spyware and other malware
* Certificate error notification
* Ability to clear history and cookies
* Support for JavaScript and AJAX

Introduced in Beta2

Version 0.94

* Significantly improved BlackBerry scrolling speed and control
* A new 3XL (extra large) magnification mode with content 33.3 percent bigger than in 2XL
* Double tap approach to select links on touchscreen devices like the BlackBerry Storm (eliminates inadvertent clicks)
* Wi-Fi auto-selection as default option when Wi-Fi is both enabled and available
* Save and view pages locally on the phone
* Support for folders in favorites
* A new landscape viewing feature
* Improved magnifier dragging in split screen mode on the BlackBerry Storm

Introduced in Beta3

Version 1.04

* Copy and paste text
* Enter and edit text directly within online text boxes
* Upload files such as videos to YouTube or pictures to Photobucket
* Order favorites and arrange them into custom folders
* Toggle between viewing websites with or without images displayed
* Support for Cyrillic alphabets
* Addition of RuTube to supported video websites

BlackBerry Specific Features

Features available on the BlackBerry version of BOLT

* Press the Space key to insert a period (.) in the URL address bar
* Press the Escape key to move back to the previous Web page
* On a Web page, press the Space key and the Shift key to move up a screen (feature not applicable for BlackBerry 8100, 8200, and 7100 series devices)
* On a Web page, press the Space key to move down a screen (feature not applicable for BlackBerry 8100, 8200, and 7100 series devices)
* Press T to move to the top of a Web page (feature not applicable for BlackBerry 8100, 8200, and 7100 series devices)
* Press B to move to the bottom of a Web page (feature not applicable for BlackBerry 8100, 8200, and 7100 series devices).

History

* January 15, 2009: BOLT was introduced as a private beta.
* February 16, 2009: BOLT was made available via free public beta at Mobile World Congress.
* April 1, 2009 – BOLT Beta2 was released at CTIA Wireless 2009 in Las Vegas, NV. This release included improvements, fixes to minor bugs and new features.
* June 29, 2009 – BOLT Beta3 released, BOLT lite announced. Beta3 included major improvements, fixes to minor bugs and new features.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Mobile browser

2009-12-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

A mobile browser, also called a microbrowser, minibrowser or wireless internet browser (WIB), is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are optimized so as to display Web content most effectively for small screens on portable devices. Mobile browser software must be small and efficient to accommodate the low memory capacity and low-bandwidth of wireless handheld devices. Typically they were stripped-down web browsers, but as of 2006 some mobile browsers can handle more recent technologies like CSS 2.1, JavaScript and Ajax. Websites designed for access from these browsers are referred to as wireless portals.

Underlying technology

The mobile browser usually connects via a cellular network, or increasingly via Wireless LAN, using standard HTTP over TCP/IP and displays web pages written in HTML, XHTML Mobile Profile (WAP 2.0), or WML (which evolved from HDML). WML and HDML are stripped-down formats suitable for transmission across limited bandwidth, and wireless data connection called WAP. In Japan, DoCoMo defined the i-mode service based on i-mode HTML, which is an extension of Compact HTML (C-HTML), a simple subset of HTML.

WAP 2.0 specifies XHTML Mobile Profile plus WAP CSS, subsets of the W3C's standard XHTML and CSS with minor mobile extensions.

Newer microbrowsers are full-featured Web browsers capable of HTML, CSS, ECMAScript, as well as mobile technologies such as WML, i-mode HTML, or cHTML.

Pioneers

The first true mobile browser for a PDA was NetHopper for the Apple Newton, released in August 1996.

The so-called microbrowser technologies such as WAP, NTTDocomo's i-mode platform and Openwave's HDML platform have fueled the first wave of interest in wireless data services.

The first deployment of a microbrowser was probably in 1997 when Unwired Planet (later to become Openwave) put their "UP.Browser" on AT&T handsets to give users access to HDML content.

A British company, STNC Ltd., developed a microbrowser (HitchHiker) intended to present the entire device UI in 1997. The demonstration platform for this microbrowser (Webwalker) had 1 MIPS total processing power. This was a single core platform, running the GSM stack on the same processor as the application stack. In 1999 STNC was acquired by Microsoft and HitchHiker became Microsoft Mobile Explorer 2.0, not related to the primitive Microsoft Mobile Explorer 1.0. HitchHiker is believed to be the first microbrowser with a unified rendering model, handling HTML and WAP along with ECMAScript, WMLScript, POP3 and IMAP mail in a single client. Although it was not used, it was possible to combine HTML and WAP in the same pages although this would render the pages invalid for any other device. Mobile Explorer 2.0 was available on the Benefon Q, Sony CMD-Z5, CMD-J5, CMD-MZ5, CMD-J6, CMD-Z7, CMD-J7 and CMD-J70. With the addition of a messaging kernel and a driver model, this was powerful enough to be the operating system for certain embedded devices. One such device was the Amstrad e-m@iler and e-m@iler 2. This code formed the basis for MME3.

Released in 2001, Mobile Explorer 3.0 added iMode compatibility (cHTML) plus numerous proprietary schemes. By imaginatively combining these proprietary schemes with WAP protocols, MME3.0 implemented OTA database synchronisation, push email, push information clients (not unlike a 'Today Screen') and PIM functionality. The cancelled Sony Ericsson CMD-Z700 was to feature heavy integration with MME3.0. Although Mobile Explorer was ahead of its time in the mobile phone space, development was stopped in 2002.

A freeware (although later shareware) browser for the PalmOS was Palmscape, written in 1998 by Kazuho Oku in Japan, who went on to found Ilinx. Still in limited use as late as 2003.

Also in 2002, Palm, Inc. offered Web Pro on Tungsten PDAs based upon a Novarra browser.

Opera Software pioneered with its Small Screen Rendering (SSR) and Medium Screen Rendering (MSR) technology. The Opera web browser is able to relayout regular web pages for optimal fit on small screens and medium-sized (PDA) screens. It was also the first widely available mobile browser to support Ajax and the first mobile browser to pass ACID2 test.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

WinWAP

2009-12-05T05:26:00.000-08:00

WinWAP is a web browser for WAP made by Winwap Technologies available for Microsoft Windows and any Windows CE powered device, like the common Windows Mobile powered Pocket PC phones. The WinWAP name is a combination of the words "Windows" and "WAP".

The browser engine is also provided as a Software Development Kit that allows other software manufacturers to add WAP capabilities to their own software applications.

The WinWAP browsers are depending on version available as free downloads, shareware applications or pre-installed on devices.

History

The first WinWAP browser that supported WAP 1.2 was released in 1999 as the world's first Wireless Application Protocol browser for Windows. The newest versions of the browser are WAP 2.0 compatible with support for WML, xHTML-MP and HTML.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Vision Mobile Browser

2009-12-03T22:19:00.000-08:00

Vision (formerly nWeb) is an internet browser platform for mobile devices developed by Novarra Inc. The product is comprised of a server that acts as a proxy and a small footprint browser that runs on Java Platform, Micro Edition, BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless), or native handset environments via C++.

Novarra created and holds patents for this distributed browsing architecture that combines an in-network server with a handset browser client. The architecture performs a portion of web page content processing on an in-network server thus reducing the workload on the handset. It also reduces data transferred over-the-air for faster page load times and provides access to more content than is possible by a handset browser alone.

Novarra offers the mobile browser to mobile network operators and handset manufacturers who typically rebrand the software as their own service. It was first made commercially available in 2002 through Palm, Inc for Tungsten (handheld) PDAs branded as “WebPro”. Some later releases of the mobile browser include U.S. Cellular as easyedgeSM mobile browser, Alltel as “My Mobile Web” Celltop application, Hutchison 3G as “www3” in Italy and “3Xplorer” in Hong Kong. Version 8.0 was released March, 2009.

Functionality

Mobile phone users can access and use the same web sites on their wireless handsets that they visit using personal computers. Full web pages load in seconds due to compression and in-network processing of content by the server.

Content Type Support: “Street” HTML, HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, XHTML Basic, XHTML MP, cHTML, HDML, WML 1.1, Cascading Style Sheets v1, CSS v2, W-CSS, Tables, Frames, Forms, JavaScript 1.5, ECMAScript v3, ECMAScript Mobile Profile, Cookies, Basic Authentication, gzip, Multi-Part MIME, GIF, Animated GIF, JPEG, BMP file format, WBMP

Multimedia Support: Adobe Flash, FLV, WMV, AVI, MPEG-2/MPEG-4, 3GP, 3GP2, MP3, SVG Tiny, SMIL, MIDI (supported on handsets with appropriate APIs)

Network Protocols and Security: HTTP1.1, HTTPS, SSL2.0/3.0, WTLS, Certificates

Push: WAP 2.0 Push Access Protocol (PAP)

Download: OMA Download 1.0, MIDP OTA 1.0 & 2.0

Features

• On-Device Portal: Locally store pages with categories and sites that can be predefined by the service provider and updated over the air, also "History" and "Favorites" can be customized by the end user

• PC View: Site pages load with a visual representation of the full web page.

• Fit to Screen View: Choice of reformatted layout with image sizes adapted to fit within the width of the phone’s screen.

• Content Prioritization and Mobile Navigation Aids: The browser attempts to automatically find the main information on a web page and focus on that content. Additionally, a user can “jump to” other prioritized content such as login, search or forms.

• Adobe Flash and Streaming Video (Streaming media): The browser adapts Flash animations, Flash video, and other video formats to a format supported by the handset (usually RTSP/3GPP).

• RSS: Users can view or subscribe to an available RSS feed on a site.

• Widget engine: Ability to run widgets on mobile handsets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

UZard Web

2009-12-01T06:14:00.000-08:00

uZard Web is a mobile web browser for mobile devices which are cellular phones, smartphones, PMP, navigator, settopbox and etc.
It currently supports Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Symbian, Blackberry (RIM) and Linux. Also it supports BREW, Java and WIPI.

Its first commercial version was released in Feb. 2007 in Korea with SK Telecom, KTF, LG Telecom and KT WiBro(WiMAX)which are carriers(operators).

Overview

In uZard Web , a webpage is fully rendered by a server separate from the mobile device, similar to the operation of a thin client.
This approach is also used by Opera Mini, Skyfire and is usually faster and supports better rendering techniques.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

UCWEB

2009-11-29T02:42:00.001-08:00

UCWEB is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones. UCWEB is now ranked #1 in the Chinese mobile web browser market, with over 60 million accumulated users and over 10 billion page views per month by November 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

ThunderHawk (web browser)

2009-11-27T15:31:00.000-08:00

ThunderHawk is a mobile web browser from Bitstream available for a full range of operating systems in high end (Windows mobile and Symbian browsers) and mass-market (Java browser) mobile phones and PDAs. It is basically meant for mobile operators and original Equipment Manufacturers and not meant for download for users.

Unlike most browsers, ThunderHawk does not re-purpose or reformats the content, and provides a desktop-like view of the web page. Data is transmitted to the mobile phone in a compressed transport format, i.e., the visible web page regions (text) are received first, while the rest of the images and other data are automatically transferred in the background.

Version history

Bitstream announced the ThunderHawk technology first on June 6, 2001 in Cambridge. The official beta release went off on October 9, 2001 and included enhancements as improved readability, speed, and usability. Sonera, wireless carrier in Finland included the beta release of Bitstream’s web browser technology in Sonera Pilot Program to offer hands-on testing of new UI conventions for future mobile applications.

Later, in the same year, December 17, 2001 Bitstream announced the Wireless Web browsing solution with HP for its HP Jornada PDA customers. The first full-featured Wireless Web Browser for Pocket PCs was released on May 20, 2002.

Standards Supported

AJAX, DHTML Level 1, DOM Level 1, DOM Level 2, CSS Level 1, CSS Level 2, Frames, HTML 4.01, HTTP 1.0, HTTP 1.1, HTTPS 128-bit encryption, Feeds (RSS, ATOM, RDF), Image formats (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PJPEG), XHTML Basic, XML 1.0, ECMA Script, WML, WAP 2.0.

Functionality

When a subscriber uses ThunderHawk to access the Web, the ThunderHawk client residing on the handset communicates with the server. The server receives a connection from the client and requests an HTML Web page from the Internet. Upon receiving the requested page, the server renders the content on-the-fly and compresses the graphics. The server sends the requested HTML page in a compact transport format to the subscriber’s handset.

ThunderHawk can run on any handset that offers MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.0 and/or CLDC 1.1 software. The browser uses Bitstream's patented technologies for mobile browsing. To display digital content on a small screen device, ThunderHawk accesses the Web site, lays out the content at a virtual pixel resolution and then displays a part of the layout at a smaller display resolution. The displayed content is at a scaled-down resolution size and includes text composed from font bitmaps having character shapes, sizes, and pixel alignments selected to improve readability.

Split-Screen Mode

ThunderHawk allows browsing in the combined overview and magnified view of a web page. The split screen magnifier makes it easier to browse the Web pages in their original format on the small screen of a mobile device. The floating magnifier over the overview area, available with both Zoom-In and Zoom-Out mode aids in finding information and navigating the Web sites. Bitstream holds the patent rights for this split-screen technology.

Rendering Modes

ThunderHawk can show the Web page content in various user enable modes including, overview only, magnified only, and a re-flown single column text view.

Features

* Supports viewing of AJAX pages that are written using ECMA-262/JavaScript 1.5 standard.
* Supports full HTML browsing on the Java/J2ME, Symbian, or Windows Mobile phone.
* Includes HTTPS 128-bit encryption, providing a secure transmission of confidential data.
* Customizable options: A "split screen/full screen" feature that eliminates the need of excessive scrolling. The "History" and "favorites" lists provide fast access to your favorite sites.
* Offers a choice of viewing the mobile version or the desktop version of a Web page.
* Provides image quality control options (low, medium, or high) that reduce the data transferred. The better the quality, higher the color depth and information each image will contain, and more the amount of data transfer. As the quality decreases, the image rendered will have less color depth and information, and hence lesser the download bytes.
* Persistent cookie support, with cookies stored on the server, which decreases the data transfer time.
* Validates certificates for https sites; if there are certificate problems, informs the user and gives the choice to continue browsing the site.
* Incremental rendering that sends visible Web page region first, while the rest of the images and other data are automatically transferred in the background.
* Support to submit web forms and view drop down menus on a mobile device.
* Native character support, ability to view web sites in multiple languages (Western and Eastern European).
* Allows choosing the content size with 5 different levels of magnification.
* Support to bypass or view popup windows.
* Supports playing videos for player-enabled handsets.
* Based on platform capability, ability to use smoothened or monochrome fonts.
* Supports both landscape and portrait viewing

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Teashark

2009-11-18T15:35:00.001-08:00

Teashark is a mobile web browser for Java MIDP 2.0. It is a browsing client which works in cooperation with the Teashark servers which transcode (and partly pre-renders) websites and then sends the results to the mobile device, like Opera Mini. Such 'transcoding' is not necessarily faster (as this is extra overhead) than 'direct' browsing like most phones built-in browsers or Opera Mobile does, particularly when Wi-Fi, UMTS or HSDPA is used as data transfer medium. It supports Javascript as long as no interactive actions are used like popup menus or timed events. It features a preview based history, tabbed browsing (up to 3-4 pages open at a time), a list of all visited pages like desktop browsers and a nice bookmarking capability. Moreover it uses an AppleWebkit / Linux user agent which allows viewing full web sites rather than limited mobile sites what other mobile browsers do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Steel (web browser)

2009-11-16T18:12:00.000-08:00

Steel is a freeware web browser developed by Michael Kolb under the name kolbysoft. It is a fork of the default browser for Android, taking its WebKit-based layout engine and providing what is intended to be an easier and more "touch friendly" user interface.

Steel was one of the first Android applications to support automatic rotation based on the hardware's accelerometer and a virtual keyboard. This feature is now more common among Android applications. It is currently in Alpha, and its current stable release in the Android Market is 0.1.7.

Features

Steel's UI is intended to be more "touch friendly" than that of Android's default browser, and thus emphasizes ease of use on a touch screen. Back, Forward, Zoom, and Bookmark-related buttons are all on the bottom toolbar. A URL-entry box is on the top toolbar, and beside it is a Refresh/Stop button, which displays if a page is fully loaded or still loading, respectively. Both toolbars are only shown if "pulled out" by two semi-transparent handles at the top and bottom of the display, and after a short period of not being used will hide themselves again. Until 0.0.4, Android's status bar containing system information was only shown when the top toolbar was out. Starting in 0.0.4, it is either visible or not depending on whether the browser is set to run in fullscreen mode.

Hardware controls

Steel will switch between portrait and landscape modes based on which way the device running it is rotated. By contrast, the Android default browser at the time of release required the user to "Flip Orientation" in a menu or, on the T-Mobile G1, open the phone's keyboard.

In an attempt to avoid opening the aforementioned keyboard when possible, Steel has a virtual keyboard which appears when a user selects a text box or the URL entry box in the toolbar. It is modeled after that of the iPhone, and as of version 0.0.4 causes the device to vibrate when a key is successfully pressed.

Reception

Steel's first public release received a 3-star rating from AppVee, praising its user interface and accelerometer support but pointing out that it was not at its current stage an application to rely on completely.

Shortly after the release of 0.0.3, which added multiple features including the virtual keyboard, on December 13, 2008, Steel became the second most popular Communication app in the Android Market, with an average rating of 4 (out of 5) stars from users.

In May 2009 an Android Tapp review gave the Steel Browser a 4.5/5 rating saying that it had a "hands down a better UI for the browser."

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Skyfire (web browser)

2009-11-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Skyfire is a mobile web browser for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and Symbian S60 v3. On May 27, 2009, version 1.0 was released.

It is the first browser software for Windows Mobile which can view Adobe Flash content and streaming video.

In Skyfire, a webpage is fully rendered by a server separate from the mobile device, similar to the operation of a thin client. This approach is also used by Opera Mini, and is usually faster and supports better rendering techniques.

How it works

Skyfire is a web browser which operates by rendering requested web pages on a server using the Gecko rendering engine before sending the rendered output to the browser. The output is sent as images annotated with interactive items such as links and text-fields.

Consequently, the browser is able to use features from a fully-featured desktop web browser without the need to have a powerful mobile device. Features such as Adobe Flash, Silverlight and QuickTime are usable without additional plug-ins on the device, and can be easily updated server-side without the need to update the client.

Supported Devices and Platforms

* Windows Mobile 5, 6, 6.1 AT&T 8525, HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Fuze, Treo 750
* Symbian OS, Nokia Eseries and Nseries running Symbian S60, 3rd edition

For a complete list of devices visit the support site

Awards

* 2008 Read Write Web's one of six must have applications for Windows Mobile
* 2008 Laptop Magazine's Mobile Maverick Award
* 2009 Webby People's Voice Award for Best Mobile Application

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Skweezer

2009-11-08T01:12:00.000-08:00

Skweezer is a Mobile HTML Transcoder for users of handheld devices such as personal digital assistants and mobile phones. Skweezer reformats and compresses web content in order to reduce a web page's file size and makes the downloaded content easier to view on a small screen . Skweezer was developed by Skweezer, Inc. (f.k.a. Greenlight Wireless Corporation) and initially released in 2003. Skweezer's technology is used to mobilize Web content service by search engines, Web portals, and wireless carriers such as IAC/InterActiveCorp , Bloglines , and Orange SA . Currently Skweezer is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese languages and serves customers in over 175 countries worldwide .

Mobile browsing innovations

Skweezer has introduced several mobile browsing innovations since its inception, including the first:

* Portal-based transcoding engine: Skweezer (2003)
* Globally distributed mobile advertising platform: Skweezer Ads (2004)
* Pagination system that splits large Web pages up for viewing on cell phones (2005)
* Mobile Web page translation feature (2005)
* Portal-based mobile RSS reader (2005)
* "Find in page" search that carries Web search keywords into search result pages (2007)

Controversy

In 2004 Skweezer became the subject of controversy in the Blogosphere when blogger Jason Calcanis objected to advertisements being placed by Skweezer on transcoded versions of blog content . A debate ensued over the legality and propriety of proxy-based services such as anonymizers and transcoders placing ads against other publishers' content and the scope of coverage under "fair use" copyright protection. While this is a subject that is still under debate, Greenlight Wireless stopped placing ads on transcoded content in early 2005.

Skweezer has also blocked WebTV and other TV internet surfing devices on the basis that it is not intended for web browsing but it allows web browsing from computers using Skweezer

Awards

* 2008 Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Best Software Awards: Winner - Pocket PC Internet: Web Compression Service
* 2007 MobileVillage Mobile Star Awards: Gold Star - Consumer Software: Mobile Web Content Aggregator / Portal
* 2007 PDA Friendly Website Awards: Winner - PDA Home Page category
* 2007 Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Best Software Awards: Winner - Pocket PC Internet: Web Compression Service
* 2006 MobileVillage Mobile Star Awards: Gold Star - Personal Software: Mobile Web Content Provider category
* 2005 MobileVillage Mobile Star Awards: Gold Star - Personal Software: Mobile Web Content Provider category
* 2005 Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Best Software awards: Finalist - Browsers & Web Utilities category

Competitors

* Google Mobile site
* BareSite.com
* Mowser
* IYHY

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Safari (web browser)

2009-11-05T17:24:00.000-08:00

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. First released as a public beta on 7 January 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Apple has also made Safari the native browser for the iPhone OS. A version of Safari for the Microsoft Windows operating system first released on June 11, 2007 supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.The current stable release of the browser is 4.0.3 for Mac OS X and Windows. Safari had a 4.24% market share in September 2009.

History and development

Until 1997, Apple Macintosh computers had shipped with Netscape Navigator and Cyberdog only. Internet Explorer for Mac was subsequently included with Mac OS 8.1 onwards as the default web browser, as part of the five year agreement between Apple and Microsoft. However, Netscape Navigator continued to be included. Microsoft released three major versions of Internet Explorer for Mac that were bundled with Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9. Microsoft subsequently released a Mac OS X edition of Internet Explorer 5, which was included as the default browser in all Mac OS X releases from Mac OS X DP4 until Mac OS X v10.2.

On January 7, 2003, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had developed their own web browser based on KHTML rendering engine, called Safari. They released the first beta version that day and a number of official and unofficial beta versions followed, until version 1.0 was released on June 23, 2003. Available as a separate download initially, it was included with the Mac OS X v10.3 release on October 24, 2003, as the default browser, with Internet Explorer for Mac included only as an alternative browser. Since the release of Mac OS X v10.4 on April 29, 2005, Safari is the only web browser included with the operating system.

In June 2005, after some criticism from KHTML developers over lack of access to change logs, Apple moved the development source code and bug tracking of WebCore and JavaScriptCore to OpenDarwin.org. WebKit itself was also released as open source. The source code for non-renderer aspects of the browser, such as its GUI elements, remains proprietary.

Safari 2.0 was released on April 29, 2005, and runs only on Mac OS X v10.4.x or later; this version was touted by Apple as possessing a 1.8x speed boost over version 1.2.4.

In April 2005, Dave Hyatt, one of the Safari developers at Apple, documented his progress fixing bugs in Safari to get it to pass the Acid2 test. On April 27, 2005, he announced that his development version of Safari now passed the test, making it the first web browser to do so.The changes were not initially available to end-users unless they downloaded and compiled the WebKit source code themselves or ran one of the nightly automated builds available at opendarwin.org. However on October 31, 2005, Apple released version 2.0.2 of Safari that included the Acid2 bug fixes.

On January 9, 2007, Jobs formally announced Apple's iPhone, which uses a mobile version of the Safari browser. It now features the same JavaScript engine, "Nitro," as its desktop counterpart in iPhone OS 3.0.

Safari 3

At the 2007 Worldwide Developers Conference, Jobs announced Safari 3 for Mac OS X v10.5, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. During the announcement, he ran a benchmark based on the iBench browser test suite comparing the most popular Windows browsers, hence claiming that Safari was the fastest browser. Although third-party tests of HTTP load times suggest that Safari 3 was indeed the fastest browser on the Windows platform in terms of initial data loading over the Internet, it is actually tied with Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox when comparing loading from caches.

The initial Safari 3 beta version for Windows, released on June 11, 2007, had several known bugs and a zero day exploit that allows remote execution. The addressed bugs were then corrected by Apple three days later on June 14, 2007, in version 3.0.1 on Windows. On June 22, 2007, Apple released Safari 3.0.2 to address some bugs, performance issues and other security issues. Safari 3.0.2 for Windows handles some fonts that are missing in the browser but already installed on Windows computers, such as Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, and others. There is also a guide that allows the software to run under Linux with Wine. The final release of the Windows version, Safari 3.1, was offered as a free download on March 18, 2008.

In June 2008, Apple released version 3.1.2, addressing a security vulnerability in the Windows version where visiting a malicious web site would force a download of executable files and execute them on the user's desktop.

Safari 4

On June 2, 2008, the WebKit development team announced SquirrelFish — a new JavaScript engine that vastly improves Safari's speed at interpreting scripts. The engine is one of the new features in Safari 4, released for developers on June 11, 2008. The final revision of the JavaScript engine was marketed as "Nitro." A public beta of Safari 4 was released on February 24, 2009, with new features such as a "Top Sites" tool, similar to Opera's Speed Dial feature that displays the user's most visited sites in a 3D world. Cover Flow, a feature of Mac OS X, was also brought into Safari. While in the public beta, tabs were placed in the title bar of the window, similar to Google Chrome, the tab bar was moved back to where it used to be, below the URL bar, in the final release. For the Windows version, Safari adopted a native theme, rather than the previous Mac OS X look employed. On June 8, 2009, Safari 4 was officially released. Safari 4.0.1 was released for Mac on June 17 and fixed problems with Faces in iPhoto '09. Safari 4 in Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard" has 64-bit support, which can make Javascript loading up to 50% faster. It also has built in crash resistance unique to Snow Leopard, crash resistance will keep the browser intact if a plug-in like Flash player crashes, the other tabs or windows will be deemed unaffected.

Features

Safari offers most features common to modern web browsers such as

* Tabbed browsing
* Bookmark management
* A resizable web-search box in the toolbar which uses Google on the Mac and either Google or Yahoo! on Windows
* Pop-up ad blocking
* History and bookmark search
* Text search
* Spell-checking
* Expandable text boxes
* Automatic filling in of web forms
* Built-in password management via Keychain
* Subscribing to and reading web feeds
* Quartz-style font-smoothing
* The Web Inspector, a DOM Inspector-like utility that lets users and developers browse the Document Object Model of a web page
* Support for CSS 3 web fonts
* Support for CSS animation
* Support for Transport Layer Security protocol (version unknown)
* Bookmark integration with Address Book
* ICC color profile support
* Inline PDF viewing
* Integration with iPhoto photo management
* Mail integration
* Ability to save webpage clips for viewing on the Apple Dashboard
* Private browsing

On Mac OS X, Safari is a Cocoa application. It uses Apple's WebKit for rendering web pages and running JavaScript. WebKit consists of WebCore (based on Konqueror's KHTML engine) and JavaScriptCore (based on KDE's JavaScript engine named KJS). Like KHTML and KJS, WebCore and JavaScriptCore are free software and are released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. Some Apple improvements to the KHTML code are merged back into the Konqueror project. Apple also releases additional code under an open source 2-clause BSD-like license.

It includes a built-in web feed aggregator and supporting the standards RSS and Atom. Other features include Private Browsing (a mode in which no record of information about the user's web activity is retained) which has become the origin of the now popular term "porn mode" for web browsers), the ability to archive (using the proprietary .webarchive format) and e-mail web pages, and the ability to search bookmarks.

Beginning with Safari 4, the address bar has been completely revamped.

* The button to add a bookmark is now attached to the address bar by default.
* The reload/stop button is now superimposed on the right end of the address bar.
* The blue inline progress bar is replaced with a spinning bezel and a loading indicator attached to it.

These modifications make Safari look somewhat like Safari on iPhone.

In addition, Safari 4 includes the following new features:

* Top Sites, which displays up to 24 thumbnails of a user's most frequently-visited pages on startup
* Cover Flow browsing for History and Bookmarks
* Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript up to eight times faster than Internet Explorer 8 and more than four times faster than Firefox 3
* Native Windows look on Windows (Aero for Windows Vista, Luna for Windows XP) with standard Windows font rendering
* Support for CSS image retouching effects
* Support for CSS Canvas
* Speculative loading, where Safari loads the documents, scripts, and style information that is required to view a web page ahead of time
* Improved developer tools, including Web Inspector, CSS element viewing, JavaScript debugger and profiler, offline table and database management with SQL support, and resource graphs
* Support for HTML 5
* Completely passes the Acid3 standards test

iPhone OS-specific features

iPhone OS-specific features for Safari allow for

* MDI-style browsing (with up to 8 pages open concurrently, limited by cache storage).
* Pressing on an image for 3 seconds to save it to the photo album.
* Bookmarking links to particular pages as "Web Clip" icons on the Home screen.
* Opening specially-designed pages in full-screen mode.

System requirements

The latest version of Safari requires either a Mac, running Mac OS X v10.4.x or later, or a PC, running Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. Official minimum hardware requirements are any Intel processor or a PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 with 256MB of RAM for Mac or a 500MHz Pentium processor with 256MB of RAM. Cover Flow and Top Sites, however, requires a graphics card with 64MB or greater of video memory.

64-bit builds

The version of Safari included in Mac OS X v10.6 is now complied in 64-bit. Apple claims that running Safari in 64-bit mode will increase rendering speeds by up to 45%. However, there is currently no 64-bit build for Mac OS X v10.5 or below, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.

Criticism
Distribution through Apple Software Update

Apple Software Update, which is bundled with QuickTime and iTunes in Microsoft Windows, defaults to select installation of Safari even when it is not detected on a user's machine. John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, stated that Apple's use of its updating software to promote its other products is "a bad practice and should stop." He argued that the practice "borders on malware distribution practices" and "undermines the trust that software companies are all trying to build with users." Apple has responded to Lilly's statement, saying that the company is only trying to ensure users have the latest updates to Safari, Apple also released a new version of Apple Software Update that puts new software in its own section, although still selected for installation by default. In another update, Apple Software Update no longer selects install items in the new software section by default (as of late 2008).

On September 22, 2009, Apple once again checked "Install Safari 4" as a default setting with their update to iTunes v9.0.1.

Browser exploits

In the PWN 2 OWN contest at the 2008 CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, an exploit in Safari caused Mac OS X to be the first to fall in a hacking competition. Participants competed to find a way to read the contents of a file located on the user's desktop, in one of three operating systems — Mac OS X Leopard, Windows Vista SP1, and Ubuntu 7.10. On the second day of the contest, when users were allowed to physically interact with the computers (the prior day permitted only network attacks), Charlie Miller compromised Mac OS X within two minutes, through an unpatched vulnerability of the PCRE library used by Safari.

In the PWN 2 OWN contest in 2009, an as yet unidentified exploit in Safari allowed Charlie Miller to hack into a Mac in approximately 10 seconds. Apple released a patch for this exploit and others on May 12, 2009 in version 3.2.3.

End-user license agreement

The original end user license agreement for Safari on Windows was self-contradictory for several months, reading in part:

This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time.

As personal computers running Windows are usually not Apple-labeled computers, with the exception of Intel-based Mac computers running Windows, it was impossible for most users of Windows to use the software and abide by the license agreement. Within hours of the story breaking, Apple changed the agreement to read:

This license allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on each computer owned or controlled by you.

Updates through Apple Software Update still contained the old license.

Safari on iPhone autofill features

Autofill has been added for Safari on iPhone OS 3.0, to save the user from having to fill out forms manually. The disadvantage of this feature is that it may lead to identity theft if the iPhone is stolen and a passcode has not been set to lock the iPhone. Surfing on the ipod is limited.

Safari cache failure

Safari's cache system fails to retain large byte sized file for immediate display. Sites that have individual content such as Adobe Flash SWF files or large JPG files will not retrieve them from the browser's cache, but instead will download the content again from the server. A simple browse away from the page and an immediate return to the same page results in any large sized content to be reloaded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Web Browser for S60

2009-11-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

Web Browser for S60 or the S60 OSS Browser, is a web browser for the S60 mobile phone platform developed by Nokia. The browser is based on a port of Apple Inc.’s open source WebCore and JavaScriptCore frameworks which form the WebKit rendering engine that Apple uses in its Safari Web browser. These frameworks were themselves based on software ported from the KDE project (KHTML and KJS).

Unlike some other mobile phone browsers which reformat pages to a suitable width for small mobile phone screens, Nokia's web browser allows the user to see a thumbnail image of the full web page which they call "mini maps" and allows users to zoom into the areas they want to read.

The initial version was lacking support for the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Wireless Markup Language (WML); version 2 of the browser introduced support for these standards. Hence the Nokia Services (WAP) browser was the default browser on initial device shipments of this platform.

Nokia announced the project in June 2005, and made it available in November. At the 2006 World Wide Web Conference, Nokia announced that it was releasing the source code for its port of WebKit back to the community.

The version included on Nokia phones is named the Nokia Mini Map Browser, after the afore-mentioned "mini map" feature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Opera Mobile

2009-10-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

Opera Mobile is a web browser for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed by the Opera Software company. The first version of Opera Mobile was released in 2000 for the Psion Series 7 and netBook. Today, Opera Mobile is available for a variety of devices that run Windows Mobile, or S60 and UIQ user interfaces of the Symbian operating system.

History

The first devices to run a mobile edition of Opera were the Psion Series 5, Psion Series 5mx, then Psion Series 7 and Psion netBook. They ran Opera Mobile 3.6, released in 2000.

Opera Mobile was ported to the Windows Mobile operating system in 2003.

* Version 6.0 was the initial release.
* On June 25, 2003, the first update came in the form of version 6.01, which was a minor update, mainly correcting bugs.
* Version 6.10, released on October 27, 2003, introduced several user interface and usability improvements, considerably optimized performance, and slightly improved page rendering. It was also the first version to support proxy servers, WAP pages, and the first one to be released in localized versions for 9 different languages.
* On July 13, 2005, almost two years after the previous iteration, version 8.0 was launched. This version was the first to require Symbian OS 7 (previous ones could function in Symbian 6.1). This version introduced the Opera Mobile Accelerator, a technology that used an Opera-run external server to slim-down the pages' content to reduce the traffic to the phones. This was also the first version to support dynamic HTML, and greatly improved compatibility with several web standards.
* On November 14, 2005, version 8.5 was introduced. This version introduced password management and form auto-filling functionality, added some more languages for localized versions, and made some improvements to stability and reduced-screen rendering quality.
* On April 5, 2006, version 8.6 was released and was also the first version to support Symbian OS 9. New to this version is the ability to support multiple browsing windows, support for Scalable Vector Graphics, introduction of URL autocompletion as well several changes in the customization aspect. It was also the first version of Opera Mobile that allowed for the possibility to configure it as the device's default browser, allowing for it to be launched whenever a web page was requested to be opened.
* Version 8.65 was released on August 29, 2006, which was mostly a welcome makeover and optimization to the then considered mature 8.60.
* Opera Mobile 9.0 was announced on February 2007 with a planned feature list, "coming soon" banners in the official Opera Mobile website, and official announcements in Opera's Community Forum. With no reason given, version 9.0 was cancelled, all references to it swept from Opera's site and 8.65 went back to being the latest version, being given a very slight refresh in the form of a new build that offered a handful of hardly-noticeable features, some of them platform-dependent.
* On February 5, 2008, Opera Mobile 9.5 was announced and has been given several estimated release timeframes, each of which has been silently ignored with a new one being set after it. An initial beta version of Opera Mobile 9.5 was released on July 17, 2008, although the only platform supported by this version was Windows Mobile.
* A second beta release of Opera Mobile 9.50 was made on October 20, 2008, including support for Opera Widgets, and adding Symbian UIQ3 as a further platform. With this release, the newest version of Opera Mobile for Symbian S60 remains 8.65.
* On March 26, 2009, Opera announced that there won't be any final version of Opera mobile 9.5. Instead they would flip over to developing 9.7 because of changes in the Presto layout engine.
* On June 8, 2009, Opera Mobile 9.7 beta was made available for download. It introduced the new rendering engine Presto 2.2 and Opera Turbo.

Other features planned for 9.7 are an improved Widget manager, Google Gears and OpenGL ES support.

Features

Opera Mobile can dynamically reformat Web pages for narrow tall screens, using Opera's Small Screen Rendering (SSR) technology. The technology itself is proprietary, but Web page authors can affect how their content is handled by SSR with Cascading Style Sheets.

Opera Mobile supports many web standards, as well as Ajax.

Awards

* Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine "Best mobile browser for both Windows-based Pocket PC and Smartphones" 2007
* Mobile Gala "Best program for mobile phones" 2004
* Mobile Gala "Best program for handheld computers" 2004
* Tietokone magazine "Best Software Product of the Year" 2003

Devices

Opera Mobile comes pre-installed on some devices, and often a special build is made for the particular device. Some devices that feature Opera Mobile pre-installed are:

* Nokia N90
* Sony Ericsson P1
* Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1
* HTC Touch Diamond
* HTC Touch Diamond2
* HTC Touch Pro
* HTC Touch Pro 2
* HTC Touch HD
* Meizu M8
* Creative Zii
* Samsung i900 Omnia

Future development

The Opera Software company announced that Opera Mobile 9 would support widgets and offer a more intelligent zoom feature. Opera Mobile 9's internal builds passed the Acid2 test.[ Opera Mobile 9 was being ported from the desktop edition of Opera. It was expected to be released in the first half of 2008. On February 5, 2008, Opera announced that it would now instead be working on towards releasing Opera Mobile 9.5, in order to unify its Opera Mobile and desktop browser product around the same release version and underlying rendering engine. A pre-alpha internal build of Opera Mobile 9.5 was leaked onto the Internet, for the Windows Mobile platform. There are now multiple different versions of Opera Mobile leaked on the internet, with varying rendering speeds and even different way of zooming. Some versions now even support flashlite 3.1 for full youtube and flash webpage support. Opera has since released the official beta: Opera Mobile site

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Opera Mini

2009-10-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

Opera Mini is a web browser designed primarily for mobile phones, but also for smartphones and personal digital assistants. It uses the Java ME platform and consequently requires that the mobile device be capable of running Java ME applications. Opera Mini is offered free of charge, supported through a partnership between its developer, the Opera Software company, and the search engine company Google.

Opera Mini was derived from the Opera web browser for personal computers, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini began as a pilot project in 2005. After limited releases in Europe, it was officially launched worldwide on January 24, 2006.

Opera Mini requests web pages through the Opera Software company's servers, which process and compress them before relaying the pages back to the mobile phone. This compression process makes transfer time about two to three times faster, and the pre-processing smoothes compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.

About 40 million mobile phones have shipped with a copy of Opera Mini pre-installed. Opera Mini's overall market share compared with other web browsers, both desktop and mobile, is about 0.06%. Opera Mini is the second most used mobile browser with a market share of 9.11%.

In August 15, 2009 Opera Software presented the next generation of the product: Opera Mini 5.0 beta. The new version included tabs browsing, better support of Password Manager using touch screen, and a brand new interface/.

History

Opera Mini was derived from the Opera web browser for personal computers, which has been publicly available since 1996. Opera Mini was originally designed for mobile phones that would ordinarily be incapable of running a web browser. It was first introduced on August 10, 2005 as a pilot project in cooperation with the Norwegian television station TV 2. At that time, Opera Mini was only available to TV 2 customers.

A beta version was made available in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland on October 20, 2005. After the final version was launched in Germany on November 10, 2005, and quietly released to all countries through the Opera Mini website in December, the browser was officially launched worldwide on January 24, 2006.

On May 3, 2006 Opera Mini 2.0 was released. It included new features such as the ability to download files, new custom skins, additional search engine options on the built-in search bar, a speed dial feature, and new search engines, and improved navigation.

On November 1, 2006 Opera Mini 3 beta introduced secure browsing, RSS feeds, photo uploading and content folding into its list of features and capabilities. Content folding works by folding long lists such as navigation bars into a single line that can be expanded as needed. A second beta was released on November 22, and on November 28, the final version of Opera Mini 3 was released.

November 7, 2007 saw the release of Opera Mini 4. According to Johan Schön, technical lead of Opera Mini development, "the entire code" was rewritten. Opera Mini 4 includes the ability to view web pages similar to a desktop based browser by introducing Overview and Zoom functions, as well as a landscape view setting. In Overview mode, the user can scroll a zoomed out version of certain web pages. Using a built-in mouse cursor, the user can zoom into a portion of the page to provide a clearer view; this is similar to the functionality of Opera's Nintendo-based web browsers. This version also includes the ability to sync with the personal computer edition of Opera.

Prior to Opera Mini 4, the browser was offered in two editions: Opera Mini Advanced for high-memory MIDP 2 phones, and Opera Mini Basic for low-memory MIDP 1 phones.Opera Mini 4 has now taken the place of Opera Mini Advanced. The older Opera Mini 3 Basic is still available for low-memory phones.

Originally, Google was the default search engine on Opera Mini. However, on January 8, 2007, Opera Software and Yahoo! announced that a partnership to make Yahoo! search the default instead. But on February 27, 2008, Opera Software officially announced that Opera Mini's and Opera Mobile's default search engine would return to Google from Yahoo!. This can be seen as a response to complaints from users of these mobile web browsers, that found the Yahoo! OneSearch service confusing and complex to use, contrasting then with the ease of use and simplicity of Google.

It was published in the New York Times on October 27, 2008 that an iPhone client has been developed but that Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with their own browser Safari.

On April 10, 2008 it was announced that a version had been produced for the Google Android operating system. Rather than developing a new version for Android, this was accomplished by creating a wrapper to translate Java ME API calls to Android API calls.

Functionality

Unlike ordinary web browsers, Opera Mini fetches all content through a proxy server that reformats web pages into a format more suitable for small screens. A page is compressed, then delivered to the phone in a markup language called OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language). This compression process makes transfer time about two to three times faster and the pre-processing also smooths compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.

By default, Opera Mini opens only one connection to the proxy servers, and then keeps that connection open and re-uses it over and over. This improves transfer speed and also enables the servers to quickly synchronize changes to bookmarks stored in Opera Link.

The Opera Software company maintains over 100 proxy servers to handle Opera Mini traffic. They run Linux and "are massively parallel and massively redundant."

Small-Screen Rendering

For devices with screens 128 pixels wide or smaller, the default rendering mode is Small-Screen Rendering (SSR). In this mode, the page is reformatted into a single vertical column so that it need only be scrolled up and down. Long lists and navigation bars are automatically collapsed (hiding most of the list or bar) by a feature known as "content folding". A plus (+) sign is displayed next to the collapsed content. When clicked, it toggles content folding on that list or bar.

Web developers can turn on Small-Screen Rendering on the desktop edition of Opera to see how their web site will display on mobile editions of Opera.

In Small-Screen Rendering mode, images are scaled down to no more than 70% of the screen size in either direction.

JavaScript support

Opera Mini has limited support for JavaScript. Before the page is sent to the mobile device, its onLoad events are fired and all scripts are allowed a maximum of two seconds to execute. The interval and setTimeout functions are disabled, so scripts designed to wait a certain amount of time before executing will not execute at all.

After the scripts have finished or the timeout is reached, all scripts are stopped and the page is compressed and sent to the mobile device. Once on the device, only a handful of events are allowed to trigger scripts:

* onUnload: Fires when the user navigates away from a page
* onSubmit: Fires when a form is submitted
* onChange: Fires when the value of an input control is changed
* onClick: Fires when an element is clicked

When one of these events is triggered, Opera Mini sends a request to the proxy server to process the event. The proxy server then executes the JavaScript and returns the revised page to the mobile device.

Pop-ups, if not blocked by the JavaScript restrictions, replace the web page being viewed.

Features

Scrolling is achieved with the device's arrow keys, its number keys, or a stylus.

Opera Mini may also be set to landscape mode, where it will rotate the page 90 degrees. This is useful for screens that are significantly taller than they are wide. However, this feature is not yet available on BlackBerrys and some other devices.

The image quality may be set to "Low", "Medium", or "High". The higher the image quality, the more data is transferred and the longer it will take to load pages.

Opera Mini supports only one font, which can be set to "Small", "Medium", "Large", or "Extra large" size. If a web page uses Courier or a generic monospaced font, the one font is still used, but the characters are spaced out so that each character takes up the same amount of space.

Browsing tools

Opera Mini features a search bar capable of using several pre-configured search engines,with the user being able to add additional search engines. The default search engine is Google.

Additionally, Opera Mini features shortcut keys, skins, and a web feed aggregator. It can save bookmarks, download files, and it remembers the user's browsing history.

Privacy and security

When using Opera Mini 4.0 or 3.0 Advanced, the connection between the mobile device and the proxy server is always encrypted for privacy and security. The encryption key is obtained on the first start by requesting that the user press random keys a certain number of times.When using Opera Mini 3.0 Basic, the connection is not encrypted. Opera Mini has received some criticism because it does not offer true, end-to-end security when visiting encrypted sites such as paypal.com. When visiting an encrypted web page, the Opera Software company's servers decrypt the page, then re-encrypt it themselves, breaking end-to-end security.

Standards support

As of version 4, Opera Mini uses the same layout engine that is included in Opera 9.5. This means that Opera Mini supports almost all of the web standards supported in Opera 9.5. However, unlike the desktop edition of Opera, Opera Mini includes no support for Web Forms 2.0. Also, frames are flattened because of client limitations, and dotted and dashes borders are displayed as solid borders due to bandwidth and memory issues. And because Opera Mini reformats web pages, it does not pass the Acid2 standards compliance test.

Opera Mini supports bi-directional text, meaning that it can display text in right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew in addition to left-to-right languages like English, French, and Spanish.

Low-memory device support

For MIDP 1, low-memory devices, the older Opera Mini 3 Basic is still available. Its features include an option to increase the text size, as the default text size is too small for some web sites. Opera Mini 3 Basic uses less advanced compression, does not support full page view, does not include support for favicons, does not scroll as smoothly, does not feature a built-in clock, and does not support encryption. When browsing an encrypted web page with Opera Mini 3 Basic, the page is actually decrypted before being sent to the mobile phone.

Market adoption

In all, about 40 million mobile phones have shipped with a copy of Opera Mini pre-installed. Opera Mini's overall market share compared with other web browsers, both desktop and mobile, is about 0.06%.

Network operators

The following mobile network companies preinstall Opera Mini on their mobile phones:

* T-Mobile
o Sony Ericsson K608i
o Motorola RAZR V3, and RAZR V3i
o Nokia 6280
* Omnitel (Lithuania)
* Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (Poland)
o Motorola KRZR K1, and RAZR V3
o Nokia 5300, 6070, 6131, 6230i, 6233, 6280, and 7373
o Samsung D900, and Z400
o Sony Ericsson K510i, K750i, and W810i
* Pannon GSM (Hungary)
* Telefónica Móviles de España (Spain)
o Nokia N70
o Sony Ericsson K610i, K800, and Z610i
* TMN (Portugal)
o Nokia N70
o Sony Ericsson K610i, K800, and Z610i
* Tata Teleservices (India)
o Huawei C2900i
* KongZhong (China)
* Spice Mobile (India)
* Helio, the first U.S carrier to sign a deal with Opera, for use on the Helio Ocean device
* Vodafone Germany

Devices

The following devices come pre-installed with Opera Mini. Note that some of these devices only include Opera Mini when bought from certain network operators.

* Motorola V980, E2, L7
* Nokia 2610,3120c, 3500c, 3600, 3600 slide , 3720, 6085, 5130, 5500, 5310, 5610, 3110, 7373, 6131, 6600 slide, 5070, E65, N95, N71, N73,5000, 3110c, 6288, 6103, 6080, 6303, 6300 and 8800 Arte
* Sony Ericsson K310i, K530i, K550, W200i, W760i, Z530i, Z550i, Z780i, W910i
* Samsung X160, E570, E420, F480, X510, X650, E900, E250, U700, ZV60, D900i
* LG K880, KU250, KE970, and KU311
* SAGEM My411x and P9521
* BenQ-Siemens EL71 and EF81
* BenQ E71 fight

Distribution partners

The following Internet service providers, web portals, and other companies distribute Opera Mini to their customers:

* Pannon (Hungary)
* debitel (Germany)
* Grameenphone (Bangladesh)
* PriceRunner
* HT Telecom (Europe)
* Small Planet
* Mobile Weaver (Unwirepark)
* Buzznet
* tribe.net
* Jajah
* Ebay Germany
* Mobileplay
* TDC A/S (Denmark)
* mobilkom Austria
* Onet.pl (Poland)
* Optimus (Portugal)
* Talkline (Germany)
* MegaFon (Russia)
* Meteor Communications Ltd. (Ireland)
* Ten (France)
* Helio (USA)
* Wind Hellas (Greece)

Critical reception

Opera Mini has been greeted with largely positive reactions. Opera Mini competed against its sister product, Opera Mobile, for the 2007 Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine award for the "best mobile browser for both Windows-based Pocket PC and Smartphones" award. Opera Mobile is a more powerful web browser, sold for 24 US$, that runs on smartphones and personal digital assistants. Opera Mini lost the award to Opera Mobile because at the time Opera Mobile supported Flash and tabbed browsing while Opera Mini did not.

Awards

* Laptop Magazine Editors' Choice Award
* Sony Ericsson Content Award for "Productive Mobility" 2007
* Getjar "Mobile Application of the Year Award" 2007
* Mobile Gala "Best program for mobile phones" 2005 and 2006
* CHIP.de Digital Lifestyle Award 2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Openwave

2009-10-09T01:03:00.000-07:00

Openwave (formerly software.com, phone.com, Unwired Planet, and Libris, Inc) is a messaging software and services company based in Redwood City, California, USA. Openwave is historically significant in its introduction of the Mobile Internet and its expansion into a large successful mobile software supplier in the mobile telecom sector. Openwave is publicly traded under the ticker NASDAQ: OPWV.

Openwave pioneered HDML, a precursor to WML. Openwave was a founding member of the WAP Forum, and is currently an active member of the Open Mobile Alliance.

Products

Major current products include:

* Openwave Adaptive Messaging
* Openwave Messaging Anti-Abuse
* Openwave Integra mobile gateway
* Openwave Mobile Data Analytics
* Openwave Download Manager
* Openwave Mobile Edge
* Openwave MVNO
* Openwave Multimedia Messaging Service Center (MMSC)
* Openwave Voice Mail
* Openwave Email Mx
* Openwave PhoneSuite

* Openwave Mobile Access Gateway
* Openwave Contextual Merchandising
* Openwave Push Proxy Gateway

Products supplied with Openwave software include devices from Motorola, Samsung, LG, Kyocera, Sharp, UTStarcom, and Sagem.

Earlier products included:

* Openwave Mobile Browser
* Openwave Mobile Messaging client
* Unwired Planet .Link Browser
* Unwired Planet .Link Server

History

The company started in 1996 as Libris, Inc. and focused on developing mobile client software for "pull" services while the general mobile market was rapidly growing "push" services based on SMS. In 1998, it changed its name to Unwired Planet, Inc. and launched its proprietary end-to-end mobile network solution for Internet access and web browsing, known as up.link (browser and network server/gateway).

In 1999, with the introduction of WAP standards, it acquired Apiion, Ltd. of Belfast (formerly Aldiscon Northern Ireland, Ltd.), changed its name to Phone.com and went public on the NASDAQ. In 2000, amidst huge growth in revenue and stock price, Phone.com acquired several high tech startup companies with niche products to integrate across its end-to-end solution. In 2001, it merged with Software.com and changed the company name again to Openwave Systems, Inc. With Software.com's large installed base of email servers at ISPs, Openwave expanded by providing its mobile operator customers with software infrastructure for mobile email applications and other multimedia messaging (MMS) applications.

Their mobile browser software shipped on over one billion handsets, at one point approx 49% of the global browser-capable device shipments, over 70 mobile operators.

In 2002 it acquired SignalSoft Corp., the developer of Location Based Services, who developed the first platforms to provide E911 services as per the first FCC (Federal Communications Commission) requirements.

In 2004 Openwave acquired Nombas Inc., the developer of Cmm (later named ScriptEase) which is the forerunner of JavaScript.

In January 2006, Openwave closed the $120 million acquisition of Musiwave, a French music application services provider for mobile phones. Later, in November 2007, Musiwave was sold to Microsoft for $46 million.

In February 2008, Openwave launched a contextual advertising system for mobile phones.

In May 2008, the San Francisco Business Journal reported that NASDAQ had given Openwave a delisting warning for failing to properly report some financial results.

On June 30, 2008, Openwave issued a press release stating: "that Purple Labs has acquired the Openwave mobile phone software business, which develops and markets its browser and messaging client technologies.".

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Obigo Browser

2009-09-10T01:48:00.001-07:00

Obigo Browser is a WEB/WAP browser for mobilephones, smartphones and other Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) developed by the Obigo company. Obigo browser can run on various mobile platforms such as Windows Mobile, S60 and BREW.

History

Obigo Browser has been around since 1999, when it was the world's first WAP 1.1 browser, but its development process started in 1997.

In 2000, AU-System launched the world’s first WAP 1.2.1 browser, and in 2001, the Mobile Internet Client was the first multi-content and dual stack mobile browser. Obigo MIC became part of Obigo C-line (Mobile Suite 1.0) in 2003, when the Q-line (Mobile Suite 2.0) Obigo Browser appeared as well and the Obigo brand was launched. In 2005, Obigo Browser handled Internet browsing from mobile devices. Obigo is the second mobile browser to pass the Acid2 test.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Obigo

2009-09-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

Obigo Ltd is a software and services company based in Hongkong. Obigo Ltd is divested from Teleca , which is well known as a software vendor of the Mobile Internet solutions. The headquarters is located in HK, and has 3 branches in Asia, China, Taiwan and Korea(South).

Products

Current products include:

* Obigo Mobile browser
* Obigo Email
* Obigo MMS
* Obigo SMS
* Obigo DRM
* Obigo Media Player
* Obigo Content Manager
* Obigo Framework
* Obigo HTTP/WSP stack

Obigo global market share is at 14%(as of 2007), 3rd place in mobile browser field. More than 600 million of mobile phones are equipped with Obigo products. Major customers are Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. Recently, Obigo browser Q7 has been supplied with feature phones as the full-browser that can render web pages like the desktop browsers do.

History

In 1999, Ericsson Korea started sales of AU browser as a reseller of AU System (Former name of Teleca) SK Telecom signed AU browser license.
In 2000, LGE, Motorola, SK Teletech signed AU browser license.
In 2003, Teleca Korea Co. (Legal entity) established (Mar.)
Commercialized NGB(Next Generation Browser) for SK Telecom.
In 2004, Certified as Nokia Series60 & Symbian Competence Center (First in Asia) (Oct.)
In 2005, Developed WAP 2.0 browser & applications for BenQ toward Vodafone, T-Mobile (Europe).
In 2007, Assigned as CTC (Customer Technology Center) for global support & development by Teleca AB (HQ)(May).
In 2008, Commercialized Full Web Browser handset toward Verizon.
In 2008, Obigo LIMITED(*) established in HONGKONG (Nov.)
In 2009, Teleca Korea Co. changed Company name to Obigo Korea Co. (Jan.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/

NetFront

2009-09-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

Myriad Group

2009-09-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

Myriad Group is a French/Swiss software company in the mobile phone sector. It was established in 2009 by the merge of the companies Purple Labs and Esmertec. The two companies had mostly common owners, and the deal was executed so that Esmertec, a publicly listed company, acquired Purple Labs in exchange of shares of the company. The merged company has around 800 employees.

The original Purple Labs was French, headquartered in Chambéry, and developed and marketed Linux-based software to mobile OEMs and ODMs. With its 2008 purchase of Openwave's mobile software suite, it owns the Openwave mobile browser, one of the most widely-used mobile internet browsers, existing in around 1.8 billion copies.

Esmertec was a provider of Java in-device engines and mobile services platforms, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

As part of the new company structure, Myriad now also offers products and services for Mobile Operators, including:
- USSD self-service capabilities
- sophisticated graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on Java-enabled devices (including the iPhone and Android-based Gphone).

History of Purple Labs

The company was founded in 2001 by Jean-Luc Botto, Dennis O'Donovan, Sebastien Soyer and Jean-Marie Andre. Current chief executive officer Simon Wilkinson was appointed in October 2007, shortly after the firm raised $14.5 million in venture capital funding. On June 30, 2008, Purple Labs acquired Openwave's mobile phone client software division, which develops browser and messaging client technologies, for $32 million. On July 31, 2008 the company agreed to acquire Sagem Communication's mobile phone software and associated engineering teams.

Products

* Linux Platform
* Application suite
* Purple Magic (reference Linux-based 3G mobile phone produced in conjunction with NXP Semiconductors)
* Myriad Browser (previously Openwave Mobile Browser)
* Mobile Messaging client (previously Openwave, before that Magic4)
* JBed, JavaME Virtual Machine (previously Esmertec Jbed)

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Minimo

2009-09-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Minimo (from "Mini Mozilla") was a project to create a version of the Mozilla web browser for small devices like PDAs and mobile phones.

The project aimed to make it easier for developers to embed parts of Mozilla into systems with limited system resources (for example, machines with low amounts of RAM). This project is still in use although is being outmoded by Mozilla Fennec, another mobile device web-browser.

Background

To minimize the use of system resources, Minimo did not include a lot of Mozilla's functionality, such as support for SVG. In addition, the browser used small screen rendering technology to reformat Web pages for pocket-sized displays. The user interface was also designed to take up minimal screen space, with a single 8px high toolbar and a hidden-by-default address bar. Other user interface functionality, such as bookmarks, history, and search, was migrated into a special homepage called the Homebase. Because Minimo is based on the Gecko infrastructure, developers can decide to build specific versions and evaluate other features such as the canvas, SVG support, and more.

Most Minimo development has centered around ARM devices (such as Hewlett-Packard's iPAQ) with around 64MB of RAM, running Familiar Linux and the GPE Palmtop Environment (where it is now the default browser). Minimo 0.1 was released for this platform in 2004. Version 0.2 came out in March 2007 and represents a product targeted for developers.

A Windows CE version of Minimo was also under development, built against the Pocket PC 2003 software development kit. The first public build of Minimo for Windows CE was made available in February 2005.

Chris Hofmann created the Minimo project during his employment at Netscape Communications. He single handedly saved this project from being canceled many times. The loyal dog, Sparky, is the project's Chief Mascot. Currently Chris works for the Mozilla Corporation. Chris is also responsible for some of the Minimo key features such as the Homebase bar, a format for displaying bookmarks more amenable to mobile devices.

The lead Minimo developer is Doug Turner, who has headed this and additional Mozilla mobile projects such as the Mozilla labs project named Joey. The Mozilla Foundation hired Turner in December 2004 to work full time on Mobile projects. Minimo has been funded by Nokia and others. Nokia's involvement became public in mid-2004.

On December 17, 2006, Turner, in his blog, acknowledged the slow pace of development, and revealed that Mozilla developers are exploring alternatives for Gecko-based web browsing on mobile handsets. Turner issued an invitation for others to "step up" as his own development priorities shift.

On March 31, 2007, Minimo 0.2 for Windows Mobile was finally released. The new version adds tabbed browsing, an upgraded interface, and support for Windows Mobile 5.

On November 27, 2007, project head Doug Turner announced that the project was no longer supported.

By 2008 Doug Turner had begun on yet another mobile web browser, this time known as Firefox Mobile or Fennec.

Criticism

Probably because it was in the early stages of development, the Windows Mobile version of Minimo performs significantly slower than expected.

The quality of rendered pages is congruent with the well-respected layout engine it implements (Gecko), but the program has very high memory and hardware requirements compared to what is typically available on most handheld platforms (e.g. 64 megabytes of RAM, 206–624 MHz ARM-compatible CPU).

Version 0.016 (~8 MB CAB installation; Windows Mobile 4.2 + 5.0) and Version 0.2 (~4 MB CAB installation; Windows Mobile 5.0 only) are not recommendable for end-users not used to running bleeding edge software. In this version the browser may make the Windows Mobile OS unstable and a soft-reset may be required to make the system work again.

Version 0.2 was recommended for developers targeting mobile devices or interested in AJAX- and Web Services-driven Web application for the mobile space. Minimo is compatible with many Web 2.0 applications, such as Gmail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Iris Browser

2009-09-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

Iris Browser was a web browser for Windows Mobile smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed by the Torch Mobile company. The first version of Iris Browser was released in 2008. It was currently one of only two web browsers designed for portable devices which scores a 100/100 on the Acid3 test. Iris was also available for Qt.

RIM acquired Torch Mobile on August 24, 2009 and Torch Mobile spokesman George Staikos has announced that Windows Mobile development will not continue.

Features

* WebKit rendering engine
* SquirrelFish Extreme JavaScript engine
* Customizable interface
* Touch screen control
* Advanced HTML and CSS support
* Languages
* Zoom and tap Function
* Multiple windows and tabs
* Input methods
* Software mouse cursor
* Special effects
* Rotating devices
* Advanced security features
* Pop-up blockers
* Advanced mobile key navigation
* HTTP cache optimized for low disk usage
* SSL and authenticated proxy support
* Styled Form Controls
* Netscape plug-in API
* JavaScript/ECMAScript 1.5
* SVG, XPath, and XSLT support
* History Auto-Complete
* Efficient storage of bookmarks and cookies
* Bookmark editor, carrier specified list
* Favorite icons and history
* XHTML 1.x mobile profile support
* Customizable about: pages

Current development

The UI was greatly enhanced all the way up until 1.1.9 which was released on July 6, 2009. Unfortunately, RIM acquired Torch Mobile on August 24th, 2009 and Torch Mobile spokesman George Staikos has announced that Windows Mobile development will not continue.

Performance

According to independent testing, Iris 1.1.5 loads pages more slowly than its closest competitor, Opera Mobile.

According to testing done by Torch Mobile, Iris 1.1.2 outperformed Access NetFront 3.5 and Opera Mobile 9.5 in the SunSpider Javascript benchmark. According to Torch Mobile, Iris 1.1.0 "scores 100/100 on Acid3 with only a couple of minor rendering glitches."

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Internet Explorer Mobile

2009-09-01T05:14:00.000-07:00

Internet Explorer Mobile or IE Mobile (formerly named Pocket Internet Explorer or PIE before Windows Mobile 5.0) is a web browser developed by Microsoft, and comes loaded by default with Windows Mobile and Windows CE for Handheld PC. It does similar operations as Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 and 7 browsers; however, it is not based on the same layout engine. IE Mobile is available both for Windows Mobile and Windows CE platforms, though the latter is more feature-rich.

Version history

Pocket Internet Explorer was first introduced in Windows CE 1.0, released in November 1996. It does not derive from the Internet Explorer code and was written from scratch for being as light-weight as possible. PIE 1.1 was later released that supported cookies, HTTPS, and SSL. Pocket Internet Explorer 2.0, released in September 1997 with Windows CE 2.0, added many new features: offline browsing, resizing images to fit to screen, and richer HTML support, including framesets and tables. PIE 3.0, introduced in July 1998 with Windows CE 2.10, added support for JScript and various secure protocols.

The next version, Pocket Internet Explorer 4, was the first to support ActiveX, CSS, VBScript as well as further extending support for HTTPS and advanced HTML features. Pocket PC 2002 version of PIE brought limited support for DHTML and XML, and also the ability to browse WAP sites – a feature not present in Internet Explorer for PC, Internet Explorer 6.0 added support for IFrames. Currently it's a relatively feature-rich browser, supporting FTP, XSLT, cookies, animated GIFs and much more. Microsoft is planning to bring Internet Explorer Mobile 6, which is expected to have the full functionality of the desktop version, to their next version of Windows Mobile. It was shown running briefly during Microsoft's 2009 CES Keynote on a Palm Treo Pro, and again in an official video for Toshiba's TG01 phone, which has Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor.

Extensions

As with the desktop version, Pocket Internet Explorer's underlying rendering technology is exposed to program developers. This has led to various web browsers built on Pocket Internet Explorer that add additional functionality. Browsers that add "tabbed" browsing include Webby Mobile and ftxPBrowser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

IbisBrowser

2009-08-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

ibisBrowser is a web browser which is designed for mobile phones. It is a client-server type application that has been developed in 2005 by ibis inc., a Japanese company. The first version of the browser, developed in Java (MIDP 2.0) and run on a Java enabled Mobile Phone. Currently, two different versions of ibisBrowser can be found based on the features present on the browsers, these are: ibisBrowserLT and ibisBrowserDX. ibisBorwserLT is a light weight, in other words light featured browser. On the other hand, ibisBrowserDX has more functionality than ibisBrowserLT.

Currently, ibisBrowserLT/ibisBrowserDX is offered for NTT DoCoMo FOMA as i-mode Java application, for au the open application version of ibisBrowserDX, and Java edition for corresponding Willcom model version equipped with Java application. Since ibisBrowser performs a very fast searching method to retrieve a webpage, which then fits the page on a tiny Mobile Phone screen very accurately it is very popular among the Japanese Mobile Phone users. Recently, ibis inc. has released ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile Phones for using inside Japan and abroad. The basic difference from the ibisBrowserDX of Java edition is that the ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile edition is developed in C++.

History

The very first ibisBrowser has been developed in June 2005. It was a beta version and was free of charge. The version was made focusing NTT DoCoMo FOMA70Xi and FOMA90Xi Mobile Phone series in Japan. The free offer has been ended along with the release of a light version of ibisBrowser called ibisBrowserLT in the beginning of August, 2005. ibisBrowserLT has less functionality and mainly developed for the FOMA70Xi series that are capable of executing smaller applications. In November 2005, a high-speed and high-performance version of ibisBrowser with rich functionality called ibisBrowserDX is released. Presently, another version of ibisBrowser named ibisBrowserNB is available. This is a test version of ibisBrowserDX that has more functionality but is less stable than ibisBrowserDX.

An international version of the ibisBrowserDX has become available in July 2007 . This is a technology preview version which can be downloaded and used for free of charge with a limitation of browsing at most 5 pages per day. To cope with the current trend, in October 2007, ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile Standard edition has been developed. Following that, in November 2007, ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile Professional edition has been released. Recently, in January 2008, international versions of ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile Professional and Standard editions have become publicly available. These are technology preview versions and can be downloaded for free of charge though, a user is allowed to browse at most 5 pages per day.

Functionality

ibisBrowser is a client-server type application. Unlike the ordinary web browsers, ibisBrowser fetches all content through its servers. When a user browses the web using ibisBrowser, the request is sent to one of the ibis inc.'s servers via the radio wave and HTTP communications. The server then retrieves the web page, reformates it, and sends it back to the user's mobile phone.

ibisBrowserDX of Java Edition

ibisBrowserDX

The size of the application is 100KB. It is possible to use ibisBrowserDX with mega i-mode application program, 500-KB application program, and 300-KB application program corresponding models. The corresponding models are 90Xi series, 704i series, 703i series and F702iD, M702iG, M702iS. Moreover, the pay users of ibisBrowserDX can use ibisBrowserNB version without paying any additional charge. Until March 2007, ibisBrowserDX worked only on NTT DoCoMo FOMA devices. After the development of Open Application Program Player by which the execution of Java application became possible to install in the au terminal. Thus ibisBrowserDX for au has been released on March 2007.

On June 2007, a WILLCOM version of ibisBrowserDX is developed where the input to the terminal from a keyboard was possible. Thus a person who is not even good at operating a Mobile Phone can use it like a PC. It is a pay version. Before using the pay version one can use ibisBrowserDX for free with a limitation of browsing at most 5 pages per day.

ibisBrowserLT

ibisBrowserLT is lighter than ibisBrowserDX and doesn't have some functionality that are present in ibisBrowserDX. The size of the application is only 30KB. It is mainly developed for FOMA70Xi series that are capable of executing smaller applications. The free version of ibisBrowserLT allows to browse up to 5 pages per day, on the other hand in a pay version one can get unlimited access.

Features

ibisBrowser performs a high-speed communication, high-speed vertical and horizontal scrolling, high-speed switching views between Mobile View and PC View, and high-speed zooming. It supports Cookies, QR code, Screenshot and tabbed browsing (up to 15 tabs). Moreover, CSS is used in reproducing a web page. A secure communication is maintained between the ibisBrowser server and the target web site. It is possible to customize the settings of the font size, cursor speed, shortcut keys, home URL, URL used in "Quick Search", a shortcut way to search, etc.

In ibisBrowserDX, switching between tabs and communication with a Barcode reader are possible. It also supports GPS function. This version of ibisBrowser is available in both Japanese and English languages. On the other hand, ibisBrowserLT doesn't have the GPS function, shortcut key and tab switching facilities.

Presently, ibisBrowser doesn't support JavaScript, Flash, Movie Pictures, AJAX though, the Movie Pictures support is under development.

ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile

ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile is developed in C++. The ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile can display a requested web page faster than the ibisBrowserDX for Java edition. Currently, there are two versions of ibisBrowserDX are in use: ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile Standard Edition and ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile Professional Edition.

ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile corresponds to the following OS:

* Windows Mobile 6 Standard
* Windows Mobile 6 Professional
* Windows Mobile 6 Classic
* Windows Mobile 5 PocketPC
* Windows Mobile 5 PocketPC Phone Edition

Features

ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile has all features that are present in ibisBrowserDX for Java edition except for it doesn't support GPS and QR Code. But it has multi-language and download file supports. The language includes Japanese, English, and Russian. Currently, it doesn't support Flash and JavaScript Technology.

Support Information

The int'l version of ibisBrowserDX for Java edition supports the following mobile phone models:

* DoCoMo FOMA M1000
* MOTOROLA V3x, NOKIA 6620
* NOKIA 6630 (Vodafone 702NK)
* NOKIA 7610
* NOKIA N71 (Vodafone 804NK)
* Vodafone 705NK.

On the other hand, the int'l version of ibisBrowserDX for Windows Mobile supports:

* HTC Touch (Vogue)
* HTC (elf)
* HTC X02HT
* Samsung M8100.

However, many other mobile phones that are not in the list may run ibisBrowser successfully.

The technology preview versions of ibisBrowserDX for both Java and Windows Mobile Editions can be downloaded from the download page provided below. For the users of ibisBrowser there is a Wiki Entry (visit the Support page) where bugs or errors for both Java and Windows Mobile editions are received from the users and solved them in real time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Fennec (browser)

2009-08-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

Fennec is the name of the build of the Mozilla Firefox web browser for smaller non-PC devices, mobile phone devices and PDAs.

While Fennec is based on Firefox, the user interface is completely redesigned and introduces a number of new paradigms. It uses touchscreen interaction methods (or the cursor keys, for non-touchscreen handsets) in place of dragging actions with a mouse. Some of the add-ons and plug-ins available for Mozilla Firefox are available for Fennec.

Name

The name of the browser comes from a Fennec Fox, a small desert fox (just as the Fennec Browser is a small version of Firefox browser).

Platforms

It is currently available in beta version for Nokia Maemo based N800/N810 devices, and in alpha version for Windows Mobile. Work is underway for Symbian OS based mobile devices.

It is also possible to run Fennec on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and some Linux distributions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Blazer (web browser)

2009-08-28T07:34:00.001-07:00

Blazer is a free of charge (Blazer 3 and 4 bundled, Blazer 1 and 2 were bundled or add-on purchase) web browser available for Palm handhelds running Palm OS 3.1 or higher with 8MB of free memory available.

The original version of Blazer was developed by Bluelark Systems and was released in November 2000. Bluelark Systems was acquired by Handspring a month later, in December 2000. Version 1.0 supported HTML, WAP, and the markup language used in i-Mode.

Blazer 2

Blazer 2 was released in early 2002. Blazer 2 added the ability to use proxy servers, SSL, and 16 bit color.

As of September 22, 2005, all copies of Blazer 1 and 2 were rendered inoperable as the proxy server for these browsers was taken offline by Palm.

Blazer 3

Blazer 3 was a significant upgrade in the series. Palm, Inc. dumped the original code for Blazer and started fresh with the NetFront Browser Engine (most notably used in the Sony Clie) as the core of the Blazer browser. It is bundled with Treo 600.

Blazer 4

Next came Palm Blazer 4.0/4.1. It is currently bundled with the Tungsten E2, the Tungsten T5, and the Treo 650 and 680. New Features included faster loading, an improved UI, VPN with an extra plugin, the saving of image and HTML files to a memory card or the device, homepages, bookmarks, and the ability to start on your last viewed page. Blazer 4 also features support for web standards including HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, WML 1.3, SSL 3.0, cHTML, JavaScript 1.5, CSS 1.0 and 2.0 (partial), GIF (both still and animated, along with transparency), JPEG, PNG, BMP and Cookies. The use of some advanced features may cause the browser to crash if it is not in Wide Page Mode.

Soon after, Blazer 4.3 browser came available on the Treo 650, TX and LifeDrive. The most significant addition to 4.3 is the fast mode option, which removes images and/or disables cascading style sheets.

Blazer 4.5 was released in May 2006, along with the Treo 700p as part of the device's application suite. It offers faster page rendering, and support for streaming video (using a built-in version of Kinoma Player). It is also provided with the Treo_755p along with a mobile optimized version of Google Maps.

Streaming video

Video is streamed via the Kinoma Video Player. It supports many formats, including Windows Media.

At this time, Blazer does not support Adobe Flash Player - meaning you cannot view popular videos on sites such as ESPN or YouTube. This issue has never been addressed by Palm. A relatively small number of phones have the ability to use Flash.

The new Centro has demonstrated the ability to play YouTube videos on its browser using a high speed internet connection. This is demonstrated on the mobile version of YouTube which does not use Flash Technology. Previous Palm phones with the current version of Blazer can also play these videos. This is the same version of YouTube accessed by the application of the same name on the Apple iPhone

Kinoma has released an upgrade to the Video Player, which can be purchased for many Palm phones, that has support for Flash Video, but is not part of the Blazer web browser itself. The videos must be searched for via the Kinoma media guide. This guide acts as a browser for many popular video sites, like YouTube and Google Video. Many Palm users can get a discount on this upgrade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Mobile browser

2009-08-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

A mobile browser, also called a microbrowser, minibrowser or wireless internet browser (WIB), is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are optimized so as to display Web content most effectively for small screens on portable devices. Mobile browser software must be small and efficient to accommodate the low memory capacity and low-bandwidth of wireless handheld devices. Typically they were stripped-down web browsers, but as of 2006 some mobile browsers can handle more recent technologies like CSS 2.1, JavaScript and Ajax. Websites designed for access from these browsers are referred to as wireless portals.

Underlying technology

The mobile browser usually connects via a cellular network, or increasingly via Wireless LAN, using standard HTTP over TCP/IP and displays web pages written in HTML, XHTML Mobile Profile (WAP 2.0), or WML (which evolved from HDML). WML and HDML are stripped-down formats suitable for transmission across limited bandwidth, and wireless data connection called WAP. In Japan, DoCoMo defined the i-mode service based on i-mode HTML, which is an extension of Compact HTML (C-HTML), a simple subset of HTML.

WAP 2.0 specifies XHTML Mobile Profile plus WAP CSS, subsets of the W3C's standard XHTML and CSS with minor mobile extensions.

Newer microbrowsers are full-featured Web browsers capable of HTML, CSS, ECMAScript, as well as mobile technologies such as WML, i-mode HTML, or cHTML.

Pioneers

The so-called microbrowser technologies such as WAP, NTTDocomo's i-mode platform and Openwave's HDML platform have fueled the first wave of interest in wireless data services.

The first deployment of a microbrowser was probably in 1997 when Unwired Planet (later to become Openwave) put their "UP.Browser" on AT&T handsets to give users access to HDML content.

A British company, STNC Ltd., developed a microbrowser (HitchHiker) intended to present the entire device UI in 1997. The demonstration platform for this microbrowser (Webwalker) had 1 MIPS total processing power. This was a single core platform, running the GSM stack on the same processor as the application stack. In 1999 STNC was acquired by Microsoft and HitchHiker became Microsoft Mobile Explorer 2.0, not related to the primitive Microsoft Mobile Explorer 1.0. HitchHiker is believed to be the first microbrowser with a unified rendering model, handling HTML and WAP along with ECMAScript, WMLScript, POP3 and IMAP mail in a single client. Although it was not used, it was possible to combine HTML and WAP in the same pages although this would render the pages invalid for any other device. In addition, Amstrad's ill-fated e-m@iler and e-m@iler+ products used HitchHiker as their operating systems. Mobile Explorer 2.0 was available on the Benefon Q, Sony CMD-Z5, CMD-J5, CMD-MZ5, CMD-J6, CMD-Z7, CMD-J7 and CMD-J70.

A freeware (although later shareware) browser for the PalmOS was Palmscape, written in 1998 by Kazuho Oku in Japan, who went on to found Ilinx. Still in limited use as late as 2003.

Released in 2001, Mobile Explorer 3.0 added iMode compatibility (cHTML) plus numerous proprietary schemes. By imaginatively combining these proprietary schemes with WAP protocols, MME3.0 implemented OTA database synchronisation, push email, push information clients (not unlike a 'Today Screen') and PIM functionality. The cancelled Sony Ericsson CMD-Z700 was to feature heavy integration with MME3.0. Mobile Explorer development had ceased by mid-2002.

Opera Software pioneered with its Small Screen Rendering (SSR) and Medium Screen Rendering (MSR) technology. The Opera web browser is able to relayout regular web pages for optimal fit on small screens and medium-sized (PDA) screens. It was also the first widely available mobile browser to support Ajax and the first mobile browser to pass ACID2 test.

Popular mobile browsers

Distinct from a mobile browser is a web-based emulator, which uses a "Virtual Handset" to display WAP pages on a computer screen, implemented either in Java or as an HTML transcoder. These browsers include Wapjag, TT, Waptiger and Superwap.

The following are some of the more popular mobile browsers. Some mobile browsers are really miniaturized Web browsers, so some mobile browser companies also provide browsers for desktop and laptop computers.

User-installable microbrowsers

* Deepfish Beta from Microsoft, proxy-rendering browser.
* Fennec by Mozilla Foundation.
* IbisBrowser
* JOCA by InteracT!V, another proxy-rendering free software.
* Links2 on the Playstation Portable (requires custom firmware)
* Minimo by Mozilla Foundation (based on Gecko).
* NetFront
* Vision Mobile Browser (web browser) by Novarra
* Opera Mini by Opera Software - supports most features of stand-alone Opera, but can run on less capable phones by offloading memory-intensive rendering to proxy server (based on Opera Mobile running on a server).
* Opera Mobile by Opera Software - supports all modern web standards supported by desktop browsers, including XHTML, CSS2 and Ajax. Has advanced Small Screen Rendering that adapts regular pages to small screen (proprietary).
* Pixo by Sun Microsystems (Pixo acquired by Sun July 2003)
* Skweezer
* Skyfire Skyfire just announced 1.0. Supports Flash and Ajax and allows a fully functional PC web-like experience.
* Steel
* Teashark - a free Java-based browser with a desktop-like layout
* ThunderHawk by Bitstream Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
* UCWEB by UCWEB Technology
* WinWAP by Winwap Technologies

Mobile HTML transcoders

Mobile transcoders reformat and compress web content for mobile devices and must be used in conjunction with built-in or user-installed microbrowsers. The following are several leading mobile transcoding services.

* Novarra Vision Mobile Server
* Skweezer - used by Orange, Etisalat, JumpTap, Medio, Miva, and others
* Teashark
* Opera Mini

http://en.wikipedia.org/

List of HSPA mobile phones

2009-08-23T03:28:00.000-07:00

HSPA mobile phones use either of two High-Speed Packet Access communications protocols, HSUPA or HSDPA to provide value-added services which require high-speed data transmission.

HSDPA

High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. This is a list of HSDPA Phones.

* Apple iPhone 3G (3.6Mbit/s) and iPhone 3GS (7.2Mbit/s)
* BenQ released its first HSDPA mobile phone, the EF91, in July 2006. But since BenQ-Siemens mobile filed for bankruptcy in Q3/2006, the future of BenQ mobile phones is unclear.
* Garmin Nuvifone scheduled release Q3 2008; http://www8.garmin.com/buzz/nuvifone/
* HP iPAQ 910 supports Tri-band HSDPA 3.6/7.2 Mbit/s (850/1900/2100 MHz); http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/215348-215348-64929-314903-3352590-3551665.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
* High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC) released the HTC TyTN (HTC Z) handset/PocketPC Phone Edition(branded as the MDA Vario II on T-Mobile, X01HT in Japan, XDA Trion on O2, Qtek 1605 on Vodafone, the SPV M3100 on Orange, the Dopod 838 Pro and the I-mate JasJam on Cellcom and Telstra NextG Network and the Cingular 8525 on Cingular) which supports HSDPA. Now the HTC P3600 / Trinity (Orange M700 or Dopod D810)and TyTN II is available and also supports HSDPA, in South America, Argentina currently speed tested with Personal is 1.8 Mbit/s. The new HTC X7500/Advantage (T-Mobile Ameo, Dopod U1000) also supports HSDPA, currently limited by 1.8 Mbit/s downlink speeds by T-Mobile UK, although T-Mobile plans to upgrade its network yearly. Touch HD
* LG Electronics released the LG Chocolate (U830) in late 2006, supporting 3.6 Mbit/s HSDPA. The LG CU500 handset also supports HSDPA, up to 1.8 Mbit/s. The latest offering in HSDPA from LGE includes the very successful KU990 Viewty and KS20 windows mobile phone.
* Motorola has released a number of HSDPA phones including: the KRZR K3, the Motorola RAZR v3xx in Q3 2006, the RAZR maxx V6, the RIZR Z8 in May 2007 (a class 10 EDGE phone), and the RAZR² V9 in July 2007 (a class 12 EDGE phone)
* Nokia released its first HSDPA device, the N95, in late March 2007. This is a category 6 device meaning up to 3.6 Mbit downlink speeds. Nokia E90, Nokia 6120 classic,Nokia 5320 Xm and Nokia 6110 Navigator are released with HSDPA. Furthermore the company brings the technology to lower cost phones with the release of E51
* NEC released the N902iX High Speed along with NTT Docomo's HSDPA network launch on August 31, 2006. It is the first handset capable of 3.6 Mbit/s to go into commercial service.
* Palm, Inc. released the Treo 750, which does UMTS today and HSDPA via a firmware upgrade in 2007 for Cingular.
* Research In Motion BlackBerry Bold (formerly 9000) sold by T-Mobile Germany and Movistar Chile, soon to be released in other parts of the world including North America.
* Samsung:
o In late 2006 released the A501 and A701 Telstra Branded HSDPA mobile devices for Telstra's nextG network. These devices are capable of traditional mobile phone functions, web browsing, as a modem for another device and for viewing online video such as Foxtel on Mobile. Also the Z720 and U700 handsets. Also, the Samsung F480 and F490 handsets
o Samsung SGH-F490.
* Sony Ericsson released the Z750, an HSDPA Quad-EDGE enabled phone in the first quarter of 2007. In June 2007 it also announced the K850i and W910i which is a category 6 device supporting up to 3.6 Mbit downlink speeds. V640i, W890i, W980i, C902 are now also available. The X1 also supports HSDPA.
* Vodafone:
o Vodafone Australia currently sell re-badged HSDPA enabled Huawei Technologies E220 (USB) and E620 (PCMCIA) cards that provide downlink speeds of up to 3.6 Mbit/s. The network was initially rolled out only in Sydney and Melbourne CBDs but has recently been upgraded to include other metropolitan areas in Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. Vodafone Australia's HSDPA network currently runs on top of the UMTS 2100 MHz network therefore making most HSDPA enabled handsets from Telstra and Vodafone/Optus unable to use the service (there are a number of exceptions to this rule; for example the Dopod 838Pro is a Quad-Band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), Tri-Band 3G/HSDPA (850/1900/2100 MHz) enabled handset.) The Sony Ericsson K660i has recently been enabled onto the HSDPA Vodafone network in specific areas of Sydney and the Central Coast including the suburbs of Normanhurst-Hornsby, Woy Woy-Narara and Hurstville-Heathcote.
o Vodafone New Zealand and Vodafone Ireland recently released its HSDPA mobile broadband device the Vodem. This device is designed for use with notebook or desktop computers and is in fact a re-badged Huawei Technologies E220 USB Modem.
* ZTE released its first HSDPA device in Australia, re-badged as the Telstra 252.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

List of HSUPA networks

2009-08-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

Australia

* Telstra has introduced HSUPA on its Next G network, operating with a 1.9 Mbits/s enhanced uplink speed. As of June 2009 selected regional and metropolitan areas of Next G operate at HSUPA Category 6 speeds, with a peak uplink of 5.76 Mbits/s.

Austria

* Mobilkom Austria started the world's first HSUPA network in February 2007. It operates at 2.0 Mbit uplink.
* T-Mobile is planning to introduce HSUPA in 2007 or 2008.

Bulgaria

* M-TEL started HSUPA operations in August 2007
* Globul started HSUPA operations in 2007
* Vivatel started HSUPA operations in 2007

Croatia

* VIPNet started HSUPA operations in April 2007.

China

* China Unicom started HSUPA operations in May 2009.

Egypt

* Etisalat Egypt started HSUPA network in November 2007

Finland

* Elisa opened its HSUPA network in the end of August 2007. It operates at up 1.4 Mbit uplink.
* DNA introduced HSUPA to its whole 3G network in 2008.

Germany

* Vodafone started HSUPA in July 2007.

Hungary

* Pannon started HSUPA in October 2007.
* T-Mobile started HSUPA in September 2007.
* Vodafone started HSUPA in January 2008.

Italy

* Telecom Italia- October 2007
* 3- July 2007

Israel

* Pelephone is planning to introduce HSUPA in 2008.
* Cellcom has introduced HSUPA with 80% coverage of the population.

Japan

* EMOBILE started HSUPA @ 1.46 Mbit/s in Novenver 2008. up to 5.8 Mbit/s in April 2009.
* NTT DOCOMO has introduced HSUPA @ 5.7 Mbit/s in June 2009.

Portugal

* Vodafone started HSUPA in September 2007.

Romania

* Orange Romania has introduced HSUPA in 42 major cities on 31 October 2007. Initial upload speeds are up to 1.46 Mbit/s.

Singapore

* Starhub announced 1.9 Mbit/s HSUPA Service as part of its new MaxMobile plan on 1 August 2007.

Slovakia:

* Orange has launched HSUPA @ 1,46 Mbit/s from UMTS on 7 November 2007

Slovenia

* Mobitel is planning to introduce HSUPA in 2007.

South Africa

* Vodacom is planning to introduce HSUPA in 2007.
* MTN (South Africa) is planning to introduce HSUPA in 2007.

South Korea

* KTF launched HSUPA in June 2007 in major cities including Seoul, Busan, Daejeon, Gwangju and Daegu with nationwide service available by October 2007.
* SK Telecom is planning to build an HSUPA network in Busan in June 2007 and plans to launch the service with USB devices in October 2007.

Spain:

* Movistar offers 7,2 Mbit/s download and 2 Mbit/s upload speeds in several mayor cities. 3,6 Mbit/s download speeds are available in towns with 100.000 or more inhabitants plus 180 relevant villages.
* Vodafone and Movistar are upgrading to 7,2 Mbit/s download and 2 Mbit/s upload speeds to replace the current 3,6 Mbit/s download and 384 kbit/s upload speeds in several mayor cities. Speeds of up to 14,4 Mbit/s will be available later this year.

Sweden

* 3 introduced HSUPA in September 2007

Switzerland

* Swisscom is planning to introduce HSUPA in 2008.

United Kingdom

* Vodafone started HSUPA in September 2007.

United States

* AT&T Mobility launched HSUPA in November 2007 with The Sierra Wireless 881 PC Card being the first to feature HSUPA.

Kuwait

* Zain started HSUPA in September 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

List of HSDPA networks

2009-08-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

A

Argentina:

* Movistar has upgraded to HSDPA in July 2007.

Aruba:

* Setar launched a UMTS and HSDPA network in December 2007.

http://www.cnebay.com/en/products.asp?class1id=17

Australia:

* Telstra has replaced their CDMA-EVDO network with a HSDPA network, known as Next G, which commenced operation on 6 October 2006. It reaches more than 99% of the Australian population and operates at 21 Mbit/s peak. It is geographically the world's largest 3G 850MHz network, covering over 2 million square kilometres of landmass. The network was built in 10 months by utilising and upgrading both the existing CDMA infrastructure, and rolling out many new cellular sites and associated transmission. In March 2009, Telstra announced the availability of their 21Mbit/s HSDPA service with a new Sierra Wireless modem - alongside the return of their "world's fastest national mobile network" advertising campaign.

* 3 has rolled out HSDPA across its entire 3G-2100 footprint in Australia completing the rollout in March 2007. The network currently runs at up to 3.6 Mbit/s peak. Upgrades are currently underway to increase speeds to 7.2 Mbit/s peak.

* Optus is deploying a nationwide HSDPA network, branded 'yes'G, to compete directly with Telstra's NextG mobile service. The network currently covers over 96% of the Australian population with plans to reach 98% of the Australian population by 2010 to cover a total of over 1 million square kilometres of geographic area. The rollout began in 2007, delivering services in the 2100MHz - and later, 900MHz - bands. The Optus HSDPA network currently offers speeds of up to 7.2 Mbit/s, after the network was upgraded to support 7.2 Mbit/s in 2008.

* Vodafone Australia first activated HSDPA coverage in selected areas of Sydney and Melbourne on 20 October 2006, with speeds peaking at 1.8 Mbit. Vodafone is currently expanding their HSDPA network to match their existing GSM coverage, using spectrum in the 2100 MHz and 900 MHz bands. The network now reaches most mainland capitals and some regional centres, delivering downstream speeds of up to 3.6 Mbit/s.

Austria:

* T-Mobile started HSDPA deployments in fall of 2005, opened the network upgrade for public use in March 2006 and finished upgrading the entire network by April 2006.

* Mobilkom Austria launched HSDPA on January 23, 2006.

* One launched HSDPA on June 19, 2006.

* 3 launched HSDPA for phones and computers in 2006, offering maximum download speeds of 3.6 Mbit/s.

B

Bahrain

* MTC-Vodafone introduced 3.5G in Bahrain in May 2006 as a trial service in a small area only (in Seef District) and announced that they are planning to make Bahrain the first country with 100% 3.5G coverage in the world. This is because Bahrain is a small country and doesn't need many upgrades since it already has 100% 3G coverage.

Bangladesh:

* Ericsson Bangladesh Limited introduce 3G technology for the first time in Bangladesh on a trial basis on 10 August, The 3G spectrum will be available for commercial use in Bangladesh very soon. It is also expected to start in 2009.

Belgium

* Proximus launched HSDPA in 8 cities on 15 June 2006. More than 80% of the Belgian population are able to benefit from 3G Broadband coverage and a maximum download speed that will exceed 3.6 Mbit/s (15 May 2007).

Brazil

* Claro introduced HSDPA on November, 2007 in some selected cities from states: Federal District, Ceará and Pernambuco. In December, 2007 the system was available in several other important cities like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre. Claro's current HSDPA deployments use the 850 MHz band, but coverage will be expanded to other (non-850 MHz) areas using recently acquired 2.1 GHz spectrum (Dec. 2007). Current data plans include 500kbit/s and 1Mbit/s rates, and 2Mbit/s is planned for the near future.

* Vivo introduced HSPA on November, 2007 in Belo Horizonte, state capital of Minas Gerais. This 3.5G deployment replaces Telemig's older AMPS and TDMA networks on the 850 MHz band. There are plans to expand coverage beyond the country using recently acquired 2.1 GHz spectrum.

* TIM launched its 3.5G network on May 1, 2008 using 2.1 GHz and 850 MHz (in different cities), with no plans to launch a full 2.1 GHz network available across the country.

Brunei

B-Mobile Communications Sdn Bhd and DST Communications are the only two mobile service providers in Brunei Darussalam .

* B-Mobile Communications Sdn Bhd launched the first 3G network in December 2005 in Brunei Darussalam and on April 2008 Bmobile launched its 3.5G network under the name Bmobile Zoom!.

* DST Communications launched its first 3G/3.5G network on 1 May 2008 under the name DST Go! Broadband.

Bulgaria

* M-tel introduced HSDPA on March 6, 2006 with full coverage in the capital city Sofia. After April 2007 M-tel offers HSDPA access everywhere in the country.

* Globul launched HSDPA on September 25, 2006 with full coverage in the capital city Sofia and 3 of the other major cities.

* Vivatel launched HSDPA in May 2007 with full coverage in the whole country.

C

Canada:

* Rogers Wireless launched their HSDPA 1900 network on November 2, 2006 covering the Greater Toronto Area/Golden Horseshoe in Ontario, with expansion planned for mid-2007. Rogers currently offers a PC Card wireless card, the Samsung A706 handset, the LG TU500 handset, the LG TU515 handset, the LG TU720 Shine handset, the Palm Treo 750, the Motorola RAZR2 V9, the Motorola Q9h, and the HTC TyTN, more UMTS/HSDPA phones are planned for Q3 and Q4 2007. Download rates currently range from 2-3 Mbit/s. As of November 2007, Rogers Wireless expanded their HSDPA network to cover the 25 largest metropolitan areas in Canada. With this expansion, Rogers now offers Video OnDemand, XM satellite radio, Mobile TV, and many other features on their HSDPA mobile devices. Fido, a subsidiary brand of Rogers Wireless, offers similar services with largely similar pricing.
* In October 2008, Telus and Bell Canada announced plans to upgrade their shared CDMA network to the HSPA standard.

Chile:

* Entel PCS introduced HSDPA in Santiago on December 13, 2006, with the commercial name "3.5G", which rapidly expanded to other cities.

* Claro Chile introduced HSDPA in Santiago and several other cities on November 2007.

* Movistar introduced HSDPA in all major Chilean cities on December 2007.

Croatia:

* VIPnet launched HSDPA network on the WinDays on April 26, 2006 @ 1.5 Mbit/s ( available in Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, Koprivnica, Opatija, Osijek, Zadar, Slavonski Brod, Pula, Karlovac, Sesvete, Varaždin, Velika Gorica, Bjelovar, Zaprešić, Samobor, Solin, Čakovec, Trogir, Poreč, Podstrana, Višnjevac, Tenja, Duga Resa, Kaštel Sućurac, Nova Mokošica, Kaštel Lukšić, Kaštel Kambelovac, Nedelišće, Kaštel Gomilica, Hvar, Matulji and Dubrovnik). Current speed is 7.2 Mbit/s with coverage same as UMTS networks provided by VIPnet.
* T-mobile launched HSDPA network on November 30, 2006 at speed of 1.8 Mbit/s with coverage same as UMTS network provided by T-mobile (most cities in Croatia including some towns)

Czech Republic:

* T-Mobile UMTS TDD with HSDPA from IPWireless as "4G Internet" from 1 October 2005.

* Eurotel UMTS FDD (classic UMTS) with HSDPA from 1 May 2006.

D

Denmark:

* 3 deployed HSDPA 3.6/1.8 Mbit services in all of Denmark in 2007, and covers around 80% of the population.

* TDC deployed HSDPA 1.8 Mbit in January 2008.

* Telia deployed HSDPA 3.6 Mbit in December 2007 and delivers outdoor coverage in the 4 biggest cities.

* Sonofon deployed HSDPA 3.6 Mbit in January 2008.

Dominican Republic:

* Claro (mobile phone network) is the first in the country to launch the 3G UMTS/HSDPA on August 7, 2007 and offers 3.5 Mbit/s downlink.

E

Estonia:

* EMT launched their HSDPA network on (24 April 2006). It is second in the Nordic Countries and first in Estonia. The solution is provided by Ericsson, service is provided soon in whole EMT 3G network. EMT homepage
* Tele2 Eesti, part of the Tele2 AB, has HSDPA in all major cities. Tele2 Eesti homepage.
* Elisa Eesti, part of Elisa Oyj, has HSDPA in all major cities. As of (29 September 2008) Elisa Eesti, has announced their plan to cover 100% of Estonia with HSDPA in 3 years. Elisa Eesti homepage.

Egypt:

* Etisalat Egypt’s first 3.5G Mobile operator, has launched 3G services (1 May 2007)
* Vodafone has launched 3G services (13 May 2007)

Ecuador:

* movistar Ecuador launched their HSDPA network and service on July 2009. They marketed it as "Internet Móvil 3.5G de movistar" (movistar's 3.5G mobile internet).

F

Finland:

* Elisa Oyj launched (6 April 2006) the first commercial HSDPA network in the Nordic Countries. The solution, provided by Nokia, is implemented in the whole of Elisa's 3G network in Finland and Estonia. In January, 2007 its HSDPA infrastructure was upgraded to 3.6 Mbit/s.

* Sonera launched (1 April 2007) its HSDPA service with speeds of up to 3,6 Mbit/s.

* DNA Finland launched (1 February 2007 its HSDPA service with speeds of up to 3.6 Mbit/s and planned to upgrade this to 10 Mbit/s in 2008. The network was supposed to cover 70% of Finland's population by the end of 2007.

Fiji:

* Vodafone FJ launched (1st Oct, 2008) the first commercial HSDPA network in the Oceania Region. The solution, provided by Ericsson, is implemented in the whole of Vodafone Fiji's 3G network in Fiji, supporting speeds up to 14.4 Mbit/s, with a full end-to-end IP network Infrastructure covering 80% of the population.

France:

* Orange introduces its HSDPA service in 2006.

* SFR operator introduced its HSDPA service by July 1, 2006. Aim is 38% population covered by September 1, 2006.

G

Germany:

* T-Mobile officially introduced its HSDPA service at the CeBIT 2006 (9 March - 15 March 2006).

* Vodafone also launched the service at CeBit 2006

* O2 launched HSDPA on December 1, 2006

* E-Plus plans to launch HSDPA in 2008

Ghana:

* MTN officially introduced its HSDPA service in May 2007 in the cities of Accra,Tema and Kumasi

* Zain Ghana also has launched it's 3G network

Greece:

* Cosmote officially announced HSDPA network support on June 6, 2006. HSDPA services are available as of June 27, 2006. In October, 2006 its HSDPA infrastructure was upgraded to 3.6 Mbit/s. Cosmote claims service availability to 75% of the population and this figure (without official data) is coming to almost complete overlap of Cosmote's GSM footprint which covers 99.9% of the population. Cosmote announced it will soon be upgrading its network with HSUPA and HSDPA access up to 7.2 Mbit/s beginning from major areas.

* Vodafone is providing HSDPA network support on all of its network whilst most of the cities covered are upgraded up to 3.6 Mbit/s

* Wind GR has upgraded all of its 3GSM network with HSDPA up to 3.6 Mbit/s.

Guatemala:

* Claro introduced HSDPA in Guatemala City and Antigua Guatemala on April 16, 2008, with the commercial name "3.5G", which expanded to other cities reaching at least 40 cities, originally available with 1.8 Mbit/s.

* TIGO introduced HSDPA in Guatemala City and 64 other cities on September 2008. Originally available with 3.8 Mbit/s, was upgraded to 7.2 Mbit/s in Guatemala City and other 2 cities.

* Movistar is deploying HSDPA in all major cities, it will launch commercial services in the first half of 2009. The network is on trial on 1900 MHz.

H

Hong Kong:

* SmarTone-Vodafone officially launches Hong Kong's first commercial HSDPA service on June 6, 2006. SmarTone-Vodafone’s HSDPA network provides a data speed of 3.6 Mbit/s and flat-rate internet access services about 24 US Dollars.
* SmarTone-Vodafone on Mar 8, 2007 made available the world’s first Mobile Broadband in taxis, offering trial experience of Mobile Broadband. Passengers can plug their laptops into the USB modem and they can browse & email.
* CSL officially launched HSDPA service on September 19, 2006, together with Dopod 838pro, the first HSDPA compatible PDA based on Windows Mobile 5.0.
* 3 provided HSDPA service up to 7.2 Mbit/s
* PCCW also provided HSDPA

Hungary:

* T-Mobile originally introduced its commercial HSDPA service on 17 May 2006, for the inner districts of Budapest, but as of December 2007 it offers 3.6 Mbit/s downlink in much of the country's main areas, also offering 7.2 Mbit/s in Budapest and in 40 other towns and cities.
* Pannon, a Telenor company, offers Cat5 HSDPA USB and cardmodems and by March 2008 it has covered Budapest and 155 other towns and cities with 3.6 Mbit/s connection.
* Vodafone launched its commercial HSDPA service on 1 June 2007 and it is available in 111 towns and cities (including Budapest). Vodafone Hungary's network has a theoretical maximum download speed of 7.2 Mbit/s.

I

Iceland:

* Novator started deploying HSDPA in Iceland late 2006.

India:

* MTNL DOLPHIN has started 3G Services under the brand name of 3G Jadoo where Jadoo means Magic in Hindi. While BSNL has launched 3G services with speed up to 2 Mbit/s at 11 Indian Cities on 27.02.2009

Indonesia:

* Excelcom, or XL, introduced HSDPA deployment on 21 September 2006, with more than 100 HSDPA spots across the country.

* Indosat, the first HSDPA network in Indonesia which is supported by Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei mostly in major cities.

* Telkomsel has HSDPA technology around the country, mostly in major cities.

Ireland:

* Vodafone launched an HSDPA service on 14 November 2006 which currently covers 59% of the country's population .

* O2 offers HSDPA nationwide since July 2007.

* 3 will deploy their HSDPA network from January 2007, aiming to cover 85% of the population by February 2007 . A HSDPA datacard was introduced on December 15, 2006.

* Meteor, the mobile communications arm of eircom is in the final stages of testing its 3G and HSPDA services. Their networks are currently on-air in Dublin and Cork and a public pilot trial for mobile broadband is underway with a group of prepay GSM customers. They were expected to have a full commercial launch by Q3 2008 for both contract and prepay customers. But it still has not come in February 2009

Isle of Man:

* Manx Telecom

* Cloud9

Israel:

* Cellcom has by now completed deployment of HSDPA in more than 80% of the populated areas of Israel.

* Partner, the second largest Israeli GSM provider, has announced (March 8, 2006) deployment of HSDPA and will offer phones and computers with built-in HSDPA capability. According to Ynet from October 2006 Partner completed deployment of HSDPA in 70% of the populated areas.

* Pelephone has completed deployment of HSDPA network in 2009.

Italy:

* 3 launched nationwide HSDPA service (25 main cities) in March 2006

* Vodafone (all the UMTS network, about 70% of population, converted to HSDPA) in June 2006

* TIM in July 2006

* WIND part of its 3G network is upgraded to HSDPA since 2007

J

Japan:

* SoftBank Mobile (formerly Vodafone Japan) introduced HSDPA services in October 2006.

* NTT DOCOMO introduced HSDPA at 3.6 Mbit on August 31, 2006. 70% of the population will be covered by March 2007. . up to 7.2 Mbit on April 2008. 100% of the population covered by December 2008.

* EMOBILE Launched HSDPA service on April 28, 2007.

Jersey:

* Jersey Airtel launched an HSDPA network in June 2007.

K

Kuwait:

* Wataniya introduced HSDPA on December 4, 2006. The service was implemented in most of Kuwait, however areas like Yarmouk and Qurtoba should be covered by January 2007.

* Zain Launched the service Commercially in September 2006. nowadays all Kuwait even desert is covered by 3.5G HSDPA 7.2 Mbit/s

Kenya:

* Safaricom Now supports HSDPA since early March 2007 and has launched several services that offer internet services available in all 3G enabled areas of the country.

L

Latvia:

* Bite launched HSDPA service in 2006 covering 10 major cities

Liechtenstein:

* Telecom FL launched HSDPA service in June 2007.

Lithuania:

* Omnitel launched its HSDPA service in May 2006.

* Bite has been commercially deploying 3.5G services based on a nationwide network since June 2006.

Luxembourg:

* The three mobile network operators currently active in Luxembourg (VOX, Tango and Luxgsm) have progressively deployed HSDPA in major agglomerations since late 2006/early 2007.

M

Malaysia:

* Maxis Communications (Maxis Broadband) announced in April 2006 that it has fully integrated HSDPA into its 3G network and anticipates HSDPA services by September 2006. Maxis officially launches its HSDPA services on 26 September 2006, delivering broadband Internet access to residential customers in Kuala Lumpur. The service is delivered through a specially designed low-cost HSDPA modem, a world's first.

* Celcom (www.celcom.com.my) has integrated 3.5G into its current 3G network, and plans to fully cover peninsular Malaysia with 3.5 G by the end of year 2007. Major towns and many high-traffic sites (e.g. Shopping malls) in Peninsular Malaysia are already HSDPA-enabled. The current deployment of HSDPA provides download speeds of up to 1.8 Mbit/s.

* iZZi (http://www.izzi.com.my/) has introduce and provide a new alternative mobile wireless broadband service to the Malaysia public. employing the "iBurst" technology which has been proven successful in other countries, among them are, Australia, South Africa, USA, Canada, Norway and Lebanon since early 2004.

* U Mobile (http://www.u.com.my/) has introduce "Suft with U" mobile wireless broadband service to the Malaysia public on 2008.It's Malaysia’s newest 3G service provider and was founded in 1998 as MiTV Networks Sdn Bhd. U Mobile is a wholly owned subsidiary of U Television Sdn Bhd which was formerly known as U Telecom Media Holdings Sdn Bhd and MiTV Corporation Sdn Bhd.

Malta:

* GO Mobile (www.go.com.mt) launched 3G and 3.5G (HSDPA) services on 26 April 2007 with nationwide coverage in both Malta and Gozo. GO Mobile was the first mobile operator in Malta to launch a nationwide mobile broadband network, with download speeds up to 1.8 and 3.6 Mbit/s depending on the client device, both outdoor and indoor (in most parts of the country) thus enabling customers to experience true broadband speeds while on the move.

Mauritius

* Emtel (www.emtel-ltd.com) introduced both HSDPA (at 1.8 Mbit/s) and WiMAX in 2007. Emtel was also the first to launch a 3G network in Africa in 2004.

Mexico:

* Movistar (http://www.movistar.com.mx) Movistar provides 3G service.
* Telcel (www.telcel.com) Is the official carrier of the I-Phone 3G.
* Iusacell (http://www.iusacell.com.mx/) Iusacell was the first to provide 3G service in Mexico.

As a note: Regardless of the company, don't forget to hire a Unlimited Data Plan, also put attention to any Speed limit after certain download amount, even in unlimited plans, some providers limit drastically the 3G speed after a few GB. In spanish: No olviden contratar un Plan Ilimitado, independientemente del proveedor. Pongan atención a las velocidades de descarga después de ciertos días de descarga, inclusive con planes ilimitados. Algunos limitan la descarga después de algunos GB.

Moldova:

* Moldcell (www.moldcell.md) launched 3G and 3.5G (HSDPA) services on 1 October 2008 with both download and upload speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s.

* Orange (www.orange.md) launched 3G and 3.5G (HSDPA) services on 1 November 2008 with download speed 14.4 Mbit/s and upload 7.2 Mbit/s.

Morocco

* Maroc Telecom (www.iam.ma) Morocco's Maroc Telecom has commercially launched a 3G/HSDPA service in the country's main cities. The company was originally awarded a 3G license in May 2006, along with competitors, Medi Telecom and Maroc Connect.

* Wana (www.wana.ma) The third phone operator in Morocco is the first to launch 3G products. "Wana Moov" is the first 3G service in North Africa.

* Meditel (www.Meditel.ma) The first 3G services arrive at Meditel in 2007. Meditel has a good support service.

Source: (www.CasaAnnonce.ma)

N

Netherlands:

* T-Mobile has launched the HSDPA service half April 2006, which covers 50% of the Dutch population. In April 2008 OPTA (Dutch Telecom Regulator) tested the network with 98% coverage and 93,1% at a satisfactory service level.

* Vodafone launched its HSDPA service October 2006, which then reached about half of the population. In April 2008 OPTA (Dutch Telecom Regulator) tested the network with 100% coverage and 99,33% at a satisfactory service level.

* KPN also launched its HSDPA service in October 2006, starting in The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It was upgraded two months later, a move that extended coverage to about 70%. In May 2007, that percentage is scheduled to rise to 85%. In April 2008 OPTA (Dutch Telecom Regulator) tested the network with 100% coverage and 99,67% at a satisfactory service level.

New Zealand:

* Vodafone launched a national 3G/W-CDMA network in mid-2005. This was followed by a network upgrade to HSDPA which was launched on 12 September 2006. The HSDPA network however currently covers less than 40% of the population 2.1GHz. Coverage of the original GSM/GPRS network covers some 97% of NZ's population. 900MHz coverage over 97% of populated areas by June 2009, claimed by Vodafone NZ. 900MHz UMTS upgrade was completed in June 2009 with the intention to provide the same coverage area as the existing 2G GSM network.

* Telecom New Zealand The network was available to the public June 2009, 850MHz coverage nationwide. Supplementary 2.1MHz in cities, HSPA+. Promoted as the XT Mobile Network.

* 2degrees has a network operating with HSPA+ on their own cell cites in Auckland Christchruch and Wellington. With a sharing agreement with Vodafone NZ, nationwide coverage may be available when the network is launched to the public around September 2009.

Norway:

* TeliaSonera/NetCom (Norway) launched HSDPA in April 2007.

O

Oman:

* Nawras launched HSDPA in November 2007.

P

Panamá:

* Movistar deployed a UMTS network by November 2008. This was the very first 3G network in the country. It offered broadband data services from the start by means of HSDPA technology.

Paraguay:

* CTI Móvil introduced HSDPA in November 2007. Rebranded as Claro in March 2008.
* Personal

Peru:

* Claro has upgraded to HSDPA.

Philippines:

* Globe Telecom was the first in the Philippines to use its 3G and HSDPA facilities during the 23rd SEA Games in 2005 with public demonstrations to international media. It is also the first telecom company in Asia-Pacific to commercially deploy HSDPA service and is among the first 20 worldwide on March 30, 2006 through its "Visibility" product. Visibility is the ultimate in mobile internet providing 3G/HSDPA, EDGE/GPRS through an HSDPA capable datacard for unlimited laptop internet connectivity, as well as unlimited Wi-Fi and Dial-Up access. Recently, it demonstrated its next generation HSDPA network breaking the 2 Mbit/s. barrier as well as the country's handset-based HSDPA service with the Samsung Z560, another milestone possibly in the South East Asian region.

Also, Globe Telecom is the official carrier for the iPhone 3G in the Philippines

* Smart Communications has the first HSDPA ready network. It launched its commercial HSDPA-enabled 3G network on May 1, 2006.

* PLDT offers HSDPA wireless internet through their PLDT WeRoam Plus service. The WeRoam Plus service uses the Smart Communications infrastructure. Users connect to the WeRoam Plus service through the Option Globetrotter 3G PCMCIA card.
* Sun Cellular offered 3G Data plans in mid-late 2007 with HSDPA being deployed in key cities of Metro Manila with speeds of 2Mbit/s. Their offer is the most competitively priced to date at $17/month unlimited.

Poland:

* PTC/Era is the first operator in Poland who launched their network-wide HSDPA service commercially, on October 30, 2006. Era was also the first operator in Poland to present HSDPA operation in its network during March 2006 Intertelecom trade fair held in Łódź. This operator has the widest HSDPA coverage out of all 3G operators in Poland.

* Polkomtel/Plus GSM has announced commercial availability of HSDPA in Warsaw on October 23, 2006 and currently (June 2007) provides HSDPA in the regions of Warszawa, Katowice, Gliwice, Zabrze, Kraków, Częstochowa, Zakopane, Bielsko-Biała, Białystok, Kielce, Lublin and Rzeszów. Polkomtel coverage map

* Centertel/Orange on November 9, 2006 has announced availability of HSDPA on their Node B base stations in Warsaw and Katowice. On November 14 the operator has updated the announcement, stating he will make HSDPA available network-wide on December 1, 2006. The deadline was not met, though - a further announcement delayed network-wide availability to "beginning of 2007" and claimed that "by end of 2007, 30% of country population will have access to HSDPA". However, as of December 1, 2006, HSDPA was commercially available in Warsaw and Katowice only.

Portugal:

* TMN since 5 April 2006 at maximum speed up to 7,2 / 1,4 Mbps.

* Vodafone since 5 April 2006 at maximum speeds up to 21,6 / 5,7 Mbps.

* Optimus since 5 April 2006 at maximum speed up to 21,6 / 5,7 Mbps.

Since 5 April 2006 that the three operators offer this service, coverage includes the main cities and most important towns at speeds up to 21.6 Mbps (Vodafone and Optimus) and 7,2 Mbps (TMN), generally 3.6 Mbps in most cities. At main cities the three operators have also HSUPA enabled.

Puerto Rico:

* AT&T Mobility

Q

Qatar:

* Qtel launched HSDPA in January 2008 initially covering Doha, Wakrah, Rayyan, Mesaieed, Al Khor and Ras Laffan.

R

Romania:

* Vodafone Romania launched 3.5G on 6 October 2006, with initial coverage restricted only to Bucharest. Current coverage includes 23 cities.

* Orange Romania announced the launch of HSDPA in 10 cities by the end of June 2007, starting at speeds of 3.6 Mbit/s.

* Zapp Mobile launched services on its Romanian 2100MHz network at the end of June 2008. The platform is based on UMTS/HSDPA solutions provided by ZTE and is mainly be used for offering high-speed wireless data services across Romania. At launch, the network was already operational in 19 major towns and cities, including Bucharest, Timisoara, Iasi, Cluj, Brasov, Craiova and Constanta.

* DIGI.Mobil was from his birth in December 2007 a 3G+ service using HSDPA. Unfortunately they don't offer yet a mobile broadband internet connection despite they have the infrastructure (July 2009).

Russia:

* MegaFon supports HSDPA with speeds of 72. Mbit/s.

S

Saudi Arabia:

* AlJawal has announced that it will introduce its 3.5 G service by the summer 2006.

* Mobily also announced that it will introduce its 3.5 G service by the summer 2006.

Serbia:

* Telenor
* MTS

Singapore:

* MobileOne , through its joint agreement with Nokia, offers HSDPA based "portable broadband" connecting laptops via a pager sized modem as well as enabled handsets - to M1's network. The speeds peak at 3.6 Mbit and coverage is available throughout the country. (Dec 2006)

* SingTel launched its HSDPA service in May 2007, supporting a maximum speed of 3.6 Mbit/s. 7.2 Mbit/s is available in select locations since Oct 2008.

* StarHub offers HSPA, for mobile subscribers using exclusive data packages, supporting maximum download speed of 7.2 Mbit/s. This service was launched by StarHub in August 2007.

Slovakia:

* Orange has launched HSDPA @ 3,6 Mbit/s from UMTS at August 23, 2006. September 1, 2008 upgrade to HSDPA @ 7,2 Mbit/s. October 2, 2008 upgrade to HSUPA @ 1,46 Mbit/s. coverage map: http://www.orange.sk/private/coverage/index.jsp?locale=sk

* T-Mobile launched HSDPA @ 3,6 Mbit/s on August 22, 2006. Covers now regional capitals Bratislava, Trnava, Nitra, Košice and highly populated area around Bratislava. In 2009 rest of the regional capitals of Slovakia are expected to be covered (Žilina, Trenčín, Banská Bystrica, Prešov and probably Poprad). coverage map: http://www.t-mobile.sk/sk/!pages.get?id=1285

* Telefónica O2 no coverage yet

Slovenia:

* Mobitel has commercially launched HSDPA in October 2006 with speeds up to 3,6 Mbit/s.
* Si.mobil (Vodafone)(Slovenia) has commercially launched HSDPA in September 2007 with speed up to 3,6 Mbit/s.

South Africa:

* Both MTN and Vodacom, two of South Africa's leading GSM operators have already announced their deployment of the fast HSDPA service delivering theoretical downlink speeds of 1.8 Mbit/s after introducing UMTS 3G services more than 14 months ago. MTN launched their HSDPA service on the 22 March 2006, hot on the heels of Vodacom's announcement that their service would go live on 2 April 2006. Both offer 7.2 Mbit connections and 2 Mbit upload as of 2008.

South Korea:

* SK Telecom launched commercial HSDPA service for phone on May 15, 2006 in 25 cities of South Korea, which expecting to be up to all 84 cities by the end of 2006, and it's the world first HSDPA service that using USIM card for mobile phone device, Samsung's SCH-W200 which support DBDM (Dual Band Dual Mode) that covers 2G,3G and 3.5G service.

* KTF launched commercial HSDPA service for phone by June 30, 2006 in 40 cities of South Korea, which expecting to be up to all 84 cities by end of year 2006.

Spain:

* Orange became the first Spanish operator to offer HSDPA service in Spain. Starting in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Burgos and Pamplona on 19 June 2006 (29% population). They started offering 1,8 Mbit/s download speeds.
o Tests started at Barcelona's 3GSM World Congress in February 2006.
o By the end of 2007 they covered more than 73.6% of Spain's population with 3G.
o By February 2008 they offer as maximum speeds 3.6 Mbit/s download and 1.4 Mbit/s upload.

* Movistar started to test HSDPA services in April 2006.
o Movistar offers 7,2 Mbit/s download and 2 Mbit/s upload speeds in several major cities. 3,6 Mbit/s download speeds are available in towns with 100.000 or more inhabitants plus 180 relevant villages.

* Vodafone started tests in the city of Salamanca in March 2006.
o By the end of 2006 they covered more than 68% of Spain's population with 3,6 Mbit/s download speeds.

* Vodafone and Movistar are upgrading to 7,2 Mbit/s download and 2 Mbit/s upload speeds to replace the current 3,6 Mbit/s download and 384 kbit/s upload speeds in several mayor cities. Speeds of up to 14,4 Mbit/s will be available later this year.

* It's still unknown when Yoigo will deploy their HSDPA network. For now UMTS (3G) is their fastest offer.

Sri Lanka:

* Airtel Sri-Lanka launched the HSPA service in January 2009 and it is being used now.

* Dialog Telekom launched HSDPA in August 2006. As of 2008 the HSPA service has been put to operation and it is being used. They are boasting about widest HSDPA coverage and 7.2 Mbit/s downlink speed, their HSDPA network is very much superior to other 2 operators and the speed is very very fast and stable.

* Mobitel Lanka introduced HSPA service (HSDPA+HSUPA) in December 2007. The service, branded M3, offers up to 14.4 Mbit/s downlink and has 60% of landmass covered as of March 2008. As of 2008 March, Sri Lanka is the only country in South Asia region to deploy commercial HSPA networks.

Sweden:

* 3 launched HSDPA service on 8 November 2006. The network is provided by Ericsson and initially it has downlink speed of 3.6 Mbit/s. In the second quarter of 2007 it was upgraded to 7.2 Mbit/s, and now also has 1,4 Mbit HSUPA support.

* Tele 2 launched HSDPA service in 2006. The network now has downlink speed of 7.2 Mbit/s and has HSUPA 1,4 Mbit support.

* Telenor launched HSDPA service in May 2007. The network has downlink speed of 3.6 Mbit/s.

Switzerland:

* Orange

* Swisscom

Syria:

* SyriaTel launched 3.5G/HSDPA service in August 2008. With a maximum downlink speed of 7.2 Mbit/s. Covered areas include Damascus, Aleppo, Lattakia, and Palmera.

T

Taiwan:

* Chungwa Telecom
* FarEastone
* Taiwan Mobile Com
* VIBO Telecom

Thailand:

* AIS have rolled out HSPA in Chiang Mai, May 2008.

Turkey:

* Turkcell (A)
* Vodafone (B)
* Avea (C)

The services were launched at the end of July 2009.

U

Ukraine:

* Utel from November, 1 2007

United Kingdom:

* 3 UK currently has the highest level of 3G coverage in the UK and went live with HSDPA in September 2007. 3 currently has HSDPA coverage in most of the 3G areas they cover.

* O2 launched their HSDPA services across the UK in the third/fourth quarters of 2007 following an extended trial period, during which compatible devices were introduced. Coverage extends to most of O2's 3G footprint. Initial download speeds are 1.8 Mbit/s (peak), increasing to 3.6 Mbit/s (along with HSUPA) in June 2008.

* Orange UK announced the initial launch of HSDPA services to the 5 top UK cities in February 2007. Orange UK has now expanded this to over 30 cities and is continually rolling-out the service over 2008. Initially launched at 1.8 Mbit/s Orange UK has now increased this to 3.6 Mbit/s and plans an evolutionary process regarding the speeds of HSDPA services. When not in an HSDPA-enabled area Orange UK will transfer devices seamlessly to 3G, EDGE or 2G services, albeit at a slower speed and are one of the only UK network to offer such flexibility along with O2.. Orange has announced that this speed will be increased to 7.2 Mbit/s in the top 30 UK cities and 14.4 Mbit/s in the top 5 cities, this will be rolled out over 18 months.

* T-Mobile UK launched their HSDPA network across the UK on 1 August 2006. Download speeds are 3.6 Mbit/s in 2007, 7.2 Mbit/s in 2008, 10 Mbit/s in 2009 and 20 Mbit/s by 2011.
o T-Mobile UK released (on 9 May 2006) a quad band HSDPA data card for notebook computers to wirelessly access the internet through T-Mobile's HSDPA network. However, T-Mobile has come under intense criticism from potential customers due to their policy to ban the use of VoIP applications such as skype with the data card (a policy many believe is made to protect the revenues from their mobile phone business, although T-Mobile says it is because VoIP is not quality assured and might impact other network users). Due to consumer pressure, in October 2006, T-Mobile UK unveiled new Web 'n' Walk data tariffs for their HSDPA service, eliminating VoIP use restrictions on their "Max" tariff and easing restrictions on their other data tariffs.

* Vodafone launched HSDPA services during the summer of 2006. Vodafone released their HSDPA laptop data card on 22 June 2006 and have speeds of up to 7.2 Mbit/s in central London and some airports

United States:

* AT&T is operating a 3G/HSDPA network, called BroadbandConnect, currently in most metropolitan markets. Speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s are available in most markets. Areas that use UMTS instead of HSUPA as the uplink protocol are limited to 1.8 Mbit/s speeds.

* T-Mobile USA is currently rolling out a 3g network in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band. Currently T-Mobile USA has rolled out in most of their 29 top markets and over 120 cities by the end of November 2008 with their 3.5G 7.2 Mbit/s network.

V

Venezuela:

* Movistar is currently adopting an 3.5G/HSPDA network for cellphones and wireless modems.
* Digitel is a Hsdpa network in de band of 900 Mhz but only for wireless modems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Huawei E220

2009-08-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

The Huawei E220 is a Huawei HSDPA access device ( 'modem' ) manufactured by Huawei and notable for using the USB interface (USB modem).

Technically it is a modem, USB and (due to the CDFS format) virtual CD-ROM device.

Launched on 21 June 2006, the device is used for wireless Internet access using 3.5G, 3G, or 2G mobile telephony networks. It supports UMTS (including HSDPA), EDGE, GPRS and GSM.

E220 works well with Linux, as support for it was added in Linux kernel 2.6.20, but there are workarounds for distributions with older kernels (eg for Debian etch's 2.6.18). The card is also supported by Vodafone Mobile Connect Card driver for Linux, and it is possible to monitor the signal strength through other Linux applications.

Most 3G network operators bundle the device with a contract, with some operators simlocking the device . Unlocked and unbranded modems can also be bought from independent suppliers.

A colloquial name for the modem is 'soap on a rope'.

Features

The device contains not only the cellular antenna but also about 22MB (10 MB on older versions) of storage memory accessible to the operating system as a USB mass storage device formatted with CDFS, thus emulating a CD-ROM drive. In this memory, E220 devices supplied by mobile operators may contain 3G dialer software written by the operator, while Huawei-branded devices contain Huawei's original firmware. Huawei's firmware and updates for it are also available for flashing from Huawei's website, or the firmware for 7.2 Mbit/s from Mobile Broadband Rocks (in reality 'flashing' this device means writing a firmware image to its internal flash memory). Flashing the firmware of this device doesn't change the memory used for their operator's software, therefore connection settings (such as APN) will be retained. The software loaded on the device may start automatically through Windows's autostart facility, which can be bypassed by pressing the Shift key while inserting the USB cable of E220. Currently newest known firmware 11.117.10.03.99 for E220 can be found from MobileBroadbandRocks.com on comment a from Andrew David ( for the download. WARNING: Branded dashboard included, not locked however, and installing optional).

Hardware

E220 connects to the computer with a standard Mini USB cable. The device comes with two cables, one short and one long. The long one has two USB A interfaces, one used for data and power and the other optionally only for assistance power in case the computer is not able to provide the full 500 mA (milliamperes) required for the device to work from one USB interface only. If your connection gets disrupted often or isn't really stable, consider using the two plug usb cable and supplying secondary power.

The E220 antenna is internal; the USB cable does not act as an antenna. There is a way to connect an external antenna even though there is no antenna connector. Together with a high gain antenna like an LPDA or an OMNI booster antenna and an adapter, signal strength can be considerably improved. There is also a way to open the modem, remove the small internal antenna, and solder a umts-antenna cable onto the board. You will invalidate the guarantee, but it can be a cheap and functional way to connect an external antenna.

Software

Huawei E220 includes its own Windows software in its internal memory, self-installs through the Windows's auto-start feature and can be flashed (overwritten) by the end user. The standard software by Huawei is called Mobile Partner and is indicated by the code UTPS, as it is found on the manufacturer's download site.

Some network operators selling E220, however, replace Huawei's software with their own, which often is software-locked (albeit not SIM-locked) to work only with the operator's own network. End users can use either third-party software such as MWconn (freeware) or alternative operating systems (eg Debian GNU/Linux) to circumvent this and use their E220 with any SIM, or flash their device with Huawei's original software.

The following operator(s) are known to replace Huawei's software with their own:

* Vodafone puts on its E220 (Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem) its Windows Vodafone Mobile Connect Lite software, which is a lighter version of Vodafone Mobile Connect. In Windows it uses the excutable VodafoneUSBPP.exe. This device is also supported in Linux, using Vodafone Mobile Connect Card driver for Linux, which can be downloaded from Vodafone Betavine.
* BASE eplus (Germany)
* MTS (Russia)
* Orange (Austria)
* T-Mobile (Austria)
* Mobilkom (Austria) - uses software from Austrian speicalist software vendor mquadr.at for both its brands A1 and Bob
* Drei (Austria)
* Three (Australia, UK)
* BT Business (UK)
* Play (PL)
* Optimus (PT)
* Movistar (Spain, Argentina)
* Telkomsel (Indonesia)
* Nawras (Oman)
* Dialog GSM (Sri Lanka)
* Zain (Sudan)
* Sun Cellular (Philippines)
* MTN (Uganda)
* MTN Dialog Telecom (Sri Lanka)
* MTC (Namibia)
* Mobily (Saudi Arabia)

Operating systems

* Microsoft Windows XP & Vista
* Mac OS X v10.2.6 Jaguar or higher
* Linux 2.6.20 or higher. One can use wvdial with this modem in Linux.
o Debian, Ubuntu and gnuLinEx
o openSUSE
o Fedora
o Debian Linux
o Arch Linux
o Ark Linux
o Gentoo Linux
o Xandros Linux
o Sabayon
o Mandriva
o PcLinuxOS
o Slax
o Linux Caixa Mágica

Compatibility Issues

A number of software compatibility issues are known to exist with the E220 USB modem. This is mainly related to CD Writing software, software that creates virtual CD-ROM drives and with Microsoft ActiveSync. Also early versions of the firmware and vodafone connect software are incompatible with Microsoft Windows Vista. This has been remedied in later updates.

Availability

E220 is available in the following countries:

* Afghanistan (Afghan Wireless)
* Algeria (ATM Mobilis)
* Angola (Unitel)
* Argentina (Claro, Movistar, Telecom Personal)
* Australia (3 Mobile, Vodafone, Optus, Virgin Mobile, iPrimus, Soul)
* Austria (A1, Orange, TeleRing, Drei, Yesss)
* Bahrain (Batelco), (Zain)
* Belgium (Proximus), (unofficially works with Base.be service)
* Bolivia (Tigo)
* Brazil (TIM), (Claro), (Oi)
* Brunei (B Mobile)
* Bulgaria (M-Tel)
* Chile (Entel, Movistar)
* Colombia (Tigo, Comcel, Movistar)
* Croatia (VIPnet)
* Cyprus (Cyta-Vodafone)
* Czech (Vodafone), (T-Mobile)
* Denmark (3, Telia, TDC, SkyLine)
* El Salvador (Tigo)
* Estonia (EMT, Elisa, TELE2)
* Egypt (Vodafone), (Vodafone-eg) Etisalat Egypt
* Finland (Saunalahti, Elisa, DNA, TeliaSonera)
* France (SFR, Orange (brand))
* Germany (O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone, E-Plus, Base DE)
* Guatemala(Claro,Tigo)
* Greece (Cosmote, Vodafone, Wind)
* Honduras(Tigo)
* Hong Kong (Smartone-Vodafone, 3-3G)
* Hungary (Vodafone, T-Mobile, Pannon)
* Iceland (Nova, Vodafone)
* India (Vodafone)
* Indonesia (Indosat, Telkomsel, XL)
* Ireland (Vodafone, O2, Meteor, 3)
* Italy (Vodafone, Tim, Wind, H3G)
* Jamaica (Claro)
* Japan (Emobile)
* Kenya (Safaricom,Zain,Orange,Econet)
* Kuwait (Zain)
* Latvia (LMT, Tele2, Bite)
* Lesotho (Vodacom LS)
* Lithuania (Omnitel)
* Luxembourg (Tango Vodafone, Vox Mobile, Luxgsm)
* Malaysia (Maxis, Celcom, DiGi)
* Mauritius (Emtel)
* Moldova (Moldcell)
* Montenegro (Promonte, T-Mobile)
* Namibia (MTC Namibia, Telecom Namibia)
* Morocco (Meditel, Maroc Telecom)
* New Zealand (Vodafone)
* Netherlands (Capestone (without sim-lock!), KPN, Vodafone, Telfort)
* Norway (Netcom)
* Nigeria (Zain, Visafone, Multi-Links Telkom, MTN, Glo)
* Oman (Nawras)
* Pakistan (Warid Telecom)
* Paraguay (Claro, Telecom Personal)
* Philippines (Sun, Globe Telecom)
* Poland (Era, Plus GSM, Orange Polska, Play Mobile)
* Portugal (PT - TMN & Sapo, Vodafone PT, Sonaecom - Optimus& Clix)
* Qatar (Qtel)
* Russia (MTS, Megafon, Beeline)
* Romania (Orange, Vodafone)
* Saudi Arabia (Mobily)
* Serbia (Telenor, Telekom Serbia)
* Singapore (M1, Singtel, Vodafone)
* Sri Lanka(Dialog GSM, Mobitel (Sri Lanka))
* Slovakia (T-Mobile, Orange)
* Slovenia (Mobitel)
* South Africa (Vodacom, MTN, Telkom SA)
* Spain (Vodafone, Movistar, Orange, Simyo,Yoigo)
* Sweden (Tele2, Telia, 3,)
* Switzerland (Sunrise, Swisscom)
* Syrian Arab Republic (Syriatel
* Taiwan (Chunghua Telecom, FarEastone)
* Tajikistan (Babilon-M)
* Tanzania (Vodacom, Zantel)
* Uganda (MTN)
* United Arab Emirates (Etisalat,du)
* United Kingdom (Vodafone, 3, T-Mobile)
* United States of America (not available; but will work on AT&T)
* Uruguay (Ancel, Claro)

Similar modems

* HSDPA:
o ZTE MF620
o VigSys VM10
* HSUPA:
o Novatel Ovation MC950D
o Huawei E270

http://en.wikipedia.org/

High-Speed Uplink Packet Access

2009-08-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) is a 3G mobile telephony protocol in the HSPA family with up-link speeds up to 5.76 Mbit/s. The name HSUPA was created by Nokia. The 3GPP does not support the name 'HSUPA', but instead uses the name Enhanced Uplink (EUL).

The specifications for HSUPA are included in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Release 6 standard published by 3GPP. – "The technical purpose of the Enhanced Uplink feature is to improve the performance of uplink dedicated transport channels, i.e. to increase capacity and throughput and reduce delay."

Description

HSUPA uses an uplink enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) on which it will employ link adaptation methods similar to those employed by HSDPA, namely:

* shorter Transmission Time Interval enabling faster link adaptation;

* HARQ (hybrid ARQ) with incremental redundancy making retransmissions more effective.

Similarly to HSDPA, HSUPA uses a packet scheduler, but it operates on a request-grant principle where the UEs request a permission to send data and the scheduler decides when and how many UEs will be allowed to do so. A request for transmission contains data about the state of the transmission buffer and the queue at the UE and its available power margin. However, unlike HSDPA, uplink transmissions are not orthogonal to each other.

In addition to this scheduled mode of transmission the standards also allows a self-initiated transmission mode from the UEs, denoted non-scheduled. The non-scheduled mode can, for example, be used for VoIP services for which even the reduced TTI and the Node B based scheduler will not be able to provide the very short delay time and constant bandwidth required.

Each MAC-d flow (i.e. QoS flow) is configured to use either scheduled or non-scheduled modes; the UE adjusts the data rate for scheduled and non-scheduled flows independently. The maximum data rate of each non-scheduled flow is configured at call setup, and typically not changed frequently. The power used by the scheduled flows is controlled dynamically by the Node B through absolute grant (consisting of an actual value) and relative grant (consisting of a single up/down bit) messages.

At Layer 1, HSUPA introduces new physical channels E-AGCH (Absolute Grant Channel), E-RGCH (Relative Grant Channel), F-DPCH (Fractional-DPCH), E-HICH (E-DCH Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel), E-DPCCH (E-DCH Dedicated Physical Control Channel) and E-DPDCH (E-DCH Dedicated Physical Data Channel).

E-DPDCH is used to carry the E-DCH Transport Channel; and E-DPCCH is used to carry the control information associated with the E-DCH.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

High Speed Packet Access

2009-08-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is a collection of two mobile telephony protocols High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), that extend and improve the performance of existing WCDMA protocols. A further standard, Evolved HSPA (also known as HSPA+), is soon to be released.

Overview

HSDPA and HSUPA provide increased performance by using improved modulation schemes and by refining the protocols by which handsets and base stations communicate. These improvements lead to a better utilization of the existing radio bandwidth provided by WCDMA.

HSPA improves the end-user experience by increasing peak data rates up to 14 Mbit/s in the downlink and 5.8 Mbit/s in the uplink. It also reduces latency and provides up to five times more system capacity in the downlink and up to twice as much system capacity in the uplink, reducing the production cost per bit compared to original WCDMA protocols. HSPA increases peak data rates and capacity in several ways:

* Shared-channel transmission, which results in efficient use of available code and power resources in WCDMA
* A shorter Transmission Time Interval (TTI), which reduces round-trip time and improves the tracking of fast channel variations
* Link adaptation, which maximizes channel usage and enables the base station to operate close to maximum cell power
* Fast scheduling, which prioritizes users with the most favorable channel conditions
* Fast retransmission and soft-combining, which further increase capacity
* 16QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), which yields higher bit-rates

HSPA has been commercially deployed by over 200 operators in more than 80 countries.

Many HSPA rollouts can be achieved by a software upgrade to existing 3G networks, giving HSPA a headstart over WiMax, which requires dedicated network infrastructure. Rich variety of HSPA enabled terminals, more than 1000 available today together with ease of use gives rising sales of HSPA-enabled mobiles and are helping to drive the HSPA.

High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)

The first step required to upgrade WCDMA to HSPA is to improve the downlink by introducing HSDPA. The improved downlink provides up to 14 Mbit/s with significantly reduced latency. The channel reduces the cost per bit and enhances support for high-performance packet data applications.

HSDPA is based on shared channel transmission and its key features are shared channel and multi-code transmission, higher-order modulation, short Transmission Time Interval (TTI), fast link adaptation and scheduling along with fast hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ).

The upgrade to HSDPA is often just a software update for most WCDMA networks, and as of JuneApril 2008, the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) reported that 90.88 percent of all WCDMA networks are upgraded to HSDPA. With HSDPA mobile broadband becomes a reality and users can download files, read mails and browse web pages with the same end user experience as of fixed broadband.

Majority of deployments provide up to 7.2 Mbit/s in the down-link and 14 Mbit/s will be available as soon as the devices are available in the market.

Voice calls are usually prioritized over data transfer. The Australian provider, Telstra uses up to 14.4 Mbit/s nationwide. The Croatian VIPnet network supports the speed of 7.2 Mbit/s in down-link as does Rogers Wireless in Canada. In South Korea, a nationwide 7.2 Mbit/s coverage is now established by SK Telecom and KTF. In Hong Kong, PCCW and Smartone-Vodafone also provide 7.2 Mbit/s coverage. In Portugal all the mobile phone operators support 7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA, and the Sri-Lankan companies Airtel Pvt Ltd and Mobitel Pvt Ltd also provide 7.2 Mbit/s in the Asian region.

See full list of HSDPA networks committed and in service.

High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)

The second major step in the WCDMA upgrade process is to upgrade the uplink, which is introduced in 3GPP Release 6. Upgrading to HSUPA is often only a software update. Enhanced Uplink adds a new transport channel to WCDMA, called Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH). An enhanced uplink creates opportunities for a number of new applications including VoIP, uploading pictures and sending large e-mails. The enhanced uplink increases the data rate (up to 5.8 Mbit/s), and the capacity, and also reduces latency. The enhanced uplink features several improvements similar to those of HSDPA, such as multi code transmission, short Transmission Time Interval (TTI), fast scheduling and fast hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ).

In Singapore, Starhub announced a 1.9 Mbit/s HSUPA Service as part of its new MaxMobile plan in 1 August 2007. In Finland, Elisa announced on 30 August 2007 1.4 Mbit/s HSUPA to most large cities with plans to add the service to its whole 3G network within months. 3 Italia and Ericsson announced on 16 July 2008 the successful tests of HSUPA 5.8 Mbit/s in the live network of 3 Italia.

Evolved High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+)

Evolved HSPA (also known as: HSPA Evolution, HSPA+, I-HSPA or Internet HSPA) is an upcoming wireless broadband standard defined in 3GPP release 7 and 8 of the WCDMA specification. Evolved HSPA provides data rates up to 42 Mbit/s in the downlink and 11 Mbit/s in the uplink (per 5MHz carrier) with multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) technologies and higher order modulation.

Dual-Cell HSDPA (DC-HSDPA)

Dual-Cell HSDPA, part of 3GPP Release 8, is the natural evolution of HSPA by means of carrier aggregation. An HSPA+ network can theoretically support up to 28Mbit/s and 42Mbit/s with a single 5MHz carrier for Rel7 (MIMO) and Rel8 (Higher Order Modulation + MIMO), in good channel condition with low correlation between transmit antennas. Alternatively DC-HSPA can be used from Release 8 where the MAC scheduler can allocate two HSPA carrier in parallel and double the bandwidth from 5MHz to 10MHz. Besides the throughput gain from double the bandwidth, some diversity and joint scheduling gains can also be expected. This can particularly improve the QoS for end users in poor environment conditions that can not gain from MIMO and Higher Modulation only. From Release 9 onwards it will be possible to use DC-HSDPA in combination with MIMO used on both carrier. The support of MIMO in combination with DC-HSDPA will allow operators deploying Release 7 MIMO to benefit from the DC-HSDPA functionality as defined in Release 8.

Dual-Cell HSUPA (DC-HSUPA)

Similar enhancements as introduced with DC-HSDPA in the downlink for UMTS Release 8 are being standardized for UMTS Release 9 in the uplink called Dual-Cell HSUPA. DC-HSUPA will have similar limitations, for instance that the carriers have to belong to the same Node-B and have to be adjacent. Furthermore, it is assumed that at least 2 carriers are configured simultaneously in the downlink and have the same duplex distance to the uplink. The dual carrier transmission will only be applied to HSUPA UL physical channels and DPCCH. The standardisation of Release 9 is expected to be completed in December 2009.

Multi-carrier HSPA (MC-HSPA)

While the aggregation of more than two carriers has been studied the 3GPP specification does not yet allow this option. Nevertheless it seems likely that such option will be added at a later state of the technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Global mobile Suppliers Association

2009-08-10T23:03:00.000-07:00

The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) is an organization dedicated to the promotion of the GSM, 3G, WCDMA, HSPA and LTE mobile phone standards worldwide.

GSA represents leading GSM/3G/WCDMA-HSPA/LTE suppliers worldwide, covering close to 100% of mobile market share. GSA delivers authoritative facts, market intelligence, objective analysis and information. Member companies include AnyDATA, Aeroflex, Comsys Communications, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Panasonic, Qualcomm, ST-NXP Wireless, and Telcordia.

It is not to be confused with the GSM Association (GSMA), another organization with similar stated goals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

E-UTRA

2009-08-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) is the air interface of 3GPP's Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. E-UTRA is the successor to HSDPA and HSUPA technologies specified in 3GPP releases 5, 6 and 7. Unlike HSPA, LTE's E-UTRA is an entirely new air interface system, unrelated to and incompatible with W-CDMA.

Features

E-UTRA has the following features:

* Flexible bandwidth usage with 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz bandwidths. By comparison, W-CDMA uses fixed size 5 MHz chunks of spectrum.
* Increased spectral efficiency at 2-4 times more than in 3GPP (HSPA) release 6
* Peak download rates of 326.4 Mbit/s for 4x4 antennas, 172.8 Mbit/s for 2x2 antennas for every 20 MHz of spectrum.
* Peak upload rates of 86.4 Mbit/s for every 20 MHz of spectrum.
* Sub-5ms latency for small IP packets.

Design

E-UTRA uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology to support more users, higher data rates and lower processing power required on each handset.

Rationale for E-UTRA

E-UTRA was designed to achieve the goals set by the 3GPP LTE project. The improvements in performance allow wireless operators to offer quadruple play services - voice, high-speed interactive applications including large data transfer and feature-rich IPTV with full mobility.

Although UMTS, with HSDPA and HSUPA, delivers high data transfer rates, wireless data usage is expected to increase significantly over the next few years. The emergence of competitive technologies, such as WiMAX, is driving operators to upgrade their networks to support better data rates. E-UTRA also dramatically improves the capacity of the network.

As a part of 3GPP Release 8, E-UTRA is designed to provide a single evolution path for both UMTS and EV-DO service providers, providing increases in data speeds, and spectral efficiency, and allowing the provision of more functionality.

Technology demos

* In September 2007, NTT Docomo demonstrated E-UTRA data rates of 200 Mbit/s with power consumption below 100mW during the test.

* In April 2008, LG and Nortel demonstrated E-UTRA data rates of 50 Mbit/s while travelling at 110km/hr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

High-Speed Downlink Packet Access

2009-08-08T05:45:00.000-07:00

High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3.5G or 3G+, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. Current HSDPA deployments support down-link speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 14.0 Mbit/s. Further speed increases are available with HSPA+, which provides speeds of up to 42 Mbit/s downlink.

Technology

The High-Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH) lacks two basic features of other W-CDMA channels—variable spreading factor and fast power control. Instead, it delivers the improved downlink performance using adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), fast packet scheduling at the base station, and fast retransmissions from the base station, known as hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ).

Hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ)

HARQ uses incremental redundancy, where user data is transmitted multiple times using different codings. When a corrupted packet is received, the user device saves it and later combines it with the retransmissions, to recover the error-free packet as efficiently as possible. Even if the retransmitted packets are corrupted, their combination can yield an error-free packet.

Fast packet scheduling

The HS-DSCH downlink channel is shared between users using channel-dependent scheduling to make the best use of available radio conditions. Each user device periodically transmits an indication of the downlink signal quality, as often as 500 times per second. Using this information from all devices, the base station decides which users will be sent data on the next 2 ms frame and how much data should be sent for each user. More data can be sent to users which report high downlink signal quality.

The amount of the channelisation code tree, and thus network bandwidth, allocated to HSDPA users is determined by the network. The allocation is "semi-static" in that it can be modified while the network is operating, but not on a frame-by-frame basis. This allocation represents a trade-off between bandwidth allocated for HSDPA users, versus that for voice and non-HSDPA data users. The allocation is in units of channelisation codes for Spreading Factor 16, of which 16 exist and up to 15 can be allocated to HSDPA. When the base station decides which users will receive data on the next frame, it also decides which channelisation codes will be used for each user. This information is sent to the user devices over one or more "scheduling channels"; these channels are not part of the HSDPA allocation previously mentioned, but are allocated separately. Thus, for a given 2 ms frame, data may be sent to a number of users simultaneously, using different channelisation codes. The maximum number of users to receive data on a given 2 ms frame is determined by the number of allocated channelisation codes. By contrast, in CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, data is sent to only one user at a time.

Adaptive modulation and coding

The modulation scheme and coding is changed on a per-user basis depending on signal quality and cell usage. The initial scheme is Quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), but in good radio conditions 16QAM modulation almost doubles data throughput rates. With 5 Code allocation, QPSK typically offers up to 1.8 Mbit/s peak data rates, while 16QAM up to 3.6. Additional codes (e.g. 10, 15) can also be used to improve these data rates or extend the network capacity throughput significantly. Theoretically, HSDPA can give throughput up to 14.0 Mbit/s.

Other improvements

HSDPA is part of the UMTS standards since release 5, which also accompanies an improvement on the uplink providing a new bearer of 384 kbit/s. The previous maximum bearer was 128 kbit/s.

As well as improving data rates, HSDPA also decreases latency and so the round trip time for applications.

Along with the HS-DSCH channel, three new physical channels are also introduced: HS-SCCH, HS-DPCCH and HS-PDSCH. The High Speed-Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) informs the user that data will be sent on the HS-DSCH 2 slots ahead. The Uplink High Speed-Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH) carries acknowledgment information and current channel quality indicator (CQI) of the user. This value is then used by the base station to calculate how much data to send to the user devices on the next transmission. The High Speed-Physical Downlink Shared Channel (HS-PDSCH) is the channel mapped to the above HS-DSCH transport channel that carries actual user data.

Roadmap

The first phase of HSDPA has been specified in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) release 5. Phase one introduces new basic functions and is aimed to achieve peak data rates of 14.0 Mbit/s (see above). Newly introduced are the High Speed Downlink Shared Channels (HS-DSCH), the adaptive modulation QPSK and 16QAM and the High Speed Medium Access protocol (MAC-hs) in base station.

The second phase of HSDPA is specified in the upcoming 3GPP release 7 and has been named HSPA Evolved. It can achieve data rates of up to 42 Mbit/s. It will introduce antenna array technologies such as beamforming and Multiple-input multiple-output communications (MIMO). Beam forming focuses the transmitted power of an antenna in a beam towards the user’s direction. MIMO uses multiple antennas at the sending and receiving side. Deployments are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2008.

After HSPA Evolved, the roadmap leads to E-UTRA (Previously "HSOPA"), a technology under development for specification in 3GPP Release 8. This project is called the Long Term Evolution initiative. The first release of LTE offers data rates of over 320 Mbit/s for downlink and over 170 Mbit/s for uplink using OFDMA modulation. For details, see.

Adoption

As of May 25, 2007, 102 HSDPA networks have commercially launched mobile broadband services in 55 countries. Nearly 40 HSDPA networks support 3.6 Mbit/s peak downlink data throughput. A growing number are delivering 7.2 Mbit/s peak data downlink, leveraging new higher-speed devices coming into the market. One network has been declared as “14.4 Mbit/s (peak) ready” and several others will have this capability by end 2007. The first commercial HSUPA uplink network is launched, with several more set to follow in 2007.

This protocol is a relatively simple upgrade where UMTS is already deployed.

CDMA-EVDO networks had the early lead on performance, and Japanese providers were highly successful benchmarks for it. But lately this seems to be changing in favour of HSDPA as an increasing number of providers worldwide are adopting it. In Australia, Telstra announced that its CDMA-EVDO network would be replaced with a HSDPA network (since named NextG), offering high speed internet, mobile television and traditional telephony and video calling. Rogers Wireless deployed HSDPA system 850/1900 in Canada on April 1, 2007. In July of 2008, Bell Canada and Telus announced a joint plan to expand their current shared EVDO/CDMA network to include HSDPA. Singapore is currently the only country boasting nationwide HSDPA with speeds up to 7.2Mbps down and 2.0Mbps up. The 3 operators are namely MobileOne, SingTel and StarHub.

Marketing as mobile broadband

During 2007, an increasing number of telcos worldwide began selling HSDPA USB modems as mobile broadband connections. In addition, the popularity of HSDPA landline replacement boxes grew—providing HSDPA for data via Ethernet and WiFi, and ports for connecting traditional landline telephones. Some are marketed with connection speeds of "up to 7.2 Mbit/s", which is only attained under ideal conditions. As a result these services can be slower than expected, especially when in fringe coverage indoors. However, signal strength can be greatly improved by using commercial solutions that can attach 3G external antennas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Solaris Mobile

2009-08-06T03:34:00.000-07:00

Solaris Mobile is a joint venture company between SES Astra and Eutelsat Communications to develop and commercialize the first geostationary satellite systems in Europe for broadcasting video, radio and data to in-vehicle receivers and to mobile devices, such as mobile phones, portable media players and PDAs.

The services to be developed include video, radio, multimedia data, interactive services, and voice communications. The primary aim is the delivery of mobile television any time, anywhere, and SES Astra and Eutelsat – both successful European satellite operators, providing TV and other services from geostationary satellites to millions of cable and direct-to-home viewers – have so far invested €130m in the venture. Services are expected to start in 2009.

The agreement to set up Solaris Mobile was reached in 2006 with the company formed in 2008. Its headquarters is in Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland.

Applications

The EU Telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has commented, "Mobile satellite services have huge potential: they can enable Europeans to access new communication services, particularly in rural and less populated regions."

Solaris Mobile primarily intends to provide mobile TV and interactive services to handheld and vehicle receivers. For in-vehicle use, the mobile satellite receivers could also double as web browsers providing full Internet access, and deliver interactive services such as online reservations, emergency warnings, or toll payments.

Solaris claims the technology brings a "fully-fledged TV experience" to mobile television, unavailable with purely terrestrial systems, delivering high-quality live TV, viable at high vehicle speeds, dozens of TV channels per country, and universal coverage.

The coverage across Europe will also enable the system to be used for situations when other means of communication are not possible, such as gathering data (traffic, weather, pollution) from moving vehicles, and support for emergency and rescue services in isolated regions, under extreme conditions or when terrestrial networks have been compromised.

Technology

The Solaris Mobile services use DVB-SH technology to deliver IP based data and media content to handheld and in-vehicle terminals using a hybrid satellite/terrestrial system with satellite transmission serving the whole of Europe and beyond, and terrestrial repeaters for urban and indoor penetration.

The S-band frequencies used (2.00 GHz) are reserved for the exclusive use of satellite and terrestrial mobile services, and sit alongside the UMTS frequencies already in use across Europe for 3G terrestrial mobile phone services, allowing the reuse of existing cellular towers and antennas, and the simple incorporation of Solaris services in mobile handsets.

Handsets equipped with the first DVB-SH chipsets were successfully demonstrated live at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2008.

Solaris was intended to first use the Eutelsat W2A satellite at 10° east, which contains an S-band payload, and was scheduled for launch in early 2009. However, following the successful launch on April 3, 2009, the S-band payload was found to show "an anomaly" which has put in doubt the payload's capability to provide mobile satellite services for Solaris.

Further testing of the satellite was undertaken to establish its future in the Solaris programme. Investigation of S-band payload has confirmed significant non-compliance from its original specifications. On 1 July 2009, Solaris Mobile filed the insurance claim. The technical findings indicate that the company should be able to offer some, but not all of the services it was planning to offer.

Regulatory

On June 30, 2008 the European Parliament and the Council adopted the European’s Decision to establish a single selection and authorisation process to ensure a coordinated introduction of mobile satellite services (MSS) in Europe. The selection process was launched in August 2008 and attracted four applications by prospective operators (ICO, Inmarsat, Solaris Mobile, TerreStar).

In May 2009, the European Commission selected two operators, Inmarsat Ventures and Solaris Mobile, giving these operators "the right to use the specific radio frequencies identified in the Commission's decision and the right to operate their respective mobile satellite systems". EU Member States now have to ensure that the two operators have the right to use the specific radio frequencies identified in the Commission's decision and the right to operate their respective mobile satellite systems for 18 years from the selection decision. The operators are compelled to start operations within 24 months from the selection decision.

Although the EU’s decision was announced days after the apparent failure of the payload intended to serve Solaris, the company remains confident of "its ability to meet the commitments made under the European Commission selection process".

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Ricochet (Internet service)

2009-08-06T03:33:00.000-07:00

Ricochet Networks was one of the pioneering wireless Internet service providers in the United States, before the advent of widespread Wi-Fi, 3G, and broadband services were available to the general public.

History

Service began in 1994 in Cupertino, California and was quickly deployed throughout the Santa Clara Valley by 1995, the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area by 1996, and to other cities throughout the end of the 1990's. By this time, the original network had been upgraded, via firmware improvements, to almost twice its original throughput, and was operating at roughly the speed of a 56 kbit/s dialup modem; in addition, Ricochet introduced a higher-speed (nominally 128 kbit/s, in practice often faster) service in 1999; monthly fees for this service, however, were more than double those for the original service.

At its height, in early 2001, Ricochet service was available in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City and surrounding New Jersey, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Over 51,000 subscribers paid for the service. In July 2001, however, Ricochet's owner, Metricom, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and shut down its service. Like many companies during the dot-com boom, Metricom had spent more money than it took in and concentrated on a nationwide rollout and marketing instead of developing select markets.

Aftermath

After bankruptcy, in November 2001, Aerie Networks, a Denver based broadband firm, purchased the assets of the company at a liquidation sale. Service was restored to Denver in August 2002, and to San Diego in November 2002. Aerie sold Ricochet to EDL Holdings in 2003, who then sold it to YDI Wireless in 2004. YDI Wireless changed its name to Terabeam Inc., and Ricochet then operated as a subsidiary of Terabeam. Terabeam pursued a less ambitious strategy for Ricochet and announced no plans for expansion. In this phase of the technology's life, there were about 8,000 subscribers between the two markets. During the bankruptcy, ownership of the Ricochet radio transmitters had reverted back to the municipalities where the radios were installed, so any expansion would have required Ricochet to renegotiate agreements with the cities or counties in question. In the meantime, wireless data services carried over the cellular telephone network had become increasingly popular (and available in most population centers worldwide), making the value of Ricochet technology unclear.

Ricochet notified its Denver customers on March 28, 2008, that service would cease the next day.

Technology

The technology, deployed by Metricom Inc., worked as a wireless mesh network: packets were forwarded by small repeaters (typically mounted on streetlamps, for the use of which Metricom negotiated agreements with municipal governments) and might "bounce" among several such units along the path between an end-user's modem and a wired internet access point; hence the name of the service. The wireless ISP service was an outgrowth of technology Metricom had developed to facilitate remote meter reading for utility companies. It was originally inspired by amateur packet radio, but differed from this technology in many respects: for instance, Ricochet used spread spectrum (FHSS) technology in the low-power "license-free" 900 MHz ISM band of the RF spectrum. In addition to the eavesdropping resistance offered by FHSS, modems offered built-in encryption, but this was not turned on by default.

Throughput was originally advertised as equivalent to, and in practice was often somewhat better than, that of a standard 28.8 kbit/s telephone modem. In addition, Ricochet could be treated as an "always-on" connection (in the sense that, once connected to the network, it could stay connected even when not in use without tying up scarce resources, unlike a dialup connection), much the way broadband is today. It was also marketed for a flat monthly fee (the original Ricochet service was $29.95 a month, less than the cost of dialup plus a second phone line). As a result, a significant number of users in the Ricochet service area adopted it as their primary home Internet connection.

Ricochet's main draw, however, was that it was wireless; at the time, there were almost no other options for a wireless Internet connection. Cellular phones were not as prevalent as today, and wireless data services such as GPRS had not yet been deployed on US cellular networks. It was possible to use specially adapted dialup modems over cellular connections but this was slow (typically topping out at 9.6 kbit/s), expensive (per-minute charges applied), and often flaky. In contrast, Ricochet was fast, flat-rate, and very reliable.

Equipment

Ricochet equipment can sometimes be found on the surplus and used market. The consumer equipment uses license free 1W 900 MHz FHSS encrypted radio modems which respond to standard Hayes "AT" commands. They include a packet-based mode of operation called "star mode" and it is possible to create a point to point connection or even a small independent network with data speeds greater than 256 kbit/s. Some of the infrastructure equipment used 900 MHz for the link to the consumer and used 2.4 GHz for the backhaul link. (A third option, the licensed 2.3 GHz WCS band, was used only in heavily loaded parts of the network and is seldom mentioned in literature.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Novarra Inc.

2009-08-06T03:31:00.000-07:00

Novarra is a mobile internet software company founded in 2000 and based in Itasca, IL, USA. It creates web-based services such as web internet access, portals, videos, widgets and advertising for mobile devices. Novarra provides access to the internet and other services through wireless handsets, PDAs and laptops and sells directly to operators, mobile handset manufacturers and internet brand companies.

History

Novarra started in 2000 and launched its first wireless web software application in 2002 to enable mobile workforce users with Palm (PDA), BlackBerry, Symbol and Windows Mobile devices to access corporate applications through carriers’ wireless networks.

In 2002, Novarra’s first handset manufacturer contract was to supply a browser to Palm, Inc. for Tungsten (handheld) PDAs (branded WebPro).

In 2004, Novarra’s first mobile network operator deployment with U.S. Cellular marked the launch of the BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) version of its browser platform and the first US mobile operator to allow open internet access on all handsets.

In 2005, the company released its first Java Platform, Micro Edition browser which was later adopted by several of Hutchison 3G Group's operating companies. It was branded as www3 in Italy and 3Xplorer in Hong Kong.

In 2007 Novarra secured venture capital from Qualcomm and other investors to expand into Asia. Also, their streaming internet video service was launched with 3 Hong Kong and Vodafone United Kingdom utilized Novarra for an update to Vodafone Live! that included an integrated portal, search and open internet access service for all phones. As a first of its kind, this service received much criticism from mobile developers.

In 2008, Novarra took steps to provide guidance for mobile developers when deploying a similar service at Verizon Wireless and is a member of the World Wide Web Consortium Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group.

Products

Novarra Vision Mobile Internet & Multimedia Platform may include any of the components below:

* Mobile Browser for feature phones, smartphones, or emerging market phones
* On-device Portal
* Content Transformation Server
* Video & Multimedia Transcoding
* Widgets
* Mobile Broadband Optimization
* Advertising and Analytics

Market Adoption

Mobile internet access services based upon the Novarra Vision mobile internet and multimedia platform have been deployed in the US, Europe and Asia by service providers including Yahoo, Vodafone, Verizon Wireless, Turkcell, Hutchison 3G, Sprint Nextel, US Cellular and others on mobile phones, smartphones and PDAs from Nokia, LG Group, Samsung Mobile, Motorola Mobile Devices, Palm (PDA), Research In Motion, ZTE Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera Wireless, and other manufacturers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Nokia Business Center

2009-08-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

Nokia Business Center (NBC) is a mobile e-mail solution by Nokia, providing push e-mail and (through a paid-for client upgrade) calendar and contact availability to mobile devices.

The server runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

As of August 7, 2006, the current version of NBC Server is 4.0.2.1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

NetHope NetReliefKit

2009-08-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

The NetReliefKit from NetHope is a wireless Internet router that provides data and voice connectivity via satellite in remote locations. Developed by Cisco and Inmarsat, the device was deployed to useful effect after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

NetHope

NetHope is a consortium of NGOs that seeks to bring IT and communications capabilities to NGOs. Its members include (among numerous others) the Ashoka Foundation, CARE, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Nature Conservancy, Oxfam, Save the Children, and World Vision. Its financial support comes primarily from Accenture, Baker & McKenzie, Cisco Systems, and Microsoft.

NetHope was the idea of Ed Granger-Happ, the CIO of Save the Children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Wireless modem

2009-08-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

A wireless modem is a type of modem which connects to a wireless network instead of to the telephone system. When you connect with a wireless modem, you are attached directly to your wireless ISP (Internet Service Provider) and you can then access the Internet.

Types of devices used

* Mobile phones, smartphones, and PDAs can be employed as data modems to form a wireless access point connecting a personal computer to the Internet (or some proprietary network). In this use the mobile phone is providing a gateway between the cellular service provider's data network technology and Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) spoken by PCs. Almost all current mobile phone models support the Hayes command set, a standard method of controlling modems. To the PC, the phone appears like an external modem when connected via serial cable, USB, IrDA infrared or Bluetooth wireless.

* Wireless FireWire, USB and Serial modems are also used in the Wi-Fi and WiMAX standards, operating at microwave frequencies, to give a laptop, PDA or desktop computer an access point to a network. The modems may be as large as a regular cable modem to as small as a WiFi dongle/USB-stick. If combined with VoIP technology, these computing devices can achieve telephony capability to make and receive telephone calls.
* PCMCIA, ExpressCard and Compact Flash modems are also used. These card-modems can also have GPS included.

History

While some analogue mobile phones provided a standard RJ11 telephone socket into which a normal landline modem could be plugged, this only provided slow dial-up connections, usually 2.4 kilobit per second (kbit/s) or less. The next generation of phones, known as 2G (for 'second generation'), were digital, and offered faster dial-up speeds of 9.6kbit/s or 14.4kbit/s without the need for a separate modem. A further evolution called HSCSD used multiple GSM channels (two or three in each direction) to support up to 43.2kbit/s. All of these technologies still required their users to have a dial-up ISP to connect to and provide the Internet access - it was not provided by the mobile phone network itself.

The release of 2.5G phones with support for packet data changed this. The 2.5G networks break both digital voice and data into small chunks, and mix both onto the network simultaneously in a process called packet switching. This allows the phone to have a voice connection and a data connection at the same time, rather than a single channel that has to be used for one or the other. The network can link the data connection into a company network, but for most users the connection is to the Internet. This allows web browsing on the phone, but a PC can also tap in to this service if it connects to the phone. The PC needs to send a special telephone number to the phone to get access to the packet data connection. From the PC's viewpoint, the connection still looks like a normal PPP dial-up link, but it is all terminating on the phone, which then handles the exchange of data with the network. Speeds on 2.5G networks are usually in the 30–50kbit/s range.

3G networks have taken this approach to a higher level, using different underlying technology but the same principles. They routinely provide speeds over 300kbit/s. Due to the now increased internet speed, internet connection sharing via WLAN has become a workable reality. A particularly popular project has been the Stomp Box, which is a router which shares GPRS internet access via WiFi.

A further evolution is the 3.5G technology HSDPA, which has the capacity to provide speeds of multiple Megabits per second.

WiMax has now also been announced, which will allow internet connection sharing over WANs (being region-wide, as opposed to local with WiFi), effectively perhaps eliminating the need of wireless modems. This, of course, only in areas where WiMax is to be introduced (eg cities).

Service Providers

There are competing common carriers broadcasting signal in most nations of the earth. Some of these Cellular networks and the carrier's service plans are:

North America

* Canada providers
o List of Canadian mobile phone companies
* United States providers
o T-mobile
o AT&T Mobility
o Verizon Wireless
o Sprint Nextel Corporation
o Alltel
o Cricket Communications
* Mexico providers
o Telcel
o Iusacell

Europe

* United Kingdom providers
o T-mobile
o Vodafone
o O2 plc
o Orange SA
o 3 (telecommunications)
* Spanish providers:
o Movistar
o Vodafone
o Orange (brand)
o Yoigo
* Belgian providers:
o ClearWire

Asia

* Indian providers
o BSNL
o VSNL
o Airtel
o Vodafone Essar
o Tata Indicom
o Reliance Mobile
o Virgin Mobile India
* Indonesian providers
o Indosat
o XL
o Telkomsel
o Axis
o 3
* Israeli providers
o Cellcom
o Orange Israel
o Pelephone
* P.R.China providers
o China Mobile(CMCC)
o China Unicom

Oceania

* Australia providers
o Telstra
o Optus
o 3 Mobile
o Virgin Mobile
o Vodafone

* New Zealand providers
o Telecom Xtra

Device Manufacturers

* Danger
* Freewave Technologies
* HTC (includes Qtek and Dopod)
* Hewlett Packard (HP)
* Huawei
* LG Electronics
* Motorola
* Nokia
* Novatel Wireless
* Option N.V.
* Panasonic
* RIM (BlackBerry)
* Samsung
* Sierra Wireless
* Sony Ericsson
* Telit
* Qualcomm

Technologies

* GPRS (2.5G)
* CDPD
* CDMA2000
* EDGE
* UMTS (3G)
* GPRS Core Network
* IP Multimedia Subsystem
* HSDPA (3.5G)
* iBurst (pre-4G)
* HiperMAN (pre-4G)
* WiMAX (pre-4G)
* WiBro (pre-4G)
* GAN (UMA) (pre-4G)

Account hacking

In order to obtain completely free internet access anywhere in range of GPRS transmitters (of certain providers), some people have found several hacks.

For example there has been a known hack with an Airtel prepaid card. Also, some companies such as BSNL and Vodafone have flaws in their servers, allowing to use their GPRS network for free. Also, a special tactic involving the pinging of the servers of GPRS providers also allows the obtaining of an IP address which can then be used to use their network.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Mobilecast

2009-08-02T05:33:00.001-07:00

A mobilecast or mobilcast is a podcast designed to be downloaded or streamed to a mobile phone. Listening to podcasts on mobile phones becomes more attractive as mobile data speed improves, and mobile phones themselves become more useful audio devices by adding more audio and video file formats, storage capacity and stereo capability.

Podcasts are designed for transfer from PCs to connected portable devices, but can also be delivered on-demand to the mobile phone using "adaptive download chunking" delivery that plays back like a stream. As more people are using their mobile phones as portable audio players, some podcasts are made specifically for mobile phones. These are shorter and in many cases focused on a single topic or designed to communicate quick information like short movie and restaurant reviews, or news headlines and summaries.

Some challenges remain. High speed networks are not completely rolled out, particularly in the United States. Network speed is critical for downloading the large podcast files. MP3 files, which most podcasts are encoded as, are too large to easily download over the mobile network. This requires podcasts to be re-encoded into a mobile-friendly format like AMR and AAC+. Even in AMR a podcast longer than 20 minutes is still unwieldy to download.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Mobile wiki

2009-07-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

A mobile wiki is a wiki that possesses a user interface that is expressly, if not exclusively accessible and usable through a web-browsing mobile device. It is different from a wiki that is simply designed to be read or viewed from a mobile device in that a mobile wiki's user interface is designed for the typing and submission of wikitext from the mobile device.

List of mobile wikis

* PicoWiki
* Miki
* Pocket RikWik
* iTW, a mobile version of TiddlyWiki
* MobileWikiServer

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Mobile Web

2009-07-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

The Mobile Web refers to browser-based web services such as the World Wide Web, WAP and i-Mode (Japan) using a mobile device such as a cell phone, PDA, or other portable gadget connected to a public network. Such access does not require a desktop computer, nor a fixed landline connection. The total number of mobile web users grew past the total number of PC based internet users for the first time in 2008 (source: Tomi Ahonen Almanac 2009).

However, Mobile Web access today still suffers from interoperability and usability problems. This is partly due to the incompatibility of the format of much of the information available on the Internet with mobile devices and partly due to the small physical size of the screens of mobile devices and other device limitations.

Standards

The development of standards is one approach being implemented to improve the interoperability, usability, and accessibility issues surrounding mobile web usage.

The W3C Mobile Web Initiative is a new initiative set up by the W3C to develop best practices and technologies relevant to the Mobile Web. The goal of the initiative is to make browsing the Web from mobile devices more reliable and accessible. The main aim is to evolve standards of data formats from Internet providers that are tailored to the specifications of particular mobile devices. The W3C has published guidelines (Best Practices, Best Practices Checker Software Tool) for mobile content, and is actively addressing the problem of device diversity by establishing a technology to support a repository of Device Descriptions.

W3C is also developing a validating scheme to assess the readiness of content for the mobile web, through its mobileOK Scheme, which will help content developers to quickly determine if their content is web-ready. The W3C guidelines and mobile OK approach have not been immune from criticism. This puts the emphasis on Adaptation, which is now seen as the key process in achieving the Ubiquitous Web, when combined with a Device Description Repository.

mTLD, the registry for .mobi, has released a free testing tool called the MobiReady Report to analyze the mobile readiness of website. It does a free page analysis and gives a Mobi Ready score. This report tests the mobile-readiness of the site using industry best practices & standards.

Other standards for the mobile web are being documented and explored for particular applications by interested industry groups, such as the use of the mobile web for the purpose of education and training e.g. Standards for M-Learning Project.

Development

The first access to the mobile web was commercially offered in Finland in 1996 on the Nokia Communicator 9000 phone on the Sonera and Radiolinja networks. This was access to the real internet. The first commercial launch of a mobile-specific browser based mobile web service was in 1999 in Japan when i-Mode was launched by NTT DoCoMo.

The Mobile Web primarily utilises lightweight pages written in Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) or Wireless Markup Language (WML) to deliver content to mobile devices. Many new mobile browsers are moving beyond these limitations by supporting a wider range of Web formats, including variants of HTML commonly found on the desktop Web.

Top-level domain

The .mobi sponsored top-level domain was launched specifically for the mobile Internet by a consortium of companies including Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, and Vodafone. By forcing sites to comply with mobile web standards, .mobi tries to ensure visitors a consistent and optimized experience on their mobile device. However, this domain has been criticized by several big names, including Tim Berners-Lee of the W3C, who claims that it breaks the device independence of the web:

It is fundamentally useful to be able to quote the URI for some information and then look up that URI in an entirely different context. For example, I may want to look up a restaurant on my laptop, bookmark it, and then, when I only have my phone, check the bookmark to have a look at the evening menu. Or, my travel agent may send me a pointer to my itinerary for a business trip. I may view the itinerary from my office on a large screen and want to see the map, or I may view it at the airport from my phone when all I want is the gate number. Dividing the Web into information destined for different devices, or different classes of user, or different classes of information, breaks the Web in a fundamental way. I urge ICANN not to create the ".mobi" top level domain.

Mobile Web 2.0

An example Web 2.0 technology used on the mobile web is the blog, resulting in the term moblog. Critics point to the difficulties of transferring Web 2.0 concepts such as open standards to the mobile web. On the other hand, advocates present it as a means of pushing information up onto the web in addition to bringing information down to the user. This push to allowing offline content to popular websites empowers the user. Furthermore, many major companies see the rapidly growing demand for advanced web access via mobile phones and provide a mobile version of their site. This allows users, even with newer devices, to quickly access websites and services in a view that is customized for mobile. Some examples include American Airlines and Victoria's Secret among many others.

Seven Mass Media

Since the first ringing tone was sold on the mobile phone in Finland in 1998, the mobile has emerged as the Seventh of the Mass Media. Today a wide range of paid media content is consumed on mobile phones ranging from 9.3 billion dollars of music and 5 billion dollars of videogaming to horoscopes, jokes, news, adult entertainment, etc. Also like on all other media, advertising appeared onto mobile when a free news service launched in Finland sponsored by ads in 2000. In 2005, The Crazy Frog ringtone became the first mobile ringtone to cross over into the mainstream music charts, beating Coldplay for the Number 1 spot on the UK charts. The virtual world collided with the physical.

Advertising on the Mobile Web

Advertisers are increasingly using the mobile Web as platform to reach consumers. The total value of advertising on mobile was 2.2 billion dollars in 2007. A recent study by the Online Publishers Association reports that about one-in-ten mobile Web users said they have made a purchase based on a mobile Web ad, while 23% said they have visited a Web site, 13% said they have requested more information about a product or service and 11% said they have gone to a store to check out a product.

Limitations

Though Internet access "on the go" provides advantages to many, such as the ability to communicate by email with others and obtain information anywhere, the web, accessed from mobile devices, has a large number of limitations, which may vary, depending on the device. However, newer smartphones such as the iPhone overcome some of these restrictions. Some problems which may be encountered include:

* Small screen size - This makes it difficult or impossible to see text and graphics dependent on the standard size of a desktop computer screen.
* Lack of windows - On a desktop computer, the ability to open more than one window at a time allows for multi-tasking and for easy revert to a previous page. On mobile web, only one page can be displayed at a time, and pages can only be viewed in the sequence they were originally accessed.
* Navigation - Most mobile devices do not use a mouselike pointer, but rather simply an up and down function for scrolling, thereby limiting the flexibility in navigation.
* Lack of Javascript and cookies - Most devices do not support client-side scripting and storage of cookies (smartphones excluded), which are now widely used in most Web sites for enhancing user experience, facilitating the validation of data entered by the page visitor, etc. This also results in web analytics tools not being suitable for uniquely identifying visitors using mobile devices.
* Types of pages accessible - Many sites that can be accessed on a desktop cannot on a mobile device. Many devices cannot access pages with a secured connection, Flash or other similar software, PDFs, or video sites, although recently this has been changing.
* Speed - On most mobile devices, the speed of service is very slow, often slower than dial-up Internet access.
* Broken pages - On many devices, a single page as viewed on a desktop is broken into segments, which are each treated as a separate page. Paired with the slow speed, navigation between these pages is slow.
* Compressed pages - Many pages, in their conversion to mobile format, are squeezed into an order different from how they would customarily be viewed on a desktop computer.
* Size of messages - Many devices have limits on the number of characters that can be sent in an email message.
* Cost - the access and bandwidth charges levied by cellphone networks are much higher than those for fixed-line internet access.
* Location of mobile user - if advertisements reach phone users in private locations, users find them more distressful (Banerjee & Dholakia, 2008)
* Situation in which ad reaches user - When advertisements reach users in work-related situations, they may be considered more intrusive than in leisure situations (Banerjee & Dholakia, 2008)

The inability of mobile web applications to access the local capabilities on the mobile device can limit their ability to provide the same features as native applications. The OMTP BONDI activity is acting as a catalyst to enable a set of JavaScript APIs which can access local capabilities in a secure way on the mobile device. Specifications and a reference implementation have been produced. Security is a key aspect in this provision in order to protect users from malicious web applications and widgets.

In addition to the limitations of the device itself there are limitations that should be made known to users concerning the interference these devices cause in other electromagnetic technology.

The convergence of the Internet and phone, in particular has caused hospitals to increase their mobile phone exclusion zones. A study by Erik van Lieshout and colleagues (Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam) has found that the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) used in modern phones can affect machines from up to 3 meters away. The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) signals, used in 3G networks, have a smaller exclusion zone of just a few centimeters. Surprisingly the worst offenders in hospitals are the doctors (New Scientist, 15 September 2007, pg.5).

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Mobile Internet growth

2009-07-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

Mobile Internet growth is the growth of the Internet when accessed via a mobile phone, laptop, etc. Mobile phone connections are increasing more rapidly than purchases of any other consumer product, according to Tomi Ahonen. Since this article was published there were a number of announcements stating that half the world now had mobile phones. These articles are slightly misleading because the real story is that the number of phones has reached half the population of the world. In reality many people have more than one connected phone. For example in Italy the phone penetration is 133%, according to Morgan Stanley. The Mobile Internet data connections are following the growth of Mobile Phone connections albeit at a lower rate. In 2008 the Morgan Stanley report showed that phones with data connections were less than 20% of the total number of phones. However, this is still a large number of phones.

Regional variations

Many users in Europe and the United States are already users of the fixed internet when they first try the same experience on a mobile phone. Meanwhile in other parts of the world, such as India, their first usage of the Internet is on a mobile phone. Growth is fastest in parts of the world where the personal computer (PC) is not the first user experience of the Internet. India, South Africa, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are seeing the fastest growth in Mobile Internet usage. To a great extent this is due to the rapid adoption of mobile phones themselves. For example, the Morgan Stanley report states that the highest mobile phone adoption growth in 2006 was in Pakistan and India.

China has 155 million mobile internet users as of June, 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Mobile Content management system

2009-07-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

Mobile Content Management Systems (MCMS) are a type of content management system (CMS) capable of storing and delivering content and services to mobile devices, such as mobile phones, smart phones, and PDAs. Mobile content management systems may be discrete systems, or may exist as features, modules or add-ons of larger content management systems capable of multi-channel content delivery. Mobile content delivery has unique, specific constraints including widely variable device capacities, small screen size, limited wireless bandwidth, small storage capacity, and comparatively weak device processors.

Demand for mobile content management increased as mobile devices became increasingly ubiquitous and sophisticated. MCMS technology initially focused on the Business to Consumer (B2C) mobile market place with ringtones, games, text-messaging, news, and other related content. Since, mobile content management systems have also taken root in Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Employee (B2E) situations, allowing companies to provide more timely information and functionality to business partners and mobile workforces in an increasingly efficient manner. A 2008 estimate put global revenue for mobile content management at US $8 billion.

Key Features

Multi-channel Content Delivery

Multi-channel content delivery capabilities allow users to manage a central content repository while simultaneously delivering that content to desktop web browsers, mobile phones and other devices. Content is stored in a raw format to which device-specific presentation styles can be applied.

Specialized Templating System

While traditional web content management systems handle templates for only a handful of web browsers, mobile CMS templates must be adapted to the very wide range of target devices with different capacities and limitations. There are two approaches to adapting templates: multi-client and multi-site. The multi-client approach makes it possible to see all versions of a site at the same domain (e.g. sitename.com), and templates are presented based on the device client used for viewing. The multi-site approach displays the mobile site on a targeted sub-domain (e.g. mobile.sitename.com).

Location-based Content Delivery

Location-based content delivery provides targeted content, such as information, advertisements, maps, directions, and news, to mobile devices based on current physical location. Currently, GPS (global positioning system) navigation systems offer the most popular location-based services. Navigation systems are specialized systems, but incorporating mobile phone functionality makes greater exploitation of location-aware content delivery possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/

mDigger

2009-07-28T05:06:00.000-07:00

mDigger is a free Internet information service that lets users access information and content from a large number of Web resources from their mobile devices, laptops and desktop computers. Content is organized in the form of channels that are automatically generated and adapted ahead of time for viewing and navigation on each device type. Users select or unselect the channels they wish to receive and may request new channels for specific sources. Users may also add regular RSS feeds.

As of October 2007, mDigger provides easy access to Web content from any internet-enabled device running on Windows Mobile or other Windows platforms) or that use the Safari Browser (examples include Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch). Users whose devices run on Windows Mobile, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, UMPC or Mac OS X 1.4 (Universal) need to install the mDigger Reader (a client application) to view content. Devices using the Safari web browser such as Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, may user mDigger’s free web application with no program to install. Both the mDigger Reader client applications and the mDigger Reader web application are accessible for free on mDigger’s official web site. mDigger also provides free tools for developers interested in making their own channels for mDigger Service.

mDigger is currently owned and operated by mDigger, Inc., a mobile 2.0 technology startup company based in San Jose, California. The company Quarta Mobile, Inc. (mDigger, Inc.'s predecessor) first began offering mDigger in its beta version, on January 20, 2007.

Overview

mDigger is a free service for the general public for accessing Internet information and content from mobile phones, computers and other Internet-enabled devices. In order to use the service, users must register and choose the information channels they wish to receive. They may then, depending on device type, either download mDigger Reader which enables information to be viewed offline, or view the content directly with the aid of their device’s web browser.

mDigger Reader – Client Application

mDigger Reader is a client application for mobile devices and computers that enables users to view, save and share channel updates on or offline. It does not require synchronization between mobile device and desktop. Currently mDigger Reader can be installed on PDAs and smartphones running on Windows Mobile 6.0, 5.0, 2003 and 2003SE, as well as on laptops, desktops, Tablet PCs or UMPC’s running on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, UMPC and Mac OS X 1.4.

mDigger Reader – Web Application

mDigger Reader also exists as a free web application providing content from websites and other Internet sources specially formatted for viewing on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. It is faster regular Web browsing on these devices. Users simply point their device's browser to URL of the web application, and after signing up, may access the service’s online catalog containing channels. Just as with the client application, mDigger web application users may personalize their selections from the catalog as well as add their own RSS feeds.

mDigger Template Editor

mDigger Template Editor is a tool for developing and publishing bookmarks which create channels within the mDigger Service. It enables the creation of multi-level templates that describe the process of transforming original source information into the resulting channel form presented within the service.

http://en.wikipedia.org/