Truphone is busy this year: mobile VoIP operator expands its Nokia mobile footprint

Truphone has been one busy company this year. It’s a pure-play mobile VoIP service - meaning that it focuses its entire business on allowing people to make incredibly cheap voice calls over the internet, using their mobile phone. So far this year it has launched an Android version of the service, and announced its intentions to create its own VoIP based MVN over Vodafone in the UK. And today it has announced an expansion in its range of Nokia phones.

Partnering with operators beats app stores says Telmap

Rating: Going completely against perceived wisdom, then

Here’s an unusual one. A mobile app developer simultaneously singing the praises of mobile operators and boasting about the volume of its iPhone app downloads. Somehow, Telmap has managed to do this.

The open application store industry is where iPhone will see competition. PocketGear has bought out Handango

Mobile applications are often the subject of some seriously ostentatious advertising and promotion. Apple regularly quotes its most recent “billion” landmark, and the Wholesale Application Community announcement at MWC last week was the very definition of grandstanding. But in the older market of platform agnostic app stores, things are quickly getting very interesting. Todays announcement that PocketGear has bought out competitor Handango is only the most recent of several interesting developments.

Consumers don’t really use Blackberry apps - so here come Super Apps for businessmen

I’ve always been a bit wary of applications on the Blackberry. It’s not that I don’t think RIM is up to scratch, it’s that apps aren’t really what the Blackberry is for. It’s the premier business mobile in the world, and the flash-bang of the iPhone app store doesn’t really belong there. And it would seem that RIM is thinking along the same lines, as I spoke to Mike Kirkup, RIM Director of Developer Relations, about its philosophy of app development surrounding the Super App.

Mobile payment made in Germany: mobuy

Wie geht es: Bei www.mobuy.de registrieren mit einer oder mehreren Telefonnummern, Abbuchung vom Bankkonto erlauben, persönliche PIN erhalten. Zum Bezahlen: Mobuy Nummer, die für eine bestimmte Transaktion steht, kostenlos anrufen, Anruf –ID identifiziert den Kunden, PIN eingeben, Buchungsvorgänge laufen. Mobuy ist ein Startup und erprobt seinen Service momentan in Pilotprojekten in Kooperation mit Vertriebspartnern, z.B. wird bei Geräten von Ricoh auch das Bezahlen von Kopierleistungen mittels des Mobiltelefons möglich. Die Software hierzu stammt von Genius Bytes, ebenfalls aus Deutschland.

You know what? Novarra’s “OneWeb” mobile app program is actually pretty good.

How many times have you heard “develop once, publish anywhere”? It’s a phrase that actually makes me stop listening these days. It has been promised so many times by so many different companies that it has lost all meaning. So when OneWeb came up in my interview with Randy Cavaiani, VP Marketing for Novarra, I almost shook my head in despair. But as I talked to Randy, I realised that Novarra might actually be on to something here. Might be.

Nokia is dropping the price for developers who make mobile apps for Maemo

I was lucky enough to get some time during MWC with Peter Schneider (the in house Nokia N900/Maemo guru) this week and he told me a little about new moves for Maemo developers on the Ovi Store. I was very impressed with the fact that they are so intent on adding content to it they waived the token $50 fee. I find this a nice step in the right direction and a gesture signaling that Nokia is ready to have the N900 stores shelves stocked. See a short video interview below:

MWC: Beoble.me - German answer to foursquare and loopt

Beoble.me ist ein Location Based Service, in Form einer Kombination aus Flirt/Dating-Plattform und Friendfinder/“Biertrink-Radar“ unter dem Motto “Who’s up tonight?”

MWC: Yep, Maemo and Moblin really are on the way out - is an Intel/Nokia device on the way in?

I was among the crowd at the joint Intel/Nokia announcement yesterday when they introduced MeeGo. The service contains a lot of “multi”s - it’s multi-platform, multi-device, multi-system, multi-use, multi-multi. The launch was so big and vague that I was left with a lot of nagging doubts. But today I got to sit down with Scott Apeland, Director of Intels Developer Network, and ask a few questions.

Skype launches native app for Symbian mobiles

BREAKING NEWS:
Skype has launched a native Skype app for the Symbian platform. Anything newer then an N95 now has the ability to run a native Skype app. It’s available at www.Skype.com/m

MWC mobile navigation: Nokia Ovi Maps doesn’t need a connection to work

Spending time in the Nokia suite because the Nokia announcement was very anti climactic, I got to chatting with the maps guys and I learned something interesting. Ovi Maps can be used out in the field entirely without a data connection. Yes you read that right, no data necessary to run Ovi Maps.

MWC: Golden Gekko wants EVERYBODY to be a mobile app developer

Golden Gekko is a mobile app developer, with a very tight focus on marketing and advertisers. GoMo News has had quite a lot of contact with the company in the past, and we were glad to catch up with them again today. I talked to Caroline van den Bergh, Head of Product and Michael Campilho, Business Development Director about a new mobile application service from Golden Gekko called Tino - a platform to let anyone create mobile applications, no matter what their level of experience is.

Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo. Intel and Nokia merge mobile operating systems.

Nokia and Intel have announced an interesting merge at Mobile World Congress. They will be launching a new service called MeeGo - which is a blend of Nokia’s Maemo operating system with the Moblin OS. What does that mean exactly? Read on…

Sprint + GetJar = Awesome. Mobile operator teams with indie store for 60,000 applications

American mobile operator Sprint has just announced a major deal with mobile application store GetJar. GetJar is the largest independent application store in the world - and counting everybody else, only the Apple Store is bigger than it. Sprint will now be offering the entire selection of 60,000 apps from GetJar to its mobile customers. Why is this such a good idea? Read on…

Is Opera Mini mobile browser really coming to iPhone?

A lot of excitement has been generated by an announcement from Opera this morning. According to the software firm the mobile version of its internet browser, Opera Mini, will be demonstrated as an iPhone app during Mobile World Congress. This is a welcome announcement for Opera fans with iPhones, who have so far been denied access to their browser of choice. But what does Apple think about this?

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