Bill Gates on Flash and Silverlight

In a conversation with Keith Peters and other developers, Bill Gates talks about his vision. The interesting part of the conversation for me was the talk on Flash/Silverlight. Here are the other episodes of the conversation. Only text :(

• Bill Gates Conversation Part II
• Bill Gates Conversation Part III
• Conversation With Bill Gates Part V
• Conversation With Bill Gates Part VI (Finale)

Trying to wake up

Due to a lot of on and off deadlines and some personal commitments, I had to make designtraffic sleep for some time. I am trying to wake it up, lets see if I can do so ;)

Steve Vs Bill - Historic discussion in D 2007

Steve speaking to Walt in D 2007

Watch it... he explains the strategies of Apple iPhone... definitely good to know

Google launches Google Calendar Mobile

Google has rolled out a mobile version of Google Calendar, making it super easy to view and edit events on the go. Just go to calendar.google.com from your phone.

Source: Mashable

Orb.com’s media anywhere software MyCasting for mobile

Orb has developed an award winning service that combines the use of an internet media portal and a proprietary software application. Orb leverages the best in already available technology (hi-speed broadband, Wi-Fi, wireless internet access and sophisticated portable devices) to provide a brand new way for people to connect with their digital media in the manner “how, when and where” they most desire.

In short, Orb provides the ability to MyCast.

MyCasting gives the user instant access to photos, music, videos, live television, and other digital content on their home PC at anytime and from any internet-connected device, such as a mobile phone, PDA or laptop. MyCasting is media anywhere. MyCasting is media freedom.

Check out http://mycast.orb.com/ from a mobile device. before that you have to download and register at http://www.orb.com/ on the web.

Source: orb.com

Nokia to set up a design studio in Bangalore

The world’s largest handset maker is ramping up its focus in India with the global launch of seven new products predominantly aimed at the market here. Nokia is launching a design studio in Bangalore in association with the Srishti School of Art. This is Nokia’s initiative in understanding the diverse Indian culture a little better. They currently have 250 designers on board and plan to get them to interact with the students at their design studio.
Source: Economic Times

Making Wireless: Athens/May 07

Athens/May 07 - C++ and FlashliteThe 10th may 2007 a free seminar on C++ and FlashLite will take place in Athens. Seminar outline:- Introduction to Symbian C++- Major differences to classic C++ development- Brief introduction to FlashLite- FlashLite and the network- FlashLite and external applications- Integration between Flashlite and C++. More infor here

Star has big plans for Mobile Entertainment

Television soaps have now found another screen, the mobile phone, with the mobile interactive division of Star India, Star Mobile Entertainment, announcing it will launch a service called ‘PLUS’ by end April.
Star India will invest around Rs 50-60 crore over the next one year in its mobile entertainment business. It is also expected to spend Rs 10-15 crore on marketing and promotional activities for the same. Hence the new division will deal exclusively with mobile entertainment.
‘PLUS’, which is already running as a pilot, enables mobile users to access a wide choice of video content and services such as yellow pages, buyer guides, banking, travel and ticketing, shopping, sports and more. In addition, one can opt to view soaps from across Star India’s network – Star Plus, Star Gold and Star One. For instance, if you’ve missed a particular day’s show you can view the synopsis of the show on your mobile (as a video). A serial’s synopsis will be available for download 15 minutes after the show ends.
On the travel front, users can book domestic air tickets via their mobile phone. The travel and ticketing service is facilitated by travel portals MakeMyTrip.com and TravelGuru.com, while banking is facilitated by HDFC Bank. Star has also partnered with Infomedia Group to provide yellow pages information, Universal Music for music content. And for lifestyle services, it has tie-up with magazines like Chip for computing information, Overdrive for car information, Better Photography, audiophiles can get advice from AVMAX, T3 for gadges and design tips from Better Interiors. More in... http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k7/jan/jan347.htm

Source: Star TV Press Release

Live TV via GPRS by May

Bharti Telesoft, an arm of the Bharti Enterprise, is offering its proprietary technology to GSM mobile service providers and expects to have half-a-million subscribers watch TV on mobiles within six months of starting the service in May. It may not be the best way to watch a Bollywood flick or a 30-minute saas-bahu sitcom on a small two-inch LCD colour display. But great for news clips, weather forecasts, stock quotes and the like.
To access the service, subscribers need a GPRS activated handset (less than 20 million out of a total of 140 million subscribers in India have activated their GPRS service). Users download the Live TV client to their mobile phone via a GPRS connection. Telesoft’s solution provides additional modules like OTA (over the air) server to automatically push the TV client to the subscriber’s handset.
With the client on their handsets subscribers simply scroll through a menu to select a channel they want to watch. The company reckons that a bouquet of mobile TV channels could be made available for Rs 25 to Rs 50 per month.

Source: The Economic Times

Wireless Mobile Charging

Powercast for Mobile Charging

Business 2.0 writes:
Powercast and its first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.
It may sound futuristic, but Powercast's platform uses nothing more complex than a radio--and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device's battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

Airtel launches Flash Lite content download

Airtel, the largest carrier in India is launching Flash Lite content from their WAP portal Airtel Live!. more in ... http://mariamdh.blogspot.com/2007/04/airtel-indias-largest-telecom-service.html ... Airtel has always been very innovative in their Value Added Services. But, this looks like a new start for rich media content on the Indian mobile phones. Indeed, a good news for Adobe :)

Mobilaid - A FlashLite 2.1 App... Download Coming Soon...

The aim of Mobilaid is to provide the basic essentials of first aid in an uncomplicated, accessible manner. In the first section is an A-Z of the most common emergency situations and conditions. .It covers the ways in which you can recognize them and indicates, step-by-step, what you need to do about it. The second section covers the essential emergency procedures, such as the recovery position, artificial ventilation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. But don’t wait for an emergency to happen – make sure that you read this section and familiarize yourself with first-aid techniques now.

HTW Electronics S116 Solar Cellphone: Talk All Day Unless It's Cloudy

After talking all night with your Bluetooth pillow phone, now you can talk all day with this HTW Electronics S116 solar cellphone. So far it's just a vaporware presentation that rolled out at CeBIT last week, but if it runs out of battery power, it promises to give you 20 to 25 minutes more talkies if you leave it sitting in the sun for 40 minutes. It'll even charge up with the light of a mere five candles.
If it ever comes into existence, its makers say it will have pretty much standard complement of features along with that external surface covered with solar film, including a 1.3-megapixel camera and a 320x240 display. HTW says the phone ships in China next month; we'll believe it when we see it.

Apollo for Mobile phones

Here is the quote: “Future releases will add PDF and improved AJAX support; the first version also works with HTML, JavaScript, Flash and Flex. This release is focused on Macintosh desktops and Windows PCs, and Polanco said the next release will work with Linux and mobile devices. Apollo is expected to be generally available by the end of the year.(Luis Polanco, senior product manager for Apollo)”. Just as a reminder that Apollo uses the same WebKit for the HTML engine as Nokia for the S60 Browser.

Microsoft Announces New Image Format

The Windows operating system is an accessible application that allows the users to work with almost every file format available in the present. Today, Microsoft announces a new format patented by the company that will enhance the qualities of the digital images created by professional photographers,allowing them to create improved quality bundled with reduced size. The HD format will provide up to twice compression efficiency than JPEG, allowing editors to decode only the information included in certain regions or elements of the image.

Using a powerful partnership with Adobe, Microsoft revealed a new set of HD Photo plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop that will help professional photographers manipulate the images taken in the HD format directly from Photoshop. If you want to try the new set of tools, you should check the Microsoft download website. More...

Apple TV Ships March 20th?

Netgear may have won the race to the FedEx truck (now that their wireless streamer is out and shipping), but Apple is reassuring their eagerly awaiting fanboys with confirmation e-mails that list March 26th as the delivery date for Apple TV (The units will ship on the 20th, according to a reader who submitted a screenshot of his preorder status page.) It's nice to have some confirmation, now it's time to see whether it was worth the wait.

GPhone Kinda, Sorta Confirmed by Google Spain, But Not Really

Via – Louis Ramirez,

It wasn't the kind of grand announcement we were expecting, but Isabel Aguilera, CEO of Google Spain and Portugal, has supposedly spilled the beans on the GPhone, confirming for the world that our favorite search engine is indeed working on a mobile. She also mentioned they were working on 18 other projects, many of which could initially appear strange, but would ultimately be in line with Google's whole innovation motto. Why Aguilera would bypass Google HQ and release info on the GPhone is beyond me, so we're not 100% convinced yet, and you shouldn't be either. Call us skeptical, but we'll become believers once there's an official announcement, not a thread of "could be" quotes.

V.UP Systems - Webvideo made easy.

V.UPSystems – a place where videos related to/using Flash Lite are being posted.

Have fun!

iRiver U20 Clix 2GB has FlashLite 2.1

via Scott, iRiver U20 Clix 2GB has FlashLite 2.1. It features a reskinnable Flash Lite UI, which is known as User Create (d) Interface or UCI. Very cool.
I would like to ponder the idea of Flash Lite 3 running on iRiver perhaps in future devices it releases. In addition to the Flash Lite UI and Games, the company taking advantage of the native Flash Lite video capabilities.