Do you like Internet Radio? Would you like to make your iPhone into Internet Radio device?
Here is excellent application to do just that – Internet RadioBox

Supported formats: MP3, AAC(+), WMA, ASF, MMS, ASX, PLS, M3U

Some quotes what is Web 3.0:

In May 2006, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web stated:^[16]

People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you’ve got an overlay of scalable vector graphics—everything rippling and folding and looking misty—on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource.

—Tim Berners-Lee, A ‘more revolutionary’ World Wide Web

At the Seoul Digital Forum in May 2007, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, was asked to define Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.^[17] He responded:

Web 2.0 is a marketing term, and I think you’ve just invented Web 3.0.

But if I were to guess what Web 3.0 is, I would tell you that it’s a different way of building applications… My prediction would be that Web 3.0 will ultimately be seen as applications which are pieced together. There are a number of characteristics: the applications are relatively small, the data is in the cloud, the applications can run on any device, PC or mobile phone, the applications are very fast and they’re very customizable. Furthermore, the applications are distributed virally: literally by social networks, by email. You won’t go to the store and purchase them… That’s a very different application model than we’ve ever seen in computing.

—Eric Schmidt

At the Technet Summit in November 2006, Jerry Yang, founder and Chief of Yahoo, stated:^[18]

Web 2.0 is well documented and talked about. The power of the Net reached a critical mass, with capabilities that can be done on a network level. We are also seeing richer devices over last four years and richer ways of interacting with the network, not only in hardware like game consoles and mobile devices, but also in the software layer. You don’t have to be a computer scientist to create a program. We are seeing that manifest in Web 2.0 and 3.0 will be a great extension of that, a true communal medium…the distinction between professional, semi-professional and consumers will get blurred, creating a network effect of business and applications.

—Jerry Yang

At the same Technet Summit, Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, stated a simpler formula for defining the phases of the Web:

Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time, which will be the full video Web, and that will feel like Web 3.0.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3.0

If you have recently travelled or looked at magazines you have probably seen a strange black and with square shape barcode boxes. Actually you don’t have to go far – recent Mobile Monday in Toronto issued tickets that contained QR code – also known as “Quick Response” code. It is used to code and decode different information: business card, message, URL. Up to 7089 numbers or 4296 alphanumeric characters can be contained in one QR code.

Created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994 QR codes have become recently very popular in Japan and in the rest of the World.

All one has to do to read the code is to have special program to decode 2D barcode and you will instantly have in your fingertips information hidden in its pattern. Next time you see it – check again it might be provided by Chilldor!

For those of you who are interested in running SMS services in China, then you will be quite interested in getting to know that telephone users in China are approaching the 1 billion mark and Internet users are nearing 300 million, as reported by the People’s Daily Online.

By the end of October, total number of telephone users in China reached 979 million, including 627 million mobile telephone subscribers and 352 million fixed-line users. The mobile phone business is continuing to replace the fixed-line business.
At present, data services including text messaging and broadband Internet access account for 33.4% of total revenue in the telecommunications industry.

p>Sometimes simple ideas can lead to rather interesting business. And this presentation below describes the possibility of developing location based games which can be played through SMS.

Enjoy!

John Strand, the main speaker at the Nordic Mobile Media Conference said the following in his speech and the subsequent interview:

* Mobile operators are facing more difficult times than ever as price pressure is enormous. Operators must find new sources of income and be more efficient.
* At the moment most of the operators try to do everything by themselves, manage the whole value chain on their own. The smarter ones will start using subcontractors and only do those things they are really good at. Hence, the role of those mobile service creators will increase who offer added value.
* The operators who do not subsidize phones will become more successful.
* Operators will still try to handle most of the clients in the same way, offering them one or at best a couple of brands. Actually one should go deeper: in Denmark Telenor has created a brand for women, in Belgium BASE has created a brand directed at Turks, in Denmark there is even a mobile brand for gay people. People’s needs and wishes are different and with the help of branding the operators get more clients to whom it is easy to offer services that are meant for them. Such “fragmentation” will continue and become more active.
* Operators should introduce a different taxation policy: for example, you pay a euro or two per megabite for reading your mail and much more for downloading files; at the same time, when you order a video from a service provider, its megabite will cost you only a few cents.
* Mobile TV in its present state is a stillborn child. No one wants to watch the news at 9 p.m. on their mobile phone. Mobile TV is meant for ordering video clips so that people can watch them at a suitable time.

Symbian foundation is lately announce mobile phone platform. It is based on Nokia S60, and targeted to give user or developer more options and control over the system. This platform is planned to be released with new devices in 2010. It is a general platform, all major mobile phone companies ( Nokia, SE, Motorola ) can use it in their mobile phones. For developers it means more easier work, since there is no need for separate API-s anymore, and for end user it means no more compatibility issues any more. When all devices are based on same platform, you can run same programs on them, and you don´t have to worry about if this program is going to work on your mobile device or not. When released, SymbianFoundation OS is “closed” but it becomes Open-source after 2 years from release date. But it is a still innovative idea in that field.

Second platform – OpenMoko, is a bit older and with longer history.

OpenMoko is a open-source platform with its own hardware. First device was released in 2007 and it was “developer only” device, So you had to have some programming skills to play with it. Next hardware platform ( GTA2 ) was released in 2008 summer, and it is available to general public, end users. Programming skills are not needed anymore to use that phone, but general knowledge of Linux might come handy if you want to “hack” or customize that device as you like. So what makes that device so special ? It is not just an hardware platform made from scratch, but it is almost entirely open-source and Linux compatible. OpenMoko operating system is based on real Linux, not stripped down kernel, you can easily port any Linux application for it, as long as it can run on low hardware specs. Also you can install your own favorite Linux distribution for it, or make one yourself, if you have enough experience with Linux. OpenMoko has a wide community, people all over the world share what they know about it, how to get the most out of your device, how to install some new programs and so on..

You can get more information about that project from OpenMoko Wiki page

Although OpenMoko has still some HW issues since it is quite new hardware platform, and Symbian Foundation is not public until 2010, these 2 things should definitely something worth being watched for.

Neo Freerunner booting linux

YouTube Blog reports on a new channel called called Mobile Tricks posted by Google Mobile

It is a original way for readers to show what they do with their own cell phone. and you can start watching the video embedded above of with a guy who’s a bit obsessed with them. He’s fabulous!

They’re asking for all kinds of tricks, from the useful to the completely ridiculous, and they can be with or without Google Mobile products. Among all of these, the ones I liked the most were:

• Free dating advice
• Portable X-Ray
• Unknown caller

The phones today are so full of all kinds of technical gadgets and functions that sometimes the manufacturer cannot list all the options in the product specifications. Similarly, the motion detector in Nokia N70, N95 and 5500 has gone unnoticed by the greater public. It is true, though, that Nokia has not yet had means through which the motion detector could be well advertised (like the automatic turning of the interface in iPhone).

There are numerous ideas on how to implement the motion detector. For example, it has been suggested that the motion detector could be used to detect falling – when the mobile phone senses a sudden movement downwards, it sends out a signal – an SMS. Thus the family members of the elderly people could get the warning – falling down may cause a serious trauma to the elderly. In case there is no trauma, the owner presses the button “all right”, and the warning is not sent.

There are also some game situations where controlling with a motion detector fits like a glove. Moving the billiard cue, turning the steering wheel … These ideas are empowered by the success of Nintendo Wii (they use motion sensitive game controllers).

Enthusiasts have already come up with several (mostly entertaining) applications for motion detectors. For example, Lightsaber – a strip of program that allows you to feel like Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, using the mobile phone as a lightsaber. Another program called RotateMe should automatically turn the interface together with the phone (just like in iPhone).

The most recent program using the motion detector is NiiMe, which allows to use N95 instead of the computer mouse.