Introduction:

Welcome again to our weekly update on lcoation-based services and mobile positioning. Loads of news to speak of taday, however, the biggest news is likely coming out of the UK from the annual Symbian smartphoneshow. There were three announcements providing the strongest indicators of future developments in the Symbian ecosystem, the change in ownership at UIQ, the release of new phones from Samsung, and the new technology in Symbian OS v9.5. Last week I beat the announcement and downloaded/tested the new Google Maps Mobile (for S60) and it's SWEET!

This week symbian was touting the free, native Symbian C++ version of Google Maps for mobile... this is really exciting. You may have caught wind on the blogosphere that S60 will soon support a touchscreen UI... how cool is that? This actually was announced a few months ago although the topic has been given new life from the symbian lovefest in London. Add to that the desire for many S60 enthusiasts to give the iPhone a jab any chance they can. The new technologies announced for Symbian OS v9.5, ScreenPlay and FreeWay give a strong insight into how Symbian OS devices will be evolving over the remainder of this decade: Larger screens, faster networks, and generally more PC like performance and capabilities. If you want more info from the smartphoneshow I suggest you check out Richard's Day 1 summary for a great read. Other noteworthy developments in the LBS space that I have to mention include word of the new GPS-enabled Blackberry curve. The device is being supported by AT&T and boasts add on features like theTeleNav GPS Navigator - for $199 and a contract she's all yours! Finally, for you developers, UIQ Technology has announced their second annual UIQ Open, a developer competition aimed at finding and showcasing the most innovative, useful and entertaining third-party applications on the UIQ software development platform... come on, show em what you have! A Note: I'll be attending CTIA Wireless IT next week so the next edition may be delayed a day or so! Photos from CTIA will be posted on our Flickr
 

This newsletter for Oct 10 is archived at
http://www.lbszone.com/newsletter/oct172007.html

 

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