Day: January 29, 2008

“Reacting swiftly to some users’ concerns with compatibility with the new and improved YouTube Mobile site that we covered here last week, Kinoma has released another update for its superb Kinoma Player EX media player. With this release, the Kinoma player is now up to version 4.4.1, up from October’s 4.4 revision. This release is primarily a bugfix release to address the myriad of issues surrounding YouTube and Google Video playback, especially on Palm TX and LifeDrive handhelds. The full list of updates is as follows: YouTube made some unexpected changes that prevented Kinoma Player from playing the Flash Video versions of YouTube videos. This release understands these changes, restoring full YouTube support. Recently, Google began to include other types of content in their RSS feeds. This release understands these changes, eliminating most “cannot be played” alerts. Flickr made changes to their feeds, and this release provides improved compatibility with those changes. On rare occasions, Kinoma Player’s cache can become corrupted and cause problems. This release includes a new Clear History and Cache menu item that allows customers to fix cache problems without having to search for and delete the cache file. This command also doubles as a privacy feature, allowing customers to delete their browsing and playback history. On Palm TX devices, the screen would turn on when transitioning between songs. This release fixes that. On Palm TX and Palm LifeDrive devices, selecting certain Google Video search results could cause a crash. This release fixes that. ” via palminfocenter.com Check this great player here:

“Nokia and Facebook are working on porting the social network on to Nokia handsets in a major way, we have learned. The Facebook placement could be as prominent as the YouTube button on the main screen of iPhone, our sources indicate. Also, the deal involves giving Facebook a major slot within Nokia retail products’ displays. But another factor elevates this beyond just-another-social-net-on-a-phone deal: Our sources have indicated that the discussions have involved Nokia purchasing a stake in the company, but these are in very early stages. This makes sense in light of Facebook’s recent strategic funding by Sawmer Brothers, in an effort to expand in Europe. The Nokia-Facebook deal would give the social network instant big-time mobile distribution: Nokia is the world’s largest maker of mobile phones. A senior Nokia executive, speaking on background, declined to go into details about the pact with Facebook: “There is talk of a partnership in the works… it’s safe to say we’re testing the waters and things still have to be worked out.” E-mails and phone calls seeking comment on the deal from Nokia and Facebook representatives were not returned. Nokia has of late been working on a slew of services for the mobile, including its mobile web service Ovi, its mobile social network Mosh (which hasn’t really rocked the world since its launch last year), and its recent spate of acquisitions in the larger media applications space. In October last year, it bought digital mapping provider Navteq for $8.1 billion to eventually offer customers location-based services. Also in October, it announced a deal to provide a year’s free access to Universal’s music catalog on some Nokia phones. And it bought three other smaller companies last year: Avvenu (file sharing on mobiles and between mobile-PC); Twango (media sharing service for about $100 million); and Enpocket (mobile advertising and marketing services). Would be interesting to see how Nokia’s own social media efforts pan out versus this deal it is working on with Facebook… via moconews.net

“BlackBerry maker Research In Motion plans to offer IBM’s Lotus Connections business networking software as a free download later this year, the company said on Wednesday.The software lets users collaborate on projects with colleagues via the BlackBerry handset, as well as find and get in touch with internal experts and easily share information.Last October, RIM announced it was rolling out Facebook software designed especially for its smartphones. It was part of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company’s push to expand its offering of so-called “lifestyle applications” such as games and multimedia to lure more retail users to the traditionally business-focused BlackBerry.The company is competing for retail users with Apple Inc’s answer to the BlackBerry, the iPhone. However, the bulk of its customer base continues to be comprised of executives, politicians, lawyers and other professionals.RIM shares fell C$6.44, or 7 percent, to C$86.84 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The descent followed Apple’s trajectory on Wednesday, as it sold off on a weaker than expected profit forecast and disappointing holiday shipments of its iPod music player.” via today.reuters.com

“High Tech Computer (HTC) has lost the title as the global top ranking vendor of Windows Mobile-based smartphones (excluding touch-screen models), with its share of the segment falling to below 30% currently, trailing behind Motorola and Samsung Electronics, according to internal data from Microsoft.Motorola, Samsung and HTC have been competing fiercely in the segment with each vendor accounting for a 20-30% share globally, with Motorola now leading the contest with a small margin, the data showed.Previous data indicated that HTC topped the segment with a market share of over 50% in Microsoft’s fiscal 2007 (from July 2006-June 2007).However, HTC still retained the number one title in the Windows Mobile-based PDA phone segment, accounting for nearly a 50% share, according to the same data.Palm was ranked second in the Windows Mobile PDA phone segment with a market share of over 10%, followed by Samsung and Asustek Computer with each accounting for less than a 10% share, the data indicated.HTC is expected to see its share in the Windows Mobile PDA phone segment continue to erode since a number of vendors, including Motorola, Samsung, LG Electronics, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Palm, Asustek, E-Ten Information System and Gigabyte Communications, are all planning to launch touch-screen PDA phones, according to sources in Taiwan’s handset industry.” via digitimes.com