Digital books on iPhone with Cyberlibris

In 2001, Cyberlibris revolutionized the access to books.
By inventing the flat-rate subscription to the digital book, Cyberlibris has democratized the access to knowledge and open new sources of revenue to authors and their publishing houses. By the 12 of March, about 500 titles will be available on the iPhone in the form of a monthly subscription of 3 euros; files are accessible in streaming. The use will be facilitated by a library theme, it should be possible to create new entries in the library...

Shazam, an application indispensable

Shazam is in my opinion one of the "must" and main interesting applications for iPhone and iPod touch.
This software allows the identification/ recognizing of songs, as well allows to get informations about the author who composed the song.
The application is very easy to use, as you just have to orientate your handset to the source of music ( Hi-fi, TV, radio...etc), and push on "tag". Then the tag is directly sent to iTunes, so that you could buy the song you want.
The application requieres of course a wifi, Edge or 3G connexion, and is available for free in the AppStore.

Your first mobile Doctor

SFR, the second operator in france, offers a new free service calles DoctorClic, which allows you to benefit from pratical advice on health problems of the everyday life.
This is an adaptation for mobile of the site Doctorclic.com, and this service allows you to fill in a number of criterias ( age, sex...) and indicating symptoms to get immediate advice on what to do and the degree of medical emergency.

DocteurClic is based on an expert system designed by a team of emergency doctors. This system manages 130 possible symptoms and calculates the probability of 220 diagnoses of emergency. Anywhere and anytime, the service allows to answer 4 key questions: is this normal? What to do? Is it serious? Who to consult?
DocteurClic is an information service and does not substitute in any way to a medical diagnosis. Launched by MedServices in 2001, the site receives over 150 000 unique visits per month. Now available on the SFR network, it will be deployed in pharmacies ( bluetooth points).

So wass' up doc?

Is the Open source the main alternative?

Users now want to access their address books, calendars, emails, or their images whether on their mobile and PC. Its seems that the Open source is now the only alternative to keep pace with the rapid development of services and mobile terminals...
This is not advertisement! :-)

With its mobile open source community, Funambol could be the only solution to the synchronization of the scope of several billion mobile phones around the world, including smartphones such as iPhone, Blackberry Storm, Google Android G1.
Funambol annouces V8 MobileWe Funambol, the new generation of its flagship software allowing a synchronization of billions of mobile phones. Among other features, V8 Funambol offers a new AJAX web portal that facilitates the synchronization of personal information, email and multimedia contents between mobile phones, online services and computers, Funambole software also supports widely used desktop applications such as Outlook, but also host email services like Gmail, AOL Mail, Yahoo! mail and hotmail.

Screenshot there: http://www.funambol.com/v8/Funambolv8_homepage.html

MWC 09

60 000 visitors are expected for the opening of the MWC in Barcelona. Given the waves of innovation and the centrality of mobile services that will continue to take in our daily lives, there is little chances that the crisis affects the show.
Here's what we can expect a few days before the inauguration:

Attack on the manufacturers stands for the collection fall/ winter 2009:
As every year, the challenge is to discover the roadmap of the major manufacturers. Some have just been announced, as the Nokia ( 6700, 2700, 6303), Samsung ( Ultra touch S8300), LG ( Arena KM900), While others are under heavy rumors ( Nokia E75, Samsung i9810 Acme, C6625 or Blackberry Gemini curve 9300). There sill be surely a media interest for the new entrants, or old "ghosts" ( Acer, Toshiba, dell, Hundai...).
Apple won't have a booth, but will be in all conversations.

Great expectations aroung Google Android & Windows Mobile:
Many visitors will see demonstrations of the G2 and other terminals for Android announced for 2009. The presss conference of Microsoft is strongly expected with many rumors about windows mobile ( phone?) 6.5, or Skybox. Microsoft must respond to the acquisition of Symbian by Nokia, and the arrival of linux.

Anticipation of new technologies:
Like every year, vendors will not fail to highlight the 4G ( Wimax will still be outrun by LTE), the Femtocell, NFC and mobile payments, as well as geolocalisation.

Even more pronounced for mobile social networks, and geo-localisation services:
And the convergence of both ( the concept of social location recently developed by Nokia or the launch of Google Latitude are there to prove it). These services should be more media followed, and located in the mobile Entertainment Hall 7, always a little appart.
And there will inevitably be many debates on the role of advertising on mobile, in these times of crisis.

The real highlight of the show will probably be around widget / applications and stores/ user interface:
Many actors will make announcements in this area: Nokia can not respond to the AppStore, Skymarket ( Microsoft) and Android Market ( Google), Application center RIM must specify his environment while many operators and traditional market ( On-device-portal) will take new ads.

The good news is that the show will focus more on user experience and less on technology; and a myriad of start-ups and innovative services are going to make talk about them!
Cheers, there are only 6 days left before the event!

Image recognition in Japan

A Japanese leading service provider of image recognition, J-Magic, has launched its new platform for image recognition on mobile. "Dubbed SAYL2", The new platform will not only perform images recognition, but also facial recognition, so that the mobile becomes a tool that can distinguish the sex and age of a person.

SAYL2 adds these features facial recognition, which can detects faces in an image, and compare the face with facial features previously stored on the server. The technology was developed by Omron. Thus, it will be possible to analyze the difference in these 2 images to bring the percentage of similarity between the 2 faces. This type of function can be used for entertaining content, for example to compare the face of a user and that of a celebrity, as "Kao-shek", but on an ad hoc basis for companies.

In addition to the comparison of faces, it will be possible to decorate the faces automatically, for example, add a beard or glasses save. The system detects the gender and age of the person on the photo, which can be used for interactive posters, to project content appropriate to each generation, and measure the effectiveness of hearing by counting the number of people who stops in front of a poster. The Smile of the user is also a recognizable objects on this platform, which can measure the degrees of smiles. It will therefore be possible to display an advertisement specific to women in their twenties, with a decoration of glasses on their faces.

I definitly love Japanese mobile services concepts :-) .

NTT DoCoMo launches a new mobile for business people, remote handling.

The Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has just introduced a new Device aimed at professionals. Manufactured by Fujitsu, the terminal F-06A offers a function of remote control to protect the motive for leaking confidential information, or non-professional use by the holder of the mobile. This terminal will be on sale on 23 January, on the Japanese market only, through the professional services of the operator.

The use of mobile professionals is increasingly important in the Japanese market and there is a strong demand for the protection of confidential information contained in the mobile. The first characteristic of the F-06A is its ability to be controlled remotely, in case of loss or theft of mobile. It is possible to reformat parts of the mobile, such address book, call history, messages, photos or calendar remotely. Also to avoid the abuse of employees on the use of mobile for personal purposes, it is also possible to limit or set some distance phone functions (image sensor, address book, infra red locking, etc.) . To be able to perform this grip remote mobile, you must subscribe to an optional subscription dedicated professional.

For more security information, this phone does not certain duties on mobile memory cards, FeliCa, or data transfer via USB. The entertainment functions (One-seg, music player, etc.) are not supported either.

France: Prohibit the sale of mobile under 12 years?

Excellent news of a future law that would ban the sale of mobile young people under 12 who are "more susceptible because their bodies are still growing"

"Art. L. 5231-3. - Any communication, whatever the medium or the media, aimed directly or indirectly, to promote the sale, supply, use or the use of mobile phones by children under twelve years is prohibited”.

Another article: Article L. 34-9 of the postal code and electronic communications, it is inserted a third paragraph reads: "The radio terminals to be connected to a network open to the public for the provision of telephone service cannot be marketed without an accessory to limit the exposure of the head to radio emissions in communications. "

The precautionary principle is common sense, it has not yet been possible to date to conduct epidemiological studies to determine the health effects of long-term exposure to frequencies emitted by mobile phones. And it is also the case of a population that are heavily equipped with future consumers of tomorrow, then we must care! In any case the world's young people represent approximately 18% of the world population, they remain what to do ....so the marketing services operators will have to show initiative and imagination if the law is passed!

iPhone from the Asian side, or 2009 as the japanese attack on Appstore

The iPhone is not only a revolution in Europe and North America, where its success finally created the conditions for a takeoff of the Internet and mobile multimedia. But it represents a new challenge for the traditional leaders in this area: South Korea and Japan. In very different contexts, the success of the iPhone has changed the look from the actors of the market in these two countries in Europe and could lead to a return in force for developers of applications, including Japanese, on the Old continent.

On the side of Japan, iPhone has a limited success on the archipelago, but its impact on the strategy of the players is likely to be major. Launched by the third operator Softbank Mobile in July, iPhone does not have two main popular functions of the Japanese Mobiles - FeliCa Sim contactless (and its functions as payment and transport mobile) and mobile TV. Unlike the case of South Korea, iPhone has a small impact on the Japanese market. However, it radically changes the look of content providers on the Japanese mobile market from Europe and America.

A new opportunity: 2009 could be the year of the Japanese attack on iPhone
For those publishers Japanese, iPhone is a new opportunity to develop on the mobile in Europe. It makes it possible to create a global market of mobile applications, as software developed for iPhone in Japan, is used around the world (only the cost of translation and localization of content to ensure). Moreover, the repayment of Apple publisher application is much higher than that proposed by European operators, including traditional subscribers downloading anyway few applications.

The publishers of video games from Japan decided to seize this new chance to take a position in Europe. In July 2008, at the Wireless Japan exhibition in Tokyo (the largest mobile event in Japan), I was struck by the number of publishers who annunced their desire to launch applications on the Appstore, and locate in Europe in 2009. It is true that the Japanese mobile market - over 90% penetration of 3G, and the equivalent of 3.5 billion euros in annual revenues for mobile content - is now saturated. Japanese mobile publishers are now investing again in Europe, and sees iPhone as a beautiful and inexpensive door.

A weak signal of this movement is the arrival of Sunsoft. The Japanese publisher, specializing in "casual games" type MahJong, but also well-known in Japan for his "horror games (See the video game" Alice in distorted land: http://jp.youtube .com / watch? v = faDwOSmTl0E, which was a major success on the Japanese mobile, particularly among teenagers) has launched in recent months its Mahjong Solitaire on Appstore for the global market, which represents a test for his Developing iPhone in Europe.

All the information I collected from Japan suggest that Sunsoft, but also other developers prestigious Japanese video game should go on the offensive on iPhone Appstore and during 2009, on this new the media entertainment titles in Japan. 2009 could be the year of the Japanese attack on iPhone.

The New Deck

In the mobile we usually talk about “on deck” and “off deck” , meaning distributing content throught the carrier space or out of his ground. The “new deck” is the new selling place , and it's all about applications and app stores.

Apple’s iPhone app store isn’t the only new deck in the market. Palm has announced a new application store and already has 5,000 offerings that work on more than two dozen devices including their Windows Mobile devices. Blackberry has an app store debuting in the spring and of course Google’s Android Market is already going gangbusters as well...

The proliferation of app stores impacts consumers, businesses and the mobile industry as a whole. For consumers it means that whatever your mobile device is, you can now do more with it. I predict that consumers will begin to shop for their next device based on the apps they can get and/ or stick with a particular device for the apps they have already integrated into their daily life.

The new deck requieres to have a solid and pertinent aplication store strategy, it's clearly necessary.

Knowing which devices are most used by your target audience is a critical foundation step. And ignoring the application market will not work for long.

How do you think the “new deck” will impact our industry?

VOCALIA implementing voice numeration on iPhone

One of the mobile battles of tomorrow will deal with the interface of mobile and voice recognition; here's an application that opens this type of application on iPhone.

Vocalia iPhone is a voice dialing. Talk and Vocalia quickly find the names of your contacts in your directory. Later versions could provide complementary features. Theapplication includes a new option very practical and expected by users: automatic number 1 output, voice confirmation of the person and the number to call. By enabling this option in the Control Panel, under "Browse mode", Vocalia becomes a voice recognition application 100% hands free!

Save the AppStore!

The proliferation of cheap applications on the AppStore is stifling innovation and holding Apple’s mobile touch platform back from realizing its true potential, think developers and companies developing quality mobile softwares.
The question became more obvious with the letter from Craig Hockenberry ( Iconfactory) to Steve Job : http://furbo.org/2008/12/09/ring-tone-apps/

The Apps Store and the iPhone 3rd Party Platform as a whole is barely 22 weeks old. And it's success is staggering. I can't think of any other computing platform (or any media platform for that matter) that has created over 10,000 totally new pieces of content in it's first 150 days. 150 days!!!
25 million iPhones and Touches out there at the moment, that will likely double in a few months, and a few months later too.

But I think it's becoming obvious that something needs to change with the way apps are listed and browsed in the store, as well, I think the business model of the app store is hitting an inflection point.
Apple could introduce more varieties of lists, we've seen them all in other places, fastest movers, most viewed. Apple's headings aren't clear, I presume 'Top' means most downloaded (in the last 24 hours, week?). I'm rather less clear about 'What's Hot' is.

I think so many people are jumping into I phone application development after having heard about that guy who made $250K with a casual puzzle game...but I think that about 80% of them will provide garbage applications that even free I won't pay for it.
With almost 10,000 apps in the App Store, and maybe 20 new apps per day, there's no nice way to give attention to all of those apps!

If you make an iPhone app, I suggest to prepare you to make less than $1000 on your app, for the lifetime of your app , even if you have a few developers and designers working on your app.

I really think that iPhone got a real potential that Apple must preserve, so, it may got to study and reorganize the pertinence of the App store, that will keep on growing...

First advanced UI for Vodafone

The new solution FlipFont (Monotype Imaging) is accessible from Vodafone live!, Vodafone is the first operator in Europe to provide a download service which will change the font of its interface.

The solution FlipFont launches a selection of 10 fonts from 1.40 €.To date phones that supports this UI are based on the Symbian OS.
Even if the service is an important step in the personalization of the user interface, which will expand, it is far from the Japanese Acrodea service ( check previous post).

Mobile data services are expected to exceed $ 200 billion in 2008 for the first time, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. (157 billion in 2007). It is an important growth engines for the future of operators and will therefore give an accelerated deployment of innovative mobile services, including customizing the user interface.

More than a deeper way to customize the mobile and enable a better experience to the user, I think this kind of UI would be a powerful marketing tool for brands and medias.

G point

Google Mobile is multiplatforms, Multi- constructors,Multioperators ...
Google announced the launch of Google Maps for mobile with Street View on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile to expand its products beyond 'Android, BlackBerry, iPhone. Here is a much more aggressive than any manufacturers, operators ... Google Maps Mobile 2.3 also includes a series of new features, creating pedestrian routes mode, information on public transport, alerts journals of users. Google also promises a better user interface.
Domination over the mobile is emerging in front of us. 4 main products: Search, Gmail, Maps, Youtube and multiple mobile services, more products Labs beta-test the economic model, not pay, not freemium (although the latter should see the day quickly moving to Google Free )..... backed by advertising! With now around 47 members of the Open Handset Alliance to promote the mobile operating system Google...

SMS free with Gmail
The Web services Giant announced a new feature of Labs that allows users to send free text messages via Gmail, allowing consumers to connect to the computer contact via e-mail. The product manager Leo Dirac: "The service works in the United States at this time, but you can send text messages to your friends on the United States but also on the phone numbers from anywhere in the world".

Android VS manufacturers...does the Giant represent a threat?

When Google announced the launching of Android at the end of last year he quickly formed two natural sides. The project partners such as HTC, Motorola or LG and competitors such as Nokia or Sony-Ericson. Today we wonder if Android also enables the emergence of new actors?
Indeed in recent weeks we have heard names like Sciphone, QIGI, Open-Moko, Kogan Agora or a more uncertain Huawei. All these names (name or phone manufacturer's name) represent now as serious competitors against the major manufacturers. On paper you can see specifications worthy of the largest smart-phones at prices rather interesting. Android and of course the driving force behind this novelty because now any company that has expertise in the manufacturing hardware Android may choose simply to write drivers for hardware attached to the OS. One could almost think that these companies have a shot (for the study design) reduced by at least 40 So who can say that players do not nibbling market share to major manufacturers?
This model can think of the great distribution and ultra discount, may be the next two years will be the major manufacturers of mobile with a lot of complementary services to lure customers. On the other hand, small manufacturers who offer cheaper phones, but without superfluous!
Now Google will weigh in the balance on the so-called superfluous as they they provide as well services and attractive free...

Japan: a mobile phone to fight against depression

Yutaka Ohno, a famous Japanese researcher has developed an Internet site, accessible from a mobile phone, allowing people with depression, to receive free psychotherapy.

This raises a number of questions to the user regarding his sleep, his eating habits, weight changes its potential moral or state to offer therapy, available since his mobile phone.

The mobile site also advises users, symptoms of depression, while avoiding the need for persons suffering from this disease, consult a specialist.

Samsung Launches its mobile Hugo Boss

Samsung answers to Prada and LG with the new Hugo Boss Mobile Phone..

it wears a black metallic shell and a new interface design.
The 3G + touch screen of 2.8 inches also provides a digital camera 5 MP (with autofocus and flash), offers MP3 player functions, acts as a RDS FM radio tuner, video recorder , Calendar and can of course surf the Internet, access your mail or instant messaging services. For data storage, it has 235 MB of internal memory, expandable with MicroSD slot. USB 2.0 also enables synchronization to a computer and facilitates the transfer of data. Finally, a playlist has been specially created by Hugo Boss and pre-loaded on this Samsung phone.

Delivered in a stylish leather Hugo Boss scratched with a Bluetooth ear with a range of 10m, the Samsung Mobile Phone Hugo Boss will be available in December. Price Unknown.

A mobile phone reserved for men, true men!

Religion and Mobile: a Holy Business

There is about 2.7 billion mobile suscribers worlwide. Less than 2 Billion Christians; about 1.5 bn Muslims, more than 900 mn Buddhists and 15 mn jews, and so many religious confessions worldwide ...
But I unfortunately still can't find an exhaustive religious mobile offer, or any applications / dedicated wap sites on the Eastern Europe operators portals.
I am not religious, but so amazed that one of the main juicy business in the man History still remain unexploited on mobile...

Basically it already exists few Christian softwares for Palm OS, and usual devices ( Handango & Mobizex companies proposes some basic Holy Bible apps); as well in Indonesia a mobile device "certified Muslim" called Hidaya ( = Guidance / good way) already exists , gathering various applications ( sounds alerts for the daily prays, access to Koran, themes, ringtones...);
Also in the US, the "Jewberry", the Jewish-friendly version of a Blackberry, allows the access to prayers in Hebrew, and full texts of Torah.
I think that simple religious mobile nex applications such as geolocalization to find all the nearest saint places... or dedicated mobile communities could easily find his niche on mobile ...and generate huge revenues!

What do you think?

Next gen of User interfaces soon in Europe?

The company Acrodea - one of the stars of mobile multimedia in Japan – has arrived in Europe. It is represented by Jap'Presse/Innovasia in the EU.

The flagship solution of this company was at the basis of the strongest growth market in Japan since 2007, and aims to revolutionize the world of mobile user interfaces. The solution Vivid UI - which was adopted in Japan by 3 main players on the market ( NTT Docomo, KDDI, Softbank)- can fully customize the interface of mobile color of a brand or license content. This is the entire interface that results customized (see pictures), all the elements - including bar network, energy, menu animations when confronted with messages or calls, and so on. A simple tool, enables agencies to create user interfaces, and then offer them for download. However, the motive is to embark on pre-Vivid UI middleware, to help change UI (User Interface) in 2 clicks.

In Japan, there are now hundreds of user interfaces for download on all topics: brands, movies, music, sports, etc.. This new type of content may be free or sold until 4 euros for IU. On the archipelago, the Mobile Content Forum believes that the market for mobile UI was about 15 million euros in 2007, with growth of over 600%. Creator and leader of this market in Korea and Japan, Acrodea hopes to finally move the European mobile interfaces.

For my point of vue: To have seen a few months ago on a Japanese mobile ithis is a very high quality and fairly bluff, if operators and manufacturers kick their a** to incorporate this type of technology on the devices or for downloads on portal, a new juicy business will born very quickly for mobile content but also for mobile marketing agencies that will have new opportunities in creating user interfaces dedicated to trademarks, events, film, sport ...
I don't think that in Europe we will wait so long to see these wonderful interfaces in our future terminals...

More info about the product there:
http://www.acrodea.co.jp/english/product/ui/index.html

Here comes the new LG Prada

Available in Europe at the end of the month, the new version of LG PRADA should once again turn some heads and deflate some wallets. The LG-KF900 retains the same design chic and minimalist style than its predecessor, but wins a sliding QWERTY keyboard and a new user interface. And that's not all ... The autofocus camera now offers a resolution of 5 MP, the video recording is permitted, the DivX format is supported and WiFi 802.11 b / g is included, like Bluetooth.

The new PRADA 3G and will browse the Internet at all thanks to its HTML browser and touch screen of 7.6 cm (240 x 400 pixels). For storing multimedia data, 60 MB of internal memory provided by the manufacturer. A storage capacity expandable to 8 GB via a memory card. And to dress her mobile connected, LG has been careful to select a few tones from behind the bundles, wallpapers and exclusive video clips tend to enhance its technical qualities.

To accompany, LG, with optional, the PRADA Link (LG-LBA-T950), a jewel accessory to know distance (Bluetooth) which calls and read text messages without the phone out of his pocket or his holster. A jewel that Bluetooth will be marketed at a price of 299 euros.

The new LG PRADA will be offered from 600 euros.