Mobile Technology News

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Adobe began testing Flash Player 10.1 on Android 2.2 in late May, and hit the beta 3 phase last week.

Today, Adobe announced that the final version of Flash Player 10.1 has been sent to mobile platform partners, and that Flash Player 10.1 will be available as a final production release on the following “Froyo” (Android 2.2) devices:

• Dell Streak
• Google Nexus One
• HTC EVO 4G
• HTC Desire

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Kindle is, without a doubt, the highest profile e-reader platform running. With applications on iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Windows, and OS X as well as its own line of e-paper Kindle devices, Amazon had an estimated 90% share of the e-book sales market last year.

Today, Amazon announced that a Kindle app will be launched on the Android mobile operating system this summer.

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

In the history of anything whatsoever, timing is rarely, if ever, coincidental. More often these days, however, the strategy behind it looks confusing. Just days before it’s scheduled to hold its developers conference in San Francisco (tomorrow and Thursday), Twitter revealed that it is in the process of either acquiring or building applications that will compete directly with the Twitter clients these developers will be taught how to build.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Way back in 2008, Opera Software’s CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner said the company’s popular Opera Mini mobile browser was ported to the iPhone, but it could not be released because it competed with the iPhone’s built-in Safari browser.

Then, last February, Opera Software actually started showing off its version the popular browser for iPhone OS as a run-up to its submission to Apple for App store review in March.

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

It turns out Microsoft isn’t the only mobile platform producer resetting its ecosystem this week. In a lower-key move that could actually affect millions more customers than Microsoft’s reboot of Windows Phones yesterday, Research In Motion today took over control of Mobile World Congress’ side-show, called “App Planet,” with a series of developer-focused seminars whose intention appears to be resituating developers on the new purpose of the BlackBerry platform.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Verizon has filed its response to a December 4 Federal Communications Commission probe which examined the carrier’s recent increase to early termination fees for subscribers with “advanced devices” such as BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Android and Palm handsets.

The FCC asked why such an increase was necessary, how customers are informed of the new fees, and why the fee is not prorated all the way down to zero.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The BlackBerry Storm 2 (also known as “Odin,” “9550,” or “9520″) has been the subject of passing rumors for the last six months. As the purported sequel to Research in Motion’s first touchscreen BlackBerry, it looked as though the new device would improve upon the shortcomings of its predecessor without deviating from its familiar style. In other words, it would keep the same chassis shape and trademark “clickable touchscreen,” but would give the device more consumer appeal by doing things they actually want, like adding Wi-Fi, improving the interface, and bringing the applications up to par with its competition.

By Carmi Levy, Betanews

The half-life of any piece of modern electronics, which was once measured in years, is now barely a few months. It’s no one’s fault, of course, but it’s a reality that vendors need to integrate into their own life cycle planning lest they get caught with the product line equivalent of grandma’s wardrobe.

Simply put, the half-life of today’s uber-hot phones is shrinking. Fast.

By Carmi Levy, Betanews

The iPhone is a technical marvel, a full-on computer that happens to fit in your pocket. It isn’t alone: The average BlackBerry is also pretty magical in its own right, as are high end phones from Nokia, HTC and a host of other vendors.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Let’s face it: RealPlayer hasn’t been a viable media player for almost ten years. As Technologizer’s David Worthington wrote for Betanews in 2000, “A once useful media player’s standard installation was transformed into a bloated menagerie of components and add-ons with the release of RealPlayer 7. These needlessly suck away system resources and add useless functionality…”