Google on Mobiles

Search giant Google has signed a deal with Safaricom- a leading mobile phone service provider in Kenya. The deal will enable Safaricom subscribers with data enabled handsets to access free e-mail from Google. There are an estimated 2.7 million users of the internet in Kenya. Safaricom has an estimated 8.5 million subscribers and about 1.7 million of these are expected to benefit from the service. This is a good timing for Google especially in Kenya where PC based internet access is concentrated only in urban areas but mobile phones are widely used throughout the country. Safaricom is soon launching a 3G wireless service and this will open up new services like Google maps versions of Kenya.

Sony Ericcson releases phones with MSA capability

Sony Ericcson released two brands on November 6th - W890 and K660- based on Java platform 8 (JP-8) which supports the Mobile Service Architecture (MSA) umbrella standard (JSR-248). The W890 is designed for entertainment- music, video, 3D games and web acess while K660 is optimized for the web with landscape browsing. It has dedicated shortcut keys, a PC-like mouse experience when in web mode and Google maps for mobiles.Both phones carry with them the benefits of 3G and High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network support which allows fast dowload of data comparable to or better than fixed-line broadband access systems. Other phones from Sony with the JP-8 platform include K630,K850, V640, W910 and Z750.

Watch out for Java One Conference 2008

Every year java developers meet to discuss the latest development in java programming. The java one conference will be held from May 6th-9th 2008 in San Fransico, CA. The conference covers several areas of java including Java Platform Standard Edition (JSE), Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and the Java Platform Microedition (Java ME). Java ME or J2ME as it is popularly called is Java's reduced version that runs on mobile devices. The deadline for submission of papers for Java One Conference is November 16th, so hurry. To submit papers, visit the JavaOne site.

Forum Nokia launches renewed online developer community

Forum Nokia- the world's largest community of Nokia developers- launched a renewed online developer community. The Forum Nokia developer community site consists of a lobby, discussion boards,wiki, blogs and article feeds for developers from Forum Nokia as well as other sources. The lobby is the main page and has rich, valuable and fresh content including audio and video. Check out this site and join the developer community of Nokia- the world's leading mobile phone brand.