Apple drops the ball, Sony Ericsson picks it up and the software crowd go Beta crazy
It's the Pocket Picks round-up
The week in mobile news began with a pictorial retrospective courtesy of MSN, showing just how far we have come in such a short space of time.
Back to the here and now, and those expecting an industry quaking iPhone dossier to be revealed at Monday's WWDC were left scrabbling for details; the event yielded little fresh info besides the admittedly interesting announcement that the device's main third-party support will be via Web 2.0 Widget applications. Still, a nice new set of images helped to placate a rabid press, even inspiring some heated debate about whether the device has been shrunk since it was first unveiled.
It was left then to Sony Ericsson to do what Apple typically does best by stirring up maelstrom of big announcements and reveals in a short period of time. First there was something unique with thre three new watches that can control your Walkman phone via Bluetooth.
Then came four new handsets armed to the teeth with features. First up was the long talked about 5MP Sofia handset complete with official specs and pics. Following this was another innovative handset, the W910 Walkman phone, boasting motion sensing controls for music playback. Next the relatively uninspiring (by comparison) K530, helped in the desirability stakes somewhat by the inclusion of GPS functionality, and last of all was the W960 Walkman phone, a handset with more than enough musical might to tackle the iPhone, with 8GB of flash memory, touchscreen and a 3.2MP camera.
It seems that rumours are all we are going to have to go on concerning the G-Phone for the foreseeable future, and this week saw speculation that the software giant may be far too busy beavering away with a new mobile operating system to be thinking about hardware.
In other software news, there were quite a few open Betas kicking around. Grisoft unveiled a Beta version of its new AVG mobile anti virus software, and Truphone let loose the new version of its mobile VoIP application. Shape Services also got in on the action, releasing a Beta for the new IM+ Blackberry software whilst Nokia released a more finished application in the shape of Jaiku, a micro-blogging widget for WidSets.
In other more general news, a survey revealed that 900 million minutes of free call time go unused every month, and YouTube succumbed to the inevitable announcing that it is hoping to focus on reaching a broader array of mobiles in 2008.
Finally, the biggest haul of quirky mobile asides in the history of the Pocket Picks round-up. First a phone art project that enables diallers to listen to the world's largest glacier melting. Then we discovered a Dutch inventor who has created the world's first mobile condom. Blackberry users were granted some powers of attraction with a new app that schools the shy in the art of seduction, while festival goers got a helping hand from Orange, with tent-mounted wind powered mobile chargers. Last but not least, a 12-track digital recording studio for mobiles was unveiled courtesy of Meteor.
Not a slow week then by anyone's standards. Click 'Track It!' for another barrage of mobile happenings next week.