Mobile – Page 61 – Digital-Lifestyles

What Software On Which PDAs? Survey

Handango Releases 2005 Mobile Software Stats Handango has released their annual “Handango Yardstick”, a global snapshot of the state of the mobile content industry in 2005.

Containing specific reports for each of the five major mobile operating systems – BlackBerry, Palm OS, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone – the Yardstick offers stats on the top devices downloading software and digital content, best-selling applications and ringtones and software sales by category etc.

Their 2005 report reveals that multimedia was the hot new category for 2005 with fast-rising sales on all platforms.

Across the board, MP3 and music players; DVD/video converters and viewer and ringtone managers topped the best sellers list, with multimedia content ranking seventh in the top ten sales by categories

The big hitters included Ring Tone Megaplex for BlackBerry, Ringo Pro for Palm OS, Pocket-DVD Studio for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and SmartMovie for Symbian OS.

The Yardstick reported an overall increase in the average selling price (ASP) of mobile applications, surging upwards from $16.96 in 2004 to $20.03 in 2005.

The dynamic nature of the smartphone/PDA industry was reflected by the fact that only four of the top ten devices adding content in 2004 – the Palm Treo 600/650, O2 XDA, Sony Ericsson P900/P910 and Palm Tungsten T Series – stayed in the list.

Handango Releases 2005 Mobile Software Stats New additions included the Motorola RAZR V3, the BlackBerry 7100 Series and the BlackBerry 7250/7290 (the first BlackBerry smartphone to ever make the top ten).

Palm
The Palm Treo 650 shunted the Treo 600 into second place as it grabbed the title of the number one device adding content, with the Palm Tungsten E, Palm Tungsten T3 and Palm Tungsten T5 trailing behind.

Although more than 2,125 new applications were created for the Palm OS in 2005, this represented a hefty 89 percent decrease from last year.

Here’s the top ten best-selling applications for Palm OS according to Handago:

1. Agendus Professional Edition
2. Treo Voice Dialing
3. AOL for Treo 650
4. Agendus Standard Edition
5. PocketMirror Standard Edition
6. Diet & Exercise Assistant
7. SplashID
8. KeySuite
9. SOLITAIRE PACK
10. Ringo Pro

Palm Yardstick [PDF]

Windows Mobile Pocket PC
A total of 3,024 new applications were launched on Windows Mobile Pocket PC platforms in 2005 – down on the previous year’s total by 17 percent.

Handango Releases 2005 Mobile Software Stats The top ten Windows Mobile Pocket PC applications were:

1. Spb Pocket Plus
2. Battery Pack Pro
3. Agenda Fusion
4. Pocket-DVD Studio
5. SBSH PocketBreeze
6. Microsoft Voice Command – US Edition
7. Pocket Informant
8. eWallet
9. Pocket Controller-Professional
10. Spb Weather

Pocket PC Yardstick [PDF]
Smartphone Yardstick [PDF]

BlackBerry
The Handango Yardstick reported a busy year for BlackBerry with 462 new applications contributing to a 67 percent increase over last year.

The top three BlackBerry devices adding content in 2005 — the BlackBerry 7250, BlackBerry 7290 and BlackBerry 7100t — were also three of the top smartphones adding content across all platforms.

The top ten best-selling applications for BlackBerry were:

1. Ring Tone Megaplex
2. WebViewer
3. Aces Texas Hold’em – No Limit
4. IM+
5. Acrobat PDF Graphical Attachment Booster
6. CryptMagic + PC Desktop
7. Sol Mania
8. Ascendo Photos
9. Requwireless Value Bundle
10. PocketDay Professional Edition

Blackberry Yardstick [PDF]
Symbian Yardstick

Handago

W220 RAZR-lite From Motorola For The Masses: 3GSM

W220 RAZR-lite From Motorola For The Masses Motorola has unveiled their new, mass-market Motorola W220 phone at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Using the hugely popular – and expensive – RAZR clamshell phone as inspiration, the handset offers the same super-slim factor form but with a lot of the goodies taken out.

Designed with the goal of “connecting the next billion” handset users, the highly affordable W220 comes with a basic feature set including an FM radio (but no MP3 capability we could find), a 600-entry phonebook and a 128×128 pixel colour screen.

W220 RAZR-lite From Motorola For The Masses There’s no external display for caller ID purposes, with Motorola instead offering a simple set of three icons on the outer fascia displaying call status, message status, and battery remaining.

Targeted at emerging markets, the phone is a pretty lightweight affair – just 93 grams – with Motorola claiming a hugely impressive 497 minutes of talk and 293 hours of standby.

Other features on the Motorola W220 include a WAP 2.0 compliant browser, alarm clock, MMS, SMS and NSM messaging services and the ability to download the all-important wallpapers, ringtones and games.

W220 RAZR-lite From Motorola For The Masses With such a slender feature set, we expect the W220 to be offered for next to nowt for contract deals sometime in Q3 2006.

Things have been somewhat quiet for Motorola at the 3GSM conference so far, leading pundits to anticipate big things at CTIA cell phone trade show in Las Vegas, from April 5-7 in Las Vegas. As ever, we’ll keep you posted.

Motorola

i320 Smartphone From Samsung – More Details

i320 Smartphone From Samsung - More Details Samsung have released a few more details about their new i320 Smartphone, which was unveiled at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

The mean’n’lean, wafer thin, none-more-black smartphone weighs in at a sprightly 95g, with a 2.2″ 262K colour TFT screen offering QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) resolution – a healthy improvement on the Treo 700w’s paltry 240×240 screen.

The pocket-friendly i320 runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, and offers the new Direct Push Email functionality via the Messaging & Security Feature Pack when used with Microsoft Exchange Server SP2.

i320 Smartphone From Samsung - More Details For a fully featured smartphone, the dimensions aren’t too bulky- 111mm x 59mm x 11.5mm only – so you won’t feel too much of a berk walking around with it stuck to your ear.

Impressively, there’s a thumping great 120MB of onboard memory with a microSD slot for expansion and a QWERTY keyboard for bashing out short messages.

When it comes to multimedia, the Samsung sports a 1.3 megapixel camera and supports MPEG4 / H.263 / H.264 / WMV video formats and MP3 / AAC / AAC+ / WMA / WAV / OGG audio formats, with dual stereo speakers onboard.

i320 Smartphone From Samsung - More Details Connectivity comes in the shape of Bluetooth with the tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM phone capable of GPRS/EDGE but no Wi-Fi as far as we can see – a major omission in our book. Bad Samsung.

Samsung i320 is scheduled to arrive in your greasy palms sometime during Q2 of 2006.

Samsung i320 specifications:

Band : GSM 900/1800/1900MHz
Data : EDGE/GPRS
Size : 111mm x 59mm x 11.5mm
Weight : 95g (3.35oz)
Display : 2.2″ 320 x 240 262K Color TFT
OS : Windows Mobile 5 for Smartphone
Camera : 1.3 Megapixel Camera
i320 Smartphone From Samsung - More Details Video : Video capture/playback
Messaging : SMS/MMS
Email : Yes (POP/IMAP/SMTP)
Bluetooth : Yes
Infrared : No
Java : Yes
Polyphonics : Yes
Memory : 120MB User Memory, External Memory (microSD)
Features : QWERTY Keyboard, Video Recording & Messaging (MPEG4/H.263), Video Playing (MPEG4/H.263/H.264/WMV), MP3 / AAC / AAC+ / WMA / WAV / OGG, Dual Speaker / Speakerphone, Bluetooth Technology / USB / Voice Recognition, Document Viewer

Samsung

K610i 3G Phone Announced By Sony Ericsson: 3GSM

K610i 3G Phone Announced By Sony Ericsson Sony Ericsson has slipped out is slimmest-ever 3G handset at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain.

The Sony Ericsson K610i is a lightweight and affordable 3G phone measuring a pocket-unruffling 102 x 45.2 x 16.9mm – roughly the size and weight of a typical 2G stick phone.

The lightweight handset (92g) sports a built in 2 Megapixel camera which should be good enough to produce reasonable quality 5″ x 7″ prints (and even the odd 10″ x 8″ print at a squeeze).

Reminiscent of the hugely popular T610 phone, the front of the phone is dominated by a 1.9 inch, 262K (176 x 220 pixels) colour display and a large keypad, with a tiny camera, midget-sized mirror and speaker on the rear.

K610i 3G Phone Announced By Sony Ericsson Naturally, there’s an integrated music player lurking inside the rounded lines of the K610, with supported formats including MP3, AAC and e-AAC+.

Connectivity comes in the shape of Bluetooth, Infrared and USB 2.0 with external storage comes in the shape of Sony’s new Memory Stick Micro M2, which can be expanded to 1GB.

The excellent NetFront Web browser comes pre-installed on the phone, and there’s also an RSS reader integrated into its messaging section.

Sony Ericsson are promising an impressive battery life: 7 hours GSM, up to 2.5 hours WCDMA and up to 400 hours GSM and up to 350 hours WCDMA in standby mode.

The Dual Mode UMTS handset will be available in ‘Evening Red’ and ‘Urban Silver’ colours, and should start shipping during Q2 2006.

Sony Ericsson also announced a new, entry level handset at the show, the J100. This dual band handset offers a 65K colour screen, polyphonic ringtones and 8 hour talk time.

K610i 3G Phone Announced By Sony Ericsson Sony Ericsson K610i Specs:

Imaging & Messaging:
2.0 Megapixel camera
2 x digital zoom
Horizontal camera user interface
Video call (integrated VGA camera)
Video record and play
Video streaming
PictureDJ
SMS and MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
262,144 color 1.9″>176 x 220 pixels

Entertainment:
Disc2Phone ripping software
WAP 2.0 XHTML/HTML
Java MIDP 2.0
Media player (supports MP3, AAC and E-AAC+)
Music download
Polyphonic ringtones, 72 voices
MusicDJ
2D and 3D gaming

Connectivity:
USB cable
USB 2.0 mass storage, full speed
Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™)support (up to 1 GB ) Bluetooth
Dual mode UMTS and GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900

Business:
Standard Push e-mail (M-IMAP)
Sony K610 has Speakerphone
Modem
PC synchronization
File manager

Talk time:
Up to 7 hours GSM, up to 2.5 hours WCDMA
Standby time: Up to 400 hours GSM and up to 350 hours WCDMA

Size:
102 x 45.2 x 16.9mm
Weight: 92 grams

ShoZu, Mobile Photo Sharing App Wins Award: 3GSM

We’ve found it amazing that no application has come along and claimed theposition as the de-facto mobile phone photo-handling application. Perhapsbecause it’s such a mouthful.

Mobile phones with cameras are, after all, one of the main devices that areused by the wo/man in the street to capture most of their photos.

One of the applications that fits into said category is ShoZu, and weimagine that they are feeling rather pleased with themselves today afterwinning an award at 3GSM.

Prompted by the enthusiastic press release (below), we thought it was abouttime we tried it out – after all, we’d been seeing their name on Flickr forages, so it only seemed right.

We hope our experience is unique otherwise there’ll be a lot of peopleusing other services that _aren’t_ ShuZo.

The first few sign up screens were OK, until we were asked for our mobilephone number, so we could be mailed the app. Clicking the button to receivethis has, for the last half hour, just left us hanging.

Initial impressions – not good, but we’re hoping it’s going to get better.

We assume the 3GSM judges got over this.

Cognima collects top award at 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona for its ShoZu mobile media application

Wednesday 15 February 2006: Cognima, the company behind ShoZu, the free-to-download mobile phone application which allows users to share full quality images and video content with their chosen online community, was officially named as a world leader within the global mobile application market by the 3GSM Association at last night’s worldwide award ceremony in Barcelona. The ShoZu content sharing service, which was only recently launched at the end of last year, offers users the smartest and most affordable way to share rich media content using mobile cameraphones.

Accepting the award on behalf of Cognima, Mark Bole CEO said, “We have been delighted with the genuine support we have been getting from our customers, web partners and handset manufacturers in mobilizing a thriving and workable rich media content ecosystem.”

ShoZu’s ongoing commitment to fueling the mobile value chain by offering innovative and simple high quality media content services has captured the mood of the industry as it heads into the realm of consumer focused rich media content sharing. The fundamental concept behind ShoZu’s rapid growth in market visibility revolves around making the user-experience as enjoyable and simple as possible and in doing so makes mobile image sharing both straight forward and immediate.

ShoZu has been one of the defining presences at this year’s international congress, highlighting the sustainable growth within the maturing international mobile content sharing industry.

Bole added: “It is exciting that ShoZu has managed to capture the attention of the global community who are looking to work within this space. We are fully committed to finding new ways of allowing our growing user base to interact and participate with their online communities.”

Earlier on in the day, Mark Bole received a personal visit from HRH Prince Andrew who was keen to hear about ShoZu’s work in the area of delivering and offering application solutions to a wider mass user market.

Over the coming weeks, ShoZu will be announcing major enhancements to the service, including the development of rich media content from the web to mobile devices. These will include videocasting, podcasting, music and other third party media formats.

Google To Power Vodafone Mobile Search – Imagination Lacking: 3GSM

The news is coming out of 3GSM thick and fast, so we’re going to be reporting in a slightly different way. When we see a press release that we think it’s of interest to you, Dear Reader, we’ll put it up in full, with a brief comment at the top. Normal service will be resumed post 3GSM – unless you tell us you like this format.

We’re increasingly disappointed about the view of a couple of technologies by the wider market. The primary recipients of over-glowing acceptance in our view are Apple with their iPod and Google with search. OK, they’re good products, but really …. have some imagination. There are other products/services around that are equally good, and we’re sure that it’s only a matter of time before the alternatives exceed what is currently seen as the benchmark.

To fit in with this trend, Vodafone (who for goodness sake should have more confidence and technical expertise) have signed with Google, to have them power search on the Vodafone network.

Vodafone and Google team to create innovative mobile search experience for mobile phone users

Vodafone today announced that it is collaborating with Google todevelop innovative mobile search services for its customers.

Vodafone will integrate Google’s search capability into its consumerservice, Vodafone live!, providing customers with the most relevantinformation, wherever they are and whatever time of day it is.

Google’s search results will be delivered through Vodafone’s high speeddata networks. Combining Vodafone’s mobile expertise with Google’ssearch capability will ensure that customers can quickly and easilyfind what’s relevant to them. The new service will offer simultaneoussearch both on Vodafone live! and the wider Web.

Vodafone’s integration of Google search will take the mobile internetto a new level. Vodafone live! was the first mobile service to makedata services easily accessible to mobile customers. Whether checkingthe weather, looking for a restaurant or getting the most up-to-datenews, consumers want search services that meet their everyday needs.

Alan Harper, Group Strategy Director, Vodafone, said: “Innovative mobile search will become increasingly important as fastand easy access to information and services are increasingly demandedby customers on the move. Together, Vodafone and Google will focus oncreating the best mobile search service in the market, helping to bringthe mobile internet to life. Our customers will be able to findrelevant information and services faster, making the Vodafone live!customer experience even better. Our intention is to develop ourrelationship with Google to ensure Vodafone customers continue to havethe very best in mobile services.”

Nikesh Arora, Vice President, European Operations, Google Inc., said: “As people become more mobile, it’s increasingly important that we canprovide them with access to information when on-the-go. Googleunderstands that mobile phone users are looking for more than a desktopreplacement – they want directly relevant content, quickly. Vodafonehas long been a pioneer in providing mobile data services to itscustomers and we believe that by working together we will ensure a userfriendly experience for mobile users.”

Vodafone Embrace SIP Internally. Nokia To Supply: 3GSM

The news is coming out of 3GSM thick and fast, so we’re going to be reporting in a slightly different way. When we see a press release that we thinks of interest to you, Dear Reader, we’ll put it up in full, with a brief comment at the top. Normal service will be resumed post 3GSM.

This _is_ an interesting one. Nokia and Vodafone have knocked heads a few times about Nokia and their domination of the handsets market – and Vodafone’s keenness for their relationship with the subscriber not to be lost.

Here Nokia IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) will go Worldwide for Vodafone. The real buzz is that Vodafone will be SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) enabling their core network.

This is the switch to IP for Vodafone and, we judge, an acceptance that they need to fit in to the significantly cheaper IP world, rather than just sticking to their expensive, proprietary cellular networks.

Vodafone awards global contract to Nokia for IMS

Espoo, Finland – Nokia has been selected by Vodafone Group as a preferred supplier, with a contract to begin deploying the Nokia IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solution to Vodafone affiliates worldwide. The first deployments are expected during 2006.

Under the agreement, Nokia becomes a preferred supplier of Vodafone’s IMS network architecture and the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) technology that will enable Vodafone to pilot next generation services and start interoperability testing. Nokia is also deploying its OMA-compliant Presence and List Management solutions. IMS is an essential element of the Nokia Unified Core Network solution and a key enabler of multi-access methods.

“Vodafone is excited by the enormous possibilities that are emerging with IP Multimedia,” says Detlef Schultz, Head of Global Supply Chain Management at Vodafone. “IMS is going to play a strategic role in our future service delivery. We intend to pilot the next generation of services using this technology and will start interoperability testing with other operators as soon as possible. We have the utmost confidence in Nokia’s ability to deploy IMS on a world-wide scale.”

“We are extremely pleased to be cooperating with Vodafone in pioneering the benefits of IMS for consumers,” said Giuseppe Donagemma, Vice President, Networks, Nokia. “Vodafone clearly recognizes how important IMS is in providing next generation multimedia services that are rich in possibilities and independent of access.”

Nokia provides to the telecommunications market a complete, end-to-end solution for IMS-based multimedia, including the Nokia IP Multimedia Subsystem solution and application servers for services such as Presence, which are connected to the IMS via the open IMS Service Control (ISC) interface. Nokia is the leading vendor of IMS/SIP enabled terminals, with several models of video sharing and SIP enabled terminals already on the market.

With its IMS solution and wide range of IP multimedia capable devices, Nokia has taken the lead in making IP Multimedia commercial. Nokia has over 70 IMS references, including 48 commercial references for the fully IMS compatible Push to talk over Cellular (PoC) solution and 14 references for IMS Core with mobile and fixed operators globally. Commercial launches include over 20 PoC and several Video Sharing services.

BT Movio Partners With Virgin Mobile TV, Endemol: 3GSM

BT Partners with Virgin Mobile TV, Endemol They’ve been busy boys at BT this week, with the UK telecoms giant making two major announcements.

On Monday, BT announced a content partnership with Big Brother producer Endemol to provide original shows and interactive content for BT’s new broadband television service.

Endemol now join a growing list of broadband content providers signed up by BT whose roster now includes recently bagged deals with BBC Worldwide, Paramount, Warner Music, National Geographic, HIT Entertainment and Nelvana.

BT/Virgin mobile TV deal

With the ink still drying on the Endemol deal, BT have also announced a new agreement with Virgin Mobile to offer TV services through its broadcast digital TV and radio service, BT Movio.

Virgin Mobile – Britain’s fourth-largest mobile operator – will use BT’s Movio mobile TV product to give their customers access to a wide range of digital TV content and more than 350 DAB digital radio stations.

BT Partners with Virgin Mobile TV, Endemol Using the UK’s existing digital audio broadcasting (DAB) network, the broadcast service will be offered on a limited exclusive basis to virgin Mobile customers later this year. BT Movio will be available in the future to all mobile operators in the UK.

The announcement of the deal coincided with the unveiling of HTC’s new handset at the 3GSM World Congress 2006.

HTC Trilogy handset

The Trilogy TV handset, the world’s first DAB-IP enabled Smartphone, was developed jointly by BT, TTP and HTC and sports a 2.2″ screen for viewing video content and multimedia-focused features including a removable storage and an integrated 1.3 mega pixel camera.

Emma Lloyd, managing director, BT Movio said: “Bringing the world’s first DAB-IP enabled Smartphone to market is another huge achievement for BT and the beginning of a step change towards open standards in the area of TV broadcasting over DAB.”

“By working with Microsoft and HTC we have been able to develop a handset that provides an easy to view, high quality experience, wrapped into a hi-spec media driven mobile phone. This will be vital in attracting mobile operators to the BT Movio service,” she added.

BT Partners with Virgin Mobile TV, Endemol Microsoft partnership

BT has developed a strategic relationship with Microsoft for delivering broadcast services on a mobile handset, with their Windows Media technologies enabling BT Movio to deliver high-quality audio and video content over a DAB network using minimal bandwidth.

The BT Movio service also comes with Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology for the secure delivery of premium video and music content.

These are certainly interesting times for BT, with their recent activity seeing the company pushing ahead to create an alternative distribution network and channel for existing content to both broadband and mobile devices.

Although Orange, 3, and the Vodafone Group already offer streamed TV channels over their 3G mobile networks, this solution gobbles up precious bandwidth.

Phones on the BT Movio service, on the other hand, simply pick up broadcasted signals. As Virgin’s sales and marketing director Graeme Hutchinson explains: “It’s not downloaded; it’s not looped; it’s real TV just like you get at home.”

BT Movio

Nokia 6136 Serves Up Wi-Fi Mobile: 3GSM

Nokia 6136 Serves Up Wi-Fi Mobile Launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia’s new 6136 phone is being touted as the handset that brings GSM and wireless LANs together.

Claiming to be “unifying GSM and Wi-Fi connectivity”, the 6136 is a UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) phone giving users the ability to roam seamlessly between GSM mobile and Wi-Fi networks.

Thanks to the wonders of UMA technology, network charges can be slashed as the phone automatically switches to a VoIP connection when one becomes available – so if you’re on the phone as you come home, your mobile will instantly transfer the call to your Wi-Fi network.

Nokia 6136 Serves Up Wi-Fi Mobile The quad-band Nokia 6136 will be able to connect to GSM networks at 850, 900, 1800, and 1900MHz (so no problems using it in the States as well as Europe) and comes with a built in 1.3 megapixel camera and FM radio.

There’s also a microSD memory card slot for expansion.

So far, there’s only UMA service in operation, the BT Fusion product, which we reported on in June last year.

The technology holds much promise for operators, offering the ability to deliver new voice and data services to subscribers over WLAN access networks.

Because of its limited bandwidth, GSM only supports basic data services, whereas super-fast Wi-Fi can deliver far richer content though support connections of speeds (theoretically) in excess of 50Mbps.

Nokia 6136 Serves Up Wi-Fi Mobile At a press conference on Monday, Jorma Ollila, Nokia’s chief executive said, “We want to help our customers complement their existing mobile services with mobile IP. UMA gives users an alternative to PC-based VoIP,”

He added that UMA devices would appeal to companies who wanted to reduce call costs by moving their voice and data to common IP networks.

The Nokia 6136 UMA phone is expected to be available in Q2 2006, priced around €275 (~$327, ~£188). The company will also release network operating equipment to support the new converged handset.

Orange customers are expected to be the first to get UMA’d up, and there should be plenty of Wi-Fi hotspots about after the company recently took over broadband outfit Wanadoo.

We’ve no idea how much the network charges are going to be, but they should certainly be cheaper than making calls via Orange’s normal network.

Glossary: UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access)
This specification enables the seamless hand-over of voice and data connections between GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks and WLANs.

Nokia
BT Fusion

XT9, Tegic’s T9 Followup On Samsung Mobiles: 3GSM

The news is coming out of 3GSM thick and fast. To keep up we’re planning to report is a slightly different way. When we see a press release that we thinks of interest to you, Dear Reader, we’ll put it up in full, with a brief comment at the top. Normal service will be resumed post 3GSM.
—
What a coincidence, we’ve been wondering what’s happened to T9, the method that dominates the fast input of text into a ‘normal’ mobile numeric keypad. We thought that the founders must be sitting on a desert island somewhere, having bought it, living the life of Riley.

Well Tegic, who sell T9, is owned by AOL these days and they’re announcing the integration of their follow-on product, XT9, onto Samsung mobile phones.

XT9 been around since October 2005, but it’s the first time we’ve heard of it. and it appears that they’re making a splash at 3GSM. XT9 has expanded to encompass hard and soft QWERTY keyboard with handwriting recognition capabilities using a stylus as well.
—

Samsung to Integrate XT9 Mobile Interface to Drive

New XT9 Debuts at 3GSM World Congress

3GSM World Congress (Barcelona, Spain) – February 13, 2006 – Tegic, a division of AOL, today announced that Samsung Electronics plans to be the first handset maker to integrate the XT9 Mobile Interface (formerly T9 Mobile Suite), a first of its kind, multi-modal user interface, into new handsets.

The XT9™ Mobile Interface, which launched in October 2005, seamlessly integrates popular T9® software for the phone keypad, as well as hard and soft QWERTY keyboard, with handwriting recognition capabilities using a stylus.

This pioneering user interface is designed to enable users to easily toggle between messaging modes, as well as numbers, letters, symbols and languages, and also allows for auto-accenting of words, a benefit for users of many European languages, including French, Spanish and Italian.

“Samsung is a long-standing partner for Tegic so we are pleased to work closely to integrate XT9 into a series of new devices,” said Bill Schwebel, president, Tegic Communications. “We share a common goal, which is to open up new revenue streams for handset makers and operators as voice revenues decline. Our new multi-modal user interface will help realize this potential.”

Today, Tegic also announced new XT9 Mobile Interface features. By making it simpler to type words and phrases, XT9 makes it easier to enjoy popular content and wireless services, driving widespread consumer adoption of mobile web browsing, search and messaging. This new product upgrade adds the following new features:

Next Letter Prediction: When entering letters by scrolling through an alphabet (up-and-down or side-to-side), XT9 predicts the user’s next letter based on previous letters entered. For example, if a user inputs “l-o-v,” then XT9 will present the next letter as “e” for the word “love” rather than have the user scroll through the alphabet from “v” to “e.”
* Regional Error Correction: For users of hard QWERTY keyboards (e.g., chiclet), XT9 helps ensure a better messaging experience by compensating for users tapping incorrect keys on the keyboard. For example, if a users inadvertently types in “m-o-o-b,” XT9 will present “moon” since the “b” is just one key away from the “n,” and the word “moon” is a more likely choice.

For handset makers, XT9 can help speed time-to-market for new mobile devices. Further, this new user interface makes it easier for consumers to access mobile content and services, enabling users to take advantage of all their phone has to offer. Samsung plans to integrate XT9’s full and reduced QWERTY capabilities into new devices to ship later this year.

The XT9 Mobile Interface is currently available in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. Additional Latin- and script-based languages are also available upon request. Later this year, Tegic plans to release XT9 2.0, which will include advanced speech recognition capabilities, as well as Chinese handwriting recognition.

Tegic