New mobile offers from Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL
Microsoft: MSN Direct
Not like Live Search Mobile, which offers both Windows Mobile and Java versions, MSN Direct phone edition is only available for Windows Mobile Standard Edition (a.k.a smartphone). Feature-wise it is like a pre-3.0 Yahoo Go without the map part. One unique thing is that it appears directly on phone’s home screen like a desktop widget, which apparently can not be done with Java.
Yahoo: oneConnect
The UI of this oneConnect application is very similar to Yahoo Go. It could be based on Yahoo Go platform, just appears to be a dedicated social network application.
Yahoo! oneConnect will bring together your communities, social and professional networks. We plan to support: Bebo, Dopplr, Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, hi5, Last.fm, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter.
AOL: Open Source Mobile Software Platform
AOL is almost a nonexist to me. The total number of times I visited AOL.com must be less than 10. But this announcement attracted me:
AOL today announced the AOL Open Mobile Platform, which will be made available to developers in the coming months. This new open source platform will allow developers to build and distribute applications and content across all major mobile device platforms and operating systems including BREW, Java, Linux, RIM, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. As a result, developers will be able to create applications for the vast majority of phones that most consumers own today.
The technology is from Air Media, a company acquired by AOL last year. Yes, that will be yet another client engine with proprietary XML-based markup language to achieve cross-platform. This kind of products exist because the capabilities of mobile browsers on various handsets are dramatically different, and the lack of local API access (such as PIM, location, bluetooth, file, camera etc.).
A few MSN Direct screenshots I took from T-Mobile Dash:
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