Born to be Wireless

Opera has decided to switch allegiances, making Google the default search engine on Opera Mobile and Opera Mini and ending the browser maker’s previous relationship with Yahoo. Google will make its appearance on Opera from the start of next month.

The announcement is not the first time the pair have worked together: Google has been the default search option on Opera’s desktop browser for seven years. According to Opera, the new union will cover all global territories except Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and includes all of Opera’s standard mobile web browsers.

The deal is good news for Google’s mobile ambitions: Opera users are a browsing-hungry bunch: Opera Mini users browse more than 1.7 billion pages. What’s more, Opera has shipped on 100 million mobiles and Opera mini has been downloaded by another 35 million.

Labels: Opera

Check out ZiPhone. It’s a GUI for unlocking your iPhone.

Think simple. REALLY simple. You literally install ZiPhone, plug in your iPhone and press ‘unlock’. A few minutes later, your device is open. No arsing around. Very, very smart.

You can download ZiPhone for Mac or PC here.

Labels: iphone

It is live now. Just go to http://m.linkedin.com/ on any mobile browser. Of course, if you have an iPhone, you will see a version optimized just for that device.

This isn’t exactly what we had in mind when we noted there is still an opportunity to create a kick-ass mobile social network.

But the basic functionality is all there. You can look up people’’s profiles, invite people into your network, and see updates from your contacts. More fully-featured, downloadable mobile apps geared to specific phones may be coming in the future.

Even limited mobile browser accessibility should help LinkedIn keep its members happy. The regular Website has been on a tear lately, nearly tripling in unique visitors over the past year in the U.S., to 3.6 million in January 2008, according to comScore.

No signs of social networking fatigue there.

source: Techcrunch

Labels: mobile web

Yahoo really are pushing forward with their mobile efforts — it really is gratifying to see.

Let’s hear from Marco Boerries, Exec VP of Yahoo’s Connected Life:

“Last year we set out to reinvent mobile search with Yahoo! oneSearch, and today with 29 operator partnerships around the world covering more than 600 million subscribers, we believe we have certainly succeeded,” said Marco. “Now, we intend to reinvent mobile communications through Yahoo! oneConnect, a revolutionary new mobile communications service that will combine integrated mobile messaging with a socially-connected address book.”

The architecutre is open — plus it’s aiming to offer an entirely connected experience, whether your friends are on Yahoo, MSN or beyond. Some of the key features of oneConnect include:

– Socially-connected address book - Provide users the capability to integrate activity from popular social networks, professional networks, and communities into their address book, keeping it always in sync. Consumers will be able to view status updates, photo uploads, and the recent activity (”pulse”) of contacts across all their networks.

– Integrated mobile messaging - Offer seamless integration of IM and SMS, including threaded conversations. Any messaging service will be able to use Yahoo! oneConnect’s open APIs to plug into the application’s messaging feature - enabling consumers to access a wide range of popular services, such as Yahoo! Messenger, Google(R) Talk, AOL(R) Instant Messenger and MSN(TM) Messenger.

– Status - Give consumers the capability to view their contacts by their most recent status updates on popular social networks, as well as update their own status on their favorite social networks - in one easy step - and automatically broadcast it to their friends.

– Pulse - Provide consumers the functionality to see a dynamic overview of what friends are up to, including recent photos, their status, profile updates, and recommendations based on their most recent actions on popular social networks.

– Favorites - Keep the people consumers interact with most at their fingertips. Users will be able to set up messaging shortcuts to make reaching out as quick as possible.

– Social contact card - Allow users to aggregate the most relevant information on any given contact, including archives of past communications, detailed pulse history, and one-click ways to initiate communication.

– Innovative location-sensing technology - Provide new ways to locate, chat with, and exchange contact information with nearby Yahoo! oneConnect users. Proximity alerts will notify consumers when a contact enters their vicinity.

– An open communications platform - Give users the functionality to communicate via multiple communications tools - such as IM, SMS, and social networks. Widgets will provide users the capability to access their email across major email providers, such as Yahoo! Mail, MSN Hotmail(R), Gmail(R), and AOL(R) Mail. Additionally, Yahoo! is in discussions with DataViz(R), a company that allows mobile users to access their corporate Microsoft Exchange(TM) email accounts and Microsoft Office(TM), documents, to work together on widget versions of its industry-acclaimed RoadSynch(R) and Documents To Go(R) applications.

Labels: oneconnect, Yahoo

Microsoft, in the middle of a bid to acquire Yahoo, has announced that it will acquire Danger Inc., the company behind the Sidekick mobile device. The Palo Alto-based mobile software company filed in December to raise up to $100 million in an IPO. But the company has been losing money and its fortunes are tightly tied to the success of the SideKick and its agreement with T-Mobile. The firm will become part of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices division. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Release.

Danger has raised about $142 million in total VC funding since 2000, including a Series E round in late 2006 at a post-money valuation of approximately $187 million, reports PEHub. Shareholders include Mobius Venture Capital (17.6%), Redpoint Ventures (14.8%), T-Mobile (12.6%), Softbank Capital (12.7%), Motorola (11.2%), Meritech Capital Partners (7.8%) and VSP Capital (6.2%).

Labels: acquisition