P2P for cell phones: Reach out and share something

November 5th, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

Cell phones are learning to share files, but the earliest efforts don’t nearly resemble the peer-to-peer renegades like Napster and Kazaa that the designers have in mind. FoneShare, an application introduced two weeks ago by Newbay Software does let people share their collections of ring tones, graphics, games, songs, movie trailers and other wireless extras with strangers. FoneShare will debut next year as a subscription service, running over privately owned and operated cellular networks, and the sharing will be done via Web sites controlled by a wireless operator, said NewBay Chief Executive Paddy Holahan. That’s a far cry from Napster, which was free, let people choose from digital music libraries stored on untold millions of personal computers, and relied heavily upon the anonymity of the public Internet. More …

Technology Licensing Propels Mobile Gaming

November 1st, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

While the video gaming console segment is slowing, a number of vendors in the mobile gaming segment are making efforts to allow console-quality 3D games on wireless devices. More …

What Do Women Game Designers Want?

October 18th, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

A longtime game player, Denise Fulton of Ion Storm in Austin, Tex., is an executive producer overseeing a new installment in the Deus Ex series.

DENISE FULTON spent much of her childhood playing computer games. At 8, while growing up in Ohio, she was already playing Zork, Adventure and other text-based games. And the fascination continued into her adult years.

So it is not surprising that today Ms. Fulton, 34, is an executive producer at Ion Storm, a video game company in Austin, Tex., where she is overseeing the next installment in the popular Deus Ex series. More …

Kids must earn mobile power

October 11th, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

Tiffany Morantes, 14, has a cell phone. Sort of.

Her small, silver and light-blue Samsung is in her mother’s possession for a few days of “probation” because Tiffany didn’t obey the rules.

She’s supposed to get in touch with her mom every day after school.

“I’m supposed to call. I forget a lot,” Tiffany said. “She’s always calling me to see if I’m OK.”

Tiffany has been allowed to use the phone on weekdays for necessities only, such as checking in with her mom and dad, as well as on weekends, when minutes are cheaper, for chatting with friends. More …

Gaga over games

October 7th, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

Analysts say that mobile phone gaming has finally come of age, and game publishers are seeing a burst of interest from VCs.

For those who thought mobile phone gaming was limited to simple, monochromatic games like Nokia’s Snake, think again: the industry clearly has shed its skin.

Mobile gaming has come a long way from its early days, when games were embedded inside handsets as an afterthought. With recent leaps in technology in both phones and networks, game publishers are creating better and more sophisticated games for a public that can’t seem to get enough of them

Some of the UK’s biggest media companies are getting ready to stake their claim to the mobile handset with branded downloadable mobile Java portals.

September 30th, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

The once-bloody battle for control of consumers’ mobile media consumption is heating up once more in the UK thanks to the power of mobile Java (J2ME). A few years back, when Vodafone Live! was known as Vizzavi and O2 Active as Genie, a range of different players were fighting to become the access point for consumers’ mobile data life. ISPs like MSN and Lycos and independent mobile portals like Iobox and Mviva all thought they could beat the operators at their own game. Fast forward a few years, with the transformation of the operators’ poor early efforts into today’s shiny Live! style portals, and the war seemed won.

In the last month or so, however, new contestants have begun lining up to stake their claim to the handset real estate. Media companies, ranging from giants such as News International, publisher of The Sun, and broadcasters like Endemol, to smaller players like computer magazine PC Plus, are all hoping Java will give them a new opportunity to form direct mobile relationships with consumers.

The list of media companies with plans to launch Java portals grows longer by the day, even if they’re not yet ready to go public. Talking to a veritable who’s who of the UK media industry over the last month reveals an excitement around new mobile technology that hasn’t been seen for a long time.

The advantages for media companies are obvious. “Mobile Java gives us the opportunity to build an interface to put all a broadcaster’s content in one area, from which consumers can navigate to from one place,” said outgoing head of interactive at Celador, Bruce Vandenberg. “TV is strong enough to tie people into brands like Big Brother.”

The ability to dynamically update content is what’s equally attractive to media owners like The Sun, which would be able to send the latest headlines direct to a user’s phone, for instance. More …

Fine Wine, Amour, And Mobile Games

September 21st, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

France is a force in the latest wireless craze: Video games for phones

No doubt you’ve seen a few of them already. At the bus stop, aboard a train, or at the mall, the kids are hunched over, pecking furiously at their cell phones, letting out occasional yelps or groans. Is it some kind of hypercharged text messaging? Advertisement

Look closer. These youngsters are joining the fastest-growing craze in the wireless world: playing video games on their handsets. Whether punching their way past a gang of thugs in Shado Fighter or escaping a booby-trapped castle to rescue seven brides in Prince of Persia: Harem Adventure, they’re feeding a booming business for mobile operators. More …

Soon you can swap music and games on your mobile!

September 16th, 2004 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Trends | No Comments »

Researchers at the Nokia Research Centre in Budapest in collaboration with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary claim to have developed a mobile file-sharing network technology, which according to them will help users swap music, videos and games between cellphones.

According to the New Scientist, this new technology is an adaptation of the peer-to-peer (P2P) schemes, presently used by Internet users and can be used to share both images and text. More …