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Skype for Business is coming to your mobile device
Two months after Microsoft launched Skype's Business edition, which integrates into MS Office Calendar and allows for group messaging/video chats/calls for up to 250 people, the video conferencing company announced on Tuesday that a mobile version for both iOS and Android devices is in the works. The mobile app will feature a central dashboard from which the user can search for contacts, check for and RSVP to upcoming meetings and dig through past archived conversations. Additionally, actually contacting people will be easier thanks to larger onscreen buttons and a full-screen video chat option.
DevJuice: Third-party MobileDevice framework debuts
It is way early days yet, but the SDMMobileDevice project is now available publicly on github. Meant to provide an open-source, public alternative to Apple's private MobileDevice framework, this OS X project enables you to detect attached iOS devices and communicate with them. With it, you can query connected devices for their software and hardware configurations, communicate with services, access sandboxed applications and perform file transfers and application installations. Developer Sam Marshall is hard at work at toughening up the codebase (it's still early alpha) and providing a more intuitive, delegate-based Objective-C approach to using it.
Gracenote Entourage: the ACR TV platform has a name!
Remember Gracenote's plans for an Automatic Content Recognition system for TV? (think: Shazam to help you work out which The Mentalist episode is on). Now it's got a name: Gracenote Entourage. It'll run on smartphones and tablets to identify movies, TV shows and music just from the audio clip. It'll then show you related programming, actor bios and, erm, relevant advertising (but hey, they've gotta make money somehow, yeah?). It'll run on mobile devices and smart TVs, although would that really be easier than pressing the "TV Guide" button on your remote? We'll leave that for you to judge.
Mobile devices may outnumber humans in the US, but they can't take our soul
We're not really sure what to make of this, but it looks like Americans may be under siege... from their own cellphones. No, seriously -- according to the latest survey from CTIA, there are now more mobile devices in the US than there are human beings. The trade association's semi-annual statistics show that during the first six months of 2011, the number of wireless subscriptions rose by nine percent over the previous year, to a total of 327.6 million. The combined population of the US, Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands, by comparison, is around 315 million. That translates to a nationwide wireless penetration rate of 103.9 percent, and, not surprisingly, a 111 percent surge in data usage. CTIA says these results highlight "the industry's need to purchase more spectrum from the federal government," as well as our collective need to get a life. You can find more crunch-able numbers in the full PR, after the break. [Image courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art]
Is Dell readying a new mobile device?
There appears to be some speculation floating around that Dell is about to cannonball itself into the mobile pool, big time. According to whispered rumors from dark hallways (AKA Forbes), the company is putting together a smartphone / multimedia device which might be rearing its head sometime early in 2008. The device -- being developed with the help of Taiwanese company Quanta -- will sport video and audio playback, as well as internet functionality. The rumors are strengthened by the company's addition of former Motorola cell phone executive vice president Ron Garriques, and with the dropping of its PDA and DAP products, there's certainly a gaping void left open for a new device. Of course, it also doesn't hurt that Dell's recent acquisition of Zing and trademarking of the "Zingspot" moniker suggests the company is getting into content distribution -- perfect for a shiny new convergence device. Only time will tell if the PC powerhouse can get into the very-crowded smartphone game, too. [Via InformationWeek]
DeviceLink.framework offers wireless device syncing
Apple created its Cocoa development environment out of libraries of code called frameworks. These frameworks exist on every Mac OS X computer. You can find them in /System/Library. There are two kinds of frameworks available: public and private. Recently, super-hacker "Pumpkin" has been looking into the DeviceLink private framework and suggested I take a peek through its strings. Sure enough, the framework seems to provide device-to-device wireless Bonjour connection support. The framework address incoming and outgoing sessions, device pairing, file transfer, and authorization. What this means is all the technology to connect iPhones, iPod touches and Macintosh computers (not to mention Apple TVs) together, using simple programming with all the heavy lifting done by Apple. This is a private framework. Like MobileDevice, the framework that powers a lot of iTune's iPod- and iPhone-data transfer, this indicates that this is not a feature that will soon pop up in a public Software Development Kit for easy access to members of the Apple Developer Connection. And that's a shame because the framework is both exciting and intriguing.If you'd like to look for yourself, navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DeviceLink.framework and run the Unix strings command on DeviceLink. I found the framework both on a Tiger 10.4.10 system with iTunes 7.5 and on a Leopard 10.5 system with iTunes 7.4 as well as the 1.0.2 iPhone files but not on an original Apple TV. So chances are likely that the framework is already on the system you're using.
Emblaze Mobile inks deal with Sharp and ACCESS
Emblaze Mobile, Israeli-based phone designers / makers, have inked a deal with Japanese powerhouse Sharp, and software developer ACCESS (of Palm OS fame, amongst others) to create a new mobile device which will "revolutionize mobile communication." You know... just a small goal. The companies plan to reveal this magical device sometime in 2008, which will be based around Sharp-developed hardware, and ACCESS-grown software (go figure). Guy Bernstein, CEO of Emblaze, says, "The device represents one of the most ambitious projects in the high-tech mobile industry." Of course, given that said device is still a total mystery, statements like that should be very easy to make. Your poker face is good, Guy, but let's see your cards.
