This week, the mobile computing world revolves around the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Among some of the highlights today were the announcement of the second Android phone, as well as Yahoo’s new mobile initiative, and the announcement of a partnership between Nokia and Skype that will bring Skype’s VOIP client to Nokia’s high-end N97 phone.
Yahoo Mobile
Yahoo today announced a new, but as of yet unavailable version, of its Yahoo Mobile service. Yahoo Mobile will be released as a native app for the iPhone, as well as for smartphones from Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony, and Motorola. Yahoo Mobile will also work on all Windows Mobile phones. This will be a major upgrade to Yahoo’s current mobile offerings and Yahoo Mobile will include all of Yahoo’s key services like Yahoo Mail, News, Calendar, and Messenger. On every phone except for the iPhone, the Yahoo Mobile package will include Opera Mini and Yahoo Maps.
Second Android Phone
The HTC Magic is the second Android phone after the G1. The first reviews have been quite positive, though the HTC Magic is clearly also entering a very crowded field. Besides some general updates to the Android operating system, this new will also allow for video recording – a feature that is still missing from Apple’s iPhone.
Skype on Nokia Phones
While consumers would clearly love to make VOIP calls from their cellphones, most device manufacturers have shied away this, as most network operators obviously want users to use their own network for calls. Today, however, Nokia and Skype announced a partnership that will bring Skype to Nokia’s high-end N97 phone. Users will be able to make Skype calls when they are on a 3G or Wi-Fi network.
Yesterday, Sony also announced that it would integrate Skype into its Xperia X1 phone.
Bolt Browser
Today also saw the release of a new browser for mobile phones: the Bolt Browser. The developers claim that their browser, thanks to using data compression, can load pages significantly faster than any competing mobile browser. Opera made a similar claim last week when it unveiled its Opera Turbo service.
