I've talked about the integration of web 2.0 into mobile devices and the evolution of our humble,
ubiquitous mobile phones before, but now I've found some more about people doing something about it. I know Nokia have recently added flickr and blogging functionality into their N-series phones, but its not very integrated at all. 3 and Telstra also have similar services, and many web 2.0 services have mobile sites too, but they're not well integrated either. New blood needs to challenge the mobile industry and shake up all the conventions so we can finally get something revolutionary - new menu system, new device designs, new keypad/button layouts (is the physical keypad really necessary?), new device focus (is it a mobile phone first and foremost anymore?).
Mounting a challenge to the big, incumbent mobile phone makers is no easy task. Even Siemens sold their unprofitable mobile division to BenQ. But a company called
Neo [via
GigaOM] is attempting to do that. Their first phone, the 808i, has a slightly different to the usual design, some interesting new features - including some eMXI feature that seems to thread media, messaging, internet and your address book together. It remains to be see how it integrates all its features together and whether they'd take the web 2.0 step.
While we're waiting for the ultimate mobile communicator device, here's two solutions that could help bridge the gap.
First up is
Hubdog which pulls blogs, podcasts and RSS content in general on to your Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone. Its got a nice interface, and some nice features including the ability to save content on to your device, blog directly from it to Blogger, and email others about the content. Feeds are also organised into a directory so you can pick and discover content like AvantGo. There isn't much of a social aspect to this site just yet, apart from the reviews and ratings section of feeds. Given the capabilities available on Windows Mobile devices, it wouldn't be very hard to implement simple features like the ability to SMS a content link to a fellow Hubdog user, along with a short message.
The other is
plusmo. This service is available more widely, with Windows Mobile, Java, Blackberry and Palm versions available. It is a RSS reader, but rather than the standard view, you can browse through items by their pictures and title. Its got a few more features too, like the ability to track searches on sites like digg and IceRocket, as well as tracking Myspace, Xanga and other social networks, and real-time content for events like the ICC Champions Trophy. Content is also cached on your phone too, so you can access it almost instanteously, without having to wait for it to download. The downsite to this service is that it is recommended that you have a data plan so it can download fresh content anytime, which is still quite expensive here in Australia for the mass-market.
Both of these don't have much of a social aspect though - its mostly still all about the content. I can't even post a short comment on a blog post if I wanted to (speaking of which, there should be some sort of universal commenting API for blogs so RSS readers can implement it and allow commenting directly from the reader). For social stuff, we still have to resort to the various mobile versions of our favourite sites (if they're available), or services like
twitter.
I want something slick, reliable, integrated, personalisable, and extensible - come on, its not that hard. Maybe the much-rumoured Apple mobile phone will give the industry the much needed shake up.