Posts Tagged ‘UX widgetization’

Latest Samsung Omnia ROM leak got a Widget Fever

January 12th, 2009

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Thanks to the 2008 Holiday Season, The Samsung Omnia is pretty much everywhere and in case you missed it for xmas and the new year eve. there was a ROM leak for it that shows that there are more widgets to come and the hint of a possible Yahoo Widget partnership for the Omnia because it looks you will be able to download widget directly from Yahoo in the short term future.

Many of the leaked widgets may come from the TouchWiz improvements in this area announced for the AnyCall Haptic 2 for the Korean market that comes with a default selection of 50 widgets.

samsungomniawidget1           samsungomniawidget2

it sure is still comforting for anyone with a Omnia that Samsung is showing commitment to their Phones by adding more and more widget as they also release fixes.

The New Widgets and Main Features you get with this ROM are:

- New Favorite Settings
- Customize widget (Show/Hide widget)
- AccuWeather widget
- Yahoo Finance widget
- CNN widget
- Google Search widget
- New Opera build 15233
- Samsung Mobile Blog</SPAN< span>

You can download the leaked ROM. but everyone must be warned that since it is a leaked and a beta ROM. there are no guarantees it will work perfectly or that it will work in the first place. only download if you know what you are getting into.

Samsung Omnia ROM DXHL1 

*Update* i know the link now direct nowhere. you can also look it up here: http://www.samsung-omnia.org/shokka9

via wmpoweruser

Google Gadgets for Gmail

November 4th, 2008

And the Widgetization Gadgetization at Google continues with Gmail being the new google property to get them. from now on you will be able to get a Google Calendar and Google Docs Gadget for your Gmail sidebar.

This will let you see your latest marked appointments in google calendar and your latest google docs. nice to have if you spend a lot of time in Gmail and your are not fond of using iGoogle.

You can also force other Gadgets to fit in your sidebar by using its XML URL but it is not recommended because it ends up being counter productive. but this open up the gate for all kinds of productivity based gadgets to get into gmail. a good thing again if gmail is your most used Google Service.

For more details visit the Official Entry in the Gmail Blog

via TC

Samsung Anycall Haptic 2 announced, comes with TouchWIZ and 50 Widgets by default

September 29th, 2008

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Ok, Samsung has gone completely crazy and overboard with TouchWIZ. as if it was not enough with the announcement of their new Photo Centric, 8mp camera and TouchWIZ phone. they are now announcing the second version of the Samsung Anycall Haptic. a phone that i wrote about just a little over 6 months ago as it was the second to sport TouchWIZ.

The frame of the phone seems to share half of the Omnia look and half of the Pixon look. the Anycall is multimedia centric and it comes with Digital Mobile TV, 4gb or 16gb SSD options and improvements in multi touch, haptics and responsiveness compared to the first Anycall Haptic. but that is not all. it comes fully packed with Samsung TouchWIZ Widgets. it carries 50 TouchWIZ Widgets from the let go. that is quite a selection. does that means that those are all the TouchWIZ Widget available considering that the Pixon comes with 18 by default?. that is the question left unanswered right now. but 50 widgets should suffice to anyone for the first months. given the pace they got. a new Omnia Software Update should not be far away. i will of course keep you posted.

via Telecoms Korea

Samsung Pixon M8800 reviewed, comes with TouchWIZ and 18 Widgets

September 29th, 2008

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The pace of the Mobile Industry is blazing fast now in Korea. just last week i posted about the LG Renoir KC910 and wondered how Samsung would respond to it and its 8mb pixels camera and such. it results they already had a response in the plans with the M8800 known as PIXON.

tmp138

While it may not responds in a Spec vs Spec way it does look to blow away the LG Renoir on two areas: The Camera and The Widgets.

Mobile Review have a extensive review of the device and in one part of it talk about the Widgets in the Device and claim almost 20. i personally counted 18 from the screens they show and the list they make of them. so i will go with 18.

       widget03        set08

they also mention that you can load  TouchWIZ Widgets from a Samsung website. i wonder if that also work in the WM6.1 +TouchWIZ  Omnia or just for Samsung OS +TouchWIZ phones. i had never seen the mention of a samsung TouchWIZ widgets website anywhere else before.

So, if you want to have a look at the phone. check the review. a good choice if you are interested in a 8mp camera phone.

Review of GSM/UMTS-handset Samsung PIXON M8800 via Mobile.Review

T-Mobile Partners With Opera Software for Web`n`Walk Mobile Widget Open Platform

September 29th, 2008

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Yes. it is one of those cases felt inclined to put a long self explanatory titles. the deal is that T-Mobile and Opera have united to bring up a iPhone like Non-iPhone Widgetized Spring Board (or launchpad if you will) that will bring you notifications from websites, and can show you in a icon based grid your favorite websites once you click in one. this will combine with a widgetized website from where you will be able to add more widgets (icons) too in order to enhance the experience:

  • T-Mobile makes mobile surfing easier, faster and more convenient
  • Direct access to your most important and personal Internet services with one click on your mobile-phone display
  • Active widgets provide automatic notification of new information on personal Internet sites if required
  • Strategic partnership between T-Mobile and Opera for the creation of an open, standardized platform
  • web’n'walk widgets expected to be available by the end of the year

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web’n'walk is becoming even more intuitive, bringing users even closer to the World Wide Web. In future, you will be able to access your personal favorite sites more easily and quickly than ever from your mobile phone by simply selecting the corresponding widget, an active icon, from the standard display. The most important information from your chosen site is then shown – whether eBay, Amazon, Quelle, MyVideo.de, MySpace, Bild, billiger.de and various Yahoo! Services, such as Yahoo! oneSearch and Yahoo! Weather, or other popular Internet sites. In addition, in case of important information on a personalized Internet site, such as the arrival of an eBay notification, the widget indicates the new status, with users able to respond directly. You are thus informed of bids in online auctions or new news items as they occur, even on the move.

T-Mobile entered into a partnership with browser pioneer Opera Software ASA to develop the "Widget Internet".

"T-Mobile ushered in a new era as the first global telecommunications operator to provide its customers with a complete mobile Web experience. Together with Opera, T-Mobile launched the pan-European success story called web’n'walk, enabling people to use all their favorite Web sites on nearly any device," says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera Software. "Today, T-Mobile takes another industry-defining step forward. In web’n'walk 4.0, the mobile phone comes alive with widgets that deliver personalized services direct from the home screen, giving people more powerful tools to take full advantage of the mobile Web experience."

"T-Mobile is striving towards offering its customers the best Internet experience at any time and in any place. To this end, we have introduced the iPhone into our markets in cooperation with Apple and are working on a new operating system, Android, in cooperation with Google, as a member of the Open Handset Alliance. The new web’n'walk is enabling us to push ahead with this strategy and introduce a new level of Internet quality to our other terminal devices and operating systems as well," explained Rainer Deutschmann, Senior Vice President Mobile Internet, T-Mobile International AG. "We invite the industry to support the development and spread of this open, standards-based platform for the benefit of users and application developers."

Large selection of widgets

The web’n'walk widgets can be quickly and easily set up according to personal preferences for mobile surfing. In order to enable this, T-Mobile is providing a gallery, initially with approximately 40 widgets for popular websites. It will soon be possible for other users and providers to create additional widgets via an open platform. These widgets will then be available to all web’n'walk widget users, regardless of which handset they use.

As was already possible with the Apple iPhone, T-Mobile customers can now put their preferred widgets on their mobile phone display with just a few clicks using web’n'walk. This provides them with an overview of their favorite services at all times upon request and enables them to access these services quickly. The familiar, personalizable web’n'walk homepage with the intelligent Yahoo! oneSearch function continues to be available for additional Internet use. The search is tailored to the specific requirements of mobile users and can also be set up as a widget.

The web’n'walk widgets thus complement the browser-based web’n'walk homepage, which T-Mobile updates on a continual basis. T-Mobile plans to launch the web’n'walk widgets by the end of the year, initially for touch-screen smartphones such as the MDA compact IV and MDA Vario IV.

The press release is almost a perfect example on how to say a lot without revealing much of substance. but the points are covered and you can expect this to have 40 widgets at first and to bring more UI and UX Widgetization to your mobile all thanks to Opera and T-Mobile. in the end that is not a bad thing. so be it.

T-Mobile introduces widgets in next-generation mobile Web experience via Opera