Java has many APIs (application programming interfaces) that let developers access phone functions like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and secure payments, while Flash lacks some of those hooks, he said. Flash, however, offers some nice user-interface capabilities compared to Java. Using both, developers can build a game, for example, that uses Flash for the menu and Java for other features. "They can mix and match," said Wretling. "A Java application can utilize graphics and UI components both from Java and from Flash."

This has the potential to produce some incredible, integrated applications with friendly user interfaces.

Project Capuchin is scheduled to be available the second half of this year.

 The Mozilla Foundation announced that the mobile version or Firefox, Fennec, is coming down the pipe. A release date was not included with the announcement. Mitchell Baker, the chairman of the Mozilla Foundation and of Mozillla Corp. delivered the information at the Web 2.0 conference on Thursday. From Yahoo:

"The key to the Internet should be the same. The core is information: What can I get to and what can I do with it?" she said.

While technical constraints affect mobile browsing, psychological constraints affect the experience on the PC, caused by usage habits formed over decades, Baker said.

The browser will be built on an open platform.  

The Good:

• Advertiser can choose ad size,
• Sizes are limited to keep download times low, and
• All ads MUST link to a mobile-friendly landing page.

The Bad:

• The ad size does not appear to be served dynamically.

Imagine a 180 pixel wide image on a 360 pixel wide screen or the other way around. Due to the various screen resolutions on the market today this could diminish click-thru rates on mobile ads.

Check out the Google video on mobile image ads. 

“Really, what it’s about is developer choice,” said Ryan Stewart, Adobe platform evangelist. Previously, the Web was limited to the browser, but now it is expanding, Stewart said. He cited several examples of new trends in Web technologies, including Prism, that bring Web applications to the desktop in a similar manner to Adobe.

Though I feel this has been a long time coming, it is good to see two industry leaders and developers embracing this idea. As for the mobile space, Google has already announced that Google Gears will be made available on and off line for mobile devices.

This is a bit different from my previous roles in mobile applications and strategies, but I am looking forward to rounding out my mobile experience.  

My new email address at work is kempm at playphone dot com.  

This is suggested reading for anyone working on a mobile application.

Type www.businessweek.com into your cell phone’s browser and you will be re-directed to www.businessweek.mobi, a version formatted for mobile devices. More and more sites are employing this strategy to help direct mobile users to mobile content. This is great way to help promote the mobile Web and accelerate users getting to the content they want, but there are some drawbacks that content owners need to address.

Browsers and users’ choice
With Safari on the iPhone users, new browsers like Deepfish and Skyfire on the way, and the increased browsing capabilities of Internet Explorer Mobile and Opera Mobile, users want to be able to choose between a mobile formatted site and the traditional Web site.

Reasons for this vary. If you look at MacWorld’s Web site and compare it to what they offer mobile users, you will notice that the content is significantly reduced. If my handset has the capability to render the normal site, albeit more slowly, I should have the option to get to the content I want.

Another example came when I was using the AT&T 8525 to access corporate email. A colleague sent me the link to an article in BusinessWeek. The 8525 has a nice landscape screen and runs Internet Explorer Mobile which can view most sites. When I attempted to follow the link to the article, the redirect BusinessWeek uses kept forcing me back to the their .mobi home page. It was incredibly frustrating to be forced to browse where BusinessWeek thought I wanted to go.

I had to wait until I could access the site from the laptop to see the article. Had this been business critical information regarding a customer, it could have had a negative affect on the meeting I was about to attend.

The answer is simple – allow users a choice and apply cookies. If users can toggle between versions at their discretion and use cookies to record their preference, content owners will not frustrate and lose readers.

It appears that Occasionally Connected Computing (or OCC as Intel identified it) may finally be approaching with Silverlight and Google Gears for mobile devices on the horizon. TechCrunch covered the announcements.

Google defines Google Gears as “an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline.”

Nokia announced that Silverlight by Microsoft will be made available for S60 smartphones. From the press release :

Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering next-generation media experiences and rich interactive applications.

Back in 2005, I wrote about the advantages of what was then called Occasionally Connected Computing in three posts:

• Occasionally Connected,
• RSS and Mobility – Laptop, and
• Occasionally Connected with AvantGo.

These new environments and services will hopefully make this model a mainstay in mobile computing.

UPDATE – Brighthand has a great explanation of Google Gears here.

I found Yahoo! onePlace over at GigaOM today and I must say that I am impressed with what they are promising. This looks like it could be an excellent ‘clipping’ / bookmarking service for mobile devices.

In a bold move, Yahoo! is including content from their competitors, like Google, in their onePlace service.
This shows real guts and insight – rather than owning the content, Yahoo! wants to own the user expereince. Just as content owners are formatting content for specific mobile devices, Yahoo! is making it easier to mobilize content. And we can be sure there will be advertising built around the UI based on the contet.

From the onePage site:

Yahoo! onePlace™ brings together all your interests, passions and important information into a single location, creating a rich, highly personalized experience around it for you. Everything is instantly organized, dynamically kept up to date, and served up to you the way you want.

Let’s hope there is an open beta soon.

Further, more than half of mobile data subscribers (51%), who saw an ad responded to it by sending a text-message, clicking on it, or calling a specific number. 

Fifty One Percent? That would mean that of the 58 millon people that Neilson says recalled seeing a mobile ad between the second and forth quarters of 2007, 29 million interacted with the ad in some way. Mobile advertising has been a powerful performer over the last few years, but this exceeds anything I have experienced or read. Neilson and Media Post may want to take another look at those findings.

The Nielsen study was based on a survey of more than 22,000 active mobile data users who used at least one non-voice service in the fourth quarter of 2007. Participants were asked about responses to banner ads, text ads, and video advertising, among other mobile formats.