YouTube available on more mobile phones

Popular video Web site YouTube.com is opening up its service to run on millions more phones which are capable of using high-speed wireless links, the company said on Thursday.

YouTube, a unit of Google Inc, says it is extending its service from a handful of phones to a broader range of devices used by 100 million consumers worldwide that rely on high-speed links to stream videos to mobile screens.

"It's basically the full YouTube experience you can get on the desktop -- on the phone," said Dwipal Desia, YouTube's mobile product manager. "We expect it to get fairly popular from our past experiences."

The Web video sensation now only provides a full mobile video service to users of Apple Inc's iPhone and to devices sold by Helio, a small U.S. wireless provider that targets young, tech-savvy consumers. Helio is a unit of SK Telecom Co Ltd and EarthLink Inc.

A scaled-down version of YouTube with selected clips is also available to subscribers of the No. 2 US mobile service, Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.

Desai said in an interview that most of the phones sold by Verizon Wireless would not support the full-fledged streaming service and that it was not yet clear when this might change.


The company is also testing software that will make it easier for mobile phone users to upload videos from phones onto YouTube.com, potentially allowing for far greater use of video to document people's everyday lives.


Desai did not say how YouTube plans to make money. Typically, YouTube and other Google services wait until they have found a large audience before the company seeks to introduce advertising to help pay for the service.


"Right now we are focused on building a user base on alternative screens and we'll look at monetization in the future," he said. Monetization is a code word among Internet companies for running advertising alongside Web content.


The service will run on select devices from U.S.-based Motorola Inc, South Korea's LG Electronics, Finland's Nokia and Sony Ericsson, jointly owned by Japan's Sony Corp and Sweden's Ericsson.


YouTube for Mobile will be available in 17 countries and 11 languages.

Black Berry Loves Googles Calender

Synchronization is the biggest thing that the Google Calendar has to offer, so it was just a matter of time until Google decided to open it to the whole of the world. Up until today, the unlucky people were the ones that owned a BlackBerry and used its calendar; now, the Google Sync
application lets them synchronize the two calendars into a perfect timetable. To dream after, I say, despite never really owning a BlackBerry.

"Using your BlackBerry smart phone's native calendar, you can now access your Google calendar even when you don't have network coverage and be alerted for upcoming appointments with sound or vibration. Your Google Calendar stays synchronized whether you access it from your computer or your phone. You can add or edit entries right on your BlackBerry smart phone or on your Google Calendar on the web", the dev team mentioned.

Managing every party and invitation to a dinner is growing to be rather troublesome, at least for me, I have an agenda that I write in (old school style, pen and paper), I have my phone’s calendar full of alarms and I have my Google Calendar filled with entries every day. I must be a very busy person, but I never manage to attend every meeting because I can’t get everything all that organized. This is the part where the Google Sync application would come in all so handy, were I to own a BlackBerry.

You can access the application at http://m.google.com/sync if you visit the page directly from your BlackBerry’s browser, so get at it as soon as possible lest you want to continue with the dark ages of juggling between three schedules, like I do. Perhaps I’ll get myself such a device just for this, I’m still thinking it over. But it sounds really appealing. "This week, Google launched a mobile package of applications for Blackberry and an unified interface for iPhone. Google really tries to build solid mobile offerings, but only Google Maps is available for the most important mobile platforms

Google entry to mobile phone bidding

Google has confirmed that it will be taking part in next year's sale of mobile phone spectrum in the US, heralding its entrance into the wireless market.

The company's executives have said over the past few months that they would be willing to spend upwards of $4.6bn (£2.3bn) buying up capacity when the Federal Communications Commission sells off part of the 700 megahertz (MHz) band.

The move means that Google could become America's newest wireless network operator. It already runs relatively small-scale wireless internet access networks in its home state of California, but winning new spectrum would allow it to start a national network.

But the search engine giant will be fighting the auction against bidders including existing mobile phone companies AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, part-owned by Vodafone, who are looking for more capacity for their existing networks.

Google is particularly interested in a portion known as block C - which has a reserve price of $4.6bn - because it is being sold under the condition that whoever buys it must allow customers to download any software application they want onto their devices. Google lobbied hard for this portion of the airwaves to be free of ties to a particular technology.

The spectrum is being sold in an auction starting January 24 as part of the move to digital television.

"We believe it's important to put our money where our principles are," said Google boss Eric Schmidt. "Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world."

"No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the internet."

Google will file its intention to take part in the auction with the FCC on Monday - the deadline for potential bidders to make themselves known. Its application does not include any partners.

Google maps for mobile

Google has released version 2.0 of 'Google Maps for mobile', its innovative mobile mapping- and local search- application. And, Google Maps for mobile v2.0 is a beta version of the Google "My Location" technology that uses cell tower ID information to provide users with their approximate location, thus helping them determine where they are, what's around them, and how to get there.

GPS technology is the most common source of location information till date. But, it is supported on less than 15 percent mobile phones sold today. Google's "My Location" technology is such that users who don't have GPS-enabled mobile phones, will also be able to get the benefit of location information. "My Location" technology is claimed to be faster than GPS; besides being able to cover the inside of buildings unlike GPS; and results in slower drainage of batteries vis-a-vis GPS. How "My Location" works is by taking information broadcast from cell towers, and sifting through it using Google's algorithms to estimate a user's current location on the map. The "My Location" feature can be disabled if not required. "My Location" technology is available on most smart phones; including all color BlackBerry devices, all Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices, most Windows Mobile devices, newer Sony Ericsson devices, and some Motorola devices. Google Maps for mobile with "My Location" can be downloaded by pointing one's mobile or desktop Web browser to www.google.com/gmm. The full range of mobile products/services available from Google is viewable at mobile.google.com. Meanwhile, 'Google Maps for mobile' was first launched in the US in November 2005, and enables users to view interactive maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, get point-to-point driving directions, and view live traffic updates -- all -- while on the go.


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