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Motorola to Add Google to Mobiles
Kijori writes "Motorola has announced plans to enable users of its mobile phones to access Google's internet search engine at the touch of a single handset button, the BBC is reporting. "The US mobile phone maker said it would introduce Google's software technology to many of its new handsets. The companies said they wanted to encourage more mobile users to access the internet using their phones." While mobile-phone internet use is currently low, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is optimistic: "People are going to spend all their time on it eventually," he said."
or is that already being done by the NSA?
The companies said they wanted to encourage more mobile users to access the internet using their phones."
Well, they could do that by offering screens with an acceptable resolution for browsing the internet. Even the *brand new* Treo 700w only has a 240x240 screen. WTF?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
While mobile-phone internet use is currently low, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is optimistic: "People are going to spend all their time on it eventually," he said."
Not at the current access rates they won't. I've used WAP once, and after getting my bill, I was through. Many people I know had the same experience with it.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
fwiw, you can also use Google Mobile from within regular pages -- you can see what I mean via my new Web-doodad, Bitty Browser.
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
This is a mobile.
I hate that use of the word, "cell phone" worked just fine, IMO.
You can't take the sky from me...
It's low because it's a pain in the ass to type in a URL, a search word or post a comment on Slashdot. Until phones come with real keyboard (like a BlackBerry) and don't cost a small fortune, it won't catch on.
I have unlimited web browsing on my cell phone plan and I very rarely use it because of this reason.
It's simple, really, build bigger towers in smaller towns. My father lives 5 miles from one such town (1200 people) in Minnesota. He has no DSL, no cable, satellite works only when the dish is not covered in snow, and worst of all, even if he drove into town, he can get about two bars on an analog signal on his cellphone.
You want a natural monopoly? Move in, build a handful of tall digital towers, and cover the farmers and the townspeople in the digital age. Charge $50 a month just for access, add in some more for usage. Sell $400 bluetooth cellphones uncrippled so that they can connect real computers to the cellphone. Sure, some farmers might distrust those new fangled intarweb thingies, but many will get it, if only to keep their kids from getting bored and running off to the city and leaving the farm behind.
I have been accessing google and other wap sites for a long time, including my school email, gmail, weather, mapquest, yahoo and more. With verizon, WAP / wireless web only uses minutes (free on nights/weekends), as long as you use your own proxy server (or a free one). What you pay verizon $5/month for is use of their proxy server. Note that there are exceptions to this: some of the newest phones require a data plan and wireless web may not be charged as minutes.
I run my own proxy server on my PC and log on to that with my phone. I set up a free WAP homepage, with links to a bunch of useful sites. If you set up or find a reliable proxy server, it is just a matter of doing some very basic on-phone "hacking", which usually just consists of accessing hidden menus. More information than you would ever need about phone hacking is available at Howard Forums. Mail2Web is a site that lets you check virtually any email through WAP.
Noob note: if you are going to run your own proxy, make sure to password it, especially if you are on a network. Slashdot may not let you post if you are running a proxy.
Break the mindless monotony!
Not any time soon, they aren't.
With carriers charging obscene rates for data transfer (my plan with Cingular is $15/month extra for 5MB), charging by the kilobyte for overage, and the realistic speed you get off their gee-whiz-bang-super-ultra new networks delivering an experience similar to visiting a Flash-heavy site on a 9600 baud modem, and phones so absurdly underpowered (yet still overpriced) that they choke running a text-only browser, you'd have to be delusional to think mobile phone internet access will increase by any substantial amount in the near future.
Case in point: about a year ago, I got the much-hyped V3 Razr from Cingular. Remember the commercials? This thing was supposed to be a home entertainment center, PDA, and PC all in one device. Obviously I was skeptical, but I liked the form factor. And it's really hard to do much multimedia work with only 5MB of memory and no flash card capability.
Turns out, even in an area covered by what Cingular claims to be their hi-speed network, it takes me roughly a minute just to launch the browser and get my text-only home page loaded (it may have a Cingular logo on there, too, admitedly). Just the other day, I was sitting in the pharmacy, waiting on a perscription to be filled, and really wanted to know what time the Red Wings game started. It took ten fucking minutes to load a page only 3 clicks deep off my homepage and find out the start time.
It's sad, really. The biggest barrier to the adoption of mobile phone-based internet usage are the people trying to sell you the service in the first place. And the phone manufacturers aren't helping any. Cell phone providers suck the big one - who knew?
what is the record for the most google stories at the same time off the slashdot homepage?
right now there are 3...
wonder what the record is for any single topic having the most slash-share at a given time...
(Throws the mobile across the room)
I'm gunna fuck'n kill Motorola
Steve Ballmer
But I don't like those Yahoo ads anyway, so I'll likely take them out. I'm getting close to releasing the next version of Bitty, and it'll be *lots* better.
Any /.'er interested can feel free to email me via the Bitty site... -Scott
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
$5/month, unlimited WAP day or night... and unlimited text and pix.
Or under any normal plan just use it after 9 or weekends (Verizon FTW)
-everphilski-
Like I have said many times before, it's all about google and their data mining tactics. Gmail, Google toolbar and now this. Who knows what else we are not aware of. The invasion of privacy has become ridiculous. So ridiculous that nobody really cares anymore. Take a look also at what google-watch.org has to say about google.
4.99 a month unlimited WAP access. They block some ports so that you don't hook it up to your laptop and get free internet, but I constantly go to google to look stuff up (google can search regular internet and convert the pages to format for wap). I get directions, weather, news, sports, and email online. All for pretty much pennies. :)
I'm really curious, does Google own Slashdot or have some serious stake in it? I can't remember a day on Slashdot where there hasn't been a post about Google. I like Google but I am tired of hearing about every time it wipes it *#$.
"People are going to spend all their time on it eventually,"
My experiences with Internet on mobiles so far has been that it's slow, expensive and awkward to use. If you spend a lot of time on buses or trains I suppose I can understand a desire for mobile Internet access, although using a laptop and data card would seem a much better solution anyway. The only time, ever, that I didn't have easy Internet access, and it was an issue, was a sys-admining problem that I'd have needed ssh to fix, anyway (and the idea of doing sys-admin work on a mobile screen with the standard keypad gives me nightmares).
Anyone, why would I want this?
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
In relation to our portable telephones, which are capable of being moved from place to place, tend to travel and relocate frequently, and can be used in the course of intermixing different social groups:
I. Mobile phone is a term recognizable in the US and used throughout much of the world.
II. Cell phone is a term unrecognizable throughout much of the world although used in the US.
---------------
mobile (adj.)
1. Capable of moving or of being moved readily from place to place: a mobile organism; a mobile missile system.
2.
a. Capable of moving or changing quickly from one state or condition to another: a mobile, expressive face.
b. Fluid; unstable: a mobile situation following the coup.
3.
a. Marked by the easy intermixing of different social groups: a mobile community.
b. Moving relatively easily from one social class or level to another: an upwardly mobile generation.
c. Tending to travel and relocate frequently: a restless, mobile society.
4. Flowing freely; fluid: a mobile liquid.
(Ruthlessly stolen primary definition.)
Yeah, seriously. No one even mentions a similar deal from Yahoo with Nokia. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060106/wr_nm/electron ics_yahoo_go_dc_10 . Can someone try to compare the technical merits of the Motorola-Google deal with the Nokia-Yahoo deal? Not to mention that Yahoo is going to do the same with Motorola -- it's not an exclusive deal.
See for yourself -- is Slashdot a huge Google fanfest or what?
Article says: "...access...search engine...(with) single button." /. instead?
Can we get a single button to access
Software freedom...I love it!
read this for a good laugh and some new thoughts about Google...
www.fuckedgoogle.com
Google has Googled the entire Googley Google. Google Google world park in Googleville has a Googleplex of Googish Googles Googling to Google your Googles. "We Google Your Google so you don't have to," said one Googliscious Googler.
A spokesperson for MSN was Googled as saying: "Crap"
The ______ Agenda
You want the nokia 6820, with an even easier to use keyboard than the blackberry, that folds away. I got one about a year and a half ago, and I've never looked back. Amazing device.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
It's been around a while, and I've found Google SMS to be both intuitive and useful at time. But hey, that's just me.
-- I have fans? Wow.
I don't know if you've ever seen "Little Britian", but if you have you'll understand why the name "Bittie" makes me laugh and feel a bit uncomftable.
(Worst spelling ever, I know, but I am in a hurry)
I didn't learn about Little Britain until after I launched Bitty -- coincidentally, my choice of the name Bitty was inspired by my new baby girl -- so, at least it seems breast feeding is still on-topic... ;)
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
http://www.ojr.org/japan/wireless/1047257047.php
In South Korea, meanwhile, the government has institutionalized the death of the personal computer in a program call the Post PC Era Initiative (formally, the "IT839 Strategy"):
http://www.hardware-depot-online.com/xybernaut_est ablishes_korean_operations_to_benefit_from_post_pc _era_db.jspx
You can scoff and say that "well, that's fine for the Asians, but it will never catch on here." I said the same thing 20 years ago when I saw my first Japanese anime and manga stuff. "Nah...this stuff is too tied in to a completely foreign culture and lifestyle and is too out-of-context for kids in the West to relate to. Never catch on here." Now I have a 24-hour anime channel on cable--in rural Texas. Proving once again (as has been proven countless times over the past 40 years if I had been paying attention) that whatever it is that the Japanese youth are doing now, we in the U.S. will be doing in another decade.
Internet web use? Like everyone else says, not with the prices they're charging.
However, items that would be obvious to have on your phone:
1) iPod/MP3 player (why carry both if one will do?)
2) limited PDA (they're almost there now, just add a few additional capabilities, you'll have a full address book/calendaring capability. Add voice recording on the phone itself, and you have almost everything anyone needs. I'm neglecting that 1% of the most vocal population that wants hand-writing recognition capabilities)
Both of the above imply full interaction capabilities with PCs. If cell phones would have the brain-dead limitations removed (ie, locked phones) they'd be more useful to the consumer.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
You can argue that this was due to the relative poverty of a disadvantaged urban area, rather than a youth culture turning its back on PCs, but I'm seeing the same thing here in a small, rural Texas town that is extremely wealthy and 90%+ white. Everybody owns a cell phone, but it seems like the number of folks under age 30 who are passionate about personal computers (the way my gang was back in the 80's) just isn't there anymore. I've worked on audio editing and CD cover art production for 3 local musical acts, all folks under age 25 or so (and 2 of the 3 are Hip Hop acts here in rural Texas, go figure), and it's striking that the kids come to me to do their computer work because they just don't want to be bothered with a PC. It's not like they're poverty-striken and can't afford the gear. These kids think nothing of dropping $5,000 on amps and instruments and mikes, etc. And you can bet your last dime that each and every one of them has a cell phone and depend on the things like you and I depend on air (an amazing number of them don't even have land lines), but a personal computer just isn't considered a necessary lifestyle/career enhancement. PCs seem to be Old School and the kids who are trendy and whom other kids look to as peer leaders just don't seem to desire them.
I would never have been able to predict this personally, because back in '86 or so everybody I hung with or worked with was drooling over the prospect of shelling out $3,500 for a Mac or a PC. You could do graphics on 'em, you could do your bookkeeping, if you were a musician or music producer, well, you just weren't in the Game unless you had a Mac set up to process MIDI from your keyboard.
Not anymore. I guess not only am I old, I'm Old School as well. :(
In the US it's a cell phone. It parts of Europe, it's a mobile phone. In other parts of Europe (Germany?) it's sometimes called a "handy".
I see no reason to change what I'm saying, and I expect those who use other phrases don't plan on changing either.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
no text
To the ancestor poster who expressed concern about high bills due to paying per kilobyte -- the idea is to get an unlimited plan. I'd be really scared about non-unlimited mobile data plans. :o
For "legal and proper" laptop access (if you're going to be using this more than occasionally), you can get the $80/mo service from Sprint or Verizon ($60 if you are also a cellphone customer), which gives your laptop direct access to their 1xRTT and EV-DO networks.
Wait the first bill and you will see if you need it anymore.
http://www.michel.eti.br
Here in Ontario, Canada unlimited cellphone internet access cost $80 CDN (approx. $69 USD), "UNLIMITED" means 25MB, roaming data plan can be up to 5 cents per KB and they wonder why few people use cellphone internet access???