AOL to launch mobile development platform
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Developers can add another mobile open-application development platform to the mix, this time from AOL.AOL announced on Monday that in the middle of the year it hopes to release a platform that developers can use to create applications that can run on any mobile phone. The platform will be open, so that developers can improve it as they like, said Jai Jaisimha, vice president of mobile product and technology development at AOL.The AOL Open Mobile Platform is based on technology that AOL acquired from a company called Airmedia last year. It requires an application on the mobile phone. The program, which is so small it&#39;s comparable in size to an average graphic, works in conjunction with back-end servers that take care of converting the application to the format the device requires.Currently, developers who want to write applications for mobile devices face a daunting task because they must customize their application for the various popular phone operating systems. &quot;So what this platform does is eliminate the need to learn all those different platforms because you can use a device agnostic markup language,&quot; said Jaisimha. The platform uses an XML-based markup language.Even phones that run the same operating system often have different requirements, however. The phone application from AOL already works on more than 150 handsets, and since the application is open, developers will be able to tweak it to work on any additional handsets, Jaisimha said.Developers will be able to use AOL services as part of their applications, but they don&#39;t have to. They also have the option to use AOL&#39;s advertising platform as a way to earn revenue from their programs.AOL&#39;s idea has benefits over some other platforms. For example, developers who write applications in the Symbian environment or who plan to write Android applications are limited to phones running those operating systems.But AOL isn&#39;t alone in its approach. Java Micro Edition, which runs on the majority of phones, was designed to allow developers to create Java applications that run on many phones. However, Java applications still often must also be tweaked for particular handsets. Plus, phone manufacturers must license JME from Sun if they intend to alter the program at all, which most do.AOL also faces competition in Yahoo, which recently released documentation that&#160;lets developers build mobile widgets. That means AOL will compete with it for developer attention.In addition, AOL faces the hurdle of distributing the handset application, a notable challenge because mobile users are typically disinclined to download anything onto their phones. Because the client is so small, developers can build it into their applications, so end-users could download the client along with the application, Jaisimha said. &quot;But we also certainly hope and expect that carriers and device manufacturers will integrate the platform into devices,&quot; he said.AOL is now entering into talks with developers who want to begin working on the platform immediately. It will otherwise keep developers up-to-date on the availability of the platform on its developer site .
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AOL will attempt to compete directly with the likes of Yahoo Inc., MSN and Google Inc. when it launches its own free Web-based e-mail service.
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More changes are in the works for AOL's portals, including the launch of a new site.
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AOL on Wednesday plans to launch a new version of its software that lets users access their e-mail, instant messaging, search and media on the same screen.
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(InfoWorld) - AOL has created a program to let external developers build applications based on its video search engines, a step AOL has taken for other of its online services, like its AIM instant messaging platform. With the launch of the program on Monday, AOL will publish application programming interfaces (APIs) to let developers integrate AOL video search technology into their Web sites, said Tim Tuttle, AOL Video's vice president. Applications will be able to access AOL's video index, offer keyword searching, sort and filter results, support RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and provide browsing of clips by category, channel, tag or user. Internet companies like AOL have embraced open APIs to let external developers extend and advance their online services with add-ins, applications and devices. Another part of the program is a new system called AOL Director Account to let video owners and site publishers automatically feed their clips to AOL's video search engines. Access to the APIs and to the feed system is open to everyone and free of charge. More information can be obtainedÂ here. AOL has a variety of video sites and video search sites, includingÂ AOL Video,Â UnCut,Â Truveo, andÂ Singingfish. However, AOL is creating an integrated platform for all of them, and the first program to take advantage of it is this new developer initiative, Tuttle said. Also on Monday, AOL is announcing that its online videos will be available on PCs running Microsoft's Media Center operating system and Intel's Viiv technology. Intel announced in January the plan to have AOL videos optimized for Viiv and thus viewable from TV sets.
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AOL&#160;plans to unveil a number of new mobile services Tuesday, including the customizable MyAOL for mobile phones as well as a redesigned AOL.com portal page for mobile phones.The beta version of the mobile portal has been available since September but is now being formally introduced, said Scott Falconer, executive vice president of AOL Mobile. The portal includes the type of news, entertainment, and sports content that is available on the desktop version of the portal.In addition, it features AOL&#39;s mobile search technology that returns tailored results for mobile users. For example, if a mobile user searches for a music artist, the first results may be ringtones. In addition, AOL&#39;s search crawls an index of sites designed for mobile use, so it will return those sites near the top of the list.The search results will now include paid listings. That addition started last week, said Falconer.AOL is also announcing that MyAOL, the customizable home page, will be available to mobile users. People will get access to the same MyAOL they build in their regular PC browsers.Other new mobile services from AOL will include a shopping service that lets users enter a barcode number or product name and receive comparative prices for the product at various retailers, as well as contact and location information for the retailer.AOL is also launching a downloadable client called MyMobile. Initially available only on Windows Mobile devices, MyMobile is designed to offer an easy way for users to download and use AOL services of their choice, such as mail, MapQuest, and CityGuide, within a single application on the phone.AOL isn&#39;t alone among Internet services and content companies pursuing mobile users. So far, none seems to have a clear advantage. &quot;I would say it&#39;s still an open market,&quot; said Falconer. &quot;Google of course is the leader in online search but mobile search is fundamentally different.&quot; In addition to the online giants, a number of startups are targeting the mobile search and content market.AOL has two reasons for offering mobile services, including as a way to maintain loyalty among its existing user base and as a way to grow its advertising business, Falconer said. Analysts are predicting large growth in mobile advertising and AOL hopes to establish a foothold in the market, he said.
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America Online is seeking help with efforts to push its messaging services into the mobile realm, enlisting the help of handheld-device manufacturers while introducing a developer program focusing on the company's Instant Messenger (AIM) applications.
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Apple will release a mobile software development kit (SDK) for developers in February so that third parties can create applications for the iPhone and the iPod touch.
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Yahoo Inc  will create  versions of its mobile Internet services to run on various  phone platforms, potentially including Google's phone software  and the Apple iPhone, a top executive said on Monday.
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America Online Inc. (AOL) is aiming to get a piece of the travel search market, announcing plans Friday to introduce a new Web-based property to compete with the likes of Travelocity.com and Expedia Inc.
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America Online is launching a program this week to promote and facilitate the creation of what it calls AIM Robots for its AIM instant messaging system.
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A growing set of developers is setting to work making Web browsing on a phone match the experience on a PC.Skyfire, a startup in Mountain View, California, joined the fray on Monday when it unveiled a free browser intended to support everything a PC browser can. That includes Flash video, Quicktime, Javascript, AJAX, and more, though not everything may be there right now, according to Nitin Bhandari, Skyfire&#39;s CEO. The browser is now in a private beta test for U.S. users only. The software was demonstrated at the Demo conference in Palm Desert, California.Apple&#39;s iPhone changed the mobile browsing world last year when it drew a huge following with its Safari browser. Unlike most browsers for phones, it lets users view a full, standard Web page all at once and zoom in to make up for the small size of the screen, though it doesn&#39;t support Flash video and some other standard Web features.Meanwhile, more opportunities have opened up for third parties to get any sort of application onto a consumer&#39;s mobile phone. Parts of&#160;Google&#39;s Android development environment&#160;are already available to developers, and Apple is preparing a software development kit for the iPhone. Both Verizon and Sprint Nextel, two of the biggest U.S. operators, have outlined plans to allow any device and any application on mobile networks.&quot;The iPhone has pretty much settled the debate. People want a rich, full Web experience,&quot; Skyfire&#39;s Bhandari said. &quot;There&#39;s a lot of consciousness that that&#39;s the bottom now, and everything now has to be there or above it.&quot;Since the phone&#39;s June debut, Mozilla has started developing a mobile version of Firefox, which looks somewhat like mobile Safari in screenshots on Mozilla&#39;s wiki. However, Mozilla has been vague about when that software will come out. Norwegian browser vendor Opera has its own mobile browser, Opera Mini.Skyfire&#39;s product will be set apart from Opera Mini and others by supporting the full browsing experience, Bhandari said. It does so by relieving the phone from some of the heavy lifting of presenting a Web page. In fact, a server transcodes every page into an efficient protocol that Skyfire has developed over the past 18 months, he said. The additional exchange of packets between phone and server to make that possible isn&#39;t a problem, because the server can carry out tasks much faster than a phone, according to Bhandari.&quot;The delay added by the server is actually such a small percentage of the time we&#39;re actually saving ... that it&#39;s actually a huge benefit in the end-user experience,&quot; Bhandari said. Skyfire operates the servers in its own datacenter.Skyfire can deliver full versions of popular Web sites, such as YouTube and ESPN, as demonstrated in a YouTube video. The zooming function, the critical tool for viewing full-size Web pages on a small screen, is different from the iPhone&#39;s &quot;pinch&quot; and &quot;unpinch&quot; gestures. A gray box appears over part of the Web page, and users can size that box to cover the area of the page they want to see full-screen, then tap on it to zoom in, Bhandari said. The browser also features a search bar and a tab with featured links in categories including news, sports and video.The browser is available only for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 today, but a version for Symbian, as well as an international beta test, are coming later, Bhandari said. Skyfire might also develop versions for Android and for the iPhone once Apple&#39;s SDK becomes available, he said. It is talking with handset makers and mobile operators about having the browser built into phones, but also sees search and advertising as possible revenue sources.In addition to invited testers, a limited number of public users will be allowed to participate in the beta. They can sign up at Skyfire&#39;s Web site.
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Verizon Wireless, preparing to open its network to devices it doesn&#39;t sell, will tell developers how to build products to run on its network at a two-day conference in New York in March.Late last year, the nation&#39;s second-largest carrier announced it would&#160;let consumers use equipment from third parties&#160;as long as it meets minimum technical standards for operating safely on Verizon&#39;s network. Verizon also said it would let them use any application on those devices. The move, expected by the end of this year, would represent a break from the traditionally closed networks of U.S. mobile operators. They typically sell phones themselves, with their own applications loaded, and only after dictating configurations and carrying out rigorous testing.Verizon&#39;s Open Development Conference, which will run March 19-20, will focus mostly on the requirements for devices that would run on the Verizon network, the company said. Verizon had said last year that it would publish technical standards for the developer community by early 2008. More information about the company&#39;s open initiative can be found here.Verizon&#39;s move was widely seen as anticipating the openness requirements attached to a part of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission&#39;s 700MHz spectrum auction, scheduled to begin later this month.&#160;Verizon is among the companies planning to bid&#160;on the prized frequencies, which are expected to reach longer distances and penetrate walls better than the cellular bands used in the U.S. today. Google, which has advocated more open networks, and Verizon rival AT&amp;T also plan to participate. Sprint Nextel plans to turn to third-party vendors for devices to run on its WiMax high-speed mobile network, due to launch in April.&#160;
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The first beta edition of AOL's version 6.0 of its Instant Messenger client was released for public testing today. When the beta cycle is completed (AOL has yet to set a date), it will likely replace AIM Triton 1.5 and become the company's primary consumer IM product.
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AOL on Monday announced it has launched a developer program for its video search engine product. In addition, the company has joined up with Intel to stream movies to Viiv-enabled PCs and other devices.
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AOL pushed updates to several of its products for the Macintosh platform on Monday, including added functionality that would help its applications work more smoothly with native Mac OS X programs. A new AIM client for Mac is coming soon.
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America Online has partnered with and taken a minority investment in travel search player Kayak Software. The two will build an AOL-owned travel search site, to launch in early 2005, which will be powered by Kayak&#39;s technology.