1. Mobile browsers; not all is WebKit:
Although webkit-based browsers dominate the mobile web with Mobile Safari on the iPhone, the Android browser on e.g. the HTC Hero and in the future also the Blackberry browser, there are other browsers around as well:
- Opera published the first beta of Mini 5 (which is a powerfull lightweight solution that runs on almost any handset)
- Window Mobile 6.5 (which will be in the stores from October onwards) ships with “IE 6-on-6” (based on the aging desktop MSIE6 with some enhancements from IE8), no news on what Windows Mobile 7 will ship with in Q4 2010 though.
- Nokia introduced their new flagship, the n900, which does not run Symbian OS but Maemo Linux and which now has a Gecko-based browser (the same as in Firefox)
2. According to a Forrester-study, in 2014 28% of handset-owners in Belgium will use mobile internet. Not bad, but according to that same study, the European average in 2014 would be 39% with Holland attaining 47%.
3. Misc:
- Layar, a great Augmented Reality mobile application (available in Android market, they’re said to be waiting for Apple to approve it for the AppStore as well) will offer a 3D-version in november. Difficult to explain, just look at the vids on http://layar.com/3d/
- Next to Mini v5, Opera also released version 10 of their desktop product
- Google released a (preview of a) browser-plugin for MS Internet Explorer which essentially replaces the core of that browser with the Google Chrome engine to allow IE-users to log into Google Wave (which relies on html5-functionality not present in MS IE)