It is amazing what is in 38K of Midlet, and it is good to see Google pushing the envelope on mobile like this. As per my comments previously on this page, there already exists MGMaps which provides a J2ME interface to Google Maps but it is not as slick as this. Check this out from Google here.

ThunderHawk Symbian Series60 (S60) Edition complies with Symbian interface guidelines while offering the same features and functionality users have come to expect from ThunderHawk, according to Bitstream. It is similar to browsing on the desktop because ThunderHawk includes functionality that enhances the user experience in ways that other browsers do not.

According to Danger, MIDP support for the hiptop is supposed to be out 'Real Soon Now' but a specific date has not been published yet. MIDP support will get sent out to all current subscribers as an Over the air update.

Nice to see some of the more useful application content being made available for J2ME - one of the things I missed on the K750i was a Streetmap for when I managed to get lost (again) in London !! You can get the Jar from here and the Jad from here. Interesting take on which phones are supported for Flashlite - check out this Flickr page which has a picture of Flashlite running on the supported phones - currently 83 in total! Users are encouraged to post pictures of phones that support flashlite that are not currently listed.

Opera purports to enable true web applications to be developed that have access to the phone's functionality through the Opera Platform DOM interface (provided by the Application Player) and can communicate with servers using XMLHttpRequest. The Opera Platform SDK is currently available for Symbian OS phones with S60, and is free. See here for more details.

Symbian has welcomed Nokia's announcement that it has introduced three new Symbian OS-based phones to its Nseries range of high performance multimedia devices. Symbian develops Symbian OS, the market-leading open mobile operating system for advanced mobile phones, also known as smartphones, that is licensed to the world?s leading handset manufacturers.

This year it looks certain that a new participation record will be set, more than 16,000 votes have already been recorded, as more than 20,000 SYS-CON Media readers are estimated to cast their votes in this year's Readers' Choice Awards.

The combination of Nokia's slim, connectivity-rich enterprise devices, the world's most popular smartphone platform, Series 60, and Good's award-winning, enterprise-class wireless messaging and corporate application platform will provide mobile business users with all the applications they need over a secure, manageable infrastructure relied on by more than 7,000 corporations worldwide, according to Nokia and Good Technologies.

The latest advancement to embrace these two innovative platforms is the old, yet new again interactive fiction (IF), a fusion of books and technology. Readers can interact with characters from the convenience of their Symbian supported cell phone and Windows Mobile 5.0 PDA or smartphone.

A new offering on the market for secure applications running from mobile devices is offered by German company BeSeQure. Their solution works with Windows Mobile 5.0 as well as Blackberry and Java. Their implementation offers entire end-to-end security built on digital certificates, in which user certicates can be managed from a central point of administration. Having had a chance to use their products in the past I would recommend you check this out if you are looking to lock down corporate pervasive devices. Their website is here and you can download a white paper on the solution here.

'The Forum Nokia PRO Symbian Zone is an exclusive opportunity created by Symbian and Nokia for members of the PRO community to gain access to the new Symbian OS Library for Application Developers online,' said Bruce Carney, Head of Developer Marketing and Services, Symbian, as Nokia launched an early access support program to further assist companies developing applications for the growing global market for Symbian OS-based smartphones.

Intellisync emphasized its commitment to Symbian OS today by announcing the availability of Intellisync Instant Messaging, a wireless corporate IM solution for Symbian OS smartphone users.

What the company is calling a 'flagship' UMTS smartphone is Wi-Fi enabled, has a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus and features a new hardware keyboard beneath the flip-down keypad. The phone will start shipping during Q1 of 2006.

Jarno Niemela of F-Secure in Finland has identified Cardtrap.A, a malicious SIS file trojan that tries to disable large number of system and third party applications and installs Windows malware on the phone memory card of Symbian OS smartphones.

In a major coup for Linux, Palo Alto, CA-based Trolltech Software 'the world's biggest producer of Linux software for mobile devices' just hired two execs closely associated with Linux's nemesis, Microsoft. Trolltech is readying itself for an IPO.

Mobile games publisher Telcogames and video games publisher Codemasters today announced a deal to bring a number of classic games titles to the new generation of Symbian Smartphones.

Symbian said its operating system was installed in 7.8 million phones, compared with 2.6 million a year ago. Total first-half shipments were 14.5 million, up 191 percent from the previous year.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected an application by Apple for the iPod, based on previous filings by Microsoft. This sort of technology tussle within the PTO is not unusual, although the circumstances around this particular fight are.

Ryman's blog can be read at ryman.eclipsedeveloper sjournal.com. He is the latest i-technology celebrity whose blog is syndicated on SYS-CON's branded blog-n-play community pages next to James Gosling, Marc Fleury, Ben Forta, John C. Dvorak, Alan Williamson and others.

Aimed at the business market, the M1000 is compatible with international mobile networks including W-CDMA, GSM and GPRS networks as well as public wireless LANs. It provides POP and IMAP email capability and allows users to open and view Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe PDF and other file attachments. Users also have the ability to operate multiple email accounts.

Handango yesterday announced a new version of Handango InHand for Symbian - an intelligent, device-resident download client for smartphones and wireless handhelds.

TiVo Inc. announced today that the Company will be presenting at the William Blair and Company's 25th Annual Growth Stock Conference in Chicago on Thursday, June 23, 2005 at 2:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT).

Symbian is licensing source codes for Futuremark Corporation's current SPMark04 product and two forthcoming handheld benchmark products, and is also joining Futuremark's handheld benchmark development program.

Boston Communications Group, Inc. , previously announced that the non-jury trial to consider the Company's unenforcability defense in the patent infringement lawsuit brought by Freedom Wireless, Inc. against the Company commenced in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on June 7, 2005. On June 13, 2005, the presiding judge suspended the non-jury trial and ordered mediation between the Company and the other co-defendants in the lawsuit and Freedom Wireless, Inc. In the event that the mediation is unsuccessful and the parties are unable to reach a settlement, the non-jury trial is currently scheduled to resume on July 14, 2005 and could last approximately one to two weeks after it commences.

MessageVine announced today that it has joined the Symbian Platinum Program to support the growing market for smartphones based on Symbian OS(TM). As a Platinum Partner, MessageVine is extending Mobile IM to the Symbian ecosystem. Symbian develops and licenses Symbian OS, the global industry standard operating system for smartphones, to the world's leading handset manufacturers, which account for over 85 per cent of annual mobile phone sales worldwide.

Symbian Limited has released its unaudited financial and operational figures for the first quarter ended 31st March 2005.

Nokia Corp. will work with open-source developers for a new browser on its Series 60 mobile phones. The browser will integrate elements from the Apple Safari browser used in Mac OS X.

The Board of Symbian yesterday announced the appointment of Nigel Clifford to the post of Chief Executive Officer, replacing David Levin who left in April. Clifford has wide experience of successful leadership across a number of sectors, including the technology sector. He was appointed Chief Executive of Tertio Telecoms Ltd in July 2000.

The latest series of Nokia multimedia phones are based on Symbian OS, the world's most popular operating system for advanced mobile phones. Symbian attributes this success to its open-standards approach.

The Nokia 3650, 6600, and 6630 are all vulnerable to 52 new trojan viruses, which anti-virus specialist SimWorks says are 'cracked' versions of popular Symbian applications such as BitStorm, BugMe!, Cosmic Fighter, 3D Motoracer and SplashID.

'Compliance and security are the new Software Quality drivers,' said Dr Adam Kolawa, cofounder and CEO of Parasoft Corporation, talking live on SYS-CON.TV to Sean Rhody, editor-in-chief of Web Services Journal and Yakov Fain, Enterprise Editor of JDJ.

A SIS file trojan - Fontal.A - that installs a corrupted Font file into infected mobile devices, thus causing them to fail at next reboot, has been identified by Finnish virus specialists F-Secure. It affects smartphones running Symbian OS.

An agreement sees Symbian licensing synchronization software from Microsoft and then distributing it in the European market.

As part of the ISSJ - Information Storage & Security Journal's product review series, we ordered a Sony VAIO laptop by phone, by dialing Sony's toll free number provided at the Sony Style Web site (www.sonystyle.com) in the United States.

The world's first Symbian-based smartphone has been created it was announced at the 3GSM World Congress in Canne, France.

This year it looks certain that a new participation record will be set, as more than 4,000 votes have already been recorded in just the first seven days of voting, as more than 50,000 SYS-CON Media readers are estimated to cast their votes in this year's Readers' Choice Awards. Highlights after just one week's voting are as follows.

Nokia and Macromedia today announced a licensing agreement that will integrate Macromedia Flash technology into Series 60 Platform. Nokia has also agreed to support Flash in its other software platforms. The agreement will provide opportunities for the 1.8 million registered developers in Forum Nokia and the more than one million Macromedia Flash developers to create new compelling Flash content and applications for mobile phones to be deployed through operators worldwide.

'The most major news item in mobility yesterday,' writes Mike Rowehl, 'seems to be the new release of Symbian OS.' But the 9.0 version doesn't really include many new features that affect the end user, he adds. 'The USB mass storage feature will actually be pretty cool, but doesn't really affect me all that much because I use Bluetooth to fling files over to my phone. The 3D graphics are nice to see, lots of people are really enthusiastic about the games market. But personally I'm more into the location based and alternate reality games than high framerate 3D.'

eBay, The World's Online Marketplace, has more than 114 million registered users, 10,000 developers, and over 700 live, third-party applications.

On February 16th at Web Services Edge 2005 in Boston, Mass., Mr. Farquharson will present the topic: 'B2B Policy Enforcement: The Third Rail of SOA Implementation.' In this presentation he will discuss XML Virtual Private Networks (XML VPNs) and their potential to mitigate security policy enforcement issues in B2B SOA.