Just saw that Mozilla has Firefox has re-releases its Alpha 1 ( kind of like how they are moving forward but still not beta:). What is interesting to see that now that the Android, Nokia and Apple ( soon Blackberry?) have all moved with WebKit, the competition still is fierce for bringing the online web experience to mobile.  I could not stop thinking of all the possibilities withthe plug-in base online and how they would get extended to mobile.   These are some of the things that are new to the build.

• Tons of  bug fixes and performance upgrades ( 3 months worth
• Fennec UI have been rebuilt entirely in CSS,
  • This will allow the browser to easily be tweaked  different handsets without having to go in and change the hardcoding, making it easier to  port Fennec to different screensizes and resolutions.
• And last but not least Add-ons! Lets see where this goes with the compatibility for plug-ins. This will become quite dynamic for plug-in providors to start building different User Interfaces for mobile….

My key question is when all of the API’s that we normally see for applications all start to become part of the browsing experience. No longer will a developer need to create an iPhone app to do those cool things, but in basic CSS and with widgets.

Something to keep an eye on.

This is week of digital convergence  us Vancouverites, but mobile is also part of the convergence of the event! VancouverDigitalWeek. Check out the three sites that have been Mobified by a local design agency using Mobify.  Even the Local design firm called NoshortCutsDesign has created a mobile view of their site….. I find this interesting as local interactive design firms embrace mobile.

http://m.popvoxawards.com

http://m.vipf.ca

http://m.vancouverdigitalweek.com

TechTree India writies about the new release of Googles Gmail for Android and iPhones below.

I am excited to see that even with all the GaGa only about iPhone Apps ( understandably so, but) that there are new announcements every day on some of the most practical usage cases of mobile linked to web development and the mobile browser.

As it does make sense to have an application based strategy, there is still a lot to be said about the browsing experience off of the

OpenSource Webkit ( Safari) browser that is used on Android/iPhones/Nokia devices and many more.  As the browser is equivalent to web browsing we experience on PC’s, having a mobile experience that lends itself to the smaller screen size and the user interface of a mobile device is a very smart approach for scaling your existing web/publishing digital strategy to mobile.

I am a very active user of Gmail on both my PC and Device and find that the hardware does not matter anymore. What matters is my seemless ability to connect to the services that I use frequently and email is something that is extemely important for me to have virtually on all the time and extendable in a very usable form from either my PC or my Nokia E71.    I did find it strange that Google has only launched this for iPhone and for Android, when it would make sense to have this for all devices that support webkit from the starting point.  I am sure we will see the announcement for Nokia support in the near future.

********************

Gmail has announced a new web interface for iPhone and Android platform based mobile web browsers. Built over a new engine, this Gmail Mobile interface closely resembles the Gmail Desktop version. The whole mail browsing, reading and composing experience has become faster, even over weak network connections.

The user interface has been optimized for snazzier inbox, a new ‘floaty bar’ and offline Gmail support. The new floaty bar allows archiving, deleting or more options for the email like Mark as Unread, Add star or Report as Spam. This floaty bar follows as one scrolls down further to select more emails. Navigation and display of threaded email conversations has been simplified and made faster.

Searching specific mails quickly is possible by poking the Magnifier button representing search. More messages can be viewed by hitting ‘Show more messages’ and the page hardly takes half a second to load more emails.

The new Gmail for Mobile is available on Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices with firmware 2.2.1 or higher. All Android-powered phones are supported.

The iPhone OS 3.0 brings landscape keyboard support in the Mail application but it still takes a while to load messages. Scrolling between the messages often results in sore fingers. Also, search emails and labels are still difficult to use. However, the Gmail team has made many Gmail fans happy with the new desktop-like mobile web interface iPhone and Android platform.