Currently in Barcelona, Spain the 2009 Mobile World Congress is taking place (Feb 16-19). This is a massive conference with big wigs from the entire mobile industry. A few keynote speakers include the likes of Steve Balmer (Microsoft CEO), Olli Pekka Kallasvuo (Nokia CEO), Josh Silverman (Skype CEO)…and…get ready…KEVIN SPACEY (actor)!
Anyways, guess who’s missing from the conference? Yep, you guessed it–Apple. However, even though Steve Jobs and his team wasn’t at the MWC, the iPhone definitely was there to represent! Steve Balmer had this to say about Apple:
“I agree that no single company can create all the hardware and software,” he said. “Openness is central because it’s the foundation of choice.”
What’s the big deal about the iPhone since it only has such a tiny share of the marketplace? Well, this question was posed by an audience member. The following succinct response by AT&T’s De La Vega says it all: “Because the other 99.5 percent of the industry is trying to copy the iPhone.” Nice one!
Offline Gmail is Coming to the iPhone One Day
Some iPhone app developers showcased some cool apps that we will soon see coming our way. One of these apps is an offline version of Gmail for the iPhone! Just imagine Google Gears but ported to the iPhone for Gmail. This offline Gmail will allow users to access email when the iPhone is in Airplane Mode. Definitely something we could all use when you have lots of email to attend to. I can only imagine what other offline apps could be coming our way in the future.
A True Turn-by-Turn GPS is Unveiled by Sygic Software
We all read about xGPS (which the 1.2 beta should be released tomorrow), a turn-by-turn GPS app for jailbroken iPhones. Well, Sygic Software created and demonstrated their full GPS application and they plan on submitting it to the App Store. Who knows if it will be approved or not, but it’s always great to see these companies coming out with innovative apps!
Take a look at the following video for a sneak peak at Offline Gmail using HTML5:
[MWC, iPhone Alley]
