Months after rewriting its iPhone developer agreement to effectively ban cross-compiler translation tools like Adobe Systems’ Flash Professional CS5, Apple said it will ease restrictions on the creation of iOS-based applications. “We are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code,” Apple said in a statement issued Thursday morning. “This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.” The changes to sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 of the iOS Developer Program license will enable developers to design and build apps in Flash, then convert their efforts to Apple-approved code–the revisions do not mean consumers will be able to access Flash-based web content via their iPhone and iPod devices, however.

Apple credited its decision to rethink the Flash ban on developer feedback. In addition, the computing giant said it will finally publish its App Store Review Guidelines in an effort to help developer partners better understand the approval process. We hope it will make us more transparent and help our developers create even more successful apps for the App Store,” Apple said.

Apple updated its iPhone Developer Program License Agreement in March 2010, mandating that all iPhone and iPod touch applications must be written to run directly on the iOS platform. Section 3.3.1 of the rewritten agreement stated “Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs.

The change was perceived in many quarters as a direct attack on Adobe Systems. Apple CEO Steve Jobs responded to the resulting controversy by issuing an open letter to outline the thinking behind his decision to block support for cross-compiler tools, explaining “We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers

In May 2010, The New York Post reported Apple’s Flash ban was the subject of a federal antitrust inquiry to determine whether the company’s actions threatened competition by forcing developers to focus on one platform to the exclusion of others. It is unknown what role if any the threat of a federal investigation played in Apple’s about-face.

weComm, the leader in interactive mobile data solutions, and Bango the leading mobile analytics and payment company announce today a partnership to collaborate on state of the art mobile analytics and payment solutions for mobile applications.

weComm’s multi-platform mobile application solutions will be integrated with Bango’s leading mobile analytics and payment products, offering customers the ability to independently measure mobile applications and collect payment across all platforms.

weComm’s innovative Wave software platform, develops and delivers applications that run on all type of handsets, including, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, as well as Java and Symbian handsets. It enables highly dynamic content that is always up to date with the ability to easily change not only the content but also the structural elements that make up the application without compromising a mobile platform’s native look and feel.

By integrating Bango technology alongside the Wave platform, developers using weComm are able to accurately and independently measure their mobile applications and bill customers worldwide across multiple platforms.

weComm CEO Graham Summers: “By integrating with Bango’s enterprise-class analytics and payment engines, weComm reinforces its position as a leading provider of mobile applications infrastructure to the world’s pre-eminent media organisations. ” Summers added “The fragmented areas of analytics and payments often create significant challenges for customers looking for a robust and sophisticated approach to monetisation, with a myriad of companies small and large offering partial or inflexible solutions not designed for mobile. Bango has extensive geographical reach through relationships with mobile carriers across the globe and have proven their scalability with some of the world’s premier brands. Through this close working relationship, we are now able to provide a truly pre-integrated solution for enterprises focussed on maximising mobile application reach and revenue.”

“By partnering with weComm we’ll be giving our customers a complete solution that combines the best of the breed in multi-platform application development and in-app analytics and billing,” said Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango. We’re excited to be working in partnership with weComm to support the needs of mobile application developers.”

Nokia Siemens Networks is launching a new software client for ‘any device with a screen’ that allows people to watch TV via any network. The Multiscreen TV client integrates “Over the Top” (Internet) TV and broadcast TV with the web and social network access. It provides a user interface for services delivered via Nokia Siemens Networks Ubiquity Multiscreen TV Platform**, irrespective of location or device. The client is built on Nokia’s open source Qt cross platform application and user interface framework. 

“The elegance of this approach is its simplicity. Video content from separate sources can be brought together and offered alongside web apps and other online services and delivered to any device, at any location, using a common, adaptable client interface,” said Brook Longdon, head of Media and Entertainment Solutions, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Our Ubiquity Multiscreen TV Platform marries traditional broadcast TV with web content to provide an easy-to-use service people will love.”

Yoav Schreiber, senior analyst, Digital Media Infrastructure, Current Analysis commented: “As service providers look to differentiate their multi-screen capabilities, it will become increasingly important for end-to-end solutions to encompass both a common back-end platform to seamlessly share intelligence across resources, as well as a common front-end to enable seamless multi-screen experiences. With its Ubiquity Multiscreen TV solution, Nokia Siemens Networks is demonstrating that it is among the few vendors that can leverage the resources to deliver both parts of a complete multi-screen architecture.”

The Ubiquity Multiscreen TV Platform and the new client ensure content is protected across various devices with built in Digital Rights Management. In addition, and depending on permissions, the new client can allow users to share video content via its integration with web apps and social networks. These features are over and above existing digital TV features such as network-based recording, pausing live TV and instant rewind.

The client supports various operating systems (OS) to avoid being locked into a specific device type, including mobile OS such as Android, Symbian and others. The client provides fast booting and channel-changing and supports user interface animation thanks to 3D graphics acceleration.

Qt’s open source framework has broad industry support and a large application developer community ecosystem. Operators can use the ecosystem to integrate or open app stores to deliver new services.

“The maturity, flexibility and large developer community for Qt provide Nokia Siemens Networks and its customers with a leading open source tool, and a community of users that will enable the development and deployment of high performance user interfaces and applications on any device,” said Sebastian Nystrom, vice president, Application & Service Frameworks, Nokia.

Several tier 1 operators have already selected Nokia Siemens Networks’ Ubiquity Multiscreen TV Platform to enhance their media offering.

Cell C has selected the award winning Mercury multimedia platform from 3ple-Media to assist in the creation of a wide range of sophisticated multimedia services.

South Africa is already a world leading market for mobile multimedia with more South Africans accessing the Internet via Mobile than the fixed line internet. The fast evolution of the South African mobile multimedia market is steadily eclipsing the country’s 10% internet penetration figures (5.3M)* and has already seen as many as 70% of users receive ads on their mobile phone in addition to an ongoing willingness by users to embrace many advanced multimedia services such as surf cams.

Recognized for its unique combination of both commercial and technical innovation, Mercury has been created to help operators position at the centre of the newly emerging mobile multimedia ecosystem. Through Mercury, operators are able to mobilize subscribers to use new multimedia services, monetize enhanced data ARPUs and micro-personalize the offering to enhance the end-user experience.

Simon Camerer, Executive Head of Marketing at Cell C believes Mercury will give the company the means to deliver fast, relevant and highly differentiating multimedia services. “It provides technical and commercial advantages to compete effectively and profitably in our market.”

The Mercury multimedia platform is the world’s most powerful mobile multimedia engine for SMS, MMS, Web and Streaming, enabling rapid access to and delivery of mobile multimedia services. This is tapped directly by media companies and content providers via a series of out-of-the-box multimedia compilation and distribution tools.  End-user experience is protected and guarantees by a host of service support elements.

Unrivalled performance, rich functionality and unlimited throughput site licensing mean that 3ple-Media’s Mercury is fast becoming synonymous with the very best of mobile multimedia innovation.

Nokia Siemens Networks and OpenCloud, a leading provider of real-time Application Servers and Service Broker systems, have entered into an agreement where Nokia Siemens Networks will lead OpenCloud’s latest investment round. Additionally, the existing OEM relationship is strengthened, allowing Open Cloud’s technology to be integrated into Nokia Siemens Networks’ charge@once unified suite – the highly scalable, flexible and modular convergent charging and billing solution. 

The joint offering enables service providers to: 

• Converge existing telecom assets and new IP capabilities to deliver next-generation services
• Extend existing and new services to the entire subscriber base – whether postpaid or prepaid, fixed or mobile
• Combine existing services and new rich content and applications into attractive bundles
• Monetize services through real-time charging mechanisms
• Accelerate the time-to-market for new services
• Expose telecom and IP assets and services to application developer.

Nokia Siemens Networks and OpenCloud have successfully worked together over the last two years, resulting in numerous customer wins around the globe. Most recently, in June this year, Nokia Siemens Networks announced a contract with Vodafone in Portugal, which leverages OpenCloud’s Service Broker technology to reduce the time and cost of launching new services.

“Having successfully worked together with Nokia Siemens Networks, we are pleased to bring our partnership to a strategic level,” says Jeff Gordon, CEO, OpenCloud. “The investment will be used to accelerate our portfolio development to support the fast growth of the Service Delivery Platform market, while leveraging Nokia Siemens Networks’ global customer reach, expertise and delivery capabilities.”

“This investment will allow Nokia Siemens Networks to address the considerable Converged Charging and Service Delivery Platform opportunities in the market”, says Rick Centeno, head of Charging, Billing and Care, Nokia Siemens Networks. “We will be able to better provide our customers with an integrated offering to fit their end-to-end needs around service development, delivery, control and charging”.

Telmap today announces the launch of the Telmap5 Mobile Location Companion, commercialized by SFR in France under the name SFR GPS.

SFR GPS is the next level of evolution in mobile location-based services, capturing the essence of what users expect today; high quality maps and a rich search experience including the ability to search for proximity services in their immediate surroundings and the famous Telmap navigation service which completes the experience.

The new location companion is the next generation of SFR’s existing Find & Go service (also powered by Telmap) and in addition to the complete navigation offering, Telmap have added several innovative features for a richer and more valuable experience:

• The unique widget carousel which enables quick and focused access to nearby information from any screen within the application. Using the widget carousel, customers can quickly and easily find whatever they are looking for: The nearest Velib bike rental station or SFR shop, parking, hospitals, ATM’s and more all by simply clicking on the relevant widget on the carousel.
• The intuitive free-text search that enables users to access millions of points of interest from a variety of content providers and categorizes the results to ensure their relevance to the user.
• The new and improved map-centric user-interface which places users at the centre of the map enabling them to make the most of their surroundings.

SFR GPS is available on the BlackBerry Curve 9300 and 8900 and on the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and 9000; it will be available shortly afterwards on additional smartphones.  SFR customers have free access to the application for local search, mapping and pedestrian navigation and for a monthly subscription, customers can also benefit from complete turn-by-turn in-car navigation.

“This is the next step in our commitment to enable SFR to drive customer loyalty by bringing true value to their end-users through a differentiated offering that answers customers’ day-to-day needs,” says Oren Nissim, Telmap CEO.  “By constantly identifying new consumer trends, we will continue to enhance SFR GPS with additional content and services in the future.”

A new X Factor application has launched for Nokia mobiles which enables fans to access exclusive content.

The application features the latest news, photos and video clips from the show . It also features exclusive competition and exclusive behind the scenes videos with the judges.

One major interest point for fans will be the forum where fans can voice their opinion on the latest evictions from the show, discuss their favourites and how much they hate Simon Cowell. The application will also feature integration with Facebook so you can easily post content to your friends.

The X Factor Application will be made available from the Ovi Store very soon. It should be there already, but it seems to be missing which is weird.

Quno.com, a web based rail search and booking service due to launch later this year, has announced it is releasing the UK’s first location-based mobile games at major UK rail stations.  The games have been developed in partnership with SCVNGR, a popular US mobile social gaming platform all about going places, doing challenges and earning points.

Quno’s approach is fundamentally different to other rail ticketing websites. The brand will provide consumers with the latest technology, tools and resources to make rail search and booking simpler. Quno’s endorsement and adoption of social gaming and mobile platforms reflects its focus on engaging with customers using a broad spectrum of communication channels and providing consumers with an enjoyable experience.

The Quno Challenge gives rail passengers the opportunity to participate in fun challenges at each station, competing against other players for badges and rewards. The game will be available at the following stations: London Waterloo, Paddington, Liverpool Street and Euston; Bristol Temple Meads, Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly and Edinburgh.

“Interacting with rail travellers at rail stations will enable us to better understand their needs while providing some light hearted entertainment,” commented Jeremy Acklam, managing director of Quno.com.  “At Quno we understand that customers want us to deliver the latest technology to make their online rail search and booking simpler. With SCVNGR we have extended this into mobile games, delivering them direct to rail travellers.”

“We’re excited to have this relationship with such a stealth company in the UK, offering players the chance to earn immediate access to the Quno beta site and scoring other sweet prizes,” said Seth Priebatsch, Chief Ninja of SCVNGR. “SCVNGR is all about completing fun, simple challenges like snapping a photo of a landmark or thinking up a quick rhyme – the options are limitless!”

To play, rail passengers first download the Quno Challenge application onto their iPhone or Android smartphones.  Once players are physically present at a participating railway station and have ‘checked in’ at the location, Quno challenges can be accessed via the ‘Treks’ tab.

South Africa’s largest network operator, Vodacom South Africa, successfully handled a surge in network traffic due to an influx of half a million visitors throughout the 2010 World Cup. The operator met the increased demand for network capacity and avoided any degradation in performance supported by Nokia Siemens Networks’ Special Event Support (SES) services*. These included consultancy, back-end network monitoring, network optimization and care services.

“There was a huge surge in network traffic during the soccer world cup and in some cases the traffic on a single base station increased by more than 500%. We were determined to not only meet the increased traffic demands, but also reconcile the varying needs and call patterns of foreign and local subscribers,” said Andries Delport, executive director, network and information technology, Vodacom South Africa. “From the preparation phase to the conclusion of the games Nokia Siemens Networks’ support guaranteed high network quality. We thank the company for its excellent professional and proactive support to ensure uninterrupted services for our subscribers.”

“A sudden increase in traffic during major events puts huge pressure on mobile networks, and can cause congestion, revenue losses and customer dissatisfaction,” said Paul Divall, Vodacom South Africa customer team head at Nokia Siemens Networks. “With our vast experience in helping operators maintain excellent network and service performance under extreme traffic conditions, we established the most efficient way to maintain the network for Vodacom South Africa.”

During the preparation phase, Nokia Siemens Networks provided capacity forecasting and optimization services to ensure network readiness across event hotspots such as stadiums, fan parks and airports. During the event, a parallel Network Operations Centre (NOC) was set up to monitor the operator’s multi-vendor radio access network, transmission network, and service delivery across these hotspots. Nokia Siemens Networks also established processes related to event set up, and risk and crisis management, in addition to reviewing operational readiness on a regular basis.

Stonesoft, an innovative provider of integrated network security and business continuity solutions, today announced the extended availability of the StoneGate MobileID authentication software token for five additional platforms: Apple Mac OS, iPod, iPhone, iPad and Google Android. Included in the StoneGate SSL VPN solution, the StoneGate MobileID is a free client application that generates one-time passwords for secure authentication to corporate applications.

The more common cloud computing becomes in corporate business and virtualised datacenters, the stronger is the need for secure access to corporate applications in the cloud. Cloud computing environments need to be accessible and available to people at all times. However, this also represents a serious challenge to security management. With single sign-on capabilities, organisations can maintain optimal security management and ensure strong authentication.

StoneGate MobileID is a free client application that generates one-time passwords (OTP), which are used to provide secure identification to the organisation’s mission-critical systems, such as CRM and corporate e-mail.

The StoneGate MobileID is now available for the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Apple Mac OS X, smart phones supporting Java such as Windows Mobile and Symbian with native versions for RIM Blackberry, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Apple iPod, Apple iPhone, Apple iPad and Google Android.

“The new version of StoneGate MobileID brings a valuable addition to our existing platform support, providing our customers a unique multi-factor authentication solution” says Marco Rottigni, StoneGate SSL VPN product manager at Stonesoft. “The software allows our customers to implement secure access to applications in the cloud with the extensive identity and access management system provided by StoneGate SSL VPN. This is extremely beneficial for any organisation that wants to make sure their employees can access necessary corporate applications and data at any time while ensuring the highest level of security”.

With the StoneGate SSL VPN solution, organisations can provide controlled yet flexible remote access for their employees, partners and customers. The solution enables organisations to share information freely and yet have full control over who accesses the information, when and from where. Like all StoneGate network security solutions, the StoneGate SSL VPN solution is also available for virtual network environments.