Don’t Miss Plastic Mobile’s Sweet Booth at Dx3!

The Plastic Mobile elves are working hard to create a real treat for anyone attending Dx3′s showroom floor. The Plastic Mobile booth is shaping up to be a one-stop-shop for a peak into how mobile really works – more specifically, how it can work for brands in the rapidly evolving world of commerce.

While we are certainly not about to divulge our top-secret booth plan (that’s classified intel), we are happy to give you a little something to nibble on while you wait in bated-breath suspense for January 25th and 26th to arrive so you can burst through the doors of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and hurry to see what Plastic’s got in store. The tidbit? Don’t sugar coat your mobile initiatives – quality is key to ensuring the best user experience and repeat usage. Stay tuned for more info on Plastic’s presence at Dx3. Are you getting excited? Tweet us @plasticmobile and tell us what you’re most looking forward to.

Also, take advantage of our exclusive Plastic Mobile Dx3 giveaway!

Home entertainment guru, Panasonic, is exploring another area of household appliances: produce. Yup. Their Japanese business daily The Nikkei has produced the first coud-based fruit and vegetable home growing unit.

Tech Crunch posted about the 100x50x30cm “Smart Vegetable Garden,” noting that Panasonic claims that users can harvest their fare in 40 days, about 30% quicker than when using conventional methods. As well as being able to see the fruits if your labour sooner, the whole mini biosphere can be managed by a cloud-based system that will track the growth, water and temperature, as well as the nutrient levels of the soil.

This handy little eco-gadget can be connected to multiple units, and can be indoors or outdoors, though we suspect limiting its use to the warm-weather months if you opt to garden in its natural environment.

Last, your Smart Garden can be bundled with a home solar energy system that Panasonic is currently selling in Japan.

Some skeptics are concerned that this may be an exciting new avenue for other homegrown…err…plants. But at the outrageous cost (US$7,800), we’re more certain that some tech-trend loving, organic zealot celeb will be the first to snatch this up. Happy gardening!

We don’t know if the OS is good enough to steal the thunder from iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, but it is definitely getting Microsoft back into the game.

Yesterday was the first day in North America that Windows Phone 7 went on sale. There are plenty of phones to choose from both in US & Canada.  In US,  AT&T offers Samsung Focus and T-Mobile offers HTC HD7; they are being sold for $199.99 with a two-year contract.
In Canada,TELUS, Rogers and Bell are all offering the new Windows Phone 7 supported devises.

TELUS is offering the following two devices, HTC 7 Surround & LG Optimus 7, at the following prices:

• HTC 7 Surround costs $99.99 with a three-year contract, $349.99 with a two-year contract, $399.99 with a one-year contract,  $499.99 with no contract.
• LG Optimus 7 costs $99.99 with a three-year contract, $399.99 with a two-year contract, $ 449.99 with a one-year contract, and $499.99 with no contract.

Bell is offering  LG Optimus Quantum, at the following prices:

• LG Optimus Quantum for $99.99 with a three-year contract, $399.95 with a two-year contract, $424.95 with a one-year contract, and $449.95 with no contract.

Rogers is offering  Samsun Focus, at the following prices

• Samsung Focus for $199.99 with a three-year contract, $499.99 with a two-year contract, $549.99 with a one-year contract, and $599.99 with no contract.

Windows phone 7 is a fresh software platform; yet, it is surprisingly fully completed. One of the great features of Windows Phone 7 is the personalization of home screen. Check out this Link for a recent post I did detailing a comparison of the newest smartphones. It allows users to add people, games, music, and videos directly to the front of their phone, instead of just configuring apps. Another good feature is that it allow users to see calendar appointments, e-mails, and message counts, from the lock screen; and from the home screen, they can even get more details before going into a single app. As for games, all games with Xbox Live support will have free demos, mirroring the policy of Xbox Live Arcade. Windows Users can log on to Xbox Live on the go.

Despite the great features it has, it misses couple of things at this point such as: Flash video, cut & paste, and multi-tasking for third party apps.

Here is good video that shows you some of the features and functionality of Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft’s big bet on its mobile comeback is definitely going to compete with iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, with its $100-500 million marketing campaign (all sorts of rumors out there on their marketing spend). However, the company will not only have to gain consumer’s vote in order to break through, but also it has to build up its developer community.  Currently, Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace has around 1,600 apps, compared with around 100,00 in the Android Market and over 250,000 in Apple’s App Store.

Greg Sullivan, Microsoft’s senior product manager for Windows Phone 7, told CNN “Our message is going to be clear: This is a phone that does stuff for you.” I guess we have to wait ant see  “if  and how it’ll do stuff for USERS”.

Palm Pre has yet to release more information on their verison of the app store and the pricing model behind releasing Palm apps.

However, today they opened up to developers a preview of their Mojo SDK which can be accessed here. If you’ve got some time (approximately an hour) watch this O’Reilly Webcast with Mitch Allen, Palm’s Software CTO, about developing applications with their development kit. Also, they’ve got the first chapter of their webOS available for free. Enjoy.

CTIA Wireless 2009 event is one of the most global mobile events that takes place in Las Vegas this between April 1- April 3.   The event will be filled many people from different . The event is the convergence of more than 1,000 exhibiting companies, dozens of industries, and over 40,000 professionals from 125 countries all working toward the common goal of revolutionizing wireless.

The even attracts from  many domains:

• Application/Software Developers & Providers
• CLECs & LECs
• Consultants
• Content Providers/Aggregators
• Dealers/Retailers
• Distributors/Resellers/VARs
• Engineers
• Enterprise/Corporate/SOHO End-Users
• Entertainment
• Field Sales & Service
• Internet Service Providers – ISPs
• Manufacturers
• OEMs
• System Integrators
• Wireless Service Providers (Narrow/ Broadband PCS, Cellular, CDPD, ESMR)

KeyNote Sessions will include:

1. Steve Largent(President & CEO CTIA–The Wireless Association
2. Robert Dotson (2009 CTIA Chairman, President & CEO,T-Mobile USA )
3. Mike Lazaridis (President & Co-Chief Executive Officer, Research In Motion)
4. Ivan Seidenberg (Chairman & CEO, Verizon Communications
5. Robert Bach (President, Entertainment & Devices Division Microsoft Corporation
6. Benjamin Wolff (Co-Chairman, Clearwire Corporation)
7. Eric J. Topol, M.D. (Director, Scripps Translational Science Institute, Chief Academic Officer, Scripps Health)
8. The honorable AL GORE (45th Vice President of the United States)

The speaker all look very interesting and we (Plastic Mobile Agency) are looking forward to this great event that allows the world to come together and share mobile innovation.

See you all there!

- Melody Adhami