Apple unveiled the new iPod Shuffle

Apple iPod Shuffle....
Apple unveiled the new iPod Shuffle, which is only half the volume of the previous iPod Shuffle, which itself was about the size of a quarter. The new one looks like a sleek aluminum tie clip, or maybe a slightly elongated stick of Trident gum; a AA battery hides it completely. There's just enough room on the back for a mirror-finish spring clip for fastening to your clothes. (If you order from apple.com, you can get a custom message laser-etched onto the clip.)
Apple's third-generation iPod Shuffle MP3 player ($79) is the smallest MP3 player you can buy. Its unique size and uncommon, remote-controlled design won't suit every purpose, but people looking for the next best thing to an invisible iPod will appreciate the player's minimal approach.

Design
At first glance, the iPod Shuffle looks almost like a practical joke--as if someone is trying to convince you that their tie clip plays MP3s. The aluminum-encased hardware measures just a few hairs larger than a paper clip (0.7 inch by 1.8 inches by 0.3 inch) and includes not a hint of button, knob, or screen. The headphone jack sits on the top edge of the Shuffle along with a switch that controls playback mode (shuffle playback/consecutive playback) and power.

Fortunately, Apple doesn't expect you to control the Shuffle's volume and playback using mind control (not yet, at least). The earbud-style headphones bundled with the Shuffle include a remote control on the cable, just below the right ear. The remote offers three buttons: two for volume control (up/down); and a central button with multiple functions. You press the center button once to pause music playback, twice to skip forward, and three times to skip back. Of course, the downside to this headphone-controlled design is if you lose your headphones, you also lose control of your iPod. Apple's own replacement earbuds for the Shuffle run $29, but it's possible to grab third-party headphones and adapters for less.
The headphone cable reaches 3 feet, which should be more than enough length considering that the Shuffle is meant to be clipped to your clothing. A hinged chromed metal clip runs the length of the Shuffle on one side and includes a slot for attaching a lanyard or keychain. An Apple logo is engraved on the clip, and custom engraving is offered on orders placed through Apple's online store.

Features
The Shuffle is purely a digital audio player. There's no FM radio, no voice recording, and--obviously--no photo or video playback. Audio formats supported include MP3, AAC, Audible, WAV, AIF, and Apple Lossless, but no hope for WMA or FLAC.

The third-generation version of the iPod Shuffle offers a few new features over previous models, though. For one, this is the first Shuffle that tells you what you're listening to, which is no small accomplishment considering the player doesn't have a screen. The Shuffle uses a synthesized voice to announce artist and song title information whenever you hold the headphone clicker down. Apple is calling this feature VoiceOver and offers support for 14 languages, with voice quality hinging on what type of computer and operating system you're using.

Microsoft unveiled a new mobile phone strategy.

The software giant announced that at the Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona, Spain, the company and its key mobile partners were unveiling new smartphones with upgraded Microsoft software.
The next generation of phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft's new version of operating system for handsets, which is expected to be available in the later half this year

Microsoft wants to create software buzz on mobiles
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's mobile phone strategy: sell a lot of devices.

Even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer knows that it's the hardware that gets people to buy a mobile phone.

"The thing that people buzz about is the actual thing they go and buy, which is the phone, which comes from one of our partners," Ballmer said in an interview Monday.

Microsoft aims to change that with its new effort unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: to persuade consumers to buy smart phones - the fastest-growing segment of the handset market - because they are running Microsoft operating system.

The new software will be Microsoft 6.5 in the series _ but will be marketed to consumers simply as Microsoft Phone, with a new user interface and a new browser. Windows also is launching two new services, one that allows users to synch their text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web and an on-line applications store that will bring together the 20,000 applications developed for Microsoft-based phones.

"It is important for us that we have a strong presence and position on the phone," Ballmer said.

More than 20 million devices carrying Microsoft's operating system were sold in 2008. Ballmer said he expects to grow the market share, but he declined to make forecasts.

"The most important thing we'll do is we're going to work with the guys who build phones that are exciting ... that are hot and tell the story of their Windows phone," Ballmer said. "The Windows phone from HTC, the line of Windows phones from Samsung, from LG, really getting with the partner and telling the story of the partner and their device."

To that end, key partners HTC, LG Electronics and Orange also unveiled new Windows phones based on the new Windows operating system in Barcelona. LG said it will dramatically increase the number of phones it offers running Windows, making it the primary operating system for its smart phones. LG said its volume of Windows phones would increase 10 times this year.

Telecoms operators _ notably Vodafone _ have signaled that they want fewer, not more operating platforms.

But Ballmer thinks Windows Mobile is better positioned than the other operating systems because it can run on phones for a range of prices _ from the $600 smart phone to the $250 model.

"Many phones times a small amount of money, hopefully is enough to make this all make sense," Ballmer said in an interview on the sidelines of the four-day GSMA's World Mobile Congress, where Microsoft unveiled a new mobile phone strategy.

The company that best-known for its PC software, but which has been playing in the mobile field for the last seven years, wants to persuade consumers to buy smart phones — the fastest-growing segment of the handset market — because they are running Microsoft operating system.

That may seem counterintuitive. Even Ballmer knows that hardware — not software — is what creates consumer excitement, something in shorter supply as the world economic downturn has dramatically cut consumer confidence.

"The thing that people buzz about is the actual thing they go and buy, which is the phone, which comes from one of our partners," Ballmer said in an interview Monday.

The new software will be Windows Mobile 6.5 in the series — but will be marketed to consumers simply as Windows Phone — will include a new user interface and a new browser. Windows also is launching two new services, one that allows users to synch their text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web and an applications store that will bring together the 20,000 applications that have been developed for Microsoft-based phones.

"It is important for us that we have a strong presence and position on the phone," Ballmer said. While the mobile business is relatively small part of Microsoft's business, it

More than 20 million devices carrying Microsoft's operating system were sold in 2008. Ballmer said he expects to grow the market share, but he declined to make forecasts. Microsoft doesn't say how much it sells the software for, but analysts at the GSMA put it in the ballpark of $5 to $7 per handset.

"The most important thing we'll do is we're going to work with the guys who build phones that are exciting ... that are hot and tell the story of their Windows phone," Ballmer said. "The windows phone from HTC, the line of Windows phones from Samsung, from LG, really getting with the partner and telling the story of the partner and their device."

To that end, key partners HTC, LG Electronics and Orange also unveiled new Windows phones based on the new Windows operating system in Barcelona. LG said it will dramatically increase the number of phones it offers running Windows, making it the primary operating system for its smart phones. LG said its volume of windows phones would increase 10 times this year.

Telecoms operators — notably Vodafone — have signaled that they want fewer not more operating platforms.

But Ballmer thinks Windows Mobile is better positioned than the other operating systems because it can run on phones for a range of prices — from the upper $600 smart phone to the $250 model.

IDC Analyst Francisco Jeronimo said while Microsoft's numbers are pretty good, the battle for operating system (OS) dominance is still wide hope. The big industry players in the increasingly key smart phone market are Google's Android, Nokia's Symbian — which has opened up to outsiders through the Symbian Foundation — the Linux-based open-source software being developed by the LiMo consortium and Palm OS.

"Definitely, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile will be top OS in terms of smart phones. The challenge now for Microsoft is: No one wants to pay for an OS when they have Symbian and Android for free. What is the point?"

While 20 million devices last year shipped with Microsoft's OS, Nokia shipped 17 million smart phones to western Europe alone, along with 59 million traditional devices. While the big manufacturers seem to be waiting to make their Android announcements during the second half of the year, Jeronimo said Google's open-source software is sure to be a big player in two or three years.

"Microsoft are the ones challenged now," Jeronimo said. "My question is how long will they continue with a proprietary system?"

Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis for Los Angeles-based market research group Interpret LLC, didn't discount the importance of actual sales. But he said the software maker still needs to build buzz among consumers, rather than relying on the device's reputation as a workhorse that synchs up well with Microsoft's Exchange server.

"I think what they're doing now is reminding the market that these devices are the intersection between business and consumer, personal and work life," Gartenberg said.

mobile technology to provide better healthcare worldwide

A resource for activists using mobile technology worldwide.

Using mobile phones has enormous potential for increasing access to healthcare for poor people aroundd the world, and for improving clinical outcomes. Now a new association, the mHealth Alliance, has been launched to support this emerging field and increase the scale and impact of the many small prokects around the world.

So new, the Alliance has so far no website, press release, or organizaton yet, it was announced to the BBC as part of the GSMA World Congress in Barcelona. The mHealth Alliance is currently under the auspices of three foundations, the UN and Rockefeller Foundations in the United States, and the UK-based Vodafone Group Foundation.

Deploying mobiles in health care in developing countries is not only promising for health outcomes, it is also a hot and potentially lucrative business area. There is enormous interest by NGOs, donors, telcoms, mobile vendors, researchers, and governments in the the use of mobile phones for increasing healthcare for the poorest people in the world.

Three foundations have announced their intention to join in a "mobile health" effort to use mobile technology to provide better healthcare worldwide.
The UN, Vodafone, and the Rockefeller Foundation's mHealth Alliance aims to unite existing projects to improve healthcare using mobile technology.

The alliance will guide governments, NGOs, and mobile firms on how they can save lives in the developing world.

The partnership is now calling for more members to help in mHealth initiatives.

The groundbreaking "mHealth for Development" study produced by the UN/Vodafone Foundation Partnership lists more than 50 mHealth programmes from around the world, showing the benefits that mobile technology can bring to healthcare provision.

The report also outlines how such programmes offer value to the mobile industry.

That, said UN/Vodafone Foundation Partnership head Claire Thwaites, is a crucial step in an industry that like so many others stands at the edge of a downturn.

"I think there's a real need to have an alliance," Ms Thwaites told the BBC at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.

"It's looking at scaling up and bringing governments together with NGOs and corporations, and it will commission pretty rigorous research on what the market opportunity is for mHealth, answering the question: why should a business get involved in this area?"

Bringing a "value proposition" to network operators is what could bring together the individual, small-scale efforts that so far have existed as purely humanitarian endeavours.

Andrew Gilbert, European president of Qualcomm, says that his firm has launched 29 different programmes across 19 countries, involving some 200,000 people, as part of its Wireless Reach campaign.

"It's not a charitable thing, it's very much aimed at allowing these solutions to become self-sustaining," he said.

Connecting areas
Because 3G mobile technology is cheap and easily made widespread, Mr Gilbert added, comparatively small amounts of investment can wreak great change in these so-called emerging markets.

Connecting areas
Because 3G mobile technology is cheap and easily made widespread, Mr Gilbert added, comparatively small amounts of investment can wreak great change in these so-called emerging markets.

In India, there are 1m people that die each year purely because they can't get access to basic healthcare," said Dan Warren, director of technology for the GSM Association, the umbrella organisation that hosts the MWC.

"The converse angle to that is that 80% of doctors live in cities, not serving the broader rural communities where 800 million people live."

Simply connecting rural areas with city doctors using mobile broadband would allow the provision of better healthcare to more people, and many of the initiatives to date have focused on that kind of connection.

In 2007, the GSMA supported Ericsson in its Gramjyoti project, providing broadband to the remote Indian villages in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

A band of paramedics in a mobile broadband-equipped van visited the villages and were able to cover vast areas, referring many queries back to doctors in major cities.

Fragmented market
Yet mobile technology, as much as it can multiply the efforts of city-dwelling doctors and bring diagnoses to far-flung villages, cannot make up for some shortfalls.

"There's 4 billion mobile phones now in the world, 2.2 billion of those in the developing world," said Ms Thwaites. "Compare that to 305 million PCs and then look at hospital bed numbers: there's 11 million of them in the developing world."
As a result, mHealth projects must also be able to provide an ounce of prevention, and the report sheds light on some particularly successful initiatives.

In South Africa, the SIMpill project integrated a sensor-equipped medicine bottle with a SIM card, ensuring that healthcare workers were advised if patients were not taking their tuberculosis medicine.

The percentages of people keeping up with their medicine rocketed from 22% to 90%.

The medium of text message can overcome sociological barriers as well.

The Project Masiluleke SMS message campaign provided people with free text messages, with the remainder of the 160 characters used to provide HIV and Aids education.

In Uganda, the Text to Change text-based HIV quiz campaign resulted in a 33% increase in calls to an HIV information hotline.

"There are a couple of interesting benefits that the project brought to light," says UN Foundation spokesperson Adele Waugaman. "One of them is the benefit of talking to people in their local language.

"Also, HIV is very stigmatised in South Africa, so people don't like to discuss it publicly. The benefit of getting these private text messages is it's a new form of access that addresses these stigmatisation and privacy concerns."

Healthcare includes improving quality of life as well. One case study from Qualcomm's Wireless Reach programme, - 3G for All Generations - shows how mobile broadband has brought the company together with the Spanish Red Cross and Vodafone Spain to provide a custom software solution for Spain's elderly.

They can have video calls with care providers, call for help, or simply have a chat, providing real social interaction without anyone needing to travel.

Each of these and the many more in the new report showcases the potential of the technology but underlines the significant stumbling block of mHealth so far.

"The biggest problem is fragmentation of small projects," says Ms Thwaites.

"A lot of the work being done on the ground is NGO- and foundation-led, but let's join those efforts with the Microsofts and the Qualcomms and the Intels and the Vodafones.

"There's a business case for it now; you have to have the experience of the NGOs on the ground talking to the big corporates out there and creating real business models, and that's why I think the mHealth Alliance can tackle that."