Touchscreen phones are getting popular these years. But typing on touchscreen is no fun. Many iPhone users, for example, have complaints about its onscreen keyboard. Due to the small buttons and the lack of key-pressing feedback, users are more likely to press wrong keys on a virtual keyboard than on a real keyboard.

TouchPal was carefully designed to resolve these issues by introducing many breakthrough technologies. One example is the impressive mistyping correction technology — even if a user mistypes all the letters in a word, it can still predict the correct word. One can thus type much faster without even looking at the keyboard. Another eye-catching feature is called “mixed language input” — for example, a user can input German and English at the same time, without switching languages. TouchPal also recognizes gestures on the touchscreen to quickly input uppercase letters or symbols.

The continuous innovation and the significant user impact of this piece of innovative work impressed the judges’ panel consisting of the senior executives from mobile operators, industry suppliers and venture capital organizations. TouchPal supports 20+ languages and is available on Windows Mobile and Google Android phones. End users can download and try it for free from CooTek’s website: http://www.cootek.com

“INQ Mobile was formed by Hutchison Whampoa as part of a two-fold 3G strategy; to maximize the user experience of wireless broadband through extensive high-speed coverage and a flat rate data plan and to create innovative yet affordable devices. The way people communicate has evolved, but mass market devices have remained anchored to just voice and text. INQ set out to change this. We created a new mobile device platform that would transform the consumer experience with always-on, easy to use, Internet driven communication services, and we designed it to deliver positive economics to operators,” said Frank Meehan, CEO of INQ Mobile. “We are proud of having introduced Social Mobile to the market and very honoured that our first device has received such recognition.”

“More than 20 million Facebook users currently access the site through their mobile devices. This number has quadrupled over the last 12 months and we expect it to continue to grow as more people begin to connect with their friends and family through Facebook on innovative mobile devices, like the INQ1,” said Henri Moissinac, director of mobile, Facebook. “Congratulations to the INQ team for being recognized for the hard work they put into bringing a standout device to market.”

The INQ1 is an HSDPA handset that provides one-click access to fully integrated applications including Facebook, Skype, Windows Messenger and Last.fm. The intuitive navigation offered by the switcher key and menu carousel, along with instant information provided by the home screen widgets and the integrated phonebook, deliver an experience so intuitive that it’s easy and fun to stay connected. The INQ1 has a 3.2MP camera that allows for photos to be directly uploaded to Facebook, while preloaded modem drivers mean the handset can double as a plug and play dongle.

“INQ1 is the first device to have unlocked mobile social networking on a mass market handset to this extent, and Qualcomm’s integrated chipset technology and BREW software have enabled INQ to meet not only the increasing demands of ever-richer user interfaces, but also the capability to deliver the upload and download speeds that has enabled INQ Mobile to realise the potential in mobile social networking. Qualcomm is proud to have played a role in the development of the INQ1 device that is being recognized by the GSMA, an exceptional accomplishment,” said Enrico Salvatori, SVP and General Manager, Qualcomm Europe.

In the category of Best Mobile Internet Service, Nokia Sports Tracker beat a tough group of competitors to take the award. The free application, first launched in July 2008 and downloaded more than 2.5 million times to date, monitors exercise and tracks fitness levels, and makes the information available to share with friends and training partners.

Nokia global environmental program was awarded as the best in the industry due to its global scale and commitment. The company set up its first recycling scheme for old or unwanted mobile devices in 1997 and today has the industry’s largest voluntary scheme operating in 85 countries around the world.

The GSMA also highlighted Nokia’s commitment to considering the environment across its entire product range. The company has deployed range of environmental elements in its devices including reducing charger no load energy consumption by 90% adding alerts to remind people to unplug their chargers once the battery is full, making up to 80% of any Nokia device recyclable, and phasing out the use of materials like PVC.

Nokia’s commitment to working with suppliers, operator, and other manufacturers to reduce the industry’s overall footprint was praised by the GSMA.

Last year Nokia led the development of an industry wide energy ranking for chargers helping consumers to choose the most efficient chargers and encouraging the industry as a whole to further increase energy efficiency.

Nokia Siemens Networks was highlighted for its industry contribution in making energy efficient base stations that reduce site level power consumption by up to 70 percent, enabling a significant reduction in the carbon footprint of mobile operators around the world.

The next phase of Calling All Innovators announced today in Barcelona challenges mobile and web application developers worldwide to submit best-of-breed applications in three categories: Internet Innovation, Flash, and Emerging Markets. Prizes include cash, the opportunity to demo at Nokia World in September, and Spotlight placement of their winning application in Nokia’s newly announced Ovi Store.

Challenged to create applications to improve the quality of life around the world, the grand prize winners of Calling All Innovators are: GreenDrive by Road-Guard (Israel), in the Eco-Challenge category; Nano Ganesh by Santosh Ostwal (India), in the Emerging Markets category; and X Dancery by Simlife Ltd. (China), in the Technology Showcase category.

Each of the grand prize winners received a cash award of USD 25,000 and will receive help in distributing their mobile applications to consumers worldwide. First place winners in each category received USD 10,000, and second-place winners each received USD 5,000.

“The high caliber of these nine winners in the first iteration of Calling All Innovators underscores the remarkable, ongoing creativity and innovation that currently defines the mobile developer community around the globe,” said Rob Taylor, Director of Forum Nokia.  “In the next phase of Calling All Innovators, Forum Nokia challenges developers to help further drive the enhanced use of mobile devices in real-world scenarios with truly innovative applications and services that are designed specifically for the Nokia N97, built with Flash technology, or specifically targeted at users in Emerging Markets worldwide.”

During the first round of Calling All Innovators, nearly 250,000 unique visitors and more than 12,000 developers from around the world registered with Forum Nokia, the world’s largest mobile developer community.

The nearly 1,000 developers from 57 countries who submitted mobile applications were narrowed to 11 finalists in January, with a panel of judges selecting the final winners in each of the following categories:

ECO-Challenge: Applications or solutions to minimize mobility’s global environmental impact and enable consumers to make sustainable lifestyle choices that reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint.

- Grand Prize: GreenDrive (Israel) – An application that promotes vehicular fuel efficiency by sensing current and impending road conditions that influence fuel consumption and providing real-time driving directions for the shortest route in the quickest time legally allowable.

- 1st Place: TigerMap (China) – An eco-friendly city guide application that makes choosing public transportation easier, combining up-to-the-minute mass transit information with recommendations of the best restaurants, entertainment, hotels and shopping in more than 150 cities throughout China.

- 2nd Place: Ticketek Mobile Ticketing (Argentina) – A Series 40 and S60 Java electronic-ticketing application that reduces paper consumption by allowing consumers to use a barcode stored on their phone to gain admission to events.

- Runner-up: Green Phone (India) – An S60 application maximizing battery life through improved regulation of device backlight, WLAN, Bluetooth and charger power consumption.

Emerging Markets: New mobile solutions to improve the daily lives of millions in developing nations, focused on areas such as education, health data access, infotainment and agriculture.

- Grand Prize: Nano Ganesh (India) – This application allows farmers in India to establish remote contact with distant, modem-equipped electric irrigation pumps , to check on power supply and pump operation without the need to travel long distances .

- 1st Place: mPedigree (Ghana) – This application allows users to text-message at no cost a quality-authentication code found on the packaging of anti-Malarial and other medications to a provisioned mobile shortcode in order to guard against counterfeit drugs believed to be responsible for an alarming number of deaths, especially in the developing world.

- 2nd Place: DigitallCS (Digital Internal Control System) (Mexico) – With this application, agricultural co-ops can inspect the growing practices of their members and upload the data to a website for reporting and analysis in order to verify the growers’ adherence to standards that include Fair Trade Certified and Certified Organic.

Technology Showcase: Applications using Flash Lite, Java, Python, open source or other technologies supported by Series 40 or S60 devices that create a compelling end-user experience for individuals or communities:

- Grand Prize: X Dancery (China) – This application, fully optimized for the S60 5th Edition’s touchscreen UI and motion sensor technology, and with advanced 3D-graphics rendering capabilities, analyzes any MP3 file to automatically generate a unique tempo-based game for each selected musical track.

- 1st Place: kReader Mobile (U.S.) – This multi-language text-to-speech application with cross-language translation capabilities uses the camera phone to digitize any book, letter, receipt or other printed document and translate the captured text into audio that is “read” back to the user.

- 2nd Place: Neuscreen (Thailand) – This application utilizes the drawing, touch-screen and camera functionalities of a Nokia N95 device connected to a normal television set to track the motion of a pen light and enable “virtual” drawing, as well as projection and manipulation directly on the TV screen of images stored on the mobile device.

- Runner-up: PhotoMap (Germany) – This application digitizes and stores a photograph of any fixed public map taken with a camera phone for easy access, browsing and geo-referencing on the mobile device.

In the next round of Calling All Innovators, Forum Nokia is challenging developers to create applications that will enhance the use of mobile devices in real-world scenarios, in the following categories:

- Internet Innovation – Calling on web developers to transform consumer-focused ideas into real applications on Nokia devices using technologies that include Nokia Web Runtime, XHTML, CSS, Java Script, AJAX, widgets and other standards-based web technologies.

- Flash – Challenging creative developers and designers to build compelling applications that expand the capabilities and user benefits of Flash Lite on Nokia S60 devices.

- Emerging Markets – Urging developers to create innovative applications across mobile technology platforms – ranging from SMS through Series 40 and S60 device platforms – in order to meet the needs and improve the daily lives of millions living in rural and semi-urban areas worldwide.

The “Internet Innovation” category is being conducted in tandem with Nokia’s Widget Design Competition, which invites consumers to submit their best ideas for new widgets to be featured in Nokia’s newly announced Ovi Store. The winning designer will receive a Nokia N97 pre-loaded with a working version of the winning widget. Winning widget ideas will be announced in March, and those ideas will be made available to an elite group of developers to compete face-to-face at the Nokia N97 Calling All Innovators “Hackathon” during the Nokia Developers’ Summit in Monaco on 28 – 29 April 2009.

Application submissions will remain open through 30 June, at www.callingallinnovators.com, with regional finalists announced on 15 August. The grand prize winners in each category will be announced at Nokia World in September.

More information about the grand prize winners of Forum Nokia’s Calling All Innovators contest can be found online at www.callingallinnovators.com.

The launch of the next Calling All Innovators competition, including complete guidelines and rules for the three new categories, will be available on the contest website starting on 13 March 2009.

A spectacular evening that showcased the very best in the mobile world, the event included a special guest appearance from producer, artist and front man of the Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am, who performed his latest single ahead of his keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress on Thursday (Mobile Backstage, 19th February), and was followed by Jamie Cullum, the Grammy, BRIT and two-time Golden Globe nominated jazz artist, who played an exclusive set in front of more than 900 senior executives and mobile industry leaders.

THE 2009 GLOBAL MOBILE AWARDS WINNERS

Best Mobile Game
Winner: Gameloft – Real Football 2009
Highly Commended: Digital Chocolate – AvaPeeps: FlirtNation

Best Mobile Music or Video Service
Winner: BBC iPlayer on Mobile

Best Mobile Advertising Service
Winner: Turkcell – Tonla Kazan

Best Mobile TV Service
Winner: MobiTV – MobiTV

Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service
Winner: Vodafone – Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited

Best Mobile Internet Service
Winner: Nokia – Nokia Sports Tracker

Best Mobile Money Service
Winner: Safaricom and Vodafone – M-PESA

Best Mobile Handset or Device
Winner: INQ – INQ1
Highly Commended: Nokia – Nokia E71
Highly Commended: T-Mobile – T-Mobile G1

Best Broadcast Commercial
Winner: KT Freetel – ‘Show is … ‘

Best Mobile Brand Campaign
Winner: R/GA London – Nokia Urbanista Diaries

Best Use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development
Winner: Nuance Communications – Airtel-T9 India Consumer Vernacular
Messaging Campaigns

Best Network Technology Advance
Winner: Nokia Siemens Networks – Flexi Multimode BTS Software defined
HSPA/LTE

Best Service Delivery Platform
Winner: NewBay Software – LifeCache Social Networking Solution 2.0

Best Billing & Customer Care Solution
Winner: Expert System – COGITO Answers

Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough
Winner: RIM – BlackBerry Storm 9500 SurePress Screen

The Green Mobile Award
Winner: Smart Communications – Alternative Power for Cell Sites program

GSMA’s CEO Award for Outstanding Environmental Contribution
Winner: Nokia

Government Leadership Award
Winner: The Government of France

GSMA Chairman’s Award
Winner: Research in Motion (RIM)

Mobile Innovation Global Award Champion Named

The EMEA leg and final stage of the 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award Competition also took place this week at the Mobile World Congress, where 15 nominees competed in five categories for the chance to pitch their innovative products and services against finalists from the Asia, Americas and Virtual legs of the competition for the title of 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award Champion.

THE 2009 MOBILE INNOVATION GLOBAL AWARD CHAMPION

Winner: Cootek, China (Most Innovative Wireless Device-centric
Technology)

THE 2009 MOBILE INNOVATION GLOBAL AWARD COMPETITION – EMEA TOURNAMENT

Global Finalist: Advanced Receiver Technologies, USA
Global Finalist: Intivation, Netherlands

And the five category winners are:

Most Innovative Wireless Device-centric Technology
– Intivation, Netherlands
Most Innovative Carrier Infrastructure or Platform
– Sunbay, Switzerland
Most Innovative Mobile Application in a Vertical Market
– WorldMate, USA
Most Innovative Consumer Application or Service
– Mobile Nordic AS, Norway
Most Innovative True Mobile Start-Up
– Advanced Receiver Technologies, USA

Mobile Innovation Grand Prix

The GSMA’s Mobile Innovation initiative has also launched a new Awards format as part of the 2010 Global Mobile Awards.  The Mobile Innovation ‘Grand Prix’ will showcase promising entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized companies developing and introducing innovative products and services that seek industry support in order to achieve market deployment.  The first leg of the competition, the EMEA Tournament, will take place at the
World Innovation Summit in Barcelona in June, and entry opens on 25 February 2009.

For more information on the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix please visit:

http://www.mobileinnovation.org/awards.

Wojciehowski: You bet. First off, it’s really exciting to be part of Microsoft’s mobile services efforts right now. People all over the world are looking to mobile services to improve the way they find and share information, stay in touch with the people they care about, and have fun on their phones. The services they are looking for on the phone are frequently the same ones they use and are familiar with on the Web and PC, such as Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live Photo Gallery, MSN, Search and more. This gives Microsoft an incredible opportunity –– to deliver great mobile offerings for these services in ways that help people make the most of their mobile experience.

Microsoft is also making a huge bet on the next generation of Windows® phones, and mobile services are at the core of the experience. Mobile services like the ones I mentioned and new ones we’re announcing this week are tightly integrated into the entire Windows® phone experience. This allows people to connect their PC, Web and phone experience in new ways that will greatly enhance the way they use their phones every day.

PressPass: Can you tell us a bit more about the two new services CEO Steve Ballmer announced at Microsoft’s Mobile World Congress press conference: My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile?

Wojciehowski: Sure. Our mobile services engineering, product management and marketing teams have been working very hard on these new services. We’re excited that we’ll be able to deliver them to customers this year.

Specifically, Steve previewed two new services that will be shipped on Windows® phones this year. The first is a service called Microsoft My Phone, which syncs text messages, photos, video and contacts to the Web. This is a free service that allows people to access, manage and back up their personal information on their device to the Web, making it easier to upgrade their phones without the worry of losing important information. Consumers will also be able to wirelessly update photos and video from their Windows® phone directly to the My Phone service, making it simple to share content that, in the past, would have lived and died on the phone. It’s important to note that the My Phone service is available in a limited invitation-only beta right now.

The second new service is Windows Marketplace for Mobile, a rich and integrated place for searching, browsing and purchasing mobile applications from Windows® phones or from a PC. The new marketplace will be available with all Windows® phones based on Windows Mobile 6.5, which will allow consumers to easily find, install and experience applications that fit their needs and make the phone truly personal.

PressPass: Can you tell us more about how the Windows Live mobile services are doing?

Wojciehowski: The Windows Live and MSN family of mobile services are doing really well right now. As you know, these services have been around for some time and they are picking up incredible momentum around the world. An increasing number of our 500 million Windows Live users on the PC are starting to engage in their favorite Windows Live services on their phone. There are a range of ways people can take advantage of Windows Live on their phone –– from feature-rich client suites to services optimized for use through the mobile internet browser and alerts delivered via text messages to the phone.

PressPass: Microsoft is highlighting Windows Live momentum, especially in the partner space with mobile operators and ISVs. It sounds like partners are an important part of the Windows Live mobile services business. Can you tell us more about those relationships and what it means for Windows Live mobile?

Wojciehowski: Partners are definitely a big part of our business. The only way we are able to effectively deliver our Windows Live experience to the vast majority of people around the world is in conjunction with our mobile operator and independent software vendor (ISV) partners. To give you and idea of how important our partners are, we have more than 100 mobile operators delivering Windows Live services in more than 45 countries. We also have over 100 different development partners working with us to build great Windows Live experiences on hundreds of mobile handsets around the world.

What we’ve announced at the Mobile World Congress are several very important mobile operator and ISV relationships that will significantly expand our ability to engage customers. This is particularly true in Latin America, where we’re extending our collaboration with mobile operators América Móvil, Telefonica, Personal S.A. and Movistar. Taken together, these alliances will help ensure that Windows Live mobile services, MSN Mobile, Live Search and others are offered and promoted to Windows Live users in more than 20 countries and on over 300 million mobile phones.

We’re also excited to extend our partnership with Gemalto, the world’s largest SIM card provider. It is currently offering a SIM-based client solution for Messenger in Latin America. This broader global relationship promises to make Windows Live Messenger available on millions of mass-market handsets in the next few years.

PressPass: Aside from partner momentum, are there any new product upgrades we should know about?

Wojciehowski: There are several things to highlight that pertain to recent service enhancements. The first is the new mobile.live.com home page. This is a new hub for a person’s entire Windows Live experience, bringing together feeds from Hotmail, Messenger buddies, personal and friends’ photos, MSN and other information sources. This one unified page will help people stay connected to the people and information they care about.

This week we’re also introducing an enhanced Windows Live Hotmail alert service. This will allow people to be notified with a text message when they receive an e-mail from a particular contact. For example, you could set up the system so you receive text message alerts when you get an e-mail from a specific family member — like your brother. From there, people can click on a link included in the text message to easily access Hotmail from the mobile Internet browser on their phone. Last, we’re introducing other Windows Live alerts that send people their Windows Live contact and calendar information and give them the ability to change their personal status on Instant Messenger through text messages.

The Memoir is designed to bring a high-quality digital imaging experience to the convenience of your mobile phone. The built-in 8-megapixel camera comes equipped with best-in-class digital imaging features, including Xenon flash, CMOS auto focus and 16x digital zoom. Accessing the Memoir’s camera menu, users can adjust the brightness and flash, change the default destination of images, select a timer and zoom in or out. In addition, the Memoir’s camera:
•  Allows users to set special effects on an image, including black and white, sepia, negative and watercolor;
•  Features blink detection, face detection, anti-shake to reduce blur, and geo-tagging, which records coordinate information of where the user is at the time the picture is taken into the image files;
•  Provides optimal settings for a variety of shooting situations to help capture the best possible image, including portrait, landscape, night, sports, party/indoor, beach snow, sunset, dawn, fall color, fireworks and backlight;
•  Automatically changes the white balance using the setting appropriate for the light source, including daylight, incandescent, fluorescent or cloudy;
•  Features five different shooting modes, including single, continuous, panorama, smile shot and mosaic.

Users can also record video for up to 60 minutes depending on the resolution format. The Memoir allows users to even create customized slideshows of their images with music and different transitions. With the TV-out feature, users can share custom slideshows, video or images on a television for everyone to enjoy. The Memoir’s proximity sensor works to automatically adjust the backlight when using the phone’s camera in different environments, as well as lock the LCD screen when brought to the user’s ear when making or receiving calls.

The Memoir features Samsung’s TouchWiz™ user interface, including two new widgets that give one-touch access to information and entertainment. The online weather widget connects to The Weather Channel automatically for updated weather information and forecasts in the user’s city. The camera widget provides instant access to the user’s pictures and camera functionality such as slideshow, as well as their favorite online photo sharing resource, including flickr®, Kodak Gallery®, Photobucket and Snapfish. With full HTML web browsing capabilities and T-Mobile’s 3G network, users can also download images or videos and instantly make updates to social networking sites. In addition, the Memoir features a music and video player, as well as multiple messaging capabilities, full touch virtual QWERTY keypad with haptic feedback and Assisted GPS.

The Memoir will be exclusively available through T-Mobile USA beginning February 25, 2009. For more information and to see Christensen’s images taken with the Memoir visit, www.samsung.com/newsroom.

T-Mobile’s 3G coverage available in select markets. Samsung Memoir also works on T-Mobile’s 2G network.

“Samsung’s strength in communications and consumer electronics positions Samsung as the leader in convergence solutions that will benefit users in home, business, and mobile personal broadband use,” said Tom Jasny, vice president of broadband and network systems for Samsung Mobile“This initiative is a powerful first step toward improving user experiences in and outside the home or office.”

“Making Skype available everywhere through mobile devices is essential to fulfilling our vision of ‘enabling the world’s conversations’,” said Scott Durchslag, Skype’s Chief Operating Officer. “Collaborating closely with Nokia to preload and integrate our software onto their devices will benefit the many Nokia customers who already use Skype, as it makes Skype easily accessible and simple to use on the go. It will also bring Skype new users who love Nokia’s Symbian S60 experience.”

“With more than 400 million Skype users worldwide, the integration of Skype on Nokia Nseries mobile computers is a significant step in bringing converged Internet experiences from the desktop to the world’s most advanced mobile computer,” said Jose-Luis Martinez, Vice President, Nokia Nseries.

Avichai Levy, Executive VP of Marketing for Mobixell stated, “The Mobixell scalable solution means that iPhone users will be able to enjoy the best possible rich media experience of sending and receiving MMS messages from their friends regardless of their device or network. Mobixell, as leader in the Mobile Multimedia area, bridges the traditional Multimedia Messaging world and the iPhone world, helping Mobile Operators to provide their users with the best user experience, regardless of their handset.”