Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Monday, May 08, 2006
SoonR, access your PC and call via Skype from your mobile phone
SoonR provides a service that enables access to your PC's files and MS Outlook from mobile phones. The only thing you need to install is a SoonR application on your PC. You then access the PC via the phone's browser, so there's no downloaded phone application involved. By checking the characteristics of the phone (no indication of how that's done, could be UAProf, UA/WURFL mapping or similar) the service optimises the information provided for the phone in question.
PC files can be viewed in 3 different ways:
* As the original format, e.g. Word, Excel etc, provided you have such a viewer application in your phone
* Converted to PDF, again provided you have a PDF viewer in your phone
* As a text file, directly in the browser, which should work on all phones
The now released SoonR Talk adds the possibility to call via Skype from a mobile phone. When you make a call via the browser (you just enter an international number or look it up via Skype or MS Outlook) the service actually calls you back via the normal voice channel from Skype Out. The press release talks about free telephony, which I don't understand. Skype Out is definitely not free, and in Europe more expensive than normal phone rates. What you can gain by this is that the one you call can be across the world without you having to pay the long distance rate for that person. From what I understand SoonR Talk is of no use for regional calls, but it might be different in the States. If the person can't be reached via voice it's possible to send an IM.
GetJar and other application downloading sites provide other services for remotely accessing your PC, but it looks like SoonR is one of the better services around. By not relying on a downloaded application the service works with more phones.
It should be noted that GUI emulation is not provided by SoonR, which some other services support. This would definitely require a local application.
SoonR - In Touch Now
SoonR - In Touch Now - SoonR Talk Press Release
PC files can be viewed in 3 different ways:
* As the original format, e.g. Word, Excel etc, provided you have such a viewer application in your phone
* Converted to PDF, again provided you have a PDF viewer in your phone
* As a text file, directly in the browser, which should work on all phones
The now released SoonR Talk adds the possibility to call via Skype from a mobile phone. When you make a call via the browser (you just enter an international number or look it up via Skype or MS Outlook) the service actually calls you back via the normal voice channel from Skype Out. The press release talks about free telephony, which I don't understand. Skype Out is definitely not free, and in Europe more expensive than normal phone rates. What you can gain by this is that the one you call can be across the world without you having to pay the long distance rate for that person. From what I understand SoonR Talk is of no use for regional calls, but it might be different in the States. If the person can't be reached via voice it's possible to send an IM.
GetJar and other application downloading sites provide other services for remotely accessing your PC, but it looks like SoonR is one of the better services around. By not relying on a downloaded application the service works with more phones.
It should be noted that GUI emulation is not provided by SoonR, which some other services support. This would definitely require a local application.
SoonR - In Touch Now
SoonR - In Touch Now - SoonR Talk Press Release
