Software

I got pretty excited when I read this title on TechCrunch...

Want The Kindle Source Code? You Can Have It.

So, I headed over to...

Amazon.com Source Code Notice

...which has source code for the original Kindle, Kindle 2 and Kindle DX. I downloaded the compressed tarball for the Kindle DX, unpacked it and started taking a look at the code. You can see the unpacked files in the screenshot above. As may be able to tell, the Kindle DX tarball contains other tarballs. If you look at the tarball names and have a working knowledge of Linux (and specifically the Debian Linux distro), you might be able to tell that there doesn't seem to be any ebook related bits in the tarballs. You'll see a lot of standard Linux components like alsa (sound drive), binutils (binary utilities), fuse (file system), glib (libraries), iptables (firewall) and linux (the Linux kernel). In fact, all the tarball names look pretty familiar to me. I don't see anything off-hand that are ebook related.

I may have missed something, but this looks like just the Linux parts and associated utilities to me.

Mobile media company July Systems has come out with a smartphone edition of its Mi mobile Internet platform for media brands. With Mi, media outlets can publish their content across the mobile Web, mobile app stores and carrier decks simultaneously.

The new edition adds support for those ever-popular iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices and all those app stores that are cropping up for them and other smartphone brands.

Publishers using the Mi Platform include CBS Sports, VH1, Fox, National Geographic, NBA, Nickelodeon and dozens of others.

Mobile solutions provider Mobclix has upgraded its platform with enhanced analytics and new features to help its application developer customer better monetize their iPhone apps. The Mobclix platform focuses on three distinct areas - analytics, monetization and distribution - all in the name of enabling content owners and advertisers make the most of their mobile offerings.

With version 2.0, Mobclix becomes the only platform to include yield optimization, which guarantees 100% fill rates for all US inventory, according to co-founder Vishal Gurbuxani. The company is able to do this because of its relationships with multiple ad networks and deep audience segmentation to ensure all ads are targeted to the right consumers, he said.

Other enhancements include a link exchange program; interactive advertising so advertisers can take advantage of the iPhone's accelerometer and other advanced features and hooks into Facebook Connect, Twitter and Open Social to track viral distribution.

Mobclix also added Touchstream Event Logging, which can track what a user does in an application to determine latency and other issues that may be hampering performance; a new dashboard with in-depth analytics; an updated SDK library; user comments and ratings capabilities and a new ad dashboard for on-demand self-serve ad reporting.

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Back in the days when the desktop computer reigned supreme, if you wanted to create an application to share with friends, the choice was to build it for the PC, the Mac or both. Nowadays, if you want to create a mobile app to share, you're faced with multiple platforms and carriers, not to mention hundreds of handset options. It's easier to give up and create a WAP site and hope that most of your contacts can access it without too many problems.

Mobile technology provider DIDMO is doing its part to help overcome the hurdles presented by the fragmented mobile universe.

And it's doing it almost for free.

DIDMO's solution is a user-generated mobile content service called Magmito. Targeting both consumers and businesses, Magmito enables registered users to create just about any type of mobile app, from wedding plans to local sports team rosters and schedules to store brochures.

[Click continued to read more about Magmito and its first customer.]

continued...

Mobile content distributor Handango has come out with something called the App Store Accelerator, a new service for companies who have an interest in launching or investing in a mobile application storefront.

Targeting mobile carriers, device makers and e-tailers, the Handango App Store Accelerator has four main components: content management; developer and reconciliation management; billing, including fulfillment and shopping-cart functionality and second-line customer support.

Handango's intent behind the App Store Accelerator service is to help its network of content developers capitalize on the new trend of mobile application storefronts, while removing a lot of the hurdles and operating expenses.

Apple apparently wants to make the mobile universe green on St. Patrick's Day. Green with envy, that is. The iPhone maker is holding a press event in Cupertino on Tuesday to give a sneak peek of the upcoming iPhone 3.0 operating system.

According to AppleInsider, new features we can expect include a push notification server that would let third-party app developers push updates to users' phones using Apple-operated central servers and possible support for advanced Bluetooth functionality. Other potential additions include support for user-created widgets, a global information page, global search functionality, copy-and-paste, mobile playlist syncing and improved push functionality.

Guess we'll find out for sure on Tuesday.

Polar Mobile, whose SMART mobile content and advertising platform delivers the tools needed to deliver, track and monetize digital media on smartphones, has teamed with Cascada Mobile. Under the deal, Polar Mobile will use Cascada's Breeze mobile development platform to extend the capabilities of SMART beyond smartphones to J2ME-based handsets.

The first Breeze-based app from Polar is a mobile version of hockey publication The Hockey News, which Polar already offers for the BlackBerry and other smartphones.

Breeze enables developers to create mobile apps in as little as 15 minutes that will operate on hundreds of handset models.

The Hockey News mobile will be a free, ad supported app that runs on the Polar Mobile platform. To download it, hockey fans can text "cmap get hockey" to 32075.

Google has launched the Google Mobile App for Windows Mobile. According to the company, Google Mobile means faster searching and easier access to all your Google apps from the phone's Today screen, without having to open a browser window first.

It also brings search history, so you get search results with fewer clicks - always a plus, especially on a phone's keypad.

Pocket PC users get an extra bonus. They can add Google Mobile to their start menu or configure a key to access it from within any application. The Google Mobile App is already available for the iPhone and BlackBerry.

You can get the Windows Mobile version here.

iPhone-like apps for other phones? Sun's announcement on Thursday of JavaFX Mobile must have mobile application developers drooling.

Sun's new JavaFX platform, which runs on top of Java ME, lets developers build apps with "high-fidelity audio and video, animation, vector graphics, rich text and access to Web services," according to an InformationWeek article. Since it sits on Java ME, JavaFX developers can take advantage of all Java ME functionality, including security and Bluetooth support.

JavaFX gives developers a much broader potential for their snazzy new apps than they have with the iPhone. Some 2.6 billion of the mobile handsets out there support Java ME.

Google on Tuesday launched AdSense for mobile search, a new tool that lets mobile operators and content publishers to embed a Google search box on their mobile sites. According to a post on the Google Mobile blog, the new AdSense product provides mobile users with "instant access to Google search including comprehensive Web search, local image and news results - all formatted for their phones."

Carriers and Web site owners will get a share of the ad revenue from searches generated by their sites.

Google has posted a form for folks interested in beta testing the new AdSense for mobile search. If you're going to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and submit the beta form by February 13, you just might get an invite to a private information session at the event.