Mobile web browser Skyfire is one of the only browsers around that lets users watch movies from online video site Hulu. Or rather, it was. WMExperts reports that Hulu has begun blocking Skyfire users.

This development comes on a long, protracted battle between Hulu and Boxee, a media center application for OS X, Windows, and Ubuntu Linux that provides access to web video from dozens of sources.

After killing Boxee support, Hulu eventually launched its own desktop application, cleverly called Hulu Desktop. Does this mean that Hulu might be working on a mobile viewing device? I wouldn't be surprised if the company simply wanted more control over how users can interact with the media on its web site. On the other hand, since Boxee, Skyfire, and most other applications that allow users to watch Hulu video leave the advertising intact, I can't see how it should make much difference to Hulu and the company's content partners how you watch the videos.

[via AppScout]

The developers at Skype must be working overtime this week. Yesterday saw the launch of Skype 3.0 for Windows Phones. Today Skype pushed out version 4.1 for Windows and Skype 1.1 for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Skype 4.1 for Windows includes support for screen sharing, birthday reminders, and improved audio and video quality. The latest version also fixes a few bugs found in Skype 4.1 beta, so if you're running the beta you'll probably want to update.

Skype 1.1 for the iPhone and iPod Touch now lets you listen to your voicemail on your mobile phone and send SMS. The update also adds support for additional languages.

After months of beta testing, Skype has released an updated VoIP and chat client for Windows Mobile. Skype 3.0 for Windows phones should work with most phones running Windows Mobile 5.0 or newer. It's designed to support WiFi, 2G, or 3G internet connections, although you'll get the best voice quality when using WiFi.

The new features in Skype 3.0 for Windows Phones include the ability to send files to other Skype users and the ability to send text messages at Skype rates. If you don't have an unlimited data plan on your phone, Skype 3.0 isn't going to save you any money. But if your plan offers unlimited data without unlimited texting, the ability to send SMS via Skype could certainly come in handy.

You can also make free Skype to Skype calls using the client, or make long distance calls at SkypeOut Rates.

I wrote the other day about the iPhone version of AIM, and how it takes advantage of push notifications in iPhone 3.0., but since then I've been testing a different chat client that really takes things to the next level: BeejiveIM. You might be put off by the $10 purchase price, but if you're an avid IM fanatic, it will be worth every penny. BeejiveIM supports AIM, Google Chat, MSN, Yahoo!, Facebook and MySpace in a smart layout that makes it the most usable chat app I've tried on the iPhone yet.

The key features that make BeejiveIM a killer app are its support for push notifications, its horizontal keyboard, and the elegant way it organizes open chats. Rather than forcing you to dig through submenus on your buddy list, BeejiveIM puts the buddy list on one screen, and a list of your open chats on another. If someone IMs you while you have a chat open, you can tap once on the number of unread messages to switch between chats. This is right in so many ways, and avoids the clunky feeling of having to go back to your buddy list to switch to another conversation.

Sure, $10 is on the high end of the App Store price range, but there's nothing going that beats BeejiveIM at what it does. It's replaced both the AIM app and the Meebo web app on my home screen.

There's a lot of great financial tracking software out there now. Sites like Mint and Rudder that link up to your bank account and track your spending automatically are great, but what if you don't want to give your account information to a finance site? Texthog is a lot like old-school DIY checkbook balancing, except replacing pen and paper with SMS, email and Twitter.

You can send a transaction to Texthog through one of the aforementioned mobile methods, or just log into the site and add one later. Logging in is also good for changing dates and such if you text a transaction to Texthog after the fact. You can also tag and organize your expenses, and generate spending reports. It might be more work than letting some automated service track your account, but it's also more accurate, because you're recording expenses as you charge them, rather than when they eventually clear your account.

When Amazon created an iPhone app based on its popular e-reader device, the Kindle, it became clear that $10 books were as big or bigger than $400 readers in Amazon's business model. By allowing reading on other devices, Amazon has been able to make sales to customers who would never have bought a Kindle, and that's worked so well on the iPhone that other devices and book formats are now on the agenda.

According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the company looks at the ebook business and the gadget business as separate. Expanding to new devices isn't going to keep gadget-hungry consumers from buying a Kindle if they were planning to do it anyway, and plenty of customers who would never buy a Kindle might still buy a few books for their own devices. As for file formats, the Kindle already reads PDFs, but Bezos said other formats could be supported in the future. This may be one of the results we're seeing from Amazon's acquistion of Stanza, which supported formats that the Kindle doesn't yet.

Updated: At first, I thought that recent release of the Kindle Source Code might have something to do with developing for other platforms, but it was actually only done to comply with the Gnu Public License. Because the Kindle was built on some open-source GPL-licensed components, Amazon had to release the parts of the code that were modifications of those components. It unfortunately has nothing to do with enabling developers on other platforms to build apps that work with Kindle books.

I really, really want to be Dutch right now. After taking a look at Layar, a mobile Augmented Reality browser that's currently only available in the Netherlands, I can't wait until similar technology is available in the rest of the world. Layar uses the camera and location-based services of your mobile device -- Android devices only, so far -- and overlays information on the camera image.

This is flying-car level tech, the kind of stuff that sci-fi nerds dream about, and it's got plenty of practical applications for the average user, too. Although Layar is still in its early stages, this is the technology that's going to make it possible to point your phone at a restaurant and see prices and reviews, or point it at a transit stop and see schedules. One the features Layar is pushing is the ability to create your own layers, so it could be used for everything from business to gaming. Every cool piece of tech has its downside, though, and I imagine advertisers are salivating a little bit about the possibilities something like Layar presents.

Gmail Mobile just received a couple of updates that bring it even closer to the full Gmail experience: keyboard shortcuts and faster autocompletion for contacts. When Google says "keyboard shortcuts," the emphasis is on the "keyboard" part. You'll need to have an Android phone with a physical keyboard, like the G1, to use them. If you do, Gmail on your phone now supports all the same shortcuts you can use in desktop Gmail, so you can navigate your mailboxes or jump to the next message with a single keypress.

Faster autocompletion can be used by Android and iPhone users alike. Autocompletion has been reported on some blogs as a new feature, but Google's own blog post suggests that addresses just complete faster now, thanks to caching of results from previous address book searches. This means that possible addresses should now come up as you type, making it even quicker than before to send a message from Gmail Mobile.

Sharing your location via a mobile device is a great way to let friends and family know where you are, and encourage people you know to meet up with you. The challenge is in making it as easy as possible for the right people to see your location while hiding it from random Internet strangers. Glympse is a clever new approach to the problem, allowing location-sharing on a time limited person-by-person basis.

Using Glympse is as simple as picking a contact and a duration. Your contact will be able to see your location from their mobile device or computer for that duration of time. It's the simplest solution imaginable to a pretty complex problem. Right now, Glympse is only available for Android devices, but it's coming soon to Windows Mobile phones, iPhones and Blackberries.

Once upon a time AvantGo was synonymous with reading news on a Windows Mobile or Palm device. If you wanted to read the New York Times, Guardian, Wired, or hundreds of other newspapers, magazines, and news sources, you wanted to install the AvantGo client which provided access to full length articles, not just RSS headers.

In an era of always connected Smartphones, better web browsers, and RSS readers, it looks like AvantGo has opted to change its business model. AvantGo as we know it is shutting down on June 30th.

Now honestly, it's been years since I used AvantGo, so I suppose I can't complain. But there are still plenty of people out there using older PDAs that aren't integrated with smartphones with 3G connectivity. So this news could leave some of these people high and dry.

The AvantGo team is directing users to try a new application called Snac that provides access to news from a handful of sites including The New York Times, USA Today, Facebook, Twitter, and weather forecasts. But Snac works with Java enabled phones, Blackberry devices, and some Windows Mobile phones. But there's no support for Palm or older Pocket PC devices.

[via Mobility Site]

Moblin has already received a lot of praise in the media for its innovative interface and intelligent features, and now there's one more reason to be excited by the Intel-backed project.

Intel's Anand Chandrasekher, VP of their ultra-mobile group, showed off a device running Moblin 2.0 which also sported a number of Android applications during a speech today at Computex. Apart from generating excitement in the users community the news gives cellular providers added incentive to carry Moblin-powered devices, since many already have Android Marketplace revenue sharing agreements in place with Google.

Don't forget, Canonical recently unveiled their plans to enable Android applications in Ubuntu as well - which would likely include the Netbook Remix. Even if netbook manufacturers favor UNR or Moblin over Android for an operating system, it looks like users won't have to worry about missing out on killer Android apps.

[ via PC World ]

One of the selling points of the Palm Pre is that it can sync with iTunes just like an iPhone can, minus the ability to play old DRM-protected purchases from the Apple store. The thing is, that amazing iTunes support comes from a hacky workaround where the Pre passes itself off as Apple hardware when it's connected. It won't show up in iTunes as a "Palm Pre," it'll show up as an iPod.

What can Apple do about it, though? An escalating battle to break the hack could require Apple to release firmware updates, which is always annoying for users, or could be fixed on the software side with an iTunes update. The newest release of iTunes, 8.2, reportedly doesn't break Pre's syncing support.

What will the outcome be? Do you think we'll see a lawsuit, a firmware or iTunes-side fix from Apple, or something completely different?

According to May numbers from analytics service StatCounter, Opera is once again the most popular mobile browser in the world, narrowly overtaking the iPhone's built-in Safari browser. Of all the webpages that were loaded in mobile browsers in May, Opera had a 24.6% share to the iPhone's 22.3%. Nokia came in 3rd with 17.9%.

Opera started the year ahead of the iPhone browser, but Apple's product passed it in February. Although they're both mobile browsers, we're comparing two very different products here.

Opera is supported on a huge number of devices from different mobile carriers worldwide, while Safari only runs on the iPhone. In effect, the competition doesn't tell us as much about which browser is the better product as it does about how popular the iPhone is compared to other devices.

ThinkFree offers a cross-platform suite of office applications that can be used on Windows, Mac, Linux, or on the web. And now it looks like the company is developing a full office suite for Google Android as well.

ThinkFree Mobile for Android will provide Google Android users with spreadsheet, presentation, and word processing applications. The application is compatible with Microsoft Office 97, 2000, XP, 2003, and 2007.

Users will also be able to store up to 1GB of data online using ThinkFree's web based office suite, which means you can begin editing a document on your computer, sync it to the web, and continue editing on the go with your mobile device.

There's no word on pricing yet, but ThinkFree Mobile for Android is due out later this year. In July an initial version with document viewers should be available. A full version with document editing capabilities should follow in Q4 of 2009.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

You probably heard that Microsoft launched a new search engine called Bing today. What you might have missed is the fact that the company also launched Bing 411, a free service which is a direct competitor to Google's GOOG 411.

Here's how it works. You dial 1-800-Bing 411 (1-800-246-4411) from any phone and tell the friendly computer voice what city and state you're looking for information in. Then give it a name and Bing 411 will attempt to locate an address and phone number. You can have the service connect you, give you the phone number, or give you directions over the phone or via text message.

The service works pretty well. I was able to get driving directions from my home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Microsoft's corporate campus in Redmond, Washington. Surprisingly, it only takes 28 steps, but Bing 411 helpfully told me it would take two days to drive all 2700 miles.

You can also use Bing 411 to get traffic reports, find movie showtimes, or listen to weather forecasts. Weather, traffic, and directions are only available in the US.

I did somehow manage to cause a glitch in the Bing at one point. The digital voice went into a little feedback loop and said the same words three or four times before correcting itself. But for a product that just launched today, I was pretty impressed with Bing 411.

[via TechCrunch]