14 DAY TRIAL // Opera Software and T-Mobile Germany have recently announced that German mobile users will soon have the chance to experience a new chapter of Mobile Web, with the introduction of web'n'walk version 4.0. This will bring widgets that can be personalized by users according to their needs. More exactly, you can customize them to provide quick and easy access to the websites and Web services that you visit the most (like eBay, MySpace, Yahoo, Amazon and so on) – pretty much like you can do with Apple's iPhone.
Talking about the collaboration with the German mobile carrier, Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive officer at Opera Software, stated, "T-Mobile ushered in a new era as the first global telecommunications operator to provide its customers with a complete mobile Web experience. Together with Opera, T-Mobile launched the pan-European success story called web'n'walk, enabling people to use all their favorite Web sites on nearly any device. Today, T-Mobile takes another industry-defining step forward. In web'n'walk 4.0, the mobile phone comes alive with widgets that deliver personalized services direct from the home screen, giving people more powerful tools to take full advantage of the mobile Web experience."
Rainer Deutschmann, senior vice president of Mobile Internet for T-Mobile International AG, added, "T-Mobile is striving towards offering its customers the best Internet experience at any time and in any place. To this end, we have introduced the iPhone into our markets in cooperation with Apple and are working on a new operating system, Android, in cooperation with Google, as a member of the Open Handset Alliance. The new web'n'walk is enabling us to push ahead with this strategy and introduce a new level of Internet quality to our other terminal devices and operating systems as well. We invite the industry to support the development and spread of this open, standards-based platform for the benefit of users and application developers."
For the beginning, the web'n'walk widgets will be launched on full-touch handsets only, like the MDA Compact IV and MDA Vario IV – which are none other than HTC's Touch Diamond and Touch Pro Pocket PCs. Both handsets should be available before the year's end.