Photo-sharing site Flickr’s mobile interface (m.flickr.com) got a facelift and a few upgrades today, notably the ability to play back video clips. Right now the Flickr folks say video playback is limited to the iPhone and iPod touch, but despite several tries on my iPhone, I never did see any video movement. (Update: Video playback’s rolling out to iPhone/iPod touch users over the next few weeks.) Once it’s available to all, mobile Flickrinos will love this upgrade. [via Tech Crunch]
Google has revamped its Australian mobile search service – accessible at www.google.com.au/m.
The mobile search engine searches through the web, mobile web, news articles, local business listings, and image index to get the information needed and provides the most relevant results.
It also remembers your location, so once you’ve searched for “restaurant Sydney” it will localise your future searches to Sydney results too.
In other Google mobile search news, the Google Operating System blog reports that Google will replace Yahoo! as the default search engine for the Opera Mobile and Opera Mini mobile browsers from next month.
Google already released a fast and friendly optimised mobile page for iPhone and iPod touch users, but now they’re at it again. The mobile page is sporting an updated look, faster navigating, and improved auto-complete suggestions for everything from search to Gmail contacts. You can also customise tabs and use your iGoogle homepage from the mobile interface. You may be wondering why Google is so gaga for iPhone interfaces, but the fact is, when Google’s Andriod phones hit the streets, they’ll be running a similar WebKit-based browser, so even if you’re not looking to buy an Apple product anytime soon, this interface may be in your future. galleryPost('Google Mobile for iPhone', 5, ''); Google on the iPhone: Macworld Makeover [Official Google Blog]
The iTransmogrify bookmarklet for the iPhone or iPod touch converts embedded Flash content to mobile Safari-supported formats so that Flash media—like embedded YouTube videos and streaming MP3s—will play from Safari with the click of a bookmark. Obviously your iPhone or iPod touch has YouTube built in, but if, for example, you’re reading Lifehacker and we’ve embedded a YouTube video, Safari won’t recognise that and take you directly to the YouTube app. One click of your new iTransmorgrify bookmarklet, though, and it will. The bookmarklet also supports several Flash-based MP3 players.
iTransmogrify [Joe Maller]The iPhone certainly didn’t invent the mobile browser, but it does seem to be the mobile device that’s bringing mobile browsing to the mainstream. The benefits of mobile browsing are obvious: You can access the web from practically anywhere and at any time—assuming you carry your phone with you wherever you go. Mobile browsing has always had a couple of obstacles, though, namely that carriers’ data plans have often been very expensive and most (pre-iPhone) mobile browsers have traditionally been unwieldy. Again, those obstacles are slowly breaking down, so now that many of you are sporting shiny new post-holiday phones, we’re wondering:
Google has updated their mobile homepage for iPhone users for quick and easy access to all of your Google apps with a simple, fast, and attractive tabbed interface. The tabs link to the straight- up Google Mobile homepage (which offers dynamic as-you-type suggestions) along with iPhone-optimised interfaces for Gmail, Gcal, GReader, and a More tab that provides access to Docs, SMS, GOOG-411, News, Picasa web albums, Blogger, and Notebook. The recent addition of IMAP in Gmail has made it that much easier to access and sync your Gmail online and off, but with the simple access to Gmail and other Google apps through the new and improved homepage, it may be just as simple if not more so to use their online portal—especially if you’re a Google apps junkie.
Google Mobile
