ReadWriteWeb

It's easy to go cross-eyed when a press release is full of technical jargon and foreign concepts. But we took a look at Nokia's recent developer announcement for Qt 4.5 - a framework for creating programs that run cross-platform - and found some things worth highlighting. Nokia may even be setting a new benchmark for its competitors with this release of Qt.

Last night at the offices of blogging software company Six Apart, engineers and social media specialists from a number of companies large and small met to discuss proposed standards for the future of "activity streams" - the system of displaying recent activities of your friends online. Think Facebook Newsfeed, the basic format of FriendFeed, or the kinds of update chronicles we're seeing now on almost every social network around the web.

Editor's Note: This list was contributed by Steve O'Hear, editor of last100, a former RWW network blog.

There was lots of activity in the digital lifestyle space in 2008, with new devices, services, and platforms being launched and some of our favorites from last year getting significant updates. One notable trend throughout the year was the way these products and services began to converge; not in the sense that they were becoming all-in-one devices, although some of that was happening, but rather by hardware, services, and content playing together nicely, often through open standards and platforms, with the Internet acting as a conduit. On that note, here are our picks of the 10 best digital lifestyle products of 2008.

It's time for our weekly summary of Web Technology news, products and trends. On the trends side, we took an in-depth look at the emerging world of open social networks. We pondered: which of Facebook Connect and OpenID will be more successful? And we explained why "distributed social networking" is a trend to watch, with projects such as DiSo and OpenSocial. Also this week we examined the latest in online anonymity and education 2.0. On the product side, we began our 'Best Products 2008' series with our selection of the top 10 Semantic Web products of the year. We also told you about some of our favorite apps to show new users and we reviewed the latest Nokia internet phone. Last but not least, check the latest from Jobwire - our new product that tracks hires in tech and new media.

Nokia today unveiled its new flagship phone, the N97, which is clearly meant to compete with the iPhone and Google's Android platform. Unlike the iPhone, however, the N97 has a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. In terms of its other hardware features, the N97 also clearly outperforms the iPhone. The N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including the 32 GB that are already built-in. The phone has a 5 megapixel camera and its GPS is capable of giving turn-by-turn directions. The resolution of the phone's 16:9 touchscreen is 640x360.

One year ago we ran a contest asking you to tell us your favorite Mobile Web apps. From the resulting comments there were 5 Mobile Web apps that clearly stood out, with multiple mentions: Gmail Java app for mobile phone, Google Maps for Mobile, Opera Mini, Fring, Shozu.

Well, a lot has changed in the Mobile Web application world since then. The Apple App Store launched in July '08, prompting a wave of new third party iPhone apps. And we've seen innovation from Apple's mobile phone competitors: Google's Android (which has multiple app stores), Nokia, and Blackberry, and others. So what are your favorite Mobile Web apps and sites circa November 2008? The ReadWriteWeb authors list their faves below, plus we polled our friends in Twitter (subscribe to our Twitter account @rww).

This post is the first in a two-part series about 1) the African mobile marketplace and how Africans utilize their mobile phones; and 2) how organizations are using social marketing to reach this highly mobile population for social change.

The series is based on a conversation I had with Gustav Praekelt, a mobile entrepreneur located in South Africa. Part 2 is here.

It's time for our weekly summary of Web Technology news, products and trends. This week Nokia launched an iPhone competitor called the Tube, Netflix released an API, Google Blog Search re-designed, and we ran a poll about Flash coming to iPhone. On the trends side, we investigated the lack of commercial RDF apps in the Semantic Web, reviewed 5 insightful science books, launched our 'Gritty Entrepreneurs' series, and interviewed a co-founder of last.fm. We also brought you the latest from our new Enterprise Channel.

At an analyst and media event in London today, Nokia unveiled their company's first touch-screen phone, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, otherwise known as the Nokia "Tube," a device designed to compete directly with Apple's iPhone.

Along with the phone, Nokia also detailed plans for their new "Comes With Music" service, a 12-month subscription service which offers unlimited downloads. There's no charge to download the individual tracks because the cost for the music is bundled into the cost of the phone. [Note: this post has been updated throughout the day as news has come in]

It's time to review the week that was on ReadWriteWeb. On the product side we compared Nokia and Apple in the Internet mobile phone market, explored the new-look Facebook, checked out MySpace's moves to open up, and reviewed new products from Google and Microsoft. On the trends side we looked at what's beyond the API, asked how much downtime is too much for Amazon's online storage service, and analyzed the DRM implications of Yahoo! Music closing.