...in the Vodafone R&D Software Lab in Huesca, Spain.

This event will take place during the last week in November (25th-28th) and is going to be co-chaired by Guillermo Caudevilla (Vodafone) and Daniel Coloma (Telefónica). It will gather a bunch of web experts from different companies such as Vodafone, Telefónica, T-Mobile, Orange, Telecom Italia, Aplix and the OMTP in Walqa Technology Park, Huesca (Spain).

Their aim is to speed up the BONDI Reference Implementation (http://www.omtp.org/Bondi/) process so a first release can be made public before Christmas this year. This first release of the BONDI Reference Implementation will be based in the seed code that some companies have contributed to this initiative.

In the case of Vodafone, a key contribution has been made by means of Vodafone MobileScript (https://forge.betavine.net/projects/mobilescript/), an open source project available in Betavine that extends a JavaScript engine to tap into the platform API of a mobile device, and now to be evolved into the BONDI APIs.

This API will enable web pages and widgets to send any sort of messages, start calls, access the contacts within the device addressbook, the appointments in the agenda and many more features. BONDI is also putting a lot of focus in solving the security and privacy issues that accessing to such information may raise. The final goal of the BONDI initiative is to submit requirements, specifications (http://www.omtp.org/Bondi/PublicDraft.aspx) and reference implementions to the W3C for standardization.

Betavine has partnered with Nexperience in order to enable you to test and showcase your application on real mobile devices via the Internet.

With the Nexperience service you’ll be able to access a multitude of mobile handsets physically located in the UK, the US and in Spain. You’ll be able to install your application on the Nexperience devices, activate it and test it to make sure it works properly. Using the service you’ll be able to ensure optimal compatibility of your application with more devices and networks, leading to better quality, shorter time to market, and a bigger target audience.

The service will also enable you to create video clips of your application in order to showcase it in the Betavine site.

Special terms and promotions for Betavine users! Stay tuned!

No need for a USB Dongle! Try the new broadband via your mobile software.
Betavine have gone live with the new 'via the phone' application. The software allows your mobile to act as a USB modem. Simply download and install the software to your PC, connect your phone via a USB modem cable and use your phone as a high speed modem. What's great about this is it allows you to easily connect to the internet with your phone, while still allowing you to make and receive calls! The application looks and behaves just like USB modem software, so no new learning curve!



It's PC based, hence can be downloaded directly without login from our site. You can read more here .

One of the new features we added in the last release was the ability for the community to review applications. In the last year the Betavine Team have been reviewing the applications on the Betavine site that we like, or use regularly. I recently reviewed the Counter application because I found it particularly innovative and easy to use.

We realised that reviewing applications might be something which the Betavine community would also like to do. So we asked Will, a student on placement from Imperial College to design and implement this feature.

So how do you write a review? Once you have downloaded and tested an application come back to the Betavine site and find the application profile page. Once there click on the “Reviews” link. If anybody else has reviewed the application then it will be listed here. If you go to the “Reviews” link on the Counter application you will see my review.



To create a new review then visit click on the “Write a review” link. A form will appear allowing you to review the application. Just like the forums and blogs you can use BBCode within your review, so you can include images, videos and basic styling. In addition to your review it's very useful if you include the version of the application you reviewed and the device which you used. People may have different experiences using your application on other devices.



Writing a review will increase your membership ranking on your member profile page.

Once your review has been published then the Betavine Team may decide that it is good enough to appear on the home page. If your review appears on the homepage then it gains the 'Featured Review' status. All of those reviews are held on a special page.

The betavine team are celebrating! In less than 1 1/2 years there have been more than 250,000 downloads of the Linux drivers used for the USB datacards.

But betavine did not stop there. We are also hosting bespoke packages for the EeePC Netbook computer. We have noticed a rapid take up on this new install method. Currently we have over 15,000 installs using the auto install method which takes advantage of the software package management application called 'synaptic' installed as standard on the EeePC.

You can find out more here

Check back soon for more information on what betavine are up to in terms of the Linux applications!