As you have already noticed we hold great respect for the social music player Tunewiki.
As long as a music player Tunewiki works like a charm, one click and you can watch the song video clip, and the revolutionary auto lyrics display.
But the social features where less intimate and except for the “top played songs by country”, the social information was not much of use, until today.

Tunewiki was fully launched on the OVI store and fully completed a race to a “cross platform” app (except WinMo and WebOS, yes that’s a hint).
The new version of Tunewiki includes a Twitter like feature that allows users to share their musical taste with others by displaying the playlist of songs they have played.
Secondly Tunewiki have worked with Flyscreen (a company that lets users place widgets on top of the homepage screen) for a Tunewiki widget.
We think that Tunewiki social essence is just starting to really pay off for the users, and the social info is now more useful, although we think that there is still a place for innovation.
For the new “cross platform” we wish that more OS’s will be added as the time passes by and more users can tune-in.

watch the new feature attach:

The Modular mobile manufacturer seems to deliver more lay-off stories than sales stories.
The low sales rate in the Philippines and the unsuccessful attempts to raise more money led the company to lay-off about 100 workers almost half of the company. Who even remember what lay-offs cycle this one is.
Although the rumors are that Modu is working on a 3G device, a touch screen and Android powered, at the end of the day it is still a 2.5G device or a feature phone.
The Jackets that are out there do not transform the device into a music device or a smartphone,  so as for now the jackets are just about panels (did anyone say so nokia in 2000?).
This is a state of to be or to cease for Modu, it has to do some changes, more likely, drastic changes and it is not just about the burn rate or head count.

Providing support to mobile subscribers was always a challenge. The devices’ complexity was not a problem but most users did not know how to solve the problems with their devices and had to go to a service center in order to fix settings related issues with their device. Operators created self-service websites but still it was too complicated for the average user to use.

Smartphones are even more complex with the versatility of installed applications and made the self-service initiatives of the operators almost redundant. the smartphones also present an opportunity to support the device by remote control over the air. Operator’s representatives can take control over the device wherever the subscriber is (so they do not need to go to a service center) and fix the problems with the device.

OTA (over the air) remote control is a good solution to evaluate and maybe even fix problems with the device but raise questions about privacy.

Communitake has solved this problem by letting the operators to pre-installed Communitake’s client on the devices and remote control them when needed.
Comunitake has raised 1 million dollars and it has about 15 employees.
Today it disclosed a deal with the fast growing operator Pelephone that has recently upgraded to a GSM infrastructure.

We have no information how the process is handled to prevent privacy problems. With the iPhone coming to all 3 big operators in Israel in a matter of weeks, and the obligations of the operators to Apple to sell a big amount of devices, there is no room for too many devices. Unless something in the agreement with Apple changes or something dramatic happens, we see a stagnation in the Israeli mobile devices market. So unless Pelephone and Communitake aim to offer the service for iPhone, there is a good chance not too many devices will have the client installed.

Fortunately, Israel’s situation with the choking of the device market doesn’t represent what happens in the world and Communitake’s solution seems on paper as a good way to try and tackle the problem of problems and settings errors in smartphones.

When Google was building its mobile operating system, I am sure it wanted that unfamiliar or small device manufacturers will adopt its OS.
Modu, the Israeli mobile device manufacturer, launched their first device with a closed simple OS. It was in part due to development resources and time constrains and of course because of the poor processing capabilities of the device that could not run heavier and more sophisticated OS. Frankly, from day one I did not understand why Modu is  investing resources to build an operating system, it is not its strength and there are good OS in the market that can be licensed just like the Android.
After struggling with launching the first device and getting rejected in developed countries Modu aimed to, Modu understood that they need to aim higher and introduce a better more modern device if they want a chance to hit deals with European and US operators. Because of the nature of the device, dramatic modification needed to be done but it is worth it. Modu will be using a versatile, more advanced OS with rapid development and constant updates and upgrades.
Secondly the eco-system that is being built alongside the OS (the application store) will contribute to the offer of Modu and will make it a more lucrative device than it could be if they decided to provide only J2ME application support.
Dov Moran told Techradar in an interview that an Android based jacket is being developed and that Modu2 “will be a touchscreen, a very unique concept, and will justify its label of being innovative. It will be a 3.5G product, but will also have a number of other features”.

Modu2 looked like a specially built device for the Android OS, therefore I bet that Modu will abandon its OS and will use the core of the Android operation system from now on until they have other options.
For dessert Modu mentioned that an Android based Netbook will also be released. Nokia watch out you are not alone anymore.