Opera mini browser will be headed to Qualcomm's Brew mobile platform

Today Opera Software announced that it has signed an agreement with Qualcomm to offer its Opera Mini mobile web browser on Qualcomm's Brew mobile platform. "The combination of Opera Mini and Qualcomm's worldwide reach means we are bringing the power of the Internet to everyone and not just smartphone users," Lars Boilesen, Opera Software's CEO, said.

Qualcomm shows AllJoyn peer-to-peer sharing / gaming technology

It's simple, but highly complex. You dig? Qualcomm's AllJoyn demonstration here at MWC was quite the eye-opener, but it's hard to say how much traction it'll gain in a world already inundated with short-range transfer protocols. Bluetooth, Infrared, Wi-Fi Direct... the list goes on and on (and on). Essentially, AllJoyn is an open-source software system that doesn't actually have to run atop Qualcomm hardware; if implemented in a particular app, it can enable peer-to-peer sharing with others based on location. If you're standing near someone who also has an AllJoyn-enabled application, you two (or more) can interact -- if you're both using Bluetooth, the range will be around 30 feet, but if you're both using Wi-Fi, it'll obviously be greater. Qualcomm's hoping to entwine its homegrown FlashLinq (more on that in a separate article) in order to let people use this while being up to 1km away from one another. 

The company describes AllJoyn as a software framework for developers that enables easy P2P access; rather than an app developer having to write this functionality in from scratch, they can simply grab Qualcomm's code and integrate it. Currently, the spec only supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but Wi-Fi Direct and FlashLinq support it in the works, and those will hopefully be added by the end of the year. We're told that the company's also working to create a constant link between devices, which could one day (soon) enable streaming support. There's C++, Java and Javascript models available, with Qualcomm's goal being to have developers port this all over the place. The demo (embedded after the break) involved a foursome of phones sharing photographs with one another, while a nearby laptop was shown engaging in a multiplayer game with two smartphones. We were told that the company's currently in talks with a number of large gaming firms to get this ingrained in future titles, but no specifics were available. Another application would be within a social network, enabling AllJoyn apps to alert users when a friend is nearby. A huge boon there is that this doesn't require data, so international groups who'd like to keep tabs on one another's location will be able to do so without roaming on a foreign network. So, any app developers considering bundling this in with your next update?

Qualcomm's AllJoyn peer-to-peer sharing / gaming technology at MWC 2011