Mobile Widgets and Plusmo’s Widget Engine
What is a Widget?Â
A Widget is a “thin” (in the software sense), intuitive software application that does one task very well (e.g., displays the weather, stock quotes, news, flight status, etc.). (For another definition, please refer to Wikipedia.) The major modern OSes (OS X, Windows, Linux) all offer ‘Desktop Widgets’:
 
   
  
What is a Mobile Widget?
A Mobile Widget is also a Widget, but Mobile Widgets have some special properties. First, since Mobile Widgets reside on mobile phones, they have to take into account any special characteristics of the mobile phone, e.g., if the mobile phone has an accelerometer or a touch screen, then the Mobile Widget should respond appropriately to user touches or shakes of the mobile phone. Second, Mobile Widgets have the power to make a general purpose mobile phone feel like a dedicated device for the specific service it offers. For example, if a Mobile Widget offers weather reports, it should be responsive yet deep enough to make the user feel as if they own a dedicated weather report device. Mobile Widgets have the power to turn a mobile phone into any number of dedicated devices! Here are some examples of Plusmo’s Mobile Widgets:
  
 
Plusmo’s Widget Engine
So now that we know what Widgets and Mobile Widgets, we can tell you about Plusmo’s Widget Engine Platform. We build a Widget Engine platform that allows developers to easily create Widgets that can run on many types of mobile devices. The Widget Engine is based on some of the most popular web standards, yet it is powerful and flexible enough to take advantage of many of the special characteristics of the many mobile devices it supports.
To find out more about Plusmo’s Widget and its Widget Engine, please head over to plusmo.com. In the next few days, we’ll be blogging more specifically about Mobile Widgets, so stay turned!
July 10th, 2008 at 7:44 am
[...] There is no doubt that the iPhone is an exciting mobile phone, media player, and portable computer. The iPhone has great hardware and software, and since all iPhone owners have an unlimited data plan and easy access to WiFi, the iPhone is a great device for Mobile Widgets. [...]
July 21st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
[...] Over the last several blog posts we’ve been highlighting the many cool and useful features of Plusmo’s Mobile Widgets. We’ve included photos, reviews, and information on how to get Plusmo’s Mobile Widgets on your own phone. [...]
July 21st, 2008 at 12:56 pm
[...] Over the last several blog posts we’ve been highlighting the many cool and useful features of Plusmo’s Mobile Widgets. We’ve included photos, reviews, and information on how to get Plusmo’s Mobile Widgets on your own phone. [...]
August 20th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
[...] Plusmo was specifically recognized by Nokia for our development of a standards-based mobile web widget developer platform. We’ve already written about the power of mobile widgets and the benefits of our widget engine, so we thank Nokia for this recognition. We won’t rest on our laurels though, so expect to see continued innovation from Plusmo. [...]