The consumer is being confronted with many many products that should be easy to use without any difficulties.

However the reality is that 'simple to use' is often just a phrase.

I found an interesting blog about usability, called uselog.com. As you are involved in the development of new products, just have a look at this blog. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the US regulator, has approved the HTC Dream, the first handset based on Google's Android mobile platform. The filing hints at a November 10 release and T-Mobile USA is set to be the first operator to offer the device. According to an AFP report, a spokesman at Deutsche Telekom - T-Mobile USA's parent company - confirmed earlier speculation that the operator will launch the device but declined to comment on launch dates. It is expected, however, that the operator will launch the device in time for Christmas. Seen as a competitor to Apple's iPhone, the Washington Post reports that the HTC Dream will feature a touchscreen, Wi-Fi, a BlackBerry-style 'jogball,' a Safari web browser, and Google applications such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube.

In a separate development Google has released a new beta version of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), version 0.9, and hinted that the platform will be coming-out of beta mode soon. Google wrote on its official Android blog: "The beta SDK that we're releasing today is the first big step on the SDK's road to compatibility with 1.0. Since this is a beta release, applications developed with it may not quite be compatible with devices running the final Android 1.0. However, the APIs are now pretty stable and we don't expect any major changes." New applications in version 0.9 include an alarm clock, calculator, camera, music player, picture viewer, and SMS/MMS messaging.

In earlier blogs we discussed about the possibility to deploy Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile in future CAT-iq products. So far the DECT hardware vendors went for a low cost solution, and developed their own propietory OS. Also the used hardware for these devices are low cost and couldn't handle mobile OS's at all.

With future products in mind hardware vendors can do both; develop low cost 'CAT-iq phones' on one hand and develop 'CAT-iq communication devices with extended specs like mobile phones' on the other hand.

The question is who dares to start first with this new type of products.   

Sometimes you see something which is so funny, mind boggling and interesting, even if there is no direct link to CAT-iq, that is should be mentioned.

Yesterday I saw a Pleo. Pleo is the first truly autonomous Life Form capable of emotions that allow personal engagement. Developed, produced and marketed by Ugobe.

UGOBE ’s multidisciplinary team has blended engineering, life sciences, philosophy, and artistic design and developed a unique set of core technologies. The company’s unique products, known as Life Forms, intend to blur the line between technology and life.

By integrating three disciplines—organic articulation with sensory response and autonomous behaviors—UGOBE aims to revolutionize robotics and transform inanimate objects into lifelike creatures. Inspired by its dream, the group coined the word ‘UGOBE’, which translates to: “You! Go and Be!” a creative reworking of Descarte’s “Cogito ergo sum”—“I think, therefore I am.”

At the last HOPE Hacker congress in New York last week, security was a very important topic.

One of the speakers, with the name Renderman said that a user of a laptop, cell phone headset, building access badge, credit cards, or even a passport can become walking target for data thieves and other criminals.

He particularly talked about Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RFID data attacks. Read the full story in C/net.news.com.

Although CAT-iq products will be centralised in the home environment, security remains an issue. How well secured is CAT-iq?

Let the technical people speak.

As this great summer continues, the amount of rain has resulted in some problems with my roof. It needs to be repaired.

So what do I do, I search in the yellow pages and find someone who can repair my roof. 

With Google maps I can do it as well. Start Google maps on my mobile, and it automatically locates where I am, based upon the location of the GSM base stations. Then I search for roofer (or dakdekker in Dutch), and automatically I get the nearest roofers as result, including address and phonenumber.

This could also be possible with a CAT-iq home communcation product (don't call it a phone!!).

However this requires that the product has an operating system that supports apps like Google Maps.  

Broader collaboration between Symbian and Google at either the application or operating system level is possible in the future, Symbian's CEO said Wednesday.

"We have a good relationship with Google," Nigel Clifford said at a Tokyo news conference."In fact Symbian was one of the first mobile platforms to put their applications such as Google search and maps," he said as he showed his mobile phone.

Google is about to compete head-to-head with Symbian in the cell phone space with the launch of its Android platform and Symbian is reorganizing to meet that challenge.

Is this potential cooperation relevant to the CAT-iq market?

It might be. Google and Symbian together are strong both in mobile and the desktop, so potentially in the home as well; fixed mobile convergence.

You can find the full article about Symbian and Google here.  

Mobile operators 3, TIM and America Movil have given their support to the Symbian Foundation, a move Forbes believes is a blow to competing mobile phone software providers such as Microsoft, Google and Apple. The three operators, as well as other newcomer vendors Aplix, Elektrobit, EMCC Software, Marvell, Sasken and TietoEnator, join the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, AT&T and Vodafone in the Foundation's attempt to unite several different existing operating systems - Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP - to create one open mobile software platform.