SoonR and Opera Introduce Mobile Remote Software Access

While Ajax technology is now taken for granted on the desktop, that’s not the case with mobile devices. Opera Software, better known as the also-ran among desktop web browsers, is one of the first to adapt the Ajax framework to the confines of the mobile phone browser. And now it’s announced a tie-in with SoonR, a Silicon Valley startup, to provide remote access to PC software on a mobile handset.

In essence, it means that you don’t have to install software on your handset if you’re willing to put up with the latency of accessing it through a dial-up connection.

There are several ways you could use this technology. The one that SoonR is promoting most actively is taking advantage of your PC’s Skype connection so you can place free, or almost free, international calls from your mobile handset.

The other obvious use is that, through web services interfaces to your Microsoft Outlook calendar and contacts, and to Google and Microsoft desktop search, the SoonR software could turn your run-of-the-mill cell phone into a “soft” PDA.

SoonR accesses folders that the user designs for mobile phone sharing via a web services request to folders that the user designates as open for remote access.

For now, these capabilities work only on smart phones equipped with the Opera mobile browser. And, because the SoonR software is still in beta, is can be downloaded for free. The company hasn’t yet disclosed when it will formally release the product.

Most of the founders of SoonR are veteran development executives from Merant, just before it was acquired by Serena Software Inc.