Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 12th Apr 2011 22:27 UTC
The long-rumoured Symbian update, called Anna, has finally been made official by Nokia today, bringing with it a new browser, new icons, an on-screen portrait qwerty keyboard, and more. The Finnish Windows Phone OEM (sorry) also launched two new Symbian phones today.
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RE[8]: on display until..
by Laurence on Wed 13th Apr 2011 14:17
in reply to "RE[7]: on display until.."
Member since:2007-03-26
The only reason Symbian sold so well was because it did not face any competition. Symbian has NEVER been a good smartphone operating system, despite what everybody's been saying. Windows Mobile was better, PalmOS was better - iOS is better, Android is better, WP7 is better, and WebOS is better.
I can't speak for PalmOS, but I really didn't like Window Mobile. It was an ugly thing and horrible to navigate. It was just about tolerable on a PDA but as a smart phone OS it was terrible.
Edited 2011-04-13 14:18 UTC
RE[9]: on display until..
by Thom_Holwerda on Wed 13th Apr 2011 14:19
in reply to "RE[8]: on display until.."
Member since:2005-06-29
RE[8]: on display until..
by spiderman on Wed 13th Apr 2011 14:21
in reply to "RE[7]: on display until.."
Member since:2008-10-23
That is the kind of hate I talked about earlier. You seem to hate Symbian but you have no valid reason. You point out market share drop to comfort yourself in your hate, although you don't know what it means. For your information, every single mobile OS had a market share drop when Android entered the market, the worst being Windows Phone. This is the mathematical effect of a new player entering the statistics. It does not mean what you think it means. Symbian is actually the 2nd fastest growing OS after Android. Android started from 0, that is why it has a fast growth.
RE[9]: on display until..
by Thom_Holwerda on Wed 13th Apr 2011 14:26
in reply to "RE[8]: on display until.."
Member since:2005-06-29
That is the kind of hate I talked about earlier. You seem to hate Symbian but you have no valid reason.
I have owned several Symbian phones over the years, until very recently. Do you want me to list my problems with it?
- application load time is slow
- UI responsiveness is terrible (typing really fast is impossible because the UI needs to catch up)
- nested menu after nested menu
- settings are all over the place
- application quality is abysmal
- browser is a piece of shit
- the email application is an exercise in frustration
And that's just from the top of my head. Please, don't call my dislike of Symbian irrational. It's based on YEARS of experience.
RE[8]: on display until..
by jarkkot on Wed 13th Apr 2011 16:35
in reply to "RE[7]: on display until.."
Member since:2010-01-14
RE[8]: on display until..
by Morgan on Fri 15th Apr 2011 01:06
in reply to "RE[7]: on display until.."
Member since:2005-06-29
I agree, Symbian has always been my least favorite of the smartphone OSes, below even WinMo. Hell, I still miss my old Palm Treo 650, it was probably the best smartphone I've ever owned. It was highly customizable, had threaded messaging before anyone else did, excellent email support, a decent browser, and rock-solid dependability (the only time it ever crashed on me was when I tried obscure apps). It had access to the vast repositories of Palm apps -- some of them going all the way back to the 90s -- before the iPhone was even announced, much less the App Store.
All that and more in a touch screen phone with a physical keyboard, and the only two issues I ever had with it were the thickness of it (about the same as my N900) and the external antenna. It's too bad Palm OS died such a horrible death.
Damn, now I'm tempted to troll eBay and murkier sources for an unlocked Treo so I can have a retro alternative to my N900 and Nuron.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/20/13 6:17 UTC, submitted by MOS6510
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
"A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.More News »
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Member since:
2005-06-29
The only reason Symbian sold so well was because it did not face any competition. Symbian has NEVER been a good smartphone operating system, despite what everybody's been saying. Windows Mobile was better, PalmOS was better - iOS is better, Android is better, WP7 is better, and WebOS is better.
Symbian is being slaughtered, and rightfully so, because it is simply not fit for the task. Despite years of development, despite years of Nokia throwing money at it, it STILL DOES NOT COMPARE. How many more years must Nokia throw money at this trainwreck before people like you finally accept it's simply not budging?
The drop in market share for Symbian is staggering, and the rise of Android and iOS is unheard of compared to just about any other technology market. This is not a coincidence - it's a sign that people do not like Symbian.