Wireless Archive

It all started with Apple/TechCrunch blogger M.G. Siegler making a huge fuss over something he didn't understand, and while that in and of itself isn't particularly interesting, one of the outcomes of this little internet drama is a comment on Google+ (the tenth one) that so perfectly encapsulates just how important Android is for the world that I felt the need to share it with you. It's the holiday season after all.

Good news for owners of HTC's Android devices - HTC has expanded its official bootloader unlock utility to cover all HTC Android devices launched after September 2011, no matter the carrier. Older models will also be added to the tool, but this will take a little longer.

"Earlier today, Samsung revealed that it won't update the Galaxy S, its most successful smartphone to date, to the latest version of Android. You might shrug and dismiss that as just more evidence of Android's inherent fragmentation or the need for buyers to beware, but I take grave issue with it. This is a decision based not on technical constraints, as Samsung would have you believe, but on hubris." This. A gazillion million thousand times this. Also: "It's simple: make a large high-end device, a smaller value device, and a QWERTY device. Maybe one or two other specialty form factors, tops. That's it. Update them once a year, and keep the names the same." It would make updating a hell of a lot easier. We don't need the Samsung Galaxy SII Epic 4G Touch Sensation.

I doubt Research In Motion really knew what hit them back when the iPhone launched. I doubt they really knew what hit them when Android steamrolled the smartphone market. And, today, I still doubt they really know what the heck they are supposed to do to turn their sinking ship around. Update: RIM contacted us with a statement on the matter - they state everything in the BGR article is wrong. Read on for the full statement.

2011 will go down in the history books as a great year for tablets mostly for Apple's iPad however, not all tablet vendors fared as well as Apple. It's not for lack of products that prevented Android tablets from taking any market share away from Apple this year. By our calculation, over 100 tablets were introduced since the iPad however, we defy even the most tech-savvy of you to name more than a few of them. What was so wrong with the competition that it failed to make any inroads in the tablet market, at least until the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook came along?

If HP wants a future for struggling WebOS, it must invest in the platform, not abandon it, writes Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister. 'It seems HP may only be truly committed to the platform if it can offload the cost of developing and maintaining it. Yet if that's what HP hopes to achieve by opening the WebOS source, it's bound to be disappointed.' Instead, HP should dedicated its own developer resources and 'release as much code as possible under an Apache, BSD, or similarly permissive license. Dual licensing under the GPL might leave HP with more opportunities to monetize the platform, but it won't garner as much interest from hardware makers, who are what WebOS needs most.'

The CrunchPad (and its eventual consumer incarnation the JooJoo) is often presented as proof of obviousness in the iPad's design. For the first time, we have an interesting insider view on this matter - Nik Cubrilovic was involved with Micheal Arrington's CrunchPad project from the very beginning, and has written a lengthy blog post about how the CrunchPad really is proof the iPad's design was obvious.

Heck yes. This is one fine way to toast the weekend, ain't it? HP has just announced it's going to release webOS under an open source license. While the company will cease making hardware for the platform for now, it will continue development on it together with the open source community. Hey Access, you listening? Update: More good news: HP's CEO just told The Verge that HP will be putting webOS on hardware after all - tablets!

With WebOS out of the picture and the Blackberry Playbook as good as gone as well, we really only have iOS and Android left until Windows 8 comes out. I’ve finally gotten around to getting an Android device myself and spent the last week trying to see if my theoretical knowledge of the system and what I remember from the last Android device I had (which ran 1.6, viewed as ancient in Android land) fits reality. Read on for a full tear down and comparison on the two OSes.

PCI Express 4.0 is being designed with tablets in mind, according to standards-setting organization PCI Special Interest Group. The PCI-Express 4.0 bus will also go into PCs, servers and embedded devices. PCIe 4.0, will transfer data at up to 16 gigatransfers per second over copper wire. That is twice the speed of PCIe 3.0, which was finalized in late 2010 and is just reaching products.

The Register lifts the lid on the creation of the smartphone platform that was Hildon (later to become Series 90) that Nokia had developed in the early 00's by a team originally at Psion.

"HTC has become the top seller of smartphones in the US with a strategy that's precisely the opposite of Apple's. Where Apple is secretive, HTC is open. Where Apple is exclusive, HTC works with all carriers. Where Apple is proprietary, HTC is collaborative. Where Apple customizes for no one, HTC customizes for everyone. It's the anti-Apple and, so far, it has worked." I'm not enamoured with HTC's product design as of late (too soft, too 'rounded'), but as far as companies go, HTC is one of the good guys. Amazing to see such behaviour rewarded - and once again proves what I've been saying all along: in the end, openness and choice always wins.

The Nokia N9, the very desirable piece of technology running MeeGo, and quite possibly the last truly unique Nokia device (at least, for now), will be getting its first update over the coming days. It comes with several improvements and fixes to Bring MeeGo on the N9 up to par with MeeGo on the N950.

Remember when Apple surpassed Nokia to become the world's best-selling smartphone manufacturer? Well, Apple only had one quarter to enjoy this title, since Samsung just soared past them by quadrupling its smartphone shipments, making Samsung the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Update: As was noted in the comments, Apple also uses shipments - they just call them sales. Straight from their SEC filing.