Wireless Archive

"We've been trying to find out when HP would launch a webOS tablet since the company first bought Palm, and we're now hearing from several trusted sources that it'll be calendar Q1 2011. We're told Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley mentioned the date during an all-hands employee meeting yesterday, and that the project is indeed known internally as 'Hurricane'."

A bunch of figures travelled all over the web this past week regarding Android's remarkable growth. Its growth is indeed remarkable - bigger than the iPhone, bigger than Research In Motion's BlackBerry (in the US, at least). However, as impressive as those figures are, isn't it about time we start comparing platforms instead of devices?

After reading about the latest release from MeeGo and how it's designed for In-Vehicle Infotainment systems, I couldn't help download MeeGo for IVI V1.0, take some screenshots, and share some of my thoughts on the features of this new version.

Tableau Software has created an interactive table/graph that examines data rates for the iPad, carrier-by-carrier. The results are interesting. As you might expect, data rates from AT&T in the US are near the top of the list, but those unlucky souls in France have to pay twice what AT&T users do. Residents of Singapore may not be allowed to chew gum, but they can pay as little as $.51 per Gigabyte for wireless data.

The GNOME foundation and the LiMo group announced a partnership to help push Linux forward in the consumer field. The only notice that anyone has seem to have taken is mockery. So why can someone announce some dedication to promoting open source software in the mobile space and generate no enthusiasm in the mobile space? Android.

While browsing through dealextreme.com, a popular online shop for electronic products here in Asia, I was really surprised to see several iPad-like tablet computers that are sold for as low as $99 (US). Another surprising thing is that they are all powered by Android.

Early takes on the Technical Preview of Windows Phone 7 are more thumbs up than screw up. But is it too late to sway users?

On July 15th the latest Android super-phone was released by Motorola and Verizon Wireless. All hail the Droid X. The release was not without controversy though. The Droid X, while greatly raising the bar for Android phones in general, does so at the expense of the very power users and community that made the original Droid the gotta-have phone it became. Alienating this group may have far reaching consequences for Motorola.

Jolicloud is a Linux-based operating system for netbooks. It is built upon Ubuntu and the earlier versions had a user interface which is quite similar to Ubuntu Netbook Remix. However, with Jolicloud 1.0, which has been launched just a few days back, things have changed. Instead of the old interface, Jolicloud 1.0 now has a HTML5 based interface. In Jolicloud can use native Linux applications or web applications. However, with the HTML5 UI, they are blurring the difference between the two. Moreover, the new UI have simplified installing applications a lot.

We'd argue that the "wow" factor still isn't there quite yet, but we'll admit: Symbian^4 is clearly going to be a bit of a departure from the versions that came before it. The Symbian Foundation has posted the first handful of home screen UI shots on its developer wiki recently showing redesigned widgets, app categories and search, pop-up menus, and a standard-issue numeric touchscreen keypad -- and unlike Nokia's concept videos from before, these are from a real emulator running real code.

One would think that laying claim to the largest share of the world's smartphone market would attract the most high-quality mobile software developers, but that doesn't seem to be the case for Nokia.

One of the first articles headline articles I wrote for Geekvine when we first started in May, was title 7 Reasons Blackberry Is Falling Behind and What It Can Do To Get Ahead. In that article, I discussed the reasons why RIM was being overtaken by the likes of Google and Apple and what it could do to get ahead. Sure, Blackberry devices are untouchable in the business sector but what about creating devices for the rest of us? The upcoming update to the Blackberry OS is a step in the right direction so I thought it was time to release an updated article and how things have changed. Today we'll discuss how Blackberry OS 6 will change the smartphone game and RIM may have in store for the future.

I know everyone loved the last "exciting" BB video showing OS6, but here is another glimpse of what's coming. Seems to just have what every other smartphone OS has nowadays; social media tie ins, a web browser, and hopefully a useful touchscreen. nothing real eye opening other than the fact that its on a BB. The vid shows a good example of the touchscreen keyboard - I'm holding up hope that they keep the famous BB form factor with a real qwerty.