Wireless Archive

Over at Daringfireball this past weekend, John Gruber put words to what many people are thinking about after Google's rush of Android announcements and not-subtle Apple-bashing at this week's I/O conference: "all-out war." I agree with Gruber that a good old-fashioned bitter rivalry could be a great thing for the computing world, and for smartphone/handheld fans in particular.

So, we've talked a lot about Android last week due to Google's I/O conference, but what about the other guys competing in this field? Research In Motion, the Canadian smartphone maker, is hard at work developing version 6.0 of the BlackBerry operating system, and if a video of a pre-release build is any indication, they've still got some work to do.

"Verizon Wireless is working with Google Inc. on a tablet computer, the carrier's chief executive, Lowell McAdam, said Tuesday, as the company endeavors to catch up with iPad host AT&T Inc. in devices that connect to wireless networks. The work is part of a deepening relationship between the largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers and Google, which has carved out a space in mobile devices with its Android operating system. Verizon Wireless last year heavily promoted the Motorola Droid, which runs Google's software."

While most of us here on the OSNews team are proponents of HTML5, we're all fully aware that Flash serves an important role on the web today, and will most likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Flash has a rather spotty record when it comes to performance, and so far, hasn't been able to run well on mobile devices. It seems this is about to change, as an Adobe evangelist has showed off Flash 10.1 on Android 2.2 (Froyo) running on the Nexus One. And eerlijk is eerlijk, it looks pretty darn impressive, especially considering how far they've come.

When Apple sued HTC, and targeted Android specifically (news which came out of the blue), many people, including myself, were convinced this was Apple letting the world know they were afraid of Android's rising popularity. This notion was laughed away by many an Apple fan, but it turns out that this is most likely far closer to reality than many dare to admit: in the first quarter of 2010, Android conquered the number two market share spot from the iPhone in the US - and by a wide margin too. Update: Added a graph which better shows the trend.

"Samsung has finally released the public version of their bada SDK. Samsung has been seeding new SDK releases to partners but it's the first time, they've released it to the public. It's a beta version and the final release is expected later this month. You can download the full SDK now by registering for free on the bada developer site." More here.

"Android is fairly unique in the ways it allows multiple applications to run at the same time. Developers coming from a different platform may find the way it operates surprising. Understanding its behavior is important for designing applications that will work well and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the Android platform. This article covers the reasons for Android's multitasking design, its impact on how applications work, and how you can best take advantage of Android's unique features."

Well, if we had one of those obnoxious "BREAKING!"-tags on OSNews, this would definitely fit the bill. While we were busy discussing whether HTC or Lenovo would snap up Palm, another major worldwide computer company picked up the Sunnyvale-based mobile outfit: Hewlett-Packard has bought Palm. Updates from the conference call inside.

People have often rightfully pointed out that we here at OSNews do not seem to pay a lot of attention to RIM and its BlackBerry mobile operating system. Those people are right, but it stems from the fact that I simply have never actually seen, let alone used, a BlackBerry, which makes it very hard to write about. I'm hoping this will go a little way into turning that frown upside down: today, RIM demonstrated version 6.0 of its BlackBerry operating system. And it's on OSNews' front page.

A lot is happening around Palm the past few weeks. The company put itself up for sale, with HTC and Lenovo being the most important candidates. HTC has now backed down, leaving only Lenovo as the major contender. In the meantime, Palm's CEO Jon Rubinstein continues to believe the company can go at it alone, but is nonetheless open to the idea of being bought - while also opening the door to licensing the webOS.

"If you're a BlackBerry fan, there is probably not a single thing you have been looking forward to more than what we have right here - screenshots and full details of RIM's upcoming operating system, OS 6.0. One of our AT&T sources has not only showed us the brand new OS, but has also given us some screenshots that we could share. Since we have seen OS 6.0 in action first hand, we will break it down for you guys, along with all the other screenshots."

Take a look at this link to the worldwide Apple iTunes App Store top ten lists. Currently, Opera's Mini Web Browser is the #1 free app in every country. Is it just curiosity, or is there really big demand for an alternative web browser for the iPhone? (As for me, I downloaded it, tried it for 2-3 minutes, and went back to Safari. Did everyone else do that too?)

According to an Nvidia executive, smartphones with the company's low-power Tegra 2 chips will become available in the fourth quarter this year. Tegra 2 chips put an Arm-based processor core, a GeForce graphics core and other components on a single chip.

"Last Friday HTC unveiled its entry-level Smartphone, aptly named the Smart. However, what we'd like to tell you about is not the new handset, but instead what happened during the press event inside the Taipei 101. This news story hasn't made it outside of Taiwan so far and we felt it was worth reporting on, despite the event taking place a few days ago. As the press conference was drawing to a close and the group photos were about to be taken, the event was gate crashed by representatives for one of HTC's suppliers. A woman came in shouting with several other people following her and there was a general confusion among the media at the event. The HTC PR representatives were doing their best to drag her away from the stage, while she was trying to hand over some kind of a list to Peter Chou, the president and CEO of HTC."