Wireless Archive

PureMobile sent us in the GSM version of the HTC Hero, one of the most popular Android-based smartphones out there. There are already a number of in-depth reviews about this phone out there (here's one), but here's my own take on what I liked, and what I disliked.

And the back-and-forth goes on. "Here we go again. Apple has updated iTunes to version 9.0.2 and Palm Pre sync is dead again using webOS 1.2.1, despite Palm's Hurculean efforts to spoof nearly every aspect of USB identification known to mankind. As with previous breakages, iTunes does launch when you connect a Pre with Media Mode, but it doesn't appear as a device on the sidebar. Pre owners can at least take comfort in knowing that Apple's main goal here was adding support for the new AppleTV format, but breaking Pre sync support was a nice cherry for them."

Ahead of schedule, the Symbian Foundation has released the source code to Symbian's EKA2 real-time, multitasking, SMP microkernel, under the Eclipse Public License. It comes with a complete development kit, free of charge. The Foundation's plan is to open up the entire platform, and this is of course a very important milestone in that process.

"Microsoft says it has now recovered the personal data lost when its Sidekick servers suffered an outage on 13 October. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Roz Ho says that all data will be restored, beginning with personal contacts. She believes that only a minority of Sidekick users are still affected. 'The outage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back up,' she wrote in an open letter to customers. The number of customers affected was not released, but Sidekick is believed to have more than one million subscribers overall. Microsoft says it has installed a 'more resilient back-up process' to safeguard against a repeat incident."

"Speaking at CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment in San Diego today, FCC head Julius Genachowski has said that he wants to 'close the spectrum gap' -- the difference between the spectrum it's making available for wireless data versus enormous usage projections (400 petabytes a month by 2013, he says) that'll be brought about by smarter, easier-to-use devices and ubiquitous high-speed data through a handful of initiatives including the promotion of the smart use of existing spectrum through the use of femotcells, WiFi, and smart antennas, and -- more importantly -- reallocation of existing spectrum. Genachowski says there are 'no easy pickings' for reallocation, but the Commission is aggressively pursuing additional airspace that can help keep 4G rollouts on track. He's gone on to say that they'll be adopting the widely-discussed 'shot clock' policy for placement of new towers, giving locales a limited window to protest placement of cell sites that'll help spread 4G services over wider footprints. The guy seems genuinely concerned about keeping 4G rollouts rolling, so let's see just how far the guys in Washington are willing to go to do that."

Palm has just announced a number of changes its webOS development platform that should really be welcomed by developers. They are fully blessing application distribution outside of the App Catalog, open source developers will no longer have to pay a dime to have their applications in the App Catalog, and Palm will also open up all their analytical data for developers to use. Instant update: the official press release is out too.

Ah, the tablet computer. For over two decades now have companies tried to get the public to buy the darn things, and yet, despite all the efforts, promises, analysts, and even personal involvement by Bill Gates, they simply never took off. Recently, the tablet has seen renewed attention - but will they succeed now?

Acer is the latest smartphone handset maker to shift its resources from Windows Mobile to Android. And with competing OSes grabbing marketshare and attention daily, an observer couldn't be faulted for assuming that Microsoft's mobile OS initiative is in terminal decline. But it's quite possible that the mobile computing market is growing so fast that there will be room for all these players, and more.

AdMob has released their latest set of figures regarding the usage shares of various mobile platforms when it comes to web browsing. The figures are pretty clear: the big winners are the new kids on the block, iPhoneOS, Android, and webOS.

Palm has released webOS 1.2 today - and it doesn't fix iTunes sync. It's got a whole boatload of new features though, so have fun exploring. Your Pre will update itself automatically over-the-air.

"It might be about four months late, but the UK is finally getting its slice of the tasty new Palm pie. There'll be no shortage of outlets to buy this from, with the Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and O2's online shop all stocked up, but the carrier options are limited to just one. You'll find tables of UK and Ireland pricing after the break, and you'll be happy to know that the Pre can be had for free on two-year contracts charging £34.26 per month, which come with "unlimited" mobile data and free access to the BT OpenZone WiFi service."

Palm has announced the financial results of the first quarter of the 2010 fiscal year (ending August 31 2009), and the company has beaten estimates and has seen a strong increase in sales (but only quarter-over-quarter). However, Palm is still seeing losses, but these losses were less than expected. During the conference call following the presentation of the results, Palm CEO Rubinstein also announced that Palm will completely abandon Windows Mobile in favour of the webOS.

Sometime ago I conjectured that Microsoft made certain changes to IE8 to force web standards forward and drop backwards compatibility as default (a very un-Microsoft move) because of the need for the web to break out of the blinkered IE6 / Desktop-Browser view of content otherwise Microsoft would find itself unable to compete in the mobile space. It's been over a year since that article and in such a short period of time it has become ever clearer that Microsoft's mobile offerings, and their overall mobile platform strategy are failing against the dominant iPhone, the newcomer Android, and a re-invigorated Palm with WebOS.

Earlier this week, I detailed a number of things Apple could learn from how Palm handles its phones, operating system, and applications. Today, news broke out of the first application rejection from Palm's App Catalog, and from this and Palm's actions surrounding this rejection Apple can again learn a whole lot.