Wireless Archive

The next version of PalmSource Inc.'s handheld operating system will support true multitasking, bringing Palm OS 6.0 up to the level of its competitors and delighting developers who had been expecting it in the previous version.

PalmSource said this week that Palm OS 6.0 is expected by the end of the year with products shipping as early as 2004. "OS 6 is the evolutionary path to the future," PalmSouce CEO David Nagel said.

Symbian Ltd announced the launch of the latest version of Symbian OS. Symbian OS is licensed by the world's leading mobile phone manufacturers including Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. The new version is sporting enhanced networking capabilities, support for Java MIDP 2.0, a multimedia framework and new language variants.

Over at NewMobileComputing, we've got a new article that explores the various methods that wireless telecom firms are offering for high speed packet-based data services. There's been some controversy over whether the CDMA2000 1x networks are really "3G" or are "2.5G" like GPRS. This article explores the controversy, and tries to get to the bottom of what constitutes a true 3G network.

NewMobileComputing reports: "Danger made available their HipTop/Sidekick SDK free of charge. Also, latest reports say that the new version of HipTop will feature a color screen." Please note that the OSNews web site supports the "Danger Device" (a nickname ex-Be/Danger engineers gave early on to HipTop/SideKick), so no ads or vertical bars will be displayed, making the browsing experience pretty good with its native web browser.

There's lots of cool stuff over at NewMobileComputing today, as the CeBIT and CITA conferences are resulting in a lot of product and prototype rollouts. Some highlights: Mercedes and BMWs decked out with computers, a new Samsung watch phone close to production, Nextel handsets that speak 802.11, and RIM's licensing deals. We need your help! NMC readers are so far not quite as opinionated as OSNews readers are, so we need some of you to visit and make comments on the articles and forums.

We are pleased the announce the birth of a new addition to the family: New Mobile Computing, a daily news site dedicated to examining the leading edge of technology that you carry around with you. If there are OSNews readers who are interested in this topic, pay us a visit. We need lots of help with news submissions, commentary, and giving the mobile computing forums a jump-start. We are also looking for volunteer editors. If you'd like to help, pay the site a visit, or email the NMC staff.

The Tribune of India has an overview of the various operating systems vying for prominence in the mobile phone sphere: Symbian, Microsoft, Palm, Linux. The article mentions that Samsung, a Microsoft and Palm licensee, has joined the Symbian alliance.

Motorola, who has seen its fortunes in the phone market decline a bit thanks to nimble European and Asian competition, is hoping that the Linux operating system and Chinese manufacturing and engineering talent can turn the tide, according to an article in The Register. These phones will run Linux but most of the applications that run on top will be Java.

This late December 2002 article compares PalmOS and the PocketPC operating systems and their applications, in the ease of use department. Adding Qtopia-under-Linux to the mix, which PDA have you found to be the easiest to use?

NEC and Samsung, two Asian electronics giants, have each announced new hardware components that will help them make smaller, cheaper, and more-functional devices, particularly, "smart" mobile phones. NEC has developed a new small display with a serial interface that requires fewer connecting wires and uses less power than older displays. Samsung has designed a small chip that contains a 206 MHz ARM920T processor core, 32MB of NAND flash memory, and 32MB of SDRAM on a chip measuring .7" square and .05" thick. Read more at PC World.

PalmSource has licensed CIC's Jot character recognition system for its new handwriting system, replacing Graffiti for all devices, and added a unified soft Graffiti area.

CNET News.com reports: "Mobile phone maker Sendo has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the attempted theft of technical expertise and proprietary technology, adding to the intrigue surrounding its recently terminated relationship with the software giant." Last month Sendo announced that the company decided to license Nokia's Symbian based Series 60 Platform for future Sendo smartphones instead of Microsoft's software. Update: Reuters.co.uk has some more information.

KPN Mobile today revealed that the popularity of its new online i-mode service is sky-rocketing, gaining over 77,000 new Dutch mobile phone subscribers since mid-August. This month KPN is expected to introduce a third i-mode handset, the NEC n22i, in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Meanwhile KPN's main partner, NTT DoCoMo, has over 36 million i-mode subscribers in Japan.