Archive for: mobile OS
- February 8, 2010 10:39 pm
As far as device names go, the Samsung M100S is not thing special. It doesn’t hint at anything mischievous or powerful lurking under the hood. It’s a conservative and boring name frankly. But just as you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, a smartphone shouldn’t be judged solely by it’s name. The Samsung M100S is actually quite the looker.
Dropping on SK Telecom in Marc, the M100S will feature an as of now, unnamed 800MHz processor, 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED display, 802.11n WiFi/GPS/T-DMB mobile TV, and a 5 megapixel camera that supports 720p video recording. Moving away from the hardware, the M100S will be South Korea’s first Android 2.1 device. On top of the good ‘ol ‘droid, Samsung’s own TouchWiz interface gets slapped on. Finally, this little shinning plastic beauty will have access to both the Android Market and SK Telecom’s own “T-Store” for mobile applications.
Even though we won’t see this device anywhere near US shores, it’s still cool none the less. And because I’ll never be able to have it, I just want it that much more. Pricing for those fortunate enough is unavailable for now.
Anyone thinking of a cross continental journey…?
Linux For Devices
We’re always looking for the next up and coming gadget to lust over. To spare you the hardware, we comb over the vast expanses of the web looking for any and all information that will tickle your gadget fancy. In that case, how about some news on the upcoming HTC Dragon, Huashan, Tinshan, and Songshan devices? Let’s get started….
- Dragon: Often rumored to have been the Nexus One, the Dragon looks to be heading to China packing a 3.6″ WVGA display and Android.
- Huashan: 4.3″ WVGA display and suspected successor to HTC HD2
- Tinshan: 3.2″ QVGA display
- Songshan: 2.8″ QVGA display
…what, that’s it? Hey, I did say “slightly” detailed in the title did I not? From the screen sizes we can’t tell much of anything about each respective device. Though the screen sizes are a good indicator of the general market of the phone. For example, the HTC Huashan’s 4.3″ WVGA display means that it is obviously a higher end device with a massive screen. Massive screens generally require massive processors (Snapdragon) and a host of other high-end features.
So that’s the news for now. Thoughts?
**Update: An official HTC roadmap courtesy of Engadget
PhoneArena
- February 6, 2010 10:03 pm
Anyone who spends even a smidgen of time in the mobile world knows that over the last couple of years, a lot has changed. As little as three years ago, Android, webOS, and the iPhone didn’t exist. In the here and now, trying to imagine such a world is almost impossible. With each successive newcomer, Windows Mobile, the once defacto smartphone standard and mobile giant, has continued to slowly lose market share and relevance.
Windows Mobile hasn’t exactly been one of my favorite mobile OS’s. It’s just not for me for a number of reasons. But after Microsoft started mentioning blurbs of Windows Mobile 7, my interest finally started getting piqued. Windows Mobile 7 could be big. Actually, it needs to be big. If Microsoft were to drop the ball with another major mobile release, the platform’s days could very well be numbered. Thankfully for us, claimed specs and details of Windows Mobile 7 have started trickling out in advance of MWC. Now keep in mind that these aren’t confirmed specs as of yet. But it should be a good indicator of where the platform will move to with the launch of Windows Mobile 7.
The *Good* leaked specs:
- Full Xbox integration — avatars, achievements, stats
The bad, worse, and terrible:
- NO applications supported outside of Windows Marketplace. (ie: apps on SD can’t be installed)
- No NetCF (legacy apps) compatibility
As far as legacy support, with such a major shift in the underlying core of the OS, the loss of support for older applications was a given. Frankly, with the quality and appearance of most of the legacy apps, this isn’t a bad thing. It gives users a fresh start. However, if the rumors of no multi-tasking/background support and no SD card app installs holds true, Microsoft might as well close the doors now.
With as much flack as Apple has received over the last couple of years for the iPhone’s lack of background app support/multi-tasking, one would think Microsoft would play on this weakness. Instead, it appears they are following down the same path — a big, big mistake. Seriously, why would they do this? Microsoft used to talk up Windows Mobile multi-tasking when the iPhone first launched. Now they’re joining the team.
Finally, the inability to install apps via SD cards is a huge disappointment. Just look at xda-forums — they’re a huge community built on HTC devices mostly running Windows Mobile. The path Microsoft looks to be taking is a massive deviation from the old user base and one that could anger a lot of users.
After all is said and done, could one argue Microsoft really doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing in the mobile sphere? I mean, taking away multi-tasking and SD card installs are two things the geek crowd/power users (Windows Mobile main user base) live on. If WinMo 7 does in fact remove multi-tasking and apps installed via SD cards or other means, will you look to another platform for future purchases?
PPC Geeks
If you’ve spent any amount of time here, you probably already know that I’m an Android junkie. In fact, I’d even say that I love the Android platform. I’m a huge tinkerer and tweaker. The beauty of Android is it is a modern tweakers dream — the customization features of Windows Mobile with added style and features that are a mash up of BlackBerry, webOS, and even the iPhone. Being such a geek at heart means I’m always checking DROID forums looking for new apps, services, ROM’s, themes, etc. Well, tonight we have a new one for ya. While a couple of weeks ago we touched on the amazing “Smoked Glass” ROM/theme from Adamz of AllDroid, tonight’s ROM is a tad more feature filled.
If you’re anywhere close to remotely serious about custom DROID ROM’s, you’ve no doubt come across the sholes.info website and sholes developers. Their first custom ROM wasn’t too bad and was actually pretty stable. More important than the stability however was there unique built in options picker when installing the ROM that allowed you to easily tweak the ROM to your liking at the time of install — greatly reducing end user involvement. Today the Sholes team kicked it up several more notches with the release of the latest sholes.info 2.0.1 ROM.
Looking at the time stamps on sholes.info shows that a good week and a half has gone by between ROM updates. To some this would be discouraging and depict a lack of interest. Such an assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. The sholes team was actually hard at work creating one of and possibly best custom DROID ROM’s on the market.
Like the 1.x sholes.info ROM’s, the 2.x.x series continues with the unique installer during ROM installation. Only this time, there are even more options to comb through in order to make the ROM the best that it can be. Everything from removing stock system apps that many don’t use to adding features such as the Motorola Milestone’s multi-touch browser to even installing AdamZ’s Smoked Glass theme which now comes bundled with the sholes.info ROM’s can be controlled by the user without the need for a computer.
Speaking of that last point, the Sholesmod Updater is an ingenious little app available in the Android Market that allows you to download cusotm ROM’s over the air as well as taking care of flash new boot images and other system files. So again, while the Sholes.info team seemed to be taking a week or two off, they were actually creating the best ROM/app combo on the planet. I should know, I purchased the $5.00 donate version tonight and have been running the new 2.0.1 sholes.info ROM for a good hour and a half. I’ll certainly need a couple days to put it through it’s paces and get a better picture of the ROM’s performance.
One thing that I want to make mention of from the get-go is JiT. The N1 features JiT and is a software tweak that allows optimized UI navigation. In sholes 2.0.1, JiT is included as an option to install, though disabled by default as it is extremely buggy with several users testing out the waters saying their phone was pretty unusable. Why include it if it’s so buggy? How will these things get fixed and optimized without being tested? Hopefully upcoming releases have this little gem fixed sooner rather than later. If you’re a developer looking to get into Android, now is better than ever…
For those looking from the outside in to this world of rooting and custom ROM’s, flash new ROM’s overclocking, swapping flash images, and other geeky tasks may seem a bit daunting at first. Even more daunting and even mildly frustrating can be the fact of inevitably having to wipe the data partition from time to time, wiping out all of your settings. Of course, if you’re a smart geek, you’ve got at least half a dozen nandroid backups to pick from. In regards to various partition restores/backups, the sholes.info 2.0.1 is the easiest ROM to work with so far. I’ve generally stayed away from data restores atop new ROM, instead employing clean wipe and reinstalls. After all is said and done, the data partition preservation is but another reason to give the sholes.info 2.0.1 a try.
Flashing custom Android ROM’s isn’t hard nor is it rocket science. I’ve only been on the Android scene since November and already am what I would consider, “well versed”. If you’re on the fence, why not let sholes.info 2.0.1 be the deciding factor that kicks you off that fence and into the real world of custom DROID ROM’s?
A perfect analogy of the sholes.info ROM’s and team for current Android users on another device is sholes.info is to DROID what Cyanogen is to HTC Android devices — they’re that awesome. I’ve talked enough. It’s time for you to tweak that DROID…what are you waiting for!?
Sholes.info ROM information
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Mark your calendars BlackBerry users and mobile internet aficionados, February 15th is the day in which the Bolt browser gets a big upgrade to version 1.7. The biggest boasting point of the new version is widget support. Using said feature will be easily accessible via a separate widget menu within the browser as to make using the widgets easy and intuitive.
In addition to the new widget support, Bolt also supports popular web technologies (not Flash) such as Ajax and Javascript. One other honorable mention is that the new widget features are written in standard W3C code to make development and compatibility easy on developers and consumers alike. Overall, it’s worth upgrading.
Any BlackBerry/Bolt users care to chime in on the new widget support?
PhoneScoop
BrightHand
- February 4, 2010 12:36 am
Symbian, oh lovely Symbian. There for years, continually releasing small updates here and there yet ultimately overshadowed by the likes of Apple, Android, RIM, and now even Palm. It’s not hard to argue that Symbian is kind of lacking when you look at the offerings form the larger players just named. Could marketing Symbian as “100% open source” help the mobile OS and it’s image?
It certainly couldn’t hurt, that’s for sure. But what exactly does it mean? Well, quite simply, anyone can now download Symbian source code for free. We all know how much people love free stuff. Will this new found freedom allow Symbian to soar to new hights of popularity? Honestly, it’s going to take a heck of a lot more than a free lunch to get everyone excited about Symbian again.
Android and the iPhone OS are the two current hot beds of activity. I exclude RIM and Palm as the BlackBerry OS while still highly functional is really starting to show it’s age and lack of modern features. Palm and their webOS on the other hand is a great newcomer to the game. But their market share is still incredibly small, with plans moving forward all but inching along.
One other potential stumbling block is that even though Symbian is now officially free to all who want it, Nokia is still the biggest supporter of the mobile operating system. Their flavor of Symbian mind you is not free. Regardless, there is reason to be excited about Symbian with the most immediate excitement being the announcement of Nokia’s “Cseries” spin on Symbian. Being that Nokia is again the largest supporter of Symbian, is their success with their upcoming C-series enough to guarantee Symbian’s success?
Answer that and whatever else you feel like below.
IntoMobile
Try as they might, AT&T has been unable to improve their image as of late. They blame Apple and the iPhone. Apple *doesn’t* blame AT&T outright, instead dancing around the issue with “we’re happy of future network build out plans” verbiage that more or less means “We know they suck, hopefully they fix it”. Outside of it all, Verizon has watched AT&T enjoy record profits over the last couple of years after reportedly walking away from exclusive rights to the first gen iPhone. The rest as you all know is history.
When rumors of the iPad with 3G began circulating, Verizon was again in the center of the debate. With AT&T’s network begging for mercy on it’s one crippled leg, most thought Apple would certainly have multiple carrier deals from the get go. As we found out last week, that simply hasn’t been the case. Apple for better or worse (don’t kid yourself, it’s worse, very much worse) has stubbornly stuck with AT&T as the main carrier of choice.
After the iPad event, various sources on the internet began speculating as to whom — AT&T or Apple — was responsible for keeping this GSM partnership. One entity who is could very well be responsible though has been left out of most discussions so far is Verizon.
The current speculation behind the iPad and it’s 3G partners comes from Clayton Morris of Fox News. Mr. Morris claims that AT&T “outbid” everyone else in regards to the “cheap” 250MB and “unlimited” data plans bundled with higher-end versions of the iPad. During early negotiations, Verizon apparently “balked” at the pricing Apple suggested as he noted that VZW likes to charge roughly double the iPad 3G rates for notebooks and wireless cards. Could Verizon really be that stupid to botch yet another potential Apple device from gracing their airwaves?
Verizon hasn’t exactly been the most open or consumer friendly company. It wasn’t until recently that I would even consider them as a carrier to turn to — and then they started getting all consumer friendly. This latest rumor however may signal that the last year or so of a much “happier” Verizon was nothing more than a smokescreen. I mean, Apple isn’t stupid (stubborn, not stupid). They know that an iPad with a $60/month capped “Unlimited” data plan wouldn’t fly. So why does Verizon and other carriers still insist on charging exorbitant extra charges for such data plans?
But remember, all of this is unconfirmed for now as both Apple and Verizon haven’t commented on the accusations. AT&T meanwhile has gone ahead and simply stated that “they’re happy with Apple’s current favoring of their network”. Gee, there’s a shocker. Worries of Verizon being out of the Apple/iPhone/iPad picture for another 2-3 years aren’t quite validated just yet as Clayton Morris further states that even though there are current disagreements between the parties involved, Verizon is still in talks with Apple to bring some sort of iProduct to their CDMA airwaves. For every mobile internet users sake on an iProduct on AT&T — we can only hope.
I open the floor to you now. Do you think there was a type of “bidding war” to get access to the iPad in which Verizon once again dropped the ball? Or is it an entirely different story with Apple instead choosing AT&T again in blind/stubborn love?
MacNN > AlleyInsider
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Finally, some hardcore numbers to munch on for the Motorola Devour. It’s won’t knock your socks off, but for a mid-range Android device it will do I suppose. On a side note, anyone tired of mid-range handsets flooding the market yet, relying on the aged ARM11 CPU at 528MHz? I know everyone doesn’t need 1GHz Snapdragon power… But I digress.
The Motorola Devour rundown is as follows:
- 320 x 480 HVGA 3.1″ touchscreen
- Android 1.6 (what the hell?!)
- microSDsupport — ships with 8GB microSD card
- Talk time: Up to 340 minutes
- Standby Time: Up to 440 hours
- 6.35 ounces/ 4.55 x 2.4 x 0.61
Nothing spectacular though it’s another foot in the door of the consumers’ heart and wallet I guess. All nitpicking aside, I actually like the form factor and overall fit and finish. Throw in a Snapdragon processor and higher res screen and it would rock would it not?
Androinica
Make no mistake, RIM’s current BlackBerry browser sucks and sucks big time. It’s always sucked. Those who disagree obviously aren’t using the internet as it was meant to be used — flash, javascript, ajax, and so on. Flash is still a sticking point for many other mobile browsers in the market but the rest of that list is a rather common affair now.
After acquiring Torch Mobile last year, rumors and speculation of a completely revamped BlackBerry browser almost immediately began. After a solid two years of complaints centering around the archaic browser, it seemed RIM had finally opened up their ears to their customers. So what’s the current status on this new browser?
The latest info we’ve heard has the browser being completely re-developed from the ground up and based on Webkit — a far cry from the POS Java relic BB’s currently run. RIM is gunning to take it even further than “just a webkit” browser however. Previously leaked documents and other claims from various sources have RIM tightly integrating their BIS/BES services and server side technology into the mix (which any Opera Mini users should know…) greatly speeds up browsing speeds, rending accuracy, and manages to drastically cut down on bandwidth.
RIM is pretty damn good at doing some big things over limited bandwidth allotments so this frankenstein browser has to be good.
Even though I don’t use a BlackBerry day to day, I have connections and Berry’s available to test if need be. This new uber BlackBerry browser will certainly be one of the biggest updates for the BlackBerry OS in recent memory (if ever). Keep checking back for more info as the story develops.
Think RIM’s hybrid webkit/server cached browser combo will jump ahead of the competition (read: Android and iPhone browsers)?
Electronista
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