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2010: The Year Of The Android

Noel Kuhlman — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:31:15 +0000

Not robotic humanoids, but the Google-led mobile operating system that’s being primed to challenge the iPhone for its throne. “Android adoption is about to explode,” Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt claimed in an earnings conference this week. “You have all the necessary conditions.”

Those conditions, of course, being the newfound availability of Android-powered phones. With a total of twelve devices set to be available within the next month, distribution in 26 countries and plenty of buzz, it could well be true.

Why the excitement about this OS? Since Android was released as an open source platform, Google essentially saved manufacturers plenty of overhead. Rather than design a smartphone platform from the ground up, they opened it up for customizations, allowing each cellphone maker to put in changes as they pleased. It allowed them to focus on hardware and usability, rather than underlying operations.

Come Christmas season, Android will be the OS running on four smartphones from HTC, two from Motorola, two from Samsung, one from Dell, one from Huawei, one from LG and another from Acer. More importantly, that roster is continually growing, with many more planned releases for the coming year.

With Google’s non-stop improvement of the platform, the increasing number of apps and the continued support from manufacturers, 2010 will be an interesting year for smartphones. Has the iPhone Killer finally arrived and is it ready for primetime?

A Jailbreak-Proof iPhone 3GS? Not Really

Noel Kuhlman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:26:40 +0000

Reports of updated bootroms on the latest shipments of iPhone 3GS handsets earlier this week pegged the latest versions as jailbreak-proof. Unfortunately for Apple, that’s not really true, according to iPhone Dev team member Eric McDonald.

Speaking with Wired Magazine, the hacker disclosed that the new bootrom really does disable the “24kpwn” exploit currently used in jailbroken phones. However, that specific hack is only intended to allow the phone to boot in a jailbroken state. The rest of the existing tools should continue to work on the new 3GS, as they have on previous versions.

What happens to the new batch of phones when jailbroken? According to Eric, they can’t power up on their own. If you shut off the phone or lost power on the road, you’ll have to tether it to a computer before being able to boot. Otherwise, it will remain turned off.

Is the change going to deter new iPhone 3GS owners from jailbreaking? Probably for some. Not being able to turn on my phone if I accidentally power off until I connect to a PC makes it a largely impractical device. For the greater majority, however, my guess is jailbreaking will still be rampant, especially since an update to the PwnageTool is probably in the horizon.

According to the Dev Team, the exploit to bypass the tethered boot has already been found. Of course, integrating that into the current system, along with the required testing, may take some time. I doubt it will be long, though.

Full Flash On Smartphones By Mid-2010, Except The iPhone

Noel Kuhlman — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:19:58 +0000

Adobe has announced their upcoming plans for Flash 10.1 on mobile devices, effectively defining the future of Flash support on smartphone platforms. According to the company, full Flash is coming to browsers on Android, Blackberry, Symbian, WebOS and Windows Mobile phones beginning in the middle of 2010. You read that right – there’s no iPhone on that list.

As it is, Apple is choosing to keep the iPhone a closed platform. That means no full Flash for Safari users, although Adobe has been granted some leeway on the applications area.

For the rest of the smartphone roster, beta versions of full Flash support will begin rolling out by the end of the year. Windows Mobile and webOS users get first crack, followed by Android and Symbian handset owners early in 2010. Blackberry is last in on the action, having only joined Adobe’s Open Screen project as of late.

What, exactly, can you expect with full Flash on your phone? You get full-featured execution of Flash videos and apps, HTTP streaming and support for mobile input models, including multi-touch, gestures and accelerometer movements. The prospect this creates for future Flash games is quite the event to imagine.

Even better, the new implementation lets you process streaming HD videos using the hardware GPU, which should put an end to the spotty playback currently available on the current crop of smartphones. Is mobile YouTube playback finally going to tip over this side of excellent? That’s what Adobe is gunning for. We’d know if it works soon enough.

via Gizmodo

iPhone OS 3.1: Why Many Aren’t In A Hurry To Upgrade

Noel Kuhlman — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:49:01 +0000

iPhone OS 3.1 rolled out this week. If you haven’t installed it or checked out reviews, let me give you the down low: install at your own risk.

Before thinking there’s something nasty in the new OS, let me assure you there’s none. In fact, a couple of good things come with upgrading. One is the new App Genius, a version of Apple’s song-recommendation engine ported for apps. Basically, it takes an inventory of all software you have installed, compares it with other users’ and builds a list of suggestions of ones you may like. While it comes with some flaws, it does offer a small reprieve to the problem of wading through over 75,000 entries in the App Store.

Another is the ability to organize your installed apps on the handset directly from iTunes 9 on your computer. Anyone who has slaved through the tedious thumbing and swiping to put some sense on the mess of icons on their phone will surely appreciate this. Other minor updates include improved media syncing, improved Exchange support and a couple of others.

Now, why the warning at the start? Well, 3.1′s major changes actually happen in the “features removal” category. More specifically, the new OS update removes the ability to tether from your iPhone (via that oh-so-easy flashing the firmware method) and removes anything and everything that has to do with Cydia (the unauthorized app store). Even worse, you can’t revert back to 3.0 once you upgrade, so you’re stuck without tethering (until AT&T actually lets you pay for it) and no cool, unauthorized apps.

Most folks will need more incentive than a recommendation engine to lose all that tethering goodness, Apple.

Nokia Booklet 3G Specs Are Out, Just A Connected Netbook After All

Noel Kuhlman — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:59:21 +0000

After last week’s hype about the Nokia Booklet 3G, the “mini-laptop” finally had its specs detailed in an official way. The verdict: it’s just a netbook, alright (and an under-powered one, at that).

Touting slim lines and a MacBook-like aluminum unibody, it’s one good-looking piece of hardware. Regardless, hot looks getting priced to the hilt only works when your name is Apple. Unfortunately, Nokia didn’t heed the warning.

Core specs consist of a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, Intel Poulsbo US15W chipset, 1GB of non-expandable RAM and a 120GB HDD. Other hardware features include a 10.1-inch LCD with 1280 x 720 resolution, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, an onboard accelerometer and the usual set of ports (USB, audio, SD card). Connectivity is largely what sets the machine apart, offering aGPS, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and a 3G modem.

Battery is of particular note here, as Nokia claims an operating life of 12 hours. While that claim is being contended by many, it’s important to note that the device will likely be used as a work computer, instead of a multimedia machine. As such, lasting for that long might actually make sense.

Overall, high expectations came plummeting down the ground as soon as Nokia announced pricing for the Booklet 3G. According to the company, it will be going for €575 ($818) before subsidies and taxes. Even with all the extra connectivity hardware, that’s still a mighty tough sell. Good luck next time.

New Linux-Based OS, iPhone 3GS Guts And Multi-Tasking Could Make The Nokia N900 The Finnish Company’s Best Phone Yet

Noel Kuhlman — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:34:59 +0000

While the N97 is officially Nokia’s flagship phone, it’s fair to say that the high-end handset isn’t exactly their most exciting model around. With a souped-up hardware set and a fresh operating system at the helm, the Nokia N900 could potentially take its place.

Sporting the company’s new Maemo 5 OS, the device comes with multi-tasking capabilities and up to 768MB of virtual memory, which it uses as additional RAM. Core hardware ticks off the same specs list as the iPhone 3GS, boasting a 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, 256MB of RAM and a PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support.

Originally rumored as a mini-tablet instead of a phone, the N900 touts a side-sliding QWERTY keypad and a 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD with 800 x 480 pixels of resolution. Hardware specs include 5-megapixel optics with autofocus, a GPS radio (with Ovi Maps preinstalled), 32GB of built-in storage, microSDHC expansion, an FM tuner, stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a 1320 mAh battery unit.

It comes with extensive media capabilities (including DivX and XviD) with an accompanying TV out, a Mozilla-based full HTML browser with Flash 9.4. Connectivity support includes quad-band GSM and tri-band WCDMA.

The Nokia N900 is, without a doubt, the Finnish company’s best phone on paper. However, that’s what they said about the N97 too, but look how that turned out. If Maemo 5 proves a better smartphone OS than the Symbian S60, then that will be proven. It’s set for release in October with an estimated 500 Euro price tag.

Rooting Your Android Phone Made One-Click Easy

Noel Kuhlman — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:42:15 +0000

A new application that surfaced on the Marketplace earlier this week now allows handset owners to open up their phones the same way that you jailbreak an iPhone. Of course, it’s been taken out of the storefront by now, but dozens of mirrors are still available online. That means you can perform custom OS upgrades, tether the phone to act as a modem and all sorts of other cool stuff without having to learn real hacking skills.

While a number of people have been rooting their phones without a commercial app for some time now, it’s an extremely dicey process. If you don’t have the technical savvy to pull it off or just can’t afford to brick your phone, it’s always been better to keep your hands off.

With the release of Recovery Flasher, all you have to do is grab the software from the Marketplace, run it, tap the “Back up recovery image” command and then tap the “Flash Cyanogen Recovery 1.4.” Congratulations, your phone is now rooted.

From there, you can now wipe off your dusty, old G1 interface to rock the HTC Hero’s gorgeous Sense UI. Seriously, the work HTC put into customizing the OS is so extensive that it’s worth taking the risk of rooting your phone – especially now that an app does all the legwork for you. If the admittedly-heavier Sense UI is not your cup of tea, you can choose from a plethora of numerous hyper-customized ROMs available from the online Android community. From multi-touch to running app from SD cards to built-in tethering to faster builds, you can change your entire phone experience.

Do note that Recovery Flasher is only guaranteed to work for US-issued G1 and HTC Magic phones. Those who got their phones elsewhere will need to wait a little longer or flash their phones the hard way. Also make sure you do it soon, before the exploit gets patched.

Music Labels Introduce CMX Format For Albums, Here’s To Watching Them Mess It Up

Noel Kuhlman — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:41:46 +0000

It’s fair to say that the record industry has beautifully screwed itself over with advancing technology. As much as they may own the facility that creates the music, its digital distribution has been taken squarely out of their hands. Like their past efforts to catch up, the large music companies are once again banding together to try and figure out a solution…about five years too late.

That new solution is called CMX, a new file format that bundles together an entire album with a host of other digital content, including album artwork, videos, liner notes and ringtones. Basically, they’re going to try to leverage the extra content to compel buyers to shop for full albums, instead of singles (as Apple has successfully promoted with iTunes).

Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI are all together on the scheme, which hopes to steer people away from the cherry-picking of songs that has become the norm for digital music sales. Never mind, of course, that pulling people away from a cheap solution that they’ve now become accustomed to, in exchange for a more expensive one has never really been a sound business idea.

If the recording industry can force a stop on all single track sales, it would probably make sense to buy the album (as we used to do with LPs, tapes and CDs, back in the day). Unfortunately, iTunes operator Apple isn’t too keen on the format, leaving the labels to fight the losing (well, presumably) and tasteless (my opinion) battle all by themselves.

According to rumors, Apple has not only rejected CMX, but is also developing a similar format of their own called Cocktail. As attractive as an extra-content album may be, who the hell wants it when you can pull down tons of the same that are both free and legal? Pfffft.

Palm Looking To Add Games To WebOS

Noel Kuhlman — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:29:14 +0000

Want to know which direction Palm is looking to take with webOS into the future? Apparently, it’s a small case of iPhone-envy, as the company looks to deck their future handsets with gaming capabilities.

We all know about the iPhone’s highly-touted game-friendly talents, both in terms of hardware and software. It’s an area people are seriously looking at, even going so far as to claim that the iPhone just may beat out the PSP at their own market.

Anyone who’s looked closely at webOS and the Palm Pre knows that the platform has been created without a single iota of gaming intentions. In fact, it’s probably the most gaming-unfriendly smartphone around – something that Palm, apparently, wants to change.

A recent job ad for the company was found, looking specifically for “Game Frameworks Engineers,” whose responsibility would revolve around developing and optimizing frameworks for game development on the Pre. Palm is, apparently, putting together a dedicated team to manage game development on their mobile platform.

Surprised? Not really. Gaming is a popular activity on mobile handhelds and Palm absolutely missed the boat on it. Good for them to finally recognize the need. In the meantime, though, don’t expect any good gaming titles to pop up in the App Catalog – there’s not going to be any.

Microsoft Tries To Create Buzz For Windows Marketplace With The Race To Market Challenge

Noel Kuhlman — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:41:10 +0000

Microsoft has formally opened Windows Marketplace for Mobile to developers today. While the actual storefront won’t debut till the company releases Windows Mobile 6.5, the company is sweetening the pot a little to offer potential developers a little enticement, with a contest called the Race To Market Challenge.

Under the rules, all apps that get accepted in the marketplace before December 31 will be eligible to win one of four categories, namely the most downloaded freeware, most successful money-maker, most useful and most playful. The latter criteria will be determined by a panel of judges.

Each of the winning developers will get one Microsoft Surface computer each, which isn’t really all that inviting, when you consider what Google offered when they rolled out their own version of an app challenge for Android. If I recall correctly, they gave a total of $5 million, divided among 70 winning developers.

With such modest prizes, it should be fair to assume larger development houses aren’t exactly falling over their heads trying to get in on the Windows Marketplace action. Still, with a good deal of handsets running the platform (especially outside the US), it offers another potentially lucrative place for developers to peddle their wares.

According to Microsoft, submission process for their app downloads platform involves a ten-day window, with status updates easily available from within a reporting dashboard. The Race To Market Challenge is available to participants in any of the following 29 countries, namely Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Reviews and News » Mobile News

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