Well, I have been lazy of late when it comes to blogging. There is lot of interesting stuff happening, but haven’t really had a chance to blog due to work and other commitments. But I thought I’d write a quick note about the FITC Mobile event coming up in Toronto. Our friends at the FITC have generously offered me a giveaway ticket to the Festival ($199 value). If you are interested, please contact me. The event is taking place on September 16-18 and focuses on all the cool stuff- Flash, Android, iPhone. ......continue reading

Skyfire, a browser technology that essentially is an example of successful cloud computing, has purchased a company called Kolbysoft. Kolbysoft makes a Webkit browser that runs on Android. The motive? To bring similar cloud computing technology to Android. Which will mean that Flash 10 among other latest browser technologies will be available on Android. ......continue reading

Google’s Android kernel will no longer be part of Linux kernel tree. What this means is that updates from Android will not be intergrated into Linux kernel and vice versa. Linux kernel is an open community and the developers are often posting fixes for security, new device drivers and utilities. The decision seems to have come from Linux community. Linux developer blog suggest that problem seems is with Android’s security model, and framebuffer driver infrastructure. This prevents several Android drivers and platform code from merging into the main kernel tree. The blogger also points that ‘no one seems to care about the Android tree’. ......continue reading

Smartphone really meant a cellphone with OS, a few applications and a keyboard. Remember the days of Palm Treo 270 and being happy about having one? Then Windows Mobile came, but the game totally changed when Apple jumped into the fray. iPhone almost instantly re-defined how ’smart’ phones could be. Smartphones of today have bigger screens, powerful CPUs, lots of RAM and storage. They come in all shapes and sizes, and one really has to review all the smartphone specs to find out whats the best match for them.  There are tonnes of applications running on different operating systems. All the different platforms (Blackberry, Windows, Palm, Android….) have their own pluses and minuses. The form factor, keyboard, hardware shortcuts…. the list goes on and on. ......continue reading

Fierce mobile citing sources from Tech Crunch is suggesting that google is getting ready to release Google branded phone. This phone apparently will be manufactured by LG or Samsung or such and will be sold under Google brand. CNN in the meanwhile is also reporting the same.  Apparently the technology is based on  Google’s recent acquisition of Gizmo5.  Google has not announced any official plans on their blog, but the motives could be very clear. Gizmo5’s technology allows one to make VoIP calls, works with Google voice and I am sure Google will use this in conjunction with its WiFi network in several cities. ......continue reading

Last week Microsoft announced release of Windows Mobile 6.5 that included Flash Lite 3 plug-in for Internet Explorer. At the same time, several new WinMo based phones were announced such as HTC Tilt2, Imagio and Pure.  With the addition of Flash, users can now view several web sites that are Flash enabled. (Of course the CPU/RAM limitation still comes in the picture, but all these are high end phones and hopefully will have a powerful CPU and should come with some sort of video acceleration. ......continue reading

MIPS has joined the ever increasing list of chipsets supporting Android. MIPS makes CPU architectures and licenses it to different silicon vendors. Whereas ARM is strong in cellular and mobile market, MIPS is strong in digital home market. So this would mean that Android is starting to make its way into verticals outside of mobile. RMI, a licensee of MIPS is already demoing the Android port on its chipsets. ......continue reading

I found this quote from Shantanu on Information Week- “We are bringing Flash Player 10 to smartphone class devices to enable the latest web browsing experience. Multiple partners have already received early versions of this release and we expect to release a beta version for developers at our MAX Conference in October. Google’s Android, Nokia’s Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, and the New Palm Web OS will be among the first devices to support web browsing with the newest Flash player” ......continue reading

TMobile will start selling second phone based on Google Android starting this July. The device is made by HTC and is called myTouch. The device features a 3.2-inch touch screen with a virtual keyboard. Its good to see more Android phones coming. ......continue reading

Digital Media Design Line- a publication of EE Times is reporting that Android is moving fast into consumer market. A new consortium called ‘Open Embedded Sofware Forum’ (OESF) has been formulated in Asia to push the Android into the set top boxes. The consortium currently has 23 members and expects the membership to grow to 100 in 2009. ......continue reading

According to a report in Wall Street Journal, Microsoft and Verizon are working on creating a phone that’ll compete with iPhone. The phone will be based on Windows Mobile and is scheduled to be released in early 2010. ......continue reading

Information week is reporting that TMobile has sold 1 million G-1s in last 6 month. In comparison, Apple’s iPhone 3G sold 1 million units worldwide in its lauch weekend and possibly took about a month to sell 1 million units in the United States. Blackberry storm also reached 1 million mark in 3 months. ......continue reading

Well- the G2 pictures have started leaking accross the web. For the picture, it looks as though G2 does not have keyboard. The phone is expected to arrive mid May- although I’ve read reports that it won’t be out until July. Some sites even question the authenticity of the pictures. Nevertheless, its good to see another Android handset coming out. ......continue reading

Second smartphone based on Google’s Android, the Kogan Agora Pro, has been delayed indefinitely according to a story on CNET. The reason for the delay is apparently its low-resolution display which limits compatibility and operability in the near future. ......continue reading

According the a recent press release in Information Week, Palm will be introducing a new operating system called Nova next month. The OS is supposed to be ‘ mobile internet centric’. I am not sure what that means, but my guess is that it will allow for faster internet downloads, better user experience and perhaps more internet friendly services. It is not known what device will support the OS either. If this is a completely redesigned OS, then Palm will be at great disadvantage if the existing applications don’t run. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. ......continue reading