Editorial: Should your next mobile OS update cost you?
Will that fancy new smartphone you're looking at buying run a version of Android that hasn't even been announced yet?
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone Tags: editorial, importance, mobile, operating-system, smartphone, sprint, symbian, upgrade
Microsoft loosens up, enables Windows Phone 7 apps to run beneath screen lock
We felt that Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 was a product that would be perpetually evaluated, tweaked and overhauled as time went on, and sure enough, we're already seeing those winds of change blow yonder. Reportedly, Microsoft has now removed the restriction that prevented developers from writing applications that would continue to operate behind a locked screen (without a user's explicit permission, anyway), enabling a whole host of apps to breathe in a manner in which they simply should.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: audio, charlie-kindel, conference, developer, engadget, mobileos, operating-system, permission, permissions, result, the-background, unlock, user-permission, windows, wp7
New ARM architecture (likely Eagle) better suited for OS virtualization
Looks like that fake Pre with the iOS / BlackBerry OS split personality is a little ahead of its time, but ARM -- supplier of the architecture that underpins most of the world's smartphones -- likes the idea. In a recent talk at Stanford, ARM program manager David Brash talked up some of the highlights of new "extensions" to the existing ARMv7-A platform, and though he apparently never mentioned Eagle by name, it seems safe to assume that he was referring to the capabilities that Eagle would bring to the table when it launches in the next couple years. Notably, the extensions will break through ARM's current 4GB RAM limit by mapping 4GB windows of memory to each virtualized operating system, which dovetails nicely -- suspiciously nicely, in fact -- with VMware's recent talk of wanting virtualized phones capable of seamlessly switching between multiple platforms without any hacky bootloader solutions
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: arm, black, Capabilities, Eagle, ios, operating, operating-system, personality, smartphones, the-extensions
RIM launches BlackBerry 6 platform
It's been teased since WES back in April -- but with the launch of the Torch today, RIM had to come clean with all the details on its thoroughly refreshed BlackBerry 6 operating system, too. Besides the obvious name change from "BlackBerry OS" to simply "BlackBerry," the software features countless updates, most notably new universal search functionality, social network aggregation, WiFi-powered media sync with your desktop music collection, and an all-new (and desperately needed) WebKit -based browser with support for HTML5. Thankfully, RIM has also committed to bringing BlackBerry 6 as an upgrade to at least a few recent models -- the Bold 9700 , Bold 9650 , and Pearl 3G , to be specific -- "subject to carrier certifications in the months ahead." Follow the break for the full press release and video teaser
Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile Phone Tags: blackberryos6, certifications, desktop, desktop-music, details, engadget, models, new-universal, obvious, operating-system, rim, universal
webOS 1.4.5 reportedly coming any day now… except for AT&T users
As friends very near and dear to us have confessed, " soon " is a relative term. If you'll recall, we heard from Palm (in)directly that the next webOS update was "coming soon" back in the early days of May, and here we are a fortnight from July without so much as an update regarding the update
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: carrier-testing, entry, finally-bring, fortnight, mobileos, operating-system, operatingsystem, palm, patience, relative, result, webos 1.4
‘iPhone vs Android’ report finds Apple has three times Google’s market share
It's oftentimes easy for us to get swept up in Android mania and forget that Google's mobile platform is still in its infancy. Then we get cold hard numbers like these -- showing iPhone OS owning 28 percent of the US smartphone market and closing in on RIM's leading 35 percent -- and we face up to the realization that Android handsets still account for less than one in every ten smartphones owned by Americans today.
Categories: Android, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: apple-iphone, demographics, intriguing, iphonevsandroid, market, mobile, nielsen, operating-system, percentage, preference, smartphone, smartphones
webOS update coming soon, PDK apps likely to land
Well, what have we here? A friendly tipster, who just so happens to be a registered Palm developer, has sent us the latest informational email from the recently-swallowed outfit, and while the tone here may be gentle, the implications are certainly serious. According to the memo, a new webOS update is "coming soon," and developers are being alerted that they'll need to be prepared to test their apps when it hits
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: developer, developers, engadget, entry, operating-system, sdk, update-coming
WebOS 1.4.1.1 now available for Verizon subscribers
Hardly the most exciting Palm news you're gonna hear this week, but the company that still owns itself for the time being has just updated its WebOS software on Verizon to the extremely granular version 1.4.1.1. The helpful changelog informs us there are no new apps, but pinch-zoom now works correctly in Doc and PDF views, a lag in the camera shutter sound has been rectified, and forwarding videos uploaded to YouTube on to your friends via email has also been made to work as it should. The most important fix of all, though, is to a keyboard input issue whereby a single key press would generate a letter twice -- both Pre Central and one of our readers report that this problem appears to have been consigned to the past.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: entry, firmwareupdate, operating-system, os update, palm pre plus, pdf, pixiplus, softwareupdate, Stuff, subzero, update, verizon, webos
HTC ‘continues to assess’ developing its own smartphone OS, Palm says ‘hey, assess this’
Failing a Palm acquisition , there might still be justification for for HTC to build out its own software platform for many of the same reasons that buying Palm would make sense -- the company's getting bigger and more important to the market by the day, after all, and being left at the mercy of Google and Microsoft to produce cohesive platforms of their own might not sit well with Chou's team ad infinitum . The HTC Smart could be regarded as its first baby step toward that goal, though the handset -- based on Qualcomm's Brew MP platform -- is actually a featurephone that won't fly with the same kinds of consumers that are cross-shopping Android and Windows Phone products. To that end, Bloomberg says that HTC's CFO revealed in an interview that his company continues "to assess [developing its own smartphone operating system], but that requires a few conditions to justify." Naturally, he went on to clam up when nudged about the Palm sitch -- and he never got around to laying out what those "few conditions" were that would spur HTC to pull the trigger on any of this -- but it's starting to seem inevitable that this is all going to go down one way or another.
Categories: Android, htc, Mobile Phone, Other Tags: build-out-its, developing-its, entry, few-conditions, htc, operating-system, smart, smartphone, windows-phone
Microsoft takes a note from Palm in new Windows Phone 7 Series ad
We've held no punches in sharing our thoughts on Palm's recent ad campaigns , but the one spot that was actually not heinous has seemingly served as the basis for one of Microsoft's first-ever WP7S commercials. Debuting here at the tail-end of MIX , the ad spotlights Anna -- a fictitious gal we've certainly heard of before -- using her new smartphone to share photos with her dear lover Miles. It also features Luca, a kid with an undying love for playing Xbox LIVE titles , who seems to be caught somewhere in between the world of nature and nurture
Categories: htc, Mobile Phone Tags: advertising, after-the-break, anna, marketing, metro, mix, new-smartphone, operating-system, palm, smartphone, webos, windowsphone7