Mar 01
No, not “that” kind of history; we all can grab the quick lowdown on how the “interwebs” came to be what it is in this day and age from many sites such as Wikipedia.
The British Library is offering the world something far more substantial: storing an archive of significant websites for everyone. Starting from sites back in 2004, the Library has kept over 6000 websites for reference.
Well, not exactly the kind of records that people would want to access for artistic inspiration. Most of the old websites used elements such as frames, marquees, embedded Midi files, and dozens of outdated HTML and Java features. Well, that’s the basic idea anyway.
And while it is technically feasible to actually do an archive of important websites over half a decade ago, the same is not applicable for the sheer number of websites we have this year. This 2010, there are millions of websites hosted in the UK alone. Another major restriction aside from sheer volume is the fact that websites are now copyrighted and the British Library needs a new legislation in order to continue their work.
This effort is being pursued in order to avoid the possibility that people in the future would be looking back at our society and would have no idea about the real history of time due to the fact that all the data has been lost when sites were updated to newer versions. It’s a large undertaking, and it is impressive that they have taken it upon themselves to pursue it.
The archive at the library is pretty large, storing plenty of important artistic and academy sites. Users can even compare the visual evolution of websites from their earlier layouts to what they look like now in a timeline scrollbar.
Read more about the British Library at Times Online UK.
Feb 23
Here are the facts:
Asus will be working with Microsoft to create the first MS branded device to carry the Window Phone 7 OS.
The expected launch date is on October 2010.
It looks like the latter half of the year will play host to one of the biggest mobile phone match ups we have ever witnessed. According to recent reports, it is likely that the new Apple iPhone 4G device will be coming out this April (or at least announced formally). LG has its GW900 device with the new Intel Atom processor waiting on the wings while Motorola and HTC are confirmed to be working on their own devices that are using dual core processors.
In any case, it is very surprising to see Windows Mobile become a major OS in this day and age as it was only a few weeks ago that a majority of people dislike the WinMo series.
Everything changed when Steve Ballmer took the stage at the Mobile World Congress and showed the world their current progress with Windows Phone 7. It is a work in progress; plenty of features were still absent and key components such as Office Mobile were terribly lacking in capabilities.
But everyone was still pretty much wowed at how the user interface was designed. WP7 is a complete re-imagining of the existing standards for touch screen user interfaces and the overall mobile phone experience.
Also present in the device is the Zune and Bing services –features that many have thought should have been used more by MS long ago. New to the system is the Xbox Live Games service. So far, no games are playable on the device, but many are looking forward to seeing the games lineup for WP7.
Get to know more about what to expect with WP7 this coming October at Softpedia.
Feb 22
There were plenty of impressive smart phones on show at the Mobile World Congress held last weekend. Google’s Android operating system is still a major favorite of many smart phones for now (maybe that will change once Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 series comes out during the holidays). Here’s a quick look at some of the most anticipated Androids from the event:
Sony Ericsson unveiled three new Android smart phones from their XPERIA line of devices. The SE XPERIA X10 sticks to the main specs that it was announced with last year. T will definitely have a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, an AMOLED touch screen and other old 1.6 Donut operating system. To mix things up, SE will use the Timescape social networking integration and the Mediascape UI along with the OS.
Based on the XPERIA X10 are two mini phones. The SE X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro are simplified, miniaturized and watered down versions of the X10. With their 2.5 inch touch screens, it is no surprise that each only seems to be half the weight of the original. The two phones are completely identical in specs, but the Pro version comes with a physical QWERTY keyboard in slide out form.
HTC has a couple of Android devices as well. Both were leaked last year in a roadmap document; the HTC Desire and Legend live up to many of the expected specifications for the two phones. The Android Snapdragon Desire was originally named as the Bravo and just got a name change last Sunday. The Legend will be the successor to the HTC Hero and will come with a 600 MHz processor and a 3.2 inch AMOLED touch screen. The two devices are expected to be launched by March this year.
See more highlights from MWC at Pocket Lint.
Feb 18
Surprising, but true! Microsoft is no longer giving announcements that the new mobile platform will be delayed and has set a solid 2010 holiday release for the Windows Phone 7 series.
“Phone 7”, not to confuse, but the new moniker still refers to the old Windows Mobile operating system. New name and release date aside, the real big news here is that the new operating system is truly impressive and many are expecting WP 7 to go head to head with other platforms such as the Google Android and Apple’s iPhone OS.
Steve Ballmer presented some of the many big changes that the mobile platform will be undertaking. The presentation at the Mobile World Congress last Sunday took a little over an hour, but from what we have seen, there is plenty to look forward to.
The new OS supports capacitive touch screen features. Gestures, pinching and other finger input commands will be fully utilized by the OS. You will get several “areas” (for lack of a better word) that specialize in various phone functions. These areas are much larger than the OS screen, so you will have to pan around with the touch screen to see specific details. While that sounds like troublesome on paper its amazing when seen in application. The new interface scheme works like a charm, delivering a stylized, quick access menu that is both organized and fully customizable.
WinPho 7 (not quite WinMo is it not?) also introduces the new “Tiles” –which are highly customizable widget-like doodads all over your mobile phone. The new OS will also be bringing Zune to everyone (here’s to hoping for full Zune support in Europe) as well as the new Xbox Live Games service.
Get some interesting new information and details on the Windows Phone 7 Series from Mobile Computing News.
Feb 12
Mobile phone applications bring plenty of additional functionality and entertainment to our smart phones. In most cases, it is easy to forget the fact that applications for Symbian phones are not directly transferable to the Apple iPhone. While similar applications may be available across different platforms, different mobile phones, they are in fact coded straight from scratch.
It is an interesting fact that people tend to forget. Apps after all are so convenient to browse for and download that one does not realize how much effort and time is put into creating the software. In many cases, developers have to understand more than one programming language in order to create applications for other devices. When this is not possible, apps end up being exclusive to a single device (usually the iPhone) on a technicality.
Why the iPhone? Because the iPhone sells apps well; according to recent surveys, iPhone users are most likely to purchase online content more than any mobile phone user. For developers to make the most profit for their time and effort, they are better off developing for the Apple iPhone.
Anyway, a recent post by Vic Keegan of the Guardian UK gives us a very unique view of the world of developers and why profit is important in terms of being able to fund the development of applications.
Still, not many people are prepared to pay so much for digital content. In the very end, applications at software content, downloadable but not stored in solid installer products; software packaging would indeed add to the cost, but not everyone understands the value of strictly digital content.
Aside from increasing the cost of apps, the only other way to make developer’s lives easier is to have a standard platform across different devices.
Read more about the ideal costing for mobile applications and the challenges developers face when creating applications at Keegan’s original post at the Guardian UK.
Feb 08
Microsoft announced that they will be showing off the new version of Windows Mobile 6 during the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, Spain. And while this early release has obviously reduced some of the updates, it looks like it is still a significant update in terms of fixing all the interface problems that plagued the older versions. While MS has yet to explain why the original 6.6 designation has been adjusted to 6.5.3, we will get to see the OS in action in an actual device this Feb.
The biggest problem with the WinMo OS before was its reliance on stylus input. There were plenty of buttons and icons that were too small to be pressed with a finger. Anyone who has tried the old Windows Mobile versions would remember the difficulty of using the media player without the aid of a stylus.
Maldives will support multi touch, gestures and all the other finger input commands that WinMo users have been deprived of (unless you count the HTC HD2 with its Sense user interface).
Anyway, the first mobile phone to be featuring the new WinMo OS will be the Sony Ericsson Aspen. This impressive little Greenheart phone is a business edition device that delivers all your work needs, a little fun factor and a lot of earth loving green engineering. It has yet to be determined if the touch screen on the Aspen is a resistive or capacitive screen, but chances are, it will be a capacitive touch screen to highlight the new features of the OS.
The decision from MS and SE to debut the Maldives on an eco friendly phone is a very smart move as it promotes the concept of fully functional green phones.
For more details and info about Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Maldives, go to Tech Radar.
Feb 05
For those who are wondering why they have not heard much about the Symbian operating system in the past few weeks, it is because the mobile platform has been sitting deep in the sidelines ever since the news about the Bada and the Maemo came out.
Originally, Finnish manufacturer Nokia is the foremost supporter of the Symbian Foundation (they are a part of it), but despite the manufacturer’s close ties to the developers, it did not stop them from adapting a completely new and different OS for their main N-series line. While Nokia’s sales are not dependent on the N-series, that line of mobile phones does represent the company’s best achievements in terms of mobile innovation and technology –these phones are the face of Nokia’s brand.
Last year, rumors about Nokia and Samsung dropping the Symbian OS spread like wildfire when it was announced that the N-series would be using only the Maemo OS from then on.
Nokia was quick to deny the allegations that they would be dropping their long time partner and announced that they will continue to use the Symbian OS. Another major phone manufacturer, Sony Ericsson, continues to produce high end Symbian devices such as the Vizaz and the Kanna.
Now, it has been announced that the Symbian will become an open source platform and will be offering developers so much more access to the system code and specifications. Originally, the Symbian was to shift to open source in four month’s time. It appears that financial and marketing factors have forced the foundation to play their hand earlier. Statistics show that the Symbian is continuously losing its market share in the mobile phone industry while its main competitor, the Google Android, is continuously growing.
Read more about the Symbian OS and the market analysis of the Android and Symbian’s market shares at the Times Online UK.
Jan 31
If there is one thing that is proportionately wrong about technology, it is how the relation of technological advances ratios out to the actual benefit of the technology for the environment. This last decade saw a continuous rise of technological advancements in the field of portable electronics. In just the past few months we have seen dozens (if not hundreds) of mobile phones being released and re-released.
While we all do need mobile phones, we most commonly only need one. But what really happens to mobile devices when they are no longer meant to be used? Some might prefer selling their old models (there is always eBay), but a time will come when a device, with not collector’s value, cannot be sold any more simply because it is too old. There are millions of mobile phones that fall under this category, but that is just a portion of what comprises the total amount of junk phones we have today.
Properly disposing and recycling mobile phones may be a daunting task, but it is not impossible. Just take Scope for instance. Scope is a charity for people with cerebral palsy; recently, they run a quick mobile phone recycling drive that would earn the charity 3 Pounds for every mobile phone recycled.
In a single week, Scope reportedly managed to get over a thousand mobile devices, which means they have surpassed the original record for most phones recycled in a week (which was 954; according to the Guinness Book of Records).
Charities are not the only ones doing their part. Mobile network operator Orange also has its own recycle and rewards program which offers incentives for people who bring in their old phones for recycling.
For more info on Scope and the recycling drive, head straight to the source.
Dec 15
These are certainly not the best of time for Microsoft in the Mobile section of its business. What the company gains in the gaming segment, it appears to be letting go in the mobile section. If report emanating from Strategic News Service News Letter, authored by Mark Anderson is anything to go by.
According to Anderson, “2010 will be The year of operating system wars. Windows 7 flavors, Mac OS, Android, W7, ironically, by failure of imagination and by its PC –centric platform, actively clears space for others to take over the OS via mobile platforms.”
This does not appear to be the first time reports like this will be coming out, as suggestions have been made in the past about the decline the Redmond based company was facing in the mobile field. The market looks like it is swinging towards the Google Android, pushing the OS to the second position, and Symbian retaining its position of leadership.
The problem the Operating System has presently may not be unconnected with the user interface that has generated issues for the company. This is the area Microsoft has to work on, should it want to regain the market. Already, the signal coming out of the company shows that Microsoft is already making serious statement with the WinMo 6.5 platform. This may well mean that the company is gearing up towards competing favorably in the future.
2010 is very much in sight and Microsoft should know that the ever expanding market continues to offer stiff competition that is going to require more than what it has offered with its present platform. The ball appears to be in their court, and it remains to be seen what other measure it hopes to take to regain the confidence it once enjoy in the market. The Android does not however have problem with its market rating.
Dec 14
A new report released by Strategy Analytics, reveal that there is going to be surge in data traffic, and thereby advised mobile carriers to brace up for the challenge. Strategy Analytics hinge their report on the increase in the use of mobile phones to access the internet. Users these days access social network sites like Facebook, check their webmail and visit other web locations with the use of their mobile devices.
The report, according to Strategy Analytics reveals that mobile phones usage is likely to generate an amount of data expected to reach a 2.2 Exabytes, with web browsing accounting alone for 84% of it. However, Strategy Analytics notes that this amount of traffic is equal to watching 120,000 years of quality DVD Videos.
The research firm advised that mobile phone carriers should seriously consider the explosion in web browsing usage and apply measure towards preventing potentially threatening issues that may arise from it. As the appetite of mobile data consumers continue to increase, the reality of the likely consequences for data jam will likely reveal itself as the years go bye. There are mobile phone data providers that offer low tariffs and flat rates to consumers in order to increase their subscriber base and also satisfy consumers, but the implication of this is a continued increase in demand which may make the threat become a reality.
In a nutshell, data traffic generated by mobile phones and smartphones is expected to rise significantly, representing 30% of total data traffic in the year 2013. There is no doubt that mobile browsing will drive a huge size of this data growth. Every mobile service provider surely wants to increase their subscriber base, but can they afford to ignore the likely issues that may arise from this? The year 2013 is not too far off, but something can be done to address every issue that result.
