Posts tagged mobile operating systems
HP makes Web OS open source
Dec 15th
by Kye Husbands
You read that right and the first question probably going through your mind is, well, why the heck not?
Three months ago HP’s Touchpad, Web OS and their whole computer business were in the garbage, but HP’s recent move could resurrect Web OS and spur a whole new level of interest and traction for HP down the road.
HP Toucpad
Let’s be clear about this. This is a gamble by HP but they really don’t have anything to lose by doing it and rather, everything to gain. However, this move has the potential to be very disruptive to what was quickly becoming a two horse race between Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
So what does open sourcing Web OS mean for the smartphone industry?
Alleged PlayBook hack leading RIM to fork in the road?
Dec 1st
by Nestor E. Arellano
As if the ignominy of having to slash the price of its first tablet device where not enough, Research In Motion it appears now has to investigate reports that company’s supposed iron clad operating system has been cracked by a trio of hackers identified only as xpvqs, neuralic and Chris Wade.
Nestor Arellano
A Twitter post by Wade claimed that PlayBook had been rooted. “I will be releasing an installer for it in a week,” Wade tweeted.
neuralic, then posted a video of the root which they named DingleBerry, on YouTube. Here’s the video which shows what appears to be a PlayBook’s backlighting features being controlled through a laptop. Read the rest of this entry »
Why BlackBerry 9900 is dead in the water
May 10th
By Kye Husbands
Okay, maybe that wasn’t necessary, but so is this device.
RIM announced the upcoming launch of the BlackBerry 9900 series at BlackBerry World 2011 in Orlando this week with the 9900 being the HSPA version and the 9930, its CDMA cousin.
The BlackBerry 9900 series are evolutionary devices for RIM and look like you’ve seen them already. As a matter of fact, a 1st generation BlackBerry Bold could easily be mistaken for this new device before looking under the hood. Read the rest of this entry »
Nokia CEO indicates Symbian’s end in ‘burning memo’?
Feb 9th
If comparing your company to a burning oil platform in the North Sea is not a clear indication that things are not going well, I don’t know what else would.
This appears to be the gist of a memo from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop which was reported to have been circulated to Nokia employees recently and subsequently found its way on Engadget.
Nestor Arellano
Elop, the first non-Finnish CEO of Nokia, did not specifically state that the company was ditching its Symbian operating system but industry observers say it couldn’t have been clearer.
In the memo, Elop refers to an oil platform explosion where a sleeping man wakes up to find the entire platform on fire and must now face the decision of either being engulfed in flames or to dive into the “dark, cold foreboding” waters. “We too, are standing on a ‘burning platform’ and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour,” the memo published on Endgaget said.
For decades Nokia has been the market leader the mobile phone market but the growing trend towards smartphones has eroded its market share. Nokia, it appears is now faced with the choice of either going down with its once popular OS or adopting one of the current front runners. Symbian proved “be non-competitive in leading markets like North America,” according to the memo.
“The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things,” according to the memo.
“Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we build, or catalyze or join an ecosystem.” Read the rest of this entry »
BlackBerry ban unravels handset’s ‘monopoply’ on mobile security
Aug 9th
Carmi Levy
I feel more than a little sorry for Research In Motion these days. Not only is the BlackBerry maker being pressured as never before in the market by the ever-sexy iPhone and the rapidly-evolving Android, but it’s also facing a kind of political pressure that no other handheld vendor has had to face. Yet, anyway.
RIM is being pushed by governments in a bunch of places, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and India because they want to give their law enforcement agencies greater power to snoop on citizens’ conversations. This weekend, according to Saudi government sources, RIM caved to government demands and agreed to install what officials there call “a server” within Saudi’s borders. This would allow law enforcement officials to monitor BlackBerry-based messaging traffic.
Call me a cynic, but that’s the deal when less-than-democratic governments bump up, hard, against advanced communications technologies that defy their desire to keep a lid on free speech. This kind of thing goes back a long way. For example, in 1989, the Chinese government limited access to fax machines to keep dissidents from reporting about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. In the Internet Age, national firewalls and tight e-mail restrictions have also been the tools of choice of autocratic governments everywhere.
Google gives Apple cause for concern with Nexus One
Jan 5th
Today’s buzz is all about the announcement that Google is launching its new Google Phone, called the Nexus One.
While Stephen Jobs and the gang at Apple say they are not threatened by this new entry in to the highly competitive phone market, the mere fact that Apple said they are not worried speaks volumes about their concerns of the shifting market share.
Read the rest of this entry »
