Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Monday, May 18th, 2009 |
Fennec: FireFox Mobile
The mobile variant of Mozilla’s Firefox browser for a while now. There were also beta versions that ran on certain Nokia Internet Tablets but, at last, it’s available for Windows users to test. As of last Friday, Fennec (as it’s been code-named), was made available for we sticky fingered gadget fans.
Fennec Alpha 1 for Windows Mobile 6 has been custom built to run on the HTC Touch Pro, with Mozilla rolling out the browser to more handsets in future. (more…)
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 |
First Android Netbook found
Excellent news for android fans who want to take the nex, logical step in the evolution of the Google Android OS. The Alpha-680 is made by Chinese company Skytone, so don’t go rushing over to their website unless you have a thorough understading of the language! That said, the specs are in English (see image below):
The specs clearly state that this netbook is running the Google Android OS and powered by an ARM11 533MHz processor and 128 Meg of RAM - fine for Android but don’t expect to be able to put any heavy loads on it.
Here’s the link to the Skytone Alpha-680
So there we have it - the first Android netbook. It remains to be seen if this offering is any good or is simply a stepping stone to better products down the line.
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Thursday, April 16th, 2009 |
Another step away from the netbook scene - it would appear that we lucky, lucky Europeans will soon be seeing 3 new Android handsets. And they won’t be built by HTC!
The mystery manufacturer in the frame is none other than Samsung and we should see their Android phones on the European market during 2009. The first of the three handset is scheduled to launch by June - note; we say ’scheduled’ as this has not been confirmed by Samsung. As with the G1, at least one of the Samsung Androids will have full touchscreen support (probably with Android 1.5 as the SDK has been revealed although it hasn’t been released…yet).
It’s one of those rare instances of products launching in Europe for but either way these 3 new Android handsets will be worth seeing, even if only for the curiosity factor.
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Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 |
Wistron Pursebook Ultrawide netbook…
We’re not sure about the name, but when it comes to cool gadgets the Wistron Pursebook ticks the boxes. This Snapdragon powered netbook is, as you’d expect, small and pretty light (800g) but it’s the battery life that has impressed us - 8 hours. Now unless you’re going on a seriously long journey with no chance of reaching a mains supply you’d be hard pressed to run out of power.
Like the Vaio P, the Pursebook features an ultra-wide screen - small comfort to some readers but, personally, I took a real disliking to the 7″ and 8.9″ screens.
As with most netbooks on the market, the Wistron Pursebook will run Linux based OSes or Windows (but only CE, not Windows XP or Vista - aaah, shame!). If you’re interested, the Linux variant is called Thundersoft and gives you the usual ability to edit Office docs, browse the experience and waste your working day catching up on social networks!
Admittedly, the Wistron Pursebook is only proof of concept but it does give a hint as to what we could be seeing on the netbook horizon in the near future. The Pursebook itself will be available sometime this year with a price range of $299 - $499 - no UK prices yet.
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Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 |
No, Nvidia aren’t building their own netbook but they have realised the value of the sub-notebook niche of computer hardware and reacted with ‘Ion’. Basically, Nvidia have produced a decent netbook graphics card for netbooks. You have to admit that the current offerings are actually pretty crap - sure, they get the job done but if you’re using them for more than an hour or so it can a real strain on the eyes.
The Ion platform platform is made up of an Atom-based motherboard with Nvidia’s GeForce 9400 onboard graphics processor bolted on to it. Cue CUDA support and outrageous amounts of I/O for netbooks.
Nvidia have already demoed Ion’s capabilities on a ‘nettop’ (the platform was originally designed with mobile PCs in mind) by running Call Of Duty 4 without a single hitch! Let’s see your Eee PC 1000 do that :). In addition, video playback seems to be far better on the Ion system which probably has something to do with the built-in, full-spec 1080p HD video support - looks like the end to jumpy movie playback on your netbook is near!
Admittedly, the announcement by Nvidia isn’t going to solve the gripes people have with keyboards and small screens but it should help - now you have a device that fits in your pocket that can be plugged into a full sized monitor/keyboard to give users a desktop-like experience.
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Monday, October 20th, 2008 |
Market research company IDC have produced sales figures showing over two million netbooks have sold in the EMEA region for Q3 2008. Pretty impressive to say the least. For fans of netbooks/sub notebooks this leap in popularity will come as no surprise. The question is; how will full sized laptops fare in future? Some commentators are suggesting the notebook will all but disappear - undermined but the low cost, highly portable netbooks that are coming to market. Add in the recent Intel announcement that the dual core Atom is ready and you’d be forgiven for predicting the demise of the trusty laptop.
But don’t be too quick to judge. Sure, netbooks are pretty hard to beat for users on the go especially when you consider the current low cost devices on the market. Personally, I love my HP 2133. The keyboard is almost perfect and the monitor is fine for general usage - up to a point. I have to admit that after an hour of staring at the 8.9″ screen I’m ready for the comfort of my 17″ laptop. Portability and low cost has attracted significant interest from both business and home users alike but don’t expect the netbook craze to completely replace standard laptops. Even 10″ screens on the like of the new Asus Eee PC S101 can be hard on your eyes with continued usage. Let’s face it, which do you prefer - an 8.9″ or 15″ monitor?
Another point to remember here is that this may just be a fad, albeit a rather profitable fad for the manufacturers, which could end rather rapidly. The low cost of the netbooks will definitely attract many users but this low pricing won’t last forever. As manufacturers push the specs ever upwards expect to see prices rise inline.
I’m not knocking netbooks in any way, simply questioning some of the views that the form will kill off laptops.
On a final note, IDC are predicting that the netbook sales figures will jump to over 4 million sales by the end of this year.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008 |
Good news for all you fringsters - you can now talk, chat and interact with other fring users on your Apple iPhone and iPod touch. That includes all of the the fring online communities as well -Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! & AIM.
Some of you are already aware that an R&D version of this iPhone app has been around since April this year. What nobody expected at the time was the sheer volumre of responses that were received in the intervening months. fring took in all consumer feedback and used this information to build what looks to be an excellent application. The fring app (available through Apple’s App Store) lets users join the fring community and use their applications on the move.
fring is huge - covering users in over 200 countries around the globe. With the consistent growth of the iPhone 3G’s user base I’d expect the fring app to be a big hit.
In case you haven’t heard of fring, here’s a bit more info:
- launched in 2007
- users in 200 countries around the world
- mobile internet community
- service allows users to talk, chat and interact with other fringsters and their internet communities from their mobile phones
- fringsters can also communicate with contacts from Skype®, MSN®, Google Talk™, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo!™ & AIM
- has its own Voice over Internet Protocol (mVoIP) and is optimized for the 3G network
- best of all, fring is 100% free to download and use - no subscription costs. You just pay for the data you use on your network
- fring is supported on about 1000 of the worlds most popular mobile handsets - see www.fring.com for a list of all supported
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Friday, October 3rd, 2008 |
Considering recent events (like the Yahoo deal/no deal/deal/no deal) you would have thought that Steve Ballmer would choose his words more carefully. Guess what? He’s spinning the same old lines. This time he’s been talking about the Google G1 handset. Apparently, Microsoft aren’t the least big worried about losing market share - because they don’t think the G1 has the grunt to compete!
At the recent PDC here in the UK, Ballmer stated that the G1 won’t cut it because “they’ve got one handset maker, we’ve got 55. They’re available through one operator, we’ve got 175.” Err, didn’t he say pretty much the same thing about the iPhone? I think the phrase ‘iphone enterprise adoption’ sort of sums it up! Oh, I mustn’t forget the huge community behind the open source Android OS.
You also have to consider if this is a collective viewpoint within Microsoft. If so, do they really think that the netbook/UMPC/MID community are in the same boat? i.e. only MS products will gain acceptance in an ever growing market? Guess again MS. Linux is creeping up behind you in the form of ultra mobile products are pushing acceptance of the free OS by taking out the complexity that has long been associated with Linux. Point, click and go!
If MS continues their ‘head up their own arses’ approach they can expect to lose significant market share and soon. Yeah, go for it Microsoft!
P.S Although Motorola haven’t firmly committed to the G1 just yet I think you’ll see them jumping onboard pretty soon.
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Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 |
‘6 on 6′ - basically, it means IE 6 running on Windows Mobile 6.1. This might not seem like a big deal for many Windows users until you consider this - the code base for the current version of IE on Win Mobile is basically IE 4.x (circa 1997!). Scarey, eh?
Even though the code is being updated it looks like MS are definitely going for the retro look - look at the scroll bars in the shot below. Remind you of any massively outdated browsers?
I’ll update you when I have a hands on. To be honest, there are other browsers aimed at the mobile market which look good and give great functionality i.e Opera 9.5. The likes of Mozilla are also at the gates so MS had better come up with a compelling offer or we could see them losing out in the mobile market.
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Thursday, September 25th, 2008 |
The Glofiish M810 reminds of the HTC handsets; attractive and functional. But there’s more to this high spec, Windows Mobile enabled device than just pleasing lines. The M810 has a huge range of features including GPS, HSDPA, FM Radio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, software add-ons galore, video calling…pretty impressive, eh? That said, the M810 isn’t cheap - around £400 for a SIM free handset! One really interesting aspect is the ability to send your current position (Lats and Longs pull from GPS data) via an SMS message which could be handy in an emergency.
The Glofiish M810 features a 2.8-inch screen with only two softkey buttons - one for calling and the sedcond for ending a call. If you need anymore functionality you’ll need to pop out the sliding keyboard.
Battery life is apparently around 6 hours of talk time and 5 hours of GPS usage. Not great but fairly reasonable. In itself this handset doesn’t bring anything new to the table but, if you’re interested, will give you all the features of a top of the range Windows Mobile device - at a price!
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