Windows Phone 7 Series imitates Apple's iPhone in the worst ways
For years, people have accused Microsoft of being an imitator, rather than innovator. Finally there is evidence: The ways Windows Phone 7 Series imitates the very worst of Apple's iPhone. Unless there is the strangest of coincidences -- like two students having the same wrong answers on a high school history test -- Microsoft is imitating Apple, using the same strategy to make the same mistakes. It's either imitation or incompetence, and out of fairness I assume the former.
The first imitation is the most baffling: Limited multitasking. Like iPhone, Windows Phone 7 Series will allow multitasking for some of its own applications, but not others. When open but not in use, third-party apps go into a pseudo-off ("dehydrated") state. By comparison, Google's Android, Nokia's Maemo or Symbian OS and Palm's WebOS all multitask (e.g., run background applications) just fine.
How I slashed my connection to cable TV without missing anything
Mission: Find an affordable alternative to cable/pay TV using only off-the-shelf products.
Deadline: Today (with a clause for extension)
Exclusive: Olympic snowboarder Shaun White discusses his first skateboarding game
Of all the things we expected to come from a conference about wireless technology, an interview with a two-time gold medal olympian was not one of them, but today, Betanews got an exclusive interview with professional snowboarder/skateboarder Shaun White about his first skateboarding-only videogame from Ubisoft.
Truth be told, running into Shaun was purely accidental. I was scheduled to talk to Marvell about its Armada 600 platform at the very same time the he was scheduled to do an autograph signing for the company. As a huge line amassed around Marvell's booth, I completely expected to have my discussion time bumped. Instead, Marvell invited me to ask Shaun a few questions.
Betanews Relative Performance Index for browsers 3.0: How it works and why
The Betanews test suite for Windows-based Web browsers is a set of tools for measuring the performance, compliance, and scalability of the processing component of browsers, particularly their JavaScript engines and CSS renderers. Our suite does not test the act of loading pages over the Internet, or anything else that is directly dependent on the speed of the network.
But what is it measuring, really? The suite is measuring the browser's capability to perform instructions and produce results. In the early days of microcomputing, computers (before we called them PCs) came with interpreters that processed instructions and produced results. Today, browsers are the virtual equivalent of Apple IIs and TRS-80s -- they process instructions, and produce results. Many folks think they're just using browsers to view blog pages and check the scores. And then I catch them watching Hulu or playing a game on Facebook or doing something silly on Miniclip, and surprise, they're not just reading the paper online anymore. More and more, a browser is a virtual computer.
Why Sony Ericsson is worth watching in the Android space
In the past, having too many different screen resolutions to support was a problem for Windows Mobile developers. For the users of Android phones, it seems like too few screen sizes could become a problem. With Android, there are only three general screen classes: small, medium, and large.
And the trend lately among Android devices has been to have bigger and brighter screens. When the Motorola Droid debuted last October, the device's 3.7" screen looked downright huge. Yesterday, the 4" screen on the Samsung Galaxy S and 4.3" screen on the HTC EVO made the Droid look small by comparison. Unfortunately, the shape of the chassis must reflect the size of the screen. What's happening is that we are seeing bigger, flatter phones.
Google's Hong Kong move leads to censorship, followed closely by opportunism
What, exactly, would one be blocked from seeing now that the "Great Firewall of China," as it's been dubbed, separates citizens of mainland China from Google? This morning, Betanews used a fabulous Firefox 3.0 add-in tool called ChinaChannel, created by independent developers in Hong Kong, to set up a proxy connection using a China IP address, so we could peruse Google as though we were in China itself. Then using an ordinary copy of Opera 10.51 on the other side, we browsed Google.com.hk -- the server to which Google is now redirecting Google.cn requests -- using our regular US-based connection.
We've used this tool in the past, and we had an easier time obtaining a proxy connection with a China-based proxy. At first this morning, we found proxy servers were frequently denying connection requests, although repeated requests often got through after 10 or more tries. However, sometimes our connection only lasted as long as a minute.
Get in on the limited beta of new suggestion engine, Zite
Late last year, I took a look at how search services were being affected by the unchecked growth of ultra-digested, 140-character-or-less news blips. In my research, I talked to a Vancouver-based startup called Worio that was tackling the difficult problem of creating a search engine that "understood" what kind of data was important to the user.
Now, the team is working on creating a new content discovery service, which it is calling Zite.
T-Mobile talks network upgrades
Rather than debut anything unknown or surprising, mobile network operator T-Mobile today presented everything it had already announced, and then concentrated on talking about the widespread 3G network upgrade it's rolling out this year.
While this doesn't always get people drooling, T-Mobile looks to be taking a level-headed approach to network growth which the company says will result in the overall fastest 3G network in the US.
Lenovo launches new Edge 14- and 15-inch Edge laptops, with frosting on top
Literally on the wheels of a gourmet cupcake truck, Lenovo this week rolled out the 14- and 15-inch editions of its emerging ThinkPad Edge laptop line-up.
Priced starting at $499, and slated for availability in April, Lenovo's latest notebooks offer the same capabilities as the 13-inch Edge released in January, while adding wider screens and an illuminated keyboard, said Jay McBain, Lenovo's director of small and medium business. McBain gave Betanews a briefing aboard what can easily be described as the most unique setting we've ever experienced for a product demo: a concessions truck operated by an early user, a New York City-based mobile cupcake company named Cupcake Stop.
CTIA's 'other' Android superphone: Samsung Galaxy S
HTC and Sprint's EVO may have stolen the show at CTIA today, but Samsung showed off its own Android 2.1 superphone called the Galaxy S. It's just as impressive as the EVO, just without the 4G muscle.
And while it may look like the fraternal twin of Apple's iPhone, especially with the TouchWIZ UI, Samsung's Galaxy S is no iClone.
Sprint has the game changer: The first 4G smartphone
Sprint and HTC this afternoon finally took the wraps off of the "Supersonic" 4G smartphone, the HTC EVO 4G, and everything about this device is killer.
HTC and Sprint have spared nothing in this top-of-the-line device. It has a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon (QSD8650) processor, a 4.3" (800x480) capacitive touchscreen, an 8 megapixel dual flash camera, and a 1.3 megapixel forward-facing camera. Add Android 2.1, 4G WiMAX/3G EV-DO Rev. A, the ability to act as an 8-device 4G hotspot, an FM radio, Bluetooth 2.1, digital compass, proximity, velocity, and light sensors, GPS and 3.5mm headphone and HDMI output. In short, pretty much everything you could want.
Adobe to launch Creative Suite 5 April 12
A spokesperson for Adobe told Betanews this afternoon that on the morning of April 12 at 11:00 a.m. EDT, the company will hold a global online launch event for all of the components of its Creative Suite 5.
Among the most anticipated new components -- or as Adobe tends to present them in its periodic table, "elements" -- is a vastly improved HD video rendering engine called Mercury. Unlike other manufacturers, Adobe tends to retain the cool names for its products and platforms even after public release. Mercury will utilize the graphics processing power of video cards to expedite the decoding and playback of HD-encoded formats, especially for the Premiere Pro editor.
Google.cn redirection sets the stage for long-term standoff with China
Searching for a defining principle in the war of words between Google and the Chinese government, even after Google's move yesterday to redirect search traffic from the .CN domain to its uncensored .HK address, may be about as fruitless as filtering high prose from a cable TV political pundit show. In a bizarre demonstration of what's being called "openness," China's state-run news service responded to Google's move yesterday first with a "nudity" slide show (news photos over the years with naughty bits included), cushioning some op-eds designed to characterize Google as out-of-step not only with China's progress, but with America's.
Conforming with state laws governing expression, argues a Xinhua op-ed late yesterday, is just one of the globalization trends that many enterprises and business ventures must embrace when entering new territories. Why can't Google, Xinhua asks, be more like KFC?
Nintendo wants to try its hand at 3D again
Today, a very dodgy looking PDF file appeared on Nintendo's Japanese investor relations site with the title "Launch of New Portable Game Machine" (PDF available here).
In the document, Nintendo quietly announced that it will be launching "Nintendo 3Ds" during the fiscal year ending in March 2011. The new handheld gaming console will support 3D effects without the need for special viewing glasses, and Nintendo will talk more about it at the E3 conference in June.
Without native apps for Windows Phone 7, Mozilla cancels Fennec for WM6 also
Microsoft's choice not to provide a migration path for mobile apps developers to move their native code from Windows Mobile 6.5 to Windows Phone 7 (with one notable exception), has claimed its biggest casualty to date: Mozilla, whose Firefox Mobile project, codenamed "Fennec," appeared to be the most promising alternative browser to IE Mobile, will discontinue development for all Microsoft handset platforms including Windows Mobile 6.5. This announcement was made yesterday by Mozilla mobile project leader Stuart Parmenter.
It wasn't so much a decision on Mozilla's part, Parmenter noted yesterday, as a reluctant acceptance of the fact that it can't be done.
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