The Competition

Saying Goodbye to Palm

By admin#IM, Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 a 12:43 am

As a mobile enthusiast, I own (or have owned) a cross sample of every major platform on the market today, ranging from Windows Mobile, Symbian, embedded Linux (well, one flavor anyway), and BlackBerry OS. I first cut my teeth on mobile technology with PalmOS way back in 1997 when a small startup named Palm Computing introduced a product called the Palm Pilot, launching an industry of software and hardware development. The Pilot 1000 was my very first PDA, and I immediately fell in love with the software and its hallmark simplicity. That device kindled a love affair with mobile technology that has lasted to this day.

Video: HTC Touch vs. iPhone, Smackdown

By admin#IM, Tuesday, Jul 17, 2007 a 4:40 pm

Dieter Bohn (yeah, his name is so French) of WM Experts does a nice walk through comparison between the HTC Touch and iPhone, stacking up each device's feature set and functionality. I agree with Dieter's overall assessment and conclusions, except for his assertion the Touch's onscreen keyboard comes out ahead of iPhone through third party software. Windows Mobile offers greater flexibility and productivity, but overall it's an inferior platform compared to OSX. That said I still prefer WinMob to Blackberry or Symbian.

Read

Nokia Phones Support Safari Web Apps, Enraged Steve Jobs Throws iPhone Against Wall

By admin#IM, Tuesday, Jun 26, 2007 a 4:15 pm

This shouldn't come as a surprise given that Nokia's Symbian web browser is actually based on Safari's core framework, known as WebKit. If anything this may benefit iPhone users by extending developer support to a much wider audience, beyond just iPhone's Safari environment. I say good on them.

Read

Analyst Says Palm is Screwed

By admin#IM, Tuesday, Jun 26, 2007 a 11:52 am

Analyst Michael Walkley of Piper Jaffray says Palm stands to lose most from iPhone's grand entrance into the smartphone market. Walkley told Barons

“With the BlackBerry Curve ramping and iPhone launching June 29th at AT&T, we view Treo as the most impacted by these launches and anticipate even further declines in sell through trends.”

Palm has enough problems on its hand dealing with an obsolete mobile platform and products that are equally outdated. To make matters wose, the company made a failed bet on a brain-dead Linux portable that it hoped would spark significant sales growth, which isn't going to happen.

Palm is running out of cash and ideas. Unless the company can pull a breakthrough product out of its hat soon, they won't be in this market much longer.

Verizon CEO Says iPhone is No Threat, Does Not Exist

By admin#IM, Thursday, Jun 21, 2007 a 9:10 am

From the department of delusional thinking comes this delightfully oblivious statement from Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg speaking at press conference at NXTcomm.

Opera Mini 4 Copies Safari for iPhone

By admin#IM, Tuesday, Jun 19, 2007 a 8:42 am

Developers at Opera appear to be suffering iPhone envy. Today the company rolled out a public beta of its Opera Mini 4 browser, designed for Java enabled phones, which rips off features first unveiled on iPhone's Safari browser. Opera Mini 4 sports Safari's impressive zoom feature that enables users to see a large thumbnail image of a web page, and navigate or zoom to specific sections of the page by tapping in that location.

I've used Opera Mini on my Treo and frankly it stinks. So does the Treo for that matter, but that's another topic. The browser is very poorly optimized and lacks elegance and integration of a native application environment. Opera's mobile browser for Windows Mobile is a much better overall solution, but still lacks refinement. Keep trying, Opera. You'll get it right - eventually.

iPhone Forces Nokia to Rethink Touch Screens

By admin#IM, Monday, Jun 18, 2007 a 8:39 pm

Om Malik sees iPhone having a coercive effect on Nokia's product strategy. The Finnish phone maker is now rethinking its decision to focus almost solely on non-touch screen devices, and plans to optimize future versions of its Symbian OS on touch interaction.

Read

Meizu's MiniOne M8 Loving Copies Imitates iPhone

By admin#IM, Monday, Jun 18, 2007 a 8:03 am

Pardon me, haven't me before? Last year, at the Barker's Charity Ball wasn't it? Yes, that was it.

Read

Can Anyone Kill iPhone?

By admin#IM, Monday, Jun 18, 2007 a 7:39 am

Whether iPhone becomes a huge success or a lukewarm seller remains to be seen. But it's a safe bet the product will achieve iconic status. When you look at the current handset landscape no clear challenger emerges, and that's going to present Verizon, Sprint, et al., with an enormous disadvantage and something to sweat over as iPhone's launch date looms.

Read