All Articles Tagged The competition

UPDATE: Google’s response, with commentary from Casey.

According to sibling site Android Central, Google has sent a cease & desist order to well-known Android custom ROM maker, CyanogenMod.

Google is not happy that CyanogenMod is distributing closed source Android applications like Gmail, Android Market, YouTube, etc. [...] CyanogenMod explains that he’s not breaking any copyright issues because he develops specifically for Google Experience devices (G1 & myTouch 3G), devices that already include said closed source applications.

Casey asks if this could be a sign of Google finding their inner evil. We re-hash our own cliche: any company sufficiently powerful is indistinguishable from evil. It’s just that Apple (and Microsoft) tend to get called on it more.

But, hey, if any clever Android modders want to port that Gmail app over to the iPhone Jailbreak community, we promise we won’t object…

Some feel there’s got to be more to this Microsoft Pink platform, Turtle and Pure phone concept than meets the eye. We’re wondering if, like Newman on Seinfeld, there’s actually less?

Could it really just be a Microsoft Sidekick running Zune HD software?

On the face, we’d say that’s crazy. Microsoft already has Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Mobile 7, and the Zune HD on the market, would they really fragment their offering further by releasing an Instinct-class consumer phone?

Anyone else, never. Microsoft, absolutely.

In their defense, they’ve said Windows 7 will be their iPhone killa, while Windows 6.5 targets Android. These bad boys? We’re honestly not sure…

However, going this route does mean they likely won’t stab their WinMo hardware partners where it hurts, the way they did their MP3 player partners when they abandoned PlaysForSure and released the Zune…

[Gizmodo via WMExperts]

While everyone is waiting on Apple to unveil their universally rumored iTablet/iPad device next year, Gizmodo has just scored the scoop on what Microsoft just might be planning to counter it — the “Courier” tablet.

Decidedly un-Apple in it’s approach, with dual booklet screens, pen and touch input, and feel that’s all organized chaos, it’s also strikingly different to Microsoft’s previous Tablet PC efforts (which were largely tweaked versions of XP and then Vista). Here’s why:

Until recently, it was a skunkworks project deep inside Microsoft, only known to the few engineers and executives working on it—Microsoft’s brightest, like Entertainment & Devices tech chief and user-experience wizard J. Allard, who’s spearheading the project. Currently, Courier appears to be at a stage where Microsoft is developing the user experience and showing design concepts to outside agencies.

Head on over to Gizmodo to see a video of the concept in action (not iPhone friendly, sorry). Then come back here, tell us what you like and don’t like, and let us know how you think Apple’s take on the tablet will differ.

Microsoft is beginning to staff up their upcoming retail store chain using freshly poached Apple Store managers and employees. Using “significant raises” and in some cases, moving expenses as the carrot, Apple Store managers are hunted and then asked to contact their (now former) top Apple Store salespeople and offer them similar incentives to switch from Mac to PC.

Employees, of course, are not the only thing Microsoft is taking from the Apple Store experienced. Having hired Apple’s former retail location scout, George Blankenship, their plan is to open up right next door to Apple Stores everywhere.

Though they still, stupefyingly, don’t seem interested in actually selling much of anything (they’re focusing on consumer experience), along with the shrink-wrap copies of Windows 7 and Office, Zune HD and XBox 360 that Microsoft manufactures themselves, they’ll be showing off their hardware partners’ wares with PC, PCTV, and Smartphone walls, along with Learn, Connect, and Info tables, and “Guru” bars modeled after… you guessed it…

The strategy is certainly sound, but we’re still not sure that a company with a split software/hardware model will find the same formulae brings the same success.

[The Loop via Ars Technica]

So the Zune HD is out, Windows Mobile 6.5 is starting to come out, Windows Mobile 7 will come out end of next year, and all of this relates to project Pink and new rumors of device code-names Pure and Turtle, and a Surface-related tablet just how exactly?

Sigh. Microsoft is like that cousin that we just know could be great but somehow keeps getting turned around, lost, and otherwise just not-quite delivering on it’s amazing potential. Imagine if they had one division, making one platform, and all that effort and integration went into delivering a killer XboxPhone in time for the holidays this year? And don’t hate on us for saying that, even our sibling site WMExperts is pounding the integration drum.

Back in the real world, however, Microsoft is said to be using a 2-prong strategy, Windows Mobile 6.5 now to compete with Android, and Windows Mobile 7 next year to compete with the iPhone (which, if Apple keeps up with their own roadmap, will be on its 4th hardware revision and running iPhone OS 4.0 — a moving target indeed).

The Zune HD meanwhile is positioned somewhere between the original and current iPod touch.

Microsoft is also rumored to be working on a tablet, based on their big-@$$ Surface table, to market against Apple’s still unannounced iTablet/iPad. Surface uses infrared camera technology, and required a huge basin to house all that hardware, so no doubt this will be Surface in name only (because who wants a 4 foot thick tablet, right?)

And on top of that, Microsoft is still working on Project Pink, which is a giant unknown, except it might be using Danger (makers of the Sidekick, bought out by Microsoft), and might be a Microsoft phone (though Microsoft swears they aren’t making a phone — just like Steve Jobs said no one wanted video on an iPod).

Pure and Turtle would then be these Danger-developed, Sidekick-like handsets running Windows Mobile 7, with on-board Zune software to handle the media layer?

Yeah, we don’t know either. Would that — Sidekick hardware running WinMo7 and Zune HD interface — be competitive with an 4th gen iPhone running iPhone 4.0?

We’re only a year away from knowing….

[Via WMExperts via 9to5mac]

Palm is abandoning Windows Mobile to concentrate their resources on their new webOS platform as currently found on the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi.

As former Palm users (I had a Treo 600 at the time), we still remember Bill Gates and Ed Colligan taking the stage together at CES 2006 and showing off the first-ever Windows Mobile Treo 700. (Talk about cats and dogs living together!) Picture speed dialing on the today screen was an immediate sign that Palm was working their “secret sauce” (TM, TreoCast) magic to customize WinMo and give Palm users as much Zen as they could. It was equally evident when the razzle dazzle ended that Palm’s own PalmOS was reaching the end of its useful life and with Cobalt vaporizing, Palm needed something to pin their immediate future on.

A couple years and one long walk in the desert (TM, TreoCast) later, and now webOS is a fresh new take on the smartphone space, and Windows Mobile is the OS in danger of being left behind. Add to that Palm’s limited resources, and the focus makes sense. It’s also gutsy, going all-in on webOS, and Palm needs to be gutsy at this point. No better way to make people believe in your future than believing in it yourself.

In the video embedded above, which we’re offering now in tribute, we argued the Palm Treo Pro was neither a Palm, a Treo, nor particularly Pro (it was an HTC running WinMo with a tiny keyboard). Now maybe they’re a Palm with some new Apple blood and still stuck in tiny keyboard land, but give them a year or so of distance and pure webOS differentiation, and we’re excited to see where they go.

We sympathize with Windows Mobile Treo fans, but cheers Palm. Now bring the competition, Apple needs it, and Apple’s customers will benefit from it in the long run.

Check out PreCentral.net and WMExperts.com for ongoing coverage.

Updated with iPhone friendly video from WMExperts (irony!).

Would you watch un-skippable ads on your mobile device in exchange for free apps and games? That’s the question we’re pondering in light of Zune HD doing just that. You pay your hundreds of dollars for the device, and Microsoft provides a few extra games/apps, but sometimes an ad will play before the app launches, and you can’t skip them. See the video above for an example (apologies to those on the iPhone, we didn’t make the video, so have no control over the iPhone-unfriendly format).

We first heard about this from Matt Miller, editor of NokiaExperts.com and last night during iPhone Live! We discussed it with special guest, Phil Nickinson of WMExperts. At first Phil said he’d never seen one, but then lo and behold, right there live, one of those Kia car commercials began to play when he tried to launch and app.

Of course, watching commercials in exchange for free content is how broadcast TV works, but does that model translate to mobile devices?

Personally, I’m okay with it as long as I know about it up front and I have the option of paying something to get a commercial-free version in case my time (and, frankly, tolerance for seeing the same commercials over and over every time I launch an app) is worth more to me than a few dollars.

iPhone apps, since the beginning with Twitterrific have provided free (ad supported) and paid (no ads) versions, though even then the ads were far less intrusive than full screen video, un-skippable TV style commercials.

What do you think? More free apps the better, or can commercial monetization go too far? And is it more acceptable to put a commercial before a game than it would be, say, to put it before something more vital like the music player, web browser, or email client?

Google’s next iteration of their mobile OS, Android 1.6 Donut, is set to give sugar highs again in October, with support for CDMA radios, QVGA and WVGA resolutions, and to quote from sibling site, Android Central:

Android 1.6 ‘Donut’ also brings Quick Search Box for Android which is basically universal search that searches locally on your phone and through the internet at the same time, new text-to-speech APIs, and the beautiful new Android Market we leaked a few weeks ago. There’s also updates to the camera’s interface, improvement to the camera’s loading time (39% faster), and a neat battery usage indicator that details which applications are using the most power.

CDMA support will now doubt make all those longing for an iPhone on Verizon lose their minds just a little bit more. Support for different screen sizes is more of a mixed bag, however. It means device manufacturers will have more form-factor freedom, but it also means developers will have to deal with Windows Mobile- and BlackBerry-style platform fragmentation (either working harder to support all the different screens, or choosing not to support some and increasing confusion for users). iPhone, graphics power aside, hasn’t had to worry about this… yet.

Quick Search, like Palm’s webOS search, going beyond the device to bring back answers from the cloud isn’t something iPhone supports, but is something we hope Apple’s looking into.

Still, it’s great to see Google keeping up with the updates. Anything in there that makes Android more compelling to you?

Our equal and opposite, Phil Nickinson over at WMExperts, has just provided the equal and opposite to our just-posted iPod touch G3 hardware review — a hands-on with the Microsoft Zune HD.

It’s my first foray into the Zune ecosystem, so I have a bit of a learning curve, and bear with me. But without giving away the farm, I’ll say this: If this is the direction in which Windows Mobile is moving, we all have much to look forward to.

Part 1 covers the desktop software, Quickplay (think genius), the apps, Zune marketplace, what’s in the box, the hardware, the screen, and teases Part 2 (of course).

Check it out, then remember to join us for iPhone Live! tonight, as Phil will be our special guest, and we’ll take the Zune HD one on one with the great one — the iPod touch.

So, today’s the day. Everyone who works for Microsoft is up bright and early, on their way to lineup at their local Microsoft Store for a chance to scoop up a brand new, shiny Zune HD before they sell out. If you’re in line, shoot our sibling site WMExperts a pic and let them know if you manage to snag one of Ballmer’s new beauties.

Speaking of sarcasm, for an even harsher look at the Zune HD, check out AppleInsider, who we’re not sure have had a hands on yet, but certainly give it a pounding. (Even we said, “ouch!”)

And then join us back here tomorrow night at 8pm ET for iPhone Live! where WMExperts own news editor, Phil Nickinson will be joining us for a special edition smackdown, Zune HD vs. iPod touch G3.

Will OLED blind our iSight, or will 64GB prove size does matter? Get to the chat room early tomorrow, the place might just burn down!