GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

Don’t believe the recent gossip that Nokia and Microsoft are hooking up to make a Windows phone. A soon-to-be-former employee of Nokia claims it isn’t happening.

On his personal blog, Watts Martin explained that a partnership between Microsoft and Nokia isn’t even close to happening, because it’s unlikely Nokia would cede control of an OS to a third party.

“There is no guarantee of that at all, because it is stark raving loony,” Martin wrote. “A lot of the reporting on Nokia Ive seen seems to miss a fundamental fact: they are, in their fashion, just as insistent on control over their ecosystem as Apple is.”

Nokia has bee a diehard supporter of Symbian, an open-source operating system that’s a decade old. For years, Symbian has been the worldwide leader in smartphone OS marketshare, but some analysts say it could soon be dethroned by Google’s Android OS, which has a more modern user interface and several manufacturing partners.

“Market share is an existential threat to Symbian, it imperils the very existence of the platform,” said Gartner analyst Nick Jones. “And the main reason Symbian is losing share is the user experience which isnt competitive with Apple or Android.”

Eldar Murtazin, editor in chief of Mobile-Review editor, claimed last week that Microsoft had begun talks to make Nokia-branded smartphones running the Windows Phone 7 OS. The bleak outlook for Symbian got the tech press wondering if such a partnership would be likely.

Martin’s answer to that question would be a firm “No.”

“Nokia really does have their OS strategy figured out, and its a good one,” he said. “What they dont have figured out is user experience design…. The good news for them is that over the last year theyve started to take all those problem seriously. The bad news is that they needed to have been taking them seriously in 2007.”

Photo of a Samsung phone running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7: Mike Kane/Wired.com

Brian is a Wired.com technology reporter focusing on Apple and Microsoft. He’s also writing a book about the always-connected mobile future called Always On (publishing April 2011 by Da Capo).
Follow @bxchen and @gadgetlab on Twitter.

jQuery(‘#inf_widget’).load(‘http://www.wired.com/ajax/widgets/related/content/blogPost/gadgetlab_55959′);

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Nokia, known for its religious-like devotion to the Symbian operating system, may be working with Microsoft to develop new phones running the Windows phone OS instead.

Nokia and Microsoft have begun talks to make Nokia-branded smartphones running the Windows Phone 7 OS, according to Eldar Murtazin, editor in chief of Mobile-Review editor. (Murtazin is known for gaining early access to the Nokia N8 phone long before its release, which led Nokia to file a report with the Russian police).

If true, adopting Windows Phone 7 could work well for Nokia, whose Symbian OS is outdated compared to more user-friendly Android-powered phones and Apple’s iPhone. Critics have called the Symbian OS “broken.”

The Windows Phone 7 strategy, as I’ve reported before, is more thought out than Google’s. Rather than simply license the OS to any manufacturer, Microsoft is requiring OEMs to adhere to a standard set of hardware features for any phone running Windows Phone 7. (Each phone must have three buttons, for example, and include a Snapdragon processor.)

What would Nokia get in return for playing by Microsoft’s rules? As part of the negotiation, manufacturers get a few default tiles on the Windows Phone 7 home screen devoted to the OEM’s proprietary applications; the rest of the space goes to Microsoft’s default apps (phone, calendar, etc).

So hypothetically, Nokia could put its own fancy GPS app on the home screen that charges a monthly rate to customers, for example. (Most of us would call this “bloatware,” but proprietary OEM apps are removable on Windows Phone 7, unlike bloatware on Android.)

From Unwired View

Image courtesy of Microsoft

Brian is a Wired.com technology reporter focusing on Apple and Microsoft. He’s also writing a book about the always-connected mobile future called Always On (publishing April 2011 by Da Capo).
Follow @bxchen and @gadgetlab on Twitter.

jQuery(‘#inf_widget’).load(‘http://www.wired.com/ajax/widgets/related/content/blogPost/gadgetlab_55565′);

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

With the iPad’s 9.5-inch screen, who needs an iPhone?

Indeed, after six months of using a tablet, I’m ready to ditch my smartphone for something simpler and more reliable.

The phone I want is a feature phone with a 3G connection and the ability to create a Wi-Fi hotspot for tethering my devices to it.

It should have long battery life, be able to grab and hold on to a voice signal with the tenacity of a bear trap, and be compact yet ruggedly durable.

It could even have an E Ink screen for super low battery consumption. Who cares if the screen is low resolution and has a one-second refresh rate, if all you’re using it for is looking at the occasional text message? (Thanks for the suggestion, Tim!)

The result would be a device I could use for phone conversations and basic texting. Mostly, though, it would supply internet connectivity to my other gadgets. I’d use an iPad or my laptop for e-mail, reading articles on the web, composing blog posts, Twitter, and in short everything else.

Basically I want something like the Nokia 3595 I used for years, before getting a first-gen iPhone, except with the addition of 3G data and Wi-Fi tethering.

After six months of semi-regularly using Apple’s tablet, I’m growing increasingly disenchanted with even the iPhone 4’s high-resolution “retina” display. The thing is just too small to use comfortably.

The more I read on my iPhone, the more sad and tired I get. Bending my neck to stare at a tiny, smaller-than-index-card-sized glowing screen a foot or so in front of my face makes me feel as if my world has shrunk to the size of a playing card.

With the iPad, by contrast, I feel like I’m reading a book. It’s too heavy to hold comfortably for extended periods, but I can prop it up in comfortable positions or slouch with it on my lap. I feel more a part of the world.

The iPhone has other problems, too. Don’t get me started on how often AT&T drops my calls or fails to give me a signal at all.

(And I refuse to get a 3G iPad, or pay extra for its month-to-month data service, no matter how good both are. I’m already paying for 3G data with my phone’s plan — why do I need to buy a second data plan?)

I’ve jailbroken the iPhone and am using the amazing app MyWi to give it Wi-Fi tethering capabilities, so whenever I have a signal, it can feed it to my iPad or laptop. That’s a step in the right direction.

I tried the same thing with a Nexus One awhile back, and that worked, too.

Unfortunately, the Nexus One and the iPhone, like all smartphones, are still too big and fragile. I don’t know of any feature phones that offer 3G and tethering.

Now if only I had something durable and compact, with long battery life, that did the same thing.

Is my ideal phone out there? Let me know if I’m overlooking something obvious. I’d love to be proven wrong on this one.

Photo: Jonathan Snyder / Wired.com

Follow us for real-time tech news: Dylan Tweney and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Dylan edits Wired.com’s Gadget Lab blog, and likes to write about technology, science, gadgets, and their impact on society and culture. Follow @dylan20 on Twitter

jQuery(‘#inf_widget’).load(‘http://www.wired.com/ajax/widgets/related/content/blogPost/gadgetlab_53828′);

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Quick, name the most popular smartphone operating system in the world: It isn’t Android, iPhone or the BlackBerry OS. Say hello to Symbian, an open source mobile OS that’s nearly a decade old. More than 300 million devices worldwide run Symbian. Some 41 percent of smartphones have Symbian on them.

Despite its popularity, Symbian is broken. The operating system’s user interface lacks the snazziness of its rivals, its touchscreen capabilities feel grafted on. It is slow, and developing apps for Symbian is hard.

With younger, prettier competitors in the market, Symbian seems like an aging actress that should have already stepped out of the spotlight.

Symbian also seems to be losing corporate support. Earlier this week, Lee Williams, CEO of the Symbian Foundation resigned for “personal reasons.” Williams, an enthusiastic champion of Symbian and a vocal critic of Google’s Android OS, often did media rounds touting Symbian.

Williams’ exit came on the heels of handset makers Sony Ericsson and Samsung declaring they will no longer manufacture devices running the operating system. With their departures, the only companies left on board with Symbian are Sharp and ZTE (not exactly handset trendsetters), plus Nokia, the one company that truly relies on the OS and with which its fortunes are intricately connected.

Sure, it’s the dominant OS worldwide, but with the rise of smartphones, Symbian hardly seems positioned for the future.

So can Symbian be fixed? Yes, say developers and analysts.

“It’s too early to abandon Symbian,” Nick Jones, an analyst with Gartner Research wrote on his blog last month. “Its sick, but its far from dead; its still out-shipping other mobile OSes by a huge margin.”

Freddie Gjertsen, head of product development for Touchnote, an app that is available across Android, iPhone and Symbian, agrees.

“It’s an OS that has had 12 years of continuous development, many thousand of hours of bug testing and fixing. There’s a stability and robustness there that should count for something,” he says. “If Nokia focuses on it, I don’t see why Symbian can’t be fixed.”

Nokia executives says despite the discontent around Symbian, they aren’t willing to give up on the OS. Symbian could put smartphones within the reach of millions of users who can’t pay more than $100 for an unsubsidized device, they say.

To get there, though, Nokia will have to fix four major things: Symbian’s user interface, developer support, app-development environment and the leadership vacuum for the platform.

“How difficult is to fix Symbian? Not so much,” says Rich Green, CTO of Nokia. “You will see some major changes in the forthcoming release of Symbian.”

One of those changes will be to release a version of the OS more often than Symbian’s current schedule of about every 18 months. “That will improve the usability of the OS and keep up with the trend,” says Green.

As for developers, they have the siren call of a global market that can be difficult to resist.

“We can give developers the whole world,” he says. “When you think about the reach Nokia has with Symbian, that is untouched by any other vendor.”

Getting a better UI

Remember older smartphones such as HTC’s Sidekick? They had resistive touchscreens and confusing menus that were difficult to use. The iPhone raised the bar for both hardware and user experience. It ushered in an interface that was clean, driven by icons rather than text-based menus and easy to navigate.

In 2008, when Google launched Android on the HTC G1, it offered a similar experience. Since then, even Microsoft has reinvented its mobile OS to have a UI with some pizzazz.

Not so with Symbian.

“There’s only one problem with Symbian and that is the user interface,” says Jan Ole Suhr, a Berlin, Germany, app developer who has worked on the Symbian platform since 2003.

“From a technical point of view, it is still the best OS: It consumes very little power, is robust and has been there since 2002 running on millions of phones,” he says. But, yes, the UI is really lacking.”

Suhr says it won’t take much to fix the UI but is puzzled that Nokia hasn’t done it so far.

“A change to the UI is not so hard,” he says. “The UI is just the presentation layer of the OS. An OS is far more complex. With a little effort, they can turn around the Symbian ship in no time.”

Nokia executives defend the company’s efforts. Symbian^3 tries to bring a fresh look to the mobile phone UI and future versions of the UI will be better, says Kai istm.

“Android and iOS could start from a blank sheet of paper,” says istm. “But Symbian has to carry the past so it has unfortunately created a bit of slowness in the UI experience.”

Another way to to help developers create better looking apps for the OS is to adopt Qt, an app and UI framework that can work across platforms, says Nokia. Nokia announced Thursday that it’s putting its energies into Qt as the sole app-development platform.

jQuery(‘#inf_widget’).load(‘http://www.wired.com/ajax/widgets/related/content/blogPost/gadgetlab_52933′);

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

<< Previous
|
Next >>

A peek into Nokia’s research labs reveals some intriguing possibilities on how we will interact with our devices in the future.

Phones could be embedded with chips that can help them “smell,” electronically stretchable skins could change the shape of devices and make them fit like gloves on your hand, and gestures could mean the end of peck and hunt on mobile displays.

Some future touchscreen displays might even give you tactile feedback — via tiny electrical shocks.

So while Nokia may be a bit behind the curve in developing touchscreen interfaces, its R&D department is not standing still.

Check out the five big ideas that are currently under development at Nokia’s labs.

Photo: (Andrea Vascellari/Flickr)

<< Previous
|
Next >>

jQuery(‘#inf_widget’).load(‘http://www.wired.com/ajax/widgets/related/content/blogPost/gadgetlab_52838′);

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

It hasn’t been smooth sailing for MeeGo, Intel and Nokia’s combined effort to develop a Linux-based operating system for mobile devices. A key executive departure and news that smartphones running the operating system won’t be available until sometime next year has left Intel and Nokia fighting to stay on course.

“The community around MeeGo is very strong,” Suzy Ramirez, an Intel spokesperson told Wired.com. “We are on schedule and MeeGo will be available for TVs and in-car entertainment systems soon, and other devices next year.”

MeeGo hashad a tough week. On Tuesday, Ari Jaaksi, the vice-president of Nokia’s MeeGo division, confirmed he will leave the company for “personal reasons.” Last month, Nokia went through a change of guard when CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo stepped down to be replaced by former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop.

A Nokia spokesperson has said the company’s MeeGo roadmap remains unchanged.

Meanwhile, Intel vice-president Doug Fisher told Forbes that the company expects to show the first smartphones running MeeGo operating systems early next year and have them in hands of consumers by mid-2011.

“All this has added confusion to MeeGo’s prospects, especially given the tremendous stride being made by alternative operating systems such as Android and iOS,” said Avi Greengart, an analyst with research and consulting firm Current Analysis. “Given the management changes at Nokia and the possibility that MeeGo phones could be delayed, it leaves question marks about the future of MeeGo.”

Over the last three years, the rise of smartphones and the growing popularity of tablets and streaming media players has opened the doors for new operating systems that can promise a better user experience. For instance, Android, which launched in 2008 for smartphones, has now spread to tablets and has even birthed Google TV, a platform that combines cable TV programming with sites from the internet.

MeeGo hopes to do something similar. But it started small. Last year Intel started a project called Moblin that would be a Linux-based operating system designed specifically for netbooks. Separately, Nokia had been working on a Linux-based software platform called Maemo for smartphones and tablets.

At the Mobile World Congress conference in February this year, the two companies decided to combine efforts and spawn a new OS called MeeGo. MeeGo is now hosted by the Linux Foundation and has expanded its reach to phones, tablets, TVs and even in-car entertainment systems.

Both companies desperately want to control a next-generation mobile OS. Nokia has heavily relied on Symbian, which enjoys massive popularity worldwide but is saddled with an archaic, needlessly complicated interface that hasn’t adapted well to the world of touchscreen phones. And Intel has seen success supplying its Atom chips to the netbook market, but hasn’t made significant inroads into smartphones; it’s hoping that an OS might help it leverage its chip business into a new market.

In the next few weeks, Intel plans to release a version of the nascent OS so developers can start creating the user interface required to put MeeGo on different devices. MeeGo with an Intel-developed skin is expected after that. MeeGo will have its first developers’ conference in Ireland in November.

“From a product perspective, we expect to show smartphones and tablets on MeeGo in mid-2011,” says Ramirez.

But Greengart isn’t convinced that plans for MeeGo won’t change again. Intel is dependent on Nokia to deliver the hardware that will bring MeeGo to consumers and Nokia’s big management changes could affect MeeGo’s future, he says.

So far, Nokia has said that it plans to use the Symbian OS for low and mid-level smartphones and build MeeGo into high-end devices that are more focused on computing.

“The problem is that Nokia executives, including the CEO who talked about this strategy just a week or two ago, are not there. And who knows what’s going in the company,” says Greengart. “The future of MeeGo depends on how much Nokia and Intel are willing to stick to their plans in a fast-changing world.”

Photo: MeeGo Phone browser (Steve Paine/Flickr)

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Nokia has wowed us with its hot N8 smartphone, the flagship cellphone which packs in every function known to man, and controls them all with a horrible, old fashioned Symbian OS. Meanwhile, Nokia’s soon-to-be-leaving mobile boss Anssi Vanjoki said using Android was like “peeing in your pants for warmth” in winter, and Ari Jaaksi, head of Nokia’s Meego OS, quit this week.

It seems that the only thing Nokia is still good at is hardware. Luckily, iFixit has gotten hold of an N8 and – of course – taken the ting apart. Follow along to see just how Nokia manahged to fit so much in there.

The N8 is similar in size to the iPhone, but fatter. This is mostly because of the huge camera module inside, which sports a 12MP sensor and a five-element Carl Zeiss lens. This extra thickness does allow some wiggle-room, and might explain how the Finnish technicians managed to include a USB-port and HDMI-port along wioth all the hardware buttons around the edge. And of course, there’s that slide-out keyboard.

Showing just how serious the camera is, the N8 uses a proper Xenon lamp for the “flash”. Take a look: it’s not just an LED but a tube, just like you have in your compact digicam.

IFixit CEO Kyle Wiens likes the N8, as it is so easy to repair. The battery isn’t soldered in, the glass panel isn’t fused to the AMOLED touch-screen and the handset itself is easy to take apert. How easy? “even a Finnish caveman could do it (provided they were evolved enough to handle a Torx screwdriver,” says Wiens.

The N8 looks like a solid phone (literally: “this is the beefiest phone we’ve taken apart all year,” says Kyle), but is still crippled by the Symbian OS. Still, if nothing else, it should take a nice picture.

Nokia N8 Teardown [iFixit. Thanks, Kyle!]

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

A stream of new Android smartphones have helped the Google designed operating system gain market share while rivals such as Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion lost points, according to the latest mobile subscriber report from analytics company comScore.

Among smartphone platforms, Android OS grew to 17 percent share between May and July from 12 percent at the end of April. During the same period, RIM and Apple lost about 1.3 percent share.

The good news for RIM, though, is that it continues to lead among smartphone platforms with 39.9 percent market share, while Apple is firmly in the second place with 23.8 percent share. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile accounted for 11.8 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.9 percent.

Androids growth has been powered by a slew of new handsets that have launched in the last few months. HTC’s EVO 4G debuted on Sprint in June. A few weeks later, Motorola introduced its second generation Droid and Droid X on the Verizon Wireless network. Meanwhile, Samsung launched its Galaxy S range of smartphones. Last month, Samsung said it has shipped more than one million Galaxy S phones in 45 days since the devices hit retail stores in mid-July.

More than 20 Android phones are available in the U.S. currently.

Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow, says comScore.

Among all mobile handset manufacturers–including both smartphones and feature phones–Samsung ranked at the the top with 23.1 percent market share in the U.S. At the end of July, 234 million Americans used mobile devices. Of these, 53.4 million people have smartphones, up 11 percent from the end of April, says comScore.

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

.ngg-galleryoverview div.pic img {width:auto;}

<< Previous
|
Next >>

<< Previous
|
Next >>

After a year of lackluster handset launches, Nokia may have a winner on its hands with the N8 smartphone. We spent some time with the new device at Nokia World 2010 in London, and while it wasn’t enough time to draw up a full review, we were able to get some hands-on first impressions.

First off, the hardware is fantastic. Wrapped in a beautiful anodized aluminum body with a 3.5-inch OLED display, the N8 will ship in green, blue, orange, silver, and graphite colors. While the display size is a bit smaller than the 4+ inch options on the market, it strikes a nice balance between “too small” and “way too big.” At 4.76 ounces, the phone is lightweight, feels good in the hand, and can easily be slipped into a tight pocket or purse.

The unit ships with Symbian^3, the newest version of the Symbian platform. Among the improvements, the user is greeted with three homescreens and the ability to add up to 24 shortcuts to each. Simply press and hold the screen for a few seconds to add or remove widgets and applications. It’s a nice revision to Symbian versions of the past and does a decent job of bringing the platform into the 21st century. Despite the updates, the OS still seems a bit tired at this point.

The phone is powered by a 680 MHz ARM 11 processor, which falls below the typical 1 GHz benchmark in today’s high-end smartphones. In our hands-on time with it, we noticed a bit of lag when transitioning between homescreens and opening apps. It wasn’t terribly alarming, but could be a point of contention for those used to the speedy performance of Android and iOS.

Thanks to the capacitive touchscreen, the virtual keyboard is responsive. In portrait mode, the N8 displays a T9-style keypad, while in landscape mode, the user is given a full QWERTY layout to work with. We tested it by typing out several messages, and within minutes, we were clicking away with ease.

The device sports a non-removable battery, so for those that travel on a regular basis, the inability to replace the battery on the go could prove to be frustrating. That said, Symbian has proven itself to be a warrior in the battery life department, and early reports claim over one day of juice with moderate use.

The N8 packs a 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash, so pictures look great. It also has the ability to capture HD video in 720p resolution at 25 frames per second, and offers an HDMI port for direct connections to the television. The combination of powerful camera optics and a mechanical shutter creates a bulge on the back of the unit, but Nokia has done a decent job of integrating it with the overall device design.

The Nokia N8 is a solid step forward for the Finnish manufacturer, and given Nokia’s name recognition, it’s a device that should sell well worldwide. The hardware is top-notch and feels fantastic, but the user interface seems a bit tired in comparison to other options on the market.

What’s more, no carrier partnerships have been announced in the United States, so those wanting the device will be forced to pay the full retail price.

The combination of an unsubsidized price and inability to view it in a retail store (yet) will likely lead U.S. buyers to choose other devices.

The Nokia N8 is expected to be available in the last week of September, and you can pre-order it for $550 from NokiaUSA.com.

For more on the N8 and its business-oriented sister phone, the Nokia E7, check out PhoneDog’s video of the N8 and E7, below.

Photos: Aaron Baker/PhoneDog.com

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

<< Previous
|
Next >>

<< Previous
|
Next >>

Nokia may be the underdog in the smartphone industry but it is fighting hard to beat competition. The company has introduced three new smartphones running Symbian operating system. The devices also integrate with the company’s improved Ovi services and apps store.

The three new phones are the Nokia E7, Nokia C7 and Nokia C6. Though display sizes and features vary across them, the devices have in common support for multiple homescreens and visual multitasking.

The phones are all expected to begin shipping before the end of the year.

Nokia has faced criticism for the user interface and Symbian operating system powering its phones. The company’s hardware and industrial design on phones have won it kudos but when it comes to the user experience, even die-hard Nokia fans hesitate to pronounce it the best. Meanwhile, the rise of Android OS and the proliferation of Apple’s iPhone has put additional pressure on Nokia.

Nokia says it remains confident that Symbian OS can stay ahead and to ensure that it has rewritten parts of the OS to make it faster and easier to use.

“Despite new competition, Symbian remains the most widely used smartphone platform in the world,” says Niklas Savander, executive vice president at Nokia in a statement.

Though the new phones sound like an alphabet soup, here’s the lowdown on each. There’s no word on the processor used in any of these phones but Nokia has offered enough details to get consumers excited about the devices.

Nokia E7

The E7 is Nokia’s new phone targeted at business users. The device has a 4-inch touchscreen, access to Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, security features such as lock and wipe functionality and access to Microsoft Share Point Server.

The phone has a full keyboard in a design similar to that of the Motorola Droid.

The E7 is pretty slim, about 13.6mm thick. It has a 8-megapixel camera and comes with 16 GB of on-board storage.

The E7 also boasts an HDMI connection and Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound. Users can customize up to three homescreens and get updates from Facebook and Twitter on their homescreens. The E7 will offer about 9 hours of talk time and 18 days of standby time.

The device will cost about 495 Euros ($645), excluding taxes and subsidies.

Nokia C7

The C7 is a phone for social media addicts. The device pulls feeds from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and integrates email from Yahoo, Gmail and other accounts to show them directly on the home screen.

The C7 features a 3.5-inch AMOLED display and is about 10.5 mm thick. It has a 8-megapixel camera and can shoot video at 720p resolution. The phone has 8GB of onboard storage–expandable to 40 GB with microSD.

The device is estimated to be priced at 335 Euros ($437), excluding taxes and subsidies.

Nokia C6

The C6 is the baby of the group. The phone has a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display. And as with the C7, this phone will have a 8-megapixel camera. It will support microSD up to 32 GB and capture HD video in 720p.

The C6 will cost about 260 Euros ($339), excluding taxes and subsidies.

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

If you love Nokia hardware but wish for a better operating system, consider what some enthusiastic developers have done.

As part of a project called NITDroid, the developers have created a compatible version of Android operating system for Nokia’s internet tablets. The result is a device that has the body of Nokia and the brains of Android.

“Nokia’s hardware is fantastic but their software is sub optimal, slow buggy and not always the best user experience,” says Terrence Eden, a U.K.-based mobile consultant who installed Android 1.6 ‘Donut’ on his Nokia N810. “Android is a much better software environment for Nokia hardware than what Nokia provides.”

Eden’s Nokia-Android hybrid works well except for access to Google Market and apps, he says.

Meanwhile developers have created a stable version of Android 2.2 Froyo for the Nokia N900, which ships with Nokia’s Maemo operating system. They have been able to get calls, data and Google apps going on the hacked device. The only missing feature is camera support.

This is not the first time a phone has been hacked to run an entirely different kind of operating system. Eager to experience Android’s features, some intrepid smartphone users hacked their Windows Mobile phones to run Android.

With Android for Nokia phones, the NITdroid project has had varying degrees of success. So far, they have attempted to port Android for Nokia’s tablet range of devices–which means the Nokia N770, N800, N810, and N900.

“On the N810., everything is pretty much functional. It isn’t a phone so there’s no call functionality to deal with,” says Eden.

But with the N900, users have found themselves unable to use the Android-powered device to make calls on a 3G network or change the screen brightness.

Tweaking the Nokia phones to change its operating system to Android isn’t for everyone, says Eden.

“It’s not something anyone off the street can do,” he says. “It’s a bit like installing Linux on the PC that you bought off Best Buy.”

But for those who are willing to take the risk, Eden has written a step-by-step guide on his blog for getting Android on the N810. The NITDroid wiki also has an installation guide for other Nokia phones.

Photo: Terence Eden

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

For the last few months, Intel has been offering us tantalizing tidbits about its upcoming chips for smartphones. Now we have a sneak peek of the device from Europe.

Steve Paine, who edits the Carrypad and UMPC portal got his hands on a prototype smartphone running Intel’s chips and MeeGo, a Linux-based operating system developed by Intel and Nokia.

Intel’s smartphone chip codenamed Moorestown, is based a processor based on the company’s Atom platform. Moorestown for cellphones has been created to be extremely power efficient, yet pack enough computational muscle for multimedia features such as video conferencing and HD video, says Intel.

Intel had hoped to have the first phones featuring its chips in hands of consumers later this year but last week, the company said the devices are expected to launch early next year.

Though Intels chips power most desktops and notebooks, Intel chips are absent in smartphones. Almost all smartphones are today use chips based on Intel rival ARMs architecture.

There’s no word yet on performance and how Intel chips are handling multimedia content.

Meanwhile, Intel has also been working with Nokia to bring the MeeGo OS to market. Last year Intel had been working on Moblin, a Linux-based operating system designed specifically for netbooks. Separately, Nokia had been working on a new Linux-based software platform called Maemo for smartphones and tablets.

At the Mobile World Congress conference in February this year, Intel and Nokia announced they had combined efforts and spawned a new OS called MeeGo. MeeGo is hosted by the Linux Foundation and is designed to live on phones, netbooks and TVs.

Paine says Intel and Nokia have now released version 1.1 of MeeGo that includes the the handset user experience or UX available to developers for review. MeeGo will have its first developers conference in Ireland in November.

The protoype phone running MeeGo has an interesting user interface. MeeGo is still in pretty early stages so we will have to wait and see if other handsets manufacturers will take a shine to it and MeeGo it can become an alternative to Android.

Meanwhile, check out Paine’s photos of the Intel prototype to get an early sense of what MeeGo looks like on the phone.

Photo: Intel prototype phone/Carrypad

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews