Posts Tagged ‘Mobile Phones’

Looks like Google has delivered, as rumored, on the Nexus One. But, I’m going to stick by my prior opinion, for now: This phone – while sleek and elegant – is not the game-changer many had hoped for. Other than paying more for the privilege of unlocked-ed-ness via Google’s website, there’s no new mechanism for getting service. Let’s hope this is merely Google testing the water, before it makes a big commitment. If not, frankly I’m disappointed.

One good piece of news: the device will be available in the near future on Verizon – implying Google is going to continue its commitment to CDMA hardware, and making another world-class smartphone available for the large number of Americans who prefer that service.

More details here. Git’chasum here.

Post-CES, Gizmodo has an early comparison of Apple iPhone, TMobile G1 and the new Palm Pre. Also, a nice hands-on review of the Pre’s new-age UI.

Will the Pre stick? It’s already made an impression on ZDnet, who are now using it in competitor comparisons! While some are hoping it’ll steal a little iPhone limelight.

The rumors were correct – Palm announced the Pre at CES on January 9, 2009. Certainly, as announceware, it hits a lot of high notes in terms of hardware design and usability – both factors Palm has always been noted for. But let’s credit Apple here – the iPhone got Palm out of the one-track design mind we’ve seen in recent Palm phone and PDA models.

More importantly – and I believe critically for Palm’s chance of success with this device – Palm also announced that operating system code-name Nova is actually WebOS, based on the same Web 2.0 precepts we see in the application models on Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone OS. Palm’s calling their SDK Mojo. This promises a greater degree of application portability than we’ve seen on mobile phones (though, of course, this model is limited to smartphones now). Still, it must be said that despite a pretty broad adherence to standards (particularly, HTML5) across WebOS, Android and Apple, it’s still very early days to judge cross-platform portability.

Brighthand has a comprehensive article on WebOS here.

Tantalizingly, Palm discussed additional, non standards-based, features in WebOS/Mojo which target bringing PalmOS-like capabilities to web-based applications. Specifically, a notification system (theoretically supporting push-type applications) and a JSON-based message bus (which sounds suspiciously familiar to the PalmOS brand of inter-application communication). It will be interested to see if Palm opts to migrate these services to open source or standards.

Boy Genius Report has a nice gallery of demonstration screens constructed with MoJo, by the way. Developers will note the non-visual similarities to Apple’s eponymous widget set. However, one clear innovation is WebOS’s unique visual paradigm Palm is calling cards. It will be interested to see how cards map to applications in real (developer) life – again questions about portability arise.

And what of old-style PalmOS applications? Palm has not expanded on this topic too much, but indicates on it’s developer site that PalmOS application data will be migratable to WebOS applications.

This post has been updated here.

Rumors abound as to a Palm announcement today at CES – theoretically, a new phone based on a new Palm OS called Nova.  See here, here, and here.

Indeed, Palm has a high-profile press event scheduled for today in Las Vegas.

I’m going to reserve judgment until after announcement (I’ll do a separate post), but it’s very unclear what the possible relevance of this device will be. This go-it-alone strategy (that is, using yet-another-PalmOS and browser) is an uphill battle for a company many see as has-been (and one certainly lacking in financial resources to compete with Apple, Nokia and RIM). And, we’ve already talked about Palm building its own application market. Do they have the juice? Who’s going to even know it exists?

Still, to be fair, Palm defined the PDA experience and did a brilliant job with the early Treo phones in moving that experience to telephony. Their design-mind understands battery life and user experience. Their hardware has been solid. And they have the carrier relationships.

But, seriously folks, Apple has stolen this march, with iPhone and the iTunes store. And a modern user experience for both. Nokia will survive and prosper, and perhaps Google can make a dent with Android. But for the rest of the established order, times have changed. The old model is dead. Having a cool device is no longer enough.

Here’s an initial look at Australia’s own Kogan Technologies’ new Agora – an Android-based smartphone for the home market. The tri-band Agora will sport a 2.5 inch screen, 3G network support, a full QUERTY keyboard, but no touch screen. Availability on January 29, 2009 is claimed. Kogan themselves have the Agora for direct sale, unlocked. Juicy details here.

Suppose Telstra will pick it up?

UPDATE: new pix