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Continue reading TI stuffs WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM radios on a single chip, UWB and LTE are like 'hello?'

TI stuffs WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and FM radios on a single chip, UWB and LTE are like 'hello?' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Press Release: HTC Corporation, a global designer of mobile phones, has announced the appointment of Vladimir Malugin as its new marketing director for EMEA.  Formerly head of products and marketing at Polaroid Consumer Electronics and head of market development at Eastman Kodak, Malugin will be responsible for HTC’s overall brand, marketing and communications across EMEA.

“HTC is a brand to watch in the mobile space,” says Vladimir Malugin, marketing director, HTC EMEA. “HTC has a reputation for cutting-edge innovation and design and provides a unique mobile experience for its users. It is an exciting time as HTC builds broad consumer awareness and further reinforces its position as a leading smartphone designer. I am thrilled to be joining at such an important stage in its evolution as a consumer brand and look forward to contributing to its continued success.”

Vladimir Malugin brings a wealth of experience having held top European marketing and management roles in for a variety of leading consumer brands. Malugin has also previously led the business development function for a mobile chipset start-up and established a marketing and digital consultancy supporting a variety of businesses including multi-national companies.

“HTC looks for individuals who are able to articulate and effectively wield HTC’s unique, customer-centric brand,” says Florian Seiche, vice president, HTC Europe. “Vladimir’s appointment is an important step in establishing our global vision for HTC.”

In an effort to escape my abyss of obscurity in the mobile software market, if I were Microsoft, to distance myself from my embarrassing mobile past I would commit at least a thousand developers to perfecting the next release (including one or two who are actually on the payroll and not some random ugly website with Paypal donation links), I’d commit a whole lot of marketing geniuses to the project as well to help me come up with better ideas, I’d give it another name, I’d copy everything I could get away with copying from Apple including making it finger friendly and not multitask. That’s right, no more multitasking. I’d get it on different types of devices including phones, music players, mini PCs and tablets. I’d blend such devices into one device and call it Zune something and I’d blend its functionality into Windows 7 particularly with respect to music management like Apple and like Google I would tie in my company’s other services into it like Hotmail, Bing and whatever Microsoft’s now calling their imitation of Google Maps (isn’t it interesting how even MSNBC doesn’t use Microsoft’s Virtual Earth?). To give my reputation a clean slate, I’d prevent all backward-compatibility whether or not it was necessary in my implementations of a beefed up NetCF and Silverlight. I bet about 3% of my customers among the 4% of my share of the market even know what a cab is so who cares — no more backwards compatibility. Like it never happened. Record expunged.

I heard the Xbox has done well so I’d tie it into the Xbox somehow too and its online service if there is one. Makes sense considering all those iPhone advertisements I saw with people playing games with the g-sensor so I’ll support that as well, I’ll go all-out with g-sensor support. I’ll get my guys to discover another axis, we’ve got the money. I’d keep quiet, mostly, about the project in order to build up the hype and because I don’t want to dilute my number one pony’s presence in the media with something that has failed so stunningly in the past, my company’s mobile operations, particularly now that the mobile market share is a decked so heavily stacked against me. Just in case the operating system actually achieved noteworthy success, might as well wrap it up in Silverlight as much as possible as force feeding my answer to Flash and HTML5 to the world with one angle is about as if not more valuable than making this mobile operating system less of a joke for the sake of becoming a contender in that market. And that is why I won’t even include Flash support. Like both Apple and Google I would put a stop to this community hippy cab free-for-all nonsense and lock the OS into this Microsoft Marketplace thing which while I’m at it I would rename as well because we ought to be able to come up with name that’s more similar sounding to App Store that flies with the legal department.

According to all the rumors I’ve read that’s all more or less accurate unless everyone’s just making this up. The rumors are consistent with each other, mostly. However, Microsoft has done a good job remaining mute about this and the closest thing to first hand information that I found was a vague and poorly translated statement by some Italian man who didn’t understand the nondisclosure agreement and a tweet, both of which were very positive. Many said Google had no shot of breaking into the mobile market as it was way too late. Most consumers had already had fallen in love with their iPhones, Blackberries and Symbian phones and you can’t just shake that up because you’re Google, but the nay sayers were wrong. That said, I’m a nay-sayer against Microsoft making a significant presence in this market (and a Google shareholder) no matter how hard they recently started trying.

I’ll tell you another thing, on a more personal note: If they take away all my old cabs or my ability to multitask, I don’t care if it has all the eye candy in the world — byebye WinMo and hello Android.

Doug Simmons

In an effort to escape my abyss of obscurity in the mobile software market, if I were Microsoft, to distance myself from my embarrassing mobile past I would commit at least a thousand developers to perfecting the next release (including one or two who are actually on the payroll and not some random ugly website with Paypal donation links), I’d commit a whole lot of marketing geniuses to the project as well to help me come up with better ideas, I’d give it another name, I’d copy everything I could get away with copying from Apple including making it finger friendly and not multitask. That’s right, no more multitasking. I’d get it on different types of devices including phones, music players, mini PCs and tablets. I’d blend such devices into one device and call it Zune something and I’d blend its functionality into Windows 7 particularly with respect to music management like Apple and like Google I would tie in my company’s other services into it like Hotmail, Bing and whatever Microsoft’s now calling their imitation of Google Maps (isn’t it interesting how even MSNBC doesn’t use Microsoft’s Virtual Earth?). To give my reputation a clean slate, I’d prevent all backward-compatibility whether or not it was necessary in my implementations of a beefed up NetCF and Silverlight. I bet about 3% of my customers among the 4% of my share of the market even know what a cab is so who cares — no more backwards compatibility. Like it never happened. Record expunged.

I heard the Xbox has done well so I’d tie it into the Xbox somehow too and its online service if there is one. Makes sense considering all those iPhone advertisements I saw with people playing games with the g-sensor so I’ll support that as well. I’ll go all-out with g-sensor support. I’ll get my guys to discover another axis, we’ve got the money. I’d keep quiet, mostly, about the project in order to build up the hype and because I don’t want to dilute my number one pony’s presence in the media with something that has failed so stunningly in the past, my company’s mobile operations, particularly now that the mobile market share is a decked so heavily stacked against me. Just in case the operating system actually achieved noteworthy success, might as well wrap it up in Silverlight as much as possible as force feeding my answer to Flash and HTML5 to the world with one more little angle is about as, if not more, valuable than making this mobile operating system less of a joke for the sake of becoming a contender in that market. And that is why I won’t even include Flash support. Like both Apple and Google I would put a stop to this community hippy cab free-for-all nonsense and lock the OS into this Microsoft Marketplace thing which while I’m at it I would rename as well because we ought to be able to come up with name that’s more similar sounding to App Store that flies with the legal department.

According to all the rumors I’ve read, my hypothetical plan is more or less on par with Microsoft’s actual strategy. The rumors are consistent with each other, most of them, and come from sources many would regard as reputable. However Microsoft has done a good job remaining mute about this and the closest thing to first hand information that I found was a vague and poorly translated statement by some Italian who didn’t understand the nondisclosure agreement and a tweet, both of which were very positive. Many said Google had no shot of breaking into the mobile market as it was way too late. Most consumers had already had fallen in love with their iPhones, Blackberries and Symbian phones and you can’t just shake that up because you’re Google, but the nay-sayers were wrong. That said, I’m a nay-sayer against Microsoft making a significant presence in this market no matter how hard they recently started trying.

I’ll tell you another thing, on a more personal note: If they take away all my old cabs or my ability to multitask, I don’t care if it has all the eye candy in the world — byebye WinMo and hello Android.

Doug Simmons

Continue reading HTC Hero-controlled Mindstorms bot hints at Android uprising

HTC Hero-controlled Mindstorms bot hints at Android uprising originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PPCGeeks claims to have come accross a treasure trove of Windows Mobile 7 information, and most are consistent with other rumours we have heard, but no less controversial.

They claim:

-The User Interface is based upon codename “METRO”. It will be very similar to the Zune HD User Interface with a complete revamp of the “Start” screen. The UI is “Very Clean”, “Soulful” and “Alive”
-Unfortunately there will be no Flash support at the get go as there was not enough time to implement these features.
-Windows Phone 7 will only support application installation through service based delivery. (i.e Marketplace). Application installation via storage card will not be possible.
- No Multi-Task support. Applications will “Pause” when in the background, however will support notifications via push notifications.
-Marketplace will now support “try before you buy” as well as an API
-No NETCF backwards compatibility. This means the original rumor of no backward compatibility for applications holds to be true. That being said, there are high hopes of porting the NetCF to the newer platform easily.
-Microsoft is confident that devices will be ready by September 2010
-Full Zune Integration
-Windows Mobile Device Center will no longer be used. Zune software to take over syncing via PC.
-OEM Interfaces will not be allowed to run on the device. Say goodbye to Sense UI / SPB Mobile Shell / Point UI / Infinity, etc, etc
-Full XBOX Gaming Integration (Gamer tag, achievements, friends, avatars, merchandising, etc)
-Full support for social networking.

Hopefully what PPCGeeks are talking about is a Zune Phone rather than the real Windows Mobile 7, because otherwise… Do I hear Android calling?

What do our readers think?  Let us know below.

If typing on your touch screen mobile has not been a comfortable task for you, Swype is here to change that forever. It is a keyboard which looks almost like any other keyboard but it has one difference which makes it unique. The difference is how you type text. You trace a path across the letters that make the word you want to input. You can use your finger or stylus, but without lifting it from the touch screen. You do not have to touch each letter of the word you want to input. Staying close to the letters while tracing the path is good enough. Swype recognizes every path you draw as one word and types it in your application’s text input area.

Swype’s word recognition accuracy will surprise you. If Swype does not understand a traced path correctly or if you traced a path carelessly, Swype displays all possible words matching the traced path. Just tap the right word and that is it. Be careful that you do not lift your finger until you have completely traced a word. To input a double letter in a word, just scribble on the letter and carry on with the rest of the word. You can also add your own words in the in-built dictionary.

Swype automatically adds a space after every word you input.  It also provides an editing keyboard for common editing functions like copy, cut, paste, page-down, page-up etc. You can use these editing functions if your application supports them.

In brief, Swype provides the following useful features:

• Excellent word recognition accuracy
• Text-prediction while tracing
• Capability to add user-defined words in the in-built dictionary
• Support for multiple languages
• Auto-spacing
• Support for smart phones and tablet PCs
• Support for accented letters
• Editing keyboard
• Over 50 symbols
• Automatic help
• 65,000-word learning dictionary
• And lot more…

To know more details and check Swype’s availability, click here. It is currently available on Samsung Omnia and not available commercially.

The image used here is a cropped version of the image on Swype’s home page.

Indian mobile carriers scramble as illegal towers are shut down originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.