Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on June 24, 2008 by CyberNet.

Nokia has ponied up and bought a large chunk of Symbian that they didn’t already own, which equates to another 52%. For those of you unfamiliar with Symbian it is the software platform that powers the Nokia devices, and one analyst estimates that Nokia paid close to $250 million a year in licensing fees for it. While $410 million sounds like a lot you have to look at the money they will be saving due to the acquisition.

What makes the deal really interesting is the fact that Nokia will be open sourcing bits and pieces of the Symbian OS over the next few years, and by that time the entire OS will be open source. Both Sony Ericsson and Motorola have already announced that they will be contributors, which could mean that the development of the Symbian OS will continue at a rapid pace. The newly established Symbian Foundation will serve as a hub for the royalty-free open source project, but an annual membership of $1,500 is required.

It will be interesting to see whether this will become an even more attractive operating system for manufacturers over the upcoming Google Android. Both will now be open source and royalty-free, but will manufacturers choose the less mature Google Android platform? At this point innovation has probably never been more important for Google, and they need to have some selling points to compensate for its lacking in maturity.

Nokia Press Release [via Engadget]

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Mark Zuckerberg ruffled some feathers when he said the iPad “isn’t mobile” enough to deserve a dedicated Facebook app. But now it’s U-turn time. TechCrunch just revealed that not only has Facebook created a fully-fledged iPad app, they’ve even released it — albeit in secret. The code lies buried in yesterday’s update to the iPhone app and it’s entirely executable on jailbroken tablets. What’s the software like? Well, TechCrunch reckons the left-sided navigation system and use of overlay menus is “great,” as is the ability to chat with buddies while simultaneously doing other Facebook tasks in landscape mode. There’s also a ton of screen grabs at the source link which tell much of the story. However, it surely won’t be long before we can make our own minds up.

Facebook just released a dedicated iPad app, except it didn’t originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but that didn’t go down too well with the three KIRF Apple Stores in Kunming, China. In fact, after American expat BirdAbroad made her local stores famous last week, local officials have since been combing through the city’s 300-plus gadget shops on behalf of Apple China, and managed to dig up two more “Apple” stores. It’s not exactly clear if these new offenders are at the same severity as the ones spotted by BirdAbroad, but the authorities have confirmed that none of the five stores are Apple Authorised Resellers, let alone having its permission to use its logo on their store front.

Additionally, two out of the five stores have since been shut down due to unlicensed retail operation. The fate of the remaining three is still unknown — the officials have only concluded that no KIRF products have been found in the stores, though details such as the decor and staff uniform are certainly very similar to those of the real deal. Well, we’re glad they agree, but this is only just the beginning — BirdAbroad has since gathered photos of more sketchy Apple stores across the world, so go take a gander. Oh, and for those who have been out of the loop, there’s a hands-on video of one of the Kunming stores after the break.

Continue reading Two more fake Apple Stores spotted by officials in China, two get the smackdown

Two more fake Apple Stores spotted by officials in China, two get the smackdown originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in February we reported that Apple was in talks to open a new store in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. We also thought it was going to be the company’s biggest store yet, but that would be difficult to achieve without pushing out a number of other stores. We didn’t hear anything else […]

Remember Adobe’s InMarket? You know, that marketplace where devs can publish once, distribute anywhere — like on Intel’s AppUp. If you’re still drawing a blank, fret not, as the software giant plans to shutter the service come August 31st, leaving developers with a little over a month to download analytics and revenue reports. Also on the chopping block is the company’s AIR Marketplace, which the firm now views as redundant given that AIR apps can be published on Cupertino’s App Store, the Android Market and BlackBerry’s App World. Got any burning questions? A letter and FAQ await you at the source.

[Thanks, Koiyu]

Adobe’s InMarket to fade into the sunset, AIR marketplace faces similar fate originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 01:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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