Hasta La Gadget!

Nokia may not have ruled out a QWERTY Windows Phone for its portfolio, but the chances of a device with a physical keyboard are shrinking, according to smartphone chief Jo Harlow. Speaking to SlashGear at Mobile World Congress this week, where Nokia took its Windows Phone 8 range to five devices with the addition of the Lumia 520 and Lumia 720, Harlow admitted that the company’s reluctance to revisit physical text entry options was down to a fear of being left on the wrong side of the mobile industry’s momentum – again.

“It’s really a question, “is there a large enough audience out there?” or “are the people who have QWERTY today intending to move in this direction?” and we really don’t want to be on the wrong side of that movement” Harlow, executive vice president of Smart Devices, told us. That’s despite a clear message from some users that a physical keyboard is high on their list of priorities.

“We still continue to evaluate because we do get the request a lot, and it’s funny that there are a lot of people that absolutely want to use a physical keyboard, they like the security of that” Harlow conceded. “Even though, I think the virtual keyboard of Windows Phone is phenomenal, especially the level of autocorrect, it’s really, really good.”

Unsurprisingly, Nokia isn’t ruling out any particular device, no matter how great the abundance of caution over QWERTY today. That means the market reception to BlackBerry’s upcoming Q10, the first BlackBerry 10 device to include one of the Canadian company’s legendary thumbboards, is likely to be of particular interest to Nokia as it figures out its next steps in Windows Phone.

“It’s something that we’re constantly looking at: next form-factors, what should we do next” Harlow told us, though pointed out that even those who really do want a physical ‘board are a dying breed. “One of the things that we see is that the number of people who are using, or are interested in using, a QWERTY continues to decline.”

A QWERTY Lumia? Don’t hold your breath says Nokia’s smartphone boss is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Android and Chrome OS: Google’s split attention between two overlapping platforms has long come in for criticism, but rumors of a merge in time for the Chromebook Pixel failed to pan out. Then again, is the world ready for a $1,300 Chromebook, no matter whether it runs Android or Chrome OS? Perhaps not, Google’s director of Android user experience, Matias Duarte, says, but there’s more in Pixel’s prescience of the touchscreen future, he argues.

Pixel’s appeal on a purely hardware basis is undeniable: it’s a beautifully designed notebook, with an incredibly high resolution touchscreen and the same crisp lines that we liked from Google’s first Cr-48 Chromebook. However, its huge price puts Chrome OS up against full notebooks from Apple, Sony, and others, despite the relative limitations of the cloud-centric platform, a completely different market from earlier, highly affordable Chromebooks.

“Pixel shows the boundaries between types of computing blurring”

For Duarte, however, Pixel’s success won’t solely be measured by pure sales. “I think that Pixel is really exciting, because I think that Pixel shows the way that the boundaries between the different types of computing are blurring” he explained to us. “I think it’s great that the Chrome team is doing that, I think it’s great that the Chrome team is allowing Google to get into people’s lives with touchscreens on a desktop form-factor.”

That’s not a point of view shared by everybody in the industry, and in fact it puts Duarte and Google in the same camp as Microsoft and its hardware partners, rather than with Apple. Steve Jobs memorably decried the usability of touch notebooks, and Tim Cook has since made similar arguments, that reaching across a keyboard to tap at a display simply isn’t ergonomically satisfying.

Duarte disagrees, saying that despite what the MacBook makers think, users themselves are asking for a touchscreen approach. “I think that’s a real trend, that touch on laptops and on desktop form-factors is the way that people want to interact with computers” he says. “I think every screen should be a touchscreen in the future, regardless if it has a keyboard or not.”

Despite the overlap, then, between Android – which has touch at its heart – and Chrome OS – designed for more traditional form-factors – the two platforms still have a future as independent projects. According to Duarte, that will be the case for as long as it makes functional sense: the two OSes converging, perhaps, on a commonality of features as Google develops them.

“Google is excellent at diversifying, and experimenting” he told us. “And I think what Chrome OS does well – they’re getting better at, and it’s being reflected in what Android does well in succession – Chrome on Android is the best browser we’ve ever had, and we would not be at that level without the Chrome team doing the work that they do, without the Chrome OS team learning the things that they do, and learning to understand, for example, how to work on touchscreens.”

“Ultimately, still, the two platforms meet different needs”

Meanwhile, what was originally a smartphone, and then a tablet, OS has been gaining more functionality to bring it in line with a desktop platform, though Duarte says that it’s still not quite there year. “Of course Android has also been evolving, and I think it’s terrific the way that we are gaining capabilities on a day-by-day basis” he said. “For example in Jelly Bean we announced multi-user support, and that opens up a range of use-cases, but ultimately, still, the two platforms meet different needs.”

That also means Android playing more readily with accessories and other devices, as it continues its trend toward being the one “OS for humanity” as Duarte himself described it. “One of the things that was great that we did in Honeycomb, was we included much better support for peripherals” the designer said. “So if you go hook up your Nexus 10 to a Bluetooth keyboard, or even a Bluetooth trackpad, you’ll find you have a much better experience with that.”

Despite the convergence that has already happened, Duarte points out however, neither Android nor Chrome OS are at the point where they satisfy the overall needs of all users. “Until we have one solution for Google that can really capture everything, it makes sense for us to continue to develop two platforms” he explained. Exactly how long that development will take is unclear, but it may take some time before Chrome OS – or a flavor of it – achieves the same market dominance as Android enjoys.

Don’t expect Android and Chrome OS to merge any time soon is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Is this the One? That’s pretty much the question we put to HTC’s Peter Chou, whose company has had a tough time battling other mobile giants with its original One series. The CEO was kind enough to have a little chat with us after the One launch — although his responses were often vague. We covered topics from what went wrong last year, how the new flagship device will bring the company back in the game, and where does HTC see itself from the perspective of consumers. Read on for the highlights as well as the full video clip after the break.

Looking back at the good old days since the original One series launch, Chou once again acknowledged the fact that his company didn’t do so well with marketing. “We had a few great devices, a lot of innovation, but we just need to let people know all of these HTC innovations. So today we are introducing the HTC One and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” said Chou. The CEO is also confident that his new flagship device has what it takes to deter consumers from the competition. “HTC will be offering consumers a great phone with great experience, these qualities are non-compromised. We are very confident that consumers will appreciate these innovations, experience and quality.”

“We just need to let people know all of these HTC innovations.”

In the face of the likes of Samsung and many Chinese manufacturers, Chou believes that HTC’s ability to work very closely with partners is a key to success — something that the company’s been very proud of since its OEM days. On the same subject, Chou also hinted at the changes that happened inside HTC not so long ago to help it stay in the game. “We are driving changes inside the company, pushing the innovation and pushing the execution.”

As any executive would do at a launch event, Chou went on to pimp the highlights of the One: BlinkFeed (live feed of ambient information), BoomSound (dual front-facing loudspeaker) and Zoe (multimedia gallery and editor on steroids). Again, the exec emphasized the importance of great experience, especially with Zoe where the user doesn’t need to do much, and yet they still get this “awesome emotion and personality” with the movies they share with people. “We think that this is a great way of providing new experience to smartphone users,” Chou added.

“The megapixel myth is the wrong way to go.”

We went on to ask how HTC will handle the tricky task of convincing consumers into the low-res (4-megapixel) but more sensitive and efficient UltraPixel camera, to which we were given a familiar response. “The megapixel myth is the wrong way to go, so what really matters is to give you much better image quality with great innovative, exciting experience. So that’s where we’re focusing on.”

Interestingly, the One doesn’t come with a microSD slot (as featured on the Japanese and Asian Butterfly variants) and Qi wireless charging (as featured on the Verizon versions of some HTC flagships), but Chou wasn’t too keen on addressing these drawbacks, and neither was he up for talking about the seemingly smaller battery size when compared to some of the competition. “Our differentiation is very, very clear,” Chou said. Of course, we shall see about that when we eventually get to review the One.

Sharif Sakr and Mat Smith contributed to this interview.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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Between the recent meteorite strike and our close call with 2012 DA14, we’ve all been thinking an awful lot about potential impact hazards from the heavens. Thankfully, however, during our visit to NASA Ames last week, much of our fear was put to rest by astrobiologist Dr. David Morrison, the scientist who coined the word “cosmophobia” to describe the fear of external impacts on Earth. Morrison, who recently served as one of the go to sources for science fact (and common sense) in stories about the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse speculation, spoke to us about the likelihood of major asteroid impact on Earth — and what we can do to stop it. Hang around after the break to check out our full interview with the good space doctor.

Filed under: Science

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This weekend A Good Day to Die Hard comes out in theaters across the USA, and with it the mobile game DIE HARD for iOS and Android, ushering in a new wave of mobile games: Endless Shooters. This game is hinging on the roll-out of one of the greatest new ways to play a game in the mobile realm, an endless runner, switching it up to include danger coming at you from up front rather than behind, making you go on the attack rather than running away. In this and inside the minds of the creators of the game we’ve found this app to be a beast not just for this movie opening, but for the future as well – check it out!

We had a chat with two of the heads from the groups responsible for the creation of this game, Matt McMahon, Vice President, Fox Digital Entertainment, and Andrew Solmssen, Managing Director, Los Angeles, POSSIBLE – the developers of the app. It was Solmssen that let us know that the idea for the DIE HARD app initially started with POSSIBLE’s hit game The End: “With the success we had with The End, an endless runner, we decided there was an opportunity to expand in that vein. … We felt that we hit upon something that was kind of a different subgenre, an endless shooter.”

Adding to that line of thought, McMahon spoke up: “In contrast with the other endless runners you’re always running away from something. With Die Hard you’re taking the fight to the enemy – that’s classic John McClaine.” And indeed it is a sweet ride from start to finish – you’re playing as the real-deal characters from the movie and you’ve got nothing but blasts to take care of in a series of missions mixed with customization of your gear and experience.

UPDATE: An important note from Solmssen himself! “One important note: the group that created TheEndApp and the Die Hard game is Goroid http://www.goroid.net/, the game studio that is part of POSSIBLE.” Thanks!

For those of you wondering – this was, as Solmssen notes: “a Die Hard game from the beginning.” Having been reached out to by the folks at Fox who are, according to McMahon, “always looking for talent anywhere in the world,” it was The End that brought the two forces together. McMahon continued, “We came across the game POSSIBLE had, The End – we thought it was a really solid product and we simply reached out.”

This game is ready for action right this minute in the iTunes App Store as well as the Google Play app store, and will be available in the Amazon app store soon! It’s also worth noting that this game will not end when the movie is no longer in theaters – instead we’ve got a guarantee from Fox that they’ll be bringing “ongoing support” beyond the movie, and that they “look to update the game with new levels and new environments” well into the future. Grab it now!

DIE HARD brings on new class in mobile gaming: the Endless Shooter is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.