Hasta La Gadget!

You’ve got to hand it to the Nexus S. In spite of being a souped-up smartphone, it’s still unpretentious enough to accept power from a BlackBerry microUSB cable and easy enough to hack that it’s just received not one, but two OS ports. MeeGo, in its very raw and unfinished form, has been dropped onto the phone’s internal memory without the need for any flashing, and the method has also been successfully used to install Ubuntu on the current Google flagship. There’s very little that’s actually functional about the MeeGo install at the moment, but the ball has begun rolling and there’s a resulting question that’s occupying our minds right now — will the Nexus S have a perfectly hacked copy of MeeGo before or after Nokia releases its device for the platform? Answers on a postcard.

[Thanks, Michelle and Brad]

Continue reading Nexus S receives MeeGo and Ubuntu ports, makes our nerd senses tingle (video)

Nexus S receives MeeGo and Ubuntu ports, makes our nerd senses tingle (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that $699 is $300 less than the purported $999 price tag we had originally heard would be affixed to the Indamixx 2 slate. The bad news? It’s just a rebadged iiView M1 Touch, which can be had for around $500. That said, those who fork out the premium will get a copy of Transmission 5.0 running atop MeeGo, not to mention a 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor, 2GB of RAM, a mini HDMI output and a 250GB hard drive. Those who’d prefer to snag a model that dual boots into Windows 7 can do so if they’re willing to part ways with $779, with both models including a mouse, free shipping and a gratis carrying case. Not exactly a bargain, but for those in desperate need of a music-centric tablet, it ain’t like you’ve got a ton of options.

Indamixx 2 music tablet now on sale: $699 for beta hardware originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ari Jaaksi, the former head of MeeGo Devices at Nokia, has confirmed reports from last month identifying HP as his new employer. According to the latest update to his LinkedIn profile, Ari is now enjoying the mild temperatures of the San Francisco Bay Area and does indeed hold the title of Senior Vice President at Hewlett-Packard. That in itself doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the new head honcho for webOS and Palm devices, but clicking on his “Company Website” link takes you to Palm.com, which should dispel any lingering doubts. So now that we know he’ll be helping steer the HPalm ship, can we start sending Ari our mockups for the Pre 3 or what?

Nokia’s former MeeGo chief confirms new role as Senior VP of webOS at HP originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Nov 2010 07:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Love application launchers? Application switching? Open source software running on non-commercial hardware? You’re going to love this video. MeeGo 1.1 has been spotted on Aava-built, Intel Moorestown-powered hardware. It appears, in fact, to be that Virta 2 smartphone development kit of theirs (which already managed MeeGo 1 just fine), thought it’s a little hard to tell in the dim lighting the MeeGo event coordinators chose to set the mood for Linux love. Not a ton of the OS is shown off in the video above, but there are some nice transitions and smooth scrolling. That Firefox load time has miles to go, however. Mainly we’re just excited to see something that isn’t ARM running a next-gen smartphone OS (no offense, ARM), and we’re looking forward to seeing where MeeGo lands on the Android / webOS / guy-in-garage continuum of Linux-based smartphones.

MeeGo 1.1 spotted running on Moorestown hardware, blowing minds originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jo Harlow, Nokia’s Senior VP of Symbian Smartphones was in Amsterdam for the kickoff of the Symbian Exchange and Exposition, giving us the chance for a sit down with the seven year Nokia veteran. How could we resist given the recent launch of Symbian^3, Nokia’s new iterative approach to Symbian updates, and then Monday’s (expected) bombshell that the Symbian Foundation would hand over operation responsibility for the OS to Nokia. While the full transcript is available after the break, we wanted to highlight the following:

• Symbian user interface improvements are Nokia’s top priority. According to Jo, “We are planning a few user interface improvements in early 2011 including split screen text input, portrait QWERTY — there will be other improvements coming shortly after particularly in the visual appeal of the graphics of the device.”
• While Jo stopped short of saying that changes in the Symbian Foundation will accelerate Symbian updates, she did concede that it eliminates a step making things “simpler” — and that’s a positive thing.
• Jo also reminded us that Nokia’s plans for MeeGo stretch beyond traditional handset formats. And just like Symbian handsets will form a “fat center” in Nokia’s device portfolio, she expects Nokia’s more diverse MeeGo offerings to be “pretty big and fat as well.”

Read on for the full interview in addition to Jo’s thoughts on Symbian’s “infinite possibility to surprise people,” Stephen Elop’s performance in his first two months on the job, and her frustration at not being able to move faster amidst all of the “Symbian bashing.”

Continue reading Nokia SVP of Symbian Smartphones talks portrait QWERTY, Symbian ‘bashing,’ and MeeGo devices

Nokia SVP of Symbian Smartphones talks portrait QWERTY, Symbian ‘bashing,’ and MeeGo devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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