Hasta La Gadget!

The release of Chrome OS looms ever closer, but still there are a number of enhancements and changes being rolled in that should make for a somewhat nicer experience, and TechCrunch has highlighted a few. Perhaps most major among those changes is the ability to browse the internet without signing in, but if you want to update your bookmarks or save any form data you’ll still need a Google account. There’s a new side bar that appears to give access to other apps, replacing tabs on top, and it also adds in battery and WiFi strength indicators. There’s also something of a debate going on regarding whether Chrome OS should have support for compressed archives (.zip and .rar files and the like). Right now the OS has no support for those files, which, as one contributor points out, is rather unfortunate given that Gmail itself generates zip files when you click “download all attachments.” Let’s hope someone at the Googs finds time to add that in so that future users aren’t locked out of the joys of extraction.

A look at some of Chrome OS’s latest bits of polish originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No folks, those mythical N8 review units still aren’t on our doorsteps, but we can offer you the next best thing: a thorough (we mean thorough) overview of the Symbian^3 environment that will be front and center on Nokia’s next great phone. Eldar Murtazin of mobile-review reports on everything from the sophisticated handling of contacts and caller ID pictures, through the noticeable speed improvements, past the limited utility of online widgets that display only two lines at a time, beyond the “weak spot” web browser, and all the way to Symbian’s unhealthy habit of “clinging to continuity.” It’s an enlightening read, which pulls no punches with its conclusion: Symbian^3 is an evolutionary step up from S60 5th edition, which brings nothing new to the market and offers no comparative advantages. Strong words from Eldar, particularly when he doesn’t disclose what build of the OS he’s using; his rationale, however, is that his analysis relates to overarching design decisions and ignores software bugs and version-specific foibles. Make of that what you will.

[Thanks, scotsboyuk]

Symbian^3 reviewed in exquisite and ruthless detail by Eldar Murtazin originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa. Nokia’s premier range of devices, the N Series, will bid adieu to the Symbian operating environment and go MeeGo full time after the introduction of the N8. That’s what we’ve just heard directly from the Finnish horse’s mouth. Nokia will naturally keep Symbian around — of course there’s a whole Symbian^4 to come — but will utilize it on more mass market devices as it seeks to push smartphones further down the product hierarchy. So it’s not necessarily bad news, as such, it means we’ll likely see Symbian trickle down to handsets priced more like featurephones and less like miniaturized laptops. What it does mean, however, is that Nokia is pushing forward with its modernization plans, and doing so more aggressively than previously thought. Which we consider to be a pretty awesome (and necessary) thing.

Nokia N8 to be final Symbian N Series device, all MeeGo from here on out originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Jolicloud promises touch support in version 1.0, gives a demo now

Jolicloud promises touch support in version 1.0, gives a demo now originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s oftentimes easy for us to get swept up in Android mania and forget that Google’s mobile platform is still in its infancy. Then we get cold hard numbers like these — showing iPhone OS owning 28 percent of the US smartphone market and closing in on RIM’s leading 35 percent — and we face up to the realization that Android handsets still account for less than one in every ten smartphones owned by Americans today. In spite of collecting 28 percent of all consumer smartphone purchases in the first quarter of 2010 (according to NPD), Google’s OS was only able to climb up a couple of percentage points in terms of total market share, showing just how long a road lies ahead of its world-conquering plans. Guess that now explains why Apple’s response to the earlier numbers was so nonchalant.

Other intriguing figures include a high rate of loyalty among iPhone OS and Android users, with 80 percent of the former and 70 percent of the latter expressing a preference for the same OS in their next phone — both rather shaming Microsoft and RIM’s numbers, which were a mediocre 34 and 47 percent, respectively. Funnily enough, despite its inflammatory title, this report finds Android and iPhone users are more similar to each other than anyone else — an uncomfortable fact for both parties to deal with, we’re sure. The source link contains some more demographic comparisons, so why not go check them out and drop some sage analysis for us in the comments?

‘iPhone vs Android’ report finds Apple has three times Google’s market share originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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