After reviewing the new devices we saw yesterday—the Blackberry Bold 9650 and the Pearl 3G—RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis revealed what we’ve been waiting for at this year’s WES: BlackBerry 6.0. Updated: Video! More »
In a long overdue move, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is set for a major rehaul of the phone’s operating system.
RIM will launch OS 6.0, a snazzier version of its operating system that will include a better web browser, a customizable home screen, widgets and an overall perkier user interface.
OS 6.0 is expected to be available next quarter but it won’t be compatible with all BlackBerry devices, says RIM.
RIM is playing coy with the details about OS 6.0 but the company says the system has been optimized for both trackpads and toushcreen devices.
An earlier leak of the OS 6.0 prototype showed a user interface similar to that of the BlackBerry Storm. The OS 6.0 home screen has a has a digital clock, wall paper and large icons to access services such as music, web and e-mail.
The browser, for long a sore point for RIM users, also has gotten an overhaul. Instead of displaying links and text in a reformatted version for the mobile phone, the OS 6.0 browser is closer to what iPhone and Android users get on their devices, throwing up web pages that look as good on the phone as they do on the PC. RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis showed a sneak preview of the browser in February.
OS 6.0 will include a revamped music player with an interface that displays album art.
It’s nice to see RIM take a step to modernize the BlackBerrys user interface. But when rivals such as Motorola, HTC and even Microsoft with the Kin smartphones are integrating features such as social networking, video and cloud syncing into their devices, RIM’s efforts seem too little too late.
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Photo: Blackberry phone (LymStylez/Flickr)
It’s been a long (long!) time since we’ve caught wind of a substantial Windows Home Server refresh, but for those waiting on pins and needles, we’re thrilled to say that the excruciating wait has finally ended. Sort of. Microsoft has revealed today its public beta of the next version of WHS, code named “Vail.” The primary upgrades / changes include the extension of media streaming outside of the home or office, improvements in multi-PC backup and restore, simplified setup and user experience as well as “significantly” expanded development and customization tools for partner. Beyond that, the company’s playing things pretty close to the chest, but you can feel free to grab a 64-bit copy of the beta starting today and dig in yourself. ‘Course, Microsoft recommends that you install the software on a secondary (read: not important to your livelihood) machine, and on the development front, it’s introducing a new SDK for those who wish to “create add-in applications using Vail’s new extensible programming model.” So, whatcha waiting for? That download is a-callin’, and a brief demo video is just beyond the break.
Update: And we’ve already got our first review — good for those too chicken (or busy, frankly) to completely wipe a second PC just to see how Vail stacks up.
Windows Home Server ‘Vail’ beta now available for download, brings improved UI and streaming options originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Netbooks that will run Google’s new Chromium operating system will be competitively priced in the range of $300-$400, says Google chief Eric Schmidt.
The Chrome OS netbooks are expected to hit retail shelves by the end of this year or early next year.
“Those prices are completely determined by the costs of the glass, the costs of the processor and things like that,” says Schmidt in this video dug up by Tech Radar, “but in our case Chrome OS and Android are free so there is no software tax associated with all of this.”
Google introduced Chrome OS two months ago as a lightweight, browser-based operating system that would boot up in seven seconds or less. Google hasn’t revealed who will be manufacturing the Chrome OS netbooks, but already Acer has said it expects to offer about a million of these devices this year.
Chrome OS netbooks could also be available on contract from phone service providers, says Schmidt.
But it’s not clear how well that strategy will work. Other netbook makers have already tried that in the U.S. with limited success. For instance, Nokia offers its Booklet 3G netbook for $300 with a two-year AT&T contract that requires a monthly data service fee. But the device is also available without the plan at Best Buy for $600.
The novelty factor of the Chrome OS operating system aside, the netbook market is extremely price sensitive. And if Google wants a share of that pie it will have to beat the price of the Windows-based devices.
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Photo: (BlubrNL/Flickr)
Users of webOS and HTC Sense can skip ahead, you’re already familiar with tight social networking integration on your handsets. Now Apple appears ready to join the social, so to speak. New evidence of low-level Facebook event and contacts integration has been revealed in iPhone OS 4 hinting at the possibility of unified Calendar and Contacts apps from Apple when the OS launches this summer on, um, this device. Web site Website Gunning for Safety says that Apple appears to have created a “separate type of contact” just for Facebook. On its own, the claim is suspect if only because the site’s focus is related to nail gun safety. But we’ve grabbed copies of the associated .plist files from a jailbroken iPhone running OS 4 that seemingly back the claim. There’s even mention of a generic “SocialKitInternal.framework” opening the door for integration with services like Twitter — though we found no evidence for that. All this aligns nicely with a “Linked Contacts” feature discovered by AppleInsider last week. According to AI, multiple Linked Contacts can be associated to a single entry in the new iPhone OS 4 Contacts app. See some of the .plist evidence in the gallery below.
iPhone OS 4 reveals its social side: Facebook integration? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google may be racing to release new versions of its open source Android operating system, but most mobile devices that use it are still running older versions.
About 70 percent of existing Android devices use either Android 1.5, aka Cupcake, or Android 1.6, aka Donut, among the earliest versions of the OS.
Android 2.1, nicknamed Eclair, is catching up. About 27 percent of Android devices use Eclair, according to data from the Android developers community. Eclair is the version included with Google’s Nexus One as well as Motorola’s Droid.
The numbers suggest that fragmentation, a concern for both consumers and developers, is on the decline, and that Android devices will coalesce around two versions of the OS.
The latest data on the market share of the different Android OS versions is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed the app store, Android Market, in the two weeks ending April 12, say Android developers.
In the 16 months since the first Android phone hit the market, Google has made four major upgrades to the operating system. Meanwhile, it can take more than a year to develop a new smartphone. So most new cellphones launch with older versions of Android, depriving users of access to nifty features such as turn-by-turn navigation and a better user interface. For developers, all the different OS versions mean they have to spend additional resources creating apps that are compatible with all.
Handsets aren’t automatically compatible with the newest versions of Android, because the manufacturers generally must update the firmware on their devices to support the latest versions.
Earlier this week, Motorola bumped up the Droid, which launched with Android 2.0, to Android 2.1. The company says it is working on a schedule that will update its other phones, too, such as the Backflip and Cliq.
Motorola published a schedule in its community forums that indicates an upgrade to Android version 2.1 for the Cliq is planned for the second quarter, while the Backflip will be upgraded to version 2.1 in the third quarter. The company says it is still evaluating if the Motorola Devour on Verizon will get the newest version of the Android OS. Devour currently runs version 1.6 of the Android OS.
Check out the chart to see how the different versions of Android stack up:
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Top photo: (Niall Kennedy/Flickr). Chart source: Android developers
Apple would seem to have been optimizing its code in the time between sending its latest MacBook Pro models into mass production and yesterday’s launch, as we’ve just come across a software update for the brand new 2010 laptop models. Specifically aimed at the 15- and 17-inch machines — which differ from the 13-incher with their Core 2010 CPUs and automatically switching graphics subsystem — the patch is aimed at improving “graphics stability for high-performance video and gaming applications” while also squashing a variety of bugs. That hardly sounds like you’d be in danger if you didn’t update, but we’d still advise swallowing the 258MB pill just to keep your aluminum-clad investment safe.
Apple issues software update for new 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Failing a Palm acquisition, there might still be justification for HTC to build out its own software platform for many of the same reasons that buying Palm would make sense — the company’s getting bigger and more important to the market by the day, after all, and being left at the mercy of Google and Microsoft to produce cohesive platforms of their own might not sit well with Chou’s team ad infinitum. The HTC Smart could be regarded as its first baby step toward that goal, though the handset — based on Qualcomm’s Brew MP platform — is actually a featurephone that won’t fly with the same kinds of consumers that are cross-shopping Android and Windows Phone products. To that end, Bloomberg says that HTC’s CFO revealed in an interview that his company continues “to assess [developing its own smartphone operating system], but that requires a few conditions to justify.” Naturally, he went on to clam up when nudged about the Palm sitch — and he never got around to laying out what those “few conditions” were that would spur HTC to pull the trigger on any of this — but it’s starting to seem inevitable that this is all going to go down one way or another.
HTC ‘continues to assess’ developing its own smartphone OS, Palm says ‘hey, assess this’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
We’re not quite at the height of Apple frenzy, but looking at the bell curve, we’re only a standard deviation or two from its zenith (we imagine the fever pitch will be in tandem with Saturday’s iPad launch, if history and human nature tells us anything). Of course, that doesn’t stop the rumor mill from amping up production, and so on with the show! First on the docket, remember last month’s discovery of multitasking comments in the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta? Well, Apple Insider’s apparently got it on word from its network of sources that OS 4.0 will in fact include multitasking, with app switching purportedly done by double-tapping the home button and selecting the appropriate active app icon. If you ask us, that sounds similar in function to command / tab switching, but the people claiming to be in the know liken it more to Expose for OS X.
Taking a step back to focus on the actual hardware for a moment, iPad in Canada is hearing that local Apple store employees have been told April 24th is a “black out period,” meaning no one is allowed to take that day off. That usually coincides with major product launch, and we did hear the international iPad debut would be late April, but Apple’s yet to make its non-US plans concrete. It is the last Saturday of the month, however, and perhaps it’ll coincide with the other countries as well. As always, none of this is confirmed and shouldn’t be taken as gospel in any way, shape, or form. We can’t stop you from getting your hopes up, but don’t blame us if those dreams get shattered by a sucker punch of reality.
Apple rumor twofer: Expose-like multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0, international iPad launch on April 24th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Not that we necessarily needed a report to tell us this, but the fewer privileges you afford yourself as a Windows user, the more secure your operating system becomes. Such is the conclusion of a new report from BeyondTrust, a company that — surprise, surprise — sells software for “privileged access management.” The only way we use Windows 7 is as admins and we’ve never had a moment’s bother, but some of you like stats, and others among you might be involved in business, which tends to make people a little more antsy about these things. So for your collective sake, let there be pie charts! The report looks into vulnerabilities disclosed by Microsoft during 2009 and concludes that all 55 reported Microsoft Office issues and 94 percent of the 33 listed for IE could be prevented by simply running a standard user account. Or using better software, presumably. Hit the PDF source for more info — go on, it’s not like you have anything better to do while waiting for the Large Hadron Collider to go boom.
Windows 7 is safer when the admin isn’t around originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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