Tech QQ

Europeans looking forward to Microsoft's Kin smart phones will be sad for reading this news bit (although I suspect not many were looking forward to the Kin's European release).

And the sad news is that on Wednesday, Microsoft announced that they are scrapping the Kin project. The reason is said to be worse than expected sales, although neither Microsoft or Verizon is giving out any figures. Verizon is apparently continuing to sell the existing devices though, a representative was quoted saying:

We don't share sales data or marketing strategies but the device remains an important part of our portfolio

The existing Kin-team will be moved into the Windows Phone 7 team at Microsoft. A Microsoft rep confirmed for CNET:

Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones

Just the other day the blogosphere was buzzing with the rumor that the Kin's were getting an update around mid-summer. What's happening to this, if anything, has still to be disclosed.

I personally thought the Kin was a really odd creature and didn't really fit into Microsoft's portfolio of products. The execution of the idea behind it was just off, and Microsoft hasn't been known to be hip with the youngsters, so aiming the device at the tweener generation seemed doomed.

That combined with the ridiculous data plan price that Verizon took was just doomed to fail. It could probably have sold a lot better, but the price would had to been slashed considerably, and the data plan would had to have been reduced to fixed rate and silly low money.

This would basically had made it a loss affair, bleeding money, but undercutting the market would probably have been the only way for it to catch on.

So while we mourn Kin (and mostly that it was introduced at all - because of all the confusion that came with it!), let's wish the Kin-team a smooth integration into the WP7 team, and let's hope they can share some of the good ideas while helping expedite development - so that we get to see a release of Windows Phone 7 in October as we are all hoping for!

---

For more info see coverage at CNET.
And Engadget's version.

So, this vid plays out between a salesperson and a potential iPhone 4 buyer. If you like Android or just got a thorn in Apple's side, you might like it.

Language is harsh though, so be warned!

Some really funny promotional vids from different parts of the high tech sector.

For starters, this is a clip created by MSI themselves. How catching their products with your ass would make it cool I have no clue though...


The next one is from the Software and Information Industry Association and it's trying to convince youngsters not to copy software.

The "Music video" is almost 10 mins long and extremely annoying, but somewhere 3:10 in to the vid is a clip with Craig Dykstra and his team talking about the release of the first Never Winter Nights! It's fun to hear them saying that "sometimes up to 20 or 30 people" could be involved in the games project, quite different from todays multi million dollar projects. Check it out below.


Another highlight form the 80's, an Apple commercial. Ahh, the good old days when it was believed that computers would actually help kids study, and not just distract them.


To finish it off, a great Windows 7 commercial that is so new that it can't use the time factor as an excuse. How to make your own Windows 7 release party, the über pretentious way...

Over the past week there have been several Froyo (Android 2.2) releases for the Nexus One being written about on the net. Now it seems the real deal is out finally.

This release is named FRF85 and it seems some Nexus One owners running on AT&T are receiving the update OTA today.

If you are on any other carrier and still want to install Froyo on your Android device, you can go to this Google link and download the latest build from there.

The official blog post regarding this Froyo release from Google can be seen here.

If you are running Android 2.1 (or higher) on your phone and want to add some bling to it, you can always use a Live Wallpaper.

And if you happen to be an old school Mario fan, the wallpaper of wallpapers have now been released! Check out the vid below from AndroidCentral showing it in action:



The wallpaper is free and available on the Android Market, check the developers thread at xda-developers for more info and other ways to download it.

Beware though, this Live Wallpaper is not going to prolong your battery power exactly...

Nokia is poking fun at Apple and the Steve at their official blog. Describing many ways you can hold your Nokia on, without experiencing any signal loss.

The key function on any Nokia device is its ability to make phone calls. After all, that’s why we know them universally as mobile phones (or smart phones, feature phones or mobile computers – though the same grip styles work for those, too). One of the main things we’ve found about the 1 billion plus Nokia devices that are in use today is that when making a phone call, people generally tend to hold their phone like a…. well, like a phone.

Have you been longing for that nice looking Dell Streak, but didn't want it bound to a carrier?
If you live in the UK, you don't have to wait anymore. The Streak is now available unlocked for £449 (about $675). But if you think importing is ok, then you can wait for next month as Dell is to start selling the unlocked Streak for 500$ (about £335).

Another post that might not be jam packed with information, but still well worth the time it takes to watch it as it's awesome.

I must say I feel for the dad though...

Another video of Windows Phone 7 running on a LG Panther has been released. It doesn't bring any new to the table that we haven't seen before, but it's a nice, good quality vid showing off how smooth the WP7 is running as of the latest builds.

Check it out:

According to Apple employees a firmware fix for the reported "death grip" issue on the new iPhone 4 is planned. Some one stated early this week as eta.

But later on those comments were pulled form the Apple forums. So that could mean that some one spoke too soon, or without mandate. If people are unlucky it could mean that the theories were right, that this is strictly a hardware issue and can't be fixed.

Let's stay positive and hope they're able to sort it with a firmware upgrade, as it would be sad to see the entire first batch suffering from this issue. But some how I don't think the Steve has the same smile nowadays as he had on the picture up top...

The new Windows Live Essentials beta is now publicly available from Microsoft. The suit consists of a new version of Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and a Mail handling tool.

As for the most of the tools we already have our favorites (Messenger, Mail program etc) but the Photo Gallery tool seems really smooth and worth testing. Check out the video below for more info:

A new video surfaced the other day of a recent Windows Phone 7 Build hands on demo, it was taken during a Microsoft event in New York.



As far as I can see it's not bringing any new stuff to the table, as all of the shown features have been seen/was known before. But it shows a good view of the smart logic hooked up to addresses and how that integrates to Bing maps. The starting event is found in the calendar and from there Bing maps pops up and shows the place to go to, then there is the possibility to view POI's in that vicinity(check this part around 1:55 in to the vid).

It also shows a brief few seconds how the SharePoint integration looks, and how the Xbox integration looks and how to view pictures in your social network like pictures you have on Windows Live.

Here's a close up of the device, it shows the new icons on the Home page and the texts they just recently added on the tiles.

The last 24 hours the interwebs been buzzing on how the iPhone 4 might have some kind of antenna problems going on.

From Insanely Great Mac:


The assumption is that the problem occurs when you touch both the antennas with your palm and hence conduct electricity in between them. The WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth antenna is on the left side, thus the greater issues when people are holding this in their left hand and connecting to the entire face of this antenna with their palm.

Walt Mossberg, a reviewer for the Wall Street Journal, said he has been in contact with Apple and that they are working on a fix. But if this is indeed a hardware issue then it might not be so easy to fix...

No worries though, there is a very simple solution to the problem for you that already have spent your hard earned cash on a new iPhone 4 and are suffering from this problem:

Finally the long wait is over! Farmville is released for iPhone and iPod Touch!

Now you can plant, plow and harvest your heart out (maybe not in that given order though) 24/7 wherever you might be as long as you carry your trusty iDevice with you. If you already got a farm on Facebook you continue managing tha tone, and if you haven't gotten one yet you can create a new one!!

If you feel this is the app you been waiting for all your life, you can download it here(US)!



/irony

Some week ago some guys at iFixYouri decided to drop test an iPhone 4 mockup they had gotten. And they managed to break the glass.

Everyone kept saying that it wasn't the real thing, that the chassis was more unstable since it had no innards and that the front didn't have the real enhanced glass panel that the final version would have etc etc.

But now they gotten their hands on a real device, and managed to prove that it can break as well. Sure it took them four tries. But the height and the surface dropped on is nothing special. This means it could probably happen to your device too, so be careful out there with your brand new spanking iPhone, because it's not bulletproof as the Steve might led you to believe...

Are you feeling an urge for better Exchange support, better camera and gallery handling, ability to create portable hotspots, maybe keyboard support for multiple languages or just some plain old increased performance?

If so you might just have the urge for some Froyo!

And now Google are handing out Froyo, at least to us developers. You can access it at the Android Developers page. For an overview of the highlights in the new Android 2.2, check this page out.

The Droid X was announced today to be provided by Verizon for $199 on a 2-year plan and will be available on July 15:th.

The specs looks pretty much as what was believed from the leaks before, the full list of impressive specs reads:

• 4.3″, 854×480 screen in 16:9 format
• HDMI out and DLNA support
• 1GHz TI OMAP processor
• Flash 10.1 support coming with Froyo
• 8 gigs on board and a 16gig card included, but compatible with 32gig SD cards for a total potential memory of 40 gigs
• 512mb RAM
• 8 MP camera that captures 720p HD video
• Three microphones (outward-facing for video, noise-canceling, and regular)
• 1570mAh battery
• aGPS
• Bluetooth
• WiFi
• WiFi Hotspot with support for tethering up to 5 devices will also be available for an additional $20 per month with a 2 gig cap.

Verizon stated that Droid X users will get access to Froyo(Android 2.2) later this summer, and this will also bring full Flash 10.1 support.

On paper the Droid X looks like a very strong candidate for the top spot as king of Androids. The current competition being HTC's EVO 4G and Google's Nexus One. It will be fun to see a couple of reviews when the unit becomes more available to see what it handles like.

In the mean time, AndroidCentral have made a very nice comparison sheet over the iPhone 4, HTC’s Droid Incredible, HTC's Evo 4G and Google's Nexus One. Check it out below.

Today the latest version of Google Maps for Android was released. New in v4.3 is restaurant reviews, schedules for public transit and possibility to share your location with your Google contacts by sending a Google Latitude request.

The restaurant review seems like a really nice feature. It shows a snapshot of peoples thoughts of the place in a nice handy overview page with color coded bars. It shows the amount of stars the place has, and the latest comments that visitors made.

This version is available for Android v1.6 and information on how to get it can be found here, if you are browsing this from your Android phone you can get it here.

One of my favorite programs are finally being ported to WinMo - Spotify!

WinMobile.se is reporting that it will be supporting WinMo 6.5, works great with 480*800 screen resolution but will have mult resolution support. And it will support multitasking. It will of course support offline mode, and save music in the phone memory or on the storage card.

And all this goodness will be released within a month. For all you that haven't tried Spotify I highly recommend you too, if you like music that is. Get Spotify here.

A leaked roadmap document from Australian provider, Telestra, mentions a so far unknown device - the HTC Mozart.

According to the time line this is supposed to be released in October, hopefully coinciding with the general Windows Phone 7 launch.

The device itself will probably look different than the one on the picture, as it seems it's just a mockup of a HTC Desire.

With the release of iOS 4 there are a lot of updates to apps being released, enabling them to take advantage of the new features.

For a complete list of all the apps that have been tested and proved working on iOS 4 you can run the following Google search.

A small sample of some of the apps that have been upgraded to use new functionality are:

• Pandora
• Dropbox
• Wordpress
• LinkedIn
• Evernote
• How to Cook Everything
• Internet Radio Box
• Tweetaholic
• National Rail
• TuneIn Radio

On June the 7:th the Steve divulged that iOS 4 would be available today for iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPod Touch users.

It's rumored that the update will be available after 18.00 CET(according to Telia, a swedish provider). To check if it's available, just hook up your device to your computer and start iTunes.
But make sure you have updated your iTunes to version 9.2 as it is required to support iOS 4!

If you're not up to speed as to what iOS 4 might offer you, have a look at this vid for a 10 minute briefing of what's new in iOS 4.

Windows Live Messenger is now available for iPhone and iPod Touch users.

It's available form the App Store, the official description reads:

Windows Live Messenger for iPhone and iPod Touch is the best way to connect with the people that matter most and keep up with the things they are doing across the web. Use your iPhone to instant message your friends list, view and comment on your friends’ photos and status updates from Windows Live, Facebook, and MySpace, and at a glance, see what your Messenger friends are sharing from Flickr, YouTube, and many other social and photo sharing sites. Make sure to visit http://profile.live.com/Services today and setup Windows Live to bring in your social networks. Messenger is simply the best way to connect with your closest friends.

Great iPhone 4 spoof commercial, very informative too I have to say.

For all those out there waiting for Android 2.2(Froyo) it seems it's now officially available on Google's servers for the Nexus One.


To install build FRF72 you need to be running FRF50. You can get the FRF72 build from Google's servers here.

Windows Phone 7 is closing in on release, and we are hearing "soon" more and more often. Could it be that WP7 will be released earlier than believed?

At the Windows Phone 7 Developer Hub in Stockholm we got told that devices, with a working OS, would be released in October. Now I personally found that too good to be true. But now we get more and more progress reports, so who knows.

The last information telling us that WP7 is nearing completion is that the XBox Live Games Hub now is up and working. As stated on Michael Klucher's Blog:

Whoa! That’s me! By me of course I mean my Gamertag, Avatar, and latest Achievement in the Games Hub! I couldn’t believe it, we’ve had the Games Hub working for a while, but up until now it’s been on internal networks inside Microsoft. This week was the first time I really got to see my “true” gamer identity on the phone.

Contemplating swapping out your old iPhone 3GS? Are you looking at that sweet iPhone 4 being released soon or are you looking over the fence towards the Android camp?

If you would like to know how your iPhone 3GS stocks up agains the HTC EVO 4G, check out the vid below:

Combined with the launch of the Motorola ES400 Steve Ballmer announced a new mobile OS form Microsoft, named "Windows Embedded Handheld". The new OS will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 technology and will be aimed at the enterprise market.

Check out the annoying video presentation by Steve Ballmer below:

This new OS is planned for release during 2010. Later on an updated platform based on Windows 7 technologies will be released, this will be named "Windows Embedded Compact 7". The Windows Embedded Compact 7 version is scheduled for release during the second half of 2011.

So, Microsoft will soon have 5 mobile platforms (assuming it will take some time phasing out Windows Mobile 6.5): Windows Mobile 6.5, Kin, Windows Phone 7, Windows Embedded Handheld and Windows Embedded Compact 7. Or are they hoping that the 6.5 version and the Embedded Handheld will be replaced in a jiffy by Compact 7 so that the platforms will be so scattered?

At the moment I can't help but feel that they are just creating a bigger mess for themselves, it probably looked good on all the excel sheets, but it's just turning out to be confusing in reality.

It is indeed good that there is a enterprise focused mobile OS that will keep the Mobile 6.5 legacy and let those companies that invested heavily in that platform keep their investments. But I think some where inside I was kind of hoping for Windows Phone 7 to shoulder that responsibility. So I had some initial issues with WP7 because I felt they were making it impossible for us developers to write solid enterprise apps on it, but now it become clear as to why WP7's limitations are what they are.

Check this link for more information.

Toshiba is presenting the highest capacity NAND flash mermory yet, a chip with 128GB space. The currently largest flash memorys are holding 32GB, so Toshiba is actually quadrupling the capacity.

The new circuits contains a controller and 16*8GB chips, they are produced in 32nm tech and the chip itself is only 1.4mm tall. There is also a smaller 64GB version on the way. The primary targets for these flash chips are smartphones, tablets, cameras and media players.

The new chips are planned to be in mass production by Q4.

In the UK, Orange has released their upcoming iPhone 4 plans.

For the 16GB version, on a 24 month contract
Initial cost, Monthly fee
Free, 75£
89£, 40£
119£, 35£
169£, 30£

For £30, customers will get 150 minutes and 250 texts.

Sony Ericsson is releasing new firmware for the Xperia X10 and X10 Mini Pro. The update will bring more functionality and a better user experience.

Among other things, the upgrade will enable HD quality video recording to stengthen the devices position as leader in multimedia for Android devices.

In selected markets the devices will be upgraded to Android 2.1 (Eclair) as soon as Q3.

Rumor has it that Sandforce is pushing their next version chip release forward one quarter to Q3 this year.

The Sandforce controller has been the all the rave this year for SSD controllers. They have been improving performance in leaps compared to the old Indilinx controllers. With the use of the Sandforce 1200 and 1500 series a lot of SSD manufacturers have been producing better and better SSD units this year. So the expectations for the next revision is naturally set high.

If the rumors now hold true, then the next version Sandforce controller won't let any one down, as they are claimed to support the new sata 6Gbps interface and reach performance of up to 520MB/s for both reads and writes. This means that they are almost maxing out the new sata 6 interface with the first incarnation of the new controllers.

As there is only one other SSD sata 6Gbps drive in action now, the Crucial RealSSD C300, we might finally get some price competition in that segment as well. Hopefully the sata 3Gbps SSD's will become cheaper too, as a result of not being king of the hill anymore.

And I can't belie I made it through this entire piece without a single Star Wars quote...

After the EVO 4G been rooted, it has now also been overclocked. The 1GHz Snapdragon in it was possible to get up to 1.2GHz and it proved to provide about 30% increase in flop capacity.

This surely bodes well for the next gen 1.2GHz dual core Snapdragon and the planned 1.5GHz one too.

Check the vid below for the nice results.

HTC Europe has announced a new Firmware update. This upgrade will give your Hero a new version of Android and bump it to v2.1(Eclair). It will be available for an over the air upgrade and it's recommended that it's downloaded while connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot if you don't have an unlimited data plan.
Some of the benefits of this upgrade will allegedly be better camera functionality, improved MP3 player features and Facebook integration.

More and more info is leaking out about Motorola's new Droid X. Some people have even had some hands on and reports the following specs:

• 4.4" Capacitive screen
• FWGA(854*480) resolution
• Android 2.1 (Eclair)
  
• 8MP camera that supports 720p video
• 1GHz ARMv7 processor
• 8GB Flash storage

Reportedly it handles well, and the screen is to be one of the more responsive available on Android devices.

According to Pocket Gamer, a source told them that Microsoft are contacting developers of successful apps launched for the iPhone.

And they are apparently willing to pay large sums to get those successful apps ported to the Windows Phone 7 platform in time for launch.

It would indeed be great if the Windows Phone Marketplace was stocked up with apps at launch date (some time this fall?). But according to the same very source, the money Microsoft is willing to pay just isn't enough for the work to port the code from iOS to the WP7 platform.

Today Samsung revealed the Omnia Pro 4, sadly it's not a Windows Phone 7 device, but a Windows Mobile 6.5 device.

It's got a touch-screen, 2.62" screen with 320*320 resolution, full qwerty-keyboard, A-GPS, FM-radio, 3.2MP camera, 200MB memory and flash card up to 32GB

More nonsense posts, but this clip was too good to miss!

Just had to post this Korean Android commercial, even though there is minimal informational value in it. Look at how cute the small androids are in the end, question is if Apple are loosing market shares just due to these cute guys. Doesn't Apple need to introduce some cool character to represent it's iPhones and iPad's to get back into the game?

Even though the iPad hasn't been available all that long, and is in fact not yet available in large parts of the world, the mobile browser share of iPad's are rapidly climbing. It's increasing so fast in fact that it has already surpassed Android and RIM based devices on a world wide basis, at least according to research from Morgan Stanley.


But regarding market share of mobile units in North America, it is Android based systems that are increasing their cut and according to the online market tracking firm Quantacast it is mainly the iPhone that is loosing the battle. Might be because iPhone was the only real competitor regarding smartphone app consumption on the market.

The older Windows based smartphones used to boot in over a minute.
The Nexus One boots in about 55 seconds.
The HTC HD2 boots in about 50 seconds.
The iPhone 3GS boots in about 23 seconds.

The LG Panther...

...boots in about 30 seconds, so that's quite nice.

But hopefully a little bit more get shaved off before release as the OS on that Panther isn't production ready yet.

Here's hoping for 22 seconds!

CommunicAsia 2010 starts tomorrow, and Samsung has stated that they will reveal a few new devices. Some will be new Bada devices, some will be Android devices and one, the Omnia Pro 4, is a Windows device.

Any one want to bet against that this will be the new incarnation of the Windows Phone 7 device we have seen that was just a tweaked Omnia Pro a few months back?

I know WP7 isn't finished yet, but it's time to start revealing devices now, let us geeks drool a bit and set the anticipation high!

The other day I installed Soluto to check it out. For you that haven't heard of it yet the company releasing it calls it Anti-Frustration Software.

What it does is that it charts your startup sequence and lists everything that is being executed during your boot. It will categorize all the software that runs in your boot in three categories:

1. Programs that don't need to be run during the boot
2. Programs that you might be able to postpone running until after the boot depending on your knowledge about them
3. Programs that you can't move or postpone (mostly OS specific stuff)

I generally keep my boot process as clean as I can, and I try to avoid installing a lot of software to test it and then uninstall it. I found testing a lot of software then uninstalling it sadly kills your boot performance quite fast. After running Soluto for the first time I found out my boot time was 1:50, which isn't half bad for my 2 year old Vista system I guess. After analyzing the boot, removing the unwanted programs and delaying the non vital programs to after the boot, I managed to cut down my boot times to 58 seconds. That's almost down to half the time!

Looking at the list of what was running I also found some Ninja-software in there, that had sneaked in without me knowing it. I also found an old Nvidia updater that was there, even though I uninstalled my Nvidia drivers a year ago when I swapped for an ATI graphics card. It's quite scary how much crap stuff that creeps into the boot boot sequence without users being told about it. I really wish that software publishers stopped doing this as it just ruins the boot times for users.

There is also one more function where you can just right-click the Soluto icon and choose "My PC just aggravated me" if you just had any kind of issue, a hang, a delay or whatever happened that just annoyed you and then Soluto will try and tell you what was the cause of the issue. Unfortunately I haven't tested this yet as my PC is behaving nicely these days.

Check out the following video to get an idea of what Soluto is like.



All in all I found the boot analyze function to be very good, and I can really recommend downloading Soluto and trying it to help your system get better boot times and overall more performance from eliminating all crap-ware that you might have gotten installed. You can go check Soluto out here.

The Windows Phone 7 - Devices page got updated with some tidbits about Asus and a new section about the existing LG device.

A small insight into the issues with focus the inter-web leads to in today's times.

For those following the Windows mobile scene the changes to the marketplace policy might not be news. A quick recap for those who missed it:

• Yearly fee for developers of 99$
• You get to publish 5 apps for free
• Earlier 5 apps was a cap, now it you can submit as many as you like but for a cost of 19.99$ for additional apps after your first free 5
  
• Marketplace will take 30% of the earnings
• You will only be available to get your apps to other users via marketplace
  
• There will be a way to give access to your beta testers without having them pay for the app, but it will be just for a small limited amount of people
• The yearly fee and registration will let developers unlock up to 5 devices for side loading apps
• For Windows Phone 7 there will be a trial API available, enabling developers to let customers download and sample the application before buying it
• There will be several different business models - free, ad-funded, fremium and paid
  

A small tidbit that I haven't seen published before is - what about updates?
A developers will be able to publish updates for their apps, and the users will see in the marketplace hub on the "search page" that they have apps installed that have pending updates (see screenshot below).


I asked Ben Riga during the Windows Phone 7 Developer Hub in Stockholm, and he confirmed that since updates of your app will go through the same rigorous review as all apps, it will count as one of your 5 free app submits. It will also cost you 19.99$ to release an update given that you used your 5 free already.

Microsoft has published their Windows Phone 7 Application Requirement sheet, available here, and they have seen the debacle Apple had when pulling all adult themed material. So they are stating directly that no adult material will be allowed. In the document it states:
3.6 Adult Related Content
Content not allowed:

• Sex / Nudity – Images that are sexually suggestive or provocative (e.g. sexually provocative touching, bondage, masturbation); provocative images that reveal nipples, genitals, buttocks, or pubic hair.
• Content that a reasonable person would consider to be adult or borderline adult content (images, text, or audio).
• Content that generally falls under the category of pornography.
• Content that depicts or suggests prostitution.
• Content depicting sexual fetishes.
• Content of a sexual nature depicting children or animals.

Good news for all us parents, now we don't have to fear our kids can get access to smut when we buy them 700$ business phones!

The guys over at iFixYouri managed to get a hold of a iPhone 4 case, no hardware inside but the glass was said to be the real deal. They managed to drop it from three and a half foot's height, and this was the result:

Let's just hope that the case wasn't made of the same material as the iPhone 4 is actually going be produced in, as this isn't really the "20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic" kind of material that the Steve was talking about when he presented the device.

Wednesday the 9:th of June, I attended the Windows Phone 7 Developer Hub in Stockholm. Holding the technical presentations were Ben Riga and Niel Hutson and during the evening was a design centric lecture held by Albert Shum and Bryan Agnetta.

Overall the event was very good I felt. There was quite a lot of info I got that I never had heard about before, we also got some hands on with devices they had brought, and I also got a few of my questions answered.

The devices they had brought with them was the LG "Panther" and the Asus phone we've seen so many times by now. I didn't know it before, but the Asus phone actually got a name, it's called "Galaxy".


I got some hands on time with the Panther and these are some of my thoughts:

• The device it self feels pretty solid but there is still a plastic vibe there that they need to chip away before release.
  
• The slider keyboard is actually much nicer than I had originally thought.
  
• The keyboard felt easy to use and enter text on.
  
• The slide out mechanism was distinct and felt good.
• The OS felt responsive and quite complete, I was honestly expecting a less finished feel.
• There is a small resistance in the GUI when flipping between screens or pictures, some times it feels like that resistance is just a little too much. I think that the idea is great, it shouldn't start flipping about stuff to easily, so there should be a bit of a resistance and it ties in so beautifully with the accordion effect the UI got. But it shouldn't be too exaggerated either, cause right now it some times felt hard in portrait mode to flip stuff about.

I didn't get any hands on time with the Asus Galaxy device, but I got confirmed that it was just a very early prototype, just as suspected from it being shown as the first device in Barcelona at MWC 2010. They said Asus has more devices in line, and they look nothing like the Galaxy.

More posts with information from the event to follow tomorrow...

This week I have been in London holding a training session/workshop regarding the stuff I do at work. For the last one and a half years I have been working with our integration between our project module and Primavera Planner. It was great meeting up with all the people and get to know them all a bit more as well as learning more about how they work.

During my stay a very good friend of mine was kind enough to take me sight seeing in central London, and something I was curious of seeing was the Apple store.


The interior was quite cool, I especially liked the glass-like big set of stairs in the middle of the store. And everywhere there was large wooden tables and shelf's riddled with Apple products. Five or more large tables were populated with iPads, and there was a lot of people there, trying to get a sneak peak at the Steve's latest magical device. I joined the frenzied crowd and tried to get my paws on an iPad too!


After some waiting I managed to get my hands on one. It was about as heavy as I had thought it would be, but it was more tiring using it standing up without any kind of rest that I would have believed. The screen was really nice and responsive, and even though it was riddled with Apple-fanboy-grease it was still pleasant to browse the web on it.

I could see myself using this in the mornings to read the papers at breakfast, or looking up movie info from the TV-couch. But I'm not sure I'd like to find much other uses for it than just surfing the web. I finished up with some Plants vs. Zombies, but it just made me sad as I hate to see Zombies suffer needlessly...

WWDC kicked off today with an opening from the Steve. He talked a bit about his iPad then commenced to the new and totally unexpected(NOT!) iPhone 4.

All the leaks we've seen over the last few months turned out to be true. Sadly enough it meant almost no surprises. There is not a doubt tho that Apple has produced a very high quality device with some very alluring features. Among the many new features I think I'm actually most impressed with multitasking support and the new screen, as previously stated it is indeed 960*640 compared to the "old" iPhone 3GS that was 480*320.

At Computex Aava Mobile showed of their device based on Intel Moorestown architecture again.

Apparently it can play the full PC version of WOW. They couldn't log on to the American servers and show gameplay unfortunately, but it looks like the real McCoy.

They also demoed the device running Quake III Arena up to a staggering 120 frames per second! They claim that the device would be able to do this for a whole consecutive hour, which is quite good considering the CPU power it would require.

Go check out the entire article at Engadget for some actual vid clips.

For all the Droid users awaiting an Android update to run Froyo, it's now available in sorts.

The guys over at My Droid World have released a community edition Froyo upgrade. Most of the functionality is in place they say, although you will loose Wifi support at this moment.
So if you want to install Android 2.2 on your Droid, and can't wait for Motorola to make an official release, you can get your hands on the download here.