The questions about whether or not Apple could produce a compelling tablet have been answered. PCMag gave it an Editors’ Choice award, and most other reviews have been positive to glowing. Yes, there are still some big questions about the iPad. Will consumers embrace it after the initial rush? Will publishers’ dreams of the “iPad as industry savior” be realized? I’d say we’re 6 to 12-months away from being able to answer those questions. Even so, Apple’s iPad is a tablet done right, and I think Apple’s plan of using and extending its mobile OS in ever-larger devices is pure genius and one that Microsoft would do well to mimic.

Right now, we’re all waiting for Windows 7-based tablets, such as the HP Slate, to arrive. There will be others, of course, but HP’s is the one Microsoft is touting. It appears to have the most potential for rebooting Microsoft’s tablet PC efforts. It’s built on the Windows 7 platform—a desktop and laptop OS that I use every day. It’s the best version of Windows since, perhaps, Windows 95. By that I mean that it’s new, fresh, smart, and light enough and intuitive enough to not get in your way.

All that said, it’s still a desktop OS. It carries with it all of the complications that are typically associated with running a relatively complex piece of technology. For what it’s worth, Apple’s desktop OS, Mac OS X, is only marginally less complex. This has relatively little to do with the hardware. We’ve proven in PC Labs that netbooks (which have hardware specs that are roughly equivalent to the upcoming Windows tablets), can run Windows 7, but Windows still shows you too much about the guts of your system. You still install drivers, there’s still a Control Panel, and even the nifty new Device Stage leads you to a hardware setup or configuration screen eventually. Windows Phone 7, like the iPhone OS, shields the end user from those complications. If Microsoft and its partners put Windows Phone 7 on these tablets, an end user might never have to see any of them. Yet, with access to the new Microsoft Marketplace, they’ll still be able to install whatever apps they need—all from one central place. Clearly, Microsoft has a lot of ground to make up in the Marketplace—it’ll have to get much richer and faster if Microsoft wants people to rely on it for their Win Phone 7 app needs. Web-based offerings could help here. Microsoft’s Office Web Apps, for example, could be the perfect tools for these Windows Phone 7-based tablets.

Before someone goes for my throat, let’s define some terms. Tablets is, admittedly, a broad term, and there’s a lot of confusion about what is and isn’t a tablet computer. For the sake of my argument, I do not consider products like the Apple iPad and HP Slate full-blown computers, and, while versatile, they’re not suited for all computing tasks. I don’t think video editing, intensive photo editing, and CAD work are what you want to do with them. Laptops that convert into tablets are, essentially, full-blown PCs stuffed with powerful, near-desktop-level (sometimes desktop-level) components. They’re ready to do virtually anything. All-in-one touch-screen desktops, such as the HP TouchSmart, are not tablets.

If you accept my argument—that true tablets need to work more like mobile phones and less like desktop computers—then Apple’s iPad strategy makes perfect sense. The astounding market success of netbooks helped Apple realize that most people only want to do a limited number of things with their computers. But Apple CEO Steve Jobs was loath to deliver a low-end portable computer to the market. Obviously, he figured out that Apple could serve the netbook market, with a product that’s sexier, simpler, and yet more powerful than many low-end netbooks. The iPhone and iPod touch are incredibly human devices that respond to your actions in an almost instinctive way. It’s not much of a leap to surmise that this think/do interface metaphor could also work in a form factor just shy of a full-blown laptop. There are more facets to the iPad than simplicity, but the choice of the iPhone OS as the iPad platform is probably the most important decision Apple made in the entire product development process.

Putting what is, essentially, a mobile OS into, for example, the HP Slate should be easy to do. It would allow Microsoft to replicate the Apple ecosystem’s success (i.e. the iPad, iPhone OS 4, iTunes, the App Store, and individual apps). Obviously, Microsoft doesn’t manufacture and control Windows Phone 7-based hardware the way Apple does its own hardware. That said, Microsoft is requiring certain key features in all Windows phones: GPS, touch screen capabilities, and an accelerometer. Now, Microsoft should extend that concept to tablets running its software (if it doesn’t already).

One company that may agree with my strategy is Google. I’ve heard more than a few rumors that the company is working on a tablet with its Android mobile platform—not its Google Chrome OS. This isn’t exactly a surprise. Other companies, including Dell, are thinking the very same thing.

I know this is a radical idea, but if Microsoft and its partners hinder these new tablets with a full-blown OS and the standard world of ad-hoc Windows applications and utilities bought from non-homogenous sources, Apple and the iPad will win.

Resource:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362882,00.asp

Today’s release puts the finishing touches on the Opera mobile-browsing duo. The focus is on delivering the best Internet experience on nearly any mobile phone, along with a unified look and feel and innovative favorite features, such as Speed Dial, password manager and tabbed browsing.

"Keeping in mind the needs and wants of our 50+ million users, we have emphasized speed, desktop-like functionality and data savings in our mobile browsers. Today, we have made it even easier for everyone to surf, search and socialize on the Web," said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software.

Top 5 reasons why you cannot live without Opera on your phone

• Get the best Internet experience on your phone
  Opera delivers the full Web experience on nearly any mobile phone, and it is easy and free to download.
• No more slow surfing
  Opera mobile browsers are designed to boost your browsing speed significantly. Opera brings the best and fastest browsing experience on any mobile phone.
• Get your mobile phone bills under control
  Opera Mini’s compression technology reduces the amount of data sent to your phone by up to 90 percent, resulting in lower costs on pay-per-MB data plans or when roaming.
• Web made easy, even on your phone
  Opera keeps it simple with a sleekly designed user interface, regardless of the phone you are using, and with the same great feature set, such as Speed Dial, tabs, and the password manager.
• Never leave your personal information behind
  Opera Link lets you synchronize your bookmarks, notes and Speed Dial between your computer and your mobile phone. Make your information available wherever you are – at work, at home or on the road.

Download
Bring the power of the Web to your phone. Download Opera Mini 5 or Opera Mobile 10 directly to your phone at no cost from m.opera.com/, or read more at http://www.opera.com/mobile/.

Availability
Opera Mini 5 is available on all Java-based and BlackBerry phones, as well as Android and Windows Mobile (both in beta only) phones. Opera Mobile 10 is available on Windows Mobile and Symbian S60-based mobile phones.

Screenshots
Screenshots are available at http://www.opera.com/press/resources/.

Video
Video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWHIGGjiamA.

Resource:
http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2010/03/16/

Motorola will soon push Microsoft’s Bing search engine onto Android phones in China, after announcing an alliance with the Redmond software giant that will see Bing appear on Androids across the globe.

In the wake of this Moto-Microsoft pact, Google has confirmed with The Reg that it has barred the use of its mobile applications on Android phones from Chinese carriers, leaving the likes of Motorola to use alternatives.

On Thursday morning, Motorola said that before the end of the quarter it would add a Bing browser bookmark and a Bing search widget to new phones based on Google’s open source OS as well as handsets already in the market. Motorola did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it appears that Bing will not be the default provider on the devices’ browser search box.

The pact will also put Microsoft’s Bing Maps service on Motorola phones.

Motorola’s announcement comes amid ongoing confusion over Google’s position in China – and thus Motorola’s relationship with the Mountain View web giant. In mid-January, Google threatened to shutter its China operation in response to an alleged Chinese hack attack on its internal systems, and days later, it said that it would postpone its launch of two Android phones on the Chinese carrier China Unicom – one from Samsung and one from Motorola – saying it would be “irresponsible” to let the launch proceed.

Google says it has made the decision to “no longer” censor results on its Chinese search engine, but it continues to censor results while discussing its position with government authorities.

Yes, Android is open source. But the China Unicom phones would have been branded “with Google” a la the Motorola-Verizon Droid or the T-Mobile-HTC G1, offering tight integration with various Google mobile applications. A Google spokeswoman now tells us the company has postponed “the availability of Google mobile applications on Android devices from operators in China.”

This means that even without the Google brand, Motorola is barred from offering Google applications on its own Android handsets in the country. As Google postponed the launch of its China Unicom phones, Motorola told the world that its Chinese Android phones would allow users to choose their own search provider and that the native Chinese search engine Baidu would be among those on the list.

With its mid-January blog post on the alleged Chinese hack attacks, Google said that “over the next few weeks” it would be discussing “the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all”. That was eight weeks ago, and though Eric Schmidt said yesterday that “something will happen” with the talks “soon,” he said the company had “no timetable” for its discussions.

Last week, in Silicon Valley, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer downplayed the possibility of the company putting Bing on Android phones. “That’s a little more complicated,” he said. “Android without [Google] isn’t Android. We’re going to have to see where the Android market develops.” But just a week later, the Redmond giant has inked a global pact with Motorola on Android.

Asked about the deal, Microsoft merely pointed us back to Motorola’s press release, but as Ballmer put it, Redmond is very much interested in expanding the reach of mobile Bing through strategic partnerships. Microsoft has already signed a deal with US wireless carrier Verizon Wireless that makes Bing the default search engine on certain BlackBerries, and in this case phone owners are unable to use their browser’s built-in search boxes with anything other than Bing.

Meanwhile, US carrier AT&T has introduced its first Android phone – the Motorola Backflip – and its default search engine is Yahoo!. Like Motorola’s China phones, this is not a Google-branded phone, and the carrier is free to modify the browser search box however it chooses.

Resource:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/11/microsoft_bing_on_android_in_china/

Oslo, Norway — February 10, 2010
Opera Software, maker of the world’s most popular mobile Web browser, plans to reveal Opera Mini for iPhone in an exclusive press and partner preview during the 2010 Mobile World Congress (MWC). Visit Opera’s exhibit in Hall 1, C44, to witness a new way to surf the Web on the iPhone — an experience that Opera promises will be fast, easy to use, and packed with favorite Opera features.

Opera Mini is renowned for its compression technology, which results in significantly faster Web-page loading and reduces data surcharges. With favorite desktop features in its arsenal, such as tabs, Speed Dial and the password manager, Opera Mini is designed with usability in mind.

“We are thrilled to offer journalists and partners an exclusive preview of Opera Mini for iPhone during the year’s biggest mobile event,” said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software. “This is a unique opportunity to introduce the fast, feature-rich Opera Mini experience for the iPhone, and to showcase our latest beta releases of Opera Mobile and Opera Mini on other platforms and devices. Opera’s mission is to bring the Web to the world, and by making Opera Mini available on yet another platform, we are one step closer.”

While Opera Mini for iPhone is not publicly available, visitors without a press pass will not leave Opera’s stand disappointed. Opera will unveil a host of other Opera-powered devices at its exhibit. Check out the following Opera technology, live from MWC:

• Opera Mobile 10 beta 3 on Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile handsets
• Opera Mobile 10 beta running on Android handsets
• Opera Mini 5 beta, running on a variety of handsets and platforms
• Opera’s cross-platform Widgets Manager beta, running on Windows Mobile and S60 handsets

To hear more from Opera about the future of the Web, attend one of our speaking engagements during MWC:

Monday, February 15, 2010

15:00 — Jon von Tetzchner, Vodafone panel discussion on “Mobile Web developments, W3C standards, using Web APIs and the live creation of widgets”, in Hall 7, Auditorium 1

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

14:00 — Håkon Wium Lie, panel discussion on “Mobile security in an IP world”, Hall 5
14:00 — Christen Krogh, presentation on “Creating a connected cloud for the perfect mobile storm”, Hall 5
15:45 — GSMA Awards ceremony, Opera Mini shortlisted for “Best Mobile Internet Service” and “Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough”, Hall 5, Level 3, Auditorium 1

Get your hands on an Opera-powered device by visiting our stand in Hall 1, C44, during Barcelona’s annual Mobile World Congress, or schedule a meeting with Opera. Contact press10@opera.com press10[at]opera.com for more information

Resource:
http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2010/02/10/

Even though the suit did not name Google Inc as a defendant, Apple’s move was viewed by many analysts as proxy for an attack on the Internet company, whose Nexus One smartphone is manufactured by HTC.

“I think this is kind of an indirect lawsuit against Google,” said Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu.

Apple’s suit was filed with both the US International Trade Commission and the US District Court in Delaware on Tuesday, and seeks to prohibit HTC from selling, marketing or distributing infringing products in the United States.

The complaint filed with the ITC cited Google’s Nexus One, which was launched in January, and other HTC phones such as the Hero, Dream and myTouch — which run on Google’s Android mobile operating system — as infringing products.

In a statement, a Google spokeswoman said: “We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.”

HTC said in a statement that it was looking at the filings. “HTC values patent rights and their enforcement but is also committed to defending its own technology innovations,” spokesman Keith Nowak said.

In a statement in Taipei on Wednesday, HTC added that it had not had the opportunity to investigate the suit. “Until we have had this opportunity, we are unable to comment on the validity of the claims being made against HTC.” In a separate statement to the Taiwan stock exchange, HTC said it will not see any impact on its financial outlook for the first quarter from the lawsuit.

By 0250 GMT, HTC shares lost 1.4 per cent in Taipei in a broader market up 0.4 per cent. The stock had fallen as much as 3 per cent in early trade.

“The news is having some impact on HTC’s shares but lawsuits are quite common among tech firms and I would say it is just a threat from Apple this time,” said John Chiu, a fund manager at Taiwan’s Fuh Hwa Securities Investment Trust. “However, HTC is not a good buy in the longer term since its margins will be coming under pressure when competition intensifies.”

FIERCE COMPETITION Apple’s move comes amid fierce competition in the smartphone market, as new players angle for a piece of the fast-growing segment. Mark Simpson, a patent attorney with law firm Saul Ewing in Philadelphia, said HTC made for an easier target than Google. “It’s probably simpler for them to go after the company making the infringing goods, which is HTC. It’s easier to prove at this point,” he said. MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen agreed. “HTC is an optimal target for Apple — it’s a relatively small vendor with a weak brand.

It may be easier to push around than Samsung (which also makes Android smartphones). One question here is whether Apple can intimidate operators to back away from new HTC products by flashing the possibility of litigation trouble.” Apple said HTC “knowingly induce(s) users of accused HTC Android products” to infringe on a number of Apple’s patents, some dating back to the mid-1990s.

They cover user interface processes and other software and hardware components. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours,” Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a news release.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment beyond the complaints. The iPhone held a 14.4 per cent smartphone market share in 2009, according to research group Gartner.

Phones running Android comprised only 3.9 per cent of the market, but were growing fast.

Apple lost some share to Android phones in the fourth quarter. “This move could be a sign Apple is getting rattled by Google’s recent momentum in the mobile space — notably the avalanche of Android products unveiled at Mobile World Congress,” said Ben Wood from CCS Insight.

Apple’s lawsuit is the latest scrape over ownership of the underlying technology for smartphones — handsets that play video and music, take pictures and send e-mail.

Eastman Kodak Co in January filed a complaint with the ITC, saying Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd’s BlackBerry camera phones infringe the photography company’s patents.

Nokia, the world’s top mobile phone maker, has also sued Apple over patents. Apple has countersued. That dispute, potentially involving hundreds of millions of dollars in annual royalties, reflects the shifting balance of power in the mobile industry as cellphones morph into handheld computers that can play video games and surf the Web.

In its ITC filing against HTC, Apple noted that some of the patents at issue are at the center of its legal fight with Nokia. Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple fell 14 cents to close at $208.85 on Nasdaq.

Resource:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/apple-sues-htc-over-phones-using-google-software/110974-11.html

The beta version provides integration of Opera Mini with the Windows Mobile platform. "Opera is able to deliver an optimized version of the popular Opera Mini browser that dramatically improves performance and the overall user experience," a company press release said.

The Opera Mini will work on any Windows Mobile phone, as it does not requires Java.

The Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows Mobile includes the same rich feature set as the Java-based version, the company said. Such features as tabbed browsing, password manager, bookmarks and Speed Dial, are built-in.

One of Opera Mini’s claimed benefits is that it compresses data traffic by up to 90 percent, resulting in significantly improved page-loading and speed. "This results in a dramatically reduced data load, which can translate to lower browsing costs when on a pay-per-MB data plan or when on expensive roaming," the company said.

"Windows Mobile deserves a mobile browser that looks better, handles better and delivers better than the default browser," said Dag Olav Norem, Vice President of Products, Opera Software. "Even though Opera has 50 million satisfied Opera Mini users, we always seek ways to improve our browser for each and every mobile phone user out there. Now, we are pleased to offer the world’s most popular mobile Web browser as a native Windows Mobile application."

Download
Windows Mobile 5 and 6 users can download Opera Mini directly to their phone free from http://m.opera.com/next/ or read more at http://www.opera.com/mini/next/.

Microsoft has reached a lot of milestones in the PC market with every new operating system that they unveil with the most recent Windows 7 getting a lot of success worldwide as the fastest selling operating system on the market with more than 60 million licenses already sold. Although Microsoft maintains a comfortable lead in the operating system market along with other Microsoft software, its top competitors Google and Apple and making waves in the mobile market and Microsoft aims to get a piece of that as well.

Microsoft’s Push to the Mobile Market

Microsoft is actually the first company among Apple and Google to get into the phone market by outfitting Pocket PC devices sold in 2000 with the Pocket PC 2000 operating system which is based on Windows CE 3.0. Some of the built-in features came in familiar applications present in Windows 98 and 2000 including a mobile version of Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Money, and Pocket Office suite of applications. This OS appeared in several Pocket PC devices while existing Palm-size PC devices can optionally update to the OS. Microsoft had its first taste of the smartphone market with the following release of the Pocket PC 2002 which had similar design elements to Windows XP and some enhancements to some of the applications.

The Windows Mobile Name

Two years after the release in June 2003, Microsoft made the Windows Mobile name official when they brought Windows Mobile 2003 to Pocket PCs and smartphones. Coming in four editions to cope up with the different models available, newer features were added without changing the interface very much. Some of the biggest features were the support for add-on keyboards and Bluetooth connectivity. The following year saw the release of Windows Mobile 2003 SE which adds WPA support and wider screen resolution support.

Bigger Updates

While Microsoft was busy working on the Longhorn project which later turned out to be Windows Vista, Windows Mobile saw another change in name where the version numbering system is used when Windows Mobile 5 succeeded the previous version in 2005. Many new features were provided including Microsoft Exchange Server push support, upgraded versions of Windows Media Player and its office products along with greater Bluetooth and GPS support. Performance and battery life has been vastly improved while the interface has a polished, yet familiar look.

A month after the release of Windows Vista came Windows Mobile 6 released on February 12, 2007. This time, the interface sported more noticeable changes that relate to Windows Vista, but the functionality still remains similar to Windows Mobile 5. Like other major updates, many new applications and features were added to the mix including support for HTML emails, better JavaScript and AJAX support on the browser end, and improved office applications that can read the .docx and related formats. It was widely praised for its stability and led to two minor updates.

The 6.1 version offered minor enhancements on the performance side with some added features to keep up with the competition like threaded SMS. The unintended 6.5 release does vast improvements to the GUI and serves as a gap to the much awaited Windows Mobile 7.

Windows Mobile Future

Not many details have been shared about Windows Mobile 7, but it promises to be a major upgrade and is rumored to take advantage of multi-touch and Silverlight technologies which is just what Microsoft needs in competing with its fast growing competitors – Android and iPhone OS.