LG: mass-production of flexible e-paper starts

Hardware News No Responses »
Aug 282010

2a LG: mass production of flexible e paper startsE-Paper is not a new technology – devices using it (think Kindle) have sold hundreds of thousands of times in the last years.

So far, these screens were immovable and monochrome. According to PCWorld, the mass production of (transformable) color e-paper devices will start very soon:

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The company expects to begin mass producing 9.7-inch color and 19-inch flexible e-paper, according to an SEC filing it made on Friday. E-paper, or electronic paper, is a display used in e-readers on which text appears as it would on printed paper.

…

So far, the slow response time has made the display technology useful onbly for e-readers (see a sample device in action here) – let’s see what hardware designers will cook up next…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 8:43 pm

Palm Pre knockoff – running fake iOS

Funny Stuff No Responses »
Aug 282010

Popular devices get “cloned in China”. Usually, the cloners try to get the UI at least “somewhat right” – our “mini review” of a fake N97 shows what to expect.

MicGadget.com now shares the image of a Pre knockoff below. The UI is copied from – you guessed it – an iPhone:
palm pre ios Palm Pre knockoff running fake iOS

Not much to add here…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 3:40 pm

HP: our employees coded 500 apps

Palm News 4 Responses »
Aug 282010

We covered HP’s – IMHO bad – idea to motivate employees to create webOS apps in the past.

HP’s Phil McKinney now posted the following to his Twitter feed:
500 apps HP: our employees coded 500 apps

As Tamoggemon also has a (small) webOS department, I am naturally not happy about a new competitor – let’s see what apps the folks created and how they will be priced.

P.S. Think about it like this: these boys get their fixed wage from HP. They can thus easily outprice a developer who has no second income stream…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 12:18 am

Verizon will discontinue the Pre Plus in October

Palm News No Responses »
Aug 262010

Even though I personally do like the Pre to some extent, there is no way to deny that the hardware of the box is getting older and older as you read this.

PhoneDog.com claims that Verizon will kill its Pre Plus soon:

… followed by the Palm Pre Plus on October 21st. Interestingly enough, the Pixi Plus is scheduled to continue in inventory until March 31, 2011, leading me to believe that those rumors about a high-end webOS device coming in October are true.

…

Given the recent leak of the Roadrunner HD (and the age of the Pre), the timeframe looks sane to me…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 1:49 am

QuickOffice will hit webOS

Palm News 9 Responses »
Aug 242010

DataViz’s decision to give Palm the finger with the webOS Office tool could backfire on the company significantly – their old rival QuickOffice seems to be more than willing to fill the void.

A posting on the official blog reads as following:

… At Quickoffice, we’re extremely excited to see this development and the increased focus webOS is deservedly obtaining. We’ve already seen increased competition driving innovation in the market, with Android’s Froyo, BlackBerry OS 6, iOS and now the potential of webOS 2.0. We’ve always maintained a mission that we’ll provide robust mobile applications for our users, across all the major mobile platforms, and this scope includes webOS. I think users, and the industry in general, watching webOS will be pleasantly surprised if they continue to watch Quickoffice and our continued leadership in the mobile space.

…

As of this writing, neither a release timeframe nor a feature list have been provided – watch this space to find out more about QuickOffice for webOS!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 9:19 pm

PocketGear gets 15 million USD venture capital

Development No Responses »
Aug 242010

PocketGear definitely isn’t too popular among developers – especially as the folks have shown a few very stupid stunts in the past.

Nevertheless, venture capitalists seem to be more convinced of their ideas. Mobile Business Briefing currently reports the following:

… mobile apps store PocketGear has secured US$15 million in ‘series B’ funding, with investors including Trident Capital, BlackBerry Partners Fund and TomorrowVentures, the personal fund of Google’s Eric Schmidt.

…

This should be especially interesting for all developers planning legal action over their recent bork-ups – if you plan to get cash, go for it now!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 5:02 am

ABI on the 10 biggest handset makers in Q2 2010

Hardware News No Responses »
Aug 232010

When it comes to cell phone metrics, culling the important from the unimportant is difficult at best.

ABI Research is a long-standing market research company, which gives their numbers a nice bit of credibility. Their stats on Q2 2010 are below – keep in mind that the data looks at devices sold to retailers and does not count carrier-branded boxen:

Vendor Shipments (in millions) Growth
2Q 2009 1Q 2010 2Q 2010 QoQ  (1Q10-2Q10) YoY (2Q09-2Q10)
Nokia 103.2 107.8 111.0 3.0% 7.6%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: While Nokia’s handset shipments increased QoQ, Nokia’s market share slipped to 34.6 percent in the second quarter. The world’s largest handset OEM has been juggling some serious re-organizations and R&D has been aligned closer to business priorities. Currently Nokia is trying to update Symbian, launch MeeGo and drive adoption of its Ovi services in the hopes gaining new service revenue streams to compensate for decreasing handset margins. While the Nokia handset platforms are selling well at lower price points, its position as top dog becomes increasingly tenuous as the Android OS and Samsung continue to etch away Nokia and Symbian’s market share.
Samsung 52.3 64.3 63.8 -0.8% 22.0%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Samsung ended a seven quarter winning streak of increasing QoQ market share dropping to 19.9 percent in Q2. This decrease is attributed to weakened economic conditions in Europe. Samsung has consistently delivered feature packed handsets that are the hallmark of South Korean handset OEMs and has championed the use of touchscreens in the feature phone segment. In the last month of Q2 Samsung’s newest smartphone the Galaxy S sold 500,000 in its home market of South Korea. In Q3 Samsung will release this device on all four major U.S. carriers, a market with six times the potential of South Korea. This could be the push Samsung needs to achieve 10 percent of the smartphone market.
LG 29.8 27.1 30.6 12.9% 2.7%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Although LG’s handset shipments increased 13 percent QoQ, revenues only increased 6 percent due to lowering ASPs in the feature phone market. With 52 percent of LG’s volume going to North America and Europe, it has become imperative that LG develops a solid foothold in the smartphone market to ride the higher margins and shipment growth. Historically, LG’s range of mid- to high-end feature phones has delivered consistent market share growth; however when looking into the future, this segment is being squeezed by smartphones on the top and low cost handsets at the bottom. ABI Research believes it is imperative that LG makes its move in 2010 or it may experience the same troubles as Sony Ericsson and Motorola.
RIM 8.0 10.5 11.2 6.7% 40.5%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: RIMs position in this vendor ranking is unique as RIM does not offer lower-priced feature phones and has risen to the No. 4 spot solely through the sale of smartphones which only account for 20 percent of the overall market. In this space RIM has delivered a portfolio of smartphones, supported by the famed Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) and the BlackBerry Messenger Service (BBM). The combination of BBM and Qwerty Keypads have become a real hit in the youth and emerging markets where the free (between other BB users) and secure texting service offers the cost conscious all the ‘CrackBerry’ they can handle. RIM has released its latest OS (6) with the hopes of delivering improved browsing, media and touchscreen capabilities that will drive future growth.
Sony Ericsson 13.8 10.5 11.0 4.8% -20.3%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Q2 represents the 7th quarter in a row that Sony Ericsson has lost market share. Sony Ericsson handsets have historically focused on the feature phone segment and specialized in music or camera phones. Consumers have become more demanding, wanting a phone that does it all, making strength in one feature less desirable than mediocrity in all features. Sony Ericsson has decided to answer this call through the development of a smartphone portfolio with its flagship device the X10 landing at AT&T with SE’s custom UI platform over an Android OS (1.6). While this may not be the highest end of smartphones, it does fit nicely in the middle of the road…much like the rest of Sony Ericsson’s strategy.
Apple 5.2 8.8 8.4 -4.0% 61.5%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Apple rang in its best quarter ever in Q4 with 8.7 million iPhones. The iPhone continues its role as a global smartphone ambassador with successful arrivals in South Korea, China, new carriers in Western Europe and a growing cult following in Japan. Speculation as to how Apple will top the 3GS with the next iPhone iteration has already begun with Steve Jobs promising consumers a home run. ABI believes some pro-sumers may have trouble deciding whether to spend their money on the iPad or the new iPhone, but either way Apple will continue to own much of the mobile devices market mindshare.
Motorola 14.8 8.5 8.3 -2.4% -43.9%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Beginning in Q4 and carrying through Q1 and Q2 Motorola has delivered top of mind smartphones such as the Droid, and most recently the Droid X. While Verizon Wireless’s Droid ‘sub-brand’ and marketing dollars didn’t hurt the situation,  Motorola did deliver quality Android smartphones and prove that it can move away from its dwindling feature phone sales. It is imperative that Motorola make their smartphone strategy stick as Motorola has consecutively lost market share every single quarter since 3Q 2006!
ZTE  – – – 3.7% 13.5%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: ZTE is one of China’s largest telecommunications manufacturers who produce a variety of hardware products including base stations, handsets, switching systems, optical transport etc. ZTE’s global strategy has developed relationships with major telecoms in every region. ZTE has made a name for itself with low cost handsets in emerging/developing markets and has built relationships with tier I carriers in the U.S. through their cellular modems and tier II carriers with low cost handsets. Leveraging manufacturing locations in 50 countries, ZTE is able to deliver low cost handsets either under the ZTE brand or white-label devices for carrier-branded handsets to large operators such as Vodafone. ZTE has recently announced an Android 2.1 smartphone for China Unicom priced at $179, which should allow ZTE to ride the rapidly growing smartphone market in China and migrate its brand image from low cost to affordable value.
HTC  –  – – 66.7% 83.3%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: The counter point to Motorola’s Android success is HTC and its Droid Incredible and Evo 4G smartphones. HTC and Motorola together accounted for over 50 percent of all Android smartphones sold in Q2. A year ago, HTC stated it would focus on improving its brand recognition in the U.S., and today it has delivered a 400 percent increase in brand recognition with plans to replicate the process in China. With ownership of its own production facilities, custom ‘Sense’ UI and a solid range of high- and mid-range smartphones it can be expected that HTC will become a regular in the top ten handset vendors list.
Huawei – – – 41.5% 48.0%
Analysis from ABI’s Michael Morgan: Much like ZTE, Huawei is one of China’s leading telecom infrastructure companies, with a strong global reach in all regions. Huawei is also in the business of making low cost and white label devices along side their branded devices. Huawei has extended its low cost capabilities into the smartphone space with the T-Mobile Pulse, an Android based entry level smartphone for prepaid consumers. Huawei also carries aspirations of penetrating the U.S. market and is actively developing its portfolio to meet the tastes of U.S. carriers. However there are concerns around whether the U.S. will welcome Huawei’s advances amid security concerns.
Total Top 10 241.0 252.5 263.4 4.3% 9.3%
Total Handsets Shipped 269 303 321.2 6.0% 19.4%
Source: ABI Research

via FierceWireless

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 8:06 am

HP: the webOS tablet comes in “early 2011″

Palm News No Responses »
Aug 232010

Sometimes, listening to conference calls from companies is interesting. This seems to be especially true of HP.

PreCentral reports that the webOS tablet will ship in “early 2011″:

… HP publicly confirmed that a webOS Tablet is coming in the timeline we were expecting, saying they will release “a webOS-based product in Early 2011.” …

Not much to add here – let’s see whether it will turn out to be the Roadrunneer HD leaked recently…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 4:44 am

New TCN feature: subscribe to comments

TamsPalm internal No Responses »
Aug 222010

Dear Readers,
we are consistently working to improve your experience on this news service network. Your comments are always a great source of inspiration, and make us all very happy.

In order to simplify tracking your comments, we have now unveiled a new feature across the entire network. From now on, you can subscribe to comments when you leave a comment via the checkbox at the bottom of the commenting form.

Once this has happened, you will automatically receive a new email whenever a new comment is left at the post where you have commented before. You can then get back to whomever responded, and attack him if he happens to disagree :-) .

Jokes aside, we hope that this feature will make your life a lot easier. Get talking back!

With compliments
Tam Hanna and the Tamoggemon Content Network

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 10:42 pm

webOS 2.0 device with 640×960 screen spotted

Palm News No Responses »
Aug 212010

Even though the Pre and Pixi are decent devices, their hardware is starting to show significant signs of age. We’ve heard rumors of new devices in the past – but have not seen anything substantial so far.

A webOS software house called KillinItLLC has spotted the following in its logs:
webOS 2 webOS 2.0 device with 640x960 screen spotted

As of this writing, not much more is known. We could be looking at the long-rumored webOS tablet here, or at a new device intended to rival the iPhone 4G’s retina display.

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 1:17 pm

Strange Tungsten E / Tungsten T5 hybrid found

Palm News 7 Responses »
Aug 202010

When Palm shipped the T5, many believed it to have been a rechristened Palm TE or TE2. The appearance of the two devices was extremely similar after all, even though the T5 turned out to be a bit longer.

An individual from evilgeniusstudio now claims to have purchased the device pictured below:
T5a t Strange Tungsten E / Tungsten T5 hybrid found T5b t Strange Tungsten E / Tungsten T5 hybrid found

This post ends with the request to insiders reading this: speak up – your identity will be protected…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 3:31 pm

The Sound of…sorting algorithms

Funny Stuff No Responses »
Aug 202010

Very few topics are as popular as sorting algorithms – if you want to write a book, covering these is a safe bet for finding a publisher somewhere :) .

The YouTube video below shows the process of various sorting algorithms in an “audible” form – each element has a frequency, and a sine tone is played whenever the algorithm accesses an element:

Call it 90 seconds of work-safe fun…

Thanks to Summeli for pointing this out

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 6:51 am

Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – final verdict

Hardware Reviews 5 Responses »
Aug 202010

aceeca pda32 hires+ Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review final verdictThanks to our long-standing relationship with Aceeca, we were given access to a very early prototype of the PDA32. Due to this, we have refrained from performing system performance and battery life evaluations – the tests we performed on the beta unit are below:
Aceeca PDA32 – first impressions
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – size, 1
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – size, 2
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – physical
Aceeca PDA32 preliminary review – screen

Minor technical details aside, the PDA32 is an interesting device. It is huge – but has a very ergonomic form factor which makes the device comfortable to hold during use. The screen also is best described as very good.

On the other hand, of course, this large size makes transporting the device difficult. It barely fit my trouser pockets – which is a fact you need to keep in mind.

Compared to the TX, the weakness of the larger size is obvious. However, the 32 is more comfortable to hold and has the significantly better screen. Plus, it seems well-built, can soon be bought fresh off the assembly line and comes with a warranty.

As an industrial device, there is little not to like about this 200USD handheld – for size-conscious consumers, deploying this device is an option only if other OS’ses like Windows Mobile are not an alternative.

Stay tuned – we will update this review the moment we get a production device!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 1:15 am

German lawyer: Skype not as safe as perceived

Miscellaneous No Responses »
Aug 192010

Given all the recent press about RIM having to open its email services to some governments, I felt like taking a look at another frequently used communications tool: Skype.

The famous German lawyer Udo Vetter reports that the German government can now listen in on Skype 2 Skype calls:

…

I asked the prosecutor if he could – now – check onto Skype to Skype calls. He confirmed this.

The Judge then went on to tell me that she saw some Skype protocols in very recent suits.
…

Given Vetter’s excellent reputation in German IT circles, I consider his statements true – looks like all the encryption hubbub was but marketing hyperbole…

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 9:46 am
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