Phones

Skyfire Launches the 1.5 Version for Symbian

Skyfire Launches the 1.5 Version of its Award-Winning Mobile Browser for Symbian Smartphones: A Sharper, Smarter and Finger-Friendly Way to Enjoy the Best of the Web

Mountain View, CA – January 20, 2009 – Skyfire, makers of Webby award-winning, PC-like web-browser for mobile devices, today launched the next generation of its Skyfire browser, version 1.5, for Symbian S60 3^rd and 5^th edition smartphones. The newest version follows the release of Skyfire 1.5 for Windows Mobile and is now available for download at get.skyfire.com. Enhancements in the new version include full support for high-resolution screens, a fresh user interface (UI) that is more finger friendly, crisper text, smoother zooming, and a full-screen mode that maximizes screen real estate.

What’s new with Skyfire 1.5 for Symbian S60 3 edition?

The White House – official iPhone app released

The quality of videos available for download (not live) in this app is stunning:

… but the most useful part seems to be ability to watch LIVE broadcasts with the president of USA:

Nexus One vs HTC HD2

A few days ago I posted some pictures and comments of the Nexus One vs the iPhone 3GS. That post seems to have gone down rather well and many of you have now asked for for photos of the HTC HD2 along side the Nexus One.

I’ve been using the Nexus One for about 5 days now and I’m still enjoying the experience. It’s a speedy little device for sure. Thanks to Paul I’ve also discovered a different web browser called Dophin Browser, that offers Multitouch on the Nexus One and so adds pinch to zoom functionality. It’s a pretty handy add-on, just a shame that the native applications don’t support multitouch.

So to the HD2 comparison photos.

As you can clearly see from the pictures below, the HTC HD2 is significantly larger than the Nexus One. The screen on the HD2 is 0.6″ bigger at 4.3″ vs the Nexus One at ‘only’ 3.7″. Both are the same 480×800 resolution though and both are capacitive. The Nexus One has an AMOLED screen though which makes the colours brighter and more vivid. The HD2 measures 120.5 x 67 x 11 mm and the Nexus 119 x 59 x 11.5mm. I think the size difference looks and feels more significant that the raw numbers suggest but that may be partly due to the HD2 being almost 30 grams heavier.

In terms of device ‘thickness’ there’s very little between the HD2 and the Nexus. I fact the Nexus is 0.5mm thicker than the HD2 which does surprise me. Holding and using them both you would think that it was the other way around at least. This, I assume, is probably due to the HD2 having slightly squarer edges than the Nexus.

Personally I think that this shot best demonstrates the size difference between the two devices. Having used the Nexus one for 5 days now when I pick up the HD2 it starts to feel a little too big.

So to completed the photo montage of handset comparisons here are a few of all three devices together. So we have Nexus One vs iPhone vs HD2. Looking at the three like this I think that the iPhone is starting to look a bit dated, I’m pretty sure that Apple will be addressing this later in the year! The HD2 is a big beast of a device both in terms of size and specification.

Don’t forget to take a look at my Nexus One unboxing and demonstration video if you haven’t already. And please do post your questions or comments about the Nexus One (or anything really) over on our forums using the comment link below.

Posted by: Matt

CoPilot Live 8 gets an update on Windows Mobile

With several HTC phones bundling CoPilot Live 8 their most recent device it’s pleasing to see that the software has recieved a tidy and meaty update. If you’ve got it, get the update. If you haven’t I recommend you try out the software as it’s one of the finest on the Windows Mobile platform.

These new features include:

· Improved timing of turn instructions. Customers can now choose exactly when they would prefer to receive spoken turn instructions, based on distance or time from the turn.

· Ability to download free safety camera database updates direct to CoPilot Live via mobile web or WiFi

· Ability to switch-off the ‘Welcome to CoPilot Live’ message played at start-up

· Support for Premium Live Services, including Live Traffic, fuel prices and Local Search (Premium Live Services are available for £19.99 for 12 months)

· Support for Text-To-Speech (TTS) voice directions (TTS costs £2.99 for lifetime use)

· Ability to import custom Points of Interest (POI) databases in CSV or OV2 format

· Improved display support for HVGA resolution smartphones

· Additional stability, memory usage and performance improvements

CoPilot has also fixed a connection issue that prevented some Orange and Vodafone customers from accessing CoPilot’s Live Services.

Windows Mobile 7, more details leaked

Mobile Crunch have received some supposedly reliable information on Windows Mobile 7 and if true, we are looking at Microsoft doing a full 360 degree turn on how open Windows Mobile will be.

First, Win Mo 7 is essentially a copy of the Zune HD’s kernel. It comes in one screen size and will work best on OLED devices. Microsoft will give official specs to hardware makers and force them to comply or else refuse them access to the OS. This includes a regimented screen and RAM size as well as a minimum processor speed.

Win Mo 7 has no background processing and will use an Apple-like notification service. There is no system resource access and no threaded processes. In fact, there is no customization at all.

Win Mo 7 will not run 6.x code. End of story. It is based on Silverlight and .Net. Everything save a few basic programs will not work under Win Mo 7. There is no expectation that this will be a “business device” and the focus is currently on games including some XBox Live functionality for gaming and messaging. There will be a Microsoft App store with an easy approval process.

So there you have it, if true Microsoft are making great moves to protect the operating system and shake off the reputation of soft reset hell, poor UI and all round bad experience.

I predicted that future Win Mo apps would only be available from their Marketplace a while ago and even asked them the question on the podcast when we interviewed Loke Uei

I personally think this is no bad thing, a stable Win Mo platform would be a great step forward.

via Mobile Crunch

Skype for iPhone updated

Skype and Google Voice are 2 main enemies of mobile operators aka carriers. We know it because we are going to Mobile World Congress 2010 where many companies are showing “solutions for operators to combat competition from Skype and Google Voice” – as they put it in their pre-announcements.

Skype for iPhone just got upgraded and new features are:

Developers writing for iPhone 4.0

Most are speculating great things for the June announcement however some believe that the 4.0 firmware will be with us sooner than that. Here is further news to fuel the fire for 4.0 arriving on the iPhone sooner rather than later.

iPhone OS 4.0 is imminent. That’s the conclusion I drew from an e-mail I received from a prominent app developer Friday, at least, before hearing from the developer that it was a typo.

The message included the following snippet: "Just wanted to give you a heads up that we’ve submitted an updated app for the new iPhone OS 4.0 software." (The developer later acknowledged that it meant to refer to a 4.0 version of the app itself, not OS 4.0.)

Nexus One drops in price

Negative press? Slow sales? Or does it just not cut it? I would agree with any of those statements have watched this device in action.  However, Google has decided to lop off an chunk of the price tag. Might make take some of the sting out the extra price stapled on with the import duty.
If you have already bought it then don’t be worrying as Google are passing on the saving to existing users also.

The pricing option now appears to be $529 unlocked

So now it’s tempting, very tempting.

[Source androidandme]

iSlate cometh – it’s official!

Resco offering reward points

Resco have been producing Windows Mobile apps for a few years now and here is a reward for staying loyal to the brand. If you are nice about their programmes then you will be rewarded with discount. Pumping out reviews and videos will get you special offers as documented in the chart above.

Here at Mobile Tech Addicts we are honest about how we feel on applications and hardware. I’m not writing this to get some discount, but if you own a couple of their programs then you can get a couple of bob off some a new one. Click the picture above and see if you can make a saving.