There are now many rumours surrounding the Palm Elan online and guesses range from a tablet device to an AT&T smartphone to it simply being another name for the Pixi.
Here is what pre central thinks- “Never underestimate the investigative search prowess of PreCentral members. Shadow-360 tips us to let us know that he’s done some digging based off some information dropped by TopTongueBarry and the results bring us a sliver of hope that the full-touchscreen, slate-style, high-end halo webOS device we’ve been hoping for could indeed be a reality in the coming months.
It begins with TopTongueBarry, a self-professed AT&T IT employee who posted saying that not only has testing finished for the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus, but that testing will soon begin for a mystery device codenamed ‘Elan.’ That matches up well with previous forum sluethery, wherein ToniCipriani noted that May 10th looks like as good a date as any for AT&T to release the Pre and Pixi…”
The Nokia E55 is not new, but this review at nokiaLB tells you almost everything you need to know about the device. A much better smartphone than many people give it credit for.
“The E55’s keyboard is very similar to the one introduced by Research in Motion on some earlier BlackBerry devices. Even though it offers a QWERTY layout, most of the letters actually share the same key with their neighboring character. This layout seems annoying at first, but is pretty OK when you’re used to it, as one of the benefits is that the phone is much smaller than full QWERTY phones, like the E71 or E72. What’s very odd with this layout is that you have to press a key twice if you want to insert the second letter; however, using T9 makes it much easier and doesn’t require you to press the key twice, but we will discuss this in the software part. The major complaint we had about the E55’s keyboard is that its space bar was extremely small, making it sometimes annoying to type as you often miss it (until you get accustomed).
To finish, keeping in mind the E55 is a professional device, two shortcuts allow you to open your most useful applications to do business: your calendar and the messaging center; the only thing being that those keys are pretty small and generally lead you to press another key.”
Nokia has requested a patent for a Piezoelectric Kinetic Energy Harvester which in the real world means a battery that can recharge itself. Great idea if it works. Thanks to Teresa for the link.
A battery for an electronic device is contained within a first frame that is coupled to a second frame by one or more piezoelectric elements. The second frame is coupled to a device chassis by one or more additional piezoelectric elements. In response to translation and/or rotation of the electronic device, portions of forces induced by the battery mass are transferred to the piezoelectric elements. Electrical energy output by these piezoelectric elements is received in a power controller and can be applied to the battery. Additional device components can also be contained within the first frame so as to increase the total mass that induces forces applied to the piezoelectric elements.
A limited beta of Swype for Android is now available. This is one app that works better than expected and if I were totting a touch screen Android device I would be on it in a flash-
•Initially we will have a limited number of participants – we’ll expand it soon
•In English and Spanish – more languages to come
•Limited Features – some key features of Swype require OEM integration
•HVGA and WVGA Resolutions – don’t worry we’ll detect this automatically
•Limited End User Support – mostly via our forum
•If your phone came pre-installed with Swype DO NOT download this beta (it won’t work).
Are you seen by friends and colleagues as a ‘nerd’ when it comes to smartphones, and are you often asked for help by other people? Fair to say I am…
The iPhone app store is full of overly complex games, impressive apps and all manner of silly and serious software, but now and again something comes along that stops the world for a 6 year old girl. That girl is my daughter Alice and every night for the past few days she has been transfixed by the The Boy Giant.
The Boy Giant is an animated story which plays itself out on the iPhone, and one which has all the ingredients that a child’s book needs; humour, an engrossing story, beautiful illustrations and above all the right pace and length. The giant boy in the story is called Hujo and he is ironically born to Mr and Mrs Small which sets the tale off in the manner in which it delightfully continues.
The animations are sensitively implemented and the humour made my 9 year old son and I laugh out loud the first time we played it to Alice. You can choose to read it yourself or have it read to you which I personally prefer because the narrator has a much better story telling voice than I have. She just sits there transfixed as the story plays out and it is a joy to behold for a proud Father.
I now have a new weapon in my battle to make her behave (being naughty means no Boy Giant) and this is a simple app which is fun for the whole family. Even my 9 year old happily sits there listening to the story, although he doesn’t like to admit it, and I have to say that I have been more than impressed by the releases from Wotsamaflip for the iPhone so far and look forward to many more in the future, as does my daughter.
Available now on the App Store for a mere £0.59 / $0.99.
SwooshContacts for BlackBerry adds some personality and cleverness to the standard BB contacts app. “SwooshContacts automatically ranks your contacts based on activity and makes it quick to contact them.”
It looks as though TomTom for the iPhone is about to get real time traffic updates and Google local search. No word yet on price for the extras, but all of the main players are starting to compare nicely on features alone.
From TUAW- “The makers of the TomTom app for the iPhone have let us know that they’ve submitted an updated version that adds real-time traffic information, Google local search, and even some secret features the company isn’t talking about yet.
The TomTom app was eagerly sought out last year, but of late has fallen a bit behind market leader Navigon. This new release, with real-time info and Google local, will give both apps rough feature parity.
The current TomTom app is on sale for U.S. $49.99 at the app store (U.S. maps only) and it includes a “free update to the new version as soon as its available.” That would indicate that some or all of the new features will be an extra charge for current owners…”
If Palm’s PDK allows iPhone developers to port their apps over to webOS in a matter of days we could see some interesting moves over the next few months. From everythingpre- “Perhaps more importantly, the PDK will allow devs to rewrite mobile apps that they’ve built for other platforms to run on webOS with minimal modifications. iPhone apps can be ported over in a matter of days, sources close to the company tell me, and they don’t really suffer any degradation in performance.”
Quickoffice 6 Mobile Office Suite for S60 5th Ed is down to only $19.95 (from $39.95) until Tuesday. Not one to miss.
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Windows Phone 7 has finally be demonstrated on video in a full walkthrough. Check out the video below and let us know what you think. I am kind of impressed so far.
The Microsoft Courier certainly looks quite impressive from the video below, but I do wonder if it needs to do more to take off. Thanks to Jah. More details are at engadget.
My sister-in-law phoned T-Mobile UK two days ago to cancel her contract because she wants an iPhone. Two days later she has an iPhone 3GS which she received from T-Mobile today to stop her leaving. So, the moral of the story is that if you are on T-Mobile UK and want an iPhone just ask for one. They don’t advertise the fact, but it is definately available.
The iPad will be available in the US from 3rd April (Wi-Fi edition) and you can pre-order from 12th March. Will you be putting an order in? Thanks to Trevor.
“CUPERTINO, California—March 5, 2010—Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.
Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.
“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”
Starting at just $499, iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers battery life of up to 10 hours.*
iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface makes surfing the web an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. You can read and send email on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard or import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. iPad makes it easy to watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD, or flip through the pages of an ebook you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.”
