Pocketables

Although we've been talking about Google's acquisition of Motorola as if it were already happening, the deal still has a lot of paperwork and red tape to get through before it is really final. Getting Department of Justice approval in the US and European Commission approval in Europe are a big part of that red tape, but as of today Google has both those things, meaning that the deal is now on the fast track to completion.

While they have gotten the deal approved, Google will still have to be careful what they do with the various patents and assets they will get when they acquire Motorola. According to the European Commission's competition commissioner Joaqin Almunia,

"Upon careful examination, this transaction does not itself raise competition issues...Of course, the Commission will continue to keep a close eye on the behavior of all market players in the sector, particularly the increasingly strategic use of patents."

This really shouldn't come as much of a surprise, especially in light of the various battles between Apple and Samsung over some fairly trivial patents. However, it is still worth nothing that Google may not be able to use its newly acquired patents to defend Android quite as much as it would have liked. 

I am still very interested to see what Google will do with Motorola once the purchase is complete. Will they simply force Motorola to use stock Android, use the company to produce reference hardware, or simply leave things how they have been? Ultimately, we will just have to wait and see. 

[Reuters|SlashGear]

So, you love to play games on your phone and the PS3 is your favorite console, but the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play just didn't hit your technical sweet tooth, huh? 

No problem! If a new report is to be believed, you won't have to decide between the Play and not tying your phone into the PlayStation Network. That new report details that HTC may start producing PlayStation-certified phones in 2012, thereby removing Sony's distinction as the only manufacturer to offer such a thing. 

By offering PlayStation certification on other manufacturers' devices, we could see a lot more support for the PSN mobile platform. That basically means more games from Sony because more people can play them. 

On the flip side, this was a big selling point for Sony; a phone that can also play games would appease to the gaming crowd, which is a pretty large crowd, to say the least. 

Of course, this is just a rumor. I honestly don't know how I feel about it, either. Like I said, Sony would be losing a major selling point for its own devices, but in turn, would be upping the members for its PlayStation Network. 

Choices. What are your thoughts on this?

[Good and EVO]

Regardless of how poorly webOS has been treated by HP, the operating system still has a strong presence among the minds of the tech community. One of the things that helped it to keep that strong presence was HP's announcement to make it completely open-source, and today brings a milestone for that. 

HP today released the source code for webOS' browser, now known as Isis. Among many other enhancements, Isis includes support for plugins and is very compliant with standards. In fact, it's built on QtWebKit (which was originally made open-source by Nokia) so developers can more easily develop compatible products and services for webOS and Isis.

HP states that, with all of the new features and improvements, Isis is very competitive with competing browsers. The direct quote from the blog post detailing Isis reads as follows:

"We’ve benchmarked the new Isis webOS browser and have found it to be extremely responsive compared to other browsers made for general consumption."

I've previously said that I would absolutely love to throw webOS on my iPhone 4 or even my Dell Streak 7. With a fast browser like Isis, I am pretty certain that I will throw it on both of them once developers and HP can get all of the OS open-source. 

Let's say it was already. What devices (if any) would you install webOS on?

[HP webOS Developer Blog]

We already know that RIM will probably be showing off their new BlackBerry 10 OS at Mobile World Congress in a little less than two weeks, and we even know what their debut hardware may be. Still, there's no harm in getting an early look at what improvements we might see in BlackBerry 10, and thanks to a leak from CrackBerry, we can do just that.

As you can see above, BlackBerry 10 will have a completely redesigned homescreen setup, with improved artwork and widget support. BlackBerry 10 also has a more Windows Phone Metro-like interface for calls and email, and has borrowed iOS's folder style. Basically, it appears to be the PlayBook OS scaled down for a smartphone, which is exactly what we were expecting.

These changes certainly make BlackBerry 10 look more modern than previous versions, and it looks like the OS will be much more functional and user friendly. It will certainly be a big step up for an current BlackBerry users, but in the end RIM is still trying hard just to catch up. They are adding features that other mobile OSs have had for years now, and don't seem to have much unique style to their software.

Of course, playing catchup is exactly what they need to do in order to retain customers and perhaps draw in some new ones at this point. I just hope RIM gets back in the game soon, so that they can actually begin to innovate again.

[CrackBerry]

Sometimes, I have no idea what Samsung's strategy is. Either they are trying to fill every possible need with a unique device, or their tablet strategy is just extremely disjointed.  For example, they already have two 7-inch Android tablets, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and the Galaxy Tab 7.7, but today they announced another device, the Galaxy Tab 2, with almost nothing to differentiate it from the other devices.

The Galaxy Tab 2, presumably successor to the original Galaxy Tab, will have a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 7-inch 1024 x 600 display, WiFi, 3MP rear and VGA front camera, and variable choices for storage up to 32GB. Cellular connectivity includes GSM HSPA+ support, and GPS is included as well.

In case you missed our coverage of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, let me just tell you that the specifications match up almost exactly. In fact, the 7.0 Plus even has a slightly faster clock speed at 1.2GHz. Only software differentiates the Tab 2, which will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the Plus's Honeycomb. 

Frankly, I am confounded by this decision. Not only is the Galaxy Tab 2 nearly the same device as the Plus, it will supposedly be retailing around $450. With the 7.0 Plus at $350, this is simply unacceptable. In fact, it appears that Samsung is actually trying to charge users for the upgrade to Android 4.0, while leaving Plus owners out in the cold. 

Even if Samsung is planning to update the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, as far as I can tell it would have made much more sense for the company to focus resources on getting that update out instead of releasing an entirely new device. I have no idea what Samsung's reasoning for this release may be, but this is one of the clearest symptoms of Android fragmentation I have seen.

[SammyHub]

Hot on the heels of last week's news about Windows 8 is a little strange bit of information from an interview that Windows President Steven Sinofsky gave this week. Unlike the x86 version of Windows 8, which will support Flash and other plugins on the traditional Windows desktop, ARM devices simply won't support any plugins on either the Metro UI or the traditional desktop.

Sinofsky stated that the fact that mobile devices are moving away from Flash made it easier for the Windows team to decide to block all plugins for ARM devices. He did want to make it crystal clear, however, that devices running on x86 processors will still have access to the many plugins available for Windows, but only on the desktop side; that is, not Metro.

The Windows President also wanted to clarify that the traditional desktop on Windows on ARM will only support built-in Windows apps and the Office suite of programs. Besides that? "There are no other compiled desktop apps that are available," Sinofsky corroborated.

I have heard a lot of people say that they will simply be skipping Windows 8. I think I'm starting to see why. 

[Electronista]

Every time Google releases a Nexus device, it is a pretty big deal. And rightly so, because the Nexus is presented as the defining standard for Android software and hardware for at least the next year. As such, Samsung's new Galaxy Nexus is a significant device for Google, Android, and the mobile market in general.

This latest iteration of the Nexus line has received a more major redesign than the last version, quite a bump in specifications, and a completely revamped version of Android. There's a lot going on, and a lot of questions about these changes.

Does the impressive on paper hardware really stack up in daily use? More importantly, though, has Google finally solved problems with both fragmentation and usability with Android 4.0? Read on past the break to find out.

I use contact lenses myself, and don't mind paying to have the values adjusted every now and then. In some parts of the world though, getting a vision test is a lot more complicated than stopping by a store and paying a small fee. If there's equipment at all, getting the test can be very expensive. That's the kind of problem EyeNetra wants to fix.

Developed from research at MIT, it's an app/accessory combination that allows anyone to use a smartphone and the EyeNetra piece to do vision tests out in the field. The accessory itself is very cheap, only a couple of bucks. While the needed smartphone is less so, this is not meant as a consumer level combo in countries that really need it, but rather something that aid workers can bring and use themselves in order to do vision tests out in the field. The user looks through the eye piece and aligns some images using on-screen buttons, and the app then uses this data to calculate what correction is needed - all without an optometrist present. Paired with cheap glasses, the EyeNetra system can bring vision to people who otherwise have no way of getting the problem looked at (pardon the pun). 

It's great to see consumer technology be used in ways like this. It's currently in a test phase in parts of the world, but hopefully it will be available to consumers at some point too. I think I'd still like to visit my optometrist for my corrections, but I can definitely see this be useful in our part of the world as well, e.g. to check if child has vision problems and need to go see a professional. 

[EyeNetra via Nyteknik (Swedish)]

As we have mentioned before, LG has really been working hard to get back into the US mobile market. They already have both Android and WIndows Phone offerings, but the image above purports to be a leak of a new phoneblet device, which is clearly poised to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note.

While it only sports a 5-inch display, it is actually has a 4:3 aspect ratio. As you can see, that makes it look at least as big, if not bigger, than the Note's. The rest of the hardware also challenges the Note almost directly, including the 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8MP rear camera and an unconfirmed front camera, and the display resolution of at least 1024 x 768. There is no S-Pen or AMOLED to be found, but other than that the Vu appears to stack up pretty well.

The one obvious problem that I see with the Vu is the software. Clearly, it is running a pre-Ice Cream Sandwich build of Android in the above image, and I don't have as much faith in LG's upgrade process as Samsung's. Not only that, LG's custom UI simply isn't going to be as polished as Samsung's offering, and certainly won't take advantage of the larger screen as well. For example, notice how much LG's dock icons resemble Samsung's, and consider what that implies about their software efforts.

Of course, as soon as the developers get their hands on the Vu, all those bad things can change. The hardware, price, and release date are what will really matter, but we won't find those out until the LG actually announces the device, which will probably be at Mobile World Congress later this spring.

[UnwiredView]

Although Samsung has proven its belief that older hardware shouldn't be updated to new versions of software, it has also proven it still will update the phones that are still available for purchase. 

Two of those devices that are still purchasable (and upgradable) are the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy S II line. Today, the date on which the phoneblet and line of smartphones will begin to receive the update to Android 4.0 was leaked: March 1st. 

Obviously, the exact date your device will get the update depends on a lot of different factors; the country in which you reside, your carrier, and which exact model you have will determine when your Samsung phone will be upgraded. 

One thing that's the same across all devices will be the ability to update over-the-air or manually, so you might be able to update your phone sooner with the manual method versus waiting for the carrier to push out the update itself. 

[The Next Web]