So if you’ve been reading news pretty much anywhere, you know Microsoft is licensing its Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio to HTC. For some reason every news site I read for the majority of the day seems to think this is some attempt by Microsoft to get money. I think this is totally off-base. Yeah Microsoft is going to make some sweet cheddar on this deal, especially if they can pull licensing agreements across the Android board (Samsung, Motorola, etc.) but they’re the last group that really needs it. I’m seeing Microsoft trying to swoop in and save their primary handset maker in the wake of two major lawsuits. Here’s why…
Matt Anderson
Engadget is pissing me off all over the place.
I read a lot of news. I read an abnormal amount of mobile phone news specifically. Kind of how I started writing here in the first place. Everyone who reads news online usually has a handful of sites they use for reliable and up to date news. My morning reportoire includes MobilityDigest.com, WMPoweruser, and Engadget. Engadget is by far the largest of these sites (backed and owned by AOL/Time Warner) so they typically have the biggest news leaks out of the three. I usually follow their Mobile World Congess coverage and other major press events. None of this bothers me. What does bother me is the enormous ground-dragging brass balls those guys must have to present themselves as a total mobile news source with this kind of obvious app prejudice.
Palm Still Claims WebOS is worth something. HTC says no.
About two weeks ago I posted this article about Palm going on the auction block. A lot of sites (like Engadget, WMPowerUser.com, and others,) believed HTC would drop the majority of their current coffers into picking up Palm. After digging into the dirty financial black hole like singularity that is Palm’s checkbook, HTC has taken a step back. This makes a hell of a lot of sense in light of the many product releases on HTC’s table. All that cash in the bank is going to be for pumping out prelaunch handsets and marketing said handsets in the next few quarters. Find out what I’m rambling about after the break.
Waiting for DropBox? No Need…
A few days back I posted this. Anyone who’s proverbial rocks got off on the news should check this out. Ruttensoft will be handing out a free Beta version of their app by, what they hope, is Monday the 19th with the final version coming in at $6.99. Only hi-res screens supported in the first … Read more
Zune HD hacked. WinPho 7 Here we come!
Engadget just broke the word on a new hack for Zune software that opens a lot of latent capability. Although similar tricks have been tried, this one is being hailed as the only legitimate “jail breaking” being done. Apparently this little wiki right here explains the process in detail. Now most of us are not … Read more
Who needs local storage? Not WinMo with your help…
Everyone’s favorite freeware site, 1800pocketpc, just ran this article on Drop Box. For those of you cloud-deficient users out there it’s a file sharing service that let’s you set up folders on several devices (Laptop, Desktop, iPhone, etc.) Drop Box is currently soliciting users for new features and one of these possibilities is a Windows … Read more
Pads, Slabs, and Slates… Oh My!
Now that the fervor around Apple’s infamous pad launch has settled, others are ready to launch back with competing products and form factors in the space between smartphones and laptops. The New York Times ran an article featuring a brief overview of the products soon to be hitting the market (and no, the Courier is not one of them.) Companies like HP, Dell, and Google are mentioned in some detail. Read on past the break for more.
Microsoft Walks the Middle Ground
I think I can finally see what Ballmer and team are conjuring up for this holiday season. They are copying parts of iphone but not the ones people think. Just as they are copying parts of Android that others don’t realize. Everyone praises Apple for end user experience. However their app process and dev materials are lackluster and are only bolstered by a high install base. Android is hailed as the developers play land with complete and open dev but with multiple versions beginning to cause trouble much like traditional WinMo platforms. WP7 takes these two ideas of End User Experience and Developer Tools and combining these two things to create the product with the most “mass” appeal. This may not be for the tinkerer or poweruser like most of us however this strategy can certainly pull Microsoft from the dank repository of fragmented lambasting it currently finds itself in.
Palm for Sale, But Who’s Buying?
If somehow you have missed every other mobile news website in between your Internet browsing and here, first we thank you, and then point out that Palm is for sale. Eweek.com recently published the news and goes on to list some of its possible buyers. Listed are mobile heavyweights like HTC, Microsoft, Dell and others as potential buyers. Palm’s obvious trouble in getting WebOS into the hands of users have been cited as the company’s greatest woes, however what is lost amongst all this news of Palm’s bank statements is what value the company still has left. There are still two major assets that make Palm a key acquisition for a few companies. See what Palm has to offer after the break.
Original Article on Eweek.com
Why the Nexus One Can’t Win
Google has always concerned itself with being a consumer friendly, and overall “good” company, evidenced by their very simple corporate motto of “Do No Evil.” Google usually does a fantastic job of making decisions based on this philosophy. Gmail was one of the first email systems to lift the draconian standards for email capacity to a whole gigabyte (which now seems rather silly since my GMail account is about triple that and growing,) their Google Doc’s movement which is threatening Microsoft’s global domination of the word processor market, and even some basic things like Google Maps (which I’m sure most of us have used at some point or another,) and Google Voice. So when they began developing a Mobile Operating System that was open source there was huge praise. However, Google’s intentions were not wholly selfless. With the announcement of the Nexus One Google took a small sidestep around their motto to come in direct competition with other handset makers. Google’s idea was to offer a handset outright and off contract directly to the consumer to further undercut the networks, but what is good for consumer’s is not always the decision they make.