I had a N800, the first or one of the first mobile devices to use the Mozilla web rendering engine. I really didn’t notice any difference between Mozilla’s engine and the N800′s stock engine, so it wasn’t a big deal to me.
In addition, it wasn’t a big deal to me when I heard that Firefox for Mobile would be used on the N900, either. Until I heard that it supports Mozilla Weave.
Weave is an addon for Firefox that syncs bookmarks and passwords like Xmarks, but in addition it also syncs history and tabs that are open on your other devices. I just started using it today (on my desktop and netbook, I don’t own an N900 yet), so I’ll have a more in-depth Weave post in a few days. Watch this short video to see Firefox’s mobile browser in action on the N900 (Weave is only touched upon briefly), I’ll talk about more after.
Imagine you’re at your desktop, reading an article online, waiting for a friend to come pick you up. You get a text, your friend is outside. You go to a restaurant where there’s a 30-minute wait. You can now pull out your phone and resume reading the article you were reading at home. After that, you can continue your browsing in full on the N900, because it supports the full web.
Another short and sweet post. This isn’t news to Blenderheads like myself, but just thought I’d throw out there that the much-anticipated Blender 2.5 is in it’s public alpha stage. The 2.5 version is a near-complete rewrite of the software (I think).
Blender, for those of you who don’t know, is an (free and) open source 3D modeling and animation program. It is quite possibly the most full-featured 3d program out there, free or commercial. I’m not being a fanboy, and I’m not using hyperbole. It’s amazing. Previous versions had a lot of these features, but let me just take a minute to tell you all the things Blender 2.5 will do:
First, a while ago I read this interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. He expresses confusion that Google seems to be abandoning Android as a netbook OS in favor of Chrome OS. I was a little confused about that too, but Chrome OS does make more sense on a non-touch screen netbook than Android does. Also, the idea that an OS is really a browser is something Ubuntu needs to start thinking about. Windows 7′s search-able start menu is arguably their best feature (yes, Vista had it too).
On my honor, I was just thinking about this very thing, a watch that could connect to a smartphone via bluetooth. This prototype is for Blackberry only, it isn’t available now but may be someday. With the very long range of Bluetooth 2.0 this is a really good idea.
Verizon is blasting the iPhone in their new “Droid Can” ads in favor of the Android OS. Now it’s rumored a 4G iPhone might pop up on Verizon. At least you’re not burning any bridges…
Android is getting the advantage in the cell phone market now. It’s not locked to any hardware, so people can access the large app base with the form factor they most want. Even Maemo, which I think is better, only shows up on Nokia phones despite it’s being open source. I was hoping the Nokia N900 would position itself against the iPhone the way Verizon is doing with the Droid ads, but Nokia might already be a lost cause. Their last quarter reports are pretty bad. With smartphones, at least.
Android really is the techno-hydra. It’s non-exclusive and I don’t think Nokia can beat it in the US when their smartphone will only be fully compatible with one carrier. I mean really, the N900′s success in the US seems to be dependent on how well T-Mobile’s Project Dark goes. I don’t know if I like that very much.
I’m fine with using Android over Windows Mobile or the iPhone, but I really, really would like to see Nokia and Maemo get the success it deserves.
Holy crap I am really talking up the N900, a device that I’ve never seen and hasn’t even been released yet. It’s apparent I’m a Nokia fanboy, even though the only Nokia device is own is the N800. I thought I’d write a post that better explains why I like the idea of this phone so much.
In my N800 post earlier, I said this about Windows Mobile:
WinMo is an OS that has yet to acknowledge that most smart phones are now touch screen devices. That’s why every manufacturer of WinMo phones has their own interface, like HTC’s TouchFlo 3d–there are also third party UIs like SPB Mobile Shell (which I use).
I said this in comparison to Maemo OS 2007, which came out, well, in 2007, 2 years and 9 months ago. I still prefer that interface to any other today. It’s built around browsing and multi-tasking, and you could easily do nearly anything in that OS with a stylus or a finger.
John Herrman at Gizmodo has put up a review of Windows Mobile 6.5, which says the same thing about Windows Mobile, but more intelligently. After talking about HTC’s superior TouchFlo interface, he says:
Handset manufacturers have done more in the last two years to improve Windows Mobile than Microsoft has, which borders on pathetic. In the time since Windows Mobile 6.0 came out in February of 2007, Apple has released the iPhone—three times. Palm has created the Pre, with its totally new webOS. Android has come into being, and grown into something wonderful. RIM has created a touch phone and a revamped BlackBerry OS.
I just wanted to link to that review. I’ve been trying developer builds of WinMo 6.5 for a while now, and it’s surprising how little’s changed. How can the same company that’s working on the potentially revolutionary Courier ‘booklet’ be the same company that just crapped out WinMo 6.5? How many Vistas do customers have to suffer through before we finally get a 7?
Microsoft has the benefit of producing the most popular OS. When Windows Vista came out, how many people considered moving to Mac? A few, but I’d bet that most, like me, stayed with XP and waited out something better. Who’d give Windows Mobile a second thought versus the iPhone? And don’t BS me, I know the iPhone isn’t advertised as a business phone, but it is very business capable. Isn’t Microsoft worried that AT&T will one day lose exclusivity, resulting in the iPhone breaking even more records? Shouldn’t Microsoft be innovating their asses off instead of just putting a bag on the side of WinMo 6.1?
So my 120GB Zune broke. I admit it, I dropped it a lot. I went back to using my 80GB Archos 504, which has a few problems, but it served to remind me of all the ways it is better than the Zune. The only things I ever had against the Archos 504 were the large physical size and occasional freezes (freezes they’ve since fixed). The Zune requires Windows to transfer music, it requires it’s own software which by default overwrites all your id3 tags and cover art (it seriously, seriously fucked up my collection and I will never forget it). I didn’t like being forced to navigate music by id3 tag. I didn’t like how big of a pain in the ass it was to put one album on my Zune–something I can do in half a minute from any PC (running any OS) with my 504. This 504, by the way, is the mp3 player I used to take with me to construction sites. It’s been dropped a hundred more times than the Zune and is still going strong. Maybe that’s because it uses a 2.5″ laptop drive instead of whatever tiny custom drive the Zune has.
A few weeks ago I posted about 64GB flash players, wondering why there’s only one on the US market and why it’s an iPod. There are dozens of companies that only make flash mp3 players. Why has none of them released a 64GB model?
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