Daryl Baxter.

The Postmortem of Palm.

A brilliant article into the makings of webOS and the Palm Pre, and its subsequent downfall.

Source.

And indeed, the January event did blow minds: both the hardware and software put smiles on the faces of a spellbound capacity crowd in a ballroom at the Venetian hotel, a stalwart for big CES announcements every year. “This is a huge win for Palm. People are stoked,” our own Joshua Topolsky wrote in his Engadget liveblog. There was some confusion and disappointment that Sprint — a smaller carrier that used CDMA — had the exclusive, and the vague “first half of 2009” release window was a cause for concern. Negative comments about webOS or the Pre themselves, though, were hard to come by.

Topolsky and I were ushered into a small meeting room just minutes after the press conference where we had a half hour to play with the Pre. It was rough around the edges (both literally and figuratively), but it felt nearly as convincing as what Matias Duarte had just demonstrated before a packed room; it felt like Palm had essentially all the parts in place to ship a solid product.

When i worked in the phone shop, we was given the stock of the Palm Pre and the display models. I had the opportunity to use it a couple days before launch, and as this was before multitasking in the iPhone, it’s key marketing was the fact that it could do this, and also with the ‘card’ feature, which was really unique.

I also liked the fact that you could use the ‘Konami Code’ on it to enable the developer (unofficial add on) mode, which me and the guru got a kick out of.

All phone models and their tables were moved to make space for the Palm Pre section, set up over a long day i remember right before launch.

The launch came on a Friday, and 5 people must have come in for it.

The subsequent months where no major updates to the software arrived. When multitasking arrived on the iPhone in June, the stock was already gathering cobwebs. When the Palm Pre 2 eventually arrived, it was a meagre update that had a different way it slid up to reveal the keyboard, and the camera was only slightly upgraded, and with video.

It was a real shame, especially by the time iOS 4 had landed.

Staffers we spoke to took a more positive view, though, and one summed it up particularly well: “You ever see 24 Hour Party People? You know the scene at the end where they’re playing Happy Mondays’ Hallelujah and Tony Wilson is standing over the hacienda and he’s like, ‘well, it’s all over — we have to shut down. Take the turntables, take the barstools, let a thousand haciendas bloom’? Well, that’s what this is like. It’s that there are still people there, but a lot of people left, and they’re bringing the spirit with them. A thousand webOSes will bloom, I hope.”

Now in 2012, its already such a different place with smartphones, and Blackberry has more of a chance succeeding than’Open webOS’, and that’s a tragedy.

The Worst Phones You Can Buy

Something from Gizmodo that caught my eye, an article of 12 phones that are terrible.

From my experience selling phones from what feels like a decade ago, I remember the one phone i’d keep people away from, was the Sony Xperia X10.

Terrible, terrible phone.

Source.

‘Is Time Running Out for Windows Phone?’ A Retrospective.

Paul Thurott’s Supersite is a site i’ve been following for 10 years now. It’s always been informative in his reviews and exclusives that not many other people have the privilege of knowing beforehand.

Because of his close ties to Microsoft, his views over Google and Apple can be.. very biased you could say. There’s been some articles that simply didn’t make any sense, and weren’t needed.

But this article i read earlier has restored some faith, called ‘Is Time Running Out for Windows Phone?’

I had thought that once you designed an app for Windows Phone, it could be used on a tablet version of Windows 8 or even Windows 8 Server, a la iPhone and iPad with their Universal apps.

Wrong.

Turns out, even though they are very similar, under the hood they are very different, and still require a separate app. And going forward with Windows Phone 8, it’s apparently going to be a redesign of how Windows Phone works to the user.

The mind boggles. It’s always one step forward, a 5 mile leap back with Microsoft.

As for Windows Phone 8, you can expect that platform to sport WinRT-based APIs similar to (but different from) those used on the desktop and server versions of Windows 8. And I write “similar” there for a reason: They aren’t actually the same. You won’t be able to create apps that run across all three platforms. Instead, Windows Phone 8 will be similar, but not identical, from a software development perspective.

I’m as concerned, in a way, with what is very clearly yet another do-over. Yes, Windows Phone 8 will retain the Windows Phone name, and yes, it will run “legacy” Windows Phone 7.x apps, those apps that were written in Silverlight or the game-centric XNA APIs. But with Silverlight and XNA both silently cancelled deep within Microsoft’s ever-reimagined corporate hulk, the move to a variation of WinRT means that Windows Phone is starting over again. That mean more work for developers who, let’s face it, haven’t really had much incentive to adopt this platform in the first place.

Source.

I’ve always highly rated Windows Phone 7, and as i used to sell Windows Mobile 6 a couple years ago, it was greatly refreshing to have an OS that not only had a great GUI, but a great foundation to build on. If they could simply market it more than the pointless adverts of Internet Explorer that reeks of desperation, i’m sure they could have a great chance in a couple of years.

Plus as a side note, i’ve installed and used Windows 8 Developer and Consumer Preview, and i’m waiting until the RTM is released to, air my opinions on that one.

From Acorn to ARM.

A little fact for yourselves:

The first computers i used was an Acorn Computer & a BBC Micro. My primary school only had these, as it was before the boom of Windows 95, and these would be the only computers you could find in a school.

I remember in the breaks when it would rain, if you weren’t playing ‘Guess Who’, you could go on one of these machines and load up a floppy disk nearly the size of a magazine.

But, if you remember playing this, then you’re in my good books:

I remember loading it on the 5 inch floppy disks, and typing anything to see what he would do.

Whereas the Acorn, i remember it loosely resembling a Windows 95 desktop, but the pixels managed on less than 256 colours and was mainly used to make the banners across the classroom.

This and the Mega Drive is when it all began.

So i came across an article detailing how Acorn went from building their own computers and OS, to designing the chips used in 99% of mobile devices today.

Herman Hauser was once asked why a great British success story like Acorn finally failed. He queried the last word: “There are over 100 companies in the Cambridge area that can trace their beginnings back to Acorn, and have been founded by Acorn alumni. ARM has now sold over ten billion processors, ten times more than Intel.”

Source.

The original ‘Google Phone’ in 2006.

Another interesting story from the Oracle vs. Google case ongoing:

At that time, touchscreen support wasn’t a requirement — in fact, the baseline specs required two soft menu keys, indicating that touchscreens weren’t really in the plan at all. 

Back in 2006, Google had Android working on TI’s OMAP850 processor “in three form factors,” and functional apps included the dialer, home screen, messaging app, contacts, and an early example of Android’s ubiquitous WebKit-based browser; implementations of Google Talk, Gmail, Calendar, MMS, “chat-based SMS” (presumably a threaded messaging app), and POP email were expected for Q3 of that same year. That’s a lot of functionality considering that it would be another year and a half before we’d see the first Android prototypes on display.

All told, Google expected Android to be certified by carriers between June 1st and August 31st of 2007, at which point it’d be released to manufacturers. Of course, it wasn’t until October of 2008 that the G1 hit shelves.

Pictures can be seen in the source link.
I wonder why they changed to make the touchscreen the focus of the phone?

Source.

Mobile Operators unconvinced by Nokia’s revival bid.

Skeptics among operators say the sleek, neon-colored phones are overpriced for what is not an innovative product, cite a lack of marketing dollars put behind the phones, and image problems caused by glitches in the battery and software of the early models.

“No one comes into the store and asks for a Windows phone,” said an executive in charge of mobile devices at a European operator, which has sold the Lumia 800 and 710 since December.

A spokesman for a third operator who did not want to be named said: “If they could lower the price we think they could sell more. It might be worth making it a bit of a loss leader to get it out of the door. It’s not rocket science.”

Operators are also frustrated that cash-rich Microsoft is not spending more on marketing Nokia Windows phones.

Telecom consultant John Strand, who works with many of the top European carriers, said operators want to see more cash being spent. “The operators say to Nokia: ‘We will try to bail you out if you and Microsoft come with the marketing money.’”

“But even if the operators start to give away the Nokias for free, it will not make Nokia a success,” he added.

One device chief at a European operator agreed. “We can open our stores to them and train our staff to sell the phones, but that’s it,” he said.

“Ultimately, Nokia and Windows are challengers and they either need to come to market with a really disruptive, innovative product or a huge marketing budget to create client demand. So far they have done neither.”

Source.

I’ve tried the Lumia, and it’s design is sleek, easy to hold, lightweight, and i’ve thought it’s got a great chance to be the flagship to Windows Phone.

So far, i’ve seen no marketing anywhere to aggressively push it into the potential users, and if you look on O2’s site, you can easily have the phone for free on a 2 year contract for £27 a month, but there’s no link at the front page to encourage first time buyers.

If you go onto Vodafone’s website, you see a large banner advertising the features right away, with the same contract for £26.

A pity if this phone goes to waste.

Vodafone Nokia Lumia

O2 Nokia Lumia