A month after it began to offer the Android-powered HTC Dream and HTC Magic, Rogers Wireless has reduced the price on both devices from CA$149.99 to CA$99 with a three-year voice and data plan (minimum CA$45 per month). Combining either with a two-year plan will give you a CA$50 promotional discount taking the price to CA$449.99.
Other prices remain unchanged:
1-year plan: CA$524.99
No contract: CA$599.99
At those prices, will you jump on the Google Android bandwagon?
Apple made available today a beta copy of the upcoming iPhone OS 3.1 is now available to developers. Also available is version 3.1 of the SDK.
The change log reveals what we can expect to see in the next iPhone OS version:
Improved video editing including the ability to save trimmed videos as separate files
Support for Voice Control over Bluetooth
Updated modem firmware
When moving icons, the iPhone will vibrate
The ability to paste phone numbers into the dialer application. Alphanumeric numbers will be converted.
Improvements to OpenGL and Quartz (graphics presentation engine)
Updated APIs to allow third party applications to save video attachments to the camera roll
Still more
There is no word yet on when the final version of Apple iPhone OS 3.1 will be released.
Where is the news?
Sorry for the lack of news coverage over the last few days. I'm completely swamped at work but hope to get back on track in the next few days. It's bad enough that I'm working through Canada Day.
Palm has released an update for the Palm Pre and its webOS. Version 1.0.4, a 12MB download, addresses several security issues and does not contain any new features or applications.
Palm Pre owners should be receiving the OTA update shortly (if not already). You can also use the built-in updater application to speed the process up if you have not received the notification yet.
Firefox 3.5 comes with a number of new features including a new and faster JavaScript engine, HTML5 support including audio and video tags for native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio, location-aware browsing, and support for downloadable fonts. Among the new security features are improved anti-phishing and anti-malware technologies, a new private browsing mode and a *"forget this site" option.
Firefox 3.5 is available for free directly from Mozilla.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has returned to work after taking a medical leave at the beginning of this year.
"Steve is back to work," a company spokesman said. "He's currently at Apple a few days a week and working from home the remaining days. We are very glad to have him back."
While on leave, Jobs underwent a liver transplant. The Tennessee hospital where the operation was performed reports that Jobs "is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis."
Skype 3.0 for Windows Mobile has left beta and the final version is now available. New features for version 3.0.0.256 include the ability to send SMS via Skype (useful if your plan does not include SMS or you are abroad) at Skype prices, file transfers to other Skype users, and a new Dial Helper. There also a number of bug fixes and improvements.
Skype 3.0 is compatible with Windows Mobile 5 and 6.x (Professional or Standard). The installation requires 12MB of free storage memory on your device or 6MB free on a memory card.
As with previous versions, Skype 3.0 is a free download.
Few know that much of the Windows Mobile user interface was designed by the Microsoft Advanced Technology Center (ATC) Studios in Beijing, China. Their last project was Windows Mobile 6.5 and a new team is now working on Windows Mobile 7. A number of concepts that ATC developed have now been posted on a Chinese site to promote the upcoming site (launching on September 9, 2009 at 09:09) for Robin Zhu (who likely worked for ATC).
The concepts show what Windows Mobile could have looked like under different circumstances. It would also be interesting to know why some of these concepts were not used and how Microsoft came to the decisions that have given us the user experience we are familiar with.
With the news of HTC's new Sense user interface, one might wonder what will happen to TouchFLO, HTC's user interface for Windows Mobile devices. It would appear that it's been full steam ahead on the next version. Over the past few days, a number of screenshots and a video have surfaced confirming the existence of Manila 2.5 (Manila being the codename for TouchFLO).
The video and images show that TouchFLO 3D continues to take on more and more of the Windows Mobile functionality. It has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a launcher application. The Homescreen features a revamped look with some new functionality as do many other tabs. Windows Mobile settings appear to all have been moved to the Settings tab as well. There is also new Footprints tabs, bringing the functionality over from TouchFLO 2D.
The video mentions the HTC Firestone early on, suggesting that it could be the first device to feature the latest version of TouchFLO 3D. It's not clear at this point if it will be made available to current models such as the HTC Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2.
And what about Sense? It looks set to replace TouchFLO even on Windows Mobile devices. If so, could TouchFLO 3D 2.5 be the last version before the switch?
The gloves are coming off as Sprint takes a shot at Apple's iPhone in a new ad. The ad is aimed at first generation iPhone users who are coming to the end of their AT&T contracts. The ad highlights the facts that the Palm Pre can run multiple applications at the same time and could save users about US$1200 on a two year contract.
Do you think we will see an Apple ad taking on the Palm Pre?
