11/18, 12:00pm
Most Nokia phones to use Maemo by 2012
Nokia will abandon Symbian for all its Nseries services by 2012, the company said at a launch event for the N900. The Maemo-based smartphone is the only one of its type in Nokia's lineup so far, but the company plans to gradually phase out Symbian S60 on all its Nseries devices over time. It should eventually end in relatively mainstream devices and not just high-end flagships like the N900, which itself is considered a "bridge" between the old and new worlds.
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11/18, 10:00am
Sony Ericsson in major cost reductions
Sony Ericsson is in the middle of a surprise, major cost-cutting measure that will close some of its key buildings, an internal memo has revealed today. The cellphone designer is notifying workers that it's closing its Research Triangle Park facility in North Carolina as well as offices in Chennai (India), Kista (Sweden) and Miami. As a result, Engadget hears the company will have to drop 2,000 jobs, or more than four times the 450 jobs it dropped in 2008.
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11/17, 8:25am
Flash and AIR betas also bring HW decode
Adobe today fulfilled earlier promises and provided betas for both Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2. Both are the first from Adobe to have a Flash layer that supports multi-touch input, including gestures such as pinching to zoom the window. Flash Player specifically gets H.264 hardware decoding through newer video chipsets and, initially for Windows PCs, can significantly reduce the workload on the CPU or a notebook's battery.
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11/16, 8:50am
Nokia adds DVB TV phone and lands E72
Nokia this morning launched an upgraded version of a key feature phone and shipped its flagship business phone. The 5330 Mobile TV Edition puts a DVB-H mobile TV tuner in Nokia's budget music phone and lets it watch free, digital broadcasts with a programming guide to pick channels. It's optimized for the format as it uses the owner's headphones as the antenna and has long enough battery life to last for six hours of TV.
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11/16, 7:35am
Samsung Galaxy Spica runs at 800MHz
Samsung started the week by launching its second Android phone on a world level. The Galaxy Spica, or i5700, sits closer to the mid-range but is one of the fastest Android phones ever with an 800MHz proecssor. Its main sacrifices versus the original Galaxy are the use of a less expensive LCD in place of an OLED and a 3.2-megapixel camera instead of the 5-megapixel example on the higher-end phone.
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11/13, 6:00pm
Old rumor of Nokia buying Palm resurfaces
Palm stock climbed over 8 percent on Friday after speculation that it would be bought out by Finland-based Nokia. Trading was about 15 times heavier than usual in the morning and remained heavy until the end of the day. The spike mirrored a similar increase from late September.
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11/13, 11:45am
Half Samsung phones to be touch
Samsung will make one of the largest pushes into touchscreen phones of any one company, according to a note from Shinhan Investment. The Korean company should step up its shipments of the devices from an estimated 57 million this year to at least 100 million in 2010. About 45 percent of the company's entire lineup that year will be based on touch based on the predictions.
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11/12, 2:50pm
Only RIM, Nokia top smartphone share
Apple has extended its influence on the smartphone market even further, Gartner says in its data for the summer. The combined iPhone platform leapt from 12.9 percent to 17.1 percent of worldwide share in the summer, or third place, where the next-best competitor, HTC, topped out at 6.5 percent after increasing from 4.5 percent a year earlier. Samsung was near-flat and moved up just slightly to 3.2 percent.
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11/12, 11:05am
Samsung dropping Symbian not part of strategy
Just one day after Samsung's senior VP Don Joo said the electronics manufacturer will be dropping Symbian in favor of its bada mobile operating system developed in-house, the company has responded by denying this likelihood. According to a Thursday statement, Samsung says such a strategy is not in line with its smartphone plans. The company also stated it's an initial member of the Symbian Foundation and will continue to cooperate with the group, which also involves Nokia, Sony Ericsson and others.
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11/11, 8:20am
Samsung to replace Symbian with bada
Samsung senior VP Don Joo Lee today confirmed rumored plans that it will dismiss Symbian from its smartphones. The executive expects Android and Windows Mobile to remain but will completely phase out Symbian in 2010, replacing it with Samsung's in-house bada. A previous analyst forecast had Samsung scaling back its Symbian use to just a small percentage next year but had only anticipated a complete exit in 2011.
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11/10, 8:35am
Nokia's first Maemo phone now ready
Nokia on Tuesday said it has started shipping the N900, its new flagship. The crossover between its Internet tablets and media smartphones is the company's first phone to use Maemo Linux instead of Symbian and is better-suited to modern computing: it has both a full Mozilla-based browser with Flash but basic multi-touch and multitasking that can support many simultaneous apps open. Helping this is along are a fast ARM Cortex-A8 processor and 256MB of RAM that closely resemble the hardware in the iPhone 3GS.
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11/09, 11:25pm
Samsung bada to rival Android, Linux
Samsung today entered into the mobile OS arena with bada. The software, whose name is based on the Korean for "ocean," is designed to be open and will compete directly against rivals like Android or LiMo. It will be based on universal standards and won't consider even core aspects of the OS off-limits: developers can not only use contacts, the dialer and other utilities but extend them with new features of their own.
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11/09, 3:45pm
Largest iPhone ad firm in Google's camp
Google today said it has bought mobile advertising house AdMob for $750 million. The deal gives Google control of what's considered the single largest advertiser on phones and is characterized as helping to better monetize the ads that reach platforms like Android and the iPhone. Giving AdMob the extra support should help fund the mobile web by improving the effectiveness of ads in apps and mobile-optimized websites, according to the search engine giant.
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11/09, 3:00pm
Samsung may deal Microsoft severe blow
Samsung is about deal Microsoft one of its most severe blows yet by dropping Windows Mobile from most of its phones, an investment note issued today says. HMC Investment Securities analyst Greg Noh understands that the Korean company's use of Windows Mobile will crash from 80 percent this year to just 50 percent in 2010 and will lower further still in future years. Just 20 percent of Samsung's phones should use the platform by 2012.
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11/05, 10:35am
Nokia X6 available worldwide
Nokia on Thursday said it has started shipping the X6. Its latest touchscreen-only smartphone is the first from the company to use capacitive touch and responds much more precisely and quickly to input than the pressure-based resistive screens of earlier models. Reinforcing this upscale image, the X6 is also more advanced than the 5800 XpressMusic with a 5-megapixel camera and 32GB of internal storage.
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11/04, 11:45am
SE Kurara pictured, gets 3.5-inch AMOLED
Photos of the upcoming Sony Ericsson Kurara handset have been revealed recently, thanks to PhonesDB. Newly revealed specifications reveal the handset will have a 3.5-inch color AMOLED display in what appears to be an ultra-thin, organic design. Hardware controls should remain intact but will be limited to call and media controls.
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10/29, 7:20pm
Company attempting to double US market share
Nokia is allegedly working on a Symbian-based handset aimed at the US market, an unnamed source has told VentureBeat. Interestingly enough, the device is expected to integrate a Qualcomm chip. If true, the component choice could indicate the companies are continuing to warm up to each other after a lengthy legal war over patent claims.
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10/28, 5:25pm
Nokia N97 mini now shipping, 2.0 update released
Nokia on Wednesday announced it is now shipping the N97 mini and has released a new update for its N97 smartphone. The newer N97 variant still has a QWERTY keyboard that angles out but has a smaller 3.2-inch touchscreen, a more compact keyboard and 8GB of built-in flash instead of the larger model's 32GB. It costs the equivalent of $664 in Europe, where it's sold unlocked and without a contract and should also be available subsidized through carriers in the near future.
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10/27, 4:25pm
Sony Ericsson Kurara to debut at MWC 2010?
A new handset, the Sony Ericsson Kurara, is expected to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress show early next year, according to a Tuesday LetsGoDigital report. The handset is promising to be a less featured version of the recently revealed Satio, with both sporting the Symbian S60 operating system. It should also feature a touchscreen interface but use a lower resolution 8-megapixel camera.
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10/27, 10:55am
Nokia intros first TD-SCDMA handset for China
Nokia on Tuesday showed off its first handset to support China's native 3G standard, TD-SCDMA. The Nokia 6788 was developed in conjunction with China Mobile, the country's biggest wireless provider, and sports a 2.8-inch display with 320x240 resolution and is considered smartphone-grade through its use of Symbian S60. There is also a 5-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash.
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10/21, 10:20am
HTC's main Android phone in tight supply
HTC's Android-based Hero is selling well enough that it's causing supply issues, the company's Asia Pacific VP Jack Tong revealed on Wednesday. Sales in the phone's initial Asia and European launch areas are described as "brisk" enough that demand has put a strain on HTC's production lines and won't see manufacturing catch up until November. The pace is expected to continue at least until early 2010.
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10/16, 2:05pm
Dell sees mini 3i, other mobile platforms
Michael Dell today on Thursday said in a public talk on Thursday that the company plans to bring smartphones to the US. While unspecific on details, he claims that any devices that show will be "family members" of the mini 3i from China. At least one will be based on Android, but he stresses that other open platforms are candidates.
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10/16, 11:35am
Nokia swaps phone execs, splits groups
Nokia took drastic action to improve its ailing smartphone business through a swap of executives as well as a reorganization of the company itself. Its Devices group has been split into a group for Smartphones, covering more advanced devices, as well as Mobile Phones, for its conventional Symbian S30 and S40 cellphones. The firm has also taken the unusual step of moving its chief financial officer, Rick Simonson, to head up the Mobile Phones group.
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10/16, 8:55am
Sony Ericsson Q3 still negative
Sony Ericsson today reported largely poor results for its summer quarter. The cellphone maker shipped 14.1 million phones during the three-month span; the number is an increase from 13.8 million in the spring but a sharp 45.1 percent drop from summer a year earlier. It successfully reduced the rate at which it has bled money down to a $244.7 million loss versus $317.8 million in spring but also saw some of its lowest revenue in recent memory, dropping slightly season-to-season to $2.4 billion but still far from nearly $4.2 billion a year earlier.
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10/12, 11:25am
Four touchscreen phones hit Vodafone UK
Vodafone UK today added three touchscreen smartphones to its roster that in most cases represent world premieres. The Sony Ericsson Satio is now finally shipping after having been detailed in May and is the handset designer's first Symbian S60 smartphone; besides full third-party app support, it's considered a high-end media phone with a 12-megapixel camera, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, GPS and Wi-Fi. For Sony Ericsson, the phone is a symbolic first as one of its first major devices to use microSDHC cards instead of Memory Stick Micro for storage.
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10/09, 11:40am
Nokia ports Qt to Maemo 5, outs some Maemo 6 info
Nokia on Friday revealed early details of Maemo 6, its next-generation smartphone platform. The OS will be the first to natively support multi-touch and capacitive touchscreens and should finally put the Linux-based OS on par with modern platforms like iPhone or webOS. Until now, the software has depended on single-touch resistive (pressure-dependent) screens incapable of gestures or other more precise movements.
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10/07, 10:30am
Android 2nd place in share in 3 years
Google's Android will be the second-largest smartphone platform in as little as three years, according to Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney estimated on Wednesday. While it trails today, the mobile OS is predicted to climb to 14.5 percent of the market, or about 76 million phones sold per year, by the end of 2012. As a consequence, it would whittle Symbian's market share down to 39 percent (203 million phones) and just slightly overtake the iPhone, which in this view would have 13.7 percent of the market or 71.5 million devices.
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10/06, 1:45pm
Expands content sync options
IBM has released v8.5.1 of Lotus Notes and Domino, the company's enterprise-level collaboration packages. Through Lotus Notes Traveler the software now has native iPhone support, allowing Domino to automatically sync e-mail, contacts and calendars. Push e-mail is supported, and owners of iPhones can work offline if need be.
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10/05, 3:55pm
Best Buy intros miQ mobile web backup
Best Buy stepped out of its usual role as retailer today by launching mIQ. Its service is designed to save smartphone data and will backup contacts, photos, videos and other data to 1GB of online space that can be accessed through the web or through a native phone app. Social network also plays a part as the app merges Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed and Twitter updating.
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10/05, 7:55am
Adobe unveils Flash 10.1 without iPhone
Adobe at its MAX show launched Flash 10.1, a major update to its plugin that promises video on devices that normally haven't been capable. The release adds hardware graphics acceleration on computers and should make HD Flash video possible on netbooks and ultraportables and standard definition possible on smartphones. NVIDIA already promises that its GeForce, Ion and Tegra chipsets will speed up the Flash update when available.
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10/02, 1:25pm
Juniper sees Symbian doubling in 5 years
The number of Symbian phones on the market should more than double in the next five years but won't have much of an impact on important rivals like the iPhone, a new study from Juniper Research said. Shipments should swell from 87 million phones from Nokia, Samsung and other Symbian supporters in 2009 to about 180 million by 2014. The expected increase is credited to a larger push towards partly or completely open-source code on phones. Combined with Android and LiMo (Linux Mobile) devices, about 223 million open-source devices should ship in 2014 as a result.
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10/01, 3:35pm
SlingPlayer coming to Palm Pre, as per job post?
A job listing at Sling Media, the maker of the Slingbox streaming TV hub, suggests that both Android and webOS versions of the streaming TV application are in develpoment. The job calls for a Senior Mobile User Interface Designer knowledgeable in these platforms as well as in platforms that already have SlingPlayer apps, such as BlackBerry, iPhone, Symbian and Windows Mobile.
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09/30, 3:35pm
AdMob August 2009 gives iPhone the lead
Apple's iPhone OS has successfully overtaken Symbian for the lead in all mobile web traffic, according to the latest data from AdMob. The combined iPhone and iPod touch share has jumped from 33 percent in February to 40 percent in August. Symbian, meanwhile, has almost exactly traded positions with Apple and fell from 43 percent near the start of the year to 34 percent in August.
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09/30, 1:00pm
iPhone leads CFI phone happiness study
Modern touchscreen phones like the iPhone, Android devices and the Palm Pre are proving to be much more enjoyable to use than conventional smartphones -- at times in spite of their networks, according to a CFI study. About 83 percent of US iPhone owners are satisfied with their phones while the other two touch-first platforms, Google's Android and Palm's webOS, are close with 77 percent each. In comparison, 73 percent of BlackBerry owners can say the same while those using Palm Treos of different varieties claimed 70 percent satisfaction.
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09/24, 10:40am
Vodafone intros 360 platform, new handsets
UK provider Vodafone on Thursday announced it has launched Vodafone 360, a series of Internet services for cell phones and computers that brings together all contacts, favorite multimedia and photo files as well as social networks. This will allow messages or chats sent through IM programs or social networks such as Facebook, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk, to be synced between computer and phone, via both wired and wireless methods.
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09/11, 9:15am
INQ confirms Android move
INQ late Thursday confirmed through a speech at the Mobilize conference that the company's next wave of phones would use Android. Company chief Frank Meehan provided few details but said INQ would have "pretty cool things" in store for these devices. As current INQ phones use proprietary but conventionally limited operating systems, though, the move would have INQ enter into smartphones for the first time and give it access to full third-party apps as well as Google's full feature set.
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09/08, 2:40pm
Sony Ericsson Aino, Satio phones due in October
Sony Ericsson has recently sent out a press invite to certain media outlets in the UK that, the gadget maker says, involves the official unveiling and retail launch of its Aino and Satio touchscreen handsets. The event is scheduled for October 7th, which is when the two cellphones are expected to launch.
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09/02, 8:10am
Nokia X6 X3 and N97 mini
Nokia marked the formal start of its own Nokia World show by launching three more phones, two of which are meant to bolster the company's stance in touchscreen phones. The rumored and now confirmed N97 mini is a rare fix for an existing design and shrinks the touchscreen smartphone slightly; it uses a smaller 3.2-inch, 640x360 display (down from 3.5 inches) and drops the dedicated directional pad in favor of arrow keys tucked into the slide-out, tilting QWERTY keyboard. Software also gets an upgrade with support for much more intuitive flick scrolling, more home screen widgets and updated Ovi Maps, though these will reach the full-size N97 in October as a free patch.
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08/31, 11:50am
Samsung App Store
Samsung on Monday chased after the market by providing details of the Samsung Application Store, its own mobile software service. The portal will have its own native client and will have unspecified "content guidelines" to filter which apps reach the store. Just 300 apps will be available on launch and will focus primarily on games from Capcom, EA, Gameloft and others, although Samsung will have apps from Handmark.
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08/27, 8:00am
Nokia N900 Official
Nokia this morning launched a new class of smartphone as its flagship. The promised N900 is a crossover between smartphones and Nokia's Internet tablets, and makes its biggest break in its change of operating system: although still a phone, the handset runs Nokia's latest Linux variant, not Symbian. Maemo 5 renders it one of the first smartphones to have true PC-like multitasking and not only lets it run "dozens" of app windows at once but gives it a simple, large dashboard for switching and closing apps.
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08/26, 8:25am
Nokia Maemo to Beat iPhone
Nokia is planning to dump Symbian for Linux as part of a concerted strategy to beat the iPhone, multiple sources said Wednesday. While the tips echo reports of the N900 using Maemo Linux for its interface instead of Symbian S60, Reuters now hears the shift is part of a larger strategy that will replace Symbian on many if not all high-end Nokia smartphones in the near future. The first fruits of the move are anticipated at next week's Nokia World show.
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08/25, 7:50am
Nokia 5230
Nokia in the run-up to its Nokia World show next week launched a touchscreen phone made to give it a better foothold in budget touchscreen smartphones. The 5230 is sometimes more advanced than the more expensive 5530 XM and adds both 3G as well as data-assisted GPS; in return, it drops Wi-Fi and scales back to a 2-megapixel camera. It still holds on to the 640x360 touch display, 3.5mm headphone jack and smartphone-class Symbian S60 OS from every previous Nokia touchscreen phone.
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08/24, 6:00pm
Nokia on N97 vs iPhone
Nokia chief Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was put on the defensive late yesterday in an interview regarding the poor performance of the N97 versus Apple's iPhone. When asked by the FT about the critical reaction to his own smartphone, which has been criticized for being too expensive, too slow and lacking a modern touch interface, the executive claimed the N97 was still viable but admitted he wanted to do better, particularly highlighting the increasing emphasis on Ovi services like the music store and navigation.
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08/24, 4:10pm
Microsoft OneApp
Microsoft debunked some claims of a unified app store for smartphones by launching OneApp on Monday. The software is aimed at bringing relatively complex Internet apps like Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live Messenger to regular, feature-limited phones. It pools all of these into the namesake single app and keeps the footprint down to just 150K while only loading both the local and cloud-based data that's actually needed.
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08/24, 2:55pm
Nokia N900 Press Shot Leak
A single press shot of the Nokia N900 has been leaked that eliminates most doubts about the tablet's existence. The shot from BeGeek not only identifies the device but encompasses many of the assumed features of the tablet, including its use of Maemo instead of Symbian for the interface as well as its built-in phone functionality and a front video camera for two-way calls.
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08/21, 4:10pm
Nokia 5530 XM pre-orders
Nokia is now offering its entry-level XpressMusic handset, the 5530 XM for pre-orders on its website. Introduced in mid-June, the phone retains the Symbian S60 operating system like the original 5800 XM. It has a 2.9-inch, 640x360 resolution touchscreen display and uses Wi-Fi as well as EDGE for connecting to the Internet instead of a faster 3G network connection to keep its price down. There is also no GPS receiver.
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08/19, 5:05pm
Nokia N900 reviewed
Leaked images of a pre-production version of the Nokia N900 Internet tablet, known internally as RX-51, have prompted a review of a prototype unit to surface, confirming many of its specs and revealing a few new ones. For one, the tablet will run on an as yet unreleased version of the Linux-based Maemo operating system instead of its own Symbian S60. The photos also confirm that the device will have an 800x480 resolution resistive touchscreen, 32GB of storage onboard, be powered by an ARM Cortex A8 processor of unknown speed and sport a 5-megapixel camera. The N900 will also double as a cellphone, and is strong enough that it's suggested it could replace the N97 in Nokia's lineup.
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08/19, 2:30pm
BBerry Gets Flash in 2010
A rumor from a purportedly certain source suggests RIM will have full, near desktop-grade Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight on the BlackBerry's web browser next year. Full details aren't given, but BGR understands that the update is primarily waiting on hardware. As either web plug-in demands both a strong processor and a fast Internet connection, RIM is said to only be launching the more advanced browser in summer 2010, when its phones will be faster and should have faster 3G and potentially 4G connections.
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08/17, 12:10pm
TouchWiz SDK launched
Samsung on Monday announced it will make a Software Development Kit (SDK) available to developers, which will finally lead to the creation of new widgets for the company's TouchWiz user interface. So far, there were just only about 15 applications available preloaded on the cross-platform UI, depending on the OS it's being used for. TouchWiz can be downloaded to Samsung handsets running on Symbian, Windows Mobile, or Samsung's own OS. Registered developers can download the Eclipse-based SDK from the Samsung Mobile Innovator website.
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08/17, 8:40am
Sony Ericsson Gets New CEO
Sony Ericsson this morning set in motion a significant change in its strategy with news that its existing CEO Hideki Komiyama is being replaced. The executive will retire at the end of the year and is being replaced by Ericsson's Bert Nordberg on October 15th. The Swedish official specializes in "business realignment" and was responsible for growing that telecom company's business earlier this decade.
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