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Samsung's first Bada phone to be shown next week?

Publié: février 12, 2010, 10:12pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

In November, Samsung launched its own open smartphone platform called Bada, which the company positioned as a replacement for Symbian, and eventually the rest of Samsung's proprietary non-smartphone operating systems.
Since that time, Bada has been keeping a pretty low profile. Samsung showed off screenshots of its UI and some quick videos of software (and Flash) running on the platform at a London event last December. The company also said the first Bada phone would be available in the first half of 2010.
Now, with Mobile World Congress just around the corner, Samsung has set up a huge advertisement for a new device called the Wave, with the tag line "with Samsung's new mobile platform Bada."
We've contacted Samsung to see if we can get a taste of what to expect from the consumer electronics giant next week.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Windows Phone rumors ramp up in advance of Mobile World Congress

Publié: février 12, 2010, 10:01pm CET par Tim Conneally

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week looks like it will play host to the usual range of exciting announcements in the mobile devices and software field. Based on the continued appearance of enticing rumors, Microsoft's Windows Phone platform looks like it will be one of the main attractions this year.
At 9:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, CEO Steve Ballmer is expected host a press conference unveiling the latest Windows Mobile developments, which could be anything from the official announcement of Windows Mobile 6.5.3 to the launch of Xbox Live-enabled games on Windows Mobile to a so-called "Zune Phone."
Reuters today cited anonymous sources who said the announcement will be "new mobile phone software," an aggravatingly vague description, which The Wall Street Journal tightened up into "Windows Mobile 7," which it says will resemble the Zune HD's interface, but all signs seem to be pointing elsewhere.
Microsoft assured us last month that its user-friendly, non-legacy mobile operating system was NOT Windows Mobile 7, and a report from Bloomberg today eliminated its mention of Windows Mobile 7 in favor of "The renamed Windows Phone operating system."
A new version of Windows Mobile that concentrates on media and entertainment instead of business functionality would no doubt be welcome in the new consumer-driven smartphone market, and many would say it's long overdue from Redmond.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
10 ways Microsoft can save Windows Mobile -- starting NEXT WEEK!

Publié: février 12, 2010, 9:56pm CET par Joe Wilcox

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

What will Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announce during Monday's Mobile World Congress press event in Barcelona, Spain? There's what he will announce and what he should. I'm skipping the speculation about what and going right to should. Microsoft's mobile strategy is a mess. Apple and Google have routed Microsoft in mobile operating systems. Android and iPhone OS make Windows Mobile look about as fresh as Windows 95. Meanwhile, Microsoft has chased Research in Motion's BlackBerry in the enterprise for years, never making any real gains.
It's long past time for the Big Ballmer to step up and offer something substantial -- not promises of future technology coming but goodies available immediately or nearly so. I've condensed what easily was a list of 15 or so items down to 10 things Microsoft must do immediately to save Windows Mobile from extinction. Microsoft has no more time. It's do or die, and even doing now may be too late. With that introduction, Microsoft should:
1. Release Windows Mobile 7. That's not announce but release, either next week or within 60 days. Anything less than immediate or near-immediate timing is simply too long. Google's Android is on rapid development and end-user adoption pace now, and Apple is sure to release a new iPhone model by summer. Meanwhile, Windows Mobile continues its decline. Gartner and IDC haven't yet released worldwide smartphone OS shipments for fourth quarter, but ComScore has released US phone subscriber share, based on a survey of more than 30,000 mobile users. Android phone share (based on actual subscribers not shipments) was 5.2 percent in fourth quarter, up from 2.5 percent sequentially. Share by phone OS vendor: RIM, 41.6 percent; Apple, 25.3 percent; Microsoft, 18 percent.
Ballmer will make a huge mistake if all he has is something to show. He can drone on about how much better is the Windows 7 Mobile user interface or blow about natural user interface enhancements. Big fraking deal. Microsoft's theme for Windows Phone at MWC is "Ready. Set." If Windows 7 isn't ready, set, go, Ballmer should stay in Washington State (or fly back if he already is in Spain).
2. Announce Zune phone -- or, at least, a handset based on Danger technology. Of course, Microsoft should do its own phone. A Danger phone -- the so-called "Project Pink" -- would be something better than nothing, but a Zune phone would be much better. Sure Microsoft risks alienating some of its OEM partners, but many of them are pulling back Windows Mobile in favor of Android anyway. Microsoft risks more by doing nothing.
In my September review of Zune HD, I wrote:
The Zune HD's size, particularly its thinness, would be ideal for a cell phone -- way better suited than iPhone. With a 3G radio, Bluetooth and application store, Zune HD could be a helluva phone. The task-oriented user interface, while very non-phone like, is ideally suited for a multi-functional device, even one with 3G telephony. Task-oriented UIs emphasize simplicity and hide complexity, increasing usability.
That's self-explanatory enough as to why a Zune phone makes sense.
3. Make a major mobile acquisition. I expect that Windows 7 Mobile or Zune phone won't be ready come Monday, and Microsoft simply can't afford to wait. Even if Windows Mobile 7 released to manufacturing next week, new handsets would still be months away -- at least. Microsoft needs to acquire some company with good mobile hardware, software and services. Kara Swisher made similar suggestion on February 8:
Microsoft and its giant wallet might be better served by buying one of the big and more established telecom companies, such as Research in Motion, Palm or even -- as another Microsoft exec said to me, 'Why not?' Nokia. Nokia has a market cap of close to $50 billion, with RIM at close to $38 billion. And Palm? A paltry $1.74 billion. Microsoft's current valuation is $246 billion, and the company has $40 billion in cash and marketable securities on hand...many sources at Microsoft have told me that CEO Steve Ballmer has expressed interest in buying RIM many times (while also dismissing any interest in Palm).
In late December I stated "10 reasons why Microsoft should buy Palm now." Maybe Ballmer has hard feelings about Palm because of past competition and the short-lived commitment to Windows Mobile. If so, he should act logically, not emotionally. Palm would be a cheap acquisition that would instantly give Microsoft great hardware (Pre), operating system (WebOS) and services, particularly synchronization. RIM and Windows Phone overlap too much in the enterprise. Microsoft needs some consumer pull, and Palm has it. What Palm doesn't have is a strong company backing its great technology. Microsoft could provide that.
4. If no Zune phone or mobile acquisition, announce Windows Phone handset development contest. Microsoft needs a Manhattan Project for mobile. If the company has got nothing, it should encourage third parties to come up with something. Microsoft should announce a contest to develop the Windows 7 Phone. Major manufacturers, startups and individuals should be allowed to submit prototypes (with all appropriate NDAs and contracts in place to protect designs). The contest must last no more than 120 days (Hey, it's a Manhattan Project!), with Microsoft committed to choosing one to three designs within 30 days and begin manufacturing 30 days later. Microsoft would commit to buying the prototype design for pre-stated price and -- for existing, major manufacturers -- promising exclusive production deal for at least 12 months.
The contest would be worth the buzz alone -- and there should be plenty of that. Suddenly anyone could conceivably develop Microsoft's own Windows Phone and get a big, fat contract in process. The Web would buzz with speculation and ideas about what Microsoft should do. The contest could be the ultimate in crowdsourcing but instead of culling the crowd for free Microsoft could put forth its longstanding corporate axiom that people should be paid for their creative work. Take that, free-monger Google!
5. If no mobile acquisition or Zune phone, make closer development, strategic and business ties with Nokia. Barcelona is the right place, given Nokia's handset dominance across major parts of Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Buying Nokia wouldn't be a bad idea, either, as Swisher suggested.
In most emerging markets, the mobile handset is the first Internet-connected device, not the PC, that most people first use. During fourth quarter, Nokia sold 126.9 million handsets worldwide for 39 percent worldwide market share. Worldwide, there are 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers, and manufacturers ship about 1.3 billion mobile phones each year. By comparison, the total PC install base is only about 1 billion.
The point: The future of computing is the mobile device, not the PC. Nokia has huge presence in most countries, particularly emerging markets. A Nokia deal, or acquisition, should emphasize extending Microsoft products and services to cell phone users in these markets. Microsoft also should align any Nokia deal with the "Unlimited Potential" program.
6. Release -- not announce -- a new mobile browser. The browser should be based on Internet Explorer 8 or WebKit, and it should be available for all major mobile platforms, starting with BlackBerry OS, iPhone OS, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile. It's OK if Microsoft snubs nose at Android -- for now. Microsoft's new browser should be available in beta, at least.
7. Unveil Zune Silverlight client. As big as Windows market share is, Microsoft needs to extend Zune's reach, particularly to sell more music players or to launch a phone. Microsoft should release a Zune client for Mac -- and even Linux -- and that could be easily enough done with Silverlight. Microsoft could go all Web-based, but the Zune UI and features are already compelling in the Windows client. That said , Silverlight could allow for the option of both -- Web-based and desktop clients.
8. Release Silverlight for Mobile. In two years, HTML 5 could make Silverlight less relevant, not just Adobe Flash. Microsoft already is off to good start supporting HTML 5 streaming with Silverlight. What Microsoft needs more is a Silverlight client for all major mobile platforms, including iPhone OS. Windows Mobile won't be near good enough. Support must be broad, starting with Symbian S40 and S60 handsets. Microsoft should make beating Flash to market a top mobile development priority. Flash 10.1 is nearly ready for mobile device release and could debut as early as next week.
9. Tag it! Barcodes have a huge future on mobile devices, and so far only Nokia really gets it. But Nokia is lumbering too slowly to market. Google also gets tags, for search and advertising, but misses the broader utility in emerging markets. Enter Microsoft Tag. Mobile money is the hot topic in emerging markets. The idea: That people spend and also receive money via accounts attached to their mobile phones. Mobile phones also could be used for distributing financial aid.
In emerging markets where people don't otherwise bank, the mobile phone can contain funds access and be used to pay for items. On possible future payment option: Scanning barcodes with the phone's camera. Microsoft already is an aggressive technology provider in emerging markets. Mobile money tied to Microsoft Tag would be glue binding new customers to the company's products and services.
10. Make mobile location-based search immediately available. Google is there now. Mcrosoft's Bing needs to offer even better location-based search services -- tied to advertising and maps, for starters. Nirvana: Jack Consumer searches for Patti Smith book Just Kids, on his computer. While out and about, his smartphone beeps and, based on location and store database stored in the Azure cloud, informs that the Borders shop on the next block has Just Kidsin stock.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Google adjusts Buzz setup for privacy, makes 'public' choice more obvious

Publié: février 12, 2010, 5:59pm CET par Scott M. Fulton, III
By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Already sensing that too many potential users were attributing the "evil" moniker to Google (in the absence of actual evil in the world), the company yesterday made adjustments to its Google Buzz sign-up procedure. In Betanews tests, we found Google's altered dialog box is much more descriptive about the repercussions of setting up a public profile. It uncovers a critical choice about what you share with others publicly, that had been buried beneath an Edit link, by copying it up front where everyone can see it.
The danger involved with a new user setting up Buzz without being mindful of its default consequences, is that her public profile can be automatically filled with the names and profile links of Gmail contacts she communicates with most. Betanews tests this morning indicate that changes Google has made to Buzz setup appear to reduce that danger somewhat:
- When a Gmail user logs in from the Web and is invited to try Buzz for the first time, a dialog box gives that user an opportunity to find people to explicitly follow by default. We noticed that when the user starts typing in names, Buzz does attempt to auto-complete those names, using a list of contacts from the Gmail account. However, at this point in the process, Buzz did not gather those same names into a list of people to be automatically followed, and that's a big difference. Here, the user is effectively creating a new default list of people to follow that is devoid of automatic references from Gmail. If she starts her Buzz setup by accepting this invitation, she may be able to avoid inadvertently publishing her list of followed members to the world right away.
- The dialog box for editing one's new Buzz-compliant profile now appears the first time the user tries to enter a comment into Buzz (the equivalent of tweeting). But at this point in time, the user's Google profile is not public. That's significant, because it means information the new user is just now entering into Buzz isn't being broadcast to Google's search caches, before she has an opportunity to make it private.
- The revised dialog box at this point now includes the Show the list of people I'm following and the list of people following me on my public profile check box -- which had been buried behind an Edit link -- up front, as well as behind the Edit link where it was before.
- Although Buzz urges the new user to create something called a public profile, the degree to which Google publicizes that profile to the world depends on two factors: 1) the amount of information the user includes in it; 2) whether the user opts to give her profile a public URL. Although signing up for Buzz does result in the creation of a "public profile" of sorts, it is only directly viewable to Buzz users (and perhaps, through a circuitous route, to other Google social services, such as Google Talk). That profile page will include a list of entries shared via Buzz, which does include tweets made using Twitter. It will also include links to the Buzz user's lists of followers and followed contacts, but only if the user allowed them to be visible to others. Yes, visibility is the default choice, but that choice is no longer buried. And until the user fills in profile details such as career, location, and a list of one's superpowers (yes, that's one of the blanks provided in Google Profile), it cannot be searched from the Web.
- Google Profile pages created by Buzz are only "public" by default in a limited sense. Specifically, for a Google profile to be searchable, one still has to edit her profile page manually, outside of Buzz. Checking the option at the very bottom enables anyone to browse to http://www.google.com/profiles/Gmail_name, thus giving everyone -- even non-Buzz users -- access to what the user is buzzing. Although this isn't stated explicitly, enabling this option is what makes the profile searchable like a public Web page, with results that show up in Google searches. Buzz does not check this option by default. Until the user checks this option, the profile page's URL does not include the user's Gmail name, but rather a large integer at the end. So although it is technically public, it's not something that's designed to be given away, and no one is likely to be able to guess that integer's 21-digit value.
Google's changes do set up a few new speed bumps along the way to creating a Buzz profile, which new users will notice, and many may not appreciate. We know from experience how folks reacted to the abundance of security warnings shouted out by Windows Vista. But when making folks aware of the security risks inherent in doing things automatically, this is a good thing. And the fact that one's Google profile page is not broadcast to Google's searchable caches by default, gives Buzz users an important safeguard.
4:50 pm EST February 12, 2010 · Today on his personal blog, a white-hat hacker who only goes by the name theharmonyguy announced that he had discovered how one can use Picasa to learn the Google username -- the Gmail name -- of any Google user (who is, unofficially, a Picasa user) using the long-integer numeric profile address. With this method, a person whose "public Buzz profile" is only public in a limited sense, could become public in the literal sense.
"With the introduction of Buzz, Google is encouraging users to take advantage of Google profiles," he wrote. "But in the process, Google is tying together services that many users may have treated quite distinctly in the past. If you want your Gmail address to remain private, you need to manage properly the other Google services you use to avoid one of them exposing your Gmail username."
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
Opera 10.5 leaps to beta, holds on to unexpected performance lead

Publié: février 12, 2010, 1:31am CET par Scott M. Fulton, III

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Download Opera 10.5 Beta 1 for Windows from Fileforum now.
Just yesterday, we saw yet another daily build of what Opera Software was calling its "pre-alpha" of the Opera 10.5 Web browser, a product that the company certainly wanted folks to test, even though they were warned it wasn't even ready for daily use. With various software publishers' development schedules being organized so differently from one another, it's difficult enough distinguishing "previews" from "alpha previews" from "preview alphas" -- just yesterday, for example, Mozilla finalized a public "developer preview" of Firefox 3.7 Alpha 1, closing off its "Alpha 1 preview" track before starting, on the same day, its "Alpha 2 preview" track.
But Opera, perhaps breaching etiquette altogether and going for the sinister "Triple Dog Dare," this morning skipped right over Alpha 1 -- which we were all expecting -- and officially dubbed the latest build of 10.5 "Beta 1." In so doing, Opera also removed what it had been calling "10.2 Alpha 1" off of its list of test builds, and replaced it with 10.5 Beta 1 on its "browser/next" page.
There are a few elements of this new beta that still have a certain "alpha" flavor to them: for example, a button on the search bar that doesn't search for the contents already in the text box, but only after you type new text into the box. And a JavaScript control problem on a very simple conditional loop still forces an error condition on one of our basic JavaScript tests -- an error that one can excuse in a "pre-alpha."
That said, Opera is now officially back in the hunt for Web browser performance supremacy, warts and all. Today, after a huge set of Patch Tuesday updates forced a slowdown of our index browser (Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista), and even a slight speed gain in IE8 on Windows 7, triggered a reset of all our Windows 7 browser test scores slightly higher, Opera 10.5 held on to the lead over the latest development build of Google Chrome 5.
But the lead is much narrower than it was last week, by almost 44%. With the wind in Chrome 5's sails now, Opera has to paddle as fast as it can to maintain its distance from what has become the fastest evolving browser chassis in history.
We'll get back to performance in a bit; first, a look at some of the other new Opera 10.5 features we're noticing. Last December, we showed you the completely revised Opera front-end, which made us wonder why this wasn't being called "Opera 11." For Beta 1, we've noticed a few tweaks: First, there are fewer buttons in the Address bar than in the first "pre-alpha." Back and Forward are now paired, and a new "fast-forward" button (there's no textual name for it that we can see) is capable of paging ahead, within sequences of pages that haven't been loaded yet. We tried it with Betanews articles, and it works quite well -- you can get to Page 2 from Page 1 even if you can't find our page button.
The tweaked, but still revised, front end of Opera 10.5 Beta 1, with the tab bar opened up to show thumbnails.
The Search bar has been tweaked, and now bears the logo of the search engine you're using (Google remains the default). The search button has been moved to the right, but as we mentioned, there's times when it didn't function for us in the first beta build.
The Side panel is back in 10.5 (it wasn't working for us in the pre-alpha), and it remains the most convenient way for us to pull up bookmarks. One of our favorite Firefox add-ons is the All-in-One Sidebar, but as we've been reminded any number of times, its design inspiration comes from Opera.
The tab bar can still be slid open to reveal thumbnail previews, though in the beta, Web pages' icons ("favicons") have returned to accompany their title bars. When you hover over a tab or a little thumbnail, Opera 10.5 pulls up a big thumbnail, along with more space for the page's title and URL. The tab button with the picture of a tab in it, that didn't convey its meaning very well, has been replaced with a "recycle bin" button that makes more sense. From here, you can re-open closed tabs.
Controls along the bottom of the new Opera window are now rendered in their own tabs; and this is smart, because the tabs themselves are opaque. Opera has been joining the trend toward embracing the translucent window frame in Vista and Windows 7; in the pre-alpha, you could only see the charcoal-grey feature icons when the window was in front of something white or chalky-colored.
Version 10.5 is Opera's first to follow Firefox's lead in supporting the HTML5 <VIDEO> tag -- the ability (theoretically) to show streaming videos from the Web using a codec built into the browser. Unfortunately (and this isn't Opera's fault by any means), the biggest open test of the functionality of the HTML5 tag comes from YouTube, where the test uses the proprietary H.264 codec. While both Firefox and Opera can try to run these tests, they're geared (for now) for Google Chrome 5 and Apple Safari 4.
With pages using the Ogg Theora codec for the <VIDEO> tag -- the one Web standards architects intended -- Opera's built-in player performance appeared stable in early tests. Streaming movies did appear a little "mosaic-ed" for the first few seconds, almost like a JPEG image that's half-loaded. We did notice problems with 10.5 Beta 1 and the Flash codec, especially in YouTube. When a new video player is repeatedly loaded into the same space as the one that initially inhabits a page, Opera has a tendency to blank out the reloaded viewer. You can hear sound, but you see nothing but the page background.
We're impressed by an Opera 10.5 feature that's out of the ordinary for any other browser, and potentially less of a security risk for users: Pop-up windows, including message boxes, are rendered by the JavaScript interpreter as part of the active page, not as separate Opera windows. That means you can't drag a pop-up window outside the page area, which might possibly become an inconvenience in some situations. But it reduces the opportunity for the type of cross-window spoofing that has characterized exploits of Internet Explorer and Firefox, because pop-ups are run in the context of the active page -- a much tighter sandbox.
We're not impressed with the first beta's upload ability: In fact, the browser does tend to crash following an upload. The built-in session manager (one less add-on you need to attach) does pick up where you left off when you reload the browser.
Next: The chase is on...
Download Opera 10.5 Beta 1 for Windows from Fileforum now.
With a few builds under its belt now, it's clear that the development builds of Google Chrome 5 are resuming that browser's course of performance improvement at a rate, on our index, of about half a point per month. Our recent round of Windows 7-based browser tests show higher numbers across the board for another reason: Patch Tuesday has slowed down IE7 in Vista, our index browser, while giving a slight boost to IE8 in Win7.
So the fact that the latest stable build of Google Chrome 4 surged from under 20 to well over 21 on our index, is only partly due to a speed improvement. What's important with regard to these index figures is relative performance, and the bar graph will help you better visualize how well one browser compares with another.
The Opera 10.2 alpha track is no longer on our graph, because it's no longer on Opera Software's roadmap. That's probably a good thing, because 10.2 was the slowest browser in the line-up after IE8. The gulf between the current stable Opera 10.1 and the new 10.5 beta is unprecedented: a 370% performance improvement, mostly reflecting massively improved computational performance, and somewhat improved rendering performance.
Click here for a comprehensive explanation of the Betanews CRPI index version 2.2.
In our tests, the 10.5 pre-alpha suffered from unexplained poor performance in rendering conventional HTML tables -- those tools that old Web pages used to divide and conquer pages, prior to the advent of CSS. That problem completely not only disappeared in the 10.5 beta, it blows away every other browser in the field in this department. On Win7, 10.5 scores a 9.19 -- 919% the performance of IE7 in Vista -- followed closely behind by an 8.80 score from the latest stable Safari 4, and 8.10 from Opera 10.1 (the opera brand has typically performed well on this test).
Relative SunSpider (general JavaScript computation) and SlickSpeed (CSS selector) test performance slid a bit from the pre-alpha to the first beta, but we expected that from the first official public build, with all the corrections developers needed to make. Table performance helped Opera 10.5 make up for that, and the new beta still holds the overall lead on the SunSpider: 69.57 versus 68.69 for Chrome 5, and 57.17 for the latest daily WebKit build of Safari.
And Opera's graphics rendering importance is unbelievable: Chrome 4 had us already whistling on the Canvas geography map rendering test, with a 31.75 score. Opera 10.5 Beta 1 scores a 63.50 on that same test. Where Chrome 5 still holds an edge, including at times over its stable predecessor, is in ordinary page rendering. Chrome 5 scores an 11.49 in the Nontroppo CSS rendering battery, while Chrome 4 surpasses that with 12.05; Opera 10.5 Beta 1 scores 7.44 there. In the standard page load test from Nontroppo, Chrome 5 posts a staggering 16.27. Opera 10.5 is in second place on that scale, but still way behind at 9.99. That Chrome 5 score was so staggering, we tested several times to confirm it.
If Chrome 5 were to improve its handling of plotting graphics to the Canvas element of modern HTML, before Opera 10.5 improves its handling of everyday rendering, Opera could be in trouble. It's a tenuous situation at present for Opera, but let's face facts: It's the nicest tenuous situation that anyone at Opera Software last year could have asked for.
If you're one of those long-time Betanews commenters who has spent the last two years saying, look out guys, Opera is on a comeback...you have to be smiling now.
Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010