Speaking of Symbian: at least the Series 60 SDKs are freely available, making it a fairly open platform. The openness issue is mostly a balance between the interests of the phone manufacturer, the operator and the OS provider.
The 16% tax is the VAT and has nothing to do with the levy. The headline is misleading on that. I'm sure that in the UK, you're well aware of the VAT;)
The 7650 is a totally different beast - Nokia should really do something about their numbering scheme, it sucks. The 7650 runs Series 60 on Symbian 6.0, the 7250 uses a closed (from an application developers point of view) custom OS.
Maybe, maybe not. All major phone manufacturers, some major operators and most content owners push for DRM on mobile phones, coordinated by the Open Mobile Alliance (ex WAP forum). Meaning full DRM and not something privacy related.
That's only true for certain markets (IIRC US and China). The rest of the world will receive 3650s with DRM support for preventing forwarding of protected content.
I don't know where to start but let's just say that Apple certainly doesn't have a monopoly on portable MP3 players. If you don't like their way, just buy any other MP3 player... maybe I didn't get the irony in your post?
Which recognizer were you using on the Newton? I absolutely prefer the print recognizer over the cursive one... the cursive recognizer does indeed have to be trained, but the print recognizer should work right away (assuming a more or less regular handwriting, which is much less a requirement than a custom alphabet like Grafitti).
You don't have to tell me about Symbian, I can just go ahead and take a look at the source code;). Also, the whole situation is about market segmentation. In the market segment where Symbian based phones are currently sold, you don't have that much pressure to reduce hardware cost. When this segement has been milked, component prices and R&D cost have already come down to go after the budget markets.
I see Symbian winning the market for "basic" smartphones, and PalmOS winning the market for "power users" who need mainstream PDA capabilities.
I see this actually the other way around. SymbianOS 6 is way more powerful than PalmOS 4 (and very likely also 5) and this gap will widen even more with SymbianOS 7.
As far as I understand it, InterTrust has basically stopped developing software and turned into a IP-only company earlier this year. The whole deal seems to be more about the infamous InterTrust patent (sorry, don't have a reference right now, but it's the longest patent in history) than the actual software. With all the developers gone, I wonder if the software could be resurrected anyway...
... and you took the bait then and on top of that reply with flamebait yourself?
Seriously, what you describe is not a problem with cell phones per se but with the applications. As an example, with the new Symbian-based phones, the business model is cleary to have an open platform for which anybody can develop apps. Or port something really useful.
... is CPPM, cousin of CPRM. It is interesting in the way that it has revocation of hacked devices built in. A quick overview is here, but there is much more info available on the net.
Apple doesn't seem to license it, they're keeping it for themselves to be used in Mac OS X (it looks they even kept the easter eggs from the original Newton implementation in the OS X version).
I think the research you have to do to implement decent HWR is still out of reach for the average developer. Apple has spent quite a bit of development effort on Rosetta (the Newton OS 2.0 recognizer), and I figure the same is true for Microsoft's HWR.
I think you are mistaken, at least I read the product info on PortalPlayer's product pages differently. The second processor in the 5001 (don't know about the 5002) seems to be indeed a DSP. And consider also that the iPod also has to maintain a UI during playback. I'm also working on ARM based products and have dealt with MP3 decoders, but I wouldn't paint the decoding picture as rosy as you do...
Any hard numbers on that or is this just anecdotical evidence? If the iBooks have a problem, then it's not speed, but rather screen resolution and external video capabilities (at least under Mac OS X).
While I agree with you in genereal, you don't have to be that techo savy to hold down the mouse button upon startup. This has at least always worked for me in the past (but I haven't tried the CDs they mention yet and probably never will:).
A fixed point decoder wouldn't bring Ogg Vorbis to the iPod. The iPod doesn't use it's ARM processor to do the decoding, instead, it uses a co-processor.
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They need a carrier to subsidize it so the price comes down.
Get a Newton - it runs on AAA batteries and plays MP3 files and streams. Although only at 22kHz mono, the audio hardware doesn't do more.
Speaking of Symbian: at least the Series 60 SDKs are freely available, making it a fairly open platform. The openness issue is mostly a balance between the interests of the phone manufacturer, the operator and the OS provider.
The 16% tax is the VAT and has nothing to do with the levy. The headline is misleading on that. I'm sure that in the UK, you're well aware of the VAT ;)
The 7650 is a totally different beast - Nokia should really do something about their numbering scheme, it sucks. The 7650 runs Series 60 on Symbian 6.0, the 7250 uses a closed (from an application developers point of view) custom OS.
Maybe, maybe not. All major phone manufacturers, some major operators and most content owners push for DRM on mobile phones, coordinated by the Open Mobile Alliance (ex WAP forum). Meaning full DRM and not something privacy related.
That's only true for certain markets (IIRC US and China). The rest of the world will receive 3650s with DRM support for preventing forwarding of protected content.
I don't know where to start but let's just say that Apple certainly doesn't have a monopoly on portable MP3 players. If you don't like their way, just buy any other MP3 player... maybe I didn't get the irony in your post?
Which recognizer were you using on the Newton? I absolutely prefer the print recognizer over the cursive one... the cursive recognizer does indeed have to be trained, but the print recognizer should work right away (assuming a more or less regular handwriting, which is much less a requirement than a custom alphabet like Grafitti).
You don't have to tell me about Symbian, I can just go ahead and take a look at the source code ;). Also, the whole situation is about market segmentation. In the market segment where Symbian based phones are currently sold, you don't have that much pressure to reduce hardware cost. When this segement has been milked, component prices and R&D cost have already come down to go after the budget markets.
I see this actually the other way around. SymbianOS 6 is way more powerful than PalmOS 4 (and very likely also 5) and this gap will widen even more with SymbianOS 7.
... no no no, didn't you read about Microsoft's latest innovention? The single CTRL+ALT+DEL hardware button!
As far as I understand it, InterTrust has basically stopped developing software and turned into a IP-only company earlier this year. The whole deal seems to be more about the infamous InterTrust patent (sorry, don't have a reference right now, but it's the longest patent in history) than the actual software. With all the developers gone, I wonder if the software could be resurrected anyway...
The new company will first be owned by Hitachi (70%) and IBM (30%) together. After three years, it will be owned 100% by Hitachi.
The 6800 doesn't run on Symbian. The one you linked first (the N-Gage) does however.
Your post is blatant flamebait
... and you took the bait then and on top of that reply with flamebait yourself?
Seriously, what you describe is not a problem with cell phones per se but with the applications. As an example, with the new Symbian-based phones, the business model is cleary to have an open platform for which anybody can develop apps. Or port something really useful.
Please note: this ranking is about freedom of press and not freedom of speech.
... is CPPM, cousin of CPRM. It is interesting in the way that it has revocation of hacked devices built in. A quick overview is here, but there is much more info available on the net.
Apple doesn't seem to license it, they're keeping it for themselves to be used in Mac OS X (it looks they even kept the easter eggs from the original Newton implementation in the OS X version).
I think the research you have to do to implement decent HWR is still out of reach for the average developer. Apple has spent quite a bit of development effort on Rosetta (the Newton OS 2.0 recognizer), and I figure the same is true for Microsoft's HWR.
I'm almost certain the 6650 is not running Series60... do you have a more specific link?
I think you are mistaken, at least I read the product info on PortalPlayer's product pages differently. The second processor in the 5001 (don't know about the 5002) seems to be indeed a DSP. And consider also that the iPod also has to maintain a UI during playback. I'm also working on ARM based products and have dealt with MP3 decoders, but I wouldn't paint the decoding picture as rosy as you do...
However the G3 Notebooks are pathetically slow
Any hard numbers on that or is this just anecdotical evidence? If the iBooks have a problem, then it's not speed, but rather screen resolution and external video capabilities (at least under Mac OS X).
While I agree with you in genereal, you don't have to be that techo savy to hold down the mouse button upon startup. This has at least always worked for me in the past (but I haven't tried the CDs they mention yet and probably never will :).
A fixed point decoder wouldn't bring Ogg Vorbis to the iPod. The iPod doesn't use it's ARM processor to do the decoding, instead, it uses a co-processor.
It is.