navigate through a tree of expanding options, such as selecting an artist, then a particular album by that artist, then a specific song from that album
Not to be nit-picking here, but isn't that a tree of narrowing options?
Oh, and does this mean MS Zune gets delayed until they settle with Creative? Not that it would be surprising (Vista anyone?)
Yes, there is 3rd party software that does play DivX movies, and XviD codec has been ported to Symbian OS. More than that, latest Nokia phones can now play H.264 movies out of the box, and N93 can play iPod movies at full speed.
Well does your symbian support DRM?
Yes it does, if this matters to you.
Does it include drawing applications?
I honestly cannot imagine why you would want to draw on your phone, but UIQ includes Jotter application which allows you to have hand-drawn notes (in addition to handwriting recognition using Jot).
Does it have internal safe checks?
Symbian OS is sooo internally safe-checked you will be surprised.
Does it have full featured http www-browser which doesn't cut anything out of the web-sites content?
Yes, there is Opera, and now there is also Webkit-based Nokia browser for S60v3 phones.
And oh yeah, can you theme your phone as much as you want like changing places where the menu buttons lie in phone screen or can you even directly sync it without need for installing managerment software of somesort?
You can theme all recent Symbian OS phones to some extent, which is good because I don't think moving buttons and controls around is such a good idea from the UI stability and usability point of view. As for syncing, many Symbian phones are supported by Mac iSync/iCal/Address Book out of the box, and if not, there are usually simple hacks to get them working. In Windows the vast majority of external devices (USB in this case) require installing numerous drivers and multiple reboots, so if you are still using Windows, you probably won't be able to avoid installing drivers.
Symbian is allways Windows binary based and it makes development harder for phones.
You can use Xcode on the Mac to develop for Symbian OS (except for hardware debugging) using an Xcode plugin.
So, to paraphrase you, with all these points, it's hard to see reasons why use Linux like QTopia in mobile phones.
Newton is a truly remarkable device (notice I use "is" instead of "was"). However, I don't think Newton OS is well-protected or particularly secure. All data is in the open, applications can access anything and can even easily patch the OS itself (which from the usability point of view is an advantage). Also Newton runs certain programs on memory cards you insert, not counting automatic activation/installation of all packages on the card. Communication cards can have their own drivers embedded so that when inserted, their drivers are automatically installed. I guess protection from malware wasn't a priority for Newton designers, who accomplished their task of producing a true Personal Digital Assistant brilliantly. There is no malware for Newton, but a single well-thought piece of malware could be very destructive.
Wi-Fi kills battery in no time. 20 minutes of wireless browsing on Nokia N80 and the battery is empty. Why would you want to sacrifice battery life for a non-essential feature? Can't you listen to music without Wi-Fi? Or is this like a hot trend every iPod killer device must have? (Microsoft got transparency in the UI now, there's a hot trend for you, and look what they've done with it in Vista--it's everywhere, it's useless, and it requires a lot of GPU power to run properly...)
You must have tried an early Newton, because the HW recognition on 2100 beats P910 (or anything else, for that matter) hands down. Compare clunky character-by-character Jot recogniser of P910 and new Palms with Rosetta on 2100 where you just write words wherever you want them to be recognised, not in just some area specially designated for writing. And the ancient thing learns your way to write!
Who wants to bet that he will be after the guy who photographed him and posted his pics on the Net without his permission? It'll be funny if he sues and wins.
Baikonur space port, or whatever they call it now, was built (actually near Tyuratam village, not Baikonur) when Kazakhstan was a part of USSR, probably because of the particular geographical location. Later, when USSR broke, Kazakhstan went, "oh, look, Baikonur is on our territory now, we are independent, so it must be ours then!" Not that they had any use for it whatsoever without the Russian Army and Space Agency.
To my knowledge, Russia now has another space port, Plesetsk, and is actively developing it. Perhaps this is to minimise dependency on Kazakhstan and "their" Baikonur.
If you look at the home page http://www.army.lv/, you'll see that this is a Russian Army fan site dedicated to Russian soldiers. Latvia is a former USSR republic, and the percentage of Russians there is (or was until recently, not sure about now) larger than the native Latvians. So no big surprise here, and this is not a Latvian Army site, as the URL would suggest.
If MSN Newsbot is any indication of their upcoming competition with Google and their excellent news page, I wouldn't worry just yet. I have tried using MSN Newsbot but abandoned it because of lack of content and mismatches between the article text and pictures, some of them ridiculous. They cannot even copy the concept with a decent level of quality. Note that both news services are currently in beta.
Slashdot Mirror
Not to be nit-picking here, but isn't that a tree of narrowing options?
Oh, and does this mean MS Zune gets delayed until they settle with Creative? Not that it would be surprising (Vista anyone?)
Yes, there is 3rd party software that does play DivX movies, and XviD codec has been ported to Symbian OS. More than that, latest Nokia phones can now play H.264 movies out of the box, and N93 can play iPod movies at full speed.
Yes it does, if this matters to you.
I honestly cannot imagine why you would want to draw on your phone, but UIQ includes Jotter application which allows you to have hand-drawn notes (in addition to handwriting recognition using Jot).
Symbian OS is sooo internally safe-checked you will be surprised.
Yes, there is Opera, and now there is also Webkit-based Nokia browser for S60v3 phones.
You can theme all recent Symbian OS phones to some extent, which is good because I don't think moving buttons and controls around is such a good idea from the UI stability and usability point of view. As for syncing, many Symbian phones are supported by Mac iSync/iCal/Address Book out of the box, and if not, there are usually simple hacks to get them working. In Windows the vast majority of external devices (USB in this case) require installing numerous drivers and multiple reboots, so if you are still using Windows, you probably won't be able to avoid installing drivers.
You can use Xcode on the Mac to develop for Symbian OS (except for hardware debugging) using an Xcode plugin.
So, to paraphrase you, with all these points, it's hard to see reasons why use Linux like QTopia in mobile phones.
Newton is a truly remarkable device (notice I use "is" instead of "was"). However, I don't think Newton OS is well-protected or particularly secure. All data is in the open, applications can access anything and can even easily patch the OS itself (which from the usability point of view is an advantage). Also Newton runs certain programs on memory cards you insert, not counting automatic activation/installation of all packages on the card. Communication cards can have their own drivers embedded so that when inserted, their drivers are automatically installed. I guess protection from malware wasn't a priority for Newton designers, who accomplished their task of producing a true Personal Digital Assistant brilliantly. There is no malware for Newton, but a single well-thought piece of malware could be very destructive.
Intel buys Nvidia. Let the war continue!
Wi-Fi kills battery in no time. 20 minutes of wireless browsing on Nokia N80 and the battery is empty. Why would you want to sacrifice battery life for a non-essential feature? Can't you listen to music without Wi-Fi? Or is this like a hot trend every iPod killer device must have? (Microsoft got transparency in the UI now, there's a hot trend for you, and look what they've done with it in Vista--it's everywhere, it's useless, and it requires a lot of GPU power to run properly...)
Excuse me, but what Microsoft morality are you talking about?
>This move will make Microsoft into more of a money grubbing,
>profit-centered, fuck anybody who gets in our way,
>sociopathic corporation.
Does this not pretty much describe the current Microsoft?
Um, it's "grammar" actually, and no, English is not my first language either.
-- and switches the iPod off if the user is too stupid?
You must have tried an early Newton, because the HW recognition on 2100 beats P910 (or anything else, for that matter) hands down. Compare clunky character-by-character Jot recogniser of P910 and new Palms with Rosetta on 2100 where you just write words wherever you want them to be recognised, not in just some area specially designated for writing. And the ancient thing learns your way to write!
Whoever comes up with this kind of product names at MS has to be fired.
Now let those Bill Gates "urge" jokes roll.
Asylums are full of crashed brains.
Doesn't this prove Steve's point that the records industry is getting greedy?
Who wants to bet that he will be after the guy who photographed him and posted his pics on the Net without his permission? It'll be funny if he sues and wins.
To my knowledge, Russia now has another space port, Plesetsk, and is actively developing it. Perhaps this is to minimise dependency on Kazakhstan and "their" Baikonur.
Combined with the provider's ability to communicate with your phone remotely, you get a small personal Big Brother in your pocket.
If you look at the home page http://www.army.lv/, you'll see that this is a Russian Army fan site dedicated to Russian soldiers. Latvia is a former USSR republic, and the percentage of Russians there is (or was until recently, not sure about now) larger than the native Latvians. So no big surprise here, and this is not a Latvian Army site, as the URL would suggest.
Right. So now all those "Security Update Notification from Microsoft" emails with suspicious attachments I've been receiving will become legitimate.
If MSN Newsbot is any indication of their upcoming competition with Google and their excellent news page, I wouldn't worry just yet. I have tried using MSN Newsbot but abandoned it because of lack of content and mismatches between the article text and pictures, some of them ridiculous. They cannot even copy the concept with a decent level of quality. Note that both news services are currently in beta.
FYI, PDA, and the term "PDA" itself, were originated by Apple when they released Newton MessagePad (in 1994, I believe).