Mobile Technology News

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Popular third party mobile Web browser Skyfire posted an announcement last week that it would be opening up alpha testing for its forthcoming Webkit-based Android browser. Within one hour of making the announcement, over 3,000 people contacted Skyfire to get in on the test. The alpha team, unfortunately, is only going to be 30 testers.

So today, Skyfire’s Jeff Glueck addressed the undoubtedly huge interest swelling around the new Skyfire product, and talked about why Android development has superseded development on the BlackBerry platform.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Apple CEO Steve Jobs wants publishers to support iPad, but not with Adobe Flash. Jobs’ anti-Flash campaign has grown bolder since the company announced iPad last month and during this week’s Mobile World Congress, where Flash 10.1 inched a little close to widespread mobile device availability. What’s Apple’s problem with Flash? Simply put: Competition.

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

It turns out Microsoft isn’t the only mobile platform producer resetting its ecosystem this week. In a lower-key move that could actually affect millions more customers than Microsoft’s reboot of Windows Phones yesterday, Research In Motion today took over control of Mobile World Congress’ side-show, called “App Planet,” with a series of developer-focused seminars whose intention appears to be resituating developers on the new purpose of the BlackBerry platform.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

At CES 2010, chipmaker Marvell showed off its ARMADA 610 applications processor for tablets, mobile internet devices (MIDs), media players, and other portable connected devices. The impressive ARM v7-based chip runs at 1 GHz and is capable of encoding and decoding full 1080p HD at 30 fps, and 3D rendering up to 45 million triangles per second. At its CES booth, Marvell showed a single reference model tablet rendering 3D graphics while playing full HD video smoothly through HDMI on a 30″ television. Marvell said the chip’s display controller is actually capable of playing video on four simultaneous displays with 2k x 2k resolution.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

We have seen a couple of mobile broadband hotspots come to market in the last year, the Novatel MiFi on Sprint and Verizon, and the recent Sprint Overdrive from Sierra Wireless. They’re pocket-sized, battery-powered devices with a 3G connection that can connect a handful of devices to the Internet wherever they’re plopped down.

Today, Netgear and Ericsson announced that they have created a 3G mobile broadband-connected router like these devices, except that it’s not pocketable and battery powered.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

When Windows Mobile 6.5 launched four months ago Microsoft listed eight Windows Mobile 6.1 devices that would be upgradeable to 6.5. Unfortunately, at the time they were all listed as “date not yet available.”

Today, T-Mobile announced that the Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrades are available now for the HTC Touch Pro2 and HTC Dash 3G (a.k.a., HTC Rhodium).

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

A Microsoft spokesperson contacted Betanews today requesting we clarify a story we brought you during the tail end of CES 2010. Specifically, we presented an interview with Windows Phone Senior Marketing Manager Greg Sullivan entitled, “Finally, what to expect from Windows Mobile 7 and Windows Phone.”

At the time, we were under the impression that the interview was providing us with a taste of what we could expect from Mobile World Congress in February, and I suggested that Windows Mobile 7 was “only two months away,” even though “Microsoft really [wasn't] talking about Windows Mobile 7 specifically.”

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Last Sunday, former Tom’s Hardware correspondent Theo Valich, now editor-in-chief of Bright Side of News, referred to sources from at least five smartphone manufacturers plus Microsoft itself as telling him that Windows Mobile 7 would not be made generally available until 2011 — what those manufacturers would perceive as a delay. This despite indications from CEO Steve Ballmer last Wednesday at CES that an announcement of a forthcoming product would come at Mobile World Congress next month, and a preview of coming attractions given to Betanews’ Tim Conneally by Windows Mobile Senior Product Manager Greg Sullivan at CES the following Friday.

By Sharon Fisher, Betanews

So what did you think of the Windows Mobile 7 sneak preview that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer slipped into his CES keynote last night?

Oh. That’s right. There wasn’t one.

In fact, in front of the biggest batch of consumer electronics geeks known to man, Ballmer barely mentioned Windows Mobile at all, other than to say that Microsoft would have a lot more to say next month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. (Previously, Microsoft had said Windows Mobile 7 was likely to be announced during the MIX conference in mid-March.