Nokia VP, David Rivas, was in San Francisco yesterday touting Symbian^3 improvements. While we’ve heard and seen plenty about Symbian Three’s enhanced user experience already, it’s still worthy of another look considering Symbian’s dominant marketshare. Besides, David provides a very detailed look as he walks us though elements like the customizable (and more finger friendly) homescreens meant to provide quick access to call features and at-a-glance data. Rivas also reiterates speed improvement claims over existing S60 5th devices (about a 3x improvement in graphics performance) that should “very very pleasantly surprise” users. Naturally, a faster UI coupled with a Symbian device running on something better than ARM 11 will also help here — Nokia’s only Cortex A8 device is the N900 running Maemo, not Symbian. David takes a veiled shot at Microsoft’s new WP7 platform when discussing Symbian’s true multitaking capabilities without any “tricks” — apps are actually running in the background, not just freezing their state until you return. Multitouch screen control on capacitive and resistive (really?) touchscreen displays with Cover Flow-like album art navigation? Yup, it’s all in there, as are hundreds of usability improvements (and fewer nags!) that should bring Symbian^3 up to the level of what everyone expects from a modern smartphone, according to Rivas. In other words, we’ll have to wait for S^4 on early 2011 devices to see any real innovation. While the live demo was run on a laptop, we suspect it won’t be long until Nokia starts showing off its live OS on a production handset. Until then, check the video after the break — it’s all we’ve got.

[Thanks, Rafael C.]

Continue reading Nokia Symbian^3 UI demonstrated in detail, seeks multitouch devices (video)

Nokia Symbian^3 UI demonstrated in detail, seeks multitouch devices (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PrimeSense was formed in 2005, and unless you’re a sickly obsessed silicon junkie, you’ve probably never heard of them. All that changes today. We sat down with the company at GDC to learn more about the chip that it produces, and we left with an imagination sore from being stretched so severely. Put simply, the company manufacturers a microchip that, when paired with off-the-shelf optics, can create a 3D grid that a computer can understand. The purpose here, as you can likely glean, is to enable PlayStation Eye-like interactions, or as the company suggests, a “more natural” way to interface with devices you use every day. Rather than grabbing the remote to switch channels or snapping up that HTPC keyboard in order to flip through your stored DVD library, PrimeSense would rather you kick back on the sofa and gently flick your hands in order to turn to this week’s Gossip Girl or sort through those classic horror flicks.

It’s important to remember that PrimeSense isn’t in the business of creating hardware, but today we were shown a reference design that looks an awful lot like an enlarged webcam. The device is completely USB powered, and while the unit shown in the images and video here was obviously a standalone device, we were told that it would be possible to integrate the solution into displays and the like in the future. They also mentioned that the depth location — which enables it to map out a room and detect your entire body — was done on-chip, with only the associated middleware taxing the CPU. Still, they’ve had success running this on Atom-level processors, so there’s certainly no big horsepower hang-up preventing it from hitting up a variety of markets.

More after the break…

Continue reading PrimeSense talks full-body motion control at GDC, gives us a video demonstration

PrimeSense talks full-body motion control at GDC, gives us a video demonstration originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s calling the PlayStation Move the “next generation” of motion gaming and planning to market it as heavily as an entirely new console, so it’s sort of a big deal — and that means our main dudes at Joystiq are all over it. We’ve already covered the main details, but hit the links below if you’re looking for some seriously deep dives.

• SOCOM 4 to support PlayStation Move
• EyePet to support PlayStation Move, hits North America holiday 2010
• Move supported by 36 companies, 20 games this fiscal year
• The PlayStation Move games (we know of)
• Hands-on: SOCOM 4 (with PlayStation Move!)
• Hands-on: PlayStation Move’s ‘The Shoot’
• Hands-on: PlayStation Move’s ‘Move Party’
• Hands-on: PlayStation Move’s Sports Champions
• We touched it: PlayStation Move from every angle
• ‘Arc’ lives on in PlayStation Move’s logo

Want more on the PlayStation Move? Head over to Joystiq! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The search-engine wars are alive and well — and Bing is the beneficiary again. Microsoft’s so-called decision engine grabbed 11.5 percent of the U.S. search market in February, according to comScore.

Although that’s only a slight increase over January, when Bing boasted 11.3 percent of the search market, it’s an incremental improvement Microsoft is glad to see for its less-than-a-year-old engine.

But it’s not all good news for Microsoft, if it cares anything about its newly approved partner’s standings. Yahoo’s bleeding led to Bing’s gains. Yahoo’s U.S. search market share dipped from 17 percent in January to 16.8 percent in February, comScore reported.

Bad for Bing?

Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, parsed the data. He noted that Bing continues to grow its user base, although it seems to have slowed a bit. Meanwhile, Google is unaffected.

“Those feeling the competitive pinch of Bing appear to be Microsoft partner Yahoo and the two smaller major search providers, Ask and AOL. The irony of Bing’s success, partly at Yahoo’s expense, is that Microsoft hasn’t seen any growth in the combined share of Bing and Yahoo, which has remained largely flat,” Sterling said. “The Yahoo search slide has now been going on roughly a year, and it has to be a matter of concern to the company. However, it’s not immediately clear what they can do to arrest it.”

Jeffries & Co. analyst Youssef Squali also noted the shifting fortunes between Bing and Yahoo. In a research note dated March 10, Squali noted how Bing has added 350 basis points of growth since its June 2009 launch. Meanwhile, Yahoo has shed about 330 basis points since May 2009.

“While the share losses have been exacerbated by the ongoing rollover of tool-bar partnerships (with HP and Adobe), we continue to believe that it is critical for Yahoo to…

Apple tightly controls not only the approval of third-party applications for its App Store but also its developers. Apple’s developer agreement says “Public statements regarding this agreement, its terms and conditions, or the relationship of the parties” require Apple’s written approval.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation made the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement public. EFF obtained the agreement via a Freedom of Information Act request to NASA, which recently released an app for the iPhone.

As Apple readies its iPad for release — at the same time a rash of competing tablets are expected — the question of how much control Apple should have over developers is “particularly relevant,” EFF Senior Counsel Fred von Lohmann said. He detailed several “troubling highlights.”

Restrictions, Restrictions

Developers are banned from speaking about the terms of the agreement, even though the terms aren’t defined as trade secrets. Apple imposes a gag order on developers apart from any trade-secret issues.

By using Apple’s software development kit, developers agree to distribute their creations only through Apple’s App Store. Apple can reject an application for any reason, even if it meets all the formal requirements set up by Apple.

Thus developers can sink hundreds of hours of development time into an app, have it rejected by Apple, and have no choice but to toss that work out. “So if you use the SDK and your app is rejected by Apple, you’re prohibited from distributing it through competing app stores like Cydia or Rock Your Phone,” von Lohmann said.

The EFF also complained that Apple bans reverse engineering — “including the kinds of reverse engineering for interoperability that courts have recognized as a fair use under copyright law.” Apple even outlaws “enabl(ing) others” to reverse-engineer the SDK or iPhone OS.

The SDK also appears to include a complete ban on tinkering with any Apple products — not just jailbreaking…

With its mind in the clouds and an eye on rival Microsoft, Google on Tuesday launched an online application store for third-party programs that can be integrated with its online Google Apps office suite, with a single log-in and Google’s universal navigation. The programs can sync with Gmail and Google’s calendar, and use document-sharing features.

With 25 million application users and services for two million businesses, Google clearly hopes to reduce Microsoft’s dominance in business-productivity software. Some 50 companies are offering applications in the initial Google Apps Marketplace inventory.

Early Arrivals

A random sampling on the marketplace Wednesday included EZAsset, a business asset-management tool; Manymoon for social productivity, project management, and task management; Fresh Books, a billing and bookkeeping utility; and eFax, an Internet fax service.

Google reportedly charges developers $100 for a listing, then takes 20 percent of sales.

The marketplace is intended for companies with their own domain, and Google Apps membership is required. A premier membership is $50, with an unlimited number of users per account. To lure customers away from the competition, the marketplace offers a tutorial on importing data from Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes.

Suite Deal

The Mountain View, Calif.-based Google previously had a solutions marketplace offering add-ons for programs. But Google Apps Marketplace will allow the company to generate revenue while also driving more interest in its online suite.

Google has increasingly battled for turf with Microsoft, recently introducing the Chrome operating system to challenge the dominant Windows. The software giant has taken the fight to Google’s front door with its Bing search engine, which it hopes will soon be the default search window on Apple’s iPhone.

Microsoft has announced cloud partnerships with Hewlett-Packard and Chunghwa Telecom and has other cloud projects in the works. The HP deal is a three-year, $250 million project to integrate Microsoft programs and HP hardware.

Cloud-computing…

By and large, EA Sports’ Season Opener event here at GDC was underwhelming, but one glimmer of newness did manage to shine through. Nearly a year after Active hit stores (video after the break) and encouraged Wii gamers to drop those unwanted pounds before hitting the soft sand in the summer, the company has announced that Active 2.0 (a working title) is currently in development for Wii, PS3, iPod touch and iPhone. We’re told that a “new suite of fitness products” will be launching in the fall, with the Active 2.0 program delivering “true fitness results by featuring an innovative wireless control system powered by new leg and arm straps with motion sensors, a heart rate monitor to capture intensity and a new online hub to track and share workout data.” Outside of that, details are nonexistent (like how exactly the iPod / iPhone components will factor into this equation), though we get the feeling that Xbox 360 owners may be left out of the party. Here’s hoping we’re wrong.

Continue reading EA Sports introduces Active 2.0 at GDC, complete with sensors galore

EA Sports introduces Active 2.0 at GDC, complete with sensors galore originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no denying that the Mini 5 is real, but up until now, we’ve had to provide all of our own promotional material. At long last, it seems as if the suits in Round Rock are finally getting around to crafting the first advertisements for the upcoming slate, and while we knew about the 5-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, capacitive touch front buttons, front-facing VGA camera (for video chatting) and the 30-pin docking connector, we weren’t aware of Dell’s plans to reveal a slew of vivacious color options. If this here flyer proves legitimate, we could eventually see the Mini 5 available in an array of premium finishes and hues (thanks, Design Studio!), and we’re hoping for a few different spec builds as well. So, are you opting for the pink, or are you crossing your fingers in hopes that Dell allows you to print that embarrassing shot of you and Mr. T on the rear of one?

Update: Oh, snap! We just landed a few more official slides from an internal Dell document, and it’s safe to say that the company is going to call this beauty the Streak. Or, at least that’s the internal codename. Better still, it looks as if it’ll launch with an Amazon content partnership, which will bring a Kindle e-book reader app, Amazon MP3, Amazon video streams and pretty much any other material that Amazon sells in digital form right to the slate. C’mon now — how’s about a ship date and a price?

Leaked Dell Streak flyer shows multitude of color options, confirmed specifications originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We had a hunch that Pentax was readying a 645 Digital, and sure enough, the company has come clean with that very camera today. The May-bound 40 megapixel 645D is a medium format beast, but unlike similar options from Hasselblad, this one won’t actually destroy your hopes of sending four generations of offspring to college. Boasting a 44mm x 33mm sensor, a 3-inch rear LCD and a virtually indestructible chassis, this monster promises high res images that only pros can appreciate, and there’s a pair of SD / SDHC card slots for those who love to surround themselves with options. You’ll also get a newly designed 11-point AF sensor, a fresh dust removal system, 77-segment multi-pattern metering system and a battery good for around 800 images when fully charged. ‘Course, with a retail price of ¥850,000 ($9,442), you’ll also expect amenities like an HDR mode, dynamic range expansion and an HDMI output, all of which just so happen to be included. Oh, and if you’re in the market for some new glass, there’s also a 55mm F2.8 lens that’ll ship alongside of this here body for the princely sum of ¥100,000 ($1,110).

Pentax gets official with 40 megapixel 645D medium format camera originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook may join other Internet companies in offering location-based services. The social-networking site plans to let its users to share their location and see the locations of friends, according to published reports.

Facebook could use the service to provide advertisers with targeted information such as the nearest ATM. The feature is expected to be similar to Foursquare, a location-based social network that enables users to “check in” with one another and meet up.

Some Internet users have accepted location services as a way to gain information they feel is valuable, such as a coupon for a nearby restaurant or personalized weather services. But others fear it’s another example of Big Brother watching and, in this case, knowing where they are.

User Control

Facebook has been working on the feature for more than a year and is expected to make it available to its millions of users, reports say. The company also plans to provide application programming interfaces to third-party developers who want to add location features to their Facebook applications.

The company is tight-lipped about the service. “We are constantly experimenting with new ideas and products internally,” said Meredith Chin, a Facebook spokesperson, in an e-mail. “We don’t have anything more to share at this time.”

Facebook may want to announce the feature at its F8 Conference next month.

U.S. companies offering location-based services must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act, which requires users’ consent. Under the 2003 act, companies have given users control of location services on web sites and in mobile apps.

In Europe, the European Union has taken steps to protect users from information gathered through location-based services.

Some companies have taken extra steps by adding privacy-enhancing technologies.

The Rummble Example

Companies hoping to give advertisers ways to target audiences have been implementing location-based services for some time. Rummble, a location-based social network,…