Microsoft has finally revealed its two new mobile devices named Kin One and Kin Two. They work on Windows Phone 7 OS and have a capacitive display with multi-touch support, custom browser (based on Zune version and has no Flash and Silverlight) and no third-party apps support.
Kin One that was earlier known as "Turtle" is a square slider with a QVGA display, 5 MP camera , LED flash, 4GB storage drive and QWERTY keyboard. Kin Two, more known as "Pure", differs by its landscape form factor, HVGA display, 8 MP camera and 8GB storage. But the experience in both of the products is almost the same. Kin One and Kin Two have 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.
The test is not completely fair, since with handheld keyboards the speed greatly depends on how often you use them. The tester has been using an iPhone as his main handheld for 18 months.
The tester used an article with 221 words. Here are the results:
Recentrly we've talked about Nokia and their willingness to enter into direct competition with the iPhone releasing new devices based on Linux. Now on the official Nokia website we can already pre-order the new mini tablet N900.
The operating system is the Maemo 5, that is based on Linux. It has an ARM Cortex A8 processor with 256MB of RAM for applications and other 768MB in virtual memory, so total is 1GB. So the multi-tasking is guaranteed. The graphics uses Open GL | ES 2.0, which is quite good.
The new operating system is much more flexible compared to Symbian. The Web browser is developed by Mozilla and is capable of playing Flash 9.4 movies and animations.
It looks like an iPhone but lacks the Home. It also has a sliding QWERTY keyboard. The screen resolution is 800 × 480 pixels (16:9). There are two cameras. The main has 5 MP with Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar lens and two LEDs for flash. The onboard memory is 32GB but can be expanded with microSD to additional 48GB.
The target price (tax excluded) is 500 euro. Nokia N900 will be available starting from October.
Here's a video that shows the Maemo interface in action:
Here are some new rumors about future iPhone from AT&T staff:
New iPhone announcement around mid-June
New iPhone will be faster and have a more seamless experience unmatched by any device (could be just talking about 3.0, but we think it’s also a new iPhone)
U-Verse iPhone application; will allow control of your home DVR (play, pause, rewind, etc.)
AT&T is said to be working with Apple to create a unified product with an unparalleled experience across all their products and services.
Apple’s 3.0 software should tell us where the iPhone platform is going… uh, k?
They said customers shouldn’t need to choose from AT&T’s high-end devices because of features, they should choose based on preferences. The gap in capability should be filled with the new iPhone. Ok, bets on slide out QWERTY, autofocus camera, video sharing, blah blah?
Seems like the higher speed HSDPA (7.2Mbps) is being hinted at too which should confirm the earlier rumors of the new Infineon chipset.
The $99 3G netbook will start selling this summer, and the first one won’t be a Windows OS.
5-Row Keyboard is a new add-on to iPhone that is part of the project iKeyEx. It allows users to use a new 5 lines keyboard, where there are numbers in addition to the letters. Clicking the 123 button will display all the additional symbols.
To see the keyboard you must click on the globe. If the keyboard does not appear, you must activate it via the Settings > General > Keyboards > International Keyboards > 5 Row QWERTY.
This keyboard as avaliable in Cydia for jailbroken iPhones.
First of all these icons can be viewed on any iPhone with 2.2 firmware. But to be able to send these icons users need to perform additional actions. There are 4 ways to turn them on and 2 of them are free:
Solution N1 for $5.99:
In AppStore buy and install Touch Dial Emoji. Goto Settings -> Touch Dial -> Enable Smiley icon ON. Launch Touch Dial. Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable "Emoji."
Solution N2 for $0.99:
In AppStore buy and install FrostyPlace. Play with the app for a minute to activate, click on a story, etc. Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable "Emoji."
Solution N3 for Free:
Jailbreak your iPhone. Run Cydia and install Emoji application (iSpazio repository). Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable "Emoji."
This application adds boolean ‘true’ key KeyboardEmojiEverywhere edits in /User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist. You can do it manually if you want.
Solution N3 for Free:
Step 1. Download the vcard.vcf here.
Step 2. Import it to your address book program. If you are using Windows, you may want to do it on iPhone directly. Send the vcard.vcf file to yourself. Open in on iPhone’s Email.app, click the vcf file and import all the contacts.
Step 3. Go into “Settings” > “General” > “Keyboard” > “Japanese Keyboard”. Enable the QWERTY keyboard.
Step 4. In notes or any other program you want. Type “emojia”, “emojii” or “emojiu” to select those icons.
I like Solution N3. It is free and simple. You do not need to play with contacts and etc. But you need to jailbreak an iPhone.
Sn0wBreeze 2.9.6(pwnagetool for windows, supports untethered jailbreak of iOS 5.1.1 for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G, iPad and Apple TV 2G)
Sn0wBreeze 2.9.3(pwnagetool for windows, supports tethered jailbreak of iOS 5.1 for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G, iPad; untethered for iPhone 3GS with old bootrom; untethered for iOS 5.0.1, iOS 4, iOS 3 supports Apple TV 2G)
Sn0wBreeze 2.8b11(pwnagetool for windows, supports iOS 5, iOS 5.0.1, tethered jailbreak for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G, iPad, Apple TV 2G; untethered for iPhone 3GS with old bootrom)
Current version is ultrasn0w 1.2.3, download in Cydia (unlock for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G, firmwares 3.0-4.3.3; it supports basebands 01.59.00, 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01, 05.13.04, 06.15.00)