Steve Green's blog

It seems that the mobile device wars are really beginning to heat up and all of the players are beginning to make allies and take sides.

If you've been wondering why Barnes & Noble's full color e-reader, the Nook Color, was running yesterday's Android OS, have no fear-2.2 is almost here!

I spoke today with a Barnes & Noble representative who showed me the forthcoming update on his company Nook which is slated for this January. The 2.2 Android update is a game changer and literally turns the e-reader into a near full Android tablet device.

Nothing gets the mobile world more excited than an imminent update for a mobile smartphone. To state it more clearly, the folks who live for tinkering with their smartphone’s internals that is. I have to include myself in this crowd.

Only six weeks after a massive launch of Microsoft's new KIN series phones, a story on Gizmodo claims that Microsoft has pulled the plug on the product line due to extremely low sales figures.

With the recent financial slide of Palm and its purchase approved by Hewlett Packard, many early adopters of the Pre and Pixi are feeling the pinch of having one of their products with what appears to be diminishing support.

Samsung Electronics Co. announced its plans to more than double its sales of Smartphones by the fourth quarter of this year in an attempt to secure the number four position for worldwide sales which is currently held by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC.

Samsung is currently the world's second largest manufacturer of cell phones and holds the fifth position for Smartphones at just below 5% of world sales. Samsung is preparing to release its much anticipated Galaxy S Smartphone which runs the Android OS.

Let's face it, Microsoft's mobile operating system has had a successful and long life. Even history's most powerful warships eventually have to be retired to make way for newer and more technologically advanced ones. Windows Mobile on the other hand is more like an aging hipster that's trying to look cool around an increasingly younger and smarter crowd. Perhaps it's time for it to realize its best days are behind it and start looking at polyester jumpsuits and moving into the nearest leisure world village.

Pantech is ready to launch the Matrix Pro for the AT&T network on February 24th. The Matrix Pro will retail at $179.99 with a two year commitment or $429.99 without a contract.

After some previous equivocation, it appears that Dell has decided to move forward to complete its project on smartphone development.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Dell is set to begin developing a smartphone with Windows Mobile or the Android OS as soon as next month. Rumor has it that they've already developed prototypes of each kind.

While not earth-shaking news, it seems that the next OS update from Microsoft for mobile devices will be version 6.5. A modest update to the current operating system which will offer some improvements over the current release. Details are slim, but the update is fully expected to be on devices from AT&T by Q3 or possibly early Q4 this year.

Let's hope that the long awaited debut of Windows Mobile 7 that has been pushed back to 2010, will be worth the wait and knock our socks off.

AT&T is releasing the Samsung i907 Epix beginning today. The Epix runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and uses a BlackJack II form factor. Being a professional device, the Epix utilizes a touch screen for its 2.55" display.

The Epix is feature packed with 3G speeds, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, video share calling, Voice Command, aGPS, and a 2 megapixel camera with video capture. The Epix will retail for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

Primary Specifications:

There’s a new smartphone coming to town from HTC and it has a Fuze.

The wizards at HTC have been working on revamping their entire line of Microsoft Mobile devices based on their own TouchFlo technology. With the iPhone being the new standard for high tech handheld devices, most manufacturers have been scrambling to imitate the technical features of the iPhone. This is a welcome change for the smartphone industry which had not seen any real innovations for some time until Apple showed up.

The HTC Tilt from AT&T is an interesting device to be sure. It has all of the personality of a PC yet fits easily in your pocket. Since it runs Windows Mobile Professional, it has gained quite a following from hard core tweaker’s and user’s who love to tweak their phones to get the most out of them.

What’s Hot: A real 3D flight sim with cockpit and external views, 4 planes to choose from, several scenarios to choose, 3D terrain, airstrips, iPhone accelerometer controls, customizations for weather, terrain, time of day, and plane weight.

What’s Not: Some stability issues, no ability to plan flights, limited cockpit controls, no autopilot, odd propeller behavior, expensive at $9.99.

Since the iPhone 3G debuted less than two months ago, the device has been plagued by numerous issues with call quality and overall performance issues. Apple immediately released two bug patches (2.01 & 2.02) that arguably caused more issues than they solved, particularly with call quality.

As of today, Apple has released the anticipated 2.1 firmware via iTunes that promises to fix a whole host of technical issues including battery life, which will be a relief for many business users and those with heavy data use.

The HTC Tilt is going EOL (end of life) by the middle of December from the AT&T lineup. The latest Windows Mobile 6.1 update was just recently released adding new life to the device and is available for current owners on the HTC support site. The sucessor to the Tilt has not been announced but is expected in Q4 of this year.

Some part of Microsoft must have woke up and realized that they have an image problem and rallied the troops to go into defrag mode (excuse the pun).

I don’t watch a lot of TV personally, however I have seen two very different Microsoft TV spots in the last three days that left me wondering what the software giant wants to communicate to us.

As much as I would enjoy bashing my first Cassiopeia with its low-res monochrome screen and endless appetite for AAA batteries, I would have to say that the most pathetic device I bought and tried to use was the Fujitsu PenCentra tablet PC with Windows CE 2000.

The PenCentra was a niche device that ran a special version of Windows CE for tablet based devices and had some real promise as a functional device--at least on paper.

So you’ve been hanging onto your trusty 8125 for a while now, waiting for the next PPC from HTC to knock your socks off. Perhaps you bought the 8525 when it first landed on the shelves and have been wondering what the new 8925 has under its hood to lure you to that annual upgrade you crave. You can’t help but wonder… should I?

For those of you who have discovered the Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for your AT&T 8525, I am posting a reprint of my article from last months "How To Guide" to make sure your upgrade goes smooth and trouble free.

How to avoid problems with ROM upgrades

Overview:

Occasionally, device manufacturers and wireless carriers will offer major “ROM upgrades†for the Windows Mobile devices they market. When they do, they provide you with an installation file (on CD or downloadable) that walks you through the process, step by step.