First Smartphone with Native Windows Mobile 7.5 “Mango” Unveiled

by Marco Chiappetta
from http://hothardware.com/

Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications has unveiled the first smartphone that will ship natively with Microsoft’s upcoming “Mango” build of Windows Phone which was just release to manufacturers a few days ago, also known officially as Windows Phone 7.5.

At events in Tokyo at the KDDI Designing Studio and at the Aichi Prefecture in Nagoya, Japan, the cryptically-named IS12T smartphone was shown off to analysts and the public. The IS12T features a 3.7” multi-touch screen, 13.2 megapixel camera, integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and 32GB of storage. The phone will be available in three colors when it ships in Japan sometime around September—pink, yellow, and black. Perhaps most interesting, the IS12T is also water and dust-proof. Other details, like the phone’s processors, RAM, and price weren’t available.

Microsoft had hoped that Windows Phone would allow the company to more favorably compete with main rivals Google and Apple in the smartphone OS race, but a year after its initial release Microsoft has actually lost market share according to IDC. At about the 0:49 mark of the video above, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer excitedly shouts, “We've gone from very small to--very small, but it’s been a heck of a year!” Continuing on he then says, “And you’re going to see a lot of progress in that market competitively, as we move forward.” Ballmer’s optimism is most likely rooted in the agreement Microsoft and Nokia have entered and the upcoming wave of other Mango-based devices due to ship in the coming months. Despite many positive reviews though, if the initial reception of Windows Mobile is any indicator, Microsoft is in for one heck of an uphill battle.

According to Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5 will add approximately 500 improvements to the Windows Phone OS including Internet Explorer 9, an e-mail “conversation view", and a chat-threading feature that integrates text, IM, and Facebook chat messages from single contacts into a single thread. Many of the other improvements to the platform are more obscure, but Paul Thurott at the WinSuperSite does a great job explaining many of them in multiple articles on the site.

Whether or not Mango helps Microsoft gain market share in the smartphone space remains to be seen, but the new version of the OS does sport many obvious improvements and addresses a number of initial concerns. The number of applications available in the Windows Phone Market has also continued to grow. The last remaining piece to the puzzle is hardware—if Microsoft and its partners release some exciting and competitively priced devices in time for the holidays, the smartphone market could be in for some fireworks. We’ll all know soon enough.

First Windows "Mango" Phone Unveiled

By Martyn Williams 

IDG New

The first smartphone based on the new "Mango" edition of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform was unveiled on Wednesday in Tokyo.

The phone is the first of several handsets due over the next few months, that Microsoft hopes will signal its return to the smartphone market as a serious player. (Video of the new phone and its launch is available on YouTube.)

If that wish sounds familiar, it is. This time last year the company was hoping the first version of the Windows Phone 7 would accomplish the same thing. But that didn't happen.

Despite getting several thousand applications and generally positive reviews, the new platform, which replaced Windows Mobile, was relegated to the sidelines by a rush of new Android devices and updates to Apple's iPhone.

Far from boosting its market share, the introduction of the new operating system saw Microsoft lose share.
Microsoft captured 2.7 percent of the smartphone market during the first quarter of 2011, according to IDC. But a year earlier during the first quarter of 2010, its market share was 7.1 percent, the market research company said. In terms of handsets shipped, those with Windows Phone 7 or Windows Mobile fell from 3.9 million to 2.8 million phones in the two periods.

"We've gone from very small to....very small," quipped Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer earlier this month on his company's lackluster performance.

Mango, officially Windows Phone 7.5, adds some 500 improvements to the Windows Phone 7 platform, according to the company. They include an e-mail "conversation view" that is said to make long e-mail discussions more efficient, a "threads" feature that brings together text, instant messages and Facebook chat, and Internet Explorer 9 for faster Web browsing.

Some of those improvements can be seen in the new handset, the IS12T, which will be available in Japan only. Built by Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications, the phone will be available in September or after. No price was disclosed.

The company is one of several partners Microsoft is working with on Mango handsets. Others include Taiwan's Acer and China's ZTE, but perhaps the most awaited phones will be from Nokia.

The Finnish cell phone maker threw its weight behind Windows Phone 7 earlier this year when it announced a wide ranging agreement with Microsoft to collaborate on future handsets and technologies.

Nokia is losing market share to aggressive competitors, but it remains one of the world's largest manufacturers of smart phones, so it has the potential to help Microsoft shift the market.

The launch of the phone came just hours after Microsoft signed off on the operating system and declared it ready to be installed in consumer handsets. That should mean additional phones will get launched in the coming weeks.

For Japanese consumers, the IS12T phone has a 3.7-inch screen and a 13.2 megapixel camera. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are included in the CDMA-based phone. It weighs 113 grams and Fujitsu Toshiba says the battery should provide more than 11 days on standby and more than 6 hours of talk time.

The phone has 32GB of memory and is waterproof with an IPX5 rating.

Martyn Williams covers Japan and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com

Smartphone OS Preview: iOS 5 vs. Android 2.3 Gingerbread vs. Windows Phone 7 Mango vs. Blackberry 7 OS

iOS 5 wowed the friendly WWDC crowds, but how will it fare in the real world when it releases this fall? We pit iOS 5 against its likely competitors, and the results may surprise you.

 

By William Fenton

From http://www.pcmag.com/

Sure, Lion and iCloud are big news, but, for the millions of iPhone users out there, the real news at the center of the Apple's WWDC conference was iOS 5, equipped with cutting-edge (though, in some cases, strangely familiar) notifications, messaging, and cable-free connectivity. These goodies—and hundreds of other (unspecified) features—now available in developer release, won't appear until the fall, perhaps at the same time as a new iPhone. It seems like just about all the competition –Android, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry—will be releasing new versions between now and then, too.

Using Apple's release as the baseline, I've pulled out 13 of the most exciting new features of iOS 5. The iPhone—and iOS 5—will face three popular challengers this fall. Each of these contenders will a bit sprier by the iOS 5 debut: Microsoft will deliver Windows Phone 7 Mango in Q4; Blackberry OS 7 also ought to be available; and Android 2.3 Gingerbread will be ubiquitous, with Android 3.1 Ice Cream should be served up for the holidays. How will iOS stack up?


Below I've charted the results as simply as I can, but be advised there are nuances to particular comparisons. For example, in call cases there are plenty of third-party apps that may fill in gaps. Furthermore, when it comes to Android, OEMs tend to skin the phones (albeit with mixed results), often adding additional functionality to the stock version of Android. In order for any sort of comparison to work, I'm looking at what you get out of the box on stock versions of each mobile OS. Check out the table first, and then take a look at my explanations of each category and the caveats that go with it.



Notifications
When it comes to unified notification systems, Apple's newly-minted Notification Center bares quite a resemblance to that of Android. As with Android, you can both access notifications from the lock screen or, when using the phone, pull down a tray of notifications from the top of the screen. Blackberry simply pins updates to the home screen. Finally, Windows 7 Mango uses live tiles, which is a bit less unified, but considerably more flexible (I gave it the "check" on account of said flexibility).

Phone-to-Phone Messaging
Apple is clearly watching its competitors. The iOS phone-to-phone messaging system, iMessage, looks a lot like Blackberry Messenger. So much for that iOS app.

Newspaper/Magazine Subscriptions
Apple is leading the way into the print subscription market, though it remains to be seen how much users will appreciate reading the New Yorker on the iPhone, as opposed to an iPad.

Advanced Reminder System
All four mobile platforms allow users to set basic reminders, but no one can touch the iOS Reminders tool on account of its geo-fencing location-based notifications.

System-Wide Twitter Integration
The one third-party software with which iOS consistently integrates is Twitter. Because it's built into the system, once you sign-in, you ought to be able to Tweet from just about anywhere on your phone. The forthcoming release of Window Phone 7 does this and a step better—it includes deep Facebook integration. Finally, while Twitter can appear in the Android Gallery, you must install the app first—so it's not integrated out of the box.

Quick-Camera Access
If you're using your mobile phone as your camera—as more and more people are beginning to do, for better or worse—quick access counts. Both Windows 7 Mango and iOS 5 let users jump directly into camera mode from the lock screen. iOS 5 goes a step further and lets you snap photos without entering a passcode (if you have one). Blackberry does allow users to map a side button to launch a camera, but unfortunately you'll still need to unlock your device.

Photo Editing Tools
When it comes to photo editing on the go, iOS 5 is a clear winner out of the box. While Android allows some editing (crop and rotate), iOS goes a step further (crop, edit, red eye reduction, composition controls, and auto-enhance).

Tabbed Browsing
Considering how many great browsers are available for Android, it continues to baffle the mind as to why Google hasn't added tabs into its stock browser through an incremental update. Now that Safari has tabs, Android remains the odd-man out.

Reader View
Because Apple has essentially rolled Instapaper into Safari Mobile, iOS has a clear edge over the competition when it comes to clutter-free web reading. Add the cloud-based Reading List and it looks even better.

Rich Text Email
When it comes to composing HTML email all mobile OSes except Android rise to the occasion. That said, Android does allow users to receive formatted mail.

PC-Free Setup, Updates
Desktop-free setup and updates is one area where Apple played serious catch up with iOS 5. It now joins all the other platforms in the (sort of) post-PC world. One caveat: remember how Apple used to make you download 400-megabyte files for an incremental update? Now that Apple is rolling out delta updates, all that you'll need to download is what has changed from one version of iOS to the next. Now that you're wireless—and probably on a tiered plan—that could spare you a significant cellular bill.

Wi-Fi Sync
Wireless synchronization is another area where iOS has lagged behind the competiton—except for Google. That said, what Apple has finally delivered is quite powerful: Everything in your iTunes library—including photos and video—can sync over the area. In this respect, iOS Wi-Fi sync tops Blackberry, which handles music, but not video.

Online Gaming Community
Game Center already looked great, but it's even better now that you can download and review games without leaving. The only service that rivals game center is Microsoft's Xbox Live. However, when it comes to actually finding games to play, Apple has the liveliest marketplacee, for the time being.

The Best Smartphone OS?
Any judgement will have to wait until we actually get our hands on the OSes in question and test them out on real-live phones. And it's also worth noting that our feature set for this comparison is pretty heavily influenced by Apple's WWDC presentation. Still, judging by what we know so far, it's clear that Apple's iOS 5 looks to be the smartphone OS to beat this fall.

View Slideshow See all (12) slides

Full Apple Product Coverage http://go.pcmag.com/apple

Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

engadget.com — Full preview of Windows Phone 7.

Click here: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

The Complete Guide to Setting Up Your New Xmas Smartphone

The moment you unpackage a new smartphone is a magical one. Don't let the moment right after that, when you realize that it's practically useless out of the box, cancel that out. Here's everything you need to know:

What You Need to Buy

There are plenty of smartphone accessories that are worth considering, and a few that you actually need. Proceed with caution, but don't be afraid to treat your new smartphone, and yourself, to a few goodies.

A Case: They look goofy, Jason hates them, and they screw with your device's carefully designed curves. But here's the thing: smartphones are fragile. They aren't like dumbphones, and a single fall—especially with devices with a glass screen—can poop all over your new smartphone party. Until you're trained, play it safe. Wrap your unit. Case brand isn't important, so just take your pick from your local Best Buy or wherever. Just make sure your device's corners are covered, because it's edge impacts that break the most glass. Just remember, you're stuck in a multi-thousand dollar contract with this device, which itself would costs hundreds of dollars to replace. It's actually kind of terrifying! Pretend it's a baby, if that helps.

Headphones: Your smartphone is now your primary media player, too, so you're going to need to ditch the headphones or headset it came with. Yes, they all suck; no, your phone's aren't the one exception. If you don't care about a microphone, treat yourself to a decent pair of in-ear headphones. If you do, get a midrange wired headset.

Storage: Phones either come with internal storage, like the Pre or the iPhone, or taunt you with "expandable" storage, which pretty much means they've got an empty microSD slot. If your phone comes with less than 2GB of space and has said slot, you need to fill it. Buying a microSD card is a little different than buying a regular SD card, because speed doesn't really matter, and nothing you're using your phone demands particularly high transfer speeds. This is a place to store your music, photos and videos—that's it. Buy these online, where branded 8GB cards regularly dip below $20—in stores, you'll pay much, much more. Also, don't worry too much about getting a full-sized SD adapters, as pictured above. Most phones will allow you to mount your smartphone's microSD card as mass storage when they're plugged into a computer, so removal is rarely necessary.

Cables: Pick up a spare charging cable for your phone. For most smartphones this is a simple mini/microUSB cable, while for iPhones it's an iPod dock connector. Why worry about the spare? Think of it this way: if you lose your only iPod cable, you can't listen to music until you buy another one. If you lose your only iPhone cable, you're out of touch with the rest of the world in a matter of hours.

What You Don't

Of course, the temptation of new accessories is great, and there are legions of companies waiting to seize on your post-transactional bliss. When buying smartphone accessories, proceed with caution.

A dock: Again, people have a tendency to confuse their PMPs with their phones, which may look and act similar, but are used in a completely different way. Unless you want to dock your smartphone near your bed to use as an alarm, it's going to be charging—and syncing—with your computer whenever it's not in your pocket. An impulse-purchased dock will, in all likelihood, live a lonely life. Don't let this sad thing happen!

A branded navigation mount: These are almost always overpriced, and all they really do is hold your phone in your line of sight. Just buy a dirt-cheap windshield or dash mount, buy a 12v DC converter to plug your USB charging cable into, and you've got all the functionality you need for about $20.

Cleaning Kits: Cleaning your smartphone isn't hard, and it shouldn't cost you much at all. Just follow our instructions, and avoid any smartphone-specific cleaning kits. They're a guaranteed waste.

Bluetooth anything: Bluetooth headsets can make anyone look like a dweebish soccer dad, and while they might make chatting on the phone while driving more legal, they don't really make it much safer. Just hold your phone like a normal human, put it on speakerphone, or take the call later. You should avoid Bluetooth headphones too, but for a different reason: they suck. They sound terrible, they'll drain your phone's battery and they're overpriced. If you have to buy a pair, spend as little as possible.

Getting Started

If your smartphone is a newborn, this is where we teach it to walk.

Contacts: Somehow, in over two decades of cellphone development, we haven't settled on a simple way to transfer contacts from one phone to another. Here's how you should proceed through this somehow-still-painful process:
• Get your carrier to do it. If you're upgrading handsets on one carrier, they should be able to transfer your contacts, and probably for free. If you're switching carriers, there may be a small fee. Don't spend more than five bucks.
• Use your SIM. Are you on AT&T or T-Mobile? Is your smartphone on the same carrier as your old dumbphone? Most phones will have an option to write all contacts to a SIM card, which is the little chip that your phone uses to identify itself on a cell network. Do this, pop your old card out, pop it into your new smartphone, and transfer all your contacts from the old SIM onto your new phone's memory. Sadly, this won't work with Verizon or Sprint phones, which are CDMA-based, and therefore don't have SIM cards at all.
• Google Sync. Through a protocol called SyncML, Google Sync supports quite a few features phones, and can pull all your contacts into your Google account. Your new smartphone can then yank them back down from the cloud. Bonus: they're now backed up to Google server's, too.

Email: Email, you'll find, is one of the best things about owning a smartphone. Setting up your email varies from smartphone to smartphone (iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile) and service to service (Exchange and Gmail setups will be completely different, obvious) but there are few rules of thumb to keep in mind during account setup. For example, use IMAP (versus POP) whenever you can—this will keep your messages and their read/unread statuses in sync with your desktop clients. And since most of your email downloading will be happening over 3G, set the individual message size limit at or below about 10kb. This will ensure your messages come in quickly, but also that you have something to read once they arrive.

Calendars: If you keep a Google Calendar, having it sync with your smartphone is a revelation. Android phones will automatically sync with your default Google account's calendars, as will the Pre, while the iPhone will need to be configured with CalDav. If you don't keep a calendar, your new smartphone is a good excuse to start.

Media and Syncing: Most smartphones rely on some kind of desktop software to transfer personal info, music, video and photos to and from the handset. For the iPhone, this basically means downloading iTunes—which you have to do anyway. For BlackBerry, this means downloading BlackBerry Desktop Manager. Windows Mobile phones are best served by Windows Device Center, while Android and Palm phones—and optionally Windows Phones, iPhones and BlackBerrys—play nice with doubleTwist, a cross-platform music player/media syncing app.

Converting Video: You can't just copy your torrented videos or home movies over to your smartphone; you need to downsample those videos, stat. Just download Handbrake for this—it's basically magic, and it works on Windows, OS X and Linux. These instructions are iPhone-centric, but videos converted to 320x240 h.264 will be suitable for most new smartphones.

Apps! Apps! Apps! Apps!

Without apps, smartphones are nothing. With apps, they're practically anything. Every smartphone platform has an app storefront now, from Apple's pioneering App Store to BlackBerry's App World to the Android Market, and they're all, to different extents, treasure troves.

iPhone: First stop, Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps Directory. These are the best of the best, and everything you need to make your iPhone into a mobile powerhouse. If you're averse to spending money on your new iPhone—this thing wasn't cheap, after all—check out our Essential Free Apps. We do regular posts and weekly roundups around here too, so just keep an eye out.

Android: It's got the second best app selection, which is to say there's some really great stuff out there. Our Essential Android Apps roundup cuts through the noise of the App Market, while our monthly roundups keep you up to date with the latest additions to the store.

BlackBerry: We cover the biggest new additions to App World, but it's best to defer to a specialist site like CrackBerry for this one—they have their own app store too, which isn't really much better or worse than BlackBerry's janky official shop.

Palm: We've just pulled one of our patented "Essential" roundups fresh out of the oven, so consult that first. Beyond that, PreCentral's official app reviews are fairly fantastic. Also worth checking out is their extensive homebrew app gallery, which has about as many decent apps in it as the official Catalog.

Windows Mobile: App development for WinMo isn't exactly picking up nowadays but there's a tremendous backlog of useful reviews and materials at WMPowerUser, WMExperts, XDA and MoDaCo. And yeah, we occasionally still do Windows Mobile app roundups, though until things get exciting again, expect less, not more.

Living Happily Ever After

Lastly, a few odds and ends to make sure your metal'n'plastic darling lives a happy life, at least before the end of its two-year contract.

How to back up your smartphone: Your smartphone probably contains as much personal data as your computer, and it's subjected to way more physical risk. Preempt the pain. Back it up.

How to keep you smartphone clean: These little machines are fantastic at collecting fingerprints, dust and grime. Wipe them off every once in a while.

Any other tips for new smartphone owners? Chuck them down in the comments. Happy Holidays!

Send an email to John Herrman, the author of this post, at jherrman@gizmodo.com.

Engadget's Full Comparison of iPhone3.0 to Other Mobile OS

by Joshua Topolsky

As soon as Apple rolled out its preview of iPhone OS 3.0, the comparisons to existing (and forthcoming) mobile OSs started flying. While the major update isn't exactly a done deal, it's pretty far along, and we've been able to glean quite a bit from our time with the developer beta we've been checking out. iPhone OS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, S60; if you're in the market for a new smartphone, your choices have been getting exponentially more complicated lately, and 3.0 won't make the selection any easier. Luckily for you, Engadget is here to make sense of a frightening and uncertain landscape. Read on for an in-depth look at the similarities -- and differences -- between modern mobile operating systems.

Basics | User Interface | Core Functionality | Third-Party Development

Basics

When it comes to OSs, it's generally true that you're only as good as your kernel, and these days, there's no shortage of options in that department. Comparing core systems is difficult -- each one has its own strengths and weaknesses, but we'd be lying if we didn't say that the underlying structure of the iPhone OS is pretty robust. Since it's built atop OS X, which in turn is built atop Unix, it tends to be fairly sophisticated and stable (even if Apple has managed to lag it up with its UI). Android is Linux based, though its basic functionality is sandboxed in a particularly healthy variation of Java. S60 and Windows Mobile may be more mature, but that age doesn't always work to their advantage, and while RIM has done a tremendous job at updating its look and feel, the OS -- which is based around a proprietary kernel -- still showcases some of its ugly, underlying Java from time to time.

As you can see in the chart below, the basics slot these devices into fairly specific categories, though it's obvious that Apple is trying to nudge its way into the enterprise world (the company went out of its way to cite business customer satisfaction at the preview event). Of course, we don't expect to see the BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile leaving that space any time soon.

Basics						Return to Top
	Android Cupcake	BlackBerry OS 4.7	iPhone OS 3.0	S60 5th Edition	Palm WebOS	Windows Mobile 6.5
Kernel Type	Linux	Proprietary	OS X	Symbian	Linux	Windows CE
Platform Adaptability	Excellent	Good	Poor	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent
Platform Age	Young	Mature	Adolescent	Mature	Young	Mature
First-party Enterprise Support	None	BlackBerry	Exchange	Exchange, Domino, BlackBerry	Exchange	Exchange, Domino, BlackBerry
Wireless Technologies	GSM, WiFi	GSM, CDMA, WiFi	GSM, WiFi	GSM, WiFi	GSM, CDMA, WiFi	GSM, CDMA, WiFi

User Interface

Apple nailed it out of the gate with many of its UI ideas. Gestures, lists with inertia, and plenty of touch-friendly sliders, wheels, and buttons generally make the iPhone OS a pleasure to navigate. While Android borrows some of that functionality, its uneven UI still doesn't match up (though Cupcake certainly makes a few welcome improvements). Windows Mobile and the BlackBerry OS have made some gains here over the years, but they still suffer from inborn deficiencies that are clear the moment you start using them (especially the Storm's 4.7 implementation), and S60 has a long, long way to go before it's up to speed. The only real competitor in terms of user-experience right now appears to be the Palm Pre, which capitalizes on many of the gains Apple pioneered and throws in a few tricks of its own, like those cards as well as a bigger emphasis on gestures.

A key innovation over the past couple years has been the emergence of capacitive touchscreens in mobile devices, which allow for lighter touch, greater display clarity, and true multitouch at the expense of stylus compatibility. The iPhone, webOS, and Android have all embraced the technology, but Windows Mobile and S60 aren't quite there yet, largely because they still make use of UI elements too small to accurately press with a human finger. To keep up, they'll need to get cranking on this over the coming versions. Of course, all of these platforms (save for webOS) can sport a virtual keyboard of some sort -- a technology particularly suited to a capacitive screen -- but we've yet to see a single one pull off a typing experience as solid as what Apple offers.

As good as they may be in stock form, both Apple and Palm leave users hanging if they want to customize -- hell, changing font sizes is taboo with the iPhone, much less a total reskinning of the interface. If you're into making your device all your own, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry are where you want to be; customization isn't just allowed with these platforms, it's practically encouraged. In fact, Microsoft pretty much touts the flexibility as a feature nowadays (a quick glance at this year's MWC offerings is proof of that).

User Interface						Return to Top
	Android Cupcake	BlackBerry OS 4.7	iPhone OS 3.0	S60 5th Edition	Palm WebOS	Windows Mobile 6.5
Screen Gestures	Yes	Yes	Yes	Limited	Yes	Limited
Screen Technology	Capacitive	Capacitive	Capacitive	Resistive / Capacitive	Capacitive	Resistive
Multitouch	Yes (unofficial)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
UI Skinning	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Input Methods	Virtual keyboard, physical keyboard	Virtual keyboard	Virtual Keyboard	Virtual keyboard, T9, and triple tap; character recognition; physical keyboard	Physical keyboard	Virtual keyboard, character recognition, physical keyboard

Core functionality

Now here's a category where the operating systems really start to show their colors. While Apple is finally adding the promised -- but delayed -- push notification to its devices, it's still lagging far behind in some pretty important areas. First off: multitasking. Much like an original Palm OS device, Apple seems stuck in the past with its open-quit-open app switching scheme, which it claims is in the interest of preserving battery life. Windows Mobile, S60, Android, webOS, and BlackBerry all handle true multitasking, allowing you keep multiple apps open in the background. The push notifications will help, but nothing beats being able to return to an active app, particularly if you're doing something like loading a web page or using a map to get around.

Palm is smartly introducing a web-centric functionality called Synergy in its webOS, which allows you to pool contacts and calendars from disparate sources, while the iPhone OS, BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, S60, and Android still present mostly siloed options in that department (without some third-party involvement). Apple has made strides with its new calendar functionality -- CalDAV support, for example -- but it still doesn't present anything as revolutionary for dealing with scores of contacts. We do give the company marks for finally, mercifully, allowing users to share contact cards, however.

A big problem that Apple has yet to address with OS 3.0 is its obnoxious, obtrusive notifications. Where Android and webOS slide a handy "tray" into view to let you know you've got something incoming, the iPhone regularly piles on one notice after another, leaving you with a stacked, productivity-stalling, ugly mess of pop-ups. Apple, you kill this kind of annoying garbage in your browser -- why do you think users want it in their phone? Even older systems get this one more right than Apple does -- both Windows Mobile and the BlackBerry OS use a mixture of pop-ups and background notifications. It's perplexing that a company so concerned with usability and simplicity has done nothing to address the situation in three iterations of its software.

Still, Apple has certainly answered the call (no pun intended) on a lot of user-requested features. Stereo Bluetooth support, MMS, that new Spotlight homescreen (aka global search), tethering capabilities, unlocked Bluetooth support for the touch, turn-by-turn direction capability, and a whole lot more. The sad part is that these additions only really bring the OS to speed with almost all of its competition, making this update a victory, but still kind of a bummer if you take the long-view.

And don't even get us started on copy and paste.

Core Functionality						Return to Top
	Android Cupcake	BlackBerry OS 4.7	iPhone OS 3.0	S60 5th Edition	Palm WebOS	Windows Mobile 6.5
Notification Style	Tray	Pop-up, background	Pop-up	Pop-up	Tray	Tray, pop-up
Contact Integration / Management	Google	BES, BIS	Exchange, ActiveSync, Mac OS Address Book	Exchange, Domino, BlackBerry, iSync	Synergy	Exchange, Domino, BlackBerry, ActiveSync
Multitasking	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Copy / paste	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Media Support / Ecosystem	Amazon	Non-DRM iTunes	iTunes	Ovi	Amazon	Windows Media Player / None
Global Search	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Firmware Updates	OTA	Tethered, OTA	Tethered	Tethered, OTA	Unknown	Tethered, OTA
Browser Engine	WebKit	Proprietary	WebKit	WebKit	WebKit	Internet Explorer
Tethering	Yes (unofficial)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Stereo Bluetooth	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Third-party development

This is where Apple really shines. While Windows Mobile and S60 have had thriving developer bases for a while, no one has brought applications and app development to the forefront like Apple. It goes without saying that the company has revolutionized the way devs do business, and torn down dozens of barriers to entry in the process. No single company has made it easier for developers to create work (and profit from it) on a mobile platform. The new version of the iPhone OS seems designed to stoke that system, introducing 1,000 new APIs and allowing developers to offer things like in-game commerce and peer-to-peer networking.

Of course, the system isn't without its negatives, and Apple has endured more than its share of (deserved) critics of its opaque and sometimes unfair application approval process. While they say 96 percent of apps receive approval, we're fairly confident what gets left on the cutting room floor is hurting end users. Just think, with its current policies, you'll never see an Opera or Firefox browser for the device.

Regardless, other companies are currently playing catch up to Cupertino's game, with all of the major OSs offering some version of an application store now or in the near future. To date, none have been remotely as successful as Apple's outing, but none have the luxury of being tied to a pre-existing revenue stream like the iTunes Store -- and with the exception of Android's Market, they really haven't had time to marinate with the public. Only time will tell if companies like Palm, Google, and (gasp) Microsoft will be able to turn on the fire hose of development and go toe-to-toe with Apple.

Third-Party Development						Return to Top
	Android Cupcake	BlackBerry OS 4.7	iPhone OS 3.0	S60 5th Edition	Palm WebOS	Windows Mobile 6.5
SDK Availability / Support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Official App Store	Yes	Coming	Yes	Coming	Yes	Yes
App Availability	Medium	Medium	High	Medium	Low	High
Native Applications	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
On-Device App Management	Excellent	Good	Excellent	Good	Excellent	Good

Wrap up

Ultimately, there are loyalties and preferences that no chart can help you navigate. We won't go as far as saying it's a matter of choice -- we believe that the newer, younger operating systems offer far more than the aging ones can at this point (unless you absolutely need something like BES). In particular, the improvements Apple's made in its forthcoming update speak to many of the issues we've had since the platform's launch in 2007, patching a slew of flaws in its mobile OS, and making the advantages of something like Android or webOS (what we know of it) a little less obvious. That said, you won't find the open source freedom of the former, and there are a handful of innovations in the latter (yet to be roadtested, but extremely promising nonetheless). One thing is sure regardless of what side you throw your lot in with: the hype Apple created with its devices has spurred a space race in smartphones, and the end user is reaping the benefits.

Galleries

iPhone OS 3.0 hands-on	Microsoft announces Windows Mobile 6.5	Palm Pre: official UI shots
Android Cupcake	BlackBerry OS 4.7	S60 5th Edition

Special thanks to Chris Ziegler and Ross Miller for their work on this feature.

Adobe To Demo Flash On Mobile (But Only Windows). Still “Working” On The iPhone.

by Erick Schonfeld on November 16, 2008

Adobe’s Flash Player is on 98 percent of all desktop computers, but it is still struggling to make the jump to mobile phones. If you want Flash on a mobile device, right now you have to settle for a compromised version: Flash Lite. But Adobe is committed to bring the full Flash Player experience to mobile phones, as evidenced by its Open Screen Project. On Monday, at its Adobe MAX developer conference, it will demonstrate Flash Player 10 running on a Windows Mobile phone. (However, Flash won’t actually ship on Windows Mobile until late next year). Product manager Michele Turner tells me:

We will be showing the first delivery of Flash on mobile phones, on other platforms. You will see it on Windows Mobile.

Microsoft, if you recall, was also early to adopt Flash Lite for Windows Mobile, despite its parallel development of Flash-competitor Silverlight. So it’s not too surprising that it would be the first to run Flash 10 on Windows Mobile. Turner also indicates that an “Android port” is coming. (Update: In fact, it looks like the Android port is well underway. During today’s announcement, a demo of Flash running on the G1 was shown.)

But what about the iPhone, which famously doesn’t use Flash? (Although there’s been some talk of that happening). Turner will only say:

We are working on Flash on the iPhone, but it is really up to Apple

One of Apple’s objections to Flash is that it is a CPU hog and is not optimized for the ARM11 processors that power the iPhone. In what seems to be an effort to address that concern, Adobe will also be announcing a closer collaboration with ARM to accelerate the adoption of both Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR on ARM-powered devices.

Once that collaboration bears fruit, maybe we’ll finally see Flash on the iPhone. But I’d be willing to bet my iPhone that we’ll see it on Android phones first.

Get iPhone-like visual voicemail on your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile phone

By Dusan on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 3:28 am PST

Just in case you were salivating about that iPhone’s visual voicemail system, now you can get it on your phone. That’s actually in case you own one of the latest BlackBerrys (8800 series, Pearl of Curve) or a Windows Mobile based smartphone. SimulSays is a free program that adds that cool “visual voicemail twist” to your phone, and thanks to its integration with your address book, it allows you to reply to known caller’s message by phone, SMS or e-mail. The service is still in beta, but as far as we can tell it works quite well.