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Nokia is moving forward with rumored plans to use Maemo Linux on some of its smartphones, and will eventually phase out Symbian on smartphones altogether, says an industry report. Meanwhile, Nokia announced a new name — Qt Development Frameworks — for its Qt Software division, known for its cross-platform Qt development framework.
[Updated: 6:15AM] — The LiMo Foundation mobile Linux consortium announced two new members, as well as nine new LiMo-compatible phones from NEC and Panasonic, aimed at NTT DoCoMo's 3G network in Japan. The new members include the second-ranked carrier in Japan, KDDI Corp., as well as haptics touchscreen technology firm Immersion Corp.
German embedded firm SSV announced a touchscreen control unit designed for HMI industrial applications. The EUI/57V is equipped with an x86-based Vortex86DX processor clocked to 800MHz, a 5.7-inch VGA touchscreen, and HMI (human machine interface) connections that include Ethernet, serial, USB, CAN, GPIO, and SPI, SSV says.
Advantech announced a fanless, aluminum-cased computer aimed at the transportation industry. The ARK-3400 uses a Celeron M processor, includes hard disk or CompactFlash storage, accepts 2GB of RAM, and has two PCI expansion slots, the company says.
Dell has decided to retreat from the 12-inch netbook market, declaring that “larger notebooks require a little more horsepower to be really useful.” The Linux-compatible Inspiron Mini 12, is ready “to ride off into the sunset,” according to Dell, but the company is also reintroducing its low-end Inspiron Mini 9.
Always Innovating says it is shipping a netbook based on the Texas Instruments (TI) OMAP3x ARM Cortex-A8 processor. The Touch Book uses a modified version of TI's open source BeagleBoard SBC, and offers a detachable, 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 touchscreen, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, and accelerometers, says the company.
Handset shipments improved slightly in the second quarter to 269 million units, but higher growth is expected later this year, says ABI Research. Meanwhile, DisplaySearch projected handset display shipments as falling by 11 percent in the first quarter, but sees big gains ahead, says eWEEK.
TransMedia, makers of the cross-platform Glide cloud computing OS, announced the availability of a Twitter-like service that supports mobile embedded platforms including Android. Glide Engage is a rights-based social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to share messages with cloud-stored attachments, says the company.
In the second quarter of 2009, x86 processor shipments increased 10 percent compared to the previous quarter, according to IDC. The market research firm calls the results “unusually positive” but cautioned that OEMs' inventory refreshes were the driver, not increased demand for PCs.
[Updated: Aug. 7] — Denx announced the first Xenomai User Meeting, which will co-locate with OSADL's Eleventh Real Time Linux Workshop in Dresden, Germany, on Sep. 28-30. The Xenomai meeting will showcase this real-time Linux extension alternative to PREEMPT RT — and maybe help make peace between warring camps.
Via Technologies announced a nano-ITX board designed for extreme-temperature industrial and embedded applications. Operable from -4 to 158 deg. F, the Epia N700-10EW includes a 1.0GHz Eden ULV processor, gigabit Ethernet, two SATA ports, four USB ports, four COM ports, plus Compact Flash and Mini PCI expansion, says Via.
T-Mobile started shipping its second Android phone, the style-minded, HTC-manufactured MyTouch3G, writes eWEEK. Meanwhile, Laptop Magazine gave the smartphone and its Android 1.5 software a thorough review, and, while criticizing the camera and a few other features, dubs the MyTouch 3G “our current Android phone of choice.”
An IDC study predicts that open source software will grow at a 22.4 percent rate to reach $8.1 billion by 2013, says eWEEK. Meanwhile, in its annual SEC filing, Microsoft has added Linux vendors Canonical and Red Hat to its list of rivals, and acknowledges the growing threat of Google's Android, says TechFlash.
Palm filed a complaint with the USB Implementers Forum over Apple's attempts to block Palm Pre users from syncing to iTunes, says eWEEK. In other Pre news, the Linux-based smartphone is being sold by Amazon, hackers have developed a MiFi-like 3G tethering app, and a blogger accuses Palm of “anti-anti-Tivo-ization.”
Advantech has announced a mini PC and matching display designed for medical use. The PIN-M106 PC and PDC-190 display offer dust- and water-resistant enclosures and can be disinfected with alcohol, the company says.