Gadzooki

You can test drive MeeGo now

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The merger of Nokia’s Maemo and the Moblin Project, MeeGo, that new-ish Linux distro made for mobile phones, TVs, and netbooks, has finally released the first beta of the new operating system. The build images are meant for developers or those who are comfortable working in a terminal since the build won’t come with any user interface. The images currently work with any Intel Atom-based netbook, Atom-based handset (Moorestown) or Nokia’s N900.

From Engadget:

Sadly, the MeeGo user experience — the good stuff, that is — isn’t included here, so if you flash your N900 you’re going to end up booting into a terminal console, but hey, some of you sickos are into that sort of thing, aren’t you? Next up for the team is a release billed 1.0 that will come in May, and we’re told details on the road to that version will be unveiled over the coming days. Take care of yourselves if you go for it, alright?

However, if you’d like to get your hands dirty with code, you’re free to download the 392MB image file so you can test it yourself so you’d just get an idea on what MeeGo is like. Make sure to run it from a USB drive though!

Download MeeGo here.

Rumor: The Google Tablet to go after Apple’s iSlate?

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googletablet

Oh boy, is Google sure on a roll. Mere weeks after the announcement of the Google Phone, the Android-powered Nexus One, and the Google Netbook running (also recently-announced) Google Chrome OS, rumors began flying of another hardware product running Chrome OS. And this time it’s a tablet computer. [Read more…]

Nokia N-Series Phones Will Probably Switch From Symbian to Maemo

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I have a love-hate relationship with the Symbian OS. On one hand, it’s a mature mobile operating system with a huge selection of applications. On the other hand, it’s been pretty restrictive, especially now that you have to sign your applications before you can even install them. Also, it’s pretty old, the UI is horrible, and application programmers everywhere are complaining about how hard it is to make apps for Symbian.

Which is why we’re all keeping an eye on the N900. The N900, if you haven’t heard, is the first phone running Nokia’s Linux-based Maemo. Nokia already released a few internet tablets running Maemo before, but this is the first time we’ve seen Maemo being set up to do mobile phone functions. Also, Maemo has that sexy UI that Nokia’s other OS is sorely missing.

Nokia has held “meetups” throughout the world to celebrate the launch of its new N900, and during one such meetup in London, Nokia dropped a bomb: Nokia’s marketing team has unofficially revealed that they are planning to drop Symbian from N-Series phones by 2012!

This makes sense, really. Have you guys seen how Maemo is able to handle multimedia? The reason I’ve stayed away from the N-Series is the amazingly bad sluggishness these phones acquire after a few weeks of usage. I haven’t used (much less seen) an N900 yet so I can pass judgment on Maemo, but I’m pretty sure it’ll perform way better than Symbian on the multimedia front. It was mad for that purpose, anyway.

If you really, really, really like Symbian and really don’t want to let it go, worry not. Lower-tier phones will still retain Symbian. I don’t see Symbian going away completely in the near future.

Now what do you think of this? Is this a knee-jerk reaction to Google Android or is it something Nokia has been planning for a long time already? Tell me all about it!

[via]

Android 6.1 Donut is rolling out

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According to Unwired View, Android 6.1 Donut is already gradually being rolled out over the air.

Donut is a OTA (Over-the-air) update which you should be seeing very soon, if not already. From what we’ve heard, T-Mobile is working to roll it out as fast as possible to help fix the system reboot error that’s well-known on current versions.

Other feature improvements include:

  • Improved Android Market experience
  • Camera, camcorder, and gallery interface
  • Updated Voice Search
  • Updated search experience (similar but not identical to iPhone’s spotlight search)

So have you guys received the new Android or are you still waiting for 6.1 to hit your mobile devices? How is Android Donut treating you so far?

Motorola Introduces the Android-powered Cliq

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Motorola shows us what it can do with Google’s Android phone platform and introduces the Cliq. The CLIQ delivers a reliable mobile Web experience by harnessing the power and speed of 3G and Wi-Fi. Additional CLIQ features include a 3.1-inch HVGA touch-screen display, a 5 megapixel auto focus camera with video capture and playback at 24 frames per second, a 3.5mm headset jack, a music player with pre-loaded Amazon MP3 store application, Shazam, iMeem Mobile, and a pre-installed 2GB microSD memory card with support for up to 32 GB of removable memory.

I’m not a fan of the QWERTY keyboard (honestly it just looks too ugly) but from what I’ve been hearing, this could be the best Android phone yet. Hear that HTC?

Online Work Makes One Platform Agnostic

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As I write this, I’m running Windows on my laptop, here at the dinner table. It’s been almost a year since I worked on Windows, meaning actually running it for a few hours and doing real work with it. With my computers usually running some flavor of Linux or Mac OS X, Windows has mostly only been run only in those rare instances I need to run Windows-specific software. My most recent acquisitions, being an Asus Eee (running on Linux) and a Mac desktop, have brought me farther away from Windows, I was almost tempted to wipe it out from my laptop.

And yet here I am. I’ve booted up good ol’ Windows XP because my wife wanted to play Sims 2 (to get ideas for home remodeling). Looks like I haven’t forgotten how to use it.

Or perhaps it’s because I’ve learned to be platform-agnostic when it comes to work-related matters. With a lot of apps these days running over-the-web instead of locally, you would learn to be such. A lot of my documents and spreadsheets are hosted on Google Docs, so I could access them from any computer of mine, anywhere. My task list is on TaDa list, and my schedules are on Google Calendar. Let’s not forget Gmail. And then there are the instant messaging apps, which you could actually run online, or through cross-platform software (like Pidgin).

Then, of course, most (if not all) sites I work on run WordPress. So it’s usually the same thing no matter where I access the sites from, no matter what browser I use. Sure, there would be some differences in how shortcuts or keystrokes would be used on a Mac compared to a PC (such as the big CMD vs. Ctrl issue), or differences in the workflow (such as using alt-tab instead of Expose). But it’s essentially the same.

Still, being platform agnostic in terms of blogging means I would have to be well-versed with other blogging software as well, instead of just WordPress. I’ve had my share of using Blogger, Typepad and Movable Type, though not as extensive as my experience with WordPress. Managing a blog network with all blogs running WordPress I would have to be an expert (or try to be). But working mostly with Web apps, the Web browser has been my main “platform” so the operating system it runs on becomes a secondary concern.

And so as I close this, I would probably move back upstairs to my home office to fix some sites on the Mac, or perhaps even on my Asus Eee (small screened as it is, you could still squeeze out lots of productive time due to the fact that you can take it anywhere). Different OS, but because I’ve made the browser my “platform” I don’t think I would need much adjusting.

The Gimp: My Image Editor of Choice

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I had been doing a lot of twitter account setups because I wanted to have twitter accounts dedicated to the many blogs I’ve put up for AdSense monetization. So since when I was setting up my DummyGeekGurl twitter account, I had reached saturation point for tweaking the design, plus, I wanted the wallpaper background kick-butt in a big way, I decided to put off tweaking the design.

That, and I was pretty sick over the past few days, only to find out that I may really have diabetes (type 2) now. But last night, I felt okay enough to make this kick-butt (in my own not-so-humble opinion) wallpaper for my DummyGeekGurl Twitter. [Read more…]

2007 and Beyond: An Exciting Era for the OS Wars

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This is an exciting year for the OS wars. With Gutsy Gibbon just released last 18th of October, the Mac OS X Leopard being released today, and the dust over over Windows Vista not having settled yet, I think things are looking up for the OS horizon. We are back in the glory of the 80s, folks, when OS competition was healthy, with the freedom of choice at an all-time high, and enthusiasm for computers and software on an unparalleled level.

It’s just that today, this enthusiasm is magnified, to levels that “exponential” doesn’t even cover. [Read more…]

Google Phone hits stride

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google-phone.jpg
Google may arguably be the most popular and most profitable search engine on the planet but that is not stopping the company’s think tanks from continuing to push the envelope as far as product development and innovation is concerned. After Google’s successful series of add ons, services and feature sets, the company is now settting its sights on hardware. Enter the Google phone!

According to announcements made a couple of weeks ago, Google seems to be getting its stride as far as development of the G-Phone is concerned. After years of delay, the company has finally found a manufacturer for the phone, and it’s none other than Taiwan based smartphone maker High Tech Computer (HTC). The company itself has made a name for itself for offering smart phones using Windows Mobile that have very attractive pricepoints and features. At this point, no company has yet been identified who will supply the Linux based operating system for Google’s phone.

Some of the other details surrounding the G-Phone that were released last week include:

  • a large screen with a QWERTY keypad
  • A succeeding model will use a Qualcomm chipset
  • Call minutes as well as text message will be funded through mobile advertising
  • T-Mobile is the selected carrier in the US, while Orange may be used in other countries

It will be quite interesting to see how the mobile phone landscape will change with the entry of both Apple and Google in the arena.
[tags]Google, Google Phone, G-Phone, Qualcomm, HTC[/tags]