The mobile market is one that’s constantly evolving. Changing. Adapting to the needs, desires, and expectations of those that it desperately tries to sell itself to. You. The consumer. And as we look back at a week that’s gone by, and we see all the ways that the market has been added to, changed, or replicated itself, we can’t help but wonder: what’s next? But, before we can look at what’s coming, we must look at what has happened. So, let’s go ahead and take a look.
Software keyboards is one of those things that comes up on someone’s radar whether they like it or not. Most phones today have a dual-keyboard solution: hardware and software. But for phones like the Android-powered Nexus One, there’s just the one software keyboard. And while that may perfectly fine for some, options can be the best bet. Swype has the answer for you. Their Swype keyboard offers a great, intuitive way to enter text: just by sliding your finger from one letter to the next, spelling out your word. The Swype keyboard public beta launched this week, and from what we’ve heard, it was a huge success.
That moment we talked about the evolving mobile market? Nokia seems to want to be at the head of the pack. They’ve filed a patent that brings the science of piezoelectronics to the fore, shoving them into the body of a cell phone. They want to place the most important parts of the phone, such as the battery, on a set of rails that are powered by the piezoelectric cells. When the rails are compressed in one fashion or another, they would surge “life” into the battery. This would basically mean that the phone would never need to be charged from the traditional wall outlet. That’s right, it’s a self-charging device. No word on when we could see a phone like this, but we’ve got our fingers crossed that it’s coming some time in the next year or so.
The HTC Legend, the successor to HTC’s flagship device, the Hero, got a first-look review from our friends over at SlashGear. They did a nice job with it, too. If you’re interested in the newer version of Sense UI, along with Android 2.1, and are in the European market, then this may be the device you’ve been looking for. Especially if you’re looking for an obviously positioned mid-range device, that does all the cool things of a smartphone.
HTC has the HD2, and it’s a great device. No argument there. And while it’s been out in the European region for a few months now, it hasn’t made the leap to the States quite yet. Of course, that’s been rumored to be coming for awhile now, and HTC have finally teamed up with T-Mobile USA to bring the legendary device to US-based customers. On the 16th of March, T-Mobile is giving a small keynote about the power of the HD2, and what it means that it’s coming to their network. We’ve been invited, so keep your eyes peeled for what’s to be announced.
Palm released their Plug-in Developers Kit earlier this week as well. What this means, is that the gaming community for the webOS-based devices is about ready to take a pretty big leap in the right direction. By allowing developers access to the PDK, this means that games can be ported over to the Palm hardware without much of a hassle at all. So, games that are on the iPhone OS, or even the Android OS can be enjoyed on the webOS devices. Developers are hard at work at the latest batch of games now, so hopefully soon we’ll see the fruits of their labors.
LG showed off a whole new batch of devices to the Dutch news, ranging from the simplest of devices, to the higher-end S-Class devices. There wasn’t any kind of mention about when these devices would be released, and even though they were showing them off to the press, LG reinforced the fact that this was not the company officially announcing the handsets. So, while we wait for the GT405 to make some kind of official rounds, we’ll just have to be happy with the pictures we have now.
The Android Operating System is a great place to try out a lot of different features, especially programs. In this case, we have the new, mobile version of Opera. It’s been a mainstay for Windows Mobile devices for quite some time, so the launch of the browser on the Android platform isn’t that big of a surprise this week.
Motorola is removing Google Search and Google Maps from their devices launching in China for the foreseeable future. Considering the mess that Google and China have been since the new year started, this piece of news isn’t that surprising to us. Yes, we would much prefer to see Google-centric platforms on the Android Operating System, we understand that it’s the nature of the beast when using an open platform. Open source software means that manufacturers can do whatever they want with it when they get their hands on it, and Motorola seems to be making sure that no matter what, their phones are sold in China.
Considering the launch of the next iPhone is pretty much right around the corner, the rumors about what’s to come are starting to pick up. The latest one is one that we’ve heard more than a few times, so we’re starting to wonder if there’s some truth to it. If the next iteration of the iPhone does indeed support multitasking, we are mostly interested to see just how Apple has figured out how to do this. While it will be great to have the ability in general, too.
And finally, we have the BlackBerry Slider making an appearance again. This phone, though we originally believed to be a prototype that had been cast aside, is starting to look more real, and more possible, with each passing day. If it is, we are already applauding Research In Motion for trying to make something new and bold, and if not, then, well, at least they were trying at some point or another. There’s no word on whether or not this device will be seeing the light of day, but it does seem to have a model number now: 9900 for the GSM networks, and 9930 for the CDMA variants.
We want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read over the highlights of this last week. We can’t wait to see what’s coming in the week to follow, especially considering we have the HTC HD2 launch from T-Mobile, as well as the MIX10 developer’s conference, where more information regarding Windows Phone 7 Series is sure to come to light. So, stay frosty. We’ll be sure to keep you posted.
