It is apps that have really turned our mobiles phones from decent devices to extremely powerful ones. Not only this, but they often make our lives and mobile usage so much easier. With the Nokia 5228 you can get a vast array of mobile phone applications to really fulfill the potential of the phone. For example, Spotify allows you to access a massive catalog of music straight from your mobile however with the Nokia 5228‘s Internet capabilities - EDGE with no 3G or Wi-Fi - perhaps this particular app will not be as impressive as on other mobiles.

Text Quick is designed to make life easier with any Symbian operating system mobile device. Available for the Nokia 5228, Text Quick orders your mobile phone address book by order of text message popularity so in future you won’t have to scroll through loads of contact names to find the one of you want; if you have favourite contacts who you text often then with Text Quick these can be accessed in about 2 clicks.

Apps are designed to make our mobiles phones much more powerful than they are when they come out of the box and the Symbian OS is not different. With mobiles such as the Nokia 5228 you can find thousands of applications that can truly transform your device; this article has listed just two however have a look for yourself and allow your Nokia 5228 to realise it’s true potential.

The best thing about video security systems is the fact that you can easily use them in different scenarios. If you want to protect your family and house, for example, you can easily combine video surveillance system with top house alarm for maximum security. DVR video security systems can be integrated with popular alarm systems thanks to motion detection capability.

You can use video security systems to protect business as well. Protecting different floors and decks using specialized deck security systems is the best way to go, since you can easily protect your assets and products. With proper video security system in place, you can also protect your company’s day to day operations and maintain smooth runs at all times.

If you regularly send employees to maintain various company assets and properties, you can simplify the process by using video security systems instead. Monitor the assets and important properties remotely and only send employees when repairs or advanced maintenance works are necessary. You can save a lot of money this way, and the overall operation of your business will be much more efficient.

From these examples, you can see that the possible application scenarios and usages of video security systems are virtually limitless. The cost of installing top video security systems will eventually pay for itself, especially since you can save a lot of time and money with the right surveillance systems in place.

Looking for the best surveillance systems to use according to your needs and wants is also an easy task to complete. You can simply use the right online tool to help you conduct the search. Get multiple quotes in a matter of minutes, compare available deals and solutions, and pick the best one in no time.

Opera Mini 5.1 offers improved page layout on high-end Android handsets with large screens, its Norwegian maker says. Among the software’s features are tabbed browsing, a password manager, bookmarks and speed dial, all built in to deliver easy Web access while on the go.

Opera Mini can also now be set as the default browser on Android phones.

The new release can be downloaded for free from the Android Market or from m.opera.com.

Faster Page Loads

With more than 61 million users worldwide, Opera Mini is the world’s most popular browser for mobile phones, and it delivers the best Internet experience on more than 3,000 mobile phone models, Opera Software says.

One of its primary advantages over other mobile browsers is that Opera Mini compresses data by up to 90 percent before sending content to the phone, resulting in significantly improved page-loading speeds and reduced data costs for the user.

For example, Opera Mini can display a BBC News page nine times for the same cost it would take most browsers to display it once, its maker claims.

The software was recently released for the iPhone, generating a million downloads during the first 24 hours of availability.

‘An Excellent Reputation’

On the PC, Opera has “struggled to become a recognizable name ahead of competitors like Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome,” Alex Spektor, a wireless analyst with Strategy Analytics, told LinuxInsider. However, “they do have an excellent reputation on the mobile side.”

Opera accounted for 2.27 percent of the browser market in June, according to recent data from market researcher Net Applications. Ahead of it were Internet Explorer, with 60.32 percent; Firefox, with 23.81 percent; Chrome, with 7.24 percent; and Safari, with 4.85 percent.

With its server-side compression technology, Opera Mini “can actually help speed up browsing,” Spektor noted.

‘A Nice Thing for Operators’

That was relevant in the days of 2G, but it’s equally relevant today given the congestion problems created by Web traffic Planning for the next peak season? Ensure your website is fast, secure and available 24/7. Click here to learn how. on operator networks, Spektor pointed out.

In the past, operator networks have had a preference for RIM’s BlackBerry devices, since they are optimized to deliver the Web in a smaller, more compressed format, he explained.

“Now that Web traffic is continually picking up, Opera Mini on smartphones is a nice thing for operators,” opined Spektor. “It can help to improve their margins.”

‘The Choice Platform’

The fact that Opera Software chose Linux-based Android, meanwhile, “shows that Android is continuing to be the choice platform for content providers and application developers,” Spektor added.

“Software and content vendors are looking beyond the iPhone for other big, rising smartphone platforms that will allow them to have as many users as possible,” he observed.

“The growth Android has shown in the U.S. and worldwide works to their advantage and helps companies like Opera get their product in front of as many users as possible,” Spektor concluded.

‘I See This Partnership Growing’

“Opera is one of the winning mobile browsers in today’s marketplace,” telecom and wireless analyst Jeff Kagan told LinuxInsider. “Android is also one of the newest and rapidly growing platforms.”

As a result, “it makes sense for Opera and Android to be together to create a better experience for customers in a very competitive space,” he opined.

If it works successfully, “I see this partnership growing to offer more complex and satisfying wireless Web experiences to customers,” Kagan predicted. “They will continue to improve, because this marketplace is young and growing very quickly.

“The ‘big bang’ happened a few years ago,” he pointed out, “but ever since, every handset maker and software company in the space is rushing in to reach the enormous universe of customers.”

If there’s one set of features about iPhone 4 that I found most worthy of upgrading, it’s the camera system — and it turns out, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) delivered. Where the older cameras in the iPhone were slow and megapixel-challenged, the new lenses and the hidden software that uses them turn the iPhone 4 into a useful snapshot and video-recording tool.

Because I pack my iPhone 4 most everywhere I go, I now have a decent camera and video recorder with me at all times. Sure, it won’t replace my big digital SLR, but at least I now have the hope of capturing some workable images when I’m out and about. Let’s take a closer look.

The New Camera

The new still camera is now 5 megapixels, and while other smartphones have more megapixels, there’s more to quality photos than megapixels — which may or may have the brains behind them to capture light and turn it into clear and accurate photos. Basically, at 5 megapixels, the iPhone 4 can deliver decent photos that you can print or publish online or on your Apple TV. Overall, the software behind the lens is snappy and fast, usually focuses fast, does a better job of capturing subjects with less blur in a wider variety of lighting conditions. If you’re snapping shots outside in the natural sunlight, you might be amazed. But great natural light sets a pretty low bar, really. Most cameras do well in natural light. Inside or with fading light, the camera has a harder time, but still produces surprisingly good shots in situations where my old iPhone 3G would given me a fuzzy gray mess.

The interface is also intuitive, with some cool features like tap to focus. Say, for example, you’re sneaking up on a zoo animal and the iPhone 4 tries to focus on the steel bars between you and your subject. Simply tap the subject — say, a tiger — and the iPhone will focus on the tiger, not the bars. Not only can this feature give you some excellent perspective results, it’s fun to play with, too.

Tapping the screen will also give you a slider bar that will let you zoom in. Unfortunately, it’s a 5x digital zoom, so your results will vary, and usually by “vary” I mean they’ll result in blurry or grainy photographs — sorry, it’s the nature of digital zoom. In contrast to digital, optical zoom is based on physical changes in the lens, so it’s much more accurate than digital extrapolations. I guess in some situations, users will think that zooming in with less quality is better than good quality that seems far away.

At the bottom left, users will find a little ‘lightning’ icon; tap it, and it’ll give you options for the built-in LED flash. You can set it to auto, off, or on. Auto turns the flash on less often than I might expect, but it turns out, this is an attribute of the iPhone 4’s ability to handle low-light. When a flash is needed, the iPhone 4 turns on the flash, seems to make some sort of adjustment based on what it sees, then takes the actual photo. This process increases the time it takes to take a picture from the moment you tap the photo button to the moment the photo is taken — it’s fast without the flash and slower with the flash (though certainly not annoyingly slow).

I’m not sure what the supposed effective distance of the LED flash is supposed to be, but in my experience, it’s only good for a few feet. If you’re shooting some friends from across a room, don’t expect wonders from the tiny little light.

If you’re into self-portraits … or have a new girlfriend and you need to take a photo of yourselves, cheek-to-cheek at the park, you don’t have to hand over your precious iPhone 4 to a stranger. Simply tap the upper left camera switcher icon, and the front-side camera will be the working lens. You can hold the iPhone 4 at arms length, get yourself frame correctly, and take the shot. It’s handy, particularly if you’re recording a video message, but the front-side lens produces VGA-quality photos (which is a nice way of saying you should keep your quality expectations low).

The Video Camera

Oh baby, the video camera has made some excellent leaps forward. You can now do 720p video recording up to 30 frames per second with audio. Not only is the video quality surprising, but the audio is decent too. Of course, don’t get me wrong: This isn’t on par with bigger video cameras that use bigger lenses and nice external, stereo microphones. But compared to small, dedicated video recorders, well, let’s just say that I wouldn’t want to be the manufacturer of these one-trick-pony devices in the burgeoning age of smartphones.

To record video, you simply tap a toggle switch between a camera icon and a video camera icon. When you’re on the video selection, the camera button you use to take photos changes to show a red button that glows when you tap it and start recording. While you can record in portrait mode, you end up with tall skinny recording, so recording video in landscape is the way to go.

Like the camera, you can tap the screen while recording to show the iPhone 4 where to focus — this is pretty awesome, but you do have to tap gently or you’ll wiggle the camera. And what about that LED flash? You can set it to auto for video recording, and if it’s needed, it’ll come on to illuminate your scene. You can also turn it on manually and force it to shine. Works great, but remember, it’s pretty much only good for illuminating scenes within several feet of the lens.

Video Editing

In addition to recording video, Apple also lets you create snips from the video file. So if the action you want doesn’t start for 10 seconds and the ending sort of tapers off into a boring video of non-action, you can select a new start and end point simply by touching and dragging a slider box. This also makes your video potentially smaller so that you can more easily email or send it as an MMS message, or even post it to your MobileMe account. Very nice.

Overall, the new camera system in the iPhone 4 represents a massive improvement over previous iPhones — and is no longer an embarrassment. Plus, it’s now good enough to use in those everyday moments when you’d like to capture the action of your life.

Mozilla announced Tuesday that the first beta version of Firefox 4, the latest iteration of its browser, is ready for downloading and testing.

The beta has several new features, including privacy and speed enhancements.

Mozilla plans to issue new beta versions every two to three weeks, modifying the browser in response to beta users’ comments.

Firefoxy, Baby

Firefox 4 Beta 1 has a new add-on manager, supports Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) WebM format and fixes flaws in some Web standards that could expose users’ browser history, Mozilla said.

Google launched WebM, an open standard for compressed video content, in May.

Mozilla has moved the tabs to the top, changing the browser’s look. The beta replaces the Menu bar on Windows 7 and Windows Vista PCs with a single Firefox button. These changes, Mozilla said, will soon find their way into the Linux and Mac versions of the browser as well.

The crash protection first introduced in Firefox 3.6.4, released in April, is included in Firefox 4 Beta 1. When a plug-in crashes or freezes, Firefox users can resume browsing by just refreshing the page.

Firefox 4 Beta 1 has improved responsiveness at start-up and during page loads, Mozilla added.

The beta also includes Mozilla’s Jetpack software development kit (SDK). This makes it easier for authors to create add-ons that don’t require users to restart their browsers to install.

Other features include webSockets, which let developers build real time online interactions such as gaming and chat apps; support for new CSS3 (Cascading Style Sheet 3) features; and Web Console, an experimental analysis tool that lets users look into the guts of dynamic websites.

Looking Ahead

In the future, Mozilla will speed up the browser through the use of various technologies such as hardware graphics acceleration and more asynchronous input/output.

Firefox 4 will include a feature that will let users synchronize their settings, passwords, bookmarks, history, open tabs and other customizations across multiple devices.

“As we look at new devices accessing the Web — the iPad, smartphones, and now there’s talk about putting 3G on mobile game consoles — browser technology needs to be more than an experience you can just run on your PC,” Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat, pointed out.

“There’s only one Web, and you’ve got to be able to have the Web experience no matter what device you’re on,” McGregor told LinuxInsider. “Browsers need to be integrated more into this type of world where they’re an enabler across different types of platforms and not just an experience on one device.”

Quality Is Number One?

Firefox 4 may provide Mozilla’s browser the overhaul it needs to remain a player in the browser market.

“Firefox has been great — it’s easy to use, it’s updated quickly, but as of late, they’ve had problems where they issued something that didn’t work well because of the upgrade,” In-Stat’s McGregor said.

“Firefox has been crashing a lot more lately,” McGregor remarked. “I hope Firefox 4 is going to be an improvement because I’m tired of the browser shutting down on me.”

Making the Future Real

Apart from robustness issues, there’s the question of whether or not Mozilla can fulfill its vision of making Firefox run across multiple devices.

“That’s a challenge,” McGregor said. PC-based browsers include many features that have to be stripped out if they are to run on mobile devices, and a lot of work needs to be done behind the scenes if a browser is to run equally well across desktops and mobile units, he pointed out.

“The idea of being able to keep your browser synced across a number of devices would be appreciated if Mozilla could do it reliably,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, remarked. “I just wonder if they have the resources to do this.”

Mozilla’s challenges go beyond the technology.

“Google has been mining the Firefox team’s talent, and Mozilla’s difficulty for awhile has been capturing and holding good talent,” Enderle told LinuxInsider.

Mozilla did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

This story was originally published on May 27, 2010, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series.

It seems fair to say that the relationship between programmer and platform is in many ways like a romantic one, characterized by mutual respect and a balanced exchange of give and take on both sides.

Just as so many of us love and respect Linux, for instance, so it surely loves us back with all its many virtues — no strings or price tags attached!

So happy are many in the Linux community with their favorite OS, in fact, that it was difficult not to feel mortally wounded by a recent accusation — one that not only charged Linux with doing too little for programmers, but then went on to say Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) does more.

Talk about sprinkling salt on the wound!

As the famous poet once said, “Ah, Love, but a day, and the world has changed!”

‘Nothing to Compare’

“Microsoft does some things better, much better, than Linux,” Computerworld’s Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols began. “Number one with a bullet is how Microsoft helps programmers and ISVs (independent software vendors).”

Specifically, “MSDN (Microsoft Software Developer Network) is a wonderful online developer resource,” Vaughan-Nichols asserted. “Linux has had nothing to compare.”

The Linux Developer Networkhasn’t lived up to its promise, he added; training classes, vendor-ISV partnerships and a dedicated conference are all among the solutions he proposes.
‘Kidding, Right?’

More than 50 Linux bloggers fairly tripped over themselves in their haste to respond to Vaughan-Nichols’ cutting remarks on Computerworld before the topic spread to Linux Today, to LXer and beyond.

“You are kidding, right?” shot back Seth Kriticos in the Linux Today comments, for example. “Maybe the documentation for Linux needs more attention, maybe not. One thing I’m sure of is, that it’s far superior to the MSFT stuff.”

Then again: “Some programmers are married to their code,” charged Sherman T Potter in the Computerworld comments. “They take any critique or suggestion for improvement as the equivalent of saying their is wife ugly.”

Who’s Gonna Pay?

Alternatively: “Standards are the only way,” opined an anonymous Computerworld commenter.

On the other hand, “who’ll pay for it?” asked another one.

It soon became clear that the court of public opinion was far from unanimous on this one. Linux Girl took it upon herself to seek out a little advice on the matter from a variety of Linux Love Doctors.

Should Linux really be doing more?

What Microsoft Does Well

“When it comes to IDEs, MSFT rocks,” Slashdot blogger hairyfeet asserted. “VS is THE programming IDE as far as myself and many of my programming friends are concerned. More importantly it allows those that aren’t kernel level programmers (such as myself) to write basic apps in a RAD style and get them usable and out the door.”

Linux “simply doesn’t have a multilanguage IDE that compares to VS, so perhaps that is where the focus should be?” hairyfeet suggested. “A nice, easy-to-use multilanguage IDE that would allow for an easy migration path for those that are used to VS. Linux has the web programmers, it is the rich desktop apps that seem to be harder, at least to me, on Linux.”

In fact, “if Linux could come up with the next truly user-friendly programming language — one that is as easy to pick up as VB — then that could be the ‘killer app’ that could give Linux a real shot at gaining some real marketshare,” hairyfeet added.

“Programming simply isn’t hardcore ASM or kernel-level hackers anymore, it is guys dragging and dropping in IDEs,” he said. “Appeal to THAT group and you have a real shot of gaining ground.”

A Forum for That

Slashdot blogger David Masover saw it differently.

“I have to wonder how much the Computerworld guy knows,” Masover began.

“His complaint seems to be that Linux has no MSDN, but I’ve never wanted or needed that,” Masover asserted. “Just what does MSDN actually provide? Help and support? I’ve got forums for that. Cheap software subscriptions? My package manager delivers software for free.

“Maybe I’m missing something, but maybe this is like complaining that Linux has no antivirus software,” Masover added.

It would have helped if Vaughan-Nichols had provided “a specific example of a specific problem for which having MSDN would’ve been useful,” he suggested.

“The closest he comes is describing the problems of developing and deploying on multiple Linux platforms, for which there are multiple solutions — not that it seems to matter much,” Masover said. “Shouldn’t your app be cross-platform anyway? Would you expect a single source of support for both Windows and OS X machines?”

Pity the Fool

Regarding training, meanwhile, “I’m going to Railsconf this summer to learn more about Rails, so I’ve got my training covered — but notice, that’s not ‘Linux training,’ it’s Rails training,” said Masover, who develops Java using Eclipse and also works with Ruby on Rails.

“I think that’s as it should be — no single OS is as exciting as a platform that works on all OSes, and there are enough such platforms already, with their own communities, training sessions, certifications, networks, and distribution systems that, as a programmer, I’m really having to work hard to understand what he’s complaining about,” he concluded.

“It’s a pity he’s completely missed out on the existence of freenode.net,” Montreal consultant and Slashdot blogger Gerhard Mack agreed. “I tend to visit Freenode when Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) searches don’t help me with what I’m working on.”

‘Make Me Coffee!’

Should Linux do more for programmers?

“Absolutely! Linux should go and make me a coffee! Then it should automagically translate my ideas into perfect code,” quipped Barbara Hudson, a blogger on Slashdot who goes by “Tom” on the site. “And how about walking my dogs for me? Or put away the laundry? Linux is certainly not doing enough for *this* programmer!”

As for Vaughan-Nichols’ arguments, “I’m not buying it,” Hudson said.

“Linux runs Java apps just fine,” she explained. “It also is a much better development platform for web work — most distros, including a LAMP stack is just a few clicks during the initial setup, and you’ve got your choice of servers, php, python, perl, ruby, tcl/tk, etc.”

One also doesn’t need to be any more of a Linux expert to use Eclipse or Netbeans or a text editor “than you have to be a Windows expert,” Hudson asserted.

‘Thank Them’

Blogger Robert Pogson summed it up nicely:

“Of course we should do more for the programmers who contribute to FLOSS,” Pogson opined. “Donate money and equipment, hire them, give them credit when FLOSS shows on the resume, provide them with assistance documenting and testing and promoting, and thank them for a job well done.

Despite predictions to the contrary, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Flash won’t be supplanted any time soon as a major video distribution vehicle on the World Wide Web, according to a software engineer at the Net’s largest video sharing site, YouTube.

“[W]hile the

Doing what a service such as YouTube does requires more than what HTML can do, Harding maintained. “We need to do more than just point the browser at a video file like the image tag does — there’s a lot more to it than just retrieving and displaying a video,” he noted.
Content Protection Not in Cards

One limitation of HTML5 cited by Harding is its lack of support for a standard video format. YouTube converts its videos to the H.264 codec which can be viewed in Flash, a technology that works in most browsers. “Concerns about patents and licensing have prevented some browsers from supporting H.264,” he explained. “[T]his in turn has prevented the HTML5 spec from requiring support for a standard format.”

Those licensing problems may be eliminated with a new video standard backed by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) called “WebM.” It could also provide HTML5 a standard to hang its hat on. “We are looking at it to see if it’s a viable option for HTML5,” Philippe Le Hegaret, interactive domain leader for the World Wide Web Consortium, told TechNewsWord from his office in Cambridge, Mass.

Flash, Harding also asserted, provides a more effective and reliable means of delivering video to a browser. “Simply pointing the browser at a URL is not good enough, as that doesn’t allow users to easily get to the part of the video they want,” he wrote.

He also pointed out that HTML5 doesn’t provide any way to protect the content of video producers. That’s something likely to remain missing from the HTML standard in the future, too. “That’s not something we have been looking into, or we are planning to look into in HTML5,” Le Hegaret observed.
Begging for Full-Screen Display

Another advantage of Flash over HTML5 is its ability to embed video on a Web page, Harding contended. “Flash is the only mechanism most websites allow for embedded content from other sites,” he wrote.

It is easier to embed video in pages with Flash than with HTML5, Le Hegaret conceded. “HTML5 does not provide you with an easy way to embed the player,” he explained. “The player has to be part of the page. With Flash, it’s a package and you can point to the package from the page itself.”

Harding also contended that the inability to display full-screen video in a browser is another HTML5 deficiency. “HD video begs to be watched in full screen, but that has not historically been possible with pure HTML,” he wrote.

The current HTML5 spec doesn’t support full-screen video for security Planning for the next peak season? Ensure your website is fast, secure and available 24/7. Click here to learn how. reasons, Le Hegaret acknowledged. “However,” he added, “some of the user agents have innovated ways to do so. Safari, for example, lets you do full screen.”

Camera and microphone support is another missing element from HTML5, Harding maintained. “Flash Player has provided rich camera and microphone access for several years now, while HTML5 is just getting started,” he stated.

“You have to realize that [HTML5] is a work in progress,” Le Hegaret countered. “It could be described as being in beta.”
Flash Not So Speedy

Not all Web video distributors are as supportive of Flash as YouTube. Van Nuys, Calif.-based Digital Playground, a large distributor of adult entertainment videos, recently announced it was moving to HTML5 for its products.

“Four years ago, when the adult entertainment industry was using Windows Media Player to deliver video, we were the first to go to Flash because it provided an easier and better experience for our customers,” explained Digital Playground’s founder and director Ali Joone.

“The same thing has happened with HTML5,” he told TechNewsWorld. “We have all these devices coming into play — Internet TVs, set-top boxes, mobile handsets — and we’d like to offer the same content to everybody.

“It would cost a lot of money to develop tweaks for each one,” he continued. “What’s great about HTML5 is that it’s an open standard so we can have one development cycle and have the same consistent user experience across the board.”

Moreover, HTML5 performs better on mobile devices, which is a growing market for the industry. “With the Flash player that’s in the Android phone,” Joone said, “to render a page in Flash brings the phone to a crawl. With HTML5 there are no problems.”

I tried to preorder an iPhone 4 online, but of course, I was one of the hundreds of thousands of potential buyers who could not get through the clogged Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) servers on June 15, the first day the companies began accepting early orders. By the time the servers and system recovered enough to let me in, I was facing a “Ships by July 2″ notice. Ouch.

My buddy has it worse. His won’t ship until July 14.

However, AT&T did get their shipments in on June 28, and they opened their doors to iPhone 4 sales the next day at 7 in the morning. I showed up in line at 4:30 a.m. I wanted to arrive earlier, but I was transferring a movie to my iPhone 3G, and iTunes made me sync and back up the entire old iPhone. Ultimately, I was 22nd in line. Not bad.

On the frantic drive there, though, I pulled up to a stoplight behind a Subaru wagon, and the light wouldn’t change. So I jumped lanes, and there was no traffic Planning for the next peak season? Ensure your website is fast, secure and available 24/7. Click here to learn how., but still the light was red. I looked over to the wagon, wondering if maybe it might be heading to the AT&T store. Nah. A retired couple, looked like. As I was trying to figure out if there were cameras at the intersection that would snap a shot of me running a red light and trigger a ticket, it turned green. As I pulled into the AT&T parking lot, the Subaru did too. A woman of about 60 jumped out to get in line. She introduced herself, and she was bubbling with excitement. Her husband showed up with their chairs. Turned out they were getting a pair of 32GB iPhones — they’re grandparents, and they’re willing to wait in line at 4:30 in the morning to get their hands on the new iPhone 4!

Wow. Talk about market penetration.

At the store, the AT&T employees were friendly — freakishly happy and enjoying themselves, in fact — and very efficient. They passed out t-shirts to those who camped out, and most everyone got a “Rethink Possible” pen with an Apple curved into the top: the Apple isn’t the true Apple logo, though, it’s an AT&T pen. Not bad for a US$200 purchase and a two-year contract. Seriously, though, I haven’t seen so many people walk out of a store with such big smiles after dropping down hundreds of dollars.

Don’t Give Up Hope - iPhone 4 Is Worth the Wait

When I first held my new iPhone 4, I was a little startled — it felt heavier than I expected, very solid, thinner, and yet the familiar rounded back was gone. And when I slid it into my pants pocket, it also seemed weird, showing the outline of the stronger edge than the old curves.

It took me about three minutes to get over it.

After I plugged it into iTunes, activated it, and synced it with my previous iPhone 3G backup — all of which was easy, intuitive and flawless, it turns out — my first impression came from the new Apple “Retina” screen. It’s sharp, bright and gives an eerie clarity to the icons and glassy Mac OS-like “dock” at the bottom. Offering up a 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi (pixels per inch), the new screen really shines in the display of text. It’s so freakishly sharp, it’s hard to describe — the edges are smoother than most print on paper — and far better than most of the computer monitors I’ve used. Very, very nice. I’d provide a snapshot graphic for you, but hey, you’d still be seeing it on a PC or Mac screen, and it wouldn’t be the same.

The net effect is that while the “size” of everything seems to be about the same as on previous generations of iPhones, it almost feels as if there’s more screen space for things like Web browsing or reading email. Why? Because you don’t have to zoom in to make the text more readable. I’m not sure if this will translate to hours of reading at a time, but hey, it’s a big improvement.

Similarly, overall fit-and-finish detail is extraordinarily great — maybe even better than previous generations of iPhone. I cannot see or feel a flaw in construction anywhere, whereas on my old iPhone 3G, I could feel a slight difference in one edge where the plastic back met the metal bezel. Tiny, but this new iPhone 4 looks and feels 100 percent perfect.

Broken Glass?

One of my first thoughts was all about protection. With a full face of glass on the front and back, the iPhone 4 rests on glass regardless of how you set it down. The back side can certainly get scratched up, but it’s glass, not plastic or metal, so it just seems so much more wrong to let it get scuffed up. Plus, what if it breaks? We know that metal and plastic can get chewed up pretty well and still be functional. What if the glass cracked or broke? Would we lose the use of the iPhone 4 altogether? Oh, the fear!

Double-sided glass on an iPhone is definitely a double-edged sword: Glass can be manufactured to be extraordinarily tough stuff, and yet it can be painfully fragile. Years ago, an uncle of mine locked his keys inside his car — and he had to get to the airport to catch a flight. No time to call a locksmith, so he tried to break out the rear right passenger window with a grapefruit-sized rock. He smacked the windows and the rock bounced off. Tried it again. Same thing. He finally threw the rock, and all it did was ricochet off, flying over the entire car. This wasn’t Hollywood movie glass, not by a long shot. Another guy sees the trouble, takes out his pocket knife, and with it closed up, raps the glass once with a small metal end. The glass instantly shatters into a bunch of pretty translucent pebbles.

Now, I’ve dropped my iPhones over the years — onto concrete, tile and pavement — and they’ve never broken, with or without cases. But I’ve seen iPhones with broken screens, and it’s just plain heartrending, so I’m telling you, if you don’t have a warranty or a spare pile of cash, one of the first things you’ll want to do get is a case — if only to alleviate a bit of irrational fear. And keep your iPhone 4 away from a pocket knife.

No Cases?

The tough thing right now is the lack of availability and choices for cases. The AT&T store didn’t have any in stock, and while you can find some online, some of the color choices are down to wild purples and off-pinks. Plus, you’ve got to wait for one to get shipped to you, sight unseen. The Apple retail stores may have more options, but I’m not near an Apple store. I did, however, find a Zagg Invisible Shield screen (and backside) protector at my local Radio Shack. I’m loathe to cover up the beautiful Retina Display with anything, but I’d rather have the protection than a scratch.

(Oh, and by the way, if anyone has found the perfect super-thin hard-shell case, send me a note or comment below — I’m on the lookout for a permanent, tough-but-slim option!)

Putting It to Use

The new iOS 4 operating system is also a joy. Paired with the iPhone 4, which sports a much faster processor than what’s found in previous iPhone generations, every action in iOS is snappier and just feels good. Photos with the new 5-megapixel camera snap quickly. They’re still easy to blur if you’re moving, but it’s much more usable overall. Plus, the video recording is nice, and the LED flash is helpful, though it’s not a fix for challenging low-light situations.

Multitasking is handy, but I can tell it’ll take me a while to remember that it even exists, since I’ve lived without it for three years.

In terms of signal reception, it’s been solid for me, and while I can cover the lower-left side of the phone and see my signal bars drop by a bar or two, it hasn’t resulted in a lost connection or noticable problem with clarity. In general, I get excellent AT&T signal coverage in the areas that I frequent, so my experience is likely better than those who live in challenging city environments.

The new iPhone 4 also boasts support for the latest “3.5G” mobile networks, including HSDPA and HSUPA, which basically means it can handle faster mobile data speeds. That, of course, depends on your proximity to a newer AT&T tower. Some international customers on fast networks will enjoy download speeds up to 7.2 Mbps.

As for call clarity and volume, my first impression is that both are quite a bit better than my iPhone 3G. The speakerphone seems a bit louder and clearer as well; however, I do wish Apple would beef up the volume even more — when there’s a lot of background noise, I find that I’m already at 100 percent volume. When I try basic feature phones and get a stronger volume range, I know there’s plenty of room for improvement here.

As for email and the new unified inbox that shows you all your new mail from all of your accounts — love it, love it, love it. Very handy. Makes me even more likely to go through email on my iPhone than before.

Lots More to Explore

There are plenty of new features that warrant further exploration, of course, including the camera, video recording, and Apple’s new iMovie app for easy video editing on the iPhone 4 itself.

There’s also the media experience and seeing if the Retina screen is really all its cracked up to be.

From Tech News World.

The top dog in Internet telephony is set to expand its reach with the release of new development software. SkypeKit is aimed at allowing software writers to integrate the Net phone service into a variety of consumer electronics devices and computer software programs.

“For nearly seven years, Skype has revolutionized communications through software that offers not only free voice and video calling, but also low-cost calls to phone numbers anywhere in the world,” Skype’s General Manager for Platform Business Jonathan Christensen wrote in the company’s Developer Zone blog.

“Now,” he continued, “we are taking Skype into new directions by empowering consumer electronic and desktop software innovators to embed Skype into their products through the availability of our new software development kit (SDK) called ‘SkypeKit.’”

While Skype has had an open source application interface available to developers for some time, he explained, that API needed Skype’s desktop software to function. For years now, he continued, developers have been looking for a solution that works without the desktop app.

“Think of SkypeKit as a ‘headless’ version of Skype — that is, a Skype client with no user interface that runs invisibly, not only on PCs, but also TVs, notebooks, and other connected devices,” he elaborated. “Developers communicate with SkypeKit through the SkypeKit API, surfacing Skype calls through their own applications.”

Plug In the Good Stuff

According to Phil Wolff, managing editor of the Skype Journal, based in Oakland, Calif., the ability to embed Skype functionality into devices and software has been high on the wish lists of developers for years.

“This lets developers who want to put communication into gadgets or who want to put it into their software to take all the good stuff that’s inside of Skype and just plug it in,” he told TechNewsWorld.

Skype, he said, is already available in a number of ways — Windows, Mac OS X and Linux computers, mobile phones, desktop phones and TV sets. “All that happened either inside of Skype or with a handful of partners close to Skype,” he noted.

“This is the first step toward opening that up,” he continued, “so if you have an idea for something, you don’t need to partner closely with Skype.”

“What Skype gets out of this is more people using Skype,” he added. “Developers get to bring the subject matter they know about into the design of how people interact with Skype.”

Smart Business Move

Introduction of SkypeKit is an important business move by Skype, according to Irene Berlinsky, a senior research analyst for IDC in Framingham, Mass. “They’re doing something necessary for their business to grow,” she told TechNewsWorld.

“They’re very successful in terms of their worldwide PC-installed base,” she continued. “That can only grow so much because people aren’t going to be always calling from their PC and don’t always want to be next to a broadband connection when they make a call.”

She maintained that Skype wants to be ubiquitous in the IP telephony space. “They’re trying to get themselves used as widely as possible,” she observed.

“As consumer communications becomes increasingly fragmented — as people use their landlines, their computer connection, their mobile phone, their mobile phone over WiFi and now the explosion of the tablet space with the iPad — I think Skype just wants to be on every platform that is IP or network enabled,” she said.

“It’s a very smart move for them to open this up,” she added. “It can only really help them. It can only increase their user base and increase the platforms that users can access Skype from.”

Challenged by Google?

At the same time SkypeKit was released, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) announced the general availability of its Voice application to its U.S. users, a move that could be seen as a challenge to Skype.

“Any market that Google is in is one it should be taken seriously,” Berlinsky remarked.

“Google Voice has features that make it a very attractive service,” she said. “What Skype has, though, is a larger global user base, and people still think of Skype when they think of making free or cheap online calls, especially internationally.”

From Tech News World.

Schmidt took the stage first and touted the importance of the smartphone category.

“This is not a toy or app engine,” he said. “It is a powerful kind of operating system. What is happening now is that people are thinking mobile first instead of desktop first.”

He cited the importance of a robust wireless network, as well as hardware with fast processors and big screens. But Schmidt said Wednesday’s event is notable not just for the announcement of the new Droid, but for the emergence of the entire category of device.

Indeed, the new Droid X epitomizes this. The newest version of the Google Android phone made by Motorola offers an HDMI output, a 4.3-inch display, and 720p video capture. The device also comes with faster processors that will offer faster Web browsing. And it has an 8-megapixel high-definition camera.

John Stratton, executive vice president of Verizon Wireless, said the device is made for video. And there will be new apps designed to take advantage of these features, including a deal with Blockbuster to provide movies for purchase or rent.

The Droid X will cost $199.99 after a $100 rebate and will go on sale starting July 15. Unlike AT&T, which has switched to tiered pricing for its iPhone, Verizon said it will keep its unlimited mobile data plan for smartphones, which costs $30 a month.

The new Droid X also offers Wi-Fi hot spot capability, which allows users to connect up to five additional Wi-Fi devices to the Verizon 3G network. This feature will cost $20 extra a month for 2GB of data for the month. If users exceed the 2GB, they will pay 5 cents per megabyte.

Verizon is altering its upgrade policy to sweeten the deal for current customers looking to upgrade to the Droid. It will allow any Verizon Wireless customer whose contract expires in 2010 to upgrade to the Droid when it comes out on July 15.

From CNet.