As the Mobile World Congress approaches the rumors increase, it happens every year (and with most events). This however is probably my favourite event of the year (mainly because I am a huge phone geek). The event starts on the 16th of this month and goes on for 4 days, last year saw such moments as the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 being unveiled as well as a live demo of LTE technologies. This year the rumours suggest another bumper year. Please bear in mind these are RUMOURS not official announcements. Here are some that I have noticed this morning;

The 1st one was the possibility that Sony Ericsson maybe unveiling an android based handset. It’s known that Sony Ericsson is a paid up member and support of the Open Handset Alliance and they have talked about a possible android handset for a while, hopefully we’ll see this come to light.

2nd, a Zune phone? Could it be possible, could Microsoft have a trick up its sleeve? I doubt it somehow

3rd Nokia to release a Symbian app store. This is highly likely I would say, Apple have done it, Palm have done it etc etc, you need an app store now if your a mobile manufacturer. Expect lots of offers and free things initially!

4.  Vodaphone to offer an android based HTC device? This seems having looked around the internets to be quite likely, of course both HTC and Voda are denying everything!

5. Acer Smartphone brand to be announced???? This would be great if it happened. Acer the Taiwanese notebook maker is said to have a number of devices lined up under a new brand of smartphone. One device that is expected to be announced is a phone which is very similar to the E-Ten Glowfish DX900 a device that was announced by E-Ten last year. Since then however E-Ten have been acquired by Acer, coincidence? I think not.

These are just some of the rumours floating around at the moment, all point to another good show this year. Hopefully one year I will have the time to attend, not this year though for me it will be frantically surfing the net to get all the info (doesn’t sounds quite as fun really)

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Grrr days have flown past again, not sure where the last 5 days have gone, if someone has them then please return them to me, thanks.

Ok so we knew it was coming but now it is official and yes the leaked photos we saw a few days ago were the real deal. It really is thinner than an HB pencil (and an iPhone) but boy is it still ugly.

My mother got a Sony Ebook Reader for Christmas and that is a nice looking device, it works well too. Ok it doesn’t have wifi or the ability to buy books (or other sources) on the move, so what, she uses it to read “BOOKS”, as long as she has one on there that’s not been read then she’ll be fine. Why also do you want to be able to browse the web on a book reading device?? My housemate Dave came up and we had a bit on an interchange of views on the whole ebook reader concept. He feels that it’s a bit of technology for the sake of being technology and that the market for such a device is limited, and make a valid point that should you drop a book in the bath or leave it out in the rain, the latter of which my father has been known to do, then the book would dry and could be used again, a piece of electrical hardware however may not be so forgiving!! I take the opinion that the market for this sort of device is much larger than we all think, it needs to be tapped and there are things holding that back. Range and number of books available electronically and pricing are both something my mother has expressed disappointment in. So far all the books she has bought have cost more than the paperback versions also she has at the moment not been able to find some of the titles she wants to read (she gets through about a book a week if not more so has an endless need for new material). Both Amazon and Google are working to correct this area but for the real uptake to set in, it needs to be done quicker.

A great concept, the Kindle 2 is an improvement on the 1st but still is in second place to the Sony version.

Do you own an ebook reader or a Kindle 1?

Do you think the idea is good??

Leave a comment!

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This video shows the newest features of Google Earth:

Google released version 5 of Google Earth on the 2nd of Feb and amongst other changes and improvements a new “ocean” feature was revealed. This feature allows users to go beneath the surface of the worlds oceans and see accurately mapped images and representations of the sea bed. It also has a large amount of ocean data including tracking of fish, whales and sharks, environmental concerns and features within the sea!

I have not had a chance to download this yet but as soon as I do I will let you know my 1st impressions!

You can get Google Earth here

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So not too long after Windows 7 beta hit the internet news on the “editions” that are to be available has also been released.

Windows 7 Starter: up to 3 concurrent applications, ability to join a Home Group, improved taskbar and JumpLists;

Windows 7 Home Basic: unlimited applications, live thumbnail previews & enhanced visual experience, advanced networking support (ad-hoc wireless networks and internet connection sharing), and Mobility Center;

Windows 7 Home Premium: Aero Glass & advanced windows navigation, improved media format support, enhancements to Windows Media Center and media streaming, including Play To, and multi-touch and improved handwriting recognition;

Windows 7 Professional: ability to join a managed network with Domain Join, data protection with advanced network backup and Encrypting File System, and print to the right printer at home or work with Location Aware Printing;

Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate: bitLocker data protection on internal and external drives, DirectAccess for seamless connectivity to corporate networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, BranchCache support when on networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, and lock unauthorized software from running with AppLocker.

GeekZone

Yet again there is a plethora of options to choose from and no option that suits me perfectly *sigh*. Personally I feel windows should be two versions, three at most. On this subject I have nothing else to say. 

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After discovering about patent No. 7,479,949 which was approved on the 20th covering multi-touch devices that use heuristics, I said it would cause future devices some problems including the Palm Pre. This statement I stand by, I would however like to just point you towards an Engadget mobile article that they posted today going into much more detail about the subject.

It’s a long read so grab a cuppa (or a beer) before clicking!

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/apple-vs-palm-the-in-depth-analysis/

Enjoy

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Microsoft today released Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1.

Overview
Internet Explorer 8 is the latest version of the familiar web browser you are most comfortable using, helping you get everything you want from the web faster, easier, more privately and securely than ever before.

• Faster Internet Explorer 8 is more responsive with new pages and tabs, opening up fast and reliably. You can now get to the information you care about most, in fewer steps; one click access to your webmail, favorite news sites or other online services.
• Easier Reduce the steps to accomplish many common tasks, and automate your access to real time information updates. You can keep track of your favorite sports team, news, weather with a single click.
• More Private Helps protect your privacy and confidential information where ever you go on the web.
• More Secure Helps protect and stop malicious software from reaching your PC, and makes it easier to detect when a website is an imposter.

I have just installed it and ran it for the 1st time. I thought I would do a but of testing. I cleared my Google Chrome cache and loaded my blog up which took 6.4 seconds, I then loaded it on IE8 and that took 7.3 seconds! I know it’s not a huge time difference but imagine that extra second on each site, assuming you visit 30 sites a day everyday, that’s 182 minutes per year wasted waiting for IE to load!!!

Yeah ok not exactly scientific or practical but still, it’s slower for me. Also when I loaded my blog it prompted me to open it in “compatibility mode”, this mode is so that sites not designed for IE8 are seen as they are supposed to be seen. WHY OH WHY should we need that, if something is an upgrade to a previous version then there surely has have  backwards compatibility? If every time I load a site I then have to click again to change to compatibility mode then that wastes more time waiting for it to reload.

I’m not seeing any major improvements! Sorry Microsoft.

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This was meant to be posted yesterday but I needed to to do a bit more research before I was happy to post it!

Microsoft announced that it is to cut 5000 jobs after it’s Q4 financial results were released on the 22nd. Overall, Microsoft’s revenue rose 2 percent for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, but net income fell 11 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

It seems that a lot of people are blaming Vista for a lot of Msfts problems;

"Windows Vista didn’t do well. Based on our data, a lot of clients are skipping Windows Vista," says Neil MacDonald, an analyst at Gartner. Indeed, nearly every other major analyst firm found a similar lack of Vista adoption, with Forrester Research likening the OS to the failed New Coke.

Info World

One of the biggest surprises and saddest bits of news (certainly for me anyway) was that in the 1st 1400 job cuts that occurred on the 23rd the WHOLE of the ACES studio who create and develop the Flight Simulator game. As a HUGE fan of flight sim this is hard news to hear, Flight Simulator is possibly the game industry’s longest-running continuous franchise and was 1st released in 1982.

It’s not all bad news though;

CEO Steve Ballmer says Microsoft won’t stop hiring entirely. He says the company could add 2,000 or 3,000 jobs in the next year-and-a-half in certain promising areas, such as Internet search technology.

MSNBC

Microsoft seems to be re-aligning and re-prioritising it’s business, shame the best product it ever made had to be out of line.

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