SamOS!?

October 28th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | No Comments »

After playing around with several OS’s, Samsung chose to create one of their own for their newest Smartphone. Now of course the web swarms with rumours about the specs, but most interesting to you is probably the fact that besides native games, it would get java enabled dual core processing to boost performance or mobile 3D games. The chipset itself will also be an in-house development.

Games that really go 3D

October 27th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | No Comments »

More device news today as this picture of a Samsung phone came in. To bad we can’t really show the potential of this phone on a photo as the screen in it appears to be showing real 3D image. No red & blue goggles required! The screen is the so called AMOLED technique which stands for Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Display. The device is planned for release in Korea in H2 2007.

Nokia 770 successor spotted

October 27th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | 1 Comment »

Nokia’s new tablet pc thingy has been spotted. The picture shows what should become the Nokia 870. Rumors say a webcam and VOIP support will be added to the final model.

N-Gage prepares it’s comeback

October 23rd, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | 1 Comment »

All About Symbian reports the N-Gage is preparing to come back into the market. N-Gage will not longer present itself as a device, but as a service where consumers can buy N-Gage games and take part in the community trough the N-Gage Arena network (also known as Sega SNAP network). The N-Gage features will mostly be added to S60 3rd edition devices that allow horizontal use of the screen. This also means that current N-Gage titles will no longer work as they where designed for the original S60 1st edition platform. More details can be read in the full article.

Celebrating 50 years of mobile phones

October 19th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | 1 Comment »

Ericsson celebrates 50 years since they created the first mobile phone and so the 50th birthday of the industry. With their mobile phone, back in 1956, they created a true breakthrough in history.

Their first mobile phone system was called Mobile Telephony A (MTA) and had a few hundred subscribers which where mostly business people around Stockholm and Gothenburg. Also the phones didn’t really need a manual as they could not do more then just dial a number. The network was built for the Swedish Telecommunication Administration who carries the name Teliasonera these days. The network worked on the 160 Mhz band and used pulse signals. One network could hold up to a hundred users.

The first phones where mainly used within cars. Main reason for this was the transmission equipment needed for the MTA. The equipment’s weight was a massive 40 KG. Not something I’d like to carry around all day.

The knowledge that Ericsson gained with Teliasonera was later used for the Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) network which Ericsson built in 1981. Later, Ericsson proved one of the key players for defining the GSM system which was introduced in 1991.

SonyEricsson goes OpenGL ES

October 19th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | No Comments »

SonyEricsson (SE) announced their offering of OpenGL ES, the new industry standard cross platform API for 3D mobile games. A lot of the phones on the market today already support this new technology, making adoption a lot more easy. SE will make available complete SDK’s, forums and tutorials for active developer support. OpenGL is already a standard for console and PC based games and with this ES version, SE hopes to bring the markets closer together.

“For those companies and individuals looking toward the ‘Next Gen’ of mobile gaming, there is no better time to invest than now. OpenGL ES will do for smartphones what Mobile Java 3D has already done for mass-market feature phones

Ideaworks3D deals with TI and ARM

October 18th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | No Comments »

Ideaworks3D hits our headlines for the second time this week as they announced their deals with ARM and TI (Texas Instruments). Ideaworks3D and TI introduced the OMAP Gaming Platform based on Ideaworks3D’s Airplay and TI’s OMAP2430 processor. The OMAP processor allows console quality 3D graphics on the small screen.

"The case for next generation mobile games rests on the ability of our industry to provide integrated tools and platforms that help developers diffuse their content across the widest range of mobile phones, without sacrificing game performance along the way," said Alex Caccia, CEO, Ideaworks3D. "By joining forces, TI and Ideaworks3D can now offer a fully integrated software and hardware environment that provides the optimal launch pad for tomorrow’s killer mobile games."

The deal that was announced between Ideaworks3D and ARM allows Ideaworks3D access to ARM’s RealView compilation tools RealView real-time system model. They will feature the Airplay game development SDK.

"Platform fragmentation is the bane of the mobile games industry, leading to head-ache inducing costs and complexity for both developers and publishers," said Thor Gunnarsson, VP and general manager, Labs, Ideaworks3D. "By joining forces with ARM, we can now offer fast-acting relief from the pain of handset porting, and help developers and publishers focus on the real business of making great mobile games."

A touchy mobile

October 6th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | No Comments »

Ever asked yourself why there isn’t a mobile phone which is just a touchscreen? Ow wait, there is one from BenQ!

Nokia on route to total solution provider

October 5th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | No Comments »

Nokia announced it will aim itself more as a solution provider. Nokia already included services like Flickr and Yahoo! Mail in their handsets, but will look more into providing services next to their hardware. Nokia follows the PC market where hardware vendors also started working with software solutions. Nokia’s Widsets service which we spoke off earlier, was one of the first steps in this direction. To facilitate this move, Nokia’s CTO moved to New York as multiple industry leaders are based there. Also Nokia hopes this will open up the path to silicon valley.

iPhone to come for sure

September 28th, 2006 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Smartphones & Tablets | 1 Comment »

Rumors are rising again as sources say Apple and Cingular signed an exclusive agreement on the highly anticipated iPhone. The iPhone is a crossover between the iPod and mobile phone. Apple and Motorola worked before on a MP3 targeted phone, the ROKR which was an adapted version of the E398 which could connect to iTunes. Also the ROKR was exclusive to Cingular at the release date. The iPhone is expected to save Apple from the shrinking MP3 player market as more and more people store their MP3’s on their device. If Apple is serious about this market, I wonder how often we see new iPhones turning up and to which design factors Apple will keep it similar to the original iPod design as some consumers might want business versions with full keyboard etc. Well, at least we know we can make games on it!