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Nokia will try Microsoft Windows Phone to fight Android »

Nokia announced today that it will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy. It is quite understandable that Nokia wants to be “different” from the Android crowd. Given that Android is pretty successful, it is no easy task, even for Nokia to make its dent.
After trying hard with Symbian and MeeGo, it is now partnering with Microsoft to push Windows Phone platform. It also plans to use Bing for its Search services and its maps (Nokia Maps) service will be a core part of Microsoft’ mapping services. Interestingly Nokia partnered with Intel to create MeeGo a year ago, and it did not take off too well. I am not sure if tying up with Microsoft will help much in the long term. In the short term, it might help, but one has to look at the loyalty of its user base. iPhone users love Apple. Android users love Android for a totally different reason. While Android has nice features, it has Google’s aura around it. It gives a different appeal to the product. I don’t think users look at Microsoft’s products as cool…do you remember Microsoft Zune and Microsoft Kin?? I believe Nokia embracing Microsoft is probably not that smart, but again, what option does it have now?

Apple Sues HTC For Infringing On iPhone Patents »

According to this article at Gizmodo, Apple is suing HTC for infringing on some 20 patents related to user interface. Earlier, Nokia was also accused of the same thing. Here is what Steve Jobs had to say on the lawsuit:

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

News features of Android 1.5 SDK »

Android 1.5 SDK was released on 13th. Here are the highlights:

User interface refinements

* System-wide:
o Refinement of all core UI elements
o Animated window transitions (off by default)
o Accelerometer-based application rotations
* UI polish for:
o In-call experience
o Contacts, Call log, and Favorites
o SMS & MMS
o Browser
o Gmail
o Calendar
o Email
o Camera & Gallery
o Application management

Performance improvements

* Faster Camera start-up and image capture
* Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
* Smoother page scrolling in Browser
* Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling

New features

* On-screen soft keyboard
o Works in both portrait and landscape orientation
o Support for user installation of 3rd party keyboards
o User dictionary for custom words
* Home screen
o Widgets
+ Bundled home screen widgets include: analog clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search
o Live folders
* Camera & Gallery
o Video recording
o Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats)
* Bluetooth
o Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
o Auto-pairing
o Improved handsfree experience
* Browser
o Updated with latest Webkit browser & Squirrelfish Javascript engines
o Copy ‘n paste in browser
o Search within a page
o User-selectable text-encoding
o UI changes include:
+ Unified Go and Search box
+ Tabbed bookmarks/history/most-visited screen
* Contacts
o Shows user picture for Favorites
o Specific date/time stamp for events in call log
o One-touch access to a contact card from call log event
* System
o New Linux kernel (version 2.6.27)
o SD card filesystem auto-checking and repair
o SIM Application Toolkit 1.0
* Google applications
o View Google Talk friends’ status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email applications
o Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label on Gmail messages
o Upload videos to Youtube
o Upload photos on Picasa

New APIs and developer tools

* UI framework
o Framework for easier background/UI thread interaction
o New SlidingDrawer widget
o Horizontal ScrollView widget
* Home Screen framework
o APIs for creating secure home screen widgets
o APIs for populating live folders with custom content
* Media framework
o Raw audio recording and playback APIs
o Interactive MIDI playback engine
o Video recording APIs for developers (3GP format)
o Video and photo sharing Intents
o Media search Intent
* Input Method framework
o Text prediction engine
o Ability to provide downloadable IMEs to users
* Speech recognition framework
o Support for using speech recognition libraries via Intent
* Misc API additions
o LocationManager – Applications can get location change updates via Intent
o WebView – Touch start/end/move/cancel DOM event support
o SensorManager – redesigned sensor APIs
o GLSurfaceView – convenience framework for creating OpenGL applications
o Broadcast Intent for app update install succeeded – for smoother app upgrade experience
* Developer tools
o Support for multiple versions of Android in a single SDK installation
o Improved JUnit support in ADT
o Easier application performance profiling