Using Gmail as Online Drive

From Asus Eee News, Mods, and Hacks -

A rather old trick but one that may prove useful with the Asus Eee is using your Gmail account(s) as an on-line hard drive for your notebook. Details can be found at Bleeping Computer.

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Actually the trick works for generally any computer running Windows.

Nokia Touchscreen Phones to Add Tactile Feedback

From Extremetech -

Nokia has licensed the right to use Immersion's VibeTonz Mobile Player technology in any of its mobile devices sold worldwide. Immersion said it will begin supplying the VibeTonz software developer's kit (SDK) to Nokia's developer community starting this month. In turn, that community will be able to create downloadable applications and future content for VibeTonz-enabled cell phones.

According to Immersion the system can provide tactile cues for mobile touch screen interfaces, as well as be used for mobile games with touch feedback. It is currently used in more than 4 million LG and Samsung phones worldwide.

With Apple's iPhone leading a new wave of touch-sensitive phones, industry analysts are predicting optical sensors and touch will be the next big things.

The tactile cues are obviously intended to provide as close a simulation to the user experience of typing on standard mobile keypads. But without a base reference like the protrusions on the F and J keys on QWERTY keyboards and on the 5 key on standard mobile keypads, how will users be able to touch type on touch screens when entering SMS messages?

Google Purchases Web Phone Service

From The New York Times -

Google has GrandCentral Communications, a Fremont, CA-based service that lets people use a single number for all their phones. Its users can also create a single mailbox, accessible over the Internet, for all their phone messages.

GrandCentral was founded in 2005 by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, two executives who worked for Dialpad Communications, a Web phone company that was acquired by Yahoo in 2005.

GrandCentral’s investors include Minor Ventures, a San Francisco venture capital firm. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Rival Manufacturers Chasing the iPhone

From The New York Times -

Now that analysts and industry executives are getting their first good look at the iPhone, many are concerned that Asian manufacturers may have underestimated the Apple threat.

Analysts say that the iPhone, with its full-scale Internet browser and distinctive touch screen with colorful icons, is more than just another souped-up cellphone. They fear the Silicon Valley challenger could leap past Asian makers into the age of digital convergence by combining personal computing and mobile technologies as no device has before.

Their fear is that the iPhone will become the prototype of the future of mobile phones. And that Apple may repeat in wireless communications what it accomplished in portable music with the iPod: changing the industry.

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Personal take - For iPhone to succeed (and redefine the standard) in Asia, it will have to support prevalent SMS texting habits in the various countries. Text input is by no means standard, given the myriad of different languages. For languages such as English and Tagalog that use primarily the phone keypad to enter text and allow straightforward memorization of keystrokes, physical keys that provide tactile feedback are practically a requirement.

Thus under its current configuration, iPhone will not capture significant market share. The irony, of course, is that if future generations of iPhones were to incorporate physical keypads in order to gain additional market share, the resultant design would make them conform more to present phones and therefore less revolutionary.

Asus and Intel slaughters OLPC with Eee-ase

From Asus Eee News, Mods, and Hacks -

Over at ZDnet, George Ou seems to have whipped up a storm after comparing the Negroponte's OLPC to the Asus Eee. As the title implies, Ou thinks the latter will beat the digital hell out of the OLPC. Based on the comments, he is being criticized for making conclusive statements without actually test driving both units. Following is part of his review:

ASUS and Intel have created an alternative for Negroponte’s OLPC called the “Eee PC”. The difference is that the ASUS Eee PC is actually something that looks usable and perhaps even desirable for everyday use as a super cheap UMPC.

The ASUS Eee will cost a mere $199 whereas the so-called $100 OLPC costs $175. Given the fact that Eee can run Linux or Windows XP and it can boot off NAND flash memory in a mere 15 seconds, the Eee slaughters the OLPC with ease.

The OLPC was originally slated to be the $100 PC but the actual production cost is somewhere around $175. I had a chance to get a test drive of the OLPC at the CTIA wireless conference and it was probably the worst computing experience I’ve had in a long time. The rubberized keyboard was virtually stuck to the surface with almost zero tactile feedback and the Operating System of the OLPC spends a painful 2-3 minutes to boot. Even launching a new application seems to take an eternity.

The user interface of the OLPC doesn’t even feel worth of a cheap fisher price toy. If I were to rank it, it would be somewhere above DOS and far below Apple’s Lisa. I can’t wait to test drive the Eee PC.

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Well, we will see if Ou is proven right once Asus starts selling the Eee. Personally I think he is. Actually I am an avid fan of Negroponte, having read and re-read his The Architecture Machine and the Soft Architecture Machines upon which the OLPC's Sugar OS seems to be loosely based. In fact, I apply a lot of the principles in designing UIs for our mobile apps.

However, in sheer practicality, if I need to procure units for our educational outreach program, I would opt for the Asus Eee. Why? It is more versatile. Since it supports Windows XP and comes bundled ready to use with Xandros and OpenOffice, adults can also use it as well. Somehow I just can't picture teaching adult public school teachers website design while they labor on colorful, toy looking OLPCs.

Granted, the OLPC's OS might be more appropriate for children. But that is just UI software that can be developed for the Eee. Where OLPC will have an advantage is in areas where electricity is not available. But it also follows that if electricity is not available, chances are the infrastructure for Internet access will likely be not available as well. These days, no computer-oriented educational program would be complete without the Internet. Thus, the effectiveness of such programs in remote areas is at best questionable.

Piper Jaffray: 500,000 iPhones sold over the weekend

From Crave -

Piper Jaffray reported that Apple sold about 500,000 units from 6 p.m. Friday through the close of business Sunday. Despite low supply at AT&T stores and activation issues, it appears that the iPhone era at Apple got off to a good start. Piper Jaffray said Apple had iPhones available in each one of its stores on Saturday, and in 84% of its stores Sunday.

Significantly 95% of iPhone buyers in San Francisco, New York and Minneapolis purchased the 8GB model, according to a survey conducted by the firm. About half were new customers for AT&T.

iPhone Unlocking Services

From iPhonetics -
Companies have started to offer their iPhone unlocking services. One site, iPhoneunlocking, claims to have unlocked 3459 iPhones at the time of this post. (Click on image to enlarge it.)