Category: Mobile Computing

What does it take to build a smartphone in Russia?

Posted on by

My interview with Vlad Martynov, CEO of Yota Devices – the company behind the smartphone with a regular screen on one side and an eInk display on the reverse – is up on Forbes: “We asked ourselves what we liked and didn’t like with our current smartphones. While we loved the way it made us more productive and connected, there was one fundamental thing we all determined we didn’t like. Most of the time, the display is sleeping. It’s just a black box. While it’s sleeping, it’s useless. It has no value. “So, we asked ourselves how to solve it.

“Sure as day follows night, sure as eggs is eggs, sure as every even-numbered Windows release is rubbish”

Posted on by

Some time ago I pointed out that Windows 7 would be a ‘good’ release of Windows compared to the ‘poor’ versions that the OS seems to alternate through (Windows 98, Me, XP, Vista, 7). It’s a bit like the ‘odd numbered Star Trek movies are rubbish’ rule of thumb. What happens when you extend the pattern to the major branding today? XP good, Vista poor, 7 good, 8 poor, 9 good? Is it any wonder that Microsoft are as keen as possible to get to the next major version of Windows, even if it just a significant iteration on Windows 8?

Reviewing the Jolla handset and Sailfish OS

Posted on by

A few weeks after receiving Jolla’s first handset (called, er, the Jolla), I’ve posted an in-depth review of the Linux powered smartphone over on Forbes. All of that said, the Jolla handset has me excited. I’ve been following the project for some time, I ordered my device in May 2013 as part of the first wave of orders, and I knew that when it was delivered to me in December I was not getting a finished product… just a Finnish product. The Sailfish OS at the core of Jolla’s vision is delivering a stable environment and handles the mid-range specs

The story of the Pebble that started an avalanche of smartwatches

Posted on by

Smartwatchfans (or should that be Smartwatch Central to follow all the other sites?) takes a look back at the Pebble smartwatch in a ‘story so far…’ article: Earlier attempts at making watches smarter, everything from the classic Casio calculator watch to the Sony Ericsson MBW series, didn’t do it for Migicovsky. They simply didn’t do enough. Inspired by pen computers like the Newton, Psion, and the Palm Pilot, and their eventual convergence with smartphones, Migicovsky felt there was a place for a device that was even more convenient. He wanted something that could take on a subset of tasks and

Small smartphones can be powerful, says Sony at CES

Posted on by

Sony’s research with consumers around their smartphones uncovers an amazing fact: …the consumer who’d prefer to have a smaller device doesn’t want fewer features. The Xperia Z1 Compact is being touted as a Sony high end smartphone in a small package. I’m not sure I’d class a 4.3 inch screen as small, but for Android manufacturers this is a step in the right direction. Looking forward to reviewing this handset in the near future.