Tuxtops

Palm's Treo 700p is the latest in a now long linage of Treo smartphones. The Treo 700p combines the benefits of a full featured mobile phone with the Palm OS mobile computing platform. From a visual perspective the design changes are small, evolutionary refinements of a proven smartphone form factor. Most of the improvements to Palm's flagship smartphone come in the form of new software innovations, a big boost in memory and fast, broadband like data speeds.

French MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) and WiFi hotspot operator Neuf offers customers a dual-mode handset based on Linux 2.6.10 this month. Neuf's "Twin" phone supports GSM and WiFi, and offers worldwide VoIP calling at standard mobile rates through Neuf hotspots and CPE (customer premises equipment).

Possibly marking the beginning of a revolution, the SXG75 from BenQ-Siemens is the first candybar from a major handset maker which wholly integrates GPS navigation; Jørgen Sundgot investigates.

Nokia could never be accused of producing boring handsets. OK, the company does actually make standard candybar mobiles, but it also pushes the envelope of what we expect handsets to look like and how we expect them to behave. If you doubt this think about the N90, N91 and 7380. Usually the design innovations work, but with the tri-band 3250 I'm not so sure.

I installed the 2006 software update last night for the first time. While I have been coordinating with the Nokia and OpenedHand developers for a while, actually using the new software was a surprisingly pleasant experience. That's an understatement. The software absolutely rocks.

Nokia's open source Maemo project has released a beta version of its next-generation SDK (software developer kit). The Mistral SDK beta aims to help developers port applications to Maemo 2.0 prior to the debut of Tablet OS 2006 for the Nokia 770 later this quarter.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is working with various groups in developing next-generation Bluetooth technology and expects end products using the technology to hit the market by 2007 at the soonest, according to Kuo-Lian Su (transliterated from Chinese), SIG's Asia-Pacific technical marketing manager.

At an event honoring top technology innovations from Massachusetts companies in Boston June 7, Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of the MIT Media Lab and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, was inducted into the MITX (Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange) Innovation Hall of Fame.

Jumping on the slimshell bandwagon, BenQ-Siemens' EF81 is a capable handsets with its 2 Megapixel camera, 3G with video calling and microSD memory expansion; Jørgen Sundgot takes it for a spin.

It's no secret: Nokia is after Blackberry's thunder in the enterprise with their latest E series, and especially via the E61 model. Hi-Mobile sent OSNews in an E61 unit for the purposes of this review. Dig in for information, a video and lots of screenshots from the latest 'S60 3rd Edition' Symbian v9.1 OS.