Android is a software platform and operating system for mobile devices, based on the Linux operating system, developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance. It allows developers to write managed code in a Java-like language that utilizes Google-developed Java libraries, but does not support programs developed in native code. Android has been criticized for not being all open-source software despite what was announced by Google. Parts of the SDK are proprietary and closed source and some believe this is so that Google can control the platform. Google will continue to make money from online advertising, but now seeks to extend this onto mobile devices.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments

When Symbian was formed 10 years ago, it inherited a browser from Psion. In the following years, the ability to browse real Web pages became a key differentiator of smartphones as compared to feature phones, and so Web technologies have played an important role in the story of Symbian. At the time of Symbian’s formation, there was much debate in the industry on whether the future of personal and enterprise computing would be in thick or thin clients – that is, in rich client software running mainly on the phone, or software hosted on a network server with a fairly simple browsing terminal. Ten years later and we see AJAX blurring the gap between the notion of thin and thick clients with rich browsing terminals backed with colossal arrays of servers dishing out email, photos, twitters and Facebook messages.
Read the rest of this entry »

• 0 Comments