Latest Technology is in Your Radar

Nokia will drop Symbian on its top-end N-Series phones in favour of Maemo – that’s the latest rumour flying around the tech blogosphere after a marketing manager at a Nokia N900 meet-up said yesterday that Symbian “…would not be used on N-Series between now and 2012.”
This is huge news. Nokia have spent a fortune on Symbian, both in extending the operating system, and in buying Symbian – the company – for 264 million Euros back in June 2008. To admit that Maemo will be used in its high end phones in the future is a tacit admission that Symbian has fallen behind in the smartphone race and can no longer support the kind of features that smartphone users have come to expect.
More details after the jump.

This shouldn’t really come as a shock. Symbian’s limitations for smartphones were evident in the Nokia N97, which offered a poor experience compared to the competition. When the Maemo-based N900 was launched recently to critical acclaim, the writing was on the wall for Symbian. If Nokia, the company that’s taken Symbian further than anyone else, can’t create a decent smartphone using it, what hope does anyone else have?
Samsung proved this two weeks ago by announcing that they were dropping Symbian, too, in favour of Windows Mobile and Android.
Nokia will still be using Symbian in the future for some of its mid-range phones – but for the N-Series, it’s Maemo all the way.

Google is once again looking to expand the features of Google Talk, and the latest will make it more of a conferencing tool as opposed to something simply used to chat with a friend. In other words, it looks like Google Talk will be getting more professional features.
According to a recent report in the SFGate;

“This [current Gmail capability] is the first step in a much broader set of features we hope to roll out over the next six to 12 months around video [and voice] chat capabilities,” said Rishi Chandra, a Google Apps product manager. “It’s a great opportunity for us to push that space along.”

All things considered, this sort of makes sense. After all Google is just about everywhere, and this will add one more reason for a business to take advantage of Google Apps for your domain. Of course, I am also cringing at the same time because assuming this roles out to regular Gmail users as well as Google Apps users it could be a nightmare for some. Personally, it would seem as if I can now look forward to having multiple screaming children (as opposed to one) coming from my daughters room even when she is home alone. Thanks Google, I think.

Illegal file sharing is down, and streaming is up, at least when it comes to teenagers.  According to new research, teens are changing their ways when it comes to piracy.  There has been a dramatic drop in the number of youth aged 14 to 18 who are illegally sharing music.  At the same time there has been a hike in the number who now regularly stream their music online with sites like Spotify or YouTube.
In December of 2007, 42% of 14 to 18 years olds admitted they shared files at least once a month.  That number has dropped to 26% as of January 2009.  65% of those teens regularly stream music and 31% are listening on their computer daily.
The industry might not be selling more music this way, but they are learning something about what the listeners like.  Perhaps they will market other items accordingly. 
Steve Purdham, CEO and founder of We7, a music streaming service and download store, said, “They may not buy an album, though they have that opportunity, but you can sell them tour tickets and a T-shirt of their favourite band.”
Obviously, even these figures don’t in any way suggest that piracy is done and over with, but many in the music industry are hoping it is a step in that direction.  It is believed by some that these numbers reflect the idea that the notion of piracy growing and growing is more myth than fact. 
According to CEO of Music Ally (who carried out the survey along with the media and tech research company, The Leading Question) Paul Brindley, “These figures challenge the idea that file sharing will just continue to grow. While we don’t think for a second that it shows the war against piracy is won, it does at least suggest that there is encouraging news for the music industry.”
Furthering this belief is that legitimate digital sales also saw an upward swing of 41.5% in 2008, while physical single sales dropped 43.5%.  The research also revealed that there were even more people actually buying single track downloads (19%) than file sharing singles (17%). 
While Francis Keeling, VP, Digital at Universal Music Group, welcomes this news, he also says streaming has to be combined with new services.  He referenced the new deal going on with Virgin Media where broadband users get unlimited downloads for a monthly fee.
CEO of BPI, Geoff Taylor thought the news was great.  He said the numbers were “absolutely encouraging,” and added, “The industry has worked hard to license new services, they are great music discovery tools and a new way for artists to get paid and drive new sales.”
What do you think?  Will piracy ever end in lieu of other means or is it a ship that we will forever see the black sails on the horizon?
Read: [guardian]

Find web news too slow?  Google is looking to change that with its new lab service Fast Flip, a lighting fast view of a news page.  Google believes that what is holding online news back is the time to load.  Are they right?
Users who are surrounded by newsprint and magazines should feel right at home at Fast Flip.  The service puts pages of news into a bar and allows you to flip through them quickly, just like you would if the pages were laid out in front of you.  The bonus: no lag for those of us with super-short attention spans.  The news is even speedy on an iPhone, where a simple swipe changes pages.
Google partnered up with news outfits such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Fast Company.  Interestingly, the revenue from the display ads that run along side the content will be split between Google and the content creator.  Google is looking to give a helping hand to struggling news outlets.

The publishing industry faces many challenges today, and there is no magic bullet. However, we believe that encouraging readers to read more news is a necessary part of the solution. We think Fast Flip could be one way to help, and we’re looking to find other ways to help as well in the near future.

My take on this is loading time is not what is killing news sites.  Users have very different motives when looking at news via paper when compared to the internet.  Fast Flip, while remarkable for its speed and cleverness, makes finding news cumbersome.  To boot, it is awkward having to click on the news in Fast Flip online to have an identical but live page pop up to read the second page.
In Fast Flip each site’s style is shown through, muddling the news.  Headlines are not as easy to pick out and your attention is shared with designs you may or may not find attractive.  Either way, it isn’t an experience that is going to change news.  Not just yet, anyway.  Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.

PacketVideo has launched TwonkyBeam as part of its TwonkyMedia suite of media-sharing software.  TwonkyBeam is a free, downloadble browser plug-in that allows you to stream photos, video, and music from media websites to other devices in your home.  After installing the plug-in to your browser, you can stream content by either right-clicking on it or by using TwonkyBeam’s media panel, which displays all available media on a page.  Right now, TwonkyBeam is only available for Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher for Windows, though according to TwonkyBeam’s website, there are future plans to support Macs and other browsers.  TwonkyBeam is compatible with many popular brands of consumer electronics, including Samsung and Sony HDTVs and Pioneer receivers (a complete list of compatible devices is available on the website).  If your device isn’t on the list, an external digital media adapter will make it TwonkyBeam-compatible.  TwonkyBeam is available for download from the TwonkyBeam website starting today.
Product site: [TwonkyBeam]

The easiest way to get anybody to use your software is to pack it into their brand new PCs.  While most of us hate the software pre-packaged trial software that comes bundled with a new PC, there’s no doubt that its an easy way to get the software out to the general public.  Google seems to have realized this, and has announced its first partnership to bundle its Chrome browser with new PCs.
The partnership lies with Sony and the deal apparently went into effect this summer.  Computers with the browser pre-installed are still forthcoming, though we have no idea what models will ship with it.  All we know right now is that Google has partnered with Sony to bring Chrome to some of its computers and that Google is looking into making more deals with other hardware manufacturers.
Chrome is certainly fighting an uphill battle against Internet Explorer, Firefox, and even Safari as it sits in fourth place behind them all.  Getting the browser put onto more machines could certainly help that.  Chrome at first glance is possibly the easiest browser to figure out - it just doesn’t hold the presence of the top three.  While pairing with one of the less popular computer manufacturers might not be the biggest leap in exposure, it’s at least a step forward.  Perhaps if that next deal is with one of the bigger manufacturers, perhaps the increasingly popular Acer, Chrome could possibly overtake Safari in overall usage.  For now, any support for my personal favorite browser is always a good thing.

This Power Loader (named after the once-imaginary construction equipment/armor from James Cameron’s classic) has 18 electromagnetic motors that allow its user to lift 220 pounds. Unfortunately, it actually weighs 500 pounds, and moves slowly on its hydraulic feet.
Activelink expects to have this Power Loader out helping relief crews soon, but not until 2015. Hopefully they will have a less bulky model by then, but I don’t think it will be in construction yard yellow like Ripley’s. I’m liking the silver color on this Power Loader.