Mobile

Palm is hoping its new developer's kit can lead to better games and richer apps for its smartphone users.

Palm announced on Tuesday that a public beta version of its new WebOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) is ready for developers to download via the company's Developer Center Web site. The PDK lets programmers create plug-ins using C or C++ to enhance existing WebOS applications.

The WebOS is the software platform for Palm's Pre and Pixi smartphones.

Unveiled at this week's Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, the PDK is being targeted to designers who want … Read more

Want better games on your Android phone? They may be coming sooner now, at least for Android 2.0 models.

Google has let programmers tap directly into mobile phone graphics power by releasing a third version of its Android Native Developer Kit (NDK) on Monday.

Android applications typically run in a variation of the Java programming environment, a move that aids in making applications that move more easily from one hardware system to another. But Google also lets those applications bypass the Java layer for some direct communications with the hardware through the NDK interfaces. And the big change in the third revision, or r3, is support for a standard graphics interface called OpenGL ES--in this case version 2.0, the same technology supported by newer iPhone 3GS. … Read more

China Unicom is working with Apple to finally launch a Wi-Fi version of the iPhone, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The iPhone hit China in October, but sans Wi-Fi. Chinese regulations had prohibited the sale of any Wi-Fi device that does not use the country's own wireless standard known as WAPI (Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure). As a result, Apple was forced to introduce the iPhone with Wi-Fi disabled in order to enter the Chinese market without delays.

Due to a relaxation of rules, devices sold in China can offer Wi-Fi as long as they also include WAPI. … Read more

If you're looking forward to a future of streaming movies, gargantuan Internet file exchanges, and other high-bandwidth activities, cheer up.

Broadband service providers in most of the major markets around the country will soon be able to deliver 100Mbps broadband service with no problem. That's enough to download a music album in as little as 5 seconds, an hour-long TV show in about 30 seconds, and a high-definition movie in roughly 7 minutes, 25 seconds. But it's going to cost you.

This should make the Federal Communications Commission's goal of getting 100Mbps service to 100 million homes by 2020 … Read more

As I noted last night, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Series is a clean break with the past, from the look and feel of the product down to the way software makers will write programs for the device.

Microsoft confirmed on Thursday that the primary tools for developers will be Silverlight and XNA, while the look of the device, as outlined at last month's Mobile World Congress, is closer to the Zune HD than to any prior version of Windows Mobile.

I had a chance to do a short video interview with Microsoft's Charlie Kindel and get a … Read more

I have no idea whether cell phone use turns your brain into a doughnut.

But I imagine if someone were clever enough to create an iPhone app that told you how much radiation your phone was emitting, and therefore how big a hole your brain might soon enjoy, you might just be interested.

Unfortunately, it seems that though there might be such an app, you won't be able to partake of its skills on your iPhone.

According to TechCrunch, an Israeli developer called Tawkon created an app that, with the help of a finely tuned algorithm, measures your Specific Absorption Rate. … Read more

Adobe Systems released a new version of its Photoshop.com Mobile application for Android phones on Thursday night, an upgrade that came with an apparent attempt to tweak Apple's nose.

The new version gets more editing options. It adds "vibrant" to make photo colors richer and "pop" for a pop-art style. Also new are "soft black and white," "warm vintage," "vignette blur," "white glow," and "rainbow," Adobe said.

But more significantly, perhaps, the mobile editing software also now can be incorporated by other programs on … Read more

Google is giving Android users another method for searching their smartphones: finger-drawn letters.

The company has launched a new app called Gesture Search, which lets Android 2.0 users find items by drawing a letter on the screen. Draw an "A," for example, and all contacts, bookmarks, applications, and songs that begin with an "A" appear on the screen.

Neatness doesn't count. If your handwriting is sloppy, and your "A" looks like an "H," Gesture Search will bring up items that start with "A" and "H," according … Read more

First, there was the Macintosh. Then it was the iPod, the iPhone, and now the iPad. Next up in Apple's arsenal: The lawyers.

No doubt, when Apple announced Tuesday that it was suing HTC for allegedly infringing on its patents, only one company may have been named, but Jobs & Co. were issuing a legal warning to nearly every company that's released an iPhone-like device.

But how far will this fight go? That's the unanswered question.

The HTC lawsuit could be the first of many as the company stakes its territory in the smartphone market. Larger manufacturers, … Read more