Smartphones

Fewer than three weeks ago, we wondered aloud if Opera Software's bid to get its Opera Mini Web browser into Apple's iPhone App Store was pure folly, or if it was a gamble that Opera could actually win. Late Monday, Opera (and Apple) proved doubters and naysayers--like me--wrong when Apple approved Opera Mini for iPhone.

Apple's acceptance of a Web browser app may not seem like a big to-do, until one looks at Apple's notoriously stringent interpretation of the rules it created to keep competing software off the iPhone. Mobile Web browsers that compete with the … Read more

On Monday, Microsoft finally took the wraps off of Project Pink and revealed two new phones targeted toward the younger generation of social butterflies.

The Kin One and the Kin Two will be available from Verizon Wireless starting next month, and, as CNET Reporter Ina Fried states, the phones are for men and women anywhere between the ages of 15 and 30 who want to broadcast their every thought, sight, and sound and want to know what their friends are up to as well. As a result, a lot of the phones' functions are built around the social-networking experience.

We got some hands-on time with both the Kin One and the Kin Two, and we're still trying to pinpoint our exact feelings on it. Overall, we think the premise is good but there are also some head-scratching omissions and the pricing of the devices and services plans will be key. We'll have to wait a bit longer to hear those details, but in the meantime, here are some of our initial thoughts on the hardware and the user interface.… Read more

The Samsung Galaxy S was one of the highlights from CTIA this year, so we don't blame you if you're waiting for it to hit stores. Unfortunately, we still don't have an official release date, but the Galaxy S took another step toward reality Sunday when it dropped by the Federal Communication Commission for a little certification testing. And as Endgadget and others have pointed put, it's equipped with AT&T's 3G bands.

AT&T isn't such a stretch, but keep in mind that even an FCC filing is no guarantee that … Read more

Apple's announcement of iOS 4 and the iPhone 4 in just the last three months shows that the smartphone wars aren't cooling yet. Just consider everything that has happened in the space of the last year. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is a top-to-bottom overhaul of the Windows Mobile OS, and Google continues to aggressively roll out updates to Android. Palm hasn't been quite as active in the news recently, but we're not discounting its WebOS quite yet.

The following chart compares popular features from the smartphone operating system that have been most active this year. … Read more

After a handful of missteps and false starts, another over-the-air update for the Motorola Cliq has started rolling out. It's not the Android 2.1 update that many are hoping for, but it is a minor maintenance release with generally undetectable changes.

Designed to improve features like battery life, widget response, GPS, Bluetooth, and touch-screen sensitivity, version 1.4.8 should hit all Cliq handsets this weekend. You should also see fewer "force close" error messages and you'll get support for a couple of new elements, notably .WMA and WAV audio files and Microsoft Office 2007 … Read more

Now that you know the highlights of iPhone OS 4, we offer you the chance to see the new features for yourself. We've loaded the developer release on Brian Tong's iPhone 3GS and took it for a spin. As we mentioned, it's not quite the update that OS 3.0 was, but it brings some sorely needed features like multitasking, home screen folders, and a unified e-mail in-box.

Keep in mind that this is a developer release, so Apple is very likely to make changes between now and the official release this summer. Game Center comes later … Read more

The continued evolution of the iPhone operating system has been rather like completing a puzzle. In its original form, the puzzle lacked important pieces like multimedia messaging and a landscape keyboard, but with each subsequent update, Apple filled those gaps.

For screenshots of OS 4 in action, see our slideshow.

Thursday, the company added more missing pieces when it introduced the fourth generation of the iPhone operating system at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. After a wait of almost three years, we finally get multitasking--though not for everyone--and other sorely needed features like home screen folders and a unified e-mail in-box. The update is available for developers now with the general release for the iPhone and iPod Touch coming this summer and the iPad in the fall.

It doesn't deliver quite the changes that we got from the iPhone 3.0 release last year (at least for now), but rest assured that OS 4 is a major update that checks off more boxes from our standing iPhone wish list. Though OS 4 is set to bring 100 new features, CEO Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software, focused on the seven biggest changes, or "tent poles," during the course of Thursday's event.

Multitasking In our review of the iPhone 3GS, multitasking led our list of common cell phone features that were lacking. Granted, that list was shorter than it had been with previous iPhone versions, but multitasking remained a major omission in light of Android and the Palm Web OS.

Apple, however, has a special talent for making us forget such things by packaging an existing feature in a flashy new way. As Jobs said, Apple isn't about being first, but rather about "being the best." We'll have to get our hands on the update before we fully agree, but Apple appears to have hit the mark. During the demo, Jobs showed how you'll be able to tap the Home button twice to get a pop-up menu of running apps at the bottom of the display. As you switch back and forth, you'll return to the exact point you left, even if you're in the middle of a game. There's no task manager of any kind and Jobs dismissed competitor devices that have one. As he put it, "If you see a task manager, they blew it."

Though the pop-up menu only shows four apps at a time (you can swipe sideways through the full list), you'll be able to run at least 12 apps simultaneously. Jobs did not say if that number is a hard limit, but we'll confirm that one exists when we get to play with the OS ourselves. Forstall insisted that multitasking would not affect performance because Apple distilled background processes into seven API services. They include audio from apps like Pandora Radio (yay!), VoIP (for Skype calls), push notifications, and task completion. Multitasking also will support local notifications and related security setting enhancements.

There is bad news with multitasking, though. The feature is compatible only with the iPhone 3GS and the third generation of the iPod Touch. Owners of other iPhone and iPod Touch models still get other OS 4 benefits, but you'll need to upgrade if you want the full package. Before you run to the store, however, keep in mind that OS 4 probably won't appear until after the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June. At that event--we're still waiting for firm dates--we should get new hardware, so make your upgrade decision then.

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