Growing up from the early alpha build, Firefox 4 has entered the beta metamorphosis for Android and Maemo phones. It includes Firefox Sync (for desktop-to-phone favorites, like Firefox Home will be); add-ons and even the Awesome Bar.
Nokia would be doing much better if they'd announced last week that along with ditching Symbian for high-end devices, they were adopting Android too. Sadly, they're sticking with MeeGo—but as this video demonstrates, you can Androidize it yourself.
It's true that iOS4 and Android are the mobile operating systems of the day. But MeeGo, a mash-up of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo OSes, could be a strong contender. Based on this demo, at least.
Intel's new Z6XX chips under the Moorestown banner will be used in devices running Android or MeeGo, Intel and Nokia's new OS that's sprung from Moblin and Maemo's loins.
Nokia and Intel have joined up to marry their Moblin and Maemo platforms, creating the MeeGo spawn which will be seen on devices by the ends of the year. Another operating system?
Great news—according to Nokia Taiwan's general manager Michael Hsu, they're going to be launching Symbian^3 in the third quarter of 2010, and the Android-looking Symbian^4 in early 2011. Maemo 6, meanwhile, will be seen on Nokia phones in the second half of 2010. [Digitimes]
Firefox Mobile crawled into its first pockets last night, going live on Maemo5. The mobile version retains the full awesomeness of the Awesome Bar and includes WeaveSync for keeping tabs, passwords, and bookmarks straight across desktop and mobile versions.
Laugh/cry about Nokia all you want, but when it comes down to cold, hard figures, they're still performing well. They've seen a 65 per cent increase in net profits for the last quarter, shipping 126.9m units in the period.
Though just a proof of concept for now, this clip shows the hack-friendly Nokia N900 dual-booting Maemo and Android. It's only a taste, but as the dual-booter Brandon says, "its real and it could be spectacular." [Brandon's Posterous via jkOnTheRun]
The open source platform Maemo has returned to town after last being seen in Nokia's N900, this time spied in a video review of the Optima OP5-E.
Despite the N900 looking like a return to the days of quality Nokia phones, it's announced it will halve production of its smartphones in 2010, instead concentrating on dumbphones, or "mid to low end smartphones," as they see it.
We were surprised yesterday to hear that Nokia is moving ahead with both Symbian and Maemo phones, but reassured by their admission that the Symbian UI kinda blows. Well, now we have juicy screenshots of improvements they've got in mind.
Sure, Nokia's N900 has been faced with delays, but that can't be the sole reason it's planning just one Maemo release in 2010, can it?
At an official N900 meet-up in London last night, the Maemo marketing team appears to have let slip that Nokia will use the Linux-based OS instead of S60 on all its future flagship N-Series handsets. About time, no?
Apparently the handset has been delayed until November. The good news, as BGR points out, is that the n900 supports T-Mobile 3G. So assuming Project Black means cheap plans, the timing could actually work out well for prospective buyers. [BGR]
The N900 runs the slick new Linux-based Maemo 5 OS, but Nokia is already dishing up details on Maemo 6. Expected in late 2010, it'll introduce a portrait-mode, support multitouch and capacitive touchscreens, and have a desktop filled with widgets.
At the Swedish Finnish phonemaker's booth, I overheard a Nokia rep say that Nokia "will never release an Android handset." He added, "You can quote me on that," which is good, because I am!
There's been a lot of talk about the N900 Maemo "tablet", especially about how it looks suspiciously like a phone. And even if Nokia (inexplicably) plays it down in their now-official announcement, that's exactly what it is: an amazing-looking handset.
