HTC legend, before and Nokia N900, iPhone, Palm
No doubt, Apple has a fantastic job with the iPhone, both hardware and software. Alone turned the smartphone market once in a gold mine in overall consistency.
Each manufacturer had to rethink his strategy to compete, what a perfect opportunity to test their courage Linux.
What is surprising, such as Linux is largely achieved in mobile phones. Linux has become the equivalent ARM processor OS dominance sneak in the market for its great versatility, performance and cost.
This success is an important requirement is that Linux and its works. This shows that the World of mobile phones on a hardware level ultracompetitive, marketing, branding and style is not important.
What do the manufacturers, is an operating system that has and that is why they choose Linux. We have seen three basic Linux phones that the iPhone ecosystem a run for their money. It is the Palm Pre, WebOS runs and Nokia N900 Maemo 5-base, and the legend of HTC, Android runs. Each device offers Apple a run for their money and beat him today in important areas. So, what is best for you?
Then at the hardware first glance
Pre Palm: Hardware
After building a niche activity in ‘Personal Digital Assistants, has tried for years to refocus Palm smartphone with business leaders in the integration of their old products in a BlackBerry-like mobile armed.
With a Pre Palm, the company finally achieved its goal. The contour elegant black design of the device has had a significant influence on the market, and is a good size and design.
Add a vertical scroll pad, which arises from the bottom of the device with a light tapping a piece about the old versions of Palm is integrated. But it is too small when large hands and fingers, above all, what have designed primarily for use both thumbs. To his right thumb on the H after his left thumb, you can click on press T to be problematic, but as all get used, these devices, you.
The bottom of the screen will be used to store frequently used symbols and the call button on the main. Just click on it one of the dials feel someone in your address book or enter the number manually, and the whole package portable and easier to manage than the old HTC and the Nokia N900.
Original Pre Palm also has a button under their wide range of capacitive 320×480 3.1 inch screen. With one click you can minimize all running applications and allow you to run another, while certainly an element designed for maximum impact in a world dominated by the iPhone to mono-therapy today.
However, the key fell into the new Palm Pre Moreover, even doubled the internal memory of 512 MB, and twice the storage capacity of 16 GB flash memory.
More importantly, it also slightly increases the spacing between the keys that could help the entry of an inch, but not in a position to get their hands on a device if it works or not.
Inside the box is an ARM processor Omap 3430 and a battery enough for about five hours of talk time and thirteen last reported days, if you expect a call. You can also change the battery, if necessary, locked closed, in contrast to the iPhone.
Silicon C64x also includes co-processor, which should increase the ability, the reading of Ogg Theora, and that Google has released VP8 video format.
These pictures are reported through an integrated PowerVR SGX 530 core which is driven somewhat less effective than the PowerVR chip that the iPhone 3G (it is impossible to make a comparison of the Authority, because Apple is not just to publish what the use of equipment).
Finally, a modern phone is not complete without all sorts of sensors. Palm has a pre accelerometer, a proximity sensor to help ensure that calls and GPS for navigation. There is also a pretty good 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash and geotagging capture, but no autofocus. The operating system version 1.4, published in February, said the ability to capture and edit video.
Nokia N900: Hardware
The most impressive thing about the N900 is its screen. Slightly above the Palm Pre resolution, and in our opinion, the clarity. 800×480 is an important step in size. 4 iPhone has a resolution of 960 x 640th
But there is one major drawback: the touch screen is difficult, so no multi-touch. Nokia puts brave face, but this looks like a serious disadvantage. As if the point of making even more clear the N900 is also integrated with a stylus, like in the old days of Windows Mobile but it could be argued that the ability to use one nail one benefit.
Your CPU is the same as that on the Palm, found a coprocessor with C64x Omap 3430th But it at full speed of your Clock – 600 MHz to 500 MHz is used instead of on the Palm.
The storage capacity is a bit of mixing and adapt. There are 256 MB of physical memory on board, but it can up to 768 MB of flash memory are used as a swap file for processes running in the background.
In a useful step back to Windows Mobile, the Flash memory can be installed SDHC slot with a Micro, and the unit can access up to 32 GB of additional memory.
N900, the battery capacity is somewhat greater than the Palm, drawing 1150mAh 1320mAh instead of Palm, but the highest speed, time takes its toll. We have only managed to get about eight hours of normal use on the N900, compared to at least twice in the Palm.
Beneath the surface are required axis sensors can switch the display between landscape and portrait mode, and watch a GPS near, for most devices and Palm Pre Android.
Another interesting feature is the ability to connect the N900 to a TV using the audio cable and video cable. But the most important physical property of the N900 is the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It is backlit and offers more room than the keyboard equivalent for the Palm Pre.
But it is too close yet, and worse, each key is arranged in a strict parent. The letter Q is directly above one, for example, while P is a column in a separate, far right. Palm Pre-keyboard has a small separation, and therefore it is much easier to use.
The aperture of the device fits on the back of the device also means that you can not stand the N900 on a flat surface, making it more difficult to write, but hides a square telescope for the observation by means of telephone communications.
Add to failure to correct the entry, and it is questionable whether the increase in weight, size and complexity of a real physical keyboard the best possible solution for the N900 is.
HTC Caption: hardware
There are dozens of different devices, Android, all with different specifications, the size of its memory of the resolution. Which you choose is usually reduced price and performance, but he is currently leading manufacturer HTC.
It is based Nexus One of Google, currently the flagship of the company and its own Android device, the two most recent are the will of the HTC and legend.
The legend shows you how HTC has developed their projects since the launch of the iPhone. It is smaller, thinner, lighter, and has a capacitive better, brighter OLED, but with the same resolution.
The most amazing part of the design seems to be a leaf from the book of Apple, have when everything is made from a single piece of aluminum.
The front panel has five buttons, one button on the screen to open another menu to one for the back and one can access the search. Only in these is a button, optical track seems like the bottom of an optical mouse to work. Dejected, as expected, but can also use the index on its surface to move the cursor hidden on the screen.
You will also find a 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, Micro USB port for connection to your computer, and within the matrix standard GPS, proximity, and G force sensor of ambient light.
A microSD slot is available for hidden storage and you need to add to the price and storage are to maintain applications, photos and data.
In contrast to earlier models of HTC, no sliding keyboard. Replacement touchscreen Android is as viable as the virtual keyboard of the iPhone, although the forces smaller screen buttons to get a little closer.
haptic feedback, an effect that fast the device vibrates when you press a virtual button, is a useful supplement to help you write fast.
Maemo
The N900 runs Maemo 5th This is the operating system of Meego, Nokia strives Intel to pool their resources and take the power of Apple and Google are replaced.
Only Meego is not officially available for the N900, and it leaves us with Maemo indefinitely. And when it comes Meego, first impressions are that look and behave much like Maemo Moblin. This may mean that the N900 using the latest in a long line of Nokia tablets, which Linux is based on GTK.
The basic idea of the Maemo 5, virtual offices. Only instead called panels, are called “Points of View”. Drag your finger left or right of the screen you will have a different opinion, with a parallax effect that the icons and background image moves to a different pace.
Each office can be filled with your choice of widgets, online links and applications. By default, there are few, with links to the navigation tool integrated maps of Ovi, Nokia is focused more on-line links with various social networking sites and services.
In addition, there is a Windows key, a clock and a stack of connectivity Metro / left corner of the screen.
Hold your finger in an empty room in one of those desktop computers, a small gear part is displayed in the upper right corner. You can choose either to remove a configuration menu or links in the current screen.
This menu allows you the theme, the background to add a bookmark and change the access to widgets.
With a standard installation, there is access to e-mail, Media Player, a map of the current situation and the Twitter and Facebook pre-configured links for the first screen. Everything else, you must press the window in the upper left corner.
In the first contact, this is a thumbnail of each application running show, so you between them with a different key-switch. In the second type, you will see the light of applications. This is a drop icons to everything that is currently installed on the device to see.
Here you will find a file manager, for example, a PDF reader, calendar, drawing tool, games and instant-messaging tool that talks to Skype, Google Talk, Facebook, Jabber and SIP contacts.
More impressively, there is even an X-Terminal wrong, Navigator Maps Ovi icon is almost identical to the one before the Safari Web-browser and experience of the operating system the user can be a bit inconsistent.
Earlier versions of Maemo use a button to switch to a different page application, while the other monitors such as the configuration panel, use the vertical displacement.
It is sometimes impossible for a way to find back to the previous screen. But the situation improved, just by clicking on “More” for the latest update of the user interface to work faster and with each new version.
Maemo Microb browser is called, and is based on Firefox is based. It works very well and achieve maximum compatibility of the site, but not as fast as a browser based on WebKit and Firefox more discomfort, suffering from the annoying “Skip Certificates routine.”
But our main objection is with the release of firmware 1.2 update fixed end of May. Now you can web pages in portrait mode, an omission of madness in earlier versions.
Best of the N900 is the manager of the application, the portal to a world of third party applications. The N900 is a track very enthusiastic and there are some reasonable applications for download. He is the wicked awesome game, birds and even the brain.
You can also find both a client and an SSH server, with dozens of other tools, utilities, and emulators. There’s even a version of PyQt, with a publisher who is building your own applications a breeze, now that Qt is part of Maemo.
It is the opposite of what you are installed with the iPhone, and use is the best reason, an N900.
Android 2.1
Despite skepticism at first, Google Android is very good. A recent report from NPD Group shows that it may still sell the iPhone in the United States.
This is not surprising if you know that there are so mobile operating system, as some of Apple.
However, Android has the potential to be more than just a cell phone. Now you take a break for a variety of mobile devices, including competitors from Dell and HP IPAD recently, as well as multimedia devices, such as the two new panels announced Arkos Home. “It is also an operating system that has undergone many changes during its relatively short story.
It is very easy to use operating system, borrowing ideas from the iPhone and Maemo as well as some earlier versions of Windows Mobile. Our device uses Android 2.1 reading.
As with many other HTC devices, including those developed for Windows Mobile there is a customized graphical user interface on the operating system of vanilla HTC HTC based Sense called, and the legend and the desire to HTC phones are generating a new version.
The first thing you notice when you unlock the device by power button and sliding the finger across the screen, the screen is very bright and colorful. This is the meaning of the HTC, a screen, close the map on a weather applet, and various shortcuts for frequently used functions of the device.
Like the N900, you can now set the left and pull the right of access to seven virtual desktop, each is so different weather applet, SMS, e-mail, a quick access to favorite contacts and a list of favorites among others.
It is easy to make your own widgets on the screen, and a wide range of possibilities, including the access networks, music, photos and YouTube add. While this is not an immediate visual applets features, there are much broader range of applications as well, and is accessed by pressing the arrow in the lower left corner.
You access the Android operating system and default premium is the same set of standard tools installed that you find about the parameters in Palm Pre N900 and Maemo. The exceptions are to be linked mainly because of its Android device to your Google account. Click on “Talk”, for example, and you will see an IM client Google Talk. Click Mail, and you can immediately access your Gmail inbox.
These centrality Google does not extend to pre-configure the applet, e-mail, without, however, one or more standard POP3/IMAP Exchange server, but it means you instant access to your Gmail messages as they come and their population contacts and calendar without additional configuration of servers from Google.
An interesting feature of the calendar, is that if you look to the agenda for the next few days, you also see a proposal on how the weather will be likely.
Research is also very powerful, as expected, both local and remote data. Click click on the magnifying glass and entering a search term and get your ticket online to see from Google, and a calendar, e-mails, notes, or applications that you have stored on your phone.
Normally, the function is not so different from others in Android mobile operating system. In our legend was stable and fast. Although not as smooth in the transitions, that was our iPhone 3G much faster than the N900.
But the heart of the operating system is the application of the internal market. It is the gateway to the world of third party applications. Android Market is the main competitor of the Apple App Store and includes tens of thousands of games, utilities and applications available for download.
Interface is also very slippery, download and install applications in the background, rather than directly back to the iPhone sight of the house, and how.
But her greatest asset is that you must install not only the applications that are officially supported by Google – you can enter the third party applications, such as APK-files, add them to your memory stick and use the market to make it to install it manually.
But you do not need. At the end of April 2010, Android Market is the presence of more than 50,000 applications from the App Store, Apple had found more than 200,000. While this may seem like a big difference between Android Market is located in the same place on the App Store was in June 2009.
Palm has a long tradition and well-deserved for the design of operating systems that are both easy to use resources efficiently and to maximize the capabilities of your hardware and your intuition. Therefore, the best thing about Palm Pre WebOS its speed.
It’s fast, sensitive and intuitive feel a little slippery, that both Android and Maemo. It is also for users of the operating system to gain more non-technical, if not the basic functionality of drowning in a sea of applications and other options.
He also makes extensive use of multi-touch screen with iPhone users and shrink and turn the surface similar to Apple’s. Main view looks a bit distorted iPhone GUI with five quick-launch buttons at the bottom of the display and the purpose that you can move left and right, in all applications and tools installed in this case.
Press the button on the front of the screen and full screen display of mobile applications in the background a little, showing its origin, and any other application on the current left and right of the demand.
has been in the Pre Palm on this button, have been removed, simply insert your finger across the display. Then you can switch between applications with a pass to the left or right of the finger, or return to the Start menu to start something else. Leave a push application is as simple as above.
In a standard device, a version of Google Maps, a YouTube application that is very similar to the iPhone and is the equivalent of a media player and photo browser. There is a general document viewer and PDF.
As for the Nokia N900 it is not necessary to synchronize data with your PC, and no way to do it. Fortunately, most things are stored and selected from the clouds or accessible through the browser.
The web browser is excellent. Based on WebKit, the pages load faster and multi-touch interface to navigate between pages. Your browser lacks the ability to create new tabs, but the WebOS Multitasking means that you start any other browser with the same speed and performance on this page, the current session. There is no prospect of Flash, but that’s a big problem in general.
Perhaps the weakest link WebOS, it is a serious lack of third party applications. It is a Store application, as well as Nokia and Android offerings, but the platform developer has failed to inspire their projects again and make them available. We present the third in the comparison group.
This is the biggest drawback of the device, because it means that you can not increase your system with applications and utilities that may still be pending.
The rapid growth of mobile applications is the biggest difference between the current generation of smartphones and what came before, so that there are currently no palm Pre. Fortunately, thanks to new investment by the new owner of the Palm, HP, WebOS new mobile devices and the new version of the phone, the development could collect.
Otherwise, this could be the last nail in the coffin for Palm. Under the hood of experience or how applications for its platform of choice Each of these three platforms based on Linux, unlike some competitors, you can experiment with Linux to develop the use of any device and create and provide their own applications.
Each competition supports the development of Apple, and most of the phones we see here are of better quality. You do not Objective C, or use to pay for a developer license, for example. And they are not obliged to follow the official API, or wave of guidelines for implementation.
Developing for Android is easy, especially when compared with Apple’s closed development environment and the islands: Who can download and install the SDK.
Start with a small aid package, and if it is running, load everything needed, including the development of the body and installed in your home directory. Even without the game with source code, you can run a virtual phone system with the Android SDK.
Just run the Android SDK and AVD-Manager, click New, and then click Run. You can play with a full virtual Android. The only thing missing is the application of the internal market.
When you run the development environment, you can send requests directly to the Android OS and debug its execution in the same way as on a real device. You can use a virtual device, and to send their applications to the device through plug-ins for the IDE.
As with Palm devices, it seems that most developers prefer Eclipse environment, and you will develop plugins to find things in the download package. If the interests of developing Android, you should take a look at our tutorials development in recent months.
If you are stuck on an Android phone in the same way you would with a desktop Linux, then you will have problems. Since each of these devices are locked, the main components, after a ROM encrypted so that users no fundamental changes in the configuration and equipment.
Like all systems of protection, there are ways around it, and many people use Android root systems are given full access to the material.
WebOS
Like Android, Palm offers a virtual version of the operating system of your phone to experiment with, develop and play. But this version is virtual reality, the installation calls to retrieve the latest version of VirtualBox, as well as the various elements of the SDK.
How have all the work is more complicated than the implementation of the teacher’s Android, but it is not too difficult, and once it starts, you can use WebOS on the desktop, without finding, playing a real phone.
The only difference in the operating system is that, like Android, App Store is not running in the virtualized environment. Android Also you all the details for the Eclipse development environment so that the communication device and find its virtualized version safe.
Despite millions of sales of the devices, WebOS desperately needs new software, which developers can one advantage in the market for Android, because their application is more likely to be noticed. In addition, the updating of the OS and the SDK in early development is probably much easier.
This is the inclusion of SDL, groups of open source libraries commonly used for the development of games and emulators. This means that other SDL tools, such as the thousands found in a typical Linux package manager, it WebOS could be placed with relative ease, especially compared with the beginning of something or learning Objective C.
But at a lower level, palm Pre share another similarity with Android, and that is that is blocked in the kernel level. Therefore you can not get full control of the device without having to use a process mysterious and very informal.
Maemo and Meego
And Maemo Meego Both are big change. The worst thing is that the N900 is not updated to run Meego what it can to develop applications for the current model Maemo 5 is a waste of time support means. But if you want to plan for the future, Linux is an excellent platform for the development Meego.
Because the development environment is the official Qt Creator Meego that much easier to use for beginners of Eclipse.
And because Nokia owns and develops Qt Creator, you will find there are many examples, good documentation and a complete platform of the company that manufactures the devices supported.
This makes the development Meego for the future of Intel and Nokia phones a lot more experience than Apple, especially when taken in conjunction with Nokia, Qt SDK. There is a separate package is needed and a high performance simulator can emulate the look of your phone for Qt Qt Creator and all the development libraries.
Linux vs. iPhone: The winners
Mobile Linux is an unprecedented success. It is surprising that our open-source operating system is competing with Apple, without a massive budget to research and development, without the singular vision and without limiting the freedom of users, with the help of companies such as Google.
The most impressive is that the Linux-based mobile phones, the iPhone, without a beat on the idealism of free software Resort. In many cases, simply better. simple functions such as editing the main screen, or replace your music and photo browser, it is almost impossible on the iPhone, and ridiculously easy on the three platforms, as we have seen.
The API is not controlled by a developer, not the draconian restrictions requires the use, and you are free to create and install all applications, regardless of the moral judgments of the developers of the platform form.
But the best reason is that they all run on Linux, and if it is not in a position to the operating system on your desk that you escape, you can not complete either. Many Linux tools and applications have been obtained for these devices have been made, and most third-party software that you find in the shops of their implementation in open source projects.
This means that you probably already familiar with them, and it also means that there is a sense of the longevity of these phones. The material may change, and the same operating system and APIs, but the base of free software that is built will not change, and can go from strength to strength.
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