Symbian, Ltd. (www.symbian.com) was founded in 1998 by Nokia, Ericsson,
Motorola, and Psion, using Psion's EPOC OS as a starting point for its new
system. David Wood, Symbian's executive vice president, explains that the aim
of the founders was to create a standard operating system for advanced mobile
phones. "It was getting harder and harder to use the existing proprietary
operating systems to quickly and inexpensively come out with new
technologies," he says.
By 1998, Wood says, it was already abundantly clear that operating systems of
the time were being pushed to their limits. "Any given operating system is
designed to cope with a certain amount of complexity," he says. "As more and
more features are added in beyond the original voice capabilities, it becomes
increasingly difficult to do that smoothly without having to do major surgery
on the software system."
... (more)
The high-tech sector has been an integral part of life in San Diego for many
years now, but local schools haven't always shared in the industry's
advances. The San Diego County Office of Education is working to change that
with a countywide initiative to dramatically increase the use of technology
in schools, putting wireless tablet PCs in every classroom by the 2003-2004
school year.
Their efforts, however, are finding some resistance. Bill McGrath, a San
Diego teacher, recalls that a colleague didn't take too kindly to the work
McGrath was doing recently to advance the use of ... (more)
Now that Graffiti has been replaced on Palm devices, users are exploring a
wide range of textentry methods. What's the best solution for you?
Back in January, Palm announced that it would be dropping its Graffiti
handwriting recognition system from all new Palm OS handhelds. In an effort
to resolve a long-running dispute with Xerox, the company switched to a new
system called Graffiti 2, a version of the Jot application from Communication
Intelligence Corporation (www.cic.com).
Graffiti 2 won't require a huge adjustment for most Palm users, and it offers
some additional functiona... (more)
For anyone who uses a mobile phone on a regular basis, it's an all too
familiar scenario. In the middle of an important call, the unimaginable
happens: that annoying beep, the blinking red light, and your battery is
dead. If you're on the phone with a friend, it's annoying; in an emergency,
it can be catastrophic.
There are a number of common ways to recharge a phone, of course, including a
variety of home and car chargers. But what do you do when you're on the move?
For outdoor activities and as a backup in case of an emergency, there aren't
many options.
Recently, a number of... (more)
Mixing creative collaboration with technical ingenuity, the World's Smallest
Film Festival is finding innovative ways to encourage the development of
mobile content.
Combine the services of a mobile content aggregator with the excitement of a
film festival, and you get the World's Smallest Film Festival, an ongoing
project of BigDigit, Inc. (www.bigdigit.com). By soliciting submissions of
films that are specifically targeted for use on mobile phones, the festival
seeks to encourage and reward the creation of mobile content. "It's an ideal
way to combine the technology with the c... (more)
Jeff Goldman is a freelance writer specializing in business and technology issues. Brought up in Belgium, Jeff spent the last decade in New York, Chicago, and London; he now lives in Los Angeles.
David Lucas
Shaul Efraim
Terence Martin Breslin
Cory Marchand
David Hughes
James Carlini
John Iffert
Dan Stolts
Joe Zeto
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