Google Nexus One Announcement More Fizzle than Pop

Google’s announcement last night of the nitty gritty of its upcoming phone, the android-based Nexus One, has been one that’s more of a quiet fizz than the bang that many had expected.

Surely by now we can do away with the trackball, guys...

Still, many were pleased to learn more about the device that’s been a hot topic for the last few weeks, despite the relative lack of hard information until now. Many of the leaked details of the phone’s specifications have now been confirmed, so we’re curious to see just what Google intends to do with its impressive horsepower.

Palm Faces Suit over Pre PDF Viewer

Palm has found itself in a bit of legal trouble surrounding the WebOS PDF viewer to be found on its Pre smartphone, extending the laundry list of headaches that the company has had since it launched the Pre.

According to PCWorld, the issue stems from the manner in which Artifex Software has had its PDF engine licensed, a feature which seems, for the moment at least, to be a little up-in-the-air, at least where Palm is concerned. It seems that Artifex’s PDF rendering engine, muPDF, has been included in Palm’s WebOS, which is the source of all the bother for Palm.

Apple Updates iTunes, Kills Palm Support [Again]

Apple has released a new update to its iTunes media player, adding colour options to its “grid view” and better “additional accessibility support.” The real news though, is that it blocks Palm again.

Not so fast, Palm 😦

For those who didn’t catch it the first time around, Palm’s smartphone, the Pre, had been considered by many to be one of the few devices capable of wresting Apple’s iPhone dominance from it. Of course, when Apple realised that one of the big draws for the Pre was its iTunes support, things got a bit dicey, and Apple stepped up with an iTunes update to block Palm devices.

Meteor to Launch HTC Hero November 1st

Meteor has announced an update to its fairly vague “November” launch date for the much-anticipated Hero, which we’re not told will actually happen on November 1st.

The hype about the Hero’s release in Ireland is due to a combination of it being launched on Meteor (whose smartphone range has been a little lacklustre to say the least, since O2 snagged both the iPhone and the Palm Pre). With Vodafone to release the iPhone to its customers in early 2010, the Hero could well be the handset that keeps Meteor in the game. Perhaps most interesting though, is word that Meteor intends to introduce new price plans for users who pick up the Hero.

Nokia in Trouble?

Nokia has revealed a decline in smartphone sales, bringing it from 41% of the market to 35% over the July-to-September period.

Nokia hasn’t been having the best of years; news that the company’s profits were down by 66% for last quarter may have come as something of a surprise, but since then news of a decline in smartphone sales won’t be quite as shocking. Yahoo News places the blame on ongoing competition with device’s like Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry range and Palm’s Pre.

Orange Nets iPhone for UK

UK cellular provider Orange has announced that it has secured the right to sell Apple’s iPhone in the UK, ending the exclusive deal between Apple and O2 for the device since its launch in the UK.

Of course, there’s no word on just what will happen with O2’s iPhone exclusivity in Ireland, but with the original deal to sell the device exclusively set to expire in October we’re all very interested to see just what happens with the iPhone in Ireland. Of course, the move by Orange is a pretty positive sign that we’ll see similar uptake here, but for now details seem pretty scant on just what might happen to the iPhone in Ireland.

RIM Profits Down

Research in Motion, best known as the crowd behind the part-product part-cultural-phenomenon, the Blackberry, has said that it’s not happy with its current financial situation.

Cnet is carrying word that the hit RIM has taken is due in large part to a combination a heft legal settlement and disappointing sales of its Blackberry smartphones. The real question now is whether or not this is the result of the general economic downturn (about which we heard so very much) or an indication that the market has shifted away from the Blackberry as a device.

Palm to Launch Commercial App Store Thursday

Palm has announced that it intends to launch the for-pay version of it’s own answer to Apple’s incredibly successful App Store on September 24th, or this coming Thursday.

Word comes from DigitalDaily that Palm’s long-awated App Catalog’s launch date was quietly disseminated through a company timetable Palm released that indicated very succinctly, “9/24 Go live – Application sales go live.” It’s interesting that the launch has been announced so quietly, but we’d be willing to bet that this wasn’t quite how Palm envisioned everyone would find out about the paid-app launch.

iTunes 9 Causes iPod Classic Issues?

It seems as though the update to iTunes 9 hasn’t been pleasant for all concerned, with iPod Classic owners reporting that the latest version of Apple’s media player has caused their hardware to behave a little awkwardly.

Word comes via AppleInsider that the issues iTunes Classic owners are encountering include the inability to sync their hardware with their media libraries in the latest version of iTunes. Basically, iTunes seems to eject the hardware immediately after it’s plugged in. Those users suffering report that it doesn’t matter whether you’re in Mac OS X or Windows.

iPhone Spyware in the Wild

Despite the incredibly rigorous and often inexplicable security measures of the iPhone App Store, it seems as though some fairly dodgy spyware-type behaviour has managed to seep through, finding its way onto innocuous users’ iPhones.

The revelation that the iPhone’s tremendously popular App Store serves up spyware comes in the week following the news that Palm’s smart phone, the Pre, phones home with its users’ locations when using certain applications. For the past few days, it had seemed a feather in the iPhone’s cap that it wasn’t guilty of the same kind of behaviour, though now it seems that for many users it may well be.