T-Mobile USA Debuts HTC Touch Pro2

T-Mobile USA, Inc., and HTC Corp. yesterday announced the upcoming availability of the HTC Touch Pro2™, a powerful, stylish device with an intuitive touch screen and user interface that enables customers to simplify their communication and mobile Internet experience while staying connected, informed and in control of work and life. The device will be available in a mocha finish to T-Mobile customers beginning Aug. 12.

Enabled for T-Mobile’s expanding high-speed 3G network and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), the HTC Touch Pro2 offers fast data delivery and an enhanced Web-browsing experience along with popular features such as built-in GPS and location-based services. Featuring a 3.6-inch color WVGA touchscreen that slides back and tilts up to reveal a full-QWERTY keyboard, the screen is perfectly positioned for reading and creating e-mail, browsing the Web, using applications, and playing videos and games. A 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus also provides customers with an easy way to capture and share high-quality images and video as well as view that content on the crisp display.

The HTC Touch Pro2 also offers an efficient way for customers to manage their daily lives, whether at work or play. A single contact view displays the individual conversation history regardless of whether voice, text or e-mail was used. The HTC Touch Pro2 also includes Straight Talk technology, an integrated e-mail, voice and speakerphone experience that provides a simple way to respond to e-mail via a call, allows organizing conference calls from group e-mail, and makes it easy to turn any location into a conference room. Straight Talk delivers a high-fidelity voice and sound experience enhanced by asymmetric speakers and advanced noise suppression with full-duplex acoustics.

HTC’s latest TouchFLO 3D interface is deeply integrated into a customized version of Windows Mobile 6.1 to deliver maximum consistency throughout Windows Mobile applications and menus. This makes it easy for customers to view, edit and update Microsoft documents, conveniently access calendars and manage to-do lists. Access to Microsoft Voice Command also simplifies locating contacts in the address book, making phone calls, getting calendar information, playing music and starting programs. The HTC Touch Pro2 is also stereo Bluetooth® capable.

“This summer, many people are balancing summer vacations and time away from the office with the pressures of the workplace,” said Travis Warren, director, product marketing, T-Mobile USA. “We are pleased to announce the HTC Touch Pro2, a uniquely designed device that will help customers manage their day-to-day activities, whether they are in the office or working from an airport, the local playground or the car.”

“The HTC Touch Pro2 offers the most powerful productivity experience available on a mobile phone, while also delivering unparalleled elegance in both its exterior and user interface design,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of HTC America. “HTC and T-Mobile have a history of introducing groundbreaking products, and this collaboration continues with the debut of this highly anticipated device to the U.S. market.”

The new HTC Touch Pro2 is expected to be available nationwide in mid-August at T-Mobile retail stores, select authorized dealers and online at http://www.T-Mobile.com.

Windows 7 Benchmark: How good is Windows 7 really?

How does Windows 7 compare to Vista and XP in terms of performance? Since Windows 7 is finished that’s a question that maybe a few of you may have asked during the last weeks. Let’s see if we can find reasonable answers for that questions. But before I go any further I have to make something clear. The Windows 7 build that has been evaluated (build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400) is a beta build. Generally, beta builds are usally more geared towards stability than performance which means that the performance of this build will only give us a clue as to how the final release of the operating system performs.

Rather than publish a series of benchmark results for the three operating systems (something which Microsoft frowns upon for beta builds, not to mention the fact that the final numbers only really matter for the release candidate and RTM builds), I’ve decided to put Windows 7, Vista and XP head-to-head in a series of real-world tests to find out which OS comes out top.

Tests

For benchmarking 23 tests that describe commonly used features have been evaluated. All 23 tests are self explaining, anyhow.

1. Install OS - Time it takes to install the OS
2. Boot up - Average boot time to usable desktop
3. Shut down – Average shut down time
4. Move 100MB files - Move 100MB of JPEG files from one hard drive to another
5. Move 2.5GB files - Move 2.5GB of mixed size files (ranging from 1MB to 100MB) from one hard drive to another
6. Network transfer 100MB files - Move 100MB of JPEG files from test machine to NAS device
7. Network transfer 2.5GB files - Move 2.5GB of mixed size files (ranging from 1MB to 100MB) from test machine to NAS device
8. Move 100MB files under load - Move 100MB of JPEG files from one hard drive to another while ripping DVD to .ISO file
9. Move 2.5GB files under load – Move 2.5GB of mixed size files (ranging from 1MB to 100MB) from one hard drive to another while ripping DVD to .ISO file
10. Network transfer 100MB files under load - Move 100MB of JPEG files from test machine to NAS device while ripping DVD to .ISO file
11. Network transfer 2.5GB files under load - Move 2.5GB of mixed size files (ranging from 1MB to 100MB) from test machine to NAS device while ripping DVD to .ISO file
12. Compress 100MB files – Using built-in ZIP compression
13. Compress 1GB files – Using built-in ZIP compression
14. Extract 100MB files - Using built-in ZIP compression
15. Extract 1GB files – Using built-in ZIP compression
16. Install Office 2007 – Ultimate version, from DVD
17. Open 10 page Word doc - Text only
18. Open 100 page Word doc - Text and images only
19. Open simple Excel doc - Basic formatting
20. Open complex Excel doc - Including formula and charts
21. Burn DVD – Win 7 beta 1 .ISO to disc using CDBurnerXP
22. Open 10 page PDF – Text only, using latest Adobe Reader 8
23. Open 100 page PDF – Text and images, using latest Adobe Reader 8

These series of tests will pitch Windows 7 build 7000 32-bit against Windows Vista SP1 32-bit and Windows XP SP3 32-bit. The scoring for each of the tests is simple. The winning OS scores 1, the runner up 2 and the loser scores a 3. The scores are added up and the OS with the lowest score at the end wins.

Test systems

Two desktop systems have been used as the test machines:

• An AMD Phenom 9700 2.4GHz system fitted with an ATI Radeon 3850 and 4GB of RAM
• An Intel Pentium Dual Core E2200 2.2GHz fitted with an NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS and 1GB of RAM

Results

Conclusion

The bottom line is that the more I use Windows 7 the more I like it. Sure, we’re looking at a beta build here and not the final code and as Windows 7 RC is available for a few weeks, which is faster than the beta, we can expect that the RTM which is finished since a few days is a bit faster the the RC build too. I like the interface of Windows 7 and driver installation worked out for any hardware without the use of any external drivers. The operating system did it all alone. So I would say Windows 7 is a  solid bit of code.

Sure, Windows 7 is not XP, and never will be (thankfully). And if you’re put off by things such as activation and DRM, then Windows isn’t the OS for you (good news is there are others to choose from). But if you’re looking for a solid OS then Windows 7 seems ready to deliver just that – a fast, reliable, relatively easy to use platform for your hardware and software.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 RC2 are finished

Microsoft Corp. yesterday announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the next versions of its flagship desktop and server operating systems. With the completion of this development phase, industry partners are readying products in time for the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 worldwide general launches. Windows 7 will be generally available to customers around the world on October 22, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be generally available on or before that date. As always, current customers of the Windows Volume Licensing program, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers and TechNet subscribers will be among the first to get customer access to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in the coming weeks.

Start Menu

Windows 7 Wrapping

Task Manager

Windows 7 Themes

UAC

After some test runs Microsoft decided the build version 6.1.7600.16385 to be the final version of the Windows 7 kernel. Acording to some rumors the official version will be available on Microsoft’s beta portal Connect and MSDN by July, 24th. Anyhow, Windows 7 is already available through some inofficial, not authorized channels.

Pirate Bay is back

In a Facebook announcement the Pirate Bay, world’s biggest file sharing platform, commented on its comeback.

Yeah, if you thought the last couple of weeks had stopped us, we are pleased to say that we just got back from a well deserved vacation. On the moon, of course. Actually, even though we haven’t communicated this as well as we probably have should, our plan is to use th SEK 60M to build us our own moon base.I mean, as sure as we are of the moon landing beeing a straight up hoax, we are also sure of making our dreams come true. If you have noticed some unexpected downtime the last couple of years it’s probably a result of the nonfunctioning ip routing between the moon and your computer. As a matter of fact, our server park has been placed on the moon since the time of the famous raid. Along with our long time BFF Buzz Aldrin we have investigated the possibilities of having our own networking hiq on the moon. This seems to be quite possible, as long a Buzzter is working that al-anon program the right way.There might be a problem though. Until we moved our servers to the moon we have been depending on Tiamo being sober enough to fix all the problems that are constantly showing up. Now this will probably change to Tiamo getting in and out of his space suit. It’s really a pain in the ass, but we will of course take care of this in some way. BTW, here is a pic from our first day up there. It was really a blast.Tomorrow at 1400 CET we will launch our new explorer shuddle. SS Gouda, also known as “The Tulip” will begin its journey from the Eindhoven space camp base thingy, taking some of our closest friends on a trip they will never forget. Please follow our journey on our live feed!

Symbian Foundation announces application publishing program

The Symbian Foundation today previewed Symbian Horizon, a break-through application-publishing program on schedule for general availability in October 2009. With Symbian Horizon, developers will receive assistance in building applications for Symbian devices and in placing those applications in the many global stores which reach Symbian customers, and will receive promotional assistance for bringing those applications to end users. The goal of Symbian Horizon is to reduce barriers to success, while increasing the profitability of creating and delivering Symbian applications.

Upon general availability, companies and developers participating in Symbian Horizon will gain access to a variety of services that support the development, distribution, and marketing of mobile applications. From application certification and in-store presence, to language translation services and marketing programs – Symbian Horizon works with developers to create a single point of management and distribution to the largest group of mobile consumers worldwide.

Symbian’s Strength

According to a recent Gartner report , the Symbian OS on which the foundation’s open source platform is based is installed on over 70 different types of mobile handsets across 26 countries, and Symbian accounted for 49.3% of the worldwide smartphone market share in the first quarter of 2009. The Symbian platform is highly mature and has a long history of supporting multiple applications running concurrently, internationalization and power management. These are critically important elements of smartphone application development which are not offered by other platforms. And Symbian is the only platform that supports a comprehensive runtime suite including Java ME, Adobe Flash Lite, native Symbian C++ and OpenC/C++, Python and a full web toolkit.

“Our goal is to encourage robust application development, increase revenue and application diversity in mobile stores, and improve the consumer experience – all for the greater benefit of the mobile ecosystem,” said Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation. “And we can help North American developers reach markets in Asia and Europe where the Symbian platform is widely known and loved. We are building a self-sustaining ecosystem that will drive the next generation of mobile and developers that join now are aligning themselves with the future of mobile.”

Benefits for the mobile ecosystem

Symbian Horizon will provide new benefits to two primary communities within the Symbian ecosystem. The first community is made up of application store providers, either operator or manufacturer-based, such as Ovi Store by Nokia, Samsung Applications Store and AT&T’s Media Mall.

“Symbian Horizon will further complement Ovi Store in cooperation with our global developer community, Forum Nokia, to discover the best quality apps and make them available for Nokia consumers around the world,” said Marco Argenti, VP of Media & Games at Nokia. “We are keen to leverage the advances in the Symbian open source community to provide developers with the best tools to build the best apps and experiences for Nokia devices.”

“I expect that Symbian developers to have broader opportunities to reach consumers at the Samsung Applications Store thanks to Symbian Horizon. We welcomes a valuable effort of Symbian Foundation and will support Symbian Horizon to provide benefits of total eco-system partnership in the industry.” said Yong-suk Moon, Vice President and Managing Director of Samsung Electronics Research Institute based in UK. “Samsung is an early member of Symbian Foundation and has contributed for consumers to have more advanced and exciting mobile experience.”

“As a founding member of the Symbian Foundation, AT&T is pleased to support Symbian Horizon and sees this as a wonderful opportunity for mobile developers, operators and handset manufacturers to collaborate together and reach a broader market,” said Rob Hyatt, Executive Director, Mobile Content and Applications at AT&T. “Both MEdia Mall and AT&T’s recently announced support for Ovi Store by Nokia will use Symbian Horizon to source smartphone applications which are a growing part of our portfolio.”

The second target community for Symbian Horizon is comprised of developers ranging from individual developers to companies that want to reach a broader mobile consumer market. Companies already committed to participate in Symbian Horizon include Dynatech, The Guardian, MobileIron, National Public Radio (NPR), Skout, Ustream, and Wine.com.

“Symbian Horizon is a wonderful opportunity for NPR and its member stations to showcase our award-winning news, music and arts content and to expand our reach,” said Robert Spier, Director of Content Development & Mobile Operations at NPR. “We are eager to meet our audiences wherever they are, as shown by our record as an innovator and leader in podcasting. This is also a very natural partnership — Symbian’s open-source heritage aligns with our API-philosophy, which is all about openness and flexibility.”

As a leading global news provider – both online and in print – The Guardian has also chosen to work with Symbian Horizon. “The Guardian has a strong reputation for innovation across the board,” said Hugh Macdermott, Head of New Product Development at The Guardian. “Mobile is a significant and increasingly important area for us. We are therefore delighted to be involved with Symbian Horizon so early on, as part of our ongoing mobile development program through which we will be working with a number of mobile platforms in order to introduce a wide range of applications for our global audiences.”

Skout, the darling of the iPhone market and recent DEMOgod winner, looks to increase user acquisition by participating in Symbian Horizon. “Symbian offers an opportunity for us to leverage a new platform to reach more users,” said Christian Wiklund, CEO at Skout. “Much of the Skout team is European, and we know that the Symbian platform leads the world wide mobile market. The distribution opportunity through Horizon will help us drive broader user adoption.”

Availability

Symbian Horizon is currently in development with a number of participating companies and developers, and is anticipated to be available in October 2009. For more information about Symbian Horizon, or to register for participation, please visit www.symbian.org/horizon.

Apple is stingy with remuneration

External programmers claim apple for not distributing their profitsharing. According to a growing groupt of thrid-party developers Apple is stingy with remuneration. The payments are entitled to them as sppm as their developed software applications are sold via App Store for the iPhone. Apple declined to answer questions.

The external App Store developers feel betrayed and exploitet since they are the reason for crossing the billion application line in the App Store. In forums and chat rooms claims of third party developers, who moan about extremely late payed bills, heap up. In the United States Apple already took measures and announced to pay the developers within the next 45 days. Developers dismiss this statement as waffle.

This mess started back a few months at the same time as Apple boss Steve Jobs left the company for sanitary reasons. According to the New York Post, one of the developers concerned complains about contributions still due (more than 10.000 USD) since February. The developer wanted to stay anonymous because he feared that Apple could have banned him. However, only a single mail account is available for third-party developers to complain about problems. According to some e-mails the developers were just put off.

How Qt will ease your life

In one of the biggest news stories of the year, Nokia has acquired all of the rights to the Symbian operating system (OS) and open sourced it under the Eclipse license. In one fell swoop, the need for mobile Linux just became far less obvious.

With 60 percent of the mobile market, Symbian has long been the dominant mobile OS. While Nokia has recently been dabbling with Linux, this move presumably will shift its efforts back to Symbian.

Indeed, Nokia’s move may actually completely refactor the mobile industry’s rising affection for Linux. As Glyn Moody suggests, developers already know Symbian and are likely to redouble their efforts there instead of moving to rival platforms like Google’s Android and other mobile Linux platforms.

Is this a bad thing? I don’t think so. It’s not Linux, per se, that is important to mobile. It’s open source. Whether through an open-source Symbian or open-source Linux, the benefits to developers is the same: Transparency, flexibility, and community.

As a reaction to Google Android Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Monorola and NTT DoCoMo are working on a concept uniting SymbianOS, UIQ and MOAP(S). In the first stage the Symbian Foundation has been founded. Goal of this foundation is to make Symbian available for free and then open source.

As Nokia and Symbian already announced, the development will focus on mobile linux distribution like MAEMO, which features for example the entire OpenGL 2.0 engine. The framework that will be supported in the future is a cross-platform application development framework called Qt (pronounced as the English word “cute^“).

Qt is widely used for the development of GUI programs (in which case it is known as a widget toolkit), and also used for developing non-GUI programs such as console tools and servers. Qt is most notably used in KDE, Google Earth, Skype, Qt Extended, Adobe Photoshop Album, VirtualBox and OPIE. It is produced by Nokia’s Qt Software division, which came into being after Nokia’s acquisition of the Norwegian company Trolltech, the original producer of Qt.

Qt uses C++ with several non-standard extensions implemented by an additional pre-processor that generates standard C++ code before compilation. Qt can also be used in several other programming languages via language bindings. It runs on all major platforms, and has extensive internationalization support. Non-GUI features include SQL database access, XML parsing, thread management, network support and a unified cross-platform API for file handling.

Distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (among others), Qt is free and open source software. This is also one reason why I believe that Qt will probably become one of the most important frameworks (besides Android) for the future.

What Super Mario, Pacman, Lara Croft and Guybrush have in common…

A German animation crew used various video game characters and put them together into a video. This is where Mario wants to have Sex with Lara Croft and Guybrush gets killed by the Doom player. See characters from Tomb Raider, Monkey’s Island, Doom and Super Mario interacting in multiple quite silly ways with each other. Check out a world where Ryu and Guile love each other…

Attack of the Robobats

Small flyers, or micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs), have garnered a great deal of interest due to their potential applications where maneuverability in tight spaces is necessary, says researcher Gheorghe Bunget. For example, Bunget says, “due to the availability of small sensors, MAVs can be used for detection missions of biological, chemical and nuclear agents.” But, due to their size, devices using a traditional fixed-wing or rotary-wing design have low maneuverability and aerodynamic efficiency.

The Robobat skeleton

So Bunget, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at NC State, and his advisor Dr. Stefan Seelecke looked to nature. “We are trying to mimic nature as closely as possible,” Seelecke says, “because it is very efficient. And, at the MAV scale, nature tells us that flapping flight – like that of the bat – is the most effective.”

The researchers did extensive analysis of bats’ skeletal and muscular systems before developing a “robo-bat” skeleton using rapid prototyping technologies. The fully assembled skeleton rests easily in the palm of your hand and, at less than 6 grams, feels as light as a feather. The researchers are currently completing fabrication and assembly of the joints, muscular system and wing membrane for the robo-bat, which should allow it to fly with the same efficient flapping motion used by real bats.

“The key concept here is the use of smart materials,” Seelecke says. “We are using a shape-memory metal alloy that is super-elastic for the joints. The material provides a full range of motion, but will always return to its original position – a function performed by many tiny bones, cartilage and tendons in real bats.”

Seelecke explains that the research team is also using smart materials for the muscular system. “We’re using an alloy that responds to the heat from an electric current. That heat actuates micro-scale wires the size of a human hair, making them contract like ‘metal muscles.’ During the contraction, the powerful muscle wires also change their electric resistance, which can be easily measured, thus providing simultaneous action and sensory input. This dual functionality will help cut down on the robo-bat’s weight, and allow the robot to respond quickly to changing conditions – such as a gust of wind – as perfectly as a real bat.”

In addition to creating a surveillance tool with very real practical applications, Seelecke says the robo-bat could also help expand our understanding of aerodynamics. “It will allow us to do tests where we can control all of the variables – and finally give us the opportunity to fully understand the aerodynamics of flapping flight,” Seelecke says.

Bunget will present the research this September at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems in Oxnard, Calif.

First Electronic Quantum Processor Created

A team led by Yale University researchers has created the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor, taking another step toward the ultimate dream of building a quantum computer.

The two-qubit processor is the first solid-state quantum processor that resembles a conventional computer chip and is able to run simple algorithms.

They also used the two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run elementary algorithms, such as a simple search, demonstrating quantum information processing with a solid-state device for the first time. Their findings appeared in Nature’s advanced online publication June 28.

“Our processor can perform only a few very simple quantum tasks, which have been demonstrated before with single nuclei, atoms and photons,” said Robert Schoelkopf, the William A. Norton Professor of Applied Physics & Physics at Yale. “But this is the first time they’ve been possible in an all-electronic device that looks and feels much more like a regular microprocessor.”

Working with a group of theoretical physicists led by Steven Girvin, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics & Applied Physics, the team manufactured two artificial atoms, or qubits (“quantum bits”). While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states. These states are akin to the “1″ and “0″ or “on” and “off” states of regular bits employed by conventional computers. Because of the counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics, however, scientists can effectively place qubits in a “superposition” of multiple states at the same time, allowing for greater information storage and processing power.

For example, imagine having four phone numbers, including one for a friend, but not knowing which number belonged to that friend. You would typically have to try two to three numbers before you dialed the right one. A quantum processor, on the other hand, can find the right number in only one try.

“Instead of having to place a phone call to one number, then another number, you use quantum mechanics to speed up the process,” Schoelkopf said. “It’s like being able to place one phone call that simultaneously tests all four numbers, but only goes through to the right one.”

These sorts of computations, though simple, have not been possible using solid-state qubits until now in part because scientists could not get the qubits to last long enough. While the first qubits of a decade ago were able to maintain specific quantum states for about a nanosecond, Schoelkopf and his team are now able to maintain theirs for a microsecond—a thousand times longer, which is enough to run the simple algorithms. To perform their operations, the qubits communicate with one another using a “quantum bus”—photons that transmit information through wires connecting the qubits—previously developed by the Yale group.

The key that made the two-qubit processor possible was getting the qubits to switch “on” and “off” abruptly, so that they exchanged information quickly and only when the researchers wanted them to, said Leonardo DiCarlo, a postdoctoral associate in applied physics at Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science and lead author of the paper.

Next, the team will work to increase the amount of time the qubits maintain their quantum states so they can run more complex algorithms. They will also work to connect more qubits to the quantum bus. The processing power increases exponentially with each qubit added, Schoelkopf said, so the potential for more advanced quantum computing is enormous. But he cautions it will still be some time before quantum computers are being used to solve complex problems.

“We’re still far away from building a practical quantum computer, but this is a major step forward.”

Authors of the paper include Leonardo DiCarlo, Jerry M. Chow, Lev S. Bishop, Blake Johnson, David Schuster, Luigi Frunzio, Steven Girvin and Robert Schoelkopf (all of Yale University), Jay M. Gambetta (University of Waterloo), Johannes Majer (Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten) and Alexandre Blais (Université de Sherbrooke).