Tech Treks

• Will Google's Android kill the iPhone?
  Monday, Google is expected to announce a major mobile initiative called Android. Google's mobile announcement seems likely to include an open source platform for creating mobile applications with a full suite of core components: operating system; browser; a set of common APIs; and a customizable user interface. Many big-name partners are expected to be mentioned in the announcement, including Sprint and China Mobile. Verizon, RIM, Nokia, and Apple are not expected to be listed, which could pit the iPhone against the Google phone in the year ahead. Google's entry into the industry could finally inject some real competition into the... READ MORE

• WiMAX rolls out
  WiMAX has long been coupled with promises of being one to two years from widespread deployment. Now it looks like that promise may actually become a reality for a select number of metropolitan areas, starting with Portland, Oregon, where Sprint and Clearwire are running trials of their new Xohm service. Xohm could go a long way toward bridging the digital divide. And I don't mean the divide that separates our own haves and have-nots, though it could help with that as well. I mean the divide that separates the US from other developed countries that already enjoy faster and more... READ MORE

• YouTube quietly launches Mobile site
  YouTube has somewhat surreptitiously launched its Mobile site at m.youtube.com. The site is xHTML-optimized for mobile phones, which must have built-in video streaming capabilities (RTSP/3GP with H263/AMR) to take advantage of the site. It also supports video uploading from mobile phones via MMS. The guys at Gizmodo just spent some time testing out the new site using two 3G phones over Sprint's EVDO network. Among their findings (which they chronicled in their own video that's now live on their site): --Videos must still be uploaded from the phone via SMS, not the site itself --Streamed videos can't be downloaded and... READ MORE

• Toshiba laptops to sport AMD processors
  Score another one for AMD. Reuters (and InfoWorld news) is reporting that Toshiba plans to use AMD processors in up to 20 percent of laptops that it sells throughout Europe and the U.S. The company will incorporate AMD chips in its "moderate-priced standard models," as opposed to its top-of-the-line systems. Read: Toshiba's not necessarily acquiescing that AMD chips outperform Intel's, hard as AMD tries. Still, the switch has to hurt for Intel, which recently saw long-time loyal Dell and now Toshiba breaking rank. With its newly announced Santa Rosa laptops showing merely modest performance gains (surprise), now is not the... READ MORE

• Details leak on Santa Rosa laptops from Dell, HP, Lenovo, more
  Many laptop manufacturers originally intended Wednesday, May 9, to be a momentous day, due to their announcement of new Santa Rosa systems. But in light of leaks on almost all of the new notebooks, that day now promises to be a lot like any other. You name the vendor -- Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony, Fujitsu, Asus -- and details about its system are probably already circulating 'round the vast mobile blogosphere. Here's the short list: Asus W7S, F3SV, A8SC, A7S: Thin-and-light, three mid-sizers, and a desktop replacement Dell Latitude D630 and D830: Thin-and-light and midsize business laptop lines Fujitsu LifeBook... READ MORE

• RIM announces new BlackBerry Curve
  RIM's just released a new fix for all of the CrackBerry addicts out there: the new BlackBerry 8300 "Curve." A far cry from the boring black device of prior generations, the new edition has the same QWERTY keyboard but now a sleek silver face and rounded edges that RIM hopes will make the device more appealing to mobile hipsters. The upgrades go well beyond aesthetics, including a 2 megapixel camera with 5x zoom; a media player and 3.5mm headphone jack; and a microSD card slot. Noticeable absences include a lack of Wi-Fi and 3G support and no video recording capability... READ MORE

• Jobs reveals future Mac(Book?) plans
  The Webby awards were announced this week, and among the winners was a Greenpeace site calling for Apple to make its products more environmentally friendly. In classic Steve Jobs fashion, the Apple mastermind fired back, posting an open letter on Apple's own site. It's hard to imagine how Apple could not respond to something like this, since it's built its whole image around being one of the most forward-thinking companies out there. Yet in responding, Jobs was forced to give at least a few details about future product plans--undoubtedly taking some of the wind out of the sails that are... READ MORE

• IDF aftermath: breaking down Intel's WiMax, UMPC news
  Intel's been attaching code names to its mobile products for a long time, but the company's penchant for code seems to have reached a fever pitch of late. Take last week at IDF. The announcements flying out of Beijing had so many associated code names, I felt like I was reading roll-call in a classroom full of preschoolers named by bougie parents. It's getting hard for anyone to follow, let alone someone who doesn't regularly track the industry. Here's the gist: -- Santa Rosa: Just over four years ago, Intel introduced a new mobile CPU, chipset, and wireless card all... READ MORE

• More Females than Males Use the Internet
  It's not exactly a mobile-tech topic, but being that I'm one of InfoWorld's only female bloggers, I couldn't resist. Several major research firms are reporting that when it comes to the total number of U.S. web surfers in 2007, females will edge out males, 51.7 percent to 48.3 percent. But as with all surveys, you have to read between the lines to get a sense of what's really being measured here: many of these firms take into account the Internet habits of females and males as young as two years old. In another disheartening qualifier, it appears that more and... READ MORE

• New Toshiba Qosmio to Come with HD DVD Burner
  With the current-generation Toshiba Qosmio G30 barely out of the gate, plans for the next refresh, the G40, have already been leaked. The big G40 news is that the laptop will come with an HD DVD burner, which you can use to burn discs and then export the video to HDTV using the portable's HDMI 1.3 port. The new Qosmio will also sport new 512MB GeForce 8600 GT graphics and two 200GB hard drives, along with the same 2GHz Core 2 Duo chip and 17-inch display. In light of its $3,000 price tag, the new Qosmio still won't be showing... READ MORE

• Apple confirms iPhone launch for June
  It's official (insofar as Apple's cryptic plans surrounding a new product are ever official until you're actually holding the thing in your hand): the iPhone will arrive this June. AppleInsider reports that the company spilled the beans in an email to an iPhone-fan subscriber list. "You'll be the first to hear the latest about the iPhone--coming this June," stated said email, which went on to quip "that gives you just enough time to think of ways to break the news to your current phone." Here's hoping that the iPhone lives up to the big attitude Apple's using to market it.... READ MORE

• Sonopia: any group can provide cell service
  Former Microsoft exec Juha Christensen, who played key roles both in lauching MS's wireless software