You know what, we’re not gonna make that joke. You can, but we’ll just move right along to the meat of this story — Nokia has listed a telescopic stylus for capacitive screens, the SU-36, which seems to have come out right alongside the N8 to serve as its Symbian^3 assistant. Compatible with the N8, X6, and any other phone with a proper touchscreen on it, this retractable accessory will substitute your fingers when they are either too cold or too imprecise to do the job themselves. It’s not yet been priced or made available, but you’ll be fine using that sausage stylus for another few weeks, won’t ya?

[Thanks, Zabavan]

Nokia sticks to its stylus roots, offers telescopic SU-36 for capacitive screens originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Vladislav Savov

When we first got our paws on the Dell Aero it was missing Maps, and the Market, and all the other Google-branded apps that make Android as good as it is. Initial fears regarding their absence were assuaged by representatives indicating that all of Google’s goodness would be available in the phone, and now it’s confirmed: the Aero will include all of the Google Mobile Services, including the Market, Maps, Gmail, and search. That contrasts with the Backflip, which at this point is still bereft of Google Maps. So sad.

[Thanks, Alex D.]

Dell Aero confirmed to offer all that Google’s got to give originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Tim Stevens

Has the Nokia N8 made a Symbian^3 believer out of you? If so, you’ll be glad to know the beta tag has been peeled off the web application development tools for the platform, which — according to Executive Director Lee Williams — provide “an ideal entry point” for coders of all skill levels. This is because the primary languages spoken are HTML, CSS and JavaScript, familiar to almost anyone who’s tried to create for the web, and with just a little extra JavaScript exercise, you’re promised access to the phone’s contacts, camera, accelerometer, and location. It sounds all kinds of refreshing, but the usefulness of this tool set and the entire environment will be determined by what people produce with it — and to that end we’ve provided you with a link to the downloads page (Windows, Mac and Linux users are all being served) where you can get your Symbian dev career started in earnest.

Continue reading Symbian^3 web app development tools come out of beta, aim for standardized simplicity

Symbian^3 web app development tools come out of beta, aim for standardized simplicity originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 06:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Vladislav Savov

Let’s take a break from Apple and Adobe’s back-and-forth, shall we? Instead, we’ll let the latter company talk about its work with Google, specifically the Android platform. Flash-based CTO Kevin Lynch said today in a post, “We look forward to delivering Flash Player 10.1 for Android smartphones as a public preview at Google I/O in May, and then a general release in June.” Good news, indeed, but with all this talk of Froyo having native Flash support, and this month’s conference serving as the largest gathering of Android developers, we can’t imagine a better platform (pun intended) for Andy Rubin and company to unveil its fragmentation-curbing Froyo update. Might Flash 10.1′s May preview / June release schedule line up with the OS, as well? Just some fat-free food for thought.

[Thanks, Steven]

Adobe CTO says Flash 10.1 for Android in June — will Froyo follow suit? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 06:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Ross Miller

After a brief delay, looks like CyanogenMod 5 is now out for the HTC Dream, Magic and Sapphire, also known as the T-Mobile G1 and myTouch 3G. The release is labeled as experimental, so take care not to flash it onto your work phone, and G1 owners should back up their data as they’ll need to install a little something called the DangerSPL and perform a full wipe. If you’re the kind of individual who doesn’t shy away from software explicitly labeled “danger,” get cracking on that rooted Eclair at the source link.

Update: Can’t get through? That’s because the sheer willpower of Android early adopters is crushing websites hosting the CM5 ROM like so many stale pretzels. Cyanogen is retweeting alternative options if you simply can’t wait for things to quiet down.

Cyanogen 5.0.7 experimentally brings Eclair to G1, myTouch 3G — caveats apply originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Sean Hollister

The N900 already features one of the best pocket browsing experiences we’ve ever seen, but it looks to be getting a whole lot better today with the beta release of Firefox 1.1. Major new features include portrait browsing (awesome), form auto-complete, a context menu, volume key zoom, and — this is pretty neat — the capability to save pages straight to PDF, so it seems like the kind of thing you’ll definitely want to download, even if it’s not quite solid enough to earn gold build status. Oh, and if you don’t have an N810 or N900 handy and you’re amped to play around, you can download the little guy for Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, too.

Firefox 1.1 beta for Maemo goes live originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

There’s no official transcript yet, but the Wall Street Journal just live-blogged an interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, in which he responded to the Steve Jobs “Thoughts on Flash” letter posted this morning. Substantively, Narayen didn’t offer much we haven’t heard Adobe say before, but his frustration with Apple is palpable even in summary form: he called Jobs’ points a “smokescreen,” said Flash is an “open specification,” and further said Apple’s restrictions are “cumbersome” to developers and have “nothing to do with technology.” What’s more, he also said Jobs’ claims about Flash affecting battery life are “patently false,” and suggested that any Flash-related crashes on OS X have more to do with Apple’s operating system than Adobe’s software.

Perhaps most importantly, Narayen reiterated that Adobe is fundamentally about making it easier for devs to write multiplatform tools — a stance Jobs specifically took issue with in his letter, saying multiplatform tools led to bad user experiences. Apple and Adobe and the rest of us can argue about battery life and performance all night, but that’s clearly the central philosophical difference between these two companies, and we doubt it’s ever going to change. That is, unless Adobe absolutely kills it with Flash 10.1 on Android 2.2 — and given our experiences with Flash on smartphones and netbooks thus far, we’ll be honest when we say that’s going to be a major challenge. We’ll link over to the full transcript when it goes up, but for now, hit the source link for the liveblog.

Adobe’s CEO: Jobs’ Flash letter is a ‘smokescreen’ for ‘cumbersome’ restrictions originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Adobe_s_CEO_responds_to_Jobs_open_letter_on_Flash’; There’s no official transcript yet, but the Wall Street Journal just live-blogged an interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, in which he responded to the Steve Jobs “Thoughts on Flash” letter posted this morning. Substantively, Narayen didn’t offer much we haven’t heard Adobe say before, but his frustration with Apple is palpable even in summary form: he called Jobs’ points a “smokescreen,” said Flash is an “open specification,” and further said Apple’s restrictions are “cumbersome” to developers and have “nothing to do with technology.” What’s more, he also said Jobs’ claims about Flash affecting battery life are “patently false,” and suggested that any Flash-related crashes on OS X have more to do with Apple’s operating system than Adobe’s software.

Perhaps most importantly, Narayen reiterated that Adobe is fundamentally about making it easier for devs to write multiplatform tools — a stance Jobs specifically took issue with in his letter, saying multiplatform tools lead to bad user experiences. Apple and Adobe and the rest of us can argue about battery life and performance all night, but that’s clearly the central philosophical difference between these two companies, and we doubt it’s ever going to change. That is, unless Adobe absolutely kills it with Flash 10.1 on Android 2.2 — and given our experiences with Flash on smartphones and netbooks thus far, we’ll be honest when we say that’s going to be a major challenge. We’ll link over to the full transcript when it goes up, but for now, hit the source link for the liveblog.

Update: We’ve now embedded video of the interview for you after the break. Much better than a transcript, don’t you think?

Continue reading Adobe’s CEO: Jobs’ Flash letter is a ‘smokescreen’ for ‘cumbersome’ restrictions (update: video)

Adobe’s CEO: Jobs’ Flash letter is a ‘smokescreen’ for ‘cumbersome’ restrictions (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Nilay Patel