by alec on October 5, 2009
There was big news here in Soviet Canuckistan today. Next month, Bell and Telus will both start selling the Apple iPhone. What? “How is that possible”, you ask. “Aren’t Bell and Telus tied to ancient CDMA technology?”
Both are rolling out network upgrades to HSPA technology in time for the 2010 Olympics, putting them on an equal footing with Rogers. Bell says that they will be lighting up their HSPA network by the end of November – less than two months away – while Telus hasn’t made a commitment on dates yet.
It’s not just about the iPhone, however. Both networks should work with any foreign phones that support the appropriate HSPA networks. Bell and Telus customers will have access to an extraordinary range of phones that were previously only usable on the Rogers network. Bell has even said that they will unlock handsets for customers (for a price).
This is a great day indeed, because finally, meaningful competition is coming to Canadian networks.
by alec on October 5, 2009
Adobe’s on a roll, putting flash into all kinds of devices. Expect lots of announcements this week as the Adobe MAX Conference gets underway. For example, over the weekend, news reports said that Adobe would extend flash to just about every phone in the market – except iPhone. The message is that with Flash 10.1, content that had previously only been available to desktop browsers will now be accessible on handheld devices.
The less talked about impact of Adobe’s plans is that Flash is rapidly becoming a de-facto development environment for rapid cross platform development. Rich enough to support many types of applications, Flash also delivers tangible productivity gains to software developers.
The team at local embedded OS creator QNX Software Systems has released a kit for developing automobile applications – in Flash. Dubbed QNX CAR, this system lets developers create entertainment systems, and dashboard systems, using Flash as the development environment. Riding on the QNX Neutrino RTOS, these systems are both reliable and easy to get to market quickly because of the Flash environment. And they look pretty darn good as well!
Here’s a sample dashboard, showing turn by turn GPS as well as drawing weather information from a live internet connection.
And here’s a sample entertainment system, showing streaming internet radio via Pandora.
Last week the QNX CAR team was announced as a finalist in the mobile category for the Adobe MAX Award at Adobe’s MAX conference. Congratulations to the home team, and good luck in the voting. If you’d like to cast your vote for QNX, simply click here and fill in the form. Hurry though, as tomorrow is the last day to vote.
