Sony reportedly working on an entry-level smartphone, ST21i Tapioca

sony is reportedly developing an entry-level Android smartphone, codenamed ST21i Tapioca. The device will be running on the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and powered by an 800 MHz Qualcomm processor . Reports about a new Sony smartphone have come after leaked photos of the rumoured device surfaced online.

According to Xperiablog, the sony ST21i will have a 3.2-inch (320 x 480) display, Qualcomm MSM7227 800MHz processor with Adreno 200 GPU, 512MB RAM, 3MP camera with no LED flash shooting video at VGA resolution (640 x 480). It will come with a 1,460mAh battery and will launch with Android 4.0 ICS. There's no word when the Sony ST21i Tapioca will be officially announced.

This is not the first time rumours of an entry-level Sony smartphone have hit the Internet. Last year, reports said that Sony Ericsson was working on an entry-level smartphone, destined for emerging markets. The device, then dubbed as the Sony Ericsson ST21a, appeared in the AnTuTu benchmark, confirming the 800MHz processor speed.

Meanwhile, leaked images of another unannounced Sony smartphone have hit the web. The rumoured device, branded as the Xperia LT29i Hayabusa, features Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, a 4.55 inch HD display, dual-core, Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 Pro processor (with Adreno 320 GPU), 13MP rear camera with HDR video, 2,200 mAh battery, and a case that’s about 7mm thin. The device is expected to be officially launched in June.

(courtesy:thinkdigit.com)

With Quasar, jailbroken iPads get Windows

Quasar brings "in the box" thinking to the iPad.

(Credit: Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET)

So far, true multitasking with the ease of use we came to expect on PCs has been hard to come by on most mobile devices, including the iPad. But a little hack called Quasar that's available for 10 bucks in the Cydia store seems to be the first to bring a decent windowed app management experience to jailbroken iPads.

Quasar brings much of the functionality of Windows to the touch screen 'ahead of the release of Windows 8' -- there's the ability to view multiple apps in windows simultaneously, resize, rearrange, close, or go full-screen. It's never been so easy to get some work done during a FaceTime conversation that's gone on just a bit too long.

Quasar is the product of Brazillian developer Pedro Franceschi, who says he's also working on Bluetooth keyboard support for the hack. Add a Start button and Quasar might just bring Windows to the tablet world via the iPad before Microsoft does.

Here's a video of Quasar in action:

(courtesy:cnet.com)

Is there a Windows-based Barnes & Noble reader in the works?

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble's patent settlement and partnership both announced this morning, have spurred questions as to whether there is some kind of Windows-powered e-reader in the wings.

Neither party is saying much at this point. During a call with press and analysts about the formation of NewCo -- a jointly-owned subsidiary -- execs from the two companies danced around questions about the possibility of a Windows-powered e-reader, which could be branded as a Nook or in some other way.

There are clues that some kind of a dedicated, Windows-powered e-reader built by Microsoft and/or Barnes & Noble may be in the works. But it might not necessarily be a Windows 8 device.

One of my sources said that Microsoft and B&N had been working on a partnership for a while under which Microsoft would build an e-reader and B&N would build the back-end bookstore. According to that source, the partnership fizzled, perhaps due in part to the Microsoft Courier tablet effort (which also fizzled).

But the idea that there could be some kind of dedicated, Windows-powered e-reader didn't die. In fact, Microsoft execs have continued to tout the idea that an e-reader is part of the gamut of devices that will be powered by Windows. Just a month ago, in fact, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, mentioned again during a keynote that e-readers will be one of a handful of form factors where Microsoft's Metro interface/design style will play in the future.

Microsoft continues to tout e-readers as one of the form factors where Windows and the Metro UI will figure.

(Credit: Microsoft)

It's interesting and perhaps telling that Turner called out "Metro," and not "Windows," as what will be common across tablets, PCs, phones, and other devices. Today, during the B&N/Microsoft investor call, analysts asked whether a Windows 8 e-reader might result from the new partnership.

"We have a myriad of form factors, price points, and capabilities, but we certainly see more form factors with Windows 8 coming forward," said Microsoft President Andy Lees, whom Microsoft officials are saying spearheaded the B&N partnership on Microsoft's side.

So is that a yes or a no? I have no idea. Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch provided a bit more guidance, noting that there's a 1 GHz Texas Instruments chip powering Nook tablets today. "Microsoft has already stated its intention to run on ARM processors, including TI," Lynch said.

The version of Windows that is running on ARM is not, technically, Windows 8. It is known as Windows RT (and previously as Windows on ARM, or WOA). That version of Windows is built on the foundation of Windows (Windows core) and "has a very significant amount of shared code with Windows 8." But it's still not, technically, Windows 8. It's far more locked-down -- which might make it a better choice for a dedicated device, like an e-reader.

There's another option. Microsoft could license one of the embedded flavors of Windows -- like Windows Compact Embedded or Windows Embedded Standard -- to B&N to use as the operating system for a new e-reader. One of the advantages to B&N of this kind of an arrangement would be the company wouldn't have to pay Microsoft a penalty patent royalty payment for each reader sold. (That's what B&N now has to do with each Android-based Nook sold, as of the just-signed patent settlement with Microsoft.) The question is whether the cost to B&N of licensing some version of Windows for each e-reader is the same or less than the cost of using open-sourced Android (zero) plus some unpublicized patent-royalty payment to Microsoft.

Update: My ZDNet colleague Jason Perlow noted there's still yet another potentially possible option: Windows Phone OS 8, codenamed Apollo. Could Microsoft be offering Apollo for license to OEMs who are making devices other than phones? In the recent past, Microsoft has prohibited OEMs from using the Windows Phone OS on non-phone devices, limiting its licensing by screen size. But maybe...

There's one other point from the investor call is worth mentioning. Microsoft's Lees mentioned a few times that Microsoft is positioning Windows as key to the future of reading. He said that Microsoft doesn't see itself as "just" the platform provider; it intends to have a hand in how people are going to write/create stories, how they'll read, how they'll interact with stories, and how they'll learn -- a "blurring of different content types." B&N's role here will be to "help enable the purchase," Lees said.

(It's worth noting that the Microsoft-B&N deal isn't exclusive, so this doesn't mean Microsoft will be working only with B&N on the back-end store side. There's already an Amazon Kindle app for Windows 8.)

We haven't seen or heard much from Microsoft on the content creation/publishing side of e-books, at least so far. Are the Softies thinking about doing something along the lines of Jackson Fish Market, created by a few ex-Microsoft folks, by the way, which has been doing some pioneering work around an app that lets users record stories with audio and video and make them available online?

Whatever the likely Windows-powered reader ends up being, there's a good chance it might do more than allow users to purchase and read e-books. The lines are blurring in this space, with e-readers allowing users to run apps on their reader devices, making them more like specialty tablets.

"The wildcard is that Amazon has entered the tablet space in a big way," with the Kindle Fire, said one of my contacts, who requested anonymity. "Microsoft now classifies them as a competitor, and you can see an impact already. The Microsoft Stores originally carried the Kindle, but once the Fire was launched they removed the Kindle displays. So Microsoft now has a dependency on someone who is a competitor."

ALSO READ:

Barnes & Noble, Microsoft ink $300M strategic deal on e-reading..

(courtesy:cnet.com)

Java creator James Gosling: 'Google totally slimed Sun'

 James Gosling at JavaOne in May 2007.

                                                                                                                  (Credit: James Martin/CNET)

James Gosling has a great deal of his life invested in Java. He is considered the father of the programming language, which was launched by Sun in 1995 and runs on billions of digital devices, and is currently at the center of a contentious legal battle between Oracle and Google.

Up until Saturday night -- when he wrote that "Google totally slimed Sun" -- the proud father of Java had been fairly moderate in his comments about how Google treated his baby. 

Full coverage: Oracle v. Google

When the lawsuit, claiming that Google had infringed on Java copyrights and patents in its Android platform, was announced by Oracle back on August 10, 2010, Gosling suggested on his personal blog that Java's new owner might be inclined to take a different approach to dealing with Google and Android than was the case at Sun Microsystems:

"Not a big surprise. During the integration meetings between Sun and Oracle where we were being grilled about the patent situation between Sun and Google, we could see the Oracle lawyer's eyes sparkle. Filing patent suits was never in Sun's genetic code. Alas...."

A few days later, on August 15, 2010, Gosling wrote a longer post, citing "very weak notions of interoperability" with Android that Sun "strongly objected to." He concluded his post by calling the lawsuit "more about ego, money and power."

"Don't interpret any of my comments as support for Oracle's suit. There are no guiltless parties with white hats in this little drama. This skirmish isn't much about patents or principles or programming languages. The suit is far more about ego, money and power."

Gosling left Oracle with some acrimony in April 2010, less than three months after the enterprise software giant closed its deal to acquire Sun for $7.4 billion. In announcing his departure, Gosling wrote,  "Just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good."

Following my article on ex-Sun executives on opposing sides of the lawsuit last week, which misstated his position on Oracle v. Google, Gosling assigned some public guilt, declaring that "Google totally slimed Sun":

"Just because Sun didn't have patent suits in our genetic code doesn't mean we didn't feel wronged. While I have differences with Oracle, in this case they are in the right. Google totally slimed Sun. We were all really disturbed, even Jonathan: he just decided to put on a happy face and tried to turn lemons into lemonade."

For Gosling and Sun's management, Android represented a kind of dark side, incompatible with the Java "Write Once, Run Anywhere" (WORA) credo. The Google "slime" was likely what Sun saw as a high-flying, arrogant Google, stacked with the former Sun CTO (Eric Schmidt) as its CEO and a roster of top Java engineers, using what was considered Sun's open, but in some ways restricted, code in a way that would offer little benefit to struggling company that had invested tens of millions of dollars developing Java and its community over more than a decade. 

In a March 8, 2007 e-mail to Schwartz about working with Google on licensing or partnering with Sun on Java, Sun's co-founder and chairman, Scott McNealy, characterized the relationship with Google at the time: "The Google thing is really a pain. They are immune to copyright laws, good citizenship, they dont share. They dont even call back."

In an interview with eWeek in June 2009, Gosling outlined his concerns about Android:

"It's really hard to tell what their intentions are with Android. They put this thing out there, and you've got lots of people picking it up. The big attraction seems to be the zero on the price tag. But everybody I've talked to who is building an Android phone or whatever, they're all going in and they're just hacking on it. And so all these Android phones are going to be incompatible.

"One of the reasons that we charge license fees is because we've got organizations of people that do compatibility testing and actual negotiating amongst the different handset makers so that things like GPS APIs look the same. And what's going on in the Android world is there's kind of no adult in charge. And all these handset manufacturers are doing whatever they damn well please. Which means that it's just going to be randomness. It could be let a thousand flowers bloom, but it also could be a dog's breakfast. And I guess having been around the track a few times, it feels like it's going to be more of a dog's breakfast."

In testimony last week, former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz basically dismissed Oracle's claims of infringement. He stated that Google didn't infringe on any Java intellectual property and didn't require any license from Sun as long as Android was not branded Java in any way. 

"We didn't like it, but we weren't going to stop it by complaining about it," Schwartz said, indicating he may have felt a little "slimed." 

"Imagine for a moment if Google selected Microsoft Windows," which was the alternative to an open source Java implementation at the time. Schwartz preferred Google's variance with the Java WORA to a stronger Microsoft in the mobile arena.

McNealy shares Gosling's view of Google's actions, disputing Schwartz's conclusion that Google was legally in the clear as long as its didn't use the Java name or logo.  "I don't recall that was ever a strategy that we pursued nor allowed in the marketplace," he said in court. 

Gosling's sense of Google's wrongdoing didn't prevent him from joining the company one year after leaving Oracle, as the lawsuit was ramping up. But his Google stint was brief, lasting only five months. "In retrospect, it was a bad decision," he told me. Gosling departed Google to become the chief software architect at Liquid Robotics, which develops ocean-going robots that record and transmit data.

In his posts, Gosling said Sun didn't have patent suits in its genetic code, but the company clearly had some capacity for initiating lawsuits and taking on giant targets. In 2001 Sun settled a suit against Microsoft involving Java for $20 million, and in 2004 Sun settled a patent and antitrust suit against Microsoft that came with a $1.95 billion payment to Sun. 

In his testimony last week, Schwartz explained his "grit our teeth" strategy after Android had its public debut as an incompatible variant of Sun's Java. "We saw a handset bypass our brand and licensing restrictions...we decided to grit our teeth and support it so anyone supporting it would see us as part of the value chain," he said. Apparently, continuing to seek a way to work with Google -- to turn lemons into lemonade, as Gosling wrote -- was preferable to engaging in a costly lawsuit. 

As the trial goes into its third week today, Judge William Alsup and the jury will hear the closing statements from each side on the Java API copyright claims, phase one of the trial. Phase two of the trial will deal with liability on the patent claims. One of Gosling's patents, "Method and apparatus for resolving data references in generated code," is part of the case. Gosling was asked to be a witness for the plaintiff, Oracle, and he may get an opportunity to discuss Google slime in front of the jury.

ALSO READ:

It's time to run Java out of town....

(courtesy:cnet.com)