Finding solace in Apple's resurgence

Palm is struggling valiantly on - it will have a new OS next year, codenamed Nova, and the Folio is very much still breathing. That's according to Palm's CEO Ed Colligan who spoke to Australian Personal Computer Magazine at the local launch of the company's Centro handheld.

Filed under: Cellphones

Although Motorola's market share has been steadily sliding to the delight of Nokia and Samsung, DigiTimes would have you believe that Moto reigns supreme in the global Windows Mobile Smartphone segment. Citing "internal data from Microsoft," the oft-wrong, occasionally correct tattle-rag claims that HTC's share of the WinMo Standard space has declined leaving Moto with the largest market share -- beating Samsung by, "a small margin." This after HTC saw a 50% Smartphone domination during Microsoft's Jul 2006 - Jul 2007 fiscal year. HTC still maintains a 50% market share for WinMo Professional touch-screen devices. Of course, this could be true. After all, Moto has refocused their attention to high-margin, full-featured handsets at the expense of emerging markets and entry level yawners. And you can't swing an HTC Vox without knocking over a dozen Qs. Still, until we hear otherwise, take this rumor with a quarry-sized load of rock salt.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Sure, it seemed like we'd heard the end of the story on HTC phones and the case of the missing drivers, but the cats over at the xda-developers forum have something else in mind. There is currently a $5199.51 bounty on offer from various members of the group for a hacker (or hackers) who can come up with drivers to get their Kaisers' Direct 3D up to par, thus increasing the video capabilities of the phone. If you've followed the case, you'll know that HTC has essentially stonewalled users looking for an upgrade to their poorly performing handsets, and has intimated that if customers want improved video performance, they should look to future hardware as opposed to upgrades on their current models. Clearly owners are looking to take matters into their own hands -- and they're willing to pay for it. We can't wait to see what they come up with, and if anyone out there has the ability and the time, here's a stack of cash that could be yours.

[Thanks, Jaime]

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Filed under: Cellphones

It's pretty clear HTC customers and Engadget readers both are none too impressed with the manufacturer's decision to omit the drivers necessary to enable hardware video acceleration on a number of their Qualcomm MSM 7xxx-based devices. We heard a little bit from HTC on the topic earlier this week, but we wanted to know more specifically: do they plan to meet consumers' requests and release drivers for these devices? (And if not, why?) Finally, what's going to be done about this video acceleration driver issue in the future? Here's the response we got to these questions (and the reader poll we posted):

"HTC does plan to offer software upgrades that will increase feature functionality, over the air wireless speeds, and other enhancements for some of the phones being criticized, but we do not anticipate including any additional support for the video issues cited in customer complaints. It is important for customers to understand that bringing this functionality to market is not a trivial driver update and requires extensive software development and time.

HTC will utilize hardware video acceleration like the ATI Imageon in many upcoming products. Our users have made it clear that they expect our products to offer an improved visual experience, and we have included this feedback into planning and development of future products."

More after the break.

Continue reading HTC further responds to video driver issue, will improve future products

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Pledge to patch up performance problems

HTC has promised to include video acceleration hardware in its future video-centric handsets, which some users may see as a move by the manufacturer to calm a pressure group seeking blood over performance issues with its handsets.

Filed under: Cellphones, Features, Portable Video

In case you haven't been following all the drama over at Engadget Mobile, Taiwanese smartphone kingpin HTC is seeing a rather unexpected customer backlash over sub-par video playback in recent devices employing Qualcomm's MSM7xxx chipsets -- apparently, handsets like the popular TyTN II and Touch Cruise were purposely shipped without drivers that would take advantage of the embedded ATI Imageon acceleration hardware. And now, instead of issuing a mea culpa or at least providing the drivers for a small fee, HTC has basically suggested in a recent statement that consumers will need to upgrade to future products if they want "high-resolution video support." Obviously customers are outraged, with the statement only fueling further talk of a class action lawsuit.

We think it's time for the Engadget community at large to weigh in on this snowballing controversy: what (if anything) should HTC have done differently in order to maintain the proactive, customer-friendly image that it has up to this point been known for?

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Filed under: Gaming

The homebrew scene hasn't gotten a whole lot accomplished with this latest round of home consoles -- which isn't surprising given the difficulty of the task and lack of incentives to succeed. Especially with the PS3 shipping with Linux compatibility, the Wii boasting VLC, and the 360 being such a chore to hack and keep hacked, there's really not much of a point. The Wii was compromised pretty early on to be able to play burned discs and GameCube homebrew such as Linux, but until now Nintendo has managed to isolate Wii hardware such as the extra horsepower of the console and wireless connectivity from hackers. But the walls are coming down. Some hackers from Germany have just showed off their fully hacked Wii at the 24th Annual Chaos Communication Congress. Nothing fancy is running yet, all they've achieved so far is a proof of concept that they've bypassed the Wii's protection with some encryption codes they swiped from the Wii's memory. Apparently a bootable Linux DVD is on the way, and we can't wait to see what homebrew coders manage to pull off with that Wiimote pointed where it belongs.

[Via WiiNintendo]

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Cease and desist for scores

A Canadian website which offered versions of sheet music - mostly from long dead composers - has been forced to close after receiving a cease and desist letter from lawyers representing a German music publisher.

MS readies pared-back Vista?

Astounded that Asus' tiny Eee PC will ship with Linux, Microsoft has agreed to provide the Taiwanese vendor with a version of Windows Vista that can be pre-installed on the diminutive notebook, Asus has revealed.

Filed under: Cellphones, Features

Palm's Centro hasn't exactly lit the world on fire, but might it have if it were simply tweaked in a few key areas? As we've done a number of times before, we're presenting to you yet another Palm device that could probably use some refining, and we're curious to know what alterations you would've made if given the chance. It's been an interesting past couple of months for Palm, to say the very least, and while the firm's CEO has shockingly responded to an open letter, saddened us all by announcing yet another OS delay and inexplicably (okay, maybe not so much) nixed the Foleo during that period, it still found time to officially introduce the sub-$100 Centro at an admittedly underwhelming DigitalLife press conference.

We're not setting out to beat a proverbial dead horse or anything -- after all, you know precisely how we feel about the device -- but there's nothing like a healthy dose of criticism (or adoration, to be fair) from the masses. So, here's your chance to let loose and tell the rest of us Earthlings exactly how you would've re-engineered the Centro. Are those keys a tad too diminutive for your liking? Is the whole "Sprint-only" thing cramping your style? Or is Palm's latest darling exactly what your heart desired? Rant away.

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