Symbian OS has been shipped in more than 330 million devices worldwide. Most of them are produced by Nokia. But for some years this platform didn’t get any essential changes and updates, while developers of Android and Windows Mobile update these operating system regularly integrating new functions and features. From today Symbian mobile platform becomes completely open source and available for free starting. Lee Williams, executive director of the Symbian Foundation noted that Symbian OS is dominant operating system for smartphone and now apps’ developers have much more opportunities. Now any organization or individual can download, use and modify Symbian OS code for any mobile device. It is expected that such decisive step will help Symbian operating system not only to stay dominant OS for mobile devices but also to improve its position.

China Mobile has just released new version of Open Mobile System OS which is Chinese version of Google Android. The most notable fact is that this operating system can run applications for Windows Mobile and supports Windows Mobile API. The second Open Mobile System 2.0 also supports SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), voice recognition and generation and some other features of Android 2.0. Besides official representatives of China Mobile announced support for Symbian applications. It is expected that first devices running on OMS 2.0 will become available in next few months.

Just two days ago Apple announced its first tablet computer. But some analysts have called it to be to be the biggest disappointment. Apple iPad has too big number of grave disadvantages that are inadmissible for present-day devices of such class. PCWorld experts believe the one of the key shortcomings is that the operating system of iPad doesn’t support multitasking. Another big mistake is lack Adobe Flash support. Apple iPad is positioned as ideal device for mobile web surfing but ‘it is just not the real Web without support for Adobe Flash’. iPad also has not front-facing camera while many users use video chatting. Many experts also call our attention to the fact that this new device by Apple can be synchronized only with iTunes. Besides this tablet has no HDMI out and doesn’t support handwriting recognition.

A group of enthusiasts managed to speed up the processor of Motorola Droid to 1.3 GHz while its standard clock is only 550 MHz. During the test processor throughput reached 10.848 Mflops/s. However specialists note that no every copy of the Droid has such potential. Most of smartphones are stable at 800-900 MHz CPU clock. But at 1 GHz almost all devices become extremely unstable.

Google has just released final forth version of Chrome web browser. According to developers team now users can extend browser functionality choosing among more than two thousand available extensions. Besides new version of Chrome supports Bookmark Sync function. It will be useful for those people who use several computers. Google Chrome automatically synchronizes them and up-to-date across computers. Developers also integrated a number of new HTML5 APIs including WebSocket, LocalStorage and Database API. It is also said that Chrome 4.0 is more stable and works almost twice as fast than previous version of this web browser. At present moment Chrome 4.0 is available for Windows. To those using Google Chrome on Linux, extensions are enabled on the beta channel. As for Mac users Google Chrome developers swear to do their best to bring extensions, bookmark sync and more to the beta in next few weeks. Chrome 4.0 can be downloaded here.

Today Hewlett Packard put on market its new business-oriented netbook. HP Mini 5102 is based on Intel Pine Trail platform and is equipped with 10.1 inch screen with 1024×600 px resolution, 1.6 GHz Atom N450 CPU, 1 or 2 Gb DDR3 RAM, 160/250/320 Gb 7200RPM hard disk, 2 Mp webcam, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 and 4 cell battery. The HP Mini 5102 will have a starting price of $599, but you’ll pay extra for GPS, handle, 6 cell battery. The operating system is Windows 7 Starter.

Mozilla has just released new version of its popular web browser. Firefox 3.6 has Gecko 1.9.2 engine, supports HTML 5 and CSS layers. According to developers due to the technology of nonsynchronous scripts run new version of browser works faster than any previous versions. Besides JavaScript works is improved. Another notable feature is Persona services. Now users can easily change graphic theme. At present moment the number of available themes is about 30,000. Firefox 3.6 supports Drag & Drop function that provides an opportunity to upload files on certain websites by moving them into the window. It is also said that developers of new version of Firefox paid much attention to browser security and stability. New Firefox 3.6 has been already available here or you can just update you current version from ‘Help’ menu.

Sony Ericsson has just officially announced its new mobile device. It is Sony Ericsson Vivaz that was also known as Kurara. This device belongs to smartphones class, runs on Symbian S60 5th Edition operating system and has the same user interface that SE Satio has. The case of this phone converges to upper and lower edges and looks very stylish. Sony Ericsson Vivaz is first SE’s smartphone that supports 1280×720 px video recording. It is equipped with 8.1 Mp camera with flash, autofocus, picture stabilization, face detection and geotagging functions support. All pictures and videos can be easily uploaded to Picasa and YouTube.
The list of main technical characteristics includes 720 MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU, 3.2 inch touch screen with 360×640 px resolution, 256 Mb RAM, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, GPS, FM radio with RDS, 3.5 mm audio jack, TV out and microSDHC memory car d slot. The Vivaz measures 107×51.7×12.5 mm and weights 97g. Available will be Silver Moon, Cosmic Black, Galaxy Blue and Venus Ruby. The price of this smartphone will be about $670 with 8 Gb memory card.

Some month ago South Korean Inbrics company shared that its working at its first mobile Internet device running on Android operating system. And it didn’t disappoint our expectations. Inbrics M1 is thin horizontal slider with QWERTY keyboard. The list of technical characteristics is quite usual for devices of such class and includes 3.7 inch AMOLED touch screen with 480×800 px resolution, 800 MHz CPU, 3 Mp camera, 0.3 Mp camera for video calls, 16 Gb built-in storage, microSDHC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS module. At present moment this device runs on Android 1.5 operating system that will be soon updated to 2.0 version.

According to official sources Mozilla is going to overhaul user interface of its web browser. New design will be presented in Firefox 4.0 which is expected to be released in the fourth quarter of next year. Mozilla has already published some information and screenshots. As we can see new UI resembles of Windows 7 one. The list of major Firefox 4.0 user interface changes includes merging the location bar and search bar, hiding bookmarks bar, status bar removal, adding a tab-on-top feature, merging Refresh/Stop/Go into one single button.
It is said that newest plans for Firefox 4.0 center on a so-called “App Button” that will take the place of usual menus. It will replace the idea of a dual-button concept — one marked “Pages” the other “Tools” — that Mozilla had previously considered. The App Button would appear at the top left of the Firefox window and would take up less space, consolidate all menu commands under one roof, and reduce clutter. Besides Firefox 4.0 will provide an opportunity to move browser tabs to the top of the display. It is also said Mozilla will ship a public review of Firefox 4.0 in June 2010. To learn more you can visit Mozilla’s official site.

This is one more Android device that will be launched next year. It runs on Google Android 2.0 operating system and designed for comfortable web surfing and media content playback. ICD Ultra features NVIDIA Tegra T20 platform that includes 1 GHz CPU and graphics accelerator. This tablet is also equipped with 7 inch capacitive touch screen with 1024×600 px resolution, 1.3 Mp front-facing camera for video calls, 512 Mb RAM, 512 Mb ROM, microSD memory card slot (up to 32 Gb), GPS, 3.5 mm audio jack and stereo loud speakers. ICD Ultra also has USB 2.0, HDMI, 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity. The battery has 5400 mAh capacity and up to 4 hours of work. Expected price is about $250.

Last month Samsung officially announced its own operating system for mobile devices. Now we have some screen shots. It is known that user interface of Bada OS is based on Samsungs non-smartphone TouchWiz UI. It will be a lot of time before we see a working Bada but it is expected that first mobile devices running on new operating system will become available by the end of the second quarter of 2010.

MSI has just unveiled its new X-Slim series ultraportable laptop. MSI X600 Pro has 15.6 inch screen with 1366×768 px resolution, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, ATi Mobility Radeon HD 4330 graphics with 512 Mb built-in memory, 4 Gb DDR2 RAM, 1.3 Mp webcam, Wi-Fi, 2-in-1 card riders and 250, 320, 500 or 640 GB hard drive. The list of ports includes 2 USB 2.0 ports, VGA, HDMI and D-Sub. MSI X600 Pro measures 392 x 255 x 25 mm, and weights 2.1 kg with 6-cells battery. Unfortunately there is no any information about price and release date.