Dual-boot phones and devices are something quite exciting, as users have more choice. Unfortunately manufacturers don’t enable this, and to figure out how to do it you will have to know some advanced programming.

Gladly, there are people who do it for us, but it doesn’t mean it becomes a piece of cake. An example of this is the recent porting of Google Android to the Nokia N810.

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Please correct me if I’m wrong, but iRiver’s prototype just looks like every other touchscreen phone we have seen until now, and if there is nothing special on it, it won’t even make it to a competitive market.

As usual, the guys at Engadget got a hands-on and lot of phones of the phone, but nothing new is reported from the phone, same specs and no news on the Operating System, we just know it’s LInux based UI.

If it does have a 2 megapixel camera, they rather not even try, by the time the iRiver makes a debut, most phones will have a 5 megapixel camera. iRiver expects their first mobile phone to launch by the end of this year.

The Mobile World Congress at Barcelona hasn’t even started and the fuss about who and what is going to be there is already starting.

The theme for the company is "Open up your world", and it might be trying to shift the attention of Google Android onto their own Linux creations.

Access will also showcase their improved NetFront with a special module dedicated to Flash content, which makes it possible to watch YouTube videos on the browser.

Access will also demonstrate and let visitors experience NetFront widgets, which supports the creation of dynamic Web applications with rich user interfaces.

Besides this, we will also see more DVB-h and DTV applications, which combine NetFront and TV, for a full interactive TV experience.

Web transcoders and switches will be part of Access’ Mobile World Congress exhibitions, who are making a move in the international market thanks to their success in the Japanese mobile industry.

Source: Slashphone

Having an Open Source Operating System for mobiles might seem a challenge for Symbian…or maybe not.

You could compare it to Windows and Linux (and its distributions). Windows isn’t Open Source but got a hefty advantage over Linux, Linux is mainly used in hosting servers and research centres, and not that much in homes. We could blame this on the distributors not having done enough publicity and not making Linux easy enough. This will not be the case of Google Android, which is basically another Linux distribution. They have won the hearts of more than 40 companies such as HTC, and also many developers thanks to their 10 million Dollars prize contest.

For developers it might seem a dream come true, but I don’t think it’s that good. What many people are expecting is an Operating System that can be moulded easily but these people are forgetting what Open Source really means. It means to have a public source code. This doesn’t mean we can grab Google Android, remove unwanted code and personalize it. Unless Google actually comes out with a “NSU” type of program with self-uploadable firmwares, and also a SDK that allows full customization, this won’t be possible.

The video demonstrated on Youtube by Google Android Team was clear to me. This is simply a phone with all Google Apps and a pint of Touch UI.

If you can see in the video, you will notice the transitions and the speed that everything such as contacts, maps, etc loads, this is equal to what we saw from Nokia on their Touch UI video, and somewhat the same what the Apple iPhone does.

A lot of web was focused naturally because Google is really a web based company. One thing that was clear from Steve Horowitz, the Engineering director, is that Google is not developing a GPhone, for the simple fact that if they develop the OS, many other companies will use it, making Google much widely used.

A good thing that I said about this in a previous post is that even though Google creates the illusion of handing 10million USD to the best programmers, the cost is really low because it’s an Open Source OS, not many licenses, patents, and it is not necessary to pay any company to use their software, everything is pretty much "Googled".

If you look in Android blog, you can see that the deadline is 3 March so Google just has to sit back and relax until some small time genius comes up with a good app. Of course these 10 million aren’t just to get the apps developed, they are for publicity, I mean Google already has every single app they need.

And to even create more publicity, Google teases us with Quake, which to tell the truth, actually looks yummy…

Of course March also coincides with the decision of FCC on the 700MHz sprectrum bid, it is suppose to end in January, but usual delays will appear. One way or another Google is trying to take over the markets.