Hellfire Empire – Wireless

As more and more screenshots emerge for the MeeGo operating system, we’re becoming quietly optimistic because it’s looking pretty darn good.

You may recall that MeeGo is a new smartphone OS from Intel and Nokia and it merges the Maemo and Moblin platforms. It is expected to be a modern OS on par with the iPhone and Android, and the screen shots we’ve seen do look pretty good.

The screenshot above shows a little of the multitasking interface, which kind of looks like a mix of the way Android and webOS handle this. It should also have little carousel animations and other flourishes for visual flair.

Other screenshots we’ve seen of MeeGo make it look like a credible OS but nothing has blown me away yet and the competition is so intense that it is going to have to come out of the gates with a bang.

Nokia has intimated that MeeGo will be its platform of choice for the high-end market, while the open source Symbian will power its mid-level and lower end smartphones. This could be a good move because this OS looks promising and Nokia needs to get its mojo back in the high-end space.

Of course, you have to wonder how well developers will take to MeeGo, as apps are quickly becoming an important factor in which platform consumers choose. The use of Qt should make it technically easy for developers to support this new platform but the incentive may not be there without a huge user base.

Nokia could always take a page out of Microsoft’s book and pay developers to create apps for its new platform. Microsoft wants to make sure Windows Phone 7 launches with a strong app catalog and it has the money to make it happen – so, why not throw some cash in the direction of developers?

[Via My Nokia blog, MeeGo]

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Hey folks, guess who has the reins on the roundup? Yee-haw! It’s been a pretty exciting week so far. We’ve seen multiple Canadian carriers finally announce when customers can pick up their Torch 9800. We’ve also seen the final reviews from our CrackBerry Idol hopefuls. Can it get any more exciting? But of course it can! This week we have 10 -one year subscriptions to Nobex Radio Companion up for grabs as well. Make sure you leave a comment to be entered into the draw. Have a great weekend buckaroos!

Freebies of the Week: NY Times, Senomix timesheets, My-Mobile

In Case You Missed It: PingChat! 2 , StopMail Pro, Home to Phone

New This Week: Ringtone Maker Studio, QuickInfo

Cool at BlackBerry App World: Find My Phone

Contest: Enter to win 1 of 10 one year subscriptions to Nobex Radio Companion!

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CrackBerry.com's feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. BlackBerry App Roundup for September 3rd, 2010! Win 1 of 10 copies of Nobex Radio Companion

Motorola is not messing around with its latest full-page advertisements, as the company is going after the Apple iPhone (and iOS devices) for not supporting Adobe Flash.

In its latest Droid 2 ad, Motorola says, “Flash websites? There’s a phone for that.”

The Motorola Droid 2 is the latest Android superphone for Verizon Wireless and it features incremental upgrades from the previous version including a 1 GHz processor and a redesigned keyboard. It does come preloaded with Android 2.2 though, which enables it to use the Adobe Flash Player 10.1.

We’ve used the Android Flash player on multiple devices and have been mainly pleased with the experience. It does kind of chug along on the original Droid but devices with a 1 GHz processor like the Nexus One or EVO 4G handle Flash content just fine.

You can hop over to Motorola’s Facebook page for a clearer view of the ad but it’s clearly taking a shot at the Apple iPhone. It’s unclear how successful this campaign will be but you have to love Motorola’s moxie.

By now, you should know that Apple doesn’t want Adobe Flash on its iPhone and iOS devices because it believes the technology is not suited for mobile devices because of its resource-intense nature and the fact that it generally hasn’t been optimized for touch. It also could represent a significant challenger to the lucrative App Store, as users wouldn’t have to download as many apps if there were web-based alternatives with Flash.

To counter this, Adobe’s strategy is to get its web technology on as many other devices as possible and show consumers that it can be a good experience. The ultimate goal is to get users conditioned to having Flash on the go, which could make the iOS browser seem limited by comparison.

This is going to be a steep challenge for Adobe, as multiple publishers want the cachet of being on Apple devices. Using HTML5 to reach those users isn’t a huge loss either,

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Reuters is reporting that Google’s VP of Engineering, Andy Rubin, has been conducting talks with record labels in an attempt to launch an online music service “before Christmas.” The publication cites two sources familiar with the matter, and states that although record industry insiders are excited about the possibility of Apple and Google clashing on the digital music front, Google has yet to ink deals any record labels. “Finally here’s an entity with the reach, resources and wherewithal to take on iTunes as a formidable competitor by tying it into search and Android mobile platform. What you’ll have is a very powerful player in the market that’s good for the music business,” said an anonymous record label executive. One thing is for certain, if Google wishes to play the role of David by Christmas time, it is going to need some labels in its arsenal… and soon.

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The Apple iOS operating system, which powers the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, is really gaining traction among web users and it has surpassed the traffic of Linux and Android users, according to data from Net Applications.

It probably shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as there are now more than 120 million Apple iOS devices and these are generally heavy web users. The Linux platform has been around for a long time but it hasn’t come close to cracking the mainstream the way Apple iOS has, despite consumer-friendly versions like Ubuntu.

The data said the Apple iPhone, iPod touch and iPad accounted for 1.1% of all devices that accessed the Internet while Linux accounted for less than 1%.

“It’s something to take note of when a mobile operating system passes something that’s been around forever,” said Vince Vizzaccaro, a Net Applications vice president, in a prepared statement. “Mobile’s growth curve is strong and mobile is becoming quite a phenomenon on the Internet.”

The Google Android platform has been gaining steam lately, as the search giant said it has been activating about 200,000 units a day and it recently outsold every other smartphone platform in the United States. Still, the Net Applications data says that Android devices only account for about 0.2% of devices that access the Internet.

“Whatever the sales are, we’re seeing iOS totally dominate the market on the Web,” Vizzaccaro said. “iOS has nearly a 6:1 advantage over Android.”

Things could swing in Android’s favor over the next year or so, though, as we’re ready to see a plethora of new devices running that little, green robot. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is the first of many tablets that we should see flood the market and this could help Android get a big boost. The Google OS will also power a slew of new smartphones and connected devices.

[Via Net Applications, hat tip to 9to5mac]

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