Qualcomm’s has just started shipping its latest generation chipsets to manufacturers. Offering two application processor cores running at 1.2 GHz, integrated graphics core and 1080p video encoding those should become available on high-end smartphones in the near future.

The Snapdragon MSM8660′s integrated graphics core supports OpenGL 2.0 and allows 1080p video recording and playback. The maximum display resolution support is extended to 1280×800 pixels with 24-bit color. The other features of the chipset include an integrated GPS receiver and dual-mode HSPA+/CDMA and 1xEV-DO Rev. B capabilities.

The other Qualcomm’s third generation chipset – MSM8260 is basically identical to the MSM8660 but only works on GSM and UMTS networks (HSPA+ support is included though).

The final member of the Qualcomm dual-core family, the QSD8672, which has its CPUs clocked at 1.5GHz, isn’t avaialble yet, but will launch before the end of the year.

It seems the smartphones we are going to get for this year’s holiday season will pack quite a lot more oomph than we are seeing now.

Link to article: Qualcomm starts shipping 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragons

It doesn’t matter if the machine you are using is a massive crane or a tiny smartphone: You will always curse in the same way when it crashes. The deafening noise, however, won’t be the same.

Link to article: When Heavy Machines Crash They Make a Terrible Noise

Not even a fortnight after we saw Android 2.0.1 slapped onto Sony Ericsson’s all-but-forgotten Xperia X1, along comes a port that makes the other look like child’s play.

A dedicated coder over at XDA Developers has managed to stuff Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 onto an X1, and while the functionality is limited (as you’d expect), the amount of fun to be had is restrained only by your imagination (and available vacation time).

Go on and peek that source link to join the discussion — but be warned, you’ll be sucking down over a gigabyte worth of data before the first installation process.

Source: XDA Developers

Link to article: Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 gets ported onto Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1

Before Windows Phone 7 was even an embryo of a concept, Windows Mobile was king: It powered nearly half of smartphones in use, a led the industry in features. Then, in 2007, things started to go wrong. Very, very wrong.

Silicon Alley Insider has charted Windows Mobile’s platform share, which is to say the proportion of users who were using it at a given time, over the last four years. For showing decline, figures like these are more telling than sales—they mean that, for years now, people haven’t been buying Windows Mobile phones nearly as fast as they’ve been ditching them.

More interesting than what it shows is what it projects: Windows Mobile 6.x phones have been collectively kneecapped by Microsoft’s announcement yesterday, and rendered spectacularly unbuyable outside of enterprise circles. In other words, that line—the one that dragged down past RIM in 2008, and that dropped past Apple last year—is going to keep plunging for the rest of this year, until Windows Phone 7 tries to haul it back up. And until then, it’s only going to get steeper.

Link to article: Windows Mobile’s Incredible Death Spiral

While we patiently wait for the X10 to make its way into retail channels (or, you know, give up and buy something else instead), mobile-review’s Eldar Murtazin has come through once again with one of his world-famous eleventy billion page previews rife with thousands of screenshots, which should take you long enough to skim through so that the phone’s available by the time you’re done.

Thing is, you may not want it anymore: Eldar’s concerned by the phone’s cheap plastic shell, which is particularly alarming in light of the direction competitors are going, and the screen could apparently be better. Add in the fact that it’ll be launching with Android 1.6 and there’s no question Sony Ericsson’s first Android effort is going to face an uphill battle — let’s just hope they learn from the complaints and get an updated Android build rolled out on the double.

Link to article: Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10 exhaustedly previewed, screenshotted to death

Motorola claims they’re coming out with a couple dozen Android phones in 2010, and with a crop so big a few of them are bound to be pretty weird. This render suggests that the MOTOSPLIT might be one of those.

Like the Samsung Alias 2 before it, the MOTOSPLIT shown here sports a keyboard that has tiny touch screens for keys, though this one has the unique ability to slide out in landscape or portrait orientation. Depending on the way its being held, or maybe the application its running, the mini screens update on the fly. Neat!

Not so neat is the part of the report that claims its specs will be more or less the same as the Backflip’s, which means its essentially relegated to Motorola’s junior varsity smartphone squad.

Still, Android Community’s rumors are just that, and it’s possible that come the season—Motorola expects the phone to be ready for Q3—MOTOSPLIT will have the power to match its versatility.

Link to article: Motorola MOTOSPLIT Splits This Way, Splits That Way

The launch and early customer support of the Google’s Nexus One phone, manufactured by HTC, has been a bit problematic. But let’s try some optimism! Maybe now that the early hype has died down and HTC has had some time to get used to the situation, warranty replacements will take place in a timely fashion! Or…well, as reader Michael writes, evidently not.

Update: Thanks to this post, Michael’s new phone is on its way.

I got a Nexus One at launch, and my experience was great for the first couple of weeks. Google is great, and Android is fantastic, but my experience with HTC over the last two weeks has been among the worst customer service I have ever received.On January 23, my touchscreen started having issues. When the phone
was on for more than a minute or so, it would register touches where
they weren’t, even when I wasn’t touching it. If I tried to touch
backspace, it would start typing spaces and Rs repeatedly, for
instance. Sleeping the phone and waking it would fix it for a few
seconds, but then it would go right back. It didn’t matter how I held
it or how much pressure I applied. I did a factory reset, and that
didn’t fix the problem; it took me quite a while to enter in my Google
account information to resync it with the keyboard going haywire.

So, on January 24, I called HTC for warranty support. I wasn’t on
hold for long at all, and the CSR seemed very helpful. My first
impressions were very positive. I was theirs to lose. So they
promptly went about losing me.

Since I need the phone for work, and couldn’t be without it for too
long, I elected to get a new phone sent to me, and I’d send the old
one back. This required a credit card from me, in case I didn’t send
in this nonworking one. Fine, no problem. I gave them my address and
credit card information. The CSR told me that the new phone would
ship two-day, within 48 hours, and I’d be given a tracking number as
soon as it was sent out. No problem; I don’t need text messaging for
work, and as long as I have that few-second window of touchscreen use,
I can make calls, so I’ll be all right for the next few days.

One week goes by, and I hear nothing. The touchscreen gets gradually
worse, failing just about as soon as I can slide to unlock. I can
still dial with the trackball, so it’s still useful as a phone, but
since the Back button is part of the touchscreen, it can be almost
impossible to even get out of menus. If I sleep it, then wake up and
quickly slide and press back, I can go back one screen… sometimes.

I emailed them again on January 31 (a Sunday), asking if I could get
my tracking number. I get an email the next day (Feb. 1, Monday)
saying that there’s something wrong, but the customer service
department doesn’t know what, and I should call the RMA department to
find out. I call them, and am told that the last four digits of my
credit card number didn’t save in my file, so they need it again. Why
they didn’t call me immediately to tell me this, I don’t know. I give
it. I then get a call at 5:40 (after close of business, of course)
saying that it STILL didn’t save, and they need it again. I give it,
and ask when I’ll get my new phone. They say, once again, that it’ll
go out soon, and I’ll get a tracking number as soon as it goes out.
For some reason, I still believe them.

Wednesday morning, February 3, I call and ask what’s up. They say
that my address didn’t save in their system, and they need it again.
I give it. They call back an hour later, saying that it STILL didn’t
save, and they need it again. I give it. They say that it will
definitely go out that day, no problem, and I’ll have the phone by
Friday. I then called back towards the end of the day, with no
tracking number, and say that I need the replacement shipped
overnight. My touchscreen is now all but useless; most of the time, I
can’t even slide it to unlock. Tim, the escalation supervisor, says
that if it didn’t go out that day, it would the next, and I would
definitely have a tracking number by noon the next day.

That brings us to today. I called at noon, asking where my tracking
number was. After waiting on hold for several minutes, I was told
that Tim was “on it,” and it will go out “today or tomorrow,” two-day
shipped, so I should have it by Monday. I no longer believe them. My
phone does not work. I’m paying T-Mobile for service that I cannot
use. I called in the problem a week and a half ago. I need this
phone for work, and I don’t have it. HTC doesn’t seem to care. They
already have my money; why bother?

Rumour has it that Google is staffing up to provide support themselves.
If anyone is planning on getting a Nexus One, I highly – HIGHLY -
recommend waiting for this. I’ve recommended the Nexus One to many of
my friends, but now I’m going to ask those in the two-week window to
return them while they can. I hope Google goes with a better
manufacturer for their next phone.

Depends. How’s Motorola’s warranty support?

Consumerist has contacted HTC about Michael’s situation specifically and Nexus One warranty returns in general. We’ll let you know what they have to say.

Update: We heard back from HTC’s PR firm. The issue with Michael’s replacement phone was resolved, and they’ve overnighted a new handset to him. Great news! Thanks for the quick response, Waggener Edstrom and HTC!

Now maybe they can help all of the other customers experiencing the exact same problem, too.

Link to article: HTC Says They’re Shipping My New Nexus One: I Don’t Believe Them Anymore

The first and only time I saw Windows Mobile 6.5.3 in action, it was a grim scene. But according to Mary Jo Foley, the OS, which is now shipping on a single device, it’s more than a questionable makeover.

6.5.3′s changes fall into two categories: the UI updates, which are piecemeal changes to 6.5 standard, and the platform updates, which fix some—some—of 6.5.x’s core shortcomings. Here’s the full list:

Ease of Use features

* Capacitive touchscreen support
* Platform to enable multitouch
* Touch controls throughout system (no need for stylus)
* Consistent Navigation
* Horizontal scroll bar replaces tabs (think settings>system>about
screen)
* Magnifier brings touch support to legacy applications
* Simplified out-of-box experience with fewer steps
* Drag and drop icons on Start Screen

IE Browser Performance

* Page load time decreased
* Memory management improved
* Pan & flick gestures smoothed
* Zoom & rotation speed increased

Quality and Customer Satisfaction features

* Updated runtime tools (.NET CF 3.5, SQL CE 3.1)
* Arabic read/write document support
* Watson (error reporting) improvements and bug fixes

While it’s not the most riveting set of updates, these features are nothing to scoff at, if just for the addition of capacitive screen and multitouch support. Of course, with Mobile World congress less than two weeks away, Windows Mobile 7 is on everyone’s mind, and if it shows (we think it will) it’ll obviously be the star of the show. Just don’t expect to see Microsoft disowning their current mobile platform quite yet, or really, anytime soon.

Link to article: What’s In Windows Mobile 6.5.3