Android G1 emulator

T-Mobile has posted a Android G1 emulator. Select the "Emulator" button in the top right to see a preview of some of the screens of the G1.

Early perspective of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Nokia’s new touch device is getting closer to being released.

Via engadget...
While it may not be Nokia's first touchscreen phone (anyone out there remember the 7710?), the 5800 XpressMusic is certainly the first to come out of Finland with a mainstream appeal. What we've alternately known as the "Tube" throughout much of its development cycle is the first production device to run S60 5th Edition -- the fourth major overhaul of Nokia's ubiquitous smartphone platform since 2002 and the first to support fingers, styli, and high-res displays. Speaking of high-res displays, the 5800 comes equipped with an impressive 3.2-inch 640 x 360 resistive touchscreen to go along with its 3.2-megapixel autofocus cam, Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash, GPS, WiFi, 3.5mm jack, and a microSD slot with support for 16GB cards. It'll be available in three versions -- European HSDPA, North American HSDPA, and GSM only -- and ships this quarter in black, red, and blue for €279 (about $392) unlocked with an 8GB card thrown in for good measure. Music fans with voracious appetites for new tunes might want to hold out, though, for the Comes With Music-equipped version that follows on "early next year" at a to-be-announced price.

From the videos on this page, it appears they may have dressed up UIQ’s UI, which is designed for stylus input like Windows Mobile. From the use cases they show here, it doesn’t look like they designed a new touch UI model like Apple did for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Installing Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) on a MSI Wind Netbook

In 2007, I bought a OLPC as part of the "Give One Get One" campaign. As some of you know, I have a hard time resisting new mobile device trends, and I've been tempted over and over during the past year to pick up a cheap netbook laptop. So far, I've held off buying one. But it's only a matter of time before I take the plunge, and part of what's holding me back are the choices of operating systems one can have on a netbook. Here's a handy article that covers installing Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) on a MSI Wind Netbook. This little laptop is getting glowing reviews over on Amazon too.

What's your ideal mobile device?

MIDs, UMPCs, Smartphones... Which one would you carry? Here's an interesting video for mobile device enthusiasts that dives into exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the current crop of mobile devices.

Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos meet "Ginger"

I really enjoyed this excerpt from the book by Steve Kemper called Code Name Ginger. This part of the story is an interesting look into the Segway design team's meeting with Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos in Silicon Valley during development of the much-hyped "human transporter." I would love to know what the Segway looked like at this stage of development.

Mobile phone novels are best sellers in Japan

In Japan last year, five the top-ten best-selling novels were originally cellphone novels that were composed on a mobile phone. One of the most popular authors of this new genre is a 21-year-old woman named Rin. She wrote the novel titled “If You” during her senior year in high school. For six months she tapped out passages on her mobile phone whenever she found a free moment, which was often during her commute to her part-time job. Each day she would upload her work to a popular Web site for would-be authors and readers could enjoy her latest work right after she wrote it. Her novel was voted No. 1 by mobile phone readers and was then turned into a 142-page hardcover book, which sold 400,000 copies and became the No. 5 best-selling novel of 2007 in Japan. Even with all this success, writers of the mobile phone novels would like their new written form to be recognized as a new genre.

Additional links about the mobile phone novel trend in Japan.
The Sydney Morning Herald
The New York Times

My first (pre-paid) Japanese phone

I bought my first Japanese mobile phone recently in Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood. It's a sweet little Sharp 201SH candy bar from SoftBank with pre-paid service. The phone was about US$40 and then I bought US$30 of pre-paid service, which includes the ability to receive (free in Japan) and make voice calls, receive and send email and SMS. It's a pretty nice little package for the price. Way to go SoftBank! It's been interesting trying to figure out how to operate the user interface (UI) on this little device. The mobile UI conventions used in most Japanese phones are quite different from Western mobile UIs.

Currently the third largest mobile network operator in Japan, SoftBank really seems to be up and coming with some nice offerings, including some sweet HTC (Windoz Mobile 6) QWERTYs and Nokia N73s, along with the usual JP cool phones. In Japan, all the carriers are really pushing TV and streaming video on their phones now. Fast 3G data networks ROCK!

While I was waiting for SoftBank to activate my phone (less than an hour), I walked around in Harajuku and Omotesando and visited the KDDI Designing Studio. It's sort of a mix between mobile device showroom and carrier flagship store.

W+K Tokyo Lab

Here's a cool profile on Apple's website about Weiden+Kennedy Tokyo Lab, where they discuss how they use Apple hardware and software to create a hybrid CD/DVD for a Japanese breakbeat duo called "HIFANA." Watch a video clip of the HIFANA DVD or mixup your own tracks at their website. Click on the link for FRESH PUSH on the top left of the page.

Could you eat 52 pieces of sushi in 20 minutes?

Many a sushi lover dreams about eating a mountain of delicious sushi, and if it's free, then all the better! Here's a video that shows one man living out that dream. Ittadakimasu! ;)