The iPad and iPhone OS 4.0 dominated this workweek’s mobile newsworthiness

  Share

It’s Fri and we’re already starting to think about the weekend. But, honey readers, I’ll be gift you weekly recaps of what happened in the mobile worldly concern in causa you actually weren’t hitting refresh like loony on our habitation page. The big newsworthiness this week was Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s iPad and iPhone OS 4.0, but there we saw Palm (NSDQ: PALM)’s CEO defend the company, the functionary Twitter node appear on BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), and more. Read on after the jumping for a dislocation of this workweek’s hot stories.

The iPad and iPhone 4.0

Apple started the workweek off strong with Saturday’s release of the iPad and the IntoMobile team braved the harsh weather condition of Palo Alto to be some of the first base in line to bargain the tablet. The gimmick has sold more than 400,000 units, which is pretty impressive considering there was no open marketplace or usage case for it. The device has been pretty wellspring-received but there rich person been a few wonky issues with the wireless local area network.

I’m determination the iPad does have more uses than I mentation it would. The keyboard’s not that badness and it’s a breeze to take notes in a populace setting without having to clack away at some loud keys. We’ll have plentitude more iPad coverage and thoughts, but feel free people to net ball us know your experiences in the comments below.

Apple also rolled out iPhone 4.0 and it brought multitasking, a sociable gaming meshwork, a mobile advertising platform and more. The third base-party multitasking is not organization-wide like it is on Android or Windows Mobile River but it should surface the door for a diverseness of useful apps. You tin read our whole thing staff’s reaction here but editor-in-chief Will Park summed it up pretty wellspring.

Apple is all about acting catch-up with the latest smartphone features for their iPhone OS. But, the single thing you can always count on is that Apple volition bring those features to marketplace with incredibly polished UI’s that are both easy on the eyes and easy to use. It took Apple days to bring cut-and-spread to the iPhone OS, but when they did, it was unarguably the best smartphone cutting-and-spread UI available at the meter. Now, Apple is doing the same with multitasking and mobile ads. The iPhone 4.0 OS’s multitasking prototype is simple yet robust sufficiency to allow you to get your productiveness on. The integration of iAd into the OS will redefine the way mobile ads are displayed and integrated into mobile apps. And, with the new homescreen pamphlet lineament and support for Bluetooth keyboards, the iPhone will become an even better productivity tool. Too bad we rich person until Fall for iPhone 4.0 for our iPad.

Palm’s still here, may get acquired soon

Palm’s been pain for the shoemaker’s last few years but the webOS operating organization was supposed to be its rocket ship back to profitableness. That didn’t happen and the company is struggling to move units. In a long interview, Palm CEO defended some of the moves it has made and expressed optimism about the company’s future tense. He also believes the office at Palm is not dissimilar to the environment he encountered at the pre-iPod Apple.

When I got to Apple the company was dying. We brought out the iMac, and the company was really successful, and then the economy cratered, and we went through a major dip, which took like 2 years to dig our means out of. And during that time full point we invested very heavily in R&ere;D and Wall Street was very unhappy with us, because the numbers looked ugly. But then when the economy turned, we had a lot of really cool products ready to go, the iPod organism single of them, and the troupe quickly scaled up to the distributor point where the economic science just made sense.

The troupe’s livestock had been steadily declining for a calendar month but there was a sharp uptick the shoemaker’s last twosome days as rumors said Lenovo (OTCPK: LNVGY) or HTC would bargain the handset manufacturer. A deal would shuffle sense for both companies – HTC is dying for its own OS and Lenovo needs some more cred in the smartphone space. Many analysts say Palm is worth a little north of $1 billion, so any trade would takings some meter.

Twitter officially hits BlackBerry

The functionary Twitter node for BlackBerry just went live in beta shape. Built by Twitter and Research In Motion, the app lets you shoot out tweets, check for mentions and view your messages. The interesting matter about this app is that it’s well-integrated into the platform, so you can get your tweets in your BlackBerry letter box and even get homescreen notifications. I had a chance to swordplay with this at CTIA and I was impressed.

Next workweek’s shaping up to not be so Apple heavy, so rest easy. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s launching some new devices Monday and a little birdie told me these things ar going to be more powerful than we expect. You know we’ll be on circus tent of that and all the other hot scoops in the mobile world, so hold it tuned here.