Nokia And Apple Collaborate On Open Source Browser

Michael writes "Nokia's ambitious bid to make the mobile phone as important a client device for business and leisure as the notebook PC took another important turn last week with news that it has created a browser in collaboration with Apple, which will be managed under the open source process. This starts to address awkward web browsing, a key weakness of the phone's bid to be the 'new notebook', and it raises interesting questions about how much further Nokia and Apple could go in cooperating on the anti- Microsoft ecosystem, and how far Nokia is committing its future to Linux."

Please, please,please...

[spectrokid]

Please make an iPhone, please! I promess I will be a good boy, swear to god! Serious, do you have any idea what a phone would be with an ipod wheel on it? Scrolling through those contacts?

Re:How about...

[mrchaotica]

Ah ha! So I'm not the only one who wants that!

The way I see it, it should be divided into the following modules: storage (hard drive/flash), tranceiver (cellular/wifi), CPU, input, and display. It could use either a Twiddler and head-mounted display, or a touchscreen slate (like a Star Trek PADD, or unusually large-but-thin PDA) interchangably. It would connect with wires instead of Bluetooth (except for the PADD), though, because everything should use the same battery anyway. It would turn out something like MIThril [mit.edu], except more streamlined.

Is that what you had in mind?

Re:How about...

[dchamp]

I've been using a Treo 600 for about a month now, I like it a lot. It does a fair job at everything you mention, except the camera on the Treo 600 isn't very good (640x480).

I had a Handspring Visor & Visorphone, but only used it for a couple months before switching back to my Nokia phone, because it was too big, and the sound quality sucked. I pretty much quit using the Visor all together after that.

The Treo 600 (or 650) is a pretty good device. When you throw in the huge catalog of PalmOS software it can run, it's very useful, and a lot of fun. Games, pTunes for mp3 + a $68 1gb SD card, web browsing, ssh client...

Now... they're not for everyone. They are a lot bigger than a normal cell phone (but smaller than a Blackberry), expensive (most providers sell them for about $300), and the battery life isn't so good (I charge mine every 1 to 2 days depending on how much playing around I do) compared to my Nokia phone that lasted 3 to 4 days.

Re:You forgot a module...

[mrchaotica]

First of all, that phone doesn't even come close to doing what I would want. This device would be designed to completely replace your desktop, pda, and cellphone, and have new unique functions (context awareness, augmented reality, etc.) also. Second, the idea is that you'd have a vest or something designed to hold it, so that it would be comfortable to wear and non-obvious (except, optionally, for the head-mounted display).

In other words, it wouldn't be like a cellphone or PDA, it would be closer to the "cyberization" in Ghost in the Shell but without the implants.