software platform

Information Age innovators need not apply. At least that's the implied message being stretched like police tape across the door of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). The agency seems fixated on eliminating the last, true, sustainable American advantage: our capacity to innovate.

Recent moves by the USPTO have resulted in a precedent-setting legal victory that now threatens software patents with extinction, putting companies like Apple and Google at risk along with the U.S. economy.

"What will you do with Android?" That's the provocative question posed by Android software engineer Dave Bort on the new blog for the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), the new initiative launched by the Google-led Open Handset Alliance.

On the eve of the official launch of the first Android-powered handset, the T-Mobile G1, Google has shaken the mobile-device industry again by making public the entire Android platform source code.

T-Mobile will release this fall the first device using Google's Android software platform, according to a new report.

The New York Times said Thursday that the phone, being made by HTC, is expected to go on sale as early as October, in order to make the holiday season. It cited unnamed sources who had been briefed on T-Mobile's plans.

Touchscreen, Keyboard

The new device using the open-source Android software stack will reportedly have smartphone capabilities that compare with the Apple iPhone and devices from Research in Motion, Nokia and others.

The old debate over HTML versus Flash has become stale. A new debate, however, has surfaced.

Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) like Adobe Flash are feeling the heat as competitors move in and are expected to gain wide adoption among developers.

Adobe Flash, initially developed by Macromedia, has had widespread adoption and can be used by developers to stream audio and video and create rich-media advertisements, presentations, games and a slew of other functions.

When Apple released its iPhone 2.0 software earlier this month, CEO Steve Jobs said it would provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform for a mobile device. However, glitches in the software are leaving users frustrated, with a laundry list of complaints.

Apple launched its App Store just before it released the iPhone 3G, which uses the 2.0 software. Users of both the iPhone 3G and the first-generation iPhone upgraded with the 2.0 software can buy and download apps created by third-party developers.

Strong Expectations

On Tuesday, Nokia not only moved to acquire Symbian for $410 million, it also partnered with mobile-industry giants to launch a foundation to provide royalty-free software and accelerate innovation.

Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo said they intend to unite the flavors of Symbian and create a single, open mobile-software platform. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone, the mobile giants are establishing the Symbian Foundation.

A new company has launched an alpha version of a platform that can show the location-based trends of consumers in real time. New York City-based Sense Networks publicly announced itself as a company Monday -- along with its patent-pending software platform, Macrosense, and the platform's first application: a real-time social-navigation and "nightlife-discovery application" called Citysense.

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