The science behind the new BlackBerry optical trackpad

Ever wonder how the optical trackpad on the newest BlackBerry phones works?

RIM’s official Inside BlackBerry blog has posted an explanation of the technology, and it turns out that the trackpad works much like the optical mouse you use with your desktop PC: It uses a low-resolution infrared camera to capture movement across the surface and translate it into direction.

Read more of this article at ZDNet.com

Toshiba announces 64GB NAND flash module

Toshiba announced the launch of a 64GB embedded NAND flash memory module, the highest capacity chip yet created and a potential fit for the next refresh of the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.
Read more »

Nokia to enhance Symbian UI and introduce Maemo 6 mobile computer in 2010

Nokia on Wednesday announced that it's going all in for 2010, taking the Symbian user interface "to a new level" and delivering the first Maemo 6 "mobile computer" in the second half of the year.

If that's not enough, the Finnish company is boosting the relative amount of touchscreen and QWERTY devices in its smartphone portfolio.

Interesting note: All the talk in the company's press release is about Symbian; very little mentions Maemo.

Read the full story at ZDNet's The ToyBox

Are manufacturers shifting resources away from satnav devices?

When Motorola's Droid smartphone debuted on Verizon, the inclusion of Google Maps Navigation beta--real-time, turn-by-turn, rerouting GPS-fueled directions--sent the stocks of standalone GPS navigation manufacturers Garmin and TomTom crashing.

If a new rumor published by DigiTimes is to be believed, companies are putting their money where their (shareholders') mouths are and moving resources away from the production of standalone personal navigation devices, or PNDs.

Research and development teams at manufacturers Foxconn and Wistron have been shifted to other devices in the face of "declining PND orders," according to the report.

Read the full story at ZDNet's The ToyBox.

Leaked screenshots show HTC Hero running Android 2.1

HTC has announced that its Hero smartphone would soon get an updated version of the Google Android platform on which it runs, and a new leaked screenshot shows the device running Android 2.1--skipping 1.6 Donut and 2.0 Eclair altogether.

It's unclear which pastry this build is named after, but the screenshots show that HTC is moving quickly to update its Sense UI to work with the new version of the Android operating system.

When will it be available? As these things go with leaked screenshots, no one publicly has said. But I'm waiting for a leaked video to show me that the Hero line's inferior (to Droid) processor can swing version 2.1 without a problem.

Originally posted on The ToyBox on ZDNet

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