An Operating System to Run It All

Apple and Google will soon have more than just each other to worry about in the race to provide the software for smart phones and tablets. Later this month, Intel will announce that its MeeGo operating system is ready to run devices including touch screen tablets and phones. MeeGo is a Linux-based, open source project created by combining Moblin and Nokias Maemo operating system projects early this year.

Devices running MeeGo are likely to start appearing in early 2011. Netbooks are expected to appear first, then tablets and phones. MeeGo is different from Apple's iOS platform for the iPhone, iPod and iPad or Google's Android operating system, says Intel's head of open source strategy, Ram Peddibhotla, because it is intended to seamlessly link multiple devices.with a flick of your finger, transferring a movie or any other content onto another device."

 One demo showed how a movie being streamed to a MeeGo netbook could be transferred to a TV set top box or even a phone; another showed how a netbook or tablet running MeeGo could be used in place of a TV remote to control a MeeGo-powered TV device.

Apple has also shown an interest in having its devices work together, and in making it possible to use an iPhone to control Apple TV or to stream video from an iPad or computer to Apple TV.

Microsoft hopes to bury iPhone, Android

Last month, a few hundred Microsoft Corp employees acted out their fantasy with a mock funeral for Apple’s iPhone at its Redmond, Washington campus. The new software is Microsoft’s last chance to catch up with Apple and Google Inc’s Android smartphones, some analysts say after squandering its strong market position in only a few years. The product is expeced to be released and in stores by the end of November or the middle of October. Microsoft is now fourth in the fast-growing U.S. market for smartphone operating systems with less than 12 percent, behind BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd, Apple and Google. Investors were not impressed with Microsoft’s last attempt to launch a new phone, the Kin, which was dropped after less than three months on the market. All three of those phone makers already offer Android-based phones, while AT&T is currently the sole carrier for the iPhone, which means none has too much riding on the success of the new software, which could be a problem for Microsoft.
http://www.technologyreview.com/