I’ve often talked about how great it would be to have a true dual-boot environment on a mobile device, and VMware is setting the ground work for this to happen. The announcement doesn’t seem to indicate that it will be two separate operating systems at this point, just separate and secure accounts on the device. It sounds like they are going to provide some sort or application virtualization and as a result will allow separate accounts to be configured on the phone. Android is the only mobile operating system that offers full support for multitasking, which is clearly something that attracted VMware to developing virtualization for the platform.

The real question is, will Microsoft sit back and watch this happen? Or will they step up and offer their own virtualization technology on the recently released Windows Phone 7 platform? Check out the full press release on the VMware website and let us know your thoughts!

Truth be told, the iPad is a large device, and there is a very good chance that it will block something on the dash of your car. Further, you need to decide if an iPad is really something that you need mounted on the dash of your car. I think this would be too much of a distraction for a great number of people on the roads today. Thankfully, ProClip has thought of this too, and they are looking into creating a car headrest mount that would attach to the back of the front seats allowing the passengers in the back seat to view the screen. Now that’s smart.

Before I get underway with the full review I wanted to post a picture from each of these phones, as the camera on each is quite good. To test them out I took the same shot twice on each phone and picked the best for each one.

The Nokia 5230 only has a 2 megapixel camera, so I really wasn’t expecting much. Of course, as has been said many times before, it’s not about the megapixels. The 5230 really does prove that point! Pictures are extremely clear and snapping photos is quite quick. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have a fast camera on a smartphone! So many take way too long to snap and save, but the Nokia is very…snappy.

The Palm Pre has a 3 megapixel camera and is shockingly good, in my opinion. Colours are very vibrant, as is detail and it is also a very fast camera. I found I could snap pictures as quickly as half a second apart!

Enough blabbing! Here are the example shots; the first being from the Nokia and the second from the Palm Pre. Clicking the image will bring up a full sized photo. Tell me what you think!

Of course, there is hope that this could be a match made in heaven. For Palm, the influx of money and manufacturing knowledge and resources is a huge asset. For HP, it provides them with an OS that they can grow across multiple devices and platforms. Palm has been doing some good things with their WebOS over the last year and they have a very loyal following. So it will be interesting to see if HP can keep the momentum rolling.

The complete press release is below. Take a look and share you thoughts with us. Are you interested in buying an HP Palm Smartphone?

HP and Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors.

The combination of HP’s global scale and financial strength with Palm’s unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets. Palm’s unique webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as true multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications.

“Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. “And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market.”

“We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer, Palm. ”We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners.”

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Palm stockholders will receive $5.70 in cash for each share of Palm common stock that they hold at the closing of the merger. The merger consideration takes into account the updated guidance and other financial information being released by Palm this afternoon. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of domestic and foreign regulatory approvals and the approval of Palm’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close during HP’s third fiscal quarter ending July 31, 2010.

Palm’s current chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, is expected to remain with the company.

Over the last while I’ve been testing out various touch devices and that has caused me to step back and take a look at capacitive and resistance screens.  There is a really good article over at AllAboutSymbian.com that clearly shows and compares capacitive vs resistance screens. What it comes down to is this – resistive screens require resistance (ie: pressure) to work. You can use your finger or a stylus to apply the pressure required. Capacitive screens don’t work on pressure, they require an electrostatic charge from your finger to determine where on the screen you are touching. Because of this, there needs to be about 5% humidity for them to work correctly. So it can be hard to work it in extreme cold conditions. While capacitive screens can cost more, they provide a number of benefits like being easier to view under direct sunlight, and the ability for multi-touch applications.

Overall user experience is also a key with capacitive screens. They’re much easier to interact with than resistive based screens. If you’ve been using a resistive screen, generally you can move to a capacitive screen with out noticing much of a difference. However, if you’ve been using capacitive for a while and try to switch to a resistive screen, there’s no doubt that you’ll notice a difference and have problems interacting with the screen. Without realizing, I recently switched to a resistive screen and noticed a number of issues interacting with the device. Once I made the connection about the screen type, I just made sure to apply a little more pressure on the screen and things have been great since.

Get to know your touch screen so you can better enjoy that device!

The HTC Mini is based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and brings the experience of the HD2 to a smaller footprint. The HD2 experience is truly something special. If HTC can make this into a smaller device, it will be interesting to see and use. The single best thing on the HD2 is the screen. If they can pack the processor and power into a smaller footprint, will the device be as attractive? It’s a hard question to answer. With a smaller screen, they will need to make sure that the smaller screen is just as brilliant as it’s larger brother or it won’t succeed.

The HTC Legend and Desire are both Android based devices. The Legend is like version 2 of the Hero, adding a AMOLED screen LED Flash, optical trackball, a faster processor – 600MHz, and some more memory.  The Desire is HTC’s version of their Nexus One phone, but with an optical trackball and an extra button.

You can read check out the press release over at MobilityMinded – HTC Mini, and HTC Legend, Desire. And then let us know what you think of HTC’s latest devices.

This year, the summit falls at the same time as Mobile World Congress (and the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver). If Microsoft decides to share Windows Phone 7 at MWC, then I expect the product teams will have more to share with us. Unfortunately, a lot of what we talk about is under NDA. Rest assured, that whatever I can share, I will share. And I will also take with me a list of issues and questions that I have gathered from your comments posted on Mobile Jaw over the last while.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Quantum physics is one of those classes that I never really got along with at university. So I won’t pretend to understand exactly what’s happening here. The end result is a pressure sensitive switch that’s about the same thickness as a human hair, and only requires power when it’s pressed.

The article makes no mention about what devices and manufacturers are planning on using this technology or how it will effect the price of the unit. Regardless, I think it’s awesome use of technology and I can’t wait to give it a run myself.

Cell phone use in the car is getting a lot of attention now from the media as well as the government. So much so, that laws are being introduced that will make using a cell phone while driving illegal. While I agree that you shouldn’t be using the phone while driving, I don’t see the need for a law specifically to deal with cell phones because that’s saying that reading the newspaper is ok, or that putting on make-up while driving is fine. When the reality is that neither of those are acceptable. Any laws created should address anything that takes the drivers attention away from the task of driving. It doesn’t matter if it’s eating a burger from a fast food restaurant, reading the newspaper, putting on make-up, shaving, browsing through music on your MP3 player, talking / texting on your cell phone, or anything else. If it takes your attention away from the task of driving, it should be illegal.

The only things that come out of creating a law to address cell phone use while driving is short-sightedness and the need to create a new law in a couple years when the next-great-thing is found to cause a distraction to drivers. Get it right the first time and deal with all the distractions and not just cell phones.