WiMax is starting to roll. WiMax stands for the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access.

HERNDON, Va. – Aug. 28, 2008 – XOHM TM WiMAX mobile broadband customers can have information customized for their locations and personalized to their needs with new Sprint (NYSE: S) ecosystem agreements that help pioneer subscriber location services.

Sprint is building a WiMAX high-speed mobile data network which will debut commercially in Baltimore this September. Other cities are expected to receive service in the fourth quarter and beyond. “The XOHM mobile broadband experience will be largely location-centric,” explained Rick Robinson, vice president of XOHM Services. “We’re creating a new dimension to online presence, making points of interest near your current location easy to identify and access. This ‘geobrowsing’ effect provides location context and will give XOHM members a richer personal broadband experience when they’re mobile.”

Unique location and personalization capabilities will customize information for the user at home, at work or places in between. Customers with WiMAX-capable devices such as laptops and other portable devices will have location-based information at their fingertips, easily finding businesses, entertainment or events and quickly checking weather and traffic to get there. They can search for interests, see results plotted on a map, acquire detailed information, get directions and assemble friends conveniently while mobile.

The location-enabled mobile experience will span a range of devices such as laptops, mobile Internet devices, media players, cameras and car navigation. XOHM is enabling web services application programming interfaces (APIs) so a broad collection of service developers and device partners can use location to offer increased utility for XOHM members. XOHM will offer these location capabilities with a corresponding privacy policy to make sure XOHM members are informed about how XOHM will handle their data. Read More

I received an email today from Hal Goldstein, the publisher of Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine, regarding that the Best Awards issue will be the last for the foreseeable future. The industry has radically changed and many people like myself rarely read hard print magazines. I have always enjoyed the publication and will miss getting the electronic version. Even many on-line communities are changing and some sites are now catering to a much wider audience to garner more traffic. Here at MobileGadgetNews we will continue to offer low key Windows Mobile News (maybe a touch of iPhone info) and help answer peoples questions as best we can. We are not driven by financial goals at the site but by the joy of gadgetry. MGN has had it ups and downs but we take pride in helping the community since 2004. I am very pleased to serve as a judge for the final version of the Best Software Awards. I plan to do some updates on the favorites that I have judged.

Check out Hal's Blog for more information on PocketPC Magazine.

Hal writes " I have sad news. After 11 years, we will be publishing a final 2008 issue of Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine and then suspend publication! We are working hard to make it the best Windows Mobile issue ever, a keeper, a reference guide. In 2009 we will publish Smartphone magazine’s iPhone Life. Below, I’ve attempted to answer questions that have been asked of me:

Why are you “suspending” Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine at a time when Windows Mobile has never been stronger?

It is with great regret I make this announcement. We are a very small, self-funded magazine publishing company. We did not make this decision lightly, especially after 11 years of issues.

It has become harder and harder to grow our circulation over the past three years since Windows Mobile changed from being PDAs to being phones. Pocket PC manufacturers like HP used to work with us to offer their customers a free issue of our magazine in their packaging. The phone companies have not shown similar interest in working with us."

Microsoft's Windows Mobile Applications Store and HELP Pages

Are you a new Windows Mobile phone user? Are you looking for a listing of some cool applications you can put on your phone? Do you want to know more about the latest devices and which carriers - around the world - have them? Then you could do well to check out Microsoft's Windows Mobiles website.

It's a pretty well layed-out site. If you poke around, you're sure to learn something new that you can do with your windows mobile phone.

Sony Ericsson - XPERIA X1 REVIEW

The website SMAPE has a review of the much anticipated Sony Ericsson X1. Chances are good that any gripes people have with this device will be addressed as it nears release via rom updates. Compared to the Samsung i900 OMNIA, HTC Touch, HTC Touch Pro and the iPhone 2.0, the X1 adds a few unique twists. My instinct tells me that of these phones this will be the most expensive option.

You can read the Sony Ericsson X1 review, here.

A little birdie told me that Proporta is offering a 15% discount off all Proporta branded hardware products on orders placed between the 23^rd and 25^th August 2008. Just enter BROLLY when prompted at the cart page to receive your discount. For anyone who owns a Nokia N95 (yes, yes I know its not windows mobile but....) they are offering a 50% discount off there Proporta Alu-Crystal Case. Just enter N95USERS.

Bratislava, Slovakia (August 13, 2008) – Shortly after being introduced on the market, Resco Keyboard PRO v5.0 became the most popular keyboard for Pocket PC devices. The powerful Thumb and Correction modes proved that the best software input method is stylus free.



Resco Keyboard Pro is literally a handy multi-skin keyboard. Immediately after Resco Keyboard PRO v5.0 was released, users all over the globe started to create new skins that would perfectly fit individual needs. Resco highly values such effort and therefore it organized the Best Skin Contest. During a one month period, a total number of 52 high quality skins were added. No matter whether you like to type with your fingers or with a stylus, you will definitely find a skin which you can really enjoy!

Features in Resco Keyboard Pro:

• 60+new skins available for download
• easier addition of own skins
• thumb mode
• correction mode
• preview mode
• less memory usage
• multi-language keyboard support
• sound addition with the possibility to add any sound

Check out Resco Keyboard Pro

August 18th, 2008 - SBSH Mobile Software announced today a new exciting Papyrus for Windows Mobile Standard major update to version 2! SBSH Papyrus 2 for Smartphone is an innovative time management application packed with top quality tools designed to help you bring the most out of your Smartphone!

Papyrus 2 brings a handful of new exciting features: Search View for PIM items searching; Advanced filters management; Automatic attendees notifications, Auto-adopting design to match your device look&feel, Popup selection effect for optimized display, complete PNG graphics support and much more! Papyrus 2 brings a new powerful back-end engine that ensure the fastest experience for the pro user!

Read the full press release

olya@vitotechnology.com
Winterface to win your hearts
New version with numerous improvements
August 13th, 2008 – VITO Technology releases a new version of one of its best-sellers – Winterfcae. Winterface is a Windows Mobile shell that helps you to organize applications and settings at your PocketPC the way you like. The start gesture “rainbow” was replaced in new version by upside down tick ^. Moreover, it has become possible to add to the main screen not only applications, settings and contacts but also any files on your Pocket PC. Besides, calendar and tasks now can notify you about upcoming events, appointments and tasks. Minor bugs have been also fixed.

The new version 1.1 of Winterface includes numerous improvements. The major one is that we’ve changed the start gesture, now the application is started with the help of the upside down tick ^. This gesture is unlikely to interfere with other applications so that Winterface couldn’t pop out each time you slide the screen. Drawing the gesture "tick" or letter "v" on your screen can close any application you are working in.

Other improvements are concerned with tasks and calendar. For most of users their Pocket PCs are organizers and reminders. Therefore Winterface now have red indicators with numbers above Calendar and Tasks icons to show active tasks and upcoming events. When tapping Calender you can see a semi-transparent window with all events. If you need to edit time or event you can go to the calendar if not you may return back to the screen. As for the tasks, pressing the icon you are put straight to the Tasks to look at them and to edit.

At one of the sites where we had great discussion with our users we were strongly convinced by the advanced WM users that they definitely need quick access to separate files. Therefore "Files" was added to the menu of the program that affords you to add any file to the screen. Moreover, we've made a possibility to switch off the lock screen.
Winterface now looks whiter as most of the standard icons were replaced by super stylish winter-like icons. You will be amazed by the cool looks of your Pocket PC screen.

Some of the bugs were fixed like: it is now impossible to delete Menu and Running icons of the program, some of the icons are not doubled any more (like Phone). The bug on HTC devices with battery icon was also fixed.
NOTE! If you need to backup your settings, you only should rename file pages.db (for example, pages_old.db) in the Winterface folder. Then you should uninstall the old version of Winterface, rename it back from pages_old.db to pages.db after that install new version of the program. All other updates that are higher than version 1.1 won’t need this operation as the program will do it itself.

Winterface is available for $19.95 at www.iWindowsMobile.com/vito-mobile-shell.html.

VITO Technology Inc. is known for its high-tech products in the field of Windows Mobile and Symbian software, GPS navigation and custom projects. Introduced in the present article Winterface is a mobile shell for Windows Mobile.
###
© VITO Technology 2008. All rights reserved.
EDITORIAL COPY AVAILABLE upon REQUEST

Read more about Winterface - Windows Mobile Shell

Beware what apps you put on your iPhone - Apple may remove them.

(pcmag) Apple chief executive Steve Jobs confirmed the existence of a so-called "back door" built into the latest iPhone software—one that allows the company, on a whim, to remove applications that owners have downloaded onto the device.

According to an interview in Monday's Wall Street Journal, the back door was added as a security measure.

"Mr. Jobs confirmed such a capability exists, but argued that Apple needs it in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program -- one that stole users' personal data, for example -- to be distributed to iPhones through the App Store," the Journal reported. "'Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull,'" Jobs said.

Read More at PC Mag

This is pretty big brother don't you think?

SANTA CLARA, CA – August 12, 2008 – PixSense, a global leader in multimedia and web convergence solutions for mobile operators, today announced the launching of its Preserve, Share, Publish (PSP) platform in China, under the Paiker.cn brand. A Chinese mobile user-generated content sharing and entertainment site, Paiker enables users on China Mobile’s network for automatic upload, to share and publish mobile photos and videos.

PixSense’s PSP technology powers Paiker users with the ability to instantly share full resolution mobile photo and videos, either from phone to phone, phone to web or web to phone. With one click, Paiker users can upload high-resolution multimedia content while PixSense’s patent-pending Bio-Compression™ technology provides fast and cost efficient uploads.

Paiker also offers direct posting of mobile phone photos and videos from both the application on handsets and Paiker.cn website to a wide variety of social networking communities, including Sina Blog, Sohu Blog, MySpace China, YouTube and other web destinations.

Elaborating on the ease of use and the timely release of Paiker in conjunction with the Beijing Olympics, R. Paul Singh, president and CEO of PixSense notes, “with the launch of Paiker it is now possible for users to share historic memories from the Olympics in near real-time, to anywhere in the world. Its adoption in a large mobile market such as China is a clear reference point that our technology is the most user-friendly, stable and innovative available.”

The Paiker service currently supports popular handsets from a variety of device manufacturers including Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, HTC and other mobile phones.

About PixSense
PixSense is a global leader in mobile media sharing solutions. Deployed with leading mobile operators worldwide, Pixsense’s PSP™ (preserve, share, publish) platform allows for easy sharing and distribution of mobile videos and images through camera phones. PixSense’s patent-pending Bio-Compression technology reduces media sizes up to 90% without compromising the quality of the media file. Users can share with friends and post media to popular social networks, including FaceBook, MySpace and Flickr with just a click of a button.

Founded in 2003, PixSense is headquartered in the U.S., with offices in China, India and Pakistan. For more information, please visit www.pixsense.com.

(mobilemag) The current rumors are pointing toward a September 17th launch of the HTC Dream on T-Mobile. If the rumors are true, then this would be the first Android-powered phone to make it into the primetime. I should note that the September 17th date only represents a "special promotional pre-sale event" and not the "full" launch date.

Read More Android Speculation

Recent advances have transformed mobile phones into small portable computers that manage and organise our lives on a daily basis. Now for the first time the public can put a monetary value on the important stuff inside their phone.

Commenting on the Mobile Value study UCL Professor of Applied Maths Frank T Smith PhD
said: "Only recently have people started to carry around so much personal information and entertainment content with them. Mobiles have become a digital treasure trove and we need to be made aware of their true value, it's not just about the glossy handset."

The Mobilator is designed to show how much money is tied up in our mobiles.
The formula has been developed to educate people that there is far more to their mobiles than just the plastic. Professor of Applied Mathematics Frank Smith, University College London (UCL) and Post-Doctorial researcher Andrew Ellis developed the formula jointly with Mobyko to put a monetary value on all mobile content including; contacts, texts, photos, videos, music and games.

See how much your phone is worth.

The Mobile Architecture Imperative - Architect For Thin And Thick Mobile Clients For The Next Five Years

Forrester is a well respected technology analyst firm. They have written a report that outlines their views on how corporate IT will address Mobile technology. Interesting stuff!

Executive Summary
The past eight years have shown little business adoption of mobile applications beyond wireless email and a few key applications. As a result, firms have been able to limp along without comprehensive mobile architectures. No longer. Today, the imperative for defining a holistic mobile architecture is red hot. As IT reacts to a chaotic increase in device types, wireless networks, and demand for mobile apps, firms report that providing more mobility support to information workers, task workers, and now customers ranks at the top of their 2008 priorities. Enterprise architecture professionals must assess which applications these mobile users want and the attributes of that use — the devices, networks, and security — as well as define an architecture that can support development, management, and security. In the end, two major architectures — thin client and thick client — will evolve, and a comprehensive mobile architecture strategy will need to include both options.

Read more here:  Mobile_Architecture___Forrester.pdf ( 539.69K ) Number of downloads: 162

1. (1) Apple Iphone

2. (5) Nokia 3109

3. (3) Nokia E51

4. (4) Nokia 6300

5. (-) Sony Ericsson C902

6. (-) Sony Ericsson C702

7. (7) Nokia N95 8 GB

8. (8) Sony Ericsson K810i

9. (9) Sony Ericsson K530i

10. (6) LG KU990

() = Last month’s position.

The Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases (very nice products) for portable electronics, Krusell, has released their "Top 10"-list for July 2008. The list is based upon the number of pieces of model specific mobile and smart phone cases that have been ordered from Krusell during July 2008. Krusell's list is unique due to the fact that it reflects the sales of phones on six continents and in more than 50 countries around the globe.

(fierceCIO) Indisputably the dominant computing platform of choice, the Windows Operating System looks set to remain that way for many more years to come. Microsoft is certainly not content to take things sitting down though. Already, its own research lab is cooking up a new operating system that is nothing less than a radical departure from the current paradigm. Called Midori, it does away with dependencies tying Windows to a single PC, with a design that centers on the Internet. Many believe that the idea behind Midori is to create a lightweight operating system that can easily be mated to serve as a portable host for compartmentalized applications. If that is true, it sounds like Microsoft's answer to the threat posed by the increasing use of virtualization on the desktop.

Read More on this Portable Platform at BBC