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Aliph announces the new Jawbone Bluetooth Headset

http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/index.php?act=attach&type;=post&id;=3449

Today Aliph, creator of the Jawbone Bluetooth Headset, unveiled the new Jawbone. The new Jawbone is 50% smaller than the original award-winning Jawbone, and features breakthrough noise elimination technology to provide even better voice quality.

Read the full press release

Emansio Revolutionises Push eMail for Consumers and Small Businesses

(press release) Emansio, a young energetic software company
based in the United Kingdom, has today announced the release of its
Emansio Push Mail software. Emansio Push Mail is set to revolutionise
the way that users of mobile phones in the Consumer and Small Business
sectors can access their email on the move.

Emansio Push Mail software provides a direct connection between the
user's mobile device and existing email server, offering unprecedented
flexibility in the selection of mobile operator and email provider
without the need for any additional server infrastructure. This means
that millions of users of AOL, GoogleMail, Yahoo, other mainstream email
providers and private email services will be able to enjoy the benefits
of having their email pushed to them on their mobile devices for the
first time.

"We spotted a gap in the market that was not being properly addressed by
the mainstream providers of push email solutions", declares Robin Major,
VP Business Development at Emansio.

The Emansio pocket outlook plug-in for windows mobile turns your email service into a Push Mail service, without requiring any additional server hardware. Emansio connects directly from your phone to your e-mail server, without any middle man, just like your PC!
http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/index.php?act=attach&type;=post&id;=3448

Get Excited about the Intel® Atom™ Processor: Intel's Power Conscious Power House

I recently bought an Asus Eee 8g UMPC and I am generally pleased with the Intel Celeron CPU. Of course I am overclocking it and applying the appropriate cooling. I am even more excited about the new Intel® Atom™ Processor that will be going into upcoming Asus Eee UMPC's. But even more exciting is the application of the Intel® Atom™ Processor to other devices like future Windows Mobile devices. Check out the Intel Atom. A power conscious Power House.

Windows Mobile, Improve the User Interface or Flounder in the Consumer Market

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy many aspects of the Windows Mobile (WM) experience and WM will continue to be the OS for my main business phone. However, every so often I use one of my other non-Windows Mobile phones and the user interface (UI) is just so much easier to use. Will Windows Mobile ever appeal as-is to consumers? Yes, yes I know, the new Touch-Flo helps, but, is that the answer going forward? Customization upon customization. It is also interesting to read other peoples take on what the real issues are concerning Windows Mobile, especially as compared with the rising Apple iPhone.

Recently TechRadar.com posted some good points on the Windows Mobile dilemma. They write "Looking at HTC’s Touch Diamond handset, you’d think it was cutting edge. Touch FLO 3D interface? Check. 7.2Mbps HSDPA? Check. But as we said in our hands on piece – there’s one problem, and it’s nothing to do with HTC itself. Nope, it’s that pesky Windows OS it runs on. Microsoft knows that Windows Mobile is not up to scratch. It made that clear during its consumer pitching at February’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We expect Windows Mobile 7 and 8 to seriously challenge Apple and Nokia on interface usability."

TechRader says "After all, Windows Mobile still makes a mobile work like a PC. And that, as we’ve seen with the iPhone, is not the way a mobile should work." You can read the TechRadar piece here.

Contrast the TechRadar take on the PC like interface with the observations in an article titled "HTC's Touch Diamond Won't Touch iPhone 2.0". from NewsFactor. The article points out that Apple is creating a significant user experience based on "Apple's major differentiator is the ecosystem of iPhones and full-blown applications, both Web-based as well as native, that really sets it apart from their competitors," Bajarin said. "While the new HTC (diamond) phone is important to the smart-phone industry in general, it will have almost no impact on Apple," Bajarin said. "Apple's iPhone is unique in that it is based on a full operating system -- Mac OS X -- and has a full browser. And with the new apps that are coming out soon, it will be more like having a real PC in your pocket, not just a phone."

It is obvious Windows Mobile is crippled in that it can't handle full fledged applications like a real web browser, full Office support, etc. It appears that the work around is custom code from various vendors to fill gaps like Touch Flo to improve the user experience and to try to compete with the iPhone for the consumer. We can only hope that Windows Mobile 7 and 8 will be far more robust, provide a better native UI and better application support. Otherwise, I think many consumers are going to be looking at Linux, android, Apple Mac OS X and other systems that already provide a richer mobile experience. Are you satisfied with the Windows Mobile user interface?

MGN Review: HeroCraft's Hexxagon Lab

HeroCraft's Hexxagon Labs is their latest Windows Mobile brain teaser based on playing against the best American and European professors brains that were implanted in the game’s artificial intellect system. The tactical logic game includes 17 original hard-to-solve levels. Read our review of Hexxagon Labs here

HTC Touch Diamond - More of the Same?

It seems like the Windows Mobile device manufacturers have hit the wall with more of the same thing. The HTC Diamond is the latest example. What is innovative about this phone? A 2.8-inch screen? The 3.2 mega pixel camera may be an upgrade. I like the GPS. Anyway, check it out and see what you think. Specs

Highlights

• 2.8-inch touch screen, with four times the pixels of most phones.
• Vibrant TouchFLO 3D user interface, responding perfectly to your finger gestures when scrolling through contacts, browsing the web, and launching media… all vividly displayed as photos and artwork powered by the 3D graphics processor.
• HTC Weather - providing a constant view of weather at home and abroad.
• Surf and download at broadband speed with HSDPA internet connectivity.
• 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera for quality stills and video.
• 4GB of internal storage to preserve more photos, music, files and exchanged data than ever before.
• Integrated GPS for use with maps software for a full turn-by-turn satellite navigation experience.

http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/index.php?act=attach&type;=post&id;=3441

8th Annual Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine Best Software Awards

Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine has initiated their 8th Annual Best Software Awards for Smartphone and PocketPC. During this process the top Windows Mobile applications are nominated for judging by a Board of Windows Mobile Experts. Once the nominating is complete the judges score the various application in their respective categories and submit scores and comments to Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine. The scores are tallied and the best software in each category as judged by the Board of Experts is awarded the "Best Software" award. I use the the Best and Finalist Software list to help select software that I may want to try on my Windows Mobile devices.

There have been over 15,000 games, utilities, and applications written for Windows Mobile Smartphones and PDAs. To be considered for the Best Software Awards, developers need to enter their product description in the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine Encyclopedia of Software and Accessories (free listing). Roughly 20% of the 4000 software products in the Encyclopedia are nominated by the Board of Experts. These experts vote in over 180 Smartphone and Pocket PC categories to determine finalists and winners.

I am judging again this year and would like to know what applications you would like to see nominated for the Best Software Awards 2008. So check the Encyclopedia of Software and see if your favorite software is listed. Just PM me or respond to this thread with your favorite Windows Mobile nomination.

http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/index.php?act=attach&type;=post&id;=3439

Get Meshy with Live Mesh

Microsoft is working on some cool innovations including Live Mesh. Live Mesh connects your digital world, seamlessly connecting you to the people, devices (yes Windows Mobile), programs, and information that is important to you. Max Zuckerman over at Channel8.msdn provides a nice overview of Live Mesh in his interview with Live Meshers Noah and George. Max covers "the basics of Live mesh: synchronize files between all your PCs and even devices, synchronize files between your local desktop and 5GB of space in "the cloud" (that's code for "online"), and my favorite: remote into any of these Live Mesh-ified machines via the web." Check out Live Mesh Some day we all might be getting Meshy.
http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/index.php?act=attach&type;=post&id;=3437

MGN adds new forum "Windows Mobile News"

We have added a new forum category "Windows Mobile News" that feeds the latest Windows Mobile News from sources across the internet. Our goal is to make your Windows Mobile Life Simpler. We have also added a link to the "latest news" on the main menu.

http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/index.php?act=attach&type;=post&id;=3436