Day: February 8, 2006

Hockey: World Championship – this is the first and the only 5 on 5 ice hockey simulator game for Palm OS! You can now play a real game of ice hockey. The game includes all the countries – participants of the real world hockey championship. There are two play modes available – championship and single play. This is a must-have game for every owner of a PalmOS handheld! This is a real sports simulator for PalmOS Features: – Realistic game physics, players motions, ice slides – 2 types of game: championship and quick game – 5 players vs 5 players – Sound effects and music – Full advanced statistics – User-friendly interface – Great 3D graphics – Scrolling ice field – Tutorial mode – Palm AI

Sprite Backup is the best way to back up and restore all the information you wish to keep on your mobile device. It is safe, easy to install, simple to use and is the proven choice world wide.New features or enhancements include:• Reliable backup and restore of Exchange synchronized mail messages. Earlier versions could back up Outlook synchronized messages, but those from Exchange would cause problems after the restore, preventing server sync.• Performance improvements. In running a very quick test of the backup process, my JasJar was backed up, just over 29MB of data, in under 2 minutes! This included encrypting and compressing the data. It took nearly 5 minutes for the same amount of data on my old PDA2K.• Automatic restore after a hard reset. This could be very valuable in the field. Just configure your employees’ device to auto-restore should a hard reset happen. Of course, you should weigh the security concerns surrounding that for your particular organization.• Autobackup to your PC on the first ActiveSync connection of the day. via pocketpcthoughts.com

“Starting the phone up takes about 40 seconds, but it’s worth the wait for the power within. As a quad-band worldphone, the SDA can make calls anywhere from Toledo to Tashkent. It gets very good reception, though voices were a bit harsher and less precise than we’d have liked, and there’s a big background-noise transmission problem in noisy environments. MP3 ringtones sounded good, and the earpiece volume was acceptable if not very loud. The speakerphone was too quiet to use outdoors, though it works acceptably indoors. (That’s odd because the media player can really blare, much louder than the speakerphone.) We actually got clearer sound through a Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth headset than we did through the phone’s built-in earpiece.” Read this review here:

Sony Europe has announced a new model of the compact HDD series Microvault Pro. The device is capacious of 8 GB. It is based on a 1” HDD placed in metallic shell and equipped with a USB-connector.The drive has the size of a business card. The sales of the 8 GB Microvault Pro should start during February. The recommended price makes up €199, i.e. about $240. The HDD comes with preinstalled software Auto Sync. via mobile-review.com

Two smart phones coming from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications in the second quarter will support an array of push e-mail systems including Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Connect.Users will be able to synchronize both the P990 and the M600 handsets with Exchange Server 2003 to view e-mail, contacts, and calendar entries, Microsoft said today. Enterprises using Service Pack 2 of the server software will be able to deliver the latest e-mail to employees via Microsoft’s Direct Push technology.Not Only MicrosoftBut Sony Ericsson isn’t locking users in to Microsoft’s platform on the phones, which will use Symbian’s Symbian OS 9.1 and the UIQ 3.0 software platform and operate on UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) networks.Both devices will also support BlackBerry Connect, a software-based version of RIM’s popular push e-mail technology, RIM announced today. Other e-mail options will include iAnywhere Solutions’ OneBridge and software from AlteXia, Intellisync, Seven, and Visto. Standard IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) e-mail will also be supported, and Ericsson Mobile Office will be provided free with the phones on a “try-and-buy” basis, according to Sony Ericsson. Competitive Push E-MailPush e-mail for mobile handsets, pioneered by RIM, has become a hotly competitive field. Microsoft is making inroads both with licensed ActiveSync software and with Windows Mobile OS devices, which have Exchange ActiveSync compatibility built in. Motorola, Palm, Nokia, Symbian, and software vendor DataViz are already licensees of ActiveSync, according to Microsoft. Meanwhile, RIM has come under a cloud as the Waterloo, Ontario, company faces a possible injunction against its service in the United States due to a court battle over patents.Sony Ericsson’s P990 was announced last year in advance of its availability so developers could start working on applications for it. The handset includes Wi-Fi and a 2-megapixel camera. The M600, announced Monday, will have a touch screen with handwriting recognition. It will also have a dual-fuction keypad for dialing numbers and typing e-mail that can be configured for QWERTY, Russian, and other layouts, according to Sony Ericsson.Both handsets also will include trial versions of McAfee antivirus and firewall software and Pointsec Mobile Technologies encryption software, plus a free Certicom VPN (virtual private network) client.The P990 will be offered in two forms: the P990i for UMTS and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region, and the P990c for UMTS and GPRS networks in mainland China when UMTS coverage is available. The M600i will be offered for UMTS and GPRS in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas, and the M600c will be available in mainland China when networks become available.

Toshiba and Microsoft introduced the Gigabeat S at the CES 2006. CNET just published a review of the Toshiba Gigabeat S that should hit stores in March in the US. The CNET reviewer is a big fan of the Portable Media Center (PMC) and raves how intuitive it is. He is though not pleased with the button interface of the Gigabeat S. The 2.4 inch screen also lacks the vividness of the one featured in the Creative Zen Vision:M for instance. Read the full review for more details.Microsoft will release the Windows Media Player 11 in March and also the MTV and Microsoft music service site Urge is supposed to launch in 2006. If the portable media players by Microsoft partners such as Toshiba are not gaining on Apple’s market share, Microsoft might really have to launch their rumored portable gaming and media gadget to fight Apple directly. via i4u.com

RWC is going to release the B1 under their iTAN brand. this USB phone is Skype compatible and will have DSP (Echo Cancellation) and a very nice design. Would have been better to make it wireless/cordless too, but maybe we’re just too demanding now… via akihabaranews.com