USB 3.0 offers transfer rate of 4.8Gbps

I spotted this article about the introduction of USB 3.0 on Gadget Reviews. Besides the speed, version 3.0 allows for bi-directional transfer and is backward compatible.

Read more on Gadget Reviews.

Adobe Photoshop.com mobile coming in September

Adobe has announced that they will offer a new online free service where you'll be able to upload your photos and share with friends and the world. For those of you who, like me, believed that Adobe has developed a mobile version of Photoshop for editing photos, well this is not it. Adobe Photoshop.com mobile beta will be available as a free download in September.
A list of supported devices is posted on Adobe's website and most of them are non-touch screen devices, with only the Treo 750w representing the touch screen devices. But there is a note on the page that reads: "Treo's Touch feature not supported". Non-touch screens rule.

Read more...

Dataviz releases Documents to Go for Pocket PC

If you are not happy with the Microsoft Office Mobile need a more powerful software that does not rip your formatting, make sure you download and try Documents to Go from Dataviz. Initially, Dataviz had Documents to Go for non-touch screen devices only. I'm glad to see that they ported their robust software to touch screens as well. One the features that motivate the purchase of Documents to Go is the ability to password protect files.

Features:

Create, view and edit native Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files

The first and only commercially available mobile office suite to fully support (view, edit & create) Microsoft Office 2007/2008 files and attachments

• View, edit and create Word 2007/2008 files
• View, edit and create Excel 2007/2008 files
• View, edit and create PowerPoint 2007/2008 files

View native Adobe PDF files

• Supports embedded graphics and fonts for desktop-like viewing
• Supports password-protected PDFs
• Supports 40-bit and 128-bit encrypted PDFs

Decompress Zip Archives

"Zip and Send" allows you to compress and email an opened file instantaneously

Create, view and edit Excel charts

Access password-protected Word & Excel files (97-2004 formats only)

Supports rich formatting such as bold, italics, underline, tables, embedded graphics, footnotes, endnotes and much more...

Click here to learn more and download a trial copy.

Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine: the end of an adventure

I read with dismay the email that Hal Goldstein sent to me last night. It is hard to believe that I will soon be reading the last and final issue of such a great magazine. I have been an avid reader of the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine for two years or more and will surely miss the quality articles from the experts. Fortunately, these experts will still write great articles online. The forums and blogs will remain and that is good news. So all is not lost. BTW, Thaddeus Computing will soon release an iPhone Magazine.

A big thanks to the Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine team.

Read Hal's blog post about the Final Issue of Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine:

http://www.pocketpcmag.com/cms/blog/4/final-issue-smartphone-pocket-pc-magazine

HTC announces the S740

The S740 is a stylish smartphone with the same design as the Touch Diamond except that it's a non-touch screen phone. Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1, the device also has a sliding QWERTY keyboard and is expected to be released in Europe as from September 2008.

Key HTC S740 Product Specifications
• Size: 116.3 x 43.4 x 16.3 mm
• Weight: 140g with battery
• Networks: WCDMA/HSDPA: 900/2100 MHz for EU and Asia
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Maximum speed: UL = 384 kbps; DL = 3.6/7.2 Mbps**
• Camera: 3.2MP, with the second VGA camera for video calling
• Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard
• Display: 2.4-inch QVGA screen
• Camera: 3.2 megapixel with fixed focus
• Internal memory: 256 MB flash; 256 MB RAM
• Memory card: microSD™
• WLAN: 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth®: 2.0 with EDR
• GPS: GPS/AGPS
• Interface: HTC ExtUSB™ (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)
• Battery: 1000 mAh
• Talk time: WCDMA: Up to 320 minutes*** / GSM: Up to 380 minutes***
• Standby time: WCDMA: Up to 400 hours*** / GSM: Up to 280 hours***
• Special features: Sliding QWERTY keyboard, FM radio, Google Maps, RSS Hub
• Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM7225, 528 MHz

Read the press release.

Handango Sale

Now through Tuesday, August 26, 2008, use code SECRET20 for 20% off everything at Handango.com.

Official details from Palm on the Treo Pro

Unofficial pictures and details have been leaking out for weeks on Palm's latest smartphone release: the Treo Pro. It comes right on the heels of the recently released Treo 800w. Now Palm has made their own official announcement and confirm such details as Windows Mobile 6.1, 320x320 touchscreen, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a 2 megapixel camera. If that sounds exactly like the Treo 800w, lets distinguish with the Pro being Tri-Band 3G / Quad-Band EDGE, including a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, and a slightly bigger battery at 1500 mAh. Plus, this one looks a lot more iPhone-ish.

Details from Palm here. Unboxing pictures and details from Engadget Mobile here.
View a video from Palm about the device here.

The release date has not yet been unannounced, but the carriers have:
Europe: Vodafone and O2
Austrailia: Telstran
USA: unlocked version will be made available for GSM networks

Latin American and Asian carriers to be announced in the future.

Papyrus 2.0 released

Papyrus 2 brings many exciting new features, including: Search View for PIM item searching; Advanced filters management; Automatic attendees notifications, Popup selection effect for optimized display and much more! Papyrus 2 back-end engine was re-designing from the beginning and delivers the fastest experience for the pro user!

SBSH Papyrus 2 Highlights

All New Search View - Introducing extremely effective search functionality for your PIM items! Use the new Search View from any chosen view to easily browse through your different items!

Mobile Innovation - Automatically email notifications and appointment invitations to attendees; New Pop-out Effect on all views for better data display, Active timeline display, New professionally designed built-in category icon store with PNG format support and much more!

Redesigned Interface - Featuring the next generation of user-interface with automatic adoption to your Windows Mobile look and feel and easy to navigate dialogs! Additionally, Papyrus 2 includes especially designed features to take advantage of any screen orientation Smartphone!


Click here to find out more information about the new features and improvements available with the all new Papyrus 2 release!

Motorola Q9h WM6.1 update available

Jason Langridge posted about the availability of Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade for the Motorola Q9h. The upgrade can be downloaded free from here. The Q9h owners will certainly like the sliding panel home screen. BTW, the sliding panel is only available on non-touch screen devices. I often receive emails asking where to find this feature on touch screens.

Visit Jason's blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan/

Free Facebook client released

If you are a heavy user of Facebook, Snap2Face will certainly be of interest. Snap2Face will let you connect to Facebook wherever you are, provided you have a good connection and preferably an unlimited data plan.

The features of Snap2Face are:

• Sleek, graphic-rich user interface
  
• Set your status while on-the-go
  
• View friends' status and detailed information
  
• View friends' friends and send friendship requests
  
• Get notified of events like wall post, message,
  poke, and friend request
  
• View your pokes, wall, inbox, and friend requests,
  all in full text
  
• Poke friends, send message to friends, and post
  on friends' wall
  
• Access you and your friends' photo albums
  
• Ability to view, zoom in/out, and pan full-sized
  photos, and play slideshow
  
• Upload photos from built-in camera or file folder
  
• Import friends' profile photos to Outlook Contacts
  (photo Call ID)
  
• and more...

Check out this link for instructions to download, setup and configure Snap2Face.

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Explore the seven wonders of the world Learn more!

Free: New version of Tiny Twitter is out

The new version include some interesting features like the message-like popup for new and unread tweets as well as replies to direct message. There is also the possibility to post your location to Windows Live maps.

Tiny Twitter can be downloaded free from www.tinytwitter.com.

Celio RedFly is Released!

On the heels of Palm's cancelled Foleo mobile companion comes the Celio Redfly, finally available now. This wonderful device allows you to use your compatible Windows Mobile device on a much larger scale. The Redfly is essentially a dumb terminal that simply provides a much larger interface for your device with an almost-full size keyboard, a touchpad, and an 8-inch screen at 800x480. It also has two USB ports, a VGA out port, and Bluetooth. Connect to your phone via USB or Bluetooth, and you are ready to enjoy WinMo on the big screen. :) Use that VGA out port to connect to an external monitor or a projector. If connected via USB, your phone will charge off of the Redfly's battery. Use the second USB port to connect a standard mouse for even more functionality.

For more information, check out the Info page and this full review and then you can buy your own at the newly lowered price of just $399.95 US.

The Redfly is now compatible with these phones:

• HTC Mogul
• AT&T Tilt
• Verizon XV6800
• Treo 700 w/wx
• Treo 750
• Samsung SCH-i760 (Verizon)
• Samsung Blackjack II
• Motorola Q9c
• Motorola Q9m
• Motorola Q9h
• T-Mobile Dash
• Sprint Touch
• HTC Touch (Original GSM)
• Treo 500
• Treo 800w

Press Release: Vito Technology release Winterface 1.1

VITO Technology released a new version of one of its best-sellers – Winterface. 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 Calendar 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.

Hot fix for resolving inability to download/open PDF files in HTC S620

HTC released a hot fix for the HTC S620 to resolve the inability to download and open PDF files. The fix can be download on their new support site at http://www.htc.com/www/SupportDownloadList.aspx?p_id=2&cat=all. By the way, the download page has moved from the e-Club to a new support page where the device serial No. is required to download instead of having to be a member of HTC e-club.

If you are trying to download and view Adobe PDF files from the Internet that were saved using the newer versions of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Distiller, you may not be able to download/open them on the HTC S620. Please download this hot fix to be able to successfully download/open Adobe PDF files from the Internet.

Tips: Cannot recognize one or more recipients or the address is not valid

If you get the error mentioned in the title above while sending a text/SMS/E-mail message, do the following:

Open Messaging.

Click Menu > Options.

Click Address tab.

"In Contacts, get e-mail addresses from:" drop down list, select "All e-mail fields"

Source.

Astraware releases Insaniquarium Deluxe

Don't have an aquarium at home? Or may be you do, but you don't get to fight off alien creatures to protect your fish. Astraware has Insaniquarium Deluxe which "offers hours of frantic aquarium fun as you feed your fish, watch them grow and protect them from alien invaders!".

"Insaniquarium Deluxe is the craziest aquarium game ever - tend to your fish and keep them happy and they'll reward you with precious coins and jewels. Use the money you earn to buy upgrades for your tank or egg parts which hatch lots of different in-tank pets with special powers. These pets can help you feed your fish, collect coins, or even protect against the aliens that will invade your tank and wreak havoc. You can also use the money you earn to buy better weapons to see the aliens off quicker!"

Click here for more information.
Download a trial version here.

Olympics 2008 live on your device with Yahoo Go! 3.0

I wish I could stay home to watch the games in its entirety, but I doubt my boss will agree to that. Fortunately, Yahoo has a widget for Yahoo Go! that will let me keep in touch with what is happening in Beijing. If you do not have Yahoo Go!, open your browser on your phone and type get.go.yahoo.com. Download and install Yahoo Go! Then, all you have to do is search for "Beijing 2008 games" and add it to your widgets.

Free: Twitula, another Twitter client

A new Twitter client is now available free for download from http://www.kevdaly.co.nz/Software/Twitter/Twitula.CAB. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks nice.

Getting started -

• Download the CAB file (see link above), copy it to your device and double-click to install. (Or download the CAB file directly to your device and double-click)
• Select one of the options available from the menu.
• To do most thiTo do most things other than view the public timeline, first log in. ("Log in menu" option, left Soft Key menu) - You only need to do this the first time: credentials are stored between sessions, and you can log in with a different account or switch accounts.
• Click on someone's screen name (or select Menu->Send message) to send them a message (check the "Direct message" option on the form to send a direct private message). link in Internet Explorer.
• Check the "Auto-refresh (on/off)" menu option to refresh info displayed at (roughly) one-minute intervals.

Source: Http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan/

Developer's website: http://www.kevdaly.co.nz/Software/Twitter/Twitula.aspx

Astraware 25% Off Sale

Astraware is offering some of their most popular games on sale right now with their 25% Off 25 Hot Summer Sale. Offer ends August 17. http://www.astraware.com/promo/summer08/

Skype 2.2 for Windows Mobile released

Skype has released a new version of the popular software with support for Windows Mobile 6.1. Version 2.2 is available free for both Professional and Standard version and can be downloaded from www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windowsmobile/