Tracy and Matt

SanDisk today announced the availability of its 8GB microSDHC and M2 flash memory cards to retail outlets worldwide. Compatible with the new breed of mobile phones with card slots, the 8GB SanDisk microSDHC and M2 cards are ideal for the growing number of consumers who make their mobile phone—with its built-in music player, digital camera and video player/recorder—the centerpiece of their digital lifestyle.

Sandisk 8GB SDHC & 8GB M2 cards

SanDisk’s ongoing ‘slot education’ program is aimed at raising awareness both of the presence of a card slot in the majority of today’s new mobile handsets and the benefits available to those who use it. With a high capacity memory card in this slot, consumers can ‘Wake Up Their Phone’ and turn their handset into the ultimate lifestyle accessory, including the ability to store more than 2,000 digital songs, or more than 5,000 high-resolution pictures, or up to 5 hours of high-quality MPEG 4 video.

Once digital content is stored on a high capacity SanDisk card, consumers can share their world with others, through simple uploading of content onto social networking sites such You Tube, MySpace and Facebook –allowing friends and acquaintances to share the experiences they have captured on the card. Content can be transferred through the mobile phone or through synching the card up with a PC.

In celebration of the launch, SanDisk has teamed up with festival and event producers Guerilla Union (Rock the Bells, Paid Dues) for the “Sunset Strip Block Party,” an unprecedented event incorporating exclusive headline performances from world famous artists on the world famous Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, CA. The massive fete is scheduled for Friday, October 26, and will take place throughout three of the Sunset Strip’s most legendary nightclubs—The Key Club, The Roxy Theater and the Viper Room, making it the first event ever of its kind to use all three venues in unison. The event is the official kickoff for the SanDisk “Wake up your Phone” education campaign that will be continued throughout 2008.

Performances from Linkin Park, Common, The Crystal Method, Cut Chemist (visual performance) and Z-Trip will come together to celebrate this historic event. Staying true to the campaign and the night's ‘slot education’ theme, SanDisk is encouraging the invited guests to capture the event on their mobile phones.

In addition to the microSDHC and M2 card, SanDisk also offers a broad range of both embedded and removable storage solutions for mobile handset manufacturers and mobile network operators. These include iNAND™ and mDOC™ embedded flash drives; microSD™, miniSD™ removable flash cards; and SIM and MegaSIM™ cards.

SanDisk’s 8GB microSDHC and M2 cards are now available in major retail outlets worldwide with suggested retail prices of $139.99 and $149.99 respectively. For more details, please visit www.sandisk.com for details or your local retailer.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): Tracy & Matt, SanDisk, Cruzer, M2, microSDHC]

Astraware invites you to celebrate Halloween with a special spooky version of Astraware Solitaire.

Solitaire Halloween Edition

Astraware Solitaire - Halloween Edition includes all the features of the highly-acclaimed standard edition but with the addition of a brand new Halloween card back set and a more eerie default color scheme. Select your card back from a choice of werewolf, vampire, pumpkins, bats, mummy, witch, ghost, or spider!

Astraware Solitaire includes 12 of the most well-known and best-loved card games in one easy-to-use pack. Each game offers customizable gameplay so you can play to your favorite set of rules, along with easily changeable color themes, backgrounds, card backs and fronts. It's available for smartphones and PDAs running Palm OS(R) or Windows Mobile(R) and is compatible with a wide range of devices across both platforms.

The Halloween Edition of Astraware Solitaire will be available for a limited time only with a special $5 discount off the regular price. Registration codes for the standard version will work in the Halloween edition and vice versa, so owners of Astraware Solitaire can download this special version for FREE!

To download a trial or to buy, visit http://www.astraware.com/solitairehe.

Posted by: Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Astraware, halloween, Windows Mobile Blog]

AT&T and Samsung Telecommunications America today announced the availability later this year of the BlackJack II, a sleek, smart and simple device powered by AT&T's 3G-enabled BroadbandConnect network that has the familiar look and feel of your desktop with Windows Mobile 6. The BlackJack II had its first public showing today during a keynote address by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2007 in San Francisco.

Samsung BlackJack II

BlackJack II from AT&T brings the personal computer experience to a slim, compact device ideal for today's mobile consumer. The powerful and performance-driven BlackJack II, which is available in slick black and red wine color options, features a full QWERTY keyboard, large 2.4" QVGA color display screen and front jog wheel to elevate productivity and improve the mobile experience.

Following in the footsteps of the highly popular BlackJack, the BlackJack II boasts an enhanced feature set, which includes:

AT&T Video Share, the first service in the U.S. that enables users to share live video over the wireless phones while on a voice call. BlackJack II is the first AT&T business-oriented smart device to feature Video Share.

Built-in GPS, Support for location-based applications such as TeleNav GPS Navigator?. Global phone capabilities. Tri-band 3G UMTS/HSDPA and Quad-band EDGE/GPRS technology takes advantage of AT&T's industry-leading international wireless footprint for access to e-mail, the Web and other data applications in more than 135 countries ? including Japan, South Korea and China ? and customers can make or receive phone calls in more than 190 countries.

An RSS Reader Client to compile syndicated Web content in a single location for easy viewing.

Significant improvement in the standard battery capacity to get you through the day.

In addition to a robust feature set, BlackJack II provides users with access to multiple e-mail accounts, both personal and business, through Microsoft Direct Push technology with Outlook® Mobile and AT&T Xpress Mail?, which includes most major POP3/IMAP providers. The BlackJack II also offers over-the-air synchronization of contacts, calendar and task lists with Microsoft Exchange Server or AT&T Xpress Mail.

"The BlackJack II takes one of AT&T's most popular smart devices and adds to it a whole new level of functionality and capabilities," said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Marketing and Operations for AT&T's wireless unit. "This will provide business people and consumers alike with an even more powerful and complete communications and entertainment tool backed by the largest domestic and international wireless data footprint of any U.S. carrier."

"Samsung is proud to work with AT&T and Microsoft to bring the next-generation BlackJack to the U.S. market," said Dale Sohn, president, Samsung. "We built upon the success of last year's award-winning version of the BlackJack, our No. 1-selling smart device. This highly popular device allowed Samsung to develop BlackJack II with several design enhancements, making it the quintessential device for both work and play."

A Pocket-Sized Personal Computer
With Windows Mobile 6, the BlackJack II brings a powerful personal computer experience to the small screen and improves how people do business on the go on a single device. The BlackJack II helps people keep track of schedules and contacts through Outlook Mobile, browse the Internet by using Internet Explorer Mobile, as well as manage Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents using Office Mobile. Windows Mobile 6 also supports HTML e-mail so that people can view and compose e-mail messages in their native format with live links to Web sites, support for images, tables and bullets.

BlackJack II will be among the first Windows Mobile 6 devices from AT&T to support Microsoft's System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, which Ballmer introduced during his keynote address today. Available for BlackJack II in 2008, System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 offers companies an end-to-end solution for managing and securing Windows Mobile devices. Employees will also have access to company information and a line of business applications from a single, secure place behind the firewall by using a cutting-edge Mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN).

"Samsung and AT&T are delivering a worthy successor to the wildly popular first generation BlackJack," said Pieter Knook, senior vice president, Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft Corp. "Windows Mobile 6 on the shiny, sleek BlackJack II is a great option to those wanting to run errands or take a walk in the park, all while staying in touch with important business and personal matters."

Posted by: Matt

[Post tags: smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Samsung Blackjack, Samsung SGH-i617, Windows Mobile blog]

After what seems like a looooong delay, Samsung finally released the UK Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for the Samsung SGH-i600 today.

Samsung i600 WM6 upgrades

You can now download the WM6 update for your i600 from the Samsung upgrade site. The upgrade process will wipe everything from your device so make sure that you back up that important data first!

Posted by: Matt

[Post tags: smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Samsung SGH-i600, Samsung, Windows Mobile blog]

Samsung has shown off what it claims is the world's most powerful chip for use in memory cards.

Samsung NAND Flash Memory

The 64 gigabit (Gb) chips could be used to make flash memory, commonly used in MP3 players, capable of holding the equivalent of 80 DVDs, the firm said.

The chips are built using circuits with a minimum feature size of just 30 billionths of a metre (nanometre).

Rival firm Toshiba has said it is also working with similar technology. Both firms will release products in 2009.

Flash memory is a so-called non-volatile computer memory, primarily used in memory cards, USB drives and MP3 players.

Non-volatile memory retains information even when there is no power to the device.

Samsung said there was currently "exploding demand" for flash memory as a storage medium in a range of applications.

The new chips are designed to be used in a specific type of memory known as NAND flash.

NAND Flash is a special form of Flash memory. Flash memory is a memory technology that keeps data even when the power supply is cut off; this is known as a non-volatile memory type. Flash memory can be read pretty fast, but writing to Flash memory is pretty slow compared to many other -volatile- memory technologies such as SRAM or DRAM. Flash also has a limited number of write-cycles; manufacturers typically specify something in the area of 10,000 writes for the lifetime of the part.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Samsung, Flash Memory]

VITO Technology releases a new version of the bestselling program VITO AudioNotes ? Windows Mobile mp3 and wav recorder. The new version loads much quicker. A new code for detecting calls makes it possible to record calls on most WM 5.0 & 6.0 Smartphones correctly. Quick Record that allows one button recording is now available for Smartphone users.

VITO AudioNotes

Now call auto record function works more precisely and identifies the contact name on most Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 devices correctly. So call records have the same name as corresponding contact.

VITO AudioNotes loads quicker than ever as contacts loading is not necessary anymore. Besides, the list of recordings is loaded simultaneously with other functions of the program.

Another important feature in the new version is when Calls auto record is ticked the program continues recording calls even after you exit AudioNotes.

In the new version Smartphone users can start recording with a single button press. All none HTC Smartphone users can assign recording to speed dial (Quick Record in Start). Lucky HTC Smartphone users can use this function either as speed dial or as Pocket PC users do (Menu>Recording>Quick Record) by assigning one of the available buttons.

VITO AudioNotes is available for $ 19.95 at http://vitotechnology.com. Updates are free for customers who purchased VITO AudioNotes within a year?s time.

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 VITO AudioNotes is a Windows Mobile MP3 and WAV recorder for Pocket PC and Smartphones.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, VITO Technology, VITO AstroNavigator, GPS, Tracy & Matt]

The Orange version of the HTC TyTN II was released just over a week ago and one of the biggest complaints we are seeing from our readers is that the Orange version does not include any of the Touch-Flo features from the vanilla HTC version and also (once again) Orange have removed Windows Live Messenger.

Several readers got in touch to tell us about this and pointed out that they decided that they would try and flash the official HTC ROM on to their Orange TyTN II. Seems like a feasible solution for anyone willing to risk bricking their brand new device.

So here is a word of warning for anyone thinking about going down this route. Not only is there the obvious consequence of invalidating the warranty on the device BUT the process doesn?t work properly on the Orange TyTN II. If you take a look at some of the forums over at XDA Developers you'll see a raft of Orange customers have already tried this process only to discover that once you have flashed the ROM the device becomes SIM locked and not ever the original Orange SIM card will work in it!

Probably best to avoid this route for now until someone works out a better method methinks and you should also be aware that this kind of ROM-fiddling is illegal in many countries!

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC TyTN II, Windows Mobile Blog]

Just a few days ago we told you that eXpansys had the new Samsung i620 in stock so we thought it would be a good idea to get our hands on one and record a little unboxing video.

If you are a regular here on Tracy & Matt you'll know that the Samsung i600 is one of my favourite devices and up until recently has been my main device, only moved off the top spot by the HTC TyTN II. So can the i620 impress us as much as the i600? We'll be reviewing the i620 soon.

Samsung i620 Specification

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Samsung, i620]