Apps & Games

VITO Technology releases a new WM interface

Recently there have been a number of new interface designs for Windows Mobile devices from HTC TouchFlo to GSmart’s Smart Touch. There are also some decent third-party add-ons out there and once again Vito Technology have come up with a customisable interface called Winterface – “A Highly customizable Shell to improve standard WM interface.”

From their press release:

VITO Technology releases Winterface – a major breakthrough in the world of Windows Mobile interface. Winterface is the Next Generation Shell for Windows Mobile comprising the options of a launcher, a task manager, and a multitude of Today plug-ins. Winterface gives the user unprecedented freedom to easily lay out interface exactly the way they like it.

As a shell Winterface removes the necessity to turn to default Windows Mobile interface: Today screen and Start menu. Winterface opens instantly whenever users draw a simple gesture on the screen. It allows users to have as many screens as they need and put on them icons for applications, settings and contacts. The screens are flipped through with sliding finger gestures. The icons for such applications as phone, sms, email, battery, clock, calendar, memory, etc. – all show relevant information and thus replace a number of Today plug-ins.

As a launcher Winterface features one tap launch of any installed applications and settings. A tap on a contact icon opens a menu with contact details from where you can call, send text message, email, browse URL, etc.

As a task manager Winterface lets you easily switch between running applications. A fixed icon on the first screen lets users see running programs, switch between them or close them.

It is very convenient to organize icons on screens by a certain topic. Users can set up a screen with favorite contacts, a screen with most used applications, a screen with icons-indicators (battery, memory, calendar, clock, etc.), and so on, as far as their fantasy goes! Icons are easily moved on the screen and between screens by drag’n’drop gestures.

Winterface is available for $19.95 at www.iWindowsMobile.com/vito-mobile-shell.html . There is also a free 14-day fully functional trial available as a cab or exe installer.

Iain

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

Celebrate 4th July with Astraware Fireworks

Here’s a fun, free title from Astraware to help you celebrate 4th July!

Astraware is pleased to announce their fun application Astraware Fireworks is available again for a limited time.

Astraware Fireworks is a simple FREE application, showing sequences of fireworks flying and exploding into the air. As 4th July is traditionally a time for fireworks and celebrations in the USA, the features have been created to help our American friends highlight one of their major holidays – Independence Day! Astraware Fireworks features a selection of patriotic backgrounds including the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore and the Stars and Stripes, and offers a choice of stirring tunes including the Star Spangled Banner and Stars and Stripes Forever!

Astraware Fireworks is available for devices running Palm OS(R) 5 and later and Windows Mobile(R) 2003 and later, and this year a new BlackBerry(R) version is available which includes the backgrounds and firework effects but doesn’t include music, so sorry BlackBerry-owners – this time round you’ll have to hum your own marches!

What better way to celebrate 4th July than with some Fireworks? Download your copy today at http://www.astraware.com/fireworks – it’s available for a limited time only! Oh, and did we mention, it’s FREE?!

Posted by: Iain

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

Dashwire Mobile 2.0 Goes Live

A few days ago I got an email from the people at Dashwire, they wanted to tell me all about the new version of their software that allows you to sync and backup your phone with your free web-based Dashwire account.

To be honest I’d never heard of Dashwire before and to begin with my reaction was ‘Not another Windows Mobile backup application!’. However, having had the chance to set up an account and install the application on my HTC Touch Diamond I can safely say this service is far from ordinary.

In a nutshell, once you have set up your free account online you’ll receive a text message with a link to download the application to your mobile device. Once installed the software searches through your phone and then backs up all of you contacts, photos, video, text messages, call history, ringtones, speed dials etc. etc. You’ll then have access to all of these settings from your web browser on your PC or Mac via a nicely laid out dashboard.

Dashwire wont backup your phone registry and doesn’t make a complete clone of your device settings. I does however allow you to sync your contacts etc. in such as way as to be non-device specific. This means that if you replace your HTC TyTN II with a new HTC Touch Diamond you’ll be able to sync the old device before and then the new device after the change over and the mojority of your key settings with you. I’ve already found this quite useful as I am constantly swapping handsets!

Dashwire is definitely well worth taking a look. It’s totally free to use to why not give it a try! Find out more or set up your account on the Dashwire website.

One word of warning though – syncing photos and video over your mobile network connection is likely to be VERY expensive, especially the first time you sync. It’s probably a good idea to sync over WiFi or an activesync connection!

What is Dashwire?

Dashwire automatically mirrors the content on your phone to the web, helping you access, manage, and share your mobile experiences

How does it work?

Once you sign-up for your FREE account, you’ll be prompted to install a small application on your phone that will keep your phone constantly connected and in-sync with your private, web-based Dashwire account.

What you do on the phone will instantly update on the web, what you do on the web will update your on phone.

No cables or effort required. Easy.

What does Dashwire bring to the web?

You control which items sync and when it happens. Dashwire connects across wireless data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, HTC Touch Diamond, Dashwire, Tracy & Matt]

Citrix client on the HTC Touch Diamond

In the past I have mentioned using the Citrix client on Windows Mobile devices. I’ve had a great deal of success using it on the HTC Advantage, both the X7500 and X7510.

The Client will install and run on most Windows Mobile devices (devices running Windows CE Smartphone Edition or Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition are not supported) but it’s not terribly useful on 320×240 screen devices as there really isn’t enough screen real estate. So this got me to thinking – how well will Citrix run on the HTC Touch Diamond and is the screen big enough to be useful?

The client can be downloaded from the Citrix Website and is easily installed with activesync from your desktop PC.

I’ve been experimenting with the Citrix client today and managed to get connected to my Citrix farm and run several applications quite easily. The VGA display on the Diamond is just about large enough to use a few basic applications (Word, Excel some bespoke apps.) and an HSDPA connection is fast enough to be useful.

A few things that I had to do before getting it to work properly was to use Internet Explorer to connect to the application server rather than Opera. Opera wont launch the Citrix Client and attempts to use Java instead, whereas Internet Explorer launches properly. You can find Internet Explorer in the Windows folder on the Diamond and you can run it from File Explorer.

Secondly I had to install the Equifax Secure eBusiness root certificate as these are not trusted by default on WM devices.

So those few things out of the way it was easy to connect to my application server and fire up the apps I needed. I really wish that Citrix would develop the client a bit more though. I’d like to see options to run full screen and easily minimise and zoom etc. I think on of the biggest things that it’s missing is the ability to rotate the screen on the client. Perhaps it’ll get more attention as more people use it?!

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, HTC Touch Diamond, Citrix, Tracy & Matt]

Astraware announces Bubble Babble

Another new software title from Astraware, this time Bubble Babble, a cute word puzzle game. Full details in the press release below:

Astraware is excited to announce the release of Bubble Babble – a brand new word game for Palm OS and Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs.

Challenge your word power with this undersea bubble-bursting brain teaser! Link together letter bubbles to form words and impress Wordsworth Smartygills – your friendly fishy host! Bubble Babble includes a fun interactive tutorial to teach you how to play with the bubbles and make words from them. Score points for each word you make. Impress Wordsworth with more complex or unusual words and he’ll reward you with shiny shells for your collection!

Bubble Babble has 4 entertaining play modes which are perfect for both adults and children, for all levels of skill or vocabulary:

Each day Wordsworth Smartygills will tell you the Word of the Day. Make this word during play to earn a special award!

Use multiplier bubbles to enhance your points score, and get help from Stella Starfish, in her wildcard bubble! Unlock higher difficulty levels as you play – it can help you keep your brain sharp and maybe learn some interesting new words!

Bubble Babble is available for smartphones and PDAs running Palm OS(R) 5 and above, and Windows Mobile Professional, Classic and Standard devices running Windows Mobile 2003 and later. The game is available from http://www.astraware.com/bubblebabble priced $19.95, with a limited time new release discount.

Posted by: Iain

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Astraware, GTS World Racing, Windows Mobile Blog]

Vito SMS-Chat now with threaded SMS and Smilies

VITO Technology releases a new version of SMS-Chat. SMS-Chat lets you organize your SMS correspondence into threaded SMS conversations. New version now has smilies. The telephone numbers, hyperlinks or e-mails that you receive in SMS are now more usable as you can simply click it and the necessary application with the data will be called out then. Minor bugs have been removed. SMS-Chat users who liked the bright skin will now have an opportunity to choose the skin they’ve got used to.

Chatting at present is a ritual which is hardly possible without numerous smilies showing emotions that people feel and shortenings what stand for so many words. So as SMS-Chat is one of the messengers for chatting we decided to give its users an opportunity to vary their texting with different emoticons. New version of SMS-Chat supports cool animated smilies.

The feature that everybody really likes in the previous version of SMS-Chat is the ability to click hyperlinks to open in browser, to click phone number to place a call and e-mail to send a letter. Now this feature has become even cooler. In previous version you were to click the SMS to call out menu buttons afterward choose the needed action. As far as the new version you only need to click the highlighted text and SMS-Chat will automatically detect whether it should give a ring, e-mail or open the link in the browser. A nice touch, isn’t it?

SMS-Chat is available for $14.95 at http://iwindowsmobile.com.

SMS-Chat supports English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, and Russian.

Posted by: Iain

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, VITO Technology, SMS-Chat, Tracy & Matt]

NormSoft Introduces Pocket Tunes Music and Radio Player

I just got this press release from NormSoft letting us know that they have just released their Pocket Tunes Deluxe music player for Windows Mobile, Smartphone and Palm. The software includes internet radio capability.

Pocket Tunes Deluxe

NormSoft, Inc. today announced the availability of its award-winning audio player Pocket TunesTM Deluxe for Windows Mobile® 5 and 6 devices. Pocket Tunes is an easy-to-use and feature-rich music player for listening to digital music and Internet radio stations. The Pocket Tunes software can be purchased and added to many phones and PDAs to expand their multimedia capabilities. With the addition of Windows Mobile, Pocket Tunes now supports Palm, Inc.’s entire family of handhelds and smartphones in addition to many Windows Mobile handhelds and smartphones from other manufacturers.

“Bringing Pocket Tunes to the Windows Mobile platform gives existing and new customers more choices about the phones and carrier services they use with our product,” said Tim Norman, Founder of NormSoft. “Our goal is to provide the best audio playback experience for the broadest range of audio content on mobile phones.”

New in this release, a Pocket Tunes Sync application for iTunes® is included for Windows PCs enabling users to copy music, audio books, or podcasts from iTunes to their phone. Pocket Tunes Sync for iTunes can be configured to sync selected playlists automatically when a Windows Mobile device is connected to the PC.

A built in radio catalog that includes hundreds of stations makes Pocket Tunes the easiest way to listen to Internet radio on smartphones. Pocket Tunes plays the most popular music file formats, including MP3, WMA, AAC, and aacPlus. This includes both subscription and purchased songs from popular online music services such as Napster® and Rhapsody® as well as iTunes® Plus tracks from the iTunes store.1 Pocket Tunes also displays album art and can be customized through freely available skins at www.pocket-tunes.com/skins .

Officially supported Windows Mobile devices include: MOTOQ™, MOTO Q™ 9h for AT&T, AT&T 8525, AT&T Tilt™, Palm® Treo™ 700w|wx, Palm® Treo™ 750, SAMSUNG BlackJack™ (SGH-i607), SAMSUNG BlackJack II™ (SGH-i616 and SGH-i617), and HP iPAQ 110 Classic Handheld. The software is designed to work on most other Windows Mobile 5 or 6 smartphones and PDAs, but others have not been fully tested at this time.

Pocket Tunes is available for purchase at www.pocket-tunes.com, and customers may also download a free 15-day trial.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, normsoft, pocket tunes]

Astraware and Pazzazz Games release GTS World Racing

Another great game release from Astraware this time, in partnership with Pazzazz Games they release GTS World Racing. I just wish I had time to try all these games out!

From the press release:

Astraware and Pazzazz Games are excited to announce the release of GTS World Racing for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) smartphones and PDAs.

GTS World Racing is the must-have sequel to the highly acclaimed GTS Racing Challenge, and has been created by Pazzazz and published by Astraware.

Fans of classic coin-operated arcade racing games will love the retro style graphics and exhilarating sound effects. Experience the roar of engines as you select your car, race your opponents, set the fastest laptimes, score points for most race wins and burn rubber to gain championship victory!

GTS World Racing offers 64 track layouts across 16 worldwide locations – from snowscapes to dusty deserts; 3 car types to choose from each with their own handling characteristics; and 4 difficulty levels from Easy to Extreme!

The game offers 4 play modes to satisfy every level of expertise:

GTS World Racing is available for a wide range of smartphones and PDAs running Palm OS(R) 5 and later, and Windows Mobile(R) Professional, Classic and Standard 2003 and later.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Astraware, GTS World Racing, Windows Mobile Blog]

Herocraft releases Hexxagon Labs

Hexxagon Labs is the amazing logic game, which contains over a dozen arenas filled with intellectual challenges where you are able to compete with computer rivals or play with your friends!

Funny chemistry, witty physics, exciting astronomy… Do you think that there are no such things on our planet? If so, you haven’t play Hexxagon Labs yet! This amusing tactical logic game includes 17 original hard-to-solve levels. The goal of the game in each level is to occupy as many cells on a field as possible, capturing pieces of an enemy. Your rivals will be the best American and European professors whose brains were implanted in the game’s artificial intellect system. You also will have an opportunity to play Hexxagon Labs with one or two friends using only one device!

In addition, Hexxagon Labs is full of interesting facts and entertaining material. Before every level you will receive new astonishing scientific information giving you the opportunity, when you have the chance, to show off your erudition and amaze acquaintances by your knowledge.

The more you play Hexxagon Labs, the smarter you will become!

Game features:

The detailed information about the game, including screenshots, trailers and links for demo version are available on the HeroCraft PDA site – http://smart.herocraft.com/hexxagon-labs.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tags: smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Revival, HeroCraft, Tracy & Matt]

VITO releases new skin for Audio Notes Touch

VITO Technology releases new black skin for Audio Notes Touch with absolutely new finger-friendly interface for audio recording on Windows Mobile. Minor bugs have also been fixed.

There are many users longing for black HTC Touch like skins in new finger-friendly applications at http://iwindowsmobile.com. VITO Technology has received a great amount of letters from our customers asking for a black skin of HTC Touch style. Therefore we decided to meet our users’ demands and make black skin for Audio Notes Touch. Enjoy stylish and blackish design of your favorite application!

Minor bug connected with the ability to record on storage cards is fixed. When in autorecord mode Audio Notes Touch closes after saving the recording of the phone call.

Audio Notes Touch is available for $14.95 at http://iwindowsmobile.com/mobile-audio-recorder.html

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, VITO Technology, Audio Notes Touch, Tracy & Matt]