Apps & Games

Astraware and Idigicon release Platypus

Atraware and Idigicon have just released a new shoot-em-up called Platypus, and in so doing prove that a shoot-em-up can be cute!

From the press release:

Astraware and Idigicon are excited to announce the release of Platypus – the squishiest shoot-em-up ever – for Palm OS and Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs.

Based on the cult classic for PC and Mac, Platypus is a fast, frantic and fun side-scrolling arcade shooter with a difference – the entire game is made from clay! The vast continent-spanning city of Collosatropolis has finally reached the limits of its expansion, and tall buildings cover every available space. The Collosotropolan leaders have decided the simplest solution is to invade the neighbouring country of Mungola. They don’t anticipate much of a struggle – Mungolans are simple, earthy types without much love for industry. In fact, Mungola’s entire defence force consists of a single squadron of fighter planes – the venerable F-27 ‘Platypus’.

Your mission is to pilot your trusty Platypus and save peaceful Mungola! Fly across the squashy fields and trees, avoid the snowy mountains and protect your planet. Shoot down the enemy ships and marvel as they disappear in a splat! Collect fruit bonuses and a range of power-ups to aid you in your quest!

Platypus is a fantastic, fun arcade game featuring 4 massive worlds each with several challenging levels. It’s the perfect casual game for arcade gamers and the perfect arcade game for casual gamers!

Platypus is optimised for play with 5-way or stylus and is available for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) smartphones and PDAs, priced $19.95, from the Astraware website: http://www.astraware.com/platypus. Versions for Symbian(R) S60(R) and UIQ(R) will be released in Q2 of 2008.

Posted by: Matt

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

VITO Technology releases Audio Notes Touch

VITO Technology reincarnates its best-seller AudioNotes into brand new Audio Notes Touch with absolutely new finger-friendly interface for audio recording on Windows Mobile. Together with great functionality of the irreplaceable MP3 recorder Audio Notes Touch has become easy to use. The support of ID3 tags will be appreciated by the most users who record lots of files everyday.

Audio Notes Touch

The features that Audio Notes Touch inherited from VITO AudioNotes are the following: the ability to record MP3 files (low, middle, and high quality), calls auto record (where hardware permits), microphone sensitivity enhancement, speakerphone auto on, VAS (voice activation system), and many more. The main difference in Audio Notes Touch is the brand-new user-interface. The application is touch-oriented, so you can perform all necessary actions only with fingers. The stylish finger scrolling through the list of audio notes, T9 look-up and big buttons is a major breakthrough in mobile audio recording.

ID3 tags have long ago become a must have for mp3 audio files. New Audio Notes Touch automatically completes ID3 tag fields with relevant info when recording. This info comes in handy when managing your audio files. Players that support ID3 tagging allow you to easily sort all records by incoming/outgoing calls, time and date of creation, caller’s name, etc.

Moreover, Audio Notes Touch automatically decides where to record: to storage card or to main memory judging by the amount of free space and the availability of a storage card.

Audio Notes Touch is available for $ 14.95 at http://iwindowsmobile.com/mp3-audio-recorder.html

Posted by: Matt

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

VITO Technology release EyePhoto V1.0

If you’re fed up with the Picture and Video viewer application which has been part of Windows Mobile for years, then VITO Technology may have the application that you have been looking for.

EyePhoto has a simple, user friendly interface that allows you to easily view and organise your photos.

From the press release:

VITO Technology releases new application EyePhoto designed specially for viewing photos on Pocket PC Windows Mobile. Slide your photos with finger and enjoy watching them. User-friendly interface oriented on gestures is one of the main features. The program shows only the folders that include jpeg pictures. It is likely to become a photo album that allows you to watch all your photos at once.

EyePhoto organises all your photos into photo albums. Having started the program you face all folders containing jpeg pictures in the main memory and on a storage card. Upon opening a folder you are presented with photo tiles displayed in one finger-scrollable window. Everything is done for your convenience. The preview window with photo tiles can help you find the photo you need just in a moment.

Tapping a photo tile opens a full screen photo. Now you can slide the screen with your finer to flip through the photos just like with a real photo album. Zooming in and out can be done by double tapping the image.

Tapping the photo only once will bring forward upper menu which shows the number of photos, the back arrow to go back to the list with tiles and the button for changing the view mode: landscape or portrait. When in landscape mode photos can be moved aflat, when in portrait – upright.

EyePhoto is available for $14.95 from http://iwindowsmobile.com.

Posted by: Matt

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

WinMobile Download Accelerator v.2

I got an email today from Adisata Software. They’ve just released the latest version of their Windows Mobile Accelerator software. Apparently it uses a multiple-threading asynchronous transportation technique to speed up file downloading.

Take a look at the press release:

Adisasta, solution provider for mobile people, announced the release of WinMobile Download Accelerator v.2 (wmDA v.2) for Windows Mobile Classic/Professional. wmDA v.2 is a download manager that enhances mobile user’s file downloading experience by providing functionalities to manage, schedule and speed up file downloading from http, https and ftp servers.

wmDA v.2 uses multi-server multiple-threading asynchronous transportation technique to speed up file downloading. The download speed can be increased even further by assigning simultaneous downloading from several mirrors. Any broken download on error or connection failure can be easily resumed using comprehensive error recovery and resume capability of wmDA v.2. Its robust features include support for proxy server settings; ftp and http, https protocols; server authorization; connections settings; traffics management; scheduler; downloaded file integrity check and many more.

wmDA v.2 inbuilt powerful scheduler and smart management allows user to start and stop downloading files at any predetermined time. It can also be set to wake up your mobile device on scheduled download event. User can easily organize downloads by their type, placing them in predefined folder of selected group. Downloaded files can be easily sorted and filtered.

wmDA v.2 stylist design with tabbed graphic user interface makes wmDA v.2 a very user friendly application.

There’s very little that this program can’t do when it comes to downloading, wmDA v.2 is a worthy addition to mobile user�s software arsenal.

wmDA v.2 is commercially available to OEMs and end user.
wmDA v.2 is available in English language. It is compatible with Windows Mobile Classic/Professional 5.0 or later. All Windows Mobile screen resolutions are supported. A free, 14-day trial can be downloaded, or WinMobile Download Accelerator can be purchased for US$25, from www.adisasta.com. Registered users of the previous version of WinMobile Download Accelerator can get the new version for free.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, wmDA v.2, Adisata, Windows Mobile Blog]

Hexic and Mozaki for Windows Mobile released

Two new great looking games from Astraware and Carbonated Games

Astraware(R) is excited to announce the release of two new games for Windows Mobile(R) based on popular MSN Games titles. Both Hexic(R) and Mozaki(TM) have been developed by Astraware for Microsoft’s Carbonated Games studio.

Hexic is a fantastic twist on the match-three genre by famed Tetris designer, Alexey Pajitnov. Hexic is deceptively simple to begin with – just rotate any trio of hexes in order to form a cluster of three or more same-color pieces – but a real brain-boggling challenge to master. Featuring Marathon, Timed, and Survival game modes, players are sure to enjoy many hours turning hexes into stars, stars into pearls, and pearls into victory! For an enhanced gaming experience, connect with fellow players on the Palworld server host.

Mozaki is a classic brain-teasing strategy puzzler, also by Alexey Pajitnov. Players grab a piece from the stack and place it on the board, connect pieces of the same color to make an unbroken line from the colored edge to the centre of the screen, and connect the required number of lines and win the level. Marathon Mode is deceptively simple, but more colours and mismatched blocks increase the difficulty. Players who prefer to play against the clock can check out Timed Mode for an extra challenge.

“It is exciting to work with Microsoft on these well known titles from MSN Games, and we’re pleased to be the online distributor and to bring them to our Windows Mobile customers!” said Howard Tomlinson, Director of Game Development, Astraware.

“It’s our goal to give video gamers the flexibility to take their favorite games with them on any handheld or phone,” said Alfredo Patron, Director of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business in Europe. “We’re excited to extend these two popular games to our broad customer base which relies on our 140+ phone designs.”

Hexic and Mozaki are available for Windows Mobile(R) and are priced at $9.95 each. Both games are optimised for play with 5-way or stylus. For more information, to download a trial, or to buy, visit the Astraware website: http://www.astraware.com.

Posted by: Matt

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

Bejeweled 2 gets a major update

I’m sure that everyone must have heard of Bejeweled by now, it’s been a popular game on a variety of platforms for a number of years. In this latest update Astraware and PopCap Games add support for newer, square screen, devices and non-touscreen controls.

Bejeweled 2

From the press release:

Astraware and PopCap Games are very excited to announce a major update to PopCap’s best-selling, flagship game, Bejeweled 2.

In version 1.30, Bejeweled 2 adds much-requested support for 240×240 square screen Windows Mobile devices such as Palm TreoTM smartphones and includes support for 320×320 Windows Mobile Professional and Classic devices such as Samsung’s SGH-i780 smartphone.

This update also sees the very first release on Windows Mobile Standard devices. Bejeweled 2, version 1.30, supports 240×320 and 320×240 resolution non-touchscreen devices including the HTC S710, HTC StrTrk, Samsung Blackjack & Blackjack II, and Motorola Q and Q9.

The game has been brought fully up-to-date on Astraware’s current games framework and controls have been optimized for play with either 5-way or stylus. Bejeweled 2 is recognised by both public and media as the must-have puzzle game for your Palm OS or Windows Mobile device, and this update supports an even wider range of devices than ever before!

Bejeweled 2, version 1.30, is a completely FREE update for registered users. Players who haven’t yet experienced this award-winning classic can purchase a copy, priced $19.95, from the Astraware website: http://www.astraware.com/bejeweled2

Posted by: Matt

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

VITO releases ZoomBoard version 2.0

You may recall that we posted a review of VITO’s excellent on-screen keyboard replacement application, ZoomBoard. There are several of these keyboard replacements out there at the moment and all seem to want to emulate the keyboard functions from the iPhone.

We were impressed with ZoomBoard and felt it was one of the better keyboard replacements out there at the moment so the upgrade to version 2 should definitely be worth a look!

VITO ZoomBoard 2.0

From VITO’s press release:

VITO Technology releases new ZoomBoard version 2.0, an onscreen keyboard with zoomed preview for comfortable and accurate FINGER typing. Now ZoomBoard has 2 new zoom modes in addition to the previous lens appearing above the keyboard. The considerable number of layouts will really be a pleasant surprise for ZoomBoard users all over the world. New ZoomBoard also features a very convenient SmatZoom option and gestures support.

New ZoomBoard allows for quick and accurate typing and can satisfy the demands of any choosy user with 3 different types of zooming: full zoom, lens zoom, float zoom. Lens zoom appears above the keyboard, Float zoom appears straight above the letter you press and the full one zooms in the whole keyboard with letters. Try all of them and decide which one you like most and which one suits you the most.

Another new useful feature is SmartZoom. When enabling this option it is possible to zoom the pressed letters either immediately or with a delay. If you need a zoom window to emerge right away then you need at first stroke wait for the zoom to appear. After that the zoom will come forward as quickly as you touch the screen. When you do not touch the screen with keyboard for at least three seconds the zoom is going to appear with the delay again.

Moreover, the supported gestures can become a favorite feature in ZoomBoard: move rightwards across the keybord to press space, leftwards – backspace, upwards – shift, downwards – enter. Combinations of keys with ctrl and shift are also clickable, just enjoy comfortable typing on ZoomBoard!

Another important upgrade to ZoomBoard is the significant increase of layouts. Alongside with the layouts that were available in the previous version (English, Russian, German and some others) there have appeared 32 layouts for other languages. Therefore VITO Technology would be really thankful if the people who speak other languges could check and give there comments on the layouts.

In addition, the landscape mode has become more user-friendly it does not close all screen. Now it stretches across the screen. Typing with ZoomBoard is as simple as sliding the screen!

ZoomBoard is available for $ 9.95 at http://iwindowsmobile.com.

Posted by: Matt

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

Astraware Casino get Texas Hold ‘Em

Astraware have just been in touch to let us know they have a new update to Astraware Casino which adds Texas Hold ‘Em No Limit Poker to the list of games.

From the Astraware press release:

Astraware(R) is excited to announce a new update to Astraware Casino.

In response to customer requests, Astraware Casino version 1.20, now includes Texas Hold ‘Em No Limit Poker, which allows players to bet the pot or even go all-in when they have that winning hand! Unlike a real casino, if you do bet the lot and lose, Astraware Casino will allow you to visit the Bank and carry on playing. There’s even a fun ‘Souvenir’ trophy for a big loss!

Alongside Texas Hold ‘Em No Limit Poker, Astraware Casino also includes Slots, Blackjack, Video Derby, Craps, Roulette, Texas Hold ‘Em Limit Poker, Baccarat, Video Poker, Video Keno, and Three Card Poker. The game gives players $1000 in their virtual wallet to begin playing with, and includes a fun trophy system with the ‘Souvenir Suitcase’, which marks achievements in each of the games. Enjoy bonuses and rewards, accessible on platforms like แนะนำ UFABET เว็บพนันออนไลน์ที่ดีที่สุด.

Astraware Casino 1.20 is a completely FREE upgrade to registered users. The game is available for Palm OS(R) smartphones and PDAs running OS5 and above, and for Windows Mobile(R) Classic, Professional and Standard devices running Windows Mobile(R) 2003 and later.

Posted by: Matt

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

Vista SP1 warning!

Microsoft is warning Windows Vista users that a forthcoming service pack for the operating system may stop some third-party programs working.

Microsoft have released a list of programs that will NOT work once the service pack has been applied to Vista. As if rendering third-party applications useless wasn’t bad enough then take a look at the applications that are on the list almost all of them are programs designed to protect your PC whether it be antivirus or firewall software.

PROGRAMS HIT BY SP1

MS also warn that the above list is not comprehensive so I guess that means that there will be LOTS of other issues! MS asked people to get in touch with the maker of any affected software to fix problems. I suspect that the solution given will be to remove SP1!

Writing on the Windows Vista blog, Nick White, Microsoft product manager, said the company had withdrawn the preparatory update while it investigated.

Isolated reports suggest that some machines on which the preliminary update has been applied go into an update loop.

He wrote: “We are working to identify possible solutions and will make the update available again shortly after we address the issue.”

Once again – Well Done Microsoft!

EDIT: Most of these programs have been patched by MS – Thanks Steve for the update.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Windows, Vista, Service Pack]

Experience a Wild West adventure with Westward

Astraware and Sandlot Games have just released another excellent title for Pocket PC, Palm and Smartphone devices. Become a frontier settler in the wild, rough and tumble world of Westward.

Westward

Press release:

Astraware and Sandlot Games, the world’s premier developer and publisher of casual and family-friendly games, invite you to experience the life of a Frontier settler in the wild, rough and tumble world of Westward for Palm OS and Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs.

Based on the highly acclaimed PC game by Sandlot Games, Westward offers many hours of absorbing game play as you guide your townsfolk in making camp, collecting valuable resources, seeing-off dangerous bandits, and building their communities.

As you progress through Westward, you’ll explore 4 different locations over more than 20 levels as your hopeful citizens set up towns and seek their fortune in the Old Wild West. With over 25 types of building you’ll customize your town and attract new citizens whilst completing a range of side tasks and chasing down the Mad Russian to bring him to justice.

Westward has been optimized for smartphones and PDAs and can be controlled using 5-way, key controls or stylus. The game is available for Palm OS(R) devices with hi-res screens and for Windows Mobile(R) touchscreen and non-touchscreen phones and PDAs running WM2003, 2003SE, 5 & 6, priced $19.95.

To download a trial or to purchase, visit http://www.astraware.com/westward

Posted by: Matt

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