Let me start this off by telling you that this is no typo - the minus before the 50$ is intentional.
The folks at Amazon’s do it yet again: people willing to bind themselves into a 24mo AT&T contract can get the Pantech Duo(picturted below) for free after carrier subsidies - and additionally benefit from a 50$ mail-in rebate:
The Pantech Duo is a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone with a 416MhZ CPU and 64MB of RAM - CNET’s reviewers rated it decently, altough they were a bit concerned with the “manufacturing quality”…
P.S. The device’s list price is 249$.
Blizzard has been mentioned on our sister site TamsPalm quite a few times due to the incredible mess also known as World of Warcraft customer support. WoW, however, has had a predecessor known as Warcraft 3. This program was popular especially because of its rich map creation possibilities. Tower defense(aka keep critters from reaching a point by building guntowers) has been a recurring topic in these self-generated maps - Resco Defender brought the game to the PocketPC. Now, a smartphone version is available - can it stack up?
Most tower defense maps are designed for XGA screens; Resco thus had to redesign the gameplay a bit. The boys divided the screen into two parts - the bottom part contains the castle, the top part contains a grid.
Selecting one of the grid cells allows you to build various structures - if you can afford to do so:
Each tower has special capabilities - some attack all critters in a defined area, while others slow critters down without actually damaging them. All towers can be upgraded to become even stronger.
Once the first structures are built, the first wave of critters comes in:
Should your towers fail to eliminate all of them, the remaining critters damage the castle. After 20 critters reach the castle, the game is over:
The waves(called mobs) are mostly balanced - however, some of them have special and annoying capabilities. For example, flying critters don’t care much about your walls; bomb critters just tear them down.
At higher levels, the grid can become pretty crowded with literally dozens of critters and towers.
Last but not least, the game also contains a tutorial that teaches beginners how to play:
This review looked at version 1.20 of the game on a QTek 8500 running Windows Mobile 5. The game needs approximately 3MB of memory and can be run from an external memory card.
Overall, Resco Defender is one of the few games that are really really dangerous and should be prohibited by law - once you start playing, there is no way you will put your smartphone down. The folks did a great job at adapting the game’s controls to the smartphone platform. If you love great games, get the game over at the TamsShop!
Further reading:
Interview with the developer
The folks at Engadget’s have somehow managed to get a first picture of Motorola’s upcoming TEAM handsets. For all those of you new to the term, Motorola TEAM stands for Total Enterprise Access & Mobility; and basically means a bunch of VoIP enabled devices that allows employees to cooperate more effectively(probably aimed at Cisco’s ip-Phones, which are widely deployed in Austria).
Anyways, the devices pictured above are said to run Windows Mobile Standard(6.1), and have only a WiFi radio for use with a VoIP system. Yes, you it’s true - the devices do not have a cellular radio of any kind.
As of now, no further information is available - stay tuned!
For literally ages, MP3 files could be used as ring tones on various phones running different operating systems. However, one crucial weakness has so far remained - while a ring tone should be loud right from the start, most MP3’s(even radio mixes) start with 10-15 seconds of introductory beat. Vito Software’s RingtoneEditor promises to fix this - can it stack up?
Starting the program presents you the following, rather simple user interface:
Click on a file, and the program starts to play it back at full volume. Press Start to mark the beginning of your ring tone:
After having pressed start, the program allows you to move the exact starting point forward a bit:
The same thing is then done for the end point:
Once the ringtone is complete, you can either save it to your phone or start using it immediately:
This review looked at version 1.2 of RingtoneEditor on a QTek 8500 running its stock Windows Mobile 5 OS. The program needs about 2MB of storage memory and can be installed onto an external memory card without any issues.
In the end, Vito’s RingtoneEditor does exactly what it promises to do - it allows you to take snippets from MP3 and ogg files and use them as ring tones. People who feel like changing their ringtone a lot, will definitely be able to redeem the purchase price of 10$….
After having unboxed the Palm Treo 500 and looked at it from various angles, let’s look how big the machine is compared to some other devices laying around:
Our first contestant comes from Palm itself - it’s the evergreen Treo 680(same size as the 750). The Treo 500 is as wide, but a nice bit thinner:
An almost-vintage Palm TX is significantly larger, but a bit thinner:
HP’s small rx4240 and HTC’s teeny-tiny QTEK 8500 truly show the Treo 500 who the fat kid on the block is:
Nokia’s evergreen N71 is a bit thicker:
Last but not least, Apple’s iPod touch is approximately as big as the 500 when looked at from the front - but a single look from the side redefines the meaning of thin(the iPhone is significantly thicker):
In the end, the Treo 500 definitely isn’t a small device by any means - in fact, I would dare to say that it is rather fat(for a Windows Mobile Smartphone). But is it worth buying? Stay tuned - the final verdict is coming soon!
Samsung’s smart phones are said to have all kinds of weird issues in regards to Daylight Saving Time(DST) - in case you own a BlackJack or a Samsung Ace(and feel like trying out an unofficial patch), please head over to the-unwired and download their CAB:
http://www.theunwired.net/?item=fix-samsung-blackjack-blackjack-ii-and-ace-leap-year-calendar-patch-available
By the way, this also fixes the calendar displayed on the home page of the device…
Should you get it up and running, please let us know!
In the last years, Handango has grown to become the dominant ESD – in fact, the folks felt strong enough to do an insane price hike recently(which will probably reduce their importance significantly). Their Yardstick reports have always provided an interesting insight into the mobile software market – here’s my take on the 2007-yardstick.
First of all, let’s look at the number of new applications/software houses added. Symbian has dominated the list, the Palm OS grew the slowest(suffering significantly from last year):
The average application price and order size have both decreased slightly – which is interesting, as I predict the recent rate hike to increase prices significantly:
From a top-seller point of view, SPB’s domination of the PocketPC market has not changed – in fact, SPB now has of the top-ten titles coming from its portfolio. Other platforms show a more balanced app/house ratio, although games are notably absent from the top-ten lists this year(except for a few casual-gamer exceptions):
Overall
Palm OS
1. PocketMirror Std. (Outlook synchronization) - $29.95
2. Agendus Professional Edition (PIM enhancement) - $39.95
3. SplashID (information security) - $29.95
4. Ringo Pro (ringtone player) - $29.95
5. Agendus Premier Edition (Outlook synchronization) - $59.95
6. Snap (data entry tool) - $9.95
7. Agendus Desktop Edition (Outlook synchronization) - $39.95
8. Diet & Exercise Assistant (_tness assistant) - $24.95
9. PocketMirror Std. Upgrade (Outlook synchronization) - $19.95
10. SplashWallet Suite (personal ID manager) - $59.95PPC
1. Spb Pocket Plus (today screen plug in) - $29.95
2. Spb Mobile Shell (today screen plug in) - $29.95
3. Pocket Informant 8 (today screen plug in) - $29.95
4. MobiTV (streaming television) - $9.99
5. SPB Backup - $19.95
6. MIcrosoft Voice Command (voice control) - $39.9Microsoft 39.99
7. Spb Diary (today screen plug in) - $19.95
8. Spb Time (clock) - $14.95
9. Spb Phone Suite (phone features) - 19.95
10. Spb Brain Evolution (brain trainer) - $19.95Windows Mobile® Standard
1. Ringtone Megaplex (ringtone library) - $19.95
2. SBSH Facade (home screen plug in) - $14.95
3. MobiTV (streaming television) - $9.99
4. HandiTV (streaming television) - $24.95
5. Fizz Weather (weather monitor) - $16.95
6. SmartphoneNotes (note manager) - $17.95
7. Agendus Standard Edition (calendar manager) - $19.95
8. Agenda One (calendar manager) - $29.95
9. PocketStreamer Deluxe (streaming media) - $24.95
10. IM+ (instant messenger consolidator) - $29.95Symbian
1. SBSH Papyrus (time manager) - $19.95
2. Handy Calendar for S60 (calendar manager) - $39.95
3. LCG Jukebox (music player) - $24.99
4. Pro_Mail (email viewer) - $27.99
5. Quickoffice Premier (document manager) - $49.95
6. Handy Weather for S60 (weather monitor) - $19.95
7. Advanced Call Manager (call manager) - $19.99
8. WorldMate Professional (travel assistant) - $69.95
9. Ultimate Voice Recorder (voice recorder) - $14.95
10. IM+ (instant messenger consolidator) - $29.95
From a sales/device perspective, the trend is clear. The adoption of new devices has slowed down somewhat, especially in the established platforms but also in the Symbian space. Interestingly, the Treo 650 still is the single-strongest sales getter. As for application categories, producitivity apps and gaming stuff seem to take the lead this year(see above).
For me, the trends in this yardstick are clear. The established platforms have begun to see market saturation(for PPC, the Palm OS situation should rather be called catastrophic). Windows Mobile Smartphone is currently at a turning point; and Symbian and BlackBerry are growing insanely fast.
What do you think?
The QTEK 8500 may not be the best Windows Mobile Smartphone on the market - others have stronger processors and more memory. However, the machine is available for cheap(100€) and is very small…if it had a little more memory and WM6, it would be a cutting-edge flip phone. Read on to update your QTEK 8500 to Windows Mobile 6(and get 23MB of free storage memory)!
First of all, here are a few photos proving my claims. The phone on the left runs WM6, the one on the right is still on Windows Mobile 5(click for bigger versions):
Home screen
Launcher
OS version, storage size
RAM size
The update process essentially runs in three steps. First of all, connect your phone to your PC and run SDAUnlocker, which will unlock your phone.
After that, a slightly weird process called CID unlocking awaits you. Download version itsutilsbin-20070705 of the tools, and do the following(more news here):
1. Get itsutils: http://www.xs4all.nl/~itsme/projects/xda/tools.html
2. Run pdocread.exe with no args. Take a note of the “uniqueid” value.
3. Run “pdocread -n 1 0×000000 0×10000 -b 0×4000 original-bdk1.nb” - you’ll get a file.
4. Head over to http://www.spv-developers.com/strtrkCID/. Feed it the DOCID and the file you got from steps 2 and 3. It’ll give you back anoter file.
5. Run “pdocwrite -n 1 patchedfile.bin 0×000000 0×10000 -b 0×4000″ where patchedfile.bin is obviously to be replaced with the patched file you got from step 4.
Once this is done, you are ready to go. Get a firmware update of choice from this xda-developers thread(I used one from here), unpack it and run the flasher. Once the flashing process is done, you are ready to go!
A big thank-you goes out to Franz Lax for providing us with a second QTEK 8500 for experimentation!
While this year’s CeBit didn’t see as many announcements as the Barcelona forum, getting hands-on time with some recently-announced devices can be just as fulfilling. TamsWMS is proud to bring you a somewhat comprehensive i200 claws-on report…right from the CeBit!
First of all, here are a few photos showing the Samsung SGH-i200 next to a Palm Treo 680 and a Nokia N71. Its form factor is a little weird - the device is very thin, but tall….
This shot of the front side clearly shows an evil fat fingerprint by yours truly…the screen picks up fingerprints like mad(Samsung had a girl with a wiping cloth stand next to the box):
Here’s a ‘360-degree’ look at the rest of the device. The ‘lids’ are fixed to the device in best(and most annoying) Samsung fashion:
So far so good…here’s a small Video showing the device’s software. Please note the search box on the front page, the memory capacity(approx 32MB each) and the included PDF reader and flash lite runtime.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4837734774891088021
In the end, the SGH-i200 may be a bit too long for some tastes - but it nevertheless makes a great Windows Mobile Smartphone box. The screen is big, there is a nice bit of memory(keep in mind that this is not a highend device)…and the price is gonna be cheap…hell cheap, that is! Microsoft’s latest incarnation of the Office suite is good enough for the average user(not for you, my dear readers) - this device could sell very very well!
P.S. I am not entirely sure about this device’s impact on WMS software sales. Yes, we are looking at a “business” device here - but I am pretty sure that many users will not realize the availability/feel the need to use any of the available third-party products!
Various web sites have reported that a firmware update is now available for Verizon’s version of the Motorola Q9m.
The update must be downloaded manually from Motorola’s Software update web site. As of now, no information is available on what is changed - SmartphoneThoughts reports that we are looking at an “AKU” update that brings the Windows Mobile Version to WM6 AKU 0.6.
In case anyone of you manages to get it working, please talk back and let us know!
