I have to admit that I really have become a big fan of the new Windows Mobile Standard user interface.  It makes accessing your phone without a touch screen incredibly easy and intuitive.  The version on the Pantech Matrix Pro is similar to what we saw on the HTC s740, with a few custom tweaks.

In this iteration of the interface, there are five main menu items, each of which expands when it is selected, to show you much more detailed information.  These menus give you access to quite a bit of important information.  The only thing I really thought was missing was a program launcher.  It would have been nice if you could have accessed your critical programs from here. 

The other cool thing is the background, which is fully customizable.  There are about 25 different images, customized for both portrait and landscape modes.  In addition, you can create a background using any image on your phone: your spouse, kids, comic book collection, or anything else you like.

So, let’s take a closer look at the menus.  The first entry is the clock (which you saw at the top).  Expand it to view the current time and date.  In addition, the soft buttons on the bottom will give you access to the Start Menu and Contacts.

The next item down will show your indicators: calls, voicemails, text messages, and emails.  When it is displayed in the menu, you can see a small icon for each of these.  Expanded, you can scroll through separate entries for missed calls, voicemails, text messages, picture mail, and email.  And take a look at that right soft button, which will now give you access to your Call History.  Really, I found this to be extremely handy.  Despite everything else these devices may be able to do, phone calls and messaging remain the central feature; and I love the quick and easy access this interface gives you to these functions.

Next is the Calendar Menu.  This one is pretty basic and self-explanatory.  From here, you can see your upcoming appointments, create a new appointment, and even jump to your calendar.  The only disappointment here was that, like most Windows Mobile interfaces, it is tied to the default Windows Mobile calendar application.  So, if you are using a third party PIM application, then you will be out of luck accessing them from here.

The fourth menu is AT&T services.  This one gives you access to Instant Messenger, and several other AT&T multimedia services. I get pretty annoyed when OEM applications, which I did not request, take up valuable space on my today screen.  I really had no use for any of these AT&T applications, and did not even have a chance to test them out.

Finally is the Settings Menu. From here, access your must utilized settings, including ringtones, phone profile, wireless manager, background image, and task manager.  Or tap that right hand soft button to access all of your settings. 

I really liked using this interface.  I have just been so impressed lately by how much more accessible Microsoft has made the non-touch interface.  It is easy to use and accessible.  The only real complaint I had was the wasted entry for the AT&T services.  I would have much rather had a customizable program launcher here instead.  Great job to Microsoft and Pantech for this one.

Welcome to the first JAMM interview and review!  We are taking a look at Twice by HeroCraft.  Twice is a puzzle and logic challenge game.  It builds on the simple rules of the classic Memory game, where you need to match two like designs in-order to score points.  Our reviewers took a look at this game for two different mobile operating systems:  Peter on Windows Mobile and Iris on Blackberry.  I’ll ask the tough questions, and give you all the ins and outs of Twice.

Heather: Thank you both for being here today.  Let’s start with something easy, how do you play the game?

Iris: It is so wonderful to be here.  Twice  plays just like a traditional memory game.  You need to flip the tiles, and match two of a kind.  Find all of the matches, and complete the level.  However, every time you mismatch a pair, one of the little green squares on the upper left-hand side of the screen falls.  Once they are all gone, then the game is over.

Peter: Always fabulous to talk to you, Heather.  Twice has three different game modes.  One has you race against the clock (Agile), another gives you only a limited amount of attempts(Smart), and the third has no limits at all (Sly).  So, you can have high stress or no stress. Getting past the shell and settings for Twice, it was actually well optimised for windows mobile. Twice is fully controllable through the d-pad on the phone, as well as the touch screen. Even on the Tilt, the tiles were large enough to manipulate with a finger.  All three game play modes worked equally as well.  There is no reason to have to pull out a stylus to play this game, and on a WinMo smartphone, all of it should happily work from the keypad.

Iris: When playing the timed version of Twice, you have to keep an eye on the leaves.   They fall off of the gold vine at the top left of the screen.  When you have no leaves left, you’re done!

Heather: Iris, would this game have been easier with a touchscreen?

Iris: Twice definitely would have been better with a touchscreen, but then again, so would everything else on the Blackberry Curve.

Heather: Getting into the nuts and bolts of things, what did you think of the graphics and music?

Iris: The graphics are too small.  I think it would be better if the squares were a little bit bigger.  Plus, the green background, that I suppose is supposed to be some sort of grass or leafy background, comes off as green corduroy.  The gold blocks against the green background didn’t flow well for me.

Peter: Even though  the game functioned graphically well, the look was well, Iris put it best when she said “green corduroy” . The graphics weren’t inspiring, and the soundtrack? I think as this is supposed to be a memory training game, the ploy with the soundtrack may have been to make it as annoying, and unsavoury as possible, to add to the concentration demands of the game. Wishful thinking on my part, it’s just annoying, and I don’t know who it would appeal to.  Is there a society for the appreciation of elevator muzak?

Heather: Well, its obvious that there is some room for improvement in the graphics and music department.  What about the game itself, was it challenging?  Do you think it accomplishes its goal as a memory trainer?

Peter: I’d have to say No and No.  Playing Twice, I lost interest in it very quickly. It was much less addictive than the native bubblebreaker app on WinMo. I got through about 7 levels in the sly game mode before I thought this has become random, and is not based on any sort of memory theory. The more mistakes you make in the sly mode, the quicker you lose lives. The only problem I had with that, I didn’t think it fit with the memory training genre.

Iris: I agree. It was a little challenging, not crazy challenging, but challenging.  Of course, the challenge would have been more enjoyable with better graphics and a touchscreen.

Heather: We have hit on the negatives, but what did you like the best about Twice?

Peter: What became the best feature for me, in retrospect, was the  Sly game.   It was the only gameplay level where I felt challenged. Even though this level of the game seems the most random, it was actually the one I played the most.

Iris: There are 3 choices of game play, which was mentioned earlier, Sly, Agile, and Smart.  Sly being the easiest.  Agile being timed, but not necessarily the hardest. I felt Smart is the hardest, because it starts with more bricks than any of the other two levels.  I would say the best feature would be Agile level, because it was the most challenging one.

Heather: It looks like the two of you will need to battle it out over which mode is the best.  Now, if you had the magical powers to improve this game, what would you change?

Iris: I would change the size of the blocks, – or at least have less complicated graphics on the given boxes.  Plus, the green background needs to be changed.  The green and gold combination creates eye strain for the player.

Heather: What about you, Peter?  What would you change?

Peter: Twice is  a great game, it just doesn’t offer anything new to themarket. The graphics let the app down.  A slicker user interface would help, but a more developed, gameplay interface would be best.  For a game that is supposed to be an intelligence builder, it is in need of an upgrade!

Heather: Finally, and most importantly, what do you think of me?

Iris: Too wonderful for words

Peter: Smart and insightful

*Disclaimer:  that last question may or may not have actually been answered by Iris and Peter

In conclusion, it appears that Twice is a good start, but needs to be tweaked a bit in order to make it an excellent game.

Pros:  Choice of 3 different games

Cons:  Graphics, music, and more challenging levels

I would like to thank my two guests Iris and Peter for being here today.  I would also like to thank the people at HeroCraft for providing copies of Twice to Peter and Iris.

Twice is available at HeroCraft for Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, iPhone/iTouch, and Blackberry.  Prices vary from $5.95 to $0.99 depending on operating system.

WebIS is having a great sale for all of you who have always wanted their products but have been waiting for the right moment!  Well that right moment is here, right now!  WebIS Pocket Informant for Windows Mobile and Blackberry are on sale along with Flexmail 4 for Windows Mobile.  Both of these programs are top performers in the Windows Mobile and Blackberry arenas.  They both have features and customizations that simply cannot be found in the base apps or in most feature applications for this use.

Pocket Informant ,in particular, really kills anything out there, especially the default Blackberry calendar.  I use Pocket Informant personally on my Bold and can tell you that it will give you more than you need.  For you business users out there, this is definitely the one to check out.  It will handle most, if not all of your needs.  My Bold is actually the company phone.  I travel a lot and have to have an awesome calendar to schedule my business and personal calendars.  It does it beautifully.

Pocket Informant has received awards year after year.  If you want more power and demand more from your calendar app, click this link to get the discount.  Don’t believe me?  Go and search the web.  Check out Smartphonemag Awards.  Do yourself a favor and celebrate your independence from apps that don’t give you the functionality that you want.  If you need to check it out first, I will post the WEBIS link below; but check it out fast!  Deals this good don’t come along that often!

WEBIS

We take a break in our normal coverage of mobile gadgetry to honor the United States of America.  of course, on this day in history, in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was formally approved by the Second Continental Congress  It is a common and enduring myth that independence was declared by the colonies which would become the United States on July 4th, Independence Day.  In fact, the Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence two days earlier, on July 2.   No smaller individual than our second President, John Adams, predicted that July 2 would go down in history as the celebrated Day of Independence.  At the time, he stated:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

After the resolution was passed, however, it took two full days of drafting and editing to arrive at the final language of the Declaration of Independence, which was passed by Congress on July 4, 1776.  The complete text is reprinted below:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!  HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

[parts of this post were via Wikipedia]

This situation is literally changing by the minute, but we thought it was worth a shot to report it since it has to do with a lot of e-store sales (includig our own JAMM Store).  We just got word that the service that handles a lot of e-vendor transactions, Authorize.net, went down for a while due to a fire at the data centre. Their website is still out, but apparently the processing services went up an hour or two ago (including Global Processing, whatever that is). The data backup center was apparently also affected, so this was pretty serious business. What’s interesting here is that Authorize.net has set up their own Twitter account to communicate with people in the meantime. Who would have expected Twitter to become such a go-to service for minute-by-miute updates?

I’m not going to tweet for a while. My 140 characters about eating a hamburger or brushing my teeth will just pale in comparison to fixing a data centre and keeping more millions of dollars in sales from being lost.