Alex Kac has recently announced in the WebIS forums that Pocket Informant 9 for Windows Mobile is on it’s way.  At present, there are no screenshots and not a lot of information regarding new features, except hints at the following:

• GTD (Getting Things Done) Integration
• Support for Finger Friendly Gestures

I for one will be watching the forums with baited breath, as Pocket Informant is simply one of my favorite applications.

Browsing the Resco forums late last night, I stumbled upon the news that they are preparing an updated version of their Photo Viewer program for Windows Mobile.  The main enhancement seems to be a completely new, finger friendly UI.  From the news and screenshots that they have provided, it looks like Photo Viewer is in for one great update.

Please note that a public beta isn’t yet available, but Resco is doing something kind of crazy… they’ve added a thread for users to discuss the features that you want to see included.

Check out the teaser here.

Add your suggestions for the new version here.

Yesterday I presented the idea of what I’d include in the next major update to the iPhone operating system, iPhone OS 4.0.  Simple items, nothing too flashy or complicated for Apple to address.  Things that I’d include were I in charge of Apple.  My ideas are based on conversations with actual users and my own personal wants.  Part one discussed a grossly overlooked feature, the ability to sync the handheld with the desktop via USB.  Read on for feature two.

Feature Two:  Dynamic Application Icons

My first reaction to the iPhone was one of lust.  Lust, pure and simple.  The screenshots of the UI had me salivating.  To be specific, the icons.  They were so clear, so bold, so interesting.  My initial impression was that Apple had created a UI based on dynamic icons, icons that provided users with useful information.  A Calendar icon that showed the actual date.  A Clock icon that showed an analog clock, displaying the actual time.  A Weather icon showing the actual temperature for the specified location.  You get the idea, right.  Basically, I walked around for months believing that Apple had built a UI based on widgets, with the application icons actually being the widget.

To my surprise, when I was actually able to get hands on an iPod Touch and iPhone, the only icon that  lived up to my expectations was the Calendar program.  As you know if you’ve ever been near an iPhone, the Calendar application icon displays the actual date.  The Clock icon displays the time, too.  10:15 am always.  Same with the Weather application, showing the current conditions as Sunny and 73.  Think about how much more interactive the UI would be if just these two icons were dynamic, displaying you actual information based on current conditions.  Now, think about the potential for this ability for other applications and their icons.

What dynamic icons would you add?  Let us know in the comments section below.  Be sure to check back tomorrow night for part three of five of the features I would give you in OS 4.0.

Were I in charge of Apple.

One of the real attractions of the Sprint network is their NFL Mobile Live application, which is available on many of their handsets.  I have never been able to test this one out before because there has not been Windows Mobile version.  So, I was quite excited to find the NFL Mobile Live app had been included in the new WebOS update which i downloaded earlier today.  That means not only is it available for the Pre, but it is included with WebOS automatically…and absolutely free.   The NFL Mobile Live app is a fantastic solution for NFL fans and fantasy football players seeking all the latest news, stats, scores, and even complete game radio broadcasts.  Keep reading for the full press release.

Just in time for the start of training camp for NFL teams across the country, Sprint today announced that its exclusive NFL Mobile Live application is now available on the Palm^® Pre™ phone.

NFL Mobile Live, the only wireless source for complete, live access to NFL action, was sent to Palm Pre customers as part of an over-the-air software update from Palm. When customers accept the update to Palm webOS™ 1.1.0, NFL Mobile Live is automatically installed. Once installed, customers can use Palm Pre’s universal search to locate the application by simply typing NFL on their keyboard from the main screen or launcher, and then tapping the NFL icon to open the application.

With most NFL teams opening training camp this week, fantasy football players will begin tracking player performances. NFL Mobile Live gives them the ability to watch NFL Network live 24/7 along with a bevy of preseason on-demand video highlights, injury reports, statistics, breaking news and analysis from a host of experts. Once the regular season begins, fantasy players can manage their NFL.com fantasy teams from their phone and monitor the performance of every player in real time. Player information will be easily accessible, including real-time game and season cumulative stats, video highlights, rankings, player profiles and photos.

NFL Mobile Live is one of the most-popular applications Sprint has offered reaching 1 million downloads more quickly than any other application in the company’s history. It is available exclusively to Sprint subscribers on most handsets and is included with data plans including Sprint Everything plan with data.

“For NFL fans this is a perfect combo: NFL Mobile Live and Palm Pre, both of which are unequaled in wireless,” said Steve Gaffney, Sprint’s director of sports and entertainment marketing. “Fans with Palm Pre will experience NFL Mobile Live in a new way, with a custom user interface that will allow them to navigate through the application like never before.”

NFL Mobile Live has been revised to take advantage of Palm Pre’s clean, simple user interface that allows customers to move quickly between the application’s many features. Palm webOS allows multiple activities to be open at once so NFL fans can multitask, moving back and forth between NFL Mobile Live and other applications quickly. For example, a fan can be listening to a live game radio broadcast while completing other tasks, such as text messaging, e-mail or searching the web.

With NFL Mobile Live, fans will be able to listen to the live radio broadcasts of every NFL game throughout the 2009 regular season from their phone and watch all eight NFL Network Thursday Night Football telecasts live beginning Nov. 12 when the Chicago Bears face the San Francisco 49ers.

NFL Mobile Live is available on most Sprint handsets and is included at no additional charge with Sprint Everything plans with data starting at $69.99, including Simply Everything, which combines unlimited nationwide voice, messaging and extensive data services for just $99.99 per month. With other Sprint plans available on phones other than Palm Pre, customers can get NFL Mobile Live by adding a Data Pack, starting at $15 per month.

More information is available at www.sprint.com/nfl and www.sprint.com/pre.

I was on vacation and missed this one, but earlier this week, Palm issued an update for all Palm Pres to WebOS version 1.1.0.  In addition to now including the Sprint NFL Mobile App, the new update includes dozens of updates and fixes.  Here is the complete description of everything you will find.

webOS 1.1.0

NFL Mobile Live from Sprint

• Watch or listen to live NFL games right on your phone.

Calendar

• For Calendar accounts you create on your phone, the default reminder intervals are 15 minutes for timed events and one day for all-day events. A few notes:
  • This change applies only if software version 1.1 was on your phone when you bought it, or if you did a partial or full erase on your phone and signed in to your Palm profile again after updating to version 1.1. If you simply update your phone to software version 1.1, the default reminder intervals in Calendar do not change.
  • This change applies only to Calendar events you create on your phone, not to events that are synchronized to your phone from an online account.

Camera

• The Photos application opens more quickly when launched from the camera.

Clock

• Enhanced support for time zones in Clock.
• When you set an alarm in Clock, an alarm icon appears in the notification area at the bottom of the screen. Tap the icon to display alarm details. Alarm details include the following:
  • If the alarm is set for the current day, the alarm time appears.
  • If the alarm is set for tomorrow, the alarm time and "Tomorrow" appear.
  • If the alarm is set for any day other than today or tomorrow, the day of the alarm appears.

Contacts

• Friends added and deleted in Facebook on the web are now correctly added and deleted in the Facebook account in Contacts on the phone.
• As soon as you create or makes changes to a Google contact on the phone, the phone begins a sync to reflect those changes in Google on the web.

Email

• When you set up an Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) email account, you can enter the mail server name as an IP address.
• Support for self-signed certificates with multiple common names has been added.
• When you reply to an email in HTML format using an EAS account, the formatting of the sender’s original message is now retained in the reply.
• Sending messages using an AOL email account now works more reliably.
• If your IT administrator enables the IMAP protocol on a Lotus Notes server, you can set up an IMAP Notes email account on your phone. Note that Lotus Notes calendar events and contacts do not sync with your phone.
• If your EAS account requires a domain, changing your password for this account no longer deletes the domain (which caused the account login to fail).
• If you create a new message but enter the wrong recipient email address, after you attempt to send the message, a notification appears that the message could not be sent. The message is moved to your Drafts folder so that you can edit the recipient address and resend.
• If you create a new label in your Gmail account on the web, the label now synchronizes to your phone. The label appears as a folder in your Gmail account on the phone, and any messages you assigned to that label appear inside the folder.
• If you attach a file to a new message and save the message as a draft, the draft is saved with the attachment.
• Palm’s EAS implementation now supports several Exchange ActiveSync Policies, including the following:
  • PIN/Password Required. IT administrators can ensure a password is assigned to the phone. Administrators can also specify the minimum length of the password.
  • Inactivity timeout. IT administrators can ensure that an inactive phone goes into a locked state after a certain time period. You cannot set a higher timeout interval for your phone, but you can set a shorter interval.
  • Remote Wipe. IT Administrators can remotely erase all data on a phone from their Exchange console. IT administrators can also have the device wipe itself if an incorrect password is entered more than a specified number of times.

Messaging

• You can enter emoticons in new text, multimedia, and instant messages. Emoticons also display in incoming messages.
• If you set the phone to use a 24-hour time format, the message times shown in a conversation appear in 24-hour time.
• If you go into an IM account’s preferences, all the options are available even if you are signed in to the account. You can tap Remove Account to delete the account, enter a new password to update the password, or tap Sign In to sign in with your updated password. Previously, you needed to sign out of the account before you could use these preferences.
• When you delete an IM account, a message now appears asking you to confirm that you want to delete the account.

Phone

• When multiple missed call notifications are displayed on the dashboard, the time of the most recent missed call is shown.
• When you slide the ringer switch off, a bell icon with a slash is displayed. Previously, the icon was a speaker with a slash.
• In Phone Preferences, the Show Contact Matches preference is now turned on by default. When typing on the keyboard in the phone app, the phone automatically displays both the numbers being entered and any contact matches for the characters entered.
• You can now answer a second incoming call if you have Secure Unlock turned on. Secure Unlock requires you to enter a password to unlock the phone if the screen turns off. You can turn this feature on in the Screen & Lock preference.

System

• Improved functionality of person reminders. A person reminder is a notification that you create in a contact entry. The notification appears when you have a call or exchange an email, text, multimedia, or IM message with a contact.
• Resolves an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (8.2.1).
• When you enter a search term in Card view or the Launcher to perform a universal search, if you select the Wikipedia web search option, results are shown in the Wikipedia Mobile site instead of the Desktop site.

Web

• You can now use symbols from the symbols table (Sym + key) when you enter text into a web page dialog box.
• If you have a page open at a certain zoom level, leave the page, and use the onscreen Back button or the back gesture to return to the page, the zoom level is restored right away.
• A new gesture is now available that works the same as the onscreen Forward button. To move forward through open web pages, make a short swipe left to right in the gesture area.
• When using the Wikipedia drop-down search feature in the address bar, results are shown in the Wikipedia Mobile site instead of the Desktop site.
• When you tap a link, the link appears highlighted to indicate it has been activated, even if it takes a moment for the linked page to open.

YouTube

• After you enter search text, you can tap the Search icon to perform a search. You still have the option of pressing Enter to perform the search.

This release addresses several security issues with Palm webOS software.

All of you Palm Pre users can head over to the Update App in the Launcher Screen to download the new update.  Or head over to Palm for more information.