It looks like Palm is no better at protecting its secrets than anyone else.  Both Apple and Windows Mobile have become notorious for the amount of leaks their operating systems have faced in the days, weeks, and even months leading up to a new update.  Typically, by the time the new version is officially released, power users have been studying (and yes, reviewing) it for months.  Now, Palm has earned that same treatment, but the strange thing is that the leak came directly from Palm itself.

A few days ago, one lucky reader of Palm Central activated a setting designed to return his Palm Pre to the factory default settings (a hard reset for you Windows mobile fans).  Rather than doing so, however, the Pre upgraded itself to the as-yet unannounced WebOS 1.2.

The leak has since been plugged at its source, but in the short time it was available, it seems there was a lot to like, including:

• Account information in the App Catalog, implying direct purchasing of paid apps will now be available
• Improved web browsing
• Improved search
• Improved cut and paste

It looks like the real purpose of this upgrade is to finalize the app Catalog, which really excites me.  I cannot wait to see that.  I am glad, though, to see that Palm is taking advantage of this opportunity to improve some minor annoyances and make other necessary tweaks.

What really impresses me is the speed with which palm has been pushing updates.  The palm Pre and WebOS were released only three months ago, and this is already (I believe) the fourth update for the operating system.  That truly is a fantastic sign of things to come.  Now, if they could only find a way to do something about the lag many Palm Pre users (including myself) have reported.

Stay tuned, hopefully WebOS 1.2 wil be available to Palm Pre users everywhere in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, don’t forget to check out Pre Central for even more pictures of WebOS 1.2.

[Via Pre Central]

SmartphoneMag is reporting that SKKV Software, authors of such wonderful Windows Mobile utilities as SKTools, SKTracker and SKSchema, are releasing CABIntegr this week.  CABIntegr promises to provide support for creating CAB files directly on a Windows Mobile Professional device, without the need for a PC.  This is likely going to be great news for anyone that wants to use their device in a more standalone nature independent of a desktop computer, and for those who may have found that desktop CAB creation can be a bit frustrating.  As a member of both of those categories, I’m planning to give it a whirl in CABifying (yeah, that’s my word) some of my more useful MortScript’s for distribution.  You can read the full details of CABIntegr’s feature set below:

Creating new CAB files

Editing CAB files

o Adding files

o Adding multiple files in one operation

o Adding registry keys

o Importing registry keys from REG files

o Adding custom* shortcuts

o CAB files compression supported**

o Pre- and post- XML provisioning files supported***

o Managing storage of information needed for the program removal

Viewing all CAB files which are available on the device

Viewing contents of CAB files

Extracting contents from CAB files

Creating new CAB Provisioning files

Converting REG files to CAB files

Support several languages of the interface

(W)QVGA/(W)VGA support

Windows Mobile 5/6 Classic and Professional compatible

Yesterday Panoramic Software quietly released their new Twitter application, moTweets.  As the name implies this is an application for Windows Mobile/Phone devices.

moTweets allows you to Twitter on the go while utilizing the powerful features of your Windows Mobile phone. Users will be able to upload photos taken from their device’s camera or post their location using the built in GPS. Other notable features include: support for multiple Twitter accounts, custom skins, a finger pressable interface and integration with TinyURL!™.
Using its Windows Mobile advertising engine, Panoramic Software Inc. delivers moTweets as a free, ad-supported application. A paid version is also available without advertising.

Thanks to Patrick @ Panoramic Software I received a beta copy of moTweets about three weeks ago.  The final version was released yesterday, and has already been updated to version 1.1.  Testing this one has been a great process and a privilege to have input into what feels like an application that has been personalised to my needs.

I realise that Twitter is a take it or leave it service for a lot of people, and whether you use it for a selective instant messaging service, or are utilising it as a super RSS feed, interspersed with bouts of conversation, humour and just plain interesting stuff, there are probably three things I think a good Twitter application needs to do well. The major function of twitter is quick communication, in a short/concise language format. Twitter exploits three functions that make it work effectively, status update, reply, and retweet. So an application needs to let you skim and update the timeline quickly and with ease, reply to a message in as few steps as possible, and retweet in as few steps as possible. With those things in mind let’s see how moTweets works and fulfils the identified criteria.

Installation

moTweets comes with the typical windows .cab install, and a desktop install option. I tested both, and they were flawless. The app works equally as well installed to a storage card as on device, and with a footprint of only 600 Kb, as of the latest update, it still has a favourable impact on space. The impact on device RAM is minimal as well, using 1700 Kb of Ram.

That sort of memory usage is very consistent, and it’s nothing to have it running with a browser open, [Opera Beta 9.7] so you can read links people are posting in real time. That’s a win there as well, and much more like a desktop experience.

Options

As with any application that utilises your mobile’s data connection, you really want to be able to limit or delimit at will depending on your budget, and data plan.  As well as meeting your Twittering needs,  moTweets offers a good selection of setting and controls  for all of your Tweeting needs.

The penultimate/most important setting for the whole application is the auto refresh. I have it set to one minute in the screen shot above, but that’s while I’m using it connected to a PC, and updating through activesync. You are offerd a wide range of options though.

You can even turn auto updates off, which allows you to manually refresh at will.  Also notable, the auto refresh does not apply if the backlight has turned off on your device, or if moTweets is in the background.

moTweets supports English, Spanish and French, and comes with two preinstalled skins. You can see the sleek blue skin above, and the grey skin below. I’m sure some of the more adept of you out there will be adding your own skins to moTweets in no time

Two  of the more contentious settings, that I thought should by default be off, were device notifications of updates via sound and vibrate. Why is it that people imagine the sound of a tweet to be a shrill high pitched sound, that will make you jump out of your boots?  Other than this annoyance factor, these options both consume extra battery power, thus, inadvertently reducing your device’s operating time.

Other options let you allow how many tweets you download, whether you see a screen name or full name, the size of the timeline view and most important for the finger friendly interface, the quick buttons.

Usability

MoTweets is optimised for touch screen devices, but is completely D-Pad friendly as well. It has a comprehensive multi level menu system, that takes a bit of getting around and time to get used to. For instance the word balloon in the top left reveals these options.

The tweet balloon allows you to add a picture from your devices camera, a picture from a file, shorten a link or post your location.

The timeline option top right is the key to all of your Twitter info, at one touch,

Other options allow you to organize Tweets by:

• Featured
• top
• trending posters
• public
• general timeline of everyone on Twitter
• mentions, every time your user name is mentioned in a tweet
• favourites, things you read that you wanted to remember
• inbox, direct messages you have received or sent
• people you are following and your followers.

All pretty simple, really.

It become second nature after a while, and there are sub menus that offer other options from the main screen using the finger friendly interface. A double tap on any post will bring up a sub menu offering you all of the options available to the elements in that post.

So a single post that has lots of links in it is fully covered in one sub menu, this really cuts down on search times. This is like TweetDeck for Windows Mobile, sans the filtering, and the memory problems.

Conclusion

Although there seem to be a lot of features, and it might seem a bit complicated moTweets really does what I want from a Twitter application, all from its front page. That’s where the quick buttons come in. Panoramic have gone all out to give a really sensitive kinetic scrolling feature, that doesn’t scroll, meaning you can swipe as fast or as slow as you like. When it gets to the top, or the end of the latest update there is no more. No revolving scrolling to take you back to updates you downloaded fifteen minutes ago that you have already viewed. You get a great application that is stable, and is usable from one interface without pulling out a stylus.

The Rt, @ and Favourite buttons, are all finger friendly and allow for one touch access to these functions, without leaving your timeline view. Let’s face it, that is all that I want from a good Twitter app, and moTweets offers so much more, I’m delighted, surprised and happy to have been part of the development of this app [the whinging beta tester]. If you aren’t into Twitter, you need to have a look at this application, just to experience some of the great interface things Panoramic have done, on the finger friendly side. If you are into Twitter, this is a value add that you shouldn’t miss out on.

moTweets is available for free with advertisements included

Premium is available for A$3.99, a fair price I think

Check out Panoramic Software Inc Here

PIE? Ughh…no more PIE – Pocket Internet Explorer somehow just doesn’t cut it. With other phones having cool web browsers like…Safari, it’s about time that Windows Mobile finally got something better than plain old PIE. Fennec Alpha 3, unofficially aka FireFox for Windows Mobile just came out! Utilizing tiling technologies much like Google Earth, it will allow you to browse via panels and scroll frames. I personally can’t wait to try it. Check out some of the screenshots from Careace.net. You can download Alpha 3 or read the release notes.

Screenshot above taken from Redmond Pie.

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile, FireFox, Fennec Alpha 3, Tjchan, Just Another Mobile Monday, JAMM

Astraware have some brilliant games, and hot on the heels of Astraware Casino Video Games and Astraware Boardgames for BlackBerry, I’m excited to let you know about a second casino pack which is now available – Astraware Casino Table Games!

Take a stroll through Astraware Casino and enjoy 2 of the world’s most popular casino table games – Roulette and Craps:

Roulette – choose your numbers, place your chips and spin the wheel to win big! Bet on single numbers, groups, colors or all three!

Craps – place your bets and roll the dice! Make your ‘Come out roll’ and hope not to ‘crap out’ with a 2, 3, or 12. Decide to bet on win or lose, single bets or ‘let it ride’!

Astraware Casino – Table Games includes instructions on how to play each of the games, designed with casual players in mind. As you progress and play more, higher stake games are unlocked, offering bigger bets and larger wins. The game also includes a bank where you can get an overdraft if your luck is out, or stash your cash when you win big!

Copyright: 2009 Astraware Limited, a subsidiary of Handmark, Inc.

 

These screenshots certainly look awesome! Astraware Casino Table Games can be bought directly from the Astraware store and it’s only $2.99. It is compatible with the following units:

BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8100 Series;

BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip 8200 Series;

BlackBerry® 8800 Series;

BlackBerry® Curve™ 8300 Series and 8900 Series;

BlackBerry® Bold™;

BlackBerry® Storm™ 9500 Series;

BlackBerry® Tour™