If I won the lottery and got a new computer tomorrow, it would be a Mac. If I got a new phone tomorrow, considering that I’ve got a scary good plan with Sprint, it would be the Touch Diamond. That would be both awesome and a problem — no ActiveSync for Mac throws a wrench into the whole syncing thing.

Most people in the Mac/WM boat shell out for The Missing Sync, but if you can tolerate a  little less power, JAMM just heard about a new, free alternative. SyncMate packs iCal and Contacts synchronization, an SMS reader, and a device info plugin. The site is a little vague on what exactly you can and can’t do with the free edition — document syncing? installing applications? — because they want you to upgrade to SyncMate Expert for the same $40 pricetag as The Missing Sync.

Sadly, I didn’t win the lottery, so I don’t have a Mac that I can test SyncMate on. Actually, no one at JAMM at the moment runs Mac/WM. Decent free Mac/WM sync apps aren’t exactly thick on the ground, so please help out the community and leave a comment if you try this app!

Know what my first thought was when I saw Steve Jobs announce the new version of the iPod Nano? “Holy mackerel, that looks like a Zune!” That, and giving mental props to the PhotoShop hacks who came darned close to the real look. Nice going, guys.

Long-time readers with fantastic memories will recall that I bought a 3G Nano when it came out and just love the little guy. It didn’t start that way — I was really hesitant about the form factor and actually walked into the Apple Store planning to get a Classic. Then I picked up the Nano. The way it sat in my palm, it felt like it was made for my hand: perfectly proportioned to hold and use the clickwheel, nicely thin but with enough heft to not feel fragile, and a great fit in either an armband or my jeans pocket. If you ask me, the 3G Nano should be a model case study in design classes.

I did have a point there, and it’s that practically everyone hated on the “fatty” 3G Nano until they actually held one in their own hands. I wasn’t exactly enthused by the looks of the 4G Nano, but the least I could do was to get some hands-on time with it, right? JAMM’s review muscle doesn’t quite extend to getting brand-new iPods, so it was back to the Apple Store. Enough rambling, what’s the verdict?

Yes, it’s very small. Yes, the widescreen is lovely. Yes, the accelerometer with the shake-to-shuffle is seriously cool. And no, I don’t want one. Reason? That super-skinny form factor is hell to hold. It’s so narrow I had trouble comfortably operating the clickwheel vertically, and I think my hand would cramp before I made it though a TV episode holding the Nano sideways. There’s also the “pocket fit fragility factor.” Have you ever sat down with a wooden pencil in your jeans pocket? You generally get up with two wooden pencils. Substitute the long, narrow Nano 4G for the No. 2, except salvaging a bit of use by sharpening it won’t work as well.

Is the 4G Nano really as fragile as it feels? Does the accelerometer go bonkers when you wear it to work out? Just how badly would my hand cramp during extended use? Guess I won’t be finding out.

I got my Palm Centro in April, and ever since then it has spent most of its time bumping around in a side pocket inside my purse. Usually I have my new gadgets safely wrapped up in cases almost as soon as I get them home, but I just couldn’t find anything I could convince myself to live with. My adorable little Centro has basically been protected by a pair of crossed fingers, and I’m lucky it isn’t as scratched up as an extra from Jurassic Park.

Then someone suggested I check out Sena Cases. They make two cases for the Centro, the LeatherSkin and the MagnetFlipper, and they were kind enough to send me a review sample of the second.

If I was a casemaker, the Centro’s distinctive styling, truckload of buttons and ports, and chunky dimensions would send me screaming into the distance. Fortunately Sena reacted better. They pride themselves on beautiful leather, meticulous craftsmanship, and a slim profile, but to make a good Centro case they’d have to hit more home runs than a doped-up Barry Bonds.

Did Sena pull it off? Hit the jump to find out!

Read More …

Traveling is a pain in the neck. Which completely explains why I just took a new job that will have me on the road 70% of the time. Seriously, I like going places, but with all the security measures turning airports into a much less fun version of a three-ring circus, I’ll take all the help I can get organizing and  keeping track of my travel arrangements. 

A new free service, TripChill, thinks it can help me out. TripChill is based around an online portal that stores your itinerary, and on the go it works with any phone with SMS or a mobile browser. From there, it offers a myriad of services to help you deal with everything that has to fall into place to make a trip successful and that tends to jerk you around unpredictably at the absolute worst times.

I took TripChill for a test drive last week during a business trip. Read on for a quick look!

Read More …

I’ve got to confess, when I heard about yet another media player for Windows Mobile being released, I had to work really hard not to yawn all over Doug’s face. Then I got around to checking out the details and I woke up really fast.

Kinoma Play, announced yesterday, is a full-fledged mobile media browser that unifies  searching, browsing, and playing digital media. It lets you view and listen to music, video, audiobooks, and pictures from your phone, but it  also can stream or download media from your computer, websites like Flickr and YouTube, and Internet stations. Online media is organized inside Play by the Kinoma Guide, which combs the Web and catalogs a huge and diverse amount of mobile-ready media. WMExperts has a review here.

Kinoma Play sells for one flat fee of $29.99 (no subscription!). The company also released Kinoma FreePlay, a free MP3 player/photo viewer with the same interface and access to parts of Kinoma Guide.