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When Trinket Software released the first beta of its Twikini Twitter client (Twitter + bikini ... say it slowly) in mid-April, we became instant fans. It was lightweight and speedy. And while there were a few beta bugs, worked progressed, issues were resolved and features were added. Twikini has now reached an official Version 1.0 and has shed its beta – and free – status.

There are a couple of pricing options, which is a little uncommon. For $4.95 you get Twikini plus any of Trinket's other applications (see the full list here). Hardly a bad deal. Businesses (that'd be us) are asked to pony up $9.95. There's a third option, but it's not one we condone. Trinket's giving away Twikini to bloggers. (For the record: I purchased a business license.) You're on the honor system here, folks. Do the right thing.

Oh, and we mentioned features. It's worth reading through the version histories, but here are but a few of our favorites:

• Multiple account access. A must for us.
• URL-shorteners. TinyURL, bit.ly, etc.
• In-line Twitpic. View the pic directly in the tweet. Very cool.
• View a tweet's location on Google maps.
• Tweet song info. WMP only, unfortunately.

Twikini runs on all versions of Windows Mobile (5 through 6.5, Standard or Pro). You can try the 1.0 release of Twikini for free for 14 days. (Trinket says the previous beta versions will at some point cease to work.) Get the full deets on their site here.

You can follow Twikini on Twitter at @twikini. And as always, we're at @wmexperts.

Update: Version 1.1 is now out, and it fixes a few bugs (one of them a pretty serious one). Go get it here.

There are a few true killer apps on Windows Mobile and GeoTerrestrial's GPSToday is certainly a contender (Live Search is the other).

What is GPSToday?

As far as I can tell, it fills in the gaps that other GPS programs leave open. From my experience, its main function is to simply tell you where you are in the world. But unlike Google Maps/Live Search, which just shows your physical location on a map, GPSToday goes one step further by getting your coordinates, translating that into a real street address and displaying it directly on your Today screen (via the plugin).

All of this happens within about 15 seconds and a simple touch of an icon.

There is also the ability to attach your GPS coordinates automatically to photos, see your location of your contacts automatically and get directions to and from places. Plus the new feature: GPS weather, where it will show your weather directly based on your GPS coordinates. All wrapped up in a nice, simple (and currently free) program.

Read on for the feature breakdown and brief review!

Breakdown

There are two main parts to the program: the Today plugin and the Maps application. There is also a useful configuration screen for setting up and modifying the settings.

Plugin: This is the main interface for the app and it’s pretty simple, it’s also “touch friendly” so your stylus need not apply. To the left is the Red icon with a little satellite icon—it turns green when trying to pull your GPS signal and displays the number of satellites found. In the middle is the “display” section which shows your street address (or optionally coordinates).

The little person/icon is “Save to Contacts” which allows you to directly copy the current info to a current or new contact.

The “stopwatch” icon is the option to automatically lookup your current location at timed intervals (1 minutes, 5, 10, 30, 1 hour, Auto or Off) so in theory you could have your current location updated every 30 minutes automatically, all you have to do is glance down at your screen and you’ll know your street address.

Finally the Map icon brings up the mapping portion. Tapping the Map will download mapping data of your current location and will optionally show points of interest (POI) and/or Contacts, which is very cool.

For those concerned with battery life, GPSToday can do a one-time Quick Fix: it will turn on, do the lookup, display the street address and then turn off the GPS system meaning you only have GPS/data activated for about 20-30 seconds—all the work is done for you! This is probably my favorite part as nothing beats finding our current street address. What good is there in knowing your visual location on a map or your coordinates when trying to meet up with some friends? It’s much easier to tell someone “Yeah, I’m at…435 Motts Street right now”. (Note: due to GPS sensitive, the exact location lookup is sometimes off by a few houses, so YMMV. But for the most part, this will get your address within a few stops.)

Maps: the Map is accessed via the Today plugin and has your usual assortment of options: display POI, contacts, zoom in/out, refresh, weather and geocaching/geotagging of pictures options.

Weather: the weather option was just added to the latest version and is pretty simple but very neat. Basically it pulls down your current temperature and basic weather based on your GPS location. It can display this on the today plugin as the temperature or on the maps:

Geotagging of photos: here’s another very useful feature. Simply enable it via the add on freeware program (it’ll prompt you to download) and whenever you snap a photo, the GPS coordinates will be tagged to the picture. This of course can then be used for stuff like Flickr, where built in mapping of your photos can add a cool twist to your collection.

Conclusion and the future

GPSToday is just a fantastic application. It was quickly updated by the developers for 320x320 resolution devices (Samsung i780, Treo 800w/Pro), has new features being added all the time (e.g. GPS Weather) and I’ve heard we can expect some more features in later versions (think “friend finder/social networking” abilities).

If you have GPS built in, this is one of the most useful programs available as knowing your current street address, seeing your contacts in relation to you, being aware of the current weather, geotagging your photos, etc. are all things we can use in our daily lives.

In short, programs like GPSToday are what make “smarpthones” truly smarpthones—they do the work for you, seamlessly and provide really useful information in an instant.

Any downsides? Probably just these two major limitations:

• Only WM Pro devices (WM Standard is not currently supported)
• Mapping data is U.S. based only

Hopefully some of that will be addressed in later versions.

Download Here and read their FAQ with some tips and tricks right here.

Ratings (out of 5)

• Function: 5
• Ease of use: 5
• Cost (none): 5
• Features: 5

Overall:

Pros

• Unique GPS app
• Currently freeware
• Very useful
• Easy to use
• Great features with more to come

Cons

• Not for WM Standard (non-touchscreen)
• U.S. mapping data only

If you're already a user of the popular instant messaging app IM+, you may have been notified of a "major" update last night.  Upon downloading it seems the Shape Sevices guys have bumped it to v6.0.1.  (Read Tim's earlier review for WM Standard)

In short, they overhauled the graphics, added buddy icon support (finally), Facebook chat (in addition to MySpace) and a new feature whereby you can sign off but IM+ will keep you logged in, then when an IM comes in for you, they forward it as an email aka 'Push IM'.  Interesting. The Today plugin also got a bit of graphics sharpening, though no major changes.

So far I'm liking the new look and added features, though for $39.95 it is mighty pricey for an IM program.  On the other hand, free upgrades sweeten the deal a bit.  Unforuntaltey, there is no sign of any "speech to text" feature as was reported for BlackBerry.  Sigh.  Maybe later?

We'd seen rumors that two of HTC's soon-to-be-released phones, the Touch Pro 2 and Snap, could well be sporting CDMA and GSM radios for some worldwide fun, and now we've got some official evidence to go with it.

Engadget spied a document in FCC testing of the Touch Pro 2 (aka Rhodium) that states there are in fact two radios on board, and that the GSM side "has been disabled by firmware and is SIM locked for all US operators."

So what's that mean? It's a world phone all right, but don't expect to be rocking dual CDMA/GSM in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Another item of note here is that there are two FCC IDs, the Rhodium 400 and the Rhodium 500, which very likely means versions for Sprint (which we just saw) and Verizon (which we don't expect to see anytime soon - see VZW Touch Diamond). Stay tuned.

OK, you patient Samsung Epix owners. Here you go. After suffering through forced slog dumps and the radio problems that came with a supposed hotfix, AT&T has released an honest to goodness ROM upgrade that actually tackles several issues. [via Gear Diary]

• "Slog Dump" Fix: On certain circumstances, the handset may report a “Slog Dump” error message. This software provides an update to the network layer which prevents the problem from occurring.
• Missed Email Audio Notifications: A previously released cab file for notifications is included in ID1. This enables the EPIX to provide audible notifications alerts for your emails when the device enters an unattended power saving mode.
• Outlook Notes SSP Support: The update contains the ability to synchronize the popular Notes feature available within Microsoft Outlook.
• Ascending Ringtone: Ringtone behavior design was set to ascending/escalating volume during inbound call regardless of setting specified. With this update, the handset will act in accordance to the volume settings selected

So back up all of your important data (this is a ROM upgrade after all, which means hard reset and a virgin device), head on over to the download site, and read the instructions. Then read them again. And read them one more time, just in case you missed the part where it said to take out the SIM card or downloaded the XP updater instead of Vista. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Then get to flashing.

That's right. Not only is T-Mobile expected to get the new HTC Snap and Touch Pro 2, it's also bringing back Catherine Zeta-Jones to pitch the phones. Not that we needed another reason to pick one up, but we'll take it. [via Fierce Wireless]

To help drive home the message that millions of Americans could save money on their wireless service, a familiar face and voice, Catherine Zeta-Jones, is again featured in T-Mobile's television advertising. In the ads, she prompts people to get a Mobile Makeover in order to help determine if they are currently paying too much for their wireless services, and where to find the best value, based on their individual needs.

"As an avid T-Mobile customer, I'm delighted once again to help T-Mobile carry its message to millions of Americans about the great value they deliver," Zeta-Jones said. "The Mobile Makeover campaign is a smart way to show consumers that they could save some serious money."

After the break, we relive some good times with our favorite Welsh actress. (Updated with the new commercial!)

Microsoft is getting really good at giving us clues as to the future of Windows Mobile through its job listings. That's how we first learned of Windows Marketplace for Mobile. That's how we first learned of plans to finally fix over-the-air updates. That's where we learned of some mobile plans for Halo. And now, a biggie.

One of the worst-kept secrets in the mobile world is that Zune software is likely to play a big part in Windows Mobile 7. And a new job listing for a software developement engineer confirms this.

Responsibilities - Deliver core platform technology to internal and external partners. Effectively design, schedule, build and deliver on a v1 product and existing products. Collaborate with partners such as Outlook Mobile, Database, Zune, Shell, and OS. Deliver detailed specifications for the technical architecture of the system. Help mentor other members on the Dev team.

This looks like a job that will involve tying the room together, much like a nice area rug. Full job listing's after the break, but it's summed up here:

The Communications Foundations team is the engine room that powers these social experiences - the team builds the connectors and Unified Storage models that power all the social & communications experiences for WM7.

Via I Started Something

First there was the CEO shakeup, then the revelation that the Xperia X1 was "an experiment" that didn't really pay off as hoped, and now this. Sony Ericsson needs some money. When we say some, we mean something like 100 million Euros, which works out to about $135 million U.S.[NYT via Giz]

That's not to say all's lost for ol' SE. We've seen what a large infusion of funding can do to a mobile company (lookin' at you, Palm). And while SE's not seeking anywhere near that level of funding, these are different times from when rock star Bono and Elevation Partners came to the resecue, and money's not flowing so freely. But hang in there, SE. Maybe that rumored X2 will turn things around.

[image source]