Recent Articles

If you've followed WMExperts for awhile, you've probably noticed that we've glanced askance at anti-virus or other malware solutions for Windows Mobile.  The bottom line is that the threat doesn't seem big enough to warrant the performance hit that you'd get by running anti-virus on your smartphone.  In fact, so far as we know, there aren't any serious viruses or other threats out there at all right now.  Nobody here runs anti-virus and nobody here recommends that you do either.

Of course, making such a blanket statement isn't so cut-and-dried -- it's always possible that something nasty could crop up and it's legitimate to be worried about it.  We just received an email from David in this vein.  Find it and our answer, after the break!

(Have a question for WMExperts?  We've added a new "Ask WMExperts" category to our contact form - that's the place to do it!)

Whew! We were getting a little worried here that the Sprint Treo Pro, that sleek n' shiny update to the Treo 800w, was getting lost in all the Palm Pre hubbub.

Luckily TreoCentral forum member elistone was kind enough to finally post some of those luscious details on this beaut. What is curious is that evidently it only has aGPS and not standalone-GPS (a contentious issue with 800w owners).  Of course WMExperts will do a comparions of both devices as soon as we get out mitts on one to verify. 

So without further ado...Sprint Treo Pro:

• Robust battery life with an 1500 mAh li-lon battery and 5 hours of continuous talk time.
• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition (OS) providing a feature rich experience (with Enterprise SCMDM options)
• 128MB program memory (DDR) and 256 non-volatile memory (175MB of user store)
• A-GPS – for navigation and turn-by-turn directions - Autonomous & Simultaneous GPS allows points of interests searching and mapping from contacts.
• Instant-on WiFi short-cut key - WPA/WPA2 certified
• 2.0 Megapixel resolution Camera for still and video shots with BPP Basic Printing Profile
• Price: $549 retail; $249 2-year contract

The Treo™ Pro by Palm® is a feature rich Windows Mobile 6.1 OS PDA which is a perfect balance of robust productivity and simplicity. Features include embedded WiFi with a dedicated short-cut key, A-GPS, EV-DO REV.A and a 2.0 mega pixel camera. This device has an updated stylish and slim form factor design. Data services run on Sprint’s Nationwide Mobile Broadband Network.

While nothing earth shattering, it should be a strong business messenger device for Sprint.  Look for it on Sunday, the 25th this month.

Well looky here!  Evidently Sprint is getting ready to release a significant ROM update for the HTC Diamond.  Official "leaking" seems to be standard practice these days as you folks serve as great beta testers ;-) 

This is just breaking so not many have tried it yet. One big change appears to be the inclusion of the new Mobile Internet Explorer 6.  Huzzah!

Here's what different/new:

• CE OS 5.2.20764 (Build 20764.1.4.3)
• MSIE 6.0 (New Internet Explorer?)
• Radio: 1.11.00F
• Opera 9.5 build 15306
• new audiobooster
• new audio manager
• new camera
• new dshow
• new ezinput
• new fullscreen player
• new random access
• new stream media
• new rsshub
• new youtube

Playing around with the Fennec emulator has been fun. Its opened our eyes to a whole new way to browse the web from our mobile. Although cool, it really doesn't let us know what the actual application will ultimately look like once on the device.How fast will Fennec be? Is it stable? Will it be another IE?

Open source whiz Gnubeashie might answer some of those questions with an early attempt of what Fennec will look like on 6.1. Keep in mind this is a first attempt (and also just emulation, but at least it's WinMo emulation), but from the looks of it Fennec will be running smoothly.

Vid after the break.  [via wmpowerusers]

Looks like some upstart company called LoudTalks has launched a Windows Mobile version of their desktop push-to-talk software.

So what's Loudtalks anways?  Think IM client with instant voice chat on the PC--it just sits there and you can simply hit F7 to chat with your friends.

Now they've adapated that for WM so you can have instant convo's with your peeps.  The download is just shy of 3mb, making it quite large for an IM app.  Plus, at this stage of developement you have to (1) create an account and (2) have a working desktop version first, otherwise you can't add people.

Of course Palringo has offered something very similar for a long time and we're still unsure here of registering for yet another IM/PTT service, but some of you may want to try it out.

Windows Mobile software developer, SPB Software, has released a major update to thier popular application, SPB Weather. Weather 2.0 includes such improvements as an expanded city database (Hooray!), forecasts by Foreca (MSN.com's weather source), and a 3D Globe. The 3D Globe looks particularly interesting in that it runs animated, several day forecasts with global sky conditions, temperatures and precipitation for up to ten selected cities. The Globe will also show the local time for each location as well as a nightime overshadow.

SPB Weather also includes a new finger friendly user interface just like the touch navigation present with SPB Mobile Shell. Today screen plug-ins will still be available as will forecast support from the U.S. National Weather Service. We're in the process of putting SPB Weather through the ringer and will have a full review soon. In the meantime, a downloadable trial as well as the full application can be found here

Don't get us wrong, but when we saw the low-end Touch Viva announced, we were a twinge afraid that it might come to the states and take up precious retail space that might be better served by higher-end Touch devices.  Doesn't look like that's in the cards, as the Viva has arisen as the Euro-only T-Mobile MDA Basic.

Not that there's anything wrong with it, of course, even a "Basic" Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro phone these days gets:

• 2 mp camera
• Quad-band EDGE
• WiFi
• GPS
• MicroSD slot
• TouchFlo 2D
• 8 hours of talk time(!)

Best part, if you pick it up on-contract, you're looking at a nominal 4.95 Euro for it.  We're doubting anybody's clamoring to import the thing, but we are liking that these are the minimum specs on a WinMo device these days. [T-Mobile Germany via Engadget Mobile]

We are pleased to welcome PreCentral.net to our family of mobile techology websites. Just in case you missed last weeks announcement Palm,inc. introduced their newest smartphone, the Palm Pre. Not only is this a new phone, but a new mobile operating system called webOS.

PreCentral.net will follow in the footsteps of TreoCentral, CrackBerry.com, TheiPhoneblog, Android Central and WMExperts by highlighting and discussing the progress, developments and accomplishments of this new mobile device and system. So lets set another place at the family table and see what all the buzz is about this new Palm device.

Check out the PreCentral.net announcement here.

Having trouble deciding between Windows Mobile and Android?  Just can't decide which one to take the leap with?  If you're not a fan of hacking Android onto a pre-existing Windows Mobile device, Israeli computer module developer Compulab may have the solution for you.

Compulab has introduced the Exeda that will run both Android and Windows Mobile 6.1. The box-like smartphone has a 3.5 inch VGA touchscreen, a capacitive touchpad that serves as a mouse, and is powered by a 520MHz Marvell CPU. Loaded with 128mb RAM and 512mb of internal flash memory, the Exeda has built in GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth and a 10/100 Base-T Ethernet port. The networking appears flexible to allow resellers to choose from quadband GSM/GPRS, CDMA, and 3G UMTS. While not the slickest of designs, it's definitely a unique phone. No word on pricing but it is expected to be available sometime in March of this year.

[via Android Central, read: Engadget.com]