Blog entries about Internet

There’s a world of content out there on the Internet, as you well know, and it doesn’t always come conveniently packaged for the small screen of your device. Mobile portals have been a real boon, and this week I want to tell you about some new ones that deserve a look.

Listening to or watching podcasts is great fun. If you think they are boring, meaningless or can’t entertain you during, say, a long fight, you’re wrong. For example, watching all the clips of X-Play, played back on my VGA HP iPAQ 214 (thanks to Smartphone & PPCMag / iPhone Life’s Hal Goldstein for the gift!) could entertain me for long-long hours.

This is your chance: the impressive Skyfire browser is freely available until August 30. Also, this week there’s lots of device news, including the official announcement of the Palm Treo Pro, the September arrival of the first Android device (from T-Mobile), and Reviews of the HTC Touch Pro.

I’m surprised I haven’t yet mentioned ChaCha, a free, human-powered service that lets you ask any question and sends you an answer via text message. Also, this week we’ll note an update of Windows Live for Windows Mobile and discuss various opportunities for downloading software, including freeware, directly to your device.

We’ve recently redesigned our web site, and I’m impressed. It must be among the best Windows Mobile/Smartphone sites on the Internet. This week we’ll also note a video review of the Samsung and other device news, as well as a new version of Google Maps for Windows Mobile.

Reviews of the Treo 800w, iPAQ 910, and Samsung Omnia are popping up, so I want to note these and give a bit more info about these and other new devices. Also, this week we’ll touch on the new mobile version of Live Mesh, Microsoft’s new approach to cloud computing.

Treo 800w and iPAQ 910

I’ve been giving so much coverage to the exciting new touch devices that I sort of forget that there are other form factors that continue to be popular, including those like the BlackBerry with a front-facing keyboard.

Have you ever wished you could be notified automatically on your phone what’s happening on your Facebook site? Better yet, what if you could see what’s transpiring and be able to interact with Facebook on your phone just as you would on your desktop? A free application from Macrospecs, Inc. called FriendMobilizer makes this possible. It only works on Windows Mobile 6 and higher phones. But if you don’t have one, you should not consider anything less.

In my last Bible of Windows Mobile, Symbian and Blackberry webcamera applications directly usable in desktop messengers like Live Messenger, I haven’t elaborated on the apps that are a bit different: they let for using your camera-equipped handset as a camera for your messaging application running on your desktop PC (connected to your handset).

Not all notebooks or desktop computers have a built-in web camera. With desktop PC’s, this isn’t that big an issue: as you don’t carry them around, you can just buy an inexpensive, clip-on USB camera and you’re set. Not so with notebooks, UMPC’s or Tablet PC’s – with them, purchasing (and carrying!) a cabled solution might be overly suboptimal. Then, just using your camera-equipped smartphone may turn out to be the best solution; preferably over a wireless connection like Bluetooth.

Hello, my name is Dale and I am an Opera Mobile addict. Okay, now that I have THAT out of the way, let me tell you, I LOVE OPERA. Nope, not the kind with the heavy weight, horn-helmeted singer, but the Opera that makes my mobile web viewing so nice. I have been using Opera Mobile for a couple of years now and I have to say that it is, by far, the best mobile web browser I have ever encountered. In my article on replacing a laptop with a mobile device, I talked about the fact that Opera Mobile was indispensable in my effort to use only my mobile device.

Now that I’ve become a proud owner of a super-mobile HP TC1100 Tablet PC, using mobile devices (smart phones) as external modems have became essential for me. Up until now, I’ve done most of my Web browsing, YouTube watching outdoors with some of my mobile devices.

I’ve been touting Yahoo Go, and haven’t yet mentioned AOL’s MyMobile, which is somewhat similar — a free application that gives you handy access to a range of Internet content. So I thought I’d cover it this week, along with news and reviews about new devices.

A couple of the better freebies just got even better, with recent updates to Yahoo Go and Dashwire. In addition to noting these, I want to highlight Microsoft’s Windows Mobile web site and mention two new offerings on our site: the 2008 Best Software nominees and a new wristwatch phone.

Dashwire Releases New Version

"PHOENIX, Arizona. June 25, 2008—4SmartPhone, enabling owners of every smartphone the ability to seamlessly connect to and synch over-the-air their email, contacts and calendar through its Hosted Exchange 2007 service, announced today that it will support iPhone customers with a new site “4iphone.net”.  Last week, Apple announced that first generation iPhone devices with the 2.0 firmware upgrade as well as the upcoming iPhone 3G will support Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync beginning July 11th."

As usual, Apple’s June 9 announcement of MobileMe stirred things up a bit, pointing toward a future of “cloud computing.” This week we’ll look at that and a new service for Microsoft Exchange-like syncing, as well as freebies and reviews of new devices.

“Cloud Computing” and Apple’s New MobileMe

As yet, I haven’t had the chance to give SkyFire, the latest Web browser a thorough try. Fortunately, I’ve recently got an account and could, at last, test it.