Microsoft going to change the name of Windows Mobile to Windows Phone?

According to various market sources, Windows Mobile division is going to go through a name change from Windows Mobile to  WIndows Phone. This is not the first time Microsoft has change the name. Earlier, Microsoft changed the name of Pocket PC phones and Smartphones to Windows Mobile Professional and Windows Mobile Standard. The name of standalone Pocket PCs was also changed to Windows Mobile Classic.

Additionally, Microsoft will be unveiling the BETA of Windows Mobile 7 later this year and the final version will be delivered to the OEMs in April 2009.

[digitimes]

Gachapin and Mukku netbook by Kohjinsha for kids, but for $880?

Kohjinsha and Bandai have jointly unveiled a Gachapin & Mukku Netbook for the children. Now, for the non-Japanese folks, Gachapin and Mukka are famous Japanese TV characters.

Sporting a very bright green color and running Windows Vista, this netbook has usual netbook specifications:

  • Intel Atom N270 processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 120GB HDD
  • Digital TV Tuner (works in Japan only)

The price is a little not-so-kiddish. This green netbook costs Yen 79, 800, which brings it to nearly $880! Given the features, I think that it a little too over-priced. I’m sure that the kids will have to apply a lot of pressure on their parents to make them buy it.

[lalabitmarket] (google translate) Japanese version here

More information (on TV characters): Gachapin is a 5 year old baby dinosaur and Mukku is a 5 year old Bigfoot

(via akihabaranews)

HTC TOUCH 3G review – excellent value for money [Windows Mobile]

The HTC has been working diligently on it’s Touch range and has been unveiling some of the very high quality Windows Mobile devices from quite some time. The HTC Touch 3G is a powerful elder brother to the original HTC TOUCH. The HTC TOUCH 3G combines speed and style in an affordable package. Read the full review to find out!

DESIGN and BUILD

The HTC TOUCH 3G continues to carry the mesmerizing looks of the original HTC TOUCH. It follows the minimalistic approach that is followed in the Touch series. The TOUCH 3G has the same pebble shape which was earlier sported by the original HTC TOUCH. Continue reading “HTC TOUCH 3G review – excellent value for money [Windows Mobile]”

Diamond ActionScreen for HTC DIAMOND/PRO [Windows Mobile]

Want a more functional actionscreen for your HTC DIAMOND or HTC TOUCH PRO? l3v5y over xda-devs has released a Actionscreen replacement. The actionscreen pops up when you hold the end button.

It can be further modified but the modifications have to done via registry editor, which are not recommended for the faint-hearted person. You can use PHM registry editor (Freeware) to do these registry edits

[download]

Applications can be configured via the registry.
HKCUSoftwarel3v5yActionScreenApp_X
Path changes the path, Parm changes the parameters, and Text changes the text
Continue reading “Diamond ActionScreen for HTC DIAMOND/PRO [Windows Mobile]”

MSI brings more fun to Wind Netbooks with the free Q-Face and Windy Zone applications [Netbook]

The MSI is giving away two nice kiddish applications to the users of U100 and U90 MSI Q-Face and Windy Zone. The Q-face is a simple application to do little transformation to your images like adding a frame, putting a hat on your picture and changing into a cute puppy (!).

Windy Zone is nothing but a pack of 6 classic games:

  • Star Mission
  • Chicken Shake
  • Chicken Invader
  • Island War
  • Loco
  • Smileyville

So, what are you waiting for? Download them to your Wind

Toshiba has got company! HTC too going to launch Snapdragon and Intel Atom based devices [Windows Mobile]

Looks like HTC is not going to be left behind the 1GHz game started by Toshiba, who launched it’s little baby, TG01 a couple of days back. The HTC is expected to launch Snapdragon-based devices in the second quarter this year. According the various sources, the HTC will be nearly 1 quater behind the Toshiba’s Snapdragon device.

But the HTC is not alone in the game. Samsung, LG, Quanta, Acer, Asus and many other companies have signed up to get the Snapdragon range of processors from the Qualcomm.

Here is something more interesting:  HTC is also working on devices that use the Intel Atom platform. If these devices involve mobile devices, then the HTC would be the first company in the world to unveil a cellular phone with Intel Atom processor. There is also another possibility though. HTC netbooks anyone?

[digitimes]

WMLongLife – save battery and gonads too! [Windows Mobile]

It is not a new theory that when the batteries in our devices consume power, they also emit electromagnetic radiation. One may ask a question. Why were the people in the past did not worry about it? The answer is simple. The connectivity radios that were used in those times did not emit the amount of radiation the current radios like 3G and 3.5 radios do. 3G networks do provide us with great speeds. But, they emit more radiation too. Although, it is a moot point whether the radiation is actually harmful, but we cannot deny the fact that less radiation is something that we would all prefer.

Also, less radiation means less power consumption and thus better battery life too! A genius at Xda-devs, Chainfire has come up with an application which actually switches your device to 2G mode when your device goes in standby mode. The email services that run in the backgroud then use the 2G radio (EDGE or GPRS) to fetch your email. Now, here comes the most facinating part:  when you fire the web browser application, Opera Mobile, it will automatically switch to 3G mode. Again, when your devies goes into standby mode, it will again switch to 2G mode only.

It occurs to me, why did not no manufacture or OEM think of it so far ?! Especially when the application promises to save the gonads!

Note: This works on ONLY HTC devices with Qualcomm MSM-series processor and should be a GSM device

Note2: the application is still in it’s infancy stage.

[WMlonglife]

ThrottleLock [Windows Mobile]

ThrottleLock is a little app to lock your device. It will only be unlocked when a pattern is drawn on a grid of points. The Throttle lock also gives you sliding answer and ignore buttons as seen in the screenshot below. So, how does it works? Whenever your device goes into suspend mode (or standby mode), it locks the device. When you switch it on again, you have to draw a pattern on a grid of points.

Get this nice nifty application from here

Getting a HP 2100 series netbook? Get a 6-cell battery for just $25 instead of $129! [Netbook]

Is not it odd, when you hear the netbook manufactures costing you a bomb when you want higher capacities battery for your beloved netbook? Quite a lot of times, you end up paying almost 1/4th of the actual price of the whole netbook when purchasing an extended battery. Take the example of the HP Mini 2140 netbook, whose basic model costs $449. It come with a 3-cell battery, which lasts you about 2-2.5 hours depending on your usage. The 6-cell battery, if you purchase it later on will make shell out a mind-boggling $129, which is more than 1/4th of the price of base model of Mini 2140.

Instead, when buying a Mini 2140, you can bundle a 6-cell battery for a lot more affordable price of $25.

[HP Mini 2140 webpage]