Bratislava, Slovakia — September 3, 2008 — Resco, a supplier of advanced developer tools and components for mobile devices, today announced the availability of Resco CustomKeyboard for .NET CF Beta. This professional control allows developers to design their own keyboard layouts and ship them together with their applications.

The layout can be defined by a collection of keys with simple graphical representation or by a skin which allows the use of advanced graphic capabilities. Thus the control can be used to design simple numeric or text layouts as well as advanced layouts containing a combination of various texts and images which can be used in very specific scenarios.

"Because of mobile devices’ input limitations the user input is one of the biggest challenges the developers of mobile applications must deal with," said Gabriel Minarik, Resco's component developer. "Resco CustomKeyboard for .NET CF gives developers the tool to significantly improve the application’s usage and customer satisfaction."

The control has a strong design time support so everyone can design a keyboard layout in an easy way in a short period of time. Moreover, multiple layouts can be defined for the CustomKeyboard control and the developer can choose which one to activate, depending on the focused input field.

"We’ve got a lot of responses from the developer community requesting the functionality description since we announced this brand new control," said Radomir Vozar, Resco's Enterprise Solutions division director. "Now we are happy to provide developers of mobile applications with the Beta version which has the most of the final functionality." More at Resco.

A number of you have asked for 'full' RSS feeds and this is something we are continuing to work on. At the moment there are some options available which almost cover all the bases-

Full RSS with images for all sites: http://www.pda-247.com/forum/external.php

Palm247 Basic RSS (articles cut off to save bandwidth): http://www.pda-247.com/rss.xml

WindowsMobile247 Basic RSS: http://www.pda-247.com/wmrss.xml

MoreMobile247 Basic RSS: http://www.pda-247.com/mmrss.xml

We are working on full RSS (without images) and hope to have that completed within the week.

Bangkok, September 3rd, 2008 - Today at ITU Telecom Asia, Spb Software, the world's leading maker of Windows Mobile software, releases Spb Online to mobile network operators. Spb Online is a set of premium online services for 3G networks that stimulates subscriber uptake of mobile entertainment. Spb Online makes the following services easily accessible from handsets.

* Mobile TV
* Online Radio
* News
* Weather
* Online Games
* On-device Catalog

Spb Online radically changes the on-device user experience, functioning as a clear single entry point to advanced online services from mobiles, and allows mobile network operators capture multiple benefits from 3G networks:

* Increased ARPU
* Branding through fully customized content and UI
* Improved subscriber loyalty through quality mobile experience

Spb Online, with its breakthrough patent pending TV technology and unparalleled on-device usability, is a solution that tackles the issue of weak user interest in multimedia services, fuels subscriber content discovery, and unlocks the potential of 3G. "We are a proven partner of mobile operators through our customisation and usability products," - emphasizes Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, Spb Software CEO. - "and we now see a great future for Spb Online, which is set to be a strategically important product for the industry."

To learn more about Spb Online, please contact Spb Software at partners@softspb.com, or visit Spb Software at ITU Telecom Asia 2008 at Challenger 3, space G11.

Clove has posted a video preview of the HTC S740- this looks like a very 'smart' smartphone indeed! More details are here.

Hands on with the Glofiish V900 E-TEN's latest flagship device has been published at 4WinMobile (thanks to Luca)- "I have been lucky enough to lay my hands on the brilliant, but yet to be released E-TEN Glofiish V900 that comes with a built in digital TV tuner, FM radio, Sirf III built in GPS, an FM transmitter and a 3.0MP camera with flash and auto focus amongst many other things.

The V900 is around the same size as the Polaris and packs an amazing amount of technology, backed up with a 533mhz power packed Samsung processor that is completely new and handles video and graphics with ease. There isn't much else you could really want in a device of this type!

The E-TEN Glofiish V900 came boxed with a quality in ear headset with different size in ear pieces to enable a comfortable fit, a mains charger and a USB cable and of course instructions. I have heard that a screen protector will be included once it goes on sale.

The V900 feels very nice to handle and has a high quality solid feel and great form factor, I like it! The beautiful 640x480 VGA screen is a flush fit in the case and it has a mini USB for charging, TV out, and a mini headphone socket instead of the dreaded USB. It also has a Micro SD slot and a joystick which makes a pleasant change.

It comes pre-installed with the latest SPB Shell which performs admirably, and provides an easy interface to navigate around the abundance of provided applications, or you can of course use the standard Today screen, the weather application is also provided by SPB so there is no problem getting the exact forecast for your locality..."

Taking a quick wander through the iTunes Application Store is a bit like looking through an old bookshop, where the owner has not bothered to put anything in alphabetical order. It is not Apple’s fault, but rather the sheer weight of applications and games which have landed on the application store in such a short time. There are not enough categories in the world to properly segment every type of application and game, and the confusion rises up a notch when you read the customer reviews. After a few minutes of reading the reviews some things become clear-

• Some of the very positive reviews appear to be put up by the developer’s themselves to gain extra sales.
• Some of the very negative reviews appear to be put up by other developers to harm the sales of competitors.
• Countless people moan about paying $2 for a well crafted piece of software and seem to expect to pay nothing for everything. The internet has always been free, but since when did everything on it deserve to be free as well?

As it stands the customer reviews are an unwelcome distraction and may as well be removed altogether. To be fair this has happened on all sorts of ESDs and there is little that anyone can do about it. Anyway, it is difficult to know what is good and what is bad on the application store so here are my five favourite and five least favourite iPhone / iPod Touch applications.

iPhone software you cannot live without

1/ Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D- looks great, plays great and has oodles of longevity built in for good measure. It is easily the best racer available on this platform, and the best entertainment title as well. It is so worth the asking price.

2/ moleskinery+ takes the paper based note taking approach and brings it to the smartphone screen like no application has done before. It could do with proper synchronisation with a PC or server, but it is hard to fault the looks and simplistic way in which it displays information.

3/ PocketMoney is the most stable finance application I have used on the iPhone so far. It caters for multiple accounts, multiple currencies and a backup utility is in the works.

4/ Files is a clever little application which allows the viewing of PC documents directly on the iPhone. It is a bit fiddly to set up, but hardened PDA users will ‘need’ something like this to feel right at home again.

5/ How could I not include eReader? After a shaky start with some server issues, it has turned into a must have application for anyone who likes eBooks. It is close to perfect.

iPhone software you should live without

1/ SplashMoney had a bad start and despite some updates it is still very poor. It crashes every time I add a new entry, has difficulty synchronising and has been a nightmare for me from the day it was released. This is such a poor effort compaired to the wonderful Palm version and that is sure to disappoint many.

2/ Asphalt 4 Racing Elite has received countless rave reviews on the application store, but not from me. It is slow, is not smooth graphically and is such a nonsense to play. Avoid...

3/ iGotchi: looks cute, but is a complete waste of time (and money) in almost every respect.

4/ iTorch: it is a torch and costs money.

5/ AP Mobile News Network is a wonderful application and it is free. So why is it in the bad list? Only because it does not cover the UK and I’m in a bad mood:)

Have I missed some classics, or been negative about software you love? Have your say via the comments link.

Product Name:  Mugen Extended and Standard Batteries

Supplied by: Eten Workshop  http://shop.eten.hu

Price: Various, dependant on size and phone

Reviewer: Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Packaging- The battery. New phone back for extended battery.   Charging instructions. Clear Packaging.

First Impressions- Well designed and solid feel.
 
Hardware Highlights- A range of longer life standard size replacement batteries and extended batteries offering superior run time.

Firstly, I would like to thank Eten Workshops for sending 2 Mugen batteries; a Mugen Standard Battery for the HP 214 and the extended battery for the Samsung i780. Eten Workshop sells a wide range of batteries for most popular devices.

I have now had the chance to test both these batteries for over one month and I first tried the Mugen extended battery for the Samsung i780. The picture above is the extended battery with larger battery cover and this battery is nearly 3 times more powerful than the standard Samsung battery. Whilst the rear cover is larger, it actually makes gripping and using the i780 a lot easier. Also, the run time of the phone is enhanced by nearly 3 times that of the standard battery which makes the added size a small price to pay.

I am a very heavy use; wifi, gaming, calls, Bluetooth, internet, push email etc. and using my i780 constantly, it still managed to last for 3 days (one week, in a 2G area). The only downside is that none of my custom cases fit the phone now, so I am using a universal case instead.

I also had the option of testing the Mugen standard fit battery for the HP 214 which is 10% more powerful than the standard HP battery. Consequently, I was able to achieve that little extra run time which equated to an extra 30 mins on average (1 hour over the stock HP battery).

Conclusion- I have been more than impressed by the Mugen batteries. The extended battery really has proven its weight in gold and actually made my Samsung i780 more useable in terms of on-time and the better grip. HIGHLY recommended.

Build Quality-  10/10
Ease of use-     10/10
Value for money- 9/10
Total score- 92%

The lovely VsNotepad 2 is currently discounted by a full $10- "VsNotepad 2 allows you to organize your notes with a modern, simple and complete interface. You can now create books for a better organization of your notes. VsNotepad 2 has many note tools with indispensable functions. You can save your pages in JPEG format and transfer them by emails, infrared or Bluetooth. VsNotepad 2 simplifies your daily notes."

What We Expect is a clever article from Ewan at AAS- "While recording this week's All About Symbian podcast, the topic of the firmware in the latest Samsung devices popped up, and Steve argued that until there was an option for an over the air firmware upgrade (or a Nokia Software Update clone), the Samsung would be a challenging choice for a switched-on consumer.

This has got me thinking about the number of features that we now expect from our smartphones. Is it right that we ask for more from each phone? And when these aren't delivered, are we ignoring those phones simply because they're not better than the last phone?

The short answer is yes.

The smartphone, like any area of technology, is constantly changing, and what was once impossible is now a feature that pretty much has to be on the device or people like Steve won't consider buying it. The one just mentioned, the updating of the firmware, is probably the biggest one.

Not only does it give the power user the ability to keep their phone up to date, adding in the newest applications and the relevant bug fixes, but it also helps to dramatically decrease the support costs for mobile networks who supply handsets. The number of early S60 handsets (especially the Nokia 6600) that were swapped out as 'damaged/not working correctly' so the consumers could get their hands on the latest firmware is the sort of tale told around camp fires when the Repair Shop guys go for their annual outings.

But the fact is that the firmware update has changed from being something wished for, to a feature that made it's appearance on a few devices, to where it is now... expected on every device. It's no longer a unique selling point because we expect it to be there..."