With everyone plus your Uncle Tom building a centralized application store on your mobile phone it seems that Microsoft’s Windows Mobile hefty and uber meticulous (and explorable) file keeping system is working against them.

Apparently, unlike the iPhone’s simplicity it is so much easier to crack the DRM for paid application downloads. All you need to do is locate the CAB file within your app directory and then freely distribute it to your friends and family, and Uncle Tom. So that’s it — just purchase it once and split the cost among your many friends.
[via engadgetmobile]

A couple of weeks ago, Nokia sent me to cover Nokia Connection ‘09 in Singapore. Had I found the time, I would have trotted over to CommunicAsia to check out what the other phone manufacturers were pulling out of their hats. Well, the only free time I had was spent shopping and the billboards around Orchard Road “magically transformed” to show off the new Samsung Jet.

/p>
The Samsung OMNIA Pro is a side slider QWERTY device that runs on Windows Mobile 6.1. It is basically an enterprise-targeted device that goes head to head with the HTC Touch Pro 2 because of its really big AMOLED screen.
truth be told, I’m not too keen anymore with enterprise phones using Windows Mobile. If not for the corporate lock outs (I guess buying in bulk through cheap biddings really pay off), I’d prefer having my entire team running on Blackberries because at the very least, sending SMS would be a breeze.
That, or we wait till Windows Mobile 7.0.
[image …read more

While I was at Singapore for Nokia Connection, another bunch of friends from the press attended Samsung’s Communicasia ‘09 “presentation.” For them, this was the launch of the Samsung Jet, a touch screen phone similar to the OMNIA HD, except that it still uses Windows Mobile 6.1.
Their take away for the jet is that you don’t need to pinch to zoom in (obviously comparing to the iPhone). The “one finger zoom” feature is the highlight of the device, where pushing and holding to a part of the screen will allow you to zoom in and out when you move …read more

ACER unveiled their new line of smartphone handhelds today. One of their proprietary features is the addition of the new ACER Shell GUI that goes above Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.5 (after Q2 device releases). The technology emulates the touch scroll functions HTC and the iPhone have come out with. The head of ACER’s list of devices is actually the tail end for Glofiish with their SPB Shell UI. ACER merely upgraded the response time and virtual desktop features as seen in the photos above.
[photos c/o author]

Had the chance to play around with the HTC Diamond 2. Despite the high price point, I’d like to mention two really interesting things about the device. First off, kudos to the Diamond 2 for being the fastest Windows Mobile phone to date in terms of user interface. It barely has any lag and it compares to the iPhone’s haptic scrolling and sliding using the zoom bar / sliding menu at the bottom of the screen. I am very impressed. Looks like the iPhone’s UI will soon just be a commodity. No joke.

On a second note, the Diamond 2 implements …read more