"It must be sweet October for Microsoft, with the launch of WinMo 6.5 on the 6th followed by the desktop Windows 7 on the 22nd. Acer are quick to sneak into the spotlight and make the most of the primetime coverage. Their neoTouch is leading a small PocketPC fleet, all powered by 6.5.
But it's the flagship of course to focus all the attention and the neoTouch should be conscious of its task. If you want it all you need to be prepared to take it - all the glory and all the enemy fire. The neoTouch is riding on the wings of a dragon but entering a territory long claimed by others.
The Acer neoTouch is not just the next in the growing line of Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets. It's the top device of a company that's determined to enter the mobile phone game with a bang. The 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU is a great way to start and the other ingredients look quite on par: complete connectivity options, spacious high-res screen and something becoming fairly typical for smartphones these days - a 5 megapixel snapper.
Today Windows Mobile is all about handset manufacturers customizing the OS with their own proprietary interface, such as the popular TouchFLO by HTC, Samsung's TouchWiz and the LG S-Class. Acer have given the neoTouch their own homescreen, brand new Phonebook and Organizer app (called Agenda), along with a neat Preferences menu and Communication manager.
But first, let's go over what the Acer neoTouch does and doesn't do. PocketPC spec sheets are quite a reading but potential deal breakers won't be overlooked either." Read more here:

"The affordable smartphones that offer many functions typical of high-end devices have always been a major temptation for people who don’t feel like spending a fortune on a handset, but don’t mind getting cool extra features like a decent browser and additional applications. Unfortunately, these so-called “affordable” models are often plagued by issues, meaning you can easily end up with a handset with lower screen resolution or without Wi-Fi or find out the camera is much worse than you thought it would be, etc. In this review we are taking a closer look at one of the latest contenders for the crown in the light-weighted Windows phone category, none other but the Samsung OmniaLITE B7300 that also happens to be one of the major rivals to the HTC Touch2 and Acer beTouch E200. So, stock up on food and drinks, switch off your phone and TV set and brace yourself for a most fierce smartphone clash.? " Read more here:

"In spite of the blossoming touchscreen-enabled line-ups in Nokia’s and Samsung’s portfolios and the advent of extremely affordable solutions such as the Samsung Corby, HTC don’t seem to care much about their lower-end offerings. The Touch Viva and Touch 3G, that were released around a year ago, constituted the core of their budget segment, although in truth Viva was the only really affordable device in their line-up, as the Touch 3G was more of a mid-range offering at 600 USD a piece." Read more here:

"Samsung seem to have taken a liking to churn out phones on all kinds of platforms, including S60, Windows Mobile and their proprietary OS that gets updated on a regular basis. Now they have introduced yet another operating system into their arsenal – Android, although so far there is only one phone running on it in their portfolio and that’s the Samsung i7500. But apparently, we’ll see more offerings of this kind from them in the future. And for now let’s see what they have managed to put together for their first Android-based phone." Read more here:

"Samsung has released a software upgrade for the SGH-i637 (Jack) which is recommended to be installed. This update includes an upgrade to Windows Phone (Mobile) 6.5 and numerous software enhancements. The update may take between 5-10 minutes to complete if the system is already set up.This upgrade contains several enhancements and features. Highlights are listed below.

• Microsoft Windows Phone (Mobile) 6.5 Standard Edition
• Windows Phone (Mobile) 6.5 includes new features such as:
  • Windows Marketplace for Mobile:  Discover apps that unlock the power of your Windows Phone, shop securely with confidence, and download instantly to your phone.
  • Internet Explorer Mobile:  Internet Explorer Mobile 6 delivers the same high quality browsing and media viewing experience that you’ve come to expect on your desktop computer. If you can see it in Internet Explorer on your PC, you’ll be able to see it just as well on your Windows Pphone, whether the content you want is on YouTube, a game using Flash animation, or on a social site like Facebook or MySpace.
  • AT&T WiFi:   Automatic access to over 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots nationwide is available on the Samsung Jack and is included in select smartphone data plans. This allows for fast and easy downloads of your favorite music, streaming videos, games, and more.
  • Vlingo for Windows Phone:  Instantly send a text or email message, call a friend, search the Web, open native applications and more, all by speaking into your Samsung Jack Windows Phone." Check it here:
    

"In a recent survey conducted by Canalys with more than 3,000 mobile phone users across France, Germany and the UK, 38% said a finger-based touchscreen would be the preferred main user interface on their next mobile phone, with a further 16% opting for a stylus-based touchscreen, suggesting a continuing market shift toward touch-centric devices. This bodes well for smart phone vendors whose designs are focused on delivering a great experience in this area and should prompt those lagging behind to reconsider their strategies." Read more inside..

Opera Software today unveiled the beta of Opera Mobile 10 for Nokia and other Symbian/S60 handsets. The new version introduces a similar sleek design as the Opera Mini 5 beta. It also has the Speed Dial, tabbed browsing and password manager for auto form filling.“Today’s powerful smartphones deserve an equally powerful browser, like Opera,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “This beta continues our work to extend the desktop Web experience to mobile phones, allowing users to surf the Web without limitations, even while on-the-go. No matter the device in use, Opera delivers a faster, easier and hassle-free Web experience.”Opera Mobile 10 beta is available for Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung smartphones running Symbian/S60, 3rd and 5th editions. The beta is free to download to your computer from http://www.opera.com/mobile/next/ or directly to your mobile phone from http://m.opera.com/mobile/.

"It's finally official ... the X10 has been announced and is looking pretty sweet! Before we get to the specs list there are a few other things to point out. The first is that Sony Ericsson are listing the X10 as using Android 1.6. Now some my have been expecting 2.0, but until it is actually available on a wide scale it does make more sense to list 1.6 as the OS. I can't see Sony Ericsson not offering an upgrade to 2.0 at some point though. The other thing to note is that our very own Eldar has said in his Twitter feed that stock levels of the X10 will initially  be around 100,000 units for the entire globe. That's not all that many. Ok let's take a look at the specs shall we?" Read more inside..

"There´s quite a hype surrounding Android on a daily basis. The green robot has become a major part of the news for quite some time now and its image is gaining popularity of iconic proportions in the cell phone world. The platform has one major advantage over its rivals – it´s open-source. This allows more and more developers to jump on the bandwagon and contribute to its fast evolution. Version 1.6 (also known as the policeman´s temptation) has just been cooked and the operating system has made not just a step, but a major leap forward in terms of supported hardware and can now run on a wide variety of handsets, regardless of the particular screen size and native resolution." Read more here:

"It's business as usual on the WinMo front and all the action seems to be around the upper end of the pricing scale. Impressive as those top PocketPCs may be, they are hardly the stuff that makes the sales meters tick and bring the profits that fuel the R&D machine.Samsung B7300 OmniaLITE is one of the very few that dare to try and bring Windows Mobile to the masses. Budget PocketPCs are not unheard of but what makes OmniaLITE different is WinMo 6.5. The compact full-touch handset has the essentials perfectly covered, and sprinkled with a few nice extras too. But most importantly, the price tag won't make you wince." Read more here:

"In a low key announcement, via the N-Gage blog, comes the news that Nokia plans to shutter its N-Gage gaming service. Nokia say they will 'no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform'; instead games will be provided via its Ovi Store service. Current N-Gage games can be purchased until September 2010 and the N-Gage website and Arena service (online elements) will be available throughout 2010.The closure of the N-Gage service is a blow to Nokia's service ambitions. However it is also fair to say that N-Gage really pre-dated the Ovi strategy. As a result, in both vision and execution, it did not fit fully fit into the Ovi service portfolio, especially after the launch of Ovi Store earlier this year.Clearly Nokia will look to push its gaming strategy forward under the Ovi Store umbrella, but it is a long way from both dedicated gaming unit (N-Gage first generation) and a gaming focused platform and community (N-Gage second generation). N-Gage was never able to move beyond a niche community. Its ease of distribution advantages has been overtaken by the rise of App Stores; similarly online service elements are now relatively common. Furthermore the lack of graphic acceleration hardware in recent Nokia S60 phones have left N-Gage games looking lacklustre, in eye-candy terms, when compared to the iPhone and other mobile gaming platforms." Read more here:

"According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global mobile handset shipments fell 4 percent year-over-year, to reach 291 million units in Q3 2009. The rate of decline was slower than the previous quarter, as the market edged toward recovery. We forecast the handset industry to return to positive growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, signaling an end to the recession. Bonny Joy, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics said, “Global mobile handset shipments fell to 291 million units during Q3 2009, down 4 percent from 304 million units in Q3 2008. The four-percent shrinkage was a noticeable improvement on the average decline of 11 percent recorded during the previous three quarters between Q4 2008 and Q2 2009. The handset market is edging toward recovery.”  Read more inside..

"There have always been large mobile devices, of course. The original Psion Series 5 palmtop, by modern standards, was a huge beast. As were the first few all most generations of Pocket PC. But these were unashamed two handed devices. Either held in two hands and operated with thumbs or by holding in one hand and using a stylus.Then we had the rise and rise of S60, from about 2004 to about 2008, its classic heyday, with a determinedly one-handed interface, enabling (for the first time) 'smart' operating systems to be used 'on the go', in traditional mobile phone form factors." Read more here:

Available from China Mobile, HTC and Dopod is delivering their first TD-SCDMA (China’s 3G service) compatible smartphone called Dopod T8388 Qilin this month with the new Windows Mobile 6.5 OS. Other than 5 megapixel camera, WVGA touch screen, WiFi and GPS, the T8388 has a built in TV antenna so that it could receive the China Mobile’s digital TV service.Its TouchFlo 3D user interface also comes in slightly different layout. The TouchFlo 3D has a smaller clock on the home page, and you are able to add 8 short cuts under the clock as quick application launcher. Dopod T8388 Qilin will be one of the TD-SCDMA smartphones offered by China Mobile from November 15th this month.
Full specifications:

• CPU: TI OMAP3430 600 MHz
• 512 MB ROM / 256 MB RAM
• 3.6-inch WVGA touch screen
• Windows Mobile 6.5
• WiFi
• GPS
• 5 megapixel camera
• CMMB mobile TV
• Bluetooth " More photos here: