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Alright, alright - I've made you wait long enough. The weekend special is now finally online. Sure, I said there'd be an extra two videos, but instead I've squashed into a colossal 37 minute movie. We've got the new final ROM, so YouTube gets another test and I'll be showing you a bit more cool stuff in Opera. There's also a test of the Voice Commander software, daylight screen conditions, a look again at the inside of the battery compartment, data transfer speed, RDP and much, much more!

Unfortunately the HTC Touch Diamond has now had to go back :( However, I should have a final "retail version" very soon indeed, plus I'll be answering the questions I've missed out in the forum. Sorry if I've missed your question, there just wasn't enough time to fit everything in. I have managed to add more pictures to our Coolsmartphone Special Report including the interior and low-light shots people wanted. There's also another video to watch, filmed on the Diamond itself.

So now sit back, get a coffee and read on for the Weekend Special. Thanks for making this past week such a great laugh too :) I'm definitely going to be doing this again!

Links - A week with the HTC Touch Diamond (Weekend Special) - Coolsmartphone Special Report - Get one!

Read on and add your comments

Hmmm... we're always a bit dubious when anonymous emails turn up with specs for upcoming phones, but this one looks too good to ignore. The phone in question is the HTC Raphael, although the mail calls it the HTC Touch Pro and we've also seen it as the T-Mobile Vario IV. Specs originally appeared a few days back but these seem even more detailed.

Read on for the full details. This is shaping up to be one very nice phone - the Touch Diamond is good, but strap a QWERTY to the back, add in some external storage and you're cooking on gas.

Read on and add your comments

"Maybe those calls for 'Vista light' on UMPCs and MIDs are getting answered with Windows Mobile 7. While you could use a Celio REDFLY paired to a Windows Mobile phone for a similar experience now, Qualcomm is already showing off a portable device on Engadget Mobile to exemplify the potential here. In fact, SVP Luis Pinada alluded to that just today: 'Microsoft Windows Mobile 7, which is made for chips used in mobile phones, will be more laptop friendly than older versions of Windows Mobile.'"


[Photo courtesy of Engadget]

According to Engadget Mobile, Qualcomm will be releasing a Windows Mobile 7 powered handset which will be powered by their Snapdragon mobile CPU. The device is supposed to make "big presence in Snapdragon-based devices at CES 2009" and pack a $299USD price point that is almost as tiny as the device pictured above. This tiny powerhouse will also come equipped with 3G mobile Internet technology. All and all, not too shabby Qualcomm! If only 2009 wasn't so far away...

"It's been another great year for us, and we want to celebrate our 11th anniversary with you! One day just isn't enough, so we'll be stretching this party out all week. From June 2 - June 6, we're offering BIG savings on our software. Scroll down to find the programs you want, add them to your cart, and get 55% off your entire order! That's right - all week long, you can buy a little or you can buy a lot, and it's all 55% off! We told you the savings were big"

As if the contests on their blog weren't big enough, Ilium is offering 55% off their software this week to celebrate their 11th birthday! I know I use eWallet daily and have been quite pleased with it, so if you've been debating purchasing some of their software, now might be a good time to take the jump!

Gary Krakow, from TheStreet is claiming that googles own Gphone is being delayed until 2009.

?According to a source familiar with the situation, although a large number of people are hard at work on the Gphone and the open-source operating system/platform for mobile devices (Android) the actual Gphone will not be ready for release this year?.

If there really is a gphone in the works, it will be the last of a new wave of phones to hit the market, which could hurt their bottom line....

Look what we have here. For those of you kickin' a Verizon i760, it looks like you'll be graced with a Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade sometime this month, according to a recent internal Verizon slideshow.

If you want to see more of the i760, which turned out to be a solid Windows Mobile Pro device, check out our review, replete with video coverage.

"Palm boss Ed Colligan reveals the ‘Palm 2.0’ OS platform to APC, including a possible return for the Foleo sub-notebook, and why Palm doesn't just give up and go home... So let’s talk about the future - and specifically the forthcoming all-new Palm OS, which is codenamed Nova and said to be built around Linux. Colligan calls it "Palm OS" and later "Palm 2.0", both times his fingers drawing quotation marks in the air as he speaks. Palm 2.0, as in Web 2.0, although he makes it clear that "I'm not coming up with the branding right now - whether it’s Palm OS 2.0 or Next Generation, we’re not coming up with the branding right now. But this is something different to this" he says, pointing to the Centro."

In this interview with Ed Colligan, he reveals that the "classic" PalmOS many are familiar with isn't going anywhere. Palm has a perpetual license from ACCESS and they will continue to use it for the Centro line aimed at consumers. They aren't ceasing Windows Mobile devices either, which will be the main platform for the Treo aimed at the enterprise with Exchange servers. The new line, which has been called Nova or Palm 2.0, will be for a new line of prosumer devices slotted between the Centro and Treo lines. Do you think there is room for such a line? This goes against what Microsoft is doing, helping their partners come up with devices aimed at consumers, prosumers or the enterprise, all with one platform under the hood - Windows Mobile. Can Palm successfully create a third platform for their lineup and continue to develop devices using three platforms? Sounds like a major headache to me.

Over at Windows Mobile Connection, while reminiscing about how Pocket PC 2002 first brought eBook reading capabilities to the platform, Laura Rooke mentioned that she had recently discovered that many public libraries will loan you digitally rights managed eBooks and audiobooks through the Internet if you're a member of that library.

Digital audiobooks are in the OverDrive Media Console format, and eBooks in the Adobe Reader and Mobipocket reader formats. These downloadable eBooks and audiobooks can be used on a variety of devices such as PCs, laptops, and supported PDAs. OverDrive Music is also available in some libraries. You can listen to your favorite ballet, chamber music, concertos and more.

To see if your library offers this service, go to their website and look for their digital library. Many offer both reference books, and fictional books.

Does your local library loan you eBooks? Have you ever thought to check?

"If you wish to edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files on the Pocket PC without losing formatting or content, SoftMaker Office is your only choice. There is no other mobile office suite that reads and writes your Office documents as faithfully as SoftMaker Office 2008."



SoftMaker Office 2008 is ready for shipping. There are a number of new features, including PDF export and printing and has a ton of features not supported in the mobile versions of Office apps provided by Microsoft. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the Office 2007 file formats are supported yet, something newer versions of Mobile Office apps from MS do support. Head over to the site to try the 30 day trial version or buy for $79.95 (US and Canada), or upgrade from a previous version for $39.95.

Germany based SoftMaker has released their much anticipated update to their highly successful Office 2006 suite.  Office 2008 includes TextMaker 2008, PlanMaker 2008 and Presentations 2008, providing you the best office applications available for Windows Mobile devices!

Each of the applications within Office 2008 allow you to fully edit, format, chart and picture insert into documents, spreadsheets or presentations, giving you a desktop-like experience on your mobile device.  

With this new version you can also print directly to PDF and JETCET is included to print documents via a printer as well.

Visit the SoftMaker website for more details as well as upgrade pricing for those who have a previous version of Office.