If you ever find yourself needing to quickly check how the Canadian Looney is faring in comparison to the US Dollar, your iPhone is the only tool you’ll need. It turns out that the same data-stream that the iPhone uses to get updated stock-information will also serve up the latest currency exchange rates.

Yahoo actually allows special ticker symbols to be used to retrieve currency exchange rates, so simply adding these special symbols to your iPhone’s Stocks application will give you one-touch access to exchange rates. For example, adding the ticker symbol “GBPUSD=X” to your stocks list will keep you updated on just how many US Dollars you’ll need to buy one Great British Pound. If the Looney interests you, the “CADUSD=X” ticker symbol will give you a heads up on just how poorly the USD is performing.

Find more exchange-rate ticker-symbols here.

[Via: iPhone Central]

We finally have a face to put on the update to the Windows Mobile 6.0 OS, dubbed 6.1. That same Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Q9 that hinted at AT&T (NYSE: T)’s plan to bring WiFi to the Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard masses has revealed a couple delicious morsels of information on Windows Mobile 6.1.

The WM6.1 homescreen (that you see above) doesn’t seem all that radically different from the WM6 interface, but that’s to be expected with an evolutionary “0.1″ upgrade. What is different is the revised homescreen that gives quick-panning access to recent activity (pictured is the “Missed Call” list) and the addition of threaded SMS text messages and cut-and-paste functionality on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard OS. Which means that hacking your WinMo device to get threaded SMS text messages will be a thing of the past.

Here’s the full run-down of additions that you can expect to see in the WinMo6.1 update (from BGR):

• Copy / Paste
• Domain Enroll in Settings (Enrolling in a domain will connect your device with company resources.)
• New home screen (pan left and right to check out missed calls, notifications like email, sms, etc.)
• Change Master Security Code
• Added text input settings
• Recent Programs when pressing Start menu
• Threaded SMS
• When you compose an email, or SMS, and start typing the name of the contact in the “To:” field, the contact names finally pop up like Windows Mobile Professional!
• Internet Explorer now lets you define a homepage, and also zoom in and out using a nice and clean interface

Of course, carriers and manufacturers will have the final say on whether or not your particular Windows Mobile 6.0 device will be getting the 6.1 update. So, we can only hope that most of them see fit to bring the update to their smartphone fleet. The new look of the UI is a real refreshing update to the aging WinMo platform, and we can’t wait to start using it on our WM devices. Bring on the WM6.1 update!

Keep reading for more screen-shots of the Windows Mobile 6.1 update.

Read the full article »

Guess many of the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) smartphone owners already know about Nokia Internet Radio application/service. Well, it’s now officially announced and free to download from Nokia’s website, with new Nokia phones to come with the application already pre-installed on the device.

Nokia Internet Radio gives users access to hundreds of Internet radio stations to choose from, and an easy way to “find your tune” thanks to the station directory. Browsing can be done based on station name, genre, country or language; and once you find the station you like, you can add it to your favorites. In addition, Nokia is saying the audio quality is enhanced by selecting appropriate streaming servers that match the speed of the current network connection.

NOTE: Apparently, not all devices are supported initially. According to the Finish giant, current version will work on N82, N91, N95 and N95 8GB models, with other phones to also get supported in the near future.

Our friends from Mobispine have managed to get “inside” 3neXt portal. Run by Hutchinson Whampoa’s 3 network, 3neXt is an online community for customers of 3 that allows them to leave comments, rate software, write reviews and more. Plus, it’s also a catalog of useful and cool mobile apps.

Back to Mobispine… If you still haven’t download it, I really don’t know what you’re waiting for. It’s probably THE best Java-based mobile news reader which doesn’t just let you go through your favorite RSS feeds, but also optimizes images for faster download. At the moment, they have more than 250,000 feeds and 15 million international news articles and blogs in their database.

Finally, yes you can also subscribe to IntoMobile from Mobispine by following this link.

Although I don’t own a Windows Mobile device, I do admire Vito Technology’s efforts to add some of that “iPhone charm” to smartphones and PDAs running the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s mobile OS. Naturally, the mobile software developer primarily targets touchscreen-equipped device (HTC Touch) owners, who may want to improve the overall usability of their respective devices.

Earlier we saw them releasing the iPhone-like virtual keyboard (ZoomBoard) and contact manager (FunContact), and now with their new application called GoodWin, their goal is to change the homescreen. As you can see from the image on the left, they’ve managed to copy iPhone’s look and feel, even “borrowing” the way of unlocking the device. Looks neat and I guess they should now bundle these three apps into an “Make your HTC Touch act like an iPhone” bundle, don’t you think?

Don’t know have you heard about traxAx, but it’s a free and sooo easy-to-use Windows application that allows you to seamlessly create music and video content. And, as you can figure out from the title, they’ve decided to mobilize it. Windows Mobile was selected as the preferred platform, and with the newly launched traxAxMobile, they are promising the same kind of “seamless experience” right from your mobile device, wherever you are.

The traxAxMobile works on both Windows Mobile 5 and 6 based devices and is set to unleash the creative inside each one of use — that’s at least for those using smartphones running Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s mobile OS. It costs $29.95, and additional trakPacks (libraries of royalty-free loops and beats from Loopmasters) are sold from $1.99. Yap, there’s a free 7-day trial version, designed to hook you up.

I don’t have a Windows Mobile powered device, but if they managed to make the mobile version run similar to the desktop one, I hope they’ll announce a Symbian version as well which I’ll happily use…

Getting my N95 8GB ready for Nokia (NYSE: NOK) World, flashed to the latest firmware and now I’m reinstalling applications. I noticed Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps for Mobile is now up to 2.0.5 versus 2.0.3 when I initially reviewed the application. Just a heads up. No change log and I can’t notice any obvious changes myself to be honest.

Yes when you go to http://www.google.com/gmm on your mobile phone it still says 2.0, but once installed and you go to the about page it will show the true version number.

Let me save you some time:

Well, it’s about time. We’ve been stuck with our 320 x 240 WinMo resolutions for so long that it’s almost surprising that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has added higher-resolution widescreen support. We say almost because the bumped-up resolution support is pretty much the most logical and simplest feature update that Microsoft could have included in the new Windows Mobile 6.0 interface – so the update took us by surprise, but Windows Mobile 6.0 is overdue for this kind of update. Regardless, dynamic (resolution changes between landscape and portrait views) resolution outputs are going to support a host of display formats – from tiny displays with 240 x 240 resolutions to huge widescreens with DVD-like resolutions of 480 x 800.

Accelerometers will be used to detect portrait or landscape orientation changes, prompting automatic resolution changes (dynamic) to match the screen’s orientation (much like the iPhone). And this is just about the simplest update that’s due for the new WinMo6 – we can’t wait to see what the rest of the updated Windows Mobile 6.0 will look like!

[Via: Ubergizmo]

If you’re like us, you’re already tired of Windows Mobile 6.0’s interface. Sure, it was spiffy and exciting for a while, but our attention span (as far as our mobile phones are concerned) is brutally short. Suffice it to say that it doesn’t take all that long to become bored with the latest and greatest tech around these parts.

It’s a good thing there’s the JGUI Vista Smartphone Interface for Windows Mobile Smartphones. The Vista look-alike interface basically replaces your Windows Mobile Smartphone’s homescreen with some Sidebar-enabled eye-candy. That’s right, you get Sidebar functionality with gadgets – and there’s a bit of Aero in the taskbar. JGUI Vista Smartphone Interface is designed for WinMo Smartphones (non-touchscreen) handsets with landscape-oriented displays – think, BlackJack and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Q. There’s also a PocketPC version available for download, but we don’t have a WM PPC device with a landscape display to give it a run-through.

Grab the download here. If you decide to give JGUI Vista Smartphone Interface a whirl on your WinMo PPC, drop us a line and let us know how you like it.

JGUI Vista Smartphone Interface 

[Via: Smartphone Thoughts]

It’s official. Well, at least as far as Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine is concerned. Opera Mobile has been named the “best mobile browser for both Windows-based Pocket PC and Smartphones at the 2007 Best Software Awards by Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine.”

We should note that the Opera Mobile browser was nominated to compete against its sister-browser, the Opera Mini browser, and the Thunderhawk browser in the Internet Browser and Web Utilities category. Opera Mobile took top honors in the competition over Opera Mini and Skweezer. “Fourteen independent Windows Mobile experts selected Opera Mobile as the winner in the all-important Internet Browser category in the 2007 Best Software Awards. Congratulations to the Opera Mobile team,” says Hal Goldstein, Executive Editor, Awards Administrator, Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine.

The results highlighted Opera Mobile’s Flash support, page-rendering capabilities, tabbed browsing, and dual-viewing modes as helping secure Opera Mobile’s position as the “best” – and we tend to agree. As much as we love Opera Mini, and we do love it, Opera Mobile is the more powerful browser. If you’re handset can handle it, and you don’t mind paying for it, Opera Mobile is the way to go.

Download Opera Mobile here.

Press release