http://motorolamilestoneroot.blogspot.com/

Some reasons that would make you want to root your phone:

• Screenshots of your ‘desktop’
• Wifi tethering
• Push or remove new APK files to your system partition

And there is a lot more but maybe I will go into detail later on.

Enjoy the root for now, and sorry for going a little bit off topic on this blog. Hope you don’t mind!

The same people that brought us Tower Defense for Windows Mobile are responsible for this game, The game Tower Defense was valued as a great game with smooth and addictive game play and sublime graphics. On a first look Flight Commander appears just as smooth and fast. The game has cartoon graphics that really fit the genre. The main menu for some reason has some well rounded madams that well, don’t really try to hide their female shapes. Everyone knows sex sells but it does seem a bit overboard for a game like this, even if they are just drawn graphics. Though the graphics do look nice it truly feels out of place when compared to the rest of the game.

From the main menu you can go to highscore that shows you a list of scores you have attained and can genuinely work as a challenge to yourself to improve this. Like Tower Defense from the same developers this game has an option to continue a paused game which is good. Colorstone genuinely shows it’s understanding towards the mobile gamer here. It’s great that you can just exit a game and resume it subsequent on so you can fill the little gaps in your free time with this action.

In this Windows Mobile game you have to land choppers and airplanes on landing slips. There are 3 unique airports in a level, chopper pads, normal airstrips, and a water landing strip. As you start playing the choppers and planes start to spawn on the sides of your airport. As new planes or choppers come in the airspace you will see little blinking lights that alert you to their bearing. The planes and choppers have to be landed in this Windows Mobile Game on the airstrips. The planes can be landed on the strips by giving them a path to the landing strips/helicopter pads. Whenever you land a plane your score goes up, the game ends when you crash a airplane and your lives run out. You can make the game a bit more easy by having the option to go from 1-4 clashes before the game ends. As game play goes you might really prefer to use your stylus instead of your finger. Seeing as most windows mobile phones have resistive screens you can really play the game with a stylus for better speed and accuracy compared to the iPhone variant.

By using OpenGL ES for the graphics of the game Flight Commander is a genuinely glorious looking Windows Mobile game experience. You get with this, beautiful animations, speed and a great gaming experience. The price for the game seems a little steep comparing to the iPhone version. But because of the lacking support for game programming on this platform we have mostly Microsoft to blame for this. Flight Commander for Windows Mobile is all in all a truly great experience on your Windows Mobile smartphone. All we can say is: Hats of to Colorstone Ltd. for another great game.

This game works for sure on: HTC Touch HD, HTC Touch Diamond 2, Omnia 2 and Omnia Pro.

To Find more information on the game please go here

The merits of this phone lie in its simplification of the operation system thereby making easier for the users. In this phone you need not scroll around to search a name. All you have to do is type a few letters of the name and you get the name. When you search your mail in the inbox, unlike a list of e-mails, you will find a list arranged systematically, important notes flagged and a library for the documents along with the attachments. The search button easily finds the tweets in Twitter and searches through your appointments in the calendar. Operating the phone, you have a custom made experience. Hero is primarily a touch screen device.

The hardware which is added to its features are the screen, a 3.2-inch TFT-LCD display with 320 x 480 resolution, 5 mega-pixel auto-focus camera, 3.5 mm audio jack, and a custom built HTC user interface. With its 3.2-inch display, the HTC Hero is optimized for Web and multimedia. Adobe is, also, working with HTC to make sure that the Hero can run Flash. Which implies the Flash elements and components on the web will run smoothly on the Hero. Users will be able to observe YouTube and various videos and video shows.

You will only realize about the phone when you see the specifications. It has 512MB ROM /288 MB RAM, Internal GPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP support, 900/2100MHz HSPA and Quad-band GSM, 802.11b/g WiFi with 3.5mm Audio Jack, 5 mega-pixel auto-focus camera, micro SD expansion, G-sensor and many modern applications.

Improvised on a culture of innovation, HTC Heroshapes the mobile experience to a new generation gadget. To get the best of mobile phone deals and demonstration of Flash working, visit dialaphone.co.uk.

Source: articlealley.com/article_964969_45.html

We are hoping for an upgrade compatibility with the upcoming Windows 7 in order to make full use of its multi touch features. Multi touch alone does not make a great mobile phone, and the HD2 is a pretty expensive device to boot. Fortunately for us, HTC has packed some pretty serious hardware in the HD2 to make everyone happy.

Everything but the Memory

The HD2 is jam packed with great hardware that makes it a powerful smart phone. The Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon processor makes everything run smoothly, even the clunky Windows Mobile operating system. Expect insignificant load times and no slow downs in graphic intensive programs. If you are familiar with the HTC Touch, consider the HD2 as its big bad cousin. The only problem with the HD2’s specifications is that it only has 512MB of internal memory, forcing you to rely a lot on the microSD transflash card slot for storing larger files and media.

HD2 Hardware Specifications

The HTC HD2 has support for HSDPA and GSM network bands (similar to its Asian release counterpart). It will connect to EDGE, GPRS, 3G HSDPA and wireless LAN networks. It has GPS capabilities and is supported by HTC’s navigations services such as HTC Footprints, Digital Compass and the NaviPanel.

Thanks to the large screen of the HD2, you can use this mobile smart phone as your navigation device while driving. It also has Bluetooth device compatibility allowing you to use hands free headsets for greater freedom of movement. The external casing of the HD2 carries a nice black finish with texture that is easy to hold. At 0.43 inches thick, it’s slim enough to fit into most pockets.

Software Specifications

HTC has also designed integrated applications for Facebook, Twitter and YouTube allowing users to instantly access their accounts for quick updates. The HTC Sense is very easy to use and thanks to the capacitive touch screen, it responds quickly to commands. We are still going to see if it has been modified for multi touch input as well.

You should check out some of the fantastic HTC HD2 contracts if this phone is of interest to you. Best Mobile Contracts are a good place to look as they are the UK’s leading mobile phone price comparison website. They also compare mobile broadband ensuring that you are always connected.

Source: articlealley.com/article_1202910_45.html

When you start the game, gradually enemies start walking from one side of the map to the other trying to reach your base. When you are unable to stop the enemies from entering your base and doing their damage you lose health. When 20 enemies land in your base you have lost the battle and have failed has a supreme commander of your base’ defense. As said you have to place towers in the way or on the way of the enemies moving to your home base to stop them. In this Windows Mobile WVGA game you have the option between 6 difference towers to place in your defense. All towers have different aspects and do a different type of damage to the incoming enemies. Although it is not very clear what kind of damage the towers do, So over time you learn what are the best combinations and you can act on that And it can be quite tedious to find a right mix of towers if this remains in the dark.

As you kill enemies with your mix of towers you gain more money, with this money you can either buy new towers or upgrade the towers you already have. Towers upgrade 2 times and they get better graphics and often increase in size, think of bigger guns, more guns, bigger flame thrower and such things.

The game features 2 levels that you can play and they both bring different type of strategy to this windows mobile game. There are 3 difficult levels and I would suggest starting out with the easy one unless you are a true tower defense veteran. Sound and music you can change in the options menu like most other games.. There is not a real option to save option for this Windows Mobile game but you can quit and resume your game later on. But if you decide to start a new game in the meanwhile there is no way to resume a game you started before that.

This game is one of the best and most fun games featured on the newer WVGA/VGA Windows Mobile devices you can find. Tower defense fanatic or not, you should really consider getting this game for your Windows Mobile phone, because it is one of the best games that has come out for Windows Mobile phones. The little downsides of this game include not being able to save different game and the fact that it’s not completely clear what the different towers do. These little things don’t bring the game down that much though and the game would get at least a 8 out of 10.

Find out more about the game right here!

Flight Commander
Perhaps you have heard of an iPhone application called “Flight Control”. Well Color Stone Ltd basically copied it and it works well on Windows Mobile as well. Check the video of the original on the iPhone right here. The game is good fun and sadly there isn’t a trial version of the game available so you will have to pay 15 dollar for it. To bad, because it’s really a missed opportunity, trials help in making the decision to buy, and yeah it’s a shame but why is this game $1 on the iPhone and $15 on Windows Mobile? Something has to change if Windows Mobile is to gain more popularity. Find the game here: Flight Commander@handago

Tower Defense

• Update: Check out the full review of Tower Defense right here

Tower defense is like the above an OpenGL ES accelerated game and plays awesome on WVGA Windows Mobile devices. This is arguably the best tower defense game there is on the platform and if you are a fan you should get this without hesitation. This jewel of a WVGA game will have you spend hours and hours and before you know it your battery is dry. The game has 6 different towers and all can be upgraded. There are 3 difficulty modes available which gives a great replay value. you can find Tower Defense here

Be sure to check these games out, and hopefully there will be trial versions available soon. Be on the lookout for full reviews of these games soon. Oh and you can purchase them in most online PPC/Windows mobile shops, just google for it. Enjoy the gaming.

Totem Star Lite is obtainable for free via the developer website – Touch Dimensions. Where you can find the game as a .cab file for your phone. The game in cab format can be either downloaded to your mobile phone or copied over via Windows with Bluetooth or Active Sync. This WVGA game requires that you have Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5 installed on your Windows Mobile Smartphone device. You can get it by searching around in the search engines or the Microsoft site.

This WVGA Game that used to be known as “Dream Catcher Lite” but for unknown reason was renamed to Totem Star Lite. In this game you lead the destiny of your fellow tribesmen through the stars or so say the creators of this game. Totem Star is set in the Native American desert sunset. The goal of the game is to draw patterns around stars of similar shape or color. You can also make combination in as the authors say – ‘an infinite variety of patterns’ which in the real world will is quite finite. But there are plenty combinations possible and a lot to be found out in the game play.

Totem Star Lite does not have a steep learning curve at all, but you will soon discover that the game is much deeper as it seems to be from the beginning. The goal of the game is to make a lot of patterns from the stars that appear in the game area. The combinations can be found in the bottom right corner of the screen. Just below a totem pole that you have to fill up to have your fellow tribesmen build more buildings, which results into a new pattern and a higher score.
Sometimes a certain star color is not available and you can make combinations to force it to spawn and complete your goal. The combinations you can make in the game can be found on Touch Dimensions site that you can find through Google.

The game play is fun, and keeps you busy for quite some time. The background music is very relaxing and the entire atmosphere of the game is just great. These days finger friendly applications and games are really hot. But because of how the game is made it’s often better to use the stylus. The patterns you have to draw can be quite small and thus your finger can be in the way. The game plays fine with your finger as long as you are not that concerned about getting the best high score that day. In the options menu of the game you can view your current high score and switch between music/sound disabled or enabled. Other than that it’s just a great little WVGA game that works on all devices it was tested on, WQVGA and more. Be sure to try this gem of a game, which on top of it all is free.

This game was tested on the following devices: HTC Touch HD, HTC Touch Pro 2, HTC Touch Diamond 2, Samsung i900 (Omnia), Samsung Omnia 2 and Samsung Omnia Pro. And will most likely work on the HTC Touch HD 2.

Enjoy the gaming!

The real high quality applications that also happen to be free are hard to find in the Android Market, especially for new users (like the lucky HTC Hero Sprint owners for instance!). Because it’s hard to find and hard to understand what certain applications do we made a list of a few apps that you really don’t want to pass on. If you are looking for Android Games go here.

GDocs for google Android

If you are using an Android device I’m sure you also own a google mail account, if you don’t you are obviously missing out on the amazing google account integration of the Android operating system.

If you have a google account I’m sure you have seen, heard or toyed around with goole documents. Google documents allows you to store your documents online and edit them from everywhere around the world on your Android phone.

GDocs allows you to edit these documents from anywhere you are in the world while using your Android phone to do the editing. GDocs is an amazing piece of software and it’s great to touch your documents up, find some information or do anything else with your stored documents. Find out more about GDocs in the following location: http://sites.google.com/site/gdocsforandroid/

Palringo for Google Android

Many Android users out there love to use their device to chat with friends and or family. I’ll don’t go around the bush on this one, if you are looking for an instant messenger client for Android you have to get Palringo. Palringo makes the default IM client look like the first ICQ client ever released. Palringo supports nearly every messaging protocol that excists:

• Google Talk
• AIM
• Facebook
• Yahoo
• MSN
• ICQ
• iChat
• Jabber
• And many more but you will find out when you use this application

Because Palringo supports all these protocols it makes it the best Android application for IM by far. It’s just very convenient to have everyone in one package and always use the same application for a certain task. If you have Palringo open you receive system notifications if you get a message and because we used it often while traveling (lose 3G network quite often) we have noticed that it works great on the Edge and even GRPS networks. To find Palringo just search for it in the android market.

These 2 free applications for Android devices are just amazing, be sure to at the very least try them out!

The Tattoo looks great, it's a standard design phone and feels great in the hand (and pants!)

What it boils down to is that HTC Tattoo is the cheaper smartphone version of the HTC Hero. The hardware it sports is a little bit less impressive then it’s bigger brother. The biggest difference here is the screen type and screen size. More on that later.

Design
The design of the HTC Tattoo is great, it looks really basic but that just means that it’s sporting a proven design that has worked in the past and still holds true. The device has all the buttons we always see from HTC, search, home, menu, back a call and end button. Instead of a trackball this time they choose to install a 4 way navigation pad which works, but just really feels less ‘smooth’ then the HTC Hero/Dream and the HTC Magic. It works though, the interface is as snappy as the HTC Hero (and HTC Hero Sprint) with their current software upgrade. One thing we haven’t seen before though is the removable covers, HTC is really trying to get to the ‘general public’ with this affordable and personal looking device (well if you choose to find another cover for it).

The Screen
Ok now we get to the one thing that really makes this phone different and we guess cheaper then the other Android smartphones HTC has released thus far. The screen is only 2.8 inches diagonal and runs at a resolution of 320×240 (QVGA) where all the other Android phones released thus far have a resolution of 480×320 (HVGA). This is quite a drop in resolution also considering these days lots of smartphones have been coming out with WVGA screens, though not in the Android segment yet.

The screen is also of the resistive type instead of capacitive, meaning the screen is pressure sensitive and it’s not made of  hard glass. The screen does seem quite responsive but not as responsive as the devices with capacitive touch screens. The screen does the job though, considering this is for HTC standards a budget phone.

The Hardware
The HTC Tattoo Smartphone is built around the same CPU as all their Android phones so far released (the Qualcomm MSM7225) and quite frankly does the job. But we are waiting for the first HTC Android cell phone that sports a Snapdragon CPU (HTC Dragon is rumored).  Enough of the sidestepping now, the CPU does its job, and considering the Tattoo has a smaller resolution then its predecessors the UI should actually run smoother then the Hero, though as said before it’s smooth, and smooth is smooth.

The camera is 3.2 megapixels and it’s abit of a downgrade comparing it to the Hero but it makes decent pictures and it’s fine for using it for twitter/facebook and other social networking from your mobile device. The battery life is the same as any other android phone we tested so far from HTC, with heavy use you get a day, with smaller usage you get 2 days and that’s fine. There is nothing more to say without basicly just copying it from the other HTC Android set reviews, it seems to be a lot of the same thus far.

The Conclusion
The HTC Tattoo Smartphone is positioned as a low end Android device, and even though it has the same CPU speed as all its predecessors the device really is just that. Everything is a bit worse than the other Android phones out there. Lower resolution, less megapixels then the Hero(the other phone with HTC Sense UI). The resistive screen is a letdown, but other than that it’s a good device. Then again why not put down 150 dollars more for a HTC Hero (or a little more expensive contract)? We would certainly recommend it if you don’t have any problems with paying a little bit more.

Android Game: Robo Defense Free

Robo defense is a standard tower defense games. There is a home screen where you can find achievements and rewards game. You gain points by defeating opponents and levels. In the free version you can choose your difficulty (basic level).  As you start the game you get instructions how to use the game. Then you get a map where you can place your robots/turrets. On the screen you see the points you have accumulated on this round and your ‘health’ which basically is means how many hits your structure can take before the foes run from one side to the other side of the screen. So the goal is to make sure these enemies don’t pass and destroy you. There is different kinds of weapons some do area of effect damage and some just do straight up damage to one foe. The game is really the most awesome tower defense game you can find on Android. Feel free to try the free version and if you enjoy tower defense games I’m sure you will spend the $2.99 on it.

Android Game: Colorix

Colorix is a puzzle game which right of the bat looks amazing. It’s a tetris kind of game instead of different shapes you get these balls that fall down the screen and you have to make certain combinations that are explained before you start the first level. The interaction with the game is dealt with in two ways. You swipe up or down to change the order of the marbles and to move them left or right you swipe to the left or right. So the game play is really simple, and let’s face it – that is what mobile gaming is all about. Gaming on mobile devices is all about the simple puzzle games that are easy to control, these games are always the best in gameplay and value. Every try a 3D shooter? Haven’t been much fun for us at least. In this category Colorix is one of the best games out there. You can puzzle your heart out for ours and ours. And the game will only set you back $2.99.

Hopefully if you are a new HTC Hero Sprint owner you have all ready tried or bought these amazing games. If not be sure to try these games out, and keep on gaming!

Microsoft has woken up and smelled the competition, although many feel they acted a little bit too late. Luckily Microsoft is well known for putting major funds into projects and getting them back on track in record time. Although Windows Mobile 6.5 could have been more, everyone agrees that it is a huge improvement over Windows Mobile 6.1. So what phones will be getting an upgrade?

First let’s have a look at the amount of windows mobile phones that a company like HTC has launched over the course of 2 years:

HTC Touch Diamond
HTC Touch Diamond 2
HTC Touch HD
HTC Touch Cruise
HTC Touch Pro 2
HTC Touch Pro
HTC Touch Dual
HTC TyTN II
HTC Snap

And the list goes on and on, there are about 5-6 lesser known Windows Mobile powered phones released by HTC over the last 2 years. So what devices are getting an upgrade? Sadly not too many HTC already released a press release about this and stated that only the Touch Diamond 2 and the Touch Pro 2 are getting an upgrade. Probably the only reason for this is that they had promised this to the audience when these phones went on sale.

They call the other phones like the Touch HD to be dated technology even though it has the exact same hardware as the Touch Diamond 2 and the Touch Pro 2. So basically it’s all about the money. HTC has no intention in spending time and money on bringing out updates for older devices because that would only hinder their sales. For a company standpoint it’s pretty clear but from the consumer point of view it’s a bit disappointing.

Microsoft has released a list of devices that are getting an official Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade. The list can be found here.

Please note that although they say that the devices are outdated and therefore not getting an upgrade a lot of people are already running Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade on their HTC phones for months. If you are interested in this go find out if your device has a custom rom available on the best message board out there xda-developers.com.

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment, we have been flashing our devices for years and are willing to answer any question about this issue.

For instance we have heard from people in The Netherlands that next to the applications that Microsoft themselves have to offer there is only one third party application that you can install with the marketplace.

So where does this problem come from? The issue lies with the policies Microsoft thus far has enforced on the mobile Marketplace. Application developers have been forced to have their applications translated to the country language of the sub-shop, this can be an expensive endeavor depending on the size of the application. Next to the fact that an application needs to be translated the developer also has to pay 10 dollars per submission per country. So for smaller developers it’s of course a much better idea to submit an application to the bigger countries and forget the smaller markets. This leaves the users of Windows Mobile Marketplace from smaller countries with little applications and a sour taste in their mouths.

It’s weird that Microsoft concocted such a strategy for the release of the Marketplace, because looking at the success of the Android and iPhone market, why would you change a winning formula? These shops are doing millions and millions of application downloads every day and most of the applications do not have Multilanguage support. It’s really the last thing you want to do in this world of global communication and internet-wide information streams. Nobody is interested these days in being restrained from the English language in applications and communication.

Let’s hope Microsoft listens to their customers and changes the application so you can access everything, let the user choose their destiny and live happy ever after with or without applications on their Windows Mobile Smartphone. Next to that, it’s in their own best interest. We look forward to hearing from Microsoft officials. We will keep you posted.

Fruity
Fruity is a really fun puzzle game made by a guy named jakobdam on xda-developers.com. He has made a scalable game that works perfectly on QVGA, VGA, QWVGA and WVGA. Of course we tested the WVGA version. The goal of the game is getting 3 ‘fruities’ in a row, this rewards you with score. You really have to use your brain here because if you make swaps that don’t give points you lose draws. A little extra in the game is as you go further in to the levels you gain an option to shuffle the deck, which should be used wisely (if you think you are stuck!). The game requires flash lite which is available for windows mobile. You can find all the information you need about this amazing puzzle game in this forum thread.

Fruity looks happy!

Towers of Glennoi
This game is based on an older game that has manifested itself in a lot of different forms. So far there wasn’t a version of this game on Windows Mobile. This was the drive for the person behind this to create the game. Towers of Glennoi seems to be working on all resolutions but we tested it on WVGA. The game is simple, fun and can be addicting. The author has made quite a few updates on this game so keep checking his site for the newest information. According to his website there will be online highscores in the future, which would add quite a lot of extra ‘zing’ to this game. Find everything you need to know about this on his website.

Simple interface, but a lot of fun

Many thanks to all the developers that put their hard work into these games, we hope people enjoy them and think about the many hours someone has to put into these to get them out. Let us know what you think.

What are you looking at!??! Oh the chin..

So are you one of the lucky few people that already has their HTC Hero Sprint phone? If so I bet you have been tweaking and configuring to try and make your Sense UI look great and personal. So what is next? You heard the android app store is filled with amazing applications that you can get for free. But where to start? There is a most popular listing but of course this doesn’t store all the previous months and what applications you should get.

For our HTC Hero Sprint friends who joined us in the Hero community (Europe has had the phone for some months now) we devised a list of must get applications for your fresh new non-chinned Hero. And don’t worry nobody blames your chinless model.

SMS Popup
SMS popup is an application that allows any android user the luxury of having their Short text messages popup on the screen like the iPhone. Some people prefer this, some people don’t. It sure is a real fast way to reply to a message as you get the 3 options on your screen “Close, Delete, Reply”. The application looks great on the HTC Hero, sprint and chinned edition alike. Choose wisely when your girl or boyfriend texts you.

Twidroid
A freeware twitter application. Yes we know HTC Hero Sprint and chinned has an included twitter client. But this one is fast, has all the options and on top of it all it’s free. Try it, if you don’t like it you can blame the Germans.

Appmanager
AppManager is a valuable instrument to assist you back up your application/programs to your expandable memory card. Like to the application program manager in ASTRO but this is a free alternative, you are able to pick out individual apps or choose all apps and back them up or install from the SD card at any time. I use this day in and day out for saving certain apps to the backup memory card.

Mobile Defense
So now you have this amazing smartphone, obviously you realy want to keep it safe. I Recall checking Mobile Defense on the Android Market some time ago, just never went around to setting it up as it required establishing an account. After I took the few mins install, I realized all this time I have been leaving my telephone at jeopardy for getting lost or stolen. Mobile defense is the best security app for your Android smart phone. It installs a application that’s hidden (so people don’t know it’s installed), and you are able to access administrative controls on your phone via a browser at http://www.mobiledefense.com. If you lose your phone, load the website using a computer and access the administrative controls you have over your lost phone. Not only does it enable GPS and show you where your phone washes up, it’ll in addition to tell you the battery life left, and pass you data about the SIM card owner if the SIM card is changed. On top of that, you are able to enable “alarm”, which turns on the volume on your phone and activates a siren sound so you’ll be able to place it. There’s also “Lock”, which turns on the pattern lock on your phone to secure it. I’m astonished at all the characteristics this application offers up, and as well the other features if you upgrade to the paid version (remote backup, remote wipe). Your Sprint HTC Hero smart phone should not go without this application installed.

I know, it’s 4 apps but top 5 just sounds so much better. See you next time for some more recommendation for your brand spanking new HTC Hero Sprint.

The game has two modes called ‘Ever Quad’ and ‘Time Quad’. In the ever quad mode you can basically keep on playing until you battery dies. In the timed mode you have to gain a certain amount of points before the timer runs out, as you gain more points the timer gains more time. Both games look equally good on the WVGA 800×480 screens we tested it on. When you get enough points before the timer runs out you are granted a new level, and the game increases the difficulty.

The game features different kind of bonuses and some hints when you are stuck. SPB Quads is not a hard game, but it can become hard as your skill increases and you wish to challenge yourself to a higher score every time. The game can be played whenever you want to, and the ability to set the volume to zero without changing your phone profile assist in this. When you exit the game it actually remembers the state of the game and you can continue whenever you want to or tap the option menu and start a new one.

SPB Quads is a fun little game and for $9,99 it’s worth the cost (if you enjoy it). Feel free to try it out like always SPB Softwarehouse has released a 15 day trial of the game on their website. You can ask yourself if you really care so much about the graphics, and would settle for the more simple version of the game in SPB Brain Evolution 2.0 which is $10 more to buy. I would however recommend the game to be played on the newer WVGA Smartphones (HTC ones of course!), they have bigger screens and make the game more fun to play with your finger instead of cramping with your stylus.

Brain training - Progress Page

Recently (15 September) SPB released their new iteration of SPB Brain Evolution, they are now up to version 2.0. As we haven’t done a review of Brain Evolution yet, this will be a complete review of the game. As you might have guessed from the title of the game, this is a brain game which means that you have to complete all kinds of exercises and puzzles and like many other of these games your ‘brain age’ is measured and is used as a motivator to improve your scores. Let’s begin to say that this game works very well for Windows Mobile WVGA devices.

The game was tested on a Touch HD, Touch Diamond 2 and a Touch Pro 2 from Sprint. The game worked flawless on all these devices but the actually in-depth game test was performed on a Touch Pro 2 which is the current favorite at the moment.

Brain Marking
The games features two modes. The first is ‘Brain marking’ which basically is what you get as you first start the game or make a new profile. You will be tested in five different games to get a quick status of your brain. The following games are some examples of what you will face in this mode:

One of the better games in Brain Evolution, quadronica

Quadronica
Quadronica Shows you a screen with a lot of cubes on it. In these cubes you can make rectangles of the different color blocks, the bigger the blocks the more points you receive for this exercise. In the case of this game the screenshot will clearly show what you have to do.

Memory Trainer
The memory trainer shows you different objects on the screen. You then have a bit of time to remember as much as you can. When the time is up you are asked a certain question. Questions include – How many blue items were on the screen, how many items were rotating to the right – how many awesome WVGA games will HTC Smartphone review in the future? Ok we will be honest that last question is sadly not in the game.

Math
You get what you expect from the math game. There is a certain number of questions you have to answer, these answers slide down on the screen and you have to calculate them and give the correct answer as fast and correct as you can. The better the time and the better the results make the number of points you will receive.

After these tests you receive a brain index that will be used throughout the game. What is new in version 2.0 of Brain Evolution is that you can upload your results to either Twitter or the SPB website so you can compete against your friends or anyone on the web.

Brain Training
The brain training mode has twelve mini games that you can play each day and improve your brain index with. There are some great looking statics pages that look vibrant and are informative on your WVGA device. As you get better and better results in the brain training mode you unlock more games which will definitely motivate you to keep on going and improve yourself. Another fun feature is that you receive a little fact after every day of training you perform. Of course we will not spoil these for you, play the game and you will see even a little addition like this can really complete a game.

New in version 2.0
For people already familiar with this game, here is a small overview of what is actually new in version 2.0 of the game.
- Geometry (exercise)
- Full game statistics and user recommendations
- Online high scores and twitter support

One of the new features in Brain Evolution!

SPB Brain Evolution is a game that you and really your entire family can enjoy. You don’t have to sit down and play for hours and hours. It is a little similar to for instance the Nintendo Wii, often you can just sit down (or stand) and play for 30 minutes and there is nothing keeping you from turning it off. This makes the game really suitable for casual gamers, you can come back every day – but you don’t have to.

The graphics and audio of the game look equally impressive on the WVGA phones we tested this on. This really is one of those gems in the world of Windows Mobile (HTC Compatible) WVGA phones that you enjoy playing and looks great.  The screen is responsive (can be different on any device of course) and the audio is very suitable and not distracting too much, it blends in great with the game which is how it should be.
Check out this post for some more HTC Windows Mobile WVGA compatible games. We hope you have enjoyed this review, for suggestions or anything else feel free to leave a comment.

Looking for more WVGA Games? Check out the following posts:
>> Free WVGA Games you can download now
>> New HTC Compatible WVGA Windows Mobile game – SPB Quads
>> Top 5 Touch HD Games

Compared to earlier HTC Android device releases the HTC Hero feels a lot better, the quality of the device itself and the software running it are much more polished then for instance the G1 and the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. The device measures 4.5 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches. Size itself is comparable to the myTouch 3G and quite abit smaller then the G1. Without the HTC chin the device fits great in a normal sized pocket or phone holder. The coating of the device feels great, it’s a little bit soft but not too soft, making the grip on the phone feel good.

Ofcourse a smartphone does a million things, but let’s not forget about the HTC Hero call quality, like most of the HTC devices this is great and seems crisp, though the speaker phone could be better, there is some cracking in the voice and when I called a co-worker with the Hero lying on my desk while typing on my keyboard the found these background noises really loud and distracting. All in all not a really big problem area of this smartphone.

The screen of the HTC Hero seems as vibrant and bright like the iPhone and the iPhone 3G which have the same HVGA (480×320) screen resolution. Browsing the web, updating twitter or facebook all looks great. The browser works great, but is a lot slower then for instance safari on the iPhone and slower then Opera Mobile (both 9.5 and 9.7 score a lot faster). However it’s not annoyingly slow. HTC has made the software so you can use multi touch on the device so pinching to zoom works in the browser. One of the selling points of the HTC Hero is the fact that it supports flash in the browser, but while trying to get this to work on youtube seemed like a big chore, some movies played, some did not. One thing was always the case, it is really slow and takes the fun away from the browsing experience. It seems flash is just not ready yet for usage on smartphones. Perhaps apple isn’t that foolish to not include it in the iPhone.

The phone has some standard themes which basically puts some widget on your screen, from there you can further customize the device, this feature saves quite some time and works well. One thing that also saves a lot of time is that the HTC Hero fetches all your contacts from all your e-mail and social network accounts like facebook and google mail. You will probably still get some duplicate contacts and some that need your time to manually edit, but at least the feature works, and we haven’t seen it on that many phones as of yet.

One of the other big plus points while comparing this device to other android smartphones is the exchange supports, it actually syncs e-mail, contacts and calendar items, something we have not seen before. The camera on the phone is what you would expect from HTC, sadly no flash, no optical zooming and not so great shutter time. If there is enough light the Hero makes great photo’s but as soon as there is a shortage of light like at night or in a not so well lit garage you will get grainy dark pictures that take ages to shoot.

All we would rate the phone a decent 8 out of 10, some things need more work, especially the web browsing and the camera. But the phone offers a great experience and is a joy to use. I’d say apple has to watch it’s back, when android device like this hopefully get some better hardware and faster cpu’s to backup the rich features and flash web browsing.

Opera Mobile
Let’s start with what is clearly the best browser available on Windows Mobile. Opera Mobile, weather it be version 9.5 that has been available for some time now, or the newest beta of 9.7 Opera Mobile will make browsing on your Touch screen device a breeze. The bookmark system, the speed and the looks and usability make it by far the best experience we ever had while browsing the net. If you have been using Opera Mobile 9.5 for some time now (it is included in many HTC ROMs) you should give 9.7 a try. Not everyone knows this but you can run the two versions side by side, so feel free to try out this beta, and if you don’t like it just uninstall it. Find it here.

Google Maps Mobile
Need we say anything about this application for your Windows phone? Google Maps works great on any Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android, Nokia device. Google has put quite the effort in this little application to make the experience great. The only thing I would really like to see for this app is that you can predownload some maps from Google themselves, so you can view the maps a bit faster when on a slow connection. Thanks for this great app Google! You can download it here .

Facebook
Microsoft released their own Facebook for Windows Phones application recently, I guess they finally noticed how important social networks are becoming to the mobile phone community. What can I say? The application does work, but seems a bit sluggish compared with the iPhone or Android version. Let’s hope this application will improve with time and bring a good experience to the Windows Mobile 6.5 phones that are hitting the market this October. Download it here.

Stay tuned to see more posts regarding some great freeware Windows Mobile applications getting a short review. There are many more hidden gems that few people know about and are often just as good if not better then a lot of the payed counterparts.

Looking for some quality games for Windows Mobile? Check out this post.

Specs
CPU: Snapdragon MSM 8250 1GHz
Display: 4,3″ 480*800 capacitive touch-screen
Memory: 512 ROM and 320 RAM
Camera: 8 mega pixel with auto focus
Radio/GSM: Wi-Fi, A-GPS Blue tooth 2.1 + EDR, support GSM/EDGE, HSDPA
Audio: 3,5mm Jack
Expansion slot: Micro SD Slot
G-Sensor, motion sensor and light sensor.

4.3 inch Capacitive Touchscreen
Let’s start by explaining the difference between a capacitive and resistive touchscreen. Up until now all Windows Mobile devices have used resistive touchscreens, these screens work with pressure points that cover the lower layer of the touchscreen surface. When you press down on one of these pressure points the device knows where you placed your finger/stylus and will react accordingly.

Capacitive touchscreens use a glass insulator layer that has been coated with a transparent conductor. The human body (your finger) is the conductor when touching the surface. This technique requires a very light touch to control your device. The big plus point of this technology is that it supports multi touch (thing of the famous Apple pinch to zoom in). Many people are getting enthusiastic about this technology coming to Windows Mobile. The HTC Leo will be running Windows Mobile 6.5 and we have never seen a Windows Mobile device with a capacitive touchscreen so we have to wait and see what it brings to Windows Mobile. I believe HTC is counting on the sheer size of the touch screen to makeup for any menus or settings Windows Mobile still has that are harder to control with your fingers.

Snapdragon CPU
The past 2 years HTC has made countless Windows Mobile phones with the same Qualcomm 528MHz CPU. In comparison to the newest hardware this CPU really has sub par speed. Comparing it to the CPU in the iPhone or the Palm Pre is like comparing a Lamborghini to a Volkswagen beetle. Yes, the difference is that big.

Windows Mobile 6.5
The HTC Leo will be amongst the first Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. Recently I made a post about Windows Mobile 6.5 and HTC devices so i encourage you to read that if you want to be informed of what Windows Mobile 6.5 will bring to the world of Smartphones.

And really, the rest of the specs speak for themselves. 8mp camera, all kinds of sensors, 3.5 jack for your convenience and plenty of memory available through SD cards. The only point that is kind of worrying is the camera, the camera of the Touch HD/Diamond/Touch Pro series have been sub-par in comparison to Nokia/Samsung and some other brands. Let’s hope HTC fixed this, and impresses us soon.

Windows Marketplace

Well for starters; Windows Marketplace (see screenshot below). Windows Mobile users will finally have proper way to get over the air applications and games, payed and free. Microsoft is quite the late bloomer in this department as both iPhone OS and android mobile phones have had applications shops for more than a year now. Let’s hope there will be a bit of a catch-up in windows mobile development soon. Handsets like the HTC Touch HD have had little attention from mobile game developers, of course there are exceptions.

New home screen

Windows Mobile 6.5 by default features a new home screen called Titanium. It’s very finger friendly and looks to be beautiful and smooth to the eye.

The home screen also allows for quite some customization. You can see a great video here that shows some of the possibilities.

New lock screen

The new lock screen offers a new slide left or right to unlock, wich is very finger friendly. Not only does the lock screen allow for a nice unlock mode, but also shows the current background you are using for your home screen. You can also see a battery, sound and reception indicator in the top right of the screen.

Next to these features the lock screen offers notifications for SMS, voicemail, missed calls and new e-mail. The great thing is that like how you unlock the phone with sliding to the left or right (as indicated by the arrows in the screenshot, you can also slide the missed calls, sms, voicemail and e-mail notifications to the left or right. This will take you directly to the notification you decided to drag. The phone will unlock and you will see your item directly.

Kinetic scrolling

Next to some other smaller UI tweaks Microsoft has made for Windows Mobile 6.5 one of the better ones is system wide kinetic scrolling. This means that when you scroll your contacts, a website, or just a file structure of any type it will not only look a lot better than before but also feel much more natural. What the kinetic scrolling really means is that when for example you give your phone a quick ‘flick’ and move your finger really fast, the list you are navigating will gain a much bigger acceleration, speed and longevity then for example a soft touch would.

For all us Windows Mobile 6.5 enthusiasts lets hope Windows Mobile 6.5 will not disappoint and brings some great hardware and software with it in the near future.