Mobiles2day – Mobile Industry News

Google has released new version of it’s popular Maps software, version 2.2. This release of version 2.2 of the application for Symbian S60 (3rd edition or later) and Windows Mobile (2005 or later) includes Transit directions which were earlier released for BlackBerry and Java-based handsets.

Transit directions are available on Google Maps in more than 50 cities, in UK Google Maps is covering South East England. Other european countries that have full or partial coverage include France, Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Austria and Russia.

Other new features are star rating of businesses, search results show up faster, and user-generated content will now show in search results.

You can download new version of this software from here: google.com/gmm

Here is a video about Google Maps with mobile transit directions:

Source

HTC has announced yet another exciting handset with full QWEERTY sliding keyboard and improved TouchFLO 3D interface. Device has similar designas HTC Diamond but thicker (18mm instead of 11.5) because of sliding keyboard.

It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, brief specs are below:Processor Qualcomm® MSM7201A^TM 528 MHz

Memory ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 288MB
Dimensions 102 mm (L) X 51 mm (W) X 18.05 mm (T)
Weight 165 g (with battery)
Display 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
Network HSDPA/WCDMA:

Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds

Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE

Device Control TouchFLO^TM 3D
Touch-sensitive navigation control
Keyboard Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
GPS GPS and A-GPS ready
Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB^TM (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out* in one)
Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus and flash light
Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera
FM radio with RDS

Talk time:
Up to 397 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 485 minutes for GSMStandby time:
Up to 503 hours for WCDMA
Up to 406 hours for GSM

Video call time:
Up to 201 minutes for WCDMA

Expansion Slot microSD^TM memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

Device has nice looks and also packs full keyboard for those who like to type fast and feel physical buttons under their fingers.

Device will be available later this year.

Via PhoneArena

If you are using device that runs on Windows Mobile and have unlimited data tariff, you probably would want to watch YouTube videos on it. I have T-Mobile Touch Plus (HTC Touch Dual) and default player cannot play YouTube videos.

I have tried contacting T-Mobile customer services but they said that this is a known issue and there is no resolution in near future.

After googling and looking around in forums I cam across youtubeplay player in xda-developers.com website. I decided to try it out and it works perfectly! You can search YouTube for videos or watch .flv files stored on your phone. You need to install .net runtime which can be downloaded from Microsoft website. Check here for more details.

Playback is smooth and clear, sound is excellent as well. My device doesn’t have Wi Fi support, but downloads via T-Mobile HSDPA are fast enough for playback.

You can download it here.

If you like this player, you can donate to developer here.

29 May 2008 UPDATE:

After using this player for a few days, I found a problem where if your video plays untill the end, whole program freezes and you can’t do anything. You cannot go back to the list of videos, you have to kill program and start again. Controls are not very responsive as well, like Pause or Stop buttons.

If you know any other better .flv player, share with us!