Daily Quote 2 - Custom Quote Databases

Palm Daily Quote, updated yesterday to Version 2 by Tamoggemon Software, has a lot of neat features, but my favourite is: it allows you to use custom quote databases. This means you have several different options if you decide you want to replace the built-in quote database.

Download a Custom Quote Database
By far the easiest and most versatile option is, I think, to simply download a new quote database. Tamoggemon Software has given Daily Quote a page dedicated to additional quote databases, created and submitted by users of Daily Quote. You can even create your own custom quote database (more on this option below). If you do create your own custom quote database, I would encourage you to share it with others. In fact, one of the things I find most interesting about the Daily Quote user submitted databases page is that 3 of the 4 custom databases currently available were submitted by members of the Canuck-PDA community! Here’s a list of the currently available custom quote databases on the Palm Daily Quote site:

Daily Quote User Submitted Quote Databases

File Name	Contents	Developer
Contest	57 random but interesting quotes	Geoff Luk
DaiQ_Bible01	50+ Popular Bible quotes	Fred Coad
DaiQ_FredPC01	A 'best of' database	Fred Coad
KDP Quotes	My 'very best' quotes	Kraig D Pritts

I have not found any other locations that provide custom quote databases for Daily Quote, but I’m sure they must exist, even if they only provide one persons custom quote databases. Let us know if you know of any.

Create Your Own Custom Quote Database.
One of the really nice things about all the Tamoggemon Software products is that they include a 14 day free trial. Therefore you don’t even have to own Daily Quote to be able to create your own custom quote database. Simply use the trial version. This lets you sample the full range of features included in Daily Quote, including using your own quote database for 14 days. In fact, I used the trial version to create both of the quote databases available above.

UPDATE: "daver" has created a thread on our Discussions Forums, about custom Daily Quote databases. Check it out here!

Tamoggemon Software releases Daily Quote 2

Tamoggemon proudly announces the release of the latest update to its Palm OS quote solution.
Daily Quote is the most flexible quote program for Palm OS! It supports a flexible quote database system that allows quote downloads off the internet or the creation of quote databases on the handheld. Quotes can be displayed at each start-up, the first start-up each day, or once each hour!

Daily Quote 2 improves the following aspects of the product:

2DAY SUPPORT
The currently-active quote database's quotes can be displayed in ShSh's 2day via a plugin file. Plugins for further applications are currently being developed and will be released soon.

HiRES+ SUPPORT
Daily Quote's editing UI now supports HiRES+ to reduce scrolling!

IMPROVED RELIABILITY
DailyQuote v1 contained a bug which dead-locked the quote display on some handhelds. Version 2 completely resolves this issue!

A free 14 day trial can be downloaded from www.palmdailyquote.com, registration costs $9.95 at MobiHand’s. Registered customers get access to the update for free.

Palm Power in Canada/Treo 700p's WiFi Misadventures

First off, a story on TreoCentral claims that Palm has actually gained market share in Canada. Eh? And mostly from smartphone sales? Details are somewhat there, but the sources are foggy at best. Not like I'm a hotshot businessman who has the opportunity to meet lots of clients/fellow businesspeeps and their smartphones, but I am a fairly involved business student and the only thing that I ever see people using Downtown are old BlackBerry 7290s and the occasional Pearl. Click on over to decide for yourself.

EDIT: Mike Overbo, the author of the story over at TreoCentral contacted me and clarified the source of the info for all of us. It's Environics PR, Palm's Canadian public relations firm! They passed on the results of a study by Canalys, a Canadian IT consulting and marketing analysis firm.

---

In other news, Geoff and I met up to test out DialByPhoto and those beta Enfora WiFi Sled drivers that have been poking around to see if we can get a Treo 700p (his) to work with it. The review for DialByPhoto will be up soon, but in the meantime, check out what happened with the Enfora sled and let us know your thoughts in the forum!

Palm Releases Daylight Saving Time Updates

After months of complete silence on the topic, Palm has released Daylight Saving Time updates for those devices that "know" about Daylight Saving Time.

New Daylight Saving Time Changes
Beginning this year (2007) Daylight Saving Time (DST) for most of the U.S. and all of Canada, starts on the second Sunday in March (11 March 2007), and changes back to standard time on the first Sunday in November (4 November 2007). These dates are NEW and a change from the current start/end date that is built into some Palm devices.

Palm devices, both smartphones and handhelds, need to be updated so that they reflect the correct time when the new DST changes take effect. Without the Daylight Saving Time Updates, calendar events and email messages will indicate an hour off the actual time in locations that observe DST.

Things get really interesting if your Palm knows about the new dates, but your OS or application doesn't. For your information, the only two Microsoft OS's with the proper Daylight Saving Time corrections are Windows XP Service Pack 2, and Windows Vista. None of the other versions know of the DST change, nor will Microsoft be making a fix available.

Affected Palm devices: (every Palm that knows about DST)

Palm OS
* Treo 700p
* Treo 680, 650, 600
* Treo 300, 270
* LifeDrive
* Tungsten T5,T3, T2
* Tungsten C, E2, E, W
* Zire 72, 31, 21
* TX, Z22

Windows Mobile
* Treo 750
* Treo 700w
* Treo 700wx

Palm has full instructions and download links available here.

Java creator named to Order of Canada

CBC News - Technology and Science section has a good article on the Order of Canada awards. Of particular interest to Canuck-PDA readers is that James Gosling, the man credited with inventing the Java programming language commonly used on the World Wide Web has been appointed to the Order of Canada.

James Gosling, a vice-president of Sun Microsystems Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., has been named an officer of the Order of Canada, the office of the Governor General announced on Monday.

Gosling was responsible for the original design of the Java programming language and implemented the original compiler for the so-called Java virtual machine. Java programs are compiled or converted into machine code by a program called a compiler when they run.

[snip]

The Order of Canada recognizes outstanding lifetime achievement and contributions to society and the country by Canadians from all walks of life.

You can read the full CBC News article here.

Astraware Announces Support for Mobile Linux and Joins ACCESS Connect Ecosystem Global Partner Program

THE MIDLANDS, UK - February 19th, 2007 - Astraware is excited to announce their first steps toward support of an additional mobile platform for their range of PDA and Smartphone games. The company has been working on updates to its own core technology library to enable its games to run on Linux® based mobile platforms, and the first fruits of this labor, running under an early SDK and hardware, have recently been demonstrated by ACCESS Co, Ltd at 3GSM in Barcelona, Spain.

Astraware also announced it has joined the ACCESS Connect Ecosystem (ACE) Global Partner Program as a charter member. ACCESS’ recently announced ACE partner program is designed to create an ecosystem of world-class partners that will unleash the potential of the digital life generation by driving development and adoption of new mobile and converged technologies and solutions.

"Extending our platform support is a key part of our strategy." said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. "We see mobile Linux as being an extremely important part of the industry over the coming year, and we're aiming Astraware to be the games provider of choice for this platform. As a charter member of the ACE program, we're taking a lead in the growth of the mobile Linux community."

"We are delighted to be able to continue our long-standing partnership with Astraware," said Larry Berkin, Senior Director, Developer Ecosystem & Technology Acquisition for ACCESS. "Astraware's games are incredibly popular and are an excellent addition to any mobile device. We are pleased that they have been able to assist us in these early stages of the platform development, so that we are confident a range of great quality software will be ready when the platform launches. We are also pleased to welcome them as charter members of the ACCESS Connect Ecosystem global partner program."

"Astraware's CTL system and cross-platform game development methodology allows us to target a wide range of mobile device platforms," said David Oakley, CTO of Astraware. "We are very excited to be working with ACCESS to extend our technology on to the ALP platform. ALP provides a rich set of functionality to third-party developers such as ourselves enabling us to deliver a compelling experience to consumers."

Astraware is continuing to develop its core technologies to function with the various flavors of Linux for mobile devices and intends to have a range of games fully compatible when device manufacturers are ready to launch. These will include Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Solitaire and other titles from the company's own IP alongside key titles from its range of licensors.

Space Invaders on a whole new level!

Do you remember the good old days when you would put your dime into the big, black, electronic machine, and then MIDI music would play for a second or two, and finally the little green aliens would appear with your space ship at the bottom? I sure do. It's been a while since I've seen a real Space Invaders arcade machine - I've seen an Asteroids machine and my friend's father owns a PacMan machine.

Well, the arcades of the 70's and 80's are clearly the past. Now, we have next generation consoles like the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii. Sure, they have great games. But other than the Wii, can they make you distort your body, turning you into a human pretzel just to blast away some alien scum?

They can't, but your Treo can!!!

Yes, that's right, there's a new game for Treos on the rise called Arcade Reality. Utilising a type of technology called "augmented reality", this game takes in live camera feed from your Treo's camera and follows the movements, creating virtual reality-esque type motion.

Granted, this is no Gears of War or Air Force grade flight simulator, but it's certainly a step up in terms of games for the Palm.

It isn't available yet, but in time it will be. For now, you'll have feast your eyes on this demo:



More info about Arcade Reality here: http://toyspring.com/arcade/

Function over Fashion

According to Palm CEO Ed Colligan, the future of Palm devices will be focused on functionality, and will not "follow design fads".

It's sad to admit that Palm handhelds are indeed on the decline, but they've had a good run over the years. With the iPhone on the horizon, Mr. Colligan's statements seems bold, yet solid. And I like it. I'll take a phone that can open my 4MB PDF e-mail attachments over a MP3 player cell phone anyday!

From MarketWatch.com:

BARCELONA (MarketWatch) -- Palm, Inc, the maker of the Treo smart phone, will continue to focus on ease of use and reliability rather than design, Palm CEO Ed Colligan said in an interview at the 3GSM telecommunications trade show here.

"We think that will be a greater driver of purchases in the future," he told MarketWatch in the interview. "We don't want to follow design fads."

While Colligan acknowledged that phones have become "a bit of a personal status symbol," he stressed that Palm's core business user is most interested in reliable applications and great functionality.

"A lot of people grossly underestimate what that differentiation means," he said. Colligan suggested that recent design innovations may be passing fads, noting that while some phones have become ultra thin, that evolution has often come at the expense of battery life.

"Our customers want a battery that lasts all day," he said. "We may lose some sales on day one to some trendy designs, but we have 14 years of experience making small computers and we will not compromise," he said.

Palm [] began as a maker of hand-held organizers in the 1990s before shifting to so-called smart-phones, which combine the functions of an organizer with a phone, wireless e-mail and other features.

In the last two years, it has faced increased competition, not only from archrival BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, but also from Motorola, Inc. with the Q and more recently from Apple, Inc. with the upcoming iPhone. []

Apple rattled handset makers in January when it unveiled its $499 gadget, which combines a phone, iPod music player and a device to surf the Internet. Most noticeably on the design front, the gadget does away with the keyboard entirely and replaces it with a sophisticated touch-screen.

But Colligan, far from awed, said the arrival of the iPhone is good news for the industry.

"I think it's signaling that the phone business is shifting toward more converged devices. That can only be good for us," he said.

Broader appeal?

Palm is also seeking to broaden its appeal beyond business customers to casual users.

Last October it introduced the Treo 680, a world phone that runs on wireless networks equipped with GSM technology, which is widely used in Europe and Asia. The Treo 680 aims to target growing demand for devices that are not just used for work but can also play music or take pictures, like Research in Motion's Pearl BlackBerry.

Colligan said sales of the Treo 680 have been "very strong."

While there are an estimated 650 million potential corporate smart phone users, the total consumer market for smart phones is much larger at around two billion potential buyers, according to IDCC Research.

The Treo's design has changed little since it was first introduced. The most significant development occurred when it did away with the residual antenna.

In Asia, the likes of Samsung and LG Electronics are betting their phones will become status symbols and fashion accessories. LG on Monday launched two high-end handset models, the Shine and Prada phones. The Prada phone, which LG has developed together with the Italian fashion house of the same name, will be priced at 600 euros.

Meanwhile Palm's original business -- handheld organizers-- continues to decline.

According to research firm IDC, vendors shipped 5.5 million units in 2006, down 28.5% from the 7.6 million units shipped in 2005. In the fiscal first-quarter, Palm sold 490,000 units, down from 597,000 units in the same quarter a year ago.

With a market capitalization of roughly $1.6 billion, Palm is dwarfed by many of its rivals. But Colligan indicated size and scale are no pressing concerns.

"We don't have to be as big as Motorola or Nokia to be competitive," he said.

DialByPhoto v1.0 Press Release

What is DialByPhoto? = Enjoyable Speed Dialing

DialByPhoto for your Treo lets you speed dial your favorite acquaintances that you call regularly with photos. Rather than always searching through your contacts or trying to remember some speed dial code, DialByPhoto lets you instantly call these individuals using their beautiful photos or people icons, saving you time and making the experience super enjoyable.

Some Features

-Instant access to Photo Contacts

-Store Photo Contacts by categories

-Speed SMSing

-Reject by SMS

-Customizable interfaces

-Web Searching

-Call Duration Information

-Simultaneous Search and Dial

Feature Spotlight

Beautiful and Customizable Design

You have the world’s coolest SmartPhone, so you deserve the coolest interface. The beautiful interface of DialByPhoto allows you to customize the background image and select the view that fits you the best.

Web Searching

Life is short Enjoy It

Beyond the great features, DialByPhoto is all about giving you the opportunity to have another enjoyable experience with your Treo. Use funny pics of your friends; give them nicknames, change the background, have fun ignoring their calls. Try it and see what this new found excitement is all about.

Website

For more information on DialByPhoto, please visit http://www.dialbyphoto.com

Contact Information

Tunji Afonja

Email- tj@gx-5.com

Website- http://www.gx-5.com

A New Week, and Pair of New OSes for Palm!

Palm has been under fire from some members of the enthusiast community for adopting Windows Mobile back in September of 2005. Granted, it seemed like a blasphemous move at the time, but Palm has shown that it has enough leverage with Microsoft to even make large improvements to the Windows Mobile 5 system. Palm innovations include a revised Today screen and improved one-handed operation. Having played with a Treo 700w for a week or so, I can definitely attest to how much better it is than other Windows Mobile devices.


Then again, I'm biased, so I still think it sucks. hahaha!


Anyways, my ramblings aside, the world of Palm-built devices just got busier with two new OSes being shown around at the 3GSM World Congress taking place right now in Barcelona, Spain. Check them out!

ACCESS Linux Platform Demoed

Windows Mobile 6 Professional on the Palm Treo 750

Dmitry Grinberg Interview

Dmitry Grinberg recently took part in an interview at TamsPalm. It's a great interview and I'd recommend you guys check it out.

http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2007/02/12/dmitry-grinberg-interview/

BlackBerry 8800 Smartphone Available in Canada

Rogers and RIM introduce the BlackBerry 8800 Smartphone in Canada

Rogers Wireless and Research In Motion (RIM) today (12 February 2007) introduce the sleek, elegant and performance-driven BlackBerry® 8800 - a powerful, feature-rich smartphone that delivers best-in-class technology in a thin and stylish design. The BlackBerry 8800 is the latest addition to Rogers’ full line-up of world-capable BlackBerry handsets.

Operating on Rogers’ high-speed EDGE network, the quad-band BlackBerry 8800 is the thinnest BlackBerry handset yet. It incorporates built-in GPS (Global Positioning System), a full QWERTY keyboard, RIM’s new trackball navigation system for fast and intuitive navigation, a media player, and a microSD expandable memory slot for storage of music and videos. The BlackBerry 8800 offers proven and popular BlackBerry features including support for phone, email, text and instant messaging, web browser, organizer, multimedia, corporate data applications and more.

The BlackBerry 8800 features built-in GPS and supports location-based services applications. It includes BlackBerry Maps, which provides on-screen driving directions with the ability to track the route via the GPS - and integrates with other BlackBerry applications, so users can generate a map from an address in their BlackBerry Address Book and send maps via email from their BlackBerry 8800. Rogers’ customers can also receive turn-by-turn voice and on-screen driving directions on the BlackBerry 8800 with TeleNav GPS Navigator™, which Rogers Wireless and TeleNav announced separately today. TeleNav GPS Navigator includes turn-by-turn voice and onscreen driving directions with 3D full-color moving maps. The TeleNav Navigator service also includes Biz Finder, with information and directions to more than 10 million businesses and Fuel Finder, which provides users with directions to gas stations with the cheapest gas.

"The new BlackBerry 8800 smartphone is as stylish as it is powerful and the built-in GPS adds an exciting new dimension to the user experience," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. "We are proud to introduce the BlackBerry 8800 to Canadians with its world-class functionality and cutting-edge design."

The new BlackBerry 8800 from Rogers Wireless also offers:

• An incredibly intuitive user interface with an easy-to-use trackball, dedicated 'menu' and 'escape' keys, and context-sensitive menus that make navigation feel instinctive and fast
• Fast performance, operating on Rogers Wireless’ GSM/GPRS/EDGE network, allowing customers to use the quad-band BlackBerry 8800 while traveling overseas in over 180 countries*
• Intuitive call management features such as smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing, and call forwarding
• Premium phone features with noise cancellation for enhanced audio performance, Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), dedicated 'send', 'end', and 'mute' keys, low-distortion speakerphone, and Bluetooth® support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits and Bluetooth peripherals
• Rogers Wireless dedicated BlackBerry technical support in French and English at no additional charge
• Support for popular Instant Messaging (IM) applications such as Yahoo!® Messenger and Google Talk
• Support for polyphonic, MP3 and MIDI ring tunes
• An ultra-bright, high resolution (320 x 240) landscape colour display – images appear vivid and crisp
• An innovative light-sensing technology that automatically optimizes the screen, trackball and keyboard lighting for indoor, outdoor and dark environments
• High performance HTML browser for visiting favourite web sites while on the go
• Multimedia player with stereo headset jack for MP3 and AAC music files, as well as MPEG4 and H.263 video formats
• 64MB built-in flash memory, expandable through microSD expansion slot
• An ultra-thin high-capacity battery
• BlackBerry® Internet Service support - allows access to up to 10 supported personal and corporate email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts
• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server support – integrates with Microsoft® Exchange, IBM Lotus® Domino® and Novell GroupWise® environments and features a new set of IT policy controls for managing the BlackBerry 8800’s features and usage.

The BlackBerry 8800 will be available in Canada exclusively at Rogers Wireless and is expected to be available in retail and business channels in March.

For more information, please visit www.rogers.com or www.blackberry8800.com

NVBackup Version 1.16 Released

The latest version of NVBackup was released this morning (2007-02-11 09:29). NVBackup is part of Alexander Pruss's HandyPalmStuff project on SourceForge. All products in the project are freeware. Since NVBackup uses undocumented methods to provide backups on NVFS (new) devices, so USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I use NVBackup all the time on my Palm T|X and it is a lifesaver (truth be told, ANY backup program, used regularily, is a lifesaver [GRIN] ). I have NVBackup scheduled to perform a backup every morning at 0300, reset the T|X and set the time from the internet. For anyone with an NVFS Palm, who doesn't already have a backup program they run on a regular basis... I highly recommend you give NVBackup a try! You can download NVBackup directly here.

NVBackup is currently the most popular HandyPalmStuff project. It is a backup utility for NVFS-based PDAs: Palm T5, LifeDrive, TX, TE2, Treo 650, Treo 700P. Unlike commercial backup utilities that access data via the database cache, this reads data direct out of the flash disk where it is store. This seems to be the best backup utility in terms of restoring the exact state of the system before the backup, without a need to reenter registration codes for other software (there may be one or two exceptions) or anything else.

Features include:

• scheduled daily backups (including on locked devices)
• ftp server support--automatically or manually export your backup to an ftp server
• compression and checksum1
• AES 128-bit encryption
• selective restore
• fast update of existing backup
• connect to atomic clocks on the Internet to set the time, either manually or after a scheduled backup
• BSD licensed so you can make a closed-source commercial backup program on the basis of this

Pros over some commercial solutions:

• exact state restoration, usually with no need for warm or hard reset before restoring
• should work better on unstable systems (e.g., due to unstable third-party utilities) than other utilities
• may be faster for very large backup sets (say, 50mb)
• does not affect cache memory significantly

Cons:

• backup cannot be restored on another model PDA or maybe even on the same model PDA after a ROM upgrade
• uses undocumented APIs
• slower for smaller backup sets than some commercial solutions

Recent Updates:
1.16: Help prevent freeze after backup.
1.15: Fix potential crash problem!
1.14: Alert after a bad scheduled (or crashed manual) backup.

RIM (the Blackberry Maker) Settles Lawsuit

Here's some refreshing news... a BBC Technology article is carrying the news that Research In Motion (RIM) has settled a trademark lawsuit with Samsung.

It's about time that RIM was on the postive side of a trademark lawsuit. They've had a really bad run the last few years courtesy of help from the US Patent Office who sometimes seem like they would give an applicant a patent on fire, or the wheel, (patent troll) as long as no one else had thought to apply for one.

RIM (the Blackberry Maker) Settles Lawsuit

Research In Motion (RIM) has settled a trademark lawsuit with Samsung over its Blackberry handheld e-mail device.

The Canadian firm, headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, said the settlement included "provisions for the protection of RIM's valuable trademarks".

RIM alleged that Samsung, a South Korean firm had misled consumers with its rival BlackJack smartphone, which is similar in design to RIM's Blackberry device.

On the left is the Research In Motion (RIM) Blackberry Pearl, while on the right is the disputed Samsung BlackJack device. The similarities are certainly obvious, but the name is the clincher in my books. ~FredPC

RIM said the settlement provided "reasonable measures to avoid confusion in the market place".

RIM filed the lawsuit in December at the US District Court for Central California after AT&T-owned Cingular Wireless introduced Samsung's BlackJack into the US market.

The device had previously been introduced into the UK market by Vodafone under the i600 brand name.

I checked the Research In Motion website, as well as CBC and several other Canadian news sites but did not find any more information on this BBC Technology article.

Scrollable Displays Set To Debut

In a recent article, BBC Technology announced that scrollable screens are due to go on sale in just a few months. You can read the entire article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6345869.stm

Scrollable Displays Set To Debut

One of the first mobile devices with a scrollable screen will go on sale in Italy later this year.

Billed as a PDA, electronic book and music player the Readius device has onboard a flexible LED screen that unrolls to 12.7cm (5in) across.

Polymer Vision, the creators of the gadget, claims the high-contrast black and white screen is as readable as printed paper.

[snip]

Polymer Vision said the device could be used to read newspapers, e-books, news feeds or location-sensitive maps while on the move. The company said it could also be used to listen to podcasts, music or audio books.

Although the monochrome screen on the first Readius can only display up to 16 shades of gray, Polymer Vision said it was working on versions with colour screens that can also handle moving images.

The device has 4GB of memory, a mini-USB port and is expected to last 10 days between battery charges. Polymer Vision has not said how much it will cost nor when exactly it will go on sale.

The device will be on show at the 3GSM mobile conference that takes place in Barcelona from 12-15 February.

Chips Push Through Nano-Barrier

BBC Technology section published an interesting article about the latest breakthrough in microchip manufacturing which is more than important enough to mention it here! Even if it isn't quite "breaking news".

Chips Push Through Nano-Barrier
The next milestone in the relentless pursuit of smaller, higher performance microchips has been unveiled.

Chip-maker Intel has announced that it will start manufacturing processors using transistors just 45 nanometres (billionths of a metre) wide.

Shrinking the basic building blocks of microchips will make them faster and more efficient.

Computer giant IBM has also signalled its intention to start production of chips using the tiny components.

"Big Blue", which developed the transistor technology with partners Toshiba, Sony and AMD, intends to incorporate them into its chips in 2008.

Intel said it would start commercial fabrication of processors at three factories later this year.

(snip)

Critical leaks
The new Intel processors, codenamed Penryn, will pack more than four hundred million transistors into a chip half the size of a postage stamp.

Like current processors, they will come in dual-core and quad-core versions, meaning they will have two or four separate processors on each chip. The company has not said how fast the new devices will run.

The production of 45nm technology has been the goal of chip manufacturers ever since they conquered 65nm transistors.

A transistor is a basic electronic switch. Every chip needs a certain number of them, and the more there are and the faster they can switch, the more calculations chips can do.

(snip)

Same 'tools'
The first working chips to incorporate 45nm devices were demonstrated last year by Intel, but they have never been incorporated into commercial products.

Dr Tze-chiang Chen, vice president of science and technology at IBM Research, said: "Until now, the chip industry was facing a major roadblock in terms of how far we could push current technology.

"After more than 10 years of effort, we now have a way forward."

I urge you to read the entire BBC Technology article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6299147.stm

It's Open Season on Gnomes with Hammer Heads

Astraware® and PopCap Games® are excited to announce that it's open-season on gnomes with the release of Hammer Heads for Palm OS® and Windows Mobile® for Pocket PC Smartphones and PDAs.

Hammer Heads is a frantic fun-fest for anyone with an aversion to those pesky creatures that live at the bottom of your garden. As the gnomes rise from their holes, just tap the screen to bash them with your hammer! Meet several types of gnome, each with their own unique quirks, collect power-ups to aid you in your quest, and earn special speed bonuses if you're handy with your hammer! A visit to the Tower of Gold can earn you extra cash to spend on special hammer and life upgrades available at the in-game Shiny Shop.

"For each problem there's a solution, but when the solution involves a hammer, you can be sure that it'll end up being rewarding to the soul," said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. "What could be better for testing your reactions and tapping accuracy than teaching those pesky gnomes a lesson!"

Hammer Heads features 2 game modes - Classic Bash - progress through 25 challenging levels and defeat the Gnome King, earning special achievement trophies along the way; and Marathon Bash - a never-ending gnome-bashing extravaganza!

Hammer Heads has been one of the most popular PC and online gaming titles of 2006, and now fans of the game can take it with them on the move.

Hammer Heads is available for devices running Palm OS 5.0 and higher, and Windows Mobile for Pocket PC 2003, 2003SE and 5.0, from the Astraware website: http://www.astraware.com/hammerheads. The game is priced $19.95 with a special release discount for Club Astraware members.

Bejeweled Valentine's Day Edition

Bejeweled Valentine's Day Edition once again available for a limited time!

Astraware® and PopCap Games® would like to wish you a very happy Valentine's Day. To celebrate a special edition of the best-selling handheld game ever, Bejeweled®, is once again available for a limited time from the Astraware website.

Bejeweled Valentine's Day Edition features all the gem-swapping fun of the original, but with some loved-up extra features. The game board is enhanced with sparkly red heart-shaped jewels and the game includes a 'Valentines' Special' option to help shy romantics get the message across to their Bejeweled-addicted sweetheart. The 'Valentines' Special' has two preset questions, or the user can create a personal message in their own unique way.

This year the game has been updated to add compatibility for some new devices, so Windows Mobile® users with 240x240 square screen devices can display their inner-romantic. We're also excited to announce the first ever release of Bejeweled Valentine's Day Edition for Windows Mobile® for Smartphone devices, including those with landscape screens.

Bejeweled Valentine's Day Edition is available for only a couple of weeks, so don't miss it! Owners of a registered copy of Bejeweled (original version) can download the Valentine's Day Edition for free, and registration codes for the Valentine's Day Edition will also work for the classic version of Bejeweled®. For more information on Bejeweled Valentine's Day Edition for Palm OS® and Windows Mobile® visit http://www.astraware.com/bejeweledve.

Join the Club Astraware Points Party!

Club Astraware bursts into life this month with a Point-popping Party! Everyone can join in and get points for all kinds of things, from purchase to high scores to surveys and more! And what do points make? Free games and discounts from the Astraware store, that's what!

The Points Party runs until the very last day of February 2007, and we've added lots of new ways to earn points!

The newest and most exciting announcement is that for this one-time special, we're providing points for any past purchases made outside Club Astraware!* That's right - whether you picked up a copy of Sudoku just a week before we it started, or you've been a loyal buyer of Astraware games right from when we started, you'll get points for all of the games you've bought from us. And, while you only get points from purchases while you're logged in to your Club Astraware account at Astraware store, for this time only, we're letting you claim points no matter which store you previously purchased at!

To claim your points, all you'll need is the email address that you registered the software with. Simply ask us to add this email addresses to your Club Astraware account. Once they are added, check your products list in Club Astraware, and if all your purchases are listed, claim your points! Remember, this is a one-time special event which offers long-term Astraware customers a chance to get all the points they would have earned in previous years.

Club Astraware is free to join and only takes a couple of minutes. There are also extra ways to earn points on your account including:

• 2500 points just for joining
• Points earned from purchasing games from the Astraware website (1 point for every cent spent)
• 1000 points for submitting you highest game scores
• 2500 points for recommending a friend join Club Astraware

AND we've now added two NEW ways of earning extra points:

• Submit a post you've written on your personal blog about Astraware and you could get 2000 extra points - everyone likes being talked about!
• Complete our Points Party survey and we'll give you 1500 points. Your opinions matter to us!

Our Points Party survey is available on the Astraware website from 26th January to 28th February 2007 and EVERYONE who completes the survey will be entered into a prize draw to win a special edition Palm Z22 PDA with Astraware Sudoku pack - Club Astraware members also get the special bonus of the extra points in their account. Visit http://www.astraware.com/promo/pointsparty for more information!

We'll be adding more new ways of getting points in the future, so make sure to check your Club Astraware account regularly!

FileFind 2.1 for PalmOS Released

Tamoggemon Software just released version 2.1 of FileFind, the only File finding solution for Palm OS.

FileFind 2.0 contains a bug that terminates program execution under some (rare) circumstances. Version 2.1 fixes this bug.

FileFind 2.1 is a free update for all customers, the new file downloaded from www.palmfilefind.com should simply be installed over the existing installation.

Sorry this is late... I've been away and did not have access to the internet! Almost unbelievable eh? Unfortunately, it's true!