Motricity is in the news for all of the wrong reasons currently, and now some of their ex employees are having their say at mocoNews. It makes for unpleasant reading.

"funny that bonuses were paid out and they decide to pull this trick.  Thanks Ryan for throwing us under the bus!!! Hope your golden parachute gets a hole in it.  Guess the rest of us will be doing a lot of job searching this week.  Good luck “Lord Elfman” in getting anyone to do any work now.  All the new releases I expect will be delayed, if they’re even completed…"

Some PDA and smartphone games are good, others are bad but some are just impossible to put down. They are few and far between, but here is a selection of the best-

WordPop! is the most addictive mobile game I have ever played. The premise is simple, connect tiles to make words, but the strategy required to do well is unusual in that you start to improve without even realising that you are getting better. Endless rounds mixed with an educational slant make this a steal at only $14.95. Palm version / Windows Mobile version.

"Part puzzle, part word creation, and all fun. Clear the board by creating words! As you pop each word from the board, there are fewer and fewer letters left. Plan ahead to win the round. Try to get the highest score possible."

Text Twist is a classic in every sense of the word. I have been playing it for years and it still intrigues me a lot. My wife is also addicted and the simplicity is what makes the game so good. Hard to put down once you get into a good run.
Palm version / Windows Mobile version.

“You're given a scrambled six letter word, and you have to see how many three, four, five or six letter words you can make in a limited time! If you manage to get one (or more) six letter words by the end of the level, you get to play again! You score points by getting words - longer words give you more points, and finishing all of the possible words in a level gives you bonus points.

If you get stuck, and need inspiration, you can Twist to shuffle the letters, and maybe it'll give you a clue! Text Twist is easy to play, and incredibly absorbing! You'll find yourself playing whenever you've got a spare couple of minutes! Even if you never thought you were good at word games - you'll find yourself enjoying Text Twist!”
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HomeRun is the best card game ever made (in my opinion), and I have literally begged ZingMagic to port it to Palm and Windows Mobile but so far no luck. It first appeared in the classic Psion PDAs and is still as good today as it ever was. It is currently available for some of the Symbian platforms.

“HomeRun is an addictive card solitaire – played with a standard pack of 52 playing cards and up to 4 Jokers – that combines luck with skill providing hours of fun and entertainment.”

Monopoly is addictive enough when you have to set up a board and all of the pieces at home, but on a PDA it gets worse. You can build your empire anytime and anywhere you like and Handmark’s version has never been beaten.
Palm version / Windows Mobile version.

“Buy, sell, rent, and auction property with up to 4 players! Practice your Monopoly skills at any time by playing against up to three computer opponents with 8 different "identities" and playing styles. Or you can mix any combination of real people and computer players in any game.

If you have ever played the classic board game then you'll immediately know how to play on your Pocket PC device. The computer plays the role of the "Banker" so it automatically, accurately, and completely scores every player, every play and every game.

The Monopoly game for Pocket PC includes the ability to auction properties, buy/sell houses and hotels, mortgage/unmortgage properties and even set up complex trades with other players.”

Traffic Jam 2 has only recently been released and is a 3D update to the original. In reality the 3D effects are useless and actually make the game harder to play, but it is still extremely addictive and lots of fun in 2D mode. With 250 levels you are sure to be playing for a long time to come.
Windows Mobile version / Palm OS version.

“Your favorite Beetle is back! With more twists and puzzles, Traffic Jam 2 is an exciting sequel for the original Traffic Jam lovers out there!

The goal of the game is still the same, get the yellow Beetle out of the traffic jam by moving vehicles out of its way. Breeze through dozens of puzzles and compare your stats with your friends.”

This list could go on further and some mobile wonders such as Bejeweled 2 and Yahdice have just missed out this time. There was a game for Palm OS based on the UK TV gameshow ‘Countdown’ but I can no longer find it. If any of you know where it is please use the comments link.

Also, if you feel that I have missed out a classic feel free to tell us what else should be in the list.

Mark/Space is pleased to announce the availability of an update to The Missing Sync for Palm OS, the best solution for synchronizing contacts, calendars, photos, and more between Macs and devices from Palm, Sony, Garmin and others.

The Missing Sync for Palm OS 6.0.3 provides several enhancements, including better synchronization with Bare Bones Yojimbo 1.5, improved handling of recurring tasks, and enhanced support for custom field synchronization with Entourage. Also, the Call Log application now allows for deletion of individual or selected calls from the call log archive on your Mac. Similarly, the SMS Log application lets you delete all incoming and outgoing text messages for a single contact.

This update is free for all owners of The Missing Sync for Palm OS 6.0. Customers will receive a message from The Missing Sync for Palm OS application notifying them of this update. A direct download and release notes for this update are also available from our Product Updates web page: http://www.markspace.com/downloads.html.

PalmaryClock Wireless 1.3 has been released with the following changes-

- New Alarm Manager with completely new design
- World Time window is redesigned
- Time Utilites window is redesigned
- Weather and Events Bars are redesigned
- Application Preferences are regroupped into new window for more easy access
- All new devices support
- Misc bug fixes

RDM+ Remote Desktop for Palm OS v3.6.8 has been released and is a failry minor update-

RDM+™ Remote Desktop for Mobiles allows you to access remotely your desktop or laptop computer from Palm OS handheld. You can send and receive emails, surf web, edit documents in word processor, copy, cut, paste files or folders and do hundreds other things that you typically do sitting in front of your home or office computer. Interface is user-friendly and navigation is simple.

You can try this product for free. Just get them from "Download section" - it runs a week as a full functional version. After that the application will propose you to buy a license for further work.

Security and privacy

Connection to RDM Server is completely safe. All data transferring between remote computer and your BlackBerry is strongly encrypted. For data encryption RDM+ uses 3DES (Triple DES, CBC mode) algorithm with 128-bits key. The 3DES key is randomly generated each time when the new session is started. It guarantees top level data protection. The data can be decrypted only by mobile device or remote computer. RDM Server can not decrypt these data and doesn't store your computer accounts. The server's only function is to provide communication channel between your BlackBerry and remote computer.

Today's free eBook is Postsingular A Novel by Rudy Rucker- "Postsingular and its sequels represent Rucker's return to the cyberpunk style of his classic Ware tetralogy. But this is 21st Century cyberpunk; Rucker calls it psipunk.

Postsingular takes on the question of what will happen after the Singularity—what will happen after computers become as smart as humans and nanotechnology takes on the power of magic?

A mad scientist decides it might be a good idea to create a giant virtual reality simulation that is running a copy of Earth and of most of the people in it. Fine, but in order to create this simulation, the mad scientist plans to grind our planet into a zillion supercomputing nanomachines called nants.

Ultrageek Ond Lutter and his autistic son Chu find a way to block the nants—but then Ond can’t resist infesting Earth with a congenial breed of quantum-computing nanomachines called orphids.

The orphids coat the planet, one or two per square millimeter, and now everyone is on-line all the time, and everything is visible in the orphidnet. Artificial life forms emerge in the orphidnet, these are helpful agents called beezies, and they pyramid together into a superhuman planetary mind called the Big Pig. People can mentally access the Big Pig and feel like geniuses—with the catch that when they come down they can’t really remember what they saw. Those addicted to this new kind of high are called pigheads."