After part one of this battle (see yesterday’s news), the current scores are TyTN II: 42, N95 8GB: 42, iPhone: 43, Centro: 46. Some of you will laugh at that, but that’s how the scores came out when added up. Let’s see what happened next-

Entertainment

TyTN II- the specifications suggest a potent entertainment experience from this phone, but poor video playback and slightly above average music quality make it mediocre in this area. 5/10
N95 8GB- great video playback and excellent music quality made the N95 a real surprise for me. 9/10
iPhone- impossible to knock the best entertainment oriented phone on the market today. 10/10
Centro- video playback is actually not bad and music quality is acceptable, but the small screen hampers long periods of viewing. 6/10

Camera

TyTN II- 3.2MP sounds good, but good pictures are not easy to come by with the slow shutter speed. 6/10
N95 8GB- easily the best here, with some impressive still and video output. 9/10
iPhone- average 2MP camera with no video recording feature. 4/10
Centro- 1.3MP is poor in 2008, but it is easy to get fairly good snaps. 5/10

Price

TyTN II- starting to look overpriced when compared to the new entrants in the market. You do get a LOT for your money though. 7/10
N95 8GB- far from inexpensive, but can be bought for a great price with a contract. Brilliant specification as well. 8/10
iPhone- I’m sure you can tell where this is going. I hate the restrictive pricing plan of the iPhone in the UK, and feel that it is simply not competitive in the current market. 4/10
Centro- a smartphone for under £200 can’t be bad, even if the specification is not so smart. 8/10

Flexibility

TyTN II- everything under one small hood makes the TyTN truly flexible in almost every way. 8/10
N95 8GB- as above, but with 8GB of memory. 9/10
iPhone- only falls behind in this test because the two above have GPS and HSDPA- 7/10
Centro- GPRS and not a lot else make this a good phone with ‘some’ smart bits. 6/10

Email

TyTN II- flawless performance with MS Exchange and other protocols. 9/10
N95 8GB- as above, but with a slightly strange interface. 8/10
iPhone- some nice touches, but not all protocols supported. 6/10
Centro- should support MS Exchange, but like the Treo struggles to cope. The GPRS connection can also be a little flakey. 6/10

Desirability

TyTN II- the keyboard is clever, but the looks are not exactly going to make it a star outside the corporate world. 6/10
N95 8GB- highly desirable, but could become too popular to stand out. 8/10
iPhone- this is difficult for me. I have to give it 9 points because of what it is, but I would certainly not want to show it off. 9/10
Centro- Palm has made a device that actually looks good and could gain quite a following. 8/10

So, the scores after part two are TyTN II: 83, N95 8GB: 93, iPhone: 83, Centro: 85. This is starting to get silly. I have given scores to each and then added them up afterwards and they somehow seem to be in the wrong order if I was asked to rank them. It is strange how the individual features do not always make a whole device. The final part of this battle will be published tomorrow.

You may have noticed that there is a race being played out in the US currently which will allow the winner to live in a nice new house for the next four years, or eight if they are lucky. Battle For The White House is a timely and unusual game from Gameloft that takes the real life battle to the small screen, and adds a bit of fun to proceedings along the way.

You get to choose which candidate you want to be and have a chance to rewrite history by choosing one that has already bowed out from the race. So far, I have chosen Obama every time but may try Clinton and see what I can do to her campaign:) In campaign mode you have to travel the country, state by state, and take part in challenges to see if you can gain enough votes to win the states in question. You win votes by taking part in a bizarre series of mini games, some of which will feel familiar.

From a version of Pacman where you run from secret service agents in a farm field to having a boxing match with Richard Nixon, there is a wealth of game environments that are ideal when you have a spare few minutes. The problem is that the spare few minutes turns into much more than that as you battle from state to state.

The entire interface reminded me of The Simpsons graphics and Gameloft has done a good job in realising realistic caricatures of the candidates on a small screen. It is quite strange to see Obama in a pair of boxing shorts fighting away, but the music and animation are tongue in cheek enough to get away with it.

This is not a game for everyone, and some will think it silly but I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed playing it and it does put a new slant on the serious business of politics. Making politicians look so silly is fun for most of us, and the variety included in the mini games (you even have to make the politician’s dance) married with a greater goal of taking home the Presidency works well.

Available from Gameloft for $4 and soon to be available from Gameloft UK.

PDA247 is 6 years old!

As is traditional, we are going to celebrate by holding a competition, and this time you can enter whatever content you like!

It's completely up to you what you send in, but there are some specific areas that are worth remembering. We need a new forum banner (400x45 pixels maximum size) which should fit the current design, we are tempted to try new web site banners (1 for each site needed) and besides those you can send in software, hardware or accessory reviews. You can send in articles about the PDA world in general or maybe a few items that are newsworthy.

Whatever you choose to send in please make sure that you title your email "6th Birthday". You can also enter via the forum thread detailed below. Here's the prizes so far-

To enter please send an email with your entry (entitled "6th Birthday") to shaun (at) mailstm.co.uk or post your entry in this forum thread.

The closing date is midnight (UK time) 21st March 2008, so you have some time to think up a good entry.

Obviously we are very late mentioning Westward, but I have been playing it for a few weeks now and it is rather spiffing! Expect a full review very soon...

KEELE, Staffordshire, UK & BOTHELL, Wash USA - February 21st, 2008 - Astraware(R) and Sandlot Games(R), the world's premier developer and publisher of casual and family-friendly games, invite you to experience the life of a Frontier settler in the wild, rough and tumble world of Westward(R) for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) smartphones and PDAs.

Based on the highly acclaimed PC game by Sandlot Games, Westward offers many hours of absorbing game play as you guide your townsfolk in making camp, collecting valuable resources, seeing-off dangerous bandits, and building their communities.

As you progress through Westward, you'll explore 4 different locations over more than 20 levels as your hopeful citizens set up towns and seek their fortune in the Old Wild West. With over 25 types of building you'll customize your town and attract new citizens whilst completing a range of side tasks and chasing down the Mad Russian to bring him to justice.

Westward has been optimized for smartphones and PDAs and can be controlled using 5-way, key controls or stylus. The game is available for Palm OS(R) devices with hi-res screens and for Windows Mobile(R) touchscreen and non-touchscreen phones and PDAs running WM2003, 2003SE, 5 & 6, priced $19.95.

To download a trial or to purchase, visit http://www.astraware.com/westward.

Handango Tries to Screw Developers - Will Developers Respond? is a new article at Symbian in Motion. We podted details of the commision hike a few days back and it is starting to bite- "A couple of weeks ago I posted on BGR about Handango’s revised CDA. Long story short, Handango sent a warm cheery email to all developer partners about what a great year 2007 was for the mobile software industry and for Handango. At the end of the email was a link to the revised Handango Content Distribution Agreement (CDA) that takes affect on March 15 of this year.

The most notable change to the agreement was the revised royalty schedule. As of March 15 developers will only receive 50% of gross revenue up to $250,000. This is down from 60% as defined in the current CDA. I doubt that there are more than three or four developers who do more than $250K in sales through Handango alone, but those who do will enjoy 60% of gross sales between $250K - $1M, and 70% over $1M. Ridiculous.

Handango also doesn’t do enough for their customers. As with most industry leading companies, Handango takes their customers for granted. Some examples? How about charging an extra $5 per title for “download protection”? If you want to be able to re-download an application that you purchased for up to one year it will cost you. As if it costs money for Handango to store a 1MB file on their servers. And have you tried to order apps for your device according to “popularity”? Let’s have a look at today’s top 5 for the N95:

Quickoffice Premier 5.0 ($69.95) ——– 1,483 downloads
Handy Tools Pack for S60 ($99.95) ——– 18,515 downloads
WorldMate Professional for Series 60 ($69.95) ——– 64,872 downloads
ProfiMail (Symbian) ($27.99) ——– 76,446 downloads
Handy Safe for S60 ($39.95) ——– 25,676 downloads
Interesting. The first thing to note is that all of these titles are very expensive as far as mobile software goes. Casting that tidbit aside, let’s look at the download numbers. Title one, Quickoffice Premier 5.0, has been downloaded a total of 1,483 times. Because there is no trial available, is stands to reason that that number is relatively close to total sales (not taking re-downloads into account)..." Thanks to B...

On the subject of ESDs, there are rumours of staff reductions at Motricity- "Motricity, a fast-growing global provider of mobile content applications for telecommunications providers, is preparing to lay off many of its 650 employees, sources tell WRAL Local Tech Wire and WRAL.com.

Motricity declined to comment on the report.

However, multiple sources said layoffs could affect 200 or more people. Motricity currently has 350 employees in Durham.

Sources also said that Motricity is considering moving its headquarters out of Durham to Bellevue, Wash..."

PhatWare Corporation proudly presets the new version of its PhatNotes notes organizer for Windows Mobile devices and Desktop PCs. A key new feature added to PhatNotes 5.2 is the ability to configure the software's "context analyzer" directly on the mobile device - enabling users to adjust their settings while on-the-go. The Context Analyzer feature allows users to access websites, send emails, make phone calls, or even open files or execute applications just by tapping on words that are recognized as website URLs, email addresses, phone numbers, or a custom command.

Until now, the ability to configure the software to recognize websites, email addresses, phone numbers and custom commands and convert them into active links has been limited to PhatNotes' desktop software. This version brings this functionality to the mobile devices. Other new features in PhatNotes 5.2 include support for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Mobile 6.1, a new desktop UI theme, support for regular expression when searching or filtering notes by text on the Smartphone, and improved usability and performance.

PhatNotes was recently named, for the seventh straight year, as Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's "Best of Category" honors in the "Utilities-Notes" category. Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Best Software Awards competition is recognized as the top awards program for mobile software products, with dozens of expert judges involved in evaluating hundreds of entries.

PhatNotes 5.2 is available now at the list price of $39.95. A free 30-day trial version of PhatNotes 5.2 can be downloaded from the PhatWare web site at http://www.phatware.com/phatnotes PhatNotes 5.2 is a free upgrade for all registered uses of PhatNotes 5.X. All other registered users of previous versions of PhatNotes can purchase the latest version for a special upgrade price of $24.95.

VITO Technology releases a new version of VITO RingtoneEditor. VITO RingtoneEditor v1.22 allows you to make ringtones out of your favorite songs. The functionality is the same but the looks have been renewed. Its skin has become of eye pleasing colors.

The renewed VITO RingtoneEditor with pretty interface, smart buttons and simple functionality is an irreplaceable application for any Pocket PC. Isn’t it lovely to change your ringtones every time your mood changes? With RingtoneEditor you can create as many ringtones as you need from your favorite music anytime right on your mobile device.
Three-taps-ready ringtones are a good solution for those who like to keep everything fresh and surprise everyone around. Stay fashionable with VITO RingtoneEditor! Moreover, RingtoneEditor will come useful for creating a distinctive ringtone. You will definitely know that it's your phone ringing when in public.

In the new version of VITO RingtoneEditor creating ringtones is still as simple as listening to your favorite song or melody and selecting a part of it by setting the start and finish points. Only now it is much easier to set the exact start and finish positions for your ringtone. After choosing the Start and Finish positions you can either assign it immediately as active ringtone or continue editing for specifying Start and Finish positions more precisely.

The progress bar slider has become more informative: it clearly shows the beginning ad the end of your ringtone graphically. Now you can clearly see what part of the song is chosen for the ringtone.
 
VITO RingtoneEditor is available for $ 9.95 at www.vitotechnology.com. Now you can buy it for $7* due to HUGE DISCOUNT on all software titles.

Today's free eBook is The Acquaintance "I got into town just after nine, the lack of adequate street-lighting conspiring with the darkness to make it seem later. On the weekend, Dungarvan would be full of life and the cursing and shouting of drunks, the jubilant carelessness of the young, armed with fake ID’s and fresh livers, all making their way across the Devonshire bridge toward the night clubs. But this was midweek, and I suspected the rain dripping from the heavy boughs overhanging the bus stop would be the only sound I would hear once the wheezing vehicle pulled away after coughing me out. I was right.

Head thick from a semi-doze on the epileptic bus, I reviewed the options available to me.

No, not options.

Obligations.

Family and friends awaited me on the other side of that bridge. Some of them would be glad to see me, others wouldn’t, but all of them would say the same thing, “Ah, yer back”—a common Irish expression generally reserved for immigrants which somehow manages to make you feel welcome and ashamed at the same time, as if your return is the fulfillment of some smug prophecy that was made as soon as you went abroad..."