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Here’s another company that wants a piece of the Windows Mobile pie, Mio. The company that is better known for manufacturing consumer GPS products is now developing its own 3.5G Windows Mobile Touch screen (yes touch screen) handset. Considering how PDA’s are becoming the norm rather than the exception, there’ll be more new entrants over the next year.

It seems that the company plans to compete with Garmin Nuvifone since it will be making the launch of its set in the first quarter of 2009. Details on the presumably GPS-centric phone include a 3.5G chipset from Qualcomm, the proprietary “Spirit” touch user interface and a 3.2MP auto-focus camera.

This is not Mio’s first attempt at a GPS PDA phone as it already has a few of Windows Mobile handsets like the recent A502 and 702. This latest phone however, may push Mio’s handset line into brighter light because of the sizzling 3.5G connectivity instead of Mio’s previous EDGE-only offerings. Mio is also expected to launch a GPS-enabled MID (Mobile Internet device) by the end of Q1 2009. If things go as planned, no hitches no glitches, and Mio doesn’t get beaten up badly a la Nuvifone, then it will definitely be making some impressive offerings come early 2009 that may boost its market share while posing a serious problem for Garmin.

Earlier this year, ASUS had announced that it would be launching a new PDA glider phone in Taiwan. The company has now come out with a nice looking, world’s fastest business phone, the ASUS P565. The announcement came Friday and phone is certainly a piece of eye candy. But beyond that, it is grabbed a unique position as the  world’s fastest handset, powered by an 800MHz processor and a 2.8 inch VGA to show off all that is stored inside. The phone also features Asus’s Glide User Interface which has been optimized for the touch screen phone. The PDA has all the standard features, top of the list being on a Windows Mobile platform.

Pricing and release date have yet to be made public. Also, it seems improbable the ASUS P565 will see the US soil, the phone sadly misses out on the US 850MHz band the US 3G bands. But at least there’s a cool new phone out in the world and a damn fast one at that. Let’s just revel in that joy.

Review of Specs:

1.      HSDPA 3.6Mbps, UMTS 2100, EDGE/GPRS/GSM 900/1800/1900, Class 10

2.      Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional

3.      2.8″ TFT, 65K-color Touch screen, VGA (480 x 640 pixels) Display

4.      Marvell TavorP 800 MHz Processor

5.      256 MB Flash + 128 MB DDR SDRAM

6.      MicroSD with SDHC support

7.      WLAN 802.11b+g

8.      Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

9.      GPS : SiRF Star III with InstantFix

10.  WAP Browser / SMS / MMS / Email / MSN / Push E-mail

11.  Battery : 1300 mAh Li-Ion

12.  Standby Time : 250-300 hrs with 3G and 200-250 hrs with 2G

13.  Talk Time : 3 hrs with 3G and 4 hrs with 2G

14.  Dimensions : 102 mm x 60.5 mm x 16 mm

Not to be left behind by the competition, HP has announced the release of its very own Smartphone the iPAQ Data Messenger.

Apple has long ruled the Smartphone world with its iPhone. The perfect competitor for the iPhone is still a debatable issue. Research In Motion (RIM) and their gorgeous BlackBerry certainly have given the iPhone competition, and now HTC has jumped in with the Google Phone, it seemed only befitting that HP should make an entry too. Not one, HP has brought out two Smartphones. There’s also the iPAQ Voice Messenger.

The iPAQ Data Messenger fully supports 3G network connectivity. It has a spacious 2.8 inch touch screen display that supports 65 thousand colors and a 320 x 240 pixel resolution. In addition there is a slide out, full QWERTY alphanumeric keypad. Doesn’t weight a lot either, 160 grams of pure technology and ease is what you will be carrying around with yourself. It also comes with built in GPS navigation. You can communicate easily and smartly using email, phone and the internet. Wi-Fi connectivity means you’re in touch with the web no matter where you go, and in most countries it may even be free. In any case, the more hotspots you can connect to the better. Typing emails and text messages is a sheer joy with the QWERTY keypad. And the generous display screen doesn’t leave your squinting for a peek at your own work.

The iPAQ Data Messenger runs Windows Mobile Professional 6.1 which also brings Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile, Microsoft Office Mobile and is fully capable of synchronizing contacts, appointments and tasks with your PC. Unlike the Google Phone, which only shows Microsoft Office in read-only view, you can also edit your files in Word, PowerPoint or Excel.

There’s a 3.1 megapixel digital camera with autofocus, 5x digital zoom, LED flash, and you have support for storage expansion up to 8GB with a microSD card slot.

Specs in a snapshot: Integrated WLAN 802.11b/g, with WPA2 security, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, 3G wireless broadband connectivity for voice and data, Tri-band UMTS (900/1900/2100 MHz), HSDPA Category 8 (up to 7.2Mbps downlink) and HSUPA Category 5 (up to 2Mbps uplink), Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), 128 MB SDRAM main memory for running applications, 256 MB flash ROM, and Full alphanumeric slide-out keyboard, 5-way optical navigation, 2 soft keys, ringer/sound switch, send/end buttons, keyguard button, volume control, camera button, 2 quick access keys.

The iPAQ Data Messenger will launch in Europe first through Vodafone. But it’s expected that HP resellers will offer them at a contract for $677.

Guardian Mobile is a cell phone security application designed for the Nokia Symbian 60 series; Smartphones and PDAs. In fact, with the features packed in this software, it’s a mandatory part of your Nokia cell. The Platinum Edition of the Guardian Mobile is out, which is equipped with even better tools to help you get back your cell phone data not to mention make life rather miserable for the thief (oh glee!)

Guardian Mobile or formally the Guardian Anti Theft Mobile is software that is designed to protect your personal information in the tragic event that your cell phone is stolen by some low life. The software is designed by Nokia with the specific aim to guard the data on their Smartphone and PDA. It allows you to password protect your data, such as cell phone contacts, images, video recordings and most other folders. A problem that used to occur with the older version of the Guardian was that when you changed SIM cards. The Guardian would not accept the new SIM card, thinking that a thief was trying to use your cell phone.  The platinum edition allows you to marks specific numbers as safe. This allows you to conveniently change SIM cards but of course if your cell was stolen, the thief couldn’t use it on any other SIM card.  

Another thing the Guardian is set up to do is send text messages from the number if the thief, in the event that they get to use their own SIM card in your cell phone. The thief will never know about it. You can also set the guardian to make the cell buzz with a weird little alert sound, after the cell gets stolen. The thief will have nerves to deal with for sure.

On a more tangible note, in an attempt to actually rescue your Symbian, the Guardian allows you to track your cell using the integrated GPS which logs on to Google Maps.

The Guardian Mobile doesn’t take up a lot of memory and runs discreetly in the background after being installed. You can download it for free at Nokiasymbianthemes.com.