Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

Filed under: Games, Video, Features, Linux, Windows Mobile, Microsoft, VoIP, Mobile Minute

Mobile Minute News: Silverlight on Windows Mobile, Skype on a smartphone

In today's mobile Minute, we'll take a look at some of the latest news and software related to Windows Mobile devices.

Silverlight coming to Windows Mobile

Microsoft's Silverlight technology is taking aim squarely at Adobe's Flash, which currently dominates interactive video on the web. But one area where Flash implementation has never been very good is mobile devices. It looks like Silverlight could be the platform of choice for interactive mobile web applications.

Check out this interview with .NET Compact Framework Principle Product Unit Manager Scott Holden for a look at a prototype of Silverlight running on a Smartphone.

SlingPlayer MobileHack allows SlingPlayer Mobile to run on Windows Mobile 6

Upgraded your Windows Mobile 5.0 device to Windows Mobile 6 only to find out that some of your favorite programs don't work? While we could make a case for if it ain't broke, don't fix it, in this case there might be a fix.

SlingPlayer for Windows Mobile didn't seem to want to run on Windows Mobile 6. Certainly Sling Media will release an update soon, but in the meantime, a member in the Sling Community forum has posted a modified installation file that seems to bring SlingPlayer Mobile to Windows Mobile 6.

Skype 2.2 beta for Windows Mobile released


Skype 2.2 beta
Skype has released an update to its client for Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones.

Version 2.2 beta offers a couple of new features, including support for smartphones, proxy support, and a bugfix to prevent random crashes during VoIP calls.

You can make free Skype to Skype phone calls from your mobile phone whether your contacts are using Skype on a mobile device or a PC. There's also support for SkypeIn and SkypeOut, so if you've got unlimited data minutes but a small pool of voice minutes, Skype for Windows Mobile could save you some money.

Flash Themes 2007FlashThemes Player 2007 released

Got too much memory on your device and looking for a way to eat up RAM? FlashThemes can help by providing animated Today Screens.

The 2007 version of FlashThemes offers support for Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 6 devices. There's support for landscape, portrait, and even square screens.

The program sells for $15, and the themes can run from $2 to $3 each. Still, if you have an urge to put an aquarium on your Today Screen, FlasThemes can help.

Werner Ruotsalainen's guide to Sega Genesis/Megadrive Emulators

PicoDriveWerner Ruotsalainen's on a roll. He recently wrote and updated several authoritative roundups of video games and emulators for Windows Mobile devices with a review of several programs that run Sega games.

As usual, the emulators are free, but the games are only 100% legal if you already own the original cartridge (and arguably if you rip the game from the cartridge yourself rather than downloading it from the internet).

Here's a quick recap of Ruotsalainen's review:
  • PicoDrive rocks.
  • Genesis Plus is a bit slower, but takes up less screen real estate.
  • Morphgear, Mobile Drive, PocketGenesis, darcNESCE, all still exist, but most of these programs haven't been updated in years and may not work with all the games you throw at them.
If you'd rather play NeoGeo games than Sonic the Hedgehog, Ruotsalainen has also written up a comprehensive review of NeoGeo emulators for Windows Mobile devices.

What do you get when you cross a UMPC with the iPhone?


Last month Intel announced that it would be supporting Linux with its upcoming ulta-mobile PC platform. And while desktop Linux applications don't usually win awards for their style (well, that's changing with the addition of Beryl/Compiz and other visual effects), the images we've seen of UMPCs running Linux have looked almost Appl-like.

That probably has something to do with the iPhone-like icons adorning the screens. But if you're curious to see what the interface looks like in action, eHomeUpgrade dug up this YouTube video.




It looks like a nice touchscreen interface for multimedia and web browsing. While UMPCs tend to pack a little more processing power than PDAs and Smartphones, it would be great to see a version of Linux or any other operating system that could run this smoothly on a pocketable device.
jobs & resumes
iPhone developer

Groupon - Chicago, IL (1 weeks ago)

See More Relevant Jobs ›

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse