Mobile Software

There's a not-so-secret secret that BlackBerry Pearl owners in the know have been using to impress the socks off those astute enough to notice the glowing neon ball at the center of the handset. And that it isn't glowing white.

The trick is owed to a little software application called ColorPearl, which beams out multihued lights from RIM's famous navigation pearl by taking advantage of...well, we don't want to spoil the plot. Tune into this Quick Tip video from CNET Producer Randall Bennett to see the amazing Technicolor sphere in action.

Wednesday's beta release of a software development kit for Opera widgets brings the Norwegian company one step closer to its lofty goal of world browser domination.

Opera Software if offering the SDK for widget authors to deploy their Web applications on the spectrum of devices that support the Opera browser.

The Opera widget SDK was designed on W3C standards to support CSS, JavaScript, Ajax, and HTML languages. The kit itself contains an emulator, libraries, and documentation full of nuggets on best development practices. Along with the emulator, developers may find the included Opera Dragonfly debugging tool most useful; though … Read more

Shiny and glossy just like the iPhone itself is Fring, a relative newcomer to the VoIP-plus-IM communicator scene. Crowning itself the first true mobile VoIP solution for Apple's dream phone, Fring works with Skype, SIP, MSN Messenger (Windows Live Messenger), ICQ, Google Talk, Twitter, and Yahoo, though some of those services are clearly chat-only. CNET Executive Editor Tom Merritt shows you how to get started with Fring on your jailbroken iPhone in this Quick Tip video. If you like the program, you can still recommend Fring to friends who have to make do with merely Symbian, UIQ, and Windows Mobile … Read more

It's one thing to bang out a quick third-party program for a single phone model, and quite another to develop a mobile application that works as predicted on a battalion of cell phone models, each with their own set of finely cultured specs.

For numerous reasons, developers may not have all those phones at the ready, and when it comes time for final testing, emulators that live on the screen and mimic device behavior just aren't good enough.

If you're Palm, a mobile platform and device manufacturer that's fighting for its slimmed-down market share, you'd … Read more

The latest third-party iPhone app to draw blogosphere buzz this morning is most definitely not Apple-approved.

The object of hilarity and defamation is VistaPerfection 2.0, a theme by developer Spec-Works that plops the Windows Vista GUI onto the iPhone. To run it, you'll need a jailbroken iPhone (see video), the SummerBoard app, and a wicked sense of humor.

Spec-Works reports that the application took "a couple days" to create and includes more than 90 icons, wallpaper, and sounds, including the Vista log-in and log-off chime and a revamped taskbar.

Quite a few tech bloggers have been … Read more

I must admit, my interlude with the new BlackBerry Wallet in the quiet, early morning hours has been a bit of a letdown. That's because I'm comparing it with eWallet Professional and CodeWallet Pro, neither of which is available for BlackBerry (they patrol Windows Mobile territory, and in eWallet's case, Palm's,) and both of which guard much more information than credit card, gift card, password, and loyalty card numbers and details.

What I like about the other two wallets (reviewed side-by-side here) is their wide definition of sensitive data. If you're reaching for your smartphone … Read more

ToneThis hails from the school of personalized cell phone content that errs on the side of simplicity. Not everyone wants or needs dozens of settings to produce a functional ringtone or wallpaper photo, and to that end, ToneThis is the perfect entree for casual customizers.

It's got a few basic enhancements for editing ringtone length and adding fades, but it could stand to gain a few more. Even novice users might like to reduce red-eye in a favorite photo. Still, for many, ToneThis will be the hassle-free vehicle of choice for getting their videos, music, and photos onto their … Read more

On Tuesday, Opera sewed up a short beta run of Opera Mini 4.1. After a mere month and a half, the Norwegian software company declared the cell phone browser build stable enough to institute as the latest product standard.

Opera Mini 4.1, like Opera 9.5 Beta 2, can now guess the URL you want when you enter a search term in the address bar, a praiseworthy ability. It can also highlight terms on a Web page to let you zero in on most-wanted data bites. You'll use this Find feature, common to desktop browsers, by hitting … Read more

Google has chosen 50 finalists in the Android Developer Challenge, doling out $1.25 million in the process.

As part of a bid to heighten interest in Android, Google's forthcoming mobile operating system, the company has been running a contest for prospective Android developers to submit their ideas for the platform. A total of 1,788 entries were received from 70 countries.

Android is envisioned as a mobile phone operating system for mass-market phones, not necessarily smart phones like the iPhone or BlackBerry Bold. Google and its partners in the Open Handset Alliance hope to release phones running the … Read more