I have been lucky enough to be included in the closed beta of the new Skyfire Browser. Before I opened the newly installed browser on my windows mobile standard smartphone, I honestly didn’t think it would be as cool as it turns out to be. Watch the video below to learn more:
 EDIT note: This video is also available on YouTube
If you are a Boingo Hotspot Subscriber you will be pleased to know that they have finally added support for Windows Mobile 6 devices. Boingo provides unlimited PDA Wifi subscriptions for around $7.95 a month and has thousands of access points worldwide with over 5700 in the US. The Shadow is listed as a supported device and all Windows Mobile 6 devices do require a client application download to access the service.
It might be helpful to check the access points in your area. If the T-Mobile Hotspot plan seems pricey for the number of points you now have more options. If you don’t frequent Starbucks that often then Boingo might be the way to go for you.
Torch Mobile recently announced the Iris Browser for Windows Mobile 6. Which means it will work on the Shadow. I haven’t had a chance to go through all the features and to see exactly how compatible it is with the Smartphone platform. The .cab file download is about 2MB and the install size is about 5MB.
 It promises full web page like viewing on mobile devices. A quick look at the specs didn’t sow mention of Flash support but it supposedly gives more customisation including tabs and a mouse cursor. I wanted to let you all know as soon as possible but in the last few minutes I have had to play with this it does seem to deliver on the full web page rendering.
If you do download and install this, you might not want to select ‘Full Screen’ as the soft keys disappear and don’t seem to want to work anymore.
More to come later as the situation unfolds…
If you haven’t seen the big brown square to the right then you might like to know that AllShadow.com has a store that is tailored specifically to the T-Mobile Shadow. With all kinds of smartphone software built specifically for the Windows Mobile Standard platform for you to choose from everyone will be able to find something that fills their needs.
When the store opened we gave a discount code for 20% off software. This code is good for five more days so take advantage of it while you can! If you need some recommendations see this post outlining some hardware and software you might be interested in.
Sales go towards helping AllShadow.com stay open and available as a valuable community resource and forum.
Thank you all for your patronage!
An insider tip says that T-Mobile is finally saying the next gen network they have been working on forever will be going live in the third quarter. Specific details are scarce but one can speculate that major metro areas will more than likely be the release point for this network. Of course all the current handsets will still work so you won’t have to buy a new phone to use the network.
On the other hand, the ability for current handsets to take advantage of the higher speed data rate remains to be seen.
T-Mobile has issued an update for the Shadow. Many of you have already taken the plunge and updated your Shadows. We’d like to hear from those that have the new update and know how things are going. Of interest to many is the ‘enhanced text entry’, faster performance and better battery life. So hit that Comments link and let others know if you think it’s worth it.
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Text messaging is great but sometimes you get a message out of context or just want an old fashioned instant messaging interface. That is where threaded text messaging comes in. Read the full article to see what I found. Read Full Entry
A supervisor at T-Mobile just sent me an email detailing some additional features in the most recent update ROM for the T-Mobile Shadow. It’s great to know that T-Mobile listens and cares about the community and aims to correct problems we have. Read the full article for more of the changes/updates/features in the new ROM: Read Full Entry
Before you go clicking on and updating your Shadow please understand some things. There aren’t many software improvements in this update as far as I can tell. It is more of a fun update than anything else. If you do decide to update your Shadow with the new ROM update be advised you will completely erase all information from your phone and will be starting over from scratch. That being said, perform a complete and full synchronization of the Shadow with your PC and even take a minute to write down what you have installed yourself and any hacks you have done so you can restore these faster.
What the update includes:
With that being said you can go here for the update.
EDIT: You can also discuss this with other Shadow owners in this thread in our forums.
 The major players are on the stage now, with releases ’sometime soon’ for most, and the mobile community has only to wait to catch some browsing goodness.
 SkyFire promises a mobile experience similar to the desktop, is light on the CPU as it renders on the server side. That is the downside though. Someone can easily have access to what you are viewing. So for those with privacy concerns, this might not be the browser for you.
 Opera has Mobile and Mini. Mini requires Java on your device to use and can be buggy because of this implementation. Mini also uses server side rendering. The current version of Opera Mobile is nice with the Tabbed Browsing and other features, but doesn’t pack enough punch for me to shell out some dollars for it. The upcoming version is positioned to change my stance though. With desktop-like browsing accomplished all on the device this appears to be the winner for me, but we will have to wait and see.
 As of right now Mozilla’s Mobile Firefox looks like it wants to fight but no solid release date is in site. The super old version of it was nice to play with but had way too many bugs to be useful. The new version is a completely new beast and has one major advantage over SkyFire and Opera Mobile, it’s free. The downside is that it is open source and sometimes these projects take way too long to come to fruition.
There are other 3rd party browsers and plugins for PIE that enhance it’s functionality but none that complete the experience.
 If you want to stay on track with Skyfire, sign up for notifications at their website.
Opera has a nice page about the upcoming Opera Mobile 9.5 and provides a sly download link for the current version 8.95 if you haven’t tried it out yet.
If you want to keep track of Mobile Firefox or even contribute to the project a good place to start is their Project Page. There are meeting minutes, bug tracking and to do lists galore for the devout.
Stayed tuned into AllShadow.com for full coverage of this war as it pertains to Windows Mobile Standard/Smartphone and the T-Mobile Shadow.
The AllShadow.com team gets a lot of emails about syncing with a Mac. There is a 3rd Party application that supposedly works flawlessly for Windows Mobile <-> Mac syncing. I don’t own a Mac so I can’t personally verify this. So I ask you, the community, if you own a Mac and use Missing Sync, what are your experiences so far?
If you own a Mac and do not already have it, go get Missing Sync and let us know.
Long time contender Opera is setting to release Opera Mobile 9.5 which promises a slew of useful features. The video below is shown on a Pocket PC so no word on how it will look on the smartphone/windows mobile standard platform. The application is feature rich and seems to be worth the money they usually ask for it. Maybe they will see an increase in sales finally.
A quick list of features in Opera Mobile 9.5:
One thing I am really looking forward to is the device side rendering. Opera Mini is nice but the rendering is performed server side so a 3rd party has access to what you are seeing, which is how the SkyFire browser does business.
If you want to know more about it check out their product page for some specs or watch the video below for a preview of what lies in store:
Austin Whitelaw points us to a preview video put out by the creators of the browser themselves.
 Enjoy!
The Super Bowl is here, literally, it’s practically in my backyard here in Phoenix. The parties are going to be tremendous and the traffic is going to be horrible 
. For the those of you that want to stay in touch with the Super Bowl, or other sports while on the go, I have put together 3 easy to access, easy to use mobile sites dedicated to sports. So enter these into your Mobile Browser and Add them to your favorites before you leave the house. Below are some screen shots of the sites and their respective address for your mobile phone.
NFL.com -Â or wap.nfl.comÂ
Foxsports.com or sports.mobile.msn.com
Just type store.allshadow.com into your mobile browser and Voila! you can browse at your mobile convenience. So if you are out and about somewhere and need a new application you know where to go. All this software will work on other Smartphones as well. So people with other Windows Mobile Standard phones can also partake in the goodness.
Enjoy!
