Pocket PC: Generally speaking, tennis sims for mobile devices are pretty lame. Fiddly controls and jerky animation are often the main culprits in the failings of these titles. Not so in VT Pocket Tennis though, which proves to be one the most enjoyable games of its kind on the Pocket PC. It has a wonderfully realistic feel to it, with well-rendered 3D players, authentic shadow effects and motion blur.

Mac: If you’ve gone crazy for the iPhone then why not bring the iPhone look to your Mac? Spiffy Icon Pack provides over 50 iPhone style icons that give your Mac a unique flavor. All of the icons are beautifully illustrated featuring most major Mac program icons including Adobe Dreamweaver, Excel, iChat, iDVD, iTunes and Skype to name just a few.

Windows: After a short invite-only beta stage, Trillian has now launched as an open beta, which means you can freely download this powerful, sleek multi-platform IM client and give it a try. The new Trillian Astra Beta 4.0.0.109 features support for a dozen IM protocols and has an extensive settings menu to fully customize it.

Pocket PC: Browsing the Web on a mobile phone is traditionally such a painful process that many of us simply don’t bother. Thankfully things are beginning to change though, thanks to apps such as Firefox Mobile, or Fennec as it’s also known. The alpha version is now available to test drive, but you’ll need an HTC Touch Pro, because this is the only device that Fennec is currently compatible with.

Windows: Want to create a presentation with your photos but don’t even know where to start? Muvee Reveal is the app you need. This awesome editor lets you create attractive video presentations in a variety of formats, including your favorite images and short video clips. The program is dead easy to use and includes a bunch of themes and transition effects.

Mac: Ripping a DVD is the process of extracting all the video files from that disk so that you can make copies of it (for your own use of course). However, DVDs can contain hundreds of video, audio, subtitle and menu files that can also be highly encrypted making copying or ripping a real chore. RipIt has been made so that even a beginner to ripping will be able to make their own backups in just a few steps.

Windows: If you know how to use Photoshop you surely can follow this tutorial to create a tilt-shift effect. But if you don’t, there’s an easier option for you. It’s called TiltShift Generator and enables you apply an attractive tilt-shift effect to your images in a snap and obtain really eye-catching results. Why don’t you give it a go?

Pocket PC: If you’re the kind of person who prefers to play games alone then Astraware Solitaire 1.26 could be just the download for you. The suite contains 12 different single-player card games, including the likes of Klondike, Pyramid, Spider, Clock and Yukon. Each game has customizable gameplay options, allowing you to tailor the rules to how you like to play it.

Mac: If you’re a bit of a computer whiz, then you probably often get asked by friends and family to sort out their latest Mac or PC disasters. However, if you live far apart, have a busy lifestyle or can’t get to them easily, you might find CrossLoop a godsend. With a network of online Mac and PC experts ready to help connect to you and fix your machine, CrossLoop is an essential free remote admin tool.

Pocket PC : Using your mobile to watch online video? Why not give vtap a go? Search for videos without opening a web browser, or even visiting the site. Vtap pulls content from most major video sites, providing a convenient way to watch whatever you want from your Pocket PC.

Mac: If you’ve ever read Dave Allen’s Getting Things Done then the newly updated Things might help you put some of his advice into practice. Things is an innovative task management program for Mac which lets you easily create tasks and organize them by type and importance in guiding you to become a more efficient worker.

Windows: If an e-reader is a gadget too far for you, but you like the idea of reading an electronic newspaper in its intended format, The New York Times TimesReader may be an answer. It’s really readable, and beautifully presented. This may be the model for the survival of newspapers in the future.

Mac: Although uTorrent has come along and proved stiff competition, Transmission (updated to version 1.60) remains one of best torrent clients out there on Mac thanks to a beautiful interface and a simple set of intuitive features. This new version brings many more improvements to an already solid release. You can set different priority levels for torrents and establish stall limit times, new speed limit modes and have more control over bandwidth.

Pocket PC: Install VirusChaser and a bug will be unleashed on your PDA, that no antivirus software can save you from. Instead you’ll have to do the job yourself. Don’t panic, because VirusChaser is just a game, in which you need to prevent a green bug escaping from a network of tiles. To do this you need to block its way by creating barriers from green tiles. Just click on a tile to turn it green. Hurry up though before you get infected!

Windows: After a few months of beta testing, Microsoft has finally launched Windows 7 RC. This version fixes hundreds of bugs and improves the system’s general performance, while keeping the same cool new features we already saw in the Beta.  You can ownload the ISO file - Windows Live account required - and try it for free until June 1st, 2010.

Is Sony planning to add its movie catalog to YouTube? [Ars Technica]

Rumour: Windows Mobile powered ZuneHD details ‘released’ [Engadget]

Amazon.com ‘to block’ Phorm ad network [BBC]

What celebrities were dead by your age [Dead At Your Age]

Twitter fight: Larry King versus Ashton Kutcher [TechCrunch]

Webby nominees announced [Webby Awards]

Windows: If you’re jealous of Apple OSX’s dock, Xwindows Dock will give you a pretty sweet version of it for your XP or Vista desktop. It’s not perfect, and doesn’t entirely replace the Windows taskbar, but it looks the part, and does actually feature most of the things, like stacks, that the Leopard version does. Not bad for free!

Pocket PC: With all this climate change going on it’s getting ever harder to work out whether you need to take an umbrella out with you, or pack your suntan lotion. Luckily, if you install Elecont Weather on your PDA, you shouldn’t get caught unprepared again. This app provides you with 10-day, up-to-the-hour forecasts forecasts for more than 51,000 different cities across the World.

Mac: If you’ve ever dreamed of a life without limits or boundaries then Second Life is for you. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by over 100,000 people from around the globe with whom you can interact, trade and live that life you’ve always dreamt of

Windows: Are you planning to move to a new home? Do you want to redecorate any of the rooms in your apartment? IKEA Home Planner is the app you’re looking for. This free, easy-to-use decoration tool helps you organize furniture arrangement and preview decoration in any room, using the extensive IKEA catalog and also calculating the final price

Pocket PC: If you’ve got a Windows Mobile device with a G-Sensor built in then give Resco Bubbles a try.Your objective in this fun game is to pop all of the bubbles that are spread across the screen by rolling a marble. That might sound easy, but the catch is that these bubbles are numbered and you need to burst them in order.

Mac: It’s really annoying when you can’t access video sites restricted to US users such as Hulu and certain YouTube videos. Hotspot Shield is a free software that allows you not only to secure your connection while surfing wifi hotspots, but also to access sites not normally available outside of the USA. It creates a Virtual Private Network between your computer and the developer’s website Anchorfree based in the USA so you’re free to surf!

Windows: If you’re looking for a complete maintenance toolkit for your system, you’ve come to the right place. Comodo system Cleaner Portable is a full featured cleaning and optimizing suite that includes all the tools you need to analyze, diagnose and fix the most common computer problems. Plus, it doesn’t require installation and doesn’t leave any trace.

Mac: If you’ve ever played Bust-a-Move then you’ll love Frozen Bubble which is a hugely popular puzzle game on the Mac. Frozen Bubble is a classic matching 3 game where you have to eliminate other bubbles by blasting them with the appropriate colors. Your cute penguin type character aims your shots using a turning wheel upon which your canon is placed. Your aim is to destroy the balls before they destroy you!

Pocket PC: Why phone someone when you can chat with them using instant messaging? If you’re hooked on IM then you may want to install Slick, a free messaging client that lets you communicate with friends via AIM, Yahoo!, MSN and ICQ. Among the program’s array of features are the ability to share files, view chat history and set up alerts.

Windows: Design custom templates for a webpage or blog with Artisteer, even if you have no idea about HTML coding or CSS style sheets. This WYSIWYG editor lets you create professional templates in a snap: choose elements, customize them to your liking and preview the result in your browser. Easy as pie!

Pocket PC: It’s that time of the year again when the World goes F1 crazy in the tun-up to the first race of the season at the end of the month. f you’re a fan of the motorsport and want to follow the season’s thrills and spills on your Windows Mobile device then you really shouldn’t be without F1 Season 2009. The program contains a wealth of information about the calendar, courses, tracks, drivers and teams.

Mac: Fancy your chances at trying to land a place in the Hudson? X Plane is the world’s most comprehensive and powerful flight simulator with a level of realism that’s hard to beat. You can choose from turbo props, jets, single and multi-engine airplanes, as well as gliders, helicopters and even VTOLs such as the V-22 Osprey and AV8-B Harrier.

Wolfram search engine “could be as important as Google” [Guardian]

Microsoft to allow deactivation of Windows components [BBC]

Make your own comic strips online [Stripgenerator]

Al Gore wants a ‘green’ .eco domain [New Scientist]

Windows Mobile Marketplace site goes live (sort of) [the::unwired]

Windows: Diagrams are the best way to organize ideas and manage big projects. With EDraw Mindmap you can easily create your own diagrams, mind maps and flowcharts, either from scratch or making use of the extensive collection of templates and graphics included in the program. Plus you can save your diagram in a variety of formats.

Pocket PC:  Despite all the latest computer gaming technology and newfangled consoles, it’s often the most basic games that stand the test of time - like Uno, for instance. Pocket Uno is a Windows Mobile version of the classic card game, whereby you need to be the first person to get rid of all your cards. It’s a faithful recreation of the original, with the same colors and designs on the cards and exactly the same rules.

Mac: If neither Picasa or iPhoto have grabbed you then maybe you should try organizing your photos by content. Shoebox is the solution for organizing all of your photos by content. You add photos to categories, which describe everything in your photographic world. Categorizing is as simple as a few key clicks, and then you can browse and search your photos by content.

Windows: Even if you don’t like browser toolbars , you should definitely give Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer a try. It gives you instant access to all of Google’s services, plus other useful tools. The latest version, Google Toolbar 6 Beta, includes enhanced search suggestions, a handy new tab page with thumbnails to your favorite sites and an awesome desktop launcher.

Pocket PC: Microsoft has been busy of late ramping up its Windows Live offering, and now all of these communication tools are available in one place on your Pocket PC. Windows Live for Mobile provides you with instant access to Windows Live tools from within your device. It’s designed to make it easier for you to stay in touch with your contacts on Hotmail and Windows Live Spaces, as well as performing web searches and syncing your contacts.

Mac: If you’re not a big fan of uTorrent then Transmission is one of the best alternative torrent clients on Mac thanks to a beautiful interface and a simple set of intuitive features. This new version brings many more improvements to an already solid release. You can set different priority levels for torrents, establish stall limit times, limit download speeds and much more.

With so many different ways to contact people these days, phoning someone up is often the third or fourth option many of us think of when we want to get in touch with them. And as the mobile Internet gets faster and cheaper, more of us will be using our phones for email, instant messaging, VoIP, and accessing our social networks. This could mean that within just a few years, none of us will actually be making standard mobile calls, but rather using our handsets to send Facebook updates, post tweets to Twitter, chat on Google Talk, and talk via Skype.

The infrastructure to enable this to be done in a cost-effective way isn’t quite there yet, but the technology to do all of this certainly is. Recently, we’ve seen Skype announce that it will be bundled onto all new Nokia N-Series devices, and mobile IM apps such as qeep and Slick are growing in popularity. The leader in this field of multi-platform mobile communication is arguably Nimbuzz. This mobile social messenger, which I reviewed for Softonic a while back, is starting to attract some serious attention from both users and the mobile industry as a whole. Nimbuzz  already receives 20,000 new users every day, and has 12 language versions serving subscribers in more than 200 countries. It has been top of the iPhone App Store, won a Red Herring Global 100 award, and recently joined to the Research In Motion affiliate program.

I recently caught up with Geoff Casely, VP of Manufacture Markets at Nimbuzz, at the World Mobile Congress. Not only did he give me a demo (above) of the product in action on a Nokia N78, but he also outlined his vision for mobile social messaging and how it could spell the end of the mobile phone call: Read the rest of this entry »

Visiting a bar isn’t all about just getting drunk and chewing the fat with the locals. In fact, pubs are often a breeding ground for some of the most successful sportsmen on the planet. Heroes such as snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan and darts legend Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor honed their skills in the smoky games rooms of their local watering holes.

We all know that pub sports aren’t the most strenuous of activities but if you’re so lazy that you can’t even be bothered to get up and walk to the local bar then stop panicking. You can now enjoy your favorite pub games on your mobile phone. Grab yourself a cold one and install these fun sports on your device.

If you’re into darts then you’re spoiled for choice in terms of titles. One of my personal favorites is the graphically-rich Power Dart for Symbian Series 60 devices. The game allows you to play the popular ‘01′ tournaments (i.e. 301, 401, 501, 601) against the computer, or challenge your friends over Bluetooth. Arrows games for other platforms include Darts for iPhone, Darts (Java), Darts Deluxe (Palm), and Dartz (Windows Mobile).

Pool fans also get a plethora of choices when it comes to mobile games. The king of the genre is Virtual Pool Mobile, which is available for a range of different mobile phone platforms. This impressive 3D simulation sees you start your career in a garage then work you way up by defeating different opponents in a range of locations. Other decent pool games include Vegas Pool Sharks (multi-platform), Pool Rebel (Windows Mobile), and Pool House (Palm).

An alternative ball-blasting game, popular in British boozers, is bar billiards. The object of this one is to accumulate points by strategically potting the eight balls into any of the nine holes, which each have a points value. You also have to contend with three pegs that are placed on the table, each of which affects your points tally in a different way when it. It sounds complicated but it’s quite easy to pick up, as you’ll see if you install Pocket Bar Billiards on your Windows Mobile phone.

My personal favorite barroom sport is table football, mainly because it’s a lot less strenuous than the  real thing (and you actually play better after a couple of lagers). Masterkick is an awesome foosball sim that’s available for a wide range of different mobile operating systems. The game looks and sounds great and offers a realistic handle-twiddling experience. Alternatively, you could try Resco Table Soccer, which supports Windows Mobile devices.

Dominoes is one of the oldest bar games around and has been played in taverns ever since the times when smugglers and pirates would bet with each other for pieces of silver or parrots. Real Dice Dominoes allows you to take on up to four real-life players online, or a strong computer opponent. All players take their turns to lay down their slabs so that the number of dots corresponds to those of the last domino played. Whoever gets rid of all their stones first is declared the winner. The game is available for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian handsets.