So there was my TyTN II on eBay with 1 day and 1 hour left until the auction closed. It was on £205 and 49 people were watching the auction, which would normally mean a finishing price of around £400. This is a good price for a device that is a few months old, and yet I pulled the auction.

The TyTN II is big, bulky and unfortunately rather boring in almost every way. It is no beauty queen and many simply functions require too many touches to complete, which becomes irritating after a while. In the time that I have owned it, there has not been one major issue. GPS works perfectly every time, as does the GPRS connection for traffic updates. MS Exchange is flawless and I have had little reason to complain at all.

My Palm Centro has performed well in the time I have had it and it is incredibly quick to use, and as a day to day phone and PDA there is nothing I have seen to match it. The specs are poor but who cares if it works? My company car is rubbish on paper, but OK to drive each day and it never lets me down. My main issue with the Centro has turned out to be similar to the ones I had with the Treo-

Battery life could be a lot better, but is definitely better than the Treo. I usually have to top off the battery by 3pm on a busy day.

TomTom is not good on the Centro after all. It does slow at times with MS Exchange enabled and the TomTom Traffic signal drops 5 minutes into every trip. To be fair, Palm say it is not compatible but that has not stopped almost every retailer selling it as an accessory for the Centro. Maybe Garmin XT works perfectly on the Centro, and if you have tried it let us all know.

It does require management- I have had a few soft resets for no apparent reason, and soft resets do throw the time accuracy out. It’s not a big deal but a little quirk I could do without.

On the TyTN, I never have to tweak anything. It all works perfectly and is ultra stable, but oh so boring! Yes, a smartphone is not supposed to be exciting but some sense of enjoying the experience would be nice.

As it stands, the Centro and TyTN II are polar opposites that have genuine plus and minus points. I cannot figure out which is best for me, but suspect a workable GPS solution on the Centro would be enough to just pip the TyTN.

PDA247 is 6 years old!

As is traditional, we are going to celebrate by holding a competition, and this time you can enter whatever content you like!

It's completely up to you what you send in, but there are some specific areas that are worth remembering. We need a new forum banner (400x45 pixels maximum size) which should fit the current design, we are tempted to try new web site banners (1 for each site needed) and besides those you can send in software, hardware or accessory reviews. You can send in articles about the PDA world in general or maybe a few items that are newsworthy.

Whatever you choose to send in please make sure that you title your email "6th Birthday". You can also enter via the forum thread detailed below. Here's the prizes so far-

To enter please send an email with your entry (entitled "6th Birthday") to shaun (at) mailstm.co.uk or post your entry in this forum thread.

The closing date is midnight (UK time) 21st March 2008, so you have some time to think up a good entry.

I have added some free wallpapers in various sizes to the forum for you to download. Go to this thread and take a look.

If you would like to add some yourself, you can send them in to shaun (at) mailstm.co.uk or add them in the forum itself.

NEW YORK - As referenced during the company’s keynote speech at the recent Game Developers’ Conference, Gameloft, a leading developer and publisher of mobile phone games, today confirmed its intention to develop over 15 mobile games built  upon Apple’s iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK).

Though the SDK was recently released, games will only be available to purchase once the App Store, featuring third party applications that can be downloaded to your device via WiFi or EDGE, launches in June 2008.

Utilizing the SDK package, Gameloft development teams have started to create a strong line-up for 2008. As expected, iPhone proves to be a revolutionary gaming device, thanks in part to a 3.5-inch widescreen, the touch screen feature, a strong 3D processor and other exciting features such as the accelerometer.

“The iPhone gaming environment opens a new era in mobile gaming and is exactly what we’ve been waiting for” said Michel Guillemot, President of Gameloft. “The Apple iPhone has changed the way consumers perceive and interact with their mobile phones, and the release of the SDK is a tremendous opportunity for Gameloft to apply its creative and innovative approach to mobile gaming,” said Guillemot.  “Due to our investment in creating one of the most advanced and creative development studios to date, we are ideally positioned today to seamlessly integrate new opportunities and quickly produce games that are as evolutionary as they are enjoyable.”

Gameloft has already proven successful in their recent relationship with Apple by developing mobile games that are uniquely adapted to the iPod, one of the most widely accepted technological devices in the mass market. 
 
Gameloft sells over 200,000 games per day throughout 80 countries. Its 200+ titles, including 40 games that sold over 1 million copies worldwide, have received year after year the best ranking scores from media specialists. Gameloft is the worldwide number one mobile game publisher in revenues according to the official Q4 2007 figures published by mobile game companies for that quarter.

PDair has released a very nice Leather case for the Apple MacBook 13"-

Contains 2 credit card slots.
Opens and closes with magnetic ,for ease of use.
White stitch finishing,making this case look more beautiful.

Thursday's introduction of an iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) has game developers everywhere excited about the possibilities of iPhone game development, especially after seeing game demonstrations during the event. Developers agreed that Apple is pushing the iPhone as a major portable gaming platform.

"This is the coolest thing I've seen in game development in 15 years, except maybe for the Nintendo Wii," said Glenda Adams, director of development for long-time Mac game publisher Aspyr Media.

Adams said that iPhone development plays uniquely into Aspyr's strengths: their in-house developers have experience with the core technology that the iPhone uses, such as OpenGL, Cocoa and Apple's user interface. They also have experience developing applications for the mobile space.

Electronic Arts (EA) and Sega both showed off iPhone games in development. EA showed off an iPhone-specific version of Spore, the forthcoming game from Will Wright, maker of The Sims and SimCity, while Sega introduced an iPhone version of Super Monkey Ball, a game that first appeared on Nintendo's GameCube console. More at Macworld. Thanks to Trevor.

Karen has sent in details of the ASUS S71. engadget hate it, Karen loves it, I hate the design, but love the idea.

We hear it's pretty tough being a gadget with an identity crisis, and unfortunately for Asus' MS71, it definitely feels that pain. Thankfully for consumers who aren't turned off by rectangular (or atypically slender) mice, at least it provides a bit of extra utility. Quite simply, the base of the critter snaps off to plug into any open USB port; from there, it enables what's left to function as a wireless mouse and allows users to store an undisclosed amount of files on the appendage. No word on pricing or availability, but unless you place absolutely no value on ergonomics, we'd probably look elsewhere.