Microsoft has just warned that the End-of-Support time for Windows XP SP2 and the initial release of Windows Vista is nearing:

If you currently use one of the above-mentioned operating systems, you will no longer receive updates and patches after the specified dates. Fortunately, the solution is easy: install the latest service pack…

P.S. Windows 2000 heads: your EOL time is in July…irregardless of the service pack you use!

A press release has just gone out. It states the following:

KANSAS CITY, MO and LONDON, UK – January 27, 2010 – Handmark®, the world’s leading developer and distributor of mobile applications and services, today announced it has spun off its mobile games studio, Astraware, as the company streamlines its business to focus on other strategic areas of mobile development and support.

Astraware returns to the management of Howard Tomlinson and David Oakley, two of the original founders, and will remain a Handmark preferred partner. Handmark will continue to support Astraware on a variety of distribution and promotional opportunities.

“We saw a great opportunity to join forces with Astraware to help create and extend a collection of fun, well-designed mobile games titles to a new audience, and we did just that,” said Paul Reddick, Handmark CEO. “I still see a great opportunity for their team to continue proving their leadership as a major player in mobile games and we will continue to work alongside them.”

…

The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

P.S. I asked them about specifics of the deal at a tradeshow two years ago – and got a really really pissed off HandMark manager on my back…

While we usually ignore these beautiful critters on the Tamoggemon Content network, Gizmodo’s most-useless gadgets of the decade list struck my interest.

While most of the victims are weird, largely useless gadgets, the following boxen also made it on the list:

• Sony Clié PEG-NZ90 (IMHO undeserved)
• Nokia N-Gage (all incarnations)
• AppleTV (oh, the horror)
• Motorola Q9m (not sure about the Verizon UI)
• Omnia II (IMHO undeserved)

Feel that the ratings are justified? Let us know in the comments!

Onto more serious things: a recent Wall Street Journal report quoted AT&T’s CEO as follows:

With about 3% of smart-phone customers driving 40% of data traffic, AT&T is considering incentives to keep those subscribers from hampering the experience for everyone else, he said. “You can rest assured that we’re very sure we can address it in a way that’s consistent with net-neutrality and FCC regulations.”

So much for Pareto…

The folks at Engadget mobile have posted videos, a transcript and loads of shots from the event.

Hit the link below to learn more:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/08/samsung-teases-bada-at-event-questions-still-outnumber-answers/

They have just released a top-ten list containing the top fields where consumer application growth will take place in 2010. It reads as follows:

1. Money Transfer
2. Location-based services
3. Mobile search
4. Mobile browsing
5. Mobile health monitoring
6. Mobile payment
7. NFC
8. Mobile Advertising
9. Mobile IM
10. Mobile Music

While the keywords themselves are not too meaningful, having them in your pitch can definitely be heklful when going for venture capital. Further information can be had at the URL above…

A big thank-you to Resco’s Jan Slodicka for the tip!

CrackBerry.com now shares the picture below:

Just in case anyone of you wonders: BlackBerry devices can NOT run VersaMail…

A big thank-you goes to alphasmartuser who sent this in

On September 28th, 2009 we updated the Application UI Checklist, which you should use to cross-check your app’s UI before submitting it to the App Catalog. The checklist is mainly intended for standard applications, to ensure that they work, look and feel like other standard webOS applications. But there are other kinds of applications – apps that provide an “immersive, customized” user experience, like what we commonly see in games. Does the UI Checklist apply to those apps? We’ve been asked that a lot lately.   [...]

Want to read the full article? Visit http://pdnblog.palm.com/2009/10/immersive-app-guidelines/

…

First, let me say that I like what Palm is doing with the Pre from a developer perspective except one major flaw. A year ago I wrote a post on the recipe for beating Apple and highlighted three things that the company needed to do. Palm has nailed two of the three:

1. Build a beautiful, touchscreen device.
2. Make it synchronize with web-based applications.
3. Focus on offline use of web-based applications.

Palm is flubbing #3.

…

Elia then goes on to give a pretty detailed picture of what he thinks to be wrong in webOS – hit the link below for the full scoop:
http://eliainsider.com/2009/08/16/palm-pre-fastfigures-and-powerone/

…Extra employees will be on hand to manage crowds … Sprint is also borrowing manpower from partner Palm … the additional help will stick around for two months, Owens says.

Both companies are also establishing “situation rooms” to quickly address problems that might arise during launch, particularly tech support issues…