There it is! Opera Mobile is available in beta version. You can get it here (http://www.opera.com/mobile/). No doubt I will buy it as it gets released, but I have also been one of the lucky beta tester of Skyfire (http://www.skyfire.com/) and have to say that so far Skyfire is from far the best.

Despite a few bugs with my Axim which were quickly solved it is smooth and offers native youtube video support. On the other hand Opera Mobile 10 is just great as it goes with surfing and has nothing to envy to the iphone. Give it a try!

I just tried the latest Google maps version on my Blackberry (yerk). Though I am not a Blackberry fan, I have to admit that Google developed a masterpiece. Not only does the application look great, presenting a crisp cartography, but to my greatest surprise it was able to locate me with a fair precision (+/- 1,7 Km). It seems indeed that Google uses the GSM antenna's signal which contains some kind of positioning information to locate you on the map. This constitutes a cheap alternative to a GPS system, especially when you only use it from time to time. Keep in mind that Google maps download the maps in real time which may inflate your phone bill beyond reasonable if your rate plan does not allow for unlimited data traffic. Unfortunately I haven' t got a Windows mobile smartphone but do expect the same feature to be present in this latest version.

 Softmaker has just released a beta version of their popular Office suite. Most interesting addition is the capability to convert your documents to pdf or to print it to a network printer or a bluetooth printer server. The only little disappointment is that it requires a third party software, named Jetcet for enabling this network printing feature. On the good side it now includes a Powerpoint-like application that will allow to create your presentation directly from your handled device. I personally use Pocket slides but I will give it a try though.

Check it under: http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofp08_en.htm

I am part of the numerous Dell Axim X51v owners that had to deplore the stop of their production. Not to mention the rumours that have
preceeded Dell's official announcement, mentioning the release of a free WM6.5 upgrade...twice disappointed that's more that I can stand.