Last December we showed you how Google refined its search results for iPhone and Android. The change loaded pages faster and fit the results to the screen width for searches generated from Google.com (plus for the specialized Google widget on Android and the search box on Safari.)...

Originally posted at Webware

Skype shucked the beta tag on Monday to reveal version 3.0 of its VoIP application for Windows Mobile phones. Skype 3.0 for Windows Mobile (download CAB) is nearly identical to the beta build that preceded it, but mobile Skype users graduating to it from version 2.5 will ...

Originally posted at The Download Blog

We've been eagerly awaiting developments to Fennec, the project name assigned to Mozilla's mobile version of its Firefox browser. We took a look when Fennec Alpha 1 came out for Windows Mobile phones. Late last week Mozilla released updates for Fennec on both its available platforms: Fennec 1.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

The WildCharger is one of those products that creates a problem that you didn't know you had. Though the product is certainly innovative and it succeeds at charging your cell phone without a wired connection, we never really thought that we needed to do so. What's more, unless ...

Energizer's SP2000 solar charger.

Through a partnership with XPAL Power, Energizer has expanded its Energi to Go line of portable battery packs in a big way. The newly branded chargers run the gamut from an iPhone 3G/3G S battery sleeve to a couple of solar chargers to a larger lithium ion charger that can juice up to three devices at once, including a laptop.

Most of the chargers include cell tips for various makes and models of cell phones, and you can get free new tips online as future phones come out.

Many of the battery packs are available already under the XPAL brand, but the new packaging should be appearing very soon in stores.

Energizer's new portable battery packs

Here's a look at the line and check out the slideshow above: ...

Originally posted at Crave

(Credit: Google)

This past weekend, Google introduced a new version of its glossy Maps application for Android phones. Version 3.1.0 brings with it several new features, including voice search to go with its text search field and transit and walking directions to go with step-by-step driving directions.

In ...

Originally posted at The Download Blog

If you're one of the Opera Mini users who had noticed some mildly strange behavior in the Opera Mini 4.2 browser for Java phones, you'll be happy to know that Opera quietly fixed the bug.

Users reported a problem, Opera said in a blog post, that reverted ...

Originally posted at The Download Blog

We knew that Opera Mobile 9.7 beta was on its way (in fact, we expected it in May,) but the build released to Windows Mobile consumers on Monday morning isn't exactly what we had anticipated given certain hints in the business build that support for Flash video was on its way. We should say, the inclusion of Opera Turbo was dead on. What we hadn't expected was a separate widget gallery to replace the one built into Opera Mobile 9.5 beta, the previous version.

More on Turbo and widgets in just one moment, but first the answer to what we think you really want to know--should you upgrade? Based on our tests of the preview build Opera let us test the Friday before the release, here's our take: While it won't slow you down if you do upgrade to Opera 9.7 beta from Opera 9.5 beta, and while it may even help you in a pinch, those with reliable fast coverage who don't plan on using more than Opera Mobile's core browsing features won't have much cause to reinstall.

Turbo-charged Opera Mobile 9.7

Enable Opera Turbo when you've got a weak connection.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

Now back to your regularly scheduled review. Opera Turbo is the by now much-touted compression and proxy engine used in Opera 10 beta (review), the desktop browser version released the first week of June. On Windows Mobile phones, Turbo also makes browsing faster for data connections below 3G speeds--in other words, EV-DO, EDGE, and other 2.5G connections. When Turbo's revved on the phone, it sends the page data to Opera's servers for proxy rendering. The servers then send a lighter version of the page back to the phone. While that makes Turbo much faster on data- and image-rich Web pages over slow connections, it also predictably slashes image quality.

Turbo's implementation in Opera Mobile 9.7 beta is (disappointingly) unchanged since we got a demo at CTIA in early April. Though automatic detection is enabled in Opera's version 10 beta desktop browser, beta testers will need to manually switch it on and off each time. It's easy enough to do in the Advanced portion of Opera Mobile's settings menu, but there is a detriment to letting Turbo slave away. If you're on Wi-Fi or 3G, you could experience more lag time while Turbo sends your data to Opera's servers and back. Also, your image quality will suffer. This will be the singlemost challenge for 9.7 beta testers.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

Warning: This is not its actual size.

It's only been about a month and a half since RIM released the last update to Facebook for Blackberry (and then a fix to that update just after that), and BlackBerry's maker has already come out with a ...

Originally posted at The Download Blog

We were struck by Gwabbit for BlackBerry's utility for the business set. Few could fail to miss the significance on your typing fingers of a program that scans your incoming e-mail for ...

Originally posted at The Download Blog