The Mobile Fun Blog

AT&T (NYSE: T) announced a new member of its rugged family, Airo Wireless A25is, which they say is the “world’s first intrinsically safe-certified smartphone.” Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1, the A25is has undergone intrinsic safety certification testing and approval for UL 913 (North America) and also meets rugged military specifications (MIL-SPEC 810-F/G). In other words, it is rated to survive a fall of almost 50 inches at least 26 times, be shock-proof across 1,000 miles of transport in a vehicle on shaky terrain, and withstand up to 95 percent humidity for 48 hours and immersion in up to five feet of water for 30 minutes.

As if the term “Windows Phone 7 Series” wasn’t lame enough, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is pushing its latest operating system at “life maximizers.”

Zero Emission has announced the release of Short Order Cook, a fast-paced casual game that challenges players’ skills of recognition, concentration and trains their memory. In Short Order Cook, at the outset of each level a food image on a kitchen ticket and its matching tile are revealed for a short time. Once the tiles are flipped over, the challenge is to memorize the location of the matching pairs as quickly and as precise as possible. After all pairs of images have been revealed, the user needs to correctly select the matching tile for each kitchen ticket when it turns over.

‘Zagat To Go’, the app that connects you to trusted ratings and reviews of thousands of restaurants all over the world, is now available for webOS! Yessir, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre and Pixi users can now pop open the Zagat app to find nearby restaurants via GPS, check out service reviews, typical costs, top rated lists, browse by food types and decor… and much more. The Zagat to Go app is really quite powerful, and I dare say it’s a must have for anyone that does a lot of ‘finer’ dining week-in and week-out.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Zune — along with Expression Blend, Silverlight, Visual Studio and XNA — may yet save Windows Phone 7 Series. During the kick-off MIX10 keynote earlier today, Microsoft product managers showcased features, development scenarios and, most importantly, user experiences derived from Zune HD. Perhaps Windows Phone 7 Series isn’t a hopelessly lost cause after all. Microsoft’s competitive postion would actually look good, if phones were shipping now and not in six to eight months.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

One year can change a lot.

Today, Microsoft used the MIX ‘10 stage in Las Vegas to show off a lot of the applications that are currently being prepared to launch with Windows Phone 7 Series, and they are a far cry from the poor Windows 6.5 showing at last year’s MIX event.

FunMobility is America’s largest mobile content community, used by 27 different companies, and on 550 handsets. With almost 76,700,000 customers, when the team announces something, people listen. Enter FunTweet, a Twitter client that adds images to one’s tweet based on keywords found within the tweet.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Now that buzz about Apple’s patent lawsuit against HTC has quieted a bit, I’m ready to pipe in with some contrarian analysis. I agree with other pundits suggesting that the lawsuit is competition by litigation, where Apple hopes to scare off mobile manufacturers from licensing Android. Surely some handset manufacturers will pull back, but they would be foolish to do so. For other existing and potential Android licensees, the lawsuit is a get out of jail free card. Apple’s patent case should embolden, not restrain them. There may never be a better time to license Android than now.

Right from the floor of GDC, EA Mobile announced that 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa will be released for the iPhone and iPod Touch on April 27!

Those attending the event (unfortunately I wasn’t there) had a chance to play the game, though I’m guessing it was not the build EA was demoing. PocketGamer was there but due to some NDA (I guess), they cannot share what they know at this stage.

SPB Software is bringing its popular puzzle title SPB Quads to Symbian S60 touch-enabled smartphones. The game, which is already available for the iPhone and Windows Mobile platforms, sees you putting together “all your pattern-finding skills to succeed.” The goal is to reveal and mark rectangles’ corners of the same colors in a field filled with color bricks, in a move that “destroys” them and earns you some points.