We're sure you had a grand time with the previous version of the ScummVM. And we think there shouldn't be a reason for us to stop with the fun. That's why we bring you today this multiplatform rainbow goodness that's in the form of ScummVM 0.11.1. You know what to do to get what you want. Go on over to full article.

Redmond giant Microsoft announced a new DRM, PlayReady, this time aimed at mobile devices. PlayReady is designed to provide digital media options to mobile network operators. If there's one thing you can count on, PlaysForSure DRMed media can be accessed through PlayReady.

Companies such as O2, Verizon Wireless, Bouygues Telecom, and Cingular Wireless/AT&T all lined up their own mobile packages that will include the DRM package. It will provide games, ringtones, music, video, ringtones, and images for distribution through rent or subscription.

PlayReady will also be compatible with Windows Media DRM 10, so mobile phones can download DRM-protected songs from online stores and play them. Interoperability programs will be provided by Microsoft so that other DRM content providers can make use of the technology.

Although it appears as a Microsoft stunt to boost development and marketing of their DRM technology, they say that the new DRM is a critical solution in the mobile content market. PacketVideos is teaming up with Microsoft to provide optimized version of the DRM over several popular handsets. PacketVideos CEO James C. Brailean said:

Microsoft PlayReady will have an immediate positive impact on the mobile entertainment market. With the rapid growth of mobile content services, Microsoft PlayReady technology will quickly emerge as a mission-critical ingredient for new consumer applications because it combines greater flexibility for content and services with a rock-solid technology foundation.

Microsoft has made no claim as to whether PlayReady will support the Zune's DRM on MarketPlace. They expect it to be available in the first half of 2007 and will be demonstrating PlayReady at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona this week, alongside PacketVideo.

It probably won't replace the keyboard, but it can certainly speed things up. CNN reports on the growing trend for voice recognition technology in tech, and how this trend is starting to get even big players like Google and Microsoft vying for a piece of the pie.

According to CNN, the market's starting to become a billion dollar industry, with everything from the call center industry to the mobile phone and automobile sectors. This next generation of voice recognition is meant to be implemented in just about everything. As they note:

The market for server-based voice-recognition technology to power call centers and the like reached nearly $600 million in 2006 and is expected to double by 2009, according to Opus Research....

The market for speech technology embedded in devices such as phones and auto dashboards - worth about $125 million in 2006, according to research firm Datamonitor - is expected to quadruple to $500 million by 2010... Ultimately, some experts say, voice-recognition systems are likely to be built into almost every gadget, appliance and machine that people use.

We'd feel bad for the folks looking for some way to get what they want but can't talk. So long as there's a market for people who can't speak though, we're quite sure we won't be relying on voice recognition on everything we own anytime soon. Besides, if future voice recognition software can't be placed on a belt and can't turn people into superheroes, then we'll stick to keyboards for now.

Well this is an interesting application, if only for the possible extensions you might happen to get it to work with. We found this little application for sale on a Japanese website, and it's suppose to let you watch TV on your Pocket PCs, regardless of where you happen to be in the world.

The app, called Netfront LocationFree Player, says (in mechanized English translation) that it allows "you connect to the based station by way of LAN or Luther, to enjoy television program and the program etc. which was videotaped in the DVD recorder." The player sells for ¥ 1,980 (US$ 16) though, so it's not for everyone.

While that might be great for the Pocket PC or other PDA, we're actually thinking of how this could best be manipulated or expanded on. Some of us were imagining what it would be like if someone found a way to get this to work on the PSP. Of course, we do have Winnydows' Xvid4PSP application for that bit of video playing, but an app that lets you watch stuff automatically on the PSP around the world is also very cool.

Now, does anyone want to help us translate it more accurately?

Map24 mobile is a brand new service that lets you search for maps, points of interest, and have access to a route planner, a navigation and search aid all from your mobile phone or PDA. Map24 has been available for quite a while online for PC users, but only recently has the service been expanded to meet the needs of mobile users who just need to find their way around.

Map24 Mobile runs on most multimedia mobile phones and PDAs as long as you have mobile Internet access. Map coverage is available now for Europe, with North and South America, the Middle East and Australia due for launch shortly.

Chris Wallett, UK managing director of Mapsolute, which owns Map24, said: “More and more people are using online maps for route planning and navigation, and for other uses such as finding venues. Route navigation is becoming more popular in cars, as we’ve seen the growing usage of satellite navigation. With Map24 Mobile, people can now use their mobile phones to plan their journeys and find extremely useful mapping content. It’s free, easy to use and extremely useful whilst you’re on the move.“

Map24 mobile continues to update, not only with coverage for North and South America, the Middle East and Australia due for launch shortly but with Microsoft Outlook integration and the ability to send emails. To use the service you have to register an account with Map24 where a download is provided which links up to your mobile device.

Books are good. They educate, stimulate and, depending on what you're reading, can make even the most hardcore of Ponies and Kittens players cry. Now, books can make you cry in front of your computer screen, and you don't even have to wipe against C'thun to do it.

Google plans to bring us all closer in the joy of reading about the steamy love scenes of Shakespeare's many plays and the hellish grand journey of Dante's Inferno for no cost at all. The super search engine company has set up Google Book Search in such a way as to let you download out-of-copyright books completely free, except for the price of your net connection and whatever it would cost you if you still wanted to print the whole thing out.

Once you download the PDF file of your choice, you can take it anywhere with you... whether it be on your PDA, or your laptop, or you could stash it in your own flash disk. Very useful, and no paper needed!

Still, with the number of dead authors without relatives these days, coupled with any sort of rare tomes that have been uncovered by people, that's definitely going to be a lot of books. Heck, you can even find some of those stories you read when you were a kid, if you're good at hunting down book titles, or maybe one of those old-fashioned 9-planet science books.

The only thing that would be missing from this collection would be the canonical apocrypha: those books that are supposed to be part of the bible, but aren't because their authenticity isn't verified or goes against Catholic teachings. Maybe they'd be a good read, but only if someone could translate them into English, I suppose.

When it comes to mobile devices, video and gaming seem to be the next big thing. This is the very reason why reviewers and developers have the need to run graphic benchmarks on new devices and see how they actually fare.

But we all know these people tend to have biases. So it is probably best to test them ourselves. Virtual Spaghetti was probably thinking along the same line as it developed Vsbenchmark 2006. The application is compatible with Pocket PC and Smartphone devices.

Vsbenchmark 2006, as it compares your device to others, automatically generates graphic files (BMP format, 452x320, 240x320, Text file). It is Windows Mobile 5.0 compatible and has VGA support. It's free, and comes with an additional Inte Xscale Wireless MMX instructions.

Download: [Vsbenchmark 2006]

Sling Media recently announced that its SlingPlayer Mobile TV software is free, for a limited time, to new Slingbox owners who buy and register their Slingbox between August 15 and September 16 of this year. Those who buy and register their new Slingboxes on the aforementinoed dates will receive a free registration key for the SlingPlayer Mobile software which normally costs $29.99.

SlingPlayer Mobile is a software package that lets Slingbox owners watch and control their home TV from any network-enabled mobile phone or PDA powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS. It supports any type of Internet connection on your mobile device, including 3G cellular services such as EV-DO or UMTS, Wi-Fi USB or Bluetooth-based connections.

One really dissatisfied mobile PDA Skype user has posted her "review" of the service. We can only guess at what her verdict is: it's horrible.

Her opinion on Skype? It has "call quality that's only slightly worse than talking into a tin can at the bottom of a well, relayed via satellite from Iraq." Obviously, she's not very thrilled with the service, and according to her, there were echoes, slowdown and static during the calls. This review was for the Pocket PC version.
 
It's common knowledge that the Skype Mobile service doesn't support Bluetooth yet, and let's admit it - has a lot of bugs. On the other hand, it's just a beta version, and the program's free for download.

Skype to landline connections have often been poor but that can be fixed soon (keeping fingers crossed). Skype to Skype calling though is the true attraction of the service. Unfortunately, so few people use it that they never get to experience the good call quality the service has to offer. On the bright side, the PC version of Skype has gotten many good reviews for it's high quality and ease of use. Perhaps this will be translated into the Pocket PC versions soon. In any case, Skype is FREE! No one can deny the cost effectiveness of paying nothing. And as a free service, updates and fixes can take a while, so keep your head up and hopefully we'll see some more improvements soon!

Brighthand has come up with a pretty simple way of speeding up your mobile web surfing. Using this method should guarantee you faster mobile internet surfing, no matter what brand of device you are using or how you are accessing the internet. How do you achieve this? Simply by changing the DNS server your web browser is using. Obviously, the techno mumbo jumbo that explains why it is quicker is pretty boring so we'll skip that part and move on to the action.

The process for changing your DNS server depends on what type of device you are using. That's why we've broken the instructions up into sections.

The full instructions await after the jump!