As a long-time Windows Mobile user who finally gave up on it and switched to an Android phone, I’ve been thrilled with the new operating system. Now, it looks like others who are fed up with WinMo might be able to switch a little more easily.

Over at XDA-developers, a forum where developers post hacks, tips, and software, a developer has released a beta ROM of Android 2.1 for four Windows Mobile phones, all by HTC: the Tilt for AT&T (AKA the HTC Kaiser), Vogue, Niki, and Polaris. That means that four phones that aren’t built with Android at all have Android 2.1 before some native Android phones, like the Hero and the Droid Eris.

Installing the ROM requires “rooting” your phone, which takes some know-how, but for those not faint of heart or worried about breaking their phone, or maybe those just that tired of Windows Mobile, it’s a great solution. There are detailed instructions, and a lot of helpful people, available on the XDA site.

It’s a beta version, which means there are some bugs, including two notable ones: the Bluetooth features are totally unpredictable, and the camera doesn’t work at all. For some other bugs, the XDA forum is talking about…

As smartphones become more powerful, they become susceptible to even more sophisticated attacks from hackers. Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey recently used a special kind of malicious software, or “malware,” called a rootkit to demonstrate just how vulnerable smartphones are.

Rootkits are not a new phenomenon. They have been used for two decades to infiltrate various kinds of computers.
“The point of this work is not to demonstrate a new kind of rootkit but to show the greater damage they can cause on smart phones,” study team member Liviu Iftode, professor of computer science at Rutgers, told TechNewsDaily.

Today’s smartphones are really just mobile computers. Many of them run the same class of operating systems as desktop and laptop computers, and as a result are just as vulnerable to malware attacks, the researches say.

More dangerous

In fact, they add, vulnerabilities in smartphones are even more dangerous because people carry them around at all times, making it easier for attackers to eavesdrop, track locations or even collect personal information. Also, features such as Bluetooth receivers and text messaging make it easier to deliver rootkits to phones.

Iftode and his colleagues recently demonstrated different kinds of rootkit attacks. For instance, the microphone on a smartphone…

It has barely been a week since Microsoft formally announced Windows Phone 7 Series, the successor to current Windows Mobile devices. Even though the platform has garnered quite a bit of praise and buzz, an analyst is suggesting that it might not be enough to turn the tide and Microsoft may need to resort to buying another cell phone maker.
This Reuters  article suggests that Microsoft needs to by RIM or possibly Nokia to stay in the game. The reason is two-fold. First of all, Windows Mobile is on a downward trend. The Windows Phone 7 announcement won’t do anything t bolster WinMo 6.5 sales. Quite the reverse in fact. Unless someone needs a new phone now, they may try and hold off until the holiday season when 7 is supposed to launch.

The second reason is Microsoft, unlike most of its competitors, doesn’t make its own devices. RIM, Palm, Apple, Nokia and even Google have their own devices whereas Microsoft relies solely on partners to make phones for them.

If Microsoft wanted to get into the phone making business, they wouldn’t have to buy anything though. Google contracts out their branded Nexus phone to HTC. Microsoft doesn’t actually make the Zune or XBox 360…

The Nokia X6 could soon be coming to Vodafone  as the network operator has unveiled a registration page to allow its customers to note their interest in the handset.

Customers are asked to register their details in order to receive information about the Nokia X6, which has been filed under ‘coming soon’.

It has previously been announced that the Nokia X6 16 GB is set to be launched on February 24th.

Marketing Week reported that a multi-million pound campaign will soon get underway by Nokia to showcase the handset as a rival to the popular Apple iPhone.

Vodafone also recently revealed that in the three months since the launch of Vodafone 360, more than 7,000 apps have been made available for download across eight European markets.

By the end of this March, the network operator expects to have shipped more than two million devices which incorporate 50 different handsets that are able to access the Vodafone 360 Apps Shop.

“We are trying to make it as easy and as lucrative as possible for developers to work with us and deliver the most relevant, local applications for customers across our markets,” explained Lee Epting, director of content services at Vodafone Group.

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I’ve visited a number of places to discuss the latest innovations in the mobile phone industry, from Helsinki to California to Barcelona, but I never expected to make my way through the many layers of security into the Home Office to be shown some cutting edge technology.

I’d been invited to see the winning designs in a contest run by the Home Office and the Design Council. Three innovations aimed at making mobile phones less attractive to thieves – or useless if they are stolen – were on show.

The first was i-migo, a small device which you keep in your pocket and which sets off an alarm if your handset goes beyond a pre-set range. This sounds like it would be helpful to those of us who lose phones down the back of a sofa as well as protecting against theft.

The second, TouchSafe, is aimed at a future where our mobile phones will in effect become credit cards – a prospect that always seems just around the corner. This is a security card carried by a user who wants to make so called m-commerce transactions – you discreetly touch the phone against the card, much like using the Oyster travel card on…