Telecom new brand for mobile handsets, Okta Mobile, will work to bring to the market new devices - possibly in a shorter cycle than we used to see from the CDMA-soon-to-be-HSDPA operator. This I was told, despite the fact that Okta Mobile is not a separate company, but only a name.

The official brand launch was yesterday, in Auckland with the presence of David Lee, Assistant Vice President of HTC Asia, Telecom people (of course) and an audience of journalists and other guests.

During his speech Mr Lee said "This union between HTC, the world's leading provider of Microsoft Windows Mobile smart handheld devices and Telecom New Zealand marks the beginning of a very exciting time for the mobile phone industry in New Zealand!".

This is interesting because two out of the three new Okta Mobile devices (Okta Boss, Okta Touch) are Windows Mobile handsets manufactured by HTC. The third (Okta Agent) is actually a Pantech device.

Telecom New Zealand have been working with HTC directly, including the last release under the Telecom brand, the Titan Windows Mobile.

The HTC Touch is surprisingly thin compared to other Windows Mobile devices, and looks good too. It sports a new user interface on top of the standard Windows Mobile UI we are used to.

It's only the first version, and it looks promising. You can access some of the functions through finger gestures, and small features were added such as scrolling lists and web pages with your finger.

Still it's not 100% integrated to the OS and applications, and the menus can not be customised. But it's a great start.

When asked if this user interface was a direct response to Apple iPhone's own, David Lee pointed out that TouchFlo (the official name for this technology) is the result of two years of research - and the iPhone and the Touch are in different market segments (even though you can manage your media with the Touch).

Everyone present at the launch was give an Okta Touch. I am using this now and will soon post a review on Geekzone.

I am in Auckland today doing an upgrade on the Geekzone server, and staying for the official launch of Telecom New Zealand's Okta Mobile brand tomorrow.

It just happens that someone dropped a URL to me, and it shows another two Windows Mobile devices being announced, in addition to the already available Okta Agent Windows Mobile Smartphone I reviewed before.

The page is here and shows this picture with a new Windows Mobile Smarphone called Okta Boss and a Windows Mobile Pocket PC Called Okta Touch:

Those are all CDMA devices. You should hit their page to check all the specifications. The Okta Touch seems to be the HTC Touch device and the Okta Boss looks like the HTC Vox CDMA edition.

This morning I had coffee with Olivier Rozay, Palm Country Manager Australia & New Zealand. He was showing the Palm Treo 500v, released last month in the UK and Australia - and soon to be available from Vodafone New Zealand.

I am told Vodafone is introducing this device tonight to their partners, with retail availability sometime in November.

The Treo 500v is the first Palm device running Windows Mobile 6 Standard, previously known as "Windows Mobile for Smartphone". This means you won't find a touch screen on this device, but it does have a nice keyboard, and thank goodness a LCD bigger (240 x 320 pixels landscape) and better than the previous square LCD (240 x 240 pixels) used on the Treo Windows Mobile Pocket PC devices.

It will come with 256 MB with 150 MB available for user, support for Bluetooth 2.0 EDR (including A2DP stereo) and 3G (2100 MHz). No HSDPA but I agree the market segment this device will appeal to may not notice much difference.

The device features integration with Vodafone live!, the first Windows Mobile device that actually allows this. The price will be right for the market segment it's aiming for, those not so early adopter who want a phone that is a bit smarter than feature phones, or the not so high end requirements of a small business - it still connected to Exchange Server and supports Microsoft Direct Push.

Its "carrousel" user interface is an overlay over the standard Windows Mobile homescreen. It allows you to scroll left - right to find groups of related applications, and up and down to select a specific program. It's really easy to use and quite pretty.

When I first saw the Treo 500v I really thought this could be the first Windows Mobile Smartphone that would make me sway from the Pocket PC land.

Something interesting: this device is manufactured by ASUS, not HTC.

I asked about the not yet released Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for the Treo 750v and Olivier tells me it's still pending some bug fixes found when tested on the local network.

Windows Mobile distributor i-mate has launched a new branding and website. There are also a couple of new mobile devices listed including the JAMA 201 (a Windows Mobile Standard, a.k.a. Smartphone, with VGA screen) and the JAMA 101 (Windows Mobile 6 Professional a.k.a. Pocket PC Phone Edition).

But is just me, or their new logo is strikingly similar to SonyEricsson's own logo? Check for yourself in the picture (SonyEricsson on the left, i-mate on the right side).

A few months ago we launched the Geekzone Friends social network. It's a neat way of following your friends around Geekzone. Users have access to a page with links to the latest discussions friends got involved with, friends' activities, group messages, and personal messages.

You can also access a RSS feed with your own activities and private messages, and a second RSS feed with your friend's actions. Those are private feeds so only you know what your friends are doing around the site.

Now we have a Geekzone Friends for Windows Mobile, thanks to Kev Daly who developed this small Pocket PC client for us.

The program runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 (requires .Net Compact Framework 2.0) or Windows Mobile 6 (.Net Compact Framework is already part of the OS).

With this program on your Pocket PC you will be able to follow your Geekzone Friends around the site, reading messages they leave for you and checking what discussions they are replying to. And as we add new features, these will be automatically listed too.

If you want to create something similar for other platforms (Symbian, Palm OS), or a widget (Mac OS, Yahoo!, Google) then contact me so we can discuss how to access the platform.

If you are a Geekzone user, start making friends. Read all about this feature in our Geekzone Friends FAQ.

I got a courier parcel this morning bringing a brand new Telecom New Zealand HTC Titan for review and play.

Though the review is coming up later, I have to say the HTC Titan is a refresh from the square screen on the Plam Treo 700wx, and the much larger keyboard is not something to complain about. Oh, and built-in Wi-Fi!

A full review will be coming up next on Geekzone. For the time being, why don't you go and enter the draw for your chance to win the Palm Treo 700wx I have here?

Microsoft has made available the Halo 3 theme to be used as a ringtone for Windows Mobile devices, plus a set of four images to be used as background for your Pocket PC or Smartphone.

Visit the Halo 3 Ringtone and Wallpaper page to register and download the content.

If you have a suggestion for a new feature or something you think should be fixed enhanced, head on to this new Windows Mobile Suggestion Box forum.

I just received the TDS Nomad, a rugged Windows Mobile 6 device, to use during my session at the Microsoft Partners Conference and it's great.

The features are really incredible: VGA screen, 1 GB flash memory for storage, 128 MB RAM for program execution, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 806 MHz processor. Add to this a GSM module so it can connect mobile data and on top of that, it's a rugged device!

Now I am having some fun configuring it to synchronise with an Exchange Server 2007 test account provided by AnywhereExchange, so I can demonstrate all the new messaging and security features.

I got it from GeoSystems, TDS Resellers here in Wellington and region.

Yes, as spotted in our Geekzone Forums, Telecom New Zealand has released the HTC Ttitan, a Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition.

Wait a minute, wasn't this supposed to be a Windows Mobile Professional?

It would be if it had Windows Mobile 6 running and using the new naming convention. But for some strange reason this brand new device is coming out with the old Windows Mobile 5... Very interesting because the equivalent Sprint Mogul is running Windows Mobile 6 from the start.

We can't complain about specs though. 256 MB memory is not bad, although the website doesn't say if it's 256 flash ROM for storage (would be great), or 256 MB total (storage and program execution). It comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (including support for A2DP). And they throw in a 512 mini SD card.

And sorry for the small, low quality picture. I had to grab this from the Telecom site, since no official release announcement was made and no quality pictures distributed.