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GSMA announced the winners of the Asia Mobile Awards and the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix - Asia Tournament. Uh, they aren't really tournaments. they are Awards that seek out the best products and showcase new and upcoming companies with innovative offerings.

The Best Mobile Broadband Handset/Device Award goes to Nokia N97 mini. We recently reviewed the phone and it gave us a very positive impression.

 
Nokia N97 mini wins best mobile broadband handset award, thanks its friends and family

The The Green Mobile Award went to Huawei and Grameenphone. And rightfully so - they have began deploying solar-powered base stations, which run completely off the grid. A diesel engine is used as a backup. Thanks to the overall cost reduction of operating the base stations, the estimates say that Grameenphone (the largest telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh) will get its money back in savings in just two or three years.

Entertainment wasn't overlooked either. The Best Mobile Game Award was snatched by Gameloft for their Hero of Sparta game.

 
Spare us the "This is Sparta" jokes

The winner of the Best Mobile Music Service Award will make users of similar services jealous of the AMPed service by SingTel. It's an unlimited music download service, but here's the kicker. For 39 US dollars a month you get 100 free minutes, 500MB free data and unlimited music downloads. Oh, and the songs are "Songs to own and share", plus you get music videos and pre-album releases.

Another Bangladeshi entrant, Banglalink Jigyasha from Orascom Telecom Bangladesh, won the Best Mobile Enterprise Application Product or Service Award. Banglalink Jigyasha is a duo of services, one of which offers agricultural advice and the other - business advice.


Banglalink Jigyasha offers expert advice on agriculture and business

The award winners will be shortlisted for the Global Mobile Awards, held at next year's GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Congratulations to the winners and see you in Barcelona.

Yesterday the Microsoft Office Vice President Kurt Delbene confirmed the rumors that the Windows Mobile 7 announcement is scheduled to Q1 2010 and more specifically it will take place during the Microsoft MIX 2010 conference in March.

This is really good news. It turns out the rumors for the Q1 2010 announcement are true and the Windows Mobile 7 will show its face in less than half an year. We really hope that it won't take another half an year before we see actual devices running it, but it will probably be the case with Q3 2010 rumored as a release date.

Today Microsoft also released the beta versions of both desktop and mobile Office 2010. If you own a Windows Mobile 6.5 device, you are welcomed to download the beta from the Windows Marketplace (it's free).

What's more interesting is a posted and then removed screenshot of the Office Mobile 10 on its official page. It shows a UI, we already saw a couple of months ago, claiming it is from the Windows Mobile 7. Well, nowadays it still looks outdated, but no one knows for sure if it is actually from the Windows 7 or just some mock up interface for media use.

Nokia today announced they're back on track with the mobile TV segment by introducing the 5330 Mobile TV Edition. It's similar to the original 5330 XM, but comes with the additional DVB-H receiver on board.

Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition comes exactly four years after their first DVB-H enabled N92, followed by the N77 and N96.

Besides the integrated DVB-H receiver, the new 5330 Mobile TV edition features the same specs as the original 5330 XpressMusic - a 2.4 inch QVGA display, a 3.2 megapixel snapper with LED flash, 3G and GPS capabilities, a 3.5 mm audio jack and a microSD card slot (with 2GB card included in the package).

Almost every OS has them - application stores that is - but now owners of Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 phones also get in on the action with Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Installing the client is a straightforward affair and so is downloading new apps.

The number of apps available in the Marketplace has grown significantly and you can browse them straight through your desktop browser, which is a great convenience. You can buy an application through your desktop computer and it will be downloaded the next time you start the Windows Marketplace client.

Or you could skip a step and buy from the device itself. The prices are still quite steep though but competition should drive them down.

In the Marketplace, there are even applications for older versions (e.g. Bejeweled which works on Windows Mobile 2003 and above). The Marketplace client is not officially available for such old versions though, but at least it's all in one place, even if you have to buy the app the old fashioned way.

If you live in the US, you can enter your phone number in the download page for Marketplace for Mobile and they'll send you a download link. For those who live outside the States, direct your mobile browser to mp.windowsphone.com.

Check out our Windows Mobile 6.5 review for our take on the Marketplace. There you'll also find out how much you're missing (or not).

Affordable isn't the most common word in the HTC vocabulary but a company whose sole line of business is smartphones is not quite expected to speak the language of the masses. That said, we really need to define affordable first. It's what HTC Touch2 tries hard to be but… let's face it… doesn't get too close to. After all, there's little a PocketPC full of high-tech goodies can do about it.

But there's much a company needs to do to keep pace with an evolving market. HTC are busy updating their portfolio and the Touch2 is yet another in a growing line of sequels. Alright, it may be a small step for PocketPCs but a solid move for HTC in the midrange.

The launch of TouchFLO is a landmark but the original Touch will also be remembered perhaps as the first HTC device to actually have some exterior design and compactness. No offence, but prior to that PocketPC's were just big enough to get away with the lack of style.

Anyway, the Touch Viva and the Touch 3G followed soon after - near clones that tried to give PocketPC's mass appeal.

 
So, that means the HTC Touch2 will be trying to walk in three pairs of shoes and give the company some flexibility in the midrange. The newbie is smart, fast (in fact, surprisingly fast), compact, and friendly. The sharp contemporary looks are a definite asset but there's more than enough stuff under the hood to motivate upgraders too.

Key features
2.8" 65K-color QVGA display
Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional OS with TouchFLO
Qualcomm MSM7225 528MHz CPU and 256MB RAM
Quad-band GSM support
3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps
Wi-Fi connectivity
Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support
Stereo FM radio with RDS
3 MP fixed focus camera
microSD card slot
Touch-sensitive zoom bar
Standard miniUSB port and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Great audio quality
MS Office Mobile document editor
Opera 9.5 web browser
YouTube client, Facebook integration
Excellent video playback performance
Main disadvantages
Low-end display resolution
Camera lacks auto focus, flash, geotagging or a dedicated camera key
No accelerometer sensor
Poor screen sunlight legibility
Preloaded CoPilot Live navigation software is a trial version
No secondary video-call camera
No handwriting recognition

Actually, the real troublesome bit is screen estate. The QVGA 2.8-incher on the HTC Touch2 is so 2000-and-late - an unpleasant surprise in a phone that takes meticulous care to upgrade its predecessor. Less than the Cookie and on par with the Corby is hardly a compliment for a PocketPC, be it midrange. While the user interface is quite thumbable, the display does feel small at times and the stylus unavoidable.

 
HTC Touch2 live shots

At the end of the day though, the Touch2 seems to have enough to make up for this misfortune. And if size looks like an invitation to lower your expectations don't be too keen to take it. The Touch2 - among other things - is the first HTC phone to run Windows Mobile 6.5.

 
Keeping it slim and compact was a priority for the HTC Touch2

Even if sticking to the size limit was vital, HTC were quite generous with the equipment of the Touch2. From processing power to connectivity - the Touch2 is a solid and extensive upgrade. The smartphone runs the latest WinMo, packs Wi-Fi, HSDPA and an inbuilt GPS receiver. The fixed focus camera is not much of a perk but the standard 3.5mm audio jack will sure come in handy.

There is quite a lot to test so let's open the box and meet the handset in person. We're back after the jump with unboxing, design and construction. It's Touch2 time.

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