A total of 699 products have been nominated in Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine’s Sixth Annual Best Software Awards for Windows Mobile software. In August a team of 90 Windows Mobile experts from around the world will evaluate the software nominees in 88 Pocket PC categories and 27 Smartphone categories. Finalists will be announced in September and winners in October at the Awards Home Page. Complete details about the winners will be included in the 2007 Buyer’s Guide, available in October, mailed free to Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine subscribers. The list of nominees, the procedure for judging, a link to the Encyclopedia, and the qualifications of the Board of Experts can all be found at the Best Software Awards home page.

Palm announced the election of Bill Coleman, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Cassatt, to its board of directors. Coleman also was a co-founder and first chief executive officer of BEA Systems, a world-leading infrastructure-software company. Prior to BEA, Coleman held various management positions at Sun Microsystems, including vice president and general manager of Sun Professional Services, vice president of system software, overseeing the Sun operating system, Solaris, and co-founder of the Sun Federal Division.

SanDisk has introduced a 2GB microSD card–the largest capacity of the smallest removable flash memory card–to meet demand for a new generation of MP3 music phones, including the forthcoming Verizon Wireless Chocolate by LG mobile phone.

SanDisk and msystems entered into definitive agreements for SanDisk to acquire msystems in an all stock transaction. This combination joins together two flash memory pioneers with complementary products, customers and channels. Together the combined company will have the people, technology, manufacturing and IP to play a leading role in creating new markets and accelerating the penetration of flash memory into existing storage applications.

What could be a distraction to some drivers may prove a useful tool to countless others. Intelligent Mechatronic Systems has announced that it is ready to offer what it calls the “world’s first hands-free and eyes-free email solution for in-vehicle use.” While hands-free calling systems have become commonplace, IMS boasts that its new system, iLane, allows drivers to receive and send e-mail while in transit and still keep their eyes on the road.

To celebrate the 25th birthday of the IBM PC coming in August, eWEEK Labs considered assembling a Top 10 list of the most influential products that iconic machine ushered in. Having agreed that 25 products for 25 years provided a more pleasing symmetry, and with full knowledge that what is omitted will spur as much comment as what is included, eWEEK Labs puts forward this list of the 25 most influential products of the first 25 years of enterprise personal computing.

Proporta has released a bevy of accessories for the Motorola Q this week, including their popular Alu-Leather case in pouch style, an Aluminum case, their Advanced Screen Protector, and an Aluminum Card Holder.

We continue our in-depth coverage of the broadband over powerline (BPL) controversy. Is it a benign technology that can bring broadband to the unwired masses or is it a disaster waiting to happen? Here at Computing Unplugged, we honestly don’t know. The manufacturers have a heck of a story to tell, but if you read analysis by technical experts, like this one from engineer Bill South, you get an entirely different perspective.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

MobileFrame announced release of version 4.2 of their Configurable Mobile Application Product Suite. MobileFrame’s solution is the only truly Configurable Mobile Application Platform in the industry that enables novice users to create and deploy custom mobile applications without custom programming. Now, with the addition of Remote Device Configuration and Management Capability combined with MobileFrame’s built-in Server Based Workflow Integration, device and software management is greatly simplified.

Nokia has started its first tests of a technology that allows users to roam seamlessly between phone networks and local wireless hotspots such as Wi-Fi. Fifty families in Oulu near the polar circle in northern Finland will test the technology over the next two months. Mobile subscribers with handsets enabled for so-called unlicensed mobile access, or UMA, can make calls over the Internet when they are in range of an unlicensed wireless network such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.