Mobile game developer In-Fusio has released Line Rider Mobile for Palm OS. Line Rider brings all the fun of the widely popular web based flash game to your smartphone or PDA. Players use a pencil tool to construct courses and tracks filled with ramps, hills, and jumps, upon which you send your virtual sledder guy down the route. The game includes three different game modes: create tracks, puzzles and a shared track mode where you can send and receive custom Line Rider tracks. It also includes a number of preloaded tracks to inspire your own crazed creations.

Line Rider Mobile v1.17 for Palm OS is available now with a free trial. The game costs $14.95 USD to register, but is currently on sale for $12.95.

Opera Software has released the first non beta version of Opera Mini v4. Opera Mini 4 is a complete redesign of its browser with a new desktop overview mode that allows people to browse their favorite web sites, just like they would on a PC. Some of the features added in new version include landscape mode for viewing sites in a widescreen format on compatible devices, a virtual mouse mode for easier scrolling and enhanced small screen rendering. A full list of new additions can be found here. It also retains its classic features of a desktop like presentation with smooth scrolling and zooming and its file size reducing page compression for faster page loads.

Opera Mini for Palm OS requires you have the Palm Java Micro Environment installed. It is available as an over the air download at www.operamini.com.

NormSoft has released the most substantial update since version 4.0 of their Pocket Tunes digital audio app. The new version, v4.0.5, is dated November 6, 2007. With the release of this update, Palm handheld, Treo, and Centro users are now all at the same version of PocketTunes. Previously, only 4.03 was available to existing Palm devices as 4.04 was a Centro-exclusive interim release.

Version 4.0.5's full range of new features, program enhancements, and bugfixes is too lengthy to list here but a full change log can be seen on Normsoft’s site. In addition to the number of technical improvements in the new version, Normsoft has also made several localization updates to tweak the Italian, German, Portugese, and Spanish text within the app.

In another unfortunate acknowledgement of the continually shrinking revenue stream from anything tied to the Palm OS ecosystem, longtime online software vendor PalmGear.com is being assimilated into its sister PocketGear.com site. Initially mentioned in a small teaser graphic on the October 29th PalmGear newsletter, the announcement was fully revealed in a follow-up e-mail to newsletter subscribers on November 5th. The full HTML content of the e-mail notification can be found on the company's website.

The PalmGear e-mail states that PocketGear.com will contain "...an improved design, improved navigation and an improved shopping experience! In addition to Palm OS applications, you will also find software for Windows Mobile devices." The changeover does not appear to be going into immediate effect, as the company states that they are in the process of migrating all of the existing Palm OS content and customer accounts over to the PocketGear site.

Motion Apps has released a new version 5.5.5 update to their mVoice call recording and voice memo application. This latest update comes just one month after the release of v5.5.4. The new 5.5.5 build adds, in addition to the more substantial improvements made to earlier 5.x versions, official Palm Centro support and additional, unspecified "minor improvements".

mVoice is available now for $24.95 and runs on the Treo 650, 680, 700p, 755p, and Centro smartphones. You can read my comparison review of version 5.0.

The release of a new Palm OS-based device usually brings about updates to at least the most popular apps in each category. While a bit late to the party, QMobilSoft has nevertheless responded to the September launch of Palm’s latest Palm OS-powered smartphone, the Centro, with another update to their excellent CallRec voice memo and call recording program. This time around, version 5.2, brings the expected Palm Centro compatibility update as well as a number of bugfixes and smaller feature enhancements.

The San Francisco Gate has posted a new editorial entitled, "IPhone's success spawns generations of imitators-and challengers". The piece does not focus exclusively on Apple’s much-hyped entry into the smartphone market, however, as it also offers some discussion focusing on Palm’s cloudy outlook as well as some choice quotes from a Palm spokesperson.

Some interesting comments are attributed to Palm's Rob Katcher, senior product manager for smartphones, regarding the new Palm Centro. By far the most intriguing comment from Palm is the statement by Mr. Katcher that the iPhone hoopla has "cued people in" to touch-sensitive LCDs, a Palm hallmark since the launch of the original Pilot in 1996. Katcher additionally comments that Palm’s marketing push for the Centro has been geared to play up the touch screen's capabilities in light of the iPhone frenzy. Such statements directly from a higher-up at Palm will only make long-term Palm OS users wonder why Palm has not released a device with a resolution greater than 320x320 since 2005, as Palm has produced PDAs since 2003 utilizing 320x480 LCDs—the exact same resolution found in the Apple iPhone.

Palm has announced the availability of the Treo 500v smartphone in Malaysia and New Zealand. It will be caried on the Vodafone network in New Zealand and the Celcom Berhad network in Malaysia. The new smartphone combines multiple forms of communication and multimedia capabilities with high-speed 3G mobile Internet access.

Palm Inc. has no plans to join Google's newly announced Open Handset Alliance at this time according to statements from Palm representatives when reached for comment today.

Google's new Linux based mobile operating system announced earlier today is backed by a new consortium of companies called the Open Handset Alliance and notably includes many of Palm's current partners and competitors. Google's efforts with Android will directly compete with Palm's own mobile linux project as well as its Windows Mobile business. Read on for a official statement from Palm.

A new version of Palm’s Mobile Portal for Palm devices utilizing the Blazer web browser quietly went live over the past weekend. Logging on to the mobile.palm.com default home page in the evening of Sunday the 4th, revealed a face lifted Palm mobile portal. I was using on a Verizon 700p with Blazer 4.5.

Google today has announced its plans for a new open source based mobile operating system. The new platform called Android is backed by the new Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

Thirty-four companies have formed the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. The Android platform is the first step in this direction, a fully integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. Google says that consumers should expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008.