OStatic

Smartphone owners love their push email and easy syncing options. Let's face it, without those handy features, handheld mobile devices are little more than really clunky cell phones. Now Open-Xchange customers can use the newly released OXtender for Business Mobility to receive push email and sync their calendars and contacts right over the air on an iPhone, BlackBerry, myTouch and most other smartphones on the market today.

Open-Xchange is a popular alternative to Microsoft Exchange that also syncs and supports Macs and Apple Mobile devices. It's used to manage email, tasks, calendars, documents, contacts, and even social networking communication.

Although I suppose, technically speaking, everyone at OStatic should use the G1 smartphone with its open source platform, some of us really love our BlackBerrys. You already know Kristin uses Funambol to sync contacts and calenders with the desktop, but tethering the BlackBerry to a laptop takes an entirely different approach.

As more applications move to the cloud, it's not surprising that developers are spending a lot of time working on ways to provide mobile access to the cloud. To create applications and services for handheld devices like the iPhone and Android-based G1, they use tools like Volantis' Open Source Mobility Server, a java-based development and runtime platform.

Volantis Systems released version 5.1 of GPLv3-licensed Volantis Mobility Server (VMS) Community Edition this week. It has connectors that integrate with many popular Web sites including Picasa, Flickr, and Google Docs, with more expected to be added in future releases. The new version is optimized for the iPhone and also includes tools to create mash-up mobile applications. When looking at the future of VMS, Dave Roberts, Manager, Business Development, says thanks to the open source community, the sky's the limit.

Free music service Last.fm announced today that it's now available for handheld devices that use the Android platform. Like the Web-based version, users can stream radio stations, track listening habits, and get personal music recommendations. Last.fm users can also get artist information, view their personal music files, and access event and tour information.