- Compiled by Gary Thayer, MobileVillage Editor

MobileVillage, April 30, 2007 -- Following is a roundup of recent announcements about mobile software for enterprise use.

Flowfinity Wireless announced the availability of a packaged solution for bardcode scanning using Bluetooth-enabled BlackBerry smartphones. The package consists of Flownity's software and Infinite Peripherals' OPL 2724 Bluetooth-enabled barcode scanner. Once a code is scanned it is directly recorded into a Flowfinity application such as Flowfinity Forms or Flowfinity Actions. For details, see flowfinity.com.

Parlano has released MindAlign Mobile, a mobile application for users of its MindAlign group chat software that integrates instant messaging (IM) and chat. MindAlign Mobile lets users of BlackBerry, Palm and Windows Mobile devices participate in ongoing group discussions with their MindAlign (and MindAlign for Microsoft Live Communications Server) environments. Features include the capability to customize MindAlign contact and channel lists, limit the number of channels displayed on their mobile device to improve usability, and also to conduct private chats with contacts on AOL, Yahoo and MSN networks from their MindAlign environments. For security, data sent over the mobile network is encrypted. For more information, see parlano.com.

SalesNexus has released a new mobile tool available only to current SalesNexus Premium Edition subscribers. The tool, a web-based contact management application, allows wireless synchronization of contacts and calendar to Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm PDAs and virtually any cell phone with an address book, according to the company. Once new or updated information is entered on a device, it immediately becomes available to the rest of the sales and support staff, says SalesNexus. For more details, see salesnexus.com.

SMobile Systems announced Network Shield, which offers anti-virus, content, URL and image filtering; and anti-spam capabilities for multimedia messaging (MMS) and downloadable content on wireless carrier networks. The company also offers software for smartphones and other mobile devices for virus protection, call, image, and message filtering, and firewall capabilities at the handset level. For more information, see smobilesystems.com, or see the company's summary page on MobileVillage.

Sophos has released Sophos Mobile Security, which aims to provide real-time protection for Windows Mobile 5.0 based devices against mobile viruses and spyware threats via MMS, SMS, email, instant messaging, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Sophos Mobile Security offers on- access, on-demand or scheduled scanning, and detects and quarantines any mobile viruses or spyware with minimal impact on device performance, according to Sophos. The software also enables IT administrators to implement and lock down security policies for PDAs and cell phones, and administrators are alerted with real-time notification of malware incidents. Sophos Mobile Security supports Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 for both Pocket PCs and Pocket PC Phones. For more details, see sophos.com.

TomorrowNow has upgraded its TomorrowNow Support Technology for real-time, support response services to organizations' mobile applications. According to the company, the technology proactively monitors the availability of service engineers' handheld devices including pagers and mobile/smart phones to ensure that emergency response equipment is working. When a client initiates a case with TomorrowNow on a personalized support website, it is logged and routed to the most appropriate emergency response engineer. When a device is unavailable, the system can respond in a number of ways. It can send notifications to other engineers, managers and IT staff or automatically route the request to any number of available, qualified technicians. The system also automatically reroutes the request to an available engineer if the client's assigned service engineer is on the phone or otherwise assisting another client. TomorrowNow's system is built on IBM's Domino rapid development platform, Microsoft.Net, and Java. For more information, see tomorrownow.com.

VisionBase has integrated technology by HID Global into its PockeTracker Red/Green ID card reader application for Motorola Symbol devices or any Pocket PC device paired with an appropriate card reader. PockeTracker now has the ability to read HID Proximity and iCLASS cards, as well as barcode and magstripe scanning. It has a simple red or green display for permitting or denying entry. It can track simple attendance or be used for paperless ticketing. It contains a mustering feature which allows the user to quickly identify who is in, or who is not in a building, a bus, or any other location. It can also tally points for loyalty applications. With HID Proximity and iCLASS as part of the system, an administrator only needs to present the ID card to the reader and they will have access to the photo and data of the individual scanned. PockeTracker can work with current ODBC compliant databases such as Oracle or SQL Server, according to VisionBase. For more details, see visionbase.com.