I wanted to blog about the new Windows Live Search for Mobile app that launched a few weeks ago, but didn't get around to it. Anyway, I've been using it on my MDA/Wizard for a while, and I have to say - this thing rocks. In fact, this is one of the most well-designed mobile applications that I've used so far.

Windows Live Search for Mobile (can I just call this WLSM now?) is basically a mobile version of Live Maps, but it's very different from the Virtual Earth Mobile app that's been around for a while. Virtual Earth Mobile is more like the mobile version of Google Maps, and they both feel primitive compared to WLSM.

There are two things that I like the most about WLSM - the speed, and the UI. The mobile version of Google Maps runs in a Java VM and is consequently slow and clunky. The Windows Mobile version of WLSM is a native app, and you can really feel the significant difference in speed. There's also a J2ME version of WLSM for non-WM devices, but I'm not sure how that compares.

The WLSM UI is beautiful. This is the part that makes it one of my favorite mobile applications to use. It's designed to be very similar to the UI of most modern MP3 players, with sliding menus that allow you to drill in from the more general to the specific when performing local searches for restaurants, banks, etc. The UI for driving directions is also great, and allows you to choose between a minimalistic turn-by-turn, text-only view, and a route view plotted on a full-color map.

If you have a Windows Mobile device with a cellular data plan, I highly recommend installing the WM version of WLSM. I think it's so well implemented that it should be integrated into the next version of the Windows Mobile OS as a standard component. If you have don't have a WM device and decide to try the J2ME version, let me know what you think by leaving your comments here. I'm curious to know how it fares as well.

A new Halo 3 video was shown in an ad spot tonight on ESPN. You can check it out here if you didn't catch it on TV. A sweet 720p hi-def version will be up on XBLM soon.

Also, Bungie has opened signups for the Halo 3 multiplayer beta that's scheduled to begin sometime in Spring 2007. The site was getting slammed earlier this evening, and I'm not sure if they're selecting on a first-come first-served basis, but it's worth putting your name in the hat if you're a Halo fan.

That reminds me - I've got my copy of Gears of War as well, but unfortunately, with finals coming up next week, I won't get a chance to dive in until the 15th. I did get a chance to play it for a little while at a friend's place and with my brother when I was in NYC a few days ago though, and it's fantastic! Should be a fun way to celebrate the end of the quarter. :)

Since there's no public build of Trillian Astra available yet, I decided to try the new Gaim v2.0 beta to consolidate my AIM and Google Talk accounts for the time being.

[Sidenote: I'm still running Windows Live Messenger separately since I frequently use features like Shared Folders that are only supported by the official client. WLM is actually still my favorite IM client overall, despite some of the minor gripes that I had with it.]

Anyway, Gaim 2.0 has been holding up well so far. The default layout still includes many of the same old boxy, Linux-like widgets and graphics, which are a bit of an eye-sore, especially on Windows Vista. Fortunately, I find most of these buttons and toolbars redundant and just hide them anyway. Also, most of the graphics are just PNG images stored in the Gaim directory, so they're easy to replace with better looking ones. With a little bit of Photoshop-fu, I've customized mine so that it's pretty minimalistic and clean, and I'm quite happy with it so far. :)

Cerulean Studios has just launched a new site showcasing Trillian Astra, the next version of their multi-protocol IM client.

Astra includes a whole bunch of new features, and a complete UI overhaul. At the same time, Cerulean claims that performance and resource usage has been greatly improved. In fact, performance was one of the main reasons why I stopped using v3.1 - the splash screen that came up everytime Windows started, and stuck around until the client slowly loaded in the background always drove me up the wall. It's good to hear that a lot of work has gone into this area.

The new default UI is pretty interesting, although I'm not sure how usable things like the "Tile view" for the contact list are going to be. I think I'd need to see it in action when a public build is released before I can comment any more on the new layout and design.

It does look like something I definitely want to try out though. It's been a while since Cerulean has released an update, and this looks like a big one. :)

ReviewMe.com, a recently launched site has been making its rounds on the web during the last few days. Dave also blogged about it a couple of days ago. The basic purpose of the service is to connect advertisers to bloggers and publishers who are willing to review products in return for monetary compensation.

Since I tend to post opinion-pieces and mini-reviews of new software, web services, gadgets and electronics every so often here on e-piphany anyway, I decided to sign up for the service to see what it's all about.

The sign-up process is quick and simple. Registration is open to anyone who maintains a blog, but your blog needs to be approved before you can start using the service. I initially thought it would take a day or two for a manual approval process, so I was pleasantly surprised when my blog was approved immediately. It looks like ReviewMe automatically checks how many subscribers your RSS feed has, and what your blog's rankings are on Technorati and Alexa, based on inbound links and other factors. Your blog is then assigned a "Ranking" (x out of 5 stars) based on these factors, which is also used to determine how much you get paid for the reviews you post. In effect, publishers with more popular blogs get paid more.

Once you've signed up as a blogger, advertisers can see your blog in the repository and offer to pay you to review their product or service. If you accept, you are given a certain amount of time to post your review. The only real requirements are that your review should be at least 200 words long, and that you need to post a disclosure stating that you're being paid for your post. The latter, along with the fact that you're not compelled to write positive reviews of any product if you don't want to prevents bloggers from introducing bias into their posts. Bloggers who write glowing review for terrible products are bound to lose credibility (and lots of readers, probably), since they can't avoid having to disclose the fact that they're being paid for the review - nobody likes paid shills, after all. :) But for those of us that are willing to post honest reviews, this is a nice way to potentially earn some extra cash (to pay for web hosting, for example) while doing what we enjoy anyway.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing what types of offers I receive. Needless to say, I won't be reviewing irrelevant stuff that is of no interest to me and all of you.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by ReviewMe.com