Good news for fans of that washed-up smartphone dinosaur, Palm. The company has today released the beta version of its new webOS 2.0 SDK. The operating system includes a number of powerful new features that should, at least in theory, make it a serious rival to the new iOS, Android, Windows 7 and the new Symbian^3 platform.

Key new features of webOS 2.0 include a revamped multi-tasking system, known as Stacks. Expanding on the operating system’s existing playing cards-inspired user interface, webOS 2.0 now allows users to group related cards (which each represent an app) into stacks, to reduce clutter and make it easier to switch between different tasks.

Palm has also improved the power of its Universal Search feature, which has now been renamed Just Type. It lets users create emails, perform web searches, update status, etc., without having to launch an app. This is done using a new tool called Quick Actions.

Other new features of webOS 2.0 include a feature called Exhibition for running apps on the TouchStone dock, improvements to Synergy, and a number of HTML 5 enhancements. If you want to learn more about these, and other new features, take a look at Palm’s introduction to webOS 2.0.The new webOS SDK is currently available to developers who sign up to Palm’s SDK Early Access Program.

My heart tells me that webOS is a platform that deserves a lot more attention from mobile developers. But my head says it’s pretty sure that this won’t happen, and that the Palm platform will finally succumb to the might of the more fashionable operating systems from Apple, Google and BlackBerry.

iPhone: The USA TODAY app for iPhone delivers the latest news, sports, weather and photos directly to your mobile phone. The free app condenses content from USA TODAY into an easy-to-access interface to help you stay ahead of current affairs on the go. You can check the latest headlines in six different categories (news, money, sports, life, tech and travel).

Windows: Need an app to manage, view and edit images? Look no further: Zoner Photo Studio Free is what you’ve been searching for. This great free app lets you manage photos with ease, fix and optimize them with a set of editing tools, view them in full screen and finally share them online on Facebook or Flickr.

Mac: Worried about what your kids are doing online? OnlineFamily.Norton gives parents the comfort to set their children free online while still keeping them safe and sound. Once it is setup, you will be able to see when your kids are online, what they’re looking it, who they are chatting with and even what they’re searching for.

Sorry kids, but the golden summer is drawing to a close and it’s almost time to head back to the miserable world of the education system. I’m so glad I’m not you. Don’t be too despondent though because there are ways you can lift the doom of heading back through those gates of hell once more.

If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod touch then you’ve got access to a whole bunch of apps that’ll make the next year at school or college that little bit more bearable. Heck, you might even start enjoying it (actually, don’t quote me on that). Here’s a selection of essential free apps to help you with all subjects and to get you through the rigors of the school day.You can also check out the Back to School section of the App Store for other inspirational applications.

Math

Primary: Basic Math - Teaches under 12s addition, subtraction, multiplication and division through a series of drills. The app includes a report card to keep track of performance, along with an on-board calculator with sound effects.

Secondary: Equation Genius - In a muddle over your equations? This app will help you to solve first, second and third degree equations, as well as helping you discover unknown variables.

College: CT Math Prep Practice Test Questions - Prepares you for your final exams by offering simulations of actual tests. Perfect answers to each question are provided, along with a detailed rationale explaining the workings out.

Science

Primary: Basic Science Quiz Lite: Teaches a range of science disciplines through a series of multiple choice questions. Topics include digestion of food, classification of living things, water, and the Sun.

Secondary: Experimenter: Guess what kids? Science can be fun, as this awesome app proves. Experimenter explains some awesome experiments you can perform at home that will help you discover more about science- and make a big mess.

College: Periodic Lite: A periodic table is an essential for many science degrees, and here’s one you can carry around with you at all times. Periodic Lite includes info such as atomic weight, electron configuration, melting point and ionic radius.

English

Primary: SpellingMagic - Teaches children how to spell words through fun games. Games include balloon popping, hangman, spelling tests and word spinning.

Secondary: iBooks - Actually, this one is a must-have for all levels of education. Downloading eBooks with iBooks will allow you to carry your course books around with you in your pocket rather than lugging them in your satchel.

College: Advanced English Dictionary and Thesaurus - The perfect companion for any literary student, this dictionary from WordNet boasts almost 140,00 entries, covering 1.4 million words. Synonyms, antonyms, similar and related words are all provided.

Languages

Primary: Feed Me! - Designed to expose kids to other languages at an early age, Feed Me! is a fun word game starring a monster who teaches numbers, colors and shapes and more. There are editions for Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Italian and more.

Secondary: Free Translator - This free, multi-language translator uses Google Translate to help you translate words and phrases from a range of different languages. You can flick between source and target languages with the press of a button.

College: Classics2Go(Spanish) - A must for anyone studying Spanish literature, Classics2Go contains six classic Spanish texts: Don Quixote (volumes one and two), Gesta de Mio Cid, Lazarillo de Tormes, Platero y Yo, and Rimas.

Geography

Primary: GeoBlox Lite - Helps kids explore the World through an interactive game. The game involves helping the main character, Ella, discover famous landmarks, pinpoint the location of certain animals and answer trivia questions.

Secondary: Google Earth - An obvious, yet essential reference tool for any geography student, Google Earth gives you instant access to maps of the whole planet, along with geo-located Wikipedia articles for a huge range of places.

College: geotimescale - A handy reference to the geologic time scale of the Earth’s history. The app provides clear, charts outlining the dates of all the eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages. Each view is selectable with the tap of a button.

History

Primary: Turkey Time Lite - Give your kids an early introduction to American history with this fun game. The idea is to complete the thanksgiving-related puzzles, quizzes and riddles. Presented by a turkey and a talking Pilgrim character, it’s a fun way for little ones to learn.

Secondary: iHeritage Guide - Want to know the history of your local area? iHeritage Guide includes information about your nearest museum, buildings of significance, and events that took place where you are. Covers the USA only at the moment.

College: History: Maps of World - If you’re studying World history then you can’t afford to be without this one on your iPhone. The application boasts a large collection of ancient maps from across the planet and is searchable by keyword.

Other useful school tools

Best Alarm Clock Free - Make the process of getting up for school more fun with this popular app. Best Alarm Clock includes a range of great tones, multiple snooze settings and an attractive LCD display. It will even tell you the local temperature and weather forecast when you wake up!

Evernote - A superb note-taking app that allows you to record written notes, photos and links on your iPhone then access them from any computer whenever you like. You can even record and save lectures using the built-in voice recorder, so you need never pay attention in class again!

Nimbuzz - If you’re studying away from home, then Nimbuzz is the perfect tool to stay in touch with the folks back there. It pulls together all your instant messaging and social networking contacts and allows you to make cheap international calls using its NimbuzzOut VOIP service.

Android users can now try out Gameloft’s excellent line-up of HD mobile games for free. You simply need to head to the Android section of the developer’s site, and choose one of the 11 titles. Select your phone from the drop-down list, then enter your cell number and you’ll be sent an SMS with a link to download the game directly to your device.

Bypassing the Android Market, this is a great new concept in offering trials of Android games, especially given the quality of the titles on offer from Gameloft. The 11 available to get at the moment are: Modern Combat Sandstorm HD, Gangstar: West Coast Hustle HD, N.O.V.A HD, Asphalt 5 HD, Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles HD, Real Soccer 2010 HD, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X HD, Dungeon Hunter HD, UNO HD, Heroes of Sparta HD, and Let’s Golf HD.

Google has finally decided to add Gmail and Calendar push notifications to its iPhone app. It’s been more than a year since the iOS was equipped with push support for third-party apps, so this update to the Google Mobile app is more than a little overdue.

This latest update means that your iPhone will alert you when you receive new mail or a new calendar event gets added. A badge count on the app’s icon displays how many unread messages/events you have. You’ll be given an option to enable push notifications for Google Mobile when you install the update on your app and log into Gmail through it.

Still rocking a crappy old Java-based mobile phone? I bet you’re sick of all your iPhone/Android owning friends bang on about the latest cool games they’ve installed on their superphones.

Calm down and don’t get so jealous, because there are still plenty of awesome free Java games that you can download and install on your phone. Here’s a selection of some of the best free mobile games available for Java devices. They may not all be great graphically, but they can be just as much fun to play as even the most polished iPhone titles.

Arcade & action

Super Mario Planet - This reworking of the Nintendo classic sees you guide the veteran plumber around level after level of challenging platform action. It’s surprisingly easy to control with the keypad and looks as good as it ever did back on the Super Nintendo.

Tankzors Pro - Like blowing stuff up? Then check out Tankzors Pro. Based around the classic NES game Battle City, Tankzors sees you try to defeat the enemy militia by getting behind the wheel of a tank and crushing any bad guys you come across.

Zelda Mobile - Another legendary Nintendo title, Zelda translates surprisingly well to the small screen of the mobile phone. Be careful when playing on the bus because you’ll more than likely miss every stop on the route, such is the engrossing nature of this adventure game.

Tom & Jerry Food Fight -  The world’s most famous cat and mouse combo team up in this riveting game of skill on your mobile. The object of Tom & Jerry Food Fight is to catch the falling food but it’s a lot more exciting than it sounds. The cartoony graphics look great, too.

Brainteasers

Mine Hunter - This is a faithful port of the classic Windows timewaster, Minesweeper. The object of the game is the same as always - find the hidden mines on the grid without getting blown up. This is done by meticulously figuring out which squares will have bombs based on the numbered clues.

Plop Art Sudoku - Sudoku is a great brain workout but it can be a little dull. Plop Art Sudoku injects some fun into the genre by replacing numbers with cute little creatures. The object of the game is to arrange the nine different images so that none of them appear more than once in the same line or square.

Pipes - This is a great interpretation of a classic puzzle format. The object of the game is to place sections of a pipeline in the right place so that the water can flow from the tap to the drain. Only once the pipeline is complete can you move on to the next level.

Sports

Vegas Pool Sharks - Featuring neat graphics and realistic ball physics, Vegas Pool Sharks is an impressive Java mobile game. The game pits you against four different AI opponents, each with varying levels of skill. The controls are simple to get to grips with, and you’re helped out by some handy on-screen hints.

World League Baseball - This impressive looking mobile baseball game sees you go for global baseball glory.There are two different game modes - exhibition and league. Each allows you to select to play as one of six different countries, and has three levels of difficulty.

Wicked Racing - If you fancy some high-octane thrills while you’re sat in traffic on the bus, then install Wicked Racing. This fun, but challenging, driving sim sees you try to speed around the track before the time runs out. Only by completing a course can you move to the next level.

Gesture Search is an application for Android phones that lets you search for things like songs, contacts and applications by starting to write the name of the item on your screen. Being from Google Labs, this app is seriously cool.

To make Gesture Search an even easier, more natural app to use, you can open  it by just Double Flipping your cell phone.

Despite the video and animated demonstration in Gesture Search’s getting started guide, it took me a little while to master. In the end, I realized the key to the movement is keeping your device more or less upright - in other words, don’t hold it flat like you normally would.

Once the app is open, just begin to draw on the screen. At the moment it supports English (upper and lowercase and numbers) and you can write the characters in one movement or more - Gesture Search automatically realizes if you have finished. Once you write, a list of possibilities will appear. You can scroll down and tap as normal (Gesture Search can also detect the difference between scrolling and writing.). If you want to refine the search, just trace the second letter, and so on.

If you make a mistake, draw a short line to the left. If you want to start over, trace a line to the right. The Gesture Search configuration settings are also pretty helpful. You can decide whether you want to include contacts, music, applications and browser bookmarks in your searches, or if you want to leave some out. You can also configure the sensitivity of the Double Flip function and your writing speed, which makes Gesture Search a lot more comfortable to use.

I thought Gesture Search was really cool, as well as being a pretty accurate search tool. Whether or not I’m going to use it on a regular basis - in other words, as my main search method - remains to be seen. Either way, I’m keeping this app, so if you happen to see me waving my cell around like a madwoman, don’t worry - I’ll just be perfecting my Double Flip. Try Gesture Search for yourself here.

If, like myself, you enjoy a bit of Tumbling in your spare time, then you might be interested to hear that the official Tumblr Android app has been released today. The free app lets you quickly post text, photos, video, audio to the microblogging site directly from your device. Handily, Tumblr for Android lets you simultaneously post to Twitter, too.

You can also use it to follow other users’ posts. These are displayed, along with your own offerings, in a neat timeline in the dashboard. The app lets you like and reblog posts from other people that you’re following, although it won’t let you reblog from strangers, annoyingly.

Although it’s fairly attractive and easy to use, the official Android Tumblr client is far from perfect. There are a few glitches that need some attention, such as some bugs with uploading videos and linking to photos. But it shows plenty of promise and could eventually make a more attractive alternative to Twitter for Android users. Check out my full review for more.

Whatever your reason - risque or not - you might be looking for a way to clear your Android Market search history, which gets crowded pretty quickly. Unfortunately, wiping the slate isn’t as easy as I expected - there’s no easy option and even popular old wives’ tales circulating online, such as clearing the Market cache, just don’t work.

It seems a major oversight on Android’s part, but as far as I can see, there’s no built-in option. Ironically, it would seem that you have to search for and install a new app to get the job done, and internet sources point to two - HistoryEraser and MarketSearchEraser (Android 1.5). Even more extreme, you could try a factory reset (how to do this depends on the phone, but as usual, Google is your friend!) - but there will be other consequences, such as data loss.

Personally, I don’t feel guilty enough about my searches to bother with new apps, but maybe one or two of you out there will consider it. Let us know how you get on!

The more we hear about the new Windows Phone 7 platform, the more plausible it becomes that the new OS will be able punch its weight against iOS and Android. The latest tantalizing tidbit of information is the announcement by Microsoft of the 50 Xbox LIVE games that will launch for Windows Phone 7.

There are some real gems amongst the list, including Bejeweled, Earthworm Jim, Guitar Hero 5, Let’s Golf 2, Max and the Magic Marker, and Star Wars: Battle for Hoth. Visit the official Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone page for the full list.

It’s encouraging to see heavyweight developers like Gameloft, Konami and Glu getting behind the Windows Phone 7 platform. There have been fears that many developers might spurn the platform due to the restrictions and limitations of the development framework.

From the evidence so far, Xbox LIVE on Windows Phone 7 will deliver a great gaming experience, possibly even eclipsing that of the iPhone, eventually. The only real concern I have at the moment is that it won’t support real time multiplayer (at least it won’t when it launches), but hopefully this is something that will be looked by Microsoft if it manages to shift some handsets.

Check out this rather fun promo video for more on Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7.