07:29 AM by branko in E-Book General | News

With all these new cheap ultra-mobile laptops being announced, things started to get confusing for me, so I created a comparison chart for them and have added it to the Mobileread wiki here. I hope you find it useful, and please edit it as more information becomes available for these devices.

The devices in the matrix are: OLPC 2B1, Intel Classmate, Palm Foleo, Asus EEE, and the Via Nanobook.

04:40 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Tired of waiting for E Ink, Plastic Logic & co. to get you e-paper in color? There may be a light at the end of your tunnel. R2D2 has found a bug which turns the screen of his good old iRex iLiad into color.

Brings tears to my eyes it does.

12:38 AM by alex_d in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

I bring to you a little program that will put the Reader into white-on-black (inverse color) reading mode. Many people find this mode easier on the eyes and small text appears more legible. This change will affect everything, including books produced by RasterFarian. This change is, of course, reversible.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Extract the contents of the rar file to an SD card. The SD card can have books and music on it, just take care to preserve the file paths.

Pop the card into the Reader and you'll be given a menu. When you're done, you can exit and read your books. To change the mode again, take out the card and reinsert it (this will re-activate the menu).

The engine for running code and drawing menus is based on Igorsk's excellent PRS Flasher (simplified and cleaned up a bit). The program itself accomplishes what it does with a special ioctl call. The ioctl call was discovered while investigating eInk programming for the RasterReader (a viewer application that I'm writing for the Reader).

Source is included.

04:27 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Like many tech topics, there is all kinds of news out there about UMPCs on the market and soon to come. But if you haven't been following it like an addict, you might not know where to look. This is meant to be a primer for those of you that are interested, but might not have had the time to read dozens of UMPC-related tech blogs.

First of all, we are all very lucky to have one fantastic resource. It's the very first stop you should make if you are trying to get some info on UMPC models - the UMPC Portal Product Comparison page. That information might almost get you the information you need all by itself.

A few points to remember when looking at UMPCs:
1) Like laptops, you probably care about the OS version, RAM, hard drive size, and screen size.
2) Keyboards vary from notebook-like, to thumb boards, to none at all.
3) Screens are not always touch sensitive, and even if they are, there are light and hard touch screens. Light touch gives you easier tapping, but is more vulnerable to vectoring (when it interprets your palm as a touch point, making it appear on the screen like you were drawing a line down to where your palm was resting). Also note that there are active styluses that are used often in larger tablet PCs, but most UMPCs only have touch sensitive screens, so you can't "hover" or adjust the thickness of your line by the amount of pressure used when writing. On the other hand, touch sensitive is much more convenient because you can use your finger or a stylus instead of a special battery operated (and expensive) pen.
4) Battery life is critical for most people, and estimates can vary based on how it is measured and the number of cells in the battery used. Many models offer extended batteries as options. Wifi, bluetooth, screens that are set to high brightness, and heavy usage will all lower the run time for a battery.
5) CPU chipsets vary a lot. For Vista, there are some graphics and input driver limitations that seem to crop up on older hardware. XP Tablet seems to need less RAM, and Vista is slower but better integrated with tablet functions.
6) Accessories can make all the difference. The Samsung Q1, for example, has a portfolio that makes for a neat small package to carry and use your Q1 as well as a slim keyboard with it. Even a convertible with a keyboard, probably would do well in some sort of a case. And for all devices, you may want to check on whether a dock is available.

So what are the "hot" models? Well, it's hard to say, but the newer Samsung Q1 Ultra for about $1200 seems to top the list, and it is about the only one with a higher resolution screen. Extra screen resolution can really help on a 7". My hot list of future models include the Asus T83 convertible tablet that is supposed to come around in Q3 2007 for under $1000. Also the US702 convertible looks pretty neat.

Next year we will start to see a lot more of the Linux MID devices, as well as some near-pocket sized devices like a reference model that Intel keeps showing off.

There are many more options, but this should be enough to get you pointed in the right direction. And if you want to keep up on the news be sure to also add JKonTheRun, and keep an eye out for other sites that they refer to here and there to build your news list.

Buying one is a difficult decision, however. They are improving so rapidly, but are still very expensive and choices are limited. I'd love a convertible UMPC running Vista that looks like the Palm Foleo. But most seem to be running a 7" screen right now, and are not convertibles. The pocket sized ones won't really be here until next year (except for the OQO Model 2 which probably runs around $2000).

If you are willing to go up to a larger convertible, you can take a look at the Lenovo X61 tablet, Gateway 12" tablet and the HP 12" consumer model entertainment tablet. But watch out for the battery life on the Gateway and HP, and watch out for the price tag on all of them! Dell will also have a slim 12" tablet later this year.

Personally, while I'd like a full Windows Vista device, I'd be happy if my Treo and its applications supported an external "terminal" like the Foleo, but which acts simply as a dumb terminal and does all the computing with the Treo itself. No synching, no extra apps, no compatibility issues!

The Treo would need a few tweaks, but could be essentially the same. Just add:
1) Support for the higher resolution screens of the terminal
2) Responsiveness - it's a bit sluggish now
3) Multitasking, of course
4) A decent browser and a full office suite (say Open Office?)

But until that happens, I'll have one eye on the UMPCs, and the other eye on my wallet!

05:02 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Flexible grayscale e-paper from PVI, the Taiwanese company who has been pumping E Ink displays out in volumes in recent months and years, is due for volume production later than the mid-2007 timeframe claimed in earlier rumors. According to latest reports from Digitimes, PVI will roll out flexible e-paper (in grayscale) not before year-end 2007, and deliver the long-prophesied e-paper in color in 2009.

Bottom line, we're going to have to wait some longer to replace our Readers and iLiads.

Related: PVI scores with "MagicMirror" flexible E Ink technology

02:13 PM by NatCh in Miscellaneous | Lounge

I realized last night there there is no way of seeing where all us MobileReaders are. Sure, there's a Sony Reader map, and an iRex iLiad map, and they cover a lot of us, but there isn't a map just for General MobileReaders. So I went and made one. So stick in a pin, and let us know where you hang your hat.

http://www.frappr.com/mobileread

01:50 PM by NatCh in E-Book General | News

Here's one UMPC that has abandoned all pretense of being anything but an internet appliance, sure, it'll run Word, but they know you just want to read your e-mail, play Bejeweled and surf the web. They also know you want to not pay an arm and a leg for the privilege.

Taipei, Taiwan, June 5, 2007 – Majority of activities conducted on the laptops today are Internet related. Whether it´s checking emails, reading news, communicating with others or simply utilizing online share spaces, Internet usage has become a big part of the daily computing operations - for both work and fun. To accommodate the increasing total Internet computing demands as well as growing number of users, both young and old, ASUS launches the revolutionary Eee PC to provide users with a new mobile Internet experience like never before.

And fairly decent specs as well:

EeePC 701 Specification
Display：7"
CPU & Chipset: Intel mobile CPU & chipset
OS: Linux/ Microsoft Windows XP compatible
Communication: 10/100 Mbps Ethernet; 56K modem
WLAN: WiFi 802.11b/g
Graphic: Intel UMA
Memory: 512MB, DDR2-400
Storage: 4/ 8/ 16GB Flash
Webcam: 300K pixel video camera
Audio: Hi-Definition Audio CODEC; Built-in stereo speaker; Built-in microphone
Battery Life: 3hrs (4 cells: 5200mAh, 2S2P)
Dimension & Weight: 22.5 x 16.5 x 2.1~3.5cm, 0.89kg

They have a nice (if annoyingly large) flash presentation here, and the full press release is here.

Hat tip to Coolest-Gadgets.

01:41 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you don't know already, TraxItAll is a nifty and very simple application to help you track things. It can keep track of whether you worked out, or how many pounds you lost each week, or how many sales calls you made, how many mobile devices you bought this year, etc.

Well, there is a desktop module now available as a free upgrade. You can find all the details here. (Vista compatibility hasn't yet been verified.)