11:24 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

No, by pop up dialogs I don't mean pop up browser windows. Those are a pain also, but IE and Firefox offer us some protection. And yes, this is mainly a desktop issue which is about the environment that mobile devices live in. But pretty soon (especially with the new UMPCs) it will become an issue for mobile computing, if it's not already.

What I'm talking about are the dialog boxes that applications pop up out of nowhere, and which get immediate focus no matter what you happen to be doing at the time.

So what's the problem? Well, I tend to do many things at once on the computer. I have things running in the background while I am doing other things in the foreground. So suppose a program finishes in the background while I'm typing. What happens? It pops up a dialog box saying "I'm done." Unfortunately, I'm a fairly fast typer also, so odds are, I'm going to hit a key that takes action. Usually the space key to accept the default choice. I'm left wondering what the heck was that dialog box that just popped up, and what did I just instruct that program to do?!!!!

I'm getting pretty tired of interacting accidentally with popup dialog boxes or other GUI elements by accident, and I'm wondering:

1) When will something very bad happen as a result?
What happens if a dialog box with <commit changes> and <delete all> pops up and I happen to type TAB space space? Do I end up deleting everything and confirming the delete all before I even realize a dialog box popped up!?

2) Why doesn't Microsoft set something up as an option in Windows so that you can be notified, but that another background program can't grab focus unless you ask for it. All I want is to know another program wants to interact with me. But I want control of when I switch my focus to another application. Especially with programs that present a higher risk of inadvertant interaction. Shouldn't Windows support some sort of safer app switching?

3) Do Linux or other O/S's have any support for this kind of situation?

Has anyone even thought of this issue before? Anyone else wondering the same thing, or am I an irrelevant outlier as far as users are concerned?

07:25 AM by kacir in E-Book General | News

Lost in another thread I have come across Walkbook, an interesting e-reader device available in countries of the European Union. Meaning we do not have to pay exorbitant import taxes anymore just to get an e-book reader with an 800x600 6" screen. Now we can pay the (slightly-less) exorbitant Value Added Tax instead ;-)

Walkbook claims to be "OEM partner of Jinke products", opening their EU office in Paris / France by the end of this month. So we are eagerly awaiting a working "Buy now" link.

PS: Unfortunately the site only works in one of my three installed Windows browsers. Please, dear walkbook.net operators/administrators, if you read this, make the site accessible to people who can't use (or can't stand) Flash animation.

04:34 PM by slayda in E-Book General | News

An article on ZDnet may be of interest for those worried about DRM. It seems that Media Rights Technologies think that Apple, Microsoft & others are violating our rights.

A California company that makes technology designed to prevent ripping of digital audio streams has accused Apple, Microsoft, RealNetworks and Adobe Systems of violating federal copyright law by "actively avoiding" use of its products.

Media Rights Technologies and its digital radio subsidiary BlueBeat.com said in a press release Thursday that it had issued cease and desist letters to the high-tech titans. It argues that the companies have manufactured billions of copies of Windows Vista, Adobe Flash Player, Real Player and Apple's iTunes and iPod "without regard for the DMCA or the rights of American intellectual property owners."

02:48 PM by Steven Lyle Jordan in E-Book General | News

Literary news is full of Philip Roth, author of "Portnoy's Complaint" and many other novels, winning the first ever PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, a $40,000 prize named for the late Nobel laureate and one of Roth's closest friends and literary heroes.

However, when listening to this news bit on the radio this morning, my ears pricked up when Roth was recorded saying, "(I regret that) the age of the book is coming to an end." (I've found no further info on this quote, or anything else said around it. Maybe someone can track down the entire statement somewhere.)

Sour grapes? Just an old man resistant to change? What do you think?

02:39 PM by vranghel in E-Book General | News

A very interesting podcast with with Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive, Michael Hart of Project Gutenberg, and Michael Keller of Stanford's library (Keller is working with Google on its library scanning project).

The main topics of the podcast includes Google's effort of digitising the world's major University and many suggestions of how Google can make their book search more approachable and more accesible to both individuals and scholars, and also available in bulk.

Encyclopedia of Life / Digital Libraries [via BoingBoing]

07:47 AM by tribble in E-Book General | News

From here:

LG.Philips LCD [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220], a leading innovator of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) technology, announced today that it developed the world’s first 14.1-inch flexible color E-paper display, equivalent in size to an A4 sheet of paper. This is a second breakthrough in E-paper for LG.Philips LCD, which introduced the world’s first 14.1-inch black and white flexible E-paper display in May 2006.

The 14.1-inch flexible color E-paper uses electronic ink from E-Ink Corp. to produce a maximum of 4,096 colors. It can be viewed from a full 180 degrees, so that images always appear crisp, even when the display is bent.

Just saw this, thought you are interested

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Have something interesting to say about mobile computing or reading? Join our forums and share your view on topics like the ones discussed at MobileRead this past week...

E-book Devices, eREAD STAReBOOK
eRead's STAReBOOK goes to New Zealand

E-book Devices, HanLin eBook
New E Ink reader hits the streets: lBook eReader V3

E-book Devices, iRex iLiad
Andrew Marr reluctantly impressed by the iLiad

E-book Devices, Sony Portable Reader
Sony Reader featured on Daily Gizwiz podcast
New Sony Reader Ads: "Why give Mom one book...?"
Sony Reader - how to change its contrast ratio
Engadget award goes to the Sony Reader

E-books, News
USB Flash Drive Worm: I Suppose it Was Only a Matter of time
50-inch e-paper devices by 2013, says market researcher
E Ink launches next-gen electronic ink: Vizplex
NYC presentation: Sony Reader for the visually handicapped
Adobe's Bill McCoy: "The Future Is Here."
Petition Amazon to enable customer votes for e-book conversions
Bill Gates says "Reading is going to go completely online."

Mobile Devices, Handhelds and Smartphones
Cell phone with game controller wings

09:04 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

The results are in of this year's Engadget awards for the "most excellent gadgets and consumer technologies." The Sony Reader (drum roll please) won the Editors' Choice award as handheld of the year. In the Readers' (reader as in voter) Choice category, the Reader got beaten into second place by the Sony VAIO UX280P.

The most prestigious award went to the the Nintendo Wii as gadget of the year (both Editors' and Readers'). The Golden Raspberry went to Microsoft's Zune player and Sony's exploding batteries.

List of all winners: Link

Related: Vote for the Sony Reader!