02:53 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Simply put, RasterFarian makes content look good on your Sony Reader. Previously also known as PDFRasterFarian, it's a Windows-based tool that re-renders content through various image processing filters to make it more legible and zippy-to-navigate. Aleksandr Dubinsky (Alex_d) who just returned from his developmental hiatus has made our day with a new improved version that includes the following new features (among others):

• Installer included
• ImageMagick replaced with NetPBM (the latter has a better interface, better documentation)
• Image quality improvements ("edge enhancement", image resize, etc., alas it's also slower)
• Job queuing
• Support for djvu planned (in release 2.5.1)

Enough said, join our latest discussion and grab RasterFarian from there.

Discussions of older versions: PDFrasterFarian Development, PDFrasterFarian - makes A4/Letter PDFs usable

12:26 PM by NatCh in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Nokia to launch WiMax phones in early '08

WiMax, or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, according to good old, reliable Wikipedia, promises huge bandwidth or enormous range, or good bandwidth and nice range, and is looking like a good candidate for closing the "last mile" in home internet connectivity. Of course many people are just wondering when they can get a phone that takes advantage of it.

Well wonder no longer, oh tech hungry masses! Nokia, and Motorola, it seems, have come to answer your heart-rending cries for succor.

Nokia's closest rival in the handset market, U.S.-based Motorola, also plans to bring its first WiMax-enabled mobile phone to the market in 2008.

...

"Nokia plans to bring its first WiMax-enabled mobile device to market in early 2008," Nokia said in a statement.

But of course there is good with the bad -- while WiMax will give you great, cheap, wireless internet, it's apparently not well suited for actually talking over:

WiMax will make wireless broadband much cheaper to deliver--up to 10 times cheaper than current third-generation cellular telephony networks. But while it provides fast Internet access, it is not very well suited for wireless voice calls.

On the other hand, once we're all playing Internet Spades over WiMax, there should be much less drain on the cell voice infrastructure, so those poor losers who want to make actual phone calls will be able to get through.

From Reuters

12:25 PM by NatCh in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I know, you're wondering what in the world bees have to do with Cell Phones, and why am I posting about it on MobileRead? Well, the first point will answer itself, but I'd like to comment on the second now. I figure 'they' have been trying to find something to blame Cell Phones for (brain tumors, impotence, and now mass insecticide) for some time, and I think, as a Cell user, that it's a good idea to keep up with such things, especially if one of them should turn out to actually be true.

Okay, so here's the, um ... buzz: folks are paying more attention to something called "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD) which may indeed be becoming more widespread -- no one seems to want to say it is becoming more widespread, they're just asking the question. The reason folks care is of course that bees are rather important to crops as pollinating agents, and even gizmologists rather like to eat.

Enter a study from German researchers (led by a Prof. Jochen Kuhn of Landau University) that found that EMF radiation in the 900 to 1800 MHz range would dissuade bees from returning to their hives (if the source was placed near the hives), he also found some suggestion of some residual effect on the bees' ability to navigate even after the EMF was removed.

However, most bee-keepers don't seem to put much stock in the Cell theory, as there are apparently a large number of other things known to kill off hives which they consider more likely culprits.

What's CCD, you ask? Well in a nutshell (the Wiki link above is a good source for the non-nutshell version), all the adult bees just leave the hive and don't come back. They don't die in or around it, they go away, and presumably die singly elsewhere. Here's the interesting thing about it, though, and the main thing that makes me, personally, skeptical of the Cell Phone theory: apparently the hives get left alone, empty of adult bees (save for the Queen), but full of honey, for quite some time before anything comes along to eat that honey.

Now, I could see how the EMF might run the bees off, and maybe even keep them from coming back, but how does it keep the bears away for so long? And, does this phenomenon suggest that carrying a cell while hiking would reduce your risk of getting stung? Mauled by a grizzly?

I looked at several articles to put this together, so I'm just going to link to the whole list: for further reading. Note that while most of them refer to Cell Phones int their headlines, they mostly focus on other aspects of the story in their texts.

08:52 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Internet radio may be a thing of the past after May 15,when steep new fees will begin to be imposed upon Internet radio stations. Kurt Hanson, CEO of AccuRadio.com, has indicated that the sharply increased royalty fees would raise their royalty payments from about $48,000 to $600,000 - 150% of their total revenues. In addition, the fees increase annually through 2010, and are even imposed retroactively for 2006. If the decision stands, Hanson said that it is "possibly fatal for Internet radio."

One would think that even artists and copyright holders would not want fees so high that there are no stations left to pay them. However, I suspect that it has more to do with the ongoing battle for greater control of content. The end game is to completely control when and how and where content is used, and to license it indefinitely at the highest possible prices. Without a big fight from the general public, special interests will rule the day.

And it's not just about standard Internet radio streams. There are other new services like Pandora.com which provide interesting customized listening experiences that are being applauded by more and more listeners. Without free Internet radio, we are left to the mercy of paid online radio services by subscription, and with less competition it's pretty clear what will happen to those prices.

So has everyone already given up? Not yet. "A campaign called SaveNetRadio.org has now been set up to put pressure on Congress to resolve the problem and create an environment where Internet radio, and the millions of artists it features, can continue to grow for generations to come.'" And there have been no shortages of industries saying they will die if a certain piece of legislation is enacted. Somehow, entrepreneurs can be amazingly innovative and creative when it comes to survival instincts. We can only hope that Internet radio finds a way to live on.

From BBC News.

07:35 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

There's a new e-book standard file format from the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) which is currently in a review period. The more technical members of the MobileRead community have been invited to provide feedback and thoughts.

This content format is aligned with previously released container format standards. While there will most certainly be some battles to gain wide recognition and adoption, the IDPF's intent has been to work with various members of the community including device makers, publishers and application developers.

According to the IDPF, "The Open Publication Structure (OPS) 2.0 has been elevated for IDPF Member and Public Review. The review period will begin today and extend for 30 days ending on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007. The IDPF strongly encourages feedback from potential users, developers and others, whether IDPF members or not, for the sake of improving the interoperability and quality of IDPF work."

Details follow, along with instructions on providing feedback. Before that, however, let me pass on some thank you's that were included with the information: Nick Bogaty, Executive Director of the IDPF, would like to thank all of the contributors to these documents especially Garth Conboy and Brady Duga of eBook Technologies, Inc., Peter Sorotokin of Adobe Systems, Inc., George Kerscher of the DAISY Consortium, Jon Noring of DigitalPulp Publishing and Ben Trafford for their hard work and time.

Document Summary

On March 29th, 2007 the OEBPS Working Group agreed to submit the OPS 2.0 Working Draft Specification into the official IDPF output process as a Submitted Document as per the IDPF Policies & Procedures 4.6.2 (Approving an Official Document). On Thursday, April 12th, 2007, the IDPF Board of Directors voted to elevate the document to Draft Status for IDPF Member and Public Review. The Draft Review Period will begin on Monday, April 16th, 2007 and last for 30 days, ending on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007. The specifications are available at:

OPS 2.0: http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops/OPS_2.0_0.984_draft.html
OPF 2.0: http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf/OPF_2.0_0.984_draft.html

Feedback on the draft specifications should be made by posting a reply to the forum topic located at http://www.idpf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=58. Sample OPS 2.0 files can be found for download at http://www.idpf.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=5.

Specification Summary

The OPS 2.0 and OPF 2.0 specifications are successors to OEBPS 1.2 which was released as an official IDPF specification in August 2002. The OPS specification describes a standard for representing the content of electronic publications. The OPF specification defines the mechanism by which the various components of an OPS publication are tied together and provides additional structure and semantics to the electronic publication. OPS/OPF will increase the viability and adoption of the previous OEBPS standard as both a cross-reading system interchange and production format as well as a final publication delivery format.

Both OPF and OPS are aligned with the OEBPS Container Format (OCF) specification which defines the standard mechanism by which all components of an electronic publication may be packaged together into a single archive for transmission, delivery and archival purposes. The OCF specification was released as an official IDPF specification on October 27th, 2006.

Ouput Procedure & How to Make Comments on OPS 2.0

The Working Group will maintain a record of all IDPF Member and Public Comments during this 30 Day Comment Period. At the end of the Comment Period, the Working Group will record their actions on each comment and submit the revised Draft Document, Comments and Actions to the IDPF Board of Directors for a Final Board Review. Following the Final Board Review, if elevated by a vote from the IDPF Board of Directors, the document will undergo an IP Notice Period of 45 days. The IP Notice Period will be followed by an IDPF Membership Vote which will require a Super Majority to approve the Proposed Document as a Recommended Document (Official Specification) in the IDPF.

Feedback on the draft specifications should be made by posting a reply to the forum topic located at http://www.idpf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=58. Sample OPS 2.0 files can be found for download at http://www.idpf.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=5.

02:39 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Mobile Sites

ComputerWorld has now announced a mobile phone version of their site. You know... the magazine that called e-books one of the biggest technology flops. But despite that opinion, it's a nice widely-read source of general information technology information.

To take a look, point your browser to http://mobile.computerworld.com.

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

Ok kids, time for the weekly roundup of what we've covered this week:

E-book Devices, iRex iLiad
FBReader 0.8.1d for iLiad port finished (fixes/new features)

E-book Devices, Sony Portable Reader
Computer experts Gibson and Laporte chat about their Readers
Vote for the Sony Reader!

E-books, Content
Today only - Free IntraPDF conversion tool (PDF -> HTML)

E-books, News
if:book releases alpha version of Sophie, content creation tool
PVI rumored to commercialize flexible e-paper this summer
Why the commercial ebook market is broken

Miscellaneous, Lounge
Novelist Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84
Seiko presents bracelet watch with E Ink

Mobile Devices, Handhelds and Smartphones
Palm comments on a (loose) timeframe for Linux 'Palm' devices

Mobile Devices, Others
Motorola Motofone F3 with E Ink display

04:14 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Remember the curved "Future Now" wristwatch from Seiko? Ultra high contrast, ultra thin body, low power consumption, and touch-sensitive buttons - enough to make the technophile in you drool. Well, supposedly it was made for men only, and consequently, Seiko is presenting the female counterpart at this year's Baselworld exhibit.

For 2007, these unique capabilities have been fused into a delightful bracelet watch for women which is the perfect expression of SEIKO's emotional technology. If the wearer is at work, it can be set to its 'efficiency' mode; the display is informative and easy to read. If, however, the watch is set to its 'mystery' mode, the panel expresses the time in a more imaginative, evocative style. Just pick the style to reflect your mood!

It looks somewhat thinner and has the form of a bracelet. No word on the price yet, but if you want your girl to wear E Ink technology around her wrist, be prepared to pay beyond $2000 for this luxury.

Related: Seiko's 'Future Now' watch uses e-paper technology

[via Engadget]