01:22 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Feedback

As some of you know, we are planning to launch a newsletter for e-reader devices. In particular iLiad users might enjoy this because this newsletter should become available automatically via the iRex iDS. But of course we want to support other readers as well, such as the Sony Reader.

Yesterday I've started coding the necessary backend. It's going along fine, but now we need your help. Here are my questions and I would love to hear as many answers as possible:

1. What exactly should we include in the newsletter? Right now I've written the code to include all frontpage articles of one week, including all replies. A related question: how often should we publish? Daily? Weekly?

2. What is the best PDF format for your device? We've discussed PDF formatting ad nauseum, but I'd be happy if you could help me and just write it down here instead of me having to find out by scanning the older threads.

3. How should we make the newsletter available to disconnected device, such as the Sony Reader? Via a simple download or via e-mail subscription?

That would be all for now!

Related:
Proposed MobileRead newsletter, Whatever happened to MobileRead via iDS?

09:54 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

We've received word from MobileReader Martijn that the Dutch school Bonnefanten College will run an e-paper experiment this February. Initiated by Edupaper, the project will involve a bunch of students who will upload a selection of their school textbooks and homework notes to an iRex iLiad e-reader device. There are some more details available, and we invite our Dutch friends to provide us with a translation for it (trust me, you don't want to hear the nonsense Babelfish came up with).

12:54 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Microsoft is offering a free download of a 3-D golf game. There are versions for either Windows Mobile for Smartphone or Pocket PC. Caution:Registration is required, and I'm not sure how intrusive the process is.

A similar offer is available for 1-Calc Lite. Both programs are from Omega One.

Via Mobility Site.

10:32 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The big news, of course, is that it is a tabbed web browser and it doesn't need a Java VM to run. It's only for PalmOS 5.0 or greater (Garnet) because of resource requirements, but there are a lot of features. Even going so far as to "make certain that Universe is truly smart."

Don't be fooled by the old "Wap Universe" name! The new Universe 3 is not just a WAP browser. It's a "full" web browser and handles HTML pages.

Universe 3 is expected to be released between January and March of 2007, which means any day now. It's a little confusing for those who might have expected a release of WAPUniverse last year -- that release was cancelled in order to add features and get to this Universe 3 release instead.

Features
* A Tabbed interface (supporting up to 3 tabs)
* An address bar featuring a url box and navigation buttons
* An Integrated RSS reader
* Private browsing (mask the history, cache and cookies)
* Support for JPEG, GIF, BMP and PNG (with alpha channels) images
* Support for HTML/XHTML/WML/RSS 1.0/2.0
* Support for WAP 1.0/2.0
* Support for Hires and Hires+ screen sizes
* Advanced 5-Way scrolling (based off of the Nokia S60 Browser)
* No need for the Java VM!
* Much more.

Planned Features
* Removing the 3 tab limit
* JavaScript support (using Apple's JavaScriptCore)
* gzip Compression for a faster browsing experience
* Opening and saving files to the local file system
* And more

As a Treo 700p user, I'm quite excited about this program! Hopefully, he is right on track for the release date!

07:17 PM by CommanderROR in More E-Book Readers | Netronix

Well, I have something here that might be interesting to many users of this forum.
Since several people asked me about the booting speed and pageturn speed of the STAReBOOK I thought I'd take a little video of the device in action. To spice things up a bit I added the Iliad as a comparison.

The things I did:

I put both devices on the couch, switched completely off (no standby).

I then switched the camera on, picked up the Iliad and turned it on, then turned the STAReBOOK on (I could do that without picking it up since the powerbutton is on the top).
Then I selected the "Last read book" on both devices (it's actually the same book in both cases, file-sizes are also about the same, around 900K and both books are at roughly the same page (hard to be sure since the screensize-difference makes the pages different as well).

I then flipped forward 3 Pages (please note that I did not press the page-forward button on the STAReBOOK properly the first time and had to repeat (you can see the device lighting up the green LED but not flipping pages), I did not want to do the whole recording again just because of that) and then flipped back three pages and shut both devices down again (Iliad first again).

Three things to note:
1) The quality is bad, but I don't have any better equipment and I guess you can see all that is neccessary.

2) I could actually finish the whole procedure on the STAReBOOK before the Iliad was even done booting despite the fact that I missed the "Page-forward" button at the first try and the Iliad was switched on several seconds before the STAReBOOK. Of course the Iliad has a lot more to load, but it is also a lot more powerful where the Hardware is concerned.

3) The books were both loaded from SD card. Both cards were 1GB, the one in the Iliad was a Sandsik Extreme II, the one in the STAReBOOK was a simple Kingston with no speedrating provided (it was 7.90€, so I guess it's not spectacular)

The File is in .avi format, I compressed it down from 29MB to 1.xMB using the XVID codec.

01:28 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

Earlier this year, The-eBook Russia had news of this interesting mobile gadget. It looks like a laptop computer, but instead of a keyboard it seems to have a touch sensitive screen. That allows a "soft" keyboard, or other types of displays.

As a result, the device would appear to be a chameleon of sorts, looking like a regular laptop or a multi-display device. It has configurations that look like an application which uses the bottom screen for graphic document editing controls, and the top screen as the finished product. Same idea for multimedia controls and final results on the second screen, and it might be very useful for video production work as well. Developers could use it to display program code on one side and program execution on the other side.

I assume it's a set of concept drawings, but as it's in Russian I'm not sure. Whatever it is, I hope the future includes one for consumers!

10:54 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

We tend to get very attached to our mobile devices and e-book readers. But just how far does that go? Even the "less addictive" traditional home computing seems to be affecting relationships.

According to PC World Blogs, "Sixty-five percent of Americans polled said they spend more time with their home computer than their spouse or significant other." And it's not always a good thing, because a majority said that "their computer woes leave them feeling angry, sad, or alienated."

Our passion for mobile devices is certainly a part of who we are. It certainly affects our life, and those around us. Why don't you share your stories about some of the relational effects your mobile device has on the people around you? Are any of the effects good? And how about the pushback - are there ever any repercussions?!

04:00 PM by CommanderROR in More E-Book Readers | Netronix

As I noted earlier, I received my Review Sample of the STAReBOOK today.
You can find a bunch of pictures and a few brief observations here

I've had a little time to play with the device this afternoon and can now give you a little more information.

First of all, I'd like to make a few things clear:

1) As with the Iliad deal, I don't get paid for what I do here. I'm trying to make an independent review here, for the community, not for the company.

2) Staretek has provided the review unit free of charge. I did not have to pay a single penny for either the device or the shipping to Germany. For this I'd like to thank those responsible at Staretek and especially Ivan who was always very helpful.

3) I will compare the device to the Iliad from time to time. I know that the devices are completely different, but there are still some things that can be compared, like reading ebooks on the devices. I think it makes sense to compare, even if this is far from a apples to apples comparison.

So, let's get started...

First Impression:

The STAReBOOK is a very nicely made device. The Materials are very nice, not the cheap plastic I had expected but a more iPod-like soft-glossy finish. The silver-grey strip on the lower end of the device actually looks a lot more metallic in real than it does on the pictures. Quality seems to be good as well with very little obvious room for improvement. The rubberized backside of the device is also a nice touch since it makes it eaiser to hold and prevents it from slipping out of your hands.
When I first received my Iliad I thought it looked very much like a business device. The whole design and the form-factor made it look very down-to-earth and like something a manager wouldn't be ashamed of carrying around.
The STAReBOOK has a very different charm. It has a lot of "sex-appeal" somehow, hard to define it exactly, but it's a bit like the attraction an iPod nano has. It's very sleek, stylish in a understating kind of way and looks a bit fragile (although I'm not sure whether it is any more fragile than the Iliad). I can imagine a manager owning one of these, but I can't exactly see him using it as a work-tool in a meeting.

So, let's go into some details:

1) Connections:
The STAReBOOK has a USB2.0 connection and seems to be using a standard mini-usb connector for both data-transfer and charging. there is an additional charger in the box (mine is the US model unfortunately so I can't really try it out, only charge from USB connection) that will be of some use to those who are away from the computer for longer periods and like to recharge their gadgets from a normal wall-socket. The additional charger also connects to the mini-usb socket. The mini-usb socket is hidden behind a rubber flap that seals it against dust/water/whatever. The headphone connection is also behind this "flap" on the lower edge of the device.
The SD-Card slot is at the top of the device, next to the on/off switch.
The volume controls are on the right side and the bookmark, menu, delete and mp3 keys are on the left side.

Turning pages is done via a 4-way cursor-pad on the front of the device below the display. The up/down keys on the pad are for increasing/reducing the font-size when you are reading. The last key is the OK key in the middle of the pad. Pretty straightforward so far.

I'll continue this in the next post so that it does not become too long.