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

Bite-sized MobileRead for your weekend pleasure:

E-book Devices, Future E-Book Devices
iriver enters the e-book business

E-book Devices, Sony Portable Reader
Plastic e-books gift cards from Sony soon?
Sony Reader Walkman
Hot: Sony plans Reader successor for this year
Sony Reader on display @ CES 2007
Sony reveals Connect Reader software update at CES
Sony rolls out Reader with luxurious Dooney & Bourke case

E-books, News
E-book prices need to come, says Technical Review
E Ink is hiring
Play news catch-up with TeleRead
Publishers increase investments in e-book technologies
An "American Idol" for writers comes to the web

Miscellaneous, Announcements
Praise for Palm Addicts

Miscellaneous, Link Swap
New site: The ApplePhone Addict

Mobile Devices, Handhelds and Smartphones
Pocket Tunes Deluxe 4.0

Mobile Devices, Portable AV
DLP Projectors: TVs, palm sized, and now for cell phones!

10:50 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Imagine a web contest for authors based on the American Idol process. Authors publish the first chapter of a book and compete to continue to the next chapters. After three elimination rounds, the winner of a $5,000 book contract is picked by "representatives from Simon & Schuster, Borders bookstores and Gather.com".

That is what the "First Chapters" contest is doing for members of gather.com who want to strut their written stuff in front of the judges. It's certainly a new approach to finding good books from the slush pile of writing submissions.

It's not so obvious from the gather.com front page where to find info, but after some digging I was able to find the rules here and more information from the First Chapters administrator can be found from some other posts. So if you are interested, you have until March 15th to make your submission and satisfy the entry requirements.

From ZDNet.

10:13 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

There are a few programs that are essential for every Palm user. And in my opinion, Pocket Tunes Deluxe is an essential piece of software.

The program is an fantastic music player, but it can do so much more. See Six awesome things you didn't know Pocket Tunes could do, for example.

Now, the program is even better with the version 4.0 improvements that include:
* An internet radio catalog for music streaming with an internet connection
* A new improved user interface that is very pleasant and useful
* Album art - I never thought I'd care, but it's actually very nice. Some podcasts even have album art on their mp3's
* Better sound quality whether playing mp3's or streaming music

In addition, they have an interesting link to AudioBooksForFree, which seems to warrant a much closer look. It's audiobooks with professional narrators and producers that are offered in low quality versions for free, and high quality at reasonable prices. Probably mostly public domain book titles, but with good narration it might just make the classics exciting.

I highly recommend this program, along with a large SD card for a library of music. You can even run it with StyleTap software on Windows Mobile. Who needs an iPod?!

02:15 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

In a world of electronic gadgets, whether you have a laptop PC or a handheld, nothing impresses more than a discreet leather case. So if you think the Reader isn't already enough to get you lots of admiring looks, you might be interested in Sony's latest offering - the Sony Reader PRS-500U2DB. It's essentially the same device as the PRS-500U, only that it's wrapped up in a yummy designer leather case and that it requires you to pay an extra of US$150.

To make the package more affordable and worth paying for, let me share with you the following (totally unfounded, of course) rumors:

• it's a Valentines promotion
• it's a limited edition (no idea about the number, but better be quick if you want one)
• it comes in a designer red gift box that includes the original case and the designer leather case
• it has an extra cloth to store the Reader in its case
• it may be coming with a credit for e-books from Sony's online store

Sure you may still argue it's an overpriced piece of leather, but remember, for heaven's sake, it's Dooney & Bourke! Feel free to share your opinion in the on-going discussion.

Thanks to vigilant tipster kacir for the news.

05:19 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

The Wall Street Journal is reporting (only to its subscribers, not to us) that HarperCollins Publishers has bought an equity stake in NewsStand Inc., a distributor of digital editions for newspapers and magazines. NewsStand is also parent company to LibreDigital, who specialized in online sales and marketing of e-books, from digitization to display.

Furthermore, the article states that HarperCollins is starting to offer competitors to use its digitizing technology for a license.

Other publishers who invested in e-book technologies recently include:

• CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster, who is constructing its own digital warehouse, expecting to have more than 12,000 digital titles by year-end
• Bertelsmann AG's Random House Inc., who is in the ongoing process of creating a digital archive for its backlist and newly published titles in the late 1990s.

02:26 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

We have received word that Sony has been showing off a Connect software update at this year's CES. Other than Howard Stringer's indication that there will probably be another Sony Reader model in the future, it may be the best evidence so far of Sony's ongoing commitment in that product space.

Reportedly, Sony has talked about the following enhancements for the Connect Reader desktop software:
* Connect Reader will allow for a two page whole screen viewing of books
* Connect Reader will work with Vista
* Connect Reader will have a "Eject Button" to allow you to feel better about disconnecting the Reader from the Software

No word on when it will be available, but with the initial success of the Reader, and ongoing signs of Sony's commitment to the Reader, hopefully we can look forward to more enhancements from Sony in the years to come.

In other Sony Reader news from CES, they are apparently also displaying the Great Point/Lightwedge flexible neck clip-on light that should appear soon at their web site.

09:39 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Looking for all the scoop and follow-up discussions about the new iPhone recently announced by Apple? Be sure to bookmark the newest addition to the "Addict" blog family created by Sammy McLoughlin of Palm Addict fame.

If you're looking for a quick peek at what the iPhone talk is all about, this article is a nice introduction from USA Today.

For one industry analyst's early look at the phone and it's impact on the smartphone market, be sure to check out the comments from Michael Mace at Mobile Opportunity.

The iPhone is basically a phone and a multimedia device all wrapped up in a sleek new form factor, and intended to build on the success of the iPod and iTunes online music store. The phone has a nice full body screen that is used for both display and as a keypad. New interface techniques have been introduced, many involving multiple touch points, such as "squeezing" two fingers to shrink an image.

iPhone will run OSX, but apparently it is a closed device, so it will not run just any third party application. There are fancy sensors that allow it to turn off the touch screen input when you put it up to your face, and to know when to display in landscape or portrait orientation. It will be interesting to see how well all the new gee-whiz features work in the real world.

The phone is a Cingular exclusive in the U.S., and with a 2-yr contract it will cost $499 for the 4 gig version. Another $100 will get you 8 gig storage, but neither phone will be available until around June.

09:20 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Some British dudes visited the Sony stand at this year's CES to provide us with some live coverage of the Sony Reader displayed there (next to PS3s, OLED displays, UMPCs, and other goodies worth drooling for).

You can watch their video on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ebN3nGsKpGE