01:33 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

For a while now, we've been covering the possibility of a tiny little projector in a cell phone or PDA. It's an enticing idea -- to be able to project a full sized screen from a cell phone with efficient lasers that won't drain the battery too quickly. Just imagine carrying around the equivalent of a full-sized VGA monitor.

The technology is getting close. We have the advantages of competing technologies, so the race is on. The latest announcement comes from this year's CES in Vegas. Have you seen all those TI advertisements on television for DLP projection TVs? Well, TI has shrunk the DLP processing chip to the point that they have a "prototype digital projector, based on its digital light processors (DLPs) ... could fit on a cell phone.

The projector contains three lasers, a DLP chip, and a power supply and measures about 1.5 inches in length." Put it together with a cell phone and you have DVD quality video. "You could actually drive a large-screen TV" with the processor in a high-end cell phone, said TI Chief Executive Rich Templeton. Unfortunately, they still have to figure out how to successfully make it into a commercial product.

Over the last couple of decades, TI has been reinventing itself from calculators and computers to a new life with dedicated signal processing chips, just as predicted by a TI insider who shared the plan with me in the early 80's. Most people don't realize it, but as of last year "TI has played a major role in the cell phone revolution: the company's digital signal processors run about half the world's cell phones."

Previous improvements in the small display units include last year's demonstration of a Mitsubishi palm sized DLP unit, but it only had SVGA resolution and it was based on LEDs rather than lasers. Quite a fast leap forward in one year, and we can only hope that the progress continues as such a rapid pace.

05:06 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Lo and behold, what's the big story of the day? A guy from the Associated Press talked to Sony CEO Stringer during the CES2007, and he came up with some juicy bits of news regarding the Reader.

Firstly, Sony is sticking firmly to their plans to create a market for e-books. According to Stringer, U.S. sales of the Sony Reader is better than expected. And what's more: Sales of downloadable e-books are exceeding the sales of music on Sony's online Connect Store. Who would have known!

And secondly, Sony is planning to release a new Reader model this year, adding wireless capabilities, most likely to compete against Amazon's rumored upcoming Kindle device.

Excited? I can barely contain myself.

02:57 AM by Stuart Young in E-Book General | News

Thanks to MobileReaders each and Stingo for the heads-up on this. It seems, according to Engadget, that iriver is getting in on the e-book game. They're currently showing off a prototype that comes with dual screens - for that truly book-like feel. Not much detail on the specs available at the moment, except: the device is powered by AAA batteries and features a touch-sensitive screen. The screen looks to be using our faithful e-ink technology, but this isn't 100% confirmed.

See for more pics and discussion in this MR thread.

02:23 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Our friends over at TeleRead have been very active with a lot of coverage of e-book news these days. In case you were absent from your computer due to heavy-duty holiday relaxing, make sure to catch up with these TeleRead highlights that David prepared for us.

Some of my favorite recent TeleRead articles:

• TeleRead’s e-book wish list for ‘07—from hardware to formats
• Baen Bar to sell e-book hardware next year? With E Ink or another advanced display?
• Mac owners vs. the Sony Reader’s eBabel: The horrors and some partial fixes
• OpenReader as an eBabel-fighter: Three ‘musts’ if the standard is to survive Jon Noring’s new ties with DigitalPulp and related: A reply to the ‘Three Musteteers’ and OpenReader, victorious

02:06 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Bob has already mentioned that we won two prestigious Palm Addicts awards for the second consecutive year. I would herewith like to personally thank PA's Editor-In-Chief, Sammy McLoughlin, his entire team and all PA readers for their loyal support and friendship towards MobileRead. In particular Sammy, with his sharp wisdom and regular advise, has been a priceless help to us for the last few years; I am confident without him we would not have suceeded like we did.

On the off-chance that you have not heard of Palm Addicts before, like you know, you spent the last few years living under a rock, I can only highly recommend to bookmark their feed - or even better, to visit them directly. Even if you are not interested in Palm devices, you'll find all sorts of interesting stuff there, including coverage on latest gadgets, hot deals, informative podcasts, and helpful e-book reviews.

10:22 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Cambridge, Mass.-based E Ink Corp, maker of the electronic ink technology that we so totally dig for, is currently hiring. Whom are they looking for? A full-time scientist with a master's degree in Physics or Electrical Engineering to experiment with them - what a surprise - on electronic ink.

In case you are interested in the job, make sure to note on your resume that you are a frequent MobileRead visitor - I'm sure they'll give you give extra points for it.

Link to job advert

05:24 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Wade Roush of MIT Technology Review has updated his review of the Sony Reader. Although he is still mesmerized by the sparkling beauty of the Reader's screen and its comfortable feel, he worries that the success of the hardware alone is not enough for Sony to succeed in the e-book biz.

In fact, I doubt that e-books will be seen as a viable alternative to commercial print books until they're so cheap that their ephemerality doesn't matter to buyers. With iTunes, Apple has demonstrated that for downloadable songs and TV shows, this magic price point is $1 to $2. Because reading an e-book is so different from reading a print book, e-books aren't directly comparable to downloadable songs, which can sound just as good as CDs. Still, I'd guess the magic price point is quite low; personally, I wouldn't pay much more than $5 or $6, or about the price of a low-end paperback.

Related: Sony Reader reviewed by MIT Technology Review (11/08/2006)

05:06 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Remember the Walkman, Sony's popular brand? Once it was so powerful that it was synonymously used to refer to any portable music device. And if we read the minds of Sony's people right, they are planning to achieve the same for the Reader among e-readers. Gizmodo, who is reporting live from the Sony press event @ CES 2007, has this tiny, yet interesting bit of remark:

5:17: Now the portable media guy is here. He's digging out their UMPCs, Vaios, and Sony Reader ("the Walkman of the written word").