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

Previously at MobileRead:

Elsewhere on the Net
Free classic Dr Who e-books from the BBC

Future E-Book Devices
More E Ink from China: STAReBOOK STK-101 e-reader

Handhelds and Smartphones
Exercising with PDAbs and your PalmOS device
Palm Addicts Videocast is back
Palm Launches the colorful new Treo 680 smartphone

iRex iLiad
Digital newspaper for the iRex iLiad demoed at IfraExpo

Librie Developer's Corner
Simplereader V0.13 released

Lounge
Free airborne Internet with Connexion till end of 2006
Google buys YouTube
Windows 'Vista' Launch no longer delayed in Europe

Mobile Sites
Ask.com Mobile launched

News
Are books going the way of the dinosaurs?
Google Book Search may not be bad for publishers after all

Reader Content
MobileRead feedback changes Sony Connect Store pricing

Sony Portable Reader
Sony Reader at Frankfurt Book Fair and in Manhattan
Sony Reader for geeks but not for the masses says NYT

12:01 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Everyone agrees that we should exercise more. But we hate the whole thought of keeping track of it all, so we end up either lifting the wrong weight or wasting a lot of time adjusting weight.

Fortunately, for those of us that love to use our PalmOS pdas, there's a great solution available. It's effective both for planning workouts and for keeping track of things while you are doing the workout. It works whether you are doing weight training or stretching or jump roping or aerobics. You can even use it to manage multiple clients if you are a trainer.

The software that can do all this for you is called PDAbs and it is available for PalmOS, Windows and Mac OS X. The desktop and pda software work in conjunction with each other so you have the ability to do analysis of workouts on the desktop, workout setup at the desktop or on the pda, and you can keep all the information you need during a workout on your pda.

Some of the impressive features for PalmOS include:

* Flexible setup of reusable exercise routines and workout sets
* Predefined default exercise categories
* Multiple ways to view data by type, date and client
* Client profiles with height, weight, health concerns, etc and target heart rate calculations
* Exercise checklists that can be used during your workouts
* Beamable workouts so you can share with other pdas

With the holidays coming up, this might be an interesting gift for your loved one and gadget freak that you want to encourage to hit the gym!

04:27 AM by Stuart Young in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Well well it looks as though the-powers-that-be in Redmond have sorted out the legal concerns brought by the EU. A Microsoft statement several months ago read:

That Vista's European launch could be delayed because of the European Commission's concerns about its new flagship product harming competition.

However MS said on Friday they are now "on track" to release Visa as planned in January 2007. Alarms regarding the Vista EU release date started ringing back in March this year when the EU Commission said:

"Microsoft must shoulder its own responsibilities to ensure that Vista is fully compliant with (EU) competition rules and in particular with the principles laid down in the March 2004 Commission anti-trust decision concerning Microsoft".

Don't forget Steve J. will also be busting out the lastest version of Mac OS aka Leopard around the time.

Original story via Yahoo here.

06:17 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

I just received a saddening goodbye letter from Boeing to inform that they have decided to shut down their Connexion by Boeing service by the end of this year. OK, while this is not exactly ground-breaking news, they also told me that passengers traveling on Connexion equipped airline flights may continue to use the Connexion by Boeing service free of charge until the end of 2006.

If you haven't had a chance to try Connexion, you should quickly find a right flight (see attachment), because it had been a fantastic system (I assure you when you get stuck in economy class for eight hours, having Internet access is a dream) whose time has not yet come.

11:24 AM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | Netronix

I'll get right to the point: This one looks very sweet. Michel from Staretek sent us details on the Chinese STAReBOOK e-book reader, which boasts a 6-inch display using E Ink technology - apparently the same display manufactured by PVI and used in the Sony Reader and the Jinke HanLin eBook. The reader is supposed to become available this November in three different editions, two for the Chinese market and one for the English, at a price of around USD $440.

Specifications:

• 6-inch SVGA 800x600 4 grey scales E Ink display
• 250g (160g without case and li-ion battery)
• 188mm by 118mm by 85mm (last one looks like a typo and should probably say 8.5mm)
• ARM-based 250MHz SAMSUNG processor (S3C2410A core)
• 64MB SDRAM system memory
• SD slot (MMS compatible)
• USB 2.0
• headphone jack
• rear-mounted mono speaker
• Linux 2.4.1, MP3 player built-in, uses own e-book format internally (STK)

Related: Comparison of E Ink readers

03:00 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Today, Palm has introduced the PalmOS Treo 680, the next in their line of Treo smartphones. To get a quick idea of what's on this phone, check out the following specs:

* Palm OS® 5.4.9
* 64MB non-volatile user storage
* BlueTooth 1.2
* GSM/GPRS/EDGE quad band radio
* VGA digital camera
* Removable battery
-- Talk time: up to 4 hours.
-- Standby time: up to 300 hours.

For more information, check out the always outstanding full coverage and follow-up at Palm Addicts.

02:21 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Mobile Sites

Found this while I was surfing textually.org today:

IAC/InterActiveCorp's search engine, Ask.com, has launched a new and free mobile service that enables users to search the Web on any Web-enabled device including cellphones, Blackberries and PDAs.

Called Ask.com Mobile, the new service is designed to minimize keystrokes on cellphones, increase navigability on small displays and accelerate page loads by offering a special interface and search tools to help users find what they are looking for faster.

Update: Monica from Greenlight informed us that Ask Mobile Search uses Skweezer technology to mobilize their content.

Links:
http://mobile.ask.com/
http://www.textually.org/textually/a.../10/013793.htm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1160...ons_primary_hs

10:17 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

New York Times technology columnist Davie Pogue has a quick write-up on the status quo of reading e-books in which he also discusses the highlights of the Sony Reader. His verdict:

Is that it, then? Is the paper book doomed? Was it only a transitional gadget, a placeholder that came between stone tablets and e-books?

Not any time soon. The Sony Reader is an impressive achievement, and an important step toward a convenient alternative to bound books. It will make certain niche groups very happy: gadget freaks, lawyers with massive document stashes, doctors and pilots who check hefty reference texts, high school students with 35-pound backpacks and anyone who likes to read by the pool for 20 weeks at a time.

The masses, however, may continue to prefer the more established portable-document format. Those older reading machines never run out of power, cost about 2 percent as much and don’t break when dropped. You know: p-books.

Meanwhile, Walter Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal has a mixed verdict on the Reader. He favors the paper-like display and seemingly endless battery life, but more work is needed to improve format compatibilities and the "poorly organized" online bookstore.

Related: Links to fresh Sony Reader reviews