02:50 AM by Stuart Young in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

Mobilereader 'dugbug' beat me to it this morning, and posted some nice pics and a hands on link for the PRS-500. I'm sure the Sony PR machine is about to kick into gear about this little baby.

Mobileread thread here
Engadget Coverage here
Original source via MAKE here

Now Sony please let me pre'order one soon.

01:43 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Palm announced the new Treo 750v smartphone today. It's Win Mobile 5, and the protruding antenna is gone. The display is the typical Win Mobile 240x240 (as opposed to 320x320 for the PalmOS Treos).

Some of the specs to give you a better idea of what the device represents:

• Windows Mobile 5.2 Operating System
• 240x240 display
• 300MHz Samsung processor
• 128MB / 60MB nonvolatile flash memory available to user
• Removable 1200 mAH Lithium-ion,
• Talk time: up to 4.5 hours GSM / 2.5 hours UMTS
• Persistent file system (keep your data if battery fails)
• Bluetooth® 1.2
• 1.3 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom
• 2.5mm headset jack is stereo headset
• International adapter (EU, UK, Aust. And NA plugs included)
• 111mm x 58mm x 22mm
• 154 grams / 5.4 ounces
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS radio
• Mini-SD expansion slot

I haven't seen any pricing or availability information yet, but that doesn't mean it isn't out there. If you want to keep up on the news, no better way to keep up than with the coverage over at Palm Addicts.

01:13 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

Oops, I hope you don't mind the double-post... just noticed that Roland moved his thread to the frontpage.

We are not exactly sure what to make out of this - for that much is for sure: this one won't win any beauty contest - but we definitely welcome Amazon's effort to stake out some turf in the e-book market with the so-called Amazon Kindle e-book reader. Engadget and our readers have already dug up some details. The device features a 6-inch SVGA 800x600 display with 4 grey scales and presumably E Ink, 256MB RAM, USB 2.0, headphone jack, SD card support and - this one is a first-time - a EVDO/CDMA wireless modem (compare with other current readers).

For more check out our ongoing discussion.

12:13 PM by CommanderROR in E-Book Readers | Amazon Kindle

Good new everyone!

I Just found this on Engadget.com:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/11/a...e-book-reader/

It Looks like Amazon is going for the eink front. With a major player like this, the whole ebook process could very well pick up quite a bit of speed.
The rather odd-looking device is named "Kindle" and seems to have all the necessary features onboard. details are still a bit sketchy, but our valued member DHer has found a link to the FCC approval and the manual, so at least some information is already available.
This new player on the ever-growing ebook market also includes some nifty features like a cover and a reading lamp right out of the box if the manual is to be believed!

Now I guess the big questions are "WHEN" and "HOW MUCH"!

Edit: While the information seemed to have been pulled from FCC, you can still find the manual in this thread

09:05 AM by Stuart Young in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Those bods over at Phillips have been busy again.. Hot off the press is the "In Touch" message board, an LCD mirror capable of displaying images and video clips. Each user has their own icon or thumbnail, which you then touch to leave a note. The "In Touch" is also MMS and SMS compatible, which means you can leave messages from your mobile. (I'm sure I saw one of these in a Tom Cruise movie ...)

More details available here via ohgizmo.com

03:41 AM by Stuart Young in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices

It looks as though the Sony Librie is about to get a second lease of life: ‘Simplereader v0.11’ has just been released. Still to be considered "work in progress", Andrew Jennings who wrote the app, reports:

It boots up to a menu now, displaying all files in the /simplereader/textfiles directory, and letting you choose which file to open. When a file is opened, you can press "Q" to close it and go back to the menu. You can copy your own text files into that directory and try opening them. It will look best if the files don't have any carriage returns within paragraphs. (i.e. each paragraph should be one continuous line.)

The Simplereader website can be found here.

I've seen a lot of chatter on the wire recently about people writing their own apps for the Librie. Many of you will already be familiar with the English Firmware translation project - and if anyone has tried the Simplereader please let us know how you got on.

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

Missed some of our big mobile stories this week? Time to catch up:

Announcements
Reminder: E-Readers Around the World Gallery

Elsewhere on the Net
MS Office 2007 add-on exports to PDF and XPS

eReader
eReader Pro 25% discount through 09/30

In the News
Lumalive textiles - the slighty different flexible display
The fight for a reflowable e-document standard
This e-paper self-destructs in 16 hours
UAE launches first electronic schoolbook

Mobile Sites
Digg goes officially mobile
New York Times unveils new mobile site

Others
Dual display e-book device showcased by Toshiba
JCNIP M218A e-book device coming this month
Survey of the current OS situation for mobile phones

Software Issues and Tips
BookDesigner PDF creator for iRex iLiad dummies

Windows Mobile
PA's Palm Treo 700wx hands-on

01:22 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Without a doubt the Palm Treo is one of the greatest smartphones of all time. Peter Arts over at Palm Addicts gave the 700wx - the latest Treo incarnation which features more memory than its predecessor - a well-done hands-on review, with the following conclusion:

The Treo 700wx brings true "Palm-style" ease of use to the WinMo platform. It does so with speed, power and grace. Any person or enterprise that needs a WinMo converged device should be looking long and hard at the 700wx. The lack of hi-res display is a minor trade-off for the productivity that you or your staff will get from a device that makes it easy to leverage Microsoft’s powerful (but convoluted) suite.