06:52 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Mobile Sites

You can find information about all the best mobile sites to find Tour de France news at YesWap. But don't look for Lance Armstrong in the race results this year because he's retired.

11:43 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

You can find people that rave about UMPC's (well, a few of them anyway), and people that slam them. In fact, it has become a favorite sport to slam the UMPC as relatively worthless on the grounds that it's not as powerful as a full tablet pc, but too big to fit in your pocket. I think those comments show that people are missing the whole point, but that's a discussion for another day.

Today I want to point you to a unique and interesting post from Kevin Tofel over at JKOnTheRun. He is excited about the UMPC and tablet pc's, and has been providing some really interesting hands on reports based on his experiences with a Samsung Q1. And now, in the post referred to above, he gives the downside in a practical and rational way. Not as a UMPC hater, but as a real user who is sharing some of the weaknesses of the device. This type of coverage is very helpful and interesting and well worth a look.

I suspect that there are many like myself that are watching the whole UMPC thing from a distance, waiting for it to progress just a bit. It's a great idea, but needs the upcoming improvements such as better battery life, less kinks, lower prices and maybe even some better screen resolutions. The value ratio just doesn't seem to be there for the casual user, so right now you have to be a hardcore fan, or have a significant use for it. I wouldn't be surprised a bit if we see it show up soon in the hands of corporate users in the field.

The good news from Kevin is that the device meets his needs despite its weaknesses, and if you look at his complaints they all appear to be items that future generations of devices will probably solve. People talk about the UMPC as if it was a failure and Microsoft missed the boat. I don't agree. I think it's early, and variations of this form factor are here to stay. I hope so, anyway!

01:48 PM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | iRex

Henrycat prepared a video for us showing how the iRex iLiad reader performs outdoors in sunlight. You can download it packed in a RAR file from RapidShare, or directly from us (if RapidShare doesn't work for you). In case you've missed the earlier iLiad videos, grab them from here.

Related: Ongoing discussion on the iRex iLiad experience (latest posts start somewhere around page 7).

03:55 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Say what you will about form over function, but we've not been failed to be impressed by the sultry curves of Plastic Logic's latest five design concepts which all incorporate bistable flexible display technology that we hope to see one day.

The first prize went to Timothy Yeoh for his concept of "Turnover": an e-book reader where the screen can be rotated to the back, and while you rotate it, it refreshes the next page, thereby stimulating a whole book with only two pages. Touchscreen capability lets you bend the corner to toggle bookmarks on or off, with a bookmark symbol on the page for easy reference when scrolling through.

My hope is that some big name like Sony will pay off Timothy's college tuition and then offer him the position as the leading designer for their next commercial e-book reader.

[via Yanko Design]

03:16 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

For $600m in cash, chip maker Marvell Technology will acquire Intel's underperforming XScale business. XScale processors are commonly used in handheld gadgets, including most current Windows Mobile devices, the RIM BlackBerry 8700 and the Motorola Q. From the press release:

After the close of the transaction, Intel intends to continue manufacturing products currently sold by this business for handheld devices and embedded applications, and to manufacture products that are being designed into upcoming devices. This arrangement is expected to continue while Marvell arranges other manufacturing resources. Intel and Marvell do not anticipate disruptions in the supply of these products due to this planned sale.

[via The Street]

02:57 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Alright Palm fans, here is some good news for you. Engadget got their hands on an exclusive Cingular road-map revealing two new Palm Treo devices codenamed "Nitro" and "Lennon", both of which are supposed to come out in October 2006. One appears to be for the Palm OS crowd, the other for Windows Mobile aficionados. And if the sketches resemble the real thing, we can assume that neither of the two will have the Treo-characteristic external antenna anymore.

Related: Next-gen Treo rumors: more details

[via Palm Addicts]

01:17 PM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | iRex

This just flew into my inbox from iRex:

• iLiad shipments about to start: The iLiad will be shipping to customers that have already placed the orders during the first week of July, so depending where you live in Europe, you may expect your iLiad either in the first or in the second week of July. We are doing our best to ship it to you ASAP.
• iRex shop opens to US customers in July: iRex Technologies have recently received the electronics approvation to ship goods to US and Canada. In fact the iRex Shop will be taking orders from selected business to business customers by July 1st.
• Software release V2.4: iLiad Shipments will be using version 2.4 which improves PC USB performance, and brings several bug fixes. The iLiad hardware and design is 100% complete and your iLiad functionality will be upgraded in the coming months via software releases.
• The next software release (v2.5) will take place some time in July or August and will bring Hotspot support, Apabi format support (asia only) and other software improvements.

Related: When do you think your Iliad will arrive?

04:39 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Palm has made Sprite backup available for free to owners of the Treo 700w. Note that you will need your serial number to do this.

Sprite backup is not just some freeware package, either, but a top notch backup program that I have found to be very effective and reliable for Pocket PC devices.

If you have a Treo 700w, be sure to get a free copy and start scheduling your nightly backups to SD card. (And don't forget to copy your SD card contents to your PC also.)

Via Palm Addicts.