09:29 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Have you been bragging to your friends about all the things you can do on your Treo or Windows Mobile smartphone? You know, IM, email, web browsing and so forth.

Well you might not have as big an edge over your buddy with the cheap phone after all. Jay Noggle at Mobile Ministry Magazine has written an article about all that he can do on his $29 cell phone. Believe it or not, he says he can do things like:

"1 take and send a picture
2 read and send email
3 access the Internet (including my favorite tech sites, check on Ebay bids, search Google, get driving directions, check the weather... you get the idea)
4 log in to Yahoo Instant Messenger (and send and receive posts in REAL TIME).
5 listen to Podcasts like ABC News
6 Manage and post to my Blog
7 access documents and files on my home office PC
8 watch MSNBC, Discovery, CSPAN, TLC, ESPN, CNET and MORE!!!!!!"

So forget about that new Treo 700p, right? Not so fast! It's a whole different ball game when you can buy myriads of third-party PalmOS or Windows Mobile software. You probably want to have a nice screen with 240x240 or 320x320. And if you use the PIM applications, there's no question that PalmOS or Windows Mobile has a distinct advantage. Not to mention the power of a high-end device to read and edit MS Office documents, read e-books in various formats, listen to streaming audio and watch dvds and videos.

But if you are one of the lucky owners of a powerful smartphone, remember that a smart user of a cheap phone might be a lot more capable on the go than you might expect. And they probably have a slimmer, sleeker phone attached to their belt - one that doesn't threaten to pull their pants off from the weight!

06:20 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Many of the industry leaders in e-book publishing presented at the IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) "Connected & Mobile" conference that was held in NY on May 24, 2006.

For your reading pleasure, the presentation slides are available to you at the IDPF site.

While I haven't yet jumped in to see what's inside them all, I'd have to say that among the more interesting is a presentation (.ppt link) from Willem Endhoven, the New Business Development Manager at iRex, as well as presentations by Elizabeth Mackey (eReader/Motricity) and Bill McCoy (Adobe). If you love e-books, you won't be able to stay away from this info, even if it might have a sales/PR slant.

Here are the presenters with conference slides available for viewing online:

* iRex Technologies:Willem Endhoven, New Business Development Manager
* Mobipocket (An Amazon.com Company): Martin Gorner, Sr SW Architect
* Sony Electronics: Ron Hawkins, Vice President, Portable Reader Systems
* eReader/Notricity: Elizabeth Mackey, Vice President/General Manager
* Audible: Foy Sperring, Executive Vice President
* MediaBay: Brian Nash, SVP Business Development
* OverDrive, Inc.: Angela Arnold, Marketing Manager
* Audiofy: Cartwright Reed, President
* MBS Direct, LLC: Kevin McKiernan, Director of Business Development
* Safari Books Online: Sean Devine, Managing Director
* Vital Source Technologies: Frank Daniels, President & CEO
* WRT Live Ink Reading Technologies: Randall Walker, MD, President
* Adobe Systems Inc.: Bill McCoy, General Manager, ePublishing Business (who gives an "Update on Digital Book Strategies for PDF")
* Career Education Corporation/Blish.com: Paul Gleason, COO New Initiatives Grp
* Harlequin Enterprises: Malle Vallik, Dir., Editorial New Business Development
* Rosetta Solutions: Ted Treanor, President
* Amazon.com: Jeff Steele, Director of Worldwide Publisher Relations for Digital Books
* American Printing House for the Blind: Larry Skutchan, Tech Project Leader, Dept of Educational Research
* eBook Technologies, Inc.: Garth Conboy, President
* Green Point Technology Services, Inc.: Eli Willner, Chief Technology Officer

What an incredible lineup. It must have been quite an event, and it definitely gives great credence to the work of the IDPF. Congratulations to IDPF Executive Director Nick Bogaty for making this event happen and for sharing the presentations with those of us that couldn't make it in person.

04:16 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Virtual Tales and Dragon Moon Press are holding a "Freedom from Paper" celebration. Virtual tales publishes electronic serialized novels, and Dragon Moon Press is a science fiction and fantasy publishing house.

The celebration is in conjunction with upcoming Canadian and US independence days. Those who are willing to join the e-mail lists from each website will receive free e-books and e-serial subscriptions.

If you are interested, give it a try and let us know what you think of the "freebies!"

Thanks to Sheri at Virtual Tales for the news.

01:51 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Only dogs, not people, can hear a dog whistle. Something to do with the frequency of the sound. Well, it turns out that there are sounds that only kids can hear. In the past, that difference was exploited by malls in order to chase away youngsters by emitting the noise.

But credit one to the creativity of kids looking for a way to get around the constraints of a classroom. The Register reports that "British kids were quick to sample the sound and turn it into a ringtone to be used in class - they can hear it, but teachers can't." Furthermore, they did a quick test in the Register towers, and have confirmed that only adults can hear the ringtone.

So if you are a teacher and everyone in class suddenly pulls out their cell phones, now you know why!

09:56 AM by Laurens in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmInfocenter reviews the Treo 700p:

Palm's Treo 700p is the latest in a now long linage of Treo smartphones. The Treo 700p combines the benefits of a full featured mobile phone with the Palm OS mobile computing platform. From a visual perspective the design changes are small, evolutionary refinements of a proven smartphone form factor. Most of the improvements to Palm's flagship smartphone come in the form of new software innovations, a big boost in memory and fast, broadband like data speeds.

Hopefully the GSM version will be released soon.

09:49 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Mobile devices are more and more powerful, and can hold more and more data. With their high resale value, and the general tendency to store sensitive data on a portable device, they are also becoming a popular target for theives. But even if you lose your device because you left it behind somewhere, you want to know your sensitive data is secure.

Computerworld has addressed this topic in an article called The top 9 ways to secure mobile devices. A summary of these tips aimed at a corporate environment:

1. Education of users
2. Use password protection
3. Install a system that enforces reasonable data security policies
4. Control which files can and cannot be downloaded by various users
5. Encrypt either individual files or the entire device contents
6. Enforce connection/VPN security standards
7. Require active firewall protection and virus protection
8. Enable device lockdown and "kill" functions
9. Log device access of sensitive data

Visit Computerworld for the complete article.

09:05 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

There are so many great Palm sites on the web. But my personal favorite place to keep up on Palm news is, without a doubt, PalmAddicts.

If you are also a fan, then you've heard the audio podcasts, and have an idea what Sammy sounds like. But you've had to extrapolate from voice and still pictures to guess what the mastermind behind Palm Addicts is like in person. Now you can see for yourself with the very first Palm Addicts video podcast. In addition to Sammy's online accomplishments, he's also a great guy, a positive force in the online mobile device community, a kind friend and supporter of the MobileRead site, and a personal friend.

You'll probably find the videocast just a little rough around the edges, but there's plenty of time in future shows for some refinement. The topics for his first show are:
- His Treo 650
- An online VeriChat IM conversation with PA Treo expert, Peter Arts
- A demonstration of the Enfora Wifi Sled
- A quick tour of the Samsung Q1 UMPC

And when you watch, don't miss the first and only worldwide public showing of the MobileRead front page as rendered on a Samsung Q1 device!

01:30 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Advertisers leave no stone unturned, so it seems. Routinely, in TV shows and movies there are product placements. You don't see a Coke can instead of a Pepsi can in the hands of a hot character by accident or just because the script called for him to hold a pop. There's big money in getting your product on the screen, and advertisers work it for all it's worth.

Advertising potential has been explored and exploited for everything from race cars (is there anything on a NASCAR racecar that isn't covered with ads?) to space rockets, to every aspect of a sports team and the associated sports venues.

In fact, there was a ruckus not too long ago, because tv shows were using some new technology to change actual city scenes to remove or replace actual advertisements with the ones that they preferred to show. So when you see that sign on a building on TV, don't assume it's really what the building looks like. If you are a sports fan, you've probably noticed what looks like a painted ad on the field during game coverage. It's not always painted. The network will sometimes superimpose a graphic that makes it look like it's on the field, but without the messy paint, and easily changed to another ad at the next commercial break. It's only a cyberspace figment of an advertiser's creative imagination.

So what about e-books? If advertisers are so interested in getting their product in front of people, why don't we see free e-books that are ad supported. You know, with pages and pages of ads like a magazine. Yuk! Or maybe it starts out gently with ads on the first few pages, the last few pages, and either at the page borders or chapter ends. It's not a road that I'd like to see us walk down, but surely it's coming. With an electronic media like e-books, it could be a free for all, and maybe web page ads are even a closer analogy.

Well it turns out that, according to the NY Times(free registration required), ads have already made the leap to books, and right now they are aimed at impressionable adolescent readers. We don't think much about ads in magazines even when it seems to be every other page. But do we really want to see e-books turn into e-ink billboards? If the jump to books and magazines has been completed, then it won't be long before we see an e-book ad invasion.

Certainly, it will depend a lot on customer acceptance, but people seem to accept anything if it's done incrementally and slow enough. We're like the frog that doesn't realize it's cooking in boiling water when you heat the water up slowly. The bigger question seems to be how far ad placements will go. Is the ultimate goal of such ads going to be to slightly ease the cost of e-books, or will it end up being a ruthlessly exploited new revenue source? I think we will see publishers looking to maximize revenue, not the customer experience. That means that if it doesn't significantly affect our e-book purchase decisions, then you might just find that when you read an e-book, half of the content is ads.

Let me conclude by reiterating my previous in-depth analysis of the possibility... "YUK!"

Via LISNews.