02:20 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

You know nothing screams geek like a USB stick attached to your key chain. So why don't you add one to this by getting a Didigo USB SmartDrive, which not only offers up to 1GB of storage, but also sports a bistable cholesteric display (ChLCD) that can show a number of information, from a pie chart of the remaining disk space to the drive's volume name. The display can be easily read even in direct sunlight and it stays on when power is removed.

Kent Displays recently opened their own retail store, which currently offers the Didigo stick in three different sizes, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB, for $29.95, $39.95 and $59.95, respectively.

Related: Didigo SmartDrive DD01 with BCD screen

01:36 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Have you ever wondered how long a bistable display could retain its image? Keith Bellamy of Kent Displays was present at the SID 2006 conference in San Francisco where he demonstrated a monochrome display panel based on Kent's Cholesteric LCD (ChLCD) technology that has not been refreshed for 12 years. Most fascinating, the display shows no sign of image burn-in, ghosting, or other artifacts that would have been common with other display technologies after such a long time [Edit: As correctly pointed out by astfgl, from this example alone we cannot tell if that is indeed true, however, it's a claim made by the manufacturer which I like to believe it.]

[via Dvorak Uncensored]

01:31 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Mobile Sites

Want to listen to CNN radio news on the go? Point your Treo or other connected device to Streaming CNN Radio for their streaming radio broadcast.

Or visit the CNN podcast center to subscribe to their free news podcasts.

10:08 AM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | iRex

German IT magazine Heise.de snagged a quick glance at the iRex iLiad with an overall positive opinion ("well thought out user interface", "display quality similar to printed paper"). They also reconfirm what we already know, namely that the release date in Europe is set to September 2006 at a price of around 600 Euro.

[via TeleRead]

08:32 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Palm Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) will be added to the S&P MidCap 400 after the close of trading on Thursday. The announcement sent shares of the company up 81 cents, or 4.8 percent, to $17.85 in aftermarket trading, after closing up 71 cents, or 4.4 percent, at $17.04 on the Nasdaq.

This is great news for Palm (and Palm investors, including yours truly), because, in the words of Cramer, when a company is added to the S&P MidCap index, it often sees a sustainable, long-term rise in its price. This is because "no one wants to own large-caps anymore." Instead, he said, investors want to pour money into mid-cap companies that will become the next large-caps.

Read the full press release.

08:26 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Mobile Sites

Mobile RSS feed reading is on the rise, and if you have a WAP2.0 compatible phone, then you can use the free Tiggdo service to read your RSS feeds.

Not only that, but you can use it to get some of the other information they are touting on their web page:

* Weather - Real time weather for your area
* View Maps - Enter a location to view street maps.
* Traffic Reports - View real time traffic reports
* Upcoming Events - Find local events in your area.
* View Notes - Transfer notes from your PC.
* Shopping - Find prices and read consumer reports.
* Local Listings - Search for restaurants, businesses etc.
* Stocks and Finance - Real time stock quotes.

If your WAP device is your pda, you can now also try another RSS resource... AvantGo for RSS.

Via Palm Addicts (and Engadget Mobile and Red Ferret), and PDA247.

05:01 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

As e-book fanatics and believers, it seems that our frustrations cause us to never miss the chance to see another good trashing of the e-book situation. Mark Carey (President of OSoft) has written an interesting article calling e-book world a Tower of eBabel. He lists the following familiar challenges:

* Standardization
* Creation/conversion tools
* Reading software
* Hardware
* Digital Rights Management (DRM)

But he goes an additional step and provides more thoughts on each topic. We might not agree with all of them, but he sure catches our attention with this opening statement about DRM - "Digital Rights Management (DRM) can best be described as a four-letter word."

Read the full article at the Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference site.

04:51 PM by Laurens in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The Globe and Mail writes "AppleBerry might be the next big thing":

The idea of an “AppleBerry” partnership between Research In Motion Ltd. and Apple Computer Inc. was floated yesterday by Peter Misek, an analyst with Canaccord Capital Inc., who last year accurately predicted a partnership between RIM and Intel Corp.

Such a deal would have huge merit because each company lacks what the other provides. RIM wants a firm foothold in the consumer market and Apple doesn't have a presence in the booming wireless data sector, he said.

I have to admit: "AppleBerry" definitely sounds catchy.