07:00 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Momus at Wired writes about what it feels like to see the parade of dead formats...

"Suddenly, my whole life replays before my eyes as a succession of transient formats. My teens were spent in the age of Betamax video, games consoles with no carts, Pong burnt in ROM, audio delivered on vinyl, cassette tape and 8-track. In my 20s those formats were replaced by exciting new ones: VHS, laser disks, CDs, snap-in console carts, games on floppy disk that you slotted into your 'multimedia personal computer,' pale faxes. And each time the new thing came along, the old thing became a sideshow, a curiosity ... and, eventually, inaccessible, along with all the memories encoded on it."

Oh so true!

06:55 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

PalmAddicts is reporting on a remarkable story via GearLive ... Macy's is going to have about 180 iPod vending machines.

Now don't you think that they should be able to devote one or two slots in that machine to sell e-book readers?!

06:50 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Jeff Jarvis, of the BuzzMachine has some pretty strong words as a follow-up to Keith Kelly's recent article about books. Jeff tells us...

"The problems with books are many: They are frozen in time without the means of being updated and corrected. They have no link to related knowledge, debates, and sources. They create, at best, a one-way relationship with a reader. They try to teach readers but don’t teach authors. They tend to be too damned long because they have to be long enough to be books. As David Weinberger taught me, they limit how knowledge can be found because they have to sit on a shelf under one address; there’s only way way to get to it. They are expensive to produce. They depend on scarce shelf space. They depend on blockbuster economics. They can’t afford to serve the real mass of niches. They are subject to gatekeepers’ whims. They aren’t searchable. They aren’t linkable. They have no metadata. They carry no conversation. They are thrown out when there’s no space for them anymore. Print is where words go to die... We need to kill the book to save books."

For more information check out the full article, The book is dead. Long live the book.

06:37 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

How often have you Googled for something and looked at the results list, wondering which of them are legitimate links and which are porn, virus sites, or other nasty unwanted things? It's a pretty common problem with the modern web, but now there's help from Scandoo.

According to PC World, it's "a service that categorizes your Web search results so that you know whether you're surfing into spyware, porn, or other sorts of treachery. Scandoo is free for consumers and will officially launch this Monday, although a beta has been available for a while."

The idea is simple, you:
1) Go to the Scandoo site
2) Enter your search terms
3) Pick the search engine you want to use... right now it's just Google
4) See the results, with the added information about each site as a green or red indicators, or with a little bug if it's dangerous. (Yellow if unknown.)

They will soon be adding other search engines and will be providing an IE toolbar and Firefox plug-in.

06:30 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you've been wondering how to get your eReader book files directly onto your handheld without ActiveSync, this is the news you want to see! Kevin Tofel has just provided us with a great tutorial on the simple process at JkOnTheRun.

Kevin has been a wonderful recent addition to the JkOnTheRun team. Be sure to keep an eye out for information about the Samsung Q1. He just ordered one, and is sure to make us all drool just a little he shares his experiences in the days to come. In anticipation of the event, he has already shared with me that, in his opinion, it's the perfect size for ebooks and digital magazine reading!

06:17 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

David Berlind, a writer for ZDNet, is unabashedly against DRM. He has even given it the acronym C.R.A.P., which can either stand for "Content Restriction Annulment and Protection" or the alternative "Cancellation, Restriction and Punishment" which was given by Richard Stallman, the head of the Free Software Foundation.

But now his practical side is getting the best of him. He says that he understands the fears that media companies have about piracy and profit erosion. (Whether such extreme profits should theirs to begin with is a whole different matter.) He says that he realizes that DRM is here to stay whether we like it or not, so at least let's pick a DRM that doesn't get in the way of the customer so much.

His first choice has been Sun's Project DReaM. But now he says there's a better choice.

"...yesterday, Navio came out of stealth mode with what could be the best possible solution as long as it survives any legal challenges that come from the Apple camp. Basically, Navio is an online content source for any kind of protected content (audio, video, software, games, etc.) and the company says it doesn't care what kind of device you have today or tomorrow. In what can be best described as your personal digital locker, Navio keeps track of the content you purchase in perpetuity and it will always make sure it works on your target device, regardless of what sort of copy protection envelope that device expects to remove. Because Microsoft licenses its technology and Navio is a licensee of it, Navio is a PlaysForSure-compliant source of content the same way Napster, Rhapsody, and other PlaysForSure-compliant content sources. So, your content will always work on PlaysForSure-compliant devices from companies like iRiver, Creative and Motorola (maker of the new Q smartphone)."

Be sure to read the full article for all of the discussion.

10:30 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

In case you are wondering why Palm is down today while the whole market is up - Palm was lowered to "underperform" from "peer perform" by Bear Stearns & Co. analyst Andrew Neff. The downgrade reflects "concerns about intensifying competition and potential for increasing pricing pressures," Neff wrote in a note, following Motorola Inc's announcement yesterday that the world's second-largest maker of mobile phones will release its Q phone and e-mail device on May 31.

Neff also cut his estimate for fiscal 2007 profit, after options expense, to 62 cents a share from 73 cents on the increased competition.

Disclaimer: I hold Palm stock in my portfolio.

05:58 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

As we all know, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. A favorite of teenage boys everywhere, despite the master mystery solver's somewhat dubious drug habit. Fortunately I was too naive to even know what he was smoking until I was older!

His birthday today is only known by me because my browser homepage is Google. And at Google today there is a cute new version of the Google logo at the top. You might not know that when you see one of those new logos, you can click on it and the search results will tell you what it's all about. Mother's Day, Olympics, famous birthday... it's all kind of a fun surprise, mostly because the artist who creates these things is so excellent.

So if you have been meaning to pick out one of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries to read, what better time than on his birthday. The e-bookworm, Jen, over at Palm Addicts has also noted this birthday, and gives us some eReader links. But I'm sure you can also find more Sherlock Holmes stories at free e-book sites around the web if you aren't fussy about the formatting.