09:25 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Looks like Sony will be coming out with new phone models as early as this summer together with KDDI, Japan's second largets telecoms operator, according to an AFP news article.

The article also reminds us that "Internet and telecoms firm Softbank Corp. is reportedly in talks with Apple Computer Inc. to develop an iPod phone."

Sony Walkman phones are not completely new, and you can see that Sony Ericsson is working to bring some new features to the phone market. One example is the W710 WALKMAN® phone <direct link may not work, so you may have to navigate the site yourself>, which "includes a motion sensor plus new fitness applications that measure your running speed, distance and time, or simply count your steps when walking."

And don't forget that they have the K790a Cyber-shot™ digital still camera and mobile phone.

Could it be that instead of a fight between single-purpose handheld devices and convergent devices, we are going to see various levels of devices fighting it out? Single-purpose, dual-purpose, "gently combined", and "all-in-one" might each have their own niche in the market.

Via Yahoo.

03:57 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you are like me, you like to use your mobile device to listen to music. If you don't need a huge 40gig library of mp3s with you, an SD card works fine. But at times it would be nice to have the music without all the ambient background noise of people talking around you. There are headphones built for that purpose, like the Etymotic ER6 Isolator earphones. I picked those only because they were the first Google item returned, but ironically it turns out that they are sold by Palm as a LifeDrive accessory also!

Well, you can make your own set from swimming earplugs. Instructables has the information you need. But don't drive or ride your bike with these things in, and don't blame me if you blow your ears out. You've been warned!

Via Make.

03:37 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

You might think that a "Book Radio" is a device that plays audiobooks through a radio. That's not a bad idea, but it's not what we're talkin' about here. Engadget is reporting on a device that really is a radio. For some stupid silly reason, someone has decided that a physical book would be a good model for a radio's interface instead of those silly knobs and buttons that we normally use.

"All the controls for the radio are based on basic book reading motions, so turning the page changes the frequency, and you can change the volume by sliding the bookmark in or out. You can of course annotate different stations by merely writing on that frequency's page, since it's just a book after all. The Book Radio wirelessly controls a base station with speakers, or you can kick it with headphones if that's how you'd prefer."

Now there's a gift that only a book-lover could love!

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

Have something interesting to say about mobile computing or reading? Join our forums and share your view on topics like the ones discussed at MobileRead this past week...

Elsewhere on the Net
eReader 10% discount through May 24th
Free Steve Jordan book

Formats and Conversion
Is a better e-book format always better?
O'Reilly customers prefer .pdf
Overview of .PDF reading options for PDAs

In the News
A universal library - such spectacular achievement is now possible
Big plans for e-ink displays - it's now in billboards!
Bits du Jour site... Woot for software
E-paper wins says head of biggest Europe publisher
EV-DO and EDGE Commentary from Pocket Now
Free SkypeOut VOIP calls to landlines within North America
Fuel cells being developed for mobile devices
Fujitsu's color e-paper is still too slow
HelioDisplay projects the images into free space
Long term forecast for book reading is not good
Making mobile devices easier to use
New Sony Vaio PDA?
Numenta News
Print magazines are better when they emulate the web
Why isn't MMS messaging a huge success?
Why write an e-book? An author provides answers

iSilo/X
iSilo V4.32 released

Mobile Browsing
Google Reader goes mobile
LifeFeeds Mobile RSS browsing for Phones and PPC

Mobile Sites
The portable Great Ideas series

Palm OS
Fast Blazer with EVDO possible with a Treo 650?
News Flash: PalmOS Treo 700p Announced!
Palm Treo 650 among cells with highest radiation levels
What's missing from the 700p news coverage?

Windows Mobile
New PPC has 30gig hard drive next month!

08:09 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

If we want to see a strong e-book industry, one of the things that is required is an actual interest by books. In other words, we need book readers! But there are so many types of entertainment these days. And the electronic reading thing hasn't really caught on (yet) with the kids. They don't see it much at school either. So how about expectations for general reading in the future?

The Washington Times <free registration required> is reporting that "The publishing industry enjoyed a strong year in 2005, with increases in both revenue and the number of books sold. But projections for long-term growth remain limited because people increasingly don't read, according to a study released yesterday."

There is a three-day booksellers conference going on now in Washington, D.C. and "[t]his year, publishers are putting greater emphasis on how to use the Internet and mobile electronic devices to deliver book content."

The good news is that when booksellers become more focused on new areas of revenue, it will be harder and harder to ignore e-book sales and a customer-friendly approach will become more and more important. At least that's what we are hoping for!

10:05 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Steve just dropped us a note to tell us about his site with science fiction e-books. Plus as a bonus, he is offering his book, The Onuissance Cells to visitors for free.

The site seems to be done the way we would like to see it... no DRM and in multiple formats: PDB (readable by iSilo, Mobipocket and eReader, and others), iSilo, MobiPocket, MS Reader, Adobe Reader (PDF), Palm Doc (unformatted).

His featured book right now is Encephalopath, which is available for $2.50. The sort of price point we've all dreamed of for e-books. The book summary says, "Glen Jansen is seeking to improve his work and prospects when he purchases bleeding edge personal computer technology. But when the tech gives him unexpected access to strange parts of the net, and seemingly to other people's very thoughts, he finds himself on the run from the government, the mob, and a bunch of ersatz terrorist/patriots, all while trying to find out who's really controlling the country's networks!"

For more detail on his approach to book publishing, here is what he tells us. "Right Brane ePublishing was established by me as a venue offering a more sensible and practical method of selling electronic books and other electronic documents. Anyone familiar with the e-book market is aware that it is rife with uncooperative print publishers, overpriced products, incompatible e-book readers and formats, and convoluted digital rights management (copy protection) systems. These aspects serve to alienate many potential e-book purchasers, and as a result, the e-book market has remained a niche market growing at a snail's pace. I have researched the state of the e-book industry, including starting public dialogues with many e-book users, comparing e-books to other electronic products, electronic and print documents, and examining the realities of selling via the Internet. My conclusion, in a nutshell, was that there was a viable market for electronic books sold exclusively over the web, for a low cost, and with minimal copy protection measures applied to individual books. It is my belief that quality material can be offered in e-book format to a large following of buyers. A low price will encourage more sales, and the low overhead required to sell electronic files over the Internet will still allow for a reasonable profit per sale. There will be some inevitable sharing of the books, lowering the profit coming to me, but the low cost of the e-books should keep the sharing factor down to a comfortable level. As a result, I have decided to create Right Brane ePublishing as my publishing vehicle. I plan to offer my novels (as well as other free material) on this site, adding additional novels as they are finished, and monitoring the site's activity to gauge its success."

Sounds like very sensible (and familiar) thoughts! Now the remaining question is simply whether or not the books are any good. I suppose that a look at the excerpts or free book should make that pretty clear. But as most of us are lazy, why don't one of you give it a try and let us know what you think?! Encephalopath looks intriguing to me from the description, so it just might go on my tentative reading list.

09:37 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

We all see how technology advances, but sometimes it's not very easy to use. Especially for early adopters. Even worse for mobile devices where everything is limited and tiny in comparison to the larger product counterparts.

So if consumers can't even set the clock on their VCR, how are they going to come into the new age of portable computing?

Robert Kaplan looks at these issues in an article from Portable Design. He introduces it this way, "We live in a time when technological advances have permitted developers to create devices that were unheard of just a few years ago. Forget the Dick Tracy watch of a few decades back and think Star Wars. Advances in electronics, wireless communications, and software have given us those mobile devices we only dreamed about. But are these devices really usable? Can typical users operate these devices easily, and are they willing to learn how to operate them?"

And, unfortunately, there is "a natural conflict between business/developer goals and end-user goals. Business goals occur during the design phase of a product. Developers think in terms of what can be done rather than what should be done... This leads to feature-creep where the team wants to add just another little feature. Feature accumulation can easily lead to a bad case of “featureitis” during product design and development."

It's a great article well worth a look. The author, Robert Kaplan "is founder and principal at Usernomics (San Mateo, CA; www.usernomics.com)."

09:10 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The Litefeeds RSS for mobile phones caught my eye this morning. I'm sure there are many other options, but this one has a nice web page. Just goes to show how marketing does matter -- I don't know anything about this program, but here I am telling you all about it because of a pretty web page!

The Litefeeds application appears to have phone and Windows Mobile versions. And not only can you read RSS, but you can post to your Litefeeds personal blog from your device also.

Two nice alternatives for online RSS feed reading without installing a separate feed reader application are:
* Bloglines which has a mobile display option and is great on the desktop also.
* MobileRSS which has content in a form that can also be clipped with a program like iSiloX. I used the MobileRSS site in the past, but have not used it recently because I consider it best used with a live connection. However, I plan to go back to it if/when I have a 700p with a data plan.

And there are a multitude of programs like QuickNews for PalmOS that are becoming more and more popular as well. With all the desktop and mobile alternative, there's really no excuse to not read RSS feeds if you love to keep up on your favorite news.