07:51 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Mobile Sites

Michel Daw, the creator of the Portable Harvard Classics has created a new series for classic book lovers. The following information was provided in his e-mail newsletter update:

"Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are."

The above is from the Penguin UK website. I was intrigued by the concept and looked over the title list. Imagine my pleasure and surprise when I realized that all of the books in the first 20 volume series (the US series only has 12) were all available in the public domain! So I had a Great Idea of my own.

Why not make them Portable? To this end I have created the Portable Great Ideas page, and will quickly be posting the volumes in PDF, HTM and MobiPocket PDB file format. Add to that my own spin on Penguin's Great Ideas award winning cover designs (thanks CorelDRAW!) and we have a new way of fruitfully whiling away the hours.

What a great idea!

06:01 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

There are reports of a ROM change that can be made in a Treo 650 to get the kinds of blazing speed that is promised with the Treo 700p, and by a "simple" replacement of two .prc files in the ROM.

I won't even try to evaluate the practicality, risks or benefits of this maneuver, but if you are really adventurous you can look at this thread from TreoCentral to more information on what they are calling "Fast-mode Blazer for 650!" Whether or not that includes EVDO, I can't tell, but the idea is certainly interesting.

Via Palm Addicts.

05:53 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

That's a switch... Print magazines are better when they emulate the web. Usually we hear about how electronic versions of content need to be closer to the print version!

According to Amy Gahran's summary of a talk at the annual conference at the University Research Magazine Association (URMA), Don Ranly critiqued various print magazines by URMA members. Don is a professor from the Univ. of Missouri School of Journalism, and some of his points included:

* Don't make people guess about what's inside your magazine. Offer intuitive coverlines with page numbers.
* Make the table of contents prominent and usable. "Consider that your home page." In addition to intuitive article titles, give blurbs too. Present all content (including photos) in page order, and list the stories contained within department sections.
* Divide content into shorter chunks with prominent and engaging microcontent (subheads, captions, graphics, etc.) for easier scanning, and get writers involved in crafting microcontent.
* Ditch "useless content" such as bland, pro forma letters from the editor or the organization's president.

His main point is really interesting... "At magazines you put a lot of effort into crafting long stories. What makes you think people really have the time to read all that?"

From E-media Tidbits, where the full article is available here.

05:46 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Formats | Workshop

David Rothman at TeleRead is reporting that publisher Tim O’Reilly has found that "Based on a little less than 3 months of data, we see that of the customers who’ve bought Rough Cuts, 60% chose the PDF-only option; 36% chose the bundle of PDF plus print book, and only 4% chose to pre-order the print book only."

Sounds like the true value of electronic books is coming out first in technology and academic settings, where search and timliness are key qualities. We still haven't heard such numbers and popularity for novels, but with lower prices and better readers, I'm sure it's on the way.

05:41 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

According to Brighthand, next month will bring a 30-gig Windows Mobile 5.0 multimedia player device from the Korean company, Tinnos. Unfortunately, it's supposed to only be available in Japan.

Some of the expected specifications:
* Windows Mobile 5.0
* 30 GB storage (a 1.8 inch hard drive)
* 4.3-inch screen
* 5.2"x3.0"x0.9" (131 mm x 76 mm x 22 mm)
* 7.0 oz (200 g)
* 1600-by-1200-pixel display
* 3.4 mm stereo headphone jack
* USB 2.0 port

Such announcements are exciting even if the particular device is not available or interesting to us because as we see technology and features appear on the market, it's a sign of things to come!

05:32 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Formats | Workshop

Of course a better e-book format is better, you say! Well, not so fast. Let me explain what I mean.

Consider the following spectrum (my apologies if the spacing doesn't come out nicely):

Text ....... HTML ........ Fancy Format
<------------------------------------------>

Clearly, HTML has some big advantages over plain text files. Hyperlinks, formatting and so forth are important improvements in content presentation. It's more flexible and competent.

We could plug in something for fancy format like Palm Doc, eReader, iSiloX, Plucker, Acrobat, LaTex, Microsoft Word or probably a hundred more formats. Each of them has advantages over simple text or HTML that make them more competent in presenting and storing (e.g. compressing) content. Pdf, for example, can represent a page much better than HTML, and is much more like the page of a book. In other words, each of these formats is "better", but it doesn't mean we prefer them.

More sophisticated formats are better in the sense of capability, but not necessarily better for us. Why not? Primarily, we are often concerned more with compatibility than capability. We want the format to be usable in any e-book reader, or editor. Just because it is powerful or flexible doesn't mean much if it's not "interoperable." It needs to be not only simple, but more importantly supported universally. So to update the diagram...

Text ....... HTML ........ Fancy Format
<------------------------------------------>
Simple/Interoperable........ Less Compatible

My point is simply to emphasize that there is great value in compatibility. Text and HTML are great because they are simple and interoperable with all kinds of software from e-book readers to browsers to word processors to format converters and so forth. Fancy formats give us things like support for one primary program, and maybe compression and DRM. So why haven't fancy formats caught on more? They are not naturally interoperable.

I am not familiar enough to speak to the value of proposed open formats. (I would love to see some simple overviews of that.) But I am pretty sure that other closed and complicated formats will have trouble dominating the e-book world. We need interoperability.

What surprises me is that we haven't seen existing standards applied to book and content presentation more. Or maybe I'm just not aware of it, I'm not sure. But why can't XML include content and presentation information. Or what about CSS? All of that can be compressed if necessary. Is there a reason it's not the basis of e-book formats? Simple is good!

06:01 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Has anyone noticed that something has been basically missing almost completely from the coverage of the new Treo 700p announcement? Before I get going, I should first make it clear that we've had some great coverage as always. The mobile device web community is great, and a resource that sometimes causes us to take the awesome information for granted. It takes a lot of hard work, but there are a lot of people that work hard to provide great sites and information for us.

But, still, the feature list of the 700p is repeated endlessly. That's good to see and even exciting for those of us that are considering a purchase. And there are lots of comments about what was left out (like wifi and the bluetooth profile that lets you listen to music with a bluetooth headset). And there has been a lot of discussion of the exclusion, for now, of customers in Europe who are looking for a GSM device.

But the cost of about $400 after specials and service plan commitments has even been discussed as well as the fact that we will probably pay more if we want to use it for DUN (i.e. connecting a laptop to the internet using the phone's internet connection).

I have only seen one brief mention so far (TreoCentral here and here) about data plan costs! That will probably cost you more than the phone by the time you are finished, and anything less than an unlimited plan is likely to be expensive and painfully limited in quota. We have all learned how to get the voice approximate details of voice subscription costs from various carriers, but the data plan remains a mystery to most of us.

So here's a challenge to the various Treo-focused sites, Palm Addicts, 1Src, Brighthand, PalmInfocenter, PDA24/7, CNet News, major newspapers, tech journals and all the other media outlets. All great sites! But for a really great scoop, how about doing some of the tough research for us to help early 700p buyers understand our choices so we can pick a provider in a more informed way? Costs, types of plans and services, signal coverage, DUN charges, etc. That's the kind of information that we really need! And it's also the kind of info that would have prevented me from making the mistake I made when I chose the wrong provider for my Treo 650.

Anyone up to the challenge? It may not be easy, but it sure will be valuable!

Update: Here's one more article hinting at price (via Palm Addicts).

05:43 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Skype is, of course, the VOIP service that lets you make free phone calls to other Skype users over the internet. SkypeOut is the service that is offered by Skype that let's you call regular telephones, in addition to those using internet calls via their broadband internet connection. That's common knowledge. So what's new?

The recent announcement which is pretty exciting, especially for Skype users, is that Skype Out is free within the US and Canada for the rest of the year. "If you’re in the US or Canada, you can use SkypeOut to call any landline or mobile number in both the USA and Canada for free.

If you’re in the US or Canada and calling any other country, OR if you’re in any other country and calling landline or mobile numbers in the US or Canada, the standard SkypeOut rates apply.

Of course, Skype-to-Skype calls continue to be globally free, so no changes there."

Check out the news at Skype's blog and other site info:
* Free calls to all landlines and mobile phones within the US and Canada
* Free North American phone calls: update on availability
* SkypeOut
* Campaign FAQ