08:46 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Over at TreoCentral a user is showing off with a Sprint Palm Treo 700p holding in his hands:

This is my first post here in Treocentral, but I have been a Treo addict since the Treo 600 on Sprint's network. I was with a SRR Manager today when he pulled out a Treo 700p, the phone is great it feels a little bit lighter than the 650 and the screen also looked better, played around with it for just a few minutes, with him by my side. It's not black (bummer) but the next best thing charcoal gray, I snapped a quick picture with my Sanyo 8300, and maybe if I get to see him again next week I can get another picture. He said it should be available at the beginning of May. But I still believe on the dates that have been posted here. I didn't have time to check for total RAM, EVDO was fast and blazer was a pleasure to use. Not much But at least I got to play with one.

05:07 AM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | iRex

This story puts teeth in an otherwise empty rumor, it's official now, the delayed launch of the iLiad reader has been caused by some "unforeseen technical problems" with the implementation of the web shop. It's certainly hard to believe that a bunch of geeks who manage to produce the world's greatest e-book reader fail to implement something trivial as a web store, but may it be so. Thanks to our savvy reader Roland who brought the news.

Updated: TeleRead mentions May 10th as the date when iRex will publish more details regarding the launch of the iLiad.

Meanwhile, if you haven't done so yet, why don't you take our poll when do you think the iRex webshop will actually open.

04:48 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Adobe general manager Bill McCoy writes in his latest blog entry about the current issue of e-book pricing.

While I agree that lower eBook prices are both feasible and would stimulate adoption, which publishers may not have been overly eager to have happen, I believe the key way publishers have hamstrung eBook adoption is by limiting supply. Any new format needs a critical mass of content to succeed, and that's not a paltry 5% of annual new titles. Certainly during the last eBook hype boom (circa 1998-2002) publishers weren't rushing to make all their content available. However, a sea-change is clearly under way.

The microeconomist in you knows that the price of a product in a competitive (!) market depends on supply and demand. In theory, the main determinants of supply will be the market price of the product and the cost of producing it. The more the producer will get for his product, the more he is going to produce. Meanwhile demand depends on one's willingness to purchase at a given price level; generally a greater quantity will be demanded when the price is lower. Unforuntately this standard economic model fails in a situation where a market is dominated by a small number of sellers who can adjust the supply and price of a good at will.

I suspect the high prices of e-books are deliberate. Publishers are afraid that they cannibalize sales of paper books if e-books became ready for mainstream. So they are going to keep their artificially inflated prices, and I am afraid adding supply, as Bill McCoy suggested, won't make a difference here.

01:21 AM by MishaS in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

FBReader, the open-source e-book reader originally written for the Sharp Zaurus, has been updated. Version 0.7.3c adds support for OpenZaurus/GPE and fixes two problems related to switching to full screen mode and to the Nokia 770 not always properly closing the application.

Download the new version from here and read more about future plans for FBReader here (also check out David's write up).

01:26 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Rachel from Laplink kindly informed us that their Laplink ShareDirect program is now available for free in the Basic Edition. This service, which was previously available for $39.95, allows Microsoft Windows users to share files with other people straight from their desktops by setting up a limited, 256-bit encrypted network that can securely travel through existing firewall settings.

The Basic Edition is limited to a total of 50 MB that you can transfer securely through Laplink's relay servers per month. While it's certainly not enough for bulk traffic, for most people, it's probably sufficient for securely sharing business files such as Word and Excel documents. For more traffic, check out Laplink's available subscription plans.

Get the download from here.

01:13 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Hardly a week passes without eReader sending out a new promo code for us e-book junkies. This one is valid through May 6th, and can be used for a 10% discount off any book you purchase: MF54EN.

Thanks to Palm Addicts for the tip!

10:32 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

As we see content moving to cell phones and other mobile devices, the potential business benefits are going to grow. Unfortunately, we may see the day that mobile interest causes content is availble on mobile devices, but not regular channels such as television. Or even worse, we might see content only available on particular wireless networks. Oh wait, it's already happened!

According to Engadget Mobile, "... Sprint has exclusive wireless rights to the draft while Monday Night Football rights-holder ESPN is barred from streaming the broadcast to its Mobile ESPN subscribers..." Yikes! This reminds me of the first days of ESPN coverage of Sunday night football, and I couldn't see the games because I didn't have cable.

Imagine if sporting events show up only on particular wireless networks. Instead of getting they guys together for the latest pay-per-view television championship boxing event, you might be getting together with your cell phone screen propped up on a little table by the chips and dip, with everyone gathered around squinting at the screen!

Okay, so that's an exaggeration, and the best content is generally going to reach consumers more and more with the improvement of technology. But it is a fact that wireless providers will be looking for ways to distinguish their content from others, so if you are on the "wrong" network, then you might just miss out of a few things.

10:20 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

We recently told you about the new music service called Pandora. Interestingly, we said at the time, "A laptop is not exactly the most mobile of personal music players, but now with Pandora music it's at least a very personal way to listen to music on the go with any broadband connection."

Well, Engadget has solved part of the problem, and writes about how you can take Pandora to new places in your house using Squeezebox.

Be sure to check out the full article for all the details.