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

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for our weekly roundup of what's new and interesting in the world of mobile gadgets.

Current E-Books Trends
Citizen develops ferroelectric LCD

E-Book Readers
Branko Collin visits the iRex Technologies Offices

General Chat
Handheld OS Choice: How much is too much?

Other Readers
uBookLite coming soon for PalmOS

Palm
BlackBerry push e-mail in Treo style
Microsoft wins deal with U.S. Census Bureau

Sunrise
Sunrise XP beta 9 released, new web browser extensions

11:26 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

When I bought my first handheld, there were only two models available to choose from, and the only difference was the amount of memory. If I had been more aware of the market, maybe I could have searched out other choices like Apple Newton or Psion handhelds, but I'm not sure of the timeline there. But the point is that we have come a long way in the world of mobile computing. There are now a multitude of cell phones, pdas, smartphones, wrist watch pdas, "communicator devices" and even tiny laptops or tablets running WinXP or Linux.

Even in the pda/smartphone market, we are on the verge of another revolution. The mass consumer market and business market is gravitating toward smartphones, and that's being driven primarily by simple things like PIM integration, mobile email and messaging. As they get easier to use, the sky is the limit for functionality. Don't ever forget that -- adoption and acceptance is driven by usability and functionality together. Sure, the average consumer will become more skilled and able to handle the technology better over the years as it become more familiar, but nothing takes the place of usability.

So with that in mind, let's take a look at the landscape for mobile devices in the near future. Specifically, let's look at the upcoming directions for operating systems for handheld devices.

But, you say, the OS doesn't matter. In fact Michael Mace, one of the heroes in the handheld industry and brilliant strategist, has repeatedly emphasized that the OS doesn't matter. Consumers are just as happy using older versions of a handheld OS, as evidenced by purchases. Consumers do not shy away from older versions of an OS on Symbian, for example.

In its proper perspective, Mr. Mace's statement is not only correct, but important. In fact, I think he makes a very essential point that we "tech heads" need to remember. What he is trying to emphasize is that first and foremost, the consumer wants usability and functionality. The consumer doesn't care what lies underneath to make it work. In fact, the consumer is probably only going to be using the simplest of functions on the device anyway. We are fast coming to the point where the core functionality for all devices will be supported by almost any handheld OS.

But that is not the whole story. There's another side of things. When the average knowledge worker runs a program on his computer at work, does he care if he is using DOS5 or BeOS or Windows 3.0 or WindowsXP or Linux? Of course he does!

If you give him Windows 3.0, for example, he will have a problem just getting around on the computer and making things work. He will notice a million different features for ease of use that are missing from the last WindowsXP computer he used. He will lose functionality like USB support, so he won't be able to use jump drives or hook up his iPod or Treo. He may not even know how to shut down the PC. And even more importantly, he won't be able to use his favorite software because it's no longer supported. He'll be forced to find a (painful) way to get his data onto the PC, and he will be using software like some of the early versions of MS Word and Excel, or maybe even have to switch to 123 and WordPerfect.

On handhelds, think about the OS on early Palm devices and compare it to the most recent versions of Garnet. I'd argue that the newer OS is far more easy to use. Consider PalmOS versus Pocket PC. Different people have different favorites, but one thing you cannot argue is that it is a hard step for most people when they decide to switch from one to the other. Switching from Palm to Pocket PC (or vice-versa) can be a traumatic and difficult trip. Replacement programs need to be found, data has to be transferred, and even the most basic activities on the handheld have to be relearned under a new paradigm determined by the OS. People have strong feelings about one OS being better than the other, and consumers and businesses both certainly make purchase decisions on

Okay, so the OS does matter to the consumer. Then what about the new landscape for handheld OS choices that we will be seeing soon?

Garnet seems to have some life left in it, both in functionality and in terms of legal contracts. What was previously being developed by PalmSource as PalmOS for Linux has been re-worked and is now called ALP (Access Linux Platform) until it gets its "real" name as we get closer to its release date.

Symbian is still around, and I've learned to not count out any popular technology no matter my opinions about being ancient or limited. If enough effort is put into it, an old technology can grow legs and compete effectively for a long time.

Windows Mobile is still going strong, and we can't rule out the likelihood of many more devices running Windows XP/Vista/... and other future versions of Microsoft's primary desktop OS. Certainly they must have plans to make their future OS platforms much more flexible to support all kinds of mobile and consumer device applications (such as media centers or appliance and automotive control).

On top of all that, we have Linux devices already arriving like the Nokia 770. The ALP is built on Linux. And Linux itself has many varieties. Don't even rule out other operating systems making the jump to handheld devices, or in the future seeing something new altogether that hasn't yet been announced. Don't forget the new kind of computing promised by the AI technologies being developed by Jeff Hawkins at Numenta, or the famous "third" Palm product line that has yet to be revealed.

We could literally have a legitimate choice between half a dozen operating systems for handheld devices in the next decade or so!

What is this going to do to us in terms of usability, applications, and the effort to move from one platform to another? Are we doomed to either stay on a single OS, or suffer a horribly painful switch across product lines to another OS?

Fortunately, there is good news. Just as it is much easier to move across platforms now, it will even get better. PalmOS and Win Mobile both can sync basic PIM info with Outlook, so it's not too hard to move data from one to another. Sure, there are some idiosyncrasies, but it's not too bad.

There are a lot of programs that exist on both platforms. MS Office documents, eReader files, .pdf, multimedia files, etc are all usable in native form on both platforms, and compatibility will get better and better over the years. I use programs like HandyShopper, eWallet, and so forth that use the same data files, so I can switch without any hassle from PalmOS to PPC or back.

We are also likely to see better software development tools for creating products or multiple platforms without rewriting the program multiple times. That means that you are more likely to be able to find your favorite program on multiple platforms.

And we might even find that single pieces of hardware can run multiple operating systems, just like how you can now put Linux on a desktop computer designed for Windows.

Usability gets better and better for all of the OS varieties also. There will be a learning curve, but you will be much less likely to just say "this is an OS I can't use because it won't do this basic thing." Will the jump always take an effort? Probably yes. Consider Windows to Linux. It's not a trivial switch, which is the reason I haven't made the jump despite having some familiarity with Unix.

Now, coming back to the original question, "How many OS choices are too many?" I'd have to say that the market will take care of this.

On the one hand, we want lots of choice. It helps us find the perfect OS for our own tastes, and it drives innovation so that all of the OS versions get better and better.

On the other hand, we don't want the customer base too widely divided because there is great benefit in having two or three most popular platforms. It means you are forced to switch less often to get your favorite devices or features or programs. But the market forces will usually cause product development money and application developers and third party support to focus on the most popular platforms.

Personally, I'd prefer to see only about three really strong and popular OS choices. It's enough for good choice and competition, but not so many that all the industry resources and product offerings become too deeply split up. Unfortunately, while things are shaking out in the industry we may see more than that for a while. But that's okay, because it's going to be one heck of a lot of fun to watch this all evolve and play out!

Related information... (Some really great blogs by Michael Mace)
Mobile Opportunity
Stop Flying Blind

05:47 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Japanese Tech-On has a story that Citizen Watch has developed a ferroelectric liquid crystal display that might as well fall into the category of e-paper technologies. Like E Ink it's bi-stable (doesn't require power to maintain its state), shines with a high contrast and can be viewed at a wide angle. In fact ferroelectric LCDs have been around for many years, but they used to be very difficult to manufacture, and were therefore expensive.

This display secures the memory property by reducing the distance between two glass substrates to about 1.7 μm, 1/3 that of standard LCD panels, using the ferroelectric liquid crystal and inorganic oriented film with liquid crystal molecules and the film tilted by around 20 degrees. Drive voltage is a low 5 V. If the display is refreshed every 10 seconds, the LCD uses only 1/50 the power needed to drive a standard TFT LCD panel. It uses a passive-matrix configuration drive, which is well suited to display precise images. The LCD can be either reflective or transmissive, but the company plans to manufacture the reflective type over the short-term in order to make the most of its low power consumption property. Citizen also considers it may be able to make the LCD flexible to a certain degree by switching the substrate material to plastic.

11:07 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

It's been a long time coming, but Palm and Research In Motion have finally produced the missing software that Treo worshippers have been anticipating for months. Singapore-based SingTel will be the first carrier to provide the BlackBerry Connect service to existing and new Treo 650 customers. New customers can take advantage of a special promotion price of S$299 if they subscribe to SingTel's unlimited data plan at $61.95 per month (valid from April 12 to May 12, 2006).

According to the press release, BlackBerry Connect for the Treo 650 supports the following features:

• Push Corporate Email: delivers messages automatically and wirelessly to the Treo 650.
• Wireless Calendar Synchronization: keeps the Treo 650 built-in Calendar up to date remotely.
• Attachment Viewing: lets users view Excel, Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents while on the road.
• Remote Address Lookup (RAL): allows users to search their corporate directory wirelessly for email addresses without the need to download every name to the Treo 650.
• Centralized device management: IT policies, such as over-the-air device disablement and password device lock; and Triple DES encryption, supporting end-to-end security.

It remains to be seen whether Research In Motion will benefit from licensing their software to other phone manufacturer in the long run or whether this is the surest way to cannibalize the sale of their BlackBerry phones.

[via Palm Addicts]

12:01 PM by Laurens in Archive | Sunrise

Always happy to announce a new release.

This beta adds a web browser "clipping" functionality similar to the earlier "Send to Sunrise" for the Java version. Right-click on a web page and select "Clip with Sunrise XP" from the popup menu to convert it to a Plucker document. Both Firefox (1.5 or later) and Internet Explorer are supported.

Unlike the browser extensions for the Java version, you don't need to have the application running in the background for them to work. The new extensions simply invoke Sunrise XP directly.

Installation is also much simpler: the Sunrise XP installer registers the extensions automatically. No need to go to a separate installation page. (A source of confusion for new users.)

Download page

09:20 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Somehow we missed this from the other day, but David was so nice to remind us that last week Microsoft scored its largest contract to date with an order for 500,000 Windows Mobile handsets from the U.S. Census Bureau. The devices will be built by HTC, the same Taiwanese company who also manufactured the Palm Treo 700w. Unfortunately for Palm, the deal doesn't appear to involve any Treo smartphones. Instead David speculates:

It sounds like the government may be commissioning a custom handset just for their own use. For a device intended to serve a single purpose this probably makes more sense than ordering up a half-million Treos. The Treos try to be jack-of-all-trade devices that work really well as business phones, email/messaging devices, and PDAs, whereas few of these features would likely be the focus for the Census Bureau.

Engadget dug out some more details revealing that the U.S. Census Bureau order was part of a larger five-year, $600 million contract with Harris Corporation to build an automated data-collection system for census workers in the field (who'd use the handhelds rather than relying on notepads). My guess is that the new handhelds will have a limited feature set, probably made semirugged, and designed with a long battery life in mind.

Related: Census Bureau awards $600 million contract to support automation project

09:17 AM by Bob Russell in More E-Book Readers | iRex

What better place to learn more about the iRex Iliad e-book reader than the corporate offices? Branko Collin reports on his trip in a set of articles. His latest installment includes the following tidbits:

* The iRex PR representative emphasized to him that "Irex Technologies is actively listening to what everybody has to say about what the Iliad should be like; your e-mails, the press, visitors, people receiving sample devices, test subjects, they all seem to play a role in the shaping of the Iliad."

* "When the roll-out for trials and the webshop will materialize this April, no DRM-ed books will likely be available for it. However, the Iliad will contain viewers for amongst others TXT, PDF and HTML, so the eager early-adopters will have something to play with."

* What usage are they targeting? "The device is supposed to supplant paper, not PDAs or tablet PCs... For the Iliad to compete with regular paper though, it will have to offer something different. Irex considers those advantages to lie in the areas of distribution (a company can distribute its internal documents electronically rather than on paper), and of on-time delivery."

* Very interestingly, especially considering our discussions about various e-ink devices all helping to move the market forward for e-book readers, is how iRex views Sony's entry into the market... "'our greatest colleague/ambassador is the Sony Reader'. Irex consider[s] the market to be big enough for all parties, and together these parties can work on awareness for E Ink devices, and on standards, and on the e-paper paradigm. Irex know the folks at Sony — when the Japanese giant was working on its Librié, Irex founder Jan van de Kamer was their liaison at Philips — but haven’t contacted them yet about cooperation in these areas, although they eventually would like to."

This is the sort of perspective that would tend to indicate forward thinking and a confidence and desire to meet customer needs with good products, and is a refreshing attitude.

* And from Mobipocket forums, “Does Mobipocket plan to develop reader software for the upcoming iRex Iliad eInk reader?” To which Mobipocket Support Team Member “mobi_erick” replied: “Perhaps. It is still in discussion.”

There is much more in this great article at TeleRead.

You can find Branko's articles about his visit here:
IRex Iliad and the e-paper paradigm
Your questions to Irex Technologies
A first look at the Irex Iliad

Note: There seem to be some site problems at TeleRead.org at the moment, but keep trying. I'm sure that the issues will resolved in no time.

02:16 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

The makers of the very popular µBook reader for PalmOS Pocket PC and Windows will be releasing a new e-book reader very soon called µBookLite. From the GowerPoint web page, we get the following description...

"µBookLite for Palm OS (3.5+) and Smartphone. It is a simple and lean, yet powerful ebook reader that can read PDB and PRC (not secure) ebook (HTML, TXT and PML). It supports BMP, GIF, PNG and JPG images and offers many customization options including: Hyphenating, Portrait and Landscape display, Choice of font type, color and size, etc.... It Also has a resizable/skinnable User Interface. µBookLite will be improved on a regular basis."

Thanks to volwrath for the news submission.
Note: Correction above based on frquixote's input. The original error was mine, not the submitter's. Thks!