06:35 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

It's been a long time coming, but Japan's Toppan Printing has finally produced the prototype of a flexible thin film transistor (TFT) display. The display, which boosts a resolution of 4,800 pixels and is only 320 microns thin, consists of lightweight, bendable backplanes, making it possible to create future reading devices that use little power, provide higher screen quality under all lighting conditions and from all angles, and can be folded and rolled like a daily newspaper. Only caveat: don't expect to see anything like this in your store before 2008.

[via The Inquirer]

06:19 PM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | iRex

Our friend CommanderROR is reporting that the immersive, atmospheric and enthralling iRex iLiad e-book reader can now be pre-ordered at a German store. There is still some confusion about pricing however. While I was told by a representative of iRex that the iLiad will cost exactly EUR 549,00 (inclusive VAT, exclusive transport costs), other sources including Jörg Wrobel, owner of above store, report a considerably higher price of EUR 649,00. I can only assume that no one - including the guys from iRex - can tell with 100 percent certainty what the final price will be.

Feel free to post your savvy remarks over in CommanderROR's original thread.

06:03 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Generally speaking, we care less about what CNET thinks. Astute readers will recall CNET's unfounded bashing on gadget sites last year for using leaks and unfounded rumors as their favorite news source. Ever since, CNET's importance for the geek crowd has been evaporating. And it doesn't take much to stand out in a negative way, because according to CNET, the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is the "Worst-rated product that CNET readers love":

This thing, it surfs Internet. You want to make phone call? You can't make phone call. You like Ethernet? No Ethernet. You get Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is nice. No wires! You like slow load times? Yes? It is good for that. You like battery that lasts more than three hours? It does not have one. Nice screen, though.

The same Nokia 770 won the 2005 Engadget Awards as "Handheld of the Year", picked by both, Engadget and its readers. Well, of course, since the Nokia 770 is a wonderful device. But that's almost beside the point. What I ask myself is: do you still read CNET, and if yes, why?

04:20 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Mobile Sites

Handheld enthusiasts have a penchant for mobile web sites. So feast your eyes on the following list which includes such highlights as The New York Times, Wired Mag, and CNN.

Thanks to Harpgliss who sent us the tip!

• AM New York
• Advertising Age
• Baltimore Sun
• Bizjournals
• CNN
• Careerbuilder.com
• Chicago Reader
• Chicago Sun Times
• Chicago Tribune
• Crain's Chicago Business
• Crain's New York Business
• ET Online
• Forbes
• Hoy/Tribune
• IMDb
• Los Angeles Times
• Metromix
• Morning Call Online
• NBC 4
• NBC 5
• NY Daily News
• New York Times
• Newsday
• Orlando Sentinel
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Sun-Sentinel
• The Envelope
• Thomas Publishing
• USA Today
• WNBC
• Wired Magazine

03:28 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

TeleRead.org is reporting that Sony will be selling it's new e-Reader device at about 200 Borders bookstores in the U.S. The stores seem almost ubiquitious through many areas, and it looks like an ideal way to work into a strong potential market. Every retail push of this sort is a win for not just Sony, but for e-book readers in general. And a convenient purchase location is likely to influence many of the e-book reader fans that are having trouble deciding between models.

Full details are available in the Sony press release.

Related reference: E-ink reader comparison matrix.

02:44 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

ComputerWorld is reporting that "Google Inc. has mud on its face after staffers accidentally deleted the company's main official blog Monday night and a user unaffiliated with Google temporarily took possession of the Web address." There is, of course, a general aptmosphere of sensationalism on the web and in the press about these sorts of mistakes, and the buzz usually far exceeds the real impact of the event.

Still, it's quite an embarrassing event for Google. They are unquestionably a tech leader, and as a company Google has pulled off success after success. But over time we are seeing that even the stars at Google are human after all.

In true Google style, there was an official response that included "The blog was mistakenly deleted by us (d'oh!) which allowed the blog address to be temporarily claimed by another user. This was not a hack, and nobody guessed our password. Our bad..." Personally, this sort of response is much more appealing than some formal and complicated and obtuse explanation aimed at spinning the story.

Despite the inevitable finger pointing and dirt raising stories, Google remains a tremendous success in the world of web businesses, and its secret future plans remain some of the topics most highly speculated about. We are all waiting to see how they might change the world... or at least the way we use the web.

01:22 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

The IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) describes itself as "the trade and standards association for the digital publishing industry. Our members consist of academic, trade and professional publishers, hardware and software companies, digital content retailers, libraries, educational institutions, accessibility advocates and related organizations whose common goals are to advance the competitiveness and exposure of digital publishing."

On Wednesday, May 24th they will be holding an annual conference in New York City at the McGraw-Hill auditorium, and the topic chosen this year is "Connected & Mobile!" This is not only a great opportunity for publishers and device makers to get together (including a lot of big name sponsors like Adobe, Motricity, Rosetta), but also should provide some very interesting materials for the rest of us.

The press release includes quite a teaser line, as it says “The stakes are high as publishers, search engines and portable device manufacturers seek to create the 'iPod and iTunes for Books.' ” How true that is, and yet even that may be not the destination, but simply one step toward greater things.

One of the exciting things about this organization is that they make a lot of great information available to the public. You can find many presentations from last years conference on e-books in education at their web site here. I'm really looking forward to seeing what becomes available after this year's event.

As with any standards organization, there are some great challenges and many vested interests that make progress full of obstacles and hurdles. But we certainly are delighted to see this kind of effort towards the furtherment of e-books, and are especially happy to see an emphasis this year on mobile and wireless content.

For more information on the conference, just visit the 2006 conference web page.

11:19 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I am rarely surprised by the time changes related to daylight savings time because I usually hear it from friends and co-workers and see it on television, etc. But I was caught by surprise today. Even my trusty Treo 650 didn't show the change because I had the phone off, so it hadn't adjusted yet.

Well, it seems that the time change caught Palm by surpise also, because there are some issues for Treo 700w users. Specifically, from the Palm, Inc Support Knowledge Library, "After Daylight Saving Time begins (2:00 a.m., first Sunday in April), you may notice that some appointments in your smartphone's Calendar appear one hour early. For example, if you had scheduled a dental appointment for 9:00 a.m. Monday, it would appear on your smartphone as 8:00 a.m. Monday; it will also appear incorrectly in Outlook on your desktop PC as 8:00 a.m. Monday.

In addition, full-day appointments may appear one day early."

They indicate that the issue is under investigation by their engineers, but they have some workarounds. Basically, they say to either delete and re-enter the appointments in Outlook, or to not use network time and correct all the appointments by hand.

This would seem to be a pretty significant negative image as it affects a lot of new Palm customers who adopted a Windows Mobile Treo, and because smartphones are used primarily for two two features... the phone and the calendar. Hopefully, there will be a better fix soon with a patch, but it may take some time to test and work out with the various carriers.

By the way, when I did turn on my Treo 650's phone, the time immediately was set correctly, and all my appointments look like they are fine. Quite a relief!

Via Palm Addicts