05:22 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

The anti-DRM crowd has to be encouraged by some of the latest bashing comments from researchers and thinkers. Dr. Ian Brown, Cambridge-MIT Institute senior research manager, spoke at the Changing Media Summit this week, and he suggested that DRM wouldn't protect the music and film industries, who have spent the last decade lobbying for new laws to protect their content but neglected trying to find better ways to monetize their offerings.

"Software companies have sold DRM as solving problems it can't solve... Damaging to copyright law and public's respect for it, this 'newspeak' that goes on around DRM. Industry make blood-curdling pronouncements, conflating opening up standards with protecting copyright which is very damaging... As people come to understand the technology they see that it's the business models that need to change," he said.

As an example how to commercialize music without relying on DRM he mentioned the rock band U2, who, he claimed, doesn't make their money primarily from selling music, but instead use music as a tool to successfully promote their touring and merchandise.

On Brown's website I found this older presentation which is related to what he said on the conference.

04:10 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

It's been a long time coming, but the e-book has finally crossed into mainstream. BBC has a story that wraps pretty up everything up we've been talking about in the past few weeks. It talks about forthcoming e-books readers such as the Sony Reader and the iRex iLiad, about the benefits of E Ink technology, the strong demand for audio books, the nasty aspects of DRM, and about iTunes-like stores for e-books. Heck, they did such a good job, they even quoted our friend Nick Hampshire from Afaics Research:

"I think we are talking about a whole new breed of author. New skills, new content, new ideas, new ways of thinking particularly, and this will be quite a wrench for some of them to make that move, but it offers new possibilities. The possibility of being able to create a book that includes audio components, moving image components that includes interactive components is something which to my mind offers enormous possibilities."

Appendum: Check out this accompaining video (Realvideo) to find out how mobile readers in Japan pass the time with e-books on cellphones (via Teleread!)

04:10 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Thanks to the anonymous tipster who told us how you can save a couple megabytes of disk space when you install Adobe Reader on your PC. Instead of using the official download link, complete and submit the Adobe Reader Distribution Agreement to receive a link to the Adobe Reader Enterprise Edition. It's virtually the same as the standard Reader, except that it's meant for large-scale deployments and doesn't include the (rather useless) download manager and the Yahoo! toolbar.

And here is the direct download link to the current Adobe Reader Enterprise Edition 7.07 for Windows.

02:40 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

CloneDVD mobile is an all-in-one Windows tool that puts your DVD home collection onto a mobile device. CD Freaks has tested it and written down their experiences in this preview. What they liked: very simple to use, high quality output, support for a number of different output formats. What they didn't like: still not free of bugs.

Use the coupon code 'cdfreaks' valid till April 2nd, 2006 to receive a five bucks discount on this app.

01:39 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Palm Addicts writer Peter Arts had a short and sweet Q&A with two of the triumvirate behind Palm's original success, Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky (Ed Colligan, current president of Palm, was apparently too busy celebrating his company's tenth anniversary for he had no time to participate in the Q&A). Don't miss it if you want to feel like a bit on a (good!) nostalgia trip.

04:31 AM by cervezas in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I couldn't resist working up a diagram that deduces what the Linux OS that Palm seems to be working on might look like, presuming it's being designed as an update of the Palm OS for the Treo line.

My conception in a nutshell: a system that is backward compatible with Palm OS Garnet via a Palm OS emulator, but with improved multi-tasking and 3G network support via a handful of built-in native Linux applications. Pretty modest compared to ALP. This is something that Palm could plausibly have developed for release in Hollywood and/or Lowrider assuming (a) they started working with Linux at least a year and a half ago on an R&D basis, as CNET reported back in Nov 2004, and (b) they decided to move into product-development mode around the time they lost the bid to acquire PalmSource last summer.

Here's the pretty picture:

I apologize that I don't have a Treo I can saw the antenna off of and paint like a plastic model race car to show what the Hollywood and Lowrider handsets will look like when they arrive. I'm sure that would generate a lot more discussion than my box diagram.

01:46 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Mr. Moskowitz [The Palm Inc. executive in charge of Palm Inc.'s operations in Canada and Latin America] says Palm has been learning quickly. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company is embracing the model that RIM has used for years: Build close partnerships with the phone companies and let them sell the complete hardware and software package to the business customer. “We are like a two-year-old company with 10 years' experience.”

Read more about Palm's successful strategy for the Treo at GlobeAndMail

Via Palm Addicts, where Sammy and the crew make sure you can always find all the best Palm-oriented news.

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

It was the week that was. Here's what MobileRead's been talking about since last Sunday:

Announcements
We are looking for new blood in our team!

Current E-Books Trends
A scientific step foward towards flexible paper

E-Book Readers
Battery upgrades for your old e-book reader
E-book device (E Ink, 2nd-generation) comparison matrix
Jinke Hanlin reader: What do you want to know?
Teleread's hands-on of the iRex iLiad

General Chat
DRM - a hot topic around the web

Other Gadgets
Municator - $146 Linux based "mobile" computer

Palm
Credible hints that Palm Inc is planning a new generation of Linux devices
Palm Addict get-together in July 2006
Palm beats the market hands down - a bright future

Pocket PC
HP iPAQ hx4700 WM 5.0 upgrade available for real