05:34 PM by Laurens in Miscellaneous | Lounge

From BBC News, Science book longlist announced:

The 13-strong longlist of popular science books vying for the prestigious 2006 Aventis Prize has been announced.
...
"The diversity of subjects, the excellence of the writing, the singularity of individual voices; all of these contributed to remind us that writing, and reading, about scientific ideas can be a tremendously exciting experience."
...
"This stuff is so accessible it is sometimes hard to put down, and the science is so absorbing and surprising it can make fiction seem dull. Science writing used to be full of impenetrable jargon, but these books are a joy".

A somewhat unusual front page posting for MobileRead, but I figured many people here are interested in popular science.

01:41 PM by doctorow in Miscellaneous | Lounge

If you are in need of more memory for your PDA, here's a juicy offer for today: At Frys you can currently get a 1GB SD Card (no-name?) for $19.99 (instead of $39.99), if you send in the $20.00 Mail-in-Rebate.

Get it here today only at Fry's product page.

07:00 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

As you are probably aware, the cat is now formally out of the bag. Origami has been announced and it's the same as UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC.) We've had small tablet PCs before and the market was expecting some new ones anyway, so what's new?

Let's take a look at what Microsoft's Origami team has to say... "Today at CeBIT, Microsoft, Intel and Samsung announced their commitment to developing a product category called Ultra-Mobile PC, UMPC for short. In truth, this category has existed for some time but not with any real focus by Microsoft or Intel. So, what exactly was announced you may ask? First of all, Samsung announced their entry into this market with a new device that weighs about 2 pounds, has a touch screen, and runs the full Windows XP operating system, Tablet PC Edition to be exact. Of course XP has been out for quite some time, so did Microsoft actually announce something new? Why yes, we did. We announced the Microsoft Touch Pack which is a new set of software built exclusively for UMPCs. That means only OEMs who ship UMPCs can preinstall the Touch Pack."

So if the real news is Touch Pack, then what did Microsoft give us that's new? Here's the rundown:
*) A program launcher
*) Touch Improvements - "a little utility that a user can run that makes Windows more useable on a small, touch enabled computer. It makes about 10 setting changes to Windows such as widening the scroll bars, enlarging the minimize and maximize buttons, shows folders in thumbnail view, etc. These are all things Windows already supports but makes it easy for a user to just magically apply them all without having to go all over the OS to set them."
*) Brilliant Black - a new Windows Media Player skin
*) DialKeys - Now we're talking innovation!!! It's basically a thumb board that comes out onto the screen translucently from the bottom two corners. Very nice looking.
*) Sudoku - Yeah, this numbers game finally gives Microsoft a follow-up for it's famous Solitaire game that's worthy of being included with every OS rolled out for UMPC. It does look very pretty. And it "is of course optimized for touch and the pen."

You can find all kinds of good news about UMPC at these sites...
Microsoft Unveils Ultracompact Computer
Reality check for the much-hyped Origami PC
Microsoft's site
Intel's site
Intels Developer Forum
IDF: Ultra-mobile PCs Need Yonah Processor, Intel Executive Says

12:07 PM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | iRex

The iRex iLiad e-book reader has us drifting on a heavenly cloud of bliss for the past few months. Today I discovered two new images (see next post); one gives us a closer look at the main document list view (see how font-size and line-spacing settings are stored individually for each book), and the other shows the general drawing capabilities of the Wacom inductive touch sensor embedded in the iRex device.

Related stories: Sony Reader vs. iRex Iliad e-book reader, iRex Iliad will be available for around 400 Euro, De Tijd and iRex to launch digital paper delivery service

10:29 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

There's a nifty Palm program that allows you to track flights. It's the first program written by Andrew Faber, a 16-yr old Junior who also happens to be a juggler. He offers his programs as freeware, but donations are accepted.

His Flight Status program has been picked up on by Eric Mack OnLine who uses it with his Treo 650, and says it's "A useful tool for my mobile toolkit."

Via Palm Addicts.

07:35 AM by MatYadabyte in Miscellaneous | Lounge

We have just released a new, free, open-source XP app that's designed for USB/Flash disks but also works on any Windows folder. It's called Yadadisk, and consists of only one file, with no install required - truly portable. You just drop it where you want to encrypt content and run the exe. At only 60k it's pretty tiny, too, but still offers secure AES128 encryption.

If any of Mobilereaders would like to test it that would be great. As always, Mobileread is the first place we tell the world about our stuff

You can download it from here.

02:45 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

News.com got a sneak preview of the UMPC devices that are the basis of Microsoft's Origami project. A slide show is available here.

Tuesday afternoon should have a full announcement and demonstration.

"As earlier reported, the first devices have a 7-inch touch screen, standard x86 processors, and can run full versions of desktop operating systems including the Windows XP variant being used for Origami.

In later generations, probably next year or later, the devices could have the pocket size, all-day battery life, and $500 price that Microsoft and Intel are aiming for, Graff said in an interview.

The first generation of devices are likely to get about three hours of battery life, he said."

Read the full article here.

02:21 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmInfocenter has news of the Palm Treo 700p (PalmOS version) in a Sprint store computer, scheduled for May/June release.

"Previous leaked details about the Treo 700p indicate it will run Palm OS Garnet v5.4.9. It features EVDO high speed data support, a 320x320 pixel display, 1.3 megapixel camera with a 1280x1024 max resolution and 62.8 MB of free RAM."

This is a device I'm personally very much hoping will end up in my pocket this year.

Via Palm Addicts.