11:05 AM by Laurens in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Just in case you haven't heard or read by now: Settlement ends Blackberry case (from BBC News)

The maker of the Blackberry e-mail device has reached a $612.5m (£349m) settlement to end a dispute that could have closed the service in the US.

Looks like the reports of the Crackberry's death were greatly exaggerated.

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

My goodness, is it Sunday again? Well, for those of you who've missed the highs and lows of MobileRead over the past seven days, this is your one-way ticket to catch up:

Current E-Books Trends
Some good news from TeleRead

E-Book Conversion
How to digitize a million books

E-Book Readers
Hands-on review of the Iliad e-book reader!

eReader
eReader gets new chief

General Chat
ALP just a piece of a bigger picture for ACCESS
Fix your Firefox extensions for version 1.5.0.1
Libraries offer free audiobook downloads
MobileRead is the "Best of the Best!"
Publish your blog as a paper book
Some weekend thoughts about mobile computing
Tiny microphones will aid VOIP adoption
Why are SMS short text messages so darned short?
Why DRM is a lie

Link Swap
The 50 best web sites... one more time

Other E-Book Resources
20% off for one book at the Palm eBook store
New podcast from Cory Doctorow: Return to Pleasure Island

Other Gadgets
Add 4gig to your cell phone with Stic & Stor
Microsoft lets Origami secret slip
Some very unusual laptop designs
Super bendy "nano-skin" display screens

Other Readers
Microsoft wants feedback on Origami for e-book reading

Palm
Creative Algorithms releases Trip Boss 2 - As free upgrade!
MobiVoIP Beta brings VOIP to PalmOS!
Palm Addicts keeps you "in the know" like nobody else!
Sneak(y) peek at the new DateBk6

Pocket PC
A look at the best email clients for Pocket PC
Game emulators for PPC - A comprehensive list
Opera 8.5 beta 2 for Pocket PC
Should I defrag my memory cards?

Portable Audio/Video
Free television downloads from ABC!
The Beaver learns about cell phones

Smartphones
Compal GPP2 phone with built-in projector!
Hit TV show 24 is now a phone game

Sunrise
Sunrise XP Showcase

03:44 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

In a unique approach to ebook delivery, Daughters of Freya is delivered as 4-5 daily installments for three weeks to your email inbox, as if coming from the characters.

Shaun McGill, our friend at PDA247 has read the story twice and asked us to let you know that he is arranging for an ebook group read starting 9:30 p.m. (EST) Sun, March 12. "The idea is to have a group of people read the mystery at the same time, and discuss it in an online forum as it unfolds."

The authors have extended a special price of US$2.99 (regular $4.99) for those who wish to take part. You can sign up (i.e. purchase it) here any time prior to the start date, but they are going to be posting the first five emails at the PDA247 sites so people can get a feel for how it works.

About the story - "An email from a desperate friend sends journalist Samantha Dempsey to Marin County north of San Francisco to investigate The Daughters of Freya, a cult that believes sex is the solution to the world's problems. But she soon finds out there is more to the cult than meets the eye."

01:52 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

We've all seen many lists of the best web sites. I've become almost immune to them by now. But this one from the Chicago Tribune was interesting to me, and it got my attention right away because it even included a generic spot in the top 50 for the following entry under the Arts and Culture section:

"Public libraries (various): A librarian we know points out something wonderful: Many public libraries’ Web sites have free, downloadable audio books. We tested this in our own town (Oak Park, http://www.oppl.org/) and found it to be true."

More evidence that a lot of people are interested in audiobooks. A perfect application for mobile devices. It's a shame nobody knows yet where to find them or how to listen!

If you want the easy way to find audiobooks and have a few extra dollars to spend, be sure to check out Audible.com.

Via Digg.

01:40 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Here's a really cute series of web shows that place Felicity Huffman (of Desperate Housewives) inside episodes of old TV sitcoms. Brady Bunch, Munsters and Leave it to Beaver are all there.

They are part of an introduction to a new Dove soap product, but the commercial side of it is quite unobtrusive, and when you finish the video you don't mind seeing Dove because it's all so well done. In fact, they are directed by Penny Marshall.

My favorite part is when Felicity tries to explain her Blackberry phone to the Beaver!

As far as I'm aware, if you want to be mobile when watching video in Macromedia Flash, you still have to do it on a laptop, so you probably can't see this on your pda or smartphone. And it's streaming media anyway. Enjoy!

Via Future Now.

12:22 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

While I was reading today from my 164 RSS feeds (yikes, something needs to change to stop this growth rate!), I came across this new mobile game based on the hit Fox TV series "24". Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it runs on a Treo, but is aimed at mainstream cell phones. It looks like you can check your model and carrier compatibility here.

I think it looks great! I had assumed at first that it was another silly game that wouldn't even be worth mentioning, but it turns out that it appears to be a full and real game and even has a full review that gives it a 9/10 rating. He says, "So, why am I giving 24 such a high score? Because it is the best example of a licensed mobile game based on an entertainment property (film, TV show) that I have seen thus far. Rather than going to simple route and making a cookie-cutter action-platformer starring Jack Bauer, I-play successfully created the illusion that you are a pivotal member of the CTU team working alongside your favorite characters from the show. This is a way to augment your enjoyment of the show -- and that's a really cool concept.

I also feel the game has significant replay value. If you are a fan of the show, it's apparent you enjoy spending time with these people each week. After finishing one of the days in 24, I think a lot of fans/gamers will feel inclined to go back and see if they cannot beat their past times, see if they cannot be a bigger help to Jack, and enjoy the story one more time. This is solid, smart mobile gaming that is easily worth the admission price for fans of the series."

So you tell me... is this a must-have for 24 fans, or a waste of time? It looks pretty fun to me. As it doesn't seem to run on a Treo, maybe I'll have to get a full game console version of it. That just feels so wrong when a regular cell phone user can play, but a Treo user can't!

Via Treo Today

09:04 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

With all the effort and activity these days to turn paper books into e-books, it seemed a little out of place to be thinking about making an electronic blog into a paper book. But Lifehacker points us to this NYTimes article about publishing software called BookSmart which will do just that. Kind of futuristic and retro at the same time, but I just don't see the resulting book being good for anything other than historic archival purposes unless the author originally meant for it to be a book, and then does some hard work to turn it into something worth reading.

It will be available soon at Blurb, and it's not exactly a one-click process. And once it's in paper form, it won't fit into your pocket anymore!

Via Lifehacker

10:04 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Display technologies remain a hot topic for mobile technology. We just love to take a peek at what might be coming in the future, because what we have right now is not even close to perfect. There's a lot of room for improvement.

Nano technologies are being used in everything from stain-free slacks to miniature medical devices to memory chips. So how about another nano technology display to think about?

Like many other displays of the future, this technology is probably going to take a while to commercialize, and it's not likely to be used first in e-book readers or smartphones, but it's interesting nonetheless. More precisely, it's "a flexible polymer infused with billions of carbon nanotubes [that] could be used to make incredibly bendy displays and other novel electronic devices, researchers say." And the material could be applied to anything from "adhesive structures and Velcro-like materials to nanotube interconnects for electronics."

So unfortunately, for the mobile computing fanatic, it's another in a long line of interesting, but useless display technologies!

Via NewScientist