12:21 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

SlySoft has released a new all-in-one video converter tool designed to make it easier for you to put your DVD home collection onto a mobile device. CloneDVD mobile is based on the FFmpeg library which supports various output formats including DivX, XviD, AVI, and MP4. Other features include support for multi-angle movie DVDs, a freely adjustable target size, support for chapter trimming, and a step-by-step wizard. Happy portable watching!

You can download the 21-days trial from here.

11:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmAddicts has posted a helpful summary of the latest Palm company buyout rumors.

OK, first of all there is the question of whether Palm needs to be sold: probably not, but a shot of energy, vision and cajones in the management team wouldn't go a miss and this shareholder action may be the boot in the backside that they need. Bottom line is that this question can get kicked back and forth for a long time to come, what's more its an emotive area so don't expect a consensus soon.

If the buyout rumors pan out, I would hope to see an influx of genuinely cool Treo successors for us and our children.

Related: Palm stock surges after takeover chatter, Major Palm investor urges sale of the company

10:30 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

While we're fervently waiting for the next major version of the multimedia player TCPMP, Picard keeps on adding new features and bugfixes in the current test version. Changelog for version V0.71j:

• asf parser fix
• PalmOS: T|T,T2 48khz samplerate crash fix
• PalmOS: keylock window fix with LCD tweak modes
• WinCE: title scroll fix
• WinCE: WM5 (O2 Atom) memory mapping fix (with XScale driver)
• WinCE: Treo700w keyboard backlight disabled in fullscreen
• WinCE: special hotkeys just warning
• Win32: administrator rights not needed anymore

Download the test version from here.

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
Adobe blogger on Sony's BBeB format
As E Ink approaches the performance of newspaper
Is RSS feed reading on a handheld worthless?
Libraries express DRM concerns

General Chat
Happy Birthday PDA247!

iSilo/X
iSilo V4.31 beta 1 released

Palm
Exclusive: Radical changes ahead at Palm Addict
Major Palm investor urges sale of the company
More Treo 700p/800p rumors - The excitement builds!
Palm stock surges after takeover chatter
Palm Treo 800p to be out in March?
Sprint Treo 700w expected to arrive earlier
Will we ever consider any handheld to be "great"?

Pocket PC
NetFront 3.3 Technical Preview 1.04 released

Sunrise
Send to Sunrise for Firefox 1.5.0.1
Sunrise XP alpha 4 released

WiFi / Bluetooth Technologies
Boeing Connexion receives patent for airborne WiFi
Verizon may be cutting off Treo dial up networking tool

08:16 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Sun reporter Frank D. Roylance confirms what we knew all along, namely that E Ink technology is ready for take-off. In his article Spreading the e-word he mentions three upcoming products based on this much hyped technology:

• The Sony Portable Reader PRS-500, a paperback-sized dedicated e-book reader that has a 170 pixels per inch resolution and four levels of greyscale. Available for USD $349.99 (check Teleread on vanishing prices) this spring.
• The 4-inch square Weather Wizard station by Ambient Devices, a wireless weather station that displays a five day forecast. Available for about USD $100 this spring.
• The Lexar JumpDrive Mercury USB stick that features a unique on-board storage capacity meter.

I stumbled upon one interesting comment made by Ben Bederson, director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland, who argues that the Sony Reader display is narrower and shorter than the ideals for easy reading, "which means the viewer will be navigating too much with the eye from line to line, and with the machine from page to page." It's obvious Mr Bederson has never tried to read a full-length e-book on a PDA.

Meanwhile, The Times sounds a lot more enthusiastic:

Because each virtual page of the display contains slightly fewer words than a normal page, the speed of each "turn" must be fast or the flow of reading is broken too easily. A turn that took a second made an earlier version [the Sony Librie] unusable.

The "killer application" of the Reader is probably more on the software side. The latest device has none of the restrictions that dragged down earlier versions. It is more open in what files it will handle and can store indefinitely about 100 books on a £30 memory chip.

Related links: Sony's new e-book reader officially announced, Sony Reader vs. iRex Iliad e-book reader, Poll: Which e-reader would you choose?

08:12 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | iSilo/X

Darren released the first beta of iSilo V4.31. The beta seems to be a minor update which corrects some problems of previous versions. iSiloX V4.31b1 now supports handling HTTP responses with multiple Content-Type headers.

The beta of iSilo can be downloaded from here and of iSiloX from here. You don't know iSilo? Check out this thread for more information.

08:06 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Libraries may become an unexpected ally in the fight against oppressive DRM. The same problems faced by consumers that have DRM schemes imposed on them are also problems for libraries, but on a bigger scale. A BBC news article says "Libraries fear digital lockdown."

Here are some of their concerns:
* When technology changes, the material may become unavailable to people in the future
* Restrictions from DRM may last much longer than the period of time that the material is protected by copyright law, effectively extending copyright terms in a de facto manner. There is no automatic expiration of DRM to match copyright periods.
* Even when copyrights expire, there would probably be no key for libraries to use to unlock the DRM

The British Library writes that "excessive control on access to information [using DRM technologies]"... "will fundamentally threaten the longstanding and accepted concepts of fair dealing and library privilege and undermine, or even prevent, legitimate public good access."

(via Slashdot )

07:15 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

More news is developing via Palm Addicts about possible information on a new PalmOS Treo with information apparently coming originally from a post at the TreoCentral forums.

There are some pictures that clearly show a Sprint phone this time. Could it be that this one is being released first by Sprint, who just finished a prime advertising product placement in the tv show 24? If their data plan stays reasonably priced (based on customer comments, it's currently a bargain at about $15/month unlimited data for the Treo 650), this is great news for people hoping to stay connected for web browsing, email and messaging without breaking the bank.

Rumored [700p] specs include:

* EVDO (high speed data connectivity)
* Pocket Tunes (as opposed to Real Player on the 650)
* Sprint TV
* Documents to Go version 8
* Blazer 4.5 in ROM
* 62.8M of free space for programs
* 320x320 display
* PalmOS Garnet 5.4.9
* Camera with 1280x1024 resolution
* A much faster user interface than on the Treo 650

Check out these sites for more information:
Gadgets On The Go
TreoCentral Thread

Now those are some specs that will get you excited, even if they are just rumors for now!

(Thanks Sammy at Palm Addict for the hot tip!)

Update: Be sure not to miss Justin's post on this topic (like I did!)
Update2: You can scratch the 800p rumors now. It is admitted to be a fake. But the 700p rumors continue strong thus far.