08:44 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

According to research house Canalys, global shipments of smartphones are growing apace. In their latest report, Canalys found that during the third quarter of 2005, volumes grew 75 per cent year-on-year with over 13 million smartphones sold. Other key points:

• Handheld shipments fall 18%, while converged devices more than double in volume
• Leader Nokia ships record 7.1 million smartphones, up 142% year-on-year
• Palm shipments down 2% overall, but Treo smart phones up 71%, overtaking its handhelds for first time
• HP re-enters top five as hw6500 series wireless handhelds perform well

Some further points have been raised regarding Palm company:

• Smartphones represented 53% of its shipments globally, up from 40% in the previous quarter
• The next six months are likely to see more changes in the vendor's product mix
• Its overall shipments fell 2%, despite smartphone growth of 71%, due to a 34% fall in handheld shipments, but it is still the only vendor other than Nokia shipping more than a million smart mobile devices each quarter.

03:56 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmAddicts has some evidence (scant evidence, but you know how it goes) that Palm is planning to release a new Palm LifeDrive model next month:

Scott just emailed me with this snippet of information he received hinting of a new LifeDrive coming in February.. "Hi I just want to tell you, that in my country (Slovenia) stop selling LifeDrive. Reseller said the new LifeDrive is on the way. It comes out in february. Have a nice day, Simon."

02:56 PM by Brian in E-Book General | News

Here's another device to add to the growing list of recently announced products using E Ink displays. In case you're keeping score, the Sony Reader, iRex Iliad, Jinke Hanlin, and Lexar JumpDrive Mercury all use the MIT Media Lab spinout's electronic paper in their products.

Now Ambient Devices, another MIT spinout, have announced the Weather Wizard, a wireless weather station that displays a five day forecast using an E Ink display. The device gets weather information wirelessly over the Ambient Information Network, which covers over 90% of the U.S. population.

Unlike Xerox's e-paper spin-out Gyricon, who recently pulled the plug on e-paper, E Ink has found several manufacturers to utilize their electronic paper display technologies in consumer-oriented devices.

Full press release here.

09:57 AM by Brian in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

The Sony Reader received quite a bit of coverage at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), with the likes of Engadget, Gizmodo, and Tablet PC Review Spot.com posting hands-on reports that include some really good photos of the device. During Sir Howard Stringer's keynote address where he publicly unveiled the Reader, Sony's CEO even invited The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown on stage to pitch e-books. In addition to numerous articles and blogs spreading the buzz about the Sony Reader and E Ink, the Reader has also been discussed in a number of videocasts and podcasts.

Here's an audio & video roundup for those of you who can't get enough Sony Reader goodness, thanks to Podzinger:

TWiT 37:CES Podcast @ 16mins, 35secs
Buzz Out Loud from CNET 01/06/06 Podcast @ 2mins, 25sec
DigitalLifeTV: DL.TV's Thursday CES Special
Videocast (clip link on bottom right), Audio Only @ 31mins, 24secs
The New York Times tech columnist David Pogue at CES "Navigating the Gadgets" @ 1min 20secs

If you want to see a video of the Reader in use, including the pages being "turned", check out the DLTV videocast. In Patrick Norton's hands, the Reader looks a lot smaller and thinner than some of the photos might suggest.

09:37 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

It's something that the tech geek has known for many years now. You can carry music, video, ebooks, email, games and much more with you wherever you go. But has it ever occurred to you that, in fact, we might have pretty much come to the end of boredom? Almost true.

Mark Cuban writes effectively about this topic in his very popular BlogMaverick. He says that mobile technology has filled all those downtime minutes on the train, or in waiting line or even just sitting around. It used to be that these were often boring times with nothing to do. Now mobile devices give us an abundance of distractions and entertainment that awaits us every time we can find a spare moment.

As expressed in his blog, Mark has hit the mark as usual. He always has a way of writing something that makes you stop and think about something in a new and interesting way.

But if we think it through a bit, we may find that it's a great point, but not the whole story. Boredom is always going to be part of the human equation. It can be reduced, but will never go away. No matter how many games and books and movies we carry with us, we'll still be bored. There are times when it just seems like entertainment is the same old thing over and over and we get tired of it. It often just doesn't seem meaningful. So, sometimes we feel like we're just not in the mood to pick up another frivolous book or watch another movie. And at times it just feels like too much work to attack a book that's profitable and useful to read. So despite the increased options, we again find ourselves bored.

Isn't it only when we fill our life with meaningful pursuits and activities to the brim that we discover the nooks and crannies of spare moments are delightfully filled with frivolous pursuits?

So, whether it's due to an overabundance of leisure, or just because there's something more important on your mind, simple forms of entertainment will not always be engaging. We'll still have moments of boredom.

On the other hand, having said that, I can confidently say that I'm looking very much forward to my lunch break today when I'll watch an episode of a very exciting spy series on my Treo. I'm definitely not going to be bored!

05:54 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Not exactly the kind of device that comes to your mind when you think of gadgets, the Celestron SkyScout has managed to become Scobleizer's coolest gadget on this year's CES. It's a remarkably little device allowing you to explore the night's sky and to instantly identify over 6,000 unique celestial objects. Among its features is a "must-see list" which will tell you the ten "coolest things" to look at in the sky (using an internal GPS to determine your location); a lesson system that will give you more details and information on the star (system) that you're currently looking at; a USB port to allow for period updates; and a SD card slot for additional content offerings.

It'll cost you around USD $400 (preorder from Amazon), but who is counting when you can impress your lady on the next starry night?

04:51 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

The Sony Portable Reader PRS-500 has dominated our headlines lately and made everyone want to kick out some cash for one of the most promising e-book reader devices. Unfortunately it won't hit the market before this coming spring. Upon visiting its product page today, I noticed that Sony has revealed the final pricing for the reader: USD $349.99. That's exactly between the price range of $300-400 which was cited earlier by various sources.

If you like Sony to notify you by e-mail when the Portable Reader becomes available, click here.

Related:
Gizmodo hands on with the Sony Reader
Will Sony help the e-book market to grow?
Sony's new e-book reader officially announced
Sony Reader vs. iRex Iliad e-book reader

07:14 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

When I think of calculators, I still think of the basic functions. I haven't really used any of the newer and more sophisticated models. And I haven't programmed on one since my TI-56 and TI-59 days in the late 70's.

But calculators have come a long way, and one almost has to admit that in the realm of mobile computing they are a legitimate member of the family. I'm even more convinced of this after seeing some of the thousands of programs available for the TI-83/84 Plus models.

The web site TIcalc.org has some impressive archives of programs, and for many TI calculator models there are games, utilities and PIM programs. You can even play chess on a calculator. It's really amazing. You can find an alternate OS, or play baseball or do many other things I would never have expected on a calculator. Programs are written in BASIC, assembler and even Flash (although I have to wonder if this is the same Flash we think of on the web).

If you have one of the more sophisticated TI calculators, or are thinking of getting one and want some information, be sure to check out the site.