08:05 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Acer's German Website has the new n310 Pocket PC listed. The official specs confirm more or less what rumors have leaked last year: The n310 features a 3.7-inch VGA display, Windows Mobile 5.0, a 300 MHz Samsung S3C2440 CPU, WiFi 802.11b, Bluetooth 1.2, an SD/MMC slot, 64MB RAM, 128MB Flash ROM, and a 1200 mAh battery. Dim: 4.3" by 2.8" by .54". Sorry, no price tag yet nor any information on availability.

06:44 AM by Brian in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Warner Brothers has released the screenplay for the movie Syriana (IMDB Link). This drama/thriller is a story about the oil industry, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, terrorism, and the CIA. The screenplay, written by director Stephen Gaghan, was based on the book See No Evil by Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer.

You can download the screenplay here (Adobe PDF, 2.7MB). If you're interested in the movie, you can watch a trailer by visiting the official website here.

[via Boing Boing]

05:51 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Sony Reader

If you're one of the hundreds of thousands of gadget-crazed technophiles descending upon Las Vegas these days, you should definitely head for the Sony booth to check out their E Ink-based Sony Reader. Gizmodo had a hands on and is thoroughly excited:

Sony's new 'Reader' is fantastic and we want one immediately. The price point is going to be painfully high, with guesstimates in between $300 and $400, but it's everything the Librié—Sony’s first-generation, Japan-only ePaper-based eBook reader (whew)—should have been. Not only is the display amazing (and amazingly readable), but Sony promised us that there would be no restriction on moving over your own documents to the Reader—the DRM schmutz has been greatly decreased. Not only will the Reader support PDF files natively, but Sony's PC syncing software will automatically convert .doc files with most formatting intact. eBooks will be an optional purchase through Sony’s Connect service.

The article goes on claiming that the Sony Reader supports RSS with images. My humble question: how can it support RSS without connectivity?

Related: Will Sony help the e-book market to grow?, Sony's new e-book reader officially announced

05:42 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

While we have flash media enhanced with E Ink and regular liquid crystal displays, we're still looking for a contender who uses bistable cholesteric technology. Sure enough, Gizmodo has a quick write up of Didigo's new SmartDrive DD01 which uses a bistable cholesteric display (BCD) to display various information including drive volume name, remaining disk capacity, and a pie chart for a quick glimpse of disk space usage. The advantages of BCD are similar to those of E Ink: sunlight readable with impressive contrast, energy is needed only when refreshing images, very wide viewing angles.

05:15 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Taiwanese A-Data has equipped its latest SD cards with a tiny display to show how much memory you've left to store your precious MP3 files. Unlike the Lexar JumpDrive Mercury, which uses E Ink technology (benefits: ultra-low power consumption, paper-like high contrast appearance), A-Data uses a traditional USB host-powered LCD display which retains its information if not inserted.

[via Engadget at CES]

05:52 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

As always, if you want to know what's going on in the Palm world, there is no better place to visit than Palm Addict. Sammy and his staff worked through the night after the Palm Treo 700w release to provide news, and they continue to link to many reviews and commentaries on the new Windows Mobile device from Palm for Verizon.

And the news is not likely to be over with regard to new Treos, as there are more models expected this year. So far they are right on schedule. Personally, I've got my eyes on that Treo 700p from Sprint, but by the middle of the year they should have quite a lineup.

05:41 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Michael Daw has just informed us that the newest volume of the Portable Harvard Classics is now available. It is Volume 8, "Nine Greek Dramas." You can find more details about the contents of this volume here.

Michael's approach is quite refreshing. As he says on his web page, "Now on my very own domain! All visitors are being redirected here from my old free site, so please reset your bookmarks. I forsaw the need for more room, so now I am paying for this site. And no, I don't want your money. It is, as my lovely wife said, just part of the cost of having a hobby." Very nice.

He has also started a reading group for those who want to read based on a reading plan designed just for the Harvard Classics.

Related Story: The Portable Harvard Classics

01:44 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Do you think Sony's involvement in the e-book market will ultimately help the market to grow, or is it the opposite? I see two scenarios:

• Scenario 1:
  • major book publishers cooperate with Sony
  • e-books at "Sony Connect" online store available for considerably less than p-books
  • consumers happy
  • "iTunes for e-books" effect: online sales become a major revenue source for every participant
  • iPod effect: other vendors offer alternative hardware readers to catch a slice of the market

• Scenario 2:
  • major book publishers cooperate with Sony
  • e-books at "Sony Connect" online store available at p-book prices
  • consumers unhappy, have to pay the same amount and are stuck with DRM-infested proprietary format
  • "iTunes for e-book" effect stays out, marginal revenues, publishers retreat
  • iPod effect stays out: no followups to the Sony Reader device

Related: Poll: Which e-reader would you choose?