04:23 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you are looking for a fairly thorough article about the factors to consider when picking a Windows Mobile device, you are in luck. Look no further than this article at Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine.

"The goal of this article is to help you select the Windows Mobile device that best meets your needs. By carefully analyzing the potential uses for a Pocket PC or Smartphone, you should be able to look at each device's features and functionalities and see how they can benefit you."

The article helps you to consider your needs and then match them up with various specs.

01:29 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

At MobileRead we know that the digital future is all about mobile computing. Surely mobile computing is actually the center of the technological universe.

Well, the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School has just put out its 2005 perspectives on the digital future, called the 2005 Digital Future Report. However, their focus is on the people using the internet and on the wide range of uses of the internet, such as online shopping, politics, email, etc. The 19 page summary report of their annual study is available free in pdf format, and can be downloaded here. It's a very interesting peek into some aspects of the web about which everyone has an opinion.

I'm sure in a very few years, they will most certainly have a much increased focus on mobile computing when a large percentage of online end user activity is generated from mobile devices. I'd say hold on to your hats because the future of mobile internet is coming fast!

06:46 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Today David Beers has begun what is hopefully going to be a series of interviews with developers in the mobile computing world. His first installment highlights Marty Fouts, a Linux kernel developer who was with PalmSource until earlier this month serving as technical representative to the open-source community.

He discusses some very interesting topics, although many specifics are off limits because of a non-disclosure agreement with PalmSource that is still in effect.

Here are some interesting excerpts to whet your appetite...
-- "PalmOS is pretty much a dead end now."
-- "I still think the two players to watch are Access, with NetFront, and Nokia with Maemo." By NetFront he means "the existing Access product and their model of using a web-like interface as the GUI for all applications"
-- "Linux isn't really special as a mobile device OS. In fact, it needs a lot of work to become a good OS for constrained devices."
-- "BSD was technically very superior to Linux"
-- "In the end, you either have to have a single dominant Linux-for-embedded distribution, or no one will be able to make money selling linux."
-- "... a 'smartphone' or any other PDA-like device isn't a "real" embedded system. It's just a general purpose computer that's been shrunk."

Granted, these comments might have a bit more shock value when taken out of context like this, but surely it gives you plenty of incentive to read the full interview! Kudos to David and Marty for some great material.

By the way, Software Everywhere -- David Beers on Mobile Computing is an excellent blog with a heavy dose of Palm related information and speculation. David himself describes the blog as "Thoughts on mobile technology, software development, and the future of computing from veteran Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and Java developer David Beers."

Other recent articles discuss topics like integration of PalmOS and Access' NetFront, and Hacking Linux onto Palm devices. It a site well worth bookmarking or adding to your RSS feed list.

David has been an excellent participant in many great discussions on PalmOS in various forums and it is very nice to have people like him in our mobile computing community. And, of course, we are also proud of the fact that he is also a fan of MobileRead!

11:42 PM by Zire in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

3D Mines

http://toyspring.com/3dm/

The new dimension of MineSweeper!

* 3D minefields of various sizes and shapes
* View the playing board from any angle
* Beginner, Medium and Expert difficulty levels
* Keeps track of your best times for each board and level
* Both "Long tap" and "Button tap" can be used to mark a mine

# How To Play
# Tap quickly to open a field
# Tap and hold to mark a mine (or: tap while holding the up/down button)
# Tap and drag to rotate the playing board
# Use menu to access more shapes and difficulty levels
# Wrong tap? Slide the stylus off the field to cancel
# In many cases you can rotate the board to gain a better view of the desired region
# You can adjust the sound volume in the system Prefs application (3D Mines respect the Game Sound settings)
# Adjacent fields are automatically highlighted while playing the Beginner level

Folks...all I have to say about this game is wow!!! I bought it right away. At only $7.77 it is a bargain...Try it you will definately like it.

What is so great about this game is the eye candy it is minimal but it just works.

Please comment and tell me what you think.

03:44 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

A laptop is not exactly the most mobile of personal music players, but now with Pandora music it's at least a very personal way to listen to music on the go with any broadband connection.

From the site FAQs here is a description. "Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you find and enjoy music that you'll love. It's powered by the Music Genome Project, the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Just tell us one of your favorite songs or artists and we'll launch a streaming station to explore that part of the music universe."

I was a little skeptical when I gave it a try, but was amazed to find that it really works well. No commercials yet, but they are coming. You do have the option to subscribe for a commercial-free experience at a cost of $12 quarterly (i.e. for 3 months) or $36/year.

If you put in "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow", for example, then it will do a Christmas theme. You get to pick the version of the song you like and it will generate a custom station for you.

I tried "Carpenters" and "Dean Martin" and sure enough it came back with music I loved, both from known artists and ones that I've never heard of before. You can continue to fine tune the choices by giving a thumbs up or down to what you listen to, and you can (with some limits due to contractual obligations) pause or skip forward to the next song if you don't like the one that's playing.

It's only available in the US right now, but is a very impressive service. I don't see any signs of support for pdas yet, but you only have to be Flash 8 or 9 compatible, so I suppose a wifi Pocket PC will be compatible as soon as the current version of Flash for Pocket PC rises to 8 or 9.

You can try it out for yourself and make your own streaming radio station at www.pandora.com.

01:46 PM by sUnShInE in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Mobile Gazette has released their list of the best and worst mobile phones for 2005.

As a Razr owner, I disagree wholeheartedly. But make up your own mind. My next phone will be the Nokia N90... asa it's at a price point that won't make me start mortgaging my plasma.

10:34 AM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | iRex

Creating the perfect e-book reader device is no walk in the park, but iRex Technologies nearly reaches the market with its Iliad e-book reader ER 0100. Yes, that's the "iRex reader" we've been so feverishly talking about in the last few days. Thanks to Henrycat and our savvy readers we digged out some more tantalizing details for you. We already knew the Iliad would come with a reflective 8.1-inch XGA E Ink-based display; what's new is that the screen is touch-enabled thus accepting user input with a stylus. Other features include support for external SD/MMC and CF II memory cards, USB 1.1, wired (10/100mbit) and unwired (802.11b) Ethernet connections, and - this is the final death blow for the Sony Librie - support for various (audio-)e-book formats (Pdf, xhtml, txt, mp3, other formats in the future). The Iliad is powered with an ARM-based 400MHz Intel XScale which should be more than fast enough for snappy page turns. It comes with available 64MB RAM and 224MB Flash memory. Dimension: 155x216x16mm, weight: 390grams.

More information in the product specification (PDF).

We hold our breath for this to come true, but according to iRex, e-book fans will be able to buy this device in April 2006 through their web store.

Related: iRex next-gen e-book reader based on e Ink (discussion), iRex new eink device (Henrycat's hi-res image of the Iliad)

09:26 AM by Brian in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

2005 could go down as the year mobile video started to gain traction due to numerous product announcements and content distribution deals. The most notable of these announcements was in October, when Apple released the new video-capable iPod combined with the availability of popular TV shows at the iTunes Music Store. Since Apple's announcement, news of competing mobile video distribution deals has been coming fast and furious.

An article at iMedia Connection entitled Mobile Video: Present and Future takes a look at mobile video and mobile-TV, detailing many of the challenges that the mobile entertainment market will face both near and long term:

• Bandwidth issues
• Competing technologies
• Streaming vs downloadable content
• Control: Content providers vs wireless operators
• Apple vs everyone else
• Consumer ambivalence
• Pricing

Notably absent from this list was the mention of Digital Rights Management (DRM), which will inevitably play a major role as content providers attempt lock down and control how, when, and where consumers use their content.

Read the full article here.

[iMedia Connection via MocoNews]