08:41 AM by ballshooter in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Ballshooter has submitted this news about a new Pocket PC game. We're pretty selective about what product announcements get put on the front page, but this one really caught my eye. Sounds like a lot of fun, and I'd be interested to hear if anyone has given it a try. -- BobR

BallShooter.com is happy to present our new game for Pocket PC named "BrickGenius", where you need to build the mosaics by sliding bricks.

This game offers a REALLY innovative gameplay and we guarantee that you have never seen anything like this before!

How it works:

1) The game board is a mosaic of 15x15 cells.
2) Your aim is to cover all the black cells with a sliding bricks.
3) Sometimes, you will be awarded bonus bricks that possess
special qualities: the Lock, the Ligthning, the Vortex, etc...

Demo version of "BrickGenius" is available to download:
http://ballshooter.com/genius/

ps. Moreover, the Holiday Season is here, so now you can save 33% on most our games and even get three games for the price of two.

08:44 AM by pruss in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

My FontSmoother for displaying smooth (antialiased) fonts on hi-res Palm OS 5 PDAs has been significantly updated. Most of the updates are under the hood, but they should make a much better product.

(To update, uncheck old version in YAHM, hotsync, check new version.)

http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?xyz=90288
http://www.zlthemes.com/Programs.php

Updates:

• Added Larabie Goodfish font.
• Speed optimization: up to about 60% faster with common text operations.
• Overhauled font remapping method, to make it more reliable for NVFS devices like the TX.
• Added special Fonts4OS5 mode. This is a neat feature for NVFS devices to compensate for instabilities in Fonts4OS5: you can use Fonts4OS5 to set the fonts for different apps, then deactivate Fonts4OS5, and FontSmoother will still use the options Fonts4OS5 has set, but without the instabilities introduced by Fonts4OS5.
• Removed safe mode option. Made Blazer tweak always on and removed option. Removed -std- fonts (except for fixed width)--they were really a leftover from earlier versions.
• Improved quality in Versamail.
• Fixed control panel app list bug (also in Force16).
• Fresh trial period for users who tried a previous
  version.

05:47 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

Arstechnica reviewed the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet: After spending a few days using the 770 intensely, I feel conflicted about it. I want to love it, and some aspects of it exceeded my expectations. At the same time, the 770 has some serious shortcomings that need to be addressed in v2.0 of the 770 (or in the 771) if it is going to have wide success.

Pros: Beautiful high-resolution display; Web browser; Button placement and navigation; Stable Linux OS; Audio and video players; 802.11b/g and Bluetooth support; Size and form factor

Cons: Speed of UI and application/window slipping; Meager amount of RAM; Poorly executed e-mail application; Choice of RS-MMC; Poor handwriting recognition; Lack of client software for PC, Mac, Linux; No support for importing bookmarks or RSS feeds

05:20 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Rumors are flying that Palm may have hit a big contract with DirecTV, a subsidiary of News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group. A guy on Yahoo Finance boards claims that he has heard from a friend (well, we all know how rumors get started) that Rupert Murdoch himself ordered all DirecTV installation technicians to be equipped with juicy new Palm Treos in an effort to get rid of all paperwork and to communicate directly with the DirecTV HQs.

05:03 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Holidays are upon us and nothing delivers joy and happiness more than promising words about your favorite company. Last week it was the NYT who pointed out the strong fundamentals of Palm company in an interview with Ed Colligan; today it's the WSJ who argues that Palm is poised for a comeback. Pablo Perez-Fernandez, an analyst at research firm ThinkEquity Partners, who rates Palm "buy" with a $50 price target (current: $27.89) and RIM a "sell" with a $60 target (current: $64.13), says that 2006 will be a huge year for Palm. WSJ:

A key source of hope stems from Palm's introduction of a Treo smart phone that operates on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system [...] The device, which will be pushed by Verizon Wireless, is seen appealing to a wider swath of business and government customers. "This operating system brings a new set of functionality that the Palm system doesn't have," said Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan during the unveiling of the smart phone in September. "The fact of the matter is things have changed." For Palm, the change was necessary [...] Much like chatter over a low-priced device, there is talk that Palm will release a smart phone that will run on the next-generation wireless network in Europe. Any such product could provide another unexpected spark to the stock.

Reminder: Palm will report fiscal second-quarter earnings report on Dec. 20.

04:37 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

On the off-chance that you haven't heard about Project Gutenberg before, it's a volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute full texts of public domain books in open formats. WSJ interviewed Project Gutenberg's founder Michael Hart and reveals that he was approached by Google one year prior the official announcement of Google Book Search.

I talked to Google a year before Google's big announcement [in December 2004]. … They approached us. They sent us an email saying, "Hey, we'd like to talk to you." They let us tell them about all that we were doing. It took place at the big Google headquarters in Silicon Valley. They gave us a free lunch and everything. They were very polite, but very business-plan oriented. At a certain point, they sort of talked us out the door. So I heard about [Google Book Search] along with everybody else. Same with Yahoo.

So Google didn't want to work together with Mr. Hart. According to the latter, the search engine company decided for a different approach:

Google is working from the top down. It's very centralized. Project Gutenberg is the opposite: It's decentralized, it's grassroots. From the consumer's point of view, if you're trying to get a quotation from a book, you could get the book from Project Gutenberg and cut and paste, say, the whole "Hamlet" soliloquy. On Google, you can't. Also, ours is totally non-commercial. You won't find advertising on any of our pages.

08:48 AM by TadW in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

It's World War II and you are B.J. Blazkowicz, the Allies' most valuable agent. So begins the story of one of the most debated games in history. Some dude completed a Pocket PC port of Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny. This port includes support for accelerated graphics, sounds and music. To play the full version of the game, you need to own the PC version and copy the data files into the game folder on your Pocket PC.

08:26 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Still sweating out a few last-minute Christmas gifts for friends and family? Make sure to stop at eReader who currently runs various discounts on e-book purchases. Use the promo code PREDATOR to receive a 10% discount each book (valid until December 12th), and use the promo code BEST to receive a 20% discount off one book your purchase (valid until December 15th). Cannot be used in conjunction.

[via PalmAddict]