05:01 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Another one from PalmAddicts: At eReader, punch in the promo code GOOGLE to receive a 10% discount off each book that you purchase. Offer good through November 22nd, 2005 on all books priced more than $3.00.

04:57 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Give your grizzled PDA a treat with some refreshing accessories from PDAparts. A little bird from PalmAddicts tells me that they're currently having a 10% sale on any item if you use the coupon code NOV05NEWS!

04:42 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Heads up, Palm, Microsoft & co! The new PocketMod is gunning for you.

The PocketMod is a new way to keep yourself organized. Lets face it, PDAs are too expensive and cumbersome, and organizers are bulky and hard to carry around. Nothing beats a folded up piece of paper. That is until now. With the PocketMod, you can carry around the days notes, keep them organized in any way you wish, then easily transfer the notes to your PDA, spreadsheet, or planner.

Heck, it's even customizable with "Mods" tailored to your needs!

[via Makezine]

09:05 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

These days it seems that Linux is busting out all over. And to my surprise I've just discovered that one of the places you can run Linux is the Palm Tungsten E! "Why should you run Linux on your Palm?...

* There's a lot of software for the PalmOS. But there's way more for Linux. Plus most Linux softwares are Open-Source : as a end-user, it means free. Running Linux on your Tungsten will let you use an IRC client, use a music player (MP3, Ogg, WMA, etc...), play videos, browse the web (with a full-featured, standard-compliant browser), use powerfull office tools (spreadsheet and typesetter).

* You'll gain access to a much more powerfull operating system (which, for example, uses protected memory, real multitasking, real filesystems, etc...)

* GNU/Linux is an Open-Source Operating System. That mean you can customize the way your Palm will run.

* GNU/Linux is actively maintained. The PalmOS also is, but newer releases are only made available to more recent PDAs. Since Linux will sit in the RAM, you can keep an up-to-date OS.

* Finally, you might just give it a try for fun :-)"

You will lose all your data, of course, so proceed with caution. This is not for the feint of heart. Fortunately for cowards like me, this OS surgery will become unnecessary when PalmSource/Access provides a commercial PalmOS for Linux.

Look here for the sourceforge project page with full instructions.

02:33 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

We recently reported that the way Windows Mobile 5.0 handles signed applications meant a workaround for ozVGA was necessary to run in VGA mode.

But it seems that this is a more general problem with Windows Mobile 5.0. As I understand it, the OS requires all applications to be digitally signed. On the surface this is a way to guarantee compatibility and safety of the program.

Both the application and the MUI (Multi User Interface) files need to be signed. The MUI files are used to provide things like multiple language support. This would not seem to be an issue because when an unsigned application is launched, you are asked if you want to run the unsigned application and consider it "trusted." That would be fine except for the MUI files when the "security prompt" feature is enabled.

Then when the application is not signed, even if you give it permission to run the application, it can't see the necessary MUI files because they are also not signed. But now you don't have another prompt to accept them, so the program will not operate as expected.

Basically, this forces applications (even freeware apps) to go through an expensive signing process. If they don't, then they get the security message prompt, or if they have MUI files they don't work at all.

This is all a bit beyond my technical understanding, so if you want the full scoop, be sure to check out the two part article by Frank Garcia at PocketNow...
Windows Mobile 5.0 Snafu (Part One)
Windows Mobile 5.0 Snafu (Part Two)

10:57 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Japan's Oki has developed an image recognition technology which tracks the movements of an human's face - including specific features such as eyes, eyebrows, mouth - captures it with a cell phone's camera, and generates a character animation from it by synchronizing the movement with an anime-like 3D character. The technology, called FaceCommunicator Embedded Edition, allows users to hide their true identity when they interact with other people through communications over mobile phones and Internet chats. From Oki's website:

FaceCommunicator consists of two software modules, Expression Generator and Animation Generator. Expression Generator calculates how the parts of the face (eyes, eyebrows, lips, etc.) should be changed, and sends as parameters to Animation Generator. Animation Generator generates animation by moving / changing the parts of the face based on the parameters and hence displays the changes in expression.

[via DeviceForge]

09:50 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Word on the street is that porn will rule the content of your mobile device in near future. Washington Post says:

Pornography is spreading from the computer desktop to the small screen, to pocket-sized devices such as cell phones, digital music players and portable game players. The phenomenon is being pushed not only by alternative-culture sites such as SuicideGirls [link inserted by yours truly] but also by old-school skin traders such as Playboy and Penthouse, which this month announced plans to offer movies for viewing on portable devices.

AFP writes:

Films, television shows and images are all making their way to the small screen, and analysts say that undoubtedly opens the door to pornography or other adult-oriented content... "We think the growth of viewing adult content on iPod devices will be explosive in the coming months," said Harvey Kaplan of Xobile.com, which describes itself as "the leading provider of adult movies for mobile phones... We actively sign up about 20,000 new subscribers every month," Kaplan said, adding that three-fourths are from outside the United States.

And AP comments:

The Apple's iTunes online story already features several hot and heavy podcasts, audio downloads geared to portability. The company isn't offering much in the way of sex on videos, though some of the music videos it sells for $1.99 each can tend toward titillation. Apple officials refused requests for interviews on whether they might offer adult content on iTunes for iPod owners.

09:06 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

TCPMP, the media-player which has recently won the Pocket PC Mag 2005 Best Software Awards, has turned 0.7 today. I guess you can call it "stable" considering how many post-0.6 beta releases we've seen before. The upgrade strikes with a lot of improvements, with too many changes for me to list here. I suggest you take a look for yourself and upgrade ASAP!

Note that the AAC plugin was removed due to copyright issues. Temporary solution is to download the offending plugin from an "offshore" server.

[via PDA247]