11:41 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Just found this in my inbox: PalmSource has launched the 2005 Fall Powered Up Awards.

The awards will be given in five categories, and for the first time, the Powered Up Awards feature a Best-In-Class grand prize. The winner of the Best-In-Class award will receive $10,000.00, a Palm device of their choice, and a co-marketing package valued at approximately $20,000.00.

Palm-OS software developers can sign up here to participate. This one is for you, makers of Plucker, Sunrise, or iSilo! Sponsered by PalmSource, Palm, Cingular, Motricity and C|Net.

10:52 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

PSP Updates reports that Sony PSP users can soon read e-books on their beloved devices with Sony's recently demonstrated "Contents Viewer":

The Contents Viewer enables users to view e-books and comics stored in the memory stick. You can download these contents from the contents specified website for the Contents Viewer, then view them while you are offline. Multi-task function will be introduced to enable users viewing comics while listening to music.

Meanwhile, David of Teleread makes the persuasive argument that as long as Sony doesn't understand that proprietary DRM stifles innovation, encumbers the consumer and increases the cost and effort involved in distributing content, nobody really gives a damn about them.

10:31 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

It's been a banner year for cell phones, though Linux-based smartphones are still scarce. C|Net reports that members of the Linux Phone Standard (Lips) Forum, including PalmSource, MontaVista and France Telecom's Orange, are planning to standardize Linux interfaces in an effort to make Linux phones more competitive.

"There's a need for an alternative to Microsoft and Symbian," said John Ostrem, a Lips board member, founder of China Mobilesoft and now lead scientist at PalmSource. "We're interested in reducing fragmentation and introducing a standard Linux platform that will allow people to make Linux phones faster, at lower cost, and with greater interoperability."

For a user interface standard to increase usability in the resulting products, two conditions have to be met: The standard must specify a usable interface, and the standard must be usable by developers so that they actually build the interface according to the specifications. If the companies miss either of the two conditions, it's very likely that the interface standards are to be violated - which is probably not always a bad thing.

[via Textually]

10:02 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Mobile TV is one of the fastest evolving artificial life forms. If you don't believe me, check out these articles we have posted in the last few days. According to Digitimes, optical disc maker CMC Magnetics has entered the race to promote DVB-H mobile TV.

CMC teamed up with Nokia last month to offer mobile TV and radio services on a trial basis in Taiwan in the first half of 2006, Wong [CMC chairman] noted. Nokia has carried out trial runs of DVB-H systems in 13 cities or areas around the world and will launch its first 3G handset model with built-in DVB-H, the N92, in the first quarter of 2006, Wong added.

07:52 AM by Brian in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) has an article on using the new 5th generation iPod as an e-book reader using the iPod's built-in Notes feature. The article points out that the size limit of text-only Notes has increased from 4k to 8k, and Apple offers a convenient Clipboard-to-Note AppleScript to Mac OS X users that copies text from the clipboard to the Notes folder on the iPod. Here's another convenient feature for e-book reading: By pressing the "Menu" key while reading a long note, the iPod will return to that point the next time you open that note.

With the new iPod's larger 2.5" color screen and the Note feature for reading text, is the iPod turning into a viable e-book reading platform?

Read the full article here

06:01 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Ok kids, time for the weekly roundup of what we've covered this week:

Browsers
Opera Mini now officially available to everyone
Opera Mini V1.1.2231 download link

Current E-Books Trends
HP joins league of e-paper producers
Podcast about the future of e-paper

General Chat
And the Emmy for best movie on iPod goes to...
Ask our readers: What do you use your mobile device for?
Editorial: Getting convergence right
Feedster adds Podcast Search
Fresh gossip about Skype Video
Motorola invests in micro fuel cells
Power your phone with Google Local mobile
Reminder: MobileRead offers individual RSS feeds
Tank warfare on your handheld

iSilo/X
iSilo V4.29 released

Other E-Book Resources
Free Stephen King e-book - The Colorado Kid

Other Gadgets
BlackBerry 8700c converging to Treo
Government steps in on RIM's patent dispute
Handango adds a Tablet PC catalog of software
New TT mobile device form factor revealed
Nokia 770 first impressions round-up

Palm
Answer four questions to win a PDA of your choice
Ed Colligan re-emphasizes Palm's commitment to PalmOS
New Treos in the works and other Palm rumors
Palm's Ed Colligan talks to Time
Palm cannot help itself anymore, says former fan
Palm gives LifeDrive a new spin with Limited Edition
Palm goes retail in California

Pocket PC
How to enable VGA (640x480) in WM 5.0
Msmobiles.com visited by HTC lawyer
Quake 3 Arena for WM adds video acceleration
Rumor on Office 12 for Windows Mobile
TCPMP 0.66k released
Watch your own TV on a Pocket PC -- Anywhere!
Windows Mobile 5.0 Software Compatibility List

Portable Audio/Video
Doom for iPod Nano
Mobile TV is gaining viewers

Smartphones
BenQ's net earnings drop by 99%

WiFi / Bluetooth Technologies
Connexion by Boeing 10$ discount

01:09 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

With glittering smiles and glitzy outfits, members of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences are reportedly contemplating plans to introduce a new award category to honor the creators of video content for computers, cellphones and other handheld devices:

"What we are seeing is a burgeoning in this type of programme making," Peter Price, president of the academy told the BBC News website. "It will be very interesting to see who the developers of content turn out to be and how the newcomers vie in quality with the efforts of the traditional media."

Related: Mobile TV is gaining viewers, Mobile video about to explode, Mobisodes: Mobile Episodes of your favorite TV shows

11:54 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Answer four quick questions related to your daily Palm consumption and win a PDA of your choice. More over at PalmAddicts.