06:57 PM by Brian in E-Book General | News

Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) will be hosting the online conference portion of the Second Annual Audio EBook Expo on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 beginning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 9:00 a.m. Central, 8:00 a.m. Mountain, 7:00 a.m. Pacific, and 2:00 p.m. GMT. This online public event is free and open to all library users worldwide.

The Alliance Library System, the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, and the Illinois State Library Talking Book and Braille Service are pleased to announce the second annual Audio Ebook Expo! The Expo will be held at Alliance headquarters in East Peoria and as an online conference. Speakers and participants will explore all the exciting new formats for ebooks and audio books which create a personal and customized reading experience for all those who have trouble with regular print because of visual, physical, or learning disabilities. Books in these new formats also benefit and make reading more fun for children and adults who have trouble reading, who are learning English as a second language, or who just want to listen to audio books for entertainment.

For more information including other upcoming events, visit the OPAL website here.

Related: Public e-book event Wednesday 9/21, Kansas library offers free podcasts, online programs

01:41 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

I want to propose a new angle on two technologies that might very well be adaptable to handheld computing input and output. The first is a bit of a reach. Maybe. But the second is something I think deserves some immediate attention, and has the potential to revolutionize portable media devices also.

These concepts are both focused on those times you place your mobile device on a desk while you are away and want to do some "real" computing, so I understand it's not going to be a part of all devices. It will have a niche market with power users.

Mobile devices with computer-type power are already common, but will become much more common as businesses roll out the next generations of smartphone and more powerful mobile computing devices. Remember that you can already think of many pdas and smart phones as computers, but with slightly less power. You can do word processing, work with MS Office documents, do email and most of the most common computing activites. Due to size constraints, they just don't have a very nice interface compared to the desktop. But the computing power is improving and will continue to improve.

So with that introduction, and the obvious need to have better input/output options when you're on the road, here we go:

Warm up.. Concept #1
Virtual Mouse/pen input. We've already seen a product at reasonable pricing that is a virtual laser keyboard. It projects with laser light a keyboard onto a surface, and it can track your finger movement to track your typing as if it was a real keyboard. Personally, while I love the technology, I'm not sure it's being used properly. I think a foldable keyboard will always be the way to go. But what if you had a real or virtual pad of paper that tracks your writing and notes with the same technology. I think that beats writing on a display screen any day. And if you attach this to the mobile device, then project the outline of a piece of paper with some optional lines on the paper, and set any old piece of paper next to the device for "real" pen input. Or if no paper is available, write with a soft-tipped stylus on the surface - no paper needed!

The notes can be stored as a picture, say in an application like One Note or Evernote. The device doesn't have to know what's in it if you give it a title and tell it where to be stored.

Blockbuster Idea... Concept #2
You've probably seen that there are a lot of experimental technolgies being worked on for projecting an image on the wall from a mobile device. They use lasers and are very low power with impressive brightness, and they could potentially be used in meetings in place of a standard standalone light projector for presentations. The primary hurdle at this point seems to be making color versions affordable because of the expense of blue light lasers. Red lasers are used in all kinds of consumer products, so they are cheap. Blue lasers are only beginning to get adopted, so it will be a while before they are economical. The issues with brightness and resolution may take some time.

But what if, both as an intermediate step and as an added feature on the full-fledged projectors, you could project a smaller 5"x8" image on a screen that unfolds from your mobile device? Maybe it's even carried with your bluetooth keyboard for your serious computing sessions with that mobile phone or pda.

All of a sudden, it's not such a stretch to see how great displays can be projected with much less technology. The highest resolutions and brightness is no longer as much of a challenge when projecting up close. If the screen is carried with the folding keyboard, you get great input-output in an easy to carry accessory. We recently saw a prototype device with a fold up screen, so certainly that's not impossible. Especially when we're only talking about the blank screen to project onto, not a full flexible epaper display (which we are all starting to wonder if it can be developed and sold in our lifetimes the way things are going!).

Conclusion
It may not the the ultimate answer, but these technologies to supplement the onboard touch sensitive lcd displays may be very, very near if used in this way, and could potentially be the bridge we need between current lcd screens and future fancy epaper displays.

It seems like our dream input and display technologies are always just too far off. Maybe these versions don't need to be... and it never hurts to dream!

06:34 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Put the full power of Win XP in your hand with this "handtop" computer. It's the Model 01+, which is an upgrade from their first model. Very impressive.

From today's press release... San Francisco, CA | September 27, 2005 — OQO today announces its newest ultra personal computer, the OQO model 01+. With upgraded specs, new features and additional accessories all packed in the same 14 ounce pocketable design that made the model 01 the smallest and most mobile Windows XP computer on the market, the model 01+ offers even more PC functionality everywhere you go.

In addition to upgraded memory, larger hard drive, and faster USB, the model 01+ incorporates an internal speaker and improved pen-based digitizer. The model 01+ now ships with a new universal power supply which adds support for airplane and automobile DC power outlets.

"The OQO WiFi-enabled model 01 introduced last October was the first computer to make Windows XP a truly mobile experience. Everyone from prosumers on-the-go with Microsoft Office suite to field workers performing onsite data collection or accessing secure corporate networks wonder how they got along before the increased productivity that comes with a real PC that actually fits in your pocket." said Jory Bell, OQO's CEO. "Today's introduction of the model 01+ brings our customers more memory, more features and more performance in the same amazingly small package and all for the same price as the original model 01."

Check out more details at oqo.

06:42 PM by Brian in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Minox, a company known for its mini spy cameras, has announced the DMP-1, a mini photo album viewer, MP3 player/recorder, e-book reader, and FM radio.

The device sports a 2 inch 128X160 64k color LED display, 512MB of internal storage, USB 2.0, a 740 mAh battery for up to 12 hours of playback, and accepts SD/MMC memory cards in capacities up to 1GB. The DMP-1 also has an e-book facility for storing and viewing text files (ASCII, Unicode, Txt formats).

No pricing information is currently available.

[via Digital Camera Tracker]

03:21 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Direct from the Palm Inc press release announcing the Windows Mobile Treo Smartphone, we read "The Palm Experience on Windows Mobile... the companies demonstrated the Palm experience now brought to life on Windows Mobile."

Sure, I know very well that Palm Inc bought out the rights to the name Palm. And I believe that Palm Inc will bring added value to Windows Mobile. But did they really buy the right to claim the Palm experience is being brought to Windows Mobile? Clearly, the Palm experience implies the PalmOS experience, not the Palm, Inc additional features for the Treo. It's deceptive. And clearly they are trying to use the name to twist the meaning.

Maybe they earned the right to use that phrase in that manner, and I have nothing against Windows Mobile, but that martketing phrase sure rubs me the wrong way.

11:22 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

You can now follow Palm-related discussions on Yahoo! Finance message boards via RSS feed:

• Go to YahooMsg2RSS
• Enter PALM

It's going to be interesting how the finance community will comment on the official Palm Treo 700w announcement later today.

10:36 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Don't miss this list of various useful software tools which got recently updated:

• Resco Explorer V5.22 (with 20% discount until 09/30)
• Resco Pocket Radio V1.31 (with 25% discount until 09/30)
• Resco Keyboard Pro V4.35
• Spb Full Screen Keyboard 3.0
• Tweaks2K2 V3.11.1.0
• BeetzStream SmartRss V2.1.2092
• Spb GPRS Monitor V2.4
• Pocket DVD Wizard V4.3.1
• MetrO V5.3.5

Related: How often to upgrade your software

10:09 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

The screen of Sony's PlayStation Portable is far to precious to be used just for gaming. With PSPPDF the first steps have been taken to turn the Sony into a capable e-book reader. Well, admittingly, it still looks rather simplistic and requires a fixed filename, "a.pdf", but it's the thought that counts and sources are available as well!

[via Make Blog]