09:41 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Microsoft product manager Mike Hall has posted a link to a teaser video and a podcast feed of the upcoming press conference today at 9am PDT.

For the live webcast, go to one of the following links:

• http://metahost.savvislive.com/micro...0050926_56.asx (for 56 kbps)
• http://metahost.savvislive.com/micro...0050926_56.asx (for 100 kbps)
• http://metahost.savvislive.com/micro...0050926_56.asx (for 300 kbps)

Related: Treo 700w announcement coming Monday 9/26

[via Geekzone]

09:26 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Mobile Sites

Skweezer, the well-known mobile web-proxy, is teaming up with WorldLingo to offer an online translation service for mobile devices. Their server is a bit slow right now and timed out on me a few times; other than that it works as advertised.

Don't put your eyes off PalmAddicts today because interesting news keep on flooding in!

08:20 AM by bartman in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you are interested in a reliable GPS navigation solution for your car, make sure you don't miss this test over at x50v.it, comparing an Axim X50v Pocket PC equipped with GPS to a stand-alone, dashboard-mounted GPS navigator. While the CAR PC system shines with a beautiful 7" touch LCD screen, the PPC excels in speed (due to its 624 MHz Intel XScale processor) and portability.

08:07 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

While authors and publishers balk at the Google's ambitious plan to digitize the book collections of major libraries, Julie Hilden has some interesting comments how the project could help to increase public demand for e-books:

So in the end, rather than joining the challenge to Google's Library Project, I'd like to pose a challenge to Google: When are you going to apply your genius to eBooks? Having scanned all those books in already, wouldn't you like to distribute them too? Of course, for that, you would need a copyright license - but I think many authors would give you one for a low fee. In the future, Google's Project might even do for eBooks what Apple did with Itunes: Provide a sample of a work, as an inducement to download the whole thing at a modest cost, and entirely legally.

Because of hopes for innovations like this - which will bring authors profits, protect copyrights, and potentially democratize book-writing, much as music has been democratized - authors may be shortsighted if they support the Authors' Guild suit.

Related: Authors Guild alleges Google's Library Project violates copyrights

07:49 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

If you think your voice may be music to someone's ears, you can now use Slawesome to add it to your e-mails. The service's currently free and in alpha testing. Obviously the next step would be to add some software that turns our voice back into text.

07:41 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Tapwave may rest in peace, but the Zodiac PDA/gaming hybrid lives on through a die-hard fanbase. One fine example is Zodiacs Around The World, a photo journal where Zodiac owners can submit their photos and share them with the Zodiac community. Even more Zodiac photos in the Flickr archive.

[via PalmAddicts]

07:19 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

What would you call a device that has a screen, a keyboard, storage for personal information such as contacts, email, documents, the ability to play audio and video files, some games, a spreadsheet program, and a communications capability? Sound like a personal computer? How about "mobile phone"?

Sounds utopian? Read here why it's not unreasonable to think now is a good time for the mobile phone to replace our old unhandy PC.

07:02 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Sammy of PalmAddicts has decided to ditch his love affair with the Palm LifeDrive and go back to his Tungsten C. No doubt the LifeDrive is a great PDA with many useful functions and connectivity, but in regard to productivity the Tungsten may also have its advantages. Read here why Sam made the switch.

Some initial reactions and comments:

• Old becomes new
• TC for Productivity
• Catching up on the weekend
• One of the first things I did