06:02 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Once again, our weekly roundup of highlights from the past seven days of MobileRead:

Current E-Books Trends
Add your voice to free audiobooks
AP targets 18-34 year old crowd with new ASAP online news service
E-books: Man's second-best friend
E-books could be more than just type
Kansas library offers free podcasts, online programs
Nebraska library adds 7,000 e-books titles
Zinio launches "global newsstand" for digital magazines

General Chat
2GB Memory Sticks coming this month, under $100/GB
Clear Channel Radio launches online programming for new music artists
Draft telecom bill could limit Walled Gardens
EBay to buy Skype
Editorial: Learning curves hamper mobile adoption
Email Encryption.. Do you use it?
How often to upgrade your software
New 3-chip platform for next-gen handhelds
Pen computing has a future despite a rough start
Pocket PCs in the classroom
Scope for W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices published
Songbirds get deal on T-Mobile plans
Teen sentenced to 11 months for hacking Paris Hilton's phone
Upload files to your cell with Phone Uploader
Why the handheld market isn't dead yet
Wi-Fi fails to connect with mobile users
Windows in your pocket
Yahoo begins test of email service that looks more like desktop email programs

New Links
International Herald Tribune Mobile Version
Yahoo! Shopping beta on mobile

Non-Fiction
Technology and globalization: The World is Flat

Other E-Book Resources
FreeTechBooks.com: Free as in beer

Other Gadgets
First Nokia 770 review

Other Readers
ThoutReader to become OpenReader-compatible

Palm
And thus was born the Palm
How Palm failed Marketing 101
List of Palm-related podcasts
MiniReview: Master Kick for PalmOS
Palm patents raised keys (serious!)
Real life Treo 650 evaluation
Rumors: New Palm Releases
Tapwave Zodiac DAA cracked
Thought: Next LifeDrive with 6gig IS possible

Pocket PC
Dell Axim X51 release imminent?
NetFront V3.3 Technical Preview English release
VGA on Pocket PC demystified

Portable Audio/Video
Dell DJ Ditty micro MP3 player for $99
Fuel cell MP3 player from Toshiba gets 60hrs playtime
iLounge reviews iPod nano
iPodcast: Simple podcast creation and syndication on the way?
Kitabe applies Netflix strategy to audiobooks
Portable video isn't quite ready for prime time
Sony's new DVD Burner/DVR puts recorded shows on your PSP
Tech Shows: Free videocasts from around the web

Smartphones
Scan documents with your camera phone

WiFi / Bluetooth Technologies
Wireless to Save Lives

08:58 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Master Kick from Industry Entertainment is a new game for PalmOS that puts the fun of foosball (table soccer) into the palm of your hand.

The product site says, "Master Kick arises in glory of the best arcade version of table soccer seen till now! It's not just a game with stunning graphics of various playfields and players, weather visual effects, or live cheering. Master kick gives you the full atmosphere of soccer match combined with foosball skill. Highly sophisticated AI plus numerous formations selection, playing in a league or quick match will not fail any soccer fan expectations. Great dynamic music and sound powered by MODULA Audio Engine and fullscreen support enlarge the overall game experience. Master Kick is available for all the latest PalmOS devices. One thing is for certan, Master Kick tried once, will become your favorite addiction!"

I've seen lots of advertising hype before, but the amazing thing is that with Master Kick it's not just hype. They deliver the goods.

My test run for this review was done with a Palm Treo 650, so the screen is quite small. I think the game will be even more impressive on other devices.

Summary
This is a fantastic game. Great game play, awesome simulation, lots of fun. While I've listed a lot of points under weaknesses, don't let that fool you. They're minor points and don't take away at all from the fun and excellent nature of the game.

I highly recommend it, and heartily give it a 5/5 rating as one of the best.

Read on if you want a few more of the details...

Strengths

• Fantastic game play

  No complicated controls to learn, and you can hardly believe how natural the game play is. It draws you in the way only a great simulation can do. The ball action looks real as well as the kicking. You control the power of the kicks. And the screen scrolling is so natural that I didn't even realize it was happening until one time I looked for my goalie and found him just off the screen. They really nailed the action on this one.

• Flexible game options

  You can set things like the sound level, of course, but in addition you have many options for choice of team, choice of field, distribution of your players across rods, whether games end by number or goals or by time remaining, etc.

• League play mode

  This allows you to play a multigame league season, complete with standings. Adds considerably to the replayability of the game.
  

• Customer Support

  There is an email address for support, and I got prompt (next day) responses each time, always friendly and helpful. I also tried to do a "stealth" support email from another account so it wouldn't be influenced by my reviewer status, and I got similar response. I would be a terrible spy... my name got sent from the other account so I probably wasn't as anonymous as I hoped, but still I get the impression that you will find help when you need it.

• Fun

  Yes, it's a lot of fun to play. And when you score you even get a replay of your slick moves (easily aborted with a quick button push if you want to get on with the business at hand.)

Weaknesses

• Limited documentation

  There's really only a short text readme file to get you going. Don't expect any really significant tips or suggestions of how to play or control your players. It even took me a while to figure out how to play, and to realize that the replay of scores is optional. But it's so simple, it's no big deal. No forums for players either, which would be nice.

• Accidental button push pauses the game

  On my Treo, I was using the D-pad for up/down control of the players. Right in the middle of action, I accidently hit the middle button, which pauses the game. That was a bit irritating, but probably wouldn't happen as much on a non-Treo device, partly because the d-pad would be bigger. On contacting support about it, they said they would look at modifying that.

• Registration

  The registration number and display was really tiny. I wanted a magnifying glass on my tiny Treo screen to get through the process, but it worked out okay. Shouldn't be a problem with a different device with a larger screen.

  The registration is also tied directly to the device rather than the hotsync id, which is something I usually try to avoid where possible. But for a game program, and with the expectation that you can get a new code if you get a new device, I don't think that's too bad.

• Install adds a Game category to the Launcher

  (Now you can tell I'm being really picky because there really aren't any significant weaknesses!) I don't use categories on my Launcher, so there is no game category. When I did the install, I ended up with it in a game category that was created automatically on the install. I suppose that's probably common to most games, and was easy to resolve by deleting the category. That's something that most users won't even notice, but I find that everything all together is great with the built-in keyboard because I find my programs now with the first letter followed by d-pad when necessary.

• Nag screens hold your device hostage in the demo version

  I was definitely not a fan of the way the nag screens work in the demo. If, for example, you are trying the program out and need to get to your address book really fast, forget it. It will hold you frozen at the splash advertisement for a good many seconds. This was probably the one and only thing I really didn't like about the program, but of course if you buy it, it's no longer an issue.

• Memory requirement

  Again this is an issue primarily because I have a Treo. The program seems to be a bit more than 3meg in size, which is a lot on a Treo. But you could surely put it on an SD card, with ZLauncher for example, or if you have a more recent non-Treo device the 3megs is probably not a big deal anyway.

Master Kick for PalmOS (v1.0.2) is $19.95 and there is an evaluation version available. It runs on the following devices:

PALM / PALMONE:
Treo 650
LifeDrive
Tungsten T5, Tungsten T3, Tungsten T2, Tungsten T
Tungsten C
Tungsten E2, Tungsten E
Zire 72, Zire 72s, Zire 71

SONY:
Clie VZ90
Clie TH55
Clie UX50, Clie UX40
Clie TJ37, Clie TJ35, Clie TJ27, Clie TJ25
Clie TG50
Clie NX80V, Clie NX73V, Clie NX70V, Clie NX60
Clie NZ90

TAPWAVE:
Zodiac 2, Zodiac 1

GARMIN:
iQue 3600, iQue 3200

SAMSUNG:
SPH-i550, SCH-i539, SGH-i530, SGH-i500

If this type of game interests you, I'd give it a try. You're sure to be delighted!

07:03 PM by Brian in Miscellaneous | Lounge

From the I'll believe it when I see it department:

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee leadership recently released a draft telecommunications bill containing language that would prohibit carriers, including wireless operators, from limiting their subscribers to "walled gardens" where they can only access content provided by the carrier. Under the proposed legislation, wireless carriers would be required to allow subscribers access to any legal internet content they sought.

While this would be great news for US consumers if signed into law, don't expect the carriers to let this go forward without a good fight. Keep an eye on the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for more information about this draft legislation.

[via MoCoNews]

06:04 PM by Brian in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

If you're looking for a list of the best free downloadable tech/gaming shows currently available on the internet, Tech Shows is a great place to start. Many of the shows listed on the site are viewable on your Palm OS or Windows Mobile device using a media player like The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP). Channel 9, NerdTV, macTV, and Digital Life TV are just a few of the shows listed on Tech Shows. You can subscribe to the RSS feed here.

[via Smart Mobs]

Related: NerdTV now officially on the air

05:59 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

I'm not good when it comes to regularly upgrading software for my handheld. Often 2-3 months behind, I find the process of upgrading annoying and often not without difficulties. I guess I live by the old saying "Never change a running system" (or, in other words, "Move your butt as little as possible"). Well, after having experienced two nasty crashes in iSilo this week, I decided that today would be the perfect day for bringing my handheld up-to-date:

• iSilo V4.25 -> V4.28
• Resco Explorer 2003 V5.10 -> 2005 V5.21
• Softick CardExport II V2.02 -> V2.04
• TVGuide V0.6.0.127 -> V0.6.2.142
• NewsBreak V1.0 -> V1.1
• GSPlayer V2.15 -> V2.22
• TCPMP V0.65y -> V0.66e

So far everything works fine and I don't regret any of these updates. But I'm curious: How regularly do you update software for your handheld?

10:41 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Jeff Hawkins saw that there would be a future for handheld computing devices and so he founded Palm Computing back in 1992. Over the course of ten years, more than 38 million devices running the PalmPilot software were sold. Read more about the fascinating early days of the handheld in this article from Braeburn: The Birth of the Pilot.

[via OSNews]

10:35 AM by Brian in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

HowardChui.com has the first review of the much-awaited Nokia 770 internet tablet.

At a glance, most people see the Nokia logo on the 770 and assume that it's a funny looking PDA phone. However, 770 is actually neither a PDA or a phone. It lacks basic PIM functionality like a phonebook, calendar and to-do list and there's no IMEI or ESN number on the back!

In fact, the 770 Internet Tablet is just that - an internet tablet. You use Bluetooth or wifi to get connected so you can surf the web. Besides surfing the web, the 770 can playback music and video, read RSS feeds, check email, view pictures and read PDF's.

You can read the full review here.

[via Internet Tablet Talk]

Related: Nokia 770 gains FCC approval, Does the Nokia 770 have sex appeal?

09:38 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Dell has posted the data sheet of the forthcoming Axim X51. Nothing new here and it really looks exactly like the X50 (size, specs), except for power consumption where the X51 seems to use more at maximum CPU usage but less in sleep mode.

Meanwhile on a Chinese forum, someone posted screenshots of the X51 running WM 5.0. At least to me they look very legit.

Thanks to Marquard!