01:08 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Select customers will be able to test drive the new version of Yahoo's web email service. It's a good quality web email right now, with about 1gig storage available per user.

Competition is tough with Google's Gmail service becoming more widely available. But the new Yahoo mail test may put Yahoo in a better position to keep and attract users.

(Via AP report at Yahoo)

08:36 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

It's not enough that Palm had the ingenious idea of illuminatable hardware buttons; now they strike back with another revolutionary invention: raised keys on a miniature keyboard. According to the patent, the height of the keys are patterned in a way to improve data entry and decrease the chance of depressing multiple keys at a time.

There exists a need for a miniature keyboard that allows the user to accurately and confidently input the desired characters while maintaining a small and compact design that is desired by users and useful for portable applications...by incorporating different key arrangements and alternating the height of the keys, key differentiation and data input accuracy is greatly improved. Key differentiation is improved because better tactile feedback is provided when depressing keys. A point of reference is provided thereby avoiding pressing multiple keys or improper keys.

I'm hoping to wake up to find it's just an elaborate joke.

07:50 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Remember when the world reeled from the shock and empathetic pain when a hacker broke into Paris Hilton's Sidekick and revealed disturbingly personal information? Turned out the culprit was a 17-year-old kid who got sentenced yesterday to 11 months' detention at a juvenile facility, and as an adult he won't be allowed to use a computer or cell phone for two years.

In January, the teen hacked into the telephone records system of T-Mobile International. He used a security flaw in the company's Web site that allowed him to reset the password of anyone using a Sidekick, a pricey phone-organizer-camera device that stores videos, photos and other data on T-Mobile's central computer servers. A month later, the teen would use that flaw to gain access to Hilton's Sidekick files, according to corroborating information and screen shots he shared with washingtonpost.com.

More in today's Washington Post.

10:09 PM by Brian in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

According to a recent report by In-Stat titled Video Content Availability Will Be A Key Factor in Portable Media Player Growth, a number of key factors must be addressed before the Portable Media Player (PMP) market expands beyond early adopters. The report cites DRM, high price points, and the lack of legal video download services as barriers to mass market adoption.

Some other important points from the report:

- Portable Media Players are competing with other converged devices like PDAs, handheld gaming consoles like Sony's PSP, and portable DVD players.

- Early adopters will remain the primary market for Portable Media Players in 2005.

- The mass market is not willing to pay the $400-$500 for a dedicated Personal Media Player.

- By the end of the decade, worldwide Portable Media Player shipments are expected to reach 7.5 million units.

There is some encouraging news, however. According to Stephanie Guza, an In-Stat analyst, there has been a notable increase in activity by device manufacturers and content providers within the last six months to promote the availability of portable video content.

So far, Portable Media Player sales have been lackluster to say the least. The cumbersome and legally questionable process of transferring content like DVDs and TV shows onto these devices isn't helping mass market adoption, and BitTorrent downloads suffer the same issues. Is Steve Jobs right to hold off on the release of a video iPod and iTunes Movie Store until the market is ready, or should Apple, Microsoft, Creative and others work with content providers to build it, and they (the mass market) will come?

06:45 PM by sUnShInE in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Here's an interesting proposal for an internet-style emergency response system by former FCC commissioner Reed Hundt and Net guru Carl Malamud from AmericanProgress:

The United States should allocate a part of our spectrum to emergency responders. While there is a huge debate in Washington about how to divvy up the spectrum among the many competing uses, in this case there is no reason for any debate. Congress can authorize the FCC to dedicate a chunk of spectrum to an emergency response system.... After allocating spectrum, the government should specify the access mechanism. There is nothing to invent here: something like WiFi and the Internet is the obvious solution. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. Instead, the government should simply ask the standards bodies that define specifications for WiFi and the Internet to specify which of their existing standards need to be used. The important point is that any standards used should be free from any patent, or licensing considerations that would hinder open source development efforts. What could you do with this spectrum? A look in any PC magazine or at the thousands of blogs devoted to hardware shows that a lot of what you want out of an emergency response system already exists in the wild on the Internet. Indeed, when the city of New Orleans needed to restablish communication with the outside world, a PC and an Internet phone call were the Mayor's only communications link....

When you think of the lives Wi-Fi or WiMax could have saved during and after the hurricane, it is truly mindboggling.

via Tim O'Reilly's blog

03:22 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

What's the biggest hurdle for mobile computing device adoption? Why doesn't everyone want a pda or smartphone, when it does all the things they want? Why are they more likely to get a phone that plays music, or an ipod?

The bottom line answer is simple. It's not primarily the capabilities, nor is it even due to the cost. The primary reason that people don't buy pdas and smart phones is the learning curve. Too much work is required to learn how to use the devices and making it fit their own needs. And along the way, it's very likely that they will run into problems or bugs or user error that turns them into debuggers. They are likely to either get stuck, have to ask a tech friend, or contact the company for help.

If you weren't independently attracted to the idea of using the technology, would you really want to waste your time and thoughts and efforts on such a device? I don't think so. It really makes paper sound good for the average person when you put it that way.

What's the solution? Simple, foolproof, simpler, and simpler still. At some point, it's not about the features. If it's too complicated, it doesn't matter how wonderful it is. Most people dread setting up a VCR. How much more will they dread working with a computer in their pocket? If it's not easy (or at the very least sound easy -- like iPod) it won't catch on.

Just think about the original Palm devices. They became popular like wildfire. But they were simple. Not necessarily really a great user experience because of the displays and batteries, for example. But they were simple, and that matters more. They're not simple anymore, and the market is limited. Make a simple and powerful pda, even with just the basic capabilities of current pdas, and I am convinced it will sell if you do it right.

But maybe it's not possible to create something like that which is simple. Too many variation on things like desktop platforms 3rd party software you say. Well, find a way to stick to basics that will remain compatible and let go of the heavy duty features. It will work as long as the technology sounds bulletproof and simple, not behind the times.

Are you listening Access and Microsoft and Nokia?

03:08 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Mobile Sites

You can now use Yahoo! Shopping search on WAP 2.0-enabled mobile phones.

02:57 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Some interesting developments regarding the OpenReader open standard: OpenReader is in discussion with OSoft to develop a working OpenReader model using OpenReader's standards and OSoft's ThoutReader framework. ThoutReader is currently Java-based and doesn't run on PDAs. But they've plans for cross-platform support by switching from Java to Perl or Python (although I am not convinced that any of these two languages would be any better for mobile devices).

More over at Teleread.