10:12 PM by Brian in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Skyworks Solutions of Woburn, Massachusetts has introduced the Lynx L9100, a 3-chip solution for next-gen multimedia wireless handhelds, with features that include a high-resolution camera interface, MP3, and MPEG capabilities.

Technical Details

The L9100 represents the first system in the platform series and provides 2 megapixel camera plus ISP, USB 2.0 OTG, MMC/SD, and IrDA interfaces, along with support for Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi and other peripherals. The Lynx(TM) L9100 is available now and currently sampling to qualified customers worldwide.

According to the Skyworks Solutions website, they currently supply OEMs including Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony/Ericsson as well as emerging ODMs and contract manufacturers such as BenQ, Chi Mei, Compal, Flextronics and Quanta.

08:15 PM by Brian in Miscellaneous | Lounge

More good news for Sony PSP owners:

Sony has announced that 2GB Memory Stick Pros and Duos are coming at the end of the month. The full sized 2GB Memory Stick Pro will retail for $169.99 USD while the more diminutive 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo used in the PSP will be priced at $199.99 USD. The 1GB Memory Stick Pro and Memory Stick Pro Duo currently retail for $119.99 USD and $124.99 USD respectively. Sony's pricing of the 2GB Memory Sticks will make them more competitive with other memory card formats in a cost per Gigabyte price comparison.

The new 2GB Memory Stick Pros are currently available for pre-order from the SonyStyle online store.

For more information about the myriad of Memory Stick formats and device compatibility, see Sony's Memory Stick Product Compatibility page and memorystick.com.

Related: Sony's new DVD Burner/DVR puts recorded shows on your PSP

[MobileTechReview via PalmAddicts]

05:20 PM by Brian in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Sony has just announced the RDR-AX75 dual-layer DVD burner with a 250GB Digital Video Recorder (DVR) for Japan. This home theater component sports a MemoryStick Duo slot which will allow PSP owners with version 2.0 firmware to record shows in MPEG-4 format and copy the content to MemoryStick for viewing on the PSP. This will give PSP owners a convenient and desktop-free method for getting personalized content on their devices. Currently, PSP owners rely on applications like PSP Video 9 or iPSP to put video on their handheld consoles, or download a limited selection of videos from Sony's official PSP Connect website.

[via Engadget]

04:45 PM by Brian in E-Book General | News

Zinio, the digital magazine and textbook editions company, recently launched their Zinio Global Network portal, allowing publishers to offer digital editions of foreign and domestic magazines in the currency and language of participating countries including Denmark, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK, and US.

Zinio recently added over 60 new digital titles, including Redbook, Red Herring, and Playboy. In addition to these new offerings, Zinio issued a press release today announcing that the company is acquiring Blue Dolphin Group after securing $7 Million in venture capital funding.

"Magazine readers are going to love the delivery choices resulting from this merger," said Blue Dolphin Group President and CEO Andrew J. Centauro. "We will also be a showcase for publishers and distribution partners interested in using digital to offer greater flexibility to readers."

Zinio readers are available for Mac OS X as well as Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, and Windows XP (Professional, Home, and Tablet PC editions). A list of free Zinio magazine subscriptions can be found here.

It looks like Zinio is quickly becoming the leading digital magazine reader for people who prefer reading their magazine subscriptions on their desktop, laptop, or Tablet PC computer. If you're a Zinio user, please provide feedback in the discussion thread.

[via PaidContent.org]

12:21 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Although Tapwave has closed its doors, its fan community is not going to give up that easily. Since the company never bothered to open the signing system or distribute the DAA to allow unsigned applications and games to run on the Zodiac, it was only a matter of time until some evil Russian hackers managed to crack the system. ZodAttack offers a link to the download that includes a 5Kb app (DevAccess2.0.prc) and all the sources (the bypass code is written in assembler).

Bonus: Zodiac taken apart.

[via Tam's Blog]

11:12 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

I suspect very few people are using email encryption. Yet, for all I know, it may not be expensive or difficult to put into place.

Why does it matter? The bottom line is that if there is any sensitive information traveling in unencrypted emails, you can't guarantee that it will remain private. And in the case of China, it can even be a significant issue.

Wondering where to learn more? I am. Plus I have the obvious questions like what software is best, what do you need, does the receiver have to have the same software to read your encrypted emails, and so on.

Here's a few sites that popped out for me. Hopefully, they have some answers that are useful...
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Crypto/emailencryption/
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18860.html
http://www.businessbureau-uk.co.uk/e...yptography.htm
http://www.internet-guide.co.uk/email-encryption.html
http://www.networkworld.com/techinsi...ider-mail.html

Let us know if you have any good tips or sources of information.
I wonder -- is anyone using encryption on email?

10:32 AM by Brian in E-Book General | News

The Johnson County Kansas Library has become one of the first public libraries to join the OPAL, Online Programming for All Libraries. OPAL is a library consortium that provides live, cooperative web-based training events and programming for library users and staff worldwide.

These live public events are held in an online auditorium where participants from any location with a computer can interact via voice-over-IP, text chatting and synchronized browsing. OPAL programs can include book discussions, interviews, special events, workshops, virtual tours of special digital library collections and other online events sponsored by libraries across the nation including the Library of Congress.

Upcoming programs include:

Wednesday, September 21, 2005
The History of the Mystery: An Exploration in Project Gutenberg
This program will explore the roots of the mystery novel, with emphasis on the free, downloadable e-mysteries available at Project Gutenberg. Presented by Melora Norman of the Outreach Services of the Maine State Library
This OPAL event will be held in the Auditorium.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Second Annual Audio EBook Expo: One Book, Many Formats: The Magic of Multimedia
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.

Be sure to check out these upcoming online events about e-books. All OPAL public events are free and available to all library users worldwide. Archived events are available as podcasts.

[Source]

08:40 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

According to TheInquirer Ebay has just confirmed the acquisition, for $2.6 billion in cash and stock. USA Today reports that EBay said "The total value of the deal may climb to $4.1 billion based on whether Skype meets a series of performance targets over the next three years" and "the acquisition of privately held Skype will create 'an unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine' for Internet users worldwide."

Forbes is reporting that Deutsche Bank Securities noted "Skype has about 53 million active users globally of its free peer-to-peer product, but far fewer paying customers. An eBay deal could push Skype's free service as a tool for auction customers, and then aggressively push fee-based calling and other existing services..."

This would certainly be an interesting communications tool for EBay, but I wonder if they don't have other ideas. Personally, I don't think I would want to talk with other EBay customers or sellers by Skype call, but maybe not so bad when you don't need external microphones and speakers, so I will keep an open mind.