10:16 AM by sUnShInE in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

According to Linux News, TCL Mobile Communications (TMC), China's largest phone manufacturer, has successfully used Linux to build a high-end dual-band GSM/GPRS smartphone. The e787 features a 2MP camera, Bluetooth, multimedia players (MP3, AVI, WMV, MPEG4, and Flash), an Internet phonebook feature, PC synchronization, and a document viewer. The phone is available from Chinese retailer 139shop.com (site is Chinese).

Call background music sounds like a great bonus. It's unclear whether you're stuck with Chinese font sets.

PalmSource is expected to release a Linux phone next year.

11:43 PM by cbarnett in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Gowerpoint have released a new version of the fantastic µbook reader available for PocketPC and Windows.

This is my favourite ebook reader, partly because it reads many open format file types (text, html, rtf), as well as other formats (palm doc, ereader, mobipocket and pdf, though not if they are encrypted). It's good looking thanks to the many skins, has good built in dictionary support, and is very configurable. Did I mention is looks absolutely beautiful in VGA???

Licences cost $12US, and get rid of nag screens (and it's good value).

Enhancements to this version include (courtesy of the Gowerpoint website):
- Added Separate Zoom and Annotations for each images
- Re-organized Annotations/Table of Content page and Added Illustration Table.
- Added Menu item to look-up user entered word in current dictionary (not just through selected word...) (Thanks Peter)
- Added User controlable Image color filters for better contrast, gamma correction and yellow reduction.
- Added Rotation of buttons/arrow keys with display
- Changed slide-show to expand smaller image to fill the page
- Improved PML parser
- Added Hiding of cursor (PC version) when not moved for 5 seconds
- Lotsa fixes and new goodies:
- G&B, Grey Paper and Tundracel Skins (thanks to respective artists)
- Francais, Hungarian, Italiano and Spanish UI update (thanks to the respective authors)

Craig.

09:59 PM by Brian in E-Book General | News

The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet is joining the growing number of newspapers around the world that are offering online digital editions to subscribers as an alternative to paper. In an apparent effort to attract younger readers and grow their circulation of approximately 183,000 subscribers, Dagbladet recently launched a special digital edition with text and photos optimized for the Sony PSP's stunning screen.

Will all traditional print publications eventually have to offer digital versions or face the prospect of losing subscribers to alternative online content?

[via PaidContent and Kotaku]

04:37 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

With all the fuss around the latest Harry Potter novel and the fact that Mrs Rowling has always spoken against the release of an electronic Potter release, it comes to us as a surprise that Apple now managed to secure exclusive rights for the official audiobooks on iTunes. That's definitely cool; but where is my e-book?

[via Yahoo and DigitalTechLife]

09:21 PM by Brian in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

The first episode of NerdTV, Robert X. Cringely's weekly downloadable TV-show-and-podcast where he interviews notable nerds, is now officially available for download .

What is NerdTV?

NerdTV is a new weekly online TV show from PBS.org technology columnist Robert X. Cringely. NerdTV is essentially Charlie Rose for geeks - a one-hour interview show with a single guest from the world of technology. Guests like Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy or Apple computer inventor Steve Wozniak are household names if your household is nerdy enough, but as historical figures and geniuses in their own right, they have plenty to say to ALL of us. NerdTV is distributed under a Creative Commons license so viewers can legally share the shows with their friends and even edit their own versions. If not THE future of television, NerdTV represents A future of television for niche audiences that have deep interest in certain topics.

In Bob's first episode, he interviews Andy Hertzfeld, the first Macintosh programmer. Andy talks about the history of the Mac and what led him to embrace Open Source Software.

NerdTV is available in MP4 video format, and MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and AAC audio formats.

06:40 PM by Brian in E-Book General | News

The Naperville Public Library, located in suburban Chicago, announced today the expansion of their 24/7 Digital Services. According to the press release, the expanded services which are available through the library's website, include the following new formats:

-- eAudiobooks -- unabridged books that may be enjoyed on PCs and hundreds of portable devices such as compatible MP3 players. They can also be burned to CD for use on any standard CD player, so you can listen to these downloadable books anywhere -- car, home, while exercising!

-- eBooks -- digital versions of print books that include all the pictures, text and graphics. They can be downloaded onto PCs, Macs, laptops, supported PDAs, and other portable devices. Titles include fiction, non-fiction, children's and adult popular fiction. Authors include Jonathan Kellerman, Catherine Coulter, Douglas Adams, the "Frommer's Guides" and "Nolo Press."

Currently, 343 eBook titles are offered in Adobe PDF format, and 45 titles are offered using the Mobipocket Reader format. The 362 eAudiobooks titles currently offered use the Windows-only DRM protected OverDrive Audio Book format. While the expansion of digital content in public libraries is a good thing, the use of proprietary or non-standard formats is not.

05:58 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Never a big Symbian fan myself, I am delighted to see Russell Beattie finally making the move to Linux on his search for the perfect mobile OS. In The Future of Mobility is Linux he argues that,

Linux is inexpensive, has no strategy tax (like Microsoft) and it's got a great developer community around it. Mobile Linux is already ascending in Asia (the reason PalmSource bought China MobileSoft), Motorola and Yahoo! are working on providing services for their upcoming Linux based phones, and even Nokia is looking at it as well. Plus, the current growth of Linux is astounding - listen to this DDJ interview with Montavista Linux to hear the numbers.

05:39 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Before you buy the next SD card for your Palm handheld, go to Palm's knowledge library to find out the maximum card size your model supports. Newer devices such as the Treo and Tungsten T5 were successfully tested with 2GB cards, while older devices such as the Tungsten T3 and Zire 71 only support a max of 1GB due to file system limitations.

And what about 4GB SD cards? Did Palm run out of cash or why did they stick to testing 2GB units? And how come they didn't talk about differences in transfer speed, even though their title suggested they would?

[via Palm Addict]