06:23 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Stop over at PDA247 today for news like...

* Beta testing for Fragmento
[size=-1]Fragmento is great for people who want to select only a small portion of a web page to print, save, transfer to a handheld, etc.

* [/size]BlueTooth ads[size=-1][/size][size=-1]Will your PDA's screen become just another surface for ads?[/size]* Are PDAs only for the middle class?

* Playing the gadget boom
[size=-1]The best bets aren't necessarily the brand-name companies behind grown-up toys like the Palm Treo smartphone, the Apple iPod photo player or the Sony PlayStation Portable. Rather, they're often small companies that boast big profit margins and a fast-growing market share in supplying the assemblers with their hardware, software or games...."[/size]

* How mobile phones conquered Japan
[size=-1][/size]

06:15 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

It's a commonplace sight: drivers taking their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel to use their cell phones. And it's dangerous and irresponsible. Palm and Audi attempt to address this issue by offering a hands-free solution which connects the Palm Treo and VW Audi cars via Bluetooth.

Bluetooth technology comes built-in to the Treo 650 smartphone and is standard in every 2006 Audi A8 and A6, so no extra purchase is required for Treo 650 owners who also own one of these new Audi models. Bluetooth technology also is available on the 2006 Audi A3 and 2006 Audi A4 and S4 sedans and Avants when the vehicles are equipped with the optional phone preparation.

Read more about it over at PalmAddicts.

06:12 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Congratulations to Sammy, Jan, Lindsey and the whole gang over at Palm Addict for just completing their 6th year of Palm coverage. There's no other site like it for comprehensive coverage of the Palm world, and it is all the better because of their friendly style. Happy Birthday!

Edit: Seems I accidentally removed a year from their celebration and reported it as their 5th. But they are one year better! Thks Brian.

05:27 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Sad news for handheld owners of the HP iPAQ hx2000 and hx4700 series. According to HP, "due to unforeseen extended delays in the availability of a critical 3rd party driver, the upgrade kit for the hx4700 will be delayed to mid to late Spring 2006."

I hope that Dell doesn't run into similar problems with the planned WM 5.0 upgrade for its Axim series, originally announced to become available in October 2005.

[via iPaq HQ]

04:37 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Apparently in the British county of Cambridgeshire, people not only leave their laptops in cars, but they also don't switch them off. A local news article claims that some punks are using Bluetooth scanner devices to detect "valuable electronics, including laptops" inside abandoned cars.

"At about 8.20am last Wednesday, a Sony TR 1MP laptop was taken from an Audi A6 estate parked in Tesco car park off old North Road... We would urge people not to leave laptops, or anything of value, in their cars, and always de-activate these wireless connections when you're not using a laptop - otherwise you're making life easy for the thieves..."

Personally I would've preferred the Audio to the Sony laptop, but that's just me.

[via A Welsh View]

09:56 PM by Brian in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Technology pundit Rob Enderle has written an opinion piece for Technology News World in which he predicts that the laptop's days are numbered and we are moving towards mobile computing devices that are evolving from PDAs, smartphones, and Blackberry devices.

The laptop will probably last through this decade, but we are exploring different alternatives and as such it is likely that conclusions on this subject will be different in 2011. The market desperately needs to move to a more appliance-like device that is much more portable and much less power-hungry.

If you look at the concepts behind Palm's LifeDrive and IBM's SoulPad, you can see a common theme in which your handheld device becomes your portable computing environment and primary repository for all of your personal data and media files. According to this recent article at c|Net, companies are starting to replace laptops with handhelds due to lower costs, increased acceptance, and the appeal of having the most commonly used business communication tools (web, voice, email, and Powerpoint presentations) in such a small package.

Are desktops and laptops becoming less relevant as our handheld devices become our primary communications and computing devices?

[via jkOnTheRun]

Brian

04:29 PM by MishaS in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Let's suppose you decide to have a look at a new e-book reader. This is a new program indeed and, surprise, surprise, you've also found a help file/document for this very new program.

What kind of information would you look for in the help? What do you think is most important to be described first, and, in general, what else do you think is important to be covered?

04:28 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Over in the land of the rising sun, where paper is already so passe, Sony is planning to almost triple the number of popular manga comics offered for cell phone use. According to Business Week, for 315 yen ($2.90) you can download up to three manga titles out of 300 a month.

Cell-phone comics use a technology called Comic Surfing, developed by Tokyo-based venture firm Celsys, which takes viewers through manga stories at a carefully calculated speed and sequence. The manga frames are specially formatted to fit on tiny mobile phone screens. Pop-up frames and vibration during action scenes add to the drama. Cell-phone comics with preprogrammed sound effects are also coming soon, said Toppan Publishing spokesman Katsunori Onishi.

Thanks Gadgetguru for the tip!