04:04 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

I feel like a kid in a candy store whenever Intel announces the development of a new processor. Only this time, Intel takes an aging product, the x86 CPU, and updates it with all the modern trimmings. In the Low Power Intel Architecture project (LPIA), the company is focusing on an ultralow-voltage version of the x86 to be used in mobile devices and consumer electronics.

"Power issues are a challenge to the entire electronics industry, at all system levels, from silicon to components and software," wrote Intel researcher Ram Chary in a white paper (PDF) on the LPIA project. "The challenge is compounded as the system is contained in smaller and smaller enclosures. We believe that the user interface should dictate the size of a device, not the electronics or the peripherals. Our research challenge is to find a way to fit the electronic functionality and feature set into these small form factors yet still address the power and heat issues from silicon and other peripheral devices."

Expect more details to be revealed at the Intel Developer Forum next week.

[via CNet]

06:54 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

[size=-1]"We've just posted another podcast in the DiamondCluster Wavelengths series. This one is an interview with Donna Dubinsky. Donna was the CEO of Palm in the early days when it came out with the Palm Pilot."

(From [/size][size=-1]treoBITS via PDA247[/size][size=-1])
[/size]

07:46 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you're like me, and are very curious about that thick accent that Sammy McLoughlin has warned us about in the past, this is your chance to hear some thoughts from him in his own voice. It's the first Unofficial Palm Addict Podcast, starring none other than Sammy himself. It should be a perfect supplement to the site and the other excellent Palm Addict podcast with Tyler Faux. You can find the new podcast here. (Or should we call it a PalmCast?!)

05:14 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmSource has filed a Form 10-K in which they discuss various forward-looking risks and uncertainties of the company. The main talk is about unexpected losses in royalities from Palm OS licensees, and about Palm company still accounting for a substantial portion of PalmSource's revenues for the foreseeable future (that is unless Palm withdraws from PalmOS, which they do could at any time).

"Outlook for fiscal year 2006: We anticipate revenue will be negatively impacted on a year-over-year basis by factors such as Sony’s exit from the PDA market, the pre-pay of one licensee’s royalty minimum, and the expiration of certain prepaid royalties that were being amortized on a quarterly basis."

04:49 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

US-Cert warned of a recently discovered security exploit in Adobe Acrobat that could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on your computer or cause a denial-of-service attack. Adobe is taking the issue serious and urges users to update immediately. Of course smart users don't use Adobe Acrobat at all, but if you have some PDF files you cannot live without, you should head right to Adobe's download section.

04:26 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmSource is not all about doom and gloom. David Beers has some persuasive arguments why PalmSource could soon celebrate a cheerful comeback with the migration of Palm OS over to Linux.

As PalmSource executives begin to speak more freely about the company's reasons for adopting Linux, it is becoming clear that an open-souce future could be very good to the Palm OS -- while PalmSource itself could play the same pivotal role in the Linux mobile device market that Red Hat played during the early years of the Linux server market.

04:07 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

"International online retailer Doml.com is now selling the GSPDA Xplore M98 Palm OS smartphone. The Xplore M98 is a GSM Clamshell smartphone that runs Palm OS Garnet." Full description at PalmInfocenter.

An item description is also available at the site where it is for sale at Doml.com. (You may have to navigate a few pages yourself if the link doesn't work without session info.)

This is based on Garnet, but GSPDA has indicated that they feel their competitive advantage is speed to market, so I wouldn't be surprised if they come up with a Cobalt model soon. But I guess you need to be a phone wiz to know how to use this with US carriers.

02:46 PM by sUnShInE in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

In case no one saw it, the new HP iPAQ hw6515 was previewed by PC Mag today. There's a slideshow with pics too. Many pros, including GPS, but I especially love the cons:

Odd screen size. Quiet phone speaker. Poor camera. Bugs.