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.

02:38 PM by derekweb in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Some of John Ringo's books can be found for free download at the publisher's website. The stories are a tiny bit reminescent of Starship Troopers, but only in the vaguest of senses. They're military in nature, and a very good read.

My best method found for those books from Baen is to download in HTML format, and then use iSiloX to convert them over to iSilo format. The default iSilo3x format on Baens' site isn't ... the best. Of course you could also use any other e-book reader that supports HTML files.

02:37 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Remember Fossil's Wrist PDA, the tiniest incarnation of a PalmOS handheld which had hit markets earlier this year? Well, BargainPDA received word that watch maker Fossil has lost faith in its mini-handheld and already began phasing it out. I could wax poetic here about the reasons of its failure (outdated system, small display, little RAM, high price), but perhaps it's best if I just leave it alone and we all remember Fossil as yet another brave Palm OS licensee of the past.

[via Engadget]

11:09 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

VitalSource has launched what it calls the VitalSource Bookshelf, a software available for Mac OS and Windows which you can use to buy your e-books online and to archive them on your computer. Despite our fervent hopes that it wouldn't happen again, they created yet another proprietary and DRM-"enhanced" e-book format, called VitalBook (.vbk). So far VitalBooks include around 1,000 titles, among which you find public domain classics such as Shakespeare and reference works from various textbook publishers. We wish you guys good luck with your ambitions, but please take our advise to try it with a more widespread e-book format next time.

10:15 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

"College Students Trade Textbooks for Pocket PCs" is the title of an article at Pocket PC Magazine describing an interesting new course offering at Bentley College.

"Students in Bentley College's experimental 'IT 101 intensive' course have traded their textbooks for a Pocket PC. This introductory course uses leading-edge technology in a creative way to engage self-proclaimed computer wizards fresh out of high school. It challenges them to think creatively and to discover how mobile computing devices can solve a myriad of challenges. In the process they learn about wireless technology, programming, web logs and other technologies they will be using throughout their academic careers."

"The idea for using handheld technology for this course came to Frydenberg when he realized that for not much more than the cost of the required textbooks, students could purchase a handheld computer and learn about technology by experiencing it rather than by reading about it. Bentley purchased Dell Axim X30 Pocket PCs because they were the most cost-effective"

Well worth a read.

08:58 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and mistaken your mom for a zombie flesh-eater? Then it's time to put the games away and instead grab a book. The guys at joystiq run a story on the first full-length graphic novel released for the Sony PSP. The book NYC2123: Dayender is released under a Creative Commons-License and you can download the first issue from here. Quote from the authors:

"While traditional comic book publishers have tried to capitalize on the PSP's popularity by scanning in their books and resizing them for the PSP screen, they're basically impossible to read at that size. "NYC2123" is the first graphic novel that's designed specifically for the PSP display and it looks fantastic as a result."

[thanks to Angel from Digitaltechlife]