07:03 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble visited the Windows Mobile group where he interviewed product manager Ford Davidson and a bunch of other geeks about WM 5.0 and all the other sweet things these guys have in their pockets. Fortunately Scobleizer didn't forget to record his trip and to make the 45mins video available to us mere mortals (see screenshots). Among the things we learn is

• that XBox games such as Midtown Madness are being ported to Windows Mobile 5.0;
• that developers can integrate MS Media player into their own application (Picard, do you read this?);
• why .NET is better than Java;
• that an OEM needs 60-90 days to bring a phone out;
• that MS guys even run POST-5.0 versions of WM which they don't want to share which us;
• that MS is planning to release a theme maker;
• why WM fonts are better readable than fonts on Treos and Blackberries;
• how the police uses PDAs for face recognizition;
• that airport cameras are scanning faces and broadcasting matches to the PDAs of agents;
• why softkeys for PDAs are hot;
• that Ford does know how to blow up a HTC Universal flash.

Download link to the video (WMV, 170Mb).

[via Microsoft's Channel 9]

06:18 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

The social bookmark engine Digg received a lot of praise lately, with some people calling it a Slashdot killer. To be honest, I think it's more hype than substance. Digg's supposed strength is also its main weakness: lack of moderation. Thus, it doesn't surprise us that someone has now posted a link to an Iranian-hosted e-book warez site. This post has received over 430 "diggs", or stored bookmarks, within the first five hours, still growing.

Shouldn't large communities such as Digg be held responsible for not integrating better administrative/moderation efforts?

09:43 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Mobile Sites

Skweezer, a free Web proxy to strip away non-essential HTML code from regular Web pages, has been updated to include support for mobile web searches with Google, Y! Search, MSN, Looksmart, and Ask Jeeves. Paul wrote more about the changes over at PalmAddicts.

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

In case you've missed any MobileRead news from this week, here is our usual roundup:

Current E-Books Trends
DRM on digital textbooks eased - and still they didn't learn
In Korea e-books are soaring
Paper No Longer A Mature Technology?
Teleread podcast on p-books vs. e-books

E-Book Conversion
Reading PDF Documents on a PDA

E-Book Webstores
eReader 10% discount code
Fictionwise Weekend Special

General Chat
Handheld Explosion To Come From Businesses Replacing Laptops
Ibiblio.org Internet Library
Introduction to mobile Web design
Is Cisco planning a Nokia takeover?
Mac OS X runs fastest on generic Intel hardware
Mobile search engines round-up
Reminder: Individual RSS Feeds

iSilo/X
iSilo 4.28 and iSiloX/C 4.28 beta 2

Link Swap
Ext2 IFS Linux Ext2/3 driver for MS Windows
OSx86 hacking resources
PHONifier open-source proxy for mobile devices

Other E-Book Resources
Google pauses online books plan

Other Gadgets
Linux and Windows 95 on Sony's PSP

Other Readers
FBReader for Maemo - new screenshots!
Tomeraider offers metapublishing

Palm
CompUSA informed about Palm Treo 700?
Is HTC behind the Windows Mobile-based Treo 670?
Mike's thoughts on Treo 670 rumors
Mr. FontSmoother Alex Pruss unleashed
Palm's Hawkins points to 'secret' product line
Palm Addicts To The Rescue
Palm Backup Program List
Palm is "Switzerland over OS" says CFO
Palm News Quickies
Palm wins, Palm OS loses, says Pocketfactory
Selling bonanza at PalmSource

Pocket PC
Dell Axim BlackBerry killer in the works?
Dell Axim X50(v) A05 ROM posted and pulled again
Vidya Pocket Task Manager 1.0 for Pocket PC

Portable Audio/Video
Playing Doom on Apple's iPod

Sunrise
Sunrise 0.42d released

WiFi / Bluetooth Technologies
Extend Orb Streaming Media with add-on API
Navizon blends GPS + WiFi + Cell signals
Video demonstrating WiFi hacking

10:24 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

WEP encryption is as dead as a dodo and you should know that by now. For reference purposes only, have a look at the third video on this site demonstrating how someone by generating fake traffic cracked a WEP-encrypted WiFi AP within ten minutes. To repeat the procedure, you need a PC, a wireless connection and WHAX (WHAX isn't really required, but it's a good Live-CD containing all the tools that were used in the video).

[via digg]

09:33 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

You would have to be either a real masochist or a falling victim to nostalgia if all you can think of is getting Windows 95 onto your Sony PSP. Now there is a way to run Windows 95 and Linux on your (overclocked) PSP by using a port of the open-source x86 emulator Bochs:

Windows 95 actually runs quite well but don't expect it to be a speed demon. It takes about 10 minutes to boot but afterwards it's pretty usable. I was able to do things like: open "My computer" and browse the virtual hard drive, complete a whole game of Minesweeper and run various other applications. Now you too can get your Minesweeper fix on the go

Get the full story from Engadget.

08:53 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

One annoying aspect of Windows Mobile is that it's often hidden to the user what processes are currently running and how much memory/CPU each process requires. Vidya Pocket Task Manager is a new task manager that not only shows you a detailed list of active processes, but also keeps a graphical history of CPU and memory usages. It's definitely worth a closer look.

08:12 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

When Alex broke the news on Princeton University Store offering crippled electronic textbooks, he probably didn't know how much of an impact it would have on the pilot project. Skepticism arose in various follow-ups where folks showed little sympathy for the ludicrous DRM scheme used in the project ("textbook activation expires after 5 months, ..."). Now a few days later, according to C|Net, some of the DRM restrictions have been eased somewhat:

The downloads will now last from 12 months to an unlimited time, depending on the publisher... MBS also said Friday that publishers have agreed to loosen restrictions on how much of a book could be printed and how often. That too will vary by publisher.

To coin Lenin's phrase, this is one step forward, two steps back. Textbook publishers apparently do not learn from their mistakes. Rightfully purchased e-books are ours to keep indefinitely, not just for five or twelve months. Come on, if I buy a traditional paper book, do I have to worry that it'll blow up in a cloud of smoke in a couple of months?