02:53 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Mirko sent us word that you can now download the third issue of (IN)SECURE, a free digital security magazine published in PDF format. Make sure to read "PDA attacks: palm sized devices - PC sized threats" written by Seth Fogie of Airscanner. It is not a product-based article but rather a good illustration of the current security problems surrounding PDA devices. It also touches on the problematic malicious reset routine which made it into Pocket Mechanic once.

04:43 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Win one of three copies of TomeRaider, the excellent reference and e-book reader available on various platforms (e.g. Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Windows).

How to win: contribute a groovy story that we can post to our frontpage (it should at least somewhat relate to our content).

This contest runs from now until midnight US ET Wednesday 24th August September. The three winners will be chosen at random. Good luck!

From their Website:
Available for Windows, Palm, Pocket PC, Psion, Smartphone, TomeRaider is the world's most successful and powerful cross-platform reference and e-book reader. TomeRaider 3 is the newest incarnation. A total rewrite that has been 2 years in the making. Check out these amazing new features:

• HTML Support: TR3 now supports pretty much HTML verbatim, making it even easier to make TR3 files.
• Image support: Now images from the small to the massive can be displayed in TR3 files. It's about time.
• The Filter Builder: Never before possible filters and queries can now be constructed by anyone.
• Search Acceleration: Searching even tens of megabytes is now faster than you thought was possible.
• Super Compression: TR2 was good, TR3 is even better. The files are smaller and they work faster.

03:27 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

The team at IBM's Almaden Research Center is ready to commercialize Shorthand-Aided Rapid Keyboarding (SHARK), a pattern recognition technology to offer an advanced pen-based text input method for mobile devices. The new method promises a writing speed of around 60 to 70 words per minute, much faster than tapping out words with a stylus.

Instead of tapping out letters or writing a word on screen, you trace each letter in a single, fluid stroke. The keyboard on screen shows the shape of the word. The software works with a standard Qwerty keyboard, as well as IBM's experimental Atomik keyboard. Dr Zhai reckons that 100 patterns cover about 40% of the words most people write.

[via BBC News]

03:11 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Wired has a write up of how some UC Berkeley professors and graduate students want to save the world by equipping cell phones with radiation sensors and turning them into inexpensive distributed platforms.

They are working to develop cheap wireless sensors that, once fitted inside cell phones, could sniff out anything from biological weapons to traffic patterns. While the sensors might not be a typical cell-phone add-on, those involved in the research claim the sheer number of mobile phones in use could make such a system a boon for worldwide data collection and problem solving.

What a novel and worthwhile idea!

02:48 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

This probably won't impress e-book fans, but McGraw-Hill Higher Education and Zinio are teaming up to bring 150 or so digital textbooks to computer-savvy students. The digital editions are available at about 50 percent off list price and can be viewed online on any computer with an Internet connection or downloaded to an individual's computer (not both).

While online viewing allows access from any computer, you'll be given a limited set number of page-views of the book and only one free option to print it out in full. The second option, e-book downloads, requires Zinio Reader to be installed on your Windows or Mac machine. A downloaded e-book cannot be transferred to another computer. As far as it appears it doesn't expire. You will be able to print your e-book pages as often as you want, unless the publisher chooses to restrict printing rights. Some download Zinio books will offer flash, video and audio rich media content.

Zinio has a few samples online:

• Genetics: Analysis and Priciples
• Understanding Business
• Understanding Psychology

For more check out their Web site and also this Flash presentation.

Related: The doomed to fail e-book experiment at Princeton and some other schools which was announced last week.

02:44 PM by Laurens in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Mobile war smoulders around internet UI: (The Register)

Most of the analysis of the handset war between Nokia and Motorola centers on their device designs, with Nokia’s stainless steel 8800 squaring up against the US company’s RAZR and PEBL. Just as important to the user’s choice, however, is the user interface and, increasingly the ease of use of internet capabilities, and this week we saw the giants focusing their attentions on the software side of the battle.

10:16 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

There's an interesting article from Business 2.0 that suggests that Google is in position to offer ubiquitous WiFi to everyone. Becoming a giant ISP with WiFi service also would position them to overtake the whole telecom industry. Just think Goop or Gype instead of Skype. This is a bit of a wild speculation that probably won't pan out, but hey, if someone told you 15 years ago what Google would be doing today, you'd have had their head examined!

(via Engadget)

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]