01:38 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmAddicts is featuring Alexander Pruss, author of FontSmoother, as Palm OS software developer of the week. Click here to learn more about Alex, the projects he has been involved in, and the applications he wrote by himself.

Speaking of Alex, don't hesitate to invoke deep metaphysical and philosophical conversations, since my informer told me that he loves that stuff almost as much as programming for Palm OS.

01:18 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Dell posted a A05 ROM update for its X50 PDA series on its Website, only to pull it again a few hours later. Apparently some Dell employee was too ambitious, because the update is not meant for release before later this month. PPCThoughts was able to grab the announcement and also to post direct FTP download links of the ROMs. New features include:

• Support for LEAP-WAP wireless encryption.
• Increased data transfer rates of SDIO to 19.5MHz on PXA27X C5.
• A new network certification -- GoDaddy SSL certificate root into the ROM image.
• Phase in new updated Bluetooth stack BTW-CE 1.5.0.2601.
• Enhanced Wireless encryption WPA-PSK network under Cisco AP with new IOS version 12.3(2) JA

X50v A05 ROM download
X50 A05 ROM download

My usual advise: don't upgrade if you don't have to. This update doesn't contain any life-threatening new features, and WM 2005 is expected to be released next month.

11:13 AM by zrski in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Hi all, we've just launched PHONifier which is yet another IYHY/Skweezer alternative. It's a mobile surfing proxy that strips webpages of unnecessary code. Best of all, we've released it as an open source project under a creative commons licence.

I'd love to hear what you think.

10:35 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti shares her opinion on print books versus e-books in the first Teleread podcast. Coming herself from the print publishing industry, she argues that while e-books don't have the physical touch and smell of paper books and thus should not replace them, smaller independent publishing houses still need to become aware of what e-books can do, what profits can be made, and how to enter the market:

Most authors don't know who to go to for e-books, and perhaps what we need is some better reference ... and maybe that exists and I just don't know about it yet because I am pretty new to the e-book scene.

Of course Teleread and Mobileread are the perfect two places for book authors, to flutter their eyelashes, to have a chat with us and to be enlightened about the benefits of e-books!

10:04 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Sunrise

Laurens released Sunrise 0.42d which adds support for the Launchable flag to make documents show up in the Palm OS "Applications" launcher. You can read more about it in the discussion here.

Download from Palmgear.

If you are new to Sunrise, click here to find out more about its top-notch features for website offline conversion.

08:27 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

"Home to one of the largest "collections of collections" on the Internet, ibiblio.org is a conservancy of freely available information, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies. ibiblio.org is a collaboration of the Center for the Public Domain and The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill."

It's part of UNC's efforts to develop an online library and archives. The library doesn't appear to have much in the way of etexts, focusing on audio/video archives instead. Oddly, the search engine doesn't seem to be very effective. I even did a search on words from a title I found, and the search engine couldn't find it. I did see all kinds of technical videos and MovieTone and NASA clips (e.g. from the Apollo missions.) Looks like a very interesting complement to sites like Project Gutenberg and Archive.org.

"The average municipal public library receives a few hundred visitors a week. ibiblio.org averages 3 million information requests per day, and the contributor-maintained collections are expanding daily. A free and vibrant exchange of ideas among a large community of contributors who share their knowledge across disciplines, ibiblio.org uses the open source model to encourage users to help shape the way information is managed and accessed in the 21st century." More at http://www.ibiblio.org/about.html

A couple of the fun items I've found with a quick look (but haven't tried yet) are:
Classic Television Commercials (Part II)
A Date With Your Family

06:31 AM by Laurens in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

HTC 'to manufacture' Palm's Windows-based Treo (The Register)

HTC is believed to have won the contract to manufacture the upcoming Windows Mobile-based version of Palm's Treo smart phone, but the device's release is some way off. [...] If that's the case - neither firm will confirm it - then HTC is the logical choice for the Windows Mobile-based Treo, believed to be dubbed the Treo 670, apparently seen in a series of videos here. HTC may even have lent some Windows Mobile development expertise to Palm's design team.

06:01 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Talk about a double standard. While PalmSource leaders tout the benefits of investors owning their stocks, current and former executives seem to be running for the doors themselves. Latest Form 144 filers:

• 07/05/2005 David Nagel, former CEO: 116,388 stocks
• 07/15/2005 Schindler, Gabriele, (now) former VP: 55,220 stocks
• 07/25/2005 David Nagel, former CEO: 130,000 stocks
• 07/28/2005 Slotnick, Lawrence, former CTO: 16,000 stocks

It is not uncommon for executives to liquidate options and sell shares to buy houses or diversify their investment portfolios. But the fact that three of PalmSource's recently laid off executives are selling at the same time, all the while PalmSource stock is osculating around a new all-time low, causes us to speculate there may be more to these stock sales.

Ohh, and really, it's not helping either to boost our confidence that two major insitutional investors, Fred Alger Management and Fidelity, disclosed yesterday that they had dumped all (Alger) or a large part (Fidelity) of their PalmSource shares.