07:19 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

We hear so much about Palm OS and Windows Mobile day by day that it is refreshing to see that there're still some brave ones out there who try something novel. Korean company Gamepark Holdings claims that its GPX2-F100 portable media player and gaming device offers a continuous video playback time of eight hours while being powered by only two AA batteries (believe us, we'd like to see those batteries). The Linux-based GPX2-F100 sports two ARM9 core processors, a large 320x240 (3.5") TFT screen, 2D acceleration, and USB 2.0 and SD card compatibility.

Could this even be the rightful successor of Tapwave's luckless Zodiac handheld?

[via Slashdot]

03:30 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Edit: It came to my attention that Gabi is still employeed at PalmSource, but apparently not any longer as VP?

Only days after the announcement that ex-CEO David Nagel is planning to sell part of his inventory of PalmSource stock, Gabriele Schindler, former PalmSource Senior Vice President and major shareholder, filled Form 144 to announce her intention to sell all of her 55,220 restricted shares (with a current value of about $450k).

If you are interested in snooping around, check out Gabi's initial employment agreement with PalmSource. A salary of $275k to begin with (excluding bonuses and other extraordinary payments) isn't all that bad!

Update: Here is a link to all recently proposed insider trades.

01:19 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Roger Sperberg has good faith that next year will mark the breakout year for e-books. Three preconditions are likely to be met by then, he argues:

• the emergence of suitable e-book reading devices
• publishers releasing e-books while agreeing on a DRM solution that also works for readers
• the emergence of a sophisticated distribution system for libraries who lend e-books.

For more, read Roger's editorial over at Teleread.org.

11:16 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

C|Net grabbed a few minutes from Palm's Asia-Pacific VP Paul Blinkhorn and asked him why the company recently changed its name back from PalmOne to Palm and how they perceive the future of the PDA market. Basically, Palm is convinced that it carries a "tremendous brand equity around the world" worth spending $30m in cash for and that the PDA market is still dominant thanks to - and that is a new spin to me - GPS (apparently Europeans love to carry GPS devices around helping them to find their way back home). At least we have a strong statement from Palm here that, despite the strong growth in smartphone sales, the company is not planning to abandon the PDA sector any time soon. Good!

Although Blinkhorn refuses a direct answer, he also makes it seem less likely that Palm is going to release Windows Mobile devices any time soon.

10:43 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

As doctors and nurses are growing more attached to PDAs, it's natural that they want to exchange their experiences with other like-minded folks. If you are one of them, make sure to visit Palmdoc Chronicles' newly updated list of medical online communities. And next time you've to stay in a hospital, make sure to lock up your handheld if you don't want your doctor to play Bejeweled all the while performing a surgery on you.

10:12 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Props to Sammy for totally rescuing a slow news day by pointing us to Motorola's official website, which now displays the Moto Q in all its beauty. The question is how to endure the wait before I can get my hands on one of these babies and ditch my current brick.

It's not a coincidence that last Friday Motorola's shares pushed to a new 52-week high, finishing at $21.18, up a tidy 71 percent from their 52-week low of $12.37.

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

Welcome to another digest entry of MobileRead, where we transform the profound into the bite-sized.

Current E-Books Trends
Mobile Mag reviews Rapid-Fire Reading for your cell
Overview of current e-Paper technology
Pirate translation of Harry Potter also hits Russia

E-Book Conversion
PrimoPDF, free PDF converter for Windows

E-Book Webstores
eReader 10% and 20% Discount Codes

General Chat
Big Apple interactive tours on your handheld
BlogPulse2RSS tracks your blog trends via RSS
Gorgeous Windows Vista fonts for your handheld
How many people buy mobile software?
Mobile Mag's Mobile Game Top 50
NewsRaider scrapes sites for news
Nokia is hiring Linux developers
PC World's Top 10 PDA in Fall 2005
PDA247 is running a user survey
Risks of losing a portable device (poll)

New Links
AOL Mobile Search in public beta test
Shopping at Amazon.com with your handheld
Technorati goes Mobile

Other E-Book Resources
Free e-book: "The Escapist" converted for iSilo and Plucker

Other Readers
Dual Column Ebook Reading for TabletPC

Palm
KMaps brings Google Maps to your Treo 650
O'Reilly's 'Palm and Treo Hacks' pre-order with 34% discount
Palm CFO to hold presentation on August 2nd
Palm podcasts from PalmAddicts and 1Src
Palm Treo and Internet Connection Sharing
Tapwave Zodiac is no more

Pocket PC
BackupBuddy for Windows Mobile goes Beta (initial findings)
HTC Wizard aka Qtek 9100 real photos leaked
Minimo CE V0.007 adds tabbed browsing
Moto Q makes raves on the Net (link digest)
Pocket PC Magazine Joins the Podcast Revolution
vBar 2.0 with VGA support released

Portable Audio/Video
HP kisses Apple iPod goodbye

Smartphones
Smartphones still surging and no end in sight

08:52 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Bruce Schneier (mastermind of the Blowfish cipher) is quoting the Washington Post regarding the risks involved of losing a portable device nowadays.

I've noticed this in my own life. If I didn't make a special effort to limit the amount of information on my Treo, it would include detailed scheduling information from the past six years. My small laptop would include every e-mail I've sent and received in the past dozen years. And so on. A lot of us are carrying around an enormous amount of very personal data.

Which leads me to our poll. Have you ever lost a portable device such as your beloved PDA? And have you taken special precautions, such as encrypting your sensitive data? I've never lost any data, but I have also never bothered to use any encryption.