11:37 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Engadget is reporting on the upcoming official name from Microsoft for Longhorn... "So there’s been some buzz on this and now it’s looking confirmed by a few insider sources — the official name for the new Microsoft Longhorn operating system is going to be Windows Vista. As in “a view into the distance” which surely refers to the prolonged development timeline of the OS (ouch, we had to.). Look for the official announcement tomorrow morning." Also see story at ActiveNetwork.

My question is how it will affect future handheld computers running full Windows OS like the OQO. They are on Model 1, and Model 2 is surely just around the corner. But up against the much greater hardware demands of Vista/Longhorn, I wonder if they might not be forced to either accept XP for a number of years, or if they will make a jump to Linux. Hopefully they will at least ensure that it can perform decently. Nothing like a really slow handheld to frustrate a user.

07:40 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

I am not joking. Apparently some half-witted folks with a self-destructive urge are selling the illegal e-book of the new Harry Potter on eBay (in case the items are already removed - which, if not, I am sure will happen any time soon - see attached screenshot). Some ludicrous quotes:

On purchasing this e-book you also purchase the right to resell it to others. These FULL RESELL RIGHTS allow you to resell this e-book to others, whilst you retain the profit.

You cannot go wrong with this price. The real hardcover book is going for 15.00 USD and up!!

Why buy the Hard cover collection? Its the same thing here. Put it on disc and you will have it forever.

Note to All: This e-book is available in the public domain.

Don't miss out on the opportunity to get this book instantly, cheaper and quicker than in retail stores!

You are absolutely FREE TO PRINT AND REPRODUCE/DISTRIBUTE this e-book. This gives you the ability to have a hard copy to hand.

After purchasing, you will receive your e-book via e-mail. Unlike some sellers, we don’t charge an administration fee or a postage fee!

Whatever is their problem, death wish or not, this is NOT the way to convince Rowling and her conglomerate of lawyers to publish legal e-books for sale!

Or perhaps it is? DRM to the rescue! I would've never thought that this would come out of my mouth. Of course I was just kidding...

01:20 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

You knew it was only a matter of time until the movie industry decided to take new "preventive" measures against inconvenient movie pirates. The Edingburgh Evening News writes today that at the Edinburgh Scotland Film Festival guests will be asked to hand over their phones for the duration of a festival screening. More dazzling even, the film distributors have hired "bag and tag" security companies that will do a thorough check of your bag and coat at the door, and confiscate any cell phone or recording device.

Charlotte Tudor, a spokeswoman for BVI, said: "The industry is very focused on combating piracy and we always try to protect screenings before an American release, as that is where pirates will want to strike. These people are criminals who are undermining the UK and international film industry, so we feel it is right to take these precautions."

So cell phone owners are criminals. I know for sure I'll boycott any movie theater or movie show where I'd be forced to hand over my cell phone.

12:18 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

There is a new test-version of The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) available for download (download link). Changelog:

version 0.66c:
+Speex support
-AAC removed from official binaries because of intellectual property considerations
-Epson graphics controller fix
-Matroska codec info handling fix (h.264)
-PalmOS: stack overflow fix with some vorbis files
-WinCE: backlight handling fix
-WinCE: HTTP streaming fixes
-WinCE: Raw Framebuffer usage with QVGA smartphones

version 0.66b:
+Nexio XP30: Epson graphics controller mode
-ID3v2 fix in rawaudio
-OGG tags as UTF-8 coding
-PalmOS: m3u/pls playlist absolute path fix

The saddest news is the removal of AAC support in the current test version due to copyright issues. In near future, the only solution perhaps is to host a separate AAC plugin on a server located in Russia or the Netherlands. Until AAC is available again, if you are in dire need of AAC support, don't upgrade TCPMP any time soon.

11:42 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom demonstrated a beta video version of the VoIP software Skype that is currently being tested internally. He did not say when the product would be ready for release, but it definitely undermines Skype's attempt of becoming a big player in the "next year" application of video telephony.

As a side note, Zennstrom also admitted that Skype utilizes some of the user's bandwidth without the latter's consent. Not sure how the big telecos offering the bandwidth will think about this:

At one point, Zennstrom affirmed claims that Skype software uses some of the computing resources and available bandwidth on a connected PC to create super groupings of network identities or nodes without user permission. The executive explained that any such practice helped the software better locate a Skype user on the network. "If I can share my computer resources and not pay my phone bill, some people think that is a good thing," he said.

10:27 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Based on Colin's scoop on the illegal home-brew e-book of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Wired.com has a follow-up explaining that the Russian website used by the scanner team to host the ripped e-book received 80,000 hits (before it was shut down by Rowling's merciless lawyers, I assume).

The article also mentions MobileRead as a place where e-book "enthusiasts" can talk about the "miniscule" (quote Nick Bogaty from Open eBook Forum) e-book market. Of course, if publishers and authors alike continue to refuse the release of bestseller e-books, its market will always remain just a drop in the ocean.

04:46 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Mike Davidson demonstrates with a few lines of PHP code how you can transform your cluttered homepage into clean HTML code that is supposed to work better and faster with mobile devices. Not sure if this automated solution works for every Web developer, but it is certainly worth a try. That reminds me that we really need a better mobile solution for MR!

[via Stopdesign]

04:29 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

With Windows Mobile 2005 coming to our cell phones and PDAs soon, you may want to become accustomed to the idea of "persistent storage", which means that in future all of your personal data, user-installed applications, and updates are stored in non-volatile flash ROM memory. Mike Calligaro posted some interesting details on his MS Mobile Team blog:

• Why Persistent Storage Is A Good Thing
• More Persistent Storage Stuff part 1
• More Persistent Storage Stuff part 2

In Mike's own words: "No, there's nothing innovative about Persistent Storage. If a marketing guy tries to tell you otherwise, send him to me. But PS is a good thing." By September, we will hopefully know more.