03:51 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Shaun of PDA247 is turning 35 today, so please join me in wishing him all the best for his birthday and for all his future days!

03:37 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Apple is now offering the best MP3 players money can buy as special refurbished deals, including the iPod mini 4GB for $169 (retail: $249.00) shipped free.

[via Techbargains]

03:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Mobile Sites

We received word from Monica of Greenlight Wireless this morning that the Skweezer portal has been updated to offer even better optimization and compression of Web pages, searches, and e-mail for use on PDA's and cell phones. From the press release:

For example, a sample page from the eBay Web site has a 238 Kb file size and in testing took an average of 192 seconds to download over a standard GPRS connection. The new version of Skweezer compresses this Web page to 16 Kb and loads it over the same wireless connection in 12 seconds, 4 seconds faster than the previous version of Skweezer. This same page from eBay loads in only 3 seconds with the images tuned off in the new Skweezer.

08:38 PM by Chaos in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Hell must be frozen solid today. After the news about Apple switching to Intel, comes the news that Debian 3.1 "Sarge" is the new stable!

Nice "up to date" (for Debian, anyway ) packages include GNOME 2.8, Firefox 1.0.4, Thunderbird 1.0.2, OpenOffice.org 1.1.3, and kernel 2.4.27.

Quite an amazing day, today is.

05:35 PM by Chaos in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

After much speculation, Apple and Intel have announced that they will be beginning to use Intel processors in Macs within the next two years.

Apple previewed a version of its critically acclaimed operating system, Mac OS® X Tiger, running on an Intel-based Mac® to the over 3,800 developers attending CEO Steve Jobs' keynote address. Apple also announced the availability of a Developer Transition Kit, consisting of an Intel-based Mac development system along with preview versions of Apple's software, which will allow developers to prepare versions of their applications which will run on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

This widely-circulated piece of news has included pieces on The Register, Slashdot, Macslash, and Engadget.

Personally, I may consider going back to a PC, next computer I buy, and use Linux or *BSD, depending on how well or badly Apple pulls this off. Other people have also expressed some doubt as to how well this may work for Apple.

10:49 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

One feature that makes RIM's Blackberry so very special is its direct e-mail push technology -- and Microsoft is now planning to incorporate this feature into the forthcoming Windows Mobile 5.0 release. Earlier today, Microsoft announced the Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile 5.0, a software based on wireless features coming in Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2.

The feature pack includes Direct Push Technology, which keeps the business user's Outlook Mobile up to date by delivering information quickly and directly to a Windows Mobile-based device from Exchange Server, without requiring businesses to pay for additional and costly servers or middleware.

[via Engadget]

10:04 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

United Airlines will be the first carrier in the US to offer in-flight broadband access via WiFi. NYT writes today that the airline received approval from regulators to install wireless Internet networks on its planes. It won't be until late 2006 when passengers will be able to check e-mail, send instant messages and surf the Web at 30,000 feet. Unlike its competitors like Lufthansa, United is not going to use Boeing's Connexion technology to offer the service. Instead, the airline will build upon its existing phone network:

United's Wi-Fi system will piggyback on its existing onboard phone network, which is operated in a partnership with Verizon. Data will be transmitted to and received from the planes through towers on the ground.

No information has been given how this network compares to Connexion regarding pricing and capacity.

12:19 AM by pruss in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I've made a much easier to use and install font converter for my shareware FontSmoother OS5 antialiased font utility (http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?xyz=90288). This is a Windows only program for Win98 and up. Uses Windows-based hinting. It's pretty slow--I apologize and might eventually optimize a little. Quality is superb, though, and usability is MUCH higher than PalmFontConv. Includes source code, is free, etc.

http://palmgear.com/index.cfm?prodID...rREF=&siteid=1