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

05:59 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Shares of N.J.-based Audible Inc, the industry-leader in sales of audio books, dropped by 12.9 percent last Friday when Amazon asked publishers of audiobooks for a new download store the company says it plans to open. No launch date has been named, nor would Amazon comment how it would affect its partnership with Audible (Amazon is a shareholder of Audible).

[via LISNews]

05:40 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Did you ever run out of battery power right when you needed it most? Well, California-based Tekkeon promises to deliver an all-in-one solution with the myPower ALL MP 3300, a single lightweight rechargeable battery to extend the play time on mobile devices including portable DVD players, notebooks, digicams, MP3 players (full list of supported devices). It can be used not only to power a device, but also to simultaneously recharge the device battery.

Find out more at Softpedia.

05:24 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

I have to admit that I am intrigued by the idea of watching TV and DVD movies on the go. My Dell Axim X50v running BetaPlayer did a sufficiently good job for me -- until today, when I saw this latest offering by Archos. The Archos AV 700 Mobile DVR comes with a 7" widescreen display offering 480x234 pixel resolution and TV output. While the resolution is below VGA, the big widescreen does make movies still look gorgeous. The unit is offered in two flavors, a 40GB version and a 100GB version. Cost is $799 for the 100GB model and $599 for the 40GB.

Files are recorded from TV, VCR, DVD player, and cable & satellite boxes in MPEG-4 SP with a resolution of up to 640x480 @ 30 f/s. Playback mode supports MPEG-4 SP with B-Frames (compatible with DivX 4.0 and 5.03) and near DVD quality up to 720x480 @ 30 f/s (NTSC), 720x576 @ 25 f/s (PAL), AVI file format (including WMV9 SP protected files) up to 352x288 @ 30 f/s and 800 Kbits.

Feature overview
Tech specs
3D demo
Comparison matrix

[via Slashdot.org]

07:15 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Jump ahead to Mike Rohde and read his personal comments on the fourth and final day of the PalmSource DevCon summit. He again met with various Palm celebrities, learned more about PalmSource Linux, and concluded:

Only time will tell how well PalmSource can parlay the Palm on Linux to developers and device makers and how their competition will react to the shift. However, at the very least, PalmSource and PalmOne (now Palm, Inc.) have some momentum and an opportunity in a forward, upward direction. I hope that each company can capitalize on the energy and excitement at DevCon, using it to innovate and provide opportunities for developers and great devices and solutions for us users.

07:06 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

One of the most unappreciated features of the new PalmOne LifeDrive is the slow startup times of its internal harddrive. LudusTech's SharkCache now comes to the rescue and claims to load applications up to 600% faster. It is some kind of software memory manager that allows you to select the applications you always want to have ready in SharkCache. You have three options:

• Nothing: Nothing does, well, nothing;
• LockCache: The application is always locked into cache on a reset. The effect is similar to having an app stored in RAM on an older Palm device (like a Tungsten T5). You only have up to 4MB of memory in which to store LockCached apps, so it's likely you run out of RAM fast using this method;
• TempCache: TempCache is the same as LockCache except that it doesn't lock the app in RAM and therefore doesn't permanently eat up LockCache's 4MB. The trade-off is that although the app is loaded at startup, it can be kicked out of RAM if the system sees fit.

Not an ideal solution but probably better than to stick to the long loading times.

[via PDA247 and PalmAddicts]

06:41 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Tim Lesher via Slashdot writes: "After years of denying the problem with bad backup capacitors, Palm is settling a class action suit. If you have a dead Palm m100, m105, or m125, fill out the paperwork, and send it in, Palm will replace it with a new unit. No word yet on with what they'll be replacing it with, but I can imagine there are a lot of pack-rat geeks like me with one or more dead PDAs stashed away in a box."

Looking a bit closer at the settlement, it is clear that PalmOne is not giving out shiny new LifeDrives, but will replace the broken units with "new" or refurbed m1xx handhelds. In addition, the replacement is limited to one per address.

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

Missed some of our big mobile stories this week? Time to catch up:

Avantgo
What AvantGo channels do you have?

Current E-Books Trends
Creating eBooks Isn't So Hard After All

E-Book Readers
Seiko Epson unveils flexible e-paper for handhelds
Sony Librie wins Gold Award at SID 2005

E-Book Webstores
An E-Book "webstore" used for phishing?
eReader.com is expanding and forming new partnerships
Fictionwise 25% on MultiFormat e-books through June 2

General Chat
Google Print book search enhanced
Mobile RSS could be the next state of SMS

Link Swap
GreatNews - great & free RSS reader for Windows

Other Gadgets
Dedicated Nokia 770 blog launched
GoodLink firing a warning shot at BlackBerry

Other Readers
Wikipedia files with image support for TomeRaider

Palm
Best Palm game you have ever played
Continuing Coverage of PalmSource DevCon Still To Come!
Handango offers reduced handheld software to club members
Mike Rohde's Day 3 at PalmSource DevCon
Mike Rohde's PalmSource DevCon coverage
MyUAE 0.8 - Amiga emulator for Palm OS 5
PalmOne LifeDrive software compatibility list
Why PalmAddict stands out - my three reasons

Pocket PC
Dell Axim X50v $399 deal
Dell Axim X50v taken apart
E-Ten M600 Windows Mobile 5.0 phone in Q3 2005
Hitchhiker 0.2 - free WiFi hotspot finder for PPC
HTC Magician successor: HTC Wizard
HTC Universal Pocket PC first hands-on preview
HTC Universal Pocket PC more close-ups
Resco Viewer V5.32 and Explorer V5.15 updates
Virtual Pool Beta for Dell Axim X50v
WebIS discounts for Pocket Informant and more
Windows Mobile 5.0 Emulator install guide
WordNetCE V2.7 for PPC released

Portable Audio/Video
End of the Apple iPod fad?

WiFi / Bluetooth Technologies
New pairing hack seizes control over Bluetooth devices