08:53 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

In a press release Boeing announced yesterday that it will offer four live TV channels to airline passengers on Singapore Airlines flights using Connexion, its in-flight wireless Internet service. The live channels include: BBC World Service, CNBC, MSNBC, and EuroNews.

While Singapore Airlines will be first to offer the TV service, Connexion hopes to expand TV to the rest of its airlines partners including Lufthansa and Japan Airlines over the next year.

[via WIFi Networking]

08:10 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

In the forth part of his essay "Moving from Palm to PocketPC" (part one, part two, part three) TankerBob talks about his recent Dell Axim X50 ROM update, and the update, syncing and backup processes between Palm and Pocket PC:

Pocket PC has often been labeled as less stable than Palm OS. I can’t speak to any PPC OS other than Windows Mobile 2003 SE on the Axim X50v. But so far in my experience, the two platforms seem of equivalent stability. That’s very good news. The multi-tasking in WM2003SE makes stability more difficult to achieve, but it seems to work pretty well. I’m far from the average user in terms of stressing the system, and things have been going pretty well here. The A03 firmware update improved the Bluetooth and WiFi memory usage and stability, the only two consistent issues I’d had. I can honestly say that I haven’t soft reset the Axim any more often than I reset the T3.

If you are willing to make the transition, remember to also check out Bob's related essays (I Took The Plunge, PalmOS to Pocket PC: Part I - Intro and PalmOS to Pocket PC: Part II - Conversion).

06:39 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

You now can get the newest 247 Weekly in html, isilo and PalmDoc format.

Issue 3 of 247 Weekly is now available to download or read online. Various topics in it this week but you will just have to read it yourself to find out what

05:29 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

It's not a secret that we from MobileRead consider Digital Rights Management (DRM) a major step backwards in terms of basic consumer rights. Barney Wragg from Universal Music Group disagrees with us and he even believes that DRM could offer bountiful opportunities for his company and the music industry as a whole. Check out his interview with TheFeature, where he talks about the mobile industry, P2P, and the need for DRM technology.

04:55 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Using a digital mobile phone in rural areas may triple the risk of developing malignant or benign brain tumours compared to urban settings, according to a recent study by University Hospital in Orebro. The cause of the increased risk seems to be the higher emissions from the phones in rural areas because the base stations were further apart than they would be in cities and towns. Adding to that, emissions can also be higher in urban areas where reception is poor, and this too can increase the tumour risk.

Not surprisingly phone operators do not agree with the results of the study. BBC News, who is running the story, quotes Mike Dolan, executive director of the Mobile Operators Association saying:

"At best this study is hypothesis generating. "Its findings are not in line with the most recent epidemiological studies from Denmark and Sweden which have not found an association between brain tumours and mobile phone use."

03:43 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The Register reviewed PalmOne's Treo 650 which was recently released in the UK. They gave it an overall grade of 90%, with the following verdict:

• Pros: Great screen; Bluetooth on board; nifty keyboard; removable battery; good battery life; Flash memory to safeguard data.
• Cons: No Wi-Fi; ungenerous amount of memory; not the slimmest smart phone around.

12:19 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

It has been released. The official product page is at http://store.palmone.com/product/ind...ductId=1999092

There's excellent information at Palm Addicts, including a very nice editorial from Sammy. I don't remember him ever being this excited about a new Palm model, and his enthusiasm has just about got me sold on one.

PalmInfocenter has a very nice story on it.

1src is linking to a nice German review of LifeDrive. You'll need to use something like Altavista translation to read it in English.

Brighthand is not yet reporting about the LifeDrive, but will certainly have one of the most thorough reviews soon.

Cnet also has coverage.

This is breaking news, so I'm sure that this week will bring all kinds of additional information. One final note if you're ready to buy. PalmOne is offering free overnight shipping for those that just have to have one now!

If you get one, let us know what you think!

09:00 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

There's a very interesting thread over at the Palm Addicts forum. (Yes, I know, we do mention Palm Addicts very often. Get used to it -- they are both an incredible site and good friends to MobileRead!)

Here's the question posted by jvburdick today...

I have been trying to decided whether or not to purchase the lifedrive and make it the upgrade to my Tungsten E. As I looked at the T5 and the rumored specs of the lifedrive, I thought to myself has the PDA plateaued? The lifedrive adds more space and built in wifi, but where will the PDA go from here? What else can be added to the PDA to keep it going strong? It would now seem that all possible features have been added in the lifedrive (i.e. dual wireless, huge storage space, etc). PDAs becoming smartphones would be the inevitable next step. So what do you think, are the mobile managers going to save PDAs or will PDAs just become smartphones?

I am so excited about the future of PDAs that I cannot help but comment on this question. It's a great question because it seems to be a common thought in the PDA world these days. But I have great news for all of us... we've only just begun, and the best is yet to come. In fact, my biggest worry about buying a LifeDrive is not that it's the end of the line, but that it's starting something great and if I buy now I'll miss out later. There's only so many times I'm willing to open my wallet. Isn't that always the quandry of a tech buyer -- you always feel like you need to wait because something better is just around the corner!

Well, I would go so far as to say that PDAs are much more than not mature, but that they are even still in that exciting birth stage. I'd compare it to the stage that PCs were in when you had the Commodore 64 and the TRS-80 and the AppleII. The good stuff has just begun.

Let me give you a glimpse of what the future might bring. In the short run, maybe a clamshell LifeDrive with a keyboard and 40gig hard drive. But in the long run, there's no limit!

Consider what will happen if you add low-power consumption, thin and spectacular life-like displays. Consider maybe a screen projection from your pda. Imagine it being cheap and powerful and as thin as you want. Imagine when you can carry a Terrabyte on it instead of 4gig.

Think about when there is a cell phone in it (or something like Skype that uses data connectivity instead of phone service providers), and you don't have to sacrifice anything in the PDA specs or size to have it. Consider when you're always connected because data plans or wifi-like technologies are available ubiquitously, and for small costs. Consider when new battery technologies mean that you don't have to worry about how bright you turn up your screen or whether your bluetooth or wifi is on. Consider when it's actually easy to use a PDA because the OS and apps are so good. Consider when the processor is so fast that no matter what you are doing, it happens just as fast as you can tell it what to do -- no more sluggishness or delays.

How exciting when PDAs are also able to be terminals running server software somewhere else, and controlling your PC. (Yes, we even see the beginnings of this sort of thing now already.) With connectivity and fast networks, your PDA will give you effectively unlimited computing power and data resources in the palm of your hand.

No, I don't think PDAs have reached a plateau. I think they're just beginning to show their potential!