08:38 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Has anyone noticed that the news has been really supercharged recently? It's delightful! Palm Addict seems to be on a roll, in particular, even when you thought they were pretty much perfect already. When you're looking for Palm items with a friendly touch, don't forget to keep an on them!

As you probably know, we believe at MobileRead that there's room for everyone in the world of mobile computing news and thoughts. Palm Addict, PDA 24/7, Brighthand, Pocket PC Thoughts, 1Src, and PalmInfocenter are some of my own PDA-related favorites, but there are many more out there.

It's a cooperative success, where everyone has their niche with a unique style and perspective on the news. Nothing less than a bonanza for anyone looking for information and discussion.

Plus, don't forget you can keep up on many sites directly from the RSS feeds on the left-hand side of our own front page. Happy reading!

08:31 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Laridian Electronic Publishing, makers of MyBible software is selling a tool called BookBuilder to create MyBible documents with native compatibility. Specifically, you get to create your own HTML tags and then convert the document into the native format allowing fast search, bookmarks, and addition of your own notes.

It is offered for both Palm and PocketPC, but it's hard to tell if they are separate products. They look the same to me in the pictures.

Product pages are: PocketPC BookBuilder and PalmOS BookBuilder.

(via Palm Addict)

05:40 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

A very nice history of PDAs by Evan Koblentzcan be found here.

The purpose of this document is to be a comprehensive timeline of the history of PDAs. Specifically, my intention is to clarify which companies premiered each of the primary front-end features that are considered standard in modern devices, as of the mid/late-1990s commoditization trend. So this is not a discussion of back-end technologies such as architectures, chips, programming interfaces, and speeds. By "premiered" I mean "first to actually include the technology in a relevant product," not necessarily the actual inventors of each technology. For example, it is almost impossible to know who invented the first miniature keyboard; similarly the invention of handwriting recognition technology goes back several decades. But we can say with near certainty which were the first handheld devices to include these technologies. It is the gathering of all these first-of-breed offerings that together created modern handhelds.

This research is an ongoing project of mine that began in 2001...

03:57 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

What's your experience and attitude towards loss of data on your PDA? Let us know in this attached poll.

PDAs hold our most important data. We often talk about them holding our "life" in them. We enter notes and appointments and contact information that we can't afford to lose.

But on the other hand, there are increasing numbers of complaints about PDAs crashing and requiring hard resets (with loss of data). Even soft resets will probably lose whatever you were working on at the time, or make it impossible to capture whatever you were trying to enter.

And there's the dreaded failure of internal Flash ROM and/or external SD cards. I've experienced these failures (along with loss of data, and one card warranty replacement) at least 6 times in about six months. Personally, I don't trust my PDA anymore, but I'm hooked so I still use it!

05:00 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you receive a lot of calls from abroad and if you happen to be a Treo 600 or 650 owner, you may want to try TreoAreaCodes. It is a small utility that shows the caller's country/state location, his area map, and more (all of this given that his number is transmitted, of course).

A trial is available, the full version hasn't been released yet.

[via WM247]

10:28 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

I've been visiting the Palm Addicts forum recently and find a lot of interesting things there. The ebook vs real book discussion has been especially good. For example, this post by Paul Biba about Fictionwise having electronic subscriptions for some science fiction magazines...

There is one thing about ebooks that most people don't know about - magazine subscriptions! I love ebooks and read quite a lot of them, but to me magazines are wonderful ebook material. Fictionwise (www.fictionwise.com) has subscriptions to Asimov's, Analog, and Fantasy and Sicence Fiction magazines. I get a new issue "delivered" every month and have a little surprise every 30 days. I used to subscribe to the paper editions, but unlike books I always discarded them. As they are disposable I don't feel guilty when I delete them, and in some ways the ebook fom is better because I can always find the orginal copy back on the server in my library. When I had "real" copies if I threw it away it was gone forever. Fictionwise also has subscriptions to mystery magazines, so if you are a magazine reader - take a look.

Another good reason for ebooks is that they are an excellent source of out-of-print books. I am a Richard Burton fan, for example. Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890) was an English explorer, who, among other things, was the first "white" man to enter Mecca - he went in disguise as an Arab. All his books are out of print, including his monumental 16 volume translation of the Arabian Nights. Blackmask, however, (www.blackmask.com) has released all of this works on their site and they are now available again. All the Blackmask ebooks are free, so if you want classics or out-of-print works take a look over there. (By the way, I have noticed a number of sites charging for classic ebooks when the same books are available for free from Blackmask. Always check there first.)

I'm not a big SciFi fan anymore, but I do think I'll check out Sir Richard Burton.

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

Feast your eyes on some of the discussions from this week at MobileRead...

Announcements
Happy 1st Anniversary to Us!
PDA247 Interview with Bob Russell

Browsers
Light ahead for a mobileOK Web?

Current E-Books Trends
70% Of Readers Ready To Buy Electronic Books
Excellent E-Book Blog and Interviews
Experiment how Tablet PC could replace school textbooks

E-Book Readers
Sony Librie first inofficial English firmware patch
Taiwanese acquire Philips' e-paper unit
UltraThin E-Ink for PDAs and E-Books

E-Book Webstores
Adobe's e-book store shuts down

General Chat
Macinstosh Dashboard Opens Security Vulnerabilities
More "Addict Sites" Coming Soon
New 'Nuclear Battery' Runs 10 Years, 10 Times More Powerful
PDA Market Falls On May 10, 2005
Threat of mobile viruses just scaremongering tactic?

iSilo/X
iSilo/X 4.26 released

Link Swap
How to crack WEP - step-by-step guide

New Links
Google Local Search UK for mobile

Other E-Book Resources
Online Books at Literature Network
PDA24/7 Ebook Reviews

Other Gadgets
Blackberry in a jam?
Mobilis mini computer from Encore (India)
SanDisk 1 GB Extreme III SD Card reviewed

Other Readers
CHM eBook Reader 2.4 for Pocket PC

Palm
Editorial: PalmOne Is Still An Innovator, But Nobody Realizes It
FontSmoother 1.40 released with gamma adjustment
Free WiFi Card with Palm T5
Full PalmOne Lifedrive details
Is the Treo the perfect blueprint for the future?
NewsFlash: LifeDrive Leaked by Laptop Magazine
PalmAddict debuts new forum - contest held soon!
PalmOne planning to create new category of mobile devices
Tiny DAs: Flipper, StatBar, RotateDA, ToggleFS
Treo 650 tops them all, says BusinessWeek author

Pocket PC
ActiveSync 4.0 Developer Preview available
Dell and HP to offer Windows Mobile 5.0 updates
FeederReader: Podcasts and RSS on Pocket PC
Get all the scoop on MEDC2005
Hitchhiker 0.1 - free WiFi hotspot finder for Pocket PC
Lots of hand-picked Windows Mobile 5.0 quick bits
No Windows Mobile 5.0 upgrade for smartphones?
Switching from PalmOne T|T3 to HP iPaq hx2755
The world (i.e. Hooters) in the palm of your hand
Windows Mobile 5.0 - the official unveiling

Portable Audio/Video
Apple iTunes Mobile 1.0 arriving in July '05

09:03 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

How often do we hear about new wonderful display technologies for mobile computing? Heads up displays that you wear like glasses. The perfect new paper-thin display for pdas and ebooks. Bright, but tiny screen projection that fits into pdas.

We've heard it all. But when will it be in our pockets and purses? Always disappointed, but never giving up hope.

But is the wait finally over? I saw an article today in PlanetEbook and my heart lept in excitement. What a wonderful thing...

E Ink has announced the development of world's thinnest active-matrix displays and recently demonstrated the technology at the Society for Information Display Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition, in Boston, Massachusetts. The company has shown two prototype displays, one (1.6 inch diagonal, 80 ppi) for small devices like cell phones, the other (240x160 pixel, 96ppi) for slightly larger handheld devices like PDAs and eBook readers.
...
"These displays represent an ideal solution. They offer not only the great ink-on-paper look of electronic ink, but begin to take on the form and utility of paper with ultra-thin, flexible structures and ultra-low power," said Dr. Dan Button, vice president of Business Development at E Ink.

Some of the highlights of this wonderful technology are:
* Only uses power for screen updates
* 90% thinner than LCD displays
* Can be placed on curved surfaces
* Less fragile

It is already real -- it has been included in an existing 1cm thick ebook reader prototype with a 7" display, expected to cost about $300. And two additional prototypes were shown a year after that.

And you know for sure that it's coming to market soon when the VP of Research and Development says it's "compatible with existing display production technology, cutting years off time-to-market!" Right?

Only one small problem... the article is from June, 2002. And the prototype was made in 2001! Promises, promises, promises.

Surely it will eventually come, but I suppose all that display technology will continue to tease us for quite a while. Thank heaven for our good old LCD active matrix displays!