09:20 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Research analysts at Canalys Ltd. conclude that converged devices (smart phones and wireless handhelds) are driving the growth of the mobile device market with Symbian OS representing a total market share of 60%. Some key points:

• Overall global shipments of smart mobile devices up 82% year on year in Q1 2005;
• Handhelds down 6%, but converged devices (smart phones and wireless handhelds) up 137%;
• Nokia ships 5.4 million smart phones to give it 50% market share;
• PalmOne growth slows to 1%, lead over RIM and HP shrinks;
• Fujitsu becomes second largest provider of Symbian-based handsets.

Regarding PalmOne the reports states that handheld shipments fell 27%, but this was counterbalanced by the continued success of the company's Treo smart phones in the US. Around 40% of palmOne’s device shipments are now accounted for by Treo smart phones, up from 17% a year earlier.

08:58 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

You knew it was only a matter of time until those damned hackers would find a new playground. The Standard is citing McAfee according to whom Hackers are now concentrating on phishing scams, exploiting vulnerabilities, as well as on mobile phone viruses:

Criminals are also discovering new possibilities with mobile devices. Mobile viruses, which until recently seemed an unrealized threat, are now on the move, McAfee said. While the company detected five mobile malware threats in the fourth quarter of last year, that number now stands at 50, it said. However, mobile attacks won't grow as rapidly as computer threats because of the variety of operating systems and the fact that devices are only intermittently connected to the Internet, Gullotto said.

Of course we know it better and are well aware of the fact that many Virii writers are working hand in hand with anti-virus companies. Some conspiracy theorists even claim that Virii writers are hired by them. I wouldn't be surprised.

11:29 AM by Chaos in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

According to this article on Brighthand, Dell has several plans for the Axim over the next two years.

First, no more X30. According to the article, it will be discontinued in the next few months. Second, the X50 supposedly will be getting an upgrade later in the year, most likely involving WM2005. Third, in the middle of 2006, Dell will supposedly be replacing the X50 with a smartphone.

In mid-2006, Dell intends to introduce its first cellular-wireless handheld.

This model will be targeted at business users, and Dell will emphasize its communications and productivity features.

This device will replace the Axim X50 series.

Nothing else about this handheld is known at this time, including what it will be called.

09:28 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I found this tool at PalmAddicts and it might prove useful to anyone who is switching from Palm OS to Pocket PC: PocketCopy V2.0 from Chapura software copies all your Palm OS contact and calendar data from Palm Desktop to Outlook.

Click here for more details.

09:11 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | iSilo/X

It didn't take long for Darren to release the next beta of iSilo and iSiloX V4.26. It is mainly a bugfix release for the previous beta 2.

Highlights of version 4.26:

• Support for the Motorola A1000 and Motorola A925 in iSilo for Symbian UIQ.
• Added support for id attributes in all elements as link
• Added support for displaying images of input elements.
• Addressing of miscellaneous issues.

If you are new to iSilo make sure to visit this thread for more information.

08:44 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Formats | Workshop

One reason I dislike the PDF format intensely is because it is so difficult to convert it to another format. Most PDF tools that advertise a 1:1 document conversion usually fail as soon as the document in question is somewhat more complex. PdfGrabber 2.0 is new on the market and claims to perfectly convert PDF documents into various other formats, including Excel, RTF and XML. There is a standard (68,10 EUR) and a professional (102,59 EUR) version available; the latter allows you to also convert multi-column PDF content.

You can download the trial which randomly inserts the letter "X" into exported documents.

[via Golem.de]

08:21 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

AlbertC informed us that the Real Academia Española, the reference body of the Spanish language, is launching this week a mobile edition of its flagship Diccionario de la Real Academia (DRAE) for handheld computers and cell phones. They are selling the e-book in the Mobipocket format (11MB) for 20 Euros.

Read more at CanalPDA (Spanish)

07:54 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

C|Net has a quick write up of Microsoft's plans to work on a new type of portable device with a 6-inch screen - "a tiny tablet computer as thin as 10 sheets of paper with a camera, a battery that lasts all day and a price of about $800."

Don't expect this device to reach the market any time soon. According to the article the commercial release will still take at least a year or two after the arrival of Windows Longhorn (the successor of Windows XP set for release sometime next year).