03:22 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

SanDisk's MobileMate line consists of two tiny, portable card readers which are compatible with various flash formats; each reader retails for $16.00 USD.

* MobileMate SD+ 5-in-1 Reader: SD, miniSD, MultiMediaCard, RS-MMC, TransFlash
* MobileMate Memory Stick+ 4-in-1 Reader: Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO, and Memory Stick PRO Duo.

[via Mother Digital]

03:12 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

At PalmAddicts I stumbled today over PalmFiction, a free and open-source document reader for Palm OS-based devices. Although the project homepage is entirely in Russian, the download also includes English resource files.

I have no idea how it compares to other open-source e-book readers such as Plucker.

02:57 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

With PocketGear's "All-Access Pass", you can purchase any item and receive a 15% discount. All you have to do is use the code PGPASS at checkout.

Hurry, the special ends sometime tonight!

02:50 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Russell Beattie is pointing out in a recent editorial how surfing the Net with a mobile browser can be an excruciatingly horrendous experience. We all know that on a mobile device typing is more difficult, airtime has cost, the screen is smaller, and everything is just slower; yet, most website developers seem to happily ignore their mobile visitors and to instead focus on cumbersome, slow-to-load and flashy web design. In Russell's words:

What's wrong with them? Well, first is the content: Most of it is truncated down to just snippets of information. Why? I click on my mobile web browser, I wait 30 real-world seconds for it to connect and grab information. Finally it's there and what do I see? One paragraph of a story which tells me only the bare-minimum of information, or worse, a page of links for me to choose from so I can wait *another* 30 real-world seconds to get to some info. Great. I wouldn't have pulled out my phone to read a mobile website unless I had 20 or 30 minutes on my hands (I'm getting an oil change or I'm on the bus, etc.). I'm bored. I'm trapped. Entertain me, don't frustrate me!

Entertaining read, and he is so right! Time for a mobile revolution, don't you think?

02:17 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Sunrise

Sunrise 0.41k has been released and beside two bugfixes (for invalid HotSync destinations and a New Item Wizard glitch) it offers one new feature: Scrapbook parsing. Scrapbook is a Firefox extension which helps you to save Web pages and easily manage collections. Sunrise can now parse the Scrapbook index file and generate a table of contents with links. For further instruction visit Laurens' site.

Download from Palmgear.

If you are new to Sunrise, click here to find out more about its top-notch features for website offline conversion.

02:03 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Now that DVD players are common in cars, are personal computers next? According to Bob Keefe from the NYT, Intel has a prototype mini computer (with the size of a "hardcover novel") that folds down from a vehicle's ceiling allowing back-seat passengers to watch DVDs, play video games, listen to digital music and wirelessly surf the Internet. What makes Intel's invention attractive is that you can also detach the PC and use it inside and outside the car.

Phil Magney, president of Telematics Research Group Inc., predicts that in-car computers could become common within the next five years. That would match the growth curve of car DVD players, now installed in more than 3 million vehicles worldwide, according to the research company. "Any embedded entertainment system five years from now will likely have a hard drive, a wireless receiver and WiFi" wireless Internet connectivity, Magney said. "That's where all these systems are headed."

It's easy to appreciate how this technology could enhance your lifestyle whether for business, pleasure or both. Soon, you won't need to leave the benefits of WiFi at home or the office. There will be no more excuses for not answering your e-mails.

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

Welcome to another digest entry of MobileRead, where we transform the profound into the bite-sized.

µBook
New version of µbook available (0.9d)

Announcements
Database troubles
Happy Birthday zire71man!

Avantgo
AvantGo for Blackberry preview available

Current E-Books Trends
Could pirates turn e-books into mainstream?
Current E-Book market just a ghetto of p*rn?
E-books could be a blessing (says HarperCoolinsCanada)
Word against Google's digitization of books

E-Book Readers
Bookeen announces the Cybook at 399$
Sony LIBRIe LE for Window 1.2 released

General Chat
"BlackBerry thumb" syndrome affecting mobile users
AP News Begins Charging Web News Providers
Cable TV Displays "Illegal Operation" Error Message
Daily Gadget Hacked
Ebook Reading with WAP
Prepare for the Mobile OS war
Reminder: MobileRead Newsfeeds

Link Swap
The Annotated NY Times

New Links
Loband.org - free proxy for mobile devices

Other E-Book Resources
Books We Like - tag and review books

Other Gadgets
"Ruby" Tablet PC / Pocket PC bybrid - a converged PDA?
Poll:Will PDAs be Relevant when Desktops Fit in Your Pocket?
PowerPoint presentations on a BlackBerry
The perfect mobile display

Palm
Core Pocket Media Player (tcmp) for Palm OS reviewed
Palm completely irrelevant in the mobile market
PalmOne to strengthen business in Asia-Pacific region
Sony Clie VZ90 Palm OS reviewed
Space Trader V1.2.1 for Palm OS released

Pocket PC
Dell Axim X50(v) A03 ROM update
Great Resource: Pocket PC Magazine
Inofficial WarCraft II port for Pocket PC
Mini-Mozilla user forum
Modular Windows Mobile Handheld Announced
MS preparing new mobile IM client
Pocket UFO 1.15 released
Updates from Resco (Explorer, Photo Viewer)
Windows Mobile is the most predictable development platform
Windows Mobile Team Blog at MSDN

Portable Audio/Video
Apple iTunes Mobile 1.0 arriving soon
Future Glimpse: MP3 Database on PDAs
Mvisto Pocket Media Player reviewed
Review: Cowon iAUDIO M3 20 gig DAP

Smartphones
Nokia 9500 Communicator long-term review

WiFi / Bluetooth Technologies
Orb Streaming - a positive account

02:49 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

Brad is spilling out his thoughts on the literary quality of e-books. Under his impression, most e-books currently published can be only compared to 25cent novels from the 1950s and 60s.

I think ebooks right now are in that same market ghetto as direct to video movies are and direct to paperback books used to be not so long ago. In fact the entire paperback publishing industry got it's start publishing erotica (for travelers, heh) and lurid subculture pulps, as well as pulp science fiction, crime and mystery novels (neither of those genres were considered as respectable as they are today).

Au contraire. If you look at eReader's Bestsellers, you find that most e-books published are either from mainstream hardcover or paperback editions. Then again, Brad, what do you expect to find when you are browsing for one hour the p*rn section of an e-book retailer?