07:00 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

03:49 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?

01:53 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Did you know that the Microsoft Windows Mobile Team has a blog? Granted, it looks like it's really aimed at developers, but you might find something interesting there anyway.

One very interesting post is a nice list of mobile friendly sites.

[Edit: And you can search for some cool stuff here also!]

11:30 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

A Happy Birthday to our long-term editor and good friend zire71man! I am sure to speak for everyone at MobileRead when I say that we have greatly enjoyed your company ever since you became a member in 2003.

Thanks for being with us and all the best for your future!

08:33 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmAddicts has some interesting facts on the forthcoming mini-Tablet PC (we reported) by Microsoft:

"As laptop PCs, especially tablet PCs, get smaller and PDAs get bigger where will they meet. The "Ruby" prototype presented at the IDF Japan 2005 provides one answer. Running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition it packs a 600mhz Pentium M and a 5" LCD into a 450g (about 1 pound) package. Those who read Japanese can find out more at Nottes.com.

08:26 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PocketGamer (via PocketGaming.de) reports that the Ukrainian developer n0p managed to port WarCraft Stratagus and Wargus to the Windows Mobile platform. The port runs both on QVGA and VGA devices.

To actually play WarCraft II on your Pocket PC, you also need to have (legal) access to the original WarCraft II (DOS edition) graphic and sound files.

08:17 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

The BlackBerry thumb is what orthopedists refer to the increasing amount of carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis caused by the overuse of mobile devices (especially those with tiny keyboards). First the area between your thumb and wrist begin to throb, and in more severe cases you are forced by chronic pain to put your device down.

The Washington Post writes:

Workplace injuries in white-collar jobs have grown with the widespread use of mobile communications technology. It used to be that worker's compensation was reserved mostly for blue-collar workers who smashed fingers in heavy machinery or fell off ladders. Factory workers complained for years of what were then mysterious ailments -- carpal tunnel, tendinitis and "trigger finger." Today, those injuries have spread across cubicle-land.

To avoid from this kind of injury, you should try to hold your device properly (keep your wrists in a more upright position), take more breaks, and write fewer and shorter notes and messages.

01:55 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Here's a very cool development from Apple. Think Secret reports that iTunes Mobile 1.0, the first version of iTunes for mobile devices, is on track for release by June 2005. iTunes Mobile is a joint-venture product of Apple and Motorola. The required Motorola phone (yes you need one of these to take advantage of iTunes) is scheduled for release in the second-half of the year. The main problem until now was finding a mobile carrier who would be willing or capable of providing the iTunes service:

Cell phone companies, including Verizon, Cingular, and Sprint, are planning on rolling out music download services later this year, according to a recent BusinessWeek story, and want to charge $2 to $3 a song, justifying the premium over Apple's normal 99-cent price by the convenience of grabbing a tune whenever one pleases. Apple instead wants customers to copy purchased songs from their computer to the phone for playback, and does not favor direct purchases over a cell phone provider's network.