06:31 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

Fiction author Scott Sigler today released EarthCore - the world's first podcast-only novel. Unlike other e-books and paper books, you can't find this one in stores, you can't download the full audio, and the only way to find out what happens is to subscribe to the podcast. Sigler will release an hour of audio each week, creating a format similar to weekly television suspense shows with continuing storylines, such as "24" and "Battlestar Galactica."

Click here to download the prologue, first podcast out of the total of 20.

Synopsis:
Deep below a desolate Utah mountain lies the largest platinum deposit ever discovered. A billion-dollar find, it waits for any company that can drill a world's record mine shaft, three miles under the surface. EarthCore is the company with the technology, the resources and the guts to go after the mother lode. Young executive Connell Kirkland is the company's driving force, pushing himself and those around him to uncover the massive treasure. But at three miles below the surface, where the rocks are so hot they burn bare skin, something has been waiting for centuries. Waiting ... and guarding. Kirkland and EarthCore are about to find out first-hand why this treasure has never been unearthed.

06:20 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

You can now download the final version of WebIS Mail 2.1, without question the best e-mail client for Pocket PC handhelds. 2.1 adds tons of new features including support for secure connections (SSL), full VGA, Gmail, and IMAP.

If you were lucky enough to catch the Handango freebie last December, you can still use this major upgrade for free!

05:53 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Imran sent word to us that OnVerge Labs has released InfiniFile for Palm after there has been a short delay. InfiniFile provides access to virtually unlimited audio and video files, Palm programs and related data stored on a PC, over a WiFi or Bluetooth network connection.

To Palm apps, InfiniFile looks like an additional multi-gigabyte memory card. In other words, you can now access your files stored on a desktop directly as if they were present locally on your handheld.

Regrettably, according to the manual, Tungsten T5 is currently not supported!

InfiniFile retails for US$39.95 and you can download a 14-day trial version. The server program, InfiniServer, is available free - and requires Windows (sorry Mac guys). As a big thanks to our community, OnVerge is offering a 20% discount for the first 14 days.

05:33 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Linux Journal runs a tutorial explaining how you can set up a Bluetooth network between your palmOne Treo 650 device and a Linux machine. One step closer to bringing your Palm to Linux

The Treo 650 runs Palm OS 5, which works rather nicely with GNU/Linux providing you have the proper kernel modules and applications available. A lot of material already exists on how to set up a virtual serial port, so the Bluetooth setup is the main focus of this article.

05:24 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Just a few days after we brought the scoop, user "anonymous" posted a cool Windows Mobile 2005 walk-through over at PocketNow. Lot's of screenshots and interesting information.

The reviewers conclusion:
"While this new Windows Mobile operating system is obviously still under development, why not give Microsoft some feedback on it's current state? I was hoping that a Bluetooth headset would be able to activate Voice Command 1.5 in this version, however there's no indication that this will be possible. I hope the final version of Windows Mobile 2005 changes this. It's good to see that there will be persistent storage in future devices now. Then there will be less reason to keep current backups of your data. We're still missing any way to manage emails like we could in the old days of Windows CE Inbox Transfer. Yep, there's still no way to transfer draft emails between your Windows Mobile device and Outlook. The new one-handed user interface is excellent and will surely make smaller screened devices easier to use. This version of the OS could certainly be used in both Smartphones and Pocket PC Phones. The lines are blurred significantly."

11:27 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

In the next few months we can expect mobile devices featuring Toshiba's tiny new 0.85 inch hard 4Gb drive. Does anyone know how a mini-hdd compares to flash memory battery-wise? There is still a lot of talk about if and how web design should take mobile devices into account (it definitely should, and I know Mobileread.com still needs to improve its mobile support!). Sam sent us note this morning that eReader has a $5 discount for e-book newbies (and for experts alike if you enter code NEWBIE at the checkout). And don't forget March 31st when PalmSource is announcing its Q3 2005 earnings!

• Toshiba's 4GB 0.85 Inch Hard Drive in April [gizmodo.com]
• Send driving directions to your phone [lifehacker.com]
• Web Design Hampers Mobile Internet? [hardware.slashdot.org]
• $5 off initial purchase at eReader [palmaddict.typepad.com]
• Report notes growth of malicious code targeting mobile devices [windowsfordevices.com]
• Paper Chases Digital [forbes.com]
• Mobile web browsing: Will software or the internet adapt? [pocketpctools.com]
• PalmSource, Inc. Earnings Call scheduled for Thu, Mar 31 [biz.yahoo.com]
• Google's Library Up and Running [slashdot.org]

12:38 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Looks like a reader from PalmAddicts heard me talking about my new gadget toy. 3-Lib has assembled a list of useful tips for Nokia 9500 Communicator users. For instance, one of the tips involves changing the settings of the included Opera browser to make web surfing more speedy. Another useful article explains how you can convert DVD movies to an XviD-encoded AVI file for the Nokia. I will have definitely something to play with for the next few days!

12:18 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

I've received a nice e-mail from John informing me that Litefeeds (a project by John Goodall and Darren Inouye of Webpost Enterprises) has gone public. Litefeeds looks very much like a light version of Bloglines. But here is the kick: Once you've subscribed to (or imported) your favorite feeds, you download a stand-alone Java (J2ME) application and install it on your Java-enabled mobile device (Blackberry is also supported). This application works as a gateway and downloads your selected feeds from the Litefeed server which are cached, compressed and stripped of unneeded HTML code.

I tried to add one of our feeds, but the Litefeeds server timed out in the progress. Keeping in mind this service is still in beta, I'll try it again in a couple of days and see how it works with my new Nokia Communciator 9500