04:48 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Hans from Newspaperindex was able to get hold of and scan the first omnibus newspaper ever published in Scandinavia from January 1749 (thanks Boing Boing!).

The newspaper is in very good condition since it was not printed on paper made from wood but from flax and cotton that can last for much longer time. It is kept inside a book in a privately owned historic library in the countryside in the snow covered hilly in East Jutland in Denmark. Only a handful of other copies are held in The Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen, but this is the first time the publication has been scanned and made public in the digital world. The newspaper has the title “Kjøbenhavnske Danske Post Tidender”, a few years after it changed name to Berlingske Tidende. This first edition had 8 pages and it was since printed twice a week.

Download the entire newspaper as pdf here (you better know gothic Danish to make any sense out of it!).

04:14 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Interesting comparison by Jeff from my favorite blog Writing On Your Palm:

Take a look at Apple. They have a small chunk of the market compared to HP, Dell, etc. but they're far more profitable. They design products that are clean, simple, easy to use and have a certain cool elegance. Their hardware is uninspiring on a spec sheet, but beautiful to see and wonderful to use.

The same could be said of PalmOne. Like an Apple Powerbook, the Tungsten T5 loses the "bag of features" comparison to competition from HP and Dell. But it's simpler, more elegant and can inspire fierce brand loyalty. It costs more than the Wintel competition for the power it delivers, but it's not all about features.

03:32 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Sunrise

To everyone who is desperate to hear more about Lauren's upcoming Sunrise Viewer, here is a small FAQ that should answer the most common questions (thanks Laurens!):

What makes your viewer different from other offline viewers like Plucker?
The viewer has dedicated support for newsfeeds. Essentially, it's a crossbreed between an RSS newsreader and an offline web viewer. You can mark items as read/unread/flagged or copy/move/delete them between archives. You are encouraged to use newsfeeds as much as possible, but you can still view documents with a "normal" web site structure.

Will your viewer support offline reading only?
Yes, the viewer will support offline reading only. A future version might have the ability to retrieve and convert sites through a WiFi or Bluetooth connection from the handheld, albeit with limited capabilities compared to the desktop converter.

When will your own viewer be released?
The first public beta will be made available in May, with the 1.0 release to follow in June. These dates are, of course, tentative.

How much will your viewer cost?
The price has not yet been determined, but it will certainly not deviate much from the norm for handheld software.

Will the desktop converter support non-Windows platforms?
Initially, the desktop converter will only support Windows, but Mac OS X and Linux versions further down the line are a possibility. This depends on user demand. At any rate, support for non-Windows platforms will be introduced only for the commercial viewer. There will be no freeware Sunrise versions supporting Plucker for Linux or Mac OS X.

Will your viewer be called "Sunrise"?
No, "Sunrise" was always meant to be only a working title. The final name has not yet been determined.

Will your viewer support the Plucker format?
No.

Will the desktop converter support the Plucker format?
No. Plucker support will be removed entirely.

Will the Sunrise version that supports Plucker be open-sourced?
No. You can continue to use the existing freeware versions that output Plucker documents, however.

11:22 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Looks like Paris Hilton got hacked again. Hiltonhacked.com claims to have images and other information that were stored on her Sidekick device.

T-Mobile was recently in the press when Nick Jacobsen, a 22 years old computer hacker penetrated the T-Mobile servers. He not only accessed Paris' account, but also downloaded information on secret service agents who were investigating him. Some more technical detail about the possible hack can be found here.

You would think that T-Mobile would have paid attention the first time it was hacked? Paris, time to get a new cell phone provider!

08:32 AM by doctorow in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The European release of palmOne's Treo 650 has been delayed until the second quarter of 2005, according to The Register:

Launched in the US in October 2004, the 650's European debut was initially pegged for February 2005, according to comments made at the time by Ed Colligan, the company's president and soon-to-be interim CEO.

However, PalmOne said yesterday that the handset will now ship here in Q2 - at least five months after the 650 shipped in the US.

At least PalmOne has the backing of the Orange network, which will offer the smart phone to its UK, French and Swiss customers. Orange said the 650 will support its TalkNow push-to-talk service when the handset goes on sale. TalkNow is currently available only on the Treo 600.

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

Is it really Sunday again? Hoorah! Time to dig in to another digest of MobileRead delectables

µBook
µbook 09.c released

Current E-Books Trends
NanoChromics Display - digital ink based on nanotech
Why you should read e-books... and why you won't (essay)

General Chat
Exclusive: PalmGear & PocketGear Mobile and Feeds
Gmail invites 1 click away (reminder)
Maxpedia - Wikipedia mobile proxy
Windows Mobile tops PalmOS in 2004 (Gartner)

Other Gadgets
SanDisk BookLocker - flash drive for e-books

Palm
A Sony Clie TH55 successor soon? There's hope!
MobileStream Landscape 1.0 for Sony CLIE NX/NZ/TH released
More Information About PalmSources Future in Phones
PalmOS on Nintendo!
PalmSource CEO: "Linux is the future"
PalmSource to build momentum in mobile market
SlashBlog - instantly publish your mobile photos
Xplore M68 PalmOS-powered smartphone announced

Pocket PC
KBattery 1.0.3 freeware battery gauge
Mini-Mozilla project looking for Pocket PC developers
palmOne eyeing Windows Mobile / latest rumor
Yeti3D Pro optimized for Dell Axim X50v

Smartphones
Symbian outpacing the rest

Sunrise
Sunrise PalmOS viewer reloaded

05:01 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

We got word from Sammy from PalmAddicts this morning which probably makes every Sony Clie fan giddy to hear: Sony might be releasing a successor model of the TH55 soon! It is supposed to look more like a VAIO device than a Clie, and - what else would you expect from Sony - it'll only be available in Japan.

A user at PalmAddicts posted some details:

"In these days, there are rumor about new Clie in Japan. Since VZ90 has been released on Sep 2004, many people believe that VZ90 will be final Clie even in Japan. And UX50,NX80V also discontinue last month. So some users want to buy final stock of Clie and its accessories in Japan. But some shop comment that "New Clie will come in Spring".

And some Japanese BBS shows details of New Clie (he may be internally SONY member Ibelieve.) It should be new generation of TH55 series, but it looks like VAIO series. Anyway, this is good news for Japanese people. Wait few more months or within this month"

Personally I believe the TH55 has to have been one of the best PDA devices out there - even today. Thanks for the heads up, Sammy!

10:33 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Looks like SanDisk, flash memory data storage specialist, is planning to win a share of the e-book market with the introduction of its BookLocker USB Stick. BookLocker is a flash drive that aims to securely stores electronic textbooks. Reading electronic textbooks with BookLocker is supposedly as easy as plugging the BookLocker device into any PC and opening the reader application. No installation or software download are required.

SanDisk claims that the BookLocker offers "unparalleled safeguards" to protect publishers' content from being replicated. How does it work? BookLocker devices are divided into two distinct memory areas: An open zone for the student's files, and a secure zone, which is used to store copyrighted content. The secure zone cannot be accessed by the student or operating system. Content is stored on a trusted BootLocker server network using AES encryption. When the content is downloaded to a BookLocker device, it is encrypted with that device's unique hardware key. The server also keeps track of the number downloaded electronic textbooks. Publishers can get up to date reports on the number of electronic textbooks available and sold. When deployed at schools, school administrators and librarians can see how many books are in use and how many are available for lending to students. Unlike software only DRM solutions, BookLocker's patented security measures utilize both hardware and software elements to protect the publishers' IP.

SanDisk is running several pilots at the University of Denver, College of Law. In fall 2003, a BookLocker pilot was launched with students for a Corporations Law course. The BookLocker devices were loaded with course materials such as textbooks, case studies and statutes. The next semester, another class was added to the pilot. This time, students were given laptops and BookLocker devices with textbooks for a Trial Advocacy course. In fall 2004 the third BookLocker pilot was launched with additional students in 2 courses – Torts and Lawyering Process. The BookLocker devices were distributed with textbooks from leading publishers such as Lexis Nexis and Aspen.

My personal opinion: this is not really what we were looking for - another proprietary DRM solution to further alienate potential e-book customers.