12:13 PM by STBXXL in Archive | Sunrise

I just read that Laurens reconsidered his earlier decision to drop the PalmOS version of his Sunrise viewer:

After long deliberation I've decided to restart work on the PalmOS version of my viewer. (Earlier I had decided to abandon work on the PalmOS version.) The main reason for reversing my decision is that the existing Sunrise userbase is almost entirely PalmOS-based. From a business standpoint, it would be foolish to just ignore all these users. Also, many people have asked me to reconsider, so I know there is demand for my product.

Click here to read his full statement. That is in fact fantastic news. Thank you very much and keep up the good work. I'm looking forward seeing it released in the future.

09:57 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Mobile Stream announces the release of Landscape 1.0 which allows to owners of the popular Sony CLIE NX/NZ/TH PDA series to run applications in landscape mode. The utility implements the standard PalmSource Pen Input Manager API 1.1. This means that any application that works in landscape mode on Tungsten T|3, Tungsten T|5 or Zodiac handhelds will also work in landscape mode on Sony CLIE handhelds.

We already anounced it earlier; now you can download a working demo or directly purchase MobileStream LandScape for US $19.95.

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

My goodness, is it Sunday again? Well, for those of you who've missed the highs and lows of MobileRead over the past seven days, this is your one-way ticket to catch up:

Announcements
Happy Birthday Craig!

Current E-Books Trends
Why to read e-books on your PDA

E-Book Conversion
MapQuester World Atlas Conversion Tool

E-Book Readers
Cybook firmware upgrade next month

General Chat
Linux emergencing as the mobile platform choice
Quick Tip: Make A Windows Instructional Video

iSilo/X
iSilo 4.25 and iSiloX/C 4.25 enter beta1

Other Gadgets
20lbs of Battery Shrunk to 8ozs!
Noreve high quality leather cases
Wi-Fi Blackberry 7270 hits the market

Other Readers
OpenBerg e-book reader supports OEBPS 1.2

Palm
More and more evidence that the T3 is discontinued
Next palmOne device with a flexible screen?
PDAMill's role-play game Arvale now for Palm OS
PDA Upgrades - When And How
Shape Shifter (a short review)
Switched On (Engadget) discusses the "death" of PDAs
TI to launch smartphone based on Cobalt

Pocket PC
Asus MyPal A730W PDA reviewed
Dell X50v ROMs A01 and A02 file comparison
Ego-Shooter Cube for Dell Axim X50v released
Game Flashback port for Pocket PC
MagicButton 1.8 released
PocketTV V1.03 optimized for Intel 2700G

Portable Audio/Video
Archos PMA430 demonstration video
Article: Converting a DVD for PDA Viewing
New iPod Accessory: Stereo Luggage
Portable Media Player Offered by American Airlines

Smartphones
i-Mate I Skype U
IBM Forecasts Spread of Mobile Computing Viruses for 2005
Nokia and RealNetworks collaborate

09:45 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

I wish our long-time MR editor Craig a warm and loving Happy Birthday!

Craig has been part of MR for almost two years, and I am sure without you, Craig, MR would not be the same today.

Thank you!

09:31 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I recently performed a ROM upgrade on my Axim X50v and although I had to reinstall all my software and PIM data, I think this was a small price to pay given the improvements in card and display performance. Curious as I am, I extracted the files of both ROMs (A01 and A02) and compared the content. As the first result of my analysis, here is a list of files that were affected by the upgrade:

kernel region
ddi_powervr.dll GPE driver
keybddr.dll Keyboard driver
touch.dll Touchscreen driver

misc region
BTuartDMA.dll Bluetooth UART driver
bvd_udc_ser.dll USB-Serial driver?
ddi.dll LCD display driver
Frontlight.dll Blacklight driver
gxdma.dll GAPI emulation?
libGLES_CL.dll OpenGL ES-CL driver
Mirror.exe Dualdisplay driver
MyCPL.cpx Odyssey Client CPL
OemNotify.dll OEM-specific notifications driver
pcmcia.dll PCMCIA (CF) driver
wavedev.dll Audio Wave driver
WLAN_Utility Dell WLAN Utility
XSCSDCard.dll SDIO driver

misc3 region
Backlight.exe Dell Backlight Utility
PowerExe.exe Battery Power Management
SwitcherBar.exe SwitcherBar Launcher
SystemInfo.exe System Information
tiacxwln.dll NDIS WiFi Driver
Tone.exe Audio Control Panel
WirelessOnOff.exe WiFi On/Off Utility

xipkernel region
battdrvr.dll Battery low-level Driver
nk.exe Windows CE Kernel Driver

11:06 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Intel has created a port of the ego-shooter game Cube to support their latest mobile cpu & 3d chipset (the Intel 2700 of the Dell Axim X50v). Click here for the download links and click here for some older screenshots.

What is Cube anyways?
Cube is an open source multiplayer and singleplayer first person shooter game built on an entirely new and very unconventional engine. Cube is a landscape-style engine that pretends to be an indoor FPS engine, which combines very high precision dynamic occlusion culling with a form of geometric mipmapping on the whole world for dynamic LOD for configurable fps & graphic detail on most machines

[via PocketGamer]

10:40 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

NewsForce has a quick write up of how open-source Linux could become the most appealing platform choice for mobile devices such as smartphones and PDAs, due to low manufacturers' development costs and maintenance requirements.

Everything looks like PalmSource is doing it right by focusing on a linux version of its Palm operation system:

Perhaps even more significantly, in December, PalmSource, whose Palm OS has garnered noteworthy acceptance in the smartphone space, purchased China MobileSoft Ltd., which developed 30 mobile phones for the Asian market, a few of which rely on its variation of Linux. PalmSource's Mace noted that the company plans to support its PalmOS, but views Linux as its principal operating system in the future. The firm has not set a delivery date for its Linux version of PalmOS but expects to make its plans clearer at its developers conference in the spring.

Once that product is available, Linux could become a more attractive option to ISVs. "Linux provides a great deal of flexibility to developers, but some prefer a more packaged operating system where they don't have to make as many design decisions and complete as much integration work," noted Bill Weinberg, Open Source Architecture Specialist at Open Source Development Labs, Inc. "A Linux version of PalmOS could address their concerns."

Because of such changes, the much anticipated union between Linux and smartphones is taking shape and the open source operating system is emerging as a key smartphone platform.

09:51 AM by Colin Dunstan in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices

Thanks to our friends from Teleread.org for informing us that Bookeen is going to release a downloadable firmware upgrade for its Cybook e-book reader next month. The upgrade adds support for the eReader e-book format, plus adds a reader for displaying unencrypted PDF files.

Bookeen is also considering adding support for the Microsoft Reader format (.LIT) in future.