03:30 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

BetaPlayer V0.096 unstable, the best mobile video player in my opinion, turned to V0.5 stable! BetaPlayer is a media player for PocketPC. It has built-in codecs like mpeg4 video (XviD, DivX), mp3 (libmad), vorbis (Tremor) and supports third party plugins, too (e.g. AAC).

New in 0.5:

+czech translation by Triple T
+support for mqv extension
+higher priority for buffering advanced option
+adding files in subdirectories
-various bugfixes

Click here for the download.

12:52 PM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices

Sony's PlayStations Portable (PSP) with its large 4.3" 16:9 screen is not only good for playing complex 3D games or watching movies; the handheld console can also be abused as an e-book reader! Japanese programmer Kentarou wrote a tool called Jpegbook to convert any kind of text into JPG files for the PSP. You can even set a background image and the font type of your converted text.

Jpegbook is currently available for free on Windows and Mac platforms.

12:16 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Akihabara News has some nifty screenshots of what appears to be a vending machine for Japanese PDA software and e-books. According to the report, you indicate via touchscreen which product you want, then choose the right memory card format (SD, CF, or MS), and hit "Buy" to receive the software on your memory card (not sure whether you have to supply the card or whether it is included with the purchase).

Because really, what could be more wonderful than to buy your magazines and books from an electronic vending machine in future?

11:23 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

It is always nice to make new discoveries on the Net. Today I learned about Tam Hanna's Palm OS Blog, an impressive daily resource for - as the name implies - anything relating to Palm OS. One of Tam's more recent news items discusses the pros and cons of online- and offline web browsers/readers.

For all news junkies: an Atom feed is available as well.

10:55 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The purpose of SynCE is to syncronize your Pocket PC device with a PC running any Unix-based OS such as Linux or FreeBSD. It supports file manipulation, installation of programs, and there are virtual file system plugins for Gnome and KdE to integrate into Nautilus and Konq.

Thanks to Jørgen from cebooks for pointing this one out.

08:40 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Mobileread was contacted by Microsoft Anti-Piracy some weeks ago regarding a particular (slashdotted) post on Microsoft's upcoming Windows Mobile 2005. This post contained a handful of screen shots, some new information and a projected release time schedule, along with a source link to Neowin.

While we agreed to take the news down (really, we could hardly afford a lawyer, nor was the matter important enough to us), some other news sites such as Weblogs Inc., parent company of Engadget.com, decided to not remove a similar content on the future of Windows Mobile.

Jason Calacanis, founder of Weblogs Inc., argues that he did not steal any information and was simply reporting on information that he had found elsewhere on the Web (more about it here). -- Is it really that simple? What do you think, should Microsoft have the right to remove leaked proprietary material from news sites, or should news sites have the right to report news that have appeared elsewhere on the Net before?

07:45 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Once again, this week's list of freebies from Handango:

Pocket PC: BetterMeasure ($19.99 value)
Palm OS: Plot4 ($3.50 value)
Sony Ericsson: HangMania ($4.99 value)
Series 60: Championship Hearts Pro Card Game ($14.98 value)
Windows Mobile Smartphone: Trick Soccer 2004 ($4.99 value)

07:30 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Russian software developer Spb Software House has released Sbp Clone, a program claiming to allow applications, files, and registry settings to be cloned and/or restored onto multiple Pocket PC devices. This program could be useful a) for large enterprises that want to configure multiple Pocket PCs with the same set of programs, and b) as a complete backup solution for home users (uhm, for those who don't mind the price tag -- USD $299.00). Features:

# One device is configured, the other devices are subject to clone
# Average device cloning time is ~3 minutes
# Data compressing and encryption
# Self-extracting and self-executing image file on an SD card
# Assigned location of the target clone image files
# Providing individual names and IP addresses for clones

You can check out for free the user manual or download a download a demo.