05:45 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

A lot of PDA news sites reported today that Airscanner found a leak in the Windows Mobile Odyssey client that would reveal WEP keys of your stored WiFi connection in plaintext. Although this is true and represents a serious thread to those who are using the client, the normal user, such as myself, should not be affected by it.

Funk's Windows Mobile Odyssey client is of most interest to enterprise environments that require IEEE 802.1x. 802.1x is a standard for passing EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) over a wired or wireless LAN. With 802.1x, you package EAP messages in Ethernet frames and don't use PPP. Read here for more.

If you are hooked up with a standard WiFi router or access-point, you are probably using a less-secure WEP or a more secure WPA encryption. Neither of the two methods are handled by the Windows Mobile Odyseey client and are thus not affected by the key leak mentioned in the Airscanner article.

04:51 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

You can now download updated versions (December 30, 2004) of the Wikipedia encyclopedia in the TomeRaider format. Six databases for TomeRaider 2 are available for download:

- English Wikipedia (537 Mb)
- German Wikipedia (236 Mb)
- French Wikipedia (81 Mb)
- Polish Wikipedia (53 Mb)
- Dutch Wikipedia (44 Mb)
- Esperanto Wikipedia (12 Mb)

The file naming scheme is as follows: File names all start with TR2_WP for TomeRaider 2 Wikipedia, followed by (P)PC, PALM or EPOC for platform, followed by a two letter language code (EN, DE, FR, PL, NL or EO). For Palm users the English database comes in 20 parts: WP_EN_PALM_AB, etc.

A set of files for TomeRaider 3 are supposed to follow in the next few weeks.

If you are using another reader, don't give up yet. You could try downloading the current Wikipedia database file and converting it to your favorite format.

04:09 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Try visiting Diesel eBooks with a mobile browser and you will see that they now automatically sense your browser and redirect it to a mobile-friendly version of their site. Very nice addition!

If you visit them, don't forget our exclusive 20% discount on any e-book valid until 2/15/05.

02:28 PM by Laurens in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

No New Zodiac Until 2006 (Brighthand)

The Tapwave Zodiac came out well over a year ago, and some have been hoping that an updated version of this gaming-oriented handheld would be released in the near future.

This group is in for a disappointment, as a Tapwave executive recently told PC Magazine that a new Zodiac model won't be released for at least another year, and the wait might possibly even be two years.

02:14 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Abigail sent us the news that RefToGo, a Palm and Pocket PC Oxford dictionary software developer, has just released the best-selling Concise Oxford English Dictionary for DEPReader.

Dictionary and Encyclopedia Personal Reader (DEPReader) is a multi-dictionary software program for Palm OS with search modes supporting phonetics and wildcards. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary is an authoritative reference on the English language, which, extremely compressed (6.7 Mb) easily fits either in RAM or on a card.

10:09 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I don't think so. Yesterday I read a Brighthand article claiming that PalmSource had now the chance to pick up and jump ahead of Pocket PC by finding licensees for new and better Palm OS-based VGA handhelds. I think Ed Hardy of Brighthand makes it too easy for himself by comparing technology that currently only runs in an emulator (Cobalt) with technology that has already made its debut (Windows Mobile 2003 SE) in real handhelds months ago.

Instead, Ed should have also considered Windows Mobile 2005, which, among other things, promises better graphic support (Direct3D Mobile built on DirectX), and is only due in a few months. And where is Palm OS by then?

10:01 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The Register is taking a closer look (via Trustedreviews.com) at the Dell Axim X50v. The reviewer comes to the conclusion that this "fast and powerful" handheld with a "truly remarkable" price is the best PDA he has ever used. How could anyone resist buying this device after such praise?

07:05 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

The Financial Times is running a story on e-book piracy and online intellectual property theft in China. Scholar Digital, a Beijing company, has been found guilty of offering unapproved digital versions of eight books written by Prof Zheng, one of the country's leading experts on intellectual property rights.

Ironically, one of the pirated e-books was entitled Knowing the Enemy and Yourself; Winning the Intellectual Property War.

According to the article, Scholar Digital was ordered to apologize publicly but is appealing the verdict, said it did not publish the volumes itself and only offers technology and services for others to operate online libraries.