02:50 PM by PaulJManoogian in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The new pendant-sized phone from Pantech&Curitel is a mere 56 mm wide and 67 mm tall. The PH-K2500V can supposedly be worn around one's neck, just like a pendant!

It features TTS (Text To Speech) functionality, which converts a text message into voice messages for the receiver. When in "speak mode", it will read incoming text messages with it's own voice. It extends this functionality to the phone's menu, phonebook, and the unanswered calls list.

The PH-K2500V can play MP3's and lets you control the music from buttons on the outside of the phone, without opening the device. It also comes with a 1.3Mpix camera and an OCR (Optical Character Reader) function which can recognize text from JPEG files. It supports the recent business card scanning craze, going on these days. The information from the business card can then be saved as text.

Another feature of the phone is a 34,000 word (with definitions) electronic dictionary, with memo and highlight tools.

The phone is available in blue, red, or silver.

Picture courtesy of 3G UK
Source: [ Textually.org ]

02:36 PM by PaulJManoogian in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Electronics and cellphone manufacturer LG Electronics has unveiled what they claim to be "the worlds fastest 3D game phone." Their latest 3D Game Phone is equipped with a 1M polygon graphic accelerating chip, running 5 times faster than its competitors; according to LG.

Other features of the phone include it being equipped with an acceleration sensor to enable users to control their games by moving the headset up and down. I suppose this is similar to Samsung's latest idea: they've designed some kind of dialing system where by the phone is swung around to make the numbers "in the air" and the ability to answer or hang-up the phone by just shaking it. Can you image how stupid this is going to look?

The game development company Nexon has currently developed some games for the device, and a greater number of games will be "offered soon."

Source: [ Telcoms Korea ]

09:06 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Sammy Mclouglin explains in a thought inspiring editorial at PalmAddicts today why he personally prefers to use a Palm powered device compared to a Windows Mobile device. His is a very personal writing, and I am convinced many of you will agree or disagree with him. I am somewhere in the middle: I believe Palm is indeed the better organizer OS; it is fast, doesn't use as much battery, and has the better and more advanced tools (Datebk5 is still my favorite). But in regard to playing games and using multimedia applications, well, the Pocket PC is far far superior. And reading e-books on a 640x480 display... yummy! Heh, that is just my personal opinion! You don't have to agree with me...

08:41 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

PocketPCcity has a great report taking us through all the trojans and viruses that were designed to affect and infect handhelds and smartphones over the last few months.

Among the list you find in reversed chronological order: Cabir.A (including its more dangerous variants Cabir.H and Cabir.I), MetalGear.a, Skulls, Mosquito, WinCE4.Dust, EPOC.Cabir, and WinCE.Dust.

It's not necessary to be a prophet or computer expert to say that the amount of malware will continue to increase. Our mobile phones and PDAs are becoming more attractive targets to a growing stream of worms and virii. New technologies such as 2.5G and 3G networks are becoming part of our everyday life, and it seems just too easy for hackers and virus writers to launch attacks that exploit these new technologies.

Are we ready to face the threat?

08:08 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

Stephanie Schorow from BostonHerald.com writes that readers may finally feel more comfortable reading full-length novels such as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code on electronic reading devices. Strong numbers also indicate this trend:

In the first three quarters of 2004, about 1,231,799 books (or units) were sold, a 14 percent increase over the same period in 2003, according to Open eBook Forum (www.openebook.org), an e-book industry trade organization.

Main driver for the increasing demand is a drop in price and a wider available selection, she quotes. -- Do you think that prices for e-books have dropped enough? Visit our poll and raise your voice!

06:13 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

For a limited time, Fictionwise is offering the Nebula Preliminary Ballot Nominee, Time Ablaze, by Michael A. Burstein, for free.

Thanks to Gatton for mentioning the first nominees freebie at Fictionwise, The Tangled Strings of the Marionettes by Adam Troy-Castro. It's still available for free, so time to fill your PDAs!

03:21 AM by Laurens in Archive | Sunrise

Sunrise 0.40 is now available!

[added by Alex: New in Sunrise 0.40:
- streamlined interface
- conduit for updating documents at HotSync
- tons of improvements and bugfixes (as you probably know if you have followed all the -pre releases before!) ]

09:28 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Steve Sande from PDAntic wrote a nice review of Illum's NewsBreak 1.0, one of the best RSS feed readers for Pocket PC.

Make sure to give NewsBreak a try if you are looking for a flexible mobile RSS solution. I have tried both, NewsBreak and Egress, another great feed aggregator for PPC, and have yet to decide which one to buy.