09:01 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Sony is doubling the capacity of its flash media product line again with the introduction of a 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media at the CES 2005.

The Memory Stick Pro High Speed media not only offers higher capacities and is high-speed read and write (up to 80Mbps) capable, but is also compatible with a vast array of current Memory Stick PRO devices.

Sony's new flash media flagship won't come cheap though: The 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media will be available in March for about $900.

06:23 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | iSilo/X

iSilo and iSiloX V4.2 were released earlier today and are now ready for your download.

New highlights of the reader iSilo:
- Added image map support.
- Beta of iSilo on the Symbian UIQ platform, to lead to the first release of iSilo on that platform.
- Addressing of miscellaneous issues.
Detailed list of changes.

New highlights of the the convertor iSiloX:
- Added RSS conversion capability (GREAT!!!)
- Added handling of image maps.
- Addressing of miscellaneous issues
Detailed list of changes.

05:35 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Earlier we reported rumors on an upcoming iPod Flash player. Think Secret now confirms speculations that Apple's flash-based iPod will be introduced at Macworld Expo in 1GB (may sell for $149) and likely 2GB versions (may sell for $199):

The device is currently being manufactured by Taiwain-based Asustek, which Apple brought on towards the end of the summer as a second ODM for manufacturing iPods. Sources say the flash-based iPod will be powered by a chipset from SigmaTel and that it will feature a screen that is the same width as the iPod mini's but two lines shorter.

According to insiders, due to some manufacturing issues the device's full-scale roll-out may postpone for as long as a month.

07:01 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

After we did some serious optimizations to our newsfeed system, we now decided to offer our readers a choice of separate RSS feeds for each section of the site.

In other words, you can now build up your own personalized Mobileread headlines list by subscribing your aggregator to the combination of feeds that suits you best.

Instructions how to use RSS are provided in the link below.

[Link to our RSS feeds]

Comments are as always welcomed!

02:38 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

MobilePipeline reports on a new Forrester survey indicating users really don't want to combine their mobile phone and PDAs after all. For example, mobile phone users don't seem to think that they really want all those PDA features.

Many PDA enthusiasts have been saying this for quite a while, scoffing at the idea that adding a phone to a PDA is a always a good thing. Citing feature compromises, battery life, size, cost, and a host of other reasons the idea of independent devices is more palatable. But the industry experts have loudly and confidently proclaimed that the smartphone category will almost completely squeeze out the separate PDA and mobile phone categories.

Don't count out smartphones though.... pretty soon the compromises may start to disappear as technology improves. And consumers might not really know what they want. There was a time when people didn't think they wanted a microwave either!

Forrester's summary (buy the whole article for just $249) says...

PDAs and phones seem to be on a collision course as PDAs get connectivity, phones get bigger screens and richer operating systems, and device makers experiment with new form factors that attempt to marry the two. These integrated devices form the bulk of the "smartphone" category. However, the majority of both mobile phone and PDA users are consistent in saying that they are not interested in this marriage — each device fulfills a different need. While PDAs will continue to integrate phone features that reinforce the device's core functions and smartphones will appeal to PDA owners who crave a single device, the majority of phone manufacturers will pick and choose those PDA attributes that make sense for individual customer segments.

10:36 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Sunrise

Laurens, one of the most responsive PDA developer I know, has just released Sunrise 0.40-pre7. The release contains two important fixes related to plain text conversion and DLL linking on Windows XP machines.

Unless new serious issues show up, we should be able to expect a final 0.40 release soon (at least if you believe that Laurens' to-do list for 0.40 is empty now).

If you are new to Sunrise, click here to find out more about its top-notch features for website offline conversion.

10:30 AM by Gatton in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Once again Fictionwise is offering for free download the nominees for the annual Nebula award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. First up is a novella called "The Tangled Strings of the Marionettes" by Adam Troy-Castro.

Not sure if they only offer novellas for free or if they mix it up with some novels or short stories. Anyone remember from last year?

http://www.fictionwise.com/Z88070H1130/nebula2005.htm

09:25 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

All mobile news junkies listen up: GarishKernels has just released Egress V2.1 which has support for all RSS / Atom formats (RSS .09-2.0, RDF 1.0, ATOM 0.3), landscape mode, Today integration, background downloading, and a few other cool features.

New in V2.01 is the new channel wizard, caching of web pages for later display using PocketIE, support for downloading enclosures (Podcasting), a configurable item sort, and configurable item retention.

Looks like the market for mobile RSS clients is heating up. There are at least three good choices for PocketPC available now: Egress, PocketRSS and Newsbreak.

Egress is available for $12 (was previously available for $10).