05:44 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Apple is eyeing a technology that could make the iPod more likely to survive a fall, according to this ZDNet article:

The company has applied for a patent on technology that would allow a portable media player to detect when it is falling and then stop reading or writing to the hard drive. Such technology would work by detecting the acceleration that accompanies a drop.

"The portable-computing device protects its disk drive by monitoring for such accelerations and operating to avoid usage of the disk drive during periods of acceleration," Apple said in the patent application, which was published Dec. 16. "Through such protection, the likelihood of damage to the disk drive or loss of data stored on the disk drive is able to be substantially reduced."

This technology is not new though. My IBM Thinkpad notebook has a similar patented feature called IBM Active Protection system (white paper, flash presentation). In a nutshell, Active Protection automatically parks the hard drive head temporarily when a drop or a similar damage event is predicted by a motherboard-mounted motion detector ("accelerometer").

So since IBM already features such a technology, I am curious to see how Steve Jobs thinks he could re-patent it for himself.

05:31 PM by Colin Dunstan in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices

Teleread has an in-depth review of the Cybook, a dedicated e-book reader with a 10" color LCD screen. This is the second in-depth review I've read, and it tries to make the Cybook look much better than the first.

The review dissected for you in a few words:

Pros:
- the price ($499) is a bargain
- handles a variety of formats (Mobipocket, Html, Txt, Word, non-DRM PDB, promise to support OeBF)
- large 10" 800x600 256-color screen (especially good for visually impaired)
- screen's sharpness leaves most competitors (except Librie) in the dust
- extra-thick letters on virtual keyboard
- comfortable form factor
- no lack of speed despite antique technology (old OS and CPU)

Cons:
- slight screen flicker which could be fixed through settings
- less durable due to the size of the screen
- "minor" risk of getting dusk under the screen
- difficult to access battery status

What is interesting is that Teleread is so "ohhh that is so great" about this reader. I must admit I have never seen the Cybook myself, but after reading aRMiTaG3's hands-on review two months ago, I have serious doubts that this dedicated reader would make my life any better. Common guys, you think it is a minor problem to get dust under the screen? Even if you try a rudimentary fix, purchasing a second stylus and keeping it inside the reader (where should I then put my first stylus when I don't use the reader?), it is a serious quality problem if dust can enter underneath your device screen. I had one of the first Sony Clie PDAs, and its screen was so full with dust particles that it literally drove me nuts. I am not intending to go up the walls again.

I also don't think that the price of $499 is a "bargain", considering that all you can do with this reader is, well reading e-books. I don't see the justification for this price tag. The technology is outdated, there is no PCMCIA/CF adapter included, and the integrated memory is definitely not enough for any serious e-book fan.

Although I cannot share your excitement, I still thank you for the honest review!

Update, 8:35 a.m. (EST), Christmas Day: Thanks to David from Teleread for the quick follow-up. He will talk to Bookeen again regarding the dust problem that I personally find rather discouraging. Again I admit I haven't had a chance to play with this gadget, so I may be completely wrong with my resentment. I'd be curious to hear what you think after reading the two reviews!

05:00 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Originally converted from Fpse, FpseCE is a free Sony Playstation 1 emulator for Pocket PC. While FpseCE 0.10 is on its way, 0.09.3 already offers some remarkable news such as:
- code optimizations
- sound implementation
- GPU texture windows for better graphics
- Guncon support
- 3 Frameskip level with 2 frameskip mode is available
- Change disc support for Multiple dics games

See here for a compatibility list of the emulator for the windows version.

04:52 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmGear is offering a 10% coupon on all purchases.

Simply enter the code NEWYEAR into the site-wide promotional code field at checkout to redeem your 10% coupon.

[via PalmAddicts]

08:42 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you are looking for a decent e-mail client replacement, you should visit Handango, who is giving out WebIS Mail 2.06 - from the makers of Pocket Informant - for free this week!

Once you sign up with Handango, you should receive your registration code within 5 minutes of making the free order.

Edit: A beta of a VGA-compatible version (2.1) is available here.

08:31 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

On behalf of the staff of Mobileread, I would like to thank everybody for browing our web site, for your contributions, and for the feedback and suggestions you have provided us throughout this year.

I would also like to take this opportunity to publicly thank our editors for their tiredless work: Bob, Sunshine, Jess, Zire71man, Morpheus, Craig, Thierry, Ignatz - I could not have done this without you! I hope everyone will join me in a big 'thank you' for all their amazing help!

A Blessed Merry Christmas and a Happy (and Healthy) New Year to everyone.

Alex

07:10 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Jonathan Aquino has extracted the program comments and ratings from the site to give a glimpse at the best of the software available.

Check it out at Johathan Aquino's Mental Garden.

Note also that Palm has more software available, and bragging rights...

FreewarePalm lists 6277 freeware programs
FreewarePPC lists 1025 freeware programs
That's about 6 times as much software for PalmOS than PPC!

(via Palm Addict)

07:08 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Jonathan Aquino has extracted the program comments and ratings from the site to give a glimpse at the best of the software available.

Check it out at Johathan Aquino's Mental Garden.

Note also that Palm has more software available, and bragging rights...

FreewarePalm lists 6277 freeware programs
FreewarePPC lists 1025 freeware programs
That's about 6 times as much software for PalmOS than PPC!

(via Palm Addict)