06:51 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Teleread has a quick write up of the new OverDrive-powered e-book section at New York Public Library's web site:

OverDrive and the New York Public Library are off to a nice start with a colorful, polished and informative home page for e-book readers, as well as a guidance for newbies. Let's hope that clumsy DRM and the format wars don't get in the way. NYPL, like other OverDrive clients, uses a mix of Adobe and Mobipocket. On handhelds, Mobipocket is the best-looking of the major commercial e-book formats.

This is great news because it means that even old, established book suppliers such as the New York Public Library are finally becoming aware of the great potentials of e-books.

Btw, can anyone confirm that Mobipocket ranks #1 among handheld e-book suppliers? Somehow I always thought that eReader was in the lead.

06:44 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

In response to recent reports that it has discontinued selling Linux-based PDAs in the US, Sharp issued a brief statement to LinuxDevices.com today, commenting on its intentions relative to offering and supporting Linux PDAs in the US market:

"Sharp Electronics Corporation does not plan to develop a successor model of the current SL-6000 Zaurus in the immediate future. Sharp will make the Zaurus SL-6000 available to existing corporate customers in the U.S. for as long as their needs dictate," a Sharp spokesperson said.

"Sharp will continue to pursue solutions businesses leveraging our IT products such as handheld devices, LCD monitors, POS products, etc., and remains committed to developing PDA models with unique user benefits in relevant markets, including the US, as market opportunities develop," the spokesperson added.

05:19 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Qualcomm announced in a press release that it plans to deploy and operate a nationwide "mediacast" network, delivering cabel and digital TV channels of high-quality video and audio programming to third-generation mobile phones at mass market prices:

The network will support 50-100 national and local content channels, including up to 15 live streaming channels and numerous clip-cast and audio channels. This content will be delivered in an easy-to-use and familiar format at quality levels that dramatically surpass current mobile multimedia offerings through the use of QVGA video at up to 30 frames per second and high-quality stereo audio.

04:18 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

BargainPDA brings a first-hand review of the T-Mobile Sidekick 2, aka Danger Hiptop 2, convergence device. The author's conclusion sounds promising:

The Sidekick 2 is a fun converged device with a lot to like. It's easy to use, has a great keyboard, the form factor is innovative and can keep you connected in various ways to your friends and family. It is not a good replacement for a PDA, unless all you demand of a PDA is the most basic of applications. At the price of $199.99 this device is actually a bargain for what you get. Compared to the Treo 650 or iPaq 6315 that cost well over $500, you get a device that performs the same core functions.

The bad: The operation system is neither PalmOS nor PocketPC, which means you can expect only a limited choice of available software.

04:05 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

South Korean Telecomskorea.com reports that according to a Korean study [KISDI, I haven't been able to find the link to the study, perhaps you could help us finding it?],

[W]ireless PDA's are gaining its share in the entire PDA market since 2002 and wireless connectivity is likely to make an essential part of the specification in the future.

If PDAs with wireless connectivity are taking hold in the global PDA market, and I have absolutely no doubt about it, then why on earth did palmOne decide to skip native WiFi support for its latest models (T5, Treo 650)?

03:57 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

RSA Security announced RSA BSAFE Mobile Rights Management, a new DRM solution that aims to provide a critical security component for consumer device manufacturers and service providers:

Converging technologies in the mobile device market have created new opportunities to deliver high-value digital content - music, video, games - to consumers over next-generation networks. To date, many solutions that protect content owners' rights have proven easy to circumvent or provide an unacceptable consumer experience due to limited device portability. RSA Security's solutions help solve these concerns through a security platform based on open industry standards, including the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Digital Rights Management 2.0 standard and the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) v1.1.

The software will be available in January 2005. I hope they will find noone interested in buying it!

03:40 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Thanks to BoingBoing (love you guys!) for reporting how to do a small binary patch to enable iPod download again for iTunes 4.7:

It turns out that Apple's system for disabling the plugin uses a blacklist of disallowed iTunes additions in the iTunes binary. If you open the binary in a hexadecimal editor, like HexEdit, you can find the area where Apple has inserted the string "iPod Download" in its blacklist and simply replace the text with something else (in fact, I think you could probably just change one character) and your iTunes's original functionality will be restored.

The origin of the hack appears to be Hardmac.com.

03:29 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Thanks to Laurens for bringing some light into the confusion whether or not PalmSource plans to port PalmOS to PocketPC. C|Net reports:

PalmOne [PalmSource's biggest customer] representatives disputed the contents of the research note, from Needham & Co. The note said that PalmOne "tacitly admitted" it was working to make Microsoft's operating system available on the popular Treo line of phones...PalmOne representatives said the report was based on a misunderstanding, adding that the company is platform-agnostic. The representatives also said the company as a policy does not comment on products that may or may not be under development.

How interesting that PalmSource declines to commend on the report, and that palmOne is the one who tries to clean up the mess.