04:02 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

South China Morning Post (reprinted) reports that the dream of flexible, powerless displays that can roll up and fit in a pocket is bought closer to reality by major advances in materials and chemicals, with elements of nanotechnology also being employed. The result is super-thin sheets of plastic that have a few key properties:

- they reflect natural light, which means they do not require any added light source to read, much like ink on paper
- they are bi-stable, which means once the power is off, the image remains unchanged. You only need power to change the image
- they are so thin that they can be rolled up like normal paper.

But engineers and developers are being cautious about over-hyping. "People have been using paper for thousands of years. We'll never be cheaper than paper, and we won't meet paper quality any time soon," said Amy Chen, vice-president of business development at SiPix Technologies in Taiwan, one of the developers of the plastic film that will one day make e-paper possible.

Lee Cheng-chung, deputy director of flat-panel display technology at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (Itri), said his institute was working on e-paper and he predicted it would be eight to 10 years before roll-up displays would be ready for widespread use.

02:42 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Airscanner Research Labs has discovered the first "in the wild" dialer trojan infecting Symbian OS-based cell phones: the Mosquito dialer Trojan.

A dialer Trojan is malware coded to secretly dial phone numbers, leaving the infected victim with a large phone bill. The game that the infected users had installed was called Mosquito v2.0. The game is unique in that it uses the phone's built-in camera. The user walks around shooting mosquitoes in a virtual reality–like atmosphere. This game appeared to be a "cracked" version that appeared on the many cell phone warez and p2p networks that plague the Internet underground. It appeared that 87140 was a UK number costing a hefty £1.50 per text message.

Although the Mosquito Trojan is more of an annoyance than a real threat, it demonstrates that cell phone malware is a growing problem. As we've seen, the 911 virus in Tokyo knocked out the city's public emergency services number. With a growing variety of malware attacking a growing number of mobile devices, future attacks could be worse.

01:46 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Details are still quite sketchy, but according to Digitimes, Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and some local IT firms will soon mass produce a new type of memory card called “μcard”, which will be unveiled during the Taipei International Electronics Show (Taitronics) from October 8-12. Mass production for the new card will begin in early 2005.

The card will support up to 2TB of storage capacity, be able to transfer 120MB of data per second, 10 times faster than Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. Additional features for the new card include USB 2.0 compatibility, low power, fast I/O and a compatible interface with existing memory cards. Sounds too good to be true!

01:04 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

This one is interesting, straight from Engadget:

"Sony execs, who always make the right decision about everything, are thinking about bringing the Clie back to the States, only this time running on the Pocket PC or Symbian operating systems. Not entirely impossible, but with the overall market for PDAs flat (and/or shrinking depend on who you ask) it seems like if they’re gonna get back into the game it’d be with some kind of high-end Sony smartphone (which would make sense if they’re considering the Symbian OS, though how they’d avoid directly competing with Sony Ericsson is beyond us) or maybe some kind of multimedia handheld like the ones HP is currently pimping."

In fact, I am convinced that Sony Ericsson is already squinting at Symbian. It is the currently best OS which offers PDA-capability to mobile phones. On the other hand, I don't think that Sony is really thinking about turning their infamous Clie series into Pocket PCs. Think about the immense R&D expenses this step would require. And from my understanding, Sony abandoned the Clie because it didn't want to compete against its most profitable business unit, Sony Ericsson.

11:57 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Very happy to report that MobileRead has been highlighted today by Sammy McLoughlin on PalmAddict. We admit it -- we love publicity and praise!

In case you are a Palm fanatic and have somehow missed this site, you should head immediately over to check it out. (Well, after you've finished with your daily visit to MobileRead, that is!)

Sammy has built a very popular site that has so many content updates that I check it multiple times daily. You can keep track of all the latest news and programs there, but more importantly you can hear a lot of interesting input from us, the average Palm users.

Postings are done by Sammy himself (almost all hours of the day, it seems), plus his Associate Writer team, and also by taking from a large number from emails sent in by readers. It gives a unique forum for all things related to Palm.

I have to add also that Sammy is a very nice individual to deal with. He is not in it for fame and fortune, but because he loves what he does. And it shows not only in his work there, but also in his support of other sites and members of the Palm community. A hearty thank you for all his good work!

11:05 AM by Zire in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I haven't written a review of an app for a long time. Frankly nothing really caught my eye and was different. Bike or Die by Toyspring is an exception. I have only been playing this game for a couple of days and it is already my favorite game. I cannot stop playing and trying to beat my best score. This game is frustrating at times because it is not as easy as it looks. It is also funny to lose because of the animation and the way the guy dies. This game is smooth when you play it cause the processor is not busy with alot of bells and whistles. The sound is okay but you don't need it. The graphics are very nice and simple with the main character being a stick figure and the bike that he's on being a stick bike with wheels. The physics of this game is what makes it funny and good. You have to try it in order to see what I mean. I mean what do you have to lose? One major feature that I did not try yet is that there is a level editor that allows you to edit levels . No really this really makes the game live on and not get boring once you finish the 25 levels that are included in the game. More information on the level editor can be found here. In the future user levels will be available to download here.

I give this game out of

Additional information from the site:

Bike or Die
...is the only Trial Bike racing game for the PalmOS platform.

Features:

* physics-based bike simulation
* 25 big levels (different environments: hills, rocks, snow, caves, etc)
* smooth and fast animation
* record and replay your best games
* on-line Hall of Fame with Time Trial and Freestyle Competitions
* compatible with most palm devices

05:01 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Just a few days I wrote about the new WinCE.Brador.a trojan that could do some serious damage to your PPC. Kaspersky has now announced the required aid for your PPC/Palm: Kaspersky Security for PDAs (USD 19.00).

Two-tier protection for Pocket PC
Antivirus protection for Pocket PC scans both data storage locations and memory extension cards. The Datasafe module offers the option of creating password protected files. Data in these files is encrypted, securing your information against unsanctioned users.

Keep your Palm virus-free
The program monitors all data streams which can act as infection vectors: on-demand scanning of data storage locations, RAM and memory extension cards protects data transferred via HotSync and Beam. The Datasafe module provides password protection and encryption options, and locking down of the device according to user specification.

Sometimes I wonder if virus/trojan makers are not working hand in hand with AV makers. It certainly didn't take long for Kaspersky to respond to WinCE.Brador.a...

09:51 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

For the first time, bloggers have been awarded press credentials to cover the national political conventions. That's a harbinger of bigger changes in the media landscape, according to nationally known columnist Dan Gillmor.

His new book, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, tells the story of the grassroots journalists–including bloggers–who are dismantling Big Media's monopoly on the news. Through Internet-fueled, interactive vehicles like weblogs, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture to a conversation. They're publishing in real time to a worldwide audience that's eager to read their independent, unfiltered reports. And the impact of their work is just beginning to be felt by professional journalists and the newsmakers they cover. We the Media sheds light on this deep shift in how we make–and consume–the news.

Available for free as PDF:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/