10:47 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

According to a newly published report, Dell'Oro Group predicts that sales of wireless LAN products will grow 20 percent in 2004 to $2.1 billion. According to the Dell'Oro Group report, enterprise-class access point shipments are forecast to increase dramatically by 75 percent in 2004, growing at an average annual rate of 47 percent through 2008. In contrast, small office / home office (SOHO) products such as access points, gateways, and network interface cards, are forecast to peak in the near term as users opt for DSL and cable modems with embedded wireless LAN and notebook computers with integrated wireless LAN.

"Until recently, corporations have been reluctant to adopt wireless LANs, primarily because of security concerns," commented Greg Collins, Senior Director of wireless LAN research at Dell'Oro Group. "Now with the improvements in management, encryption, and user authentication, wireless LAN will penetrate larger corporations because the technology improves productivity by allowing users to connect to the network from anywhere."

The result of this study is in line with predictions made by other research houses. For instance, as we reported earlier, Yankee Group predicts that about 27% of the world's population will use wireless services by 2007!

02:56 PM by ignatz in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

[From Ben's Bargains]
If you're looking for a inexpensive PDA or thinking about making the leap from Palm to PPC (the dark side!), this is your chance. Dell is offering refurbed Dell Axim X5's for $125 with $25 off with coupon code D$HV2W2NBLV$93 [expires 8/10] for a total of $100 shipped! I'm not interested in switching, but I can't help but be interested. I'm racking my brain for a reason to buy this! Go to the Dell Outlet and have a look.

04:37 PM by ignatz in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Gizmodo has a good article on what it will take to get wide adoption of ebooks. It's well thought out, though I don't completely agree with all his points. The author focuses on devices that are designed solely for ebooks. All those folks reading on their PDAs (like us) go unmentioned, which I found odd. Still, worthwhile reading...

[Link from Slashdot]

06:05 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Linuxdevices.com has a great article which they're calling the "Great Embedded Device Smack-Down", to see whether Linux or Windows Embedded powers the best and coolest devices. The Smack-Down highlights more than 350 gadgets in nine categories running either Linux or Windows. So far, the two are having a close run. Which one do you think will be the winner, and more importantly, why?

05:49 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

According to WSJ, Sony's new digital walkman could (not) be the new iPod Killer. The NW-HD1 is a sleek, slim, silvery, magnesium-clad gadget inelegantly called the "Network Walkman NW-HD1," which holds 20 gigabytes of music and is set to go on sale in mid-August for $399. Sony plans a massive ad campaign to back the new Walkman, and to try and revive the once grand, but now faded, Walkman brand..

So far so good. But the reviewer goes on: While the new Sony is smaller than the iPod and has much better battery life, it is markedly inferior overall. It has a confusing, complex user interface that makes it hard to use; weak software for the PC; an oddball music format [yes, it CANNOT play MP3s or any of the other standard formats!] that makes loading it with songs tedious; and a companion music download service that offers less than Apple's. The iPod wins this round, and remains champion.

At least, the Sony is a bit smaller and lighter (3.8 ounces vs. 5.6 ounce) and has a better battery life (27-22hrs play compared to iPod's 12 hrs).

02:58 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Besieged by competition from mobile telephones and other wireless devices, worldwide shipments of handheld computing devices declined 2.2 percent to 2.20 million in the second quarter of 2004, down from 2.27 million units during the same quarter in 2003, according to research from industry firm IDC.

The market for handheld devices has been in decline since 2001, hurt by a general slump in technology purchasing, competition from wireless devices that perform PDA functions, and by a lack of new applications, said David Linsalata, an analyst with IDC, based in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Interestingly, while Sony dropped out completely, and PalmOne sold 0.6% fewer devices (924,000 devices) in the second quarter of 2004 (compared to 2003), PPC-based HP saw its shipments increase by 39.2 percent (530,000 devices) year-over-year.

09:07 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Sharp and Danger, Inc. have agreed to collaborate in developing, manufacturing, and distributing wireless PDAs for North America and Europe. According to today's press release, the two companies will jointly develop wireless devices with communication functions by combining Danger, Inc.'s superior software with Sharp's one-of-a-kind technologies built up through years of development in personal information tools.

As a first step, Danger, Inc. will develop software and a hardware reference design for a successor model of hiptop, which the company released in October 2002, while Sharp will support the design and development of hardware, then produce and sell the new hiptop to wireless operators.

Sharp plans to design and develop new wireless devices that work seamlessly with Danger, Inc.'s enhanced software and server services.

Definitely sounds like a great alternative to PPC and Palm!

07:05 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

I have some more Gmail invites ready for you.

The first five members who reply to this thread (and perhaps say something nice about MobileRead ) will each get a free invite!