02:16 PM by sUnShInE in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Cool news for Vindigo users. Vindigo is now offering its service, as well as that of many others including the NY Times and Mapquest, for mobile phones.

If you're an Alltell, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Sprint PCS, U.S. Cellular, or Verizon Wireless customer, head over to Vindigo to find out what services you can put on your cell. Please note that not all services, with the exception of Vindigo itself, are available from each of these providers and not all phones can receive the service.

Us TMo users seem to be SOL. Oh well. I guess I'll stick with the PDA version

04:28 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Tempo/Chicagotribune presents its second annual 50 Best Magazines list (requires free registration).

Their top 10: 10. Consumer Reports, 9. Jane, 8. Men's Health, 7. American Demographics, 6. The New Yorker, 5. Esquire, 4. Cook's Illustrated, 3. The Economist, 2. Real Simple, 1. Wired.

04:06 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

As I am currently writing a market study on the optical media market, I find the following article from WSJ more than just interesting: In fact, I find it fascinating, because it confirms my belief that the market is (not yet) ready for High-Definition DVDs (Blu-ray, HD-DVD).

Directly from the article:

At a recent private meeting with Hollywood studio heads and tech czars like Microsoft Corp.'s Steve Ballmer and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Carly Fiorina, Mr. Jobs argued that studios shouldn't license their movies for use in the planned "high-definition DVD" format until Hollywood is assured by the tech industry that the discs can't be copied by new DVD burners that will come along. High-definition DVDs are being developed as a successor to the current digital-video-disc format and are expected to be on the market by next year, along with high-definition DVD burners.

Mr. Jobs even suggested that high-definition DVD burners not be bundled with computers at all -- a scenario he said in an interview was "extreme" and one that "I hope we don't have to get to, but it helps to put the issue in perspective." He said it is up to the tech industry to prove to Hollywood that high-definition content can be adequately protected.

I think Jobs has a point. Besides, I believe that big consumer electronics makers such as Sony only want to keep introducing new formats to stay ahead of competitors in China and Taiwan who have become a huge force in supplying cheap players and burners. But are consumers ready again for yet another fight in the market between competing DVD (Blu-ray, HD-DVD) formats?

03:53 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

With the Oceanic H2OAudio Player you can now play your MP3's from the depths of the worlds oceans (e.g. Scuba diving, free diving, snorkeling), or other wet locations (e.g. in your morning shower). The player includes 64mb (USD $449.95) to 512mb (USD $649.95) of built-in memory to deliver from 2 to 16 hours of CD quality tunes.

04:03 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

According to Pocket-Lint, Intel designed and created a surf board that had a built in wireless laptop in it. The board makes its first appearance at the GoldCoast Oceanfest at the North Devon free sports and music festival this weekend.

"The surfboard allows surfers to check their emails, surf the web (literaterally) and even record the footage of themselves catching the best waves. The tablet laptop based on Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology allows a wireless Internet connection from the surfboard to a ‘hotspot’ on the beach," says the article.

Now, and you really thought that you already knew web surfing?

03:42 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Library Journal, a bimonthly magazine, started the first American best-seller list based not on book sales but on demand at public libraries. Unlike those best-seller lists from NYT or Amazon, this one tells us what we're actually reading as opposed to what we think we ought to be reading, or would like other people to believe we're buying.

03:33 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I always wanted to own one of these flash drives... now look at this one: 1 GB memory!

The new Crucial Gizmo! Hi-Speed version is faster than ever, and can move data at speeds up to 480 megabits per second. All that power in a sleek device that you can handily attach to your key ring! It also comes with integrated security and is available in 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB and, as I mentioned before, 1GB (enough space to store an entire movie encoded in divx).

12:05 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Perhaps not the latest news, but it was new to me and I think worth to be mentioned...

MobileRSS.net enables you to view RSS feeds from anywhere on any mobile device. It converts your favorite feeds into a webpage format that can be used as a channel by any offline or online browser.

Click here to see how it works with MobileRead.com.