11:05 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

After the first details came out on Sony's potential iPod killer, Guardian Unlimited has an exclusive hands-on review.

Our prime question: Is Sony's new music player good enough to trump the iconic Apple iPod?

What I personally dislike most: You have to convert your MP3s to Atrac 3 first before porting them to the device. Since both formats are based on lousy-compression, you can expect some loss in sound quality when transferring from one to the other.

10:30 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Yesterday Iambic released the final version of Agenus Pro V8.0. Lot's of changes since V7.x.

From my experience, though, I recommend that you wait a couple of builds longer, because Iambic likes to release buggy software.

You can download Agendus Pro directly from here.

07:16 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

According to a British survey carried out in March and April of 2004 questining more than 1,600 people, 72% of business travellers asked said onboard wi-fi web access would make them more likely to choose trains over cars or planes. It also found that the longer the journey that people took, the more interested they became in using web access on trains to get some work done.

05:39 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

As of Friday, May 7, 2004, JP Mobile has acquired PDA Defense product (excellent security application!) from Asynchrony. JP Mobile will re-brand the product as SureWave Mobile Defense.

JP Mobile will be launching three editions of the SureWave Mobile Defense product:

SureWave Mobile Defense - Enterprise Edition
SureWave Mobile Defense - Professional Edition (PDA Defense)
SureWave Mobile Defense - Network Edition

05:17 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

PDPal is a mapping tool for recording personal experiences of public space.

The goal of the PDPal experience is to use mobility and networks as a mediating and recording device that reactivates our everyday actions, transforming them into a dynamic portrait of our urban experience: we write our own cities.

The term "PDA" connotes a personal assistant, and therefore PDPal would be one of the first projects to transform the accessory construct of PDA's into a group and personal experience. PDPal's software will be available for update and download via the web or kiosk. The kiosks will use existing beaming devices and software by hi-beam (currently in use on Creative Time's public Beaming Network around New York City).

You can also find some more info here. The project seems to be in the works, but looks definitely unique

04:33 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

There has been a rash of recent editorials about privacy concerns with Google's gmail service. A number of organizations have asked Google to voluntarily suspend the service. One California legislator has gone so far as to say she plans to introduce a bill to ban it. This is nuts!

...says Tim O'Reilly from the famous O'Reilly Media publisher. Well, I did read his nine arguments, actually twice (!), but I cannot agree with him.

"Gmail is fascinating to me as a watershed event in the evolution of the internet. In a brilliant Copernican stroke, gmail turns everything on its head, rejecting the personal computer as the center of the computing universe, instead recognizing that applications revolve around the network as the planets revolve around the Sun."

To me it sounds as if Tim was among those celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Henry Kissinger, Shaq O'Neal who put money into Google in 1999 through Angel Investors. Now he might be waiting for the big bucks in return.

Would you want your mail being scanned by a bot for commercial purposes?

04:51 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Today Brighthand blesses us with a hands-on review of the new Dell Axim:

"One of Dell's new Axim X30 models is an updated version of one of Dell's earlier handhelds, the Axim X3i. Like its predecessor, the new device offers Wi-Fi and a good amount of memory in a relatively small Pocket PC. To this, Dell has added a 624 MHz processor and Bluetooth wireless networking. Perhaps the most significant change in this model it the move to the latest version of the Pocket PC operating system, Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. This allows the X30 screen to support both portrait and landscape modes."

Brighthand conclusion is that the Axim X30 is a must have for 350 USD.

Edit: An even more in-depth review can be found at Aximsite, with a conclusion similar to that of Brighthand: "Over all I believe this is a A+ upgrade from the X3i."

04:40 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Did you play with Lego when you were a kid? Looks like someone didn't stop playing, even when he reached adulthood. JP Brown's Serious LEGO made a Lego robot that solves the Rubik's cube problem. Here is what JP says about it:

This robot solves the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube®.

I started to think about this problem in about August of 2000. In Jan 2001 fellow Mindstorms forums user 'agiecco' announced his intention to work on a robotic solution and, simultaneously, I saw that Rubik's Cubes were on sale at www.target.com. So I bought a couple of cubes and started getting down to business...

I produced a 'late beta' version in mid-April 2001 that was a little clunky. The final version (presented here) is smooth and fairly reliable.