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!

06:48 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Hello everyone!

This is my last week of vacation which I am spending in Dubrovnik/Croatia. As you can see from the picture depicting one of my favorite Dubrovnik beaches, I have been having a wonderful time here. I am truly sorry for all of you who had to stay in the office and work this summer!!

Next week I am at work again (yipeedoo...) and back to normal life. Expect some updates here at MR very soon.

06:09 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Hewlett-Packard has unveiled its fall lineup of new iPaq handhelds, including the first Pocket PC to bundle three major wireless technologies: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular. You can read the first brief PC Magazine reviews here:

- HP iPaq rz1710
- HP iPaq rx3715
- HP iPaq hx4700
- HP iPaq h6315

05:21 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

After having failed to persuade Apple to license the iTunes Music Store DRM system, Real Networks has decided to simply reverse engineer the proprietary copy protection. Real will this week issue a beta release of Harmony, a Rosetta Stone for DRM, that promises to allow users to convert one copy-protection mechanism to another.

You can read the full press release here.

Apple has not yet commented on Harmony, and is probably waiting to see exactly what the software can do before responding.

06:49 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

This survey from Wichita State U evaluates the reading habits of Internet users across five document types - journal articles, news, newsletters, literature, and product information. The (not so suprising) results:

- Journal articles were primarily reported to be read in printed form;
- online news, newsletters, and product reviews were reported to be read mainly online;
- users reported that they tend not to use online sources for reading literature. (I am very well aware that MR members still represent a minority group, the 18.5% who read literature online only ) Over 56% of participants reported not reading literature online at all.