08:31 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Science Fiction magazine Locus has an excerpt of an interview with Neal Stephenson. In case you don't know Stephenson... he is the cyberpunk genius who wrote Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and some other great works (all of which are available as e-books). Check out the interview (or just the excerpt which is free) if you want to find out more about his upcoming work.

Locusmag seems like a great place not miss; therefore I wrote a Locusmag RSS feed that you are free to use.

03:03 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

I was waiting for this to happen. Juicebox shows us how cool an E-Ink device can be if not manufactured by Sony. It is small (50x56x3.7mm), has a multimedia card interface, includes a MP3 decoder, and of course features the wonderful E-Ink panel.

The great thing about this project is that it gives the schematic and source code (alas excluding the confidential sources for the E-Ink display) for download. Btw, the smart guy behind the project, Holly Gates, has actually worked for E-Ink since 1998. Why on earth did they make E-Ink technology exclusive for Sony until now?

01:26 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Boeing is drawing new customers to its Connexion in-flight Internet service. Some 528,000 iPass users will have access to the service through the iPass global broadband roaming network, which includes more than 11,000 active Wi-Fi hot spots in 33 countries. iPass customers thus can access corporate networks, send and receive e-mails, and surf the Web while flying.

Read the full story at Newsfactor.

Alas, as far as I know, only business- and first-class jet-setters can currently surf the Net on the plane (for 20 to 25 bucks an hour).[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/font] But I am convinced there will a time when Wi-Fi access on the plane becomes a basic commodity such as a can of soda. Good times are ahead!

12:55 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Japan's leading game developer Sega started to offer a series of mobile content Sakura Taisen to users of FETi-mode, a mobile phone Internet service provided by FarEasTone of Taiwan.

The service features wallpapers, voice ringers and Java games based on Sakura Taisen, Sega's popular game title that has sold more than 3.5 million copies in Japan.

12:50 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

MicroOLAP Technologies has announced in our forum the release of CHM eBook Reader for Pocket PC. CHM eBook Reader for Pocket PC allows you to view Windows help CHM files on your PPC. Sounds like a great addition to your software collection if you own .CHM files which you would like to read in your palm.

You can download a (slightly crippled) trial from here.

11:10 AM by Zire in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Hey All,

Wanted to point out this wonderful app that I don't think I would ever get tired of. This is the best animation program available for the palm. Very straight forward, has great tools to help you create your animations and the website is very helpful as well. I also like the converter for animations but it is windows only. I use my pc at work to convert animations, when I'm at home I use the converter along with virtual pc for mac. The website includes downloadable user contributions and a tutorial. The one thing that this app needs is image manipulation like flip, mirror, and rotation. But thats it. Tried other animation programs for the palm and this one beats all of them hands down. I would recommend this application to everyone. Try it you'll like it. I attached a folder of animations that I made and an exported animated gif using the converter that you can get on the website.

Enjoy!

Here is additional information from the site.

Application:
Novii Animator

Version:
1.2

URL:
http://www.novii.com/animator/descr.htm

Description:
Making your own animated cartoons is very entertaining, and using NoviiAnimator you will like doing it again and again!

You can use it both for creating animations and drawing single pictures!

Both amateurs and professionals will realize all their ideas
with the help of NoviiAnimator.

Features:
Tungsten PalmOS 5 support
Memory card support
Color and grayscale support
Onion skin modes
Wide range of playback speeds
Animation compression
Unlimited frames
Smooth drawing technology
Reverse and loop playback
Animation credits view
Zoom mode
Region select tool
Flood Fill tool
Built-in help

01:48 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

There's an interesting new way of looking at the news these days at www.newsisfree.com. This site is a news portal, currently collecting news from 12439 sources at the time of this posting. I don't know how they do it, but I'm pretty sure it's automated! You can read their own explanation at http://www.newsisfree.com/about.php .

But the eye-popping feature is the News Map feature that lets you see, in customizable graphic form, the various news articles from different sources. As you move your mouse over the boxes, it gives you more information on the article and lets you jump to it if you chose. While I think the interface could be improved, it's a very unique way to browse the news to clip for mobile reading!

04:09 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

The time has come for this MobileRead editor to editorialize. On this front page, you see mostly news and technology, but it's good every now and then to take a step back from the technology and share some thoughts and observations. So first a disclaimer... This is just one writer's perspective, and does not necessarily represent the official thoughts and position of MobileRead.com.

I won't supply all the answers, but I will explore some thoughts about two questions that have been nagging me recently about the PDA market:
1) Is the PDA market done expanding and all tapped out?
2) Why are current owners not buying new PDAs fast and furious?

Most people don't buy another PDA every year. Many PDA owners are happy with their current PDA and aren't in the market for a new one. But much more than that, industry experts are saying that sales increases will be small, and all the growth has to come from alternative markets like smart phones. You'd think that traditional PDAs are a thing of the past. Maybe. But maybe not! Here's a few reasons why I am optimistic about the future of the PDA market.

For one thing, PDAs are related not just to smart phones, but to things like handheld gaming. We are witnessing what seems to be early success for the Zodiac, and there's a lot of excitement about upcoming handheld gaming devices from Sony, Nintendo and Nokia. Yet a PDA platform has a great shot at outdoing the big game console makers in the handheld market. Both fit in your hand and carry similar technology. But the PDA will do much more for you than gaming.

PDA owners also don't seem to "get it" for a while either after buying a device. That included me even though I'm a tech lover. Most PDAs are only used as a personal information manager using built-in apps like date book and to do and address book. If anything else, maybe they keep some pictures or ebooks on there also. So there's no incentive to upgrade. But I think it takes time (and tips from web sites or a friend) for the average user to realize all the things they can do with their PDA. Once they discover some new software, though, look out. They're an instant candidate for an upgrade!

There is also a huge battery advantage of a PDA over a laptop. A PDA is not likely to replace the laptop of most users, but it is an alternative. (See Larry Becker's book Lose the Laptop .) As PDAs get more powerful with increased storage and functionality, and maybe even some decent integrated keyboards or voice input, there's no reason to think they can't become a laptop alternative. Many laptop users are just doing document reading, editing and email anyway. A compromise smart phone device is less likely to be adequate for a laptop replacement.

New capabilities will also open the untapped handheld multimedia market. Look at the explosion of iPod. Is a PDA so much different than an iPod? It's basically some software and a hard drive that separates the devices. That difference will fade soon as storage and compression technology improves. Same goes for the new handheld video devices. It won't be long before PDAs can do the job better, while providing much more additional function.

That long-awaited market for downloaded movie rentals may just end up exploding first for PDAs. Small screens means higher compression will be acceptable, and movies will fit on storage cards. But a smartphone screen is likely to be too small. And soon, with a new multimedia PDA in your pocket, you won't have to watch what the airline chooses for you on long flights anymore!

But that's only half of the promised discussion, so to finish things off, let us take a look at why current PDA owners don't upgrade more often.

Is the technology advancing? We can say a definite yes to that question. Any PDA tech geek like myself will gladly tell you the specs are getting better and better, and software improves constantly. Surely, within a year or so of a PDA purchase, one can find a PDA that would be a nice upgrade.

Do people want a new PDA? Surely some don't see a need. But there are a lot of people very anxious to upgrade. Let's face it, every time a great game comes out for OS5, there's a whole lot of OS4.1 users that can't stop thinking about an upgrade! Granted, that's probably more a factor for the fanatic user than the typical PDA buyer on the street, but the point is that there are reasons to upgrade. Yet not too many are buying. What's going on?

Let's take my own situation. I've got a bit of a personal bias against Sony due to their proprietary schemes and minimal support, but my Clie SJ33 is a great PDA. However, it's just not quite enough for me anymore, so I've been evaluating possible upgrades.

At first I just planned to wait for the new Palm Cobalt (OS6) devices. Thing is, I really don't want to wait to buy a new PDA, and I'd like to have an OS5 device with more memory while everything shakes out with Cobalt and the related software upgrades.

So here I am. Squarely in that prime market for PDA sellers. I like power PDAs (higher prices and margins), and I like the newest gadgets, and I get the bug to upgrade every year or so. But, just like most people, I don't. I think I face the same issue as a lot of buyers, so let's take a look at why I'm not buying yet.

I'm a fan of PalmOS, and well-entrenched, so that's basically what I'm looking for. At the time I'm writing this, I could get a Palm Tungsten E for about $200, which isn't the best thing out there, but would keep me plenty happy for a while. A step up from that would be a Tungsten C with WiFi, which in reconditioned condition is not a whole lot more. A new Zodiac1 with 32MB memory, two card slots and a half-VGA screen is only about $300. For a "mere" $400 I could get a Zodiac2 with a whopping 128MB memory. All of these options are in my price range as an aggressive overspender on technology. And I like all three of those devices. So why don't I buy? That's the puzzle that leads me to write this.

But here's the simple fact that no one seems to talk about... a huge portion of your purchase cost goes to accessories. Not just the fun stuff, but really it's for core pieces. Consider that Tungsten E, with what I consider essentials. In other words, if I don't get those accessories, I don't know if I want the PDA.

Here's my basic shopping list if I decide to buy:

$200 -- Tungsten E
$40 -- Case
$40 -- Cradle and cables (I use my PDA at two computers)
$50 -- Storage card
$20 -- Card Reader or software to mount the card as a directory on my PC
$20 -- Backup software
$20 -- Screen protector
$ 0 -- Assumes I use freeware or software I've already bought (not likely!)
====
$390 for a PDA that is basically just something to carry me until something really nice hits the market.

If I go the Zodiac2 route, which gets me something I really like, the bill goes up to $590 and most likely, by the end of this year or first half of next year, there's going to be something out there that I "have to have" because it blows this one away.

Interesting note: I probably would have gone out and bought a Zodiac2 this morning at my local CompUSA despite the high price tag because I am so eager to upgrade. It would have been a well thought-out impulse buy. But I decided against it when I realized that, according to their web site, CompUSA doesn't carry screen protectors for the Zodiac. After beating up my Clie screen, I won't use a PDA without a screen protector. Especially an expensive new one! And what kind of impulse buyer is going to buy a brand new PDA when they have to wait a week to get a mail-order screen protector before they're willing to use it? Hint to CompUSA and TapWave -- carry ALL the essentials IN STOCK!!!!

Now how many people are going to shell out that kind of money to upgrade every year? Not many. I'll buy either one of those, including accessories, if it's going to satisfy me for a couple years, but if it's just to carry me over to the devices already on the horizon... I don't think so!

And the funny thing is that the PDA maker probably wouldn't get too much of my accessory money anyway unless they had it available at the store when I make my purchase. Ebay and mail order are just too easy and selection is better.

Now you may be asking yourself, "Why didn't you just buy a Zodiac2 when it first came out instead of waiting?" Well, that's a good question. I was still thrilled with my SJ33 for one thing, so it never occurred to me. Another reason it never occurred to me was that I didn't pay any attention to the Zodiac because I thought it was just a toy, and I didn't realize until recently that it was a well-designed and powerful PDA.

So it's no wonder people aren't buying PDAs very often. For that kind of money, they probably want to take their family on a vacation instead!