08:28 AM by ignatz in Miscellaneous | Lounge

musicplasma has a lot of interesting potential. You enter a musician or band into the search and you get a visual result showing similar bands arranged by how alike they are and showing visual links based on style and relative popularity. Not sure how music is judged to be similar, or how popularity is calculated. I've already found a handful of bands that I need to check out. And the application is real eye-candy and very configurable. Recommended!

05:37 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The new company on2go Ltd. aims to provide "live, rich intelligent content" on mobile phones. on2go is a java-based content delivery system for mobiles that combines the immediacy of SMS with a richness that "far surpasses WAP."

Stock prices, football scores, ski reports, traffic information, racing results, last-minute travel deals, multi-player games, email and Instant Messaging – is the kind of live information on2go is striving to provide you.

If you'd like to be involved in their Beta program, you can send them an e-mail to register your interest.

05:16 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Brahamt brought the first news a week ago, and now it is official: Today, BMW and Apple unveiled the first adapter (link1, link2) that directly interfaces the iPod with a car stereo system. The BMW iPod Adapter can be installed in 2002 or later models, including the Mini Cooper. It supports up to five unique BMW playlists, which simulate the car's CD changer.

03:13 AM by faie in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Businessweek Online reports that wearable cellphones, which are already being sold in Asia, will be reaching US shores soon.

In the upcoming year, cellphones will be in forms that are cleverly disguised in watches, bracelets, jacket lapels, backpacks -- any imaginable place that will make gabbing a fashion statement.

Taking part in this cellphone evolution, several big players has churned out their versions of wearable phones. Nokia plans to begin selling its Imagewear line of digital necklaces and chokers in the U.S. at the end of June. The necklaces' medallions will store and display up to eight photos, snapped by a Nokia camera phone and uploaded into the necklace wirelessly via Bluetooth (see accompanying image).

Motorola has developed something it calls the SmartButton. The user pins the device onto a lapel, then taps on it and, using voice commands, dials a number and holds a conversation. The button forwards requests to the phone, which is somewhere nearby. Motorola also is looking at flexible phones that don't poke wearers when they take a seat.

This trickle of wearable cell phones could quickly turn into a gushing stream -- and many electronics companies, chipmakers, and startups are betting that the technological tide will carry them into the next stage of cell-phone evolution.

01:02 AM by cbarnett in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Check out http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116591,00.asp for an interesting atricle about using fuel cells in smaller appliances like notebooks and PDA's.

This could have a real impact on our ebook reading in the future...

Craig.

02:30 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

The new watch comes in flavours of 32/64/128/256 MB and is available from Laks (256 MB costs $199.99).

I4U has now a review of this nifty little MP3 player. It's conclusion: "Overall this watch looks good, sounds good, and has a nice GEEK appeal (yes I am a geek) I mean, how many watches can you pull a USB connector out of, and hook to your computer??"

02:14 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Brighthand now has a review of the SanDisk Wi-Fi SD Card for the Zire 71. Why is it that only the Zire 71 is supported? Quote:

According to SanDisk, palmOne won't publicly release this. Instead, the patch will be built into the driver that palmOne will release with its Wi-Fi SD card, which is expected to be available soon.

I am not sure if palmOne is in the position today to act like this, but I am definitely reconsidering my decision whether my next PDA will be Palm OS-based again

11:06 AM by sUnShInE in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

New York City plans to build a wireless network of unmatched scale and scope, including the capacity to send and recieve data while traveling at speeds of up to 70 mph.

The City's commissioner of the Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications, Gino Menchini, described the planned network as "the most challenging and most comprehensive" wireless project that he's aware of -- an assertion that was backed up by vendors that have seen the request for proposals (RFP) issued by the city.

"No one has ever attempted this before on such a scale," said Roger Skidmore, vice president and chief product officer at Austin-based Wireless Valley Communications Inc., which sells software for designing and managing wireless systems.

In fact, some vendors have asked whether New York would scale back some of its requirements, such as a mandate to support 2Mbit/sec. data rates and streaming video from thousands of users simultaneously. But But city officials rejected the requests in written responses. The RFP is "demanding and aggressive," Menchini said, but he believes that its requirements can be met.

Bids from vendors are due by July 21, and Menchini said he expects to award contracts for three-month pilot projects to multiple bidders by year's end. The final contract is expected to cover five years, with options for two five-year renewals.

Plans call for the wireless network to initially support up to 5,000 end-users and then be expanded. The RFP doesn't specify a rollout date, but Menchini said he wants installation of the network to start "as soon as possible."

Read more at Computer World.