10:17 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

InfoWorld is reporting that Pocket PC and SmartPhone brand names will disappear over the next year or two. They will be merged into a single Windows Mobile product brand name. This announcement came from an interview with Scott Horn, a senior director in Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices group, at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

I don't know about you, but I like calling them Pocket PCs, and I'll miss it. Palm still works well for PalmOne devices, or even Zodiac PDAs, and I don't want to give up that name either! The new brand name, Windows Mobile, sounds much more like the OS than the device, but hey, Microsoft is all about the operating system, so I guess they prefer that the focus stay on them.

So what lingo are we left with? What do you think we'll be calling Pocket PCs in the future?
-- Windows Mobile mobile devices
-- Windows PDAs?
-- Dark-side devices?
-- Palm wannabes?
-- Plain 'ole "Phones" (after all standalone PDAs disappear from the market!)

Got any ideas?... Discuss this story by responding with what you think we'll be calling them! (Family-safe language please.)

09:43 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Before Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates gave his key note speech (thanks to Doctorow for the link) yesterday at the CES, NBC TV network's Conan O'Brian said something that made me chuckle:

The theme of this year is that gadgets are no longer just for geeks. That's right, look around you ... they are also for nerds and dweebs.

Let's think about this for a second. Consider what Apple has achieved with its iPod music player, this little device that enables users to download up to 10,000 songs into a sleek white and silver rectangular device, slimmer than a pack of cigarettes. Apple managed to get rid of a nerdy stereotype and to attract in no time a less geeky crowd with very advanced technology.

Really, is it still the techno-loving geek -- the kind of person who goes to great length to be the first to try out something new, whether hardware, software, or gadgets, the kind who goes into seclusion for days when a coveted new gadget arrives -- who is mainly driving the gadget market today?

This post is also a poll, so make sure to give your vote!

09:01 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Sony is doubling the capacity of its flash media product line again with the introduction of a 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media at the CES 2005.

The Memory Stick Pro High Speed media not only offers higher capacities and is high-speed read and write (up to 80Mbps) capable, but is also compatible with a vast array of current Memory Stick PRO devices.

Sony's new flash media flagship won't come cheap though: The 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media will be available in March for about $900.

06:23 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | iSilo/X

iSilo and iSiloX V4.2 were released earlier today and are now ready for your download.

New highlights of the reader iSilo:
- Added image map support.
- Beta of iSilo on the Symbian UIQ platform, to lead to the first release of iSilo on that platform.
- Addressing of miscellaneous issues.
Detailed list of changes.

New highlights of the the convertor iSiloX:
- Added RSS conversion capability (GREAT!!!)
- Added handling of image maps.
- Addressing of miscellaneous issues
Detailed list of changes.

05:35 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Earlier we reported rumors on an upcoming iPod Flash player. Think Secret now confirms speculations that Apple's flash-based iPod will be introduced at Macworld Expo in 1GB (may sell for $149) and likely 2GB versions (may sell for $199):

The device is currently being manufactured by Taiwain-based Asustek, which Apple brought on towards the end of the summer as a second ODM for manufacturing iPods. Sources say the flash-based iPod will be powered by a chipset from SigmaTel and that it will feature a screen that is the same width as the iPod mini's but two lines shorter.

According to insiders, due to some manufacturing issues the device's full-scale roll-out may postpone for as long as a month.

07:01 PM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

After we did some serious optimizations to our newsfeed system, we now decided to offer our readers a choice of separate RSS feeds for each section of the site.

In other words, you can now build up your own personalized Mobileread headlines list by subscribing your aggregator to the combination of feeds that suits you best.

Instructions how to use RSS are provided in the link below.

[Link to our RSS feeds]

Comments are as always welcomed!

02:38 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

MobilePipeline reports on a new Forrester survey indicating users really don't want to combine their mobile phone and PDAs after all. For example, mobile phone users don't seem to think that they really want all those PDA features.

Many PDA enthusiasts have been saying this for quite a while, scoffing at the idea that adding a phone to a PDA is a always a good thing. Citing feature compromises, battery life, size, cost, and a host of other reasons the idea of independent devices is more palatable. But the industry experts have loudly and confidently proclaimed that the smartphone category will almost completely squeeze out the separate PDA and mobile phone categories.

Don't count out smartphones though.... pretty soon the compromises may start to disappear as technology improves. And consumers might not really know what they want. There was a time when people didn't think they wanted a microwave either!

Forrester's summary (buy the whole article for just $249) says...

PDAs and phones seem to be on a collision course as PDAs get connectivity, phones get bigger screens and richer operating systems, and device makers experiment with new form factors that attempt to marry the two. These integrated devices form the bulk of the "smartphone" category. However, the majority of both mobile phone and PDA users are consistent in saying that they are not interested in this marriage — each device fulfills a different need. While PDAs will continue to integrate phone features that reinforce the device's core functions and smartphones will appeal to PDA owners who crave a single device, the majority of phone manufacturers will pick and choose those PDA attributes that make sense for individual customer segments.

10:36 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Sunrise

Laurens, one of the most responsive PDA developer I know, has just released Sunrise 0.40-pre7. The release contains two important fixes related to plain text conversion and DLL linking on Windows XP machines.

Unless new serious issues show up, we should be able to expect a final 0.40 release soon (at least if you believe that Laurens' to-do list for 0.40 is empty now).

If you are new to Sunrise, click here to find out more about its top-notch features for website offline conversion.