05:06 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Laurens, author of Sunrise, explains in his blog why he believes that by moving to Linux, PalmSource will ultimatively loose its competitive advantage and may not even survive in the long run:

Vendors choose Linux because it's free and PalmSource will have a hard time selling their proprietary layer at a profitable level to companies accustomed to paying next to nothing for the OS. As it stands, Linux devices do not have UIs as elegant as that of PalmOS, but that might still change. PalmSource might find themselves blazing the trail for UIs in Linux devices, only to find themselves caught up by an open-source alternative sponsored by device vendors.

One month ago, Palm OS users were confronted with the news that Laurens would not put his energy and resources into developing a Palm OS-based version of his upcoming Sunrise viewer. A few days after his announcement, PalmSource reported that the company intended to port Palm OS to Linux (also see our insider scoop).

There is a lot of speculation about the future of PalmSource and its operation system Palm OS, and I guess speculation will continue until we'll finally see (if we ever will!) a next-generation Palm OS device.

08:22 PM by Colin Dunstan in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices

Last week I mentioned that I did not entirely agree with Teleread's positive review on the Cybook reader. In response, Michael from Bookeen contacted me; he also gave me the permission to republish his letter:

1)For the time being the dust problem has been reported by Armitag only (Sorry Armitag for this issue).
2)We checked all our screens before shipments and we never noticed any kind of dust under the screen.
3)None of our other customers have complained about this kind of problem.
However we will be very attentive to this potential issue.

Last thing we are porting a PDF reader on the Cybook, in order to read complex documents (datasheets, manuals, technical books...). Have you ever read any "complex" PDF files on your PDA?

The fact that Michael contacted us promptly and that he took the dust issue so seriously shows me that he works for a respectable company. I personally hope that Bookeen will be successful with its Cybook product and that it will have the time and money to develop further e-book reader products!

07:23 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

We've received user submits on two new games available for Pocket PC. One of the games is Naval Ship Warfare, a classic Battleships clone with some extra options. You can play the classical five-ship version, or mix it up by adding an extra ship into your naval fleet, placing mines, and sending out airplanes. The other game is Mario Docker, an arcade Tetris clone, in which the protagonist, Mario the Port Docker, has to unload all the barges coming into port.

Thanks to Ohayden and mariodocker.com for the news.

03:04 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Great news for all emulation fans! After four years of closed-source development, MorphGear, my favorite emulation system for Windows and Pocket PC, is going open-source! This will include the following changes:

- MorphGear is now free for non-commercial use.
- Because some modules were being used with permission under commercial license from Marat Fayzullin, those modules will continue to be available as closed source, commercial products but will now be maintained and supported completely by Marat. This includes GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, Master System, GameGear, and NES.
- The source code will be moved to an online repository.

MorphGear can emulate the following systems on Pocket PC:

o Nintendo GameBoy Advance (VGBA)
o Nintendo GameBoy Color (VGB)
o Nintendo Entertainment System (iNES)
o SEGA MasterSystem (MasterGear)
o SEGA GameGear (MasterGear)
o SEGA Genesis (Generator)
o Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Snes9x)
o TurboGrafx-16 (Hu-Go)

You can download MorphGear from here.

10:25 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Believe it or not, your future PDA may be able to project images and video onto a wall or screen, and you won't have to lug your car battery around to power it. Engadget is reporting on a story at vnunet which shares a new approach to laser projection that is much more efficient than current methods.

Your local sales rep with a projector hooked up to his or her laptop uses technology that creates the image by blocking light, which is very inefficient because it uses a very bright light bulb, and only a small portion of the light makes it to the image. (And you pay an arm and a leg to replace that little sucker also!)

But the new method, being developed at the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University, will steer laser light. A black and white prototype is already working. It will be practical for consumer color versions only after the price of blue lasers drops, which is expected to happen when the next generation of "Blu-ray" DVDs becomes mainstream in the consumer world.

11:52 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Sunrise

Laurens informed us that the new Sunrise 0.40 pre2 allows you to modify the way how downloaded documents are cached:

# Default: Use the cached page/image if the Cache-Control or Expires header indicates that it hasn't expired yet. Otherwise, check with the web server if the cached copy is up-to-date using a Conditional GET request (see below).
# Revalidate: Always check with the web server is the cached copy is up-to-date using a Conditional GET request. This is akin to Reloading/Refreshing in the web browser.
# Disable: Do not use the cache at all.

Sunrise 0.40 pre2 also contains some important bug fixes allowing you to run it on Windows 9x machines again.

You can download the latest Sunrise by clicking here, or visit here first to see a list of all changes for 0.40 pre2.

Sunrise is the only desktop component I know that respects Conditional GET requests, which can not only free up server resources but also reduces overall bandwidth consumption for the user. So what is a Considitional GET? The people who invented HTTP decided that a web client such as Internet Explorer or Sunrise should be able to ask a web server via a conditional GET if a web document has changed since the last time it looked at it. If nothing has changed, the server returns a simple 304 respond code which means as much as "Not Modified" and tells the client that it doesn't have to redownload the document.

Let's hope that other downloaders like iSiloX will support this feature as well in future!

08:34 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

If you are looking for a wide selection of Christian etexts, be sure to check out the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. For Christian resources, this one is a real keeper.

Classic Christian books in electronic format, selected for your edification. There is enough good reading material here to last you a lifetime, if you give each work the time it deserves!

The Vision [As given at the site itself]...
I would love to build the CCEL into a theological library containing 1000 of the most important public-domain works for theological study, containing:
-- Around 1000 volumes, selected by theologians and ministers from a variety of Christian traditions, to cover important topics for theological study and edification. A premliminary list of books wanted is available, but much more work must be done to develop it.
-- A good Bible translation for study that can be distributed relatively cheaply, such as the NRSV
-- Coverage of topics important for theological students
-- Commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons, and other reference works
-- Classic sermons and sermon illustrations
-- Indexes to the material by scripture reference (WWSB) and topic
-- The Bible and other important works in the original languages
-- Greek and Hebrew dictionaries and study tools
-- Markup of the texts in XML to identify theological subject matter, scripture references, etc.
-- A flexible, easy-to-use search engine
-- "Guided tours" or self-study guides on various topics

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

I've just stumbled across a source of etext that you may not be aware of - Project Wittenberg
Yes, that's Project Wittenberg, not Gutenberg!

Unlike the massive collection of copyright-free general literature at Project Gutenberg, the Project Wittenberg collection is focused on Christian religous writings and started off with the writings of Martin Luther. Not surprising as it seems to be a Lutheran effort. In their own words...

What is Project Wittenberg?

Project Wittenberg is an ad hoc group of individuals dedicated to posting on the internet a cross-section of classic and historic texts written by Lutherans. The project arose from the frustration felt by these librarians, archivists, scholars, pastors and others. A thorough search of the internet yielded few works by even Martin Luther, founder of Lutheranism, translator of the Bible, shaper of the German language, and a catalyst in the events that shaped the formation of modern western civilization.

Project Wittenberg began with documents written by Luther himself. The documents are selected for their importance to the development of western civilization, their interest to a wide audience and their value in bringing Luther to life for those who have not had the opportunity to meet him in the pages of history.

Can you imagine the wealth of resources online if more groups would form online libraries of their own favorite topics!