09:28 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

A user at iPod Hacks describes how he managed to extract fonts and graphics from the iPod's firmware.

It didn't take long for a hack to show up: iPodWizard allows you to replace fonts and graphics in the firmware and also correct the firmware's checksum accordingly. You must

1. download the iPod Updater
2. open the Updater executable in iPodWizard
3. select the applicable firmware for your iPod model
4. modify to your liking
5. write back to the firmware.
6. run the iPod Updater!

07:59 AM by Alexander Turcic in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices

Sony has released four free addon programs for MS Windows, the first time the company is handing out tools that allow you to convert your own text material to Librie format!

1. Newspaper for LIBRIe converts Internet articles and news to a format readable by the Librie. In addition, since it is RSS compliant, one can select the most recent news from various web sites and create an original information magazine.

2. Toolbar for LIBRIe converts in one click a web page from Internet explorer into a format readable by the Librie.

3. Myclip for LIBRIe allows the user to drag and drop into a single ebook readable on the Librie text portions of websites which the users whishes to keep for further reference.

4. Printer for LIBRIe allows the user to print data stored on a pc in word, excel or pdf format into a file readable by the Librie. Possible usages include proof reading, text checking, or paperless document carrying.

[Via Librie Wiki and Sony Downloads]

06:04 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

PC Magazine has come out with a list of "two handfuls of devices to avoid at any cost this holiday season, culled from the worst-scoring products we tested this year."

Among the list you find the "fundamentally flawed iPAQ rz1715", which "lacks any of the redeeming qualities" of Dell or Palm's low-end PDAs.

I leave it up to you if you agree with their assessment or not

05:44 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Jeff Kirvin from Writing On Your Palm is asking for our support. He is currently broke; if you enjoy reading his excellent blog on writing on PDAs, you could help him out with a small Paypal donation.

05:37 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

NYT's Sunday Book Review features an interesting essay on how the negative trend in e-books has finally reversed its momentum:

[I]t turns out the e-book market has been changing course and, though still tiny, has been growing at double-digit rates. It is, in fact, the fastest-growing segment of the comparatively static publishing world. Between 2002 and 2003, the number of e-books sold rose 71 percent, according to the industry's trade association, the Open eBook Forum. The industry posted record sales in the first quarter of 2004, a 46 percent increase compared with the same period last year.

Author Sarah Glazer argues that main driver of the positive shift in the e-book market is the immense growth in cellphones and handheld devices sold. She doesn't neglect to speak also about the convience of e-books:

Fans of cellphone reading tell me they quickly forget about the size of the screen once they get absorbed in a good plot; moreover, they can increase the type size to make it easier on the eyes. And the convenience is unbeatable. A friend of mine, who had forgotten to bring reading matter to the dentist, recently read Kitty Kelley's book ''The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty'' on his Treo smart phone, then text-messaged a particularly damning paragraph about the Bush family to my cell.

In one aspect I strongly disagree with Mrs Glazer: E-books are not "significantly cheaper" than paper books. It may be true that a few bestsellers such as the Dan Browns' "Da Vinci Code" sell for a few cents less, but the overall picture is still bleak. There is no justification for selling e-books on a price-level that is just/or almost on par with paper books. E-books can be easily reproduced, they greatly reduce deliver costs, and they don't require any expensive store space. Similar like it is the case with audio cds vs. downloadable MP3, the publishing industry should reconsider its pricing policy in order to make e-books more attractive.

Overall this is a good essay that clearly depicts how e-books are slowly, but unstoppable integrating into mainstream.

05:11 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

It's almost like the Holy Grail of e-books: technology to flip ("skim") through dozens of digital pages and be able to catch a glimpse of what is on each page - much like browsing through a book. Singapore software company E-Book Systems (EBS) might be able to deliver such a e-book technology very soon. According to yesterday's article at Singapore's The New Paper, EBS has its own patented technology called Digital Flip, which allows you to flip an e-book just like its paper version:

It was first used in its consumer range of products called FlipAlbum, allowing people to make virtual photo albums. The company claims to have sold one million of FlipAlbum products to date worldwide.

Though I have never heard of FlipAlbum, I am anxious to see how this technology works when it is applied to e-book reader software.

10:54 AM by Laurens in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Interesting thread over at TreoCentral. Some users are reporting that their voice sounds "muffled" on the other end.

PalmOne is under intense scrutiny these days, maybe unfairly so. However, for a phone, any serious audio issues (that did not occur with earlier models) are of course totally unacceptable. Let's see how quickly they'll respond to this.

10:25 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the recent downtime (~24hrs). It took longer to update the forum than we had previously anticipated. Now we are back!

If you visit our forums, you'll notice a new category structure. If you have suggestions or comments, now is the best time

We are not done with all internal MR changes yet; so expect some more (short!) downtimes next week.

A more formal announcement will follow.

Thank you,
Editors
Mobileread.com