04:08 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Last week we discussed a December promo at eReader.com offering a free e-book for download every day.

I know the saying goes 'don't look a gift-horse in the mouth', but let's still have a look at the e-books being offered as free by eReader.com:

Dec 01 J. Verne Around the World
Dec 02 F.H. Burnett A Little Princess
Dec 03 -- The 9/11 Commission Report
Dec 04 J. Conrad The Secret Agent
Dec 05 L.F. Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Dec 06 A. Chekhov At Christmas Time
Dec 07 P. David Star Trek: New Frontier: Stone and Anvil
Dec 08 H.G. Wells The Time Machine
Dec 09 M. Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Dec 10 C. Dickens Some Christmas Stories
Dec 11 M. Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Dec 12 H.G. Wells Twelve Stories and a Dream

Except for one Star Trek novel that is also available for $5 at Amazon.com, all e-books offered are public domain and can be freely downloaded from various places such as Gutenberg.org.

This is not the first time eReader.com is trying to promote their webstore with out-of-copyright e-books. In fact, some of those e-books are exactly the same e-books that were offered by eReader.com as "free" almost half a year ago.

My advise: if you are looking for freebies, don't waste your time following those pseudo-promos (and handing out your credit card information), but go directly to Gutenberg.org.

03:21 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Canada-based DataWind Corporation promises to end web surfing pain for cell phone users with its PocketSurfer PDA, a 6in. by 3in. device dedicated to deliver real Internet experience to a cell phone user in a fast and economical solution.

The company claims that PocketSurfer is faster than any other wireless Web technology. Unlike a Smartphone or wireless PDA, it uses your cell phone as a wireless-modem. To use the service, you will need to have your bluetooth-ready cell phone enabled for wireless data from your wireless carrier.

And here is the fineprint: PocketSurfer doesn't connect to the Web directly. Instead, it connects through DataWind's proprietary Internet proxy aiming to optimize pages with graphical content. For this optimiziation, you are required to pay another $9.99 per month Internet service access fee, beside your regular cell phone data plan.

The PocketSufer is rolling out now and available in the U.S., Canada and Venezuela for $199.

02:48 PM by sUnShInE in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

We've all been there. With over 20k software titles available for the Palm OS, finding just the right application for your handheld or smartphone can often be a challenge. So palmOne has developed "Expert Guides", a directory of Palm OS applications, online resources, e-books and user testimonials to help give you recommendations.

The interesting thing is that the reviews are written by users, who claim to have "expertise" in the topics covered. From astronomy to blogging, each Expert Guide includes select software applications, references to relevant eBooks and Web sites and first-person user testimonials on the specific subject area.

While I applaud the efforts of palmOne to build an online community of 'just regular users' to evangelize for their hardware, some of the software recs seem to leave things out or pimp biasly for their own faves. Case in point: this eBooks guide, which leaves out iSilo. (gasp) Oddly, iSilo is in the web browser section, where they compare it to Avantgo... but don't recommend Avantgo.

On the bright side: PalmSource seems to be committed to the 'guide leading the blind' model, and are actively seeking experts. The downside? They're looking to influence their "economy", not their "community":

You will be our designated expert on your particular topic. You'll get private contact with PalmSource (to give us advice and ask questions), and as a thank-you you'll each receive $200 gift certificates to an online store that sells handheld gear. But most importantly, you'll get the recognition and gratitude of everyone in the Palm economy.

Click here to sign-up and promote your own interests and improve the Palm economy. They can obviously use your help.

Editor Note: I just realized, with a helpful email, that I incorrectly sourced palmOne for this instead of PalmSource. My apologies, I have corrected the post.

05:22 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

ATP Electronics announced that it has developed a 2GB Secure Digital card, which is now ready for mass production by OEMs.

The new cards will be the highest capacity SD cards on the market, doubling the current 1GB record, and offering a good performance of up to 10MB/s (that's fast, but not the fastest on the market).

ATP's 2GB SD cards will be priced at a MSRP of $249 (though the price might vary depending on the OEM).

I guess that means finally more room for my digital photos, medical records, MP3s, and Divx videos!

05:12 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | iSilo/X

Darren released the second V4.2 Beta of iSilo and iSiloX today.

V4.2 Beta 2 includes bug-fixes for Beta 1.

New V4.2 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 V4.2 highlights of the the convertor iSiloX:
- Added RSS conversion capability
- Added handling of image maps.
- Addressing of miscellaneous issues
Detailed list of changes.

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