12:22 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

A September study (.pdf) by the Online Publishers Association found that 18- to 34-year-olds are far more apt to log on to the internet (46%) than watch TV (35%), read a book (7%), turn on a radio (3%), read a newspaper (also 3%) or flip through a magazine (less than 1%).

And when young people go online, they tend to browse for news in much the same way they window-shop for jeans or sneakers: sampling a headline here, a blog entry there, a snippet of a story there, until their news cravings are satisfied.

Adam L. Penenberg, assistant professor at NYU, wrote an interesting article about this latest phenomena at Wired News.

Looks like RSS feeds, connected PDAs, and Blogs are going to make the news of the future.

11:59 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PocketPC Mag has published a quick guide called Everything you need to know about your Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone.

This guide makes an excellent read for every prospective Pocket PC user who wants to find out the many possibilities of the Windows Mobile platform. No matter whether you are new to PDAs, or just upset with Palm OS devices and think of switching over to the "dark side", make sure to check it out!

11:02 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Opera Software is pitching a new idea that promises to put and end to the problem of rendering Web pages effectively regardless of screen size.

A couple of days ago the company announced its new Extensible Rendering Architecture (ERA), blending together all of the company's existing rendering technologies -- including Small- and Medium-Screen Rendering (SSR/MSR) for mobile devices and TV-rendering -- to tackle the problem head on with dynamic resizing.

Opera's ERA technology enables dynamic resizing to adapt Web page content to fit any width - from projectors to mobile phones, and everything in between. Furthermore, printing Web pages will often leave out parts because the Web page is wider than the paper, and ERA can make the Web page fit the width of the paper for complete printouts.

A preview of ERA is available in the Opera 7.60 Technical Preview 3 desktop browser. Let's hope that they simulaneously also work on a new Pocket PC and Palm version that could potentially challenge NetFront as my currently favorite mobile browser.

10:48 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Treocentral brings the news that palmOne is committed to work on a system software (ROM) upgrade that will increase the Treo 650's memory use efficiency to allow users to recapture most of the NVFS overhead space currently lost to them.

You can read in full detail what the memory issues are all about in palmOne's KB article 35222.

We assume the same upgrade would also be available for the Tungsten T5, which exhibits the same memory inefficiency problems we discussed earlier.

What is interesting for now is that palmOne will make available a free 128MB SD expansion card to Treo 650 purchasers on request. Details on this free offer will become available in early December. We have currently no information whether this offer is also valid for current Tungsten T5 users.

10:18 PM by ricmac in Miscellaneous | Introduce Yourself

Hi all,

I've been lurking at MobileRead for a few months now and posting every now and then. But now that my blog is featured on the MobileRead frontpage, I better introduce myself formally

I have a Palm T2 currently and I use it mostly to read blogs offline, but also to read eBooks. I've just purchased my first eBook (although I've read several free ones).

Up till recently I ran a blog called eBook Culture that was focused exclusively on eBooks. But I've now merged that with my main blog Read/Write Web. I write mostly about Web Technology on Read/Write Web, but writing and electronic publishing are two of my core interests. So expect to see lots more posts about eBooks on R/WW in future!

I look forward to conversing with you all on MobileRead

>>>>
[Editor's Note: We're delighted to have Richard with us in this MobileRead community, just as we are happy when each and every one of you takes the time to participate, or even if you just make frequent visits to read a few posts. There's a boatload of great content out there on the web, so it's an honor when people take the time to stay in touch with us here.

As Richard has some really awesome content on his site that's wonderfully tied to the subjects discussed at MobileRead.com on a daily basis, we've taken this opportunity to highlight his introduction here on our front page.

I hope you'll take a moment to browse Read/Write Web. You'll probably find yourself placing it on your bookmarks list. And in the future, we look forward to having an occassional opportunity to share some of his writing on MobileRead, which I hope will both be a pleasure and a reminder for us all to keep an eye on his site.]

07:28 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Imagine the possibilities of a small headset that provides a virtual 10" screen in front of you. A full-sized screen display no matter how small your PDA or smart phone becomes. Carry a 10" TV and movie viewer in your purse or backpack.

While there have been some similar kinds of display technologies in the past, this comfortable headset is approaching practicality at an expected price of only about $400.

Read more, see a video, and dream a little about the possibilities...
http://www.gizmo.com.au/go/3298/
http://blogger.iftf.org/Future/000598.html
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/video/

(Via PC Magazine)

07:12 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

One gal has decided that enough is enough. After one too many scams headed her way, she began to get some revenge without leaving the comfort of her horse farm in Illinois.

Instead of just ignoring the scammers, she decided to fight back. Partly to waste their time and money, and partly to increase awareness of the kinds of scams going on. She wants to help others to be aware of their schemes and hopefully she'll reduce their effectiveness.

But for us, it leaves a trail of funny exchanges with the money grubbing cheats. You can't help but cheer for them to waste money on expedited shipping costs to send their fake cashier's checks, and even to imagine their frustration when they find out they've been had and they don't get to steal anyone's money.

You can find all the scoop here... http://www.bustedupcowgirl.com/scampage.html

And as a bonus, if you are in the middle of an exchange with a scammer, you are even invited to call her for advice!

05:12 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Since I am now proud owner of my first Pocket PC, I decided to implement RSS feeds and mobile versions for the latest "New Software" and "New Updates" releases from PocketGear.

PocketGear: New Software Titles: RSS 2.0 - Mobile

PocketGear: Updated Software Titles: RSS 2.0 - Mobile

Another free Mobileread service