05:04 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Here is a cool question for you, asked today in the Inquirer: Which is better: Microdrive or flash memory?

First the article talks about durability Microdrives apparantly don't like high altitudes, whereas CompactFlash cards don't mind hot coffee. So the point goes to flash memory.

It then goes on comparing overall cost/absolute storage capacity. Costs for 1GB flash (either SD or Compact Flash memory) range $60-100, whereas costs for 1GB microdrive is around $32. The author thinks the price gap is only temporary:

It's a pretty safe bet to say they'll be some aggressive price cutting on flash memory and devices built around flash in the next six months so they can get some separation from microdrive-based devices.

10:34 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

In case you've missed any MobileRead news from this week, here is our usual roundup:

Avantgo
Avantgo server trouble?

Book Links
New York Public Library serves e-books

Book Reader Hardware
Sony Librie EBR-1000EP Wiki
Sony Librie English Reference

Emerging Technologies
41% of the global PDA market to go WiFi in 2005
First-hand T-Mobile Sidekick 2 Review
iPodLounge Catalog
iTunes 4.7 - Apple digging its own grave?
iTunes 4.7 - Unfix for the "Fix"!
New Messaging Standards
Nokia 7710 - Smart phone for smart people
Poll -- Tell Us What You Think of Voice Recognition
Random Thoughts About Smart Phones
Sharp's Linux PDA plans for the US

General Chat
RSA Security plans to infest your PDA with DRM
US-nationwide TV on your cell phone

General Palm Discussion
MailWave - new promising e-mail client for PalmOS
palmOne dementi: PalmSource not with PPC
Palm OS Cobalt 6.1 simulator available
PalmSource - rough times ahead?
Xiino 3.3E PalmOS Webbrowser

General PPC Discussion
New version of Warlords II available for PPC
Novel writing on the go...

New Links
Exclusive: 1src.com forums for offline-browsers

10:34 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you still use the Avantgo service, for the past few days you've probably received the following message on your PC during hotsync:

"Server is temporarily halted for maintenance. Please try again later."

The AvantGo webpage doesn't give a hint as to why the service is currently not working.

I feel bad for you if you actually pay for the advanced AvantGo account

08:35 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

We're asking for your thoughts on voice recognition software in a poll, but first a few thoughts.

November brings the release of ScanSoft's Version 8 of Dragon Naturally Speaking. eWeek writes that the program is greatly improved, especially in terms of accurracy which has improved by over 20%. One reseller of the software says "It really works; it's not an accuracy problem." (Of course, over the years I've heard that sort of comment a lot. Usually it means that a capability is almost there, but not quite yet!) But Chuck Runquist is the CEO of a software evaluation company, and he said "They did a super job in bringing it up to speed, in particular with the accuracy." So maybe there's something to it.

My own interest was due partly to the mention of support for Palm handhelds. It turns out that there is support for both Palm and Pocket PC, but the voice recognition and transcription only happens when you get back to your PC. Not quite enough processing power in your handheld for the full-blown program, but even integrated remote dictation starts to conjure up all kinds of new uses.

For example, imagine taking most of your notes verbally, and keeping them for future reference as text. Or, how about keeping your PDA in front of you during a meeting and catching all your comments for a sort of personal mini-minutes in text form. (I would say you could transcribe the meeting discussions, but I doubt the little mic on your PDA would be sufficient to catch any more than one person's words at best.)

And now things could get really exciting for tablet PCs also, where one would be able to do transcription on the fly!

Please give your opinion of voice recognition in the poll, and check out the full article at Voice software makes strides

04:58 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Xiino is a PalmOS-based online web browser with SSL and javascript support. Funny thing is I have never heard of this browser, so I cannot say how well it works. A 30-days evaluation version is available for download.

10:21 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmSource has released a simulator for its latest Palm OS Cobalt 6.1 operation system. The simulator allows software registered developers to test their programs without actually having a handheld running the new OS.

09:12 PM by cbarnett in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PPC Studios have released a new version (v1.02.13) of the classic Warlords II for Pocket PC. This was a great game on the PC, and is still a fantastic fantasy/strategy game on the PPC.

It's a free upgrade to those who are already customers (yay! ), and is currently on special, reduced from the normal price of $29.95US to $19.95US. A desktop version of the game is also included for free, and it includes many extra scenarios now, which were missing from the previous release.

If you like a good strategy game with some RPG elements, you can't go past this game.

Craig.

05:20 AM by Colin Dunstan in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices

Someone was nice enough to compile a short (and currently incomplete) reference in english for those struggling with the Japanese-only Sony Librie EBR-1000EP.

I made a PDF file of this reference and attached it for your convenience