Thu October 28 2004
iPod Mini challengers - and how they fail again |
02:04 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Portable Audio/Video Walter Moosberg of WSJ wrote an interesting article about the Rio Carbon ($249), which hit shelves a month ago, the Creative Zen Micro ($249) and the Dell Pocket DJ ($199), both which will be available in November, and he compared them how they compete against Apple's iPod Mini. According to Moosberg, they certainly have their advantages over the iPod: Yet, the iPod Mini contenders have failed again, he follows, mainly because they "lag behind badly in simplicity and ease of use": Each player has its own short-comings. The Rio Carbon looks like a makeup case, with a small display that is dimmer and has smaller type than the iPod Mini's. It's jog dial is clumsy, the menu structure confusing, and sound quality was disappointing. The Dell Pocket DJ has navigation buttons that make your fingers ache and a hard-to-reach hold switch. And finally the Zen Micro, which at least comes in different colors, but makes you deal with a scrolling device that is so sensitive that you will end up selecting the wrong songs to play. |
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Wed October 27 2004
MobileRead Mobile for offline-readers, update |
07:31 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements I know I've promised you to work on a mobile MobileRead module for offline-browsers like iSilo. For some reasons I haven't found the time for it yet (I will eventually, really!!); in the meantime you may want to try this link: https://www.mobileread.com/avantgo/mo...ad_mobile.html Link-Depth is 1 in iSilo (make sure you don't go over 1, otherwise you will end up leeching my entire forum - which wouldn't make me a happy camper!) Always open to suggestions. |
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E-books for your mobile phone |
07:02 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News Another realm formerly occupied only by PDAs is now under attack by the latest smartphone generation: Ebooks Corporation today announced it has entered into a five-year distribution agreement with Nokia to distribute a growing range of popular books via a new generation of Nokia smartphones. The deal means that users of Nokia mobile devices will be able to find, buy, download and read books directly from their handsets. Stephen Cole, CEO of eBooks.com said, "This arrangement will make it very easy for Nokia mobile device users to find and read their favorite authors. Our customers are especially tech savvy and very mobile. They will appreciate the ability to access their library anywhere, any time." Via Geekzone. |
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[Librie-Dev] To good to be true: Sony Librie finally cracked! |
06:20 AM by Colin Dunstan in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices It seems someone has finally made it. I am not talking about cracking the restrictive DRM e-books Sony is trying to sell. I am talking about converting your own e-books and reading them on the Librie. How wonderful does that sound? Someone named 'scythic' was able to convert HG Wells' The Time Machine from text to LRF (Librie's book format without the DRM). Even better, he uploaded the Windows binary and source code for the conversion tool as well (not GPL though). There are still a few issues to be solved, such as pagination and formatting, but the core work has been done: the Sony Librie has been cracked! Now could someone be so cool and send me a Librie to the States? I know a lot of you guys have partial feelings for a dedicated e-book hardware reader, but I'd be happy if I personally owned one Btw, I also attached the conversion tool to this thread. |
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Tue October 26 2004
visNotes-encrypted memos |
08:01 PM by cbarnett in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones SFR have released a utility for the PPC and Palm, visNotes. This is an alternative memo/notes program that encrypts the note with 128bit encryption. The basic version is free. Not a bad idea for those who may not already be using ewallet software to encrypt sensitive data on their devices. Craig. |
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It is true: palmOne is losing its market share |
07:52 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge According to a study from global market analyzer IDC, the mobile device market (smartphones and PDAs) in Western Europe grew by 38% during the third quarter of 2004, with over 1.8 million units shipped during 3Q04 compared to 1.3 million units in 3Q03. This steady increase was mainly driven by Blackberry and smartphone sales. The interesting part of the paper is a table showing how individual mobile device vendors were doing in Q3. All of them (that includes Nokia, HP, Sony Ericsson, RIM) exhibit a growth in market share - on the expense of palmOne, who saw shipments drop by 16% year on year to 138,900 units. And there remains a gloomy outlook: |
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[Librie-Dev] Sony Librie - download all BBeB encrypted e-books |
07:41 PM by Colin Dunstan in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices Apparently some sleepless geeks are still trying to break the nasty DRM protection that made the Librie fail of becoming a star. Today I stumbled over the instruction how to download any secure BBeB book from Sony's e-book distributor TimeBookTown. The books will still be encrypted, but it is nice to have a few copies for "closer inspection." Here is the instruction, originally from the Librie group at Yahoo: Example: http://www.timebooktowns.jp/contents...1B0090900Z.LRX Let's count the hours until they will notice and pull the plug. |
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Sandisk release new fast and small card readers |
07:40 PM by cbarnett in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones Geekzone have an interesting article about Sandisk's new card readers. They are very small, plug straight into the usb port (USB 2.0), and the card plugs straight into the reader. Two versions are available, one for SD/MMC and similar cards, the other for memory stick and memory stick pro cards. These are a great idea. They are small enough to carry around in your pocket, and are a lot faster when you want to transfer many or large files to or from your cards. Craig. |
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