08:38 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

We would like to wish our friend Sammy McLoughlin a very happy birthday today! I'm pretty sure he's leaked out the information before, but I can't remember at the moment how old he is, so for now it will just have to remain a secret. [Edit: Check the PalmAddict site and you might just catch his age after all!]

For those of you that somehow have missed out on Palm Addict, Sammy is the owner and operator of the Palm Addict website. It's arguably the best and most updated PalmOS information site available. (I don't want to take away from any of the other fine PalmOS sites, but I really like Palm Addict.)

Sammy has signed up a nice gathering of Palm fanatics from across the globe to be Associate Writers. It's a badge of honor, and they do a great job of keeping the site frequently updated. Anything important in the Palm world is sure to pop up there before you know it. In addition, much of the writing comes from people like you and me who email Sammy to share a thought about Palm devices. The contests with prizes like, for example, iPods or PalmOne PDAs help to motivate lots of email contributers also.

I currently visit there several times a day, and if you want to get all the scoop on PalmOS pdas in one stop, that's a great place to keep up-to-date.

And one final thought... Most of us work on these mobile computing web sites simply because we love mobile computing and enjoy the community of shared interests. It's not about money, and it really is the best feeling to be appreciated with a kind word or comment. So if you're a fan of Palm Addicts like I am, be sure to use the email link at his website to wish him a Happy Birthday and thank him for all that he does for the Palm Community.

And, hey, while you're at it, how about a little appreciation for own Alex Turcic -- mastermind, owner and webmaster par excellance right here at MobileRead.com!

Best wishes Sammy, and keep up the great work.

08:37 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Handtops.com has an in-depth review of the OQO with a lot of screenshots.

The conclusion is, unlike of what we've read elsewhere, a very positive one:

The OQO is a very pleasant device to work with and use. The screen is very bright, keyboard is very usable and the device is comfortable to hold with two hands. The speed of XP and it's GUI is good, but don't expect desktop quality performance. Keep in mind as well that with desktop quality performance comes desktop size, heat, power drain, etc etc. And I have yet to see anyone take a laptop out of their jacket pocket or bag and proceed to check email, directions, etc. The OQO team has made a beautiful product that will truly begin to change computing as we know it.

06:09 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:

Book Reader Software
TomeRaider 3 first beta available

Emerging Technologies
BenQ Joybee 4Gb Media Player
Creative Zen Micro - iPod Mini Competitor II?
Dell Pocket DJ 5- iPod Mini Competitor?
Flick showing Treo-clone BenQ P50
OQO review at NYTimes
Rio Carbon reviewed by PC Magazine
Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 - world's first HDD-based PDA

General Chat
Are you geek enough? I bet not!
CD-quality songs on mobiles
Free audio downloads of US presidential debates
On challenges and opportunities of e-books
Swedish Study: Mobile phones double tumor risk
Two different strategies: palmOne vs. PocketPC

General Palm Discussion
PalmGear 20.04% discount items revealed! - First Round
PalmGear 20.04% discount items revealed! - Second Round
PalmOne Posts Temporary T5 Calendar Workaround
Treo 650 pictures pictures!

General PPC Discussion
Dell Axim X50/X50v official brochure
Dell Axim X50/X50v reviews popping up

Hardware Reviews
Rhinoskin Aluminum Case for Tungsten E

MobiPocket
Free eNews subscriptions

Plucker
Happy Birthday Plucker!

11:49 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

TomeRaider 3 has been in development for over 2 years and you can finally download a first beta.

This is new: Categories/Filters for database queries, image support, accelerated full text searches, better and faster compression, full html support, DRM and encryption.

07:30 PM by hacker in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

http://www.plkr.org/news/47

Can you belive Plucker is 6 years old today? Its come a long way from that little hobbyist project from Mark Lillywhite in Australia to a project adopted by thousands of users, dozens of companies, and hundreds of other projects around the world!

Plucker 0.01 was pretty rough, but it worked! It only handled text, and it required sed and awk to work properly. There was no GUI or "desktop" components. It only worked on Linux and Unix. The early versions of Plucker didn't have a lot of fancy bells and whistles, but what it did, it did well. There were probably less than 5 users of Plucker 0.01 total back in late 1998/early 1999, worldwide, and I was one of them (as was Mike Nordström and Alexander Wagner). This is what it looked like back in 1998:

A LOT of work has been put into Plucker over the last 6 years, by dozens upon dozens of contributors. Plucker now works on EVERY platform including Windows, OSX, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2, Amiga and others, through the use of various tools provided and contributed by other community people.

For those who are on a platform that cannot run the native Plucker tools, or who are behind a restrictive corporate firewall, or other reaons... Plucker even works over email!

There are graphical desktop applications that can create Plucker content for you, quite a few commercial applications that produce Plucker content.

The Palm-side application has gone from English-only in the beginning, to German, French, and onward through the years to a total of 16 current translations in 2004!

Plucker has even been ported to the Windows PocketPC platform, so even Windows users can continue to use it on their Microsoft Windows-based handheld PDA. Dozens of interesting projects use Plucker as their base handheld distribution format, including hospitals, educational institutions, and publishing companies. Many ebooks are beginning to be released exclusively in Plucker format, and many more are coming.

We know of at least 2-dozen commercial companies utilizing Plucker in their products or internal company. Many doctors, students, and other professionals use Plucker to keep read-made information on-hand (pun intended) when they need it.

Here is what Plucker looks like today. What a long way we've come... and we're not done yet! Lots of new features are planned for Plucker 2.0. Come join us!

Happy Anniversary Plucker!

(You can read more about the history of Plucker on our website)

03:36 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

John Cox, librarian at the National University of Ireland, wrote a wonderful essay on the challenges and opportunities of e-books. He depicts findings from library and user perspectives, seeking to relate them to other studies and services and to future e-book development.

Edit: I forgot to mention the link. Sorry! Click here for the full article.

Abstract:

E-books are commonly perceived as offering great potential for learner support but also as struggling to compete with print due to poor on-screen presentation, restrictive licencing and limited range of titles offered. The experience of a group of Irish university libraries shows that, with the right combination of product and subjects, e-books can thrive among students and faculty, while librarians can create more dynamic, relevant and flexible collections than for print. Subscription management is demanding for libraries, however, and licencing issues remain highly problematic, representing a formidable obstacle to full exploitation.

08:11 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Sharp announced that it will ship its latest Linux-based Zaurus SL-C3000 PDA into the Japanese market next month. What is hot about this device, beside the fact that it is running Linux OS, is the fact that it will be the first PDA to integrate a hard drive (4GB). Beside that the hardware specs look pretty much standard; the Zaurus is powered by a 416MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor, comes with 64MB of SDRAM and 16MB of Flash ROM, and features a 3.7in 640x480 LCD display.

06:04 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

This is the second round of 20.04% discount items at PalmGear. Visit this thread if you have missed the first.

The Best Audio or Video Applications:
AeroPlayer
MMPlayer
NoviiRemote
Pocket Tunes Deluxe
Pocket-DVD Studio

The Best Enhancements:
CIC Jot
FindHack
PowerRUN
TealScript
TextPlus

The Best Utilities:
FlyZip
NeatFreak Pack
PDBcruncher
PowerOn
SyncWizard

The Best Board or Card Games:
400 Solitaire Games
Aces Texas Hold'em - No Limit
Backgammon Pro
Chess Genius
Scrabble

The Best Office Applications:
Documents To Go Premium
MiniOffice Deluxe
MobiSystems OfficeSuite Pro
Quickoffice Premier
RepliGo

The Best Image or Photo Viewers:
AcidImage
Firepad Picture Viewer
PicturePlus
Resco Photo Viewer
SplashPhoto

The Best Personal Finance Applications:
Budget Master
PMT xl
Pocket Quicken
SplashMoney
Ultrasoft Money

The Best Hobbies Applications:
My Roots
PDACookbook Plus
Planetarium
TealMeal
Wine Enthusiast Guide 2004

The Best Apps to be Stranded with on a Deserted Island:
GPS Compass
Little Palm Pet
MyDiary
Palm Aid
PathAway GPS