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

05:37 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Here's a very cool development in Japan: Japense mobile users will soon move to new frontiers in their passion for mobile telephones and pop music as customers will be able to download full-length, CD-quality songs to their cellphones.

The Inquirer reports that KDDI, Japan's second biggest phone outfits, would offer a service of 10,000 songs with sound quality so good the music can be listened to on stereo speakers. Users can also use the tunes as ring tones.

The service, which begins next month, is called "Chaku Uta Full," or "Full Ringer Songs."

05:23 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Larry Garfield from Infosyncworld looks at the different design strategies of palmOne and PPC-based vendors, and muses on what it says about the way they think. This is an excellent read and mirrors exactly what a lot of our members have been discussing lately:

Where HP and Dell both think in terms of feature count, palmOne, rather out of necessity, tends to tailor its markets more. That's why, according to palmOne anyway, the T5 doesn't have Wi-Fi[...]That's not to say that palmOne doesn't need a bigger push. Next to the equally-priced non-novel but very flashy X50 Advanced, the T5 just doesn't seem impressive, even if it is one of the most feature-rich Palm OS handhelds to date.

So what does the editor of the article suggest? -- That palmOne is better hurrying up to release a Cobalt handheld that could hopefully compete with the latest HP and Dell PPC devices.

05:08 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Bottom Line: The Rio Carbon is a worthy competitor to the iPod mini, with a gigabyte more storage, great style, excellent sound, and extras such as voice recording and a built-in stopwatch. It charges via USB and doesn't need a driver or dedicated software.

Click here for the full review.

04:08 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Using a mobile phone for ten or more years almost doubles the risk of developing acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor on the auditory nerve, reveals a study released on Wednesday by Sweden's Karolinska Institute (the Swedish Institute of Environmental Medicine).

The risk was confined to the side of the head where the phone was usually held and there were no indications of increased risk for those who have used their mobile for less than 10 years, the Karolinska Institute said in a statement.

Nature.com covers the news in more depth.

Perhaps the only bright spot: Because only analog mobile phones had been in use for more than 10 years, the Institute's researchers said they were unable to confirm that tumours would also develop more frequently in users of digital (GSM) handsets.

08:18 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Audible offers the 2004 U.S. Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates for free download at http://www.audible.com/debates.

Any Audible web visitor can register, download, and transfer audio to any AudibleReady mobile device, burn standard audio CDs for playback away from the computer, or stream audio at the user's computer.

03:42 PM by ignatz in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The New York Times has posted a surprisingly glowing review of the OQO (registration required, or use BugMeNot). They state that the price point will be at around $1900. They like most things about the unit, but they do enumerate several problems. The lack of a CD or DVD (obviously too large) seems limiting, though the dock sounds good and it does have built in wifi. The main input system is USB, but it's 1.1 instead of 2.0. The battery life is a dismal 2.5 hours! What the hell can you do in that time?! I'm really surprised by the proliferation of "mobile" devices that need to be powered up every couple of hours. Until this trend turns around, I'll stick to lower power devices that can run for at least 6-8 hours.