08:43 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Who is going to run the show in the future - PDA or smartphone? If you have followed our recent discussion, you know that despite our undisputed love for PDAs, the PDA market is having a tough time these days, while the smartphone segment is heating up (research firm IDC projects that smartphone shipments worldwide will reach 90 million in 2008, up from roughly 17 million this year).

So far Symbian has dominated the smartphone market. I personally hate Symbian. It is slow and it doesn't offer the flexibility that I know from more advanced operation systems like Palm OS. Fortunately or not (depends on how you see the future), PalmSource is slowly shifting towards smartphones now, as newest licensing arrangements with smartphone players like Kyocera and Samsung reveal.

Today I found an interesting NYT article which states that PalmSource plans to announce tomorrow its first operating system designed specifically for smartphones. PalmSource said its software would be available in 11 smartphones without naming the manufacturers.

"We are reinventing the company," said David Nagel, PalmSource's chief executive, in an interview during a recent European tour. The company is betting that the same ease of use that made the Palm a popular hand-held organizer will draw people to phones using the software.

In other words, PalmSource clearly wants to be part of the smartphone hype. Let's only hope that it won't abandon its original roots and leave palmOne without a future operation system.

11:00 PM by cbarnett in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Geekzone have posted an item of interest about Eye-wear that simulates watching a 30' diagonal screen from 6 feet away. While not truly home theatre material yet, the device is light and attractive, and looks like it could penetrate the home market if marketted properly.

Here's the press release from the developers, Kopin.

Craig.

12:00 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

I just stumbled over two interesting news updates regarding Convert LIT:

• Windows users can now download a more extensive GUI than the one that comes with ConvertLit 1.8 (3rd party)
• MacOS X 10 users can now download a compiled version of the ConvertLit binary.

In case you haven't heard of Convert Lit yet:
Convert LIT is a program which allows you to convert Microsoft Reader format eBooks into open format for use with software or devices which are not directly compatible with Microsoft's Reader.

09:37 AM by doctorow in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Since we recently had the discussion on DRM-protected e-books and whether or not it is OK for you to use cracking tools to remove the protection, I found this very interesting and relevant page at Standford University:

Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors

The article discusses four factors whether a particular use is a fair use or not:
1. the purpose and character of your use
2. the nature of the copyrighted work
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market.

Great read and it should help some concerned minds to decide what to do about their private use of e-books.

02:32 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Shhhhhh... don't tell anyone, but there's an aniversary celebration contest going on at www.tapland.com with a Zodiac1 package up for grabs!

A preview of the contest with some preliminary information is available at http://tapland.com/news_arc/?id=536 but you'll have to wait until tonite for complete entry and prize details. Contest ends Monday, 9/27 at 11:59pm EST.

...one lucky grand prize winner will be lucky indeed. The fine folks at Tapwave have generously donated the following prize package:
- Tapwave Zodiac 1 w/32MB RAM.
- Black leather play-through case w/white stitching (Brando Style)
- Tapwave Zodiac Cradle
- Tapwave Stylus 3 Pack
- 3 Games on cards: Duke, SpyHunter & THPS4.
- Command Play gaming grip (these haven't even been released yet!)

BTW, Tapland is a very nice site with some great PalmOS info beyond just the Zodiac world, and excellent editorials. Some of the inside scoop, for example, includes a story that shows some very early and very interesting original sketches of potential designs. Be sure to check them out every now and then!

Be careful... too much exposure to the Zodiac gaming handheld and you might just run down to your local CompUSA to get one!

11:40 AM by Mobipocket in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

New, on the Mobipocket eBookStore, you can now browse eBooks by Series. Nearly 100 series of eBooks available.

Also, when an eBook is part of a Series, you will see a icon in the eBook Description with the title of the Series and a link to browse all eBooks of this Series.

see the list of series.

Some examples:
Star Trek, The Next Generation (106 titles)
Star Trek, The Original Series (119 titles)
Star Trek, Deep Space Nine (56 titles)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (44 titles)
The Alex Delaware Novels (16 titles)
The Dragonriders of Pern (12 titles)
The Starfist Series (7 titles)

04:55 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

eReader.com offers for a limited time all three e-books of Neil Stephenson's Baroque trilogy (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World) for the price of two ($39.90).

This is a great deal if you are interested in finding out more about Stephenson's magnificient portrayal of the 1714+ baroque era.

I bought The System of the World yesterday, and now I can hardly concentrate at work, so eager I am to finish reading it!

03:51 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

With tears in my eyes I read the news at Brighthand this morning:

Toshiba confirms that it is leaving the U.S. handheld market, plus according to enterprise customers in Europe, Toshiba representatives told them that Toshiba will be out of the handheld market by the end of the year.

It also means that Toshiba has no plans to release its e830 in the US. First Sony, now Toshiba. This leaves only Dell and Asus in the market for PPC with VGA displays. And who knows, maybe it is only question of time before they leave as well?