10:02 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Bitstream has just announced the release of its WiFi web browser ThunderHawk wireless V2.0 for PocketPC.

New users, as well as current ThunderHawk 2.0 Preview Edition users, can download the 30-day free trial of the product release or subscribe to ThunderHawk for $49.95 per year or $5.95 per month.

ThunderHawk 2.0 Pocket PC Edition provides:
- Effortless scrolling. Fast, fluid Web page navigation, as if you were browsing on your desktop.
- A more user-friendly keypad.
- Increased speed. Download ThunderHawk directly to your Pocket PC for the fastest mobile Web page speeds available.
- The ability to read information on-the-fly. ThunderHawk's compact transport format and progressive rendering creates a fast, positive user experience.
- Seamless connectivity. With ThunderHawk 2.0, a dropped connection is re-established immediately, along with any data you previously entered.
- The ability to copy and paste text, among other editing functions.
- Proxy authentication support.

Thanks to Brighthand for bringing the news first!

06:22 AM by Laurens in Archive | Sunrise

I just released Sunrise 0.3.3. This version adds the ability to send only the selected part of a web page from your browser to Sunrise.

More info: Sunrise News

11:03 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | Reading Recommendations

Bottom Line Rating: 8/10
This is a fun and informative book worth reading. It achieves its mission simply and admirably. A great introduction to things you can do with a Palm PDA.

Detailed Book Description:
Lose The Laptop is a guide to mobile computing on a PDA. In very simple terms, he points the reader in the right direction to do many of the things that a laptop can do -- work with MS Office documents, read eBooks, do presentations, listen to music, etc.

As he points out, most users of PDAs never load any software other than what comes with the PDA. This book will really open the eyes of some PDA owners to the kinds of things that are possible, and will give them what they need to pursue it further. For the most part, there is not a lot of dry step-by-step instructions, and where detail is provided it is not intrusive to the flow of the book.

He is very careful to organize the book in a fashion that allows the reader to easily jump into just the part that is relevant for his or her skill level and interests.

The book includes a lot of information helpful to a beginner with PDAs in addition to the main focus, which is doing basic laptop-like activities on a PDA. There was an impressive amount of material covered even though it all came across as simple and clear.

As a relatively experienced PDA user myself, I can't say I learned a lot from the book (and Larry suggested that this would be the case as it's not aimed at PDA-pros), but I still had fun reading it! I think that every Palm fanatic is always thinking about how they use their Palm and trying to figure out better ways to use it. This was a nice way to kind of kick start some ideas in my head.

The eReader version I was reading from can give a small delay when turning pages on my older and slower Sony Clie SJ33, but it didn't really hamper my reading. The pdf version would be good if you have a larger display because it would help you see more context as you read and allows you to more easily skip around based on your interests.

I'm thrilled to see Larry writing this book. I hope that he continues to devote himself to helping Palm users and smartphone users to better understand the capabilities of their handhelds. The more he can educate, the larger our hobbyist community will grow, and the more business users we'll see in the Palm world. I'd have to say that PalmOne/PalmSource are not exactly the best at marketing the potential uses, so it's really up to people like Larry and us fanatics to spread the word. Larry certainly has my best wishes for continued success with his work.

Author:
Larry Becker is an author and speaker with impressive credentials. He appears as the trainer in Sony’s Clié companion DVD. At Palm Inc.'s request, he developed a training program for new Palm employees. He does training worldwide, writes for tech publications and teaches at University of South Florida in Tampa. More complete information about the author is available on the web site given below.

Web Site:
http://www.losethelaptop.com/

Formats:
eReader and Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)

Purchase Cost:
Sneak Preview Electronic Edition $9.98
(available now for a limited time)
Upcoming Paper Version will be $19.95.

Disclaimer:
This review was based on a complimentary review copy of the book provided by the author. This review reflects the opinions of this reviewer, not an official position of MobileRead.com.

09:36 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Mike Rohde sent me a note today about the recent takeover of the old "palmtipsheet.com" site by a Microsoft ad. He did sell the site, so they can do as they wish, but he still has rights to the issues that he wrote for the site.

He's preserved them at http://www.rohdesign.com/palmtipsheet/
and more details about it are available at http://www.rohdesign.com/weblog/archives/000424.html

They are available in a variety of formats... HTML, Palm Doc, iSilo and Plucker.

When I was first learning about Palm PDAs it was a nice discovery and I found it very interesting reading. Even though some of the materials are a bit dated, I suspect people will still find it interesting to browse.

09:49 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

One of our members posted today information on some serious screen defects he has been experiencing with his Archos AV420 device.

According to the user, after recording for around 20 minutes at room temperature, a patch of moisture with 1.5 cm in diameter and oil-like rings surrounding the patch develops as the AV420 heats up. Making it worse, the patch is located in the very middle of the LCD display (photos posted in the original thread).

It appears that the defect is not an isolated event: Our member was able to exchange his AV420 three times; yet, each time his device displayed the same screen quality annoyance.

We are waiting for feedback from Archos.

05:54 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

PalmOne Inc swung to a profit in its first quarter from a year-earlier loss on a 62 percent jump in revenue, spurred by solid sales of its Treo 600 mobile phone and other handheld digital devices. The good results caused PalmOne shares (PLMO) to soar nearly 16 percent in after-hours trading after jumping 4.6 percent in regular trading on Nasdaq.

According to PalmOne, it shipped some 981,000 handhelds, including Treo as well as Zire and Tungsten devices, which do not include mobile phones.

It looks like PocketPC hasn't completely taken over yet

05:49 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | News

Linda Rosencrance from Computerworld analyzes the status quo of e-paper technologies and their near future.

One of the major e-paper developers is MIT-offspring E Ink Corp, whose technology is also used in Sony's DRM-polluted Librie reader: "For the Librie product, we make our e-ink as a film, a sheet of plastic that gets sold to Philips Electronics. Philips makes the display, and then the display is sold to Sony and put into an electronic reader," says Darren Bischoff, E Ink's marketing manager. "We're part of an enabling component for making that a paperlike reading experience."

But E Ink is already working on the next-generation smart paper called RadioPaper: "Now we can make something that visually looks like paper, but we want something that feels like paper as well," Bischoff from E Ink says.

What I don't understand is why Sony is still the only company who has purchased E Ink displays from Philips and used them for a handheld application. E Ink says it wants to see its technology appear in electronic devices ranging from handheld computers to cellular phones, calculators, digital watches and car dashboards.

So what are they waiting for? The Sony Librie is certainly not the "killer app" we were waiting for!

05:26 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

On the one hand, you have the publishers. They want stiffer copyright laws since they fear that a growing number of students are skirting the exaggerated charges of textbooks by illegally downloading pirated copies from the web.

On the other hand, you have the book industry critics. They say that publishers are simply attempting to justify escalating book prices and trying to clamp down on the distribution of information.

Canada.com wrote a stimulating article this week, discussing this controvery between file sharers and publishers.

Who knows, perhaps the next thing will be textbook publishers going after libraries for "sharing" books for free...