05:45 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Mobipocket Reader is something like the insiders' tip of PDA readers. Perhaps not so often in the news, yet with a lot of features and a most promising product pipeline!

The latest addition to the Mobipocket Reader family is Mobipocket Creator Home Edition, replacing the older product Mobipocket Publisher. Mobipocket Creator allows you to

• create rich content with one of the 10+ predefined built-in templates : Photo Album, Travel guides and more
• create custom searchable databases: dictionaries, cooking recipes, shopping list, wine database and more
• create custom eBooks from TXT, RTF or Microsoft Word documents

We hope we can give you a small review in the next couple of days. In the meantime, why don't you have a look at the beta yourself. You can download it here and test it until October 1, 2004.

10:08 PM by ignatz in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Okay so we're a little behind on this, but...
From PalmOne:

PIM Support Update for Tungsten E, Tungsten T3, Zire 31 and Zire 72 handhelds

This update backs up the extended Personal Information Manager (PIM) functions of Tungsten E, Tungsten T3, Zire 31 and Zire 72 handhelds, and corrects incompatibilities discovered between these devices and some third-party applications. In addition, the update includes several smaller code adjustments and solutions.

Haven't seen much more about it than this. There's no specification about what problems this fixes, or with what 3rd party apps it deals. I went ahead and installed it on my T|E, but there's nothing noticeable.

10:00 PM by ignatz in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Well, sort of...

From Pocket PC addict:

VR-Zone has posted a step by step tutorial on removing the 5GB ST1 Compact Flash card from the the new Creative MuVo² FM. This unit has started selling in Singapore for approximately US$260. No doubt that these will be flying off the shelf now that everyone knows that it really means US$260 for a 5GB CF card for their digital cameras and PPCs. Think about it, that's $52 a gigabyte.

In fact this is actually a small hard drive with a CF form factor. Pretty sweet. They must be planning to market it separately, or why use that shape? So I'm wildly speculating that CF may experience a resurgence in the form of mini hard drives.

Of course I don't have anything with a CF card, except my digital camera, and it has more than enough space with 256 meg. The Axim x30 that I just ordered has SD only. It seems that PPC manufacturers can't decide whether or not to stop supporting CF. Regardless, this would be a great way to turn your PDA into a low level iPod. And hardware hacking is such fun!!

04:48 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Boing Boing explains us how easy it is (contrary to general belief?) to swap a new battery into your iPod.

The battery itself costs around $30 and with a miniature screwdriver and some sure instinct you can replace it within 5 minutes.

PS: Don't be mad at me if you break your iPod by not being careful enough!!

08:25 PM by aranpura in Archive | Mobile Sites

My first contribution to this lovely group of PDA-obsessed compatriots...

http://www.ranpura.com/resourceHome.html

I wrote a little perl script to reformat Mapquest's atlas pages (http://www.mapquest.com/atlas/main.adp?region=world) in order to minimize extraneous content for PDAs. You can use any web converter with a link depth of 1 to download the whole atlas (I use iSiloX).

Note that there are over 300 maps in this atlas -- without image compression I think this would require around 70 Mb of space. iSiloX allows me to compress all images down to 25% of their original size, giving me an atlas that weighs in around 10 Mb.

If anyone knows of a better world atlas solution, please do get in touch. Mapquest is the only place I know to get decent looking maps (I have a T3 and no, line drawings aren't good enough!).

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

Russian Mobile-Review has reviewed the new Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX 720. The devices features a 520MHz X-Scale processor, 128MB RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi, a 1.3MP digital camera and a VGA screen. - I am drooling! This is definitely the best PDA I've seen so far!

The handheld has ultimate features: two slots for expansion, two wireless adapters, USB-host, large RAM, VGA-screen, long battery life. The processor performs well during tests and under real conditions. The LOOX 720 comes with a nice design and a well thought-out ergonomics (grooves at sides, the scrolling wheel), unless the buttons have a lag. The microphone quality is the highest. The screen isn’t a large one, but its quality makes it the best compared with Toshiba e800 and Asus A730 (consider viewing angles). I am not praising the device, I’m just enumerating the facts. To say the truth, it’s very hard to find faults with the LOOX 720. Its only weak point is the price, besides the fans of Toshiba e800 and HP iPaq 4700 might say, the comfortable work with the VGA screen is possible only at 4”.

The LOOX 720 represents a Hi-End PDA of the second half 2004. Two wireless adapters, VGA-screen, Intel XScale PXA27x processor, WM2003SE operating system – we’ll meet such a combination many times in our future reviews very soon. I wonder who will be the first to release a handheld with the VGA screen and a single slot for expansion.

04:24 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge

We have twelve SIXTEEN TWENTY-TWO Gmail invites to giveaway. All you have to do is reply to this thread and tell us what your favorite eBook reader is any why (one or two sentences is enough).

PS: If you won a Gmail invite before, but haven't received it yet, please PM me - I need your contact e-mail to send the invite!

04:02 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | iSilo/X

Yet another iSilo/X release!

Main changes of iSilo V4.15 Beta 1: some more tweaks of iSilo's categorization menu.

Main changes of iSiloX V4.15 Beta 1: support for a dynamic title component (for instance, you can have the conversion start time as part of the title).

Notice: iSilo/X Beta software is meant for testing only, beta versions of software will have expiration dates to prevent too many different and possibly buggy versions of the software from existing simultaneously.