01:48 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

There's an interesting new way of looking at the news these days at www.newsisfree.com. This site is a news portal, currently collecting news from 12439 sources at the time of this posting. I don't know how they do it, but I'm pretty sure it's automated! You can read their own explanation at http://www.newsisfree.com/about.php .

But the eye-popping feature is the News Map feature that lets you see, in customizable graphic form, the various news articles from different sources. As you move your mouse over the boxes, it gives you more information on the article and lets you jump to it if you chose. While I think the interface could be improved, it's a very unique way to browse the news to clip for mobile reading!

04:09 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book Readers | Alternative Devices

The time has come for this MobileRead editor to editorialize. On this front page, you see mostly news and technology, but it's good every now and then to take a step back from the technology and share some thoughts and observations. So first a disclaimer... This is just one writer's perspective, and does not necessarily represent the official thoughts and position of MobileRead.com.

I won't supply all the answers, but I will explore some thoughts about two questions that have been nagging me recently about the PDA market:
1) Is the PDA market done expanding and all tapped out?
2) Why are current owners not buying new PDAs fast and furious?

Most people don't buy another PDA every year. Many PDA owners are happy with their current PDA and aren't in the market for a new one. But much more than that, industry experts are saying that sales increases will be small, and all the growth has to come from alternative markets like smart phones. You'd think that traditional PDAs are a thing of the past. Maybe. But maybe not! Here's a few reasons why I am optimistic about the future of the PDA market.

For one thing, PDAs are related not just to smart phones, but to things like handheld gaming. We are witnessing what seems to be early success for the Zodiac, and there's a lot of excitement about upcoming handheld gaming devices from Sony, Nintendo and Nokia. Yet a PDA platform has a great shot at outdoing the big game console makers in the handheld market. Both fit in your hand and carry similar technology. But the PDA will do much more for you than gaming.

PDA owners also don't seem to "get it" for a while either after buying a device. That included me even though I'm a tech lover. Most PDAs are only used as a personal information manager using built-in apps like date book and to do and address book. If anything else, maybe they keep some pictures or ebooks on there also. So there's no incentive to upgrade. But I think it takes time (and tips from web sites or a friend) for the average user to realize all the things they can do with their PDA. Once they discover some new software, though, look out. They're an instant candidate for an upgrade!

There is also a huge battery advantage of a PDA over a laptop. A PDA is not likely to replace the laptop of most users, but it is an alternative. (See Larry Becker's book Lose the Laptop .) As PDAs get more powerful with increased storage and functionality, and maybe even some decent integrated keyboards or voice input, there's no reason to think they can't become a laptop alternative. Many laptop users are just doing document reading, editing and email anyway. A compromise smart phone device is less likely to be adequate for a laptop replacement.

New capabilities will also open the untapped handheld multimedia market. Look at the explosion of iPod. Is a PDA so much different than an iPod? It's basically some software and a hard drive that separates the devices. That difference will fade soon as storage and compression technology improves. Same goes for the new handheld video devices. It won't be long before PDAs can do the job better, while providing much more additional function.

That long-awaited market for downloaded movie rentals may just end up exploding first for PDAs. Small screens means higher compression will be acceptable, and movies will fit on storage cards. But a smartphone screen is likely to be too small. And soon, with a new multimedia PDA in your pocket, you won't have to watch what the airline chooses for you on long flights anymore!

But that's only half of the promised discussion, so to finish things off, let us take a look at why current PDA owners don't upgrade more often.

Is the technology advancing? We can say a definite yes to that question. Any PDA tech geek like myself will gladly tell you the specs are getting better and better, and software improves constantly. Surely, within a year or so of a PDA purchase, one can find a PDA that would be a nice upgrade.

Do people want a new PDA? Surely some don't see a need. But there are a lot of people very anxious to upgrade. Let's face it, every time a great game comes out for OS5, there's a whole lot of OS4.1 users that can't stop thinking about an upgrade! Granted, that's probably more a factor for the fanatic user than the typical PDA buyer on the street, but the point is that there are reasons to upgrade. Yet not too many are buying. What's going on?

Let's take my own situation. I've got a bit of a personal bias against Sony due to their proprietary schemes and minimal support, but my Clie SJ33 is a great PDA. However, it's just not quite enough for me anymore, so I've been evaluating possible upgrades.

At first I just planned to wait for the new Palm Cobalt (OS6) devices. Thing is, I really don't want to wait to buy a new PDA, and I'd like to have an OS5 device with more memory while everything shakes out with Cobalt and the related software upgrades.

So here I am. Squarely in that prime market for PDA sellers. I like power PDAs (higher prices and margins), and I like the newest gadgets, and I get the bug to upgrade every year or so. But, just like most people, I don't. I think I face the same issue as a lot of buyers, so let's take a look at why I'm not buying yet.

I'm a fan of PalmOS, and well-entrenched, so that's basically what I'm looking for. At the time I'm writing this, I could get a Palm Tungsten E for about $200, which isn't the best thing out there, but would keep me plenty happy for a while. A step up from that would be a Tungsten C with WiFi, which in reconditioned condition is not a whole lot more. A new Zodiac1 with 32MB memory, two card slots and a half-VGA screen is only about $300. For a "mere" $400 I could get a Zodiac2 with a whopping 128MB memory. All of these options are in my price range as an aggressive overspender on technology. And I like all three of those devices. So why don't I buy? That's the puzzle that leads me to write this.

But here's the simple fact that no one seems to talk about... a huge portion of your purchase cost goes to accessories. Not just the fun stuff, but really it's for core pieces. Consider that Tungsten E, with what I consider essentials. In other words, if I don't get those accessories, I don't know if I want the PDA.

Here's my basic shopping list if I decide to buy:

$200 -- Tungsten E
$40 -- Case
$40 -- Cradle and cables (I use my PDA at two computers)
$50 -- Storage card
$20 -- Card Reader or software to mount the card as a directory on my PC
$20 -- Backup software
$20 -- Screen protector
$ 0 -- Assumes I use freeware or software I've already bought (not likely!)
====
$390 for a PDA that is basically just something to carry me until something really nice hits the market.

If I go the Zodiac2 route, which gets me something I really like, the bill goes up to $590 and most likely, by the end of this year or first half of next year, there's going to be something out there that I "have to have" because it blows this one away.

Interesting note: I probably would have gone out and bought a Zodiac2 this morning at my local CompUSA despite the high price tag because I am so eager to upgrade. It would have been a well thought-out impulse buy. But I decided against it when I realized that, according to their web site, CompUSA doesn't carry screen protectors for the Zodiac. After beating up my Clie screen, I won't use a PDA without a screen protector. Especially an expensive new one! And what kind of impulse buyer is going to buy a brand new PDA when they have to wait a week to get a mail-order screen protector before they're willing to use it? Hint to CompUSA and TapWave -- carry ALL the essentials IN STOCK!!!!

Now how many people are going to shell out that kind of money to upgrade every year? Not many. I'll buy either one of those, including accessories, if it's going to satisfy me for a couple years, but if it's just to carry me over to the devices already on the horizon... I don't think so!

And the funny thing is that the PDA maker probably wouldn't get too much of my accessory money anyway unless they had it available at the store when I make my purchase. Ebay and mail order are just too easy and selection is better.

Now you may be asking yourself, "Why didn't you just buy a Zodiac2 when it first came out instead of waiting?" Well, that's a good question. I was still thrilled with my SJ33 for one thing, so it never occurred to me. Another reason it never occurred to me was that I didn't pay any attention to the Zodiac because I thought it was just a toy, and I didn't realize until recently that it was a well-designed and powerful PDA.

So it's no wonder people aren't buying PDAs very often. For that kind of money, they probably want to take their family on a vacation instead!

05:54 PM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book Software | Reading and Management

Thanks to Hacker for informing me about this wonderful release:

The 9/11 Commission Report was converted for Plucker, from the original 567-page PDF to HTML, and then every page was hand-edited to fix structure and layout, specifically to optimize it for PDA/handheld display. This was a lengthy process, and included running each page through a validator. The resulting document was derived from 100% validated XHTML content.

High-resolution Version: (pdb, 1,740,600 bytes)
This version includes slightly larger images (310px) and alternate images (500px) by default. All images are greyscale (as they were in the original PDF)

Low-resolution Version: (pdb, 1,457,067 bytes)

10:48 AM by Laurens in Archive | Sunrise

Sunrise is my new tool for converting web sites and newsfeeds for offline reading on your handheld.

Essentially, Sunrise is a much-improved version of JPluck, you should definitely check it out:

• Native Windows interface
• Multiple simultaneous conversions
• Liberal, fault-tolerant RSS feed parsing
• Stores downloads in an offline cache for fast subsequent retrievals
• Improved Mozilla integration.

Sunrise requires Java 1.4.2 and is only available for Windows. Sunrise is freeware (but not open-source).

Sunrise Quick Tour, contains many screenshots.

Update: Sunrise 0.2.1 (2004-08-26) now available. Better desktop integration and a handy New Item Wizard. Also, major bugfixes for cookies and HTML detection.

Download from PalmGear

More information: Frequently Asked Questions

05:23 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Great news for all PocketPC owners. Pocket IE on Windows Mobile 2003 does support CSS (Cascade Style Sheets)! Jay McLain gives a fairly decent list of CSS attributes that are supported by Windows Mobile 2003.

That is great news for people authoring mobile web pages; unfortunately, I don't know of any decend PalmOS-based online browsers that would support CSS as well.

05:06 AM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Have you visited the website ThinkGeek.com? ThinkGeek is a unique online store catering to geeks with items such as shirts, stickers, mugs, caffeine and a few other things. If you are a geek or if you know and love one, then you can stop there for great gift ideas!

I think I am going to order one of those There's no place like 127.0.0.1 T-shirts now

04:39 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

PC maker Packard Bell will be launching its new iPod mini clone next month to compete with the iPod mini. The new hard drive based player named the Pocket M@estro will come with 5GB of storage and will play MP3 and WMA files and includes an incorporated FM radio. The player will allow radio shows to be recorded and also record voice memos for later playback, the device connects to PC's via a USB 2.0 interface.

Interestingly, the device comes with an OLED screen. I have never seen one of those in real life, and I am curious how they compare to standard LCD screen.

02:47 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

The Gadgeteer brings a wonderful (as always) hands-on-review on the latest 4th generation iPod. Julie's conclusion:

People in the market for an iPod should not hesitate to buy this model, but do I recommend that 3rd generation owners rush out and upgrade? No, not unless your current device has some type of defect or you just have to have the latest model. The 2hrs additional battery life and new clicker design are nice, but for me these features aren't that compelling. As far as power, most of the time I'm near an outlet and can grab some juice when needed. I didn't have any real complaints with the old wheel design. My advice to 3rd gen owners is to just wait for the 5th gen devices. Maybe they'll have some of the cool new features that were rumored for the 4th gen.

Did she just say 5th generation iPod? Oh dear, it seems like I am always running behind time (still owing one of those of the first generation).