11:57 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Announcements

Very happy to report that MobileRead has been highlighted today by Sammy McLoughlin on PalmAddict. We admit it -- we love publicity and praise!

In case you are a Palm fanatic and have somehow missed this site, you should head immediately over to check it out. (Well, after you've finished with your daily visit to MobileRead, that is!)

Sammy has built a very popular site that has so many content updates that I check it multiple times daily. You can keep track of all the latest news and programs there, but more importantly you can hear a lot of interesting input from us, the average Palm users.

Postings are done by Sammy himself (almost all hours of the day, it seems), plus his Associate Writer team, and also by taking from a large number from emails sent in by readers. It gives a unique forum for all things related to Palm.

I have to add also that Sammy is a very nice individual to deal with. He is not in it for fame and fortune, but because he loves what he does. And it shows not only in his work there, but also in his support of other sites and members of the Palm community. A hearty thank you for all his good work!

11:05 AM by Zire in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

I haven't written a review of an app for a long time. Frankly nothing really caught my eye and was different. Bike or Die by Toyspring is an exception. I have only been playing this game for a couple of days and it is already my favorite game. I cannot stop playing and trying to beat my best score. This game is frustrating at times because it is not as easy as it looks. It is also funny to lose because of the animation and the way the guy dies. This game is smooth when you play it cause the processor is not busy with alot of bells and whistles. The sound is okay but you don't need it. The graphics are very nice and simple with the main character being a stick figure and the bike that he's on being a stick bike with wheels. The physics of this game is what makes it funny and good. You have to try it in order to see what I mean. I mean what do you have to lose? One major feature that I did not try yet is that there is a level editor that allows you to edit levels . No really this really makes the game live on and not get boring once you finish the 25 levels that are included in the game. More information on the level editor can be found here. In the future user levels will be available to download here.

I give this game out of

Additional information from the site:

Bike or Die
...is the only Trial Bike racing game for the PalmOS platform.

Features:

* physics-based bike simulation
* 25 big levels (different environments: hills, rocks, snow, caves, etc)
* smooth and fast animation
* record and replay your best games
* on-line Hall of Fame with Time Trial and Freestyle Competitions
* compatible with most palm devices

05:01 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Just a few days I wrote about the new WinCE.Brador.a trojan that could do some serious damage to your PPC. Kaspersky has now announced the required aid for your PPC/Palm: Kaspersky Security for PDAs (USD 19.00).

Two-tier protection for Pocket PC
Antivirus protection for Pocket PC scans both data storage locations and memory extension cards. The Datasafe module offers the option of creating password protected files. Data in these files is encrypted, securing your information against unsanctioned users.

Keep your Palm virus-free
The program monitors all data streams which can act as infection vectors: on-demand scanning of data storage locations, RAM and memory extension cards protects data transferred via HotSync and Beam. The Datasafe module provides password protection and encryption options, and locking down of the device according to user specification.

Sometimes I wonder if virus/trojan makers are not working hand in hand with AV makers. It certainly didn't take long for Kaspersky to respond to WinCE.Brador.a...

09:51 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

For the first time, bloggers have been awarded press credentials to cover the national political conventions. That's a harbinger of bigger changes in the media landscape, according to nationally known columnist Dan Gillmor.

His new book, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People, tells the story of the grassroots journalists–including bloggers–who are dismantling Big Media's monopoly on the news. Through Internet-fueled, interactive vehicles like weblogs, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture to a conversation. They're publishing in real time to a worldwide audience that's eager to read their independent, unfiltered reports. And the impact of their work is just beginning to be felt by professional journalists and the newsmakers they cover. We the Media sheds light on this deep shift in how we make–and consume–the news.

Available for free as PDF:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/

08:58 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The Shareware Industry Awards were presented on July 17, 2004 at the fourteenth annual Shareware Industry Conference, attended by shareware authors, press, and shareware enthusiasts from all over the world.

TealDoc won the SIA Industry Awards as the Best Program for PDA's.

TealDoc enables reading, editing, and browsing documents, Doc files, eBooks and text files on a PalmOS-powered handheld. The curious thing is that I have never heard of TealDoc nor of anyone using it. After all the talk about iSilo, Plucker, AvantGo, can it be that we were missing something important here?

08:21 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

According to Eugene Kaspersky, head of antivirus research at Kaspersky Labs, WinCE.Brador.a is a full-scale malicious program ready to go: unlike proof-of-concept malware, Brador has a complete set of destructive functions typical for backdoors.

The Backdoor.WinCE.Brador.a Trojan installs as a 5632 byte program on the PDA, and can be used to gain complete control of file uploads and downloads. The virus cannot spread by itself. Instead it can only arrive as an email attachment, as a download from the internet or as an upload along with other data from a desktop. Once activated it creates a file called svchost.exe in the Autorun directory and sends the computer's IP address to the Trojan controller. It then opens port 44299 and listens for instructions.

06:03 AM by ignatz in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

The New York Times (free registration required) has a slightly smarmy but reasonably thorough review of the Sidekick II. It seems to be a clever little device, and much improved over the first version. edit: The review misses out on some technical issues of interest to geeks like us, such as battery life and weight, but overall is a good read.

09:15 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

We offer 3 free Gmail accounts to the best ideas of what you think is still missing at Mobileread.com (as judged by yours truly).