11:05 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

Creative has just introduced the Zen Touch portable audio player, with a 20 GB 1.8-inch hard drive and an astonishing 24-hour battery life (that's about 3x that of an iPod). Another cool feature is the touch pad:

"The Zen Touch is so simple and fun to use because the Touch Pad makes it easy to find your favorite songs, or you can just hit the random button for a mix of music to match any mood," said Lisa O'Malley, senior brand manager for portable audio at Creative. "Plus you can take the Zen Touch on long trips and leave the power cable at home without worrying about the rechargeable battery running out."

Unfortunately, like the iPod, the Zen Touch only plays MP3 and WMA; Ogg Vorbis support is missing.

You can preorder this new toy at Amazon.com for USD 269,99.

10:38 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Fujitsu-Siemens's latest two Pocket PCs, the Pocket Loox 410 (300MHz, Bluetooth) and 420 (400MHz, Bluetooth+WiFi), are now officially available. Save for the processor speed and built-in wireless connectivity both models are exactly the same.

For the Loox 410, the suggested retail price is EUR 299, for the LOOX 420 it is EUR 399. The 410 also comes bundled with MobileNavigator 4 (NAVIGON) for EUR 599.

06:23 PM by Colin Dunstan in Miscellaneous | Lounge

At Handango, [...]

Edit: Sorry Morpheus, we received a message from Lindsay Rall, Senior Marketing Manager of Handango, to remove the code. Of course we honor this request.

09:50 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Julian Priest made an *impressive* study of how wireless networking in London has developed over the last three years from hacktivist pastime to mainstream pursuit. He compares networks built by freenetwork groups, commercial hotspot providers, and public sector initiatives; he examines the sales and uptake of WLAN equipment; and he makes some direct measurements of wireless activity in the Greater London area.

Overall it is a must-read for everyone who is interested in the definite uptake development of WLAN technology.

06:04 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Announcements

If you are using Bloglines, you really should click this link.

06:05 PM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book General | Reading Recommendations

FaithfulReader.com, a Christian book site, has assembled eleven authors who have all written their own books in response to Brown's "The Da Vinci Code." They even go so far in explaining you the potential damage that his conclusions could inflict on a person's faith. Interesting how important they take a work of FICTION.

03:03 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts announced that it has begun the rollout of wireless Internet service. Within 12 months, the company said it would offer wireless access based on the Wi-Fi standard in the lobbies, public areas and some guest rooms of more than 200 properties.

The service coverage will be provided by T-Mobile, and is expected to cost users $9.95 a day, unless they are existing T-Mobile subscribers.

Wi-Fi is expected to be available in more than 25,000 hotels by 2007 worldwide (currently the number is around 6,000 hotels).

01:10 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Ars Technica has an informative review of 10 different USB 2.0 Hi-speed flash memory drives. The Transcend JetFlash2A - 128MB (US$38) and the SimpleTech Bonzai Xpress - 256MB (US$80) were the overall winner of the test (with the Transcend the only bootable one!).

I love those tiny sticks and the fact that you can run entire operation systems (preferably Linux) on them.