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Kindle in an UMPC

ctitanic — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Kindle for PC has been released by Amazon. I should had post about it but I did not and the reason is because I own a Kindle and I would never go back to read a book in a PC, PPC or any other LCD or similar display. Beside the fact that the visual experience is not the same, an UMPC is too heavy for the task and a PPC, iPhone, etc, are too small. Christmas is coming guys, save some money and get the real thing. Anyway… Here is a video showing Kindle running in an UMPC.

YouTube
- Amazon Kindle for PC Software on a Viliv UMPC

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Phone Scoop handles the Saygus V1, VPhone

Chris Leckness — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:33:12 +0000

Phone Scoop has got some hands on time with another Android phone headed to Verizon, the Saygus V1. This is the one that I wrote about last week.

The VPhone — aka V1 — is being manufactured by Saygus. It runs Android 1.6 and will be updatable to Android 2.0 at some point in the future. Saygus executives said that the device will be available to Verizon Wireless customers, but it won’t be supported by Verizon Wireless. That’s one of the drawbacks of using an ODI handset. Anyone who eventually purchases this device will have to rely on Saygus for support if things go screwy. Once certified, the VPhone will be able to access Verizon’s voice and data network, but won’t offer Verizon-branded services.

Instead, Saygus is offering its own, home-cooked applications to make the VPhone stand out. The primary feature of the phone is a video sharing capability that will allow users to stream a live, bi-directional video feed between two phones. Yes, that means video phone calls from a cell phone. (Saygus claims its video compression technology is second to none, and will even work on EDGE networks.)

Head over to Phone Scoop for plenty of photos and a video…

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Windows Mobile 7 to OEMs Q1 and to us Q3, before delays are inserted of course…

Chris Leckness — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:15:35 +0000

Engadget Mobile says that we might not see Windows Mobile 7 until Q3…

According to ZDNet Taiwan, the mobile OS is now on track for a release to OEMs for testing (the so-called "Maldives" program) sometime in the first quarter of 2010, and will be launched publicly sometime in the third quarter of the year (or about a year after the release of Windows Mobile 6.5) — all of which more or less lines up with earlier rumors of a release to manufacturing in Spring 2010.

I hate to sound overly cynical here, but this is just plain unacceptable. This is one of the reasons I am really starting to look into other platforms. Lack of speedy updates. I have apologized for, supported, and been really faithful to Microsoft. I mean, it’s only natural when they produce the OS that I preferred since many of us migrated from Pocket PC to smartphones. I can understand the time it takes to go through all the corporate red tape in a super sized company like Microsoft, but given the importance of the Mobile space and them falling behind the pack in public appeal, they should definitely do something to speed up their process. Leave out groups that have to sign off on things, hire more people, what ever it takes.

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Symbian gets Popped by Samsung, bada bing

Zealot — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:59:53 +0000

The first ramification of Samsung’s bada OS has been confirmed, as Samsung senior VP Don Joo Lee today announced what everyone already knew…either WinMo or Symbian was going to have to be dropped to make room for bada alongside Android in Samsung’s bag of tricks with many rooting for Redmond to take the fall.

According to Lee, Windows Mobile dodged a bullet however and Symbian will be completely phased out at Samsung before the end of 2010.

Windows Mobile is not out of the woods yet, as reports have WInMo phones dropping significantly at Samsung in 2010, to be just a minority beside Android and bada phones by 2012….unless of course Windows Mobile 7 is a hit. Then all bets are off.

This is hardly the end of the world for Symbian, who after all, will always have Nokia. However it is a blow, leaving only Nokia, Sony Ericsson and NTT DoCoMo selling Symbian based handsets, and there is still no clear indication how Nokia’s use of Maemo for it’s top tier handsets will affect Symbian’s bottom line. Time will tell, but Symbian has been on top of the worldwide marketshare list for a LONG time? Could we be seeing the first signs of that ending in a few years?

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Zune HD Games ARRIVE AT LAST

Zealot — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:15:29 +0000

If you updated your Zune HD to v4.3 over the weekend, then head over to the Marketplace ASAP as Team Zune have a new crop of games for your downloading pleasure, and they are all FREE.

The newcomers include:

PGR: Ferrari Edition
Lucky Lane Bowling
Vans Sk8
Piano
Audio Surf: Tilt

All look very slick and I am downloading even as we speak. Hopefully I should have a first impression or two posted in the next couple hours.

Enjoy, Neo Maxi Zune Dweebies! We deserve it.

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Samsung Intrepid from Sprint – Software Tour

Chris Leckness — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:13:58 +0000

The Droid, Storm 2, and others have made what would have normally been a pretty hot device, literally unnoticed. This phone was released on Sprint last month and kind of flew under the radar. I have given this a whirl for a couple days and see this as a good replacement for the Ace. Really nice piece of hardware and WinMo 6.5 runs pretty quick on it too! Check out my software tour of the phone after the break.

(...) Read the rest of Samsung Intrepid from Sprint – Software Tour (13 words)

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Smartbooks Hit the Primetime Tomorrow?

Zealot — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:59:45 +0000

It has been six long months of leaks, rumors, debate, doubt and trademark battles since Qualcomm first said they were going to create a brave new mobile device category, the Snapdragon powered, internet surfing Smartbook. Since then we have heard a lot of talk about the new devices, but not many examples.

Forbes is reporting that that is due to change in a few hours, as Qualcomm will be unveiling their first actual Smartbook at their annual analyst meeting in New York on Nov 12th.

Qualcomm is waiting until the meeting to reveal any tech specs or pictures of the device, but once they release a date that this first model will be available, other vendors such as Asus and Nokia are expected to follow soon after with devices they have already demoed at such shows as this year’s Computek. It is possible therefore that we could see several Smartbooks for sale before the holidays.

In Qualcomm’s vision, Smartbooks ignore Intel’s Atom chipsets and are powered by more powerful, graphics-capable platforms such as their own Snapdragon, the Nvidia Tegra or ARM-based chips and are constantly connected to the internet via 3G networks. On top of that, Smartbooks are more energy-efficient and pocketable then devices such as netbooks. In addition to netbook functionality they will also act like smartphones, with telephony features as well as GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

While I think Smartbooks look very cool and sexy, I agree with many analysts that there may just simply not be a market for such devices. With smartphones, netbooks, MIDs, UMPCs and ULPCs (along with a few even more unlikely acronyms) all competing for mobile consumers and their recession-era budgets, can Smartbooks carve a niche for themselves and take off? Likely after tomorrow, we will have a better idea if Smartbooks are as clever as Qualcomm claims, or just another dumb idea.

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iRiver Story Ebook Reader Released

Zealot — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:14:45 +0000

As iRiver promised last month, the Story Ebook Reader has been released. Thus far it is available in Kora only (no word yet on international distribution) and is retailing for the disappointing 349,000 KRW, or about $302. That price puts the Story right in the middle in terms of Reader price points, equivalent to the cost of the Sony Touch Reader only without the touchscreen. Beyond that lack, the device feature list looks good but nothing that will rock your socks, including…

6-inch 600 x 800 E-Ink display
2GB internal storage
A microSD/SDHC card slot
USB 2.0 port
Built in comic book viewer
Support for PDF, EPUB, TXT, PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS and HWP eBook formats without requiring conversion.

One additional touch that looks rather nice is the inclusion of a Calendar app along with the ability to read Office documents, making the Story into something of Daily Planner as well as an Ebook Reader.

iRiver has also announced a large number of media partners that will be providing content to the Story, but as of now they are all Korean. Hopefully there will be some news soon of at least a European release for the device, which though a bit pricey has a definite sense of style. It could possibly compete against the Plastic Logic Que, with Office document support but 100 dollars cheaper than the Que’s anticipated price.

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Ebooks: Content Cavalcade

Zealot — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:00:07 +0000

As usual, we have lots of news about Ebook and Ebook Readers to start the week.

First of all a fairly slick looking new Ebook is now available for order in the US from Dulin, called the PocketBook 360. Running Linux on a Samsung 400Mhz processor, the 360 has a five inch Vizplex screen, both SDHC and MicroSDHC slots and can read EPUB, PDF and most other major formats, including DOC and CHM. At 240 dollars, I don’t expect the 360 to set the Ebook world on fire, but another option in the US is always nice, and the side mounted controls along with an accelerometer position sensor for switching orientation make the 360 look very usable, especially one handed. The device can be ordered directly from Dulin.

More updates about new Readers and some great news about Ebook content after the jump.

(...) Read the rest of Ebooks: Content Cavalcade (1,354 words)

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They’re called Ads not Facts

Keisha Barwise — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:01:00 +0000

Apple Insider is running an article this morning, calling out Verizon for misrepresenting AT&T’s data coverage in their “There’s a map for that” ad campaign.

Verizon’s ads clearly compare, their 3g coverage to AT&T’s 3g coverage, but several feel that the ads imply there is no data in the blank areas on AT&T’s map, when it is in fact covered by AT&T’s EDGE network. It should be noted, that AT&T’s EDGE tops out at about 0.23mbps, whereas 3g speeds range from a max of 1.2mbps on Verizon to 3.6mbps on AT&T. (Which is currently being upgraded to 7.2mbps.) I’m not sure it’s any consolation for users trying to browse on bandwidth hungry devices with big screens, in areas with no 3g coverage, that there is EDGE coverage at 6% of the speed of the 3g network.

(...) Read the rest of They’re called Ads not Facts (171 words)

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Samsung Announces “bada” OS

Zealot — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:07:03 +0000

It seems that every mobile device vendor creating their own App Store just isn’t enough…now apparently they are all going to be creating their own open source Operating Systems as well. I had hoped that companies would be content taking the route that Motorola took with their Cliq smartphone, creating custom versions of Android for themselves. However, Samsung has upped the ante.

The Korean tech giant has announced today a proprietary operating system called bada, which they say will be available on Samsung phones and mobile devices as of December. They are also calling for third party developers to create applications for bada. Personally I think this is a bad idea, as developers are finding themselves trying to create useful applications for more and more different platforms. iPhone, WinMo, Android, Symbian, Maemo…now bada too? As it is more and more developers are saying they need to ignore some platforms in order to focus on the ones that can earn them the most money for their hard work. I am hard pressed to see to many developers focusing on bada. at least until there is a large user base….and without applications, the user base will not take off.

I sure hope Samsung knows what it is doing…see their press release after the jump.

(...) Read the rest of Samsung Announces “bada” OS (473 words)

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Kindle Software Released for PC

Zealot — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:49:58 +0000

As promised by Amazon, their Kindle Ebook buying and reading software has finally been released for Windows. The application was originally demoed two weeks ago but is now available as a free download at www.amazon.com/KindleforPC.

Kindle for PC is designed to take advantage of Windows 7 touch features and also uses Amazon’s popular Whispersync feature, so your books can stay synced between your PC, Kindle and iPhone.

The full list of features includes:

Purchase, download and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store
Read the beginning of any book for free before they buy
Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free
Read books in full color including children’s books, cookbooks, travel books, textbooks and graphic novels
Choose from more than 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read
View notes and highlights marked on Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, and iPod touch
Zoom in and out of text with a pinch of the fingers (Windows 7 users only)
Turn pages with a finger swipe (available in a future release for Windows 7 users)

As with Kindle software on other devices, it can only read books purchased from Amazon, and doesn’t work in many countries.

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Ready to upgrade your Moto-Q? Get an Ozone!

CodeBubba — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:27:41 +0000

For the last year or so I have had a Motorola Moto-Q 9c Smartphone (Verizon). For a Windows Mobile Standard device, a darn good phone. It did take me 3 of them at the beginning to get one that didn’t have a sticky key or something but that’s another story. Once I got past that initial problem the phone seemed to work fine.

Just recently, the “Q” developed a bit of a sticky key on the main keypad. Nothing serious – it still worked but it was enough to be annoying when I was writing a text message. So I dropped in at Verizon and discovered that my account was eligible for my annual equipment upgrade. So … I chose to get an HTC Ozone to replace it.

(...) Read the rest of Ready to upgrade your Moto-Q? Get an Ozone! (689 words)

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Gizmodo Reviews the HD2

Zealot — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:55:34 +0000

John Herrman at Gizmodo has released an overview of the HTC HD2. Needless to say he loved the hardware, but deeply hated the Windows Mobile software, even obscured as it is by HTC’s Sense GUI.

Despite the fact that to a great degree the review is used to once again make WinMo into Gizmodo’s personal software piñata (truly, the Gizmodo editors hate WinMo like it killed their dog), it makes several goodpoints about the physical features of the device, and Herrman really doesn’t even seem to mind the software overly much, in practice. The fact that it is Windows Mobile just seems to eat at him like a tick. One gets the clear feeling that if he just didn’t know it was Windows Mobile underneath the gloss, he would have actually liked the GUI.

In this review, Herrman’s hatred of WinMo is so overpowering he doesn’t even give reasons, just keeps repeating that the “tragic” part of the phone is that it runs Windows Mobile, end stop. He is actually taking a lot of flak for his bias in the comments, he was THAT over the top about it.

The review wasn’t ALL bile however. Regarding the power of the Snapdragon CPU which everyone was expecting to be such a highpoint of the device, Herrman says it doesn’t disappoint…

One of the benefits of Windows Mobile not having changed much in the last few years is that it’s easy to compare new hardware to old, and let’s be clear about the HD2: It’s unbelievably fast. Applications open almost instantly and close without the slightest hesitation, and over Wi-Fi, web pages render in Opera Mobile as if you’re browsing on a laptop, not a cellphone. (And hell, if you put your face close enough to this ridiculous screen, it’s easy to forget you’re not.)

But about that OS?

Every time you notice the absurd lengths to which HTC has gone to deny this phone is running Windows—they’ve even replaced the calendar and text messaging apps, for god’s sake—you find yourself asking the same question: Why even bother?

Of course I could list lots of reasons to bother…but opinions are opinion and biased reviews are just that. The undeniable fact we could likely agree on is that this seems to be one fantastic phone.

See the entire review HERE.

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Diggnation Unboxes the Nokia Booklet 3G

Chris Leckness — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:35:33 +0000

Thanks to revision11 on YouTube for sending this tip over. Alex Albrecht of Diggnation unboxes the Nokia Booklet 3G netbook. This is Nokia’s first netbook and it looks nice!.

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