Pocket PC eBooks Watch - eBook and beyond  
 http://cebooks.blogspot.com 

Pocket PC TiVo (well, it's audio only)
How to record an Internet radio broadcast
Folks love a digital video recorder such as TiVo because it lets them easily record their favorite TV shows. But what are fans of radio shows to do? Well, so long as your favorite show is broadcast on the Web, you can set up your computer to capture it. Download the right software and fiddle a bit with some settings; your computer will automatically launch a browser and record your show each time it airs. You'll then have it as an MP3 that you can listen to at your leisure, transfer to your MP3 player, or burn to a CD.

posted by Jerry permanent link

The Story of Peanut Press (aka palm digital media aka ereader)
Fair Content Access for All: Technology Is Great Enabler of Digital Rights Management
The landscape of DRM is vast and the view changes radically based on one’s particular perspective. DRM covers such pivotal issues as buying and owning digital content (including music, movies, and ebooks), the evolving array of standards, copyright protection, user permission to print or share content, and how rights are communicated from the creator through the distributor to the customer.
At a recent Seybold Conference in San Francisco, executives from the media industries flocked to sessions that focused on content management and DRM. As one participant, and attendee, my views are not as a technology expert or authority on standards but come from the business point of view and how eReader.com has plotted its course through the DRM landscape.
...What’s Next?
DRM is not an obstacle but the proliferating standards and myriad approaches to implementing DRM are obstacles, especially for the consumer. There are far too many rules, standards and processes that still favor the technically adept user. Customers who unsuccessfully try to download an ebook or are confused by complicated, convoluted installation routines often don’t return for a second try. The technology must be friendlier at every step along the way. We are constantly innovating to improve the customer experience and simplify the process while respecting the copyright owners.
Publisher, agent and author reservation or non-participation in the digital world is the other major obstacle. By preventing access to bestselling content, publishers are actually fostering the illegal sharing they fear. Customers of eReader.com are always requesting titles by J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, and others which remain, by their choice, “not available in ebook form”.
While the technologists seek to create new and better DRM mousetraps and schemes to define rights languages and permissions someone, somewhere needs to interrupt with an important message. Keep the customer in mind! Even the best designed DRM technology, rights expression language, or the most finely crafted standards will fail if the customer experience of the content is disregarded. Technology must be the enabler, guiding all the explorers—publisher, etailer and customer in the journey—the quest for content and enjoyment of that content in all digital forms.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Trend Watch
'Podcasting' Brings Personalized Audio Programs To Your Media Player
"Podcasting" is a term that is probably unfamiliar to most people, but it represents a real potential change in the radio landscape. A small group of enthusiasts has begun cobbling together a way to easily share homemade radio shows, eventually allowing people to reach large numbers of listeners by completely bypassing the current structure of radio.
Here is the non-technical explanation:
Podcasting allows you to subscribe to feeds, which include links to audio programs. Every time one of your subscriptions posts a new program, it automatically downloads onto your computer. You then transfer those shows to a portable music device, listen to it throughout your house via a wireless connection or take it with you wherever you go. Think of it as a personalized radio station that you program and change whenever you want.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Play Hardball
How To Cost Microsoft Money.
"Microsoft has a form on their website that you can fill out to get a copy of Windows XP SP2 on CD at no charge (with free shipping by Purolator).
I ordered one.
Then, at the Order Confirmation screen, I clicked Back, then Refresh, then Retry (since the form had to be posted again). I did this 149 times. I got 150 order-confirmation emails."
Estimated cost to Microsoft: $1,050.

posted by Jerry permanent link

The Facts of Greedy Minds
3 Myths About the Recording Industry Debunked
MYTH NO. 1: The prevalence of file-trading services and free music on the Internet indicates that recorded music may no longer be an economically viable business.
MYTH NO. 2: Record sales are down. The situation is only growing worse.
MYTH NO. 3: Musicians no longer need the record industry. The Internet and other new technologies make this a new era of “do it yourself.”
What about the facts?

posted by Jerry permanent link

Time Out for Laugh!
Nigerian 419 Scam
The whole idea of this website is to turn online scammers into victims. It's just that simple.
If you aren't aware, a really popular scam right now is the Nigerian 419 scam, it goes a little something like this. The person that emails you usually has some really important title that commands respect and they have a sob story, rough life, war torn nation, blah, blah and how they have a huge amount of money that they need to move out of the country, usually Nigeria. This is where you come in, if you only provide them with your bank account numbers, etc they can wire it over to you. What a great deal! Once you provide them with the information, instead of depositing the money, they go ahead and steal all of yours. So you in fact, don't get the millions of dollars :(
To get these bastards back I began writing as different characters to see just how long they would put up with me and perhaps get to know them a little better. Anyway, I figure it's good for a laugh and while they are busy writing me they can't steal some poor dumbasses money. I swear that all of these letters are 100% real, I'm posting them exactly as I get them.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Killer Joe
Why Google News signals the death of the online exclusive
But for the growing number of purely online publications, the problem of trying to remember who was first has become completely irrelevant. Instead, the most popular news site on the Net - Google News - has created a system which is killing the value of the "exclusive" online.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Googled the RSS
Google News Blunder: the double standards
By relying on algorithms, Google News completely automated the news-gathering process. High-speed computers sift through some 7,000 sources of information -- 4,500 of them in English -- and determine which are the most relevant articles. They then grab the headline and first paragraph to post on Google's news page, with the headlines acting as external links.
It's hard to feel sorry for Google, though. In April, lawyers for the billion-dollar search engine company that Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded sent their own cease-and-desist letter to Julian Bond, a British programmer who had created customized RSS feeds from Google News.
Ironically, the letter informed Bond that Google does not permit "webmasters to display Google News headlines on their sites."

posted by Jerry permanent link

DRM Watch
MP3 Creator Warns on Format Wars
The dizzying array of file formats and anti-piracy options will hobble the burgeoning digital music business, says one of the developers behind the format that sparked the download revolution.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/27/2004

No Debate Here: 50% Micropay Rebates on all Political eBooks!
The US Presidential race is in full swing with the first debate airing this week. Fictionwise has over 400 eBooks in our Politics/Government category, and now you can get a 50% Micropay rebate on any of them when paying by credit transaction! Whether you're on the left, the right, the middle -- or just plain confused -- we've got analysis, viewpionts, insights, biographies (both authorized and unauthorized) and more to satisfy any political junkie.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Hardware Watch
New ActiveMemory System
At the center of the ActiveMemory System are ActiveMemory-enabled Professional CompactFlash cards that can store user preferences and host device settings in a protected area on the card. These settings can only be modified by the host application that created them and can be used to auto-configure multiple ActiveMemory-enabled products within the system. These settings are preserved even when the card is formatted or other data files on the card are deleted, because the ActiveMemory data is stored outside the standard DOS file structure on the card.
“Imagine a card that contains its owner’s name and image preferences,” said John Omvik, director of professional product marketing, Lexar. “Images downloaded from the card can be automatically appended with the photographer’s copyright information, search keywords and caption information. In the future, photographers can also have confidence knowing that the camera is configured the way they expect, because their preferred settings are automatically loaded when the card is inserted in an ActiveMemory-enabled camera.”
The Future of ActiveMemory:
ActiveMemory technology will have other applications beyond professional digital photography. Any software or host application that uses flash memory and can benefit from automating or configuring tasks, based on reading software settings or user preferences that reside in a protected area on a memory card, could benefit from this technology.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/26/2004

Free eBook
48 Hours in America
by Mark Hollingsworth
This is a chronological account of the events that changed the United States on Tuesday September 11, 2001.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/25/2004

Copy Controlled CD to iPod
I just bought the latest recording of Ray Charles CD: "genius loves company." Alas the CD is using Copy Controlled technology that make honest buyers can't copy their own cd to MP3 or iTunes.
Thanks to CloneCD, it will create the copy of the CD without the Copy Protection tech.
CloneCD is the ideal tool to make backup copies of your music- or data CDs, regardless if they are copy protected or not! CloneCD's award-winning user interface copies almost any CD in just a few mouse clicks!
Since release 5.0 CloneCD is able to copy not only CDs but as well all formats of DVD like DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R Dual Layer und DVD-RAM. Copy protected movie DVDs can only be copied with AnyDVD. The movies will not be modified (compressed), but one-to-one copied. CloneCD works as well with other formats like .iso and .udf and copies CDs/DVDs with the new SafeDisc 3 Copy Protection System.
CloneCD allows you to create excellent 1:1 copies of your valuable original discs. E.g., should your copy protected music cd not play in your car audio, the backup created with CloneCD will! And it will allow iTunes to import the songs into your iPod

posted by Jerry permanent link

eBooks Turn Over New Leaf
EBOOKS could be set to replace conventional paperbacks, with a rise in the sale of the electronic hand-held reading devices.
Between April and May this year, worldwide sales of ebooks rose by five per cent.
And revenue from sales leapt to around £2million.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Rent-a-song
Napster Analysis: value of a subscription rather than a download model
Napster must "deliver compelling marketing messages to educate consumers about the value of a subscription rather than a download model," said Mike McGuire, analyst with Gartner G2 market research firm. "The consumer has to see that it's a better way, not just a different way, to get their music."
Napster's key strategy is to ramp up its subscription service, which costs users $10 a month for unlimited access on their computers to more than 750,000 songs. With the debut of a "Napster to Go" premium service this fall -- initially set to cost an additional $5 a month -- subscribers soon will also be able to transfer the tunes to compatible portable music players.
The relatively easy concept behind the pay-per-download model will make it the more dominant of the two for at least the next couple of years, McGuire said.
Most music download services allow users to buy a song for about $1, burn it to a CD an unlimited number of times and transfer it to some kind of portable device. You buy it; you own it. With a subscription, songs are essentially leased. Once a customer stops paying, access to the music catalog disappears.
Napster offers both options, as does RealNetworks' Rhapsody and America Online's MusicNetAtAOL. But Gorog and other subscription proponents say their model gives listeners more freedom to explore music and listen to thousands of tracks without having to invest a buck apiece.
By all accounts, the online subscription model has substantially higher profit margins than a la carte download sales.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/24/2004

Time Out!
Rumours surround Google browser
The net is buzzing with rumours that Google is working on a web browser.
Online journals, or weblogs, have put together a series of developments which suggest that the search engine is developing new web tools.
A US newspaper has also reported that Google has poached former Microsoft workers who created early versions of the Internet Explorer browser.
Google declined to comment on the online reports and said it had announced no plans in this area.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Zooooooom
The Zoom
Do you sometimes struggle with the small text and graphics on Pocket PC displays?, then Zoom is the tool for you. This small utility lets you instantly see a high quality bi-cubic zoomed area of any part of the display. Zoom will work within any of your Pocket PC applications and with a quick press of a button and a tap on the screen a clear easily readable, fully scrollable zoomed in view is displayed. The application will also work in landscape mode and on the new high resolution Windows Mobile 2003 SE devices.
Zoom''s features include:
Will work within any application.
Assigning a hardware button on your PPC enables quick zoom function.
Zoomed screen can be scrolled around by dragging the stylus.
Superb high quality bi-cubic zoomed area.
New.. Choice of 3 ways to display the zoomed image, full screen, top/bottom screen section or under stylus.
Will work on the new high resolution screen Pocket PC''s.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/23/2004

USB Fashion
From Storage, a New Fashion
In recent months, these slender solid-state memory chips - known by many names, but officially U.S.B. flash drives - have increasingly been seen blinking from the ports of computers in classrooms and libraries, conference rooms and offices, coffee shops and airport lounges.
And when the devices, which can cost less than a music CD, are not being used to store or retrieve data, they often dangle from key chains and backpacks - or even from the necks of users - as if pendants signifying a cult of convenient computing. Some are built discreetly into pens or wristwatches; a maker in the Far East is now marketing them in the form of lipstick tubes.

posted by Jerry permanent link

iHack
iPod and iTunes Hacks
See the sample PDFs

posted by Jerry permanent link

Imagine
Apple vs. Apple: Perfect harmony?
Speculation is once again rising that Apple Computer is in talks with Apple Corps to resolve a trademark dispute. One report quotes a legal source predicting the "biggest settlement anywhere in legal history."
...Steve Jobs is an avid Beatles fan, and some say that an alliance between the two companies would give iTunes needed differentiation in the online-music market. But others say rumors of an impending settlement are unfounded and question whether a big payout would make good business sense for Jobs' company.

posted by Jerry permanent link

OPQR$
Do-it-yourself book publishing takes off on the Web
When Ross Yockey and his daughter, Beth, wanted to write a book parodying the national No Child Left Behind educational standards, they had no time or interest in the traditional book publishing route.
Instead, the Seattle residents — who wanted their book in readers' hands before the November presidential vote — uploaded their completed manuscript to a North Carolina-based Internet company called Lulu.com.
Within minutes, the book was available for sale online. Each time a purchase is made, a printer in Rochester, N.Y., makes an individual copy that is shipped to the buyer, typically in 24 hours or less. The royalties are split automatically among the Yockeys, Lulu and the printer, ColorCentric.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/22/2004

Pocket TV Guide
Karpen's Review on TV Listing Software
A couple of years ago we covered two applications for putting TV schedules on your device. When TV Guide stopped making its listings available to these applications, problems ensued. But then the developers found an alternate source of data.
A recent posting in the Pocket PC Newsgroup by Shawn Hale recommends both the free Pocket TV Listings and Pocket TV Browser, which costs $10 per year (free trial available)...

posted by Jerry permanent link

3D Gaming is Coming
Nvidia GoForce 3D 4500 Wireless Media Processor
Nvidia today announced what they claim to be world’s first 3D wireless media processor (WMP), the GoForce 3D 4500 WMP, but earlier this week Samsung announced the 667MHz mobile application processor also capable of 3D gaming on smart phones and handheld PDAs. Which one is the world’s first? It doesn’t matter, what really matters is which one will be in an actual device first.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Best Seller

The Family: The Real Story Behind the Bush Dynasty
by Kitty Kelley
The book leads us through Prescott Bush's first entree into government at the state level in 1950s' Connecticut, to George Herbert Walker Bush's long and winding road to the White House, to his son's quick sweep into the same office. Along the way, we see the complex relationships the Bushes have had with the giants of the century--Eisenhower, Nixon, Joseph McCarthy, Kissinger, Reagan, Clinton--as well as the often ruthless methods used to realize their goals. Perhaps most impressive--and surprising--is the way the book delves behind the obsessively protected public image into the family's intimate private lives: the matriarchs, the mistresses, the marriages, the divorces, the jealousies, the hypocrisies, the golden children, and the black sheep. At a crucial point in American history, Kitty Kelley is the one person to finally tell all about the family that has, perhaps more than any other, defined our role in the modern world. This is the book the Bushes don't want you to read. This is The Family.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/21/2004

WSJ Avantgone
From Avantgo's Wall Street Journal Channel:
"We are sorry to inform you that effective October 31, 2004, The Wall Street Journal Online's channel on AvantGo will no longer be available.
We appreciate your interest in our services, and would like to offer you a special subscription rate to the Online Journal's website, at WSJ.com. We'd also like to keep you informed of new mobile services we'll be offering in the near future."

posted by Jerry permanent link

MP3 Explotion
Study: MP3 player market to explode
IDC says there's tough competition ahead for the iPod as manufacturers launch rival portable jukeboxes.

posted by Jerry permanent link

AvantGo Mobile Lifestyle Survey Reveals
The Top Twelve 'Dream' Features of an All-In-One Handheld Device'
The AvantGo survey revealed the following "top 12" must-have features of an all-in-one dream device:
1. Calendar/contact list
2. Easily syncs with PC
3. Great battery life
4. E-mail/messaging
5. Wi-Fi/Bluetooth
6. Compact size
7. MP3 player
8. Phone
9. Large screen
10. GPS locator
11. 20+ gigabyte memory
12. Camera
The calendar/contact list ranked highest among survey respondents, with 94% citing this as a must-have feature. Surprisingly, MP3 players (77%) ranked slightly higher than phones (76%) and GPS locators (65%), while more hard drive memory (64%) edged out cameras (63%) in popularity.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Desperado
Call to legalise file-sharing with taxes
Instead the music industry should embrace file-sharers, said technology journalist and author Andrew Orlowski in a keynote speech at the Interactive In The City conference being held in Manchester.
Mr Orlowski said the record labels should look to novel ways to generate cash to support new artists.
One way could be the addition of a small surcharge to net subscription fees which could be shared among artists whose music is being downloaded.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Free Sell
Free Content Still Sells
Look at Jorgen's post on the topic
(JSJ: Funny things: that Palm eReader sells the report for $4.95 while Fictionwise offers the report for Free)

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/20/2004

New ebook
Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill
by Jessica Stern
For four years, Jessica Stern interviewed extremist members of three religions around the world: Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Traveling extensively--to refugee camps in Lebanon, to religious schools in Pakistan, to prisons in Amman, Asqelon, andPensacola--she discovered that the Islamic jihadi in the mountains of Pakistan and the Christian fundamentalist bomber in Oklahoma have much in common. Stern's extensive interactions with the faces behind the terror provide unprecedented insight into acts of inexplicable horror, and enable her to suggest how terrorism might most effectively be countered. A crucial book on terror, Terror in the Name of God is a brilliant and thought-provoking work.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Help!
New CHM eBook Reader for Pocket PC released
CHM eBook Reader for Pocket PC is a program that allows you to view files in the most common Windows help format (*.CHM, also known as "compiled HTML"), on the Pocket PC platform.
CHM eBook Reader for Pocket PC key features:
Opening CHM files of any size not longer than in 2 seconds, even huge Microsoft Press CHM eBooks;
Full-Text Search in a whole CHM file;
Table of Contents;
Index view

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/18/2004

Free Henry James ebooks
An International Episode
Italian Hours
The Point of View

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/17/2004

TiPod
The End of Television as We Know It
By Bryce Zabel, Bryce Zabel served as chairman and CEO of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences from 2001 to 2003, "The best model to replace what's on the way out may be TiVo meets iTunes."
...Today my youngest child probably has as much control over his viewing options as CBS patriarch William Paley did. Everywhere Jared turns, he makes choices: what he wants to watch, when he wants to watch it, which set he wants it on and so forth. There's a lot more than good old-fashioned TV competing for his interest. In our technology-crazed house, his attention can get hijacked by an iPod (maxi and mini versions), cellphones that take photos or download music or send instant messages, GameCube, the CD stacker, Xbox, broadband network, wireless this and that, PlayStation 2, TiVo, DirecTV, Netflix, the big screen, TVs in five rooms, five desktop computers, one laptop, cable, satellite music and all the piled-up screening tapes sent out by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
...Broadcast pundits try to get us to call these new choices by the important-sounding term "convergence." Around our house, the only thing converging is kids with outstretched palms looking for cash to buy DVDs, CDs, PCs, music downloads, cellphones and every other new piece of hardware needed to play all of the software. For me, it's not a state of convergence that we are entering in this digital age but something a little more metaphysical. All of the information overload is ganging up on our senses and coming together into something else.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Wanna Bet?
Las Vegas System Uses OverDrive for Ebooks
The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District (LVCCLD) is now offering ebook downloads using software from OverDrive Inc. To access the ebooks, patrons use a LVCCLD library card to check out and download the texts and other digital media. Ebooks can be read on PDAs, Pocket PCs, and Smartphones, in addition to PCs, laptops, or Macs. At the end of the loan period, access to the title is blocked.

posted by Jerry permanent link

iPod Derivative
A Computer With the IPod's Bloodlines
For 100 points: It's a compact rectangular slab that plays great-sounding music from a built-in hard drive. The front is shiny white acrylic with a screen at the top. The corners and edges of the back panel are gently rounded. Over all, the simplicity and purity of its design give this machine a calm, elegant beauty. Name that Apple!

Bzzzzzt! No, I'm sorry, "iPod" is not the answer we were looking for. The correct answer is: "the new iMac G5."

posted by Jerry permanent link

Eeech, Am I Sucks?
Labels, Microsoft in talks on CD copying
The music labels, in large part led by top executives at EMI Group and coordinated through their U.S. and international trade associations, are creating a "wish list" of CD rights protection features they want to see provided or supported by Longhorn. Microsoft, in turn, has provided its own set of guidelines for the labels, without yet promising anything, sources familiar with the situation said.
The labels are far from unanimous on their thoughts about how to use, or even whether to use, copy protection technology on CDs. But sources said most are eager to avoid being locked into Microsoft technology and want to ensure that Longhorn provides a platform for copy protection that is at least as consumer-friendly as Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Radical Freedom Fighter
Don't Mess With Librarians
Jessamyn West is a 36-year-old librarian living in central Vermont. But she's not your stereotypical bespectacled research maven toiling behind a reference desk and offering expert advice on microfiche.
She's a "radical librarian" who has embraced the hacker credo that "information wants to be free."
"In a democracy, citizens can access information they view as important," West said, "and traditionally we as librarians have kept it private. We are in favor of free speech and against censorship, and believe in the right to research material without the government looking over your shoulder."

posted by Jerry permanent link

Streaming
Attack of the Radio Clones
Microsoft new internet streaming service attempts to replicate terrestrial stations, without all the annoying chatter -- and without permission.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Browser to go
Portable Firefox
Firefox supports running from removable drives with minimal reconfiguration.
It writes your profile onto a folder on your USB stick so that no
profile information is stored on the harddrive + you can take your
bookmarks, themes and extensions with you wherever you go.
Thanks to Wim Mulder for the information

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/16/2004

Forrest Gumstix
Gumstix and eInk - A glimpse of future plans?
I like reading.
...So yes. I have a PDA, a solution most people have decided to embrace. Those who've stepped into the e-Book world that is. Its a nice Compaq iPaq from a bit more then a year ago. Oneof those without replacable battery unfortunately so its time for something new.
The iPaq was great for the time but with the advent of new technologies such as eInk there ought to be something better suited to reading. It should have, as one of its primary selling points, a well readable screen. Here comes Electronic Ink. Dor those who do not know it, is a display technique (and company) which looks very much like paper. It's extremely low power which causes any device using it to be very energy efficient. In fact, while the display doesn't change, something that happens often while you read a page, it will use no power at all.Not a bit (The screen that is).
...Like more people, I like the ability to use a device I've bought for what I want. Open source is very nice indeed and XML along with the Open e-Book format and similar technologies is (or will be) a good solution for those seeking it.
Gumstix. Something that has been on my radar for some time now. Its a small company that produces small but very interesting (not to mention cool) Linux embedded boards.
It's open enough, people could change the kernel. Build new reading formats. Upgrade it. Run XWindows on it for all I care. (Freedom; open-source; sounds familiar anyone?). It's a device where a simple RSS daemon would fetch your feeds automatically. Bluetooth could keep it synched using your phone. Read the latest news on your 300 gram new e-book reader.
All that said, it would be a nice future. But it has its share of downsides. For one, I frequently buy electronic books. Many of those are not available in multiple formats. In fact, about half of them are only available in Microsoft’s proprietary DRM5 LIT files. No open source solution would be likely allowed to read these and as such, it would never be a widespread adoption. There are more of these/such obstacles. But projects like the open reader consortium and the open e-Book format are trying to change these things.
Yet, a three hundred gram Linux capable e-Reader with Bluetooth and an eInk screen? If it were available today, for a reasonable price, I'd not hesitate ordering one where it powered like I just portrayed.

posted by Jerry permanent link

iPod Fetish

Bose's SoundDock
Bose(R) has introduced the SoundDock(TM) digital music system, designed to deliver a new standard of audio performance for Apple's iPod(R) and iPod mini. No headphones, cables or adaptors required -- the new speaker system lets iPod owners access, control and listen to their stored music with the ease of dock and play.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Giant eBook
The Signs They Are A-Changin'
Startup Magink's "digital ink" may change everything from billboards to laptops.
A slim new Mitsubishi sign, however, is neither an LED screen nor a king-size liquid-crystal display [LCD] panel. It has a paperlike surface sporting a breakthrough "digital ink" from Magink Display Technologies Inc., an Israeli startup now based in New York.
What's the big deal? Magink's digital ink is the first to offer a full spectrum of colors. It's a pasty concoction that, smeared on a thin sheet of plastic or glass, can replace LEDs in monster displays or small LCDs in electronic products.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Nice Intro
All about e-books
Still reading those old paperbacks? Dip into the huge online world of electronic books and discover the benefits of digital text.
Now that e-books are becoming increasingly popular, there are more texts (books and magazines) than ever available to download from the internet, and more and more writers and publishers are experimenting with the format.
...While there are few restrictions on passing on a well-thumbed printed paperback to a similarly minded literature lover in the real world, the restrictions on sharing e-books you have purchased online differ greatly.
Often, you simply won't be able to share a paid-for digital text with others, and the e-book software reader needed to view a text may prevent an e-book from being viewed on another computer.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Free Fall
Fantastic Free Fall eBooks from Fictionwise!
Fictionwise has arranged with some publishers to give you free eBooks for fall! From Science Fiction and Fantasy to Romance and Mystery, you'll find something free to leaf through this autumn at Fictionwise. But don't wait -- these titles are free only for a limited time.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/15/2004

Stephen King's Dark Tower Epic

The Dark Tower is the backbone of Stephen King's legendary career. Inspired more than thirty years ago by works as diverse as J. R. R. Tolkien's epics, Robert Browning's poetry, and Sergio Leone's Westerns, this is the tale that Stephen King has never abandoned. When he typed the first sentence in 1970, King feared the telling might take several lifetimes, but two thousand pages and four books later, the end is in sight.
The Gunslinger [The Dark Tower 1]
The Drawing of the Three [The Dark Tower 2]
The Waste Lands [The Dark Tower 3]
Wizards and Glass [The Dark Tower 4]
Wolves of the Calla [The Dark Tower 5]
Song of Susannah [The Dark Tower 6]
The Dark Tower [The Dark Tower 7, The End] [PRE-ORDER ONLY: Available: Sep 21, 2004]100% Rebate (credit card only)
Guides to Dark Tower:
Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance [The Dark Towers Series Books 1-4]
Road Map to Dark Tower (MUST READ)



for more Stephen King's eBooks

posted by Jerry permanent link

Rothman's No Dead End
Why OpenReader matters: Of trains and e-book formats
Will we really benefit from dead-end proprietary systems in the Comstock vein? Most readers, writers and publishers will prefer ease and fairness and an open approach, and that's what OpenReader will give them. Let the content, not narrow-gauge, format-related alliances, dictate which books succeed in the marketplace.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Permanent Link is On
Thanks to Jørgen Dybdahl for helping me creating Permanent Link in this blog.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/14/2004

Pocket Life
The future of affection
The shiny, wipe-clean future we are headed for may seem like a cold and uninviting place, but if existing technology is any guide then feelings and emotions are going to play a big part in this hi-tech world.
...Smarter systems at work could notice when people are stressed and have a lot to do and manage the amount of interruptions they get via e-mails or phone to let them get on with their work.
Another system could spot whether customers ringing a call centre are angry to ensure the difficult calls are spread among staff rather than just routed to one person.
Who knows, one day your phone could be calling your friends on your behalf, telling them to line up the drinks at the bar because you've had such a bad day.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Terror Alert
U.S. Exports DMCA Down Under
But the agreement has some Australian civil liberties advocates and lawyers crying foul. They say it's nothing more than a money-grab by the powerful U.S. copyright owners lobby, and claim the Australian government has sold consumers' rights to media conglomerates in the United States for dubious trade concessions in other industries.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Yo Ho
Yahoo's long and winding music road
With Tuesday's $160 million purchase of Musicmatch, Yahoo sent a clear message that it is determined to be a major player in the fast-growing digital music business, despite its relatively late start.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Kinda like Printing the eBook
Aural Heaven: IPod and Analog
The store's owner, 50-year-old Takeyuki Ishii, recommends plugging an iPod into an FM transmitter, such as Griffin Technology's iTrip, and listening to music through the speaker of an antique radio.
"Listening to their sounds, I can recall scenes from my childhood," he said.
Ishii also argues that the quality of CDs and today's speakers are so good, they simply reveal the limitations of poor recordings, especially older music.

posted by Jerry permanent link

So Mine
Sony Close to Acquiring MGM
The planned $3 billion deal would give Sony a library of more than 4,100 titles.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Falling Up
FictionWise's MP3 Book and more
"Fantastic Free Fall eBooks" special, plus the pre-order of the new Stephen King Dark Tower novel (100% Micropay Rebate), and we're launching MP3 Audio Books! Then add 185 new eBooks, which puts us over 22,000 titles online, and you have the biggest week this year.

posted by Jerry permanent link

iLoophole
Non-iPods get 'legal' iTunes solution
RapidSolution Software claims its Windows only software, Tunebite, "legally provides the user with new music files without restrictions".
The company claims that Apple's FairPlay and Microsoft's WMA digital rights management formats "limit users", and that "the music industry is disadvantaging consumers."
The Tunebite software re-records tracks purchased from the iTunes Music Store. According to the company this does not damage the quality of the track. "Depending on the PC’s soundcard, Tunebite can re-record it at up to 256 kbit/s, thus rendering any potential quality loss virtually inaudible for the consumer," it claims.
RapidSolution claims Tunebite exploits a legal loophole.
Source: iPodlounge

posted by Jerry permanent link

Tunebearer
TunesTracker
Free e-mail notification for iTunes Music Store addicts.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/13/2004

Pocket Kosher
How to Keep Kosher: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Jewish Dietary Laws
eBook by LisË Stern
What does it mean to keep kosher? Many may be familiar with the basics: no bacon, no shrimp, no cheeseburgers. But the Jewish dietary laws go deeper than that, and How to Keep Kosher explores the ins and outs. Why are some foods deemed kosher while others are not? Why can't you mix meat and dairy dishes? How do you turn a nonkosher kitchen into a kosher one?... Traditional recipes include Chicken Soup with My Mother's Ethereal Matzo Balls, Sliced Potato--Onion Kugel, and Hamantashen; new classics are Chilled Cucumber--Yogurt Soup, Rosemary Sweet Potato Kugel, Enchilada Lasagna, and Chocolate-Flecked Meringues. Stern's How to Keep Kosher is an inclusive, user-friendly handbook filled with answers to the fundamental who, what, where, when, why, and how questions surrounding the Jewish dietary laws--making these laws both accessible and appealing.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/12/2004

eMotion
CNET's editor Picks: On-demand movies finally a reality?
Rumors that Netflix and TiVo executives are close to shaking hands on a deal to deliver films over the Internet may be premature, but they've once again galvanized a seemingly irresistible dream of instant entertainment gratification. That idea was summed up years ago in a Qwest Communications International commercial that featured a beleaguered motel clerk deadpanning: "We have every movie ever made, in every language, any time, night or day." Movie studios and distributors have a lot to gain if they can solve the considerable technical and business issues that stand in the way of Internet video-on-demand services. Is their evolution inevitable--or just another digital El Dorado?

posted by Jerry permanent link

Trend Watch
Is Portable Video Ready for Its Close-Up?
A FEW years ago, when MP3 players were establishing themselves as the hot cool thing, the next question seemed clear: What if you could take along not only music but movies, television programs, home video and still pictures in a high-tech box svelte enough to slip into a briefcase, backpack or purse, or perhaps a pocket?
An answer is beginning to emerge, however tentatively
"Digital music players took advantage of the Napster free-for-all," he said of the not-so-long-ago era of rampant file-sharing. "Lots of consumers acquired digital music on their PC's. There's been nothing like that for video, even though there are video files available on networks like Kazaa."
The scarcity of video content for devices like the Portable Media Center is magnified by the very way video - constituting much larger files than music - is consumed, Mr. Rubin said. While people are happy to listen to the same songs repeatedly, "video is more disposable," he said. "In many ways, people have a more voracious appetite for new video than for music."
Microsoft is taking steps to expand the video offerings for the Portable Media Center, striking agreements with Major League Baseball and CinemaNow, an online film store and rental service.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Armagedon
Beware of the End of the World (Wide Web), Says Intel
It's a vision apparently shared by Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T), all of whom are working feverishly, either together or apart to save the World Wide Web, which Intel and others see as becoming so overloaded it will eventually break.
At Intel's technical conference, CTO Patrick Gelsinger said the Internet will begin to collapse as millions of new computer users from developing nations begin to sign on.
"We're running up on some architectural limitations," Gelsinger was quoted as saying.

posted by Jerry permanent link

No More Gap
Online Petition: Gapless Playback for Apple iPod
To: Apple Computer, Inc.
We, the undersigned, are requesting that gapless playback be integrated into the iPod via a firmware upgrade in the near future.
We want to show you, Apple, that there exists a large amount of iPod owners and possible future iPod owners, who desperately want this to be supported in iPod.
Perhaps you don't realize how important this is to iPod owners, but by this petition we hope to show you how essential this feature is to any digital audio player.
(Click Here to Sign Petition)

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/11/2004

View Free
Librarian in Black: Free Cliff's Notes! Noooooo!
All Cliff's Notes are now available for free online. Wow. You can download them for $5.99, but hey--just print of copy/paste the online full text into a Word doc. This would be a good resource to point students to when all the library's copies are checked out (as always seems to happen)....

posted by Jerry permanent link

Time to Remember! We Won't Forget
Project Rebirth
Discover the complexities inherent in a massive undertaking like this one – from building a skyscraper to planning electrical systems for the twenty-first century to understanding the needs of local businesses and victims’ families.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Mmmm Sorry, ...can your repeat that?
SAMSUNG Electronics Unveils the First Mobile Phone with Hard Drive
The V5400 is equipped with a 1-inch diagonal, 1.5GB hard disc drive that greatly expands the memory capacity of mobile phones from the conventional 100MB maximum capacity. In addition, the phone boasts a high-resolution (QVGA) 2.2-inch liquid crystal display and includes features, such as MP3 player, electronic book and Korean-English/English-Korean dictionaries. A powerful microphone enhances the camcorder function, while dual speakers provide a 3D sound effect.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Too Greedy
Copyright Proposal Induces Worry
U.S. copyright officials say legislators should amend the law so firms that profit from others' infringement of copyright materials can be held liable for their actions. Tech companies and digital-rights activists say proposed changes go too far.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/10/2004

* FREE The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States: This independent, bipartisan panel was directed to examine the facts and circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks, identify lessons learned, and provide recommendations to safeguard against future acts of terrorism.
* Afterwords: Stories and Reports from 9/11 and Beyond by The Editors of Salon.com & David Talbot
* 9-11 by Noam Chomsky
* The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, And Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It. by John Miller & Michael Stone & Chris Mitchell
* Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11 by Gerald Posner
* See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War Against Terrorism by Robert Baer
* The Quotable Giuliani: The Mayor of America in His Own Words by Bill Adler
* American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us by by Steven Emerson
* The Mind of a Terrorist Fundamentalist by Steven J. Morgan
* Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network by Yonah Alexander & Michael Swetnam
* Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden by Peter L. Bergen
* Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11 by Thomas L. Friedman
* Bin Laden: Behind the Mask of the Terrorist by Adam Robinson
* Sent by Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit after the Attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon by Alice Walker
* Inside 9-11 by Editors Of Der Spiegel Magazine
* Christmas at Ground Zero by Linda J. Dunn
* September 11: An Oral History by Dean E, Murphy
* Beyond Stone And Steel: A Memorial to the September 11, 2001 Victims by Brian Vaszily
* After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era by Steven Brill
* The Deeper Wound: Recovering the Soul from Fear and Suffering by Deepak Chopra
* Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-September 11 Anti-Terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties by Nancy Chang
* Love, Greg & Lauren by Greg Manning
* Middletown, America: One Town's Passage from Trauma to Hope by Gail Sheehy
* The September 11 Syndrome: Seven Steps to Getting a Grip in Uncertain Times by Harriet Braiker
* Triumph Over Tragedy: September 11 and the Rebirth of a Business by John Duffy & Mary S. Schaeffer
* Because We Are Americans: What We Discovered on September 11, 2001 by Jesse Kornbluth & Jessica Papin
* The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War by Robert D. Kaplan

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/09/2004

Help Windows
CHM eBook Reader
CHM eBook Reader for Pocket PC is a program, that allows you to view files in the most common Windows help format (*.CHM, also known as "compiled HTML"), on the Pocket PC platform.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Empire Strikes Back
P2P company sues RIAA over patent
Altnet, a company that sells music and other digital goods through file-swapping services, sued the Recording Industry Association of America on Wednesday for alleged patent infringement.
Altnet and Brilliant Digital Entertainment are joint venture partners with Sharman Networks, the Australian company that owns the Kazaa software. The company has been trying for several years to persuade record labels and music studios to allow Altnet to sell authorized versions of their products through the Kazaa file-swapping network.
The big entertainment companies have unanimously said no, however. They've lost recent court battles that aimed to put companies like Sharman out of business, but are now seeking legislation that would revive their claims against file-swapping ventures.

posted by Jerry permanent link

TimeOut! iBlog
No Friendster of mine
Blogging has been slapped with many labels since its debut on the Internet - democratic, revolutionary, informative, ego-centric, a waste of time – now, social networking company Friendster has given it a new description – grounds for termination.
Last week, Friendster fired Joyce Park, a Friendster engineer since December, without warning. Her offense: blogging about company info that was publicly available.
On her blog, she is more likely to discuss her piano skills or books she’s read than her job at Friendster. She says that the company knew she wrote a well-known blog before she got the job.

posted by Jerry permanent link

iLoop
Facing the Copyright Rap
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that rap artists should pay for every musical sample included in their work — even minor, unrecognizable snippets of music.

posted by Jerry permanent link

MyStory
iStory
The iStory Creator is an application made to allow people the oppurtunity to create their very own iPod Text Games. It allows people with absolutely no html or coding experience the chance to be able to contribute games for the iPod that are engaging and rich with fun. "iStories" are text games for the iPod that have a block of text like a book and then when certain things happen in the story, the user is able to make choices that affect how the story ultimately progresses. This can lead to games that are similar to RPG's, Quiz-type Games, Tutorials, Demos, References and basically anything you can think of doing with a linked text files. The iStories can be very similar to a "Choose your own ending" type of novel or can be anything else you put your mind to authoring. These games make for some great entertainment. So, be sure download the creator, start thinking of a fun idea for an iStory and get cracking on making a great text game!

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/07/2004

XLLL
XML: Too much of a good thing?
XML is most often lauded as a foundation for delivering Web services and is the base for plans from Microsoft and other software makers to ease the development and maintenance of business programs. Web services and XML are also major components of Indigo, a new communications subsystem that's slated to be part of Longhorn, the next major release of Windows. Microsoft recently revised its plans for Longhorn and said it will make Indigo available for Windows XP and other current versions of Windows, meaning that it should soon become even easier to exchange XML data between computers.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Very fragmented ebook reader devices
codeMantra offers publishers PDF e-book conversion service
"Digital content distribution has been a very fragmented market, given the varied file specifications in the marketplace," says codeMantra Senior Director of Business Development James Burnett. "Our goal with this offering is to remove the financial hurdle of multiple conversions for a single piece of content, thereby allowing publishers to participate in the wealth of opportunity in the marketplace simply and efficiently."

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/06/2004

'Smart' Sex Sells
NY Times' article: Sex, Sex, Sex: Up Front In Bookstores Near You
Porn stars may not keep many things hidden, but whatever secrets they had are now on the shelf at the local bookstore. ... A wave of confessionals and self-help guides written by current or former stars of pornographic films is flooding bookstores this year, accompanied by erotic novels, racy sexual-instruction...

For Adults Only:
Non Fictions Selection:
Diary of a Viagra Fiend: Announcing a major new comic talent--from dancing in S+M clubs to snorting Viagra, a brilliant, unflinching, and uproaurious set of stories from the edge of sex.
Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge: From Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis XV, who kept her position for nineteen years despite her frigidity, to modern-day Camilla Parker-Bowles, who usurped none other than the glamorous Diana, Princess of Wales. The successful royal mistress made herself irreplaceable. She was ready to converse gaily with him when she was tired, make love until all hours when she was ill, and cater to his every whim.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Amazing Sex: An acclaimed sex educator explains how to enjoy your sex life like never before. Topics include the pleasure of touch, sexual positions, sexual fantasy, sex online, sex toys, Tantric sex.
100 Ways to Keep Your Lover: We make everything you need to live the good life-a sensual sexy romantic life-only a simple click away with this proactive and interactive eBook.
The Multi-Orgasmic Man: Sexual Secrets Every Man Should Know: Drawing on the principles of Chinese medicine.
She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman: a virtual encyclopedia of female pleasure, detailing dozens of tried-and-true techniques for consistently satisfying a woman and illustrated step-by-step instructions to ensure success.

Fictions Selection:
Zane: Zane's erotic short stories have captivated the minds of both sexes and all races. The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth did exactly what its title implies -- exploded the myth that men are more sexual in nature than women, and that African-American women in particular are inhibited compared to their female counterparts of other cultures.
Reed Manning: Reed Manning is a winner of the Henry Miller Award for erotic fiction. Author of more than seventy erotic short stories, his work has appeared in magazines such as Penthouse Forum, Club International, Mayfair, Club, Penthouse Hot Talk, Lui, and Penthouse Letters. "Reed Manning has this way of getting inside the minds of his female characters. You just know they're having fun, and why, and how. It's never in doubt. His males are exuberant, deserving, ready to please and worthy of their rewards. After all the sex fiction I've read over the years, his stuff still makes me hot every time." --from the introduction to Treats.
More Erotica Fictions

posted by Jerry permanent link

TimeOut! Slave to Love
The More Popular Your Blog Becomes, the More You Become a Slave to the Never-ending Need to Post
Whether writing about politics, personal matters or porn, anyone who writes a web log has invariably described their site as a personal online journal, especially when their trying to explain what a “blog” is to the unchristened. Blogs, however, are anything but personal, and the pressure of maintaining one often leads to the dreaded feeling that your hobby has turned into work.
Jorgen found this article, and the article is absolutely right.

posted by Jerry permanent link

DRM Twist and Shout
An Open-and-Shut Copyright Case
The case is closed — and now your garage door can be, too.
A federal appeals court in Washington has ruled that it's OK for Skylink Group to sell its universal garage door openers, thwarting an effort by rival Chamberlain Group.
In this case, Skylink was accused of improperly using digital security software code created by Chamberlain.
"I think the court was saying that companies can't hide under the DMCA to prevent competition," asserted Kenneth DeGraff, a policy analyst for Consumers Union, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing Chamberlain.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/05/2004

Time Out!
Fans Keep Newton in Motion
Six years after Apple Computer terminated the Newton, the Worldwide Newton Association is holding its first conference to determine the future of the platform.Indeed, the Newton may be getting a new lease on life.
The first Newton hardware emulator will be unveiled at the show, which may allow the Newton operating system to run on other hardware, including full-color handhelds or Tablet PCs.

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/04/2004

Interesting Site
Album Arts for iTunesTo get album covers for your iTunes songs:
1. Export song list as plain text from iTunes (File > Export Song List...then select 'Save as type: Plain Text files')
2. Upload song list below
3. Album covers and track listings will be displayed for your iTunes mucic collection!
4. Drag and drop the album covers onto the image box in iTunes

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/03/2004

So..yes?
Apple asked Sony for iTunes partnership?
"Apple Computer Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs offered Nobuyuki Idei, chairman and group CEO of Sony, the chance for Sony to come aboard Apple's ITunes Music Store service, the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun newspaper reports in its September 2 edition.
The offer would have allowed for joint operation of the service, the newspaper says."

posted by Jerry permanent link

Error
"Microsoft Reader is no longer able to access the book".
Well, the new upgrade version of MS Reader might not fix it. It could be your CF card...

posted by Jerry permanent link

  9/01/2004

My Thoughts:
After seeing several years of the advancement of DRM methods, the winners for the honest consumers are always the most fair of usage, not so strict DRM.
Example:
1. Peanutpress eBook (ereader/palm digital media), which the unlock system is as simple as by putting our name and credit card number at the time we firstly open the ebook. We can copy the ebook to other system (you name it) without having to authorized the hardware.
2. MS Reader. Surprise? Yes, I love this expensive complicated DRM, as long as I have convertlit.com, a free <50K file utility to unlock the ebook ;-P
3. iTunes. You can burn it into CD for the unprotected copy, you can copy it to any number of iPods connected to your computer.

posted by Jerry permanent link

So-no way
Prose and Cons: Sony's New E-Book
...All in all, the device itself is a marvel, but unfortunately it's crippled by an unclever proprietary copyright protection scheme—let's call it "copywrong." (Sony calls it Open MG.) The scheme basically puts the rights of the publisher ahead of the convenience of the user. Only 1,139 titles are available for downloading from the electronic library, mostly books in Japanese, with a few hoary tomes in English like Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Currently there are no newspapers or magazines on the virtual shelves.

posted by Jerry permanent link

Ninety-Nine woh woh woh (sing it toto's song)
$0.99 iWords eBookstore inspired by iTunes' incredible success
Newmedia Publishing is opening its iWords(tm) eBook store, inspired by Apple Computer's incredibly successful iTunes download store. The site features free eDigests, 99 cent eBooks, and subscription to web-books in an easy, and very affordable way.
Readers can also visit the authors' pages and peruse sample chapters at their leisure, or purchase the books online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Borders.
(Sadly iwords.com domain at this point in time is available for sale)

posted by Jerry permanent link

iLock
Pod Secret v1.0
Pod Secret allows one to store encrypted notes, medical vaccinations, credit cards, bank numbers, traveler's check, serial numbers, passport, driver's licenses, or any other data that you wish on removable media such as an iPod or a thumb drive for convenient portable access!

posted by Jerry permanent link

Real Cheesy
Business 2.0 Asks "Is RealNetworks Just Stinky Cheese?"
"Real doesn't understand it's fighting a brand battle," says Bradley Peacock, president of Chicago-based marketing consultancy Peacock Nine. RealNetworks, with its complicated downloads and annoying pop-ups, has never been adored, and it is going up against an aspirational brand that is. (That's why people wear the pocket-size device outside their clothing and use the distinctive white earphones even though other earbuds offer better sound quality.)" (read more)

posted by Jerry permanent link