Meet David Farrow and the Sony Reader Marathon

Have you ever heard of David Farrow?  Probably not.  who is he?  well, let’s start with who he was.  A dyslexic young kid with Attention Deficit Disorder.  What does this have to do with the Sony Reader?  Well, it seems that Farrow has long since overcome these challenges and become a World-renowned speed reader, as well as a Guinness World Record holder for memory.  That is part 1.

Part 2 starts with the designation of October as the Sony Electronics “Reader Revolution.”  This brand new program is designed to, “combat a nationwide decline in reading, particularly among young people.”

In order to raise awareness and help celebrate the Sony Electronics Reader Revolution, Farrow is going to spend 30 days (720 hours) living in this storefront window, reading books on his Sony Reader (and boy am i jealous).  For every page he turns, Sony will give an eBook library of 100 classic titles to a U.S. school. 

Read on for more details from the press release.  And watch this space for my full review of the Sony Reader 505.

Read more »

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Microsoft Enter the Browser Wars… Maybe

Who would have thought that after all of this time, Microsoft would actually come up with an update for MIE [Mobile Internet Explorer]. Based on IE6, which is still undoubtedly the choice for lot’s of companies with secure monitored software environments, I mean at work a lot of us are tethered to this older desktop version.
On our Windows mobile devices, MIE is at about IE4. Many users have resorted to third party browsers, Opera, Netscape, and Mozilla come to mind, and there are many more out there still like Makayama Touch Browser, Iris, and of course Skyfire that’s just gone to open beta in the US. 
Now what really gets to me about this, is the fact that Microsoft are so slow, and have really been shown the way by other developers, and their responses to the browsing needs of windows Mobile users are nil. We are still waiting. Apparently, this will be an update of the likes of Mobile Office, something you can download and install, like a patch to your WM6.xx device.

The Unwired seem to have the lowdown on the new MIE, on some sort of very strange screen size. Even the author at the Unwired, airs his doubts about the shots and the update.

So far so good. But some things irritates me: Why does the scrollbars on the right and bottom look like Windows 95 or Windows CE? That’s not the "fresh" Windows Mobile 6.1 style. Also I haven’t seen a single indication of "tabbed browsing" which means Internet Explorer Mobile 6 might still offers a single instance for Web browsing only.

I’m not going to hold my breath, but really, when could we expect the native browser of Windows Mobile to get some class, and save us some money updating third party applications?

Via The Unwired

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Holy crap: 16GB Sandisk MicroSDHC now available

When did this happen? I mean, I have a 6GB MicroSDHC that I use in my camera. I’ve had it for over a year and I still can’t get over the size. But now they’ve got a bloody 16GB card ready for purchase from $80-220 (depending on where ya look). That is such an insane amount of space to have on something the size of your fingernail.

MobyMemory was the only site that popped up for me on a quick Google, but if you folks have any better sites, please leave ‘em in the comments!

News from IntoMobile.

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Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server - October 9th

Alright, look - I’m not going to waste my time or yours debating whether legally buying music or illegally downloading music is right or wrong. Chances are my opinions are going to be totally different from yours and that’s just fine. However, my big issue is not the cost of music - my issue is the ridiculous crap that LEGAL downloaders are continually put through. Let’s be perfectly clear on this, people with DRM’d tracks are SCREWED when the DRM auth servers shut down like Wal-Mart is about to do. LEGALLY purchased music will NOT WORK after October 9th. That my friends is complete and utter BS. I personally am SICK AND TIRED of the people who DO THE RIGHT THING, getting screwed.

We hope you are enjoying the increased music quality/bitrate and the improved usability of Walmart’s MP3 music downloads. We began offering MP3s in August 2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site.

Click the link below for the full text of the Wal*Mart screw you email and get some instructions for jumping through the legal hoops

via BoingBoing

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App Store Update: No Review without Purchase! WOOHOO!!

Need I say more? Ok - I will. YAY! No more Bullshit reviews that are nothing more than - “this apps sucks - it should be free because I don’t think you should charge me for anything. Everything should be free” OR “You want me to spend a dollar on THIS?!”

Unfortunately now we may not see an many of these gems:

Maybe now the star ratings will actually mean something?!

via iphonefreakz

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Eenie Meanie Minie Mo, Which OS Is Your Go?

How much choice do you want? On the one hand, I think “different strokes for different folks”, and we all like a choice, something to emphasise our individuality. We’ve done the whole I’m a Mac/PC thing, but Brandon mentioned that he’s also a Penguin.

What does that mean exactly, the big L, Linux based systems. Now a lot of the incredibly popular NetBooks, that are emerging are offering, a Linux, alternative, operating system. We’ve come a long way recently, from the traditional M$/Mac war, that a lot of us would relate to.

Think about the OS’s out there though, that serve our truly mobile lifestyle. start with Symbian/UIQ based systems, move to WinMo, add Mac OSX and now “Robby the Robot”(android), Oh and BlackBerry, and Palm, and that’s only the mobile phone extension of Mobile OS’s. From there we could go straight up to NetBooks, but there are categories of devices in that gap that we need to think about.

Mids and the UMPC.

One of the things that the need for mobility has done, is make developers focus on a less technically focused community, and start to make UI’s for the every day user, so this version of Ubuntu, for mobile, hopefully goes there!

The interface has been changed to cater for plenty finger use, where buttons are slightly larger while applications are launched in full screen glory at 1,024 x 600 resolution. Firefox has been taken out though, replaced by a default browser known as "Midbrowser" - it will be interesting to see how the user experience turns out, will it be similar to that of the iPhone?

 

Good info from Ubergizmo, and Tech Digest.

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