Category: Portable

Jens of Sweden release MP130, complete with mirror

The latest MP3 Flash-memory music player from Jens of Sweden has just been announced (so recently that they don’t have English details available). The stylish devices has all you would expect from a mini-MP3 player, currently up to 512Mb of storage, record function dictaphone and FM-radio. Amazingly this little beauty weighs the same as eight sheets of A4 paper.

The unexpected features start with a mirror finish for use when it’s not on. When it is on, the multi-coloured organic LED display shines through the mirror and interestingly it has a clock and alarm built into it. The other surprise is the addition of support for Ogg Vorbis, the open, patent-free audio encoding format that is the preference of the tech-savvy. Jens have improved the battery time over the MP-100 to 18 hours and can drive big headphones.

We’ve spoke to Jens and they tell us that there is a 1Gb version coming out in June. The recommended ex-VAT UK prices are 128Mb £105, 256Mb £145 and 512Mb £190, which should be slightly cheaper in store.

Sadly they are only supporting USB1.1, not USB2.0, which would significantly reduce the speed music could be exchanged with it.

We at Digital Lifestyles office are fans of Flash MP3 players, given their unnoticeable weight during commutes. Longer journeys demand hard-drive-based players.

Jens of Sweden MP-130

Ogg Vorbis

PalmOne’s New PDAs

PalmOne has released two new handhelds in their Zire range – the Zire 32 and 72.

The Zire 31, US$149 (€125) has a faster CPU than its predecessor and runs Palm OS 5.2. The PDA has a new-style controller on the front panel – allowing better navigation through documents, but also better for control whilst playing the growing range of Java games available. This controller, coupled with the new headphone jack and the mandatory expansion slot will ensure that buyers use the machine for playing media on the move.

Palm have included Bluetooth in their new Zire 72, US$299 (€251), allowing users to use an appropriate mobile phone to send messages on the move. The 72 is a somewhat striking Yves Klein blue colour – we can’t help but get the feeling that other colours might be in the pipeline.

The 64mb 72 also features a better digital camera than its 71 predecessor, sporting 1.2m pixels, backing that up with 2x digital zoom and 320 x 240 video capture. The camera has better integration with Palm applications than has been seen before – photographs can be attached to contacts and used as backdrops within programs.

But what about an update to the T3? Surely the Tungsten T4 (and Palm OS6) can’t be that far off?

The Palm 72

The Palm 31

HP Announce New RPN Calculator – the HP33s

Good news calculator fans! HP have announced a new Reverse Polish Notation calculator – the HP33s. Priced at a very reasonable US$49 (€41) the non-graphic calculator is intended to replace the old 33sII. Purist are already bemoaning the inclusion of rubber keys on this new model, and sneering at it’s funky v-shaped styling.

It’s nice to know that the tradition of hearing “Can I borrow your calculator?” followed by confused swearing will continue for a while yet.

sheet data HP +++

HPCalc.org

Picsel – Better Web Browsing on Mobile Phones

Browsing the web on a mobile phone is still a less than satisfying experience – and that’s without taking connection speeds into account. Mobile phone browsers have always been simpler, less featured affairs due to memory and processor limitations. Consequently phone users are missing out on a lot of the internet: many site architects don’t bother testing with mobile browsers, or can’t be bothered writing for them. We can’t blame them either – often the browsers themselves are inconsistent, or writing for them is unimaginably painful. We wrote a WAP application a couple of years ago and we’re sure it’s responsible for some of the bad dreams we have still.

Picsel Technologies have a browser that uses their ePAGE multi-media content engine to give phone users a better experience on the web, without site providers having to write special portals for phones.

Instead of staring at tiny text on a page, the Picsel browser allows users to zoom in on any content and pan it about with Live Pan and Zoom. LPZ is compatible with a range of input methods, so you’ll be able to use it with a stylus or phone joystick.

The browser will also resize content to fit the width of the screen, avoiding all that tedious back and forth scrolling, just because someone doesn’t know how to properly set table widths in Dreamweaver. File filters for Microsoft Word and Adobe’s PDF are welcome additions, and should ensure that you can read the majority of things you get sent at the last minute for reading on the train to your meetings.

The first phone to feature the browser is Motorola’s A768 smartphone. The A768 is based on Linux, but Picsel will also be providing their browser for Motorola’s MPX smartphone which is based on Microsoft Windows Mobile.

How the browser works Picsel’s information sheet

Tactile Text Messages

Researchers at Bonn University have come up with a way of feeling text messages using a matrix of pins. Rather like the Braille readers used by blind and partially-sighted PC users, pins are raised and lowered, in patterns – but the system isn’t Braille for mobile phones yet.

Users program which patterns the phone makes to which keywords – examples given are a wave towards the user to indicate “I” and you a wave away from the user to indicate “you”.

It’s currently cumbersome, and of limited use (why not just look at your phone?), but the team feel it will have uses in art-installations or other more traditional feedback systems – such as steering wheels. There’s also no reason why the system can’t be refined so that blind users can read text messages.

If the array can be made small enough to work with mobile phones of 3g dimensions, this feedback system might be a great idea for giving access to PDAs for the blind.

Prof Eckmiller of Bonn University told the BBC: “Our major intention with this invention and development is to open up the sense of touch as a new channel for human communication, the sense of touch will in the future be added as the third communication channel to human communication technologies.”

Department of Neuroinformatics at Bonn

Sharp Introduce SL6000 PDA to US

Featuring IBM enterprise software to allow remote access to systems, the SL-6000 is a Linux-based PDA intended for enterprise users.

The SL-6000 is the latest addition to Sharp’s Zaurus range and they’re touting it as a complete laptop replacement. This focus on features, reliability and enterprise use is reflected in the price: US$700 (€578).

The PDA has a bright, four inch 640×480 (VGA) display, 802.11b WiFi and built-in slide out keyboard. Memory expansion is through CF and SD slots. The display is so good because it is one of the first to feature Sharp’s CD Silicon technology. This new display is said to make the best of both transmissive (back lit) and reflective (front lit) screen modes.

The PDA uses a 32 bit Linux kernel to enable true multitasking – users can send and receive data to different applications simultaneously, rather than making background programs dormant.

IBM WebSphere middleware allows users to connect securely to corporate networks, whether on site or connecting through a mobile phone link.

Amazon on the SL6000

Sony to use Electonic Paper Display in eBook

Two exciting things rolled into one: an new eBook reader from Sony, and it employs a new display technology that we’re really looking forward to getting our hands on. The LIBRIe is the first consumer application of their revolutionary display, going on sale in Japan next month.

The 170 pixels per inch display is made by Philips, and employs a technology developed by E Ink. It can be read at any angle and appears just like paper, with very sharp black/white contrast. Because the reader only uses power when you “turn” pages, users can view more than 10,000 pages on four AAA batteries.

Sony state in a press release that the LIBRIe can store 500 books at a time, but don’t say how much storage the reader has, or if it can be expanded. We hope that device can be expanded (bets on a MemoryStick slot, anyone?), but our main wish is that the LIBRIe isn’t confined to displaying files in a proprietary format – we want something we can read plain text and Word/OpenOffice documents on. We were once shocked to see that the eBook version of a Stephen King novel on Amazon was considerably more expensive than the hardback – even when postage was included. Now Rocket know why their reader didn’t sell too well.

We’ve long wanted a proper eBook reader here at Digital Lifestyles. We even considered importing one of the Rocket eBooks when they first appeared, and occasionally when my eye drifts to the huge stack of also huge books by my bedside, I imagine how good it would be to have them all on one device, slightly bigger than A5 without the annoying rustly page turning and the realisation that the book I really fancied leafing through is in another room.

Sadly, PDAs, proprietary formats, expensive devices, expensive content, lack of marketing meant that the eBook dream never quite took off. Hopefully, since the LIBRIe is backed by the Sony brand, it’ll fly this time.

If it becomes available in the UK/USA, we’ll buy one and do a review here.

GeekZone

Yahoo on the LIBRIe

Microsoft’s’ iPod Killer – Bigger, More Expensive

It had to happen – although Microsoft have had mixed fortunes in the hardware market, it was inevitable that they would release a competitor to the iPod and other personal media players out there.

This new gadget will have functionality not seen in iPods so far: video playback and picture display, and it will run MS’s Portable Media Centre (PMC) OS. “We think this is going to be one of the hot devices for Christmas 2004,” said James Bernard, product manager for PMC. The hardware itself is basically a Creative player with a 20 or 40 gb hard drive. Sizewise, it’s about three times the thickness of an iPod and twice as long.

The device will play MP3s, so won’t be completely tied to Microsoft’s own Windows Media Format. As previously reported, MS have content deals in place with Napster and EMI.

Pricing in the in relevant markets varies, but is estimated to be US$750, €550 (Denmark, Sweden) and UK£399.

The impeding release can only increase speculation that Apple will retort with a video iPod at some point next year.

Slashdot — “LOTS OF SHOUTING”

Reuters

BenQ Launch World’s First 12” High Definition Widescreen Laptop

BenQ are pitching their new Joybook 6000 as part of their “digital hub” – and is the World’s first high definition 12.1” laptop.

The high definition screen runs at a 1280 x 600 resolution (WXGA) – we haven’t seen it yet, but it is by all accounts beautiful. We’ve been looking around and it seems to retail at about US$2640.

The Centrino notebook has the usual WiFi/Bluetooth/IrDA capabilities, so will be able to connect users to data services easily and under a variety of conditions.

Joybook Home – Middle East

Nintendo Uses Patent to Crack Down on ROM Copying

There’s been some confusion in how this story is being reported, so we thought we’d go over the key points.

Nintendo’s patent applies to emulating ROM-based games consoles, such as the N64 and GBA in other systems. You’ll no doubt have seen this before when you’ve played Mario Kart on the way over to New York from London: obviously there aren’t a hundred SNES consoles behind the cargo hold (if there were, it might explain why they’re so pricey on eBay).

From the patent document: “A software emulator for emulating a handheld video game platform such as GAME BOY.RTM., GAME BOY COLOR.RTM. and/or GAME BOY ADVANCE.RTM. on a low-capability target platform (e.g., a seat-back display for airline or train use, a personal digital assistant, a cell phone).”

The patent can be used to prevent other people making commercial use of a similar system – such as Firestorm gbaZ, and that’s exactly what’s just happened. Nintendo contacted Kyle Poole, responsible for the emulator and demanded that he no longer promote, market, use or distribute the Firestorm gbaZ or pursuse any further emulation of any Nintendo system. Nintendo’s key is that “All of the software for Nintendo’s proprietary video game systems is distributed in a tangible medium, sold through retail outlets. None of the games are distributed in digital versions on the Internet. Any such distribution, or promotion of any such distribution, is illegal.”

Crimson Fire – home of the Tapwave Emulator

Slashdot on the affair