Trying Again to Make Books Obsolete (David Pogue; NYT)

By DAVID POGUE

“The market for downloadable books will grow by 400 percent in each of the next two years, to over $25 billion by 2008,” predicted the keynote speaker at the 2001 Women’s National Book Association meeting. “Within a few years after the end of this decade, e-books will be the preponderant delivery format for book content.”

Whoops.

The great e-book fantasy burst shortly after that speech, along with the rest of the dot-com bubble. In 2003, Barnes & Noble shut its e-book store, Palm sold its e-book business to a Web site and most people left the whole idea for dead.

Not everybody, however. Some die-hards at Sony still believe that, properly designed, the e-book has a future. Their solution is the Sony Reader, a small, sleek, portable screen that will be introduced this month in some malls, at Borders bookstores and at sonystyle.com for $350. (more...)

Cheap Treo Takes on Moto, RIM (Red Herring)

Smart phone maker will offer lower-priced device in hand-to-hand fight with Research in Motion, Motorola for consumer market.

Palm is preparing to launch a consumer version of its Treo smart phone, according to reports Thursday.

The Sunnyvale, California-based handheld PDA maker is planning to debut the Treo 680, a lower-priced model of its line of smart phones, which have mainly been used by businesses and the so-called prosumer market, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Palm is rolling out the Treo 680 to do battle with offerings from Motorola and Research In Motion, whose BlackBerry Pearl smart phone is ringing up strong sales for RIM and its partner T-Mobile with consumer-oriented features like video, music, camera, and photos).

(more...)

How To Back Up Your Treo (mytreo.net)

Before we get into the "how," let's discuss the "why." Scouring the mytreo.net forums will yield horror stories about catastrophes, unplanned hard resets, and resets that make you lose all your preferences. The simple fact of the matter is that, when you own a device that is largely a means of information storage and access, it's in your best interest to protect that data.

When you first get your Treo, you are prompted to install the accompanying software to your pc or mac, and then perform a hotsync. There are really two purposes to a hotsync: 1) to give your device a unique user name that will not only identify it during future hotsyncs, but allow software to be registered to that unique name, and 2) to create a backup on your computer of all the information stored on your handheld. So your first lesson is: Sync often, and sync regularly. Something will happen to cause you to need that backup. It's just a matter of when. (more...)

METRO Workshop: Emerging Mobile Technologies

Friday, November 17, 2006
Location: METRO, 57 East 11th Street, 4th Floor, NYC
Time: 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM

To learn more, visit METRO's website calendar.

This class is designed to increase your knowledge of emerging mobile technologies by discussing devices such as smart phones, PDAs, Blackberries, and iPods. As use of these mobile devices increases it is essential for libraries to embrace these technologies and utilize them as a vehicle to increase access to information. Additional topics include discussion of wireless protocols, mobile searching, and security of mobile devices. Methods for keeping up-to-date on mobile technologies will be explained. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss case studies from institutions that are taking innovative approaches to using mobile devices

Objectives:
* Identify and discuss current and future mobile technologies.
* Compare different wireless protocols and their use in libraries.
* Discuss security issues for mobile technologies.
* Identify sources to keep up-to-date with mobile technologies.
* Apply case studies and recommendations for supporting mobile devices at home institution.

Presenters: Gabriel R. Rios is the Associate Director for Public Services at the Briscoe Library of the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. He has been working with mobile technologies for the last six years and has co-taught PDA-related classes at regional and national meetings. In his previous position as Assistant Director for Information Services & Technology at the University of Virginia Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, Gabe directed the implementation of PDA support services including IrDA printing and Ethernet, 802.11b wireless connectivity, the PDA Users Group, the PDA Resources Website, and the Library PDA channel.

Melissa De Santis is the Assistant Director for Public Services at the Briscoe Library of the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. She has been working with technology since 1997 when she began managing the Library Computer Center at UTHSCSA. Melissa has worked with library staff to set up wireless access in the Briscoe Library and to support library users with PDAs. Melissa regularly teaches classes on database searching, Internet searching and accessing full-text resources.

This workshop is co-sponsored by METRO and the New York-New Jersey Chapter of the Medical Library Association, Inc.

Member rates apply for members of either organization.

To learn more, visit METRO's website calendar.

Sony Reader Is a Work in Progress (Wired)

So what's not to like? Well, this isn't a book you'll blithely toss on the couch or the floor at chapter's end. At $350, it's not cheap, particularly when some used tablet PCs or discount laptops -- which provide much more functionality than the Reader -- could come in around that figure. It also has no color, which the manga and the digital photos seem to cry out for. There's no way to input or search data, so it's not going to have any multifunction uses like some PDAs. (There is bookmarking and a History utility to cover some of those functions.) There's no wireless access, so it must be tethered to a computer for file management. There's no backlighting, so real in-the-dark reading isn't possible. No display of video. No touch screen. And I miss the sound of a page turning.

I gave three of my colleagues a sort of Malcolm Gladwell Blink test by handing them the Reader and asking for their instant impression. Two out of three ooohed and aahhhed, and the other was immediately turned off, saying, "I'd never want to read a book on one of those things." My own feelings are an amalgam of theirs: Having used the device for many hours, I found it to be a comfortable, pleasing way to read, after initial hesitance. And it's a sharp-looking, techno-wow device with a durable feel. Its size, its screen, its general "thingness" were all appealing. But I love the feel, heft and smell of books, the tangible touch of the page, seeing their spines on the shelves.