This picture makes me sick

I need to go lie down now.

(via Gizmodo)

Times Reader looks slick, but Arrington appears unimpressed

As a UMPC owner and a die-hard eBook and digital magazine reader, I was thrilled to hear about the Times Reader application announced in April. The app for XP and Vista looks to bring the truest reader experience to the computer screen out of everything I've seen so far. Read / Write Web has a nice overview with plenty of screenshots, so check 'em out and tell me if I'm excited about nothing. I like the rendering control the app should have as well as the highlighting and e-mailing of articles.

Mike Arrington of TechCrunch might not be as impressed based on this comment he left at Read / Write Web while quoting the writeup: " [R/W Web:]'Times Reader is an upcoming new application from The New York Times and Microsoft, which lets users read the NY Times electronically using advanced screen reading technology from Microsoft.' [Mike:] Isn't a browser an application that lets users read the NY Times electronically?"

I left my comment to Mike on the original story because I think he's missing a point here. There's no reason to hash it out here; you can see what I said right on the Read / Write Web site. There's also a link to the Times Reader page over at the NYTimes; you can sign up to beta the new reader once it becomes available.

Freeware of the moment: Virtual Earth Mobile

One of the most common questions I get via e-mail is: "how can I use a web-based mapping program like Google Maps on my PDA or Smartphone?" Like many other web services Google Maps doesn't play nicely with Pocket IE or IE Mobile on a Windows Mobile 2003 or 5.0 device. If you can supply the connectivity, Virtual Earth Mobile can supply the maps and is powered by Windows Live Local.

This small free application is available as a CAB file that you copy to your device and then execute the CAB for the installation. Once you're installed, you'll see a Virtual Earth Mobile icon in your Programs and you're good to go where ever you want to! You can request driving directions, change maps from Road to Aerial views (or combine both), locate yourself via GPS or WiFi, even find a Contact on the map. As a standalone app, there's an advantage over a web-based service; the application integrates with your Outlook contacts, so if you have an address for them, Virtual Earth Mobile can find it.

I created a "dummy" contact and used a previous address of mine for the entry; sure enough, as the map to the right shows, my old address on Clawson Avenue in New Jersey was found correctly. There's more information at the Via Virtual Earth site, so if you're looking for a mapping service with plenty of features, I highly recommend taking a look. You might even recognize the "head honcho" behind the application; it's none other than Dr. Neil, the HiTech Hobo!

Mobility Guys interview Tyler Welch; Microsoft MVP Lead

Chris, Jack and Steve have a great podcast interview on episode number eight of Mobility Guys. Tyler Welch, a Microsoft MVP lead, answers questions on the Microsoft MVP program, which I found to be extremely interesting. The conversation turns towards DRM as Tyler's favorite device of late is the iRiver Clix digital audio player. Great stuff and worth the listen!

-kct

Vista speech recognition helps young publisher

Yes, we all know that the Vista speech recognition demo bombed on stage last month. So what? How many people use speech recognition for computing on stage in front of a large audience? I don't and when I use Vista's speech capabilities with the proper equipment, training and environment, it simply amazes me.

The Seattle Times has a great piece on this very topic and its success is illustrated in Logan Olsen. Logan was born with a congenital heart disease, has had at least 6 open heart surgeries and suffered an unfortunate brain injury at 16. Now at age 21, her fine motor skills are impaired, as is her speech. She's preparing to publish a inspirational magazine for women her age that have disabilities. So how can she effectively do this? Speech recognition; which considering her speech impairment, is amazing since Vista's speech is highly trainable. Best of luck with the magazine Logan!

(via Longhorn Blogs)

OneNote 2007, a UMPC and....fantasy football?

Just another use of a UMPC along with Microsoft OneNote; seasoned OneNote'rs might skip this, but I like sharing different uses of the application, especially with a UMPC since it can basically go anywhere. Previously, I used this approach on a Home Depot trip. Last night, I applied it to the Fantasy Football draft and found it extremely useful. You fantasy league players know the pains of carrying several draft cheat sheets and sorting though mounds of papers telling you that you should "Forget last season, this year [insert player name] will be the man for his team as well as the sleeper in the league."

Riii-iii-ght.....I like my method with OneNote much better; especially when the League office has an open WiFi connection to check on player injuries and updates....

Get your Yahoo on with Windows Mobile devices

Yahoo has launched Yahoo! Go, a Windows Mobile version of their communications bundle that includes email, IM, photo, contacts and calendar functions. The mobile service was launched in January for the Symbian platform, and now Windows Mobile users can tap into it too as the software and service will work on both Pocket PCs and Smartphones running Windows Mobile. Download the new software here and let us know how you like it if you try it out.

(via ZDNet)

Asus R2H priced like a Q1 but with more hardware?

That's the story over at Carrypad, which is based on a Pocket-Lint article "announcing" the Asus R2H. We saw the official Asus press release a few days ago, but saw no indication of price. Allegedly, the R2H will cost 799 pounds in the UK, which is the same price as the base Samsung Q1. The difference is the R2H will have 768 MB of RAM, a 60 GB drive and an external DVD drive. If true, the same price will get you an extra 256 MB of memory, 20 GB of additional storage and an optical drive.

I suspect that this deal is too good to be true since there was no pricing on the Asus press release, nor any mention of bundling an optical drive. However, if this deal does materialize, there will be quite a few happy UMPC owners in the UK. It might be worth my getting a passport and plane ticket! For the record, I checked both the Global and UK Asus site and saw no mention of this.

160 GB drives in notebooks and UPMCs, oh yes you can!

Thanks to perpendicular recording technology, you'll be able to drop a 2.5-inch 160 GB hard drive into your mobile computing device starting in October. Fujitsu just announced the availability of the 5,400 RPM drives, but is holding out on the price for now. These drives won't be anywhere near the price of a solid-state flash drive and beat the pants off the SSDs in capacity for now. However, they will generate more heat, use more power and therefore won't have the battery savings of a flash-based drive.

Is it 'too little too late' for perpendicular recording drives or will the high prices of flash-drives allow for a good few years of market growth for these drives? I think there's room for both, simply because notebooks used as occasionally portable desktop replacements have much to gain by the traditional hard drives and perpendicular recording technology....thoughts?

(via Engadget)

Verizon DSL surcharge roller coaster continues: new fees dropped like a runaway car

Oh Verizon, why must you make me ride this DSL roller coaster? First, I rejoiced when the the Universal Service Fee was removed from my account, saving me about $2.83 per month. Next you hammered my emotions and my wallet by adding your own $2.70 fee to help offset YOUR network provider costs, netting me a $0.13 savings over the old Universal fee. Today you finally came to your senses (or just got beat over the head enough) and removed the fee you just added.

Here's the thing: I don't like roller coasters. In fact, I like them as much as I like made-up fees to offset a service I already pay you for. If you created your DSL network and didn't plan to charge enough for the service you provide, go back to your business model and see where you made a mistake next time. Thank you for not penalizing me; I don't recall having input to your business strategies...go find those people and make up fees for them to pay. Thanks.