(Starting this month, the Techlogs now read downward—the first log on the top, the last on the bottom—which should make reading easier and more linear.)

06.3.2K7: In-between computing with Foleo

Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm, recently lit a flame under the computing world with the introduction of his latest device, the Foleo. The problem is, the computing world can't decide for itself whether the flame constitutes a bonfire, or a match.

The Foleo is a device designed to connect to your smartphone, and allow you to wirelessly browse the internet, check and send e-mail, and do a few basic chores (like word or spreadsheet work). It is like a PDA in that it is small and light, has instant-on and opens to whatever you had open when you turned it off... but it has a full keyboard, not a touchscreen. It is not a full computer, although it looks like a laptop PC, but there is a potential for expansion, mainly throu the expected third-party apps that are often written for such a device.

This is a device, according to Hawkins, that is optimized for people who travel, and like to keep connected, without necessarily doing any heavy PC work while on the go... anyone from a business executive on the run, to Grandma non-PC user at home, to (let's say) me on vacation. However, depending on who you speak to, this is either great, or a load of garbage.

For one thing, it's like a laptop... but not quite. Why not, many people argue, just get the laptop? One can be had (used or refurbished) for close to the $500 cost of the Foleo, and be eminently more useful. Others say that the Foleo, smaller, lighter, simpler, will be the PC many people want who don't like today's do-everything (but not that well) PCs. So one faction thinks it will be the greatest thing since sliced bread, while the other side is positive it will crash and burn.

Personally, I like the idea of the smaller form factor, and wouldn't mind replacing my laptop with a smaller device. Although I could use just a smartphone for e-mails, the Foleo's larger screen makes it workable for web browsing, where a smartphone or PDA screen is only workable for mobile-optimized web pages. And as long as I can write and edit Word documents, I don't need to do anything heavier on vacation (or, for that matter, on many business trips). Also, it will surely accept a few e-book reader apps, making it easy for me to take and read e-books on the go. The device has no PIM apps, but supposedly, you'd have that stuff on your smartphone. So, for me, it could be workable. For others... maybe not so much. But not everyone has a PC,a laptop, and a PDA, and depending on your need, this device might just suit you to a "T".

Only time will tell, of course. It is worth noting that this is hardly the first limited computing device to come along, nor is it the first computer of its size. Full-featured mini-computers and maxi-PDAs have been introduced by other companies, but never sold well, usually due to poor performance and high price tags. On the other hand, those other products didn't have the marketing and promotional savvy of Jeff Hawkins, the man who gave us the Palm Pilot, behind them.

06.8.2K7: First Foleo, then Eee PC

Hot on Jeff Hawkins' announcement of his new Foleo device, computer maker ASUS has announced a device that will compete directly with the Foleo.

Called the Eee PC, it is another clamshell device, smaller than a laptop, that will wirelessly browse the web, access e-mail, and let you write in Word. (And by the way, you can read e-books on 'em.) This device will be Windows XP-compatible, however, and run on a Linux OS base, which makes it a good candidate for all kinds of third-party software for those who just have to mod their toys.

But perhaps the most significant feature of this device is its $200 price tag... $300 less than the Foleo, with little physical difference between them, and possibly far more expandable than the Foleo.

This device sounds more like the "lite computer" that Jeff Hawkins was shooting for... especially at $200 as opposed to $500. Not that Palm's Foleo is necessarily going to be a bad device, but hopefully Asus' Eee will show the market that a lite PC can be useable, and portable, and reasonably-priced for almost anyone to buy. I know I plan to check it out, when it reaches my area... I'd much rather bring this on a trip than a heavy, bulky laptop, if I don't need to do any heavy computing.

There are hints of other, similar devices on the way... this may be the new form factor that the computer makers hope to saturate the market with. Cheap, easy-to-use computers? Worth a shot.

06.13.2K7: D'oh! Busted by international law!

Stupid me... I thought I was doing a harmless public service... now I'm concerned about being sued! And all over an 81-year-old book.

It started when I converted Metropolis, the novel by Thea von Harbou that is the basis for the 1926 classic film, to the Sony Reader format. My understanding was that the novel was considered public domain, and therefore permissible to distribute... an idea reinforced by the novel's existence on the Austrailian Project Gutenberg site. The MobileRead web site had just a place for public domain works, so I did my civic duty and posted it.

Then I received a message from someone else who frequented that forum. He explained to me that the English translation of the novel is not covered by copyright... however, it is apparently not considered public domain, because of existing copyrights on the original German work. I'm not sure of the actual legalities, but this seems to suggest that I was wrong in distributing the English translation, because of the existing copyright on the original German work.

Apply egg to face here! I immediately contacted MobileRead, and although we are still not clear on the copyright circumstances, they have decided to remove the work from their site. I am removing links to the download from my site, too. I may be interested in garnering publicity for the SJB, but I never intended to get it by being sued!

For the record, the novel can be legally obtained from Amazon.com, or in used bookstores. If you like reading classic novels, you should check this one out. Thea von Harbou wrote it for her husband, filmmaker Fritz Lang, as the basis for his famous film. Although much of the original film has been lost due to the ravages of blunt editors and WWII bombers, the novel reveals all of the original concepts and characters that went into the movie, providing a depth of understanding of the material that cannot be had from even the best film restorations (and for the record, the best film restoration is available from Kino Video here).

Read more about the groundbreaking film here.

06.18.2K7: Is Sony Connect going to strand the Reader?

Recent news from paidcontent.org reports that Sony is shutting down its Connect division, which includes music, video, and e-book sales, and reassigning its division head and workers, considering it a loss and wanting to concentrate on Playstation sales. However, the Connect e-books for the Sony Reader will remain online... so customers can continue to get Reader content from Sony.

But how long will this last? Without the existence of the Connect division, can we expect the Connect bookstore to last on its own? I do not believe so. I expect that, within a few years at most, the Connect e-book store will also be gone.

But do not despair, Sony customers, for I believe this is part of an established strategy at Sony, one that is playing out as they (probably always) intended.

Remember, Sony has never been a content organization... they are a hardware company. Sure, they've bought movie studios and record labels, but primarily as a source of revenue for the organization, and a guaranteed source of content for their hardware. The Connect e-book store reflects this: It has never been considered comprehensive of e-book material, but it provided enough e-books for the Sony Reader to make sure hardware owners had a source of content, and would therefore buy the Reader. That strategy was successful for the Reader, making it the most well-known and popular of readers out there.

Now that the Reader is selling reasonably well (for the e-book market, at least), Sony is in a position to be able to approach other major book sellers, like Amazon and Borders, and other e-book sellers that offer multiple formats, and license Sony's e-book format to them. Reports from those who have asked, say that retailers and e-book sellers have never indicated a lack of interest in Sony's format, just a lack of availability due to licensing restrictions. If Sony provides licenses and passes the production of content to others, it is free to concentrate on the Reader itself, improving it, marketing it, and maybe eventually keeping a major piece of the dedicated e-book pie for themselves.

There is a ways to go to see how this plays out. But the bottom line is, if Sony continues to sell the Reader, there will continue to be content for it, no matter what Sony ultimately does.

06.20.2K7: High optimism for Adobe's new PDF/e-book format

It didn't take long after the news that Sony was closing its Connect division, and potentially killing the Connect bookstore eventually, that the e-book world got much better sounding news from Adobe. Yesterday, Adobe released version one of its new Digital Editions software, and content makers are already endorsing it.

Adobe Digital Editions, or Adobe DE, is a new document creation system designed to create and manage PDFs and XHTML-based e-book formats. It is optimized for e-book reading and creation, unlike Acrobat, whose feature set makes it a barely-functionable e-book choice for many platforms.

On the same day as the Adobe announcement, various e-book publishers were announcing their endorsement and support of DE, and their intentions to make their documents and e-books available for DE. One of the most notable announcements came from Sony, who said that the Sony Reader would also support DE.

This combination of wide publisher support, and the support of a major manufacturers' popular e-book reader, should mean a huge catalog of e-books being made available for the Sony Reader. Lack of titles has been cited by many as one of the few negative aspects of the Sony Reader experience. The lack of usability of the Connect online bookstore is another, as it does not support Macs or older PCs. DE could potentially solve both of those issues, eliminating the need for Reader owners to use the Connect store (which, as I pointed out in the entry above, may be gone eventually anyway), and pave the way for a much wider public acceptance of e-books and e-book readers.

It is early yet, to say how things will work out... DE is only available for newer versions of Windows and Mac OSX, and there are many people on lesser machines or other platforms who want to take a crack at the new software. Also, the DE software has apparently already garnered a reputation for causing crashes on some PCs during installation. For the record, my PC won't install it at all, because it has too slow a processor on-board. But for this, it might be worthwhile to upgrade...

Supplemental—6.23.07: Adobe apparently fixed the installation bug that was causing a lot of crashes on PCs, and now DE has installed on my PC as well. Now that I have a better understanding of the formats it uses, I can investigate developing my novels in the proper formats. You get 2 choices: Either build 'em yourself; or buy software that will do it for you. We'll see which choice I go with... later...

06.23.2K7: How small can computers get?

Well, how about this one: This full Linux OS computer, fabbed by French startup Calao, is literally a USB key. Calao's SBC (single board computer) obviously has no moving parts... it uses 256MB of flash memory instead of a hard drive. But it does include an ethernet port, and 2 more USB host ports. For further details, visit www.linuxdevices.com.

So, what do you do with such a tiny computer? Well, you can potentially carry all of your data, and all of your computer applications, with you at all times... leaving you with only the need for an access device to get at it all. The possibilities suggest multiple devices to be used for access, depending on what you need and where. One could be the size of your cellphone, providing you with PIM access. Another device might have a full keyboard and large touchscreen, allowing you to work with full applications like Word. And possibly an interface with voice recognition and generation could be worn like an earpiece, allowing you to speak to, and get replies from, your computer (I used a similar idea in Factory Orbit and Encephalopath).

And think about this: You may never need a full desktop computer again. You'd need less resources to build it, and less to pay for it. You'd use less energy to power it. It could always be with you. And it's up to you how to use it. How's that for a few good points?

06.25.2K7: Watching the waves

As it often is on the beach, you never know which wave to keep an eye on. Some waves crash harmlessly on the edge of the sand, yards away. Others wash right up to your blanket, and change the local landscape (as well as getting your stuff wet).

The e-book world is watching one of those waves right now. The release of Adobe's Digital Editions software, which is designed to read PDFs and the newly-standardized EPUB formats, has already been endorsed by a number of publishers, and Sony has announced that it plans to support the formats on its well-selling Reader.

The potential here is that the combination of Adobe's software, Sony's hardware and publishers' support could result in a winnowing down of the many, many e-book formats that hold back standardization and plague the industry today... what is (not so) popularly called the "Tower of E-Babel." Many in and outside of the industry feel that a standardization of formats could be the one thing the industry needs to pick a common distribution format, and begin an ernest effort to sell e-books. This would be the wave that washes over everything, and changes the e-book landscape.

On the other hand, the publishers could still continue to argue over distribution models, insist on hobbling common formats with proprietary DRM systems, or simply keep e-book pricing inappropriately high. Any of these things could cause the wave to crash harmlessly at the edge of the beach, changing nothing.

How will this wave break? It's way too early to tell. But keep an eye on it, just in case. After all, you don't want to end up all wet.