The TeleReadMobile, a 1988 Honda, flunked the inspection at Firestone yesterday, bringing us some $500 of holiday joy in reverse and delaying our Carolina travels.
Luckily, the world of e-books is mostly a cheerier place today, as illustrated by:
–Word that the Opera browser will be able to run on the $100 laptop (Slashdot and Engadget). Some 1,000 prototypes of this e-book-friendly machine have gone out, with the production lines scheduled to crank up full blast in 2007, according to a Wikipedia entry. I just wish we Yanks could buy our own. The current price is around $135-$140, with the $100 mark to be reached in ’08; but, like many in the States, I’d be willing to pay more if my purchase could subsidize production for the Third World.
–A new Sharp e-book machine-dictionary with a promising 4.3-inch color screen and a Linux OS (Engadget and MobileRead). The negative is that the battery life could be better, and of course, the screen size is still in PDA territory. Oh, and the $330 RD-CX100, shown here, available for now only in Japan.
–Intel’s digitization of the Qur’an, as well as the unveiling of a machine for use in schools in Saudi Arabia (CBC News). As described in a news report, “The E-Quran is a small computer with wireless internet access that contains the text of the holy book, audio recitations in 40 different languages and interactive interpretations of the material.”
–Both PDF and audio versions of The Shepherd’s Prayer, a Christmas-related novel by Richard Barry, are available for free (MobileRead).
—A story for young children for the Palm. See PalmAddicts review. Download the story here.
—DearAuthor‘s optimistic musings on the potential of fan fiction as a sales-booster for authors. Yes!
Meanwhile Sony Reader boosters have a new Christmas-stealing Grinch in the Columbus Dispatch. Sorry, folks. Fans of the TX and other Palm machines got some bad news as well, in the company’s financial results. Is Palm destined to become a subsidiary of Apple, as some have speculated in the past, and what would that mean in terms of OS choices—given Palm’s new Window-ish direction, at least for Treos?
In other Evil Grinch news, MediaBisto says sci-fi writer Peter Watts’ new TOR book is Free Online Because You Won’t Find it in Stores. Let’s hope that his strategy works!
