Loo-Lee.com

Anticipated for sometime, it looks like Mozilla is ready to start releasing Firefox Mobile.  Dubbed Fennec after a long-eared desert fox, the latest browser is said to be making its debut solely on the HTC Touch HD during the first week of February.  Obviously the gorgeous screen on the Touch HD will be ideal to show off Fennec, but it is rather unfortunate for the all the other Windows Mobile users desperate to leave Internet Explorer behind.

However, we can’t see this exclusivity lasting for long and no matter whether an adaptation comes from Mozilla or from the kitchen of a keen coder, expect to be installing it on your phone sometime (more…)

Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.

With only a few weeks to go until the 2009 Mobile World Congress begins, rumours are abound as to what goodies await us and unsurprisingly, Google’s Android operating system features heavily in them.  The G1 is still the only official, in production Android device on the market and with the Kogan recently being delayed, the race is on to be the second.

General Mobile, a name unfamiliar to most mobile fans, will be showing off the DSTL1, a dual-SIM touchscreen phone running Android.  The 3 inch screen has an odd resolution of (more…)

Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.

 Today Nokia announced three new Classic models which they expect are exactly the type of products that will sell like hotcakes, given the current financial climate. Nokia have made a strong attempt at challenging the negativity that has infected the globe like the plague by offering some solid value phones. The Nokia  6700 Classic, Nokia 6303 classic and Nokia 2700 Classic are expected to be the best value that money can buy, packed with as many hi-tech features as their very affordable price tags can carry.

The Nokia 6700 is the top of the class amongst the three newbies, with a beautiful, precise design and sporting a sexy metal keypad. The 6700s beauty is further accentuated by (more…)

Post from Dial-a-Phone, UK's no. 1 for Mobile Phones.

Last month, when 2008 took its final bow, the price of an Amazon Kindle remained steady at $359. Geez — That's a new 16GB iPhone 3G, plus a ton of apps. So what gives?  

I don't know if Amazon's getting greedy or just that the "electronic paper" technology actually lives up to the hype. (Kindle users, weigh in if you have an opinion.) Either way, the pricetag is hard to swallow — especially when I can download electronic books on my iPhone. Good thing I feel this way. The Kindle has been backlogged since November to February, possibly because Oprah hyped it on her show, but more likely due to a new version coming out on February 9.

Either way, the device's success has launched a renewed interest in ebook readers. Luckily, iPhone users who aren't hot on dishing out hundred of dollars for a separate gadget have some nice alternatives. And so starts the iPhone ebook reader wars, which takes a look at a few noteworthy apps designed to dish up reading material on the go. First up in the queue is Classics.

Classics
If you care more about user experience than selection, and you enjoy great works of literature like Huckleberry Finn and The Time Machine, then Classics is right up your alley.





The virtual bookshelf is stunning and features timeless books with gorgeous cover art, lovely retro bookmarks and line-art page graphics. But the cool thing is the interface. It's nothing short of beautiful — the pages visually flip with the flick of a finger. (Fast readers, beware: Though the animation duplicates the page turning quite well, it's not exactly speedy. So if you're an impatient reader, this may be a dealbreaker for you.)

There are also other issues with the app: The serif font and page design aren't customizable, the text doesn't landscape with the accelerometer, and you can't add to Classics' current selection of 16 books. New additions arrive at the developers' discretion via updates. And considering these ebooks are free elsewhere, penny-pinching lit hounds might balk at the pricetag (even at the sale price of $2.99, a discount to celebrate its brief cameo in Apple's latest iPhone ad).

But if you're the sort who judges a book by its cover, then this really great-looking reader could make you forgive its flaws. (I did. After all, if design and style didn't matter to me, I wouldn't have an iPhone to begin with.)

Interested in more than just classic books? Then look for Part 2 on the eReader app and its eReader Fictionwise account services.

I started writing about alternatives to the Amazon Kindle in Part 1 of the "ebook reader wars." And in the hot debate over the best readers for the iPhone, you really can't talk about the issue without bringing up the veteran eReader. Man, I only wish I'd had this app back in college. It's a solid offering for fans of digital books. But even so, it's not without some downsides, as you'll see.

eReader
This is a must-have app if you're an eReader customer who already has a big library of titles. It natively hooks to accounts in eReader.com, Fictionwise and manybooks.net, and users who are willing to tinker a bit can access accounts on other websites. (I had trouble with this, but others have reportedly had some success, so it may just be my failure of patience.)





This has everything you'd expect from a top ebook reader, including bookmarks, notes, a customizable UI (fonts, colors, even flicking gestures), and pages that move from portrait to landscape mode easily. It also has dictionary compatibility, though you need to buy one of their compatible dictionary products to make it work. (The free Oxford Dictionary sample I picked up didn't work with it.)

As a retail module, it lacks some luster. The buying process is cumbersome, requiring you to go on the Internet to add titles to your online bookshelf, then syncing the phone to that account to have your reading material in your phone. It has a built-in browser for this, which helps, but the extra steps get old pretty quickly. Loading your own personal content isn't easy either. You have to convert the file to a pdb document, upload it to your online bookshelf or configure your computer as a personal web server. Eeeshk! Well, at least it's a free app.

Despite all these irritations, it's a solid reader. It doesn't crash often, and the eReader online account, powered by Fictionwise, offered a nice selection of books. So I did like and use eReader, at least for a while — that is, until I met Stanza.

There's nothing like good looks and brains to boot. As far as the total package goes, I don't think the other ebook apps can hold a candle to this one. Stanza takes some of the best features of its competitors and puts them in one place, along with an enormous selection of easy-to-grab books.





Stanza
What can I say? Coverflow integration, customizable UI, flawless bookmarking, direct-to-handheld purchasing, and a companion desktop program that converts pdfs to pdb files and uploads them directly from my Macintosh — for free? Okay, I was sold from the word "go." It's also neat to be able to adjust the swiping gestures (so that the page curves up instead of wiping across), mimicking page turns. While it's not as good as Classics' page-flipping feature, for a free app, it's not bad.

Though Stanza has a very, very decent user experience, what makes it really shine is the array of compatible ebook providers. As of this writing, there were 13 ebook purveyors, from Fictionwise to Project Guttenberg. That means I can download anything from bestsellers to romance novels to free books in the public domain, with no fuss or muss.

As much as I like this app, I have to cop to some wonkiness here and there. Some books show up with erratic formatting, and there are occasional crashes. It also lacks a built-in dictionary (which eReader does have — that is, once you buy a dictionary product). But even though it's not perfect, Stanza combines some of my favorite functions from its competitors and improves on others.

Plus there's another bonus: I can read titles from my eReader Fictionwise account on Stanza, so I don't have to keep both apps. (Warning: If you have a lot of books in eReader, it can take a while to download them all. So if you've got dozens or more titles in your bookshelf, you may want to think twice before deleting that eReader app.)

So all in all, I was — and still am — very impressed with Stanza. Once it gets a built-in dictionary, I might actually be in love. But if I was the dallying sort, I might think of dabbling in a different direction. Those standalone ebooks in the App Store seem kind of interesting. (If you're the curious sort who wants to know what's up with those, make sure to check out the next post.)

If you've ever wondered what the heck those individual ebooks are all about in the App Store — well, me too. So I took a look at one to see what the deal was.

Unlike readers, which stock a selection of works, these are stand-alone books with the software built in per title.

For example, when searching for "book reader," the Twilight ebook always shows up on the first page. The company behind this $10.99 product is ScrollMotion, who creates the ebooks on its Iceberg reader. I haven't tried out the app yet, but the specs look interesting. The company boasts that its technology "replicates the actual experience of reading a book" with full pagination that matches its pulptastic printed counterpart. There's also pinching to resize text, which reflows automagically, text searching, notes and the ability to skim through pages.

I doubt every stand-alone ebook has all this functionality (which in the case of Iceberg, you really, really pay for at — egads! $8.99 to $27.99 per title!), but the model is interesting. Instead of doing battle with multiple accounts or online bookshelves, the simplicity of using the App Store as the book distributor can be really appealing. And with an assortment of free or lower-cost titles already available, it may not be a bad way to go for people who just want a simple way to stay well-read.







Summary
So at the end of the day, it looks like the winner of the ebook reader wars is Stanza — at least for me. But really, everyone has different preferences for how they like to read, and using these apps are no exception.

If you want a gorgeous interface for reading great works of literature, then Classics tops the list. An easy connection to a vast, already established library on eReader? Look no further than the native eReader app. Stanza works for me because of the huge selection and customizable features. But if you'd asked me back in my single days (when books were like dates, and I was commitment-phobic — in multiple ways), I probably would've flinged with individual ebooks.

Things may be different for me in the future, when I have more disposable income, a different address from walk-intensive New York City, and a car to schlep things around in. Ask me then, and I'll probably own a Kindle.

Do you have a favorite ebook reader that wasn't mentioned? I'd love to hear about it. Add it to the list in the comments below or in the forums.

Don't call it Shadow 2 ... it's just Shadow. Noah gets the new T-Mobile Shadow, with its Windows Mobile, Wi-Fi, and SureType style keyboard. Check it out!

Noah dials up a hometown favorite - San Francisco's own Waterfield Designs - and checks out two of their current cases for iPhone. The $9 Suede Jacket and pricier Smart Case both fit iPhone 3G and the first-gen iPhone.

Despite the flood of Windows Mobile devices on the market, we knew that Acer was going to release a smartphone in early 2009, however it appears as if we'll be able to get a first-hand glance when it is released on February 16th at Mobile World Congress.  
 
In today's competitive environment with the iPhone, BlackBerry Bold, and soon-to-be-released Palm Pre, we can only hope that the smartphone is something to write home about.  No word on when the device will actually be available, however from the invitation e-mail (below) that Pocket-Lint obtained, the words "smartphones launch" seem to refer to more than one device.  Could we have a surprise on our hands?