MOBODOJO

Wow. At least Clinton was caught with a human being! Anyway, I just thought I’d offer well wishes to all Dojo readers in the U.S. who are celebrating Thanksgiving. This is a truly American holiday as its not directly related to any specific religious sect. We simply give thanks for what we have and how hard it was to get it.

Sure, we stole this country from the natives, we stole Hawaii from their sovereign king, and we’ve perpetrated a wide range of other human rights abuses and outright crimes, but hey! We’re here, right? So, let’s give thanks to George W. Bush for all of the wonderful things he has given us and the strong and positive legacy he will have left us when he leaves office next year. Joy to the world, everyone!

Electronista has confirmed that Nokia is now shipping the N810 internet tablet device to U.S. retailers which means it should be available within the next week or so. The N810 is a update bump for the N800 which replaced the now aged and weak-ish Nokia 770. The tablet is designed as a mobile web and media platform without the benefits of an actual telephony device embedded. Instead, the N810 features 802.11b/g and Bluetooth connectivity options. The 800×640 24-bit color touchscreen is also nice, but the addition of a GPS transceiver and road maps is the real killer addition. Expect, however, to shell out US$479 for the unit as well as US$130 a year for GPS updates. I suppose that if they see that the N810 becomes popular they may axe the GPS update cost, but I doubt it.

Amazon, not normally known for its consumer devices, has announced the Kindle mobile e-book reader. The funniest thing so far is that Amazon’s own product rating system, whose data is suppled by customers, rates the 1 day old device at 2 and a half stars (out of five). Those aren’t exactly blazing reviews, but the bulk of the 1 star reviews are all from people who are unhappy with the high price (the unit sells for US$399). I’m not sure you can qualify a complaint about cost as a valid review, since the 25 I read were from people who wouldn’t pay the price Amazon wants for it.

Aside from all of the smoke rising from the Kindle’s release, it is a rather nifty, if ugly, device. The unit sports a 6″ 600×800 electronic paper display, a full QWERTY keyboard, measures 7.5″ x 5.3″ x 0.7″, weighs a mere 10.3 oz., and features “WhisperNET”, some kind of access to Sprint’s EVDO network. As for the ugly, you can tell that its not a symmetrical device. It has Page Up and Page Down buttons along the left side and one big Page Down button on the right. It also appears to be meant to look 3D-ish. I’m not sure I get it, but I’ll be happy to try it out when I get one.

In the growing glut of UMPC devices hitting the market, the new raon Everun is quite cool. Dynamism has them now and is offering them with an English version of Windows and support for the device. It doesn’t aim to be a powerhouse that can fit in your pockets if they’re big enough. It does, however, aim to have the longest runtime of all UMPC, and it looks like its got it, claiming 6 to 11 hours, depending on CPU and battery type. The Everun sports power frugal AMD Geode processors.

You can get systems with 500 to 600MHz CPUs, 256 to 512MBs of RAM, and 6GB SSD (Solid State Drive) to 60GB ATA/6GB SSD Hybrid hard drive options, all topped with a 4.8″ 800×480 touchscreen display, integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a QWERTY keyboard. All of this in a 1.08 to 1.1 lbs. package. Pricing ranges from US$799 to US$1,099, so it won’t kill your pocketbook, either. About the only drawback to the whole shebang is that it only comes with Windows XP Home Edition. Feh.

Wow. I know its a PC and all, but cramming Mac OS X onto one of these things is nuts/cool/illegal/wicked. Check out Uneasy Silence for all of the details. If you are so inclined there are even detailed instructions on how to do it. I ask, however, that you do not steal  Mac OS X from Apple. I’m okay with license infringement since I believe in Fair Use, but piracy is verboten, capische?

If John C. Dvorak, love him deeply though I do, were a field goal kicker he would be able to punt hte “pigskin” for at least a couple of miles, and not even break a sweat. He is not, though. He is a pundit and likely the crankiest. He did, in fact, found the Cranky Geeks. JD, however, often goes off half cocked, and this time its in relation to Google’s admittedly inane Google Phone announcement from earlier this week. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve made some MORE changes to The Collection, so go take a look. I’ve made more complete entries, cleaned up the formatting, and added some hardware which was missing before. I’ll be adding resource links soon, so keep checking in.