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Yesterday PlasticLogic demo’ed their forthcoming PlasticLogic reader at DEMOfall08. It is a very impressive device:

• 8,5×11 inch, very thin, under a pound.
• Displays all kinds of documents.
• Switching screens still takes a lot of time
• A color version of the screen is expected in 3- 5 years time.
• Nothing about the price point nor the connectivity.

But have a look for yourself:

More coverage over here and here.

But stillI think that LCD based ereaders will take the majority of the market. Because:

• They have colour tday
• They can display video
• The screens are much cheaper to manufacture.

Hence i’m hoping that either a forthcoming Apple’s netbook with multitouch and/or a bigger iTouch based device (with a 7 -9” screen) will debut this year (maybe even today). Apple has everything it needs to build an axtraordinary ereading device from hardware to software to distribution channel. Given the success of netbooks and the Kindle, it would be stupid for Apple not to do one of these devices. But one never knows.

If they don’t, i’m pretty sure that somebody eles will jump in using existing netbook designs and /or Google Android.

Update: Unfortunately no iReader yesterday, maybe in an upcoming MacBook Event. But the official DEMO08 is available now.  Since there is speculation about the flexibility of the device.

My guess : While the display itself is flexible, the device isn’t, because of the processor and other electronics.

Finally the my iPhone 3G, arrived. I skipped the first gen, because didn’t have a feature i was interested in that wasn’t also contained inthe iTouch. With 3G/HSDPA and GPS it now also is featurewise mostly on par with my N95, only missing the 5Megapixel auto-focus camera with a Zeiss Lens.

I immediately updated it to 2.0.1. The plan is to NOT jailbreak it (it’s a company phone), but to upgrade the iTouch to 2.0.1 and jailbreak this one (any positive reports on jailbreaking the iTouch?).

After the jailbreak i had to pay a visit to the app store. Nothing too different  to Installer.app and Cydia, but a quantum leap compared to installing Apps on a N95.

THIS is a game changer for mobile application distribution to the average consumer. One and a half years ago we introduced RefreshMobiles mobizines – mobile newspaper versions (implemented in FlashLite for Series60 and as J2ME for other phones) in the german market. All in all the FlashVersion was featurewise comparable to the news apps you can get on the iPhone. But these apps never took off (and we canceled them half a year ago) due to two reasons.

First there was insuffient marketing from the newspapers and second andmore important: The provisioning process was cumbersome and error-prone. Even I, with nearly 10 years experience in the field had problems installing the apps.

Compared to this mess the installation of apps on the iPhone was as smooth as can be (I used the wifi at home for installation). I ended up with the following apps (and a zero cent bill):

Expect some reviews of the mobile news apps in the near future.

Another great announcement at
WordPress for iPhone WordPress for iPhone Available Now « :

We’re live! WordPress for iPhone just launched on the App Store. Download it now and get to blogging. We’ll have more information about the project and how you can contribute soon.

First some bookkeeping. I haven’t had the time to try to switch to 1.1.3/1.1.4 (even to read details about the complexity of doing so). I just found it too cumbersome to reinstall all these wonderful Apps after the 1.1.2 upgrade. There also isn’t anything in these upgrades i had any urge to install.

Hence i decided to wait until the official SDK was available (seem this shouldn’t take too long, we’ll definitely should know on March 6th) and then re-evaluate if it makes sense for me to upgrade. Since it looks like jailbreaking an early 16G iPod may cause some problems i guess i made the right decision.

So my greatest fear right now is that some iTunes update somehow changes the setting from manuall updating to automatic updates. (Nearly every iTunes update does reset my manual CD import settings back to Apple’s preferred way of doing it: AAC).

This information would definitely not justify doing a blog post. But there is actually exciting news to report.

Jay Freeman (aka saurik) decided to tackle a really herculean task, namely:

Bringing Debian APT to the iPhone

In order to provide some relief for these issues, I have decided to start a project called Telesphoreo with the goal of creating a distribution of GNU and BSD’s userspace for the iPhone as a collaborative, open-source project. The name is an ancient Greek word meaning “to bring fruit to perfection or maturity”, which I feel is what needs to be done to Apple’s product: it’s passable as a phone, but as a portable workstation it is almost unmatched… with the right software.

For distribution, I have chosen Debian’s APT, which I have ported to this new platform along with a few custom tweaks to integrate better with Apple’s network settings.

For somebody like me who is usingDebian and Ubuntu on a number of machines (be it physical or virtual) this is extraordinary news: APT and the whole ecosystem around it are simply the best package management i’ve seen so far.

Adding a graphical frontend to APT

In addition to the command line version saurik even undertook the hassles of implementing a graphical frontend lcalled cydia shown below:

I have also spent the time to write a UIKit front-end to APT called Cydia, in order to make the transition easier for a larger number of users. (Cydia pomonella is the scientific name for the codling moth, which is what we often think of the as the stereotypical apple worm. I felt the name was fitting.)

Porting and enhancing existing packages

But it doesn’ t even end there. saurik also ported quite a number of packages. This included value added versions of Ruby and Python :-)

To bootstrap this effort, I have already ported well over a hundred projects: everything in scope from bash to xeyes, along with a number of supporting libraries and scripting languages (including more functional copies of Ruby and Python than are currently available via Installer [emphasis added]). All of the source modifications I have had to make, as well as the build scripts for compiling it all, are available via its subversion repository.

Python Apps with a GUI

This packages include a port of PyObjC (the Python – ObjectiveC bridge that is a prerequisite in order to being able to build Python based Apps for the iTouch) as well as UICaboodle.py (iPhone specific PyObjC extensions) and iPhone/Python (example applications (with source) in Python.

This is exceptional news. I ever hoped that somebody will tackle this. Now i have no longer any excuse whatsoever. to not have a closer look at PyObjC and how to build native Python Apps for MacOsX and the iTouch.

Even the volume size hassles are resolved

saurik even takes care of the much too small 300MB root volume problm i’ve written about:

In order to simplify the process of upgrading the iPhone’s firmware without the loss of personal data, Apple has organized the disk space on these devices into two partitions, mounted at / and /private/var (which is symbolically linked from /var). The former partition only 300MB large, and is mostly taken up by Apple’s software. Unfortunately, it is also the primary location where third party applications are installed.

To help with this problem, if Cydia’s installation detects enough disk space on your other partition (where the rest of your 4-32GB of space is allocated) and verifies that these files haven’t already been moved by a utility like BossTool it will go ahead and transfer all of your Applications, Wallpapers, Fonts, Ringtones, and Shared data over to the larger partition, freeing almost 150MB of space.

More on sauriks efforts, the SDK event and firmware 1.1.3 / 1.1.4

Debian-style installation arrives on iPhone

…Saurik” Freeman has finally finished his long-awaited Cydia release. As Freeman puts it, the iPhone is a 667MHz computer with 128MB RAM and at least 4GB of flash. So why not use it as a Unix workstation? Motivated by the relative limitations of the existing BSD subsystem, Freeman decided to port Debian’s APT to the iPhone — tweaking items to wo…

Apt package manager for the iPhone

…demand for APT on the iPhone, and somebody went ahead and ported it. UNIX enthusiasts, when they’re not cleaning their pocket protector or watching Monty Python, can now replace the BSD UNIX subsystem in the iPhone with up to date software from FreeBSD, all delivered by good old apt-get. Why anyone would want to do this, we have no idea, but som…

Apple COO drops iPhone SDK hints at symposium
…event March 6, where the company is expected to discuss it’s official SDK for the platform. Saying that the iPhone is “a platform not a product,” Cook said that he thinks the SDK will “broaden the platform more, to the point where the only limit will be people’s imagination.” He also said: “We started by getting developers to focus on Web…

Apple: Event on March 6 About iPhone SDK, Enterprise
…the iPhone SDK and some exciting new enterprise features.” My guess on the “enterprise features” is Exchange support of some sort, perhaps just for email. ★

Get your SDK engines running
…Ranch on March 6. According to Ars, Apple will hold an iPhone Software Roadmap event (notice how it’s not called the “iPhone SDK introduction”?) to discuss the SDK and its new enterprise features (which means we were kind of right, only Apple was a week late). The party starts at 10 am Pacific, so make sure to put on your Yellow Sticky tees and …

Apple planning iPhone “software road map” event March 6; sources say SDK complete
…place on March 6th. Apple’s official software development kit (SDK) and associated components for the iPhone are complete and ready to ship, sources familiar with the matter have told iPhone Atlas. However, a series of legal hurdles — potentially including patent approval delays — have thus far stalled a release to developers. At the time of…

Apple to hold “iPhone Software Roadmap” media event next week
…March 6th, to formally announce plans for its much anticipated iPhone and iPod touch software developers kit (SDK). “Please join us to learn about the iPhone sof…

Jailbreak für 8GB iPod touch 1.1.4 weiterhin einfach

…Version 1.1.4 geblieben. Getestet wurde die Prozedur erneut mit einem 8GB iPod touch, hinzugekauftem Software-Upgrade-Januar (Mail, Google Maps, Wetter, etc.), iTunes 7.6.1 und 10.5.2 (sollte unter Windows ebenso funktionieren). Probleme treten allerdings weiterhin bei iPod touch-Modellen auf, die über 16 oder 32GB Speicherplatz verfügen. Diese …

iPod/iPhone firmware update 1.1.4 released

…after testing 1.1.3? The things I do for TUAW!Help requested If any of you are in ADC, please see whether the SDK is available? Thanks!!Continue reading iPod/iPhone firmware update 1.1.4 releasedPermalink 

Back in November in my “iTouch – first impressions” post i wrote:

But what wrt. internet connectivity while being away from home? Most of the time i’m staying at a place that has wi-fi so no problem there, and for the cases when there is no wi-f i, first i think that i can actually manage enjoy time without connectivity and secondly wait until somebody comes up with a similar solution to this for Series60 phones.

Well. It’s about time. Yesterday i found (via fscklog) and installed JoikuSpot on my N95. It advertises as:

Connect your laptop to internet easily using your mobile phone’s internet connection.

• FREE — JoikuSpot is free
• INSTANT — JoikuSpot turns Nokia Smartphone to a Wi-Fi HotSpot
• EASY — 1-click SMS download from Joiku.com

All i can say until now is: It works as promised. Actually i didn’t install it via SMS but downloaded it to my PC and pushed it via Bluetooth to the N95.

Started it and voila:

Seems to be an ad-hoc Network. It’s unsecured (don’t know if that’s a “feature” of ad-hoc networks. Does anybody know?). And the first request seems to be redirected to joikuspot.com. As long as they aren’t pulling up a 1MB page there, i don’t care too much. You can cancel the request anyway).

Only did a few request right now. No hiccups so far although it’s a beta with a production release announced for H2/2008.

PS.: I also wanted to do some N95 screenshots.  But then i recognized i hadn’t installed FExplorer (my screenshot utility of choice for series60) on the N95.

I learned that for Symbian 3rd edition i had to sign the .sis file first. In order to do so you have to do either this or this :-(. This might be an indication what lies ahead with the iPhone / iTouch SDK. Hopefully Apple will come up with a simple integration of the signing process into the SDK, as well as freee signing for open source software. (see also).

If you don’t know what the heck i’m talking about read my thoughts on the iPhone SDK.