[Gizmodo]

According to Alex, the tiny USB dongle attaches to the underbelly of the Arc when not in use via a magnet, and there's a storage bag for travel purposes. The packaging quotes a 30-foot range, and jumping is non-existent, says our tipster. Thanks, Alex!

Did you know?

Google hosted its first data center in a rented 7′ x 8′ room.

Well it seems it is a revolutionary bit of kit.

In short the Sony Reader eBook PRS-505 is an electronic book with a very clever screen that is not backlight, and is really thin so it feels a bit like a book and you need light to read from it.  Its internal memory will allow up to 160 ebooks to be stored whilst memory card slots allow for even more expansion.  With an impressive battery life, the Reader will allow for 6,800 page turns.

Our friends at Clove Technology expect to have the Sony Reader eBook PRS-505  in stock this coming week.

Overview of Sony Reader eBook PRS-505:

Experience the joy of reading your favorite books-all stored digitally in one compact mobile device. The slimmer, redesigned Reader eBook lets you carry a stack of books in one hand.

The Sony Reader eBook holds about 160 eBooks or hundreds more with optional removable memory cards.

Smaller than a typical paperback, 8mm thick and very light: it's a stylish unit that fits in your coat pocket. Its portable size makes it the perfect travel companion; allowing you to read a variety of books whenever and wherever you want. Its long battery life lasts up to 6,800 continuous page turns, and the amazing paper-like screen technology is easy on the eyes.

A perfect companion, with a compact and lightweight design, you can take it almost anywhere and read your books whenever and wherever you want.

More compact than many paperbacks, it weighs about 9 ounces (without cover), is 1/3" thin. You can easily hold it in one hand.

The Reader eBook provides a new way to experience reading. It boasts an impressive 6-inch display, utilising a breakthrough E Ink technology that's almost paper-like, making it easy to read, even in bright sunshine. In addition, the screen allows for high contrast and high resolution, with a near 180º viewing angle. The text can also be magnified for sight-impaired readers.

The Sony Reader eBook isn't just about reading eBooks. Using the included eBook Library 2.0 PC Software, you can easily transfer Adobe PDF documents, Microsoft Word documents, BBeB Book, and other text file formats to the Reader, allowing you the flexibility to access and view multiple files at any time.

Features of Sony Reader eBook PRS-505

• Easy to use menu and simple, intuitive controls

• Add bookmarks, read page-by-page or "fast forward" through the book

• Automatically find the page you were last reading.

• Call up your stored books quickly: by author, title or date

• MemoryStick  DUO and SD Card slots allow you to optionally increase capacity up to approximately 13000 titles!

• Very low power consumption

• Can be fully charged in only 4 hours from a laptop or PC via supplied USB cable.

• Uses the EPUB standard - the most widely used eBook type.

• Use with headphones to listen to music while you read (MP3 or AAC files).

• All necessary software (eBook Library) plus quick start instructions supplied. Full user guide is included on PDF.

• Complete with soft tan case

What’s in the box of Sony Reader eBook PRS-505?

• Sony Reader eBook PRS-505

• Soft cover Tan, man made

• USB Cable 

• Quick Start guide

• eBook Library software

• User Guides (PDF)

Sony Reader eBook PRS-505 specification:

Display Screen

Technology - E Ink® "Electronic Paper"

Screen size (inch) - 6

Resolution - 170 pixels per inch

Grey scale - 8-level grey scale

Storage Capacity

Built in flash memory (MB) - 192 (Approx. 160 eBooks)

MemoryStick™ MS DUO slot - YES (Approx. 13000 from 16GB Stick)

SD Card Slot - YES

Power

Battery Type - Rechargeable lithium-ion

Battery Life (reading EPUB eBooks) - Approx 6800 page turns

Recharging Time - Four hours with USB, Two hours with optional AC charger

Compatible Formats

Unsecured / free eBooks & text files - EPUB eBook, BBeB Book, Adobe® PDF, Microsoft® Word, TXT, RTF

DRM (Secure / purchased) eBooks and text files - EPUB eBooks (Adept) BBeB eBooks (Marlin)

Unsecured Audio files - mp3, AAC (not most DRM audio)

Image & Photo files - JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP

General data

Width (mm) - 122

Height (mm) - 175.3

Depth (mm) - 7.6

Weight (g) - 260

Audio Output - 3.5 mm stereo mini-jack (for headphones, etc)

Posted by: Matt

[ Post Tags: Sony Reader eBook PRS-505, ebook, sony, clove technology, gadgets, tracyandmatt.co.uk, tracy & matt ]

A South Korean businss paper has reported that Samsung is persuing SanDisk, for acquisition purposes. Both companies would not confirm or deny the report, which to me sounds like it’s on baby!

Samsung currently supplies NAND flash memory chips to SanDisk … which is the world’s largest supplier of flash storage card products. Samsung is the world’s largest manufacturer of NAND as well as DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chips. NAND flash memory is used in digital devices such as cameras and music players. DRAM chips are used mostly in personal computers.

Samsung is no stranger to acquisitions either - last year it bought an Israeli company called TransChip, and turned it in to one of it’s R&D centres - Israel is a hi-tech leader globally, and that purchase further extended Samsung’s already mammoth scale of operations.

[Via: Cellular News]

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Related Articles at IntoMobile:

• SanDisk introduces 4GB Memory Stick Micro card
• Sandisk launches the US Nokia N95 8 GB before Nokia does
• Sony Ericsson handset owners rejoice - SanDisk to release 8GB Memory Stick Micro card soon
• SanDisk’s “Mobile Ultra” memory cards promise best performance ever
• Dear Samsung: You rock

The stop-motion animated face of Japan’s NHK Television, Domo is bringing his pop-iconhood overseas in the form of a series of Nicktoons shorts and the very first Domo Mimobot Series of Designer USB Flash Drives! The Domo USB Flash Drive comes preloaded with great Domo content, including the Mimobot SoundByte application, wallpapers, icons, and the original NHK spots featuring Domo himself!

Too bad $39.99 will net you just 1GB of storage space - that’s hardly enough these days. The Domo USB flash drive works with both Windows and Mac platforms, and is Ready Boost-ready.
[ Domo USB flash drive copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Handpresso is a portable espresso maker. It can be used anywhere, anytime so those espresso-lovers out there no longer have to go to coffee shops that might be blocks away from their present location. Handpresso is guaranteed to make quality espresso with delicious aroma and perfect cream.

When it comes to storage, Handpresso can be stored in a drawer, it can be hung with your other kitchenwares in the garden outside your home or it can be packed in a bag which can be carried anywhere.

To operate the Handpresso, all you need to do is pump the handle of the small coffee machine up to 16 bars of pressure indicated at the handy built-in pressure gauge. Then, you just have to add hot water to the espresso maker’s mini reservoir and slip in the compatible coffee pod. After you have done all that, you can start indulging with your favorite espresso.

I’ll be honest. The i300 passed me by on release, and when Matt asked me to check out a WM2003 device, I wasn’t exactly excited by the prospect. However, the i300 does have a few unique selling points, and you could say was ahead of its time, meaning it could be worth a look even today.

The Samsung i300

What's in the box?

As usual for Samsung, there's a box full of goodies, two batteries and even a dock included.

• Samsung i300
• AC Charger
• Docking cradle
• Standard battery
• Extended battery
• Direct USB connection
• Headset

Samsung i300 Specification:

• Dimensions : 113 x 48 x 20 (mm)
• Weight : 121 g
• Talk time: up to 7 hours
• Standby time: up to 200 hours
• Display type: TFT, 256K colors at 240 x 320 pixels
• Camera: 2 Megapixel, 1280x1024 pixels, video captue/playback, with flash
• Bluetooth, v1.2
• MP3/WMA/AAC/MPEG4 player
• Operating system: Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 SE
• Memory: 3 GB microdrive, 64 MB internal memory, expandable via TransFlash memory cards
• Tri band: GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900

General

There isn't much to see on the top of the Samsung i300, just the black iRDA 'window'.

Samsung i300 top view

On the bottom you'll find plastic cover over the proprietary Sync/Charge connector.

Samsung i300 bottom view

On the left hand side you can find another plastic cover over the proprietary headphone connector. Below there a buttons for voice recorder, keylock and volume control.

Samsung i300 left side

Looking to the right side there's yet another cover, this time it covers the MicroSD/Transflash card slot. There' also a dedicated camera button and two additional soft keys.

Samsung i300 right side

The Samsung i300 has a decent looking keypad with regular numeric pad and standard smartphone shortcut keys. In the middle is a rotating jog dial that works to scroll through the phone's menus as stored media files.

Samsung i300 keypad

Unusually, the Samsung i300 package includes a neat docking station that allows you to charge the device and the spare battery at the same time.

The Samsung i300 in its dock

Review

So why are we reviewing an older smartphone? A few reasons really. For a start eXpansys want you to buy one, but I was also interested in the retro looks of the device, and of course the 3gb “microdrive”.

3gb isn’t a great deal now with the iPhone, but then this isn’t anywhere near the cost of one. It’s was, until the Diamond, the only WM based device to have built in storage. It’s an interesting phone and is as quick as any of the devices being launched today.

The retro look comes from a mix of black and silver plastic, but feels very well built. The sides are filled with various shortcut hardware buttons, and although these make it look a bit business orientated, most are of some use.

Throughout it’s life, it has, perhaps oddly, been pushed as a consumer device (and in the marketing, you’d be forgiven for thinking the hard disk only accepts music files!). This seems a little strange to me, as its crying out to be used in enterprise. Its a true USB Stick/phone combo, and 3gb of storage, plus a decent well spec'ed phone for £70 seems good.

The i300 of course does beat the likes of Sony Walkman phones in terms of storage, but the teenage girl crowd are not going to want to carry around i300! Style wise then, it is in a niche market, but I do firmly believe it retains its use even now – especially with now stupidly low pricing - it even comes with a decent set of headphones and a headphone adapter for those wishing to use their own headphones.

i300 headphone adapter

As you might expect, music (and anything else) is easily synced to the device with a combination of Windows Media Player and ActiveSync, but unfortunately the built in speakers are pretty awful. As usual, and as most people do, using earphones improves the quality no end.

As well as the full scale hard disk, the i300 still supports external micro-sd cards, which can be hot swapped without removing the battery.

There's is sadly no way of upgrading the device from its rather old WM2003 Second Edition despite the fact that later builds of the i300 did include WM5.

The usual array of software is available on the device immediately – and Samsung have also added “Picsel viewer” which opens most Office documents.

The built in camera at 1.3meg is acceptable, but does struggle to perform at the levels expected these days. The camera button is on the right hand side of the phone, next to a button dedicated to the standard profile selection screen. This doubles up with a long press to activate flight mode. A third button applies the keylock.

On the right hand side, there is the volume rocker switch, the headphones port, and a voice control/voice recorder button.

The front of the phone is typical retro candybar looks. Screen at the top, buttons at the bottom, and the standard WM softkeys. The navigation ring is really useful though. First off its the usual 5-way direction pad, but the ring itself also spins, with a ridge to make it even easier to navigate through websites and other documents. It is also the method used to digitally zoom the camera.

I really do want to love this phone, and considering its age, its still amazingly useful and easy to use. It is big, and perhaps a bit too heavy. It just about gets away with it, because you do get something for the hassle – the hard disk. I do hope it can withstand a few heavy falls though!

The battery life is acceptable, although you will lose access to the hard disk when the battery drops to a certain level. This will at least in theory give you a little bit of extra time to get home and recharge! The package does include an extra battery that you can carry for the emergency situations.

Samsung i300 battery packs

Highlights

• Nice retro look
• 3gb memory
• High quality screen
• Decent battery life

Lowlights

• A little too heavy
• WM2003 and seemingly no WM5 upgrade available

Conclusion

For all its minor niggles, I can’t help liking the i300, despite its age, and the older OS. The 3gb storage is a really nice addon, and its what separates this from other devices of its time – and makes it a worthwhile purchase for some even now.

Review by: Mark