Sure, there’s no official eBook software available for the Nintendo DS, but you do have a few options if you need a break from Mario Kart. The DS does have WiFi and can browse the web for reading content. What about offline content? It won’t work for any material with DRM protection, but you can try ReadMore, an alpha (as in pre-beta, so be cautious) application that displays .txt files on your handheld gaming system. You can hold the DS sideways with ReadMore, making it similar to a traditional book experience: book pages are shown on both the left and right screen in this orientation.

More into graphic novels and comic books? Check out Comic Books DS, a project over at Moon Books that looks pretty slick and takes advantage of the nice color screens on the DS. The typical downside applies here: you’ll struggle to find comic book content for the reader. There is a nice app that will convert scanned comic book images into the right format, but scanning comic books could be a painful chore.

(via TeleRead)

Is it me or is Asus taking the whole Eee PC concept a little too far? I was all for some welcome updates on the original 701, like a bigger screen with higher resolution added to a larger keyboard. I’m just not getting the latest news coming out of Digitimes. They indicate that Asus plans two new models in the 900-series (shown), the 904 and 905.

Each of these will use the sam 8.9-inch display of the current 900s, but it sounds like they’ll be on the 10-inch chassis of the 1000-series. That will get you a bigger keyboard, but also has the potential to bring back the ugly, oversized bezel we saw in the first models. I suppose they can make good use of that extra space somehow, but I’m not hopeful.

Where I’m really lost is in the vision. What was once a ground-breaking device in terms of size and cost appears to have become a giant test lab for Asus and consumers alike. Maybe I’m over-reacting or this is what the market is becoming: quick moving and in constant flux in terms of choice? Perhaps, but Digitimes says that the new models will replace the 901. There’s just something unsettling to me when notebook models last a few short months…

Kevin may think he’s all productive working in the clouds but he’s got nothing on me as I am REALLY working in the clouds:

It was a very long day yesterday as the movers did not show up at the old house until 5 pm but they wasted no time getting down to business.  By 11 pm we were totally moved into the new place and I was working on my study until the wee hours of the morning.  Several more hours this morning have been put into getting ready for business and I am thrilled to report I am at least 80% there.  I won’t have broadband until sometime tomorrow if I’m lucky but EVDO and I are already hard at work and getting settled into the new Mobile Tech Manor.  I am listening to Deep Purple and getting after it so I am back!

Just got an email that someone was subscribing to my Friendfeed and I went to check them out.  I won’t give any names because it’s a private thing but looking at this person’s subscriptions I found it cool to be in good company:

As you can see smart subscriptions are the key to getting the most from Friendfeed. 

I’m sitting here in a soon-to-be-abandoned Mobile Tech Manor with everything packed except for a few gadgets that I need to use during the moving phase.  All of the mobile gadgets have been packed with care, many of them hand carted over to the new Mobile Tech Manor but right now I have found myself back to the simple mobile tech life.  I am using the MacBook Pro all by itself, wirelessly tethered to the intrawebs, the rest of my workspace clean and bare.  What I am finding is that working this way is delightfully simple.  I don’t have to contend with the extra monitor, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse or any other piece of technology.  Just the MBP and me, doing our thing.  Makes me think about the complicated way I usually work.

While James has his entire house boxed up, I’m looking at clutter everywhere in my own home. Time for a little post-spring cleaning today for us. Ironically, Web Worker Daily hit this very topic just yesterday, although they were speaking of things on a digital level. Although many of these thoughts are common-sensical, I’m sure we could all use a little reminder to clean our digital workspaces. In fact, I just popped a recurring quarterly appointment into my Google Calendar to do these WWD suggestions and more:

• Application inventories
• Duplicate file and app removal
• Deletion of old download files and installers
• Examination of digital organization systems
• Move data to external or online systems
• Consider your active e-mail datastores… is it time to archive?

As mobile devices gain more connectivity options, some of them seem to be offering less storage capacity, so a cleanup like this is likely to become more important in the future for many folks. That doesn’t mean we won’t continue to use local storage, but we might as well keep it optimized, no?

The big moving day is here at Mobile Tech Manor and everything (mostly everything) is packed in its little box for moving to the new place.  I am waiting for the movers to show up and start hauling everything away.  I will not have broadband at the new place until Monday but with EVDO available I am not sweating that at all.  In moves past not having broadband for a few days was a show stopper but not with EVDO.  I have my ExpressCard modem which works in every laptop I use so I am not concerned about the lack of broadband at all.  That’s a big step forward and yet another reason to sing the praises of 3G.  Wish me luck with the move. 

CLICK HERE to download the file and listen directly.
MoTR 138 is 35:20 minutes long and is a 32.5MB file in MP3 format.

INTRO: Based on “Time v2.1″ by Meta Sektion, additional mixing by James Kendrick.
HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia)

TOPICS:
Kevin’s cranky… find out why.
So what will an iPhone upgrade really cost?
Nokia’s N78, N800 and N810 all support over-the-air upgrades now. w00t!
Hoo-rah for WiMAX! The second wave of cities in the rollout were announced. But for how much?
Ubuntu MID Edition is looking pretty darn nice.
Opera Mobile 9.5 is right around the corner: July 15th, to be exact
Are you in the "Nerd Club"? If not, just ping Matt… he’ll hook you up!

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Just a random thought as the morning caffeine gets my brain jump-started this morning. Besides, you all know how much I like to try and predict things in the mobile tech space… as they say: "sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut."

I got to thinking about a few developments over the past few months and while it’s a stretch, I’m starting to wonder if we’ll see UMA capabilities in the iPhone… no, "UMA" isn’t an iPhone speed-dial setting to Ms. Thurman. For those not familiar with UMA, or Unlicensed Mobile Access, it’s a relatively new technology that seamlessly routes your cellular phone calls over a WiFi network when it can.

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