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We’ve reported numerous times on speculation about Microsoft creating their own portable media device, and now it’s looking less like speculation, and more like the real deal. It’s called: Microsoft Origami. The Origami seems to be going for a sort of mini Laptop/Tablet PC thing (coined a “Lifestyle PC” by some analysts). Bigger than a PMP, smaller than a laptop; I’m not sure what other portable is comparable in size. It’s also clearly running some version of Windows.Otherwise, from the video it features WiFi, touchscreen with stylus, GPS navigation, motion-sensor gaming, various Windows programs, etc. From some of the pics it appears there is a “Windows button” in the bottom right corner of the device, not unlike the one found on the PMC players. Also of note, there are two different devices shown in the video. Maybe a “consumer” model with the basics, and a “prosumer” option with the real extras (GPS, etc). via dapreview.net

MetaView Soft’s free and open source adobe PDF document reader has now reached version 1.1. PalmPDF is a native PDF file viewing application for Palm OS 5 devices. PalmPDF enables users to view native Adobe PDF documents on your mobile device. It has support for anti-alaising and truetype fonts and five way navigation. It is based on the open source Xpdf program. v1.1 updates include: Skin support, selectable support for keyboards Possibility to rename PDF files in the file browser added file handling support with RescoExplorer, ZLauncher, MobiSystems OfficeSuite etc. bugfix: Content extraction bugfix: security patch from xpdf 3.01pl2 added bugfix: MobiPocket is called with the created PalmDOC bugfix: Copy/Paste support in the search field memory check around Content-extraction, does prevent out-of-memory crahes with large files changed Scrollvalues changed progressbar a bit, extended “WAIT” to cover also the extraction of content direct mode for the apps above, means no stop in the file browser and direct exit after the renderer is closed swapped quit and rotation button on all devices except Zodiac to have quit on home button on TX when moving behind the right or left border using the keys, the display is wrapped around for better readability in large zooms when called by another app or received file (using exchange manager) PalmPDF goes back to the called app when the PDF file is closed via palminfaocenter.com

Rumours have been floating around for some time now about Apple creating a successor to the current iPod Video, and this new rendition would feature a touch-screen click wheel integrated into the display. It seems that Acer has beaten Steve Jobs to the punch, in a sense, because the company’s entry into the PMP market – the Acer MP-500 – features a 3.5-inch touchscreen display complete with stylus.Although the supported video formats haven’t been confirmed as of yet, we do know that this Acer PMP will take all your MP3, WMA, and AAC audio, as well as give you picture viewing capabilities (JPG, GIF and BMP). It can probably do voice recording as well, because it comes with a microphone, and if the 3.5 inches (320 x 240) isn’t enough, you can always make use of the TV-out.Battery life is adequate at 4 hours of video or 8 hours of audio. Coming in 20GB and 40GB varieties, the Acer MP-500 has yet to be designated an official launch date or price. via mobilemag.com

A Swiss company has published a datasheet for a dual-mode Linux smartphone that also integrates a GPS (global positioning system) receiver, WiFi, and Bluetooth. ImCoSys says its smartphone, a quad-band GSM design with a PDA-like form-factor, will be showcased next month at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany.The ImCoSys phone is based on a Texas Instruments OMAP 730 processor, the datasheet says. The same chip was used in another dual-mode Linux phone announced by E28 at 3GSM last month.The ImCoSys phone has 64MB each of RAM and Flash. It also has an SD Card slot, which can be used to load maps or expand storage, the company says. The ImCoSys phone sprouts a plethora of radios, including: * Quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900) with GPRS Class 10 and CSD modems * 802.11b WiFi, with WPA support * Bluetooth 1.2 * GPS receiverThe phone has a PDA-like “transflective” LCD-TFT touchscreen display supporting 262K colors and QVGA (240×320) resolutions. Listed connectivity options include a USB port, and, interestingly, an RS232 serial port. The device also supports external GPS and GSM antennas, the datasheet says.The ImCoSys phone measures 4.9 x 2.5 x 0.7 inches (125 x 64 x 18mm), and uses a lithium-ion battery of unspecified size.On the software side, the ImCoSys phone runs a Linux 2.4.20 kernel, along with user-interface software supporting German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish. Touted software features include a Web/WAP 2.0 browser, Java runtime (MIDP 2.0), push/pop/smtp email client, SMS/MMS message client, calendar, calculator, world clock, and memo applications. via linuxdevices.com

It seems like a new Portable Media Player is released daily, which is great for consumers and not so great for companies looking to make a dent in the market. Well, JNC is looking to make a mark with the SSF-M810 (and SSF-M805 with 512MB) PMP (via PVP For You). This particular player stands out because of it’s small size, support for downloadable games, console styling, and built-in speaker. With a 2 inch (220×176) TFT LCD Screen, USB 2.0 and an integrated FM Tuner, the JNC unit packs a lot into a small 65g package. It supports WMV, DivX, AVI and MP4 on the video side, while you audio files will enjoy it’s support for MP3, WMA and Ogg. Decent battery life rounds out this unit by sporting 5 hours of video playback and up to 20 hours of audio. via ehomeupgrade.com

“The white letters contrast well with their dark silver background so they’re easy to see. Both the letters and symbols illuminate: white for letters and red for symbols (the Verizon XV6700 illuminates only the letters). Two soft keys sit just above the keyboard so you need not tap the screen or use the front face buttons to activate soft key functions. We like the dedicated Windows Start Menu and OK keys on the bottom row, again reducing the need to whip out the stylus and tap on screen. Should you need to turn on caps lock, press the shift key twice in quick succession. To turn on Fn lock, press the red dot key located in the lower left hand corner twice quickly. When you’re in the phone dialer screen, the 8125 automatically switches the top row to numbers rather than letters so you need not press the Fn key before punching in a number.” Read ths review here:

At the German forum Telefon-Treff you can come across the photos and specs of the upcoming Sony Ericsson phone – a supposedly K800 under the code name Wilma, the heir of the popular K750. The phone has been much rumored about, so sometimes we are suspicious to the info about it. Nevertheless the photo and specs seem to be true, and we’ll find out it on February 28, when the company is rumored to introduce some new mobile phones, including Wilma, at its press conference. The specs:
Standards – GSM and UMTS
2” LCD, QVGA (240×320 pixels), 262K colors
3.2-megapixel camera
Supported audio formats – MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+
Supported video formats – 3GPP, MPEG4 and Real
72-tones polyphony
64 MB internal memory
Slot for Memory Stick Micro cards
Bluetooth, IrDA and USB
Dimensions – 106x47x18 mm
Weight – 115 g

Treo’s built-in web browser, Blazer could sure use some sprucing up, and the folks at Opera Software say they have just the thing, Opera Mini, for use on some Treo SmartPhones. Technically, however, Mini is not a browser. It’s a Java client – big gotcha – that retrieves re-formatted, compressed pages from an Opera-savvy server. Most recent cell phone models have a small Java client built in, so Opera Mini, at about 200k, can reside in a phone’s memory. Ironically, Treo 650, a high end smartphone, does not ship with a Java client, and adding one – also mercifully free – chews up almost 2 MB, a high cost to replace Treo’s native Blazer. Actually, you can’t really “replace” Blazer, since it’s in ROM, but rather you can just ignore it and install a third party replacement and use that instead. Blazer doesn’t really “blaze,” and Opera’s potential strength is its server-side compression, which could greatly reduce the number of bytes transmitted. Translate that to smaller files, faster download, lower cost, especially if you’re on a metered data plan instead of unlimited data. Other gotchas get in the way, however, not the least of which is that the program doesn’t yet support Verizon and some other phones/networks. (For a current list of what is supported, see this page. Read this review here:

LG KC8100 will run the Windows Mobile V5.0 Pocket PC Premium O/S on its 520MHz Xscale processor. Bundled software include standard MS Word, Powerpoint, and Outlook. With its wireless LAN support, access Wi-Fi hotspots anywhere. The two cameras on the phone are a main 2-megapixel camera with auto-focus and a secondary VGA Camera. Embedded with 100MB internal memory add more with a mini SD card. Also inclusive is Molans’ language learning assistant program. via ubergizmo.com

We are pleased to announce the new release “VoiceDialIt” for Palm Treo 600/650 smartphones. This new release includes all dialing features from the older Voice Dialer Std and Voice Dialer Pro versions. In addition, we have added improvements to the Voice Recognition Engine and User Interface. To learn more about “VoiceDialIt 1.1.0” and see a Quick Start Video please click HERE.Benefits :* Allows you to dial with just your voice.* Saves monthly fees for telephony voice dialing services.* Helps prevent accidents while driving.* Keeps you focused on who you are dialing, not how you are dialing.