It appears that when you buy a book in electronic format, you are not actually buying it. Some users of Amazon’s Kindle found this out when some books they had purchased were remotely removed from their devices by Amazon.

Apparently the copyright holder notified the Amazon that the books were being been sold without its permission, so Amazon removed the two books from the accounts of users, and refunded their money.

The irony is that the books were “1984″ and “Animal Farm” by George Orwell.

This has generated many humorous headlines (as well as countless tweets). Among the best were “Amazon Kindles Outrage With Ironic Removal of Orwell Titles” on the BeliefNet Blog and “Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others” from Pogue’s Posts on The New York Times Blogs.

On a more serious note, this incident highlights some of the scarier aspects of DRM (Digital Rights Management) of E-books. Apart from the fact that you cannot resell them, or lend them to someone else like a real book, now you don’t even really own them. Dennis D. McDonald has a point in “Amazon Kindle Orwell Deletion May Be Legal — But It’s Still Doubleplusungood“:
“it demonstrates how this technology can be applied and managed remotely without the owner’s involvement. Next time it will be a title embroiled in some kind of legal dispute, or a government agency will beg that a title be deleted for national security reasons.“

The iPhone 3G S could be turning out to be a hot item in more ways than one.

It was first reported on Nowhereelse ( a French website) via Engadget, by a user of a 16GB white iPhone 3GS who noticed that their iPhone got very hot while using the GPS and 3G of the phone. The only damage appeared to be that the back of the iPhone had a pink discoloration.

Then two PC World journalists had similar problems. Melissa J. Perenson from PC World reported in “Apple iPhone 3GS Overheating Reports” that her 16GB iPhone 3GS become very hot during use while being plugged in. David Coursey wrote of his problem in “Fahrenheit 113: Hot iPhone’s Tragic Number“.

So far Apple has not responded except for blaming hot weather or user negligence in their support article “Keeping iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS within acceptable operating temperatures“. Notably, this article covers both the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. It advises users not to leave the iPhone “in a car on a hot day” or “in direct sunlight for extended amounts of time“, and not to use “certain applications in hot conditions or direct sunlight for long periods of time, such as GPS tracking in a car on a sunny day or listening to music while in direct sunlight“.

So, is this just a general problem with the iPhone getting warm under high usage, or is there some hidden fault somewhere? What do you think?

Yesterday the iPhone OS 3.0 firmware was released, and tomorrow the iPhone 3G S is available online and from select stores.

The new iPhone 3G S has a 600MHz CPU and 256MB of RAM, up from a 412MHz and 128MB RAM in the 412MHz in the first-gen and the 3G iPhones (from Engadget Mobile). That should certainly provide a Speed Boost.

In “Need for Speed“, my blog entry about the new iPhone (”iPhone 3G S”) and the iPhone 3.0 OS update, I mentioned “Jailbreak” twice.

Now I understand that some of my readers do not want to Jailbreak their iPhones (or iPods). That is perfectly valid. I felt like that for the first six months that I had my iPhone 3G, and found all the “How To Jailbreak” videos from major tech websites mildly aggravating.

I’m going to have to make a hard decision whether to sit it out until the iPhone OS 3.0 can be easily Jailbroken, or do without all the tools I’ve grown used to over the past few months. From what I see the OS 3.0 cut, copy and paste are better integrated into the OS than the Jailbroken one was, but that is to be expected. Other than that, I’ve grown so used to the SBSettings app, which will pop-up with simple left to right swipe on the Status bar and from there it is one tap to toggle Wi-Fi, and two taps through the Power icon to reboot the iPhone.

This week I finally canceled the monthly voice and data plan on my T-Mobile G1. It was just getting too expensive to have it and the iPhone.

This was before hearing about the T-Mobile G2 which is rumored to be coming out in July – I first heard about it from a Blog Entry by Keith “Next Generation Android Phone Out” on the Gottahave Blog.

Unfortunately, the G2 or HTC Magic, drops the one thing which made the T-Mobile G1 one of the more viable alternatives to the iPhone – the hardware keyboard. Now the slide out keyboard of the G1 has been criticized by reviewers since day one. The fact is, I would rate it better than any of the Palm smartphone keyboards – and from what I hear the Palm Pre’s keyboard is just too small. The keyboard may add at least a third to the thickness of the G1, but it is by no means a brick.

My only real gripe with the G1 is that you must have a Gmail account to activate it. Using it without a cellular data plan – which prevents the phone verifying your Gmail account, even if you are on Wi-Fi, disables the Android Marketplace (equivalent of the iTunes Store) and several other features on the device. That really sucks.

I’ve considered just using the T-Mobile G1 as a portable internet browsing device, as its browser is pretty good. It is a difficult choice between the G1 and the N810 Internet Tablet, which has an even better hardware keyboard.

The launch of the Palm Pre is coming up soon, on June 6 (see Keith’s Blog posting “Palm Pre Debuts June 6“). This is a couple of days before Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) where Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 3.0. Although I have used Palm products for years, and really wish Palm all the best with the launch of their new smartphone and the webOS, the thought of switching to the Palm Pre, or at least trying it has not even crossed my mind. There are a lot of technology experts studying it with interest and ready to jump in. Maybe if the Palm Pre wasn’t being released on Sprint first I would be more interested. Personally I have had one bad experience with Sprint which put me off them totally.

Palm does seem a bit touchy about their webOS though. Several months ago, TealPoint Software came out with a launcher for the Palm called TealOS. It mimicked the look and feel of the WebOS on the Palm Pre. So you could have a your old Treo 680 sporting what looked like a webOS interface.

Now TealPoint develop software almost exclusively for the Palm platform, and are likely to already have some applications in the works for the new WebOS. After a beta testing phase TealOS was released. I tried it and was interested enough to buy a copy. Several point releases later, Palm objected and forced TealPoint to withdraw the software. Now this launcher was basically giving users a taste of what the PalmPre interface could be like, and Palm appeared to get uppity and had it shutdown. Nice one Palm!

A month ago I blogged about extended batteries for the iPhone (see “Longer battery life, continued“) , and mentioned the Power Slider by Incase. It is similar to the Mophie Juice Pack for iPhone, except that it is a full case for the iPhone 3G as well as an external battery.

I’ve been using the Incase Power Slider with my iPhone for several weeks now, and I am quite impressed. In the evening after having the iPhone on all day, making one or two calls, checking email and browsing the internet (as much as I can do during my lunch break), the battery of my iPhone is still at 100 percent. The Incase Power Slider is usually down to about 60 percent, or if it has been a particularly heavy usage day (for me anyway), down to about 20 percent, at which point it stops charging the iPhone’s battery.

The remaining battery charge of the Power slider is determined by a button at the lower back, which when pressed, lights up a line of 5 small LED lights which indicate the battery’s charge; 1 light means about 20 percent, 5 lights mean 100 percent, etc.

The iPhone can be synchronized with iTunes while still in the case, but the supplied USB cable (which is rather short) has to be used, and the button on the back of the case pressed for 3 seconds for “sync mode” prior to syncing.

Normally I remove the Power Slider before syncing, and leave it ready for recharging it overnight. It definitely works better when started with a full charge.

Physically, the slider consists of two parts. The iPhone slides into the bottom piece, which contains the battery and a connector. Then the top piece slides over the iPhone, so it looks like it is in a case with an extended lower end. SlashGear.com’s review of the Incase Power Slider has some pictures of what it looks like.

The Power Slider does add some extra weight to the iPhone, and my only gripe is that it leaves the screen unprotected, but then the majority of iPhone cases don’t protect the screen either.

In my previous blog posting, “No Shuffle for me“, I may have given the impression that I dislike the iPod Nano. This is not true, as I had a Nano before getting an iPhone, and I still have a Nano as a great sidekick to the iPhone. This is especially so during my daily commute. I’ve thought of using the iPhone, but since I drive to work, I need an MP3 Player with tactile controls – it would be very dangerous to have to glance at the screen every time I wanted to pause playback or select another track.

The iPod Nano is perfect for listening in the car. First I had an 8GB second generation iPod Nano. Its only fault was that sometimes when I turned it on for the first time it froze. That was just a minor annoyance, nothing that a reset couldn’t fix. I also never quite figured out how to duplicate it. Sometimes it would happen, other times it wouldn’t – which made it difficult to take it in for exchange.

When the third generation iPod Nano was released, I bought one for a loved one, but my second gen was still working fine, with the occasional hiccup.

But when the fourth generation 16GB iPod Nano was released, it didn’t take long for me to yield to temptation. It does have some cool features, including a built-in accelerometer, so the screen orientation changes just like the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The scroll wheel just felt a bit slippery until I got used to it.

Naturally this is only my opinion based on a limited subset of UMPCs which I have tried.

When I started I hadn’t received the Sony VGN-UX380N yet, but it had always fascinated me. Upon seeing it for the first time I thought Wow!, it is smaller than I’d expected. The 4.5 inch screen is bright, but I definitely need to try increasing the font size and lowering the screen resolution to make it more readable. I don’t remember than problem so much on the OQO Model 01 I tested, nor on the Fujitsu U810 LifeBook. The Asus R2H UMPC doesn’t really count since it has a 7 inch screen, compared with the OQO Model 01’s 5 inch screen and the U810’s 5.6 inch touchscreen. Okay, the others all have bigger screens!

The layout of the keys on the Sony VAIO VGN-UX380N’s keyboard is closest to a standard keyboard layout. Unfortunately the keys don’t have enough tactile feedback. The U810’s keyboard does some unexpected sharing of keys, but is closest to typing on a regular notebook. The OQO is quite amazing because of it’s size and how well it functions as a regular PC. It also has a really neat way to check the battery charge without turning it on. Pressing an unobtrusive button on the underside of the OQO lights up row of small lights, giving you a quick visual indication of the battery’s charge.

Choosing the best one is hard. The dual clamshell notebook/tablet PC configurations of the Fujitsu LifeBook U810, along with it’s general ease of use narrowly gives it the edge. So the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 narrowly beats out the Sony VAIO VGN-UX380N.

First, an apology for the delay since my last blog posting.

The Sony VAIO UX series of UMPCs were at the top of my list of those gadgets I had always wanted, but I could not justify the cost. So I jumped at the chance for an extended look at one. The Sony VGN-UX380N is not one of the later Sony UMPCs with a Solid State Drive instead of a Hard Drive, but the specs are still impressive:

Intel Core Solo processor running at 1.33 GHz, 1 GB RAM, integrated Intel 950 graphics and a 40GB hard disk drive. It also has Bluetooth, 802.11a/b/g wireless, and two small cameras. There is also a biometric fingerprint reader, one USB port, and a Memory Stick slot. All this in an UMPC that would fit in a large pocket. It is 6 inches wide by 3.74 inches high by 1.5 inches at its thickest points. It weighs 1.2 pounds.

The Sony VAIO UX380N runs Vista Business Edition, making for a very portable fully powered PC. One thing I did find some getting used to was the 4.5 inch widescreen with a native resolution of 1024 x 600. Although the text is clear, it is difficult to read. Fortunately there are two buttons on the right hand side which come in very useful: zoom in and zoom out.

MobileTechReview.com has an in-depth review of the Sony VAIO UX380N.

A bad pun: “Because you really need one“.
I had the good fortune this week to “play” with two Ultra Mobile PCs.

The first was the (Korean made) Wibrain B1S. Before seeing it for the first time, I had heard it described as being similar in size to a VHS videocassette. It is a bit longer though, and quite a bit heavier. I’ve seen a number of different models reviewed and referred to, but from CNET the size is 7.6 in wide by 3.2 in depth and 1.1 inches thick, with a weight of 1.2 lbs.  It has a 4.8 inch,  1024 x 600 pixel ( WSVGA ) screen. The processor is a VIA C7-M running at 1.0 GHz or 1.2 GHz. This is basically the same processor found in the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. CNET has specs of 512MB RAM, but the WiBrain B1 I’m testing has 1GB of RAM. It also has a 32GB Solid State Drive, which makes it run quite silently, with the exception of the fan.

A picture of the WiBrain B1 can be seen on the WiBrain.com homepage. The most notable feature of this tablet UMPC is the split QWERTY keyboard, which – once you get used to it - is actually quite usable. On the bottom left is a set of keys for scrolling, left mouse-click, right mouse-click and volume. On the bottom right is a touchpad – a fairly standard laptop touchpad. Due to the size of the UMPC, you tend to use most of these with your thumbs. Although there is a Linux and a Windows Vista version of the WiBrain, the one I’m looking at has Windows XP with a touchscreen driver. That is quite a difference from Windows XP tablet edition, but probably keeps costs down.

One the interfaces front, the WiBrain has one USB 2.0 port, built in Bluetooth and 802.11b/g wireless.