Here are nine selections of audiobooks which you can download for free and run on your portable player.

Here’s what’s up for grabs. Download them all!

The Babysitter’s Code by Laura Lippman
Super Goat Man by Jonathan Lethem
Best New Horror by Joe Hill
Great Day by Kurt Vonnegut
Fathers by Alice Munro
Truth or Dare by Elizabeth Burg
Ysrael by Junot Diaz
Merrano of the Dry Country by Louis L’Amour
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Post from: Cellphone9

The W980i is the latest music phone from Sony Ericsson. The phone is of clamshell design and is basically the same thing we get from previous Walkman phones but with two updated features.

The first feature is the shake recognition via the built in accelerometer. I wrote about how these small pieces of hardware are going to change the way we use mobile phones – and yes, they are being implemented in creative ways with current mobile handsets. You can shake the W980i while pressing the Walkman key to skip to the next track.

The second feature of the W980i is the Track ID, something which I talked about here and is also being implemented as a feature called SongID with the new Motorola ROKR E8.

Apart from these features, the Sony Ericsson W980i will ship with HSDPA connectivity, video calling capabilities, and FM tuner.

Post from: Cellphone9

Audible is probably the biggest seller and producer of audiobooks to the point that iTunes has built in an Audible authorization feature onto its platform. But I’m wondering though if people use their mobile phones to listen to podcasts – the Nseries of Nokia for instance allows you to download and subscribe to podcast feeds.

I honestly prefer listening to audiobooks via my iPod nano more for battery life reasons. The N82’s battery life is pretty good but I can’t trust how far one charge can take me. Do you listen to audiobooks? And if so, what device do you use to listen to them?

Post from: Cellphone9

Have you ever had that experience where you just can’t sleep because you’re trying to remember the title of the song that’s playing on the radio? Like when the DJ plays this really great song you heard in a club and when he finally gets to announce the track name, a huge bus cuts you and drowns the audio from the car? Sucks ain’t it? I’m sure we can all relate. Motorola definitely can, so they’re doing something about it.

Song ID is very similar to how GraceNote DB identifies the track name and album art of a CD when you insert it onto a computer to rip. If there’s a song playing on the radio or the immediate ambient environment, all you need to do is launch the Song ID application of your ROKR E8 and hold the phone close to the sound source. The phone will record a small 10kb file for 15 seconds and pass it via GPRS or EDGE or whatever and send you back an SMS of the song title and artist.

Wow. Thanks Motorola for helping us sleep well

Post from: Cellphone9

Skeptical as I was, I did try it and boy were my reservations put aside. The W230 is the cheapest mobile phone with good (read: LOUD) MP3 audio playing capability. The W230 is capable of playing up to 2GB of music via microSD card. Perhaps the closest reservation I had was the fact that it doesn’t use a 3.5mm audio jack for audio. Instead it used a 2.5mm jack for audio accessories. I realize that the inclusion of a 3.5mm slot is reserved only for the ROKR series, the latest one being the ROKR E8. Hence, this is why it is called the “W” of “wow so cheap!!” series.

More features after the jump!

The special feature of the W230, apart from the very loud and crisp audio is sharing your FM radio station via SMS to others. You can also record 1 minute worth of FM radio and turn it into your alarm or SMS alert.

Oh and last but not least, the Motorola W230 is priced at PHP 2,490.00 or roughly USD $50.00. That’s without a subsidy plan!

Though it may look a bit cheap (heck it really is cheap!), it still delivers in terms of performance. Motorola’s consumer studies show that in terms of features, the camera has been moved down to number 3 with a preference for music as the second most important feature on a phone. First of course is the calls and SMS.

Features:
MP3 Player (Motorola MP3 player)
FM Radio
128 x 128 65,000 color screen
Long 10 hour battery life with 19 days of standby
File transfer Drag and Drop software
WAP 20 Dual Stack / GPRS Class 10

Post from: Cellphone9

“Music on the outside, phone on the inside” seems to be the new slogan for these clamshell phones that are also marketed as MP3 players. What makes the Sony Ericsson W380i unique is a new feature called Gesture Control. If you want to mute an incoming call or stop an alarm all you need to do is put on some Darth Vader and pass your hand across the phone ala using the Force and the phone will respond to this action.

The phone comes with 14MB of internal memory and comes with memory card expansion options. Though there is no price listed yet, this phone seems to be one of the more affordable in the clamshell line of Sony Ericsson. The W380i is expected to ship soon.

Post from: Cellphone9

This was the rather wild video of dancing girls and such other moderated frivolity that spun the night during the Nokia Red and Black party. The event was held in Manila, Philippines for the launch of the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music Phone. Check out Nikka Abes’ dress!

Post from: Cellphone9

So yeah, this is a blog all about cellphones. So why are we talking about the iPod touch? I managed to try one today at a media event and all I can say is that one needs to take a step back and think about where the iPod touch falls in comparison to the iPhone and the rest of the iPod line.

The iPod touch is a tad slimmer than the iPhone. It doesn’t allow you to download files via the web browser, and the Starbucks WiFi store partnership only applies to countries where Starbucks chooses to participate. With the iPhone coming to Asia in 2008, it may seem that the four month wait may not actually justify buying the iPod touch – especially since you can already get refurbished iPhones for a fraction of the price – US$250.00. Hella cheap. The iPod touch is a great show off device but with the many things Apple may have in store for us in the coming year, I’d hold on to my wallet.

Post from: Cellphone9

Back in 2001, the “in thing” was having a mobile phone with Bluetooth and a personal digital assistant. The latter allowed you to keep schedule, listen to music and view photos while your phone simply allowed you to send away text messages. You could sync both devices wirelessly, and this was the beginning of how the industry juggled OTA sync tools. My personal favorite config was the Nokia 6310i with the Palm m515 and a Bluetooth SDIO card.

Now, Apple had just announced the iPod touch, a niche market product that heavily capitalizes on the iPhone sans the calling and camera features. You can use it to browse the Internet via WiFi and watch music and videos. With the coming of the iPod touch, is Apple slowly trying to bring back the dawn of device pairs once more? But then, before you even try to answer that, I’d like to dare a suggestion – is Steve Jobs trying to revive the Apple Newton?

The Apple Newton was a PDA device that was too early and advanced for its time. It was so advanced, CNET did a feature on how it fared against a Samsung Q1. UMPC. It was scrapped and replaced for more consumer friendly products like the desktop Macs, Powerbooks and iPods.

In 1997, Palm had a 66 percent market share, Windows CE had 20 percent, and Newton just 6 percent, according to market research firm Dataquest. At the height of its popularity, only an estimated 200,000 Newtons were in use.

Apple finally killed the Newton in February 1998 after Steve Jobs returned to the company, even though fans demonstrated in the parking lot of Apple’s Cupertino campus. Apple officials gave them coffee and cookies but refused to resurrect the device. [source]

Here is why I think the Newton revival can be a possibility. Apple’s core competence doesn’t have anything to do with mobile phones and the telco industry. Amidst the hulabahoo of the exclusivities with AT&T and the unlocking phenomena of the iPhone, Apple stands to win more market share by releasing an iPhone that does more without the calling feature. Leave the phone manufacturing to the Nokias and the BlackBerry guys and concentrate on coming up with “Apple-centric products” (no more dealing with third parties). This seems to be the direction of two other companies: the Palm Foleo (the next version) as well as the ASUS eee.

Flames, anyone?

Post from: Cellphone9

I’m in Singapore! Although the Nokia Go Play event ended several hours ago (we took a post event trip to Equinox, a bar located at the highest peak of Singapore), there are a lot more things happening tomorrow. In the meantime let me give an overview of what took place today as Nokia launched several new products and services.

FOUR NEW PHONES
Although the news has been out in the blogosphere for quite some time, Nokia officially announces the coming of four new phones for the fourth quarter of 2007. This would include the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic, the Nokia N81 and the new Nokia N95 Black Edition.

The Nokia 5310 is the newest affordable music phone that brings forth the ultra slim line to Nokia’s stable of products. The Nokia 5610 is also a music phone that features an integrated hardware slider button for ease of use in browsing through playlists, the media player, the gallery and the main phone menu.

The N81 is the new top of the line music phone that features a new user interface (more on this in a succeeding post) and a walloping 8GB of memory.

The black edition N95 is a well thought of improvement to the previous model. It now houses 8GB of memory, has a bigger 2.8 inch screen, better battery life and TV out.

NEW SERVICES
Nokia has launched their new service called Ovi which is basically a portal by which consumers can experience the full circle of multimedia, Web 2.0 and gaming all in one portal. These specific services include the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Maps, and the N-Gage service. Ovi also aims to integrate with popular Web 2.0 applications such as social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, online video services like YouTube and other popular online community services like Digg.

NEW USER INTERFACE
Nokia has revamped their user interface for their new line of Nseries phones. Though the current line of phones still make use of the familiar S60 or S40 menus, Nokia has identified key areas by which consumers are most inclined to categorize their mobile life. The new UI is accessible via a dedicated button allowing you to browse through wireless connectivity and Internet features, music, video and pictures, gaming, and phone functions.

Post from: Cellphone9