Japanese Lost-and-found Dates Back to 718

"Miles sez, 'Tantalizingly short NYT article (registration required) on the Japanese lost-and-found system, which dates back to 718 (!) and is as telling a snapshot of cultural differences as any I've seen. The picture of the umbrella room is amazing, and looks somehow like a Matrix outtake (must be the lighting & grim walls)....' "Link (Thanks, Miles!)" [Boing Boing Blog]

"The reason for the quality increase is the addition of a program that's discussed in this TreoCentral Forum thread. The program mentioned is Qset and the forum thread contains a link for downloading it. This program allows you to reduce the compression applied to Treo photos, trading off increased memory size for increased picture quality. I've used it with a quality setting of 90 on my Treo. The increased picture quality isn't evident from looking at the Treo's 160X160 screen, but very evident when viewing the pictures in a larger format on a PC. Read the forum thread and try the program yourself and see if you don't notice a real improvement in your Treo's picture quality." [The Connected PDA Treo 600 Moblog]

Thanks for the heads up, Michael! If you have a T600, you have to read The Connected PDA and it's companion Treo 600 Moblog. Have to.

There were lots of big announcements today but as far as I'm concerned, the biggest is Real's new software plus music store. Not for the music store itself, because after I download the first song for $.10 I don't envision locking my music up in AAC + Helix encrypted files, but because RealPlayer 10 brings with it a new Palm component. The line that specifically caught my eye is "support for over 50 portable music devices, including the iPOD and the Handspring Treo 600."

Naturally my fingers tripped over themselves to get to the Real site and download the software to my T600, but I couldn't find a download link for it anywhere. The key turns out to be this little phrase: "For the next 10 days, U.S. consumers who download RealPlayer 10 will be able to purchase their first track for only $0.10. Consumers can transfer tracks purchased in the RealPlayer Music Store to the Creative Zen Xtra as well as seven models of PalmOne devices, including most of the Tungsten models, the Zire 71, and the Treo 600."

I didn't realize I had to actually download the main player and create an account at the music store just to get the Palm piece that I want, but of course Real is going to make this as difficult as possible (I don't use Real anymore because it's become more and more annoying with each iteration). PDA 24/7 spelled it out in the following post:

"Email from Galley- 'As I write this, I am listening to Night Ranger's 'Don't Tell Me You Love Me' on my Zire 71. It is a 192Kbps DRM-enabled AAC file! RealPlayer 10 was released today, and it features a music store. Tracks are 99 cents, or $9.95 per album. All files are RealAudio 10 (192Kbps AAC), so the sound quality is very good. Persons who have signed up for a Music Store account can get version 1.5 of RealPlayer for PalmOS.' "

So despite my dislike for the software, I've been anxiously awaiting a new version of RealPlayer that would work with the T600 because I really, really, really want to be able to access Live365 streams. Even better, I'd like to finally be able to access Rhapsody on it, and I'm guessing this is the first step to making that a reality.

By the time I realized what I needed to do, I was home reading my aggregator for the night. Every day I carry my sync cable to work and back in order to keep my data and programs up-to-date at both home and work (yes, I need to buy a second charger/sync cable, but they all seem to be sold out). Naturally, I forgot my sync cable at work tonight, so I can't test this and install the Palm program. Argh - my kingdom for a sync cable!!

So until I have a chance to go through all of this myself, has anyone else installed the new RealPlayer 10 on a Treo 600? Can you do more than just listen to purchased Real music files in it? Can you hear live streams from other web sites? Enquiring minds want to know!

Update: it's official - Real sucks. I downloaded it and looked everywhere for a mobile component I could use with my T600, but nowhere was it to be found. Not only does the software not list the Treo 600 as a compatible device, I couldn't use it with Rhapsody even if I could somehow load Real onto it. According to Kevin Doran, my worst fears are realized:

"RealPlayer 10 also offers a webcasting interface a la iTunes (though seamless integration with RN's own Rhapsody subscription streaming service is not only unrealized, but unattempted - there's a Listener's Lounge entrance back at the web-hub ranch)."

So it's goodbye to Real yet again, and I'm still left with no way to access Rhapsody on my T600. Sigh. Off to the recycle bin with thee.