Lori is on the ball yet again! She picks up the following encouraging news from PalmInfocenter:

"Last month, AvantGo announced a new policy under which it limited the number of subscribers to custom channels to just eight people for each channel. It has now discarded this policy and announced a new one. AvantGo will still limit access to some custom channels but the company will look at each channel individually before making a decision on it. Channels that become popular by word of mouth will not be restricted. Channels that advertise for subscribers and offer products or services for sale will need to sign a contract with AvantGo.

However, AvantGo will still require an agreement for all channels with more than 1,000 subscribers. The owners of these channels will be notified when they reach the limit."

I'm glad they're seeing the problem with thinking they could cut off everyone that can't afford $1000 to pay them for a channel. I would like to see this company succeed, especially now that they're back in touch with their user base.

New Web Service Connects Consumers with PDA Bargains

"At the heart of bargainpda.com is its price-comparison technology-a fast, reliable engine that searches reputable online stores for the best prices available on any PDA or accessory. The price search, coupled with the site's participation in rebate and exclusive coupon promotions offered by manufacturers and e-tailers, makes bargainpda.com the natural choice for cost-conscious shoppers.

Other websites offer price comparisons. But only bargainpda.com is dedicated to covering the PDA market in depth. In addition to the site's comprehensive, up-to-the-minute price comparisons from more than twenty online retailers, bargainpda.com provides news and reviews about all the latest PDAs and accessories. The community of PDA enthusiasts can also meet at the site to talk, trade tips, and buy/sell/trade their gear." [URLwire]

"There's plenty of good news for buyers: Larger capacities in everything from CompactFlash to Secure Digital media should decrease the number of cards you have to carry by letting you load up far more music, photos, and other files per card. What's more, even the smallest of cards are getting smarter--the postage stamp-size Secure Digital cards have recently added I/O functionality (see " The Tiniest Peripherals: SDIO"), opening the door to new types of add-in cards for compact audio players and cellular telephones, as well as to multiple slots on larger handheld devices such as Palm and PocketPC PDAs....

A part of flash memory's strength is its increasing capacity, coupled with its ever-decreasing size and cost. Just one year ago, CompactFlash cards topped out at 512MB or so. Today, these commonly used cards can hold about a gigabyte of data--that's hundreds or even thousands of digital photos, depending on their resolution and compression, or dozens of CDs' worth of compressed audio.

Though other formats are more limited by their physical dimensions--at least until higher-capacity flash memory chips appear--they're getting roomier, too. For example, according to a source at flash-memory maker SanDisk, even the petite Secure Digital cards should have reached 256MB by the time you read this. A source at the SD Association says 512MB cards should follow shortly, and SanDisk says versions as large as 4GB may be ready within a year or two." [PC World]

Two items to note here. First, this is a corollary to John Robb's observations about how increases in storage are affecting the copyright system. When storage is portable and you can space shift your digital content so easily, it definitely affects how you view and use information as a whole. Or maybe the key is how it doesn't affect you as it now becomes pervasive to the point where you take it for granted. PDAs are a good example of this.

Second, this article notes that there are currently five formats for flash memory. And the entertainment industry thinks the tech companies are going to agree to implement one standard in one way? Even if they do, how can they guarantee a digital file will work across all of them? The answer is they can't, so consumers will lose.