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Ebooks: Ho Ho Hosed?

Zealot — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:25:07 +0000

Last week I stated that in my opinion, Ebook Readers were are great idea for holiday gifts this year. In addition, I outlined the brands and models I thought best suited for giving as gifts. However, nothing stays static in this crazy mixed up world of technology. In the last week, has the situation changed?

Well, Mike Elgan at Computerworld took a different view from mine in his column today, and listed seven reasons why, in his opinion, Ebook Readers were the LAST thing most people would want to see under the Hanukkah Bush this year.

After the jump I will look at his seven points and give my views. Does he sway me? Look and see.

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Windows Mobile 6.5.1 Imminent…Sort Of

Zealot — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:52:01 +0000

Rumor has it that the updated version of Windows Mobile 6.5, dubbed by the modding community “6.5.1” which I reported on a couple months ago is soon to go live, but in what capacity no one knows. However, Mordy at mopocket was able to pin down a “nameless” Microsoft rep and got some answers.

The Microsoftie made clear that 6.5.1 is NOT a proper new version or a traditional upgrade for all customers but rather a version of 6.5.1 tweaked for capacitive (that is, finger controlled) touchscreen devices, since Microsoft has admitted that WinMo 6.5 was designed only for resistive (that is, stylus friendly) touchscreens. All of us, including Steve Ballmer, agree that was a major error in the brave new iPhone-flavored, fingerpaintcentric world of modern smartphones. Thinking of 6.5.1 as an “alternate release” makes sense, as the main thrust of the changes is to make the WinMo GUI more finger friendly, with larger buttons, different workflow and a rearranged taskbar.

He also said that it won’t be called 6.5.1, and might not be called anything at all. This doesn’t seem very much like Microsoft, who would usually call something like this “Windows Mobile 6.5 Touchable Touchscreen Premium Gold” or something similarly clumsy. At any rate, it would likely not be released as an upgrade for existing devices, but sent as an OEM to vendors to install on new capacitive touchscreen devices. As normal with Windows Mobile, I expect it will be up to the vendors and carriers if the alternate version is made available for phones already sold…so don’t hold your breath.

Of course, this is ALL UNOFFICIAL, so wait and see…but I suspect Redmond will be making some announcements about this sooner rather than later.

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Dual Screen Netbook Attacks Tokyo

Zealot — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:28:53 +0000

Well, maybe not ATTACKS exactly, more like “Goes on sale in”, but the headline was too good to pass up. Either way, the Kohjinsha DZ6KH16E is certainly the Godzilla of netbooks, boasting two sliding 10.1 inch screens. I have always loved Kohjinsha’s vision and it’s unique take on mobile products, and the DZ6KH16E is no exception. Even if you feel the dual screens are impractical, you have to admit it would draw plenty of attention when you slide this bad boy open at your local Starbucks. Let’s face it, geek chic adulation is the name of the game when we are talking pricey Japanese imports, isn’t it?

If you don’t happen to live in Japan, for once you aren’t out of luck. The DZ6KH16E is available from Geek Stuff 4 U for $1,111.28 (but remember, this is a Japanese device, so take that into account regarding keyboard arrangement).

Check out the specs for this wide-screen beauty after the jump.

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Ebooks: Good News and Bad News

Zealot — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:20:56 +0000

First, the good news….Amazon announced today that a free firmware upgrade will be going out to all Kindles that increases the battery life by 85 percent and adds support for PDFs (hmmm…maybe in support of iMagz?). The upgrade will be installed automatically in the background via WhisperNet. Wow, makes you wonder just how inefficient the code was that a firmware tweak nearly doubles battery life.

As for the PDF support, users can read PDF files by emailing them directly to their Kindle address or by loading them on the device via USB. PDFs can also be automatically converted to the Kindle format by emailing them with ‘Convert" in the subject line.

Not a bad pre Christmas upgrade…BOY Amazon must be feeling the heat.

Now, the bad news? Digitimes is reporting that Scott Liu, chairman of Prime View International (PVI), the company that makes the screens for most Ebook Readers is telling us not to hold our breath for the $100 reader.

He says the market is just not big enough and competition isn’t fierce enough yet to see screen prices drop in 2010…and as the most expensive element of an Ebook Reader is the screen, we shouldn’t look for any many price breakthroughs for another year at least.

Still, one can hope.

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Ebooks: iMagz Coming?

Zealot — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:14:39 +0000

The Observer is reporting on some very interesting information they have from “sources” that may indicate the future direction of electronic magazines. Everyone has heard Wired yapping about preparing custom digital content for “some unannounced device that Apple MAY produce someday…*giggle*giggle*”, but it seems other major magazines are not sitting around waiting for Cupertino to call. Some months ago I reported on the rumor that Time and other big time magazines were looking seriously at electronic distribution methods with an intent towards creating their own Reader device and online Amazon-style store. Considering the number of devices upcoming in 2010 and the buzz over various “tablets”, the Reader option may be off the table. No need for it really if there are so many other devices already out or soon to be released that are not picky regarding where their content comes from.

Instead, the source says that Time and other publishers are looking at setting up a single web portal for downloading magazines from all different companies to any reader device as well as ordering print copies. The sources described it as like iTunes, but for magazines.

BRILLIANT! I like to call it….iMagz.

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Android Rising, Motorola in Command

Zealot — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:31:32 +0000

According to AdMob, the firm that handles display and text ads for more than about 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications, Android is coming on strong with Motorola riding it back to relevance in a big way. Of course, keep in mind that AdMob is in the process of being acquired by Google (feel the noose tightening?) but still, ad page views don’t lie.

Of course Apple’s iPhone is still the leader in terms devices people use to surf the mobile web, but Android has increased worldwide with it’s main gains in the US. in America, six months ago Android had about 7 percent of the mobile ad requests, now a whopping 20 percent.

Of those 20 percent, about a quarter were on a Moto Droid, while 6 percent were on a Motorola Cliq. This means that Motorola is responsible for about a third of all Android use in the US, clearly making them the Android vanguard. Not bad for a company left for dead last year.

Now, if Motorola will be able to base long term growth on these numbers or if they are just reaping the short term benefits of being Google’s Android 2.0 poster child remains to be seen. Remember word is that Google has already moved on and is holding HTC’s hand as they make the NEXT flagship Android device, the Dragon. Without Google pushing them along Motorola could very easily make the Droid their new RAZR, churning out subtle variations and updates on their hit phone for years until they have sucked it dry….and then have nothing new to offer.

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Ikee-B Threatens iPhones

Zealot — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:41:06 +0000

A new wrinkle has appeared in the smartphone security picture, as the first truly harmful worm has surfaced that effects jailbroken iPhones. This one is designed to steal passwords and financial details of people who log onto the website of the Dutch bank ING using an infected iPhone. ING is taking it seriously and will be placing a warning on the site, though since the worm redirects users to a fake site in order to phish their details (as well as intercepting SMS messages), I am not sure how effective that warning will be.

The worm is being called Ikee-B and like the first Ikee makes use of an SSH backdoor on jailbroken iPhones. Ikee however just changed your wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley. As horrible and as psychologically scarring as being Rickrolled can be, it doesn’t hold a candle to having your banking details stolen as Ikee-B does.

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Ebooks: Nook and Kindle News

Zealot — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:00:52 +0000

In terms of Holiday Ebook Reader Sales it appears that it is boiling down to a two horse race, the Kindle versus the Nook….and with the Nook the jumps just keep getting higher and higher.

Now the New York Times is reporting that if you order a Nook today you will not see it before January 4th, but as I had predicted Barnes and Noble WILL send you a nice holiday themed order confirmation before Christmas in place of the ordered device. Beyond that, it appears that B&N may be chumming the water for a Cabbage Patch Kid style shopping bloodbath. In a tweet, B&N announced that WILL be a limited number of Nooks in a limited number of Brick and Mortar stores before the holidays…but won’t say which ones. Won’t Barnes and Noble love the spectacle of frantic shoppers running from store to store in hopes of scoring a Nook for under the tree, braining one another with hardcover copies of The Lost Symbol to get to that one precious Nook in the hands of a terrified shop assistant, who just wants to get home to her own family with her skin in tact…and what do you bet there will be cameras to record the moment to illustrate heartwarming holiday stories placed on YouTube and cable television news shows?

Viral Marketing, thy heart is black as soot.

More news after the jump.

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Ebooks: Misses and Hits

Zealot — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:27:39 +0000

The biggest miss in the Ebook world this week has to be the Sony Daily Reader, the 7 inch, wireless equipped device that Sony is intending to compete with the Kindle DX (as well as the IREX and the upcoming Que). Remember in my holiday shopping guide, where I listed the Daily as a long shot to make it into stores for Christmas? That shot just got MUCH longer as preordering opens today for the device. Sony says that if you order today, the device will be get to you sometime between Dec 18th and Jan 1, with no Daily Readers actually physically in stores before next year. At least the price has been confirmed to be $400, as assumed.

Since the Daily was intended to be a big holiday Ebook reveal, promised for release in early December, this has to be viewed as bad news for Sony and anyone who was hoping that Santa was going to leave a Daily under the tree for them. At this stage, that tree could be pretty brown and rancid before the Daily gets there.

More Ebook news and notes after the jump.

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Symbian Rejected Again…by Nokia??

Zealot — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:29:33 +0000

This has been a tough few weeks for Symbian. A few days ago it was given the old heave-ho from Samsung smartphones in favor of bada, a new OS they haven’t even RELEASED yet, and now this. For a decade Nokia and Symbian have been practically synonymous, but the beginning of the end of that partnership is now official.

Nokia has confirmed what many people, myself included, suspected and backed the Linux-based Maemo operating system as it’s high end OS of the future. According to The Really Mobile Project, Tanja Sauvola from the Maemo marketing team informed bloggers in London that as of 2012, Maemo would replace Symbian S60 on all high end N-series devices for Nokia.

For the foreseeable future, Symbian will continue to run Nokia’s video-focused X-series and enterprise-focused E-series handsets according to Nokia. However with the high end now placed out of Symbian’s reach, the writing is on the wall. The movement in handsets is towards application, multimedia rich operating systems, so as feature phones lose relevance Symbian will slowly lose market share in favor of more capable systems.

Of course the announcement elicited a chorus in the blogosphere saying “Why bother with Maemo, be original and run Android, like all the rest of us!” While I see their point, I do applaud Nokia for continuing to walk their own path regarding software and am becoming a little nervous about this widespread anointing of Android as the one true smartphone OS. While Maemo, like bada, may be a bit quixotic, the effort to preserve diversity in mobile software is still a good thing.

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“Honey, they Shrunk my Thinkpad”

Zealot — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:02:36 +0000

I have been a fan of Thinkpads since they were the mainstay of the IBM empire and have used them as my primary laptop almost exclusively for around 10 years now, starting with a T20 and currently using a T61. In my opinion, even through the build quality with Lenovo has lessened a bit from the classic IBM models and they keep trying to make the brand more “consumer-friendly”, it is still the preeminent business notebook out there.

That is why I was surprised to hear that Lenovo was planning on producing a Thinkpad netbook. Well, not surprised, as that is SOOOOO Lenovo…more like horrified.

Specs and images are out for the device, the Thinkpad X100e…and thankfully it is less netbook and more Ultra-light.

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To gPhone, or not to gPhone

Zealot — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:03:07 +0000

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is stirring the pot again. In a recent post, he states that the long theorized Googlephone is about to be released based on rumours from unnamed sources. A phone designed from the ground up by Google to be the perfect Android device, Arrington has this to say about it…

There won’t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone’s design of features – Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google’s pure vision of what a phone should be.

He has no other details of the device but says that it will be created by a third party; maybe HTC, maybe LG, maybe Samsung, and will be released at the beginning of 2010.

I, however, am dubious….

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Jailbreaker Makes CNN

Zealot — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:27:52 +0000

Whether you consider him a genius, a rebel, a thief or an arrogant putz, George Hotz (aka GeoHot) sure has a lot to say, and he says it in a recent CNN profile. Credited with being the first person to jailbreak a first generation iPhone (which he traded for a Nissan 350Z) when he was 17, he has a unique take on the iPhone phenomenon. According to the article…

Hotz, now 20, makes a living as a "hacker for hire" of sorts — getting paid to break into different types of gadgets. He gets to spend his free time unofficially attending a college, where he pretends to be a student just to socialize.

Kicked off the famous Dev Team for releasing details of his hacks (or maybe for just being himself), GeoHot is the author of the recent Blackra1n jailbreaking tool which is the only tool that can currently jailbreak the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3G and boasts that he already knows how to jailbreak the still vapourware iPhone 4G, though he admits he has yet to see it or it’s software.

Says Hotz…

"Personally I love that Apple keeps the iPhone closed. This is a personal hobby; it’d be no fun if Apple didn’t have it closed anymore. Get a Jailbreak cop and then I’ll show them what I can really do."

The article also talks to Jay Freeman (AKA Saurik), the owner and force behind Cydia and other figures in the jailbreaking community. If you want to get a good overview of the motivations of jailbreakers and the secret history of the iPhone, this is an excellent article.

See the full piece HERE.

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Windows Mobile Gets More Game

Zealot — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:02:52 +0000

Slowly but surely the Windows Mobile Marketplace is gaining applications. The newest bunch are six fresh games from Konami designed to be played on full touchscreen phones. The games feature sharp graphics and on screen controls. Included in the new releases are….

DanceDanceRevolution S – A mobile version of the sweaty pre-teen girl arcade favorite, but with less feet and more fingers I would imagine.
Gradius II – A version of the classic scrolling shooter.
TwinBee – Another, cuter scrolling shooter
Konami’s Sudoku – Surprise, a Sudoku puzzle game!
Konami’s Solitaire – More surprises, a card game called Solitaire
Mobile Pawafuru Proyaky – A painfully adorable baseball game, which will be available only in Japan.

No word on price but they will be available in December, released to coincide with the Japanese debut of the Windows Marketplace.

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With a Name like Megatron, it’s GOTTA be Good.

Zealot — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:29:06 +0000

File this one under “Devices which will likely never make it out of Asia”, but you have to admit, it is damn pretty.

This is the Ainol V9000 HDX Megatron, a touchscreen PMP available in China only as far as I know. I don’t know much about the device specs wise (needing to brush up on my Mandarin), but it has a 4.8 inch capacitive touch screen and can support up to 1080p with HDMI output. Capacity is 16GB which is a bit slim for a PMP but battery life should be good with a 2450mAh power cell inside. The capacity is augmented nicely however by two, count em, two MicroSD slots.

The GUI looks very nice and clean, reminiscent of some Cowon PMP GUIs, with a lot of options and control over the viewing experience. No idea what OS is running on this device but I would suspect WinCE.

No word on price or availability, but if you are passing through Shanghai some time soon, pick me one of these up, OK? I mean, it’s called MEGATRON….you have to love that.

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