Amazon’s Kindle

As discussed in class, Amazon has just released the Kindle, its Web 2.0 version of the book.

This article in Newsweek was an interesting look into the Kindle’s revolutionary technology and Amazon’s commitment to make it’s product as true to a real book as possible.  For example, its size, weight, display of text and battery life were all major aspects that were specially designed to make it more recognizable for users.  I liked that the article was not just a review, but an in-depth report from Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon.com).

Not everyone is excited about the Kindle.  This article talks about Steve Jobs response, “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”  According to the author (who was upset by the ignorance of Jobs’ comment), Jobs was reacting as a business man – why make an ebook when you could make an iPod and have a greater revenue?

Even with its high price ($399) it looks like the Kindle may be a hit with book lovers both young and old.  Amazon’s website proclaims, “This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere.” Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar’s Poker.  I think that I will play it safe and stick to “traditional” books for a while….

Beatles on iTunes?

According to this article and several others, its seems that a Beatles catalog will soon be on iTunes.  However, this music comes at a price and it is rumored to be around $600 million.  Is it worth it?  Hopefully there are enough Beatles fans out there – and enough hopeful new listeners -  to justify the price Apple is having to pay.

For those who are interested, this article gives a little more information about the acquisition.

Pixish

I thought this article introduces Pixish, a site that brings publishers and photographers together for projects.  It seems really simple: a publisher describes an assignment that he needs imagery for, an artists/photographers sends imagery, the publisher picks the best imagery from the group of submissions, the artist/photographer gets paid, all are happy.

Simple, easy, and a great way for new an undiscovered artists to get discovered.  For more on how to use, visit the Pixish site.

For those who are sceptical on quality of work, payment issues, and other questionable areas about Pixish, this on-line discussion raised some very interesting points.

PhotoShelter vs. Flickr

This article is about PhotoShelter, a new photo “sharing” website that unlike Flickr, keeps users photos safe from web users who try and use them/steal them.  PhotoShelter makes it painless for Flickr users to import their photos into the site – and export their photos onto Flickr.

While at Flickr is a more popular site at the moment, it makes it easy for visitors to steal images.  Flickr’s intention is to be a sharing database, not a free image search engine. PhotoShelter makes it clear that they are a service for professional photographers – they even give you passwords and special application uses. The site seems to be attracting attention.  Since its launch in 2005 it has 19,000 members.  PhotoShelter is not attempting to be a “better” Flickr, it is offering more of a service to photographers than just sharing.

I have personally tried to “steal” dozens of Flickr images for projects but have found that many just wont budge from the site.  For those who need a refresher on how to legally take pictures from Flickr, this article covers all the bases mentioned in class.

Google Bombing

I saw this article on Wired.com and had to write about it.  “Bombing” is the manipulation” of a search engines “contextual search methodologies to cause a certain search phrase to point to an unexpected page, usually for comedic or satirical purposes”.

Haha?  I think this would definitely be an example of technology-gone-wrong.  If you are interesting in participating in some scandalous on-line activity, I would suggest checking out the article and learning some step-by-step directions.

Microsoft’s Vista – Good or Bad?

This article posted by CNet.com discusses the fall in price for Microsoft’s newest computer software – Vista.  According to the article, Microsoft dropped their price down to $129 for the Home Premium package.  Office Max is offering the package for $99.  This seems like a pretty good deal to most but it made me wonder if it was selling quickly because it was a good product or a bad product…

According to this article written on Wired.com it seems that Vista is outperforming its previous Microsoft programs.  The article talks about the 23 page document, “Windows Vista One Year Vulnerability Report” that proves just how smoothly it running.  The report is all out security flaws and is undoubtedly full of holes concerning other areas.  While the report leaves out “non-security related fixes, bugs, technical issues and failures in Vista. Bluetooth crapping out, flaky wireless, video drivers that don’t work, the slow, memory-intensive Aero interface” – it includes a lot of fun graphs showing less security flaws than XP.

Hum-mm…  Maybe all these unmentioned problems could be why Microsoft is so eager to sell it’s Vistas at such a nice price.

YouTube blackout.

This article was about Pakistan lifting their country wide ban on YouTube after the site removed an offensive video of a “Dutch lawmaker who claims Islam is fascist and prone to inciting violence.”

What’s most interesting about this article is that “efforts by Pakistan’s state-controlled Internet service provider to block YouTube inside that country triggered a two-hour blackout of the site Sunday across the globe.”  Anyone who was trying to get onto YouTube’s website as directed to a “black hole.”

Fortunately for YouTube (and the rest of the world), Pakistan lifted their block when the offensive video was removed.  According to the article, this is not the first time YouTube has have run into problems of this nature; “Thailand, Morocco, and Turkey are three other countries that have blocked YouTube only to reverse themselves later.”

Should YouTube have to censure what video’s the put on their site?  As far as most Americans are concerned, YouTube videos are just another example of free speech.  There are probably thousands of videos on the site that are offensive to at least one person, community, or group of people.  Maybe the site will have to start censoring itself more often to avoid world-wide “blackouts.”

For more about the blackout, go to this article of “How Pakistan knocked YouTube offline (and how to make sure it never happens again).

StumbleUpon.com

This article talks about StumbleUpon.com as new, better version of search engines such as Google. The website is based on people sharing their destination recommendations electronically. StumbleUpon is “not a search engine driven by keywords, but rather a “browsing engine” driven by user votes.”

For anyone who is new to this site, go to their website to join. Membership is free and you will become instantly addicted to what my friends call “stumbling.” All you do is subscribe to a list on interests and click the “stumble” button that is automatically installed on your Internet toolbar. Voting on a site is an easy thumbs up or down and you can also add personal opions to the site for other stumblers to see. This article states that StumbleUpon is “one of the single most useful services on the Internet today.”

Bottom line: you spend less time searching search engines in vain and more time enjoying. Definitely give it a try.
For more general information try this article and the wikipedia definition.

Newspapers Should Embrace Online Aggregators…

According to information wikipedia.com, an “aggregator”, also known as a feed reader, news reader or simply as an aggregator, is client softwareWeb application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing.

This article, from the blog Publishing 2.0, discusses how newspapers should embrace online aggregators such as Google.  The writers claim is that many of these online “aggregators” drive a large amount of traffic to newspapers.  Many newspapers are sceptical of doing this for fear of aggregators destroying the “direct brand relationships that newspapers and other branded media have traditionally had with their audience.”  Basically, they are worried that people surfing the web will read their articles without realizing they are from a national newspaper.

By  stalling their jump from print into computer media, newspapers are missing opportunities of “optimizing their content to convert user who find their way to newspaper content via search and other aggregators into subscribers and direct users of the brand.”  For example, I person who Googles “Global Warming” could/would come across articles from The New York Times.  This said article would give direct links to more information, and provide advertising for the REAL New York Times newspaper.

So, it seems like by going through aggregrates (Google), The New York Times (along with several other media newspapers) is able to demonstrate its own utility as a destination source.   This article was an interesting explanation to how print media is expanding into a digital realm and why some newspapers are skeptical about making a move ss.

iPhone Competitors: Beware…

According to this article from wired.com, It seems that there is some competition for the Apple iPhone’s touch-screen technology.  With over 200 patent claims already in the works, Apple is clearly trying to avoid this at all costs.  Familiar users of the phone already know about “pinching” and “double-tapping” as zoom techniques on the phone.  If Apple wins their claims, which could very potentially happen, other devices with similar motions to produce functions (i.e. tapping twice to zoom) would be infringing on Apple’s patent.

The article goes on to talk about potential problems that could arise due to this problem…  One example would be that high-tech developers would have no choice but to implement different motions for their own products.  “You might pinch to zoom on your phone, swirl your finger around to zoom on your notebook, and triple-tap to zoom on the web-browsing remote control in your home theater.”  This was just one scenario mentioned if all patents are passed.

Despite the fact that other companies may suffer with the possible passing of the patents, Apple will most likely win.  As stated in the article, “Popularity often becomes a component in awarding some patents. There have also been cases where patents were awarded to companies who came up with novel uses or implementations for older technologies.”

All in all, it is obvious that Apple is very serious about patenting their iPhones screen motions.. Competitors, beware!