Internet Vices - Patrick Moberg

Internet Vices - Patrick Moberg

A great visual of what internet vices would be if they were real world vices.

Excellent Dell Streak review by Engadget

Dell Streak review -- Engadget

Check it out. Tons of photos and videos from the people who kept jabbing the 5" tablet/phone with a pen and couldn't break it.

Winners and Losers of Computex 2010 | BestTabletReview.com

Winners and Losers of Computex 2010|BestTabletReview.com

A decent overview of "Tabletpalooza". Unlike Besttabletreview I think that the InsisTek's $70 tablet, if it doesn't fall apart, could be the big winner.

Can Anything Stop Apple and the iPad? | Retrevo

Can Anything Stop Apple and the iPad? | Retrevo

Worth a read--1,000 person survey results. The questions were skewed iPad-centric. Asking if someone is who owns or is going to buy an e-Reader plans to buy an iPad will also get false positives for people who plan on buying a MID or an Android tablet. The 53% of the 47% of respondents to the survey who said they planned on buying a tablet said they'd buy Android if it was cheaper.

e-Book Manager Software: Calibre - New in calibre 0.7

New in calibre 0.7

The new version of Calibre is out and its better than ever. There has been an increase in performance and a more user-configurable UI and metadata manager.

Its still a CPU hog on my (somewhat old) computer, but its much better than earlier 0.6 versions. I'm still not particularly enthusiastic about this software since it doesn't fully support my ebookwise's IMP file format. If you are a consumer/collector of EPUB, LIT, or many other 'modern' e-book formats, then you really need to take a look at Calibre.

Will Ebook publishers start taking e-book quality more seriously

Ebook publishers must do more to eliminate annoying errors – Telegraph Blogs

In the early days of e-book publishing there has been little respect shown for the electronic format. I've seen commercial releases of e-books that are essentially poorly OCRed versions of the print version. This is likely because the people given the task of creating the electronic versions are either (or both) unenthusiastic/resentful and technically incompetent.

Now that publishers are seeing the potential for big money, and fearing being overtaken by new tech-savvy publishers, we will see more effort being spent on creating e-reader friendly books.

Computex 2010: tablets and e-book readers

I don't know if I'm alone in this but Computex may have the ugliest mascot/trade-show logo I've ever seen. With one day left to go at Computex Taipei the bloggers and gadget sites have started posting their summaries and best-of-show lists. For example:

Digitmes: Computex 2010: A look at the e-book readers

Few blog posts have as catchy a title as the Latest News posted at the Computex site: TOUCH ME! Finger-power more potent than ever!. Although Shanzai comes close with Europeans prefer 5” Brazilians prefer 7”.

A lot of the 10" (and larger) tablets and readers will likely never see the light of day (or the shores of North America), but many of the e-readers and MID tablets will be repackaged under brand names or be made available in limited quantities.

The big winner this year seems to be Android. The zero-risk cost and high-yield benefits of using Android to the device manufacturers means that they can focus on either the new technologies they want to showcase (screens, processors etc) or put together a low-cost device with a high-class interface for mass-market consumption.

Prototypes are showcased before the solder cools and there is a huge variety of ready-for-production devices on display.

The most exciting piece of news for me was the claim by InsisTek to offer a $70 7-inch Android MID tablet by the end of the year.

InsisTek to offer a $70 7-inch Android tablet | BestTabletReview.com
InsisTek 7-inch tablet to cost only $70 | Good E-Reader Blog - Electronic Reader and Slate PC News
VIDEO: Insists 7” 70 dollar tablet | Shanzai

We should see some announcements after the show when a press release will make a bigger splash.

Unlocked Dell Streak Tablet To Be Available Next Month For $500

Unlocked Dell Streak Tablet To Be Available Next Month For $500

I think Dell dropped the ball here price-wise. Even though its unlocked (and I can see this as perfectly fine without locking into a 2 year 3G plan and just using wi-fi) its priced too close to the bottom end iPads and thus exposed to the easy comparison to the low-end iPads.

After it was first announced there were a ton of complaints of the 5" Streak being too big for a cell phone. Now its 1/2 the size for the same price of the Apple tablet.

Poor marketing for an excellent device. I want to get one just so I can jab the screen with a ball-point pen.

William Gibson - Spook Country

Book Review: William Gibson - Spook Country

I was pretty disappointed with the book. The near-future genre is only interesting if the technology/societal changes are interesting in some way. The helmet technology that superimposes itself over the real world was not really all that interesting as it was only presented as generic artwork. Augmented Reality is already here and already more provocative than the glimpse we saw in Spook Country.

The thriller plot itself was reasonable, but dry. Not knowing whats going on is integral to maintain tension, but this was taken too far. Nothing happened in the first 90% of the book as far as I was concerned. That may explain why it took me months and months to finish the book. It was just too easy to put down.

The characters were unique and interesting and the alternating flow of characters and threads was handled reasonably. There was just too much weak dialog and action for my tastes. A little more violence and debauchery would have gone a long way to loosen up the story. Too many characters were stone-faced and without any interesting character flaws.

Overall, Spook Country is a plain thriller with a slow start, little action, and an uninspiring vision of the "future".

Borders to sell variety of e-readers; low-end Aluratek Libre Pro at $119

Borders will be selling the Aluratek Libre Pro for $119, making it the least expensive of the bookstore-affiliated e-readers. It has a 5" Mono reflective light LCD screen--like e-ink but faster. Borders will also sell a wide variety of other e-readers, including the Kobo Reader for $149.

I'm pleased that Borders is taking an e-reader-agnostic approach to selling hardware for their e-book catalog. I hope the other big-box bookstores are watching closely.

Borders to sell up to 10 different ereaders; announces deal with Aluratek | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Available July 2, 2010 -- Borders.com

Borders Partners with Aluratek on Libre eBook Reader Pro | Pulse On Tech-Digital Reader News