Using Twitter or Facebook or any number of social media sites as the basis, there are now appearing socially curated magazines and newspapers.
There is http:www.paper.li for the newspaper online format. And now this from TechCrunch:
(http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/17/sobees-launches-ipad-app-newsmix-a-socially-curated-digital-magazine/)
Sobees has made a business of creating innovative social media clients, particularly focusing on bringing Twitter, Facebook and social search to the a variety of platforms. Today, the developer is getting into the news business with the launch of NewsMix, an iPad app which presents news and content shared by your social circle in a magazine format on the device.
The app, which costs $2.99 in the App Store, allows you to create and mix a digital magazine composed of content shared in your Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds (Google
Reader and feed search). The app will categorize content in a magazine or show news in a separate timeline format for Facebook and Twitter. And you can view photos and videos in separate sections.
In terms of social capabilities, the app allows you to comment and like Facebook posts directly from the magazine, and you can share articles on both Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. The App also allows you to email content and send articles to Instapaper.
Sobees founder Francois Bochatay says that the app contains the startup’s proprietary curation technology, which will will automatically prioritize and curate Twitter and Facebook posts based on your interactions with the app.
Of course, NewsMix sounds very similar to the enormously popular iPad app Flipboard, which also curates articles and images from your social streams like Twitter and Facebook, and presents them in a magazine-like format. Pulse also plays in the space as well.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Friday, October 29, 2010
HP on board
HP takes a more traditional route in the rollout of its E-tablet, making it a Windows happy non-app product.
Read this report from the New York Times, Oct. 26, 2010: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/the-h-p-slate-is-not-trying-to-be-an-ipad/?nl=technology&emc=cta5
By ROY FURCHGOTT
Consumers interested in buying a tablet computer are going to see a lot of devices in the coming months that resemble the iPad. A case in point is Hewlett-Packard’s Slate 500 Tablet PC.
The iPad does have an onboard microphone. An earlier version of this post indicated erroneously that it did not.
While it resembles an iPad, there are some real differences. It functions more like a MacBook Air, in that it runs full-fledged desktop software, not a smartphone version of an operating system. That means there will be overlapping windows – which you don’t get on the iPad – and it will run all of the programs that you would have on your regular Windows computer at home and office.
That it runs full-fledged programs also means there are none of the iPad-like apps for it.
The Slate also incorporates some tabletlike features, such as a three megapixel camera, which is more useful on the go than it would be on a home computer.
A gander at the spec sheet highlights some of the other differences and similarities.
The new Slate has a 1.86 GHz Intel Atom processor, which technically is faster than Apple’s A4 1 GHz processor. But the Slate has a heavier load to pull with desktop applications.
Slate comes with 2 gigabytes of SDRAM memory. Apple doesn’t give a figure for its SDRAM memory, but a tear down by ifixit found 256 megabytes of memory. Both devices can carry solid-state storage of up to 64 gigabytes.
The iPad’s 9.7-inch diagonal LED screen is larger than the Slate’s 8.9-inch diagonal. (I can’t speak to the qualitative differences. I haven’t handled a Slate yet.)
Both tablets have 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth, but some iPad models can also connect to the Web on the 3G mobile phone network. Of course, using a 3G U.S.B. attachment would add that capability to the Slate.
The Slate is promising about five hours of battery life to the iPad’s 10.
The Slate is priced at $800, $100 more than the top-of-the-line Wi-Fi iPad.
If that leaves you wondering who the Slate is for, H.P. said it is primarily for business. If you are a retailer who keeps inventory on a Windows program, you would be able to walk around your store and check what’s in the back from your tablet.
But I would also say it’s probably for people who don’t want to leave any of the functionality of their Windows desktops behind when they are on the go.
And it’s for lovers of all things Windows.
Read this report from the New York Times, Oct. 26, 2010: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/the-h-p-slate-is-not-trying-to-be-an-ipad/?nl=technology&emc=cta5
By ROY FURCHGOTT
Consumers interested in buying a tablet computer are going to see a lot of devices in the coming months that resemble the iPad. A case in point is Hewlett-Packard’s Slate 500 Tablet PC.
The iPad does have an onboard microphone. An earlier version of this post indicated erroneously that it did not.
While it resembles an iPad, there are some real differences. It functions more like a MacBook Air, in that it runs full-fledged desktop software, not a smartphone version of an operating system. That means there will be overlapping windows – which you don’t get on the iPad – and it will run all of the programs that you would have on your regular Windows computer at home and office.
That it runs full-fledged programs also means there are none of the iPad-like apps for it.
The Slate also incorporates some tabletlike features, such as a three megapixel camera, which is more useful on the go than it would be on a home computer.
A gander at the spec sheet highlights some of the other differences and similarities.
The new Slate has a 1.86 GHz Intel Atom processor, which technically is faster than Apple’s A4 1 GHz processor. But the Slate has a heavier load to pull with desktop applications.
Slate comes with 2 gigabytes of SDRAM memory. Apple doesn’t give a figure for its SDRAM memory, but a tear down by ifixit found 256 megabytes of memory. Both devices can carry solid-state storage of up to 64 gigabytes.
The iPad’s 9.7-inch diagonal LED screen is larger than the Slate’s 8.9-inch diagonal. (I can’t speak to the qualitative differences. I haven’t handled a Slate yet.)
Both tablets have 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth, but some iPad models can also connect to the Web on the 3G mobile phone network. Of course, using a 3G U.S.B. attachment would add that capability to the Slate.
The Slate is promising about five hours of battery life to the iPad’s 10.
The Slate is priced at $800, $100 more than the top-of-the-line Wi-Fi iPad.
If that leaves you wondering who the Slate is for, H.P. said it is primarily for business. If you are a retailer who keeps inventory on a Windows program, you would be able to walk around your store and check what’s in the back from your tablet.
But I would also say it’s probably for people who don’t want to leave any of the functionality of their Windows desktops behind when they are on the go.
And it’s for lovers of all things Windows.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Chat, of course
E-books should come with the ability for readers to chat. No doubt.
It's already happening.
Check out nytimes.com/2010/10/25/business/media/25link.html?_r=1
Here's the full text from the Business section of the New York Times.
Blurring the Line Between Apps and Books
By NOAM COHEN
Published: October 24, 2010
STEPHEN ELLIOTT, a 38-year-old from San Francisco, just introduced his first piece of software for sale: an app for the iPad and iPhone called “The Adderall Diaries.”
He’s not exactly a programmer — better to call him a writer. And the app that he conceived looks a lot like an electronic book. That is, most people who buy the app will do so to read the text of “The Adderall Diaries,” his “memoir of moods, masochism and murder” based on his childhood in Chicago group homes, which was published in hardcover last year by Graywolf Press.
But Mr. Elliott says he has good reasons for producing his own iPad app, separate and apart from the e-book version of “Adderall Diaries” that is for sale, say, for the Kindle or the iPad reader from Apple. But those reasons are not the artistic, meta-fictional ones you might suspect — you know, so that when characters enter a bar, you suddenly hear music and a glass dropped by the waiter, or more fancifully, you can make them turn around and go somewhere else.
Rather than exploit the multimedia potential of an app book, Mr. Elliott said he wanted to include tools that cater to a special group: Stephen Elliott readers.
“As an author, I want you to have the best experience,” he said. “People want to talk about the books they are reading with other people. Why, with everything we know, wouldn’t you include a chat room with your e-book?”
Once readers buy the app, he says, they are beginning a relationship with him and other readers; they can leave comments and read responses and updates from the author. They may even be told down the line that he has a new book for sale and then be able to buy it through the app.
This practical, business-oriented focus is something he shares with the developer of his iPad app, Electric Literature, a company with offices at the foot of the Brooklyn entrance to the Manhattan Bridge that was founded by Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum, who met as Brooklyn College M.F.A. students in 2006.
Electric Literature is a literary journal that enlists all manner of digital formats, like PDFs, Kindle, iPhone, YouTube animations. The money saved by not using a printer ($5,000 by their reckoning) goes to pay five authors $1,000 each for appearing in the journal.
In the more than a year since the founding, Mr. Hunter and Mr. Lindenbaum said in an interview at their offices, the challenges of marketing a digital journal have taken up the bulk of their time, rather than finding great writing to publish. Early on, the novelist Rick Moody worked with Electric Literature to produce a short story in little bursts on Twitter, generating a lot of free publicity.
“We really care about the community of independent publishers,” Mr. Hunter said. “We’re publishers. We’re not going into the game to be software developers.”
Nonetheless, last weekend, Electric Literature introduced a separate service at electricpublisher.com, to create an inexpensive book app along the lines of what it made for Mr. Elliott. The pricing starts at $600 for a single book app, with additional charges for creating an app-based bookshelf that contains more than one book for sale.
To create a book app, Electric Literature had to come up with its own e-reader software: before you can consider tools that allow for sharing comments or sending messages, or incorporating video and audio clips, for that matter, Mr. Hunter said, “the experience has to be equal with iBooks,” referring to Apple’s e-reader software.
And how can a little company come up with software to equal Apple or Amazon? Motivated programmers who believe in the literary mission, he said: “That’s what technology is all about. It’s a disruptive force, where a very small group can compete with the big guys.”
Right now, Electric Literature has only a few book apps either made or in development, including the journal’s. Mr. Elliott, the author of seven books, says he has sold apps only in the “double digits,” substantially fewer than in print or e-book form. Dennis Johnson of Melville House Publishing says he is working with Electric Literature to introduce an app book before Thanksgiving. He will not disclose the title now, for fear of stoking interest before it is for sale.
The attraction is obvious, he said.
“If you publish work that is hard to sell in the American market, say literary fiction in translation, this is another format to hardcover, paperback and e-book,” he said. “A fourth line of revenue.”
In an interview, he imagined the possibilities, such as having readers whose devotion is deeper than merely dipping into a title, who would install a piece of software onto a phone or tablet. “I love the idea of putting books on subscription,” he said, “of having a membership in your publishing house, of having a readership invested in your books.”
Of course, for all the independence an app gives a publisher, especially a small publisher or individual writer, there are tolls along the way: Apple gets 30 percent of every app sold and every “in-app purchase,” which is processed through its iTunes store. Mr. Elliott pays that charge, as well as the share his publisher, Graywolf, takes for an e-book sale. (Thus the iBooks version of “Adderall Diaries” costs $9.99, the iPad app $14.99.)
And Apple makes no bones about being more intrusive in dealing with apps, which it “curates,” as opposed to the books it sells. As Jesse David Hollington, the applications editor for the Web site iLounge, described last month, Apple has particular guidelines for apps developers: “We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app.”
Which means that to Apple, Mr. Elliott is a programmer, not a writer.
“They have some kind of rating system,” he said. Before approving the app, “they asked me if there was sex and violence, and I said, ‘Yeah, a lot."
It's already happening.
Check out nytimes.com/2010/10/25/business/media/25link.html?_r=1
Here's the full text from the Business section of the New York Times.
Blurring the Line Between Apps and Books
By NOAM COHEN
Published: October 24, 2010
STEPHEN ELLIOTT, a 38-year-old from San Francisco, just introduced his first piece of software for sale: an app for the iPad and iPhone called “The Adderall Diaries.”
He’s not exactly a programmer — better to call him a writer. And the app that he conceived looks a lot like an electronic book. That is, most people who buy the app will do so to read the text of “The Adderall Diaries,” his “memoir of moods, masochism and murder” based on his childhood in Chicago group homes, which was published in hardcover last year by Graywolf Press.
But Mr. Elliott says he has good reasons for producing his own iPad app, separate and apart from the e-book version of “Adderall Diaries” that is for sale, say, for the Kindle or the iPad reader from Apple. But those reasons are not the artistic, meta-fictional ones you might suspect — you know, so that when characters enter a bar, you suddenly hear music and a glass dropped by the waiter, or more fancifully, you can make them turn around and go somewhere else.
Rather than exploit the multimedia potential of an app book, Mr. Elliott said he wanted to include tools that cater to a special group: Stephen Elliott readers.
“As an author, I want you to have the best experience,” he said. “People want to talk about the books they are reading with other people. Why, with everything we know, wouldn’t you include a chat room with your e-book?”
Once readers buy the app, he says, they are beginning a relationship with him and other readers; they can leave comments and read responses and updates from the author. They may even be told down the line that he has a new book for sale and then be able to buy it through the app.
This practical, business-oriented focus is something he shares with the developer of his iPad app, Electric Literature, a company with offices at the foot of the Brooklyn entrance to the Manhattan Bridge that was founded by Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum, who met as Brooklyn College M.F.A. students in 2006.
Electric Literature is a literary journal that enlists all manner of digital formats, like PDFs, Kindle, iPhone, YouTube animations. The money saved by not using a printer ($5,000 by their reckoning) goes to pay five authors $1,000 each for appearing in the journal.
In the more than a year since the founding, Mr. Hunter and Mr. Lindenbaum said in an interview at their offices, the challenges of marketing a digital journal have taken up the bulk of their time, rather than finding great writing to publish. Early on, the novelist Rick Moody worked with Electric Literature to produce a short story in little bursts on Twitter, generating a lot of free publicity.
“We really care about the community of independent publishers,” Mr. Hunter said. “We’re publishers. We’re not going into the game to be software developers.”
Nonetheless, last weekend, Electric Literature introduced a separate service at electricpublisher.com, to create an inexpensive book app along the lines of what it made for Mr. Elliott. The pricing starts at $600 for a single book app, with additional charges for creating an app-based bookshelf that contains more than one book for sale.
To create a book app, Electric Literature had to come up with its own e-reader software: before you can consider tools that allow for sharing comments or sending messages, or incorporating video and audio clips, for that matter, Mr. Hunter said, “the experience has to be equal with iBooks,” referring to Apple’s e-reader software.
And how can a little company come up with software to equal Apple or Amazon? Motivated programmers who believe in the literary mission, he said: “That’s what technology is all about. It’s a disruptive force, where a very small group can compete with the big guys.”
Right now, Electric Literature has only a few book apps either made or in development, including the journal’s. Mr. Elliott, the author of seven books, says he has sold apps only in the “double digits,” substantially fewer than in print or e-book form. Dennis Johnson of Melville House Publishing says he is working with Electric Literature to introduce an app book before Thanksgiving. He will not disclose the title now, for fear of stoking interest before it is for sale.
The attraction is obvious, he said.
“If you publish work that is hard to sell in the American market, say literary fiction in translation, this is another format to hardcover, paperback and e-book,” he said. “A fourth line of revenue.”
In an interview, he imagined the possibilities, such as having readers whose devotion is deeper than merely dipping into a title, who would install a piece of software onto a phone or tablet. “I love the idea of putting books on subscription,” he said, “of having a membership in your publishing house, of having a readership invested in your books.”
Of course, for all the independence an app gives a publisher, especially a small publisher or individual writer, there are tolls along the way: Apple gets 30 percent of every app sold and every “in-app purchase,” which is processed through its iTunes store. Mr. Elliott pays that charge, as well as the share his publisher, Graywolf, takes for an e-book sale. (Thus the iBooks version of “Adderall Diaries” costs $9.99, the iPad app $14.99.)
And Apple makes no bones about being more intrusive in dealing with apps, which it “curates,” as opposed to the books it sells. As Jesse David Hollington, the applications editor for the Web site iLounge, described last month, Apple has particular guidelines for apps developers: “We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app.”
Which means that to Apple, Mr. Elliott is a programmer, not a writer.
“They have some kind of rating system,” he said. Before approving the app, “they asked me if there was sex and violence, and I said, ‘Yeah, a lot."
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Future Past
Will the e-reader save journalism. Here's the best article so far, from the Columbia Journalism Review.
http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/a_second_chance.php?page=1
http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/a_second_chance.php?page=1
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Color me
What happens if e-readers get color. Another way to personalize your experience. Here's the New York Times story.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/business/media/12novel.html?emc=eta1
Reading E-Books in All the Colors of the Rainbow
By ANNE EISENBERG
Published: September 11, 2010
BLACK-AND-WHITE movies have their film noir appeal, yet it’s glowing color that rules on most consumer displays these days, with one exception: the pages of e-book readers. There, color is still supplied the old-fashioned way — not by filtered pixels, but by readers’ imaginations.
Enlarge This Image
Color e-reader displays from E Ink.
Enlarge This Image
The display from Qualcomm uses reflective instead of LCD technology.
Now that stronghold of austere black letters is crumbling. “We expect companies to market color e-book readers if not by the holidays, then soon after,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst specializing in consumer product strategies at Forrester, the market research company. “And some consumers will definitely opt for them.”
Of course, even with their current, monochromatic text, e-book readers have already been strong sellers, said Vinita Jakhanwal, director of small and medium displays at the market researcher iSuppli. Worldwide shipments have risen quickly — to 11 million in 2010, from 5 million in 2009, she said, with 15 million predicted for 2011.
But the popularity of the Apple iPad, on which people can read books, surf the Internet, watch videos and enjoy thousands of apps — all in full color — has shaken up the market. “It’s forced e-book reader manufacturers to innovate,” said Paul Semenza, a senior vice president for DisplaySearch, an industry researcher in Santa Clara, Calif.
Major e-reader companies like Amazon.com, which sells the Kindle, and Barnes & Noble, seller of the Nook, have not announced that they are offering color versions, or that they are committed to a specific technology for doing so. But some smaller entrants in the market have said they will be using liquid crystal displays, just as the iPad does.
The Literati by the Sharper Image, for example, has a a full-color LCD and will go on sale in October, priced at about $159. And Pandigital has said that the Novel, its full-color e-reader with an LCD touch screen, will be at retailers this month at a suggested price of about $200.
But LCD displays have disadvantages, Mr. Semenza said. They consume a lot of power, he said, because they need backlighting and because much optical energy is lost as light passes through the polarizers, filters and crystals needed to create color. They are also hard to read outdoors, he added.
Other types of displays may also find a foothold with consumers — particularly low-power, reflective technologies that take advantage of ambient light and are easy to read when outside. The EInk Corporation in Cambridge, Mass., uses this reflective technology for its present product — the black-and-white displays in the Kindle, Nook and other e-readers — and will soon introduce a color version of the technology, said Siram Peruvemba, E Ink’s vice president for global sales and marketing. The technology will probably first be used for textbook illustrations and for cartoons.
The E Ink color displays, which have had many prototypes in the last two years, have not yet found favor with Kindle. “We’ve seen E Ink color displays in the lab and they aren’t ready,” Stephanie Mantello, a senior public relations manager for Kindle at Amazon.com, wrote in an e-mail.
Ken Werner of Nutmeg Consultants in Norwalk, Conn., and a specialist in the display industry, says that he has viewed the E Ink prototypes and that their reflective color technology is worthwhile.
“If you are expecting these reflective color panels to look like an LCD TV or an iPad, you’ll be disappointed,” he said. “They are not going to have that depth and range of color.” But, he said, the displays are valuable because of their low power consumption, thinness and light weight.
E Ink will ship its color displays to device makers in late fall, Mr. Peruvemba said. Hanvon Technology, in Beijing, a maker of e-book readers, will be one of the first customers, he said.
The color filters used in the displays block some of the light, but the loss is offset by an improved ink formulation that yields higher contrast, he said; the color display consumes no more power than previous monochromatic displays.
Reflective color displays from Qualcomm will also be on the market soon, said Jim Cathey, vice president for business development at the Taiwan office of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, based in San Diego. The company’s color technology, called mirasol, will be shipped to device makers this quarter, and should be available to consumers in the first quarter of next year, he said.
Mirasol dispenses with color filters, as its name suggests — it combines the Spanish words “mira,” for look, and “sol,” for sun, into a play on the English word “mirrors.” The pixels in the display use tiny, mirrorlike elements in optical cavities to selectively reflect ambient red, green or blue light — much as sunlight bounces off a bird’s feathers. The pixels switch fast enough to run video, he said.
MS. EPPS of Forrester also thinks sales of e-book readers, whether in color or black-and-white, will withstand competition from the iPad and others. “We see the market bifurcating into two separate arenas with two different price ranges,” she said — with one group opting for multifunctional slates like the iPad, and the other for e-book readers.
Color is not likely to be the most important lure for those bookish buyers. “When you ask e-book consumers what are the features they care about, it’s not color,” she said. “Market expectations are driving that innovation. Readers care more about features like durability.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/business/media/12novel.html?emc=eta1
Reading E-Books in All the Colors of the Rainbow
By ANNE EISENBERG
Published: September 11, 2010
BLACK-AND-WHITE movies have their film noir appeal, yet it’s glowing color that rules on most consumer displays these days, with one exception: the pages of e-book readers. There, color is still supplied the old-fashioned way — not by filtered pixels, but by readers’ imaginations.
Enlarge This Image
Color e-reader displays from E Ink.
Enlarge This Image
The display from Qualcomm uses reflective instead of LCD technology.
Now that stronghold of austere black letters is crumbling. “We expect companies to market color e-book readers if not by the holidays, then soon after,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst specializing in consumer product strategies at Forrester, the market research company. “And some consumers will definitely opt for them.”
Of course, even with their current, monochromatic text, e-book readers have already been strong sellers, said Vinita Jakhanwal, director of small and medium displays at the market researcher iSuppli. Worldwide shipments have risen quickly — to 11 million in 2010, from 5 million in 2009, she said, with 15 million predicted for 2011.
But the popularity of the Apple iPad, on which people can read books, surf the Internet, watch videos and enjoy thousands of apps — all in full color — has shaken up the market. “It’s forced e-book reader manufacturers to innovate,” said Paul Semenza, a senior vice president for DisplaySearch, an industry researcher in Santa Clara, Calif.
Major e-reader companies like Amazon.com, which sells the Kindle, and Barnes & Noble, seller of the Nook, have not announced that they are offering color versions, or that they are committed to a specific technology for doing so. But some smaller entrants in the market have said they will be using liquid crystal displays, just as the iPad does.
The Literati by the Sharper Image, for example, has a a full-color LCD and will go on sale in October, priced at about $159. And Pandigital has said that the Novel, its full-color e-reader with an LCD touch screen, will be at retailers this month at a suggested price of about $200.
But LCD displays have disadvantages, Mr. Semenza said. They consume a lot of power, he said, because they need backlighting and because much optical energy is lost as light passes through the polarizers, filters and crystals needed to create color. They are also hard to read outdoors, he added.
Other types of displays may also find a foothold with consumers — particularly low-power, reflective technologies that take advantage of ambient light and are easy to read when outside. The EInk Corporation in Cambridge, Mass., uses this reflective technology for its present product — the black-and-white displays in the Kindle, Nook and other e-readers — and will soon introduce a color version of the technology, said Siram Peruvemba, E Ink’s vice president for global sales and marketing. The technology will probably first be used for textbook illustrations and for cartoons.
The E Ink color displays, which have had many prototypes in the last two years, have not yet found favor with Kindle. “We’ve seen E Ink color displays in the lab and they aren’t ready,” Stephanie Mantello, a senior public relations manager for Kindle at Amazon.com, wrote in an e-mail.
Ken Werner of Nutmeg Consultants in Norwalk, Conn., and a specialist in the display industry, says that he has viewed the E Ink prototypes and that their reflective color technology is worthwhile.
“If you are expecting these reflective color panels to look like an LCD TV or an iPad, you’ll be disappointed,” he said. “They are not going to have that depth and range of color.” But, he said, the displays are valuable because of their low power consumption, thinness and light weight.
E Ink will ship its color displays to device makers in late fall, Mr. Peruvemba said. Hanvon Technology, in Beijing, a maker of e-book readers, will be one of the first customers, he said.
The color filters used in the displays block some of the light, but the loss is offset by an improved ink formulation that yields higher contrast, he said; the color display consumes no more power than previous monochromatic displays.
Reflective color displays from Qualcomm will also be on the market soon, said Jim Cathey, vice president for business development at the Taiwan office of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, based in San Diego. The company’s color technology, called mirasol, will be shipped to device makers this quarter, and should be available to consumers in the first quarter of next year, he said.
Mirasol dispenses with color filters, as its name suggests — it combines the Spanish words “mira,” for look, and “sol,” for sun, into a play on the English word “mirrors.” The pixels in the display use tiny, mirrorlike elements in optical cavities to selectively reflect ambient red, green or blue light — much as sunlight bounces off a bird’s feathers. The pixels switch fast enough to run video, he said.
MS. EPPS of Forrester also thinks sales of e-book readers, whether in color or black-and-white, will withstand competition from the iPad and others. “We see the market bifurcating into two separate arenas with two different price ranges,” she said — with one group opting for multifunctional slates like the iPad, and the other for e-book readers.
Color is not likely to be the most important lure for those bookish buyers. “When you ask e-book consumers what are the features they care about, it’s not color,” she said. “Market expectations are driving that innovation. Readers care more about features like durability.”
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
It's already happening
The E-reader almost by definition is personalized. That's what apps are all about. For the I-pad for instance I love The Big Picture, which is a Boston.com blog of pictures from around the world every day, that sums up the news in vivid images with cutlines.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)