Archive for the ‘columns’ Category

Entelligence: Of ebooks and suburban moms

There was a raging debate going on last week at Engadget HQ over the role of dedicated ebook readers that spilled over on to the Engadget Show. You can watch the show here, but essentially big boss Joshua Topolsky and Paul Miller feel that the new Barnes and Noble Nook is going to be a hit — the one machine that gets suburban moms to buy. On the other hand, Nilay Patel, rationally (as he agrees with me) says it’s not going to happen and there’s no mass market for dedicated ebook readers. I’m going to weigh in and say Nilay is probably right.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is not entirely an integration vs. convergence story. I believe there’s a market for dedicated devices: cameras have not been displaced by music phones, media players have not been displaced by music phones and ebook readers could serve bibliophiles, especially those who travel a lot. However, mobile reader apps like those from Amazon and Barnes & Noble can easily tap into more casual markets, allowing users to leverage the investment in screens they already own instead of buying a dedicated device. That’s one reason why I think it has been important for Amazon and B&N to get their ebook platform onto as many devices with screens as possible, and why Sony’s making a mistake by ignoring the opportunity.

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Filed under: Handhelds

Entelligence: Of ebooks and suburban moms originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Switched On: Making book with ePUB

The ePUB standard, developed by Adobe, allows consumers to purchase books at a variety of digital stores and use them on a wide range of compatible devices without the manufacturer having to explicitly support them. That may sound a bit like the PlaysForSure initiative that Microsoft tried mounting to challenge the iPod but ultimately shifted away from (at least for MP3 players) in favor of the Zune, but ePUB has a better shot than PlaysForSure did.

First, unlike PlaysForSure, which was playing catch-up to the already dominant iPod, ePUB is appearing relatively early in the market; it need not break anyone’s “stranglehold.” Second, after attracting the support of Sony, the format achieved a significant coup with the support of Barnes & Noble, which noted last week that it was “excited” to be supporting the format in its forthcoming Nook e-reader.

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Filed under: Software

Switched On: Making book with ePUB originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence: Seven on 7

This was a big week for Microsoft, as Steve Ballmer took the stage in New York and formally introduced Windows 7 to the world. It was almost a little anti-climactic: the OS has been finished and shipped to OEMs for months, while developers and pretty much any enthusiast who wanted a copy has one by now. Still, this is the week that Microsoft takes the message and OS to the mass market and the PC holiday sales system formally kicks off. I’ve held back from writing about the OS for the most part, but here’s seven things about Windows 7 — three features that I think are over-hyped and four things that make 7 something worth purchasing, either as an upgrade or as part of a new PC.

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Filed under: Software

Entelligence: Seven on 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence: Cloud’s illusions I recall

It’s been the story of the week. T-Mobile Sidekick customers were told that all of their data might be lost and warned not to turn off their devices to prevent losing what’s already on them. It’s about the worst case nightmare scenario for any vendor and it underscored the weakness and vulnerability of cloud-based computing with no other means of backup and storage.

The Sidekick story is complicated, and there’s much rumor and speculation as to what went wrong and how. To be clear, Sidekick is a T-Mobile branded-and-sold device and service, but the Sidekick technology comes from Danger, a former startup now owned by Microsoft, which T-Mobile pays to keep Sidekick going. Trust me, there’s going to be lots of finger pointing and perhaps a few class-action lawsuits before this all comes to an end. While finger pointing is fun, it’s not the issue. (And, as grandpa used to say, when you point your finger at someone else, three fingers point back at you.) Some argued with me last night that cloud computing is perfectly safe, it’s the company deploying that you need to look to. OK. I accept that. Only thing is that Danger’s been doing this pretty well since 2002 and at no point did I ever see a single warning from anyone that dealing with T-Mobile, Danger or Microsoft might be a bad idea when it comes to personal data solely living in the cloud.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets

Entelligence: Cloud’s illusions I recall originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Switched On: Microsoft’s touchy subjects

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

As CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates would often talk about his dream of “information at your fingertips.” The company he co-founded, though, is now taking literal steps toward that goal. By the end of the month, Microsoft will have released three new devices or platforms that embrace or extend touchscreen support — but the impact touch will have on each varies significantly by their legacy, usage, and manufacturers.

Windows has long had touchscreen support. Such support, in fact, was the basis of the Tablet Edition of Windows XP, and Tablet PCs were proclaimed to be the future of notebooks. Early iterations were larger and thicker keyboard-lacking slates much like the new Archos 9pctablet. But this was before rampant Web browsing, streaming video, casual games and electronic books — all of which now provide relevance for a new generation of touchscreen PCs as content-consumption devices.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Tablet PCs

Switched On: Microsoft’s touchy subjects originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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