Wired has a product review today on the M-Edge Guardian Case for the Amazon Kindle. It looks water tight and absolutely unnecessary. You see the reason for these kinds of hinged plastic cases for digital cameras is that people actually go underwater to snap pictures of family and poisonous jellyfish. Nobody that I know of would be reading a book on sharks or diving safety 3 inches or 30 feet under the sea or at the community pool. Protection from the occasional splash or sudden rainstorm is where a case is needed. The M-Guardian weighs a pound and basically disables the joystick controller on your Kindle. How does this feature or the price tag of $80.00 for this make sense? I’ll tell you where it makes sense. If you tend to set your ebook readers where you might accidentally sit or drop a grenade on them, a case like this would be nice insurance. I suppose reading in bed you might rollover on it or push it off the mattress too.
Weatherproof cases bring the question front and center, why isn’t the Kindle or any other e-reader designed to withstand a little water or a little heat or cold to begin with? Added longevity would seem like a much better upgrade for people than a few extra shades of gray on the their screen. Wouldn’t you love to know your Kindle is just as safe in your steamy hot car on vacation as your car’s factory stereo, or that you could forget the reader on your back deck and the sudden summer rainstorm you didn’t hear coming of won’t kill your chances to read your digital library?
By the way, Wired says that the M-Edge Guardian case is the first waterproof kindle case, but I don’t believe it’s the first and it’s certainly not the only one. The Trendy Digital WaterGuard waterproof Kindle case looks like a much smarter buy at $15 from Amazon and TrendyDigital’s online store.
Do yourself a favor, consider the less expensive and lighter 2.8 oz TrendyDigital WaterGuard case for your Kindle if you’re interested in protecting it from the elements. If the massive savings wasn’t enough to convince you, an added plus is even if you didn’t have your Kindle with you on your float trip weekend, this case is mostly a simple bag and you could protect other items with it such as your wallet, phone, small camera and other thin materials from liquid disaster.
Update: There is a nice compromise called KlearKase that has both the weather and shock protection for a middle-ground price of $40.00 and weight of 6 oz. KlearKase seems to be the right option for watergoers and rough and tumble sit down smashers.
The Kindle is less interesting than a tablet. But it has some very good points to it. Convenience is one, the connection right to the Amazon store is something some people like. It’s light and has a sharp reflective screen that can be read inside or outdoors. On the flipside, though it’s slow and it doesn’t do media or animation. The iPad, which is selling a lot more units per second than the Kindle these days is more useful to people because it gives them abilities to surf, game, and create. Thousands of apps add to it’s feature list. It appeals to young and old. It’s a device you can experiment with, you can add onto it. The 6″ Kindle is half the price of the iPad, but the big Kindle DX is the same price $500 as the lowest iPad with the same size screens. Someone ready to buy either one has to answer the question would they rather read in bright sunlight on something like a paper page, or get something with a lot more sizzle, that you can play with, watch video and produce content too?
The point I’ m making is that if people essentially don’t care about the e-paper screen or the sunlight issue, the iPad makes a lot more sense. You can buy the same books, you’ll get a better view of the photos in color. You can quickly get out of that book and switch tasks in an instant. You can consume AND create. Sure the iPad’s LCD will probably strain your eyes faster, but it might also fill a couple niches in your life. Tablets like the iPad can be the perfect living room device for sharing and playing. (Damnit no camera on this thing?)
So if you were Amazon and you want to continue to sell more Kindles, you need to raise its appeal. Seth Godin wrote today for his Kindle friends that they should get the Kindle priced down to $49.00 and increase the attractiveness of buying ebooks with book-of-the-month club purchases. He added that corporations should be able to buy them for hundreds of their employees and be able to push their own content such as technical manuals or maybe annual reports to everyone in the company. Godin’s ideas make a lot of sense. And if the prices were right, you can turn more people into Kindle users if you can make the ebooks more attractive too.
I have one solution for Amazon that might make a biggest difference though. Amazon really needs to take a very close look at Valve’s Steam store and copy the hell out of it. Steam is a website for downloading PC games (Macs now too). Games are like first cousins to ebooks, both are digital content of an unlimited supply. If you have a desire to play a new game, much like you might feel a desire to read a new book, you can go to Steam and see latest best sellers. But something really obvious on the Steam store are nice shiny buttons to take you to games under $10 and under $5. Something for everyone.
The next great thing Steam has is sales on games on one particular day a week or over a weekend. If you’re visiting the site frequently and paying attention, you can grab a $40 game for $20 for example. Lastly, you can buy packs of games under certain publishers for big discounts too. Valve, the creators of the Steampowered store sell the complete Valve pack. Close to 20 Valve games. Buy the pack, you save a $100. Actually you’re saving a lot more because many of the games are well below their original retail price already. The Valve pack at $99 is enough gameplay online and off to keep you busy for a while. It’s instantly downloadable content too. And you can download it to different locations.
This is the trifecta. This makes Steam a very attractive place to shop for games. Books are a little different yes, and it will take a lot of work with the publishers, but it’s the only forward looking move that you can make with ebooks right now. Amazon has the publisher partnerships, something that Valve had to work really hard to do. Amazon has the advantage of a lot more book titles than games. Publisher book packs could be in many different flavors of collections. For example Penguin Books, who just finally came to an agreement with Amazon on their best seller prices could sell best sellers as a discounted pack of ebooks, or packs under a certain topic, such as a technical area of expertise and make these collections accessible and affordable. Not only that, but publisher packs also help the reader identify the publisher. Readers might look forward to the next Penguin or Wiley book because that pack they bought last time had all the good stuff.
Think how powerful it would be if Amazon could just layout prices of new books at discounts where you really feel fortunate as a Kindle owner. Say 6 months after a hardback book is released, Amazon could have a 24 hour sale on the book pricing it $5.99 rather than $9.99. It’s still a new book and because it’s a one day only, and perhaps a never repeated sale, the lower price doesn’t devalue the normal price or the physical book price. Anyone who missed out, too bad, but it would be consoling to know another sale will come soon enough and they just need to check back often. Sales can be promoted through all kinds of social channels too. Ebook sales are easy. The supply is unlimited. If nobody buys, who cares! Everything that happens or doesn’t happen is a valuable and instant learning opportunity.
Right now on the web page for the Kindle store, they don’t have a bargain bin, though they do have some cheaper books. Finding ebooks at $7.99 and even $2.49 didn’t take long. But it’s not presented in a way that’s good for impulses like a retail store is. If you look at the best sellers category for example, they actually think crossing out the other price is a good way to make the Kindle price look better. Look at the price(s) for the top left book in the photo below. Oops! Funny thing is, I’ve hardly ever buy a book at list price. Do they even use the list price at Borders or Barnes and Noble? Seems like all new books there have a discounted sticker of at least 10%. Amazon fails to entice me with this overused cross-out original price tactic. I’ve never bought a book at full price at Amazon. If that’s what they sold them for, I doubt I would shop there as often.
Next we have a page with best sellers in the Kindle Store. 2 columns. Top 100 paid, and Top 100 Free. Once again we have a problem. The good news for consumers. About 10% of these top 100 were priced under $5. The bad news for Amazon, you have to pay attention to see that. Why don’t they just have the $5 or even the $2.50 category?
I love a top 100 free category, but if they have the free column, there’s no reason not to have top 100 under $5.
Multiple surveys I’ve seen have indicated that people think a reasonable price for an ebook is $5 and under. Why is this category not here and promoted on the front page of the Kindle store? If it was, anyone getting a Kindle will at least know, hey this is cool and there are a bunch of books for only a couple dollars. They know they’ll have plenty to read, they also know they might be rewarded for paying attention to discount days.
Publishers need to get it through their heads, Unlimited supply changes things. They need to help these e-reader stores become attractive through book pricing and big 50% and 75% off sales. And they need to start yesterday. If they’d rather wait, they might as well choose to not do ebooks and face the consequences of being paper only. Ebooks fit the model of selling more at a lesser price. Publisher have repeatedly said that the cost of printed books is negligible, but this is the biggest lie. Because it’s not just printing. It’s shipping, it’s employee and warehouse handling, inventory, real estate, insurance, etc. Ebooks eliminate much of this and allow for more affiliate marketing opportunities.
Looks like a Courier will come to life after all. Well not really. It’s not the Microsoft Courier project recently shelved, it’s actually much larger dual-screen tablet based on a custom Linux variant. The Kno is a lovely and very large tablet device created for reading text books and taking notes. It’s screens are bigger than all tablets and e-readers currently available or in the works. The size of the Kno screens, 14 inches! The creators say that the reason for this large form is so it replicates the students textbook experiences in size, but their aim is to revolutionize learning with it’s functionality. With current technology, it looks to be a heavy device, but that doesn’t mean it would put off students carrying book bags already anyway. The Kno was announced yesterday at the AllThingsDigital conference. CNET was there covering the event and posted Youtube videos talking with the Kno company founders Babur Habib and Osman Rashid which are embedded at the end of this article.
The Kno exists in a working prototype form at this point. It runs embedded Linux with a custom browser-based operating system centered around reading, notetaking and organizing clips of information much like the Microsoft Courier project appeared to specialize in. The Kno interface looks spacious, custom designed and visually organized though the prototype had a few input response issues. Kno is currently posting jobs for several development areas to refine the device and OS. They have partnered with major publishers and expect that rather than having a dedicated app store, apps written for the device will come from many places including the educational institutions, publishers and the students themselves.
According to the Kno website, to develop the device they created a student panel to understand how to build it for their needs. And they observed the way people study to create how the user interface behaves and organizes things. There are a few student reaction videos on the site as well, spoken in a way as if these students already use it, but the device isn’t available yet. Rashid said that they will have their pre-order system in place for this fall with the tablets ready by the holidays.
Things we like:
The large size serves a clear purpose. It has a clear target student market and a custom embedded OS, which means the processing requirements and power consumption could potentially be lower and the startup could be faster.
The blue alternating hinges are a nice fixture
The form is sleek and original
Touchscreen supporting a stylus gives it drawing and sketching potential.
Linux Kernel and a custom interface might break new ground for the future of tablets. Every little bit helps.
Supports Flash Player for video and animations – very useful considering the content on many online course sites include flash components and media.
A journalist and enthusiast of tablets, Charbax brings a very useful video of Marilou Jepsen from Pixel Qi about the company’s screens. If you’re into technology and tablets, you’ll get a kick out of this.
As I’ve known for a while and have been trying to share, the Pixel Qi screen is the right solution for most of these tablet devices right now. Look at this outdoor view. Pixel Qi IS in monochrome in the e-reader mode (reflective) but it’s very clear crisp and much better for looking at content. Kind of gives the movie an interesting tone, with a metallic sheen.
Charbax over at ArmDevices.net comes through with the video.
Posted: May 31st, 2010 | Author:Mike Smick | Filed under:Tablets | Comments Off
Thrilled is an understatement when I look at this home-built DIY tablet project. I would call Youtube user Slampana by his real name if I knew it. Slampana decided that he could build a tablet with the specs he wanted using existing parts from other sources. Seems plausible sure, not easy right? But netbooks are so close to a tablet in size and weight. Slampana’s tablet has a resistive touch screen, Windows 7, an Atom Processor packed into unique carbon fiber case. It weighs in a 3.2 pounds. By comparison, a Macbook Air is 3 pounds. We’ve posted his youtube video and specs and his price list of parts below. And you can follow Slampana’s blog at carbontablet.blogspot.com.
Specs and Parts
- Windows 7
- Intel Atom Z530 Processor (1.6GHz) – GMA 500
- 2GB Ram
- 40GB SSD Hard Drive
- 13.4″ HD Widescreen LED LCD (1366 x 768)
- Resistive Touch Screen
- Wireless 802.11 g/b/n
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- Ports: 2 USB, Headphone Jack, Mic Input, Power
- Carbon Fiber Casing
- Accelerometer
- Built-In Speakers
- Dimensions 14.125″ x 8.875″ x .75″
- Weight 3.2lbs
Posted: May 30th, 2010 | Author:Mike Smick | Filed under:Readers | Comments Off
New York Times with some info on an upcoming Kindle upgrade. Will it be a touch screen, like where many of the other readers appear to be headed? Not at first, though it was reported in February that Amazon was buying TouchCo, a touch screen technology company. TouchCo’s website says they are no longer doing business (because they probably exist as part of Amazon now.)
The question about the Kindle is, how interesting is it to buyers now that the iPad and other tablets are available given that tablets have both ebook reading tools as well as other computing tasks handled pretty well. Do more consumers find the value in the stripped down simplicity of an e-reader or the capability of a computer with a tablet. And do they like the prices within the Amazon store, or do they want to seek content elsewhere? Tablets don’t have E-Ink screens like the dedicated readers do so a reader could tire looking at the backlit LCDs and will have trouble in bright sunlight. (Though there are exceptions to that.) But being LCDs, a tablet’s refresh rate is enough to do video and interactive ebook content, something e-books can leverage to add to their value over a printed book. The Kindle and E-Ink can’t do motion right now so they have to capture the attention with price, and maybe a more simple and dedicated experience. A nice price on books and maybe some new fonts wouldn’t hurt either since the content will be basically static. The report in the Times says the upcoming Kindle this summer will have a sharper screen and thinner form.
People have said that dedicated E-Ink readers really need color. That still doesn’t solve the screen refresh issue. The color reader technology from Fujitsu are visibly slower to renew a page. Kindle owners do enjoy the lightness of the devices and the connection to the Amazon store. You have to wonder in the future if it will be the Amazon apps created for other devices or the Kindle Reader family which will last the longest.
If you haven’t heard of the One Laptop Per Child, OLPC program and their device from 2007, you can read up at Laptop.org. Now we have some new information on their next idea. The original XO-1 has been a success in so many ways for children in developing countries receiving them. I have the laptop somewhere in the closet from the G1G1 days. In some ways the device is killer, in others it’s disappointing. A few expected features were never turned on that I know of. Does the stylus portion of the touch pad work yet? The promised battery life is NOWHERE NEAR what was stated. They said something like 12 hours when reality was about 2.5 hours. The operating system had some good points, but it was clunky with the journal and was slow to organize things. You could have hundreds of unneeded journal entries and you’d have to delete them one thing at a time. Feels like ancient history.
My summary of the various sources of this press release this tablet and the initiative:
Probably running Android, but definitely running an open OS
Eventually sporting a plastic screen, not likely immediately
Dual Mode Display – (Pixel Qi for reflective and backlit mode)
Hi def video encoder
3D graphics
Multi-touch
Camera
I hate to say this, but I’m skeptical we will get something close to their graphical mockup prototype in the time frame given. But since I’m not privy to the plastic display technology coming out near term, I could be wrong. In the video below, Nicholas Negroponte talks about a working prototype for CES in 2011. That’s about 8 months away. And he says plastic is expected for 2012. He’s certain about the price point though. I’m not sure I would be so certain though. When you look at the ecosystem, the pieces of this puzzle seem to be there. Not at this price point though. The Google Nexus One phone, arguably the most powerful smartphone right now, is about the right thickness and capability. It won’t do 1080 video but the 3D is pretty capable. The screen is much smaller, I’m not sure of the battery life with the system playing video, but let’s say 4 hours. If we could drop the power requirements for the screens, the Nexus One would be a pretty capable tablet. More battery could be distributed across and still maintain a decent weight. But again the Nexus One is $529 and most smartphones, even if seemingly priced well such as a $99 iPhone at Wal-Mart, are still hiding their actual cost within the data plans.
TheBookSeller.com reports that JK Rowling has seen the light and will allow selling of her Harry Potter series digitally. Whew good thing, finally people might eventually get HarryPotter as an ebook.
Small problem. Fans have already typed out all the books and made PDFs, ePubs and text downloads long ago. Had this been available earlier from the publisher(s), there would have been sales to take advantage of at the time. But customers have been lost.
There was an interesting point made in the article. To create a book experience unique to the franchise, it’s gotta be more than text, wouldn’t you think? There’s an entire theme park built around Harry Potter as well as the movies. It’s almost embarrassing if they didn’t dig a little deeper for the ebook version. The question was, for this book to be successful, does one partner with a publisher, animation studio, app developer or what?
Good question. If you try to make apps, you’ll be making more than one for the various devices, iPad, Android, Flash / Adobe AIR etc. If you want to reach the e-reader market, you won’t really be able to have anything but text. If somebody buys one, will they get access to all? Will one be cheaper than another? Will there be a discount over the whole set? Will it be affordable, or is it better to just pick up a used copy somewhere, since there are thousands of those everywhere. Everytime I go to the thrift store, they have Harry Potter books. Plus if you have the DVDs, where does an enhanced book fit in? Might it be a lot of work just for something gimmicky? And when it comes to sales, does that matter? Will e-books have anything to give to collectors? A gold CD or something? Or how about a dedicated Harry Potter tablet? That could actually work given the popularity of this franchise.
Posted: May 27th, 2010 | Author:Mike Smick | Filed under:displays | Comments Off
This is just a 4 inch prototype. It’s not going to be in consumer hands for I’m guessing about 7 years. But it’s still amazing to see. It’s as thin as a strand of human hair. Sony does some amazing stuff. Sometimes I wish I wouldn’t see it so soon because I just know how long I’ll have to wait. I guess it gives you time to let your amazing display ideas stew to perfection. Nice work Sony.
