Tag: Mobile Tech

Amazon Launches Cheaper, Ad-Supported Kindle

Consumers that really want an Amazon Kindle but are low on cash will want to check out the new ad-supported model that hits in May. Dealing with ads on the Kindle home screen and the screensaver saves you $25, lowering the cost of the Kindle to $114. Here’s a bit more from handsome Dan at PC Magazine:

The screen saver and home screen bar are the only places customers will see ads and offers, according to Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle content. “We are not interested in doing anything that interrupts the reading experience,” he said.

As described by Gandinetti, the advertising doesn’t sound all that obnoxious. Is it worth $25 to consumers? Or will people pay a bit more to read books without being assaulted by ads.

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My Favorite iPad News Apps

The iPad is such a fantastic device for reading news. It offers a reading experience that blends magazine/newspaper browsing with the interactivity of the Internet. I’ve been playing around with several news apps on my iPad 2 and love that I can flip through pages as if it were a magazine. I also love that I can click on a video or slideshow that illustrates a news story. It’s such a delightful way to consume content.

Here are my five favorite news apps. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I’d love to check them out.

1) CNN — I love the default setting for this app. You have blocks of images with headlines that lead to text articles or videos. The content is strong and diverse (who knew that CNN would be a great source for entertainment news?!?). I think this is a great example of serving up a simple magazine-like experience with Internet features.

2) Flipboard — This is a fantastic app for flipping through news and social content. It initially generated buzz for offering a visually pleasing way to read links and view photos found on your Facebook and Twitter feeds. It sets it up in a newspaper-like way that lets your flip through batches of content. The app also has channels you can add, such as gaming and tech, that pull content from a variety of top sources. There are even site-specific feeds. For example, reading TechCrunch on Flipboard offers a more visually appealing experience than going to the web site.

3) BBC News — This is a straightforward app that offers an elegant touch experience and fantastic content. I highly recommend reading BBC News (by any means) at least once a week. It gives you a nice “outsider” view of world news and American politics. If you miss what news reporting used to be and are tired of the heavily opinionated news cycles that dominate America then you should definitely catch BBC News. The iPad app is clean and convenient way to browse the outstanding content.

4) Huffington Post — I’m familiar with the “slide” version of HuffPo from using it on Chrome OS. It’s definitely on the busy side, but it lets you browse through a ton of content quickly. It’s easy to sift through dozens of opinion pieces, videos, slideshows, and aggregated content using the iPad app. This is much easier to use in landscape mode. You really need the additional width to see all the content.

5) The Daily — This is one of the most ambitious “digital magazines” for iPad. I like where it is and love where it could go. The content quality is uneven, but the delivery is super slick. It uses images and touch in a way that’s dynamic and elegant. News Corp offers a free two-week trial before charging $0.99 per week or $39.99 per year. While I love how it takes advantage of the tablet experience, I’m not sold on the content quality just yet.

Area 5 Launches Atomix Videogame Magazine for iPad

My pals at Area 5 have launched a new iPad magazine called Atomix. I saw a bit of it during GDC 2011 and was really impressed. Of course I’m biased because they’re my friends, but they do awesome work and I expect Atomix to be very popular. If you have an iPad, I’m sure those guys would appreciate your support. It’s only 99 cents an issue. I’m going to try to buy it thrice….

iPad 2 Headed to Toys ‘R Us in May?

The war between Apple iOS devices and traditional gaming machines is heating up! According to ModMyI, Toys ‘R Us will start selling the Apple iPad 2 in May. The site received a view images from an employee training sessions and they’re all about familiarizing Toys ‘R Us reps with Apple’s latest tablet. Here’s more:

We received a tip this morning from a Toys R’ Us employee that the venerable children’s toy store will begin selling the iPad 2 next month. Although there have been rumors in the past about Toys R’ Us possibly carrying the iPad at some point in the future, this is the first we’ve heard from an actual employee that an iPad launch at the toy store is imminent.

And there’s photographic evidence to back up the claim. Obtained during an employee training session, the pic clearly illustrates the iPad 2 presented in some form of employee training and testing process — something that would naturally take place shortly before a new product launch.

While it’s easy to find iOS devices and gaming machines at Best Buy, Target, and other broad retail outlets, videogames have ruled the roost at Toys ‘R Us. Do you think Toys ‘R Us is a good fit for the iPad 2? Should Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony be worried?

Source via BoyGeniusReport

Today’s Poll: Is the Motorola Xoom a Flop?

According to an investor note from Deutsche Bank, Motorola’s Google Android tablet — the Xoom — has only sold 100,000 units since its February 24 launch. Considering Motorola’s aggressive marketing campaign and the Xoom’s hype as an “iPad killer”, most people are dismissing the product as a failure. Others think the Xoom’s relatively modest numbers are inline for a product in an immature market; they believe that it was always stupid to compare the Xoom to the iPad, simply because the OS and apps aren’t ready.

What do you think? Is the Xoom a flop? Or are the estimated sales about right for a product that’s half baked?

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T-Mobile Launching $59.99 “Unlimited” Everything Plan

T-Mobile will launch a $59.99 “unlimited” plan that’s good for all the talking, texting, and data you can handle…with a catch. The company has offered fantastic contract-free pricing for customers that purchase phones unsubsidized. These are branded “Even More Plus” plans. However, along with the sweet price cut comes a not-so-sweet restriction on data.

According to TmoNews, the monthly allotment for 3G and 4G data is 2GB (the previous limit was 5GB). After that, speeds will be throttled to EDGE. While the new Even More Plus plan is fantastic for most consumers, heavy data users will find it too restrictive. If your data use is minimal or you pull mostly from WiFi then I highly recommend this plan. It’s a great value and, as I noted in the past, it’s a great time to sign up with T-Mobile.

Any of you tempted by T-Mobile’s new Even More Plus unlimited plan?

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Cee Lo Green + iPad + NESynth = Awesome

Here’s an awesome version of Cee Lo Green’s “F**k You!” performed on an iPad using NESynth. It’s fantastic hearing a modern song in classic NES sounds. It’s also completely cool that this was done on an iPad. Check out the clip and let me know what you think (please)!

Final Fantasy VII Bundled with U.S. Xperia Play

Huge announcement on the American version of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play — it will come bundled with Final Fantasy VII!!! I’ve been calling for this move early on. It’s a brilliant way for Sony Ericsson to attract gamers to the Xperia Play and for Sony Computer Entertainment to attract gamers to PlayStation Suite for Android. FFVII is one of the most popular and beloved games of all time. Launching the Xperia Play with Android version is just a sharp, sharp move.

Also, look at today’s date.

PlayStation Games Hit Android Market

To prepare for the launch of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has added several PlayStation games to Google’s Android Market. Titles include Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Jumping Flash, MediEvil, and Syphon Filter.

Hopefully Sony will flood Android Market with quality games. The Android platform is a joke compared to iOS in terms of gaming. Great PlayStation games for Android will make the joke a little less funny.

Any of these PlayStation games for Android interest you?

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Amazon Android Kindle With a Dual-Mode Display?

Ars Technica brought up a fantastic idea for a Kindle-branded tablet from Amazon featuring Google Android — why not have it use a dual-mode display to make it suitable for reading and multimedia computing? It’s purely speculative at this point, but I completely agree that it would be fantastic for a Kindle Android tablet to use a dual-mode screen from Pixel Qi. Here’s a clip from Ars:

The Amazon tablet speculation has attracted criticism from some naysayers who don’t think that Amazon would settle for building a device with tablet-like battery life and crappy outdoor screen visibility. You can’t call it a Kindle if it’s only going to last for eight hours, right? I think the solution to that problem is simple: use a dual-mode display like the kind engineered by Pixel Qi.

The hypothetical Amazon tablet tablet could have a “Kindle” mode where the display gives you high-resolution sunlight-readable grayscale rendering. You could easily use it as either a tablet or an e-book reader. It’s still not going to deliver Kindle-length battery life, but it would be a pretty good compromise. I would want to buy a $250 Amazon tablet, and (if the enthusiasm for the Nook Color article means anything) there is a posse of like-minded readers who would too.

While no official announcement has been made, most pundits believe that an Amazon Android tablet is inevitable. The company is lining up services that would be perfect for its own tablet. The Amazon Android Appstore, Cloud Drive, and Cloud Player are nice on their own, but would be fantastic with tighter OS integration.

Last week I was pretty confident that Amazon would offer its own Android hardware by the end of the year. With the company’s recent moves, I’d actually be shocked if it didn’t happen. I’m also (not so) secretly hoping that this dream tablet would be available to Amazon Prime subscribers for free or with a steep discount. Prime subscribers are some of Amazon’s most frequent purchasers. Giving them another way to purchase goods seems like a good (and evil) idea.

Anyway, kindly let me know if you’d be interested in an Amazon Android Kindle with a dual-mode screen that allows for great book reading and multimedia.

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