Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
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If you follow e-readers, you might have seen the post I wrote not long ago detailing and judging the various secondary features e-readers are sporting in order to catch the eye of the spendy book-lover. I am ashamed to say I missed a very important one: extremely low price. I mentioned it in passing, but the truth is that once a device like this creeps below $100 or so while retaining its fundamental function, it gains access to a few different markets, a circumstance worth looking at. The Kobo e-reader is the spark that set this post off; at $150, this 6″-screen, 0.1″-thin, half-pound device is among the very cheapest e-readers out there, yet Kobo also runs its own bookstore, which has the usual classics and bestsellers — probably 90% of what gets sold for e-readers. It’s going to be sold at Borders , and with its modest price tag might make for more of a temptation to browsing customers. But as long as consumers are being bombarded with promises of Android , touchscreens , cool dual-screen form factors , the Kobo is going to look mighty shabby in comparison. And by the time Kobo gets some press and is widely available, we’ll probably be hearing about all the cool stuff that’s going to happen next year. What’s a cheap, functional e-reader to do? Sell in bulk. The e-book is a loss leader, right? If someone spends $150 on a reader, you can be sure they’re going to get their money’s worth by buying at the very least 10 or 20 books and magazines a year with the thing. I don’t know why more e-readers aren’t being sold at or below cost. Sony made the same mistake with the PS3 — if they truly had a “10-year plan” for their device, why were they so chary of losing money at launch? Nobody is going to buy a PS3 and no games, and nobody is going to buy an e-reader and no books. We talked in the podcast about the Alex and things like co-branding with publishers and subscription models. I think that in the coming tablet wars, the only way e-books will be able to stay above water is with volume. And in order to have volume, they’re going to need to be able to make a real value proposition when there’s an iPad or Chrome OS tablet in their customer’s hand. As much as I like the Que , for instance, few will buy one at $650 when you can get a tablet computer for far less. Sure, they don’t do the same things exactly, but tell that to the consumer looking at full-color e-books on the iPad and desktop-class web apps in Chrome OS . There’s only one thing to do: get them prices down! E-reader sellers have been living in a land of milk and honey for the last year; although their devices are yet unfamiliar to most people and probably aren’t selling as well as anyone hoped, they were a class to themselves and people justified spending $350 because “that’s just how much these things cost.” This year should change that, and the iPad’s strong sales should strike fear into e-readers’ hearts. Amazon is already hedging its bets. What to do? Are they doomed? Hell no. But you better believe they’re going to be niche a year or so from now. Once the place of the tablet in a person’s tech lifestyle is established, I personally think people will find room for an e-reader, but it’s going to be hard to justify spending a lot. To return to the Kobo, however, a cheap device that replaces a whole class of paper books and mass-photocopied lecture notes could be a breakthrough for a University. English majors could probably get by with the 100 free books that come pre-loaded on the thing. Or a teacher-administrated set of locked Kobos in a middle school classroom — no more dog-eared copies of Where the Red Fern Grows : “Choose two heart-rending dog stories from the eight available on your Kobos, children. Your progress will be monitored — and your tears .” Seriously, though. Kobo, being first and foremost the cheap, basic option out there, should capitalize on that — as far as one can capitalize on being inexpensive. Call up school districts, libraries, universities, and hey why not, government agencies. Think of the amount of paper used in duplicating bills and memos for interns and editors to read! Of course, if any great amount of marking up is required, that’s a bust for the Kobo, which has very little in terms of input, but it still could be very useful in the right situations. They’ve also got apps for the major smartphone platforms, which is a good selling point for big, homogeneous groups like enterprise and government. The thing is that Kobo needs to bite the bullet and start selling these things for peanuts. If they want to get a leg up on the other e-readers, to say nothing of survive the onslaught of tablets, they need to get a million units out there stat . Apple’s got a 10-iPads-for-$4970 deal right now, but to outfit a class of freshmen at that price would bankrupt Croesus. But if Kobo calls up UCLA and says “Psst – special deal for you, my friend, Kobo eighty dollars, you buy at my store,” I think they can guarantee themselves quite a few sales, though it may mean a lot of work by some party in localizing lecture notes and so on to the e-book format. If the state or city won’t bite, then offer deep student discounts. Just get them out there. The gist is this: the only way e-readers are going to stay healthy a year from now is by either being one of the few leading brands (Kindle, nook, etc) who can sell at a premium, or by selling their product in thousand-packs for deep discounts. Schools are the obvious target for this kind of sales tactic, but like the Alex, Kobo could also work with publishers and stores to re-brand and customize, as they’re likely doing with Borders. Of course, at this point it’s still speculation and guesswork as to the buying patterns of the book-buying public, so we’ll see how it turns out, but for a non-premium device like the Kobo, I think the course is clear.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
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Living in Nevada, I get to see all kinds of art projects on the road as Burning Man approaches. I will admit however, that none of them look quite as cool as these, a combination of the “rat-rod” and an art bicycle. Gaskill’s Hop shop isn’t actually a bicycle shop, but rather a exhibition for the art bike projects of one “Gaskill”. Inspired by the vintage rat-rods of the 50’s, Gaskill’s projects are DIY, but definitely the work of an artist and not someone who just dabbles. The site is definitely worth a look, just for the cool speed trial style bikes he’s built. [via Make ]
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
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We’ve covered plenty of electric bicycles from Japan in the past, but let’s be honest: Most of them are really ugly, for example these (technically interesting) models Sanyo introduced three weeks ago. But this new Panasonic e-bike, the BE-ENV [JP], looks rather cool and is something I could see the younger (and male) population actually using, too. Based on the titanium frame, Panasonic is marketing the BE-ENV as a “high-class” electric bike. This new model is extremely light (15.7kg) and absorbs vibrations better than other e-bikes, according to the company. Panasonic says they especially focused on the general design and the lithium-ion battery to make the BE-ENV stand out of the crowd. Buyers will be able to choose between three different driving modes, including an eco-mode, directly from an LCD monitor (see picture below), which can also be used to keep track of one’s average speed, distance travelled etc. Depending on which battery you choose, the eco-mode makes it possible to achieve a travel distance of up to 69km. The BE-ENV is already available in Japan for $6,600 to $8,000 (build-to-order). There are no plans to sell the bike outside Japan at this point.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, March 19th, 2010
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The 5D mk II 2.0.3 firmware was supposed to be the end-all solution for the Canon super camera. But it wasn’t. It caused more issues not worth the enhanced movie mode it added. Canon of course of pulled the firmware from its site cause many 5D mk II owners to cry a little. Because, as everyone knows, Canon owners are notoriously emotional unlike the cool and collected Nikon crowd. But chin up 5D mk II owners, the proper firmware is now available. Canon In the Version 2.0.4 firmware, the following phenomena that occurred with the Version 2.0.3 firmware (which was to enhance the movie functions) have been corrected. There was a phenomenon in which the manual recording settings made in C1/C2/C3 were changed and sound could not be recorded if manual sound recording was used in the C1/C2/C3 settings and the camera was subsequently turned off (or if Auto Power Off was activated). This does not occur in modes other than C1/C2/C3. The Version 2.0.4 firmware includes the movie function enhancements listed in items 1 through 5 below, and also incorporates the correction listed in item 6. Adds or changes the following movie frame rates. NTSC: 1920×1080 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps) 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps) 640×480 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps) PAL: 1920×1080 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps) 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps) 640×480 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps) Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels). Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure. Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies. Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz. Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.) Caution: Firmware Version 2.0.4 is for cameras with firmware up to version 2.0.3. If the camera’s firmware is already version 2.0.4, it is not necessary to update the firmware. Movies captured using EOS 5D Mark II cameras with Firmware Version 1.1.0 to 1.2.4 can be played back on cameras updated with Firmware Version 2.0.4. However, if you try to play back movies captured with a camera with the new firmare on a camera with a previous firmare version, a message, Cannot play back image, appears on the camera’s LCD monitor. It is recommended that you use the latest Canon applications*1 to edit movies captured with EOS 5D Mark II cameras that have the latest firmare because some previous versions do not support movie-editing functions and the frame rates that are added or changed by the latest firmware. You can download the latest Canon applications from our Web site. *1 ZoomBrowser EX Version 6.5.0 or later (compatible operating systems : Windows XP/Vista/7) ImageBrowser Version 6.5.0 or later (compatible operating systems : Mac OS X v10.4/10.5/10.6) In addition to the enhancements to the movie function, the accompanying instruction manual has also been revised. Users are asked to download both the latest firmware and the latest instruction manual. You can proceed to download the instruction manual by clicking the [I Agree] button from the bottom of this page.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, March 19th, 2010
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This cool Instructable teaches you how to build your own persistance of vision wristband, one of those things that spell a word when you swing it in front of someone fast enough. The device uses a Lilypad Arduino board and about eight 8 LEDs. You actually have to program the board to get things to show up, which requires a bit of patience. However, it’s quite a cute illusion and, with enough patience, you can make your wristband say anything, if you catch my meaning.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Roland just started shipping the AC-33 Acoustic Chorus Guitar Amplifier. This cool gadget is world’s first battery powered amp built specifically for acoustic guitar. With a 30-watt amp and 5 inch speakers, you’re not going to rock Knebworth with this thing. But if you’re trying to impress the college girls at the local coffee house with your re-interpretation of “Your Body is a Wonderland” or if you’re staking out a corner in the local subway station, then this baby is for you. It uses eight AAA batteries if you’re not plugged into the wall, weighs only 10 pounds, and carries a street price of $558.50. At that price, you’ll have to accumulate a fair number dollar bills dropped into your guitar case, but hey, can you really put a price on coffeeshop immortality?
Posted by 010081
Tech
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
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This robotic fish is not the first of its kind, but it’s certainly one of the coolest out there (granted, not too many of these actually exist). Developed by the Faculty of Engineering at Osaka City University , the unnamed robo fish can move very realistically and has a key selling point: It can be powered by a solid-polymer fuel cell dubbed “Power Tube”. The fish, which is 10cm long, can not only swim around but also dive and rise, thanks to a joint at the front end. The developers first used a motor but scrapped that idea later when they found out power consumption stood at 1W. A magnet system then did the trick, pushing down that number to just 10 milliwatts. The final goal is to develop a robot fish that’s able to swim for three consecutive days on a single charge. The robot is intended to be used for rescue work and maritime research in the future. This video shows the robot fish (and another cool model) in action:
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
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After trying to find a way to remotely control their DSLRs, the clever hackers at HDRLabs couldn’t really find anything that would do what they wanted. So what did they do? Built a control of their own, using a Nintendo DS. HDRLabs went on to make the device available, for free . All you have to do is build one yourself. So this is kind of a DIY project, if for no other reason then you can’t buy this, but you can buy all the parts (and download the instructions) on how to build it. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that it’s easy, but the end result is incredibly cool. You’re going to need to take apart a camera release, a WarioWare: Twisted cartridge, and don’t even think about using this on a DSi. What’s the gain? Well, there’s a fairly large homebrew community sprouting up, but the basic set up gives you a sound activate trigger, motion sensor, time-lapse, and sun and moon rise awareness. Considering that this is a just a bunch of hackers building something that they couldn’t buy color me impressed. My only question is when can I get one for my Nikon? [via Electronista ]
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
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Here’s something old, but definitely cool and worth showing you. Livejournal user Igor113 posted some pictures from his trip to… somewhere in Russia. He loves to travel and take pictures, and these are some extremely cool photographs of some rusted and cool equipment. Igor did apologize for the quality of his camera though, and requests that you don’t kick his legs. The submarine pictures aren’t the only cool things on Igor’s site, he’s apparently traveled all over the EU and taken many many pictures of defunct Russian military vehicles and aircraft. I’d definitely recommend checking out some of his other posts as well.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
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BB has some great images from Nepal’s CAN InfoTech, a 17-year-old tech trade show. It had 238 stalls where folks were flogging amazing 8TB hard drives and the three year old Nokia N81. It’s absolutely laudable that these guys are doing what they’re doing. Outside of Western Europe, CE manufacturers tend to ignore the rest of the world, focusing on English-speaking countries to break all of their goodies. That Nepal is as dedicated to nerdity as we are is fun to see. Note that instead of bright lights the Sony booth actually used big dishes made of aluminum foil to focus light on the booth.