Technology for Everyone – Newsletter No. 12
Technology for Everyone – Newsletter No. 12
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Blog Update
Weekly Poll I have posted a weekly poll question on the Technology for Everyone blog. You can participate in the poll and see the results from the blog. A new poll question will go up each week.
Products and Services
With the recent focus on Apple’s upcoming iPad release it seemed timely to discuss eReaders. Over the past few months the popularity of eReaders has increased, fueled in part by the success of the Amazon Kindle.
What is an eReaders? Think of it as an electronic book. Most are thin tablet-like devices that store books as electronic files. The books are then viewed on the eReader, providing features such as looking up a word’s definition instantly while reading or taking notes directly on the page electronically.
Popular eReaders include the Sony Reader ($200 – $300), the Amazon Kindle ($250 – $450), and now the the Apple iPad (starting at $499). One of the features announced by Apple is the creation of the iBooks Store. Apple is attempting to repeat the succes of their iTunes Store for music, movies, and iPhone/iPod apps with eBooks.
What is eInk? eInk is both a company and name of technology found in products like the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle. The technology is somewhat like a high-tech Etch-a-Sketch. Particles in the display are charged to display text and then the charge is applied again to change the text/page (a detailed explanation is available here). Advantages include longer battery life as the device is not maintaining a constant charge to the screen (different than Apple’s iPad’s LCD display). A disadvantage is that because eInk is not backlit (like LCD) it requires ambient light and therefore cannot be read in the dark.
Do you have an eReader? Want to share your experience with other Technology for Everyone readers? Email Bryan.Sippel@gmail.com with “eReader” in the subject line or comment on the “Technology for Everyone – Newsletter No. 13″ post.
News and Facts
Skinput Researchers at Microsoft and Carneige Mellon University are working on a new type of touch screen – your skin. The Toronto Star reports that “Skinput uses a (still clunky looking) armband that projects a touch screen onto the forearm and hand. Large tabs or push buttons flicker across your flesh.“ Using acoustics (the ripples on your skins as you push down on your body) the system detects what “buttons” are being pushed. Visit the skinput project here and a Gizmodo article here.
iPad release announcement Apple announced last week that the iPad (wifi version) will be in US stores on April 3, with an international wifi version release later in the month. A new iPad commerical was released during the Oscars on Sunday and available here.
Tips and Tricks
Create a digital copy of your DVDs Last week I talked about watching movies on a netbook. Without a DVD drive you will want to create a digital copy of your DVD. There are many programs that accomplish that goal and the one that I have had the greatest success with is called Handbrake. It is available for PC, Mac, and Linux and will convert any DVD-like source to MPEG-4 files (which can be played back on most devices including iPods).
Tangled headphones, here is a solution Ever been annoyed by tangled headphones? You won’t be anymore after trying out one of these solutions Solution A Solution B Solution C (my personal choice)
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