Acer has recently unveiled their LumiRead ebook reader, and it seems to be an interesting device. In terms of features the LumiRead has a 6-inch monochrome eInk display, QWERTY keyboard, 2GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot. According to Acer, that 2GB of internal storage is enough to hold roughly 1,500 ebooks.
Additionally, you will find Wi-Fi and 3G as well as an ISBN scanner, which according to the press release will allow users “to scan ISBN codes” and create a wish list as well as search for those titles.
As for content, that looks like it will be available by way of Barnes & Noble here in the US as well as Libri.de in Germany and China. As of now a price has not been announced, however the LumiRead is scheduled to arrive sometime in Q3 2010.
We are experiencing a content revolution. Internet has made readily accessible to everyone a growing amount of content. Now users are looking for devices through which they can take advantage of this sea of contents.
eBooks are one of the ways Internet has made content available to users and, with hundreds of new titles coming out every day, they are having a growing success.
Acer has picked up this user trend and developed the LumiRead, a device that while offering users an excellent reading experience it seamlessly integrates in the Acer clear.fi solution to let people live through a 360° Acer experience. In fact the Acer LumiRead is DLNA compliant, therefore capable to access Acer clear.fi and share contents like eBooks and audio-books.
Light, compact and easy to use, the Acer LumiRead is the ultimate travel companion. No need to choose which books you want to carry with you, you will always have your entire library at your disposal, on the beach or on top of a mountain. Intuitive navigation and comfortable layout of content offer an excellent reading experience no matter where you are. And, should you run out of books to read, you can connect wirelessly or via 3G module to download the latest bestseller!
Acer has already signed agreements with Barnes&Nobles, a leading US company offering over 1 million titles in its eBooks store, Libri.de, a Germany's leading Internet book retailer offering over 4 Million titles, which also distributes to book retailers through the wholesaler Libri GmbH, Founder, one of China's most innovative and influential high-tech companies, to provide localized contents in English, Chinese and German. But also French and Italian readers will be able shortly to read books in their languages, thanks to other agreements that are almost ready to be formalized.
Acer LumiRead comes with 6-inch display, it's only few millimeters thick and permits to carry an entire library of up to 1,500 books in just a handful of grams. With non-glare, no backlit e-Ink display, it delivers a paper-like reading experience, even under bright sunlight.
Equipped with 2GB flash memory, it can hold more than a thousand of books and its capacity can be easily expanded just by adding a MicroSD card. An innovative ISBN scanner allows to scan ISBN codes so you can create your own wish-list and search on supported online libraries and book stores.
Acer LumiRead is rich of cool features designed to offer a better experience. The QWERTY keyboard makes it easy to browse the web and find and share information on books. The auto-layout automatically adjusts the content to offer the best reading experience according to the format. It supports various formats, multiplying users choices, and most popular DRM (Adobe and OMA2.0).
You can easily browse through you entire collection of books thanks to the simple and intuitive user interface, that let you also visualize book categories for better management of your library.
Acer LumiRead features a built-in Internet Browser, and the unique "Smart Download" saves website content for reading anytime, everywhere!
We have seen news of MeeGo in the past, but the good news here is that MeeGo version 1.0 is now available for public download. Those interested can download, install and begin using MeeGo 1.0 as of now—the image file can be found at meego.com.
The MeeGo Netbook User Experience includes:
Visually rich Netbook user experience, building on the latest open source technologies.
Instant access to your synchronized calendar, tasks, appointments, recently used files and real-time social networking updates through the home screen.
Aggregation of your social networking content. This allows you to see your social networking activities on one screen, easily interact with your friends, and update your status and site information.
For a fast and rich Internet experience the MeeGo Netbook user experience integrates Google Chrome or, if you prefer a fully open source browser solution, Google Chromium is also provided. Soon we will be releasing the MeeGo Handset user experience which will use the Fennec Mozilla Browser.
Easy to use applications for email, calendar and media player.
Highly optimized for power and performance.
Languages: Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, English, British English
The MeeGo v1.0 Core Software Platform Features include:
Kernel based on 2.6.33
DeviceKit and udev for interacting with hardware devices
Modern 2D / 3D graphics stack including Kernel Mode Setting, non-root X
Voice and data connectivity with Connman connection manager, Ofono telephony stack and BlueZ Bluetooth
Qt 4.6
Universal Plug and Play (gUPnP)
Media frameworks
Next generation file system BTRFS, as the default file system
FROM GAMERTELL - Target’s website has a product listing for a new 250gb PS3 slim MLB 10: The Show bundle. It doesn’t mention a price or release date. MORE »
Apple, Dell and HP have announced they are joining forces to investigate working conditions at Foxconn. The Chinese manufacturer makes many gadgets for the three companies including the iPhone. On Tuesday an Foxconn employee leaped out a window to his death. His was the 11th suicide attempt at the plant this year and the 9th that was successful. The company claims that by providing on site counseling and support from Buddhist monks it has prevented 30 other suicide attempts. What is not known is the cause for the suicide epidemic. Many suspect the company may have inhumane working conditions, and the rash of suicides has led some labor groups in Asia to call for a boycott of the iPhone. The company denies all responsibility for the suicides.
Apple says it will be in charge of the investigation and will receive assistance from HP and Dell.
A mad scientist has officially successfully infected himself with a computer virus. The mad scientist, who goes by the name of Dr. Mark Gasson, did this mostly as a proof of concept but has managed to stun most of the medical and technological world.
How? You might ask. Essentially the doc implanted an RFID chip into his hand. RFID chips are usually used for tagging animals for research and are able to send information to and from computers, but in this case, Dr. Gasson has corrupted the code and put the chip in his hand. By doing this, he was able to get rid of his keycard to the research building he goes to everyday because the chip grants him access. The same goes for his cell phone, where he has locked down use of it for only himself.
You can watch an interview with Dr. Gasson here regarding the new technology:
I can only imagine what a skilled hacker could do with this technology.
A new study from the FCC has found that most people are unhappy with their cellular provider's billing. The agency surveyed over 3,000 people and discovered that most of them had received a shockingly high bill and didn't understand ETFs at all. It also found that 83% of all Americans now have a cell phone.
“These findings support our ongoing efforts to help consumers get better information on these charges and fees,” said Joel Gurin, Chief of the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. “As we know from our consumer complaint center, even an unexpected charge of $20 or $30 can make a difference to many people. Several carriers are taking steps to make their fees and billing more transparent, and we would like this to become a universal practice. We’re confident that we will be able to work with both wireless carriers and public interest groups to help consumers avoid these unwelcome surprises.”
The FCC thinks that carriers need to be more proactive and contact customers when a spike in usage occurs or when they get close to exceeding their minutes or text allotment. I'm not sure I agree. It's the customer's responsibility to keep an eye on their billing and usage and carriers should not be expected to babysit them.
I would like to see something done about ETFs. I fully understand their purpose and what phone subsidies are, but the outrageous $350 one being charged by Verizon and the equally outrageous $325 one soon to be charged by AT&T exceed the subsidy amount of the phones they offer. The companies say they have the right to charge such steep amounts to make up for lost revenue, but I don't agree. I think the charges are being jacked up so high to force people to stay with them even if they are unhappy with the service. What do you think?
If you are wanting to pick up a shiny new Droid Incredible, you might be out of luck. For weeks now Verizon has been suffering from a shortage of the devices and it is now confirmed that a screen shortage is the cause.
Phone manufacturers all over the place are using the Samsung AMOLED screens on their phones, which is most likely the cause of the shortage. And with demand increasing daily, there is a likely chance that these screens will not be fully available for some time.
Zynga and Yahoo! have announced a partnership that will bring Zynga's wildly popular social games to Yahoo's millions of users. The details were not announced but users can expect to see the games start appearing on Yahoo sometime in the fall. It's not known which games will be seen, but unless Facebook has some kind of exclusivity deal, and there is no evidence that it does, expect to see the company's red hot games Farmville and Mafia Wars among them.
Earlier this month Zynga was threatening to leave Facebook over its extreme displeasure with Facebook's demand for 30% of its profits. The two have since hashed out a new 5 year deal that both sides are happy with.
A new study by Retrevo claims that Apple's wildly popular iPad is hurting netbook sales. The study polled over 1,000 consumers and found that the majority chose an iPad over a netbook or cheap laptop, with 78% on the side of the iPad. That said, the iPad is really not a laptop replacement. Its lack of a keyboard makes word processing and working with spreadsheets difficult and the lack of flash support and multi-tasking makes it useless for many power users. Yes, there is a dock available with a physical keyboard but that makes the tablet less portable and convenient. Avid readers have discovered that it fails as an e-reader due to both the glossy screen, which makes it impossible to use in sunlight, and the weight of the device. The steep price makes it hard to justify for many as well. As an entertainment device it's fantastic. As a business device, maybe not so much.
Back in March I had the choice between an iPad and a netbook and after much research and thought got a Toshiba 11' ultraportable. As much as I personally like the iPad (I adore my iPod Touch!) it simply doesn't do all I need a portable device to do. I needed to be able to use Firefox and Google Toolbar, and as a freelance writer and blogger, I need real keyboard. The on screen kind just doesn't cut it for long writing sessions. I also needed multi-tasking as I frequently have my browser, email and MS Word going all at the same time. I love the Toshiba, it fits the bill perdectly.
The official release of the Garminfone on the T-Mobile network will take place on June 9. After $50 MIR, the latest smartphone by Garmin will be available for the common smartphone price of $200. On the launch date, the Garminfone will be available through retail stores, select authorized dealers, and online. Here’s a quick recap of some of the key specs: a 3MP camera, 3.5 inch touch screen display, Android OS (not Froyo), and somehow lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack. Obviously the key advantage to this phone is its superior GPS turn-by-turn directions.
Apple, Dell and HP have announced they are joining forces to investigate working conditions at Foxconn. The Chinese manufacturer makes many gadgets for the three companies including the iPhone. On Tuesday an Foxconn employee leaped out a window to his death. His was the 11th suicide attempt at the plant this year and the 9th that was successful. The company claims that by providing on site counseling and support from Buddhist monks it has prevented 30 other suicide attempts. What is not known is the cause for the suicide epidemic. Many suspect the company may have inhumane working conditions, and the rash of suicides has led some labor groups in Asia to call for a boycott of the iPhone. The company denies all responsibility for the suicides. 
A mad scientist has officially successfully infected himself with a computer virus. The mad scientist, who goes by the name of Dr. Mark Gasson, did this mostly as a proof of concept but has managed to stun most of the medical and technological world.
A new study from the FCC has found that most people are unhappy with their cellular provider's billing. The agency surveyed over 3,000 people and discovered that most of them had received a shockingly high bill and didn't understand ETFs at all. It also found that 83% of all Americans now have a cell phone. 
If you are wanting to pick up a shiny new Droid Incredible, you might be out of luck. For weeks now Verizon has been suffering from a shortage of the devices and it is now confirmed that a screen shortage is the cause.
Zynga and Yahoo! have announced a partnership that will bring Zynga's wildly popular social games to Yahoo's millions of users. The details were not announced but users can expect to see the games start appearing on Yahoo sometime in the fall. It's not known which games will be seen, but unless Facebook has some kind of exclusivity deal, and there is no evidence that it does, expect to see the company's red hot games Farmville and Mafia Wars among them.
A new study by Retrevo claims that Apple's wildly popular iPad is hurting netbook sales. The study polled over 1,000 consumers and found that the majority chose an iPad over a netbook or cheap laptop, with 78% on the side of the iPad. That said, the iPad is really not a laptop replacement. Its lack of a keyboard makes word processing and working with spreadsheets difficult and the lack of flash support and multi-tasking makes it useless for many power users. Yes, there is a dock available with a physical keyboard but that makes the tablet less portable and convenient. Avid readers have discovered that it fails as an e-reader due to both the glossy screen, which makes it impossible to use in sunlight, and the weight of the device. The steep price makes it hard to justify for many as well. As an entertainment device it's fantastic. As a business device, maybe not so much. 
The official release of the Garminfone on the T-Mobile network will take place on June 9. After $50 MIR, the latest smartphone by Garmin will be available for the common smartphone price of $200. On the launch date, the Garminfone will be available through retail stores, select authorized dealers, and online. Here’s a quick recap of some of the key specs: a 3MP camera, 3.5 inch touch screen display, Android OS (not Froyo), and somehow lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack. Obviously the key advantage to this phone is its superior GPS turn-by-turn directions. 
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