Lan June 25 - Lancryption

Last chance to hit Lancryption. 80 guys signed up and plenty of space left! It starts Friday 6/25 to 6/27!
Click here to hit their page and sign up!

Apple is like an arbitrary feudal lord

The EFF is criticizing Apple's iPhone App. developer agreement. It is very abusive and favors Apple at every turn. Check it out by clicking here.

An army of iPad "killers"?

Yow there are 50 tablets launching this year. Will more than 2 or 3 make money? Scary if you're a manufacturer!
Click here for the engadget article.

Steve Jobs is wrong about Flash

Lance Ulanoff of PCMag wrote a very good editorial about why Flash is important and here to stay. Click here to read it.

Hardware guidance

Leo LaPorte has a "This Week in Hardware" show with discussion of what's new in computer hardware tech. Leo's co-host on the show, Ryan Shrout, is very knowledgeable about the latest stuff and why you might want or need it. Click here to check out the show.

Shrout has a hardware page with gaming builds of computers from "budget" to "dream" systems. Click here to check that out.

Ebooks might still be $9.99

Some details on the Apple deal with publishers have come to light that suggest that bestsellers and some other books will be $9.99 or less. Click here for the NY Times article.

Which CPU?

Figuring out which CPU you should get is pretty complicated these days. There are so many non-intuitive names from the two major players. Click here for a Tech Report comparison of a bunch of CPUs in various games.

Sony pad

For the budget minded, Sony is coming out with a 7" pad for $199 to browse the internet and it even streams Netflix content. Very tempting!

Click here for Dvice's article.

Lenovo netbook/tablet

The Lenovo netbook tablet (Model S10-3t), coming soon, has multitouch and a screen that you can turn any direction and fold back on the keyboard to hold like a book. Under 2 lbs and runs Windows 7.

Click here for a Tekzilla video clip demonstrating it.

Click here for the Amazon link.

Goodbye $9.99 ebooks!

HarperCollins is now going after Amazon's $9.99 price point. First Macmillan and now Harper. Ah well. Click here to read up on it at Wired.

Raise those prices!

A CNN blog reports that iPad apps may cost more than iPhone apps. Click here for the article. So this new product and competition don't bring prices of content like the ebooks or apps down but up? The pad seems to have triggered publishers to make their dissatisfaction clear with Amazon about raising prices and it seems that Amazon will capitulate and raise prices. Now those fun little apps for your mobile will cost twice as much? Darn.

eBook pricing

Molly Wood has another, and well thought out, view on the Amazon/Macmillan ebook price dispute. Let the market control...click here to read.

Very cool new toys!

I want them all! Click here for a MSNBC list of the best gadgets of 2010.

iPad questions and answers

MSNBC has a pretty nice list of questions people might have about the iPad with answers. Click here!

Lego wins!

Comparison: Lego iPad and the Apple iPad: Both don't have USB, Multitasking or Run Flash. Both are Sexy. Lego iPad does not need FCC approval. Cost is $20 vs. $499-$839.

Seems like an easy call!

Marijuana is legal in more states than the iPad! FCC...

What is in Colbert's big jacket pocket?

Colbert is an apple fanboy!? Click here for the video etc. on Engadget.

Go netbook go!

PCMag has 42 reasons why a netbook is better than an iPad! Steve Jobs cried himself to sleep. Click here!

Prices go up, consumers go down.

I'm not sure there's ever been a price increase like this Amazon thing. Costs go down and prices go up? From $9.99 to up to $15? Ow. $10 made some sense because printing a book and shipping it is not cheap. And the artist gets a buck or three and the publisher gets the rest?

Anyone that's made it should probably just go straight to Amazon. Why should Stephen King pay a publisher. He should get $7 and Amazon $3 maybe? Or Sue Grafton or any other former bestseller. They lose the talented editing and publish some crap maybe but you'd think it would have to go this way. If tablets become common then publishers should shrink and fade just like record companies and tv networks do as content creators go directly to customers through the internet.

Amazon blinks! Bye bye $9.99.

Amazon blinks! They will raise their prices. When Apple negotiated their publishers deals the publishers probably insisted that ebook prices were too low. Apple probably suggested that Amazon shouldn't enjoy a special price over Apple and that the publishers needed to hit them with the same price increase but we can't know what was said naturally.

Macmillan is probably just the first to hit Amazon. No more $9.99 books in the future? Of course if Amazon doesn't add color and more functions to the Kindle it probably would lose the fight to iPad sales anyway.

Maybe they need a cheaper Kindle in black and white and then one in color? But can they make a Kindle for $99 or even $199? Well $199 is only a $59 reduction. Maybe Amazon was doing this to sell books and newspapers anyway and will be happy to drop the Kindle if sales fall to the iPad and other tablets?
Click here for the NY Times article on this.

Netbook vs. iPad

Best media center

What device browses the internet, runs flash, multi-tasks, runs Hulu, Netflix, Youtube and just about anything? A netbook attached to your TV! I've been doing it for a few months and it works great. Netflix, for example, as a feature of a DVD player, only offers what you've already qued. You need to be able to browse and pick whatever you feel like from their "instant watch".

I also use the netbook to do some Skype video phone. Doing that off a 30" tv is way fun. Reading comics with the "Comic Book Reader" software is also very cool on a large screen.

Comparison chart of various tablets

Gizmodo has a nice chart comparing features of tablets. Click here to check it out.

iPad vs. a rock

Techcrunch has the goods! A chart comparing the functionality of the iPad vs. a rock.

Click here!

Netbooks are weak!

You need this! The Alienware m11x netbook! Pack this in your lan bag with a 24" lcd, external kb and mouse and head to a lan party!
Click here for some details.
Glowing red keys with a core2duo and a 1gb Nvidia 335m graphics card!

Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs

Around the same times, while Jobs was trying to change the world with a shiny new toy, Bill Gates announced that $10,000,000,000 of his dough was going to his foundation to help cure disease in the world. Jobs later ranted that Google's "Do no evil" is bullshit . And we think Microsoft is bad?

Steve Jobs' advise

Stay away from those Kindles and iPads because this smart guy, Steve Jobs, says that people don't read anymore. That means you nub!

Leo LaPorte hates my netbook

Leo says that netbooks are too weak, that users will just buy them and realize the mistake and get something else and that they are disposable and maybe you'll keep one for a year. This from the guy that changes phones, and probably cpus, weekly or monthly?

As I sit here in my recliner, with my netbook dual-monitoring a 30" LCD running netflix instant watch video and it's little 8" screen with a browser running a bunch of tabs, and my usb mouse and kb on my lap, I have to wonder what the problem is. The video is smooth even with a bunch of tabs and internet stuff running. And I don't even have a beefy ion with nvidia graphics or the mighty Dell Alienware m11x (could you get me one for xmas?). At $300 it's probably 1/2 of one of the iPads that Leo will probably buy a dozen of.

And unlike the iPad or my pet rock, it runs Flash, multi-tasks, DOS programs and every windows program I throw at it. You wouldn't want to try to run Crysis on it but then Leo's Nexus One and iPad won't do that either.
And you won't see white screens with little blue tiles, like the iPad, on every cool kid site with flash games or video. And it runs bittorent programs which I hear can be useful to the unscrupulous user!

And it's never crashed.