Technological Observations
I have more than a few of those little three or four line observations regarding the technology field. Thought I should get a few of those posted before they become to stall for actual usage. Again, technological oriented blogs here, tend to not get as much readership up front, but long-term they do make up in numbers and will often surpass other posts over a lifetime. Anyway, that is part of the argument I am using to go ahead and post this despite it being over a long holiday weekend.
- The above statement leads me to my first observation, which I am sure comes to very few as a big surprise. Entries made during the week tend to fair much better on the initial traffic that is generated. I suppose it is because people are more apt to read things while at the office, or at least they are more apt to be on a computer during the week versus the weekend. As for posting though, it is interesting that I tend to have more time to write (or least time in conjunction with motivation) over the weekend. Historically, long weekends skews the page views down more than a typical weekend and coupled with beautiful outdoor weather and a post is doomed to obscurity from the start.
- Amazon’s Kindle Reader is getting down the price that I may actually start to consider one. They have the new models with built-in wireless connections down in the $139 price range. Of course, that is the smaller form and I would want the larger one, which is for a bit more, but still reasonable. The capabilities of the new models are expanded, but I would still like to be able to browse the web on the device before I would really consider it – as my opinion on specialized equipment is well-known. It would also make it much more palatable if it supported the E-Pub format as well as the ones it does already, as the E-Pub seems to be becoming the defacto standard outside of Amazon. Maybe the next generation I will pursue it.
- Speaking of readers and pad like devices, where are they? Back in the spring, I-Pad was still a fuzzy idea there were a dozen companies that were on track for a competing device by mid-summer. None that are worth mentioning have appeared at this point and by default (with good reasons, despite some hardware drawbacks) the I-Pad is walking away with all the market share. If this goes on much longer, the rest of the touch-pad type of device manufacturers should just give up.
- One last thing on readers and pads and then I will move on to something else. Pandigital and Dillard’s Department stores have an offering that may very well be the way to go. What? Yeah, I said Dillard’s. Don’t worry, I have not been shopping there have no intention of heading out to the mall anytime soon. But they are offering a reader from Pandigital that has a LOT of the features the Kindle needs to have to stay relative and a price point that blows the I-Pad away. It has a color screen to begin, has wireless connectivity, features web browsing, email, along with several other features (like photos and media support, including music) And for the geeky of us it is based on Android – which means in theory it should be able to run Android apps. It has a sweet price of around $160. It is a classic example of good enough for most non-geeks to clearly be able to make some big inroads at this price point versus an I-Pad and the outshine the Kindle at this point. Only draw back, it is tied to exclusive use of the Barnes and Noble e-book collection. Though maybe it will run the Android Kindle app? Clearly Apple is not the lone company able to innovate and I may have to put this on a Christmas list.
- Despite my having some questions about how it will not have issues with just plugging in to an outlet (clearly my lack of electrical based physics is show up here), Clarian Power has announced a target of early next year for its Sunfish product. The device is a solar panel with built-in inventor that can simply plug into an outlet. At 200 watts of generation and no means of storage, it is not intended for replacement, but rather to supplement your power supply needs. Plans are for up to five panels to be connected to give a full kilowatt. In addition the simplicity of the device compared to most solar supplemental systems, the price point is promised to be around $700.
