The iPad is priced much lower than I would have anticipated ($499) and looks like it will be rivaling the Kindle. I like the pitch, that now your books can have video and audio–so, you don’t need to read anymore?? I am not sold on e-books yet but the notion of flooding videos and audio into the books is cool, potential great teaching tool but also scary if it begins to outweigh the importance of prose and the actual skill of reading and retention.
The iPad will support the popular ePub format and authors will be able to embed multimedia such as photos, videos, and audio files directly into books. That’s a cool feature for standard books and an outstanding feature for textbooks. Imagine your history book containing video and audio snippets.
iPhone, Droid–get ready for Google domination…Showdown to begin in 2010
What do we know? It’s an HTC phone – probably the Passion, a distant cousin to the beautiful HD2 – with large touchscreen. It’s GSM unlocked and everyone at Google has one so whatever the super secret specs are, they won’t stay super secret for long.
But what if Google starts to sell this thing? This is “a big deal” on the level of Neo learning Kung Fu in The Matrix. This means Google is making hardware.
The OWLE team is back at it again, and they never fail to impress. Just a week ago, they announced the availability of the OWLE Bubo, their first product, which turns the iPhone into formidable video camera. Now, Harold Smith and Graham Mcbain have gone a step further. They’ve figured out how to access the 30 pin connector, the connector on the bottom of your iPhone that you use to charge it with, for more then just charging. What Harold and Graham have come up with today, could make video on the iPhone near broadcast-quality.
Verizon, is not putting all it’s eggs in one basket with the Droid and there is rumor of the second phone, Droid Eris, they are going to launch with Android platform–this one is supposed to have a lower price tag for the cost conscience consumer (which is every body these days, right?)
Also this week, a few details about another Android phone emerged. The Droid Eris by HTC is expected to be Verizon’s second phone with the OS. The Eris lacks a keyboard and appears to be a more budget-friendly phone. If rumors prove accurate, the Eris will be released shortly after the Droid, so there won’t be long to wait.
TechCrunch is noting that we should remember, today October 28 is supposed to be the day Droid arrives (that explains the creepy computer voices I keep hearing–or does it…)
I don’t know how you could forget, considering we’ve been posting Droid updates just about every day, but according to our calculations, tomorrow is October 28th: the day Droid drops. Now, we don’t expect the Droid to set the mobile world on its head exactly, but we’re pretty sure that it’s going to be the premiere Android device — until the next premiere device comes out.
In light of this announcement (or soon to be announcement) I would like to point out that the iPhone now has video editing software for the latest hardware versions that shoot video–ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! For those of you who don’t know me personally, I went to film school in the late 90’s (the bleeding edge of dawn of the digital video revolution). Having worked through the evolution of equipment and software over the years, tools like the ability to shoot, edit and post video all within a hand held device–that is also your phone, excite and amaze me.
I saw a commercial for the new Droid phone yesterday (of course at the time I had no idea what the commercial was about). The Droid is a new phone coming to market on the Verizon network and was created by Verizon, Motorola and Google–it is lauded as the first serious competition for the iPhone–given my network issues with AT&T’s service, if the Droid has the same tools as the iPhone it is definitely going to warrant a look from me. You can register for advanced notification on DriodDoes.com (same link as above).
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