Techno-News Blog

by Erica Naone, MIT Technology Review

The retail giant is combining several parts of its business with its vast cloud infrastructure to deliver an impressive tablet. The Kindle Fire tablet doesn’t quite match the aesthetics of an iPad. It doesn’t sport the same delicate curves or metallic body, for example. But most people won’t care. What’s most exciting is that it comes close to matching the iPad experience for a fraction of the price—$199 compared to $499 for the basic iPad 2—and it offers easy access to Amazon’s vast array of digital content.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38690/?p1=A1

By: Wayne Rash, eWeek

When Amazon introduces its new Kindle Fire tablet, it will do a lot to reduce prices and grow the tablet market, but it probably won’t threaten the iPad. Amazon’s soon-to-be-announced Kindle Fire device will do a lot to democratize the tablet market. The new Amazon model will put great pressure on the prices of Android-based tablets from other makers, meaning that Samsung, Motorola and others will be forced to lower their prices to something at least in striking distance of the Kindle Fire’s announced $199 price. The market pressure to lower prices will only increase when Barnes & Noble starts selling the Color Nook 2 at the $250 price point.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Amazons-Kindle-Fire-Will-Push-Down-Tablet-Prices-440621/?kc=rss

By Nicholas Kolakowski, eWeek

Amazon’s Kindle Fire, with its 7-inch tablet running a highly modified version of Google Android, is a potential game-changer for the tablet market. Priced at $199.99, and linked to the online retailer’s extensive multimedia libraries and cloud services, it could offer a significant challenge to not only Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, but also Apple’s iPad (which offers an extensive media collection of its own) and the growing ranks of Google Android tablets (such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9). Unlike some other tablets currently on the market, the Kindle Fire lacks a camera, microphone, or access to 3G or 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks. It’s WiFi only. But Amazon is betting that consumers will gravitate toward a cheap tablet optimized for multimedia capability, with easy access to online media and Android apps.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Amazons-Kindle-Fire-Takes-Aim-at-Apple-iPad-Android-Market-630287/?kc=rss

By: Wayne Rash, eWeek

It’s clear now that the flurry of the Kindle announcement is behind us that Amazon has learned a thing or two from another of the great success stories in American marketing. That other great success is Gillette, and the lesson its success teaches is that Gillette didn’t get rich selling razors. It got rich selling blades.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Amazon-Selling-the-Kindle-Fire-Tablet-Like-Gillette-Sells-Razors-145524/?kc=rss

by the Next Web

Here’s a little something to tide you over until the official Steve Jobs biography is released. The editors of Fortune have compiled a selection of stories about Jobs into an ebook for Kindle called ‘All About Steve’. The ebook features 17 stories that span over 20 years of Jobs history and detail many different aspects of his career.

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/09/28/fortune-releases-all-about-steve-ebook-for-kindle/

by the Next Web

The Appmates toys are used by dragging the toys across the top of the iPad in order to race and perform other activities. Each toy unlocks different features in the apps, making them a collectible draw. The app is going to be a free download and the cars will run $20 for a two-pack. You lay the iPad down flat and place the toy on the screen. It interacts with the device by touch and will allow you to race down tracks, play games and activate special powers that will help you use it. The whole things looks pretty darn cool.

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/09/28/these-disney-cars-toys-interact-with-the-ipad-in-a-super-cool-way/

by the Next Web

One small, social voice startup called QWiPS (formerly Blurts) aims to accelerate the pace of Sound’s evolution on the web. The New York City based company will also release its iOS app in early October, which debuted recently at Fashion’s Night Out in NYC, allowing Vogue editors to create PhotoQwips–voice captioned photos. The upcoming iOS app will also include the ability to create voice tagged Tweets and Facebook posts, apply filters and effects, and create and share threaded voice conversations. QWiPS’ web app is very easy to use. Without signing up, you can hit record and speak into your computer’s microphone. Your audio is then saved via a link. It’s up to you to do what you will, either tweet out the link, share it in an email, or spam your coworkers. It’s not as robust, as shareable or as pretty as SoundCloud, but it does feel more lightweight with a link rather than an embed. With QwipBacks, others can respond in their voice to your individual Qwips, facilitating an ongoing dialogue. QwipBack responses can be recorded in your browser or on the upcoming app.

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/09/27/qwips-launches-a-quick-way-to-send-sound-around-the-internet/

by the BBC

Apple’s iPad, now in its second generation, has proven a big hit with consumers. Apple’s iPad captured 80% of the tablet computer market in the US and Canada in April to July, a report has said. The iPad accounted for six million of all 7.5 million tablets shipped in North America during the second quarter of 2011, according to research group Strategy Analytics. It described Apple as a “formidable market leader”. Yet it added that Amazon could become a big challenger.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15082092

by Christopher Mims, Technology Review

Amazon is unveiling its new seven-inch tablet, which is to be based on the now-defunct BlackBerry Playbook. The good news is that a major player in both the media distribution and hardware space will finally drop a device that could be competitive with the iPad by virtue of price alone. The bad news is, Amazon is using the same leverage Apple possesses to give publishers of content on its tablet basically the same terms that Apple arrived at, namely, a 30 percent commission on all sales.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27199/?p1=blogs

by Christopher Mims, Technology Review

The proliferation of ways to measure things — point of service terminals, web analytics, geographic and temporal records, even semantic information — means businesses are drowning in data. This has led to a new class of engineer, the “data scientist,” whose job it is to perform the sophisticated mathematical gymnastics required to extract actionable information from this mass of numbers. According to mathematician Cathy O’Neill, the skills of a data scientist include not only crunching numbers, but also visualizing the results.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27201/?p1=blogs