Now to wait for a UK version...amazon, be my bookshelf please!

From cnet...

After rumors surfaced on the Web a few months back that a new Kindle
might be on the way, Amazon.com did its best to shoot them down, saying
a new Kindle was not coming this year. Well, Boy Genius Report has
gotten ahold of some photos
<http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/10/03/amazon-kindle-2-ebooks-its-way-to-bgr/#more-5941>
that appear to be the Kindle 2, so we're curious what Amazon has to say
now.

From the looks of the new device, Amazon has tried to address some of
the criticisms of the Kindle
<http://reviews.cnet.com/e-book-readers/amazon-kindle/4505-3508_7-32751890.html>,
most of which revolve around its somewhat homely design and a few poorly
placed buttons. The shape has been modified to make the new Kindle more
attractive, but it appears Amazon is sticking with the same off-white
color scheme--for better or worse.

Old back versus new back.

(Credit: Boy Genius Report <http://www.boygeniusreport.com/>)

The Boy Genius Report's mole or "ninja," has some comments about the new
Kindle. First, ninja says the device is basically the same size as the
older model, but is thinner and has "a slightly heavier feel, and it
feels much sturdier." The source indicates the new model uses the same
cellular EV-DO network for downloads (it's Sprint's network in the
current model) and a metal back is visible in some of the pictures. I
particularly appreciated the look of the new leather carrying pouch for
the device since I don't like the existing Kindle's protective case.
There are more photos here
<http://www.boygeniusreport.com/gallery/devices/amazon-kindle-2/>.

Boy Genius Report also notes:

As far as buttons go, on the right side, the bottoms from top to
bottom are: Home, Next Page, Menu, a joystick, and Undo. On the left
side, there's Previous, Page, and Next Page. We're told the buttons
are significantly smaller to avoid accidental page turning. The
joystick takes the place of the scroll wheel and it "takes a little
getting used to." As far as the redesigned keyboard...it "has a good
layout, but lettering on the keys could be darker." Continuing our
tour around the unit, next to the sliding sleep button, there's the
headphone jack, and on the right side edge you've got the volume
up/down buttons. What's interesting (and you can see this in the
photos) is that the backside of the unit is mostly metal with the
speakers at the bottom pf the back. One more plus? They've finally
ditched their own charger. The Kindle 2 is able to be charged with a
miniUSB cable.

No word on when the next-generation Kindle will arrive, whether there
will be a European model, or how much it will cost. However, I have a
feeling we'll soon get an announcement from Amazon--if indeed this turns
out to be a real product that will go up against the upcoming Sony
Reader, the PRS-700 <http://reviews.cnet.com/8300-18438_7-82.html>,
which features a touch-screen display and will hit stores next month in
time for the holiday buying season.

--
tnn

Rather she read the bit about sharon wanting to inject her son with botox.

Hide pls.

Tnn
[mobile]

Whiplash
[mobile]

You may not know it yet, but the next computer you buy is going to be a
netbook. The numbers say so.

Despite their compromised feature sets and puny screens, netbooks have
pulled an all-out coup d'état on the portable PC market. Currently, nine
out of the top 10 best-selling laptops on Amazon are netbooks
<http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/ultra-mobile-de.html>. Over 2008,
manufacturers shipped 10 million netbooks. And looking farther ahead,
ABI Research forecasts that manufacturers will ship 200 million
ultra-mobile devices, including netbooks
<http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/ultra-mobile-de.html> by 2013 --
which is about the same anticipated size as the entire laptop market
worldwide.

Who could have guessed that low prices and ultra portability would have
struck such a chord with consumers?

People are going gaga over these pared-down devices, and manufacturers
are keenly aware of that fact. Most of the big PC makers, including
Toshiba, Dell, Fujitsu, Siemens and Samsung, have recently introduced
their first netbooks to this rapidly expanding market.

It's somewhat ironic that netbooks are shaping up to be the computers of
the future: They're hardly revolutionary; they're essentially a smaller,
dumbed-down version of standard notebooks.

"You're going to start seeing netbooks become more mainstream, as [top
manufacturers such as] Dell and HP begin to include more features in
these devices," said Vijay Rakesh, a ThinkPanmure analyst.

Rakesh said that the relatively low price point of netbooks -- they
range from $300 to $500 -- is their primary driving factor, especially
in light of a troubled economy. He added that other key factors
attracting consumers are their mobility and weight: Most netbooks weigh
no more than three pounds and measure about an inch thick.

Netbooks are only going to get more attractive and successful as they
expand their feature sets, Rakesh said. And many companies are already
taking aim on delivering a full computing experience to these miniature
devices, with new chips, batteries and power-saving methods on the horizon.

At the 2008 Intel Developer Forum, Intel officials announced
<http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/intel-shows-off.html> their focus
on empowering the netbook universe. The company is developing Moorestown
<http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/09/the-iphone-is-o.html>, a platform
due in 2009 that Intel promises will be exponentially more powerful and
more power efficient <http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=40040>
than the current Silverthorne (Intel Atom) platform.

Meanwhile, netbook software also promises to evolve. Phoenix
Technologies, the company responsible for the BIOS (Basic Input/Output
System) that boots many Windows computers, is developing a low-power
mobile computing operating system it calls PC 3.0. Running parallel to
Windows, the instant-on environment will allow netbooks to perform
several internet-centric functions without actually booting into
Windows. Functions promised in PC 3.0 include multimedia players,
browsers, internet telephony, e-mail and IM.

The most important issue Phoenix's concept would address is battery
life, explains Woody Hobbs, CEO of Phoenix Technologies. If you want to
deliver mobile performance, you have to ensure a netbook can even handle
it without running out of juice.

"You can give up and say 'It's a trade-off; you can't have all that
power and solve all those problems,'" Hobbs told Wired.com. "But it's
not true: Technology is capable of addressing the problems. We just have
to address them smartly."

And if Phoenix's PC 3.0 environment isn't enough, Toshiba has the bases
covered with batteries, too. Toshiba recently unveiled its Super Charge
Ion Batteries
<http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/toshibas-super.html> (SCiB) in
Japan -- which take a bit over ten minutes to charge and will last
longer than current lithium-ion batteries.

A challenge manufacturers will face is keeping the price point low as
they cram more features into these puny devices, Rakesh said. He noted
that Apple has yet to step into the netbook world -- and consumers
should have high expectations from the company that revolutionized the
mobile phone.

Not much has been said about what Apple has in store. The rumor mill has
been churning about a special event announcing a revision of the
extremely successful MacBook, and many have speculated the next release
will be Apple's netbook: Perhaps the fabled "Brick
<http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/apples-brick-a.html>" or the
MacBook Touch
<http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/07/rumor-apple-to.html>, which would
essentially be a larger, more powerful version of the iPhone.

Whatever direction manufacturers decide to take, it's clear netbooks are
getting closer to fulfilling the vision of Alan Kay, the former Xerox
PARC researcher who first drew the concept of the mobile, personal
computer back when computers were still eating punch cards. In his
concept, dubbed "Dynabook," Kay assessed that a portable computer must
weigh no more than two pounds, sport a display containing at least 1
million pixels, and be extremely thin in one of its dimensions. And most
importantly, a Dynabook would have to be "an amplifier for human
(especially child) endeavors."

"I'd like to think that [netbooks] are finding a form factor and weight
that fits human beings better," Kay said, "but I'm presuming that it is
because many people use only a small part of what they could do on their
larger machines, and much of what they do use computers for can be done
through a browser or a few simple apps."

--
tnn

---

Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to
ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in
American politics, "to spend more time with her family"? Having stayed
in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS's
Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It
didn't help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave
her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:

"It's very important when you consider even national-security issues
with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the
United States of America. Where—where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just
right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make
sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia,
because they are right there. They are right next to—to our state."

There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I
flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert
on Santa Claus? (Thanks, Jon Stewart.) But even beyond that, read the
rest of her response. "It is from Alaska that we send out those …" What
does this mean? This is not an isolated example. Palin has been given a
set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras
that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. ("We mustn't blink.")
But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often,
quite frankly, gibberish.

Couric asked her a smart question about the proposed $700 billion
bailout of the American financial sector. It was designed to see if
Palin understood that the problem in this crisis is that credit and
liquidity in the financial system has dried up, and that that's why, in
the estimation of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed chairman Ben
Bernanke, the government needs to step in to buy up Wall Street's most
toxic liabilities. Here's the entire exchange:

COURIC: Why isn't it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion
helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care,
housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money
into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions
that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, were
ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the
taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is
help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed
to help shore up our economy, helping the—it's got to be all about job
creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right
track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending
has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And
trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive,
scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector
today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things
under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

This is nonsense—a vapid emptying out of every catchphrase about
economics that came into her head. Some commentators, like CNN's
Campbell Brown, have argued that it's sexist to keep Sarah Palin under
wraps, as if she were a delicate flower who might wilt under the bright
lights of the modern media. But the more Palin talks, the more we see
that it may not be sexism but common sense that's causing the McCain
campaign to treat her like a time bomb.

Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be
vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done
some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about
any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a
time to start. The next administration is going to face a set of
challenges unlike any in recent memory. There is an ongoing military
operation in Iraq that still costs $10 billion a month, a war against
the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is not going well and is
not easily fixed. Iran, Russia and Venezuela present tough strategic
challenges.

Domestically, the bailout and reform of the financial industry will take
years and hundreds of billions of dollars. Health-care costs, unless
curtailed, will bankrupt the federal government. Social Security,
immigration, collapsing infrastructure and education are all going to
get much worse if they are not handled soon.

And the American government is stretched to the limit. Between the Bush
tax cuts, homeland-security needs, Iraq, Afghanistan and the bailout,
the budget is looking bleak. Plus, within a few years, the retirement of
the baby boomers begins with its massive and rising costs (in the
trillions).

Obviously these are very serious challenges and constraints. In these
times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate
is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country
first. In this important case, it is simply not true.

--
tnn