Apparently, less than two weeks after introducing an expensive and not very useful toy in the middle of the biggest recession in recent history, Apple says it might reduce the pricing of the iPad if the market demands it.
Wow. Sure, they had to do this for the iPhone eventually, but only after it released. Looks like Apple saw some polling data, and is running scared.
One thing’s for sure: this will lead to far fewer pre-orders at the current price.
So, you saw the ad on late-night TV you’re about to embark on that American dream, suing someone and making millions.
The only hitch — the ad asked you to call 1-800-SUE-THEM (disclaimer: number changed to protect myself from legislation), and you have a Nokia E71 with a QWERTY keyboard that does have number signs but not the traditional ‘ABC’ under the number 1 and so on. (It’d be really hard to fit the letter R, the number 1 and a small-type ABC on the same key). What do you do?
Simple – you type it out, but remember to type in caps. In this case, just type 1800, then hit the bottom left key which switches to text (abc) mode, then press the shift key (right next to it) twice to go into caps text (ABC) mode and type SUETHEM on the qwerty keyboard and hit the green Send button.
Good luck with those lawyers!
(This should probably work on a number of Nokia’s Symbian phones, E63 etc. YMMV.)
Recently while doing a Windows update for my graphics driver I got the following pop-up:
If only I had a screen with that much real estate. The dream faded after the update was completed and the system restarted.
A company in India, Infibeam, has introduced Pi, an e-ink based book reader for the Indian market, with support for local languages and a very Kindle-like look.
Lesser base storage than the Kindle, but you can extend the memory with an SD card. It can read PDFs, ePubs, HTML, DOC, JPG and some other stuff, which is awesome. Doesn’t have a keyboard though, so while you can bookmark stuff you can’t make notes; which is a bit unfortunate. Like the Kindle, it can play MP3s.
It has a built-in version of Sudoku, and they claim they’ll add more apps.
Given the price (10K, lower than the Kindle), and the reading culture in India, I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a decent hit. I love the Indian language support, which the Kindle lacks. If you go to the link, they show a mixed-language book with both English and Sanskrit text. They claim to carry 100,000 books for now, which is a goodly number, given that the Kindle, introduced long ago, so far carries about 400,000.
I’m not sure if this comes with a built-in cellular data connection like the Kindle, but it doesn’t really matter. I’ve always thought that was a bit of an overkill, I’m happy to sync a book reader via my computer for purchasing books.
I wonder if someone couldn’t produce a cheaper version of this for the poorer schools in India which have such a hard time providing access to books. Yes, 50 of these would be very expensive compared to buying 50 books — but you can just have 50 of these in a class and every student of every grade and subject could use exactly the same device in the classroom. Lots of saved paper, and maybe saved money in the long term too.
Almost a decade and a half ago, a friend and I did something many considered somewhat batty. We walked from Juhu to Versova along the beach. It isn’t really much of a challenge, the distance being about four or five kilometers. For some reason, large swathes of the beach were empty, deserted and relatively far from the touch of civilization (I’m sure that has changed now). We had never walked there before, nor knew anyone who had, nor in fact knew that there would be a way to get from Juhu beach to Versova (where I lived).
We encountered many things, but what I remember is a solitary camel sitting across a shallow creek that we had to pass; I remember deliberating over our safety in case the animal decided to be unfriendly. We went through; all we got was a quizzical stare.
This delightful ramble of words celebrates walking for walking’s own sake. I walk these days to reach places, to exercise, to photograph; but I cannot remember a recent time when I walked just for the sake of walking, and seeing what would show up – both within and without.
The book is many things – a collection of trivia about walking, wonderful descriptions of walks that the author has taken, an argument that walking works wonders for mental health, but most of all, to me, it was a reminder that walking is not just an abstraction. Walking can be a screen on which life is projected — obvious when you compare the way people walk in New York with those in a small town. Walking can be a wellspring of creativity – many greats, from Dirac to Dickens, have been inspired during walks.
Reading this brought back some fond memories and taught me to try and not treat walking as only a means to an end.
As long as I live
I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing.
I’ll interpret the rocks,
Learn the language of the flood, storm,
And the avalanche.
I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers
And wild gardens,
And get as near the heart of the world as I can.
— John Muir
Amazon recently pushed a firmware update to the 2nd generation Kindle which allows it to natively read PDF files. I can now drag and drop files to the Kindle from my computer, and the Kindle displays them perfectly; something that should’ve been the first feature Amazon thought of in a book reader.
Such “generosity”, I suppose, is the direct result of someone at Amazon noting that it’s competitors — the Sony eReader, the Barnes and Noble Nook and others have native PDF compatibility and were boasting about it. Not only that, people were listening.
They say competition helps the consumer. And they are right.
From the PostgreSQL documentation of the EXTRACT function’s century field:
The first century starts at 0001-01-01 00:00:00 AD, although they did not know it at the time. This definition applies to all Gregorian calendar countries. There is no century number 0, you go from -1 to 1. If you disagree with this, please write your complaint to: Pope, Cathedral Saint-Peter of Roma, Vatican.
This was faster than I’d expected. Starting soon, the Kindle will ship in an international wireless edition allowing downloads to the Kindle from outside the US as well as within. This is really good news.
I like how the Amazon kindle page now says “Kindle: Hello World”.
[via Wired]
Even Obama wouldn’t have been able to beat this one. From the BBC:
The other countries made proposals. We presented a heart and a soul.
I confess to you if I die right now my life would have been worth it.
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