The new world of books.

Amazon.com has produced what, hopefully, will become the future of print. Yes the Kindle is a great step forward in the publishing industry and I want to see widespread adaptation of the platform. Sadly there is a few problems with the Kindle that might prevent it from catching on.

• Its expensive, the base model costs $359 with the large screen DX costing $489
• It is only in black and white. No beautiful illustrations along with your book.
• The screen size is restrictive, although the DX model helps solve this.
• There is no web browser.

Let me expand on that last point. The Kindle can access the Internet on Sprints 3G network to download books or view Wikipedia. Amazon calls this the Whispernet and its free, which is a great start. But how many things do we already carry with us? A laptop, phone, music player, and now an e-reader. The real problem is the price compared to usability. For the price of the base reader you can buy a netbook that can access the Internet anywhere, which is more useful.

Maybe the next Kindle will get it right. I would buy a Kindle DX IF it had a touchscreen, OLED display, full web browser, anywhere Internet access, and organization tools (calender, rolodex, etc.) Until then I'll wait. But I'm not trying to say how horrible Amazon.com is or how bad this product is. I hope it takes off and from that the product evolves into something truly extraordinary.

The Amazon Kindle and Kindle DX

Google I/O Conference

The Google I/O conference was recently held and some very cool stuff is coming in the near future. Most of the coverage I've seen deals with the Internet becoming the definitive platform for computers in the future. Everything will be connected to the Internet, your phone, tablet p.c., netbook, laptop, desktop, even your t.v. This is exciting for users because the seamless integration of the Internet into our lives is very close but just not there yet. Sure you can get onto the Internet with your phone but most sites take a long time to load and are very cumbersome on a phone browser. If Google is right, then soon the sites on the net will be flexible. The web will work well over all devices, which is good news for us. Google is focusing on communication and advancement of the Internet platform and I'm all for it.

Google Keynote

As a bonus check out what the future of web based communication will look like:

Google Wave

What is going on with netbooks?

The newest craze in personal computers happens to be netbooks. Small, cheap, traveler friendly laptops that have exploded in popularity recently. It is rather easy to see why. The internet is increasing in capability and accessibility all the time. Some netbooks are sold with telecoms offering internet access on the go (for a fee of course). Netbooks are mostly sold without a cd drive, but lets be honest how often do you use the cd drive anymore? The problem I see with netbooks is this; shrinking the laptop isn't the next revolution only an evolution of the current laptop. I'm much more interested in a touch screen OLED tablet P.C. with anywhere internet access. That is when I'll jump into the market. Mini laptops are a great start, but 90% of my computing can be done in an internet browser, so I don't need a laptop with a full OS and keyboard.

Netbooks:

Dell Netbook

HP Netbook

Microsoft is coiming.

Microsoft is bringing the big guns to the web-search fight. Microsoft has recently announced its new search engine Bing. I've watched the demo and must say that I'm impressed, but Microsoft is planning on a large budget to help Bing gain market share (upwards of $100 million for advertising). Bing gives you lots of information, allowing searches to yield more relevant content faster which is great for the user but bad for Microsoft.

The reason Google makes more then $20 billion dollars a year on there search engine is simple, people go to Google search because they want to click on links. Microsoft will be making an amazing search engine but will the search engine make money? Check out some of the information on Bing and see what you think.

Microsoft's Bing: http://www.cnbc.com//id/30998143

Competition in search: http://www.pcworld.com/article/165749/bing_vs_google_vs_yahoo_feature_smackdown.html

Chp. 11 for GM

Well GM is most likely filling for bankruptcy and some believe the nation as we know it will grind to a halt. The U.S. wont but GM might. With this restructuring/prepackaged bankruptcy who knows what will happen to all the GM assets and how the knew company will be managed. The titans from Detroit are no longer a large part of the U.S. GDP so let them die right?

Well we make nearly nothing in the U.S. now and it will be sad if GM shuts its doors for good and liquidates because we would loose even more production capability. Investment in manufacturing helps a nation become competitive in an international world. Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China all are making huge investments in manufacturing and also lead the markets in innovation for cars, cameras, computers, consumer electronics, appliances, etc. "What do we gain by helping GM stay open?" The question we should ask is, "What do we loose by letting them close?"

Recent GM news: http://www.cnbc.com//id/30998143

Welcome to my thoughts.

Well for the first post I'm not sure what to start with. So here goes. I'll try to update about the things I'm interested in with insights and opinions. Hope everyone enjoys and feel free to give me feedback. Also my spelling and grammar might be off from time to time, just a fair warning :)