MEDIA ABC Blog

Studies have shown that the largest group of Kindle users is 60-69 year olds. This is pretty contradictory to the understanding of how new technology gets adopted.

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/04/old-people-love-kindle.html

Remember Kurzweil's speculation about lenses that would provide you with map overlays and the names of people at parties. Check out this brief article by Anne Eisenberg from Sunday's NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/business/26novel.html?_r=1

This is an article about laptops aiding sick kids to be connected with school and friends.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/27/hm.sick.kids.satellite.connection/index.html

http://xkcd.com/77/

Today I stumbled across this cool concept design for a possible Braille E-Book reader. Check it out.

http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/04/17/braille-e-book/

via http://www.theawesomer.com

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/21/new-york-times-sees-intensifying-advertiser-pullback-in-first-quarter/

a fun video clip about the font comic sans...

http://bancomicsans.com/home.html

for those of you who haven't seen it....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQJP40PcGI

The next step from the monkey video in class today. http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/braintweet.html

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/20/google-news-timeline-offers-a-new-way-to-search-the-past/

Google creating new links to knowledge as well as enhanced filters for the information contained on the internet.

Daniel_reetz at Instructables.com has posted instructions for a DIY book scanner.

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-High-Speed-Book-Scanner-from-Trash-and-Cheap-C/

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/20/braille-e-reader-concept-cant-be-far-from-reality/

Earlier in class there was a discussion of Time Warner changing to a new usage model of pricing. They have recently decided against doing it due to enormous negative feedback.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090416_696468.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

This clip of Inside Edition "reporting" on a new-fangled craze called "Ninetendo" is pretty funny.

http://dorkyearbook.com/post/96605057/inside-edition-has-some-tough-question-for

Although I am aware of its popularity, I have to admit that I don't use or even understand Twitter. I just read an excellent article about how it started out, how it was initially meant to be used, and how it's used now.

There is a lot of good stuff here about understanding the flow of information (even if it's 140-character "tweets"), and utilizing the information. Interestingly, companies like Starbucks and Dell monitor Twitter to improve their products or refute rumors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/technology/internet/14twitter.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Compared with antiquated pre-internet information flow, Twitter seems like telepathy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/technology/start-ups/13hyperlocal.html?ref=business

Just in case you sometimes feel that we are surely the only people in the world who could possibly care about transcriptions from handwriting, there's this bit from today's scholarly editing list-serv--about Stephen Crane, the American writer, author of Red Badge of Courage among other things):


Subject: question about handwriting

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, Stephen Crane occasionally used an apostrophe in the middle of words, as in

F'our
F'riend
F'eb [as in the abbreviation for "February"]

Has anyone seen this use before, and do you know what it means?

Paul Sorrentino (psorrent@vt.edu)
Virginia Tech

if:book's tribute to Blake and experiment in mutimedia book forms:

http://futureofthebook.org.uk/blake/book.html

From the NYT:

"Bradley Inman wants to create great fiction, dramatic online video and compelling Twitter stream ? and then roll them all into a multimedia hybrid that is tailored to the rapidly growing number of digital reading devices. Mr. Inman, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, calls this digital amalgam a ?Vook,? (vook.tv) and the fledgling company he has created with that name just might represent a possible future for the beleaguered book industry."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/business/05stream.html?_r=1

The expansion of Facebook....

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1889298,00.html?cnn=yes

hmm.. Traditional vs. Web

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/06/print.on.demand.publishing/index.html

Here are a couple of stories that caught my eye over the weekend. Rupert Murdoch appears to be investing in a four-color Kindle competitor, and Google revealed its secret in-house server design in the hopes that other data storers will improve their efficiency.

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090402/live-from-the-cable-show-rupert-murdoch-and-jeff-bewkes/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html

read more about it here:

http://toc.oreilly.com/2009/04/readers-boycotting-kindle-titlles-above-999.html

From what I can tell, the Euro-competition with the Kindle is Bookeen's Cybook Gen3 ("La lecture en liberte" "Read in freedom").
http://www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-reading-device.aspx
I saw one (but it was fastened to its display mount, so I couldn't fondle it) a few days ago at a bookstore. Looks much the same, though it has a different set of features. Haven't seen anything to suggest how successful it's been.