Header-Logo Ultraorange.net
ultraorange social bar Click here for the RSS-Feed Click here to Subscribe to emails Click here to follow via Twitter

ePaper – you still can’t wipe your Arse with it and they just want your money anyway

digital_eNewspaper

The electronic book is a wet dream for gadget makers and publishers alike. Since the dawn of the CD-ROM they have tried hard to give us the eBook as well as the eNewspaper.

Finally new technology like the Kindle seem to make that possible.

But I think the whole approach is wrong. You simply can’t simulate paper digitally – it’s physical attributes can’t be replicated on a screen.

You can only "advance" the concept and idea of reading and organizing a series of texts into a coherent bigger "story" (book) or collection of articles (newspaper).

We already have that new concept and you are using it right now: it’s called a browser.

People have disliked reading PDFs for years and prefer content in their browsers.

The only reason why they want shove eBooks and eNewspapers down our throats is that they want us to pay for it. We still connect to the concept of "books" and "newspapers" that we have to pay for it. Anything in a browser is supposed to be free.

digital_amazon_kindle

Amazon wants us all to use a Kindle, so they can track and watch what we read. 

Those eReaders are all about buying content and digital rights management. And we already have seen that the Amazon Kindle as well as the iPhone (another big eBook plattform) have remote killswitches. If they want those companies can simply switch off access to any content you bought and downloaded for on YOUR own machine.

This is very easy to do with electronic gadgets with an internet – try to that with an old fashioned newspaper or book …

orangeguru (01-20 9:56) | 2 Comments | Permalink
Monitor with built-in webcam, microphone and flimsy speakers

digital_Monitor_with_Webcam_and_Speakers_xl

Like the "compact stereo system" – the new Übermonitors suck. Apart from notebooks – who should include everything for portability – all other gadgets should be "separate". So when one part breaks it doesn’t spoil all other "elements" and usually the built-in components are not top notch, so you want to replace them anyway – but you can’t. The speakers suck and the webcam/microphone are not as good as say a good Logitech one.

orangeguru (11-21 22:23) | No Comments | Permalink
Hello Kitty workstation

digital_hello_kitty_PC_combo

I am sure such workstations are used to answer complaints and send birthday letters. Right?

I am still waiting for an affordable Hello Kitty netbook – I would buy it instantly!

orangeguru (09-22 16:25) | 2 Comments | Permalink
The End of normal Hard Drives – Samsung promises 256 Solid State Killer Drive

digital_samsung-256gb-flash-ssd-drive

Normal hard drives are built like record player: you have spinning platters and an "arm" that reads and writes the data to the "records".

Computer drives only based on memory chips are nothing new – but bloody expensive. But sooner or later they will replace normal drives, since they are much faster, less less energy, have no moving parts and much more durable. Best of all: no more humming noise.

Especially for notebooks Sold State Drives are a blessing: batteries will last much longer and they will produce less heat.

At the moment these drives are EXPENSIVE. A 64 Gbyte SSD is usually around €700 to €1.000. But like all computer gizmos the prizes will come down.

Samsung has recently announced a 256 Gbyte SSD with a killer performance. The Nerds are drooling like mad – and so am I.

orangeguru (06-04 12:42) | No Comments | Permalink
SyQuest 44 MByte Cartridges

digital_Syquest_44_MB_cartridge

Back in the early days of desktop publishing these SyQuest cartridges were the best thing to send your data to clients or the printers. And they worked pretty well … most of the time (any one remember all the hassle to mount SyQuests when there was the wrong or a nasty SCSI driver on it?).

44 MBytes sound like a joke today and they were bloody expensive too. You can easily upload that amount of data today or burn a cheap CD. But all these technologies were not yet available at that time.

Digital Life certainly has improved.

orangeguru (04-08 13:04) | 2 Comments | Permalink



copyright 2005 - 2009 for all entries dieter mueller or the respective copyright holder