More on TechnologyTell: Gadget News | Apple News
Quick Notes: Que enqueued, iPad, Playboy, DRM, Ebert, and more
March 13, 2010 | 11:15 am
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By Chris Meadows
Plastic Logic has announced it is delaying the Que for several more months. As CNet points out, with the advent of the iPad this may be a product whose time has already come and gone. It is hard to see paying $649 for a black-and-white-only reader, no matter how big it is, given that the iPad starts at $499.
Speaking of the iPad, from order numbers it was estimated that it sold 50,000 units in just the first two hours of its presale period yesterday. Not a big surprise that people are anxious to get their hands on it.
Meanwhile, Gizmodo has a pair of opposing articles on why you should or should not buy an iPad now. Amusingly, the “should not” article was written by someone who did pre-order, and the “should” article was written by someone who did not. Devil’s advocacy, anyone?
A number of magazines have made electronic archives available on-line, but not many have put them in a computer game. But that’s about to change, at least for Playboy Magazine. Fellow NAPCO blog GamerTell reports that the game Mafia II , set in the late ‘40s and ‘50s, is going to feature period issues of Playboy (or at least the covers and centerfolds from them) as in-game collectable items. Presumably this game is going for a “mature” rating…
Valve’s Gabe Newell won the Pioneer Award at the Game Developer’s Choice Awards this year, and he gave a slide show presentation on the drawbacks of DRM. The audience was reportedly quite pleased.
“One thing that you hear [Valve] talk a lot about is entertainment as a service, it’s an attitude that says ‘what have I done for my customers today?’” he said. “It informs all the decisions we make, and once you get into that mindset it helps you avoid things like some of the Digital Rights Management problems that actually make your entertainment products worth less by wrapping those negatives around them.”
When it comes to monetizing web content, you might not immediately think of film critic Roger Ebert, but it turns out he has developed an interesting “value added” membership program for his website. All it costs is $5 per year (though until April 1, you can get the special introductory rate of $4.99). Ebert is not charging for content that used to be free, but providing some member-only “perks” that are well worth the $5. Reportedly, he has “a few thousand” members so far.
Another media organization is pondering a paywall. This time it’s ABC News, according to an interview with PaidContent.org. Paul Slavin, the SVP of ABC News Digital, says that they are working on developing a strategy, and they hope to have some preliminary ideas figured out by June.
The FCC is asking consumers to test their broadband speed, entering their home address at the same time so that the FCC can correlate the information with location to help them determine what areas need the most attention for the national broadband plan they are considering. Some people think the testing methodology may be suspect, but the FCC has clarified it will be combining the results with other information to get a clearer picture.
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Comments:
The iPad is a great thing for people who are not tech-savvy and who have plenty of disposable income.
Myself, I would NEVER buy any device that prevents me from manually adding content. The Apple model is to lock you into a completely closed system. You only buy content from Apple. Period.
Right now, for somebody who is actually a book lover and a reader and who simply wants a cheap and functional ebook reader I’d recommend looking for a used Kindle 1. You can grab a bunch of the free Kindle books and keep yourself amused for ages. You can buy cheap ebooks from Baen and other progressive publishers and transfer them to the Kindle through USB. You can find a local library that loans out ebooks.
I see the iPad as a pretty toy for those with money to burn who are willing to pay a premium for instant gratification.
As to the writer above, what you’re saying sounds like sour grapes or something suchlike. The issue is what do you want to read. And, who has it. Not to mention what you’re willing to pay for it. If you happen to be ‘cheap’ obviously you’ll opt for the freebies. Those of us who are willing to pay a fair price for what we want to read, what does it matter who’s selling it. I’m not going to forgo reading something just because Amazon sells it or Apple. I’m going to buy it from them because they have and I want it. Simple as that.
Where do you get that (false) idea from? There is nothing forcing you to buy media, of any sort, from Apple.
You can buy MP3′s from Amazon or import any standard CD into your computer (in MP3 or AAC formats) and put them on your iPod, iPhone, and iPad (soon). (Using iTunes or several free media managers). If you have video in the correct format (MP4) you can put that on your Apple device also.
There are a number of eReader apps (e.g. Stanza, eReader, Kindle) for the iDevices that work with e-books from multiple non-Apple vendors which would be useless if you couldn’t get them onto your iDevice.
The only place you could remotely claim content “lock-in” is that 3rd party apps (aka software NOT written by Apple) have to be purchased from the Apple AppStore (with minor exceptions). Not everybody agrees with that (mostly tech nerds) but most regular consumers don’t actually care.
Or do you mean the whole carrier lock-in issue (in the US the iPhone only works with AT&T.)? That’s not content.
Yes, you are right, most regular consumers don’t care that they have to buy Apple approved apps from the Apple store. They are oblivious to the censorship and control that Apple demands.
And I’m sure the iPad will be a big hit with consumers who have $500 or $600 to spend on a tablet device and don’t mind buying ebooks for $10 or $15 from the Apple store. That was my whole point.
Please note that the iPad does not have an industry standard USB port. Nor does it have an industry standard SD card slot. The great masses of people who just want to press the pretty icon and get an ebook will be happy. Those of us who like to be able to control our own media access will not.
You don’t have any understanding how the whole iPod/iPhone/iPad infrastructure works, do you. (It’s obvious from your comments so don’t bother arguing otherwise.)
You completely missed my point.
You can put any compatible media you want on an iPhone OS device (iPod touch, iPhone, iPad) using the correct method. It doesn’t need a USB port or SD Card slot to do that. You either use WiFi or you use the supplied cable (a iPod to USB cable btw) that plugs it into its companion device (a PC of some sort running iTunes)
Sure, consumers who just want to listen to music, watch movies, read ebooks and don’t want to muck around with confusing technology can do it all from their iPad/iPhone (just like a Kindle!) but you don’t have to.
It’s called choice. I’m not sure what the problem with that is.