It's hard to believe it's already/only been three years since Apple introduced its category defining iPad. On the one hand, it seems like only yesterday. On the other hand, for those of us with tablet computers of one stripe or another, it's hard to imagine life before our new constant companions—in the same way those of us who came up before the Internet can barely remember the days before Pine. There was a great piece on Ars Technica about two weeks ago in which its editors reflected on the device, their initial impressions and its impact on their lives since. I recall my own...

Although this story isn’t about e-books directly, it speaks to the mindset of Apple, one of the major players in the e-book and portable device category these days. Blogger Seattle Rex posts the story of how, after exhausting every possible avenue of mediation and redress, he took Apple to small claims court over its refusal to fix a known faulty logic board in his $4,000 computer as it had promised—and won an award in the amount of the cost of his computer. Apple sent two representatives to the hearing to argue against the need to replace the computer, but...

That's the title of a most interesting article in ReadWriteWeb.  Written by someone in the trenches.  Here's an excerpt: If you were to visit the library on the campus where I teach, you would see students waiting to use outdated desktops in the computer labs and library, particularly around midterms and finals week. It seems odd at first, considering the school has a laptop requirement for all undergraduates. That means you have to have a laptop computer when you enroll, and presumably, as an instructor, I can require my students to bring them to any class. But here's the reality: laptops break,...

My aging laptop, a trusty and wonderful device–on which I’ve composed five novels, countless articles, poems and pieces—is nearing the end of its existence. I extended its life expectancy substantially by replacing various components as they wore out, namely the hard drive and battery pack, but still the Time Has Come to replace the device altogether. Recently, while standing in line at a coffee-shop, I observed an individual place a roll-out rubberized keyboard on a small bistro table and then plug it into his smartphone. He put the android device on a small stand and began typing away like mad. This...

A while ago, I wrote about the idea of using a MiFi to retrofit 3G mobile web access to wifi-capable devices (such as e-readers), and I also mentioned the TruConnect MiFi pay-as-you-go service that allows bite-sized prepaid-3G-wifi usage with no contract required. It has been a couple of weeks since I received my TruConnect MiFi for Christmas, and I’ve used it enough to get a decent idea of how well it works. I use the MiFi mostly with my iPod Touch and iPad, though I have had the chance to try it with my laptop as well. Fundamentally,...

It’s nothing new for libraries to check out e-books to their patrons, and some of them even check out e-book reading devices. But the Palo Alto City Library is going to go one better: it’s going to check out Chromebooks. The library started carrying 21 Chromebooks last month, and they’re available for in-library use. Starting next month, patrons will be able to sign up to take them home for one week. The idea is apparently to show people how awesome the Chromebook is and make them want to buy one themselves. Google has been having a hard time...

From a press release I received today: Fremont, CA & Barrington, IL (June 7, 2011) - ASUS, the world's top 3 consumer notebook vendor, and Page Foundry, the leading provider of white label digital content solutions for OEMs, are proud to introduce the Versent ebookstore, powered by Page Foundry. The new ebookstore enables ASUS @Vibe customers to quickly and easily find, buy and read today's most popular eBook titles including New York Time's Bestsellers, Digital Bestsellers, and hundreds of thousands of top selling ebooks. "At the heart of the @Vibe experience our customers will find convenience and choice," said Vira Chang, head...

Google has finally introduced the Chromebook, with models from Samsung and Acer. Google’s developers explained there’s a fundamental difference between the Chromebooks and netbooks. Chromebooks are essentially “tablets with keyboards,” whereas netbooks are shrunk-down Windows laptops. However, Google currently has no plans for putting Chrome OS on tablets without keyboards. The Samsung model will be priced at $429 for wifi-only, $499 with 3G. The Acer version will cost $349 “and up”. However, in addition to selling them outright, Google will be offering rental models at $28 per month for enterprise users, and $20 per month for educational users. (A...

Neowin reports that “a reliable source” has indicated that Google ChromeOS notebooks will be available for purchase around the end of June or the start of July, and that in addition to standard sales, Google will offer them on a monthly subscription basis. For $10-$20 per month, Google will replace faulty hardware for the life of the subscription, and will provide hardware refreshes as they become available. This essentially treats notebooks like a cable modem—a device leased from the cable company as part of your monthly fee in return for replacing it if anything goes wrong. I wonder...

In contrast to my review of Jolicloud from the other day, John Scalzi has posted a review of the other popular cloud-based operating system. Google sent him a Cr-48 with ChromeOS to try out, and he has set down his thoughts. Scalzi found a number of things to like about the hardware, and liked how ChromeOS was implemented largely to stay out of the user’s way. But he also zeroed in on a couple of the big problems with a cloud-based operating system. First, many of Google’s on-line applications simply aren’t “there” yet for heavy use. When he...

On his recent trip to America, Charlie Stross unfortunately discovered at the airport that, in the bustle of getting packed to head overseas, he had managed to forget his laptop. And he’d left his iPad and even his Bluetooth keyboard for his iPhone behind as well, since he wasn’t going to need them with the laptop around. But he found a novel solution: My wife, being sensible, hadn't left her laptop at home; rather than arm-wrestle with her for it, I bought an entry-level iPad on a buy-it-now-and-eBay-it-later basis. (An entry-level iPad (16Gb, no 3G)...

I was watching the Steve Jobs Apple event yesterday afternoon, but had to go to work too soon afterward to put down my thoughts at the time. It didn’t seem terribly urgent since there wasn’t a whole lot relevant to e-books anyway. It was interesting to note that they said the Mac accounted for 33% of their revenue over the past year. What this means, taken another way, is that iPods, iPhones, and iPads—products that didn’t even exist ten years ago—made up just over 2/3 of their revenue. That’s twice as much as Macs, formerly their core product...