| The Spider-Man newspaper strip debuted in 1977 and was drawn by master Spider-artist John Romita Sr. and written by none other than Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee. IDW Publishing has announced that the first three years of the strip will get the graphic novel treatment in early 2015 and will likely be available digitally. Newspaper Spider-Man is quite possibly the worst version of the character ever made. Newspaper Spidey is never quite that offensively terrible, but he also has a pretty dismal track record from when it comes to actual superheroism. He's generally pretty cowardly, gets conked on the head a lot, and doesn’t actually seem all that concerned about this whole using-great-power-with-great-responsibility thing, instead preferring to just sort of lay around waiting for things to sort themselves out. Early story arcs in the newspaper strip were paced much like a comic book, and a complete story unfolded in about 2 months of Sunday and daily strips. While the strip and the comic book feature the same characters, they do not share the same continuity. The strip differs from the established story lines of the comic books, most notably in the villains who Spider-Man fights and the women who Peter Parker dates. Many villains were introduced that have never appeared in other media, including the Rattler, a man who acquired snakelike characteristics. A rare exception was the 1987 wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson which occurred in both the comic book and the comic strip. The comic strip rebooted in 2008 and is still going strong today. The early days are really good for a laugh due to the cheesiness of the story-lines. 
Old Spider-Man Newspaper Strips get Reprinted is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Old Spider-Man Newspaper Strips get Reprinted
Fire HD 6 Review and Video Walkthrough
| The new Fire HD tablets started shipping at the beginning of the month, and the colored ones started shipping just a couple days ago. I got a few comparison reviews posted last week showing the new 6-inch Fire HD 6 compared to other Kindles, and now I just finished up the full Fire HD 6 […] |
Friday, October 17, 2014
Kobo CEO Lambastes Amazon
| Newly appointed Kobo CEO Michael Tamblyn took to Twitter today to post a rambling diatribe on why Amazon might not be the best call for indie authors to self-publish with. If you have a bone to pick with our favorite e-commerce whipping boy, you might take a depraved amount of glee from the complete notes below. 1) Indie authors take note: Amazon is, among other things, a machine designed to optimize product prices in order to gain share and sales. 2) Amazon, like every retailer that reaches a certain size, turns to its suppliers to grow profitability by demanding more favorable terms. 3) The Hachette-Amazon fight is an especially public manifestation of that Big Retail process. Nothing new there (Walmart, Target, B&N et al) 4) Some vocal traditionally published authors (but not all) support Hachette and criticize Amazon and… 5) Some vocal independent authors (but not all) support Amazon and criticize Hachette… 6) Defense of Amazon by indie authors makes sense on one level. For them, Amazon is the well-spring, where the self-pub revolution started. 7) But it seems like self-published authors believe they are protected somehow – that what is happening to Hachette won't happen to them. 8) Some indie authors even muse that the best possible strategy is exclusivity with Amazon, leaving readers on other platforms behind. 9) In the long run, I don't think that Amazon makes a big distinction between a publisher and an indy author – they are both suppliers. 10) Hachette and the rest of the big 5 sit at the top of a list of suppliers to be "improved” from Amazon's perspective. 11) Hachette is first because one negotiation with a big publisher makes a lot of bestselling books more profitable. That's efficient. 12) I don't think anyone believes that Amazon will stop with Hachette. With a successful conclusion, all pubs will go through the same thing. 13) They will move down the list. Midsized or smaller publishers come next. (Assuming this all isn’t being pursued quietly in parallel.) 14) From Amazon's perspective, how is an independent author any different than a publisher? Still a supplier, to be made more profitable. 15) The indie author's situation is most tenuous of all. If >80% of sales come from Amazon, *no leverage when it's your turn to be "optimized” 16) An indie author, like any publisher, can take her books away if in conflict with Amazon. But it hurts the author *way more than Amazon. 17) A reasonable author response to the Amazon threat wdb: “they won’t need to do that to us. Our prices are already where they need to be.” 18) (Indy authors on Amazon are penalized if their books are too expensive, so that's largely true.) 19) But that assumes that the Amazon battle is about price. It's not. It's about profit. And _any_ supplier can be made more profitable. 20) If indie authors are 20% of Amazon’s total sales, then it's hard to imagine that indie authors aren’t on that list to be improved. 21) But if the Amazon battle extends to indie authors, authors will have less leverage. Especially if they are exclusive. 22) The mechanisms for the Amazon squeeze are in place, agreements allow it. Self-pub inclusion in Select, Unlimited, KOLL are early examples. 23) Selling other publishers and authors, Amazon can survive without Hachette, but uncomfortably and less profitably. 24) With a diverse base of retailers, Hachette can survive without Amazon, also uncomfortably and less profitably. 25) Both parties having other options is why this dispute wasn’t over in a week or a month. 26) The litmus test for an indie author: could your income survive a conflict with Amazon? If not, it's worth thinking about how you could. 27) To paraphrase: “First they came for the big New York publishers, but I wasn’t published by a big New York Publisher…” 28) Then they came for the mid-sized publishers, but I wasn’t published by a mid-sized publisher… 29) Then they came for the academic presses… 30) Then they came for the literary presses… 31) Then they came for me. Kobo CEO Lambastes Amazon is a post from: Good e-Reader |
WattPad Sensation Anna Todd Gets Movie Deal from Paramount
| After by Anna Todd has had over one billion reads on WattPad, this has attracted attention from Paramount Pictures and they decided to make a film out of it. Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot will produce through their Offspring Entertainment banner. Their credits include the Step Up series to 17 Again, Bedtime Stories, Hairspray, Rock Of Ages and The Last Song. This will be the first time a serialized book from WattPad will be made into a feature film. Confirming the news on her Instagram page, After author Anna Todd wrote: "In case you haven’t heard… Paramount acquired the rights to After!!! I am so happy and so excited to finally tell you!… Never give up on your dreams because mine came true and so can yours!! After has been billed as the ‘new Twilight’ and ’50 Shades of Grey without the S&M’. The book is basically fan-fiction of One Direction singer Harry Styles. “Tessa Young is an 18 year old college student with a simple life, excellent grades, and a sweet boyfriend. She always has things planned out ahead of time, until she meets a rude boy named Harry, with too many tattoos and piercings who shatters her plans.” WattPad Sensation Anna Todd Gets Movie Deal from Paramount is a post from: Good e-Reader |
LG Starting to Gain in Battle for Android Market Share
| According to the latest statistics released by Chitika, the LG user base has exhibited the greatest usage share growth as compared to any of the competing Android brands since June 2014. With a 1.7 percentage point gain and representing over 10% of the total North American smartphone and tablet Web traffic, LG should be counted as a significant player in the mobile market. Samsung can rest easy for now, sitting comfortably at the top of the heap with 57.4% of the current Android market share –but it would be wise to keep at least one eye on their competition given their less substantial 1% gain since June 2014 (despite the release of an entirely updated line of mobile hardware during this period). Amazon is sitting precariously in the third spot (with a meagre .5% lead on Motorola), likely due in large part to their Fire tablets as opposed to their unremarkable smartphone sales. Google was down this quarter, falling to just 3.6% –but these numbers should look a little better shortly with the release of the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 devices. Chitika’s report also indicated that smartphones continue to dominate the mobile Web traffic, with very little growth in this area being observed in the Android tablet space. Some speculation suggests that this is due to Apple’s dominance in the tablet arena, but it may also be due in part to the next-generation phablet type smartphones prompting users to invest in large-screen, smartphones instead of a tablet. Founded in 2003, Chitika is an online ad network that boasts the delivery of “over four billion strategically targeted ads each month to a network of over 300,000+ sites.” Together with high profile advertising partners like Yahoo!, Chitika has developed proprietary optimization technology that promises to display the right ad, at the right time.
LG Starting to Gain in Battle for Android Market Share is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Check out our new Recommended List page!
| Are you looking to add some new content to your Digital Collection? Do you need some ideas for fresh content? We’ve got you covered. Check out our new Recommended List page on the Partner Portal! This collection of lists is curated by OverDrive's Collection Development librarians and is your source for building the best collection for your community. We scour Marketplace to find the newest, most popular, highest circulating, and interesting content that is continually updated, so check back often. We’d love your feedback on the lists and new page. Please send your ideas and questions to collectionteam@overdrive.com.
*Some titles in lists may have limited regional or platform availability. Rachel Kray is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive.  |
Apple Creates Carrier-Independent SIM Card
| After the anti-climactic Apple event yesterday, the tech community at large took a nap –which is why news seemed to slip between the cracks telling us Apple has built a SIM card that allows users to move between AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile (plus EE in the UK) without having to swap it out. Using the new Apple SIM card, you can switch between carriers in the Settings for your iPad Air 2 by simply selecting a new one from the list, and voila! While it may not seem like a big deal to swap out a SIM card, it does involve a little hassle (getting them in and out of an iPad or iPhone involves a tool, unlike the spring loaded insert and eject usually seen with SD cards). They generally come at a cost as well, so you end up shelling out a little money with each carrier you use. With that said, the people who are excited by this news are those who tend toward short-term data plans –which typically points to travelers. It doesn’t appear like you can purchase this new Apple SIM card separately right now, but it is standard issue on their new cell-enabled iPad Air 2 tablets… but many of us have our fingers crossed that this will be an option very soon!
Apple Creates Carrier-Independent SIM Card is a post from: Good e-Reader |
RACHEL-Pi – delivering education worldwide
| Liz: If you’re a regular reader, you’ll have noticed more and more frequent mentions over the last year of a piece of kit called RACHEL-Pi. RACHEL is an offline server, run on a Raspberry Pi, full of educational content from teaching curriculums, Khan Academy materials, Wikipedia, classic literature, reference material and textbooks; alongside vital community materials like medical and first aid textbooks. We’re very proud to be able to support World Possible’s RACHEL-Pi project through our education fund. It’s being used all over the world in remote places where the internet is unavailable – and this year it’s gone from strength to strength. Here’s Jeremy Schwartz, the Executive Director of World Possible, to show you what they’ve been doing with the project in the last year. What an incredible 12 months it has been. World Possible has seen RACHEL-Pi (our Raspberry Pi-based educational server) deployed in scores of countries – often in the most remote of locations – delivering a world of educational content to tens of thousands of students previously far removed from the great online learning tools those of us reading this blog take for granted almost every day.     How'd we get here? It's worth taking a few seconds to get some history on World Possible's RACHEL server. In 2009, World Possible (an all-volunteer team, mostly from Cisco) curated a package of creative commons resources (Wikipedia, Khan Academy, CK12 textbooks, and much more) for offline distribution. Coupling the content with open-source web server software, we could create "Remote Area Community Hotspots for Education and Learning," ("R.A.C.H.E.L.") – a locally cached web server accessed through any connected web browser (with no need for internet connectivity).  RACHEL is accessed via a web browser Probably more naïve than anything, an attempted round of pilot projects of RACHEL (which at the time was a power-hungry NAS device) in 2009, in Sierra Leone, failed in pretty dramatic fashion.   The failure took a real toll on World Possible and forced us to rethink RACHEL distribution, ultimately building a distribution network of partnerships with on-the-ground teams that could do the hard part for us, and many of which still lead the RACHEL distribution charge today:  Powering Potential in Tanzania – watch RACHEL being taught; read more  EVCOAfrica in West Africa – watch Seth introduce RACHEL Despite the early successes of those groups, we still didn't have the final piece of the puzzle that has exploded RACHEL deployment today (development of open-source educational resources + uniform standards of web browsers + proliferation of low cost computing hardware and storage). In comes the Raspberry Pi, giving us the ability to create a plug-and-play webserver and hotspot at a price point that we can distribute to masses of people without any required computer literacy background. Is it working? – "Content is king; distribution is King Kong" Almost exactly a year ago, a partnership with the Gates-Backed Riecken Libraries in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as a funding leap of faith by a few loved donors and the Rotary Club of Portola/Woodside Valley (CA), allowed us to launch a new phase of World Possible and RACHEL-Pi focused on creating, curating, and distributing relevant content from and within disconnected communities. A good old fashioned sneaker-net, delivering locally relevant (and often locally created) digital educational content to disconnected schools, libraries, orphanages and community centers.   The World Possible team in Guatemala is now led by Israel Quic, a native Mayan, initially attracted to RACHEL-Pi as a means of preserving and teaching his Mayan heritage and language to local communities.  Israel Quic presents RACHEL at Campus Tec, the technology department of University de la Valle Israel quickly saw an opportunity to collect more locally relevant agricultural and political resources than we currently distribute as part of our Spanish-language RACHEL-Pi. In April, the fruits of his labor truly began to sprout, when word came from one agricultural community, an early RACHEL-Pi recipient, which built a drip irrigation system out of old plastic bottles after discovering how to do it from a single teacher's smartphone while researching our Guatemalan content on their RACHEL-Pi.  A drip irrigation system made from old plastic bottles, using how-to content from RACHEL-Pi The successes only caused us to redouble our efforts. Aided by our local Facebook page, World Possible Guatemala solicits offers of help and requests for RACHEL from across the country. Current RACHEL-Pi installations in Guatemala Installations of RACHEL-Pi in community centers and libraries are often made available 24/7, enabling anyone with a smart phone to come learn, research, and explore.  San Lucas Toliman RACHEL-Pi wifi access point  Facebook post of Biblioteca Comunitaria Rija'tzuul Na'ooj San Juan del Obispo in Sacatapequéz is an agricultural community where middle school kids are using RACHEL to learn not only how to grow and irrigate, but also how to cultivate mushrooms and make fresh peach jam. Along the way they get business skills as well.   The mission in Guatemala is still just beginning, but the lessons learned and successes are providing a key roadmap for World Possible. Make available valuable educational resources, supplement them with locally relevant vocational and cultural content, get buy-in from local community volunteers, and distribute… distribute… distribute. The results are truly inspirational. What's next? – "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." Globally, the RACHEL effort is still driven by the hundreds of groups that download RACHEL and distribute independently in their own communities. Everything we do is free to download through our website, FTP site, BitTorrent sync, or even shared Dropbox. The Raspberry Pi has also made it so anyone can do this on their own, a powerful democratization of access to a world-class education.   World Possible will continue to support these groups through our own volunteer network, through independent advice, and by creating the best package of content available. Even more today, a biweekly newsletter is connecting thousands of RACHEL advocates in nearly 40 countries who have been through the process and can provide best practices to new users locally.   What excites us most is our ability to replicate the successes that have been achieved in Guatemala. In Micronesia, Professor Hosman and her students curated a RACHEL for the state of Chuuk. She's now working with Inveneo to deploy RACHEL to the entire region's network of schools.  Grace, a teacher at Akoyikoyi School in Chuuk, receives a RACHEL-Pi In Kenya and East Africa, thanks to a generous grant from this very Raspberry Pi Foundation, we've just completed a hire (Bonface Masaviru) to follow the roadmap that Israel Quic laid out in Guatemala. Bonface is spreading RACHEL throughout Kenyan schools…     … and working with local volunteers such as Zack Matere to help us curate RACHEL Shamba (an offline package of farming resources): Where we can, we'll look to our long-time distribution partners to help create full labs to access RACHEL-Pi. Here in Uganda, Romeo Rodriguez gives his "children" their first ever look at technology in a new library thanks to a full "digital library-in-a-box" from World Possible.   We'll continue to find ways to hire additional country managers, local to their communities, who have proven their dedication to RACHEL, to involve indigenous people in creating and distributing the content they currently lack. If you'd like to be part of the mission, we'd love to have you. A great group of development volunteers can be reached at rachelproject@googlegroups.com. If you have networking expertise, we can pair you with a group that might need your help deploying RACHEL – info@worldpossible.org. If you want to join the Raspberry Pi Foundation in supporting our efforts financially, we'd love it – donate here. If you want us to come talk to your group, or help deploy RACHEL, we'd love that also – please don't hesitate to get involved! Thank you to all of the individuals and groups who already have; there is so much more we can do together. |
Bookeen Announces Cybook Muse Essential and FrontLight
| Bookeen has announced two new e-readers today, the Cybook Muse Essential and FrontLight. These devices feature a capacitive touchscreen display and their screens are completely flush with the bezel, much akin to the Kobo Aura. The Cybook Muse has a 6 inch screen allowing for easy reading in all conditions, while reducing the size of the e-reader by 17% in comparison to its predecessor, the Cybook Odyssey. The resolution is 1024 x 758, and has 213 DPI. Underneath the hood is a 800 MHZ Freescale processor and 4 GB of internal storage. It does have support for an MicroSD card, so you can simply insert one in to store thousands of additional titles. Speaking of eBooks, there is a built in store loaded on the two e-readers, the press release said there is over 100,000 titles. I know with the Cybook Ocean, it did have an option in the settings menu, to allow users to connect up to any eBook store they want, as long as the titles are being sold in PDF or EPUB. The one facet that Bookeen is really getting behind is eliminating most buttons on e-readers. They decided to go with a simple home button and physical page turn keys on the left and right hand side. If you don’t dig the tectonic feel of these keys, you can simply utilize the touchscreen. Bookeen is borrowing a page out of Amazons playbook by bundling the font Caecilia. This is the same font that is the default on the new Kindle Basic Touch and Kindle Voyage. The thing I like about this font, is combined with the resolution it is sure to allow the text pop from the screen and take advantage of the higher DPI. These e-readers will be available to pre-order on November 5th on the main Bookeen website and will start shipping on the 14th. The Cybook Muse Essential should cost 79€ or $99 USD and the Cybook Muse FrontLight should cost 99€ or $129 USD.
Bookeen Announces Cybook Muse Essential and FrontLight is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Cybook Ocean Finally Gets a Release Date
| Bookeen has been teasing the e-reader world with the eight inch Cybook Ocean since 2013. The company has had huge problems with getting this one to market, and I often thought that this model is cursed. Fear not, the Cybook Ocean will be available to order at the end of the month and will start shipping out November 14th 2014. The Cybook Ocean features an 8 inch screen and has a resolution of 1024×758. This model adheres to the current trend of packing a front-lit display on the e-reader and I was told that it is on par with the Kindle Paperwhite 2, in terms of overall screen clarity. Additionally, this is the first eight inch e-reader in the world that has their screen flush with the bezel. Underneath the hood lurks a 800 MHZ processor, 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of internal memory. If this is not enough to store the books you have purchased from the on-board bookstore, you can simply insert an SD Card. Tactile purists will enjoy the physical page turn buttons on the bottom of the device. It can also be interacted with solely via the touchscreen if that is your thing. The Cybook Ocean was originally announced in October 2013 and was slatted to be available that holiday season. Various setbacks plagued the French company and it looks like it is finally going to be available in November and the cost will be 1790€ or $229 USD. Cybook Ocean Finally Gets a Release Date is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Kindle Basic Touch vs Kindle Paperwhite 2
| Whenever Amazon releases new products, inevitably the question arises, should I upgrade? The New Kindle Basic only costs a paltry $79 and is the first model of this class to incorporate a touchscreen. How does the Basic compare to the Paperwhite 2? Today, we dive deep into the eBook, PDF and hardware experience. What was most surprising about our head to head comparison was the new Kindle Basic 2014 edition actually had a better screen than the Paperwhite 2. We saw the Kindle Paperwhite had a beige tinge to the background when reading a book, while the Basic had almost a pure white display. This made text really pop, and serious readers would notice a difference putting them side by side. The Basic ships with the exact same firmware as the Paperwhite 2, so you get GoodReads right on the navigation bar. This allows you to tap into the extensive eBook discovery and social community aspect and form online bookclubs.
Amazon Kindle Basic Touch vs Kindle Paperwhite 2 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Do Readers Choose eBooks Because They Are Cheaper?
| Many readers cite the price of eBooks as one of the primarily aspects of why they choose to read digitally. A new report by Books and e-Books UK 2014 is trying to quantify the parallel between cheaper books and reading more. Their data suggests 26% of consumers who have bought an eBook in the last year are reading more than they used to, because eBooks cost less than paperbacks, a figure that rises to 38% of 16 to 24-year-olds. 21% of Brits have bought a fiction eBook in the past year, the boom does seem to be plateauing as this marks a slight 1% point growth on 2013. However, this is a rise from the 15% of Brits claiming they had bought a digital fiction title in 2012. Whilst the sales of e-books are still showing healthy growth, there are signs that this will steady in 2014. Sales of eBooks are estimated to reach £340 million in 2014 up from £300 million in 2013, marking a 12% rise. However this rise is in stark contrast to the growth seen in previous years. Sales in 2013 for example were 38% up on 2012, which stood at £216 million. In contrast, sales of print books are estimated to stay at £1.4 billion in 2014, the same value as 2013 which would mark just a 0.4% year on year fall in revenue. Samuel Gee, Senior Technology and Media Analyst at Mintel said “Today, 31% of Brits own an e-reader, up from 21% in 2012, but down from 35% in April 2014. Indeed, it seems that the growth of the e-reader has not caused UK book-lovers to clear their shelves. Over a third (36%) of UK book buyers buy both e-books and print books and 42% of these say that they will always buy the cheapest version of the book no matter which format it is in. Further showing that those who have picked up their e-readers aren’t leaving printed books altogether, seven in 10 (70%) e-reader owners have bought a paperback in the past year. In contrast, just 30% of print book buyers have also purchased digitally. Overall, a third (32%) of Brits have not bought a book in the past year and it seems that the most common reason is that they are not interested in reading. Indeed, a third (34%) of Brits who have not purchased a book in the past year are simply not interested in reading books, rising to 42% of men who haven't purchased a book. On the other hand, one in five (21%) say they do not have time to read books and 12% say they can't afford to buy them. Do Readers Choose eBooks Because They Are Cheaper? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Harry Potter Spinoff ‘Fantastic Beasts’ will be a Trilogy, at Least
| Harry Potter fans should be enamored with the fact that the upcoming spinoff film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is going to be the first film in a new trilogy, with more potential films on the way. The movies will be directed by veteran filmmaker David Yates, who directed The Order Of The Phoenix, The Half-Blood Prince and the concluding chapters, Deathly Hallows Part One and Part Two. The "Fantastic Beasts" movies are based on an original story by author J.K. Rowling and was originally released in 2001. The book contains the history of Magizoology and describes 75 magical species found around the world. Newt Scamander, says that he collected most of the information found in the book through observations made over years of travel and across five continents. He notes that the first edition was commissioned in 1918 by Mr Augustus Worme of Obscurus Books. However, it was not published until 1927. It is now in its 52nd edition. First year Hogwarts students are all provided a copy of the book. If more films are to be made in this universe, it will be totally dependent on JK, who continues to exercise total creative control over the franchise. Release dates are slated for 2016, 2018, 2020 and perhaps beyond. Harry Potter Spinoff 'Fantastic Beasts' will be a Trilogy, at Least is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Apple Announces Modest Updates to iPad Air and iPad Mini
| It was a lot of ‘yeah, yeah, we were expecting that’ at the Apple Event today… leaving many of us to wonder why they didn’t just do a soft launch. Brand-loyal Apple fans will be glad to see that the iPad Air 2 is a little thinner (at 6.1mm) and finally features the fingerprint ID sensor that has been present in the last 2 iterations of the iPhone. Other updates for the iPad Air include a faster processor, more advanced wireless connectivity, better camera (with a new 8 megapixel sensor that captures images in 3264-by-2448 native resolution and continues to take 1080p HD video), and an anti-reflective coating for the screen (which they claim makes it 56 per cent less reflective). If this addition works as well as it appears, this might strike a fairly mighty blow against popular eReaders whose main benefit has included being able to be used in direct sunlight. If it seems like I have forgotten about the iPad Mini 3, I wasn’t the first –Apple really had very little to say about their smaller-format tablet, other than to tell us that it also has the fingerprint ID sensor. Proof positive that the upgrades for iPads being mainly cosmetic is reflected by the addition of a gold colour option (mirroring the iPhone choices) and brighter Smart Cases to match. While both certainly add curb appeal, it won’t go unnoticed that these were some of the biggest announcements today. For those looking to grab an iPad Air 2, be prepared to hand over $499 USD for the 16GB Wi-Fi model (with a jump to $599 USD for 64GB, and $699 USD for 128GB). For those looking to add Cellular capabilities, the prices start at $629 USD for the 16GB model. If your sights are set more on the iPad Mini 3, the price tag is a little more affordable at $399 USD for 16GB of storage (moving to $499 for 64GB, and $599 for 128GB). Cellular capability is available for this device as well, with an entry level cost of $529 USD for the 16GB tablet. All in all, Apple’s news today was underwhelming. It might be true that the iPads didn’t need much in the way of updates, and I am delighted that every Apple smartphone and tablet now features the incredibly handy fingerprint sensor, but it all seems a little out of the ordinary. It might strike some as a little bit of a ‘conspiracy theory’, but if I were a betting woman I’d say that Apple just wanted to make sure they had some stage time and a few news cycles to (try and) keep their mobile devices front and centre following Google’s Nexus announcements earlier this week. Is anybody else frustrated that the entry level iPad storage remains at 16GB, with a 32GB model distinctly and noticeably absent?
Apple Announces Modest Updates to iPad Air and iPad Mini is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Nexus 6 Set to to Rival iPhone 6, Galaxy Note 4
| It is with great enthusiasm that Google released their next generation Nexus 6 smartphone yesterday. Being labelled the next in a line of phablets, the Nexus 6 is a very large mobile device that straddles the line between smartphone and tablets. Packed with features, the Nexus 6 promises to stand up proudly against the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus. Design and Display It can’t be said that the Nexus 6 is a light smartphone, and coming in at 6.49 ounces (184g) is will feel quite substantial. By comparison, the Galaxy Note 4 is 6.21 ounce (176g) and the iPhone 6 Plus is the lightest at 6.07 ounces (172g). It is also the largest of the three phablets, with a full 6-inch display with a 1440×2560 pixel resolution and 493 ppi density. Also a very attractive feature is that the Nexus 6 is splash resistant (without needing to wrap it in a case) –other Samsung products can boast that, the Galaxy Note 4 isn’t so lucky. Camera The camera in the Nexus 6 is competitive with a dual LED flash, but only measures 13 megapixels (where the Galaxy Note 4 has 16, and iPhone 6 Plus lags quite a distance behind at 8). Operating System Running the latest Android Lollipop, Google maintains their top spot as the manufacturer with the truest Android smartphone. Hardware Powered by a quad core, 2700 MHz, Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, the Nexus 6 should still be comparable the 8-core, 1900 MHz ARM processor found in the Galaxy Note 4 –though on paper Apple’s processor seems quite a bit behind both devices by only being dual core and 1400MHz. With that said, many of the performance tests being run are placing Apple’s smartphone performing ahead of Samsung’s, so these specifications on their own don’t carry much real-world weight or meaning. The Nexus 6 comes with 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage, but unlike the Galaxy Note 4, cannot be expanded with additional storage (using microSD, microSDHC, or microSDXC). Battery Google claims that the Nexus 6 will deliver 24 hours of talk time. They also say you can expect 13.8 days of stand-by time. In other news, pigs can apparently fly. I’ll believe that these batteries perform this well when I experience it for myself, but I do trust that it’s better than most of us are used to… especially if you turn off the Ambient Display. Unlike any of the competition, the Nexus 6 does lead the pack in the power arena by offering built-in wireless charging… and using Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0, a quick 15 minutes of charging should get you about 6 more hours of use. Connectivity You should have no complaints in this arena, with the Nexus 6 offering GSM at 850/900/1800/1900MHz, CDMA band classes 0/1/10, WCDMA bands 1/2/4/5/8, and LTE bands 2/3/4/5/7/12/13/17/25/26/29/41. Aside from cellular options, Google equipped the Nexus 6 with 802.11ac Wi-Fi using a 2×2 MIMO antenna, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, and NFC. Before you salivate yourself into needing a fresh shirt, brace yourself for the $649 USD price-tag found on the unlocked model. Not surprisingly, many Android purists are already expressing their outrage at the cost –especially when previous Nexus smartphones only rid our wallets of $349 USD. While this increase is difficult to accept, it’s necessary if Google is going to produce the kind of hardware that will have the chops to compete with the quality options being released by the competition. Of course, the Nexus 6 looks to be worth every penny… but it means that carriers with contract-signing incentives will play a much more significant role in the success of this device (like they already do for the high-end hardware coming from Samsung and Apple). Pre-order for the Nexus 6 will begin in late October, with full retail availability beginning in November.
Google Nexus 6 Set to to Rival iPhone 6, Galaxy Note 4 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
