Viddler: There’s a simple way to figure out if something is cool or not. If everyone has it, it isn’t cool. If your grandfather is using it then it might be time you should consider using something else. The iPhone is definitely one of the very best smartphones to get but I see it being used by everyone, everywhere. The iPhone’s cool factor might soon decline. Or will it.
While I was writing the previous paragraph I thought, “Does that grandmother FaceTiming on her iPhone 4 make mine less cool? Or do I feel even better for owning this so-dang-cool uber-high-tech smartphone that even a grandmother can use?” I think it’s the later.
Sony’s new jab at the iPhone prompted this thought. In the PSP ad is Josh Rose, an iPhone-toting guy who plays Lame Castle and he doesn’t text his grandma. Sony seems to think that iPhone gamers would be surprised to find out that games on the PSP can be had for US$9.99. Unfortunately this doesn’t work since most games on the iPhone/iPod touch look even better and cost much less. Can you really compare games developed for a 960×640 display to one with just 480×272 pixels? I do like the feel of mechanical buttons, but there is a downside: I’ve had experienced serious finger pain after a couple of hours of vigorous button mashing on the PSP.
Marcus Rivers is the cool kid in the ad caring a regular phone for making calls (texting must be painful on that thing) and the PSP for playing games. I wonder how he would feel if his grandma was texting back at him on her iPhone 4…
According to Digitimes, Apple will be coming out with a 7-inch iPad in 2011. The smaller iPad will sport a pixel format of 1024×768, the same as in the current iPad. The display of choice will be an IPS LCD. What this suggests is a lot more pixels for the 9.7-inch iPad. I’m guessing the aspect ratio will remain the same and here’s another hunch:
Apple quadrupled the number of pixels on the iPhone 4 compared to previous-generation iPhones by doubling the pixels horizontally and vertically. I think the company will do the same with the next-generation iPad.
So here’s what my crystal ball is telling me: 2048×1536. That’s the pixel format that we’ll see on the 2011 iPad.
Other rumors: CDMA iPhone in 2011. Pegatron Technology will be making them with volume production to start in December. The back plate will be metal instead of glass. Maybe the Apple’s acquisition of Liquidmetal’s space-age metal alloy IPs for consumer electronic products has something to do with that. Here’s what NASA has to say about Liquidmetal’s metal alloys:
In the same way that the inventions of steel in the 1800s and plastic in the 1900s sparked revolutions for industry, a new class of amorphous alloys is poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century.
Welcome to the 3rd Revolution, otherwise known as the era of Liquidmetal alloys, where metals behave similar to plastics but possess more than twice the strength of high-performance titanium.
Interesting stuff. The metal alloy developed by Liquidmetal is in a class of glassy metals that have been used in golf clubs, tennis rackets, Vertu, SanDisk memory sticks (Cruzer Titanium), Omega, armor-piercing munitions, etc. I wonder if Liquidmetal conducts electricity. If it doesn’t it could be the perfect replacement for the current stainless steel-based external antenna design. Check out this cool video about how Omega used liquid metal.
Asustek will launch an 8-inch e-book reader sporting a 64-grayscale reflective LCD instead of the usual E Ink-type display according to Digitimes. The Asustek ebook reader will not use a backlight unit. Chimei Innolux (CMI) will provide the LCD, which uses a special process to improve the reflective qualities. The grayscale ebook reader will be launched in October 2010 for a price below US$599.
Asustek’s offering should be much less than $599 because the industry’s leading Kindle has a 9.7-inch DX that goes for just $379 and I don’t see much benefit in having fast response times when it comes to reading books unless you’re trying to develop a multimedia ebook platform, which the iPad dominates and starts at just $499.
Could we see a Kindle sporting a color E Ink display with capacitive touch in the near future? Probably. E Ink Holdings has begun sampling a color version of its displays. China-based Hanvon plans to release ebook readers with color E Ink displays by the end of the year. Two touch versions are being developed: one with capacitive touch and the other requiring a digitizer.
But then again Jeff Bezos, top dog at Amazon, mentioned that color E Ink displays are “not ready for prime-time production” and expected a lot of time to pass before they became ready. According to Bezos the Kindle will be focused on serving the avid readers. He seems to be doing exactly what he’s been saying.
The new Kindle 3 that’s thinner, lighter, longer-lasting, with more storage for a lower price will be available in late August. The WiFi-only version will be $139 and the 3G+WiFi just $189 at Amazon
. Down the road I expect even better non-color E Ink displays, more rugged but thinner, lighter and prices going sub-$100. Add to that the huge Amazon ebook store and I think Amazon has the right strategy.
If I were an avid book reader I would be looking at the Kindle as the only option. Like Apple, Amazon has the opportunity to completely own the ebook purchasing and reading experience, but in black and white instead of color. Source: Digitimes, The Huffington Post
Serious Compacts took a bunch of photos comparing these mirrorless cameras: Sony NEX-5, Samsung NX10, Olympus E-P2 and E-PL1, and Panasonic GF1 and G2. I was quite impressed with the size of the Sony NEX-5 as well as the quality-looking lenses: no plastic except for the cap.