Alternative to Kindle - Nook

As widely expected, Barnes & Noble unveiled its Nook electronic reading device at a splashy news conference on Tuesday to generally positive views from the publishing community, and offered some details about its whispered-about lending capabilities.

The Nook electronic reading device from Barnes & Noble was unveiled Tuesday, offering a competitor to the Kindle.

As much as anything, publishers seemed relieved that Barnes & Noble, which operates the nation’s largest chain of bookstores, had produced a credible alternative to Amazon’s Kindle. The Nook, priced at $259, went on sale Tuesday afternoon at nook.com, at a price that matched the latest edition of the Kindle. The Nook will ship starting in late November.

Amazon currently dominates the market for electronic readers. Estimates vary, but according to the Codex Group, a consultant to the publishing industry, Amazon has sold about 945,000 units, compared with 525,000 units of the Sony Reader.

Barnes & Noble opened an e-bookstore in July, and its editions, which are available in ePub and Adobe PDF versions, can be read on a variety of devices, including Apple’s iPhone, the BlackBerry, Macs and PCs. Barnes & Noble will continue to support those devices, as well as forthcoming e-readers from iRex and Plastic Logic.

But it is clear the company is trying to consolidate sales of e-books onto the Nook, which features a six-inch gray and white reading screen and a color touch screen control panel. In any of the chain’s 1,300 stores, consumers can download books on the Wi-Fi network. Outside the stores, consumers will access AT&T’s 3G network to download books.

One of the differentiating factors of the Nook is that customers can “lend” books to friends. But customers may lend out any given title only one time for a total of 14 days and they cannot read it on their own Nook while it is lent.

In an interview, William Lynch, president of Barnes&Noble.com, said the company would aggressively market the Nook within its bricks and mortar stores. The Nook also has software that will detect when a consumer walks into a store so that it can push out coupons and other promotions like excerpts from forthcoming books or suggestions for new reading. While in stores, Nook owners will be able to read any e-book through streaming software.

Website giving away free Ipods,Nintendos and Macbooks

The title line looks quite absurd but I was introduced to this website by my friend.Its still in Beta phase so you can become its member only if a member invites you.
Now how to get the prizes?You'll be asked 2-3 questions daily, and the questions are very funny and innovative like "Describe the perfect girlfriend/boyfriend?"

For every answer you get 2points
For every friend who joins you get 2 points
At the time of Sign-up you'll get a game toplay which will fetch you around 30-50 points if you play well obviously

The prizes are Ipods at 300 , intendo at around 450 ,Macbooks , Laptops etc

Just keep this in min that this no lottery , so you can redeem these through your points....
Soon they are introducing games , so for playing that you'll get points... Its about to launch on 14th October so if anyone's interested just coment this post with your email id or you can drop a mail to rocky1928@gmail.com and I'll send you the invitation

Apple proving to be the big Daddy of Google

Google might power the world’s most popular search engine, but its clout goes only so far. When it comes to getting one of its applications onto the iPhone, it seems Google has to wait in line for Apple’s approval like everyone else — and face the risk of rejection.

"In recent weeks, Apple turned down two applications that Google had submitted for review in hopes that they would be added to the company’s App Store, highlighting the increasingly complex relationship between the two companies."

Google said in a blog post that Apple had rejected an application called Google Latitude that would have allowed users to broadcast their location and see where their friends were.

“We worked closely with Apple to bring Latitude to the iPhone in a way Apple thought would be best for iPhone users,” the company said. It added that Apple had asked it to build a mobile-friendly Web version of the service instead, to “avoid confusion” with the standard map application on the iPhone, which also uses Google map data.

On Tuesday, a Google spokeswoman, Sara Jew-Lim, said that several weeks ago Apple rejected an application that would bring Google Voice service to the iPhone. Ms. Jew-Lim declined to elaborate.

Google Voice provides users free or low-cost calling, free text messaging, call routing and a universal voice mailbox. There already are applications for Google Voice on BlackBerrys and on handsets that use Android, Google’s mobile operating system.

Jennifer Bowcock, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment on the matter. The news of Apple’s rejection of Google Voice was first reported by the blog TechCrunch.

Apple also rescinded its earlier approval of several applications created by third-party developers that worked with Google Voice, citing concerns that they duplicated features that come with the iPhone.

Analysts and industry experts said that the Google Voice ban may have been prompted by growing concern from AT&T, the iPhone’s exclusive carrier in the United States, about the potential damage the service might do to its revenue.

“What it comes down to is AT&T’s turf,” said Gene Munster, a senior research analyst at the investment firm Piper Jaffray. “It shows that contractually, Apple has agreed to keep apps that would hurt AT&T’s business out of the App Store, regardless of who developed them.”

Michael Coe, a spokesman for AT&T, declined to comment.

Calls made by Google Voice users are carried over the regular cellphone network to a special number, and are then routed over the Internet to their destination. This means they would use up minutes on AT&T customers’ plans, unlike calls made with the iPhone application for Skype, the Internet calling service. But the Skype application works only over a Wi-Fi connection in the United States, and does not allow calls over AT&T’s data network.

AT&T may see Google Voice as a bigger threat than Skype, said Jeff Pulver, chairman of the 140 Character Conference, who has long been involved in the Internet calling business.

“I don’t think people will go to their homes and have Skype as the carrier of their choice,” Mr. Pulver said. “Google, tactical and strategic as they are, may have put the fear of God into AT&T.”

The rejections of apps by Apple could dim the halo that has encircled the iPhone since it first became a lucrative platform for outside developers. The lengthy and opaque approval process required to get anything into the App Store has long been a source of frustration for iPhone developers and users alike.

Sean Kovacs, a 25-year-old programmer in Tampa, Fla., created GV Mobile, one of the Google Voice applications that was removed from the App Store. He said he was creating versions for the Palm Pre and other iPhone competitors instead. “My days of developing for the iPhone are probably done,” he said.

For now, Mr. Kovacs has elected to make his iPhone application available through Cydia, a popular repository for thousands of unauthorized iPhone applications and modifications. “I’d rather just make it available for free, instead of just not having it available to anyone,” he said.

Of course, Google is not just another iPhone app developer. Eric E. Schmidt, its chief executive, sits on Apple’s board. But Google’s Android operating system, which has not yet been widely adopted by cellphone makers, could one day threaten the iPhone.

Apple and Google “are competitors, but they cooperate on certain projects,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Brothers. The question, Mr. Wu said, is how long that good will can hold as the companies ramp up competition in many areas, including smartphones, Web browsers, photo editing tools and online media outlets.

An Exquisite Keyboard for Gamers from Logitech

You can’t save the princess with skill alone. The peripheral manufacturer Logitech would like to aid you in your online quests with the help of its new G19 keyboard for gaming.

The G19’s standout feature is a tilting color GamePanel LCD screen, 320 by 240 pixels, which can be used to display gaming information for more than 60 games, including Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, as well as nongaming details like VoIP data, maps and videos.

The G19’s standout feature is a tilting color GamePanel LCD screen, 320 by 240 pixels, which can be used to display gaming information for more than 60 games, including Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, as well as nongaming details like VoIP data, maps and videos.

The keyboard houses 12 fully programmable G-keys (three macros per key) and has multikey input functionality, which means you can bang on up to five keys simultaneously.

You can also record new macros, and there’s a game mode switch that disables the Windows key to help prevent accidental lockouts.

Compatible with both Windows-based and Mac operating systems, the G19 gaming keyboard also comes with two U.S.B. 2.0 ports. Additional features include custom key backlighting.

The G19 keyboard for gaming is available now for preorder on Amazon. The price is $200 and shipping starts this month. Your kingdom awaits.

For Text Messaging Lovers!!

Many people like me who with friends via text messaging would love this application.

As the name implies, Textfree is an app for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) that lets you text free. Well, nearly free — there is a $5.99 annual fee. A free version limits you to 15 messages a day and includes advertising.

The service sends your texts over the data network rather than the SMS network, which does have a downside. On some phones, including the iPhone, recipients won’t see neatly threaded messages (that’s because each message may come from a different number). Your messages do have your Textfree ID on them, so people will know who they are from.

Also disconcerting are the long pauses Textfree can take before responding to screen taps or searching the contacts file. It may seem frozen, but give it time.

Back to the upside: Textfree uses push alerts, which means that even if you are using another application, you’ll know when you receive a new text message.

An Inexpensive Digital Alternative For Golfers

Some people golf in a straight line, with maybe an occasional detour into the sand trap. I, for one, prefer to spray the ball in different directions, or ZIP codes, lest the walk become boring. But this also raises significant challenges, since golf course markers don’t indicate your distance to the green when you’re standing in someone else’s fairway.
GreenFinder is among the mobile applications that use GPS technology to serve as range finders on a golf course.

Now, when I’m in someone else’s fairway, I can just pull out my cellphone.
The latest technological boon for golfers involves a device that can inspire more golf rage than a four-minute waggle. Enterprising software developers are furiously pumping out mobile apps that use GPS technology to show your distance to the green, among many other things, for a fraction of what you would pay for traditional range-finder gizmos.
The upshot: These apps are far from perfect, but given that they cost about half as much as a good set of balls, they’re well worth the money.
I tested View Ti Golf and GreenFinder, which work on smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry, and GPSGolfShot, which works on more old-school Verizon devices like the LG Chocolate and the Motorola Razr, as well as newer smartphones.
All three helped speed up my round of golf and gave mostly accurate distance readings. View Ti Golf ($35) offered features the others painfully lacked, but it was a battery hog. GreenFinder ($35 annually) was simple to use but limited in features, and GPSGolfShot ($35 annually, $4 monthly or $2 a round) offered a good option for smartphone holdouts.
Each company relies on satellite images to map a course. When you’re on a fairway, for instance, your phone pings the GPS satellite and compares your location with the location of the green, which the software stores in your phone. This bit of wizardry can actually happen faster than on dedicated GPS range finders, because mobile phones use cell towers to quickly get a fix on nearby satellites.
Each of these apps gives you big, reader-friendly yardage readings to the front, center and back of the green, so you can quickly choose a club.
Well, sometimes. The apps show an as-the-crow-flies distance to the green, so if you have GreenFinder or GPSGolfShot, and the hole is a dogleg, it’s no help. What you need, of course, is a way to determine how far to hit the ball so you can turn the corner.
View Ti gives you that, since it shows the image of the hole, and offers a cursor you can control with a fingertip. Drag the cursor where you want to hit the ball on that dogleg, for instance, and it tells you the distance.
One drawback is that the image does not rotate, compass-style, in sync with where you happen to be standing on the hole. Last week I played at Pine Orchard Yacht and Country Club, in Branford, Conn., with Philip Johnson, a longtime club member with an eight handicap and a tendency to hit the ball in tediously straight lines.
As familiar as he is with the course, even he struggled to figure out which way to orient the device. Had I been flying solo, I’d never have figured out which way to point the thing.
Michael Phung, a founder of View Ti, said the company would fix that problem in a new version of the app, due out this autumn, along with other improvements.
The software works with about 15,000 of the roughly 18,000 courses in the United States, with the weakest coverage in places like Texas, Oklahoma and other locations where satellite images are not yet sharp enough to rely on, Mr. Phung said.
View Ti also includes about 2,000 courses in the United Kingdom (including British Open courses), hundreds more in Canada and Australia and dozens scattered in more remote global locations. The company adds new courses each week, in response to user requests.
Aside from complaints of users who, because of satellite-image limitations, cannot get their home courses listed, Mr. Phung said users were most often bothered by the application’s tendency to sap battery life from an iPhone.
Users should expect to get at least four hours, he said, from a fully charged iPhone. But Mr. Johnson, my playing partner, ran his iPhone into the red zone after three hours of constant use, and the comments on View Ti’s iTunes page suggested that many users had trouble keeping the app running through an entire round of golf.
Mr. Phung said part of the problem is relying on the service too much. “We envisioned people would use it five or six times during a round, for the tough shots,” he said. The problem is, that’s not the way many people want to use it. Between the tee and the green, the app can save time on nearly every club selection, unless your ball lands close to a yardage marker.
One solution: Mr. Johnson said he puts his iPhone to sleep after checking for yardage. It takes a few seconds to activate the app again, but it keeps the battery alive longer.
Then there’s the bigger philosophical problem of using a cellphone on a golf course. The United States Golf Association’s rules do not ban cellphones, saying only that “players should ensure that any electronic device taken onto the course does not distract other players.” But some courses will eject players for using one, so it makes sense to clear it with the club’s pro before investing.
GreenFinder’s big advantage is that, unlike most other iPhone apps, it also works on BlackBerrys, some Windows Mobile phones and, within a week, Android phones like T-Mobile’s G1. One of the company’s founders, Trevor Timbeck, said that the application relies on more refined satellite imagery to map distances, but in limited testing, I found no meaningful difference between GreenFinder’s readings and those of the other two apps.
Verizon’s GPSGolfShot, meanwhile, will soon get an upgrade, with bird’s-eye images of the hole and even flyover movies.
One can imagine a day when someone gives that option a spin while he is waiting patiently for an intruder to get off his fairway. Perhaps the aggrieved player will then pull his cellphone out, too, and measure the distance to the other player’s head.

Pentax Water Proof Camera

Pentax adds to the lineup of swimming snap-shooters with its new Optio W80, which can withstand a dunk off the deep end down to 16 feet. It can shoot underwater photos and high-definition video for up to two hours, according to its maker.

The $300 Optio W80 is also ruggedized to handle dust, freezing temperatures down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit and drops of up to three feet.

Pentax has been poolside since 2003, when it introduced its first waterproof camera (the Optio W80 is an update of last year’s Optio W60). Today, the rugged camera market has expanded to include models like the Fujifilm Finepix 233WP, Olympus Stylus Tough 8000, Canon PowerShot D10 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1, which from $160 to $350.

That puts the new Pentax at the high end of the price scale. But the 12.1-megapixel Optio W80 has some nice specs, including a 5X (28- to 140-mm equivalent) lens, the ability to capture high-definition video (1280 by 720 pixels at 30 frames a second), image-stabilization technology and face-recognition technology.

The chassis is made of reinforced polycarbonate plastic and aluminum plating, with the necessary gaskets to keep out water. A protective coating protects the mineral-crystal cover of the internal-lens zoom to help repel water.

You will have your choice of red, gray or blue models when the Optio W80 hits stores in July.