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Amazon Win …. Best Buy Fail!. HDMI Cables Are Only $3.19
As regular Cheapskate readers know, HDMI cables are insanely overpriced. Pity the uninformed consumer who walks into, say, Best Buy, and walks out to poorer. Happens all the time.
The Rise and Fall of Traditional Journalism, Part 4
Ask someone about the future of journalism, and it’s likely that most people will point to something like E-Ink or perhaps the Amazon Kindle — high-fidelity readers that use millions of embedded, magnetically sensitive spheres which can show a black, white or in-between state to create dynamically refreshing text content. Such readers no doubt have a great deal of potential, but while it’s entirely possible that future newspapers will be displayed on such readers, they will also be displayed on laptops and netbooks, on cellphones, and on car heads-up displays.
The Rise and Fall of Traditional Journalism, Part 4
Ask someone about the future of journalism, and it’s likely that most people will point to something like E-Ink or perhaps the Amazon Kindle — high-fidelity readers that use millions of embedded, magnetically sensitive spheres which can show a black, white or in-between state to create dynamically refreshing text content. Such readers no doubt have a great deal of potential, but while it’s entirely possible that future newspapers will be displayed on such readers, they will also be displayed on laptops and netbooks, on cellphones, and on car heads-up displays.
Japanese ESRB Bans Rape Depiction In Games
eldavojohn writes “The Ethics Organization of Computer Software (EOCS), now 233 companies strong, and met in Tokyo yesterday to ban a controversial title from Japan known as RapeLay, an eroge game (something much more adult than the more popular dating simulators). It’s gotten a lot of press as reviewers have noted at one point the player must force sex on a 12-year-old. More importantly, the large (3 million annually) adult game industry in Japan will now need to stay away from rape in their games if they wish to remain a member of EOCS. RapeLay seems to be available on Amazon’s UK and JP sites, sparking outrage and causing a former US Ambassador to Japan to write an editorial criticizing Japan, saying, ‘Only Japan allows people to possess these hideous pictures without penalty. Six of the G-7 countries have found ways to protect the innocent from being prosecuted for possession of child pornography. Is it not time for Japan to find a way to punish the guilty?’ Singapore’s Straits Times has more details, pointing out that it’s still not illegal to possess these materials in Japan. We discussed this and other games last month in an editorial.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google Set To Tackle eBook Market
Mike writes “Google’s latest decision to try its hand selling eBooks promises to make life in the eBook world more interesting, and will likely spur a standards war that in the end may prove beneficial to many consumers. Google’s eBook store will pit it directly against Amazon and Amazon’s Kindle — an enormously popular eBook reader. This will push many companies to create eBook readers to take advantage of Google’s new store, and will flood the market with tough choices. Google does not have a dedicated eBook reader yet, but it seems a logical next step for the search giant.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Are Amazon’s Web Services Going Open Source?
ruphus13 writes “Amazon has been one of the early movers in the cloud computing space, with its AWS offerings, including S3 and EC2. Now, there is a lot of chatter around the imminent open sourcing of all its APIs and services and the impact that will have on the other ‘clouds’ out there — public or private. From the article, ‘Amazon faces significant threats from open source cloud computing efforts if it pursues a purely proprietary path [...] Amazon can’t ignore the cost advantages and diversity of product offerings that open source players are already offering in the cloud computing space. The company’s best move is to open source its tools, which will end up diversifying them, play on a level field in terms of cost with the open source alternatives, and charge for services. Absent these moves, the company will lose potential customers to free, open source alternatives [...] Word is Amazon’s legal team is currently ‘investigating’ open sourcing their various web services API’s including EC2, S3, etc.’, although these have not been confirmed by Amazon.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Rumor: Amazon to open source Web Services APIs
Sources say that Amazon will open source the APIs for EC2 and S3. Since they are de-facto standards, let’s hope it’s true.
2 New E-Readers on the Block: One Cheaper, One Touchier
Two upcoming e-readers demonstrated Wednesday could force changes in the market. They are Plastic Logic’s reader and British firm Interead’s Cool-er. Plastic Logic’s reader, which has a much larger screen than the Amazon Kindle, targets business readers. The Cool-er has the same 6-inch screen size as the Amazon Kindle 2, but it’s priced at almost 0 less. Both devices were among the items demonstrated at the D: All Things Digital conference held by The Wall Street Journal.
Clearpace puts archived data in the cloud
The software vendor introduces Rainstor, which uses Amazon’s cloud tools to store customers’ legacy data in the cloud.
Mr. Bezos Goes To Washington
theodp writes “TechFlash takes a look at Amazon’s evolving government cloud strategy, reporting that the company is quietly building an operation in the D.C. area (’Amazon Government Solutions’) as it aims to become a key technology provider to federal and state governments and the US military. According to Input, the federal government market for cloud services is projected to grow to 0 million by 2013, and the state and local cloud market is expected to reach 5 million by that year.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
