Kindle 2 Released Today


As this is an entertainment blog, and not just one about TV (or just “24” or “LOST”), I thought I’d mention that Amazon’s Kindle 2 was released today, If you pre-ordered it, it’ll show up in the next day or two.

What’s a Kindle, and why would you want one? It’s an electronic book reader, but it’s quite a bit more than that. The device has a built-in cell radio that let’s you download content no matter where you are. The key things about that feature are 1) You don’t have to pay monthly fees, so once you buy it, that’s it; 2) You can download new books, sometimes at a substantial discount from Amazon and have them go straight to your Kindle; 3) You can download more than just books – magazines, blogs and newspapers are also available!

If you’re interested, take a look at the Kindle Video to find out more.

Amazon Kindle: Your new e-book reader?

Amazon Kindle e-reader
Amazon.com has released the Kindle just in time for the holidays. The device has a battery life that lasts for days, gets wireless EVDO delivery of content, and has a crisp black and white screen… all this in a device that weights 10.3 ounces.

You can read blogs on it, get newspaper and blog content delivered to it, it has a keyboard. It’ll even fully recharge in 2 hours.

The key thing about the device I think is that there are no wireless bills, service plans or commitments. If they had charged a monthly fee, I think that would have killed the device.

Now, if you want to get your own personal files or pictures on the device, you can e-mail them for $0.10. I’m not sure why there would be a charge for that, but not the other online content.

Check out Amazon’s Kindle page for a lot of info and video.

What do you think? Would you buy one?

Update Looks like you’ll be changed $1.99 per blog per month.

What’s Apple up to?

Speaking of mysterious new devices….

Apple will announce something “new” next week, according to the invitations that some chosen few have received. There’s a picture that’s circulating which looks like a small cube. The person that took it says it measures 8x8x8 and has a bunch of ports on the back.

My guess is that it’ll be a device that you’ll connect to your TV, will have a wireless internet connection, and the ability to download movies right to it. I don’t think they’ll go the TiVO route, since there’s still a lot of shakeup about to happen in that market.

People have been going “gah-gah” over the ability to have TV shows on their iPOD…doesn’t it make sense for Apple to introduce something that people will be able to use in their living rooms?

Any other guesses?

Microsoft “Origami” to debut March 2nd

There has been a lot of speculation on what Microsoft “Origami” might be over the last couple of days. The website http://www.origamiproject.com, has a weird little flash movie that doesn’t really do anything more than add to the mystery of what it might be.

A few years ago, National Semicondtor came up with a device named “Origami” which was a small handheld that could be opened and turned in a variety of different ways, depending on how it would be used.

The device that was talked about back then was a phone, pda, MP3 player, e-mail device, and video conferencing tool.

Stamps with moving pictures

You may have heard about “electronic paper”, a technology which uses electrical charges on individual elements within the “paper” to display text and images.

Another new technology now brings moving pictures onto stamps.

If you’ve ever seen the movie “Minority Report”, and remember the scenes where the advertisments were moving, even though they were on flat posters, you’ll get the idea of what they’re doing….. except on a much smaller scale.

It’s coming folks… It’ll probably take a few more years, but pretty soon you’ll be bombarded with ads on cereal boxes, moving around to get you to buy that box.

Sure hope there’s an easy way to turn those off.

Windows wireless security flaw

Mark Loveless has discovered a flaw in Windows wireless security. The fix is pretty simple:

Go to “Start,” “Control Panel,” “Network Connections,” and then right click on the entry labeled “wireless network connection” and select “Properties” from the drop down menu. Then click on the “Wireless Networks” tab, and then on the “Advanced” tab at the bottom of that window. A box should pop up that gives you three buttons to choose from: Select the one next to “Access point (infrastructure) networks only.

via The Washington Post