Ever since Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board we all knew that a feud between the two companies was about to start.
Google had just launched Android, a Mobile OS. I’m sure we are all too aware of this.
Android wasn’t, and still isn’t a serious competitor for Apple’s iPhone. Google’s OS still has a long way to go to reach the “slickness” of the iPhone OS. Furthermore Google doesn’t have control over the hardware running its OS. Which means that the brilliancy of the OS can be completely overshadowed by the absurdity of the hardware. Honestly, some of the Android phones look like they have been designed by some boffin called Jenkins who was given complete freedom by their boss, Who should have instead said “No Jenkins you imbecile that’s not a phone. It’s crap. Do it again.”
I’m getting side-tracked. Let’s get back to the point.
Today Google announced Google Map Navigation for Android; and somehow I doubt it will make it to the iPhone. My guess is that Google is repaying Apple in kind for the whole Google Voice debacle. This is a serious blow and Apple will have some work to do to catch up with this.
More importantly Google Maps Navigation runs entirely off the net.
I have an iPhone with the Navigon app. It’s great but on my slim 8GB iPhone 25% of the storage is used for Navigon maps. With mobile internet connectivity becoming ever more ubiquitous this is definitely the way to go.
All I can hope for is that the rumor that came out a while ago about Google developing its own mobile phone is true. Then I might seriously consider giving up my iPhone.
UPDATE: AppleInsider reports that Google is in fact planning to port Google Maps Navigation to iPhone. If Apple approves the application, that is. Just PR or are they actually working on it?
“Apple is a close partner,” a Google spokesperson told AppleInsider Wednesday. “Millions of users experience Google Maps on the iPhone. We will continue to work with Apple to bring innovation, including Latitude and Navigation, to users but you’ll have to speak to Apple about availability.”
Regardless I stick to my initial opinion. 399 bucks is allot of dough to cough up for something that has neither the charms nor the solidity of a book, I can throw a big book to make a big noise but if i throw a kindle it’ll just make me 399$ poorer – a futile point but I thought that with my incredible ability to knock books off my bed-side table had to be mentioned. Moreover I don’t recall ever having to plug a book to recharge it for a few hours to be able to read, if I want to read I want to do it right now.
Jeff Jarvis makes a very good point in his post today about the much advertised blog content availability on the kindle. Why would I pay for something that is free on the net?
I violently agree with him. As I said already I’m very passionate about my book collection and a kindle would be of no value for me from that point of view. Either you give me a device capable of accessing any kind of content on the net (for free) or you provide me with a cheap e-book reader – Not a stupidly expensive internet-impaired Frankenstein.
At least this is my view, but it would seem that there’s a generation out there who is still not used to free blogs on the net and is quite happy to pay for the device and the content. It’s a cultural fact, they just don’t know any better.
Amazon has finally launched its E-Book reader, Kindle, available now for 399 $ with access to 88,000 books including 100 of the 112 New York Times best sellers.
The entire idea sounds pretty exciting, especially considering that the big A will pick up all the “phone bills” for its Whispernet service, which is based on Sprint’s EVDO.
Whispernet allows Kindle owners to wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, dowload and receive content and works out the box — no setup required. Newspaper subscriptions cost $5.99 to $14.99 per month and Kindle Magazines cost between $1.25 and $3.49 per month — each is available for a free 2 week trial. Oddly, blogs will cost you $0.99 per month to subscribe. Just running down the specs again: internal storage for 200 titles (more via SD expansion), 10.3 ounces.
I love the idea and fully recognize its potential, definitely the future, I’m afraid not mine. I love reading books, I do read every night and love my collection, which I always display proudly on my shelf. Not quite so proudly right now because I have exceeded the amount of avilable space and have started piling books all over the place, but I’m working on that.
Update:GigaOm has an interesting article I completely agree with. Inexpensive ebook reader and earn money through the books. Whoever is likely to buy an ebook reader is certainly not looking to a technology packed gizmo.
Update: Kindle hardware features
It doesn’t use a generic RSS aggregator — it’s Amazon-selected blogs only (and they “want every blog they can get”). Blogs that are aggregated by the Kindle get a revenue share with Amazon, since it costs money to get those publications.
The side scroller is, as we expected, a polarized PNLCD (pneumatic LCD). It looks amazing.
It’s SD only, not SDHC.
It uses the Kindle file format (which is a variant of structured HTML), but also accepts Word and PDF files (but only via email since they need to be converted by Amazon), Mobi, HTML, plaintext, and image files like JPEG, GIF, and PNG. Sorry, no RTF.
Oh yes, it supports Audible! Oh, and a little, unused file format called MP3.
It has a user-replaceable, 1530mAh battery
You can bind five or six devices to a single account, and share books you’ve purchased to those accounts. There’s no simultaneous reading lock, so if you and your significant other are on the same Amazon account you can both read the same book at the same time on your Kindles.
Amazon is also releasing the Digital Text Platform, which allows users to upload their own content to the Kindle store for sale and download.
The $9.99 price point is the sweet spot, but there are books for sale from the Gutenberg project for under $1 (if you don’t want to download them for free yourself), and upwards of that quoted $10 price point as well.
Amazon wouldn’t say who makes the device, just that “it’s an OEM in China.”
