Good news for readers: Asus plans to shake-up the e-reader market. The company that pioneered the netbook says it plans a dual-screen e-reader that could sell for as little as $164.

The Times of London reports on what it describes as "the world's cheapest digital reader."

The newspaper quotes Asus President Jerry Shen as saying the device will be released this year and come in both budget and premium versions.

"Unlike current e-book readers, which take the form of a single flat screen, the Asus device has a hinged spine, like a printed book. This, in theory, enables its owner to read an e-book much like a normal book, using the touch screen to 'turn' the pages from one screen to the next," the newspaper reported.

"It also gives the user the option of seeing the text on one screen while browsing a web page on the other. One of the screens could also act as a virtual keypad for the device to be used like a laptop. Whereas current e-book readers have monochrome screens, the Asus would be full colour. The maker says it may also feature 'speakers, a webcam and a mic for Skype', allowing cheap phone calls over the Internet."

The device is expected to be called the Eee Reader, a take-off on Asus' Eee PC netbook line. The Times speculates, correctly I think, that price will be the primary driver for the budget model. The premium version will offer more features, but at a higher price.

The newspaper also doesn't speculate on screen size, likely to be small, especially if the unit offers dual screens. It is unlikely the Taiwanese company, which seems to have spoken to the newspaper, would not have corrected such a major error, so hinged screens seem to be part of the design.

(The screen shown in the mock-up illustration appears much too large to me).

The price of the deluxe model was not included in the newspaper's report. Given Asus' track record, it seems likely the company would seek to offer a dramatic improvement in feature set at the same price as other current higher-end models, such as Amazon's Kindle.

Also not included in the speculation is word on what e-book format(s) Asus will support. Sony has said it will use ePub, an open e-book format, in new models. Google has followed suit. Others have wondered whether Acrobat might play a larger role as the market develops.

I would like to see Amazon license its Kindle format and allow other e-reader customers to purchase its books online. Competition demands another format as well, though it is unclear whether ePub or another e-book format can reach critical mass with publishers and consumers.

If another format does not emerge, however, Amazon will continue to enjoy a huge advantage over competitors, if they are even able to survive.

Industry veteran David Coursey tweets as @techinciter and can be contacted via his Web site.

Cool design, great potential price, more competition for Kindle...

From my favorite mag of all time. Real Simple - the technology section!

The Sony PSP Go is due out in October. I'm sure this will end up on Santa's list of things to get this holiday season!

This GoPet scooter featured on gizmag.com can run for 25 miles on 10 cents in electricity. Now that's a smart use of technology!

Is Social Media Helping To Socialize China?

Posted: August 23rd,2009 | By: Khan

When you think about social media in the USA, you are most likely to associate it with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the countless number of blogs out there. So if asked about social media in China, many people will invariably seek out the China-equivalents of similar social networking services (SNS) like Kaixin Web and Renren, and similar micro-blogging sites such as Digu, Fanfou, and Taotao.

The trouble with this logic is that technology adoption rarely adheres to a uniform trend worldwide. Long before the existence of the iPhone and the prevalence of the mobile internet that we have in USA today, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, Inc. ((ADR) NYSE: DCM) was giving the world a first peek into the mobile future with its innovative i-mode service. For all its hype in the early 2000s however, i-mode never achieved any credible success outside of Japan.

This divergence is happening again with the adoption of social media in China. Its social media scene is dominated by bulletin boards (BBS), an almost antiquated technology more prevalent during the early days of the internet. Although the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) indicated that there are around 50 million bloggers in China, anonymous online conversations are the main form of social media for the netizens to express themselves.

As marketers in the Western world are re-thinking their strategies with the current rage in social media, businesses in China are likewise shifting their approaches in innovative ways.  The Chinese people are already voracious consumers and contributors of social media, with an estimated 92% of its netizens actively engaged in it. But to focus on the same Western-styled social media channels will likely result in ineffective campaigns. The Chinese users take to streams of conversations on BBSes more readily than those on social networking sites and blogs, which has been much of the focus of campaigns here in USA.

This is just the beginning where Chinese marketers become more sophisticated about using China-styled social media in delivering their marketing campaigns. Just see Lufthansa Airlines and BioTherm…

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Filed under: China
| tags: BBS, blog, DCM, Facebook, Kaxin Web, microblogging, MySpace, NTT DoCo, Renren, social media, social networking, Twitter

Here's an interesting blog post on Social Media and it's progress in China. Interesting that they are still into the BBS model...

If new research bears fruit, the next stop for flexible display technology might be the side of a commuter bus or the front of a T-shirt. An international team of scientists has developed a way to manufacture flexible and essentially transparent LED displays that could be tightly fitted over a solid object or integrated into fabrics. The research was published in the journal Science (paid subscription required).

What’s interesting is that the flexible displays would be composed of inorganic LEDs, normally used in huge outdoor billboards, as opposed to organic LEDs (OLEDs), which are often used in cell phone displays. Inorganic LEDs are bright and tough, according to Science, but usually have to be cut and assembled. The new process allows the inorganic LEDs to be “rubber-stamped” onto flexible materials like rubber or plastic or more rigid materials like glass.

Under the snappy title “Printed Assemblies of Inorganic Light-Emitting Diodes for Deformable and Semitransparent Displays,” scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore explain that the new technology could be used in displays “that might be interesting for integration with the human body and other curvilinear, deformable surfaces, all of which demand more than simple bending.”

Does that mean that there might be an electronic billboard T-shirt in your future? Only time will tell.

[Science via Reuters and Electronista]

Now that is way cool technology!

Get your fix!

August 18, 2009 09:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

YourKey Says Smart Consumers Are Locking Smartphones As Guard Against Data Loss and Identity Theft

‘Bet Paris Hilton Wishes She Had Used YourKey When Her Phone was Lost’

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Consumers and business people are getting smart by locking their smartphones as they recognize the danger and cost of data loss and identity theft.

Next Access Technologies, LLC, which developed and offers the patented YourKey™ personalized data security system for smartphones, believes its innovative app can mean “peace of mind when a device is lost or stolen,” said COO Jack Loop. “If you’re smart, auto-lock lock your smartphone,” he said. “I bet Paris Hilton wishes she had used YourKey when her phone was lost!”

Next Access, which recently signed a co-marketing and partnering agreement with LifeLock, Inc., the industry leader in identity theft protection, has also launched www.YourKeyLock.com “a site consumers are invited to visit for up-to-date information on how and why to protect data on smartphones,” he said. “Today, locking a smartphone is just as important as locking a car, home or PC.”

YourKey a Functional and Fun App

Andrew Seybold (www.AndrewSeybold.com), a well known and influential wireless industry expert and analyst who has worked with Next Access, agrees. His company, which helps people and organizations to be more successful in the evolving world of wireless mobility, recommends locking smartphones and doing so with YourKey.

“Built-in smartphone auto-locks are dull, drab and lifeless,” he said recently. “Next Access has rewritten the rules and created a fun and functional sign-on screen app that makes personalization a snap.”

YourKey was designed as a dynamic improvement to built-in auto lock apps, allowing users to create PINs from letters, numbers, logos and icons from popular products and brands, and even personalize them with pictures or additional icons of sports teams, movie stars, athletes, colleges, TV shows or movies. Along with protecting stored information, YourKey also delivers special offers and discounts.

The first YourKey release will be for T-Mobile G1 Android-powered phones, with versions for Microsoft® Windows® Mobile 6.5, Blackberry®, Palm®, iPhone® and other phones now in beta testing. Next Access is also in discussions with carriers, mobile handset and computer manufacturers about porting YourKey’s security application and advertising interface for use on netbooks, PCs, ATMs and other devices.

About Next Access Technologies, LLC

Next Access Technologies, LLC (www.NextAccessTechnologies.com) was founded by cell industry pioneer and entrepreneur Charles L. Bakes to develop, acquire and bring to market products for smartphones, netbooks, PCs, ATMs and other devices. Its first release of YourKey will be for Google Android-powered smartphones and will allow users to create customized PINs using numbers, letters and images, incorporating advertising images and ads to give users a fun and easy auto-locking and unlocking experience, further securing important data on their phones while providing advertisers with mobile branding impressions.

Still doesn't help me in my raging debate over whether to get a Blackberry or an iPhone, since YourKey will be available on each...

The new TomTom app that turns an iPhone into a turn-by-turn GPS navigation system spells the beginning of the end for standalone GPS. Not everywhere, but at least on dashboards, where a smartphone can now do everything a GPS can do and cost less than purchasing both.

Like most users, I have been unhappy with the GPS applications available for my iPhone. While overpriced at $99.95, the TomTom software is the first to truly bring standalone GPS performance to a smartphone platform. When the company releases its car kit, dashboard mounting and powering the iPhone will become easier.

With iPhones selling for as little as $99, the combination of phone, software, and mounting kit should cost less that $300. While you can purchase a nice GPS for that, it would provide little more than navigation and perhaps hands-free for a Bluetooth phone. The iPhone is a real pocket-sized computer that does everything the GPS does, and a lot more besides.

Still, a standalone GPS can--and this may be the genre's salvation--provide a larger, more readable screen than the iPhone. It can also provide real (not touch screen) buttons for some functions.

For people who can afford both, an iPhone and separate GPS may still offer benefits in ease-of-use, provided GPS manufacturers focus on meeting the smartphone threat.

In my car, I am still using a Garmin Nuvi GPS, which provides navigation and a Bluetooth speakerphone for the iPhone. My guess is I will continue to use that even when a TomTom car kit appears.

However, because the iPhone will have a live, interactive connection back to TomTom, there are many features the company can add to its platform that traditional GPS users, even those with FM subcarrier "traffic" receivers, will find hard to match.

TomTom is already offering a feature that uses information from other users to create better routing. Over time, location-based features should make smartphones or other two-way devices the best option for navigation in all but wilderness conditions or in aviation.

As those services roll out and as my standalone GPS units--I have two or three--become outdated or are stolen, I will probably more to whatever TomTom or its competitors are offering.

What will it take to keep me with a standalone device?

First, I need to be able to program it by speaking by destination. It needs to be perfect and quick. Second, I do want a larger navigation screen than what my iPhone can offer. Third, the GPS needs to tether to the phone to get traffic, weather, and other updates while I drive.

Give me those things, and it will still be possible to see me a GPS for my car. Otherwise, my smartphone will suffice.

Industry veteran David Coursey tweets as @techinciter and can by contacted via his Web page.

I'm still in the "which should I choose" phase. Trying to decide between Blackberry and iPhone. iPhone just keeps getting better.

Facebook just bought the rights to nearly everything you do online. And it cost them only $47.5 million.

Facebook's purchase of FriendFeed, an obscure social-media platform, is potentially momentous. To understand why, we must understand FriendFeed, a start-up that is ubiquitous among techies and unknown to everybody else. It's a sleek application that acts as a clearinghouse for all of your social-media activities. Post something to Flickr? That will show up on your FriendFeed page. Digg something? FriendFeed will know. Post to Twitter from your phone? FriendFeed will syndicate your tweets. Once you initially tell it where to look, it will collect everything and tell it to the world.

The goal is to make automatic that which is all too annoying to do manually. If I like an article enough to Digg it, why should I then have to tell all my friends via Facebook or Twitter, as well? The social-media landscape has become disparate enough -- so many start-ups controlling so many different pieces of our lives -- that we need a central place that will organize all of our actions for us. That place is FriendFeed.

Facebook has recently shown that it, too, wants to be that place. For all of its genius in harnessing the collective procrastination of an entire planet, Facebook has usually asked you to come to it. For example, want to post photos on Flickr but not Facebook? Good luck telling your Facebook friends about it. In the past, while Facebook was building an audience, this walled garden helped it build its audience. If all your friends were on Facebook, then why not post your pictures there? After all, the point of digital photography in 2009 is to relive memories with the very group of people that lived through them in the first place. That group is most likely found on Facebook.

But now Facebook's user base is big enough for it to start looking out. There's a Twitter application that synchronizes your tweets with your Facebook status message. And then there's Facebook Connect, the company's convoluted and potentially brilliant attempt to make Facebook the official login for the rest of the Internet. Sites that support Facebook Connect -- about 15,000 and growing -- let users log in using their Facebook credentials in order to do things such as leave comments on articles and blog posts. That activity is then pumped back into the author's Facebook profile, which then promotes the site where the comment was left. Everybody wins -- especially Facebook, which gets more content and more of an off-site footprint.

So here's a theory: FriendFeed is going to become the companion to Facebook Connect; Facebook Connect pipes Facebook out to other sites, while FriendFeed's technology pipes other sites in.

How do I deduce this? It's reasonable to assume that Facebook won't somehow combine FriendFeed's user database with Facebook's. It's likely all FriendFeeders are Facebookers, and the two networks aren't set up to be compatible. And unlike much of the tech press, I don't believe this acquisition is about real-time search or a competition with Twitter.

Instead, I think this is about social aggregation. Facebook bought FriendFeed so it could become the Huffington Post of your social life.

Right now the majority of your news feed is filled with updates that your friends have (for the most part) made within Facebook. Status updates, engagements, zombie bites -- it all shows up in your news feed. But those are all internal to Facebook; everybody spends plenty of time outside Facebook, as well. And in order for you to track your friends' activities you either have to subscribe to all of their different feeds or hope that they tell you when they add content to one of their other profiles. That's a hassle.

What you need is an aggregator -- a place to come that gives you a news feed not just of what's happening inside your walled garden, but also what's going on elsewhere, too. A Facebook/FriendFeed mash-up -- FaceFeed, we (and many others) will call it -- would be exactly that.

To understand the allure of this kind of aggregator, one only has to look to successful news aggregators. Take the devilishly popular Huffington Post, for example. For better or worse, the site's mash-up of news from disparate sources has struck a cord among its 7 million monthly visitors. Its home page is a mix of links to blog posts from Huffington Post contributors and links to outside stories from the news media. Rather than hunt and peck through all these other sites, people go to the Huffington Post to be delivered a smattering of links. Aggregators work because they do all the hard work for you.

So now imagine a social aggregator with the size and sway of Facebook. Users would love it, because it would make their lives simpler and more streamlined. The other social-media sites stand to gain as well, since Facebook would be pointing more users to content off-site. News sites will get more traffic, because people will be clicking through on more links. Facebook, of course, would be the biggest victor: It would be able to get people to check in more often and stay longer. Ad rates can then go up, which helps the company's bottom line.

If this happens, Facebook will be the one portal to rule them all. Other than Google, that is. Google long ago took over much of our Internet usage: Gmail, Google Docs, Google search, etc. Facebook and Twitter, for now, are the two holdouts, bastions of independence in an increasingly consolidated Internet. (To be more precise: the user-generated Internet.) And Twitter may already be too integrated to count because of the way Facebook pipes it in.

That leaves two mega-conglomerates that will compete to be the portal of everything we do on the Internet. Google has long tried to get into the social game, and Facebook surely wouldn't mind expanding into some of Google's territory. (Real-time search is the likely entry point.) It's as classic an American struggle as Pepsi vs. Coke. Two companies, one market. Regardless of which side you choose, I'm sure Facebook will be happy to air your thoughts on the matter. Even if you write them on Blogspot, Google's blogging network. After all, that's why Facebook bought FriendFeed. So it could own you.