Category: rant

  • Fictionwise e-reader for iPhone equals new Kindle competitor

    Via a quick tweet from John Siracusa, I see that electronic book publisher Fictionwise has released a free e-book reader program for iPhones and iPod Touches (or should it be iPods Touch?) running Apple’s 2.0 operating system. This could be a big deal as Fictionwise is one of the more established players in the e-book…

  • All I ask is a full-frame and a single mirror to sail her by

    With apologies to 19th century English poet John Masefield, I have an issue with my digital camera and none of the major camera vendors are helping me out. As we all learned way back in the days of Kodak Tri-X and silver-halide, the field of view of your basic human being is about equivalent to…

  • Damp, drizzly November in my computer-acquiring soul

    Last year was quite a year — maybe the best year ever — for acquiring computers around these parts. In January, bulking up my new home office, I bought a 24″ iMac. Best desktop computer I’ve owned, by far. In April, my mom needed a Windows Pc to do her taxes so I sent over…

  • Android, iPhone and the push for a real mobile Internet

    Plenty of “news” today about the mobile Internet, prompted by this Wall Street Journal piece on Google’s Android mobile phone operating system.  The Journal’s story is chock full of details of the internal struggles of Android developers and carriers that may support Android phone. While Google had said phones running Android would be available in…

  • The Kindle is for readers, the Kindle is for readers

    Web marketing guru Seth Godin has a Kindle and he seems to like it but he’d also like it to be more revolutionary in a very Godin-esque way. Okay. He’s also incredibly sexist. Godin claims the Kindle is “for women” because 1. it’s ugly and 2. the top 10 best sellers are not tech-heavy and…

  • Following up: the new iPhone is even more expensive

    Got plenty of opinionated comments on my prior post about pricing of the new iPhone 3G. Thanks for all the comments. Just a couple of quick responses from me First, my main point is about how Apple and AT&T’s shift from higher up-front cost to higher per-month fees radically altered the sales projections. Thought experiment:…

  • New iPhone pricing proves consumers are idiots

    There’s lots of fascinating research about just how truly horrible consumers and investors we all are most of the time. The field of behavioral economics has produced much scholarship along these lines. Princeton professor Danny Kahneman won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2002 for his research showing in essence that people make radically different…

  • Unwired for a weekend, re-wired blahs

    I spent the weekend at my 20th college reunion — big fun and all credit to the wife who championed going (we met in college!) over my objections. But it meant there was little to no time for twittering, yelping or any of the other various and sundry online activities I typically engage in from…

  • Kindle or no, we still need great book stores

    (UPDATE: In October, 2008, new ownership promised to maintain the store’s essential character – phew!) Woke up and received a slight slap in the face as I read the morning paper today. Seems that Frank Kramer, owner of the very fine Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Ma., is planning to sell his establishment. Make no…

  • Apple forgets to ask Civ creator about Missing Mac version

    I have to admit that even though I occasionally play computer games on my computers, almost always Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, I had no idea that Apple had started a dedicated web site about gaming on the Mac until I caught this link over at Inside Mac Games. Three cheers for Apple for encouraging and…