Record Month for Amazon's Kindle

Goodbye old fashioned booky-things, the Kindle is taking off. November has been the greatest sales month for Kindle thus far and it appears as though consumers are ready to shell out the cash for this device. The e-reader has dropped to $259 (it might be that I am soul crushingly poor, but that's still way to much money for me to fork over) and seems to be in the lead of the digital reader competition. I haven't been heard any news in the way of the Nook, so it looks like Amazon has the advantage right now. I've even been seeing these tempting Kindle commericals,



These promising Kindle sales are big news for the publishing industry. If there was any doubt that digital readers are the future of publishing, than this is the proof. Actually, it isn't even the future we are talking about anymore. It's right now. I think Amazon has done a good job bringing WiFi and personalization (although there could always be more) to the Kindle. What I would like to see now, is publishers offering exclusive content and working to bring books, newspapers, comics, etc to e-readers in an exciting and innovative way. Honestly though, the Kindle is nice and I wish I could afford one, but they are a soon-to-be outdated step in the digital reader evolution. Once that Tablet comes along or once the iPhone can do everything you want it to do perfectly, having a separate device for a reader will just seem silly.

And here comes my nostalgia again--I'm hesitant about these changes. Yes, having an all-in-one would be convienant. Yes, I carry a digital camera, cell phone, iPod, and iTouch are with me because they all do different things. I know I should find carrying around all that technology annoying but I guess I'm just so used to it. Maybe it's that carrying a consolidated all-in-one device demonstrates a clarity of mind that I just don't have. Maybe some people like to feel confused, rushed and overwhelmed by all the balls they have up in the air, okay? Damn you technology for trying to simplify my life! I will never give in to your reasonable demands!

Oh, Aol. I Forgot All About You!

AOL, excuse me Aol., is back! Well they never actually left, their company just became so irrelevant we all forgot about them. On December 11th, AOL will finally be spun-off from Time Warner and they are looking to turn their separation into a rebranding opportunity. So as you can see above, Aol. (lowercase letters are waaay in with the kids) is revamping their image with a variety of new background designs to appeal to artsy people/ youth/ goldfish/ no clue.



This video makes me so angry. If anyone out there feels compelled to return to Aol. because of this pathetic attempt at rebranding, I hate you. Okay full disclosure here, I am not a media executive or an internet mogul. But it is my personal opinion that Aol. has things a little backwards. If it were me,

Step 1. Create/invent/innovate something new so that you are no longer "grandpa's internet company"

Step 2. Rebrand your company to reflect those changes.

It also seems to me that Aol. might have a few other financial problems to worry about before they start on this advertising campaign. Just a thought!

Well, Aol. so far you've been successful because at the very least, people are thinking about you as an internet company again--even if those thoughts are usually followed by chuckles. Now all you have to do is innovate the internet in a way that no other business out there has done yet and everyone will come flocking back. Good luck!

Netvibes Wasabi Will Unfortuantely Not Be Used By Me

A few years ago I started using Netvibes as my homepage. It was cool because Netvibes allowed me to personalize my page by adding on different widgets that could bring me personalize news. On my page I had widgets for news, weather, Digg, Flickr, Facebook, as well as different tabs where I could put even more widgets for all my different interests. The service did a pretty decent job of keeping me in the loop. It conviently put everything I would normally search for on one website. But I didn't use. Shortly after I discovered Netvibes I abondened it. I think I stopped using it because I already had my internet habits established and going to only one site for all the things I would normally go to many for, was too much to get used to.

When I saw that Netvibes Wasabi was ready for beta testing, I thought I'd give it another go. Just to see if maybe this time it'll stick. Basically it is the same service but, shinier and with way more personalization options (which is a good thing). I really don't have anything bad to say about Wasabi (besides a few minor kinks that I think they are working out). If a homepage is what you are looking for, then it is probably for you. But, it ain't for me. I just can't get used to this service. I like going to 25 different websites for all my internet needs, damn it! Stop judging me.

Avatars Scare the Shit Out of Me

In order to share and watch online content with friends, I send them links through StumbleUpon, Facebook, or Twitter. I am not actually watching or enjoying anything with my friends at the same time, instead we give each other feedback sometime after through comments or tweets. So far, this system has worked pretty well. Qlipso seeks to expand upon the idea of sharing online videos with friends by giving them a platform to watch and share together--at the same time. Qlipso is sort of like a chat room where you get together with your friends and watch videos or play games. You can connect Qlipso to your other online accounts like Facebook, Myspace, or AIM so that you can easily find your friends and start watching together. To make the experience slightly more interesting/interactive/creepy users can have their own avatars that move around and interact with the video, like throw tomatos at the screen or flip around (..yeah).



Here's the thing, linking to content through Twitter or Stumble and commenting on it later works so well because not everyone is online at the same time doing the same thing. I love that my friend Christie will StumbleUpon funny sites while she's bored at work and send them my way. At the end of the day when I get home I have a bunch of cool sites to check out and I can write back to her about what I liked. If I could get five friends to not only be online at the same time, but to want to watch the same dumb viral video with me at the same time--as Qlipso is suggesting--my head would explode from the sheer unlikeliness of it. Also, avatars are fucking creepy. Mii's were cute for about a second before I wanted to run out of the house and as far away from technology as possible. Honestly, I just don't need a weird virtual representation of myself to watch online videos with me. I'm not that lonely, yet. There are just too many unanswered science fiction questions that are attatched to avatars. I'm not ready to accept them.

The Next Step in Search?

Fact Rank is a new search engine out from FacteryLabs. Rather than just organizing the results from a search, Fact Rank assumes that searchers only want the relevant information from websites and would rather not search through all of the results to find just the facts. So instead of displaying your search results in a list, Fact Rank pulls out the relevant "facts" from all of the pages that came up in your search. This way the user can see all the information instantly that would have taken multiple clicks at different websites to gather. Check out the video below to see Fact Rank in action.



Or try it out for yourself here. Honestly, this service is badass. It is like Wikipedia meets Google meets Twitter. With Fact Rank, I think search is moving one step closer to actually understanding what a user is looking for. As much as I rely on Google and will continue to use it for search (and a plethora of other services), Fact Rank understands much better what it is I'm really looking for on any given search. Google's page rank is usually incredibly helpful, but there are many times when I have to click on every website on the first results page and into the second to find what I'm looking for. Instead of going through all that, Fact Rank gives me a much more precise range of what I might be searching for. If you've been looking for something to trump Google, this just might be it.

Brizzly & Twitter Overload

In order to tweet I use Twitter, TweetDeck, TweetDeck for my iTouch, Twitterific, Listorious, Google Wave (Tweety), Get Glue, Twit This, Favit, and Nebul.us. And now Brizzly. For the record, I've been using a lot of this stuff to experient with new media and to see what works best, but it's still pretty excessive. So right now I'm experimenting with Brizzly. Brizzly is similar to TweetDeck in that it allows users to see updates from both their Twitter and Facebook accounts and users can update for both. Unlike TweetDeck you can't see updates from both accounts at the same time (you have to switch between the two) which I don't really like as much. It also doesn't give you any pop up notifications when people update (which depending on how connected you like to stay is either a good or bad thing). But with Brizzly you don't have to install anything so you can view all of your feeds from Brizzly's easy to use and chic website (a definite plus).


It is quite possible that Brizzly will be replacing TweetDeck for me and maybe I can even start to consolodate some of my tweeting. More to the point, congrats to Twitter on your popularity and expansion, and I'd like to say the more apps the merrier. But honestly, I'm starting to get a little exhausted.

New York Times: At Least They're Trying

I--like most people I know-- earnestly want the New York Times to succeed. Despite some of the problems I have with the way newspaper industry is trying to stave off extinction (paywalls, cutting newsroom staff, etc.), newspapers like the New York Times still cannot be beat in terms of in-depth, quality reporting. So I was very pleased to hear that the newspaper giant is working on a prototype reader tenatively title Article Skimmer . This app will be a bridge between the familiarity and comfort of reading a print newspaper and the ease and convience of online or mobile reading. You can try out the prototype of the new app here.

It is my hope that the NY Times will be successful in this endevour and create a new way to read articles that will revitalize the newspaper industry. Unfortunatly, it seems incredibly unlikely that any one thing will bring newspapers back from the brink. But it's okay, cause in the future there are no newspapers. Instead, government sponsored news reports are projected onto big screens near rundown factories. At least that's how it always goes in my dystopic nightmares...

People Paying For Content? Whaaa?

I've always had this belief that once something is free, there's no going back. You can't allow me to access online articles the next day and then put up a paywall the next day, newspaper industry. Nor can you expect me to accept paying for services like Gmail, Digg or Pandora after using them for free for so long. Well, it appears as though not everyone is as cheap and/or set in their ways as I (which may or may not be a good thing. I really don't know anymore). A report released today revealed which apps are making the most money from in-app purchases (when you decided to upgrade from the free version of an app to the paid one you are making an in-app purchase).


As it turns out, the three highest grossing in-app purchases applications were in games, social networking, and books. This information is really significant because it is a measuring stick for what people are willing to pay for more types of digital content. We already know most people aren't fond of paying for music or news when in comes in a digital format (or really any type of format at this point), but now we know that there are a few key things people will pay for if they want them bad enough. Social networking sites seem to already have a handle on how they can turn their free services into profit, but if I were in publishing or gaming (mostly publishing) I would take this as a sign that I need to make more content available for digital devices (and sooner rather than later). Consumers are excited about this brave new media whether companies are ready to take the next big step or not.

Location-Based Trends Coming to Twitter

Twitter's soon-to-be-released geolocation feature will allow users to search for trends by location (a clunky version of this service already exists through the app Trendsmap). As TechCrunch points out this feature will likely be incredibly helpful and popular with users looking for an easy way to see what's up in their area.


More importantly, as the New York Times articulates, in newsworthy and dangerous events--like the recent shootings at Fort Hood--Twitter's location based trends would enable users to see tweets originating directly from the area in question. We've all seen Twitter's ability to diseminate information quickly and by utilizing locations in that process, vital information will be able to reach people much faster.

Twitter is becoming a real pro at builiding upon its buzz and momentum by continuing to roll out exciting new features. That billion dollar valuation doesn't look so crazy now, huh?

I'm In Love With We Are Hunted

Everyone wants to discover new music. That's why sites like Pandora work so well and why Google's new music search is so helpful. We Are Hunted is a new music discovery service that integrates social networking sites like Twitter and Myspace to find the most buzzed about music on the internet. What I really like about WAH is that it keeps users in the loop about new music so much faster and easier than was previously possible. I don't have the time to see what music everyone is talking about on Twitter or what music videos are the most popular on YouTube right now, but with We Are Hunted the work is all done for me.

I'm excited about using We Are Hunted because I think it is an incredibly creative and practical use of gathering information off the internet. As I express in yesterday's post, I'm a little weary of sites and services that monitor the internet and sift through massive amounts of personal information, but I actually think that WAH is putting this technology to good use. So seriously, go check it out.

Some Thoughts on Nebul.us

Ever wanted to share your internet habits with the world? Or would you rather come face-to-face with a visual representation with how you spend your time online (Tsk, Tsk)? Well now you can! In short, Nebul.us is a service that visualizes how you spend your time online and allows users to share links with just their friends or the world. Nebul.us is both a type of social networking/sharing site as well as a site that helps you track your productiveness during the day.

Nebul.us is not only a way to procrastinate in and of itself, but a way to track ALL of your internet procrastination! Yay! I understand how the concept of productivity monitoring might be useful for some, but with well established link sharing sites like Digg, del.ic.ous and Twitter around, I don't think many will be clamoring to get on Nebul.us (if you are interested though and want a Beta invite, I have 15 left. Everything's worth a try, I suppose).

Now, on a more critical note: WHO WANTS EVERYONE TO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING ONLINE AT ALL TIMES??? I'm pretty sure the government and the advertising agencies are already monitoring everything we do online, so do we really need to make it easier for them? Seriously folks, if you put the right paranoid spin on it Nebul.us is some scary shit.

Bringing Comics to the Small Screen

As someone who loves to read comics in magazine format, I've been dreading the transition to digital comics for a while now. My anxiety stems from the belief that as publishers switch to digital comics they will release comics in digital only, phasing out the magazine format, only offering trades for fans who prefer print. Despite my fears, comic book publishers NEED to make their comics available digitally.

On Sunday, Marvel--one of the biggest and most successful comic book publishers--began a partnership with Panelfly to bring their comics to the iPhone.

Through the iPhone app, you can read many new Marvel comics as well as older ones like the first issues of Spider-Man, X-Men and Ironman. Personally, I've downloaded Panelfly, Comic Reader Mobi, iVerse, ClickWheel and The Comics by ComiXology and the latter was definitely the best reader of the bunch. It's the easiest to use and if you haven't been looking forward to reading your comics on a small screen like me, the ComiXology app might help you warm up to the idea.

Now, it's just a waiting game before DC Comics jumps on board and I can start reading Batman on my iTouch.