Tag: hardware

How cheap e-readers can go?

The Wall Street Journal asks the question – “How low will e-readers prices go?”

The $99 e-reader announcement comes after Amazon’s announcement of a $139 Kindle, and after Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Sony all lowered prices on their gadgets in the wake of Apple’s iPad release. As Amazon prepares to release a $139 Kindle e-reader next month, could even cheaper e-readers be close behind?

I think they are.  They should eventually get much cheaper.   One thing that makes e-readers different from the rest of the computer technology is that they are often produced and sold not by hardware companies, but by book selling companies.  While it’s nice to get some extra cash from the hardware, the main goal of the book selling business is to sell books.  The more books they sell, the better they are.  E-reader is the device that helps them sell more books.   So if that is going to drive their business up, book selling companies can cover the big chunk of e-reader costs by extra profits.

Also, unlike the rest of the computing world, I think e-readers will remain rather simplistic.  They are domain-specific devices, with very specific needs – readable display, long lasting battery and simplicity. The more bells and whistles you put in, the complicated it becomes and the more battery it drains.  Plus, I think by now everyone already has either a laptop or a mobile device that has all the bells and whistles.  E-reader is good for disconnecting, even if shortly, from the rest of the world.

Looking back, we’ve seen a number of simple domain-specific electronics.  Such as calculators and electronic translators.  While they are mostly replaced by modern mobile phones, you can still buy them.  And the prices are very low, not anywhere near to how they used to be. Electronic translators come as cheap as $16 and calculators are from $4, via a quick Google search.  I’m sure if you look deeper, you’ll find them cheaper.

If e-readers will get any more complicated or expensive, one of the things that might happen with them is subscription business.  Similar to how it is now with mobile phones and telecom companies.  You pay subscription fees or membership or something, and you get a device with your contract.  And then you pay for some books (new editions or bestsellers) like for international calls and you get some free (public domain works, blogs, news via RSS, etc).

That’s all, of course, assuming reading books won’t just die over.  Like so many other beautiful things.

A4Tech Glaser X6-6AK mouse

My old mini mouse that I used with my laptop is in the coma.  The left mouse button is not working any more.  So, I passed by a computer shop today to get myself a new companion.  The simplest mouse (out of the mini range) that was available was A4Tech Glaser X6-6AK.

It is a fine peripheral.

  • Small size (mini)
  • Short cable, which wraps around and a USB plug that folds into the bottom side.
  • Matte surface, which decreases slippage

It’s not the cheapest mouse in the shop (price tag just under 20 EUR), but it is a pleasure to use.

And there is one thing about this mouse and pretty much every other mouse that I’ve seen today that totally blows my mind an suggests to me that the end of human race is much closer than I thought.  Did you notice that orange button on the image above?  Do you have any idea what that button does?  I’ll give you a hint – it’s marked with “2X”.  I had to pause and pull myself together when I learned.  Here is the truth.

It’s a double-click button!  Say what?  Firstly, is double-clicking really such an exhausting activity that people need a separate mouse button for it?  And secondly, even if someone does need a button like that, do we really have to have it on ALL mice?  I mean, there wasn’t a single mouse in the shop that didn’t have this button.

I am officially puzzled and confused.

Lenovo G550 laptop

A couple of days ago I bought two Lenovo G550 laptops – one for me, one for my wife.  After spending a day browsing all the online shops and driving around all computer outlets in the city, I decided that this is the best option available.

Specifications: Dual-core 2Ghz Intel CPU, 15.6 inch glossy screen (WXGA, maximum resolution 1366×768), 4 GB of RAM, 250 GB hard disk, a bunch of USB ports, HDMI out, DVD writer, WiFi, and all the standard stuff, weighting at around 2.7 kilograms. Battery life is around 4 hours. Price: 500 EUR + 15% VAT = 575 EUR.

Both machines are running Linux (Fedora 12) already, even though they were coming with some Windows pre-installed.  I wouldn’t know which one since I haven’t even booted into that once.  Fedora Linux installation was straight-forward and everything worked, except for the wireless networking, which needs an extra step to enable those Broadcom drivers.  Gladly, the required step is widely covered in the blogosphere. – basically, enable RPM Fusion yum repository, install kmod-wl package, and reboot your machine.

Everything is working find and I really enjoy the laptop, except for a few things that annoy me with its keyboard.  The layout is somewhat weird.  First of all, I am not used to having a number pad on a laptop keyboard.  But that’s OK – if there is space, then why not, right?  Well, there is space, but I think it would have been utilized better for Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys.  As they are now, PgUp and PgDn are located next to navigation arrow keys and Home/End keys are only accessible through a Fn key, which is really strange.  On top of that, Insert and Delete keys are in a different part of the keyboard – on top of the Backspace key.  And while I don’t use Caps Lock all that often, some people will notice that Caps Lock indicator is missing, as well as NumLock and ScrollLock.  What can I say?  That’s one weird keyboard layout.

Other than that though there is nothing that I can complain about.  The machine is nice and cool and pleasant to use.  My wife seems to enjoy it as well.