Amazon’s new Kindle: Thinner, smaller, faster, cheaper
Amid growing competition from Apple’s iPad and other e-readers, Amazon.com is launching a redesigned Kindle that’s smaller, faster and has WiFi and twice the battery life. The $189 price and 6-inch screen size are the same, but the new version has an improved navigation system that replaces the Kindle’s quirky joystick with a more standard control pad. It also has the higher-contrast display that debuted last month on the larger Kindle DX
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Amazon’s new Kindle: Thinner, smaller, faster, cheaper
Here’s a video of Ian Freed, vice president of Kindle at Amazon.com, demonstrating the new version of the e-reader the company’s announcing Thursday. He showed it yesterday at the company’s new South Lake Union headquarters.
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Video: Amazon’s Kindle boss demos new model
Sezmi , an ambitious TV startup led by veterans of Sony and Clearwire, is finally launching its service in Seattle next month. The company offers an alternative to cable and satellite TV services, using special hardware that receives TV content over-the-air and via broadband Internet connections. Sezmi tested its service in Seattle in 2008, in part because of the region’s challenging topography.
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Sezmi TV service coming to Seattle Aug. 2
Ookla – the company behind the popular Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net broadband testing services – is now using its massive trove of data to rank Internet service providers. Ookla’s been providing data through its Net Index site but now it’s offering more information to help consumers analyze their broadband options, co-founder Mike Apgar said in the announcement
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New ISP rank and cost data from Ookla, Comcast on top
A California buyout company is acquiring Daptiv, a Seattle company that provides project and portfolio management software and services. Terms of the deal with Parallax Capital Partners of Laguna Hills, Calif., weren’t disclosed.
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Seattle’s Daptiv sold, no layoffs expected
The Indian government unveiled a working prototype today of a small tablet computer that it says will initially sell for $35. The same organization within the government, however, also announced a prototype $10 laptop last year amid initiatives to connect all of India’s college-age students to learning resources
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India’s $35 tablet – vaporware or the real deal?
Is it openSUSE or their educational package that’s the problem? Hardware and installer issues certainly suggest that the problem lies with Novell, not a hugely dedicated group who wants students to have access to the best FOSS available
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openSUSE Education 11.3 – still not there yet
NYC announced today that it would be rolling out ePals SchoolMail (powered by Microsoft’s Live@Edu educational communications platform) to all 2 million students, parents, and teachers in the district. Wow.
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NYC ePals/Live@Edu deployment a template for education in the cloud
HP has given us a sneaky glimpse at the Envy 14 and 17 laptops. With some powerful components lurking inside and a glitzy design, HP has piqued our interest…
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HP Envy 14 and 17 review: Hands-on with powerful laptops for jealous types
Need to cut together some HD wildlife footage while you’re waiting for your flight? Samsung has you covered with the Q series, three new high-performance, portable laptops
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Samsung Q530, Q430 and Q330: Three laptops for hunky giraffe lovers
Theoretically anyone can learn the cool new moves, according to Harmonix, which demonstrated its new “Dance Central” game for the Xbox Kinect during Microsoft’s press event today.
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E3 Video: Dancing fool with Xbox Kinect "Dance Central"
LOS ANGELES — Here’s a short video of “Turn 10,’ an Xbox driving game coming out next year that uses the Kinect controller. The guy in the bottom right corner of the frame is “driving” by holding onto an imaginary wheel.
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E3: Video of Ferrari driven with Xbox Kinect
LOS ANGELES — Here’s a quick gallery of pictures I took of the new Xbox and a few of games shown during Microsoft’s press conference this morning. From the back, where there’s still an HDMI port. You can also see that the glossy case is probably going to get a few smudges.
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E3: Photos of new Xbox, Kinect games
LOS ANGELES — Any concerns hard core gamers may have had after Sunday night’s family-friendly Kinect launch event were allayed when Microsoft’s E3 press conference opened this morning with a bloody and thrilling preview of “Call of Duty: Black Ops.” Even the rats in the tunnels of Laos shimmered in the flash of a revolver in the preview of the shooting game coming to market in November. Then Don Mattrick, head of the Xbox group, came on stage and announced an exclusive deal with “Call of Duty” publisher Activision to get expansion packs first on the Xbox through 2012
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E3: Microsoft unveils new Xbox design, Kinect sale date, ESPN
Google announced today that it would be changing the hostname it used for its encrypted search product, https://www.google.com, solving the problems caused for Google Apps users in schools that blocked access to the new secure search site. As I reported last week, Many schools have blocked Google secure search to prevent kids from bypassing
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Google moving to solve encrypted search issues for schools
LOS ANGELES — So much for the mysterious “Project Natal” code name. It’s given way to Kinect, the official name for the new motion tracking controller and camera system coming to the Xbox in November. Kinect is a combination of kinetic and connect, representing the controller’s dual purpose – giving the console motion control plus new communication capabilities such as video chatting and sharing in-game photos captured with the device
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E3: Goodbye Project Natal, hello Xbox "Kinect"
Just navigating the various licensing models for Microsoft software is enough to make school IT decision-makers move to open source. However, there are ways to make fully, legally licensed Microsoft software relatively affordable in K12 and higher education.
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Microsoft software: Academic buyer’s guide
An update on Vertafore: In yesterday’s item about the Bothell company selling for $1.4 billion, I quoted a spokeswoman saying that the sale won’t result in any layoffs. It turns out there were layoffs at the company this week – on Wednesday, the day before the sale
A quiet giant in Seattle’s software industry, Bothell insurance software provider Vertafore, announced today that it was sold for $1.4 billion to investment funds managed by TPG Capital. TPG is acquiring the company from Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity, private equity firms that bought the company in 2004
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Bothell’s Vertafore sold for $1.4 billion (updated)
A dinner tonight with Microsoft’s general counsel was interesting, but it got really exciting when I walked out of the Hotel Andra into a police scene where a suspicious package was being handled by Seattle’s bomb squad. It turned out the package was a suitcase left in front of the Warwick Hotel at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Lenora Street. A roughly two block radius around the suitcase was blocked off with about a dozen police cars
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Photos: My Microsoft dinner ends with bomb scare in Seattle