TECHNOLOGY REPORT

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos unveiled the new large format Kindle today, the Kindle DX.   The DX appears to be a very impressive device that brings the elegant reading capabilities of the smaller kindle to a much larger screen that will be more friendly to newspapers and textbooks – the two reading items that appear to be Amazon’s target market for this brand new entry into the electronic reader fray:

As a past skeptic of how the smaller Kindle could find the market needed to be a big success I’m certainly impressed, but also wondering about the economic viability.   At $489 for the new Kindle with at best only modest discounts for newspaper subscriptions I have to remain somewhat skeptical this can take off, although one can see a potentialy large library market since devices like this may make it easier for libraries and schools to manage subscriptions, textbooks, updates, etc.

Gizmodo’s got more on the specs and the launch.

ASUS PC T101 H

I think I was more impressed with the ASUS than Liliputing, but I found the idea of converting the netbook to a tablet with a quick flip, and then being able to attach this unit on a dashboard for a big GIS unit most excellent. The rep told me the GIS application will not be Google’s and I’m not clear how they’ll run that but one possibility would be the trick Blaupunkt was showcasing, also as CES Unveiled, where the user connects a device to their phone via bluetooth and then uses the mobile wireless plan to power these in-car broadband applications. Maybe I fell off the pumpkin truck but I had not heard of doing broadband in this fashion and I think that has some excellent implications for in-car mobile.

later…. at an HP presentation waiting to play with HPs similar offering which is already out, the HP tx2 tablet.   They’ve done a lot of studies in India and concluded that touch can “unlock access” to people who would not have access in tradtional form.   This is a very interesting aspect of emerging countries technology though I’m somewhat skeptical that building for illiterate folks is superior to … teaching them to read first.