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All the entries posted on November 19, 2007.
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Monday, November 19, 2007
Amazon’s “Kindle” aims to rewrite the e-book
Amazon just unveiled its much-anticipated Kindle e-book, a $400 wireless device for downloading and reading books, newspapers and blogs. Amazon is betting it can succeed where many have failed, getting people to embrace a technology that has been touted for years but never caught on.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO, showed off the Kindle at a news conference at the swank W Hotel in New York’s Union Square. On stage, Bezos gave a brief history of the written word and said books have “stubbornly resisted digitization.” He said Kindle aims to change that.
“Our top design objective was for Kindle to disappear in your hands, to get out of the way so you can enjoy your reading,” Bezos said.
The 10.3-ounce Kindle is about the size of a paperback book, but it can hold more than 200 books in its built-in memory and more on an optional SD memory card. Starting today, Amazon has more than 90,000 titles available for Kindle at its online store. New York Times best sellers and new releases cost $9.99.
The Kindle uses E-Ink technology to make reading a screen more like looking at ink on paper. It also has a rubberized grip, a thumb-typing keyboard and large buttons around the screen for turning pages.
Perhaps the biggest e-book advance is Kindle’s wireless connectivity. It uses a network called Amazon Whispernet, which is built on top of Sprint’s high-speed EVDO network for cell phones and mobile devices. The Kindle uses this network to download books and subscribe to blogs and major world newspapers, which are automatically delivered overnight.
EarthLink may be unplugging from muni Wi-Fi
Atlanta-based EarthLink Inc. in recent years has been one of the biggest boosters of municipal wi-fi networks. But now, it looks like the Internet provider may be bailing out of the business.
EarthLink issued a very brief statement -not coincidentally late on Friday when it probably hoped it would get scant notice - that said it was beginning “a process to consider its strategic alternatives for its municipal wireless business”
EarthLink once had grand plans to build wireless Web networks that covered cities from Atlanta to San Francisco. Muni Wi-Fi was a pet project of late CEO Garry Betty and a big bet of his to transform the company from a dying dial-up Internet provider into communications company for the future.
But those plans never really panned out, and EarthLink ended up with only a few money-losing networks in places like Anaheim, Calif., Corpus Christi, Texas and Philadelphia. New EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff has been cutting expenses, employees and money-losing businesses trying to get EarthLink back on its feet, and he has made it clear on several occasions the company’s muni Wi-Fi efforts weren’t working.
In its statement, Earthlink said the assets of its muni Wi-Fi business were worth about $40 million.