While the Kindle has been the leader in the electronic book reader realm for some time, the introduction of the iPad undoubtedly took some wind out of their sails. In the meantime, the Barnes & Noble Nook has provided direct Kindle competition–as well as price competition.
Now, with the announcement of the Kindle 3, prices have dropped dramatically.
Two models were announced: the WiFi only Kindle (all previous Kindles included 3G capabilities) for $139 and a 3G, traditional style Kindle for $189.
No, these readers do not have color capability–they seem in many ways similar to the previous Kindles, just for less.
Let’s see how these newly priced Kindles do in the market.
Tags: Technology
Or at least its leader, Steve Ballmer, feels it. A CNNMoney.com story says that Mr. Ballmer has his company working hard with their hardware partners to develop Windows 7 based tablet computers to compete with Apple’s iPad.
Interestingly, Microsoft has had tablet versions of Windows XP dating back to at least 2001.
So it’s not like they haven’t had the market lead for a long, long time. They just haven’t been able to keep it.
In addition to that, I have a lot of misgivings about Windows 7 working well on a tablet computer, as well as the price of that operating system.
However, we shall see, Competition, particularly in tech, is a great thing.
Tags: Technology
I’m still delving through mom’s finances as I try to figure out what she’s been paying for and how to streamline the processes. I’m finding interesting if not totally surprising issues and been able to cut a few dollars here and there.
Some observations:
Mom would pay everything with a check that she could; the only exception is at the supermarket where she’ll use her debit card.
Mom would also send those checks through the mail.
Mom would rather pay regularly (like every month) than once a year, even if paying by the year would offer a discount.
Mom would rather be ahead in payments–sometimes months ahead–rather than pay right on time.
Some of these have already been changed.
For instance, anything I can charge, I will–think card timing–and things I can’t, I’ll pay online, provided it doesn’t cost me anything to make those payments. I’ll take any discount they will give–even if it means I need to let her newspaper subscription lapse and start one in my own name to get that discount. I try to avoid stamps whenever possible, which helps to keep the costs down. And there’s no way I would pay in advance.
It’s interesting so far, and it’s also taking more time and energy than I want it to. I’m hoping that this gets more efficient soon.
Tags: Social aspects
A discussion on Twitter today prompted me to think about this post. Up for discussion was the changing of automotive air filters. My opinion was that that the reusable K&N filters were a great way to go and didn’t even consider their performance improvement claims–my claim was just because since I’ve changed over to them, I’ve never even needed to do a cleaning and oiling of the filter; it’s always passed the sun shining through test.
So when I was discussing that with someone who had never changed an air filter, a car technician I know–an incredibly nice, smart guy–joined the discussion and stated that at least the last time he read up on it there was no demonstrable difference in performance with clean, dirty, or third party filters. He also did say that he used the same test I did to indicate the need to replace or clean the filter, although he did wonder where debris went if the filter still looked acceptable.
The K&N filter probably costs about three to four times as much as a regular air filter and claims improved performance; I don’t know if it provides that. But it has passed the replacement test since I’ve had the truck, and that’s well over 100,000 miles.
So, I think that in this case, even if the performance claims aren’t substantiated, the lower maintenance was worth the extra cost- -at least for me.
Tags: Frugality
Apparently, for many, too hard.
A Fortune article this past week says that buying online is a pain, which is one of the reasons so many online retailers, large and small, have turned to PayPal, Amazon, and Apple to sell their wares rather than their own online shops, even though these can have substantial fees associated.
The reason: in all likelihood if you’re buying online, PayPal, Amazon, and/or Apple already have your credit card information.
There are new solutions on the market (Boku and Zong, neither of which I’d heard of before this article) to assist, using phone numbers to bill, but their fees are even higher.
Somehow, technology must come up with an easy way to solve this soon.
Tags: Technology
I’ve blogged about my belief in Coinstar for a little while now–my feeling is that in particular, their Redbox DVD kiosks were winners, and so far this year the market has agreed–it’s up 68.19% year to date.
So I’ve decided to go in, slowly. I will alternate this as my monthly investment with Google (GOOG), which I’ve been putting money into the last year or so–and unfortunately, at least this year, Google’s stock price has not done well.
We’ll see how all of this goes.
Tags: Investing, Stocks
Sorry about last week; I had so much work to do on my project for KansasFest, even though for the first time in many, many years I chose to stay home rather than attend.
That and training for Livestrong Philadelphia next month took tons of time.
Back to our usual Uncommon Cents postings tomorrow.
Tags: Administration
It’s been my largest holding for awhile–so large I stopped investing in it because I didn’t want to be overly concentrated in one stock. I love the products (for the most part) and the company has been wildly successful, especially in the last few years.
And after this quarter’s results, I can honestly say that Apple, Inc. (AAPL) is the best investment I’ve ever made.
It ought to be a given that a company that’s profitable and is best in the world at what they do is a great investment for someone who believes in their products.
And for me, it’s turned out that way.
Despite that, I’m not tempted to break my own rule about limiting myself to 5% of my total asset allocation being in a single stock. I’ll keep the Apple stock right around there.
Tags: Investing, Stocks
I have a major project due in a week so expect posts to be sporadic. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Tags: Administration
As part of the #whitetwedding2010 I attended last Wednesday, 4G wireless hotspots were used to provide Internet access for the guests as well as for a live video stream for all the Internet to see.
I was in charge of making sure all of that worked. And it did, with varying degrees of headache.
One of the hotspots I used was the Sprint Overdrive, and two others were Clear USB modems with Cradlepoint (or rebranded for Clear Cradlepoint made) routers. . In Hawai’i (or at least O’ahu) we have several vendors of 4G: Sprint, Clear, and Road Runner, although they all appear to be using the same network and the same WiMax technology.
First off: the Overdrive performed very poorly–so poorly in fact that I gave up on it after messing with it for about an hour. The USB modems with Cradlepoint routers performed much better.
When we had a strong signal, the 4G worked well–perhaps not incredibly, but more than well enough for our purposes. We got download speeds approaching two megabits, but that was not really what we were looking for–we also got upload speeds about one megabit, which was what we needed for the video.
The issue, however, is that the speed was very dependent on location–a few feet in a different location would mean speed drop offs of more than 50%. The modems also take much longer to connect than the older but still prevalent 3G modems of which I have one.
For a comparison at home of how 3G vs. 4G fared, see this.
We got the results we wanted but it involved a lot of work and a lot of searching for the best location. So, while I liked the results, I’m unconvinced that at least in Hawai’i, 4G is ready for prime time.
Tags: Technology
