Since the JooJoo has been delayed, some people who pre-ordered have requested refunds of their purchase. Gizmodo reports that one such customer went back and forth with Fusion Garage over several days, and after PayPal was unable to process the refund, finally Fusion Garage asked for the customer’s bank account information to refund it directly. The customer was understandably suspicious. (Fusion Garage’s response is also included.)
Another delayed e-book device, the Spring Design Alex, began taking pre-orders yesterday for $399, according to CrunchGear. The Alex somewhat resembles the Nook in form factor, save that the LCD screen is a full 3.5” touchscreen display rather than the Nook’s small rectangle.
To the Alex’s credit, the Android-based device will allow a lot more interactivity over the web than most other e-book readers, including websurfing, watching videos, and online communication. It even has a micro SD card slot and USB 2.0, and supports Adobe ADEPT DRM.
But on the other hand, you’re only going to be reading from one display at once—so at any given time, either 1/3 or 2/3 of the device’s screen real estate is going to be useless to you. That extra screen real estate makes the Alex a bit unwieldy—like a Kindle DX with less readable screen area. And honestly, it seems a little expensive for what you get—just $100 more will get you an iPad.
Samsung has announced it is going to come out with an Atom-based slate PC platform in the second half of the year. Samsung execs stated that the device would be more powerful than the iPad, being a full-fledged PC with a slate form factor rather than just a media and web tablet.
Meanwhile, Samsung is also releasing four e-ink based e-book devices in Australia, ranging in screen size from 5” to 9.7”. Device features will include wifi, access to Google Books, and a QWERTY thumb board on one model. Versions of the devices released in the USA will have access to Barnes & Noble’s e-book store along with the Nook; there is no word on when or which of these devices will come to American shores, however.
Gizmodo also reports on an apparent new iPhone app strategy from publishing conglomerate Hearst—they are releasing a series of $1.99 apps built on a template, which act as content aggregators, drawing together photos and news stories from around the web on a given subject (such as Green Day or Angelina Jolie). Gizmodo compares this to the strategy used by banned appmaker Perfect Acumen, which also “charge[d] people for other people’s content.”
It does seem odd that they are doing this in the wake of Apple’s plan to crack down on templated apps—not to mention a bit ironic given how another megapublisher, Rupert Murdoch of News Corp, is complaining about Google profiteering on other peoples’ content.
Apple has hired Richard DeVaul, a “wearable computing” expert, as its new senior prototype scientist, says Ars Technica. DeVaul’s dissertation involved a form of augmented-reality glasses, which could use GPS and accelerometer data to assist in providing information. Since then, the company he co-founded, AWare Technologies, has created an iPhone fitness tracking application.
DeVaul’s employment provides some tantalizing glimpses at the direction that Apple’s next mobile device developments might take. Might we eventually plug a pair of “iGlasses” into our iPhone and view augmented reality that way, rather than through the device itself? Might we be able to read an e-book on our glasses rather than a handheld screen? This opens up some very interesting possibilities.
For that matter, we might eventually be projecting e-books on our wall. Apple recently filed a patent covering projector systems, possibly with an eye toward integrating picoprojectors into future versions of existing devices—laptops, AirPort hubs, maybe even iPhones. Nice to know Apple plans to continue innovating.
