As I visit Amazon EVERY day for a few minutes, I look for books.  Digital Books.  Which means that more of the money I make goes to Digital IP.

I’m looking for good books, that NEVER go on sale in the digital world (as far as I can tell).  So I’m paying full price.  Maybe $7.99 or $9.99 or $12.99 (USD).  This seems crazy since I can get used paperbacks shipped to me for about $5.

So I look around and I find lots of 0.99 books.  Yes, $1 books. Self-publishers now can write anything they want, and publish it on Amazon.  You will find that some of them are poorly edited with spelling mistakes or repeated words, or something spell-check didn’t quite get right.

iPad, iPod Frustrations

Okay, so the big frustration I have with the iPad / iPod is this:

There isn’t enough memory in my iPad (and iPod)

Yes, I bought the 64GB version

Yes, it fits all my music. But after the Music I have:

1. 3 (legal) movies
2. 12 (legal) episodes of TV shows
3. 50 Apps
4. about 400 photos
5. I have no more space.

   I would pay extra for 128 GB iPad.  I really would.  How hard could it be?  The iCloud will not solve this problem for me.

Obviously, I need USB 3.0 on the iPad for faster Syncing.  In fact, I really, really could have used it yesterday as I backed up and updated 3 iPod/Pads to the latest Apple iOS firmware over 2 HOURS.

USB 2.0 Sucks.

Apple on Airplanes

You may remember that last summer, a VP I talked to said that 3 out of 4 people in business class had an iPad.

Still, walking down the aisle of any airplane, you will see 2-6 Apple devices in every row, in Economy seating, including, an iPhone, iPad, or iPod.  This isn’t representative of the world, just those privileged enough to fly, and spend money on Apps, Music, and maybe even books.

Considering the Kindle

Many of you may be experts already, so ignore this if you know everything and skip to the Amusing Anecdote

I’m considering buying Kindle because:

1. It’s lightweight (less than 8 ounces)
2. It uses E-Ink (easier on the eyes)
3. Cheaper than an iPod/iPad

A Kindle can only read Amazon Kindle books (and PDFs).  You can e-mail PDFs to yourself for reading on the Kindle.

The cheapest unit is $119 with WiFi.  A 3G+WiFi unit is $139.

The 3G lets me download books anywhere I can be on the Sprint network without a Phone Plan. (maybe internationally too, I’m not sure).  This is a big bonus for getting the Wall Street Journal or your favorite paper anywhere.  That alone is worth it to many people.  You can get this on your iPad also with WiFi and a data plan.  So the Kindle is cheaper by $500 a year because it requires no data plan.

A graphic below shows the pricing so that I have something other than Text in the Blog Entry.

Amusing Anecdote

I was going to put an Amusing Anecdote about my children here, but I’m going to save that for my upcoming Novel.

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Apple announced the MacBook Air and the only way to install programs is either via the Internet or USB.  Of course, if the OS fails, and you have no internet, you have to use USB.

So Apple ships a USB Flash Drive that re-installs your software to factory condition.

How does Apple get away with no Optical Drive (no DVD, no Blu-Rays)

1) Apple set the standard with iTunes and downloadable Apps. – The only way to install this software to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod is over the internet.�
2) Apple saves power – No optical drive, no spinning/moving parts.
3) Apple saves space – Obvious, I know.
4) Apple saves cost – No optical drive.

At the system level, Apple save enough to include a flash drive, instead of a cheaper DVD disc because Apple doesn’t have to pay for or deal with cost/problems of adding an optical drive.

Buyers can (of course) buy a separate USB DVD or BluRay drive, or reuse an old one. So it actually lowers their overall cost of ownership over the long term.  They can share or reuse these components.

Apple enters top 5 Handset makers

This is significant because it means that more and more people buy SmartPhone which are more expense, provide more functions, and provide a platform for everyone to sell more stuff. 

IDC Q3 data

 

Strategy Analytics Q3 data

The data above is from my source is at at EDN, here 

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We launched our USB Software Alliance program last week with our participants, Emsys, Jungo, MCCI, and MicroDigital.

Although we provide reference drivers and programming guides for our USB Cores (and other cores too), many of our customer outsource their software drivers to other companies. Projects differ.  A cell phone, digital camera, or a set top box require different USB drivers for different functions. Operating systems vary.  You might need drivers that go inside the device (peripheral) or on the PC or both.

These companies have all developed drivers and stacks that run on the Synopsys USB Cores.  Some provide Software Development Kits and some provide full services including customization, testing, and on-site support.

Take a look at our USB Software Alliance announcement then take a look at our Alliance members.

Fastest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Performance in the West

I should have titled my last entry “Fastest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Performance in the West” or something like that, but,  “No,” I titled it a ridiculously long title that no one would ever click on.   It was the fastest performance I’ve seen, so hopefully it’s the fastest you’ve seen now.  Look below or search the archives for “USB Video” to see the video.

34 days without an iPod Touch

I’ve been using my wife’s iPod Touch (in a Pink Case) to get me through the next few weeks.  Entire websites are devoted to the next generation of iPod, and this just amazes me.  If it really has a camera and video conferencing, I’ll buy a second one to give to my mom, so she can video conference with my kids.

Elderly iPad Users

My dad, who’s not elderly in my opinion, pre-ordered an iPad.  This BusinessWeek article confirms what I’ve already seen.

Seniors:

1. Have Money
2. Like the Intuitive Interface
3. Have Free time and curiosity
4. Like to stay connected to others
5. Have Money

Basically, the intuitive interface, and range of applications, like games that stave off dementia, make it either a great gift item, or a great tech toy.

USB IP at IDF

We will demonstrating our IP and USB IP including:

• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PHY
• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 xHCI Host
• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Device
• Synopsys HAPS FPGA prototyping platforms
• PCI Express 3.0 (Gen 3) Solution
• SATA Solution

Register now for IDF and find us on the exhibit floor

USB 3.0 and new standards

I’ve written before that USB 2.0 basically doesn’t cut it for some consumer applications, this will really make some consumers really, really happy.

Watch this space Thursday for a new standards proposal that will use USB 3.0 create, story, carry, and transfer videos, music, pictures and more. I’m not kidding.

The nights are the worst.  I actually have to walk to my PC to check e-mail, news, or weather.  With my iPod Touch, I’d take it out of my pocket, get the weather for 1 of 12 locations in about 6 seconds.  I could check Google News, or check 3 e-mail accounts at once or look up something on Wikipedia like looking up the difference between Tartarus and Tartar Sauce.

My Desktop isn’t really a good option for this kind of use.  I keep my Desktop off most of the time since it has a 700W power supply and takes 4 minutes to boot, My work laptop has a 65W power supply.  Actually, my work laptop is often plugged in, and logged in, but I close the lid to reduce power consumption.  And I’d have to walk to where it’s plugged in, find a place to sit down, and type on it.  Very 20th century. 

So my iPod Touch actually saves power (making it the greenest device I own) and I can get to 99% of what I need the internet for.

So I’m waiting until September when I expect the new 4th Generation iPod Touch is announced.  Reading about it on TechRadar, I’m expecting:

1) a faster processor
2) a brand new high resolution screen, the same screen found on in the new iPhone
3) maybe a new camera for video conferencing
4) maybe a microphone for video conferencing
5) maybe WiFi-N. 
6) a high-end 128 GB version
7) maybe a digital camera and video function

Somehow, I think that the iTouch 4th Generation will probably only include the screen, processor, more memory, and the microphone.

I read  that WiFi-N adds about $3 in cost for the WiFi and $30 for the Screen. I  think to maintain margins, and to keep the iPhone special, they leave the camera, video cam and WiFi-N out. of the iPod Touch  Only the WiFi-N makes sense, if Apple can maintain it’s margins, but my WiFi is already faster than my DSL so unless distance and power are improved with WiFi-N. I wouldn’t add the expense if I were Apple.  (I should note here that I have zero knowledge of Apple’s plans, and I’m sure Apple is just fine with that).

Most importantly, I expect the top-of-the line iPod Touch will have about 128GB of memory, which is more than most laptop hard drives.  To me, this means that anyone building a device with this amount of memory will need to start using USB 3.0.  If you were to transfer even 25% of this data, or about 32GB at once, the transfer would take 15-20 minutes.  Most users will do incremental updates of a 1-2 GB at a time.  However if you add a camera or video function, you will quickly increase your transfers sizes to multiple gigabytes.  PC sync times will increase to 20 minutes or more.

Assuming the Microsoft Zune HD continues on a similar path, I would expect the same issues to drive the need for USB 3.0.  I think a few companies like Archos may also provide similar devices, or devices more like the iPad as they do today, but no one has the market share of Apple in this field at least not right now.

Microsoft Kin Update

I’ve read that Microsoft has basically killed their Kin.  Ironically, the news started to leak out within hours after I discovered the device via an Ad on YouTube and I blogged about it.

My Father’s iPad

My Dad complained about the weight of his iPad.  I called him a wimp, until I tried actually holding up the 1.5 pound device for more than 30 seconds.  With the leather case, this thing is impossible to hold up for any length of time.  But for just having around for data consumption, I love it. I do all the iPod Touch tasks on a beautiful portable screen.  Watching movies is wonderful on the device, but the volume is a little low, so I advice using headphones.

My kids enjoyed watching cartoons from YouTube on the iPad also.  The cartoons were generally violent cartoons involving Nintendo video game characters Mario and others.  I suspect that the cartoons were written by teenagers or college kids appealing to kids under the age of 12 and makes me wonder what kids are doing with their time.  Then I thought about this and wondered if this is what parents always think of new media (Rock-n-Roll) , new music (Punk),  new movies (horror).  Maybe it’s good to have young people creating silly videos for YouTube so that we get 10 more James Cameron’s in 10 years.

I saw my 3rd iPad in public today, this time on a plane.  The Consumer was playing a popular game called Civilization Revolution, and later watching a 2 movies on my international flight, then playing the game again.

Anyway, the iPad is awesome.  Go to an Apple store and try one out, then buy one.