Web Analyst

Are you a Kindle? Or an iPad?

Gaston — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:38:33 +0000

As of today, I’m a Kindle. But if you don’t know yet, how do you choose? How do you pick between two great, different devices?

Here’s how to choose: Picture a quiet Sunday evening. Would you rather spend an hour reading a book, or watching TV?

If you answered "TV", then you’re an iPad. If you chose the book, then you’re a Kindle.

Lenovo Supply Chain

Gaston — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:54:34 +0000

How flat the world is. Just got an international shipment from Lenovo, mapped courtesy of UPS, Google and Boxoh:

Waiting for ebooks

Gaston — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:44:32 +0000

Let’s count the ways we have to wait for a better tomorrow on ebooks:
1. First the iPad, of course. But the wait is almost over, they tell us.
2. Then there’s Blio Reader (software), which went into radio silence after CES. They’ve been “coming soon” since then… we’re still waiting.
3. Barnes & Noble, not to be outdone, let us and their investors know that they wouldn’t miss the iPad train and would launch their app. Soon.
4. Finally, Amazon pre-announced their Kindle for Tablet, any tablet as long as you can touch it. Very soon.

B&N, Blio and Amazon have found themselves forced to react to the iPad ebook business model, and demonstrate how their own business model would survive the iPad onslaught. But for the moment, all these announcements feel a lot like vaporware – or is it ebookware?

Plunge into history – online

Gaston — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:46:18 +0000

Microsoft has released a technical preview of streetside photos, a Bing service which will overlay Flickr photos into Bing Streetview – including historical photos.

For all lovers of history, this means that you’ll soon be able to enter 3D renditions of historical landscapes, and walk through them – like a Star Trek holodeck without the characters (yet).

Try it: visit Seattle’s Pioneer Square

Think of the possibilities: Stroll through the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris; visit Dresden before the bombing; follow Allied troops landing on Omaha Beach. This will be yet another way to make history relevant.

The other way ebooks prices are changing

Gaston — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:17:49 +0000

Amazon’s troubles with publishers have focused mostly on how the publishers want Amazon to charge more for ebooks. But what about when the $9.99 price is too high?

Take a recent bestseller for instance: The Da Vinci Code. Based on the seeming endless availability of used and new copies, the Kindle price is already adjusted to balance the reader’s wish to get an immediate copy with the abundance of supply.

I foresee Amazon increasingly tweaking prices in this way – in the meantime it’s you can find other $9.99 Kindle versions competing with a cheap used copy, and look for more used book price arbitrage opportunities.

Cultural differences in mobile phone usage

Gaston — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:16:15 +0000

Here’s a review of how cell phones are used in different countries – interesting background for those of us in the wireless industry.

http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15172850

Google Predictions 2010

Gaston — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:18:47 +0000

My Gmail predictions for 2009 failed miserably. I may have been guilty of wishful thinking.

So, continuing on the theme of wishful thinking, here are my 2010 predictions:

Google Library: the Google Books project will be expanded to allow for book rental, with appropriate payments to the copyright holders. This will not only give access to hard to find books across borders, but will also make this access reasonably priced.
Google Europe will move to Switzerland to further optimize taxes
Google Voice will introduce European numbers and make my life easier

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

Gaston — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Enough said.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/lifestyle-design/200912/why-ill-be-wishing-you-merry-christmas

PS> this blog is re-starting. But some of the pictures are missing because I did not archive them properly.

How many pizza joints does 98004 need?

Gaston — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:21:12 +0000

2010 will be remembered as the year of the “great pizza war” for downtown Bellevue. Already well supplied in pizza delivery/restaurants, newcomers are vying to feed the round red objects to the new condo and office dwellers.

Zeek’s is peparing to displace Nature’s Pantry on 10th, and I just saw another pepperoni palace going up on Bellevue Way.

I anticipate some fine discounts in 2010… hopefully they will all join the gluten-free bandwagon.

Picasa Faces and American Girl, Lego Minifigs

Gaston — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:27:50 +0000

Picasa’s latest face recognition feature is so good at finding mouse/nose/eyes combinations it even picked out my girls’ American Girl lovely doll faces, and a few Lego Minifigs: