barnes and noble

What It Does Right

It's Fun
The Kindle was elegant but bland. The Nook is designed to pop. It's got a small color navigation screen, the ability to easily load your own photos, and it just begs to be touched. Put this and a Kindle in front of a kid, and they'll reach for the one with color every time. Even the accessories appeared to be well-designed.

It Takes Advantage of Amazon's Lax Attitude
The Kindle has been out since the beginning of 2008—and it has barely changed since. The Nook represents, if nothing else, a massive upgrade in terms of what an e-book reader can do—namely color, wireless sharing and in-store browsing. Was Amazon asleep at the wheel? We'll see for sure when it rolls out its next upgrade, but it shouldn't have given Barnes & Noble this opportunity.

It Takes Advantage of B&N's Infrastructure
Amazon is a virtual retailer. Barnes & Noble's hundreds of physical megastores (and college bookstores) give them a huge infrastructure from which to push the Nook. At the launch event, they showed off a sample of the in-store display they plan on using to show off the device. It's going to be a huge presence.

It Uses Android
The Nook isn't launching with an avalanche of any third-party applications (or any, really), but the fact that its software is based on Google's open Android platform means that it would be very easy for Barnes & Noble to turn on that faucet.

Where It Goes Wrong

Confusing Content Restrictions
All the fun content seems to be locked up in so many differing restrictions, that it could prove extremely confusing for customers. For example, some books will be available for device-to-device wireless lending, but not others. These and other restrictions require explanation, and nothing in gadgets should require explanation these days.

The Name
Maybe it'll grow on me, but I'm not a fan of "Nook"—and nor were most of the other journalists I polled.

There's Some Retail Arrogance
If you want to buy the Nook at a physical store, you have to go to a Barnes & Noble. This will get the book-lovers, but it could cause them to miss on casual gadget-buyers—the type of people browsing Best Buy.

It Uses AT&T
The Kindle's use of Sprint for over-the-air downloads has proved speedy and reliable. You don't need huge pipes to send a book, but AT&T's 3G network is riddled with so many dead spots in some cities (such as New York), that the Nook's reliance on it could prove extremely aggravating for would-be customers. To Barnes & Noble's credit, the fact that the Nook has no Web browser means that this effect should be minimized.

The Second Screen
The single greatest advantage of an E Ink screen is its nearly endless battery life. A beautiful, bright, color capacitive touchscreen can only harm that. It's also a startlingly inefficient use of screen space, with a large portion of the face of the device inaccessible as a reading surface. When I'm constantly flipping pages, I could see myself loathing the blank touchscreen hogging up precious square inches at the bottom.

To Be Seen

Book Lending
I love the idea of being able to lend books between Nooks. Even better—the system will work with other e-book readers that operate on the Barnes & Noble e-book store ecosystem (such as those made by Plastic Logic). But this wireless content-sharing scheme was tried once before by Microsoft with the first Zune (they gave it the unfortunate name of "squirting")—and it failed miserably. This feature will live and die by whether and how well the device sells—it simply needs to reach a critical mass where people have enough Nook-enabled friends to make use of it.

why parents mind myspace

It’s free, easy to join, and easy to message its members. Kids chat about everything from school, to sports, to fundraisers for Katrina victims. It all seems like innocent fun, and it can be. But many parents and teens are unaware there are hidden dangers.

Rob Stafford is back with another report on the popular social networking site, MySpace.com, which has made headlines recently since several sex crimes have been connected to the site. In the multi-part report, "Dateline" follows a police officer who assumes a fake identity, engages in online conversations with young teens, and then shares with their parents what he has found. Airs April 9, 7 p.m. on NBC. The report, below, aired Dateline Friday, Jan. 27, 9 p.m.

When "Bad" Things Happen to Good E-Bayers

Whether you are a buyer or a seller, perhaps at some point, a problem can occur. Most all can be solved or resolved with great communication. I really DO think that COMMUNICATION skills are at the heart (and soul) of every E-Bay transaction.

Most of the time I have had people tell me that they have enjoyed the communications we have exchanged in this forum...I think, however, when a negative "tone" begins to appear that communication skills are vital to a happy transaction, where both Buyer and Seller work together and everyone comes out a winner.

Sometimes, however, no matter how hard we work toward that end, we can be misunderstood. Even with the best of intentions, a word can inadvertently strike a nerve, a misinterpretation can be made, and then we are, as they say, "in the soup!"

Top 5 Worst Things About ESPN's College Football Coverage

love ESPN. I can't believe that 25 years ago, the majority of sports news was received via the morning paper. I love the fact that 25 years ago, men got together and said, "You know what I want someday? Coverage of the WNBA draft."

Now, of course, the WNBA wasn't in existence back then, but I'm sure the visionaries who came up with ESPN knew that by creating an all sports network that eventually it would lead to a professional women's basketball league. And if they did know it, then why didn't they send a cyborg back in time, Terminator-style, to stop them from creating this monster?

I'll tell you something else I love, strippers...I mean, college football. Oh, and Erin Andrews. But mainly college football. However, there are a few things that I wish ESPN would tweak so that I didn't have to complain about them here. So, without further ado, the list.

1. Mark May

I understand that at one point he was a great football player. And I'm sure he has one, maybe even two, people that genuinely like him. But there is not one person I know that thinks Mark May is insightful. Mainly, they think he's a pompous d-bag. No offense to people who like Mark May, all one of you.

2. Lou Holtz's Lisp

I love Lou Holtz. Last year, a group of friends and I went to the Notre Dame-Stanford game in Palo Alto. On Friday night, Holtz gave one of his pep talks to Notre Dame and we were ready to run through walls for Lou. But come on, who on earth can listen to him without thinking, "My lord, is he 7 years old?"

3. Female Play-By-Play Announcers

Don't get me wrong here, I'm all for female announcers. But you need to find ones that work. Erin Andrews works. She is as knowledgeable a sports fan as you'll ever meet. But she isn't trying to break down an offensive blocking scheme like the girls upstairs. And when a big play happens, there is nothing worse than having a women scream about it. I'm sorry, but Gus Johnson should call every sporting event. Period.

4. Lee Corso's Makeup Situation

Let's just say I'm frightened to see what Corso really looks like. My guess is that it's somewhere between the Crypt Keeper and the bad guy in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade when he drinks from the wrong grail. I think Corso is a great analyst, but he wears more makeup than Krusty the Clown.

5. Jesse Palmer's Upper Body

Listen Jesse. It's perfectly okay to go to a tailor to get your shirts made so they fit right. You don't have to shop at Target anymore. Your collars are too tight, your sleeves are too short, and what is the deal with your ties? A tie should go down to your belt, it should not stop above your belly button. Did you accidentally go to the "How Little Boys Dress" meeting instead of the grown-ups meeting?

Oh, and if we could get an "Erin Andrews Cam" on ESPN360.com that would also be greatly appreciated.

youtube.com

Unless you are staying in an underground cave for more than a year without an internet connection, there's a healthy chance that you have at least watched, if not downloaded, an online video on Youtube or Google Videos.

The online video sharing space has exploded in the recent months with the entry of new players like Metacafe, Blip.tv, Revver, Yahoo Videos and so on. Millions of video clips, technology shows, music albums, movie trailers are available on these video sites for online viewing or they can also be downloaded to your hard drive for offline viewing.

The downloaded video files are generally in FLV format (Flash Video) which is an Adobe standard for video compression. It has fast becoming the web standard for delivering online video (replacing Apple QuickTime, AVI, Windows Media and Real rm formats) because Flash Video can be viewed inside Macromedia Flash Players which is shipped by default with most web browsers. [Flash Video Editing Guide]

A lot of us know how to download Google Videos or Youtube videos from the internet but what do we do next ? Can we make the FLV video files searchable ? How do you edit FLV files ? All your questions and concerns are answered here:

How do I download videos from Youtube or Google Videos or Metacafe ?

It's strange that none of the video sharing sites provide a simple one-click button to download videos. So we will have to take the help of easy workarounds to download the videos. Here are three different ways to download any video from the internet though internally, they employ the same hack (Right-click -> "Save Target As" OR copy the link into your download manager. but change the file extension to .flv)

Approach 1: The easiest way is to copy your video URL and paste it on KeepVid Lite. When you click submit, you will be provided with a link to save the video as an FLV file.

youtube.com

Unless you are staying in an underground cave for more than a year without an internet connection, there's a healthy chance that you have at least watched, if not downloaded, an online video on Youtube or Google Videos.

The online video sharing space has exploded in the recent months with the entry of new players like Metacafe, Blip.tv, Revver, Yahoo Videos and so on. Millions of video clips, technology shows, music albums, movie trailers are available on these video sites for online viewing or they can also be downloaded to your hard drive for offline viewing.

The downloaded video files are generally in FLV format (Flash Video) which is an Adobe standard for video compression. It has fast becoming the web standard for delivering online video (replacing Apple QuickTime, AVI, Windows Media and Real rm formats) because Flash Video can be viewed inside Macromedia Flash Players which is shipped by default with most web browsers. [Flash Video Editing Guide]

A lot of us know how to download Google Videos or Youtube videos from the internet but what do we do next ? Can we make the FLV video files searchable ? How do you edit FLV files ? All your questions and concerns are answered here:

How do I download videos from Youtube or Google Videos or Metacafe ?

It's strange that none of the video sharing sites provide a simple one-click button to download videos. So we will have to take the help of easy workarounds to download the videos. Here are three different ways to download any video from the internet though internally, they employ the same hack (Right-click -> "Save Target As" OR copy the link into your download manager. but change the file extension to .flv)

Approach 1: The easiest way is to copy your video URL and paste it on KeepVid Lite. When you click submit, you will be provided with a link to save the video as an FLV file.

Hi everybody! do you like technology blogs well this is the place for you!

Technology deals with human as well as other animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its natural environment.By the mid 20th century, humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the atmosphere of the Earth for the first time and explore space.


Better translator: Machines or humans?


One of the Internet's great promises is that it's the ultimate democratizer. It's open to everyone and allows all people to communicate.

Facebook andGoogle have added new translation tools, but they take different approaches. But, so far, there have been several hitches in that plan. Not everyone has access to a computer and a broadband connection. Some governments still censor the Internet. And of course, we don't all speak the same language.

For the World Wide Web to be truly global, shouldn't Chinese speakers be able to chat online with people who only speak Spanish? And why should an English speaker be barred from reading blogs written in Malagasy or Zulu? Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. are two Web companies trying particularly hard to make this happen, and they've released a number of updates to their translation services in recent weeks.

The two online giants are going about the process in different ways.

Facebook aims to translate the Web using an army of volunteers and some hired professional translators. Meanwhile, Google plans to let computers do most of the work.