A BLACK KINDLE DX?A rather weak rumor based on a very fuzzy photograph has it that Amazon may be planning to unveil a Kindle DX with a black bezel. It's hard to imagine that the photograph shows this but the configuration is somewhat similar except that the bottom keyboard area looks raised.
The Kindle has become a generic word so that I've seen people talking about buying a "Sony type of Kindle."
In a forum thread this week, several Kindle owners reported being asked if the Kindle each had been reading was an iPad. All these strange devices can look alike for people new to the portable e-reader market. The device, whatever it is, was being photographed with a very costly camera, at a coffee shop in Seattle. Yes, that's not a strong indicator. But the CrunchGear writer, Devin Coldewey, wrote in the comments area that the tipster was told that Amazon was shooting video. Another commenter felt it was thicker looking. I agree, although that could be from shadows.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EXAMINES APPLE'S TACTICS
The New York Times Brad Stone reports on the anti-trust inquiry by the DOJ into Apple's "allegations that Apple used its dominant market position to persuade music labels to refuse to give the online retailer Amazon.com exclusive access to music about to be released. "
' Billboard magazine reported that representatives of Apple’s iTunes music service were asking the labels not to participate in Amazon’s promotion, adding that Apple punished those that did by withdrawing marketing support for those songs on iTunes.More details at The NY Times.
. . .
“Certainly if the Justice Department is getting involved, it raises the possibility of potential serious problems down the road for Apple,” said Daniel L. Brown, an antitrust lawyer at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton.
. . .
The Federal Trade Commission is moving ahead with a separate investigation of Apple’s rules for developers who create applications for the iPhone operating system, according to a person familiar with that discussion.
That inquiry, initiated by complaint from Adobe Systems, the maker of the Flash format for Internet video, is said to be in its early stages as well. '
I'd wondered if Adobe would be starting action, seeing that Steve Jobs has gone out of his way to publicly badmouth Adobe's Flash, which I imagine he should be free to do, but he's also trying to get the big websites to stop using it in favor of HTML5, which would take some time. And now he's prohibited developers from using Flash to develop their apps for iPad even as a first step that is then converted and not run as Flash. Before the iPad they were able to do that.
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I really hope Flash for Android (and other mobile platforms in general) turns out to be more than just okay, to even out the score, as it were. Things would be more interesting all around.
ReplyDeleteApple may well still choose to ban it from the iPhone platform (which they are free to do), but at least Apple wouldn't be able to claim that it is an inherently flawed approach for mobile devices, and consumers will have a clear choice if they need or want to access Flash-enabled sites (including Flex sites). And it is the piece Adobe needs to keep AIR developers interested.
As it is, there are some rather ungrounded assertions being thrown around by both sides.
It would be a good thing if Flash was viable on mobile platforms (iPhone notwithstanding), as it would impose much needed discipline on Flash developers to be more careful about hogging system resources in general (I think many of the issues associated with Flash are due to poorly designed and tested Flash applications, not to the platform itself.)
It's not really clear to me what basis Adobe has for complaining in terms of development tools for iPhone. It's also not clear how Apple is able to enforce this either: if it looks, talks, walks like an iPhone app, isn't it one? They don't get to look at source code...
ReplyDeleteKind of ironic don't you think? Wasn't it always Microsoft that was getting in trouble with the government?
ReplyDeleteThey never learn.
Igotnothing,
ReplyDeleteI guess this is the phase when one entity makes a complaint to the DOJ and the situation is just-enough to at least 'examine' it or have an 'inquiry' -- usually there's nothing there but I guess Applie has a lot of questioning going on at one time.
Tomster,
ReplyDelete" (I think many of the issues associated with Flash are due to poorly designed and tested Flash applications, not to the platform itself.)"
I agree. On the other hand, as a mere user of web browsers, I hate coming upon a site that depends on Flash for everything. It is ALWAYS slower because it's Fat but people do it also because besides controlling the design that way, they also have a bit more protection from the average picture thief etc).
but I would not like a device that promises to give us "the best web experience you'll ever have" while intentionally not having the ability to run Flash when it's there. If they'd drop the marketing hype, I might not feel so strongly... I personally don't like seeing blank rectangles though I like having the option of not running Flash if I don't want it, as I do have this with NoScript.
Tomster, re your
ReplyDelete"It's not really clear to me what basis Adobe has for complaining in terms of development tools for iPhone. It's also not clear how Apple is able to enforce this either: if it looks, talks, walks like an iPhone app, isn't it one? They don't get to look at source code..."
One thing we know for sure. Apple put out a new rule that developers cannot use applications that they first put together using Flash even if they later convert the results to another program and tweak it accordingly. How they know, I don't know either.
But I do feel Adobe has room to complain since Apple is saying to a huge contingent of developers that they can't use Flash at ALL, even if it's not used in the final running app.