E- Readers _ Next wave of high tech "electronic toys"

E-readers: Target and appeal

Que by Plastic Logic

Features: The device weighs 500g and is 7.6mm thick.
Target: Those who read digital newspapers and business documents.
Price: US$649-US$799 (S$908-S$1,117)



eDGe by enTourage

Features: The 1.3kg device has two 25.4cm screens, a Web camera and microphones.


Target: Those who want to record lectures, read and browse the Web.

Price: US$500



Cool-er by Interead

Features: The 178g device is 10mm thick. It comes in a range of colours but does not have a touchscreen.



Target: People above 45 years of age.
Price: US$299





Skiff by Skiff

Features: Weighing less than 500g and 6.8mm thick, it is shatter-proof and crack-proof, and its battery can last a week.



Target: Newspaper and magazine readers.
Price: Not yet fixed.

 
 
 
Dell, Samsung and other tech heavyweights launched their e-readers at the four-day Las Vegas consumer electronics show(CES), which started on Jan 7. Pitched against them are upstarts like Plastic Logic, Interead, enTourage, Demy and Notion Ink, all of which also unveiled devices at CES.

Watching closely from outside CES are competitors from the traditional book world, such as online store Amazon and chain Barnes & Noble. It was Amazon's Kindle, unveiled in 2007, that popularised the e-reader, reportedly the hottest gift last Christmas.
According to CES, 2.2 million e-readers were shipped to stores last year, nearly four times as many as the year before. With the popularity of e-books growing rapidly, the group expects 5 million e-readers to be shipped this year.
Over the next few months, a cascade of new e-readers will hit the market, taking the devices beyond black-and-white screens to colour and other features like touch navigation and video chatting.

Singapore is yet to be a target country for e-readers due to a number of reasons, of which book licensing rights is one. But the good news is that upstarts like enTourage are interested in expanding their markets to Asia, including Singapore, this year. I think anyone who is able to get their imports of such gadgets, will likely to make a quick buck, but has to be fast and first in making the deal, else, everybody will start follow suit and margins will erode as war pricing will kill every importers of different models, types,etc.

But all the buzz could fizzle out later this month when Apple launches the iTablet. Envisioned as a slate-like device larger than an iPhone but smaller than a laptop, it is expected to be a computer- cum-e-reader with music and video capabilities.
Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled its Hewlett-Packard tablet.   Watch out for these devices soon to be found in local shops........

Financial crisis not related to bad loans ?

Following Straits Times extracts on interview with Mr Dhanabalan
He mentioned the global financial tsunami came about because of a bubble formed from bets on how events in the economy would pan out, not because bankers made inappropriate loans.
Mr Dhanabalan praised the book's author, Dr Y. V. Reddy, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, for laying a foundation that helped India emerge more resilient in the wake of the crisis.
He said of Dr Reddy: 'He refused to be seduced by the much-celebrated financial innovation culture of the central banks and their regulators in the West.'
Dr Reddy has earned widespread kudos for effectively managing India's calibrated financial integration with the global economy during his time as governor of India's central bank from 2003 to 2008.
Added Mr Dhanabalan, 'While banks in the United States over-indulged in financial instruments and wholesale banking, Indian banks were encouraged to concentrate on more fundamental banking functions such as mobilising deposits and disbursing credit.'   [ I think similarly as in Muslim Banking, they seem also not greatly impacted by the crisis. I will try to find more reasons why Muslim Banks are not affected ]
India's banks avoid extensive exposure to toxic assets, and protected the country's banking system from a crisis of liquidity, he added.
Titled India And The Global Financial Crisis: Managing Money And Finance, the book is a collection of essays offering insights into the formation of the country's public policy from 2003 to 2008 - a period of rapid growth for the Indian economy and extraordinary challenges for the conduct of monetary policy.
There has been keen interest in the way that India managed its financial sector during this period, which allowed it to facilitate growth while maintaining stability after the onset of the financial crisis.
The book discusses these issues, giving a comprehensive account of the events that led to the crisis, the policy responses and directions for reform. It also examines the Indian approach to overcoming contagion effects from the recent turmoil.  To follow up on this topic with more info search....... stay on.

To be happier and merrier come 2010........

If you can, give more away than you can take. “Research shows it really doesn’t make people happy to spend money on themselves,” one professor Michael Norton tells Harvard magazine. “It’s not how much you give, it’s that you give…. If you have an extra $20, it’s better to spend it on someone else than on yourself.” In a range of experiments, the researchers found that those who give to others —particularly those who give regularly — report higher levels of happiness.


Do not look back and regret; indulge from time to time. Do heed and not ignore your needs and desires. People can sometimes live too much for the future. We all know that people can be too impulsive and yield to temptation. Our argument is that people can also be too farsighted and over confident. As a result, they have wistful regrets of missing out on life’s pleasures when they look back.
Go for ‘content and satisfaction'. Aspire to become the richest, the brightest, the most talented, the best in class— might not guarantee lasting happiness. Let us look at our limits, professors Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson write in Just Enough: Tools for Creating Success in Your Work and Life.

If life were lived in a fixed time frame, where success was measured only in the instant you hit the peak, maximized measures would work. But the only fixed time frame we know for sure is death. Everything else is subject to moving targets. If you wish to live with a continually renewing sense of success that really seems worthwhile and lasting on all your success targets, you probably have to give up aspiring to be in the standard of the "Rich & Famous".
Live life happier by: using your resources to help others, living your life without regret and not look back on what you missed. Embracing limits as a way to slow down and gauge your life’s progress.

Will you be happier now from 2010 onwards?

* Disclaimer

This Blog has been prepared, drafted and updated keenly with interest by me periodically for purpose of information networking, sharing and exchange of knowledge with any outside interested party or parties. All posted material and opinion expressed, as well as those readers who post their comments are their own expression, opinion, judgement and do not necessary reflect the views or policies having direct or indirect implication to any individual, third party or established organization. While the author of this blog made his posts with possible link to external materials, has with great care, though the contents herein have not been vetted or reviewed by experts or validators. In particular, outdated posts may have been expired and will not be relevant and deemed less helpful as time passed and the content could no more be valid due to either technological or any kind of event improvement or development. It is to the discretion of readers to decide if the information posted are useful or not.

Should there be any article found to be similar or belonging to the original author or organization, do notify me and I shall not have any reservation to immediately remove it from my blog.

Below are some ground rules to abide while maintaining blogger's moral ethics without getting into the wrong footstep by offending any reader or any external party or organization .....

1. Shall not speak ill of any party
A court may find you having defamed someone if you published something that causes members of the public to think less of that person, or which exposes that individual to contempt or ridicule. In cyberspace, postings on blogs and social networking sites may be considered to be "publications" and may potentially be defamatory.  There shall be no reservation or hesitation to remove any blog or article that is deemed to be defamatory to any party or individual.

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Bloggers not affected by MDA rule ( courtesy of Straits Times dated 28May 2013 )
THE Media Development Authority (MDA Singapore) said it wanted to "clear the air" on new online regulations, saying individuals writing on blogs would not be required to get a licence.

The licensing framework applies only to sites that focus on reporting Singapore news and are notified by MDA that they meet the licensing criteria. An individual publishing views on current affairs and trends on his/her personal website or blog does not amount to news reporting, the media regulator said. 
On Tuesday, MDA announced rules that compel a news site to apply for an individual licence if it meets two criteria: an average of at least one article per week on Singapore's news and current affairs over a period of two months, and at least 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore each month over a period of two months. Such sites will be required to post a $50,000 performance bond pegged to that required for niche TV broadcasters.

MDA also stressed the rules are not an attempt to influence the editorial slant of news sites. Rather, they are focused on ensuring that sites are free from content that threatens Singapore's social fabric and national interests.

Copenhagen Summit 2009 outcome

Seems there was no agreement to reduce emissions, but just "meet and talk". Developed countries proposed targets that could limit climate change to an average of two degrees Celsius. Some developed countries made this commitment conditional on major developing countries, notably China, India and Brazil, agreeing to accept binding targets. This wasn’t forthcoming, though China did, for the first time, suggest it would be prepared to accept binding intensity targets.


The dialogue between the developed and developing countries was further complicated by the developing countries most vulnerable to climate change pushing to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. This standoff ended with the developed countries, including the United States, agreeing to submit their firm emissions targets no later than the end of January. The two-degree limit would call for reductions of 25% to 40% relative to 1990 by 2020, a level deeper than any proposed at Copenhagen; the estimate of current non-binding pledges yields about a three-degree increase, so there’s a large gap to be closed. What is going to happen to the major industries reaction to this ? Improve technology to reduce emission is going to cost them in production and manufacturing and will directly pass on to the consumers. Their concerns were mitigated somewhat when the developed countries, again including the United States, agreed to fund as much as $100 billion for technology transfer to accelerate the development of low-carbon economies and adaptation measures in the developing world. The action has to be taken very carefully by these major producers. China and the United States agreed to internally measure and report on the results of their mitigation actions. While agreeing to the overall conference summary, the smaller developing countries remained skeptical that there would be sufficient commitment to even the two-degree target, which they already deemed too high for comfort. Brazil and Norway proposed an international fund to support deforestation reductions in developing countries.

The EU already is committed to 20% below 1990 levels, but has agreed to 30% if other major emitters, notably China, the United States, India and Brazil, make meaningful commitments. This higher level will mean some radical rethinking of everything from building codes to energy supply. However, while challenging domestically, the EU's overall climate policy is acting as a catalyst for some world-class businesses.

Following Copenhagen, China was criticized by many as being a major barrier to a deal. Specifically, it wasn’t ready to commit to intensity reductions or outside verification. In the same month, China established some of the most ambitious renewable energy standards anywhere in the world, backed by strong domestic policy and guidelines. This follows its recent implementation of tough vehicle efficiency standards, systematic development of high-speed rail and radical upgrading of building codes. The need to grow with far less pollution is becoming clearer to the Chinese, and they aren’t overlooking the potential world market for energy-efficient solutions and climate-friendly products.

The next conference will be in Mexico in November this year.  One way or another, U.S. need to be comfortable with monitoring and managing greenhouse gas emissions as a part of their normal job responsibility, just as their bankers now have greater moral responsibility to work harder and pay back their dues, if at all, by way of reduced bonuses, where in the past they have been generously and overly remunerated.