Arstechnica Says Toshiba Tablet Is a Buy
Arstechnica gives the Toshiba Thrive tablet the “buy” sign because of its full-sized ports: HDMI for connecting to a TV set and two USB ports that can be used to connect a mouse and keyboard. It’s slightly larger and heavier than the iPad, runs the latest 3.1 (Honeycomb) version of Android and has an SD card slot for storing and moving content.
On the bad side, the battery has only about seven hours of use between charges compared to the iPad’s 10. It can be easily replaced, unlike the iPad’s. The Thrive does not come with 3G mobile broadband, only Wi-Fi. The pre-installed apps are “either demos or nearly useless” and can’t be easily removed. The user interface, Arstechnica said, “can be jerky on occasion, and is much less smooth than what we’re used to from the iPad.”
Prices are 8GB for $429, 16GB for $479, and 32GB for $579. Arstechnica says it’s closer to a laptop than any tablet.
Filling Your Nook with 1m Downloads
More than one million apps have been downloaded from Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color application marketplace in the first week of availability.
Much to no one’s surprise, the top-paid app was Angry Birds. Finishing off the top five were Drawing Pad, Solitaire, Aces Jewel Hunt and Astraware Mahjong. Fliq’s Calendar and Notes were the most popular free apps available.
At the end of last month, Barnes & Noble (B&N) delivered an update to their Nook Colors that added Android 2.2 and Flash support, as well as access to roughly 150 apps, a handful of which are free. On the Nook, apps tend to cost $5.99.
The move shifts B&N away from a reader-only approach and has moved it squarely into the tablet space. Surprisingly, the B&N offering could be the best Android tablet available for the price and functions.
Not only is the Nook Color one of the most stable Android tablets available, but it has a large and loyal fan base. As B&N shifted the Nook to more of a tablet and less of an eReader, they did so from an almost unique perspective in the tablet space, making a device centered on a specific function and content set.
The Nook Color is one of the few devices that was built around a specific use and content type and that appears to be part of the magic of B&N’s success. The question now is how will other tablets respond to the Nook and will newcomers, like Amazon perhaps, take a similar approach to form and functionality.
NFL Wants More Money for Streams to Tablets
Although its 2011 season is iffy, the National Football League (NFL) is talking to pay-TV services about streaming the NFL Network’s program to tablets and PCs, according to The Wall Street Journal. The NFL Network includes an exclusive Thursday night game and a Sunday show called RedZone that shows scoring opportunities and highlights. It’s carried by Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, Cox, Verizon and AT&T.
The NFL wants more in fees for the rights to stream to tablets.
Verizon Wireless already has a $720 million four-year deal to be the NFL’s exclusive wireless partner. It includes live games on Thursday and Sunday plus RedZone, but does not include the rights to stream to tablets.
“We are looking for more ways to add more live content for our fans and that works for all of our partners,” said Hans Schroeder, senior VP of media business development for the NFL.
Disney’s ESPN, which carries some live NFL games and offers lots of NFL coverage, has apps for the iPhone and iPad that can be used for free by subscribers to Time Warner Cable, Verizon and Bright House Networks.
The broadcast networks and Viacom squealed with pain when Time Warner Cable recently announced an iPad app that its subscribers can use within the home to watch live TV. Shortly after, Cablevision announced a similar service.
The Filter: One of the Phantoms of OTT Media
Diligently working behind the scenes of all OTT Web sites is something called a recommendation engine. Users normally take no notice of it but it is constantly interacting with them. It yearns to learn our taste in music, understand our preferences in movies, and predict what we might want to buy. Even the simplest task of finding an interesting Web site to enjoy is the result of a recommendation engine. Who did you think recommended that obscure but now favorite movie you just watched on Netflix or LoveFilm?
Subtle and silent, the recommendation engine is making long strides to enter every part of our lives. Don’t be alarmed! Recommendation engines are desperately needed especially now because there are so many content-rich OTT sites.
Searching fruitlessly is difficult and time-consuming when a user doesn’t know what to search for. Browsing is more effective, but who has the patience? Browsing is child’s play for a recommendation engine. These engines are designed to read our mind, know our soul, and unlock the desires of our heart — at least for online entertainment. One such engine that is slowly but steadily making itself useful is the UK-based The Filter.
Wall Street Journal’s Mossberg Says Wait for Improvements Before Buying PlayBook
The Wall Street Journal’s technology columnist Walt Mossberg was more negative than positive in his review of the newly available RIM PlayBook. In fact, he said wait for future improvements before buying.
He turned thumbs down on:
- The lack of a built-in cellular connection
- The lack of basic built-in apps such as e-mail, contacts, a calendar, a memo pad and the BlackBerry Messenger chat.
- They only show up when the PlayBook is connected to a BlackBerry, but RIM said they would be added this summer
- The requirement that automatic syncing lasts only as long as the PlayBook is connected to a BlackBerry
- The smaller 7-inch screen
- The lack of a video store
- No video-chatting software
- The app shortage and its inability to run any of the 27,000 BlackBerry apps; it’s too soon to say how the BlackBerry and Android apps will run on the PlayBook
- No functions for sharing pictures
- No one-touch icon for airplane mode
- The inability to add Web bookmarks to the ones that come pre-installed
- Battery usage of about five to six hours
- Browser is slow to load
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