Weekend tech reading: 7" Amazon Kindle Tablet coming for $250

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Amazon's Kindle Tablet is very real. I've seen it, played with it It's called simply the "Amazon Kindle". But it’s not like any Kindle you've seen before. It displays content in full color. It has a 7-inch capacitive touch screen. And it runs Android. Rumors of Amazon making a full-fledged tablet device have persisted for a while. TechCrunch

AMD Fusion Black Edition APUs will come in 2 flavours Speaking with people inside Intel, they are sure that if AMD could produce more product -- the company would represent much more of a threat. Right now, Intel engineers are working overtime on drivers and gaming support. Reason? Fusion. And there’s more to follow. KitGuru

Cyborg insects generate power for their own neural control A piezoelectric beam attached to a Green June Beetle reveals the optimum location to scavenge energy and shows that up to 115 µW total power can be generated from the insect’s body movements. Image credit: Aktakka, et al. Physorg

Driver dev defends Ubi DRM, online pass Ubisoft has "every right" to use DRM to protect PC games from "utterly unbelievable" levels of piracy, Driver: San Francisco developer Ubisoft Reflections told Eurogamer. "You have to do something," studio founder Martin Edmonson declared. EuroGamer

WikiLeaks publishes full cache of unredacted cables WikiLeaks has published its full archive of 251,000 secret US diplomatic cables, without redactions, potentially exposing thousands of individuals named in the documents to detention, harm or putting their lives in danger. The Guardian

Mac OS X install base grows to over 6% worldwide, 13% in the US The latest tracking data from NetMarketShare shows Mac OS X has been steadily climbing the global charts, seeing its share rise from 5.60% in May to 5.67% and 5.96%, in June and July, respectively. AppleInsider

Lost iPhone 5: Bernal Heights man says visitors impersonating police searched his home A Bernal Heights man says that six officials claiming to be San Francisco Police officers questioned him and searched his family's home in July for a lost iPhone 5 prototype... SFWeekly

Weak typing - the lost art of the keyboard The keyboard is still the predominant way we interact with a computer. Voice input, touch screens and even whole body gestural input may be on the increase but most of us still type our commands or data into the machine. I Programmer

In classroom of future, stagnant scores Amy Furman, a seventh-grade English teacher here, roams among 31 students sitting at their desks or in clumps on the floor. They’re studying Shakespeare’s "As You Like It" -- but not in any traditional way. NY Times

Microtransactions under the microscope For our usual Design Dojo meeting last night, we discussed the pros and perils of microtransactions and the free-to-play business model. It was a fascinating discussion... Graham Jans

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https://www.techspot.com/news/45346-weekend-tech-reading-7-amazon-kindle-tablet-coming-for-250.html

 

[ihaveaname]

"Ubisoft has "every right" to use DRM to protect PC games...."

I hate to say it, but I sort of agree with this guy. They do have every right to do what they are doing. Of course, we also have every right not to buy their product, which is how it's supposed to work. I have to admit I do get a little annoyed when people start talking about gamers being 'oppressed' and 'treated with disrespect' or the like. If you don't like it, don't buy it. It's not as if Ubisoft has a total monopoly of the games market; there are alternatives, you know....

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

I'v always been a PC guy, and a big PC gamer and until mac opens up to third part software and gaming, they won't take majority of the market. Selling $500 PC for $1000 just because of the OS is not justified. My gf bought a mac and the price of fixing even cheap problems is expensive. The price for being different is not worth it.

 

[lawfer]

ihaveaname said:
"Ubisoft has "every right" to use DRM to protect PC games...."

I hate to say it, but I sort of agree with this guy. They do have every right to do what they are doing. Of course, we also have every right not to buy their product, which is how it's supposed to work. I have to admit I do get a little annoyed when people start talking about gamers being 'oppressed' and 'treated with disrespect' or the like. If you don't like it, don't buy it. It's not as if Ubisoft has a total monopoly of the games market; there are alternatives, you know....

I think you got it twisted, mate.

People don't disagree with Ubisoft's business practices regarding their oppressive DRM, just because they believe Ubisoft doesn't have the right to protect their property. People disagree because of the major implications such protection causes to legitimate buyers. Regardless of right, when a company's actions causes such collateral damage to paying customers, its rights become irrelevant to the issue.

The reason people rightfully complain, is because some do happen to enjoy their products, and hate to be treated like petty thieves who are just getting a break.

Christofer Sundberg--founder of Avalanche Studios--once said, that buying an Ubisoft game (he didn't explicitly mention Ubisoft; he meant its type of DRM) is exactly as if Ubisoft were telling legitimate customers: "Thank you for buying our game, we trust you as far as we can throw you."

 

[gwailo247]

lawfer said:
The reason people rightfully complain, is because some do happen to enjoy their products, and hate to be treated like petty thieves who are just getting a break.

Yeah, things are not cool. Software is one of the few consumer products that you have no ability to return (because the assumption is of course that you copied/installed the program already and just want to use it for free.

Buy a game that your computer cannot handle? Too bad for you.
Buy a game which isn't finished and crashes all the time? Too bad for you.

There is absolutely no consumer protection when it comes to computer software, and on top of it all, we're treated like criminals.

And I will say this every effing time I can, MW2 had a BILLION DOLLARS in sales. No movie, record or book ever had such sales, but they still complain about piracy.

 

[TomSEA]

I completely understand Ubisoft's stance on their DRM. Piracy levels really are insane. Just look at what happened when the original Crysis came out and there were EIGHT MILLION illegal downloads in the first week. I don't begrudge developers trying to protect their profits. And think the fools who illegally download games believing they're doing no harm are frankly, simpletons who are collectively killing PC gaming. And the proof is in all the stupid console ports we've been experiencing lately. No publisher will put out a PC game any longer without the sales protection of console sales.

BUT...what Ubisoft is doing is beyond protection. I refuse to buy Ubisoft products any longer because they've gone beyond what I would consider reasonable protection and have literally broken their products for users with their off-the-charts invasive DRM.

Somewhere there has to be a middle ground.

 

[Darkshadoe]

"And I will say this every effing time I can, MW2 had a BILLION DOLLARS in sales. No movie, record or book ever had such sales, but they still complain about piracy."

Exactly. Piracy is NOT the problem software makers make it out to be.

 

[Arris]

To be honest you will probably find that the large majority of pirates aren't going to suddenly run out and buy a game just because it has some anti piracy system that means they can't pirate it. They'll probably just play something else that they can break and play for free. I don't actually think that the DRM is going to recover "lost sales", the only people being penalized by these systems are the paying customers.

 

[Burty117]

Arris said:
To be honest you will probably find that the large majority of pirates aren't going to suddenly run out and buy a game just because it has some anti piracy system that means they can't pirate it. They'll probably just play something else that they can break and play for free. I don't actually think that the DRM is going to recover "lost sales", the only people being penalized by these systems are the paying customers.

Agreed, I have a very stubborn friend who hates paying for pretty much anything (I cannot wait for the day he gets caught) anyway I was talking to him and if a game or film or even music isn't able to be downloaded from some Bit torrent site then he simply doesn't care and finds something else, he won't run out and buy it.

I guess in a way, the only way to stop people like would be to lock everything ever made with DRM before reality hits them.

But for people like you and me, who are willing to pay, should not have to go through so many hoops in order to use the product we paid for! its just plain wrong.

 

[Guest]

Nook Color Android-based tablet/eReader from Barnes & Noble has been on the market for over a year and sold millions of units at $250. Gives Flash, apps, videos, color magazines and ebooks with video inserts, and the best anti-glare coated screen on the market. Technology "giant" Amazon is finally catching up with the book store company by copying their device.