Weekend tech reading: What will be the next netbook?

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Asus: What will be the next netbook? Eee PC maker Asus' chairman talks to silicon.com's Nick Heath about where the PC is heading, the Chrome OS-effect and why content must catch up for tablets to take off. Silicon.com

IBM research sets new record in magnetic tape data density IBM researchers today announced they have demonstrated a world record in areal data density on linear magnetic tape -- a significant update to one of the computer industry's most resilient, reliable and affordable data storage technologies. IBM

Microsoft cites Apple Macs as a defense in Xbox antitrust case If Apple can prevent another computer maker from selling unauthorized Mac OS X machines, then Microsoft should be able to stop another accessory vendor from selling unauthorized Xbox 360 plugins loaded with video-game cheats. TechFlash

O'Reilly drops ebook DRM, sees 104% increase in sales It's been 18 months since O'Reilly, the world's largest publisher of tech books, stopped using DRM on its ebooks. In the intervening time, O'Reilly's ebook sales have increased by 104 percent. BoingBoing

Mac OS X 10.7 appearing in Web logs, dev release at WWDC? Bug reports from the early builds were spotted in November and as early as December Mac OS X 10.7 signatures appeared in web logs from Apple-owned IP addresses. More spottings have been since reported, and we've found Mac OS X 10.7 signatures in our own web logs with increasing frequency since October. MacRumors

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37692-weekend-tech-reading-what-will-be-the-next-netbook.html

 

[ET3D]

Regarding book DRM, I do hope that publishers realise it's for their own good to offer formats which can be read on any device, and allow buyers to feel they own the book. All the DRM formats limit the way a book can be read, and so make it less of a good purchase. The e-book market is currently a first time buyer market, so a device like the Kindle can sell book in its own format and succeed. Once people start considering their second device, and realise they're locked, things might change.

Regarding smartbooks, although the ASUS chairman talks about the need to be online, HTML 5 does support offline applications, and I agree it's an important point. Once more web apps start using that, it'd make browser based apps a lot more appealing.

 

[Puiu]

I agree with @ET3D. DRM should not be used in books (or any other product).
As for online apps, we all know that cloud computing is coming.