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Amazon Kindle

Robert Scoble has published his one-week review of the Amazon Kindle. The Amazon Kindle is an eBook Reader much like the Sony Reader and the iLaid from iRex Technologies.

Of the six comments Robert has, some of them are legit but most of them show that he is looking at this too much from a PC point of view.
What is an eBook Reader and what should an eBook Reader be like.
An eBook Reader is an device which should give an user the same user experience when he/she is reading a newspaper or book. That includes:

  1. Be quiet, no fans, no humming, etc.,
  2. Always on, always available,
  3. Size should be book-, tabloid- or full newspaper size,
  4. Weight should be light,
  5. It should be flexible like paper,
  6. User Interface should that of a book or newspaper.

As it is an electronic device, it should be able to:

  1. Refresh content, subscribe to e.g. newspapers and libraries,
  2. Connect Wireless and not be dependent on a connection with a PC,

Suggestions like:

  1. No Social network,
  2. No touch screen,
  3. No ability to send electronic goods to anyone else,

are nonsense and show that Robert is trying to make an eBook reader yet another PC.

The Kindle looks like a nice device but is still no replacement for the user experience of an actual book and newspaper.

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Apple sucks!

I am a regular reader of Robert Scoble‘s blog since he popped up on the Microsoft Channel 9 website. Last Saturday he wrote a most amusing piece about the “Brand promise of Apple” and how, in his view, does not match up with the promise.

Apple’s promises:

  1. Apple will always work,
  2. Everybody can use an Apple,
  3. Apple is better that the ‘other brand’.

1) Apple’s will crash. Either due to hardware failures or software failures.

2) Most people can ride a bicycle. That does not mean that everybody can repair a bicycle? So why does Apple have a “Genius line” in their US Apple shops?

3) This is rather a bold statement from a company with not more than 5% market share in the US and even less presence in Europe and Asia. I would say that Apple is where Sun was some 5 years ago. Apple produces software which can and may only be run on hardware which is produced by Apple. Comparing Apple to the “other brand” is like comparing potatoes to strawberries.

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Fuck you Adam Curry!

Great website (http://www.fuckyouadamcurry.com).

Some guy started a new website on which he is going to post his comments on the podcast of Adam Curry. His beef is that Adam is always complaining about how busy he is and that he hardly has time to make his “daily source code” show.
The dude is right. The show is not daily and there is no excuse why Adam cannot make an upload daily. He has all the technology, iriver iphone, wifi, nokia, etc.

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Chicken gone bankrupt

The manufacturer of the Kip caravan has gone bankrupt due to bad results in Belgium where other models (Beyerland and Chateau) are made. This won’t mean that the number of caravans on the road during the summer will go down.

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McLaren bashing continues

From the Guardian:

There was more bad news for McLaren yesterday when the FIA president Max Mosley said that not only was it unlikely that Hamilton would be crowned 2007 world champion, even if the team’s appeal against the stewards’ decision not to penalise BMW Sauber and Williams for breaching fuel regulations in the Brazilian grand prix were successful, but the 22-year-old Briton could start the 2008 season with a negative points score should Ferrari’s intellectual property be found to have been used in his car.

“Ferrari data was in the hands of the [McLaren] chief designer at precisely the moment he was designing the 2008 McLaren,” Mosley said. “The difficulty we have is that we are not going to find a part that was designed by Ferrari. What you may find are ideas and at this level of technology, if the idea is given to the chief designer he will make a component utilising that idea which bears no relation at all to the component being used by the other car.

“So we will be looking for the ideas. The investigation will be thorough and it will use outside experts. We will do everything we possibly can to make sure that neither of the McLarens has any element of Ferrari intellectual property in it. Or, if it does, we will then have to consider taking some sort of action. That would not necessarily prevent them from running, it would be more likely that they would be given a negative point allocation.”

A McLaren spokesperson said: “We have no comment other than that we will cooperate fully with the FIA. Bring it on.”

A Ferrari source suggested managers at the Italian team would be best qualified to know what, if any, innovations on the McLaren are the fruits of espionage. “Ferrari knows what was passed to McLaren and what can be used,” he said. “It is not necessarily about copying but about gaining advantage by knowing what the other side is doing. When you play poker and know what cards your opponent has, you have an immediate advantage.”

sigh.

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Hirsi Ali Offered a Safe Haven in Denmark

It is good to see that Denmark is offering Hirsi Ali a safe haven to stay (link). Criticism that the Dutch government is failing in this area is not completely fair and correct.
Hirsi Ali was protected in the Netherlands during the time she was receiving threads and would she have remained in nthe Netherlands she would have received protection during that stay. She decided to move to the US partly because she was offered a prestigious job in a conservative Think-tank, partly because if she would have remained in the Netherlands she would have had to live here under a constant protection program.

She was told that if she was moving to the US she would have to consider that the US wouldn�t automatically protect her and that she would have to hire her own protection. That Denmark is offering Hirsi Ali a safe haven is more a criticism towards the US that they are not providing a safe haven than the Dutch government is lacking.
Personally I would have preferred if the Dutch government would have given her some kind of protection in the US, maybe in collaboration with US government.

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Two blunders of the Dutch government

In the past couple of weeks the Dutch government, lead by Balkenende, has made some blunders. First they let the Dutch princess Maxima make an highly controversial remark about the absence of a Dutch identity. Secondly, the moment that Hirsi Ali shows her face in the Netherlands she is being told that she could better go back to the US because she could have handled the issue around her protection from there.

Two mistakes that show that the Dutch government has no idea what the feelings and ideas are within the Dutch society.

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Twitter

Does anybody understand the value-add or the business plan of Twitter?

I don’t, I think I’ll give it another 12 months before desolves into thin or something else.